ScienceDaily: Top News

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• Record Missouri flooding was humanmade calamity, scientist says
• Many white-tailed deer have malaria
• 'Cannibalism' between stars
• Hallucinogen may protect against intimate partner violence, researcher suggests
• Super bowl won’t make you feel super, even if your team wins
• New method for rapid detection of infection in wounds
• From allergens to anodes: Pollen derived battery electrodes
• Cells that show where things are going
• Central Appalachia flatter due to mountaintop mining
• Biophysics: Partitioning by collision
• Prunetin prolongs lifespan in male fruit flies and enhances overall health
• Snake gait: Science observes nature to invent new ways of moving
• The iron stepping stones to better wearable tech without semiconductors
• Climate change's frost harms early plant reproduction
• Impact of high fructose on health of offspring
• Graphical display of nutrition information helps keep health-conscious eaters on target
• New tarantula named after Johnny Cash among 14 spider species found in the United States
• Magnets levitate above a superconductor: New properties of superconductors discovered
• Removing race from human genetic research
• Hair thinning by stem cell loss
• How forest management and deforestation are impacting climate
• Half of the large carnivore attacks are due to the imprudence of human behavior

Record Missouri flooding was humanmade calamity, scientist says Posted: 05 Feb 2016 02:30 PM PST Why was the New Year's flood in Missouri so bad? Most news reports blamed it on the heavy rain, but a professor of earth and planetary sciences says analysis of the flood data shows much of the damage was due to recent modifications to the river.

Many white-tailed deer have malaria Posted: 05 Feb 2016 12:33 PM PST By chance, scientists have discovered a malaria parasite that infects white-tailed deer. It's the first-ever malaria parasite known to live in a deer species and the only native malaria parasite found in any mammal in North or South America.

'Cannibalism' between stars Posted: 05 Feb 2016 11:45 AM PST Stars do not accumulate their final mass steadily, but in a series of violent events manifesting themselves as sharp stellar brightening. Stellar brightening can be caused by fragmentation due to gravitational instabilities in massive gaseous disks surrounding young stars, followed by migration of dense gaseous clumps onto the star, according to a new theory.

Hallucinogen may protect against intimate partner violence, researcher suggests Posted: 05 Feb 2016 10:55 AM PST Hallucinogen research gains traction, suggests class of substance could be therapeutic for problem behaviors, including intimate partner violence, according to one researcher.

Super bowl won’t make you feel super, even if your team wins Posted: 05 Feb 2016 10:54 AM PST Communication researchers have created a unique way to watch the emotional dynamics of the game in real-time during this year's Super Bowl.

New method for rapid detection of infection in wounds Posted: 05 Feb 2016 10:50 AM PST A new method for detection of infection in wounds could take physicians less than a minute to complete, rather than the current 24 hours it takes for diagnosis.

From allergens to anodes: Pollen derived battery electrodes Posted: 05 Feb 2016 10:50 AM PST Pollens, the bane of allergy sufferers, could represent a boon for battery makers: Recent research has suggested their potential use as anodes in lithium-ion batteries.

Cells that show where things are going Posted: 05 Feb 2016 10:49 AM PST The ability to see the direction in which something is moving is vital for survival. Only in this way is it possible to avoid predators, capture prey or, as humans in a modern world, cross a road safely. However, the direction of motion is not explicitly represented at the level of the photoreceptors but rather must be calculated by subsequent layers of nerve cells. Scientists have now discovered that, in fruit flies, four classes of nerve cell are involved in calculating directionally selective signals. This is strikingly different from mathematical models of motion detection discussed in the literature so far.

Central Appalachia flatter due to mountaintop mining Posted: 05 Feb 2016 10:49 AM PST Forty years of mountaintop coal mining have made parts of Central Appalachia 60 percent flatter than they were before excavation, researchers say. This study, which compares pre- and post-mining topographic data in southern West Virginia, is the first to examine the large-scale impact of mountaintop mining on landscape topography and how the changes influence water quality.

Biophysics: Partitioning by collision Posted: 05 Feb 2016 08:26 AM PST An ensemble consisting of a binary mixture of particles of equal size can partition itself into its component fractions – provided that the two species differ in their diffusion constants.

Prunetin prolongs lifespan in male fruit flies and enhances overall health Posted: 05 Feb 2016 07:53 AM PST Here's a reason for men to eat their lima beans -- if research in male fruit flies holds up, it might help you live longer. A new research report shows that administering an oral dose of prunetin to male fruit flies extends lifespan, increases fitness levels, and improves their glucose balance.

Snake gait: Science observes nature to invent new ways of moving Posted: 05 Feb 2016 07:53 AM PST Snake locomotion is a source of inspiration for technology: graceful, silent, adaptable and efficient, it can be implemented on devices designed for the most diverse applications, from space exploration to medicine. A new study adds to this line of research and proposes a detailed mathematical account of one of the characteristic types of movement adopted by this animal.

The iron stepping stones to better wearable tech without semiconductors Posted: 05 Feb 2016 07:05 AM PST The way to better wearable electronics is dotted with iron steppingstones. Check out how nanotubes bridge the gap with quantum tunneling.

Climate change's frost harms early plant reproduction Posted: 05 Feb 2016 07:04 AM PST Climate change may harm early-flowering plants not through plant-pollinator mismatch but through frost damage, a new study shows.

Impact of high fructose on health of offspring Posted: 04 Feb 2016 02:56 PM PST New findings show the effects of antenatal exposure to a high fructose diet on the offspring's development of metabolic syndrome-like phenotype and cardiovascular disease later in life.

Graphical display of nutrition information helps keep health-conscious eaters on target Posted: 04 Feb 2016 02:56 PM PST In a time-constrained situation, such as standing in line at a cafeteria or restaurant, it can be difficult for consumers to quickly calculate and use numerical nutrition information -- beyond the amount of calories -- provided for menu items. A new study has found that when consumers are shown a graphical display of select nutrients on a 2-dimensional plot when ordering in a café setting, they purchase healthier, not just lower-calorie, menu items as a meal.

New tarantula named after Johnny Cash among 14 spider species found in the United States Posted: 04 Feb 2016 02:54 PM PST The tarantula, named after the famous singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, is only one of fourteen spider species recently discovered in the southwestern United States. This new discovery nearly doubles the number of tarantula species known from the region.

Magnets levitate above a superconductor: New properties of superconductors discovered Posted: 04 Feb 2016 12:09 PM PST New findings may eventually lead to a theory of how superconductivity initiates at the atomic level, a key step in understanding how to harness the potential of materials that could provide lossless energy storage, levitating trains and ultra-fast supercomputers.

Removing race from human genetic research Posted: 04 Feb 2016 12:07 PM PST When it comes to studying human genetic diversity, a group of scientists feel that the race concept has no place in human genetics.

Hair thinning by stem cell loss Posted: 04 Feb 2016 12:07 PM PST Why people lose their locks in old age may be related to the aging of hair follicle stem cells, two new studies suggest. Though it is known that mammals that live for longer lifespans lose their hair, the mechanisms underlying this fate have been a mystery.

How forest management and deforestation are impacting climate Posted: 04 Feb 2016 12:07 PM PST Two new studies reveal how altering the composition of trees in forests is influencing not only the carbon cycle, but air surface temperatures to a significant degree as well.

Half of the large carnivore attacks are due to the imprudence of human behavior Posted: 04 Feb 2016 08:13 AM PST Close to 50 percent of large carnivore attacks on humans have involved risk-taking human behaviors. This is one of the main conclusions reached by a study which have analyzed the circumstances of 700 documented attacks of six carnivore species (brown bear, black bear, polar bear, puma, wolf and coyote) since 1955 in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Russia and Spain.

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