ScienceDaily: Latest Science News


January-October 2014 temperatures highest on record

Posted: 29 Nov 2014 04:57 AM PST

The global average temperature over land and ocean surfaces for January to October 2014 was the highest on record, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It said October was the hottest since records began in 1880.

Genomes of malaria-carrying mosquitoes sequenced

Posted: 27 Nov 2014 06:23 PM PST

Scientists have sequenced the genomes of 16 Anopheles mosquito species from around the world. Anopheles mosquitoes are responsible for transmitting human malaria parasites that cause an estimated 200 million cases and more than 600 thousand deaths each year. However, of the almost 500 different Anopheles species, only a few dozen can carry the parasite and only a handful of species are responsible for the vast majority of transmissions.

Impact of climate change on the soil ecosystem

Posted: 27 Nov 2014 05:23 AM PST

Scientists are working to evaluate the impact of climate change on the ecosystems of the soil by monitoring its microbial properties over time. The research areas are located at altitudes of between 1,500 and 2,600 meters, which provides a broad range of different climate conditions and makes it possible to observe how the altitude affects the properties of the soil and the micro-organisms living in it. Preliminary results indicate that microbial properties are highly dependent on the physical and chemical properties of the soil on a small scale and on the environmental conditions existing at the moment when the samples are gathered.

Scanning tunneling microscopy: Computer simulations sharpen insights into molecules

Posted: 27 Nov 2014 05:23 AM PST

The resolution of scanning tunneling microscopes can be improved dramatically by attaching small molecules or atoms to their tip. The resulting images were the first to show the geometric structure of molecules and have generated a lot of interest among scientists over the last few years.

Brain regions that encode words, grammar, story identified

Posted: 26 Nov 2014 11:42 AM PST

Scientists have produced the first integrated computational model of reading, identifying which parts of the brain are responsible for such sub-processes as parsing sentences, determining the meaning of words and understanding relationships between characters. They based their results on brain scan of people reading a Harry Potter book.