Once again it is time to rest, relax, celebrate the day and take a shorter or a longer break from all the politics of the day while enjoying some science news. New discoveries, new takes on old knowledge, and other bits of news are all available for the perusing in today's information world. Over the fold are some of my favorite selections the past week from a few of the many excellent science news sites around the world. Today's tidbits include roots of nano-related research are widespread in science, nanostructures built from single DNA strands, sleep helps reduce errors in memory, new glass resists small explosions, high fat meals target the brain before the hips, and migrating birds chill to fatten up. Follow down the yellow brick road for one more session of science education and entertainment.
With the virtual explosion of nano-related research projects comes associated good news of multidisciplinary roots.
(Researchers) found that although materials science and chemistry dominated the papers, fields as diverse as clinical medicine, biomedical sciences and physics also contributed.
While the double-stranded structure of DNA offers advantages for programmable nanostructure construction, single strands offer even more.
Complex DNA architectures could have a variety of applications, from DNA-based nanomotors to biosensing and drug delivery. Taking the research a step forward, researchers have recently constructed a nanometer-sized tetrahedron from a single strand of DNA, using a method that could have advantages for assembling similar structures on a large scale.
Sleep has long been known to have lots of benefits for the human brain. Now for the first time sleep is shown to reduce errors in memory.
Three experiments were conducted, using different stimuli. In each, the students who had slept had fewer problems with false memory - choosing fewer incorrect words.
The mechanism remains to be uncovered. Meanwhile keep on getting plenty of sleep, folks.
Blast proof glass is needed for many applications these day. A new type of glass that is thinner and lighter than conventional glass resists even hand grenade blasts nearby.
The new design is built stronger and thinner by replacing the plastic layer with a transparent composite material made of glass fibers embedded in plastic. The glass fibers are only about half the thickness of a typical human hair (25 microns), and leave less room for defects in the glass that could lead to cracking.
More testing remains to be finished but at least the start is made.
The consumption of a high fat meal may cause the brain to send signals to body cells causing those cells to ignore appetite suppressing messages from hormones like insulin and leptin.
Our findings suggest that when you eat something high in fat, your brain gets 'hit' with the fatty acids, and you become resistant to insulin and leptin. Since you're not being told by the brain to stop eating, you overeat.
The findings were in animals but the implications for humans loom large. The recommendation to eat a lower fat diet is supported by mounting evidence of health risks.
Migrating birds need great amounts of energy to finish their trek. Some of these birds lower their body temperature at night during stopovers in an apparent effort to keep more energy on board.
(Researchers) found that the heavier birds dropped their metabolic rates least, while the lightest birds dropped their metabolic rates most. Some conserved a remarkable 30% of their energy by becoming hypothermic.
Bonus Stories
Placebos are getting more effective. Drugmakers are desperate to know why.
New biosensor detects very low levels of Salmonella typhi, the bacteria that causes typhoid fever, immediately, easily and reliably.
How to measure what we don't know.
Electrical circuit runs entirely off power from trees.
Early representation of menorah found by archeologists.
Basic molecular structure of cement finally decoded.
How stem cells make skin.
Second hand smoke leads to fatty liver in mice.
For even more science news:
General Science Collectors:
Eureka Science News
New Scientist
LiveScience
PhysOrg.com
Science Daily
Space Daily
BBC News Science and Environment
Scientific American
Blogs:
A Few Things Ill Considered Techie and Science News
Cantauri Dreams space exploration
Deep Sea News marine biology
Laelaps more vertebrate paleontology
List of Geoscience Blogs
ScienceBlogs
Space Review
Techonology Review
Tetrapod Zoologyvertebrate paleontology
Wired News
Science RSS Feed: Medworm
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe--a combination of hard science and debunking crap
Daily Kos regular series:
Daily Kos University, a regular series by plf515
This Week in Science by DarkSyde
This Week in Space by nellaselim
Overnight News Digest:Science Saturday by Neon Vincent.
The daily science story by vladislaw.
All diaries with the DK GreenRoots Tag.
NASA picture of the day. For more see the NASA website.
Butterfly Nebula, NGC6302, NASA, Public Domain
Peace.