47597299
submission
sciencehabit writes
"Although they are quite ugly and confined to a life underground, naked mole rats have at least one attribute that other animals, even humans, might aspire to: They don't get cancer. Now, researchers have discovered that the secret to this rodent's good health is a complex sugar that helps keeps cells from clumping together and forming tumors. The sugar--hyaluronan--is used in skin lotions and antiarthritis treatments, and the mole rat version seems to have evolved to make the animal's skin more elastic and able to cope with the tight squeeze of the narrow underground tunnels it lives in. One day, it may even help combat cancer in humans."Link to Original Source
47591787
submission
sciencehabit writes
"Humans have been mating with their relatives for at least 10,000 years. That's the conclusion of a new study, which finds the earliest known evidence of deliberate inbreeding—including missing teeth—among farmers who lived in what is today southern Jordan. Although inbreeding over long periods can lead to a rise in genetic defects, the team concludes that it may have helped prehistoric peoples make the transition from hunting and gathering to village life."Link to Original Source
47584629
submission
sciencehabit writes
"The next time you hear extended applause for a performance you didn't think was that great, don't feel like a snob. A new study reveals that audience response has more to do with the people in the seats than those up on stage. Applause, it turns out, is a bit like peer pressure. In a study of college students, individuals were more likely to start clapping if a larger percentage of the audience had already started. If 50% of the audience was clapping, for example, individuals were 10 times more likely to start clapping than if 5% of the audience was clapping. People stop clapping for the same reason. Even more surprising, the applause for a bad presentation could be just as long as applause for a good one. Random interactions in the audience can result in very different lengths of applause regardless of the quality of the talk."Link to Original Source
47546091
submission
sciencehabit writes
"The latest addition to the growing field of fast four-legged robots is no bigger than a housecat, yet it can tackle more realistic terrain than its larger predecessors. Three years in the making, "Cheetah-cub" runs about 5 kilometers per hour and can descend steps up to 20% its leg length. For its size—23 centimeters long and 1 kilogram in weight—it may be a record-holder among other robo-quadrupeds, its developers say, attaining speeds seven times its body length per second. It even has an advantage over real cats: It runs with no brain telling it what to do. Cheetah-cub self-adjusts its movement as needed because of three springs in each leg that adapt dynamically to the irregularities in its stride. The legs are modeled after a cat's, with three segments (think foot, calve, and thigh) moved via cables that connect to motors in the body. Power is supplied through a leash attached to the robot. The researchers hope to use the robot to study the biomechanics of animal locomotion and eventually to come up with quadruped robots that can be used in search and rescue operations."Link to Original Source
47518125
submission
sciencehabit writes
"Show a native-born Chinese person a picture of the Great Wall, and suddenly they'll have trouble speaking English, even if they usually speak it fluently. That's the conclusion of a new study, which finds that reminders of our home country can complicate our ability to speak a new language. The findings could help explain why cultural immersion is the most effective way to learn a foreign tongue and why immigrants who settle within an ethnic enclave acculturate more slowly than those who surround themselves with friends from their new country."Link to Original Source
47516049
submission
sciencehabit writes
"In a few years, an iPhone app may give you a 3D layout of a room as soon as you step into it. Researchers have developed an algorithm that spits out the shape and countours of complex structures (including Switzerland's Lausanne Cathedral) using data compiled from four randomly placed microphones. The technology, which relies on the same sort of echolocation bats and dolphins use to navigate, could be used to develop more realistic echoes in video games and virtual reality simulations and to eliminate the echo from phone calls."Link to Original Source
47505957
submission
sciencehabit writes
"The spiraling shapes in cauliflower, artichoke, and sunflower florets) share a remarkable feature: The numbers of clockwise and counterclockwise spirals are consecutive Fibonacci numbers—the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and so on, so that each number is the sum of the last two. What's more, those spirals pack florets as tight as can be, maximizing their ability to gather sunlight for the plant. But how do plants like sunflowers create such perfect floret arrangements, and what does it have to do with Fibonacci numbers? A plant hormone called auxin, which spurs the growth of leaves, flowers, and other plant organs, is the key: Florets grow where auxin flows. Using a mathematical model that describes how auxin and certain proteins interact to transport each other around inside plants, researchers could predict where the hormone would accumulate. Simulations of that model reproduced patterns exactly matching real "Fibonacci spirals" in sunflowers. Based on their results, the researchers suggest that such patterns might be more universal in nature than previously thought."Link to Original Source
47383179
submission
sciencehabit writes
"The lightning-quick spark that triggers desire when you see an attractive face is kindled within a deep brain region called the ventral midbrain, associated with processing reward. Now, researchers have discovered a way to stoke that fire with 2 milliamps of electrical current. Using a technique called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which passes current through the brain between two electrodes on the scalp, the team asked 19 volunteers to rate the attractiveness of two sets of computer-generated male and female Caucasian faces with neutral expressions before and after the activity in their ventral midbrains ramped up. Compared with the control group, the volunteers who received tDCS rated the second set of faces as significantly more attractive on a eight-point scale than the first . The researchers are not proposing that we use their discovery to bewitch prospective lovers, however. Rather, they say their newfound ability to manipulate a deep region of the brain without drugs or an invasive surgery suggests that similar techniques could be used to treat disorders associated with faulty ventral midbrain circuitry, such as Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia."Link to Original Source
47359785
submission
sciencehabit writes
"Despite a slow economy, business in genomics has boomed and has directly and indirectly boosted the U.S. economy by $965 billion since 1988, according to a new study. In 2012 alone, genomics-related research and development, along with relevant industry activities, contributed $31 billion to the U.S. gross national product and helped support 152,000 jobs, the biomedical funding advocacy group United for Medical Research announced today in Washington, D.C. Based on total U.S. spending, the country gets $65 back for every $1 it spends on the field."Link to Original Source
47359919
submission
sciencehabit writes
"On Thursday, 13 June, Science magazine will be hosting a live chat on the future of melding man with machine. Guests will include Michael McAlpine, a nanomaterials expert at Princeton University in New Jersey, who recently developed the world's first bionic organ and an engineered ear printed using a 3D printer that came complete with an metallic antenna that was able to pick up both auditory sound waves as well as ultrasound. Also taking audience questions will be John Rogers, a chemist and materials scientist at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, who has pioneered research in flexible electronics, and recently has combined those advances to create soft, pliable electronics that work in conjunction with living tissue. Rogers and his colleagues have used these devices to envelop beating hearts to track their activity and mold to the contours of the skin to better sense touch and motion.
"Link to Original Source
47228343
submission
sciencehabit writes
"Nothing, some say, turns an atheist into a believer like the fear of death. "There are no atheists in foxholes," the saying goes. But a new study suggests that people in stressful situations don't always turn to a higher power. Sometimes, they turn to science. Both atheletes preparing for a big race and students asked to write about their own death showed a 15% stronger belief in science than those under less stressful situations. "In stressful situations people are likely to turn to whatever worldviews and beliefs are most meaningful to them," says study co-author, Anna-Kaisa Newheiser, a psychologist at Yale University. And many people find the scientific worldview more compatible with their own."Link to Original Source
47193789
submission
sciencehabit writes
"The mushroom clouds produced by more than 500 nuclear bomb tests during the Cold War may have had a silver lining, after all. More than 50 years later, scientists have found a way to use radioactive carbon isotopes released into the atmosphere by nuclear testing to settle a long-standing debate in neuroscience: Does the adult human brain produce new neurons? After working to hone their technique for more than a decade, the researchers report that a small region of the human brain involved in memory makes new neurons throughout our lives—a continuous process of self-renewal that may aid learning."Link to Original Source
47189395
submission
sciencehabit writes
"In 97% of living birds, the male doesn't have a penis; instead, he secretes sperm out of an opening called a cloaca, which is also used for excretion of urine and feces. Scientists comparing embryos of the Pekin duck, Anas platyrhynchos, which has an external penis, and the domestic chicken, Gallus gallus domesticus, which lacks one, have now figured out why this is. The secret is a gene called Bmp4. Turning on Bmp4 in duck embryos made their penises stop growing during development. Because other Bmp genes exist, and they're found across the tree of life, the researchers say that the mechanism discovered here could also reveal how other organisms have lost body parts throughout evolution."Link to Original Source
47166729
submission
sciencehabit writes
"Neandertals living 120,000 years ago in what is now Croatia were not exposed to industrial chemicals, and they ate a diet free from processed foods. Yet, that didn't spare them from our modern-day maladies. Scientists have discovered the first known case of a tumor in the rib of a Neandertal man that dates to more than 120,000 years ago. The oldest known human tumor is from less than 4000 years ago."Link to Original Source
47150173
submission
sciencehabit writes
"Cicadas can be as noisy as a jet engine, and they expend relatively little energy doing it. New computer models reveal that they make the noise by essentially snapping their ribs, and that they ampify it the same way two stereo speakers would. Cicadas aren't just a natural curiosity. Small devices that produce extremely loud noises while requiring very little power appeal to the U.S. Navy, which uses sonar for underwater exploration and communication."Link to Original Source