Ancient history of circumarctic peoples illuminated
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 18 May 2012, 1:31 am CEST
Scientists have discovered new information about the migration patterns of the first humans to settle the Americas. The studies identify the historical relationships among various groups of Native American and First Nations peoples and present the first clear evidence of the genetic impact of the groups' cultural practices.
Giant galaxy-packed filament revealed
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 17 May 2012, 8:36 pm CEST
Astronomers have discovered a giant, galaxy-packed filament ablaze with billions of new stars. The filament is the first structure of its kind spied in a critical era of cosmic buildup when colossal collections of galaxies called superclusters began to take shape. The glowing galactic bridge offers astronomers a unique opportunity to explore how galaxies evolve and merge to form superclusters.
Slew of rare DNA changes following population explosion may hold clues to common diseases
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 17 May 2012, 8:36 pm CEST
Scientists have taken a first step toward understanding how rare genetic differences among people contribute to leading chronic illnesses. One-letter DNA code changes occur frequently in human genomes, but each variant is usually found in only a few individuals. This phenomenon is consistent with the population explosion of the past 5,000 years. Studying the evolution of rare genetic variants and their health impact is critical as low cost, rapid sequencing enters clinical use. Such information would help doctors interpret personal genomes.
Forest diversity from Canada to the sub-tropics influenced by family proximity
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 17 May 2012, 8:35 pm CEST
How species diversity is maintained is a fundamental question in biology. Biologists have shown for the first time that diversity is influenced on a spatial scale of unparalleled scope, in part, by how well tree seedlings survive under their own parents.
In chemical reactions, water adds speed without heat
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 17 May 2012, 8:35 pm CEST
Scientists have discovered how adding trace amounts of water can tremendously speed up chemical reactions -— such as hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis —- in which hydrogen is one of the reactants, or starting materials.
Suspicion resides in two regions of the brain: Our baseline level of distrust is distinct and separable from our inborn lie detector
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 17 May 2012, 7:21 pm CEST
Scientists have found that suspicion resides in two distinct regions of the brain: the amygdala, which plays a central role in processing fear and emotional memories, and the parahippocampal gyrus, which is associated with declarative memory and the recognition of scenes.
Extended daily fasting overrides harmful effects of a high-fat diet: Study may offer drug-free intervention to prevent obesity and diabetes
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 17 May 2012, 7:17 pm CEST
It turns out that when we eat may be as important as what we eat. Scientists have found that regular eating times and extending the daily fasting period may override the adverse health effects of a high-fat diet and prevent obesity, diabetes and liver disease in mice.
Ancient giant turtle fossil was size of Smart car
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 17 May 2012, 7:16 pm CEST
Picture a turtle the size of a Smart car, with a shell large enough to double as a kiddie pool. Paleontologists have found just such a specimen -- the fossilized remains of a 60-million-year-old South American giant that lived in what is now Colombia.
RNA modification influences thousands of genes: Revolutionizes understanding of gene expression
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 17 May 2012, 7:16 pm CEST
Over the past decade, research in the field of epigenetics has revealed that chemically modified bases are abundant components of the human genome and has forced us to abandon the notion we've had since high school genetics that DNA consists of only four bases.
Children with cancer have complete responses in a COG phase 1 trial: Pills zero in on abnormal genes that drive specific cancers
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 17 May 2012, 1:54 am CEST
A pill designed to zero in on abnormal genes that drive specific cancers has produced encouraging early results in children with an uncommon but aggressive type of lymphoma, as well as in children with a rare form of neuroblastoma.
Damaged connections in Phineas Gage's brain: Famous 1848 case of man who survived accident has modern parallel
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 17 May 2012, 1:54 am CEST
In 1848, Phineas Gage survived an accident that drove an iron rod through his head. Researchers, for the first time, used images of Gage’s skull combined with modern-day brain images to suggest there was extensive damage to the white matter “pathways” that connected various regions of his brain.
NASA survey counts potentially hazardous asteroids
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 17 May 2012, 12:06 am CEST
Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have led to the best assessment yet of our solar system's population of potentially hazardous asteroids. The results reveal new information about their total numbers, origins and the possible dangers they may pose.
Head impacts in contact sports may reduce learning in college athletes
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 16 May 2012, 11:37 pm CEST
A new study suggests that head impacts experienced during contact sports such as football and hockey may worsen some college athletes’ ability to acquire new information.
Nine new breast cancer risk genes: Landscape of cancer genes and mutational processes in breast cancer complicated
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 16 May 2012, 9:23 pm CEST
Researchers have described nine new genes that drive the development of breast cancer. This takes the tally of all genes associated with breast cancer development to 40.
Human genes transplanted into zebrafish: Helps identify genes related to autism, schizophrenia and obesity
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 16 May 2012, 8:00 pm CEST
Researchers have transplanted a set of human genes into a zebrafish and then used it to identify genes responsible for head size at birth. This finding also is related to some cases of autism and possibly schizophrenia and childhood obesity.
Humanmade pollutants may be driving Earth's tropical belt expansion: May impact large-scale atmospheric circulation
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 16 May 2012, 8:00 pm CEST
Black carbon aerosols and tropospheric ozone, both humanmade pollutants emitted predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere's low- to mid-latitudes, are most likely pushing the boundary of the tropics further poleward in that hemisphere, new research shows. While stratospheric ozone depletion has already been shown to be the primary driver of the expansion of the tropics in the Southern Hemisphere, the researchers are the first to report that black carbon and tropospheric ozone are the most likely primary drivers of the tropical expansion observed in the Northern Hemisphere.
Alzheimer's gene causes brain's blood vessels to leak toxins and die
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 16 May 2012, 8:00 pm CEST
ApoE4, a well-known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease triggers a cascade of signaling that ultimately results in leaky blood vessels in the brain, allowing toxic substances to pour into brain tissue in large amounts, scientists report.
Parents are happier people: Parents experience greater happiness and meaning in life than nonparents, psychologists find
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 1 Jan 1970, 1:00 am CET
Contrary to recent scholarship and popular belief, parents experience greater levels of happiness and meaning in life than people without children, according to researchers. Parents also are happier during the day when they are caring for their children than during their other daily activities, the researchers found in a series of studies conducted in the United States and Canada.
The Rhine is five million years older than first thought: Age of the river corrected based on fossils
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 1 Jan 1970, 1:00 am CET
Scientists have examined the age of the Rhine based on fossils. They have discovered that the river is five million years older than previously believed.
Three-telescope interferometry allows astrophysicists to observe how black holes are fueled
ScienceDaily: Top Science News 1 Jan 1970, 1:00 am CET
By combining the light of three powerful infrared telescopes, scientists have observed the active accretion phase of a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy tens of millions of light years away, a method that has yielded an unprecedented amount of data for such observations. The resolution at which they were able to observe this highly luminescent active galactic nucleus has given them direct confirmation of how mass accretes onto black holes in centers of galaxies.
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