Mystery of how fleas jump resolved after 44 years

ScienceDaily (2011-02-12) -- New research sheds light on how fleas jump, reaching speeds as fast as 1.9 meters per second. Using high-speed recording equipment and sophisticated mathematical models, scientists were able to prove that fleas use their toes to push off and propel themselves into the air, resolving the 44-year-old mystery.

Trial and error: The brain learns from mistakes

ScienceDaily (2011-02-14) -- The process of establishing a neuronal network does not always prove precise or error free. Researchers have been able to document this phenomenon using advanced microscopy techniques in the developing cerebellum, a brain area required for fine movement control.

Invasive plants can create positive ecological change

ScienceDaily (2011-02-14) -- Invasive fruiting plants sometimes can be beneficial to an ecosystem, contrary to prevailing ideas. The discovery is expected to affect the prevailing approach to ecosystem maintenance, which typically involves efforts to eliminate non-native, invasive shrubs.

World phosphorus use crosses critical threshold

ScienceDaily (2011-02-15) -- Recalculating the global use of phosphorus, a fertilizer linchpin of modern agriculture, a team of researchers warns that the world's stocks may soon be in short supply and that overuse in the industrialized world has become a leading cause of the pollution of lakes, rivers and streams.

US Secret Service moves tiny town to virtual tiny town: Teaching Secret Service agents and officers how to prepare a site security plan

ScienceDaily (2011-02-16) -- With the help of the US Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate, the Secret Service is giving training scenarios a high-tech edge: moving from static tabletop models to virtual kiosks with gaming technology and 3-D modeling.

Risks for quitting college identified

ScienceDaily (2011-02-17) -- College students who consider dropping out are particularly sensitive to a handful of critical events including depression and loss of financial aid, according to a new study.

Acid oceans demand greater reef care

ScienceDaily (2011-02-17) -- The more humanity acidifies and warms the world's oceans with carbon emissions, the harder we will have to work to save our coral reefs. That's the blunt message from a major new study which finds that ocean acidification and global warming will combine with local impacts like overfishing and nutrient runoff to weaken the world's coral reefs right when they are struggling to survive.

Look after your brain

ScienceDaily (2011-02-21) -- As the average life span becomes longer, dementia becomes more common. Swedish scientists have shown that everyone can minimize his or her risk of being affected. Factors from blood pressure and weight to the degree of physical and mental activity can influence cognitive functioning as one gets older.

Emotional response may predict how the body responds to stress

ScienceDaily (2011-02-21) -- Your emotional response to challenging situations could predict how your body responds to stress, according to new research.

Scientists steer car with the power of thought

ScienceDaily (2011-02-21) -- Computer scientists have developed a system making it possible to steer a car with your thoughts. Using new commercially available sensors to measure brain waves -- sensors for recording electroencephalograms (EEG) -- the scientists were able to distinguish the bioelectrical wave patterns for control commands such as "left," "right," "accelerate" or "brake" in a test subject.

Climate change affecting food safety

ScienceDaily (2011-02-22) -- Climate change is already having an effect on the safety of the world's food supplies and unless action is taken it's only going to get worse, a group of experts has warned.

Careful cleaning of children's skin wounds key to healing, regardless of antibiotic choice

ScienceDaily (2011-02-22) -- When it comes to curing skin infected with the antibiotic-resistant bacterium MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), timely and proper wound cleaning and draining may be more important than the choice of antibiotic, according to a new study.

Drinking alcohol in moderation protects against heart disease, meta-analysis finds

ScienceDaily (2011-02-23) -- Individuals who drink alcohol in moderation (about one drink a day or less) are 14-25 percent less likely to develop heart disease compared to those who drink no alcohol at all, a new meta-analysis by researchers in Canada has found.

New report lists 25 most endangered turtle species; Some turtle species number less than 5 individuals

ScienceDaily (2011-02-23) -- A new report lists the 25 most endangered turtle species from around the world -- some of which currently number less than five individuals.

Speaking foreign languages may help protect your memory

ScienceDaily (2011-02-23) -- People who speak more than two languages may lower their risk of developing memory problems, according to a new study.

Are we more -- or less -- moral than we think?

ScienceDaily (2011-02-23) -- If asked whether we'd steal, most of us would say no. Would we try to save a drowning person? That depends -- perhaps on our fear of big waves. Much research has explored the ways we make moral decisions. But in the clinch, when the opportunity arises to do good or bad, how well do our predictions match up with the actions we actually take?

People with low self-esteem show more signs of prejudice

ScienceDaily (2011-02-23) -- When people are feeling bad about themselves, they're more likely to show bias against people who are different. A new study examines how that works.

Newborn heart muscle can grow back by itself, study shows

ScienceDaily (2011-02-25) -- In a promising science-fiction-meets-real-world juxtaposition, researchers have discovered that the mammalian newborn heart can heal itself completely.

Staring contests are automatic: People lock eyes to establish dominance

ScienceDaily (2011-02-25) -- Imagine that you're in a bar and you accidentally knock over your neighbor's beer. He turns around and stares at you, looking for confrontation. Do you buy him a new drink, or do you try to out-stare him to make him back off? New research suggests that the dominance behavior exhibited by staring someone down can be reflexive.

Rare, unique seeds arrive at Svalbard Vault, as crises threaten world crop collections

ScienceDaily (2011-02-25) -- The Svalbard Global Seed Vault celebrated its third anniversary Feb. 24 with the arrival of seeds for rare lima beans, blight-resistant cantaloupe, and progenitors of antioxidant-rich red tomatoes from Peru and the Galapagos Islands. The arrival of these collections, including many drought- and flood-resistant varieties, comes at a time when natural and human-made risks to agriculture have reinforced the critical need to secure all the world's food crop varieties.

Happy children make happy adults

ScienceDaily (2011-02-26) -- Being a "happy" teenager is linked to increased well-being in adulthood, new research finds.

Reducing one's 'nitrogen footprint': New Web-based tool helps people make sustainable living choices

ScienceDaily (2011-02-27) -- People who want to eat healthy and live sustainably have a new way to measure their impact on the environment: a Web-based tool that calculates an individual's "nitrogen footprint."

‘Round-the-clock’ lifestyle could disrupt metabolism, brain and behavior

ScienceDaily (2011-02-27) -- In Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud argued that modern society was hard on human psychology, forcing people to get along in unnaturally close quarters. Now newly published research points out a different discontent in the developed world, namely, the disruption of our natural sleep cycles, thanks to the ubiquity of electric lighting. Experiments on mice found that throwing off their evolutionarily ancient circadian rhythms by artificially altering the length of their days has a substantial impact on the body and the brain. The work suggests that our modern, round-the-clock lifestyle could disrupt metabolism, interfere with learning and impact behavior in ways that we're just beginning to understand.

Migrating sea turtles have magnetic sense for longitude

ScienceDaily (2011-02-28) -- From the very first moments of life, hatchling loggerhead sea turtles have an arduous task. They must embark on a transoceanic migration, swimming from the Florida coast eastward to the North Atlantic and then gradually migrating over the course of several years before returning again to North American shores. Now, researchers have figured out how the young turtles find their way.

Napping may help with blood pressure management

ScienceDaily (2011-02-28) -- A daytime sleep could have cardiovascular benefits according to new research. A new study, looking at the effect of a daytime nap on cardiovascular recovery following a stress test, found that those participants who slept for at least 45 minutes during the day had lower average blood pressure after psychological stress than those who did not sleep.

Being 'mindful' can neutralize fears of death and dying

ScienceDaily (2011-02-28) -- Death can be terrifying. Recognizing that death is inescapable and unpredictable makes us incredibly vulnerable, and can invoke feelings of anxiety, hatred and fear. But new research shows that being a mindful person not only makes you generally more tolerant and less defensive, but it can also actually neutralize fears of dying and death.

Acupressure effective in helping to treat traumatic brain injury, study suggests

ScienceDaily (2011-03-01) -- A new study indicates an ancient form of complementary medicine may be effective in helping to treat people with mild traumatic brain injury, a finding that may have implications for some US war veterans returning home.

Full bladder, better decisions? Controlling your bladder decreases impulsive choices

ScienceDaily (2011-03-01) -- What should you do when you really, really have to "go"? Make important life decisions, maybe. Controlling your bladder makes you better at controlling yourself when making decisions about your future, too, according to a new study.

Herbal teas may provide health benefits

ScienceDaily (2011-03-02) -- Those who enjoy the caffeinated lift that comes from drinking traditional coffees and teas may tend to overlook the benefits of drinking herbal infusions. Now, the idea that herbal teas may provide a variety of health benefits is no longer just folklore.

Meditation beats dance for harmonizing body and mind

ScienceDaily (2011-03-02) -- The body is a dancer's instrument, but is it attuned to the mind? A new study suggests that professional ballet and modern dancers are not as emotionally in sync with their bodies as are people who regularly practice meditation.

Solving the riddle of nature’s perfect spring

ScienceDaily (2011-03-03) -- Scientists have unravelled the shape of the protein that gives human tissues their elastic properties in what could lead to the development of new synthetic elastic polymers.

Four new species of Zombie ant fungi discovered in Brazilian rainforest

ScienceDaily (2011-03-03) -- Four new Brazilian species in the genus Ophiocordyceps have been discovered. The fungi belong to a group of "zombifying" fungi that infect ants and then manipulate their behavior, eventually killing the ants after securing a prime location for spore dispersal.

The more secure you feel, the less you value your stuff

ScienceDaily (2011-03-03) -- People who feel more secure in receiving love and acceptance from others place less monetary value on their possessions, according to new research.

Mapping human vulnerability to climate change

ScienceDaily (2011-03-03) -- Researchers already study how various species of plants and animals migrate in response to climate change. Now, a researcher has taken the innovative step of using the same analytic tools to measure the impact of climate change on human populations. They found that if populations continue to increase at the expected rates, those who are likely to be the most vulnerable to climate change are the people living in low-latitude, hot regions of the world.

JPEG for the mind: How the brain compresses visual information

ScienceDaily (2011-02-11) -- Scientists take the next step in next step in understanding how the brain compresses huge "files" of visual information down to the essentials.

Pollutants in aquifers may threaten future of Mexico's fast-growing 'Riviera Maya'

ScienceDaily (2011-02-07) -- Pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, shampoo, toothpaste, pesticides, chemical run-off from highways and many other pollutants infiltrate the giant aquifer under Mexico's "Riviera Maya," research shows. The wastes contaminate a vast labyrinth of water-filled caves under the popular tourist destination on the Yucatan Peninsula. And, with a 10-fold increase in population through 2030 expected, the problems are likely to worsen, according to new research.