ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

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• West Antarctic glacier loss appears unstoppable
• Ultra-fast bionic arm can catch objects on the fly
• HADES searches for dark matter: Astrophysicists cross 'Dark Photon' off the list in top position
• Ice-loss moves the Earth 250 miles down
• Shorter men live longer, study shows
• Love makes you strong: Romantic relationships help neurotic people stabilize their personality
• New insight into star cluster formation: Stars on the outskirts actually are the oldest
• NASA telescopes coordinate best-ever flare observations
• Archaeologists use drone images to uncover ancient New Mexico village
• Galaxy's biggest telescope harnesses most precise measurement of spinning star

West Antarctic glacier loss appears unstoppable Posted: 12 May 2014 10:46 AM PDT A new study finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline, with nothing to stop the glaciers in this area from melting into the sea. The study presents multiple lines of evidence, incorporating 40 years of observations that indicate the glaciers in the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica "have passed the point of no return," according to the lead author.

Ultra-fast bionic arm can catch objects on the fly Posted: 12 May 2014 07:17 AM PDT With its palm open, the robot is completely motionless. A split second later, it suddenly unwinds and catches all sorts of flying objects thrown in its direction -- a tennis racket, a ball, a bottle. This arm measures about 1.5 meters long and keeps an upright position. It has three joints and a sophisticated hand with four fingers. It is unique, as it has the ability to catch projectiles of various irregular shapes in less than five hundredths of a second.

HADES searches for dark matter: Astrophysicists cross 'Dark Photon' off the list in top position Posted: 12 May 2014 07:17 AM PDT Recent results of HADES experiments have shown, that the dark photon or U boson is no longer a top candidate to explain the nature of dark matter. Researchers are now searching for the constituents of dark matter at HADES, the High-Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer. These negative results -- recently published in Physics Letters B -- could even lead to challenges of the standard model of particle physics.

Ice-loss moves the Earth 250 miles down Posted: 11 May 2014 06:48 PM PDT Scientists have revealed that Earth's mantle under Antarctica is at a lower viscosity and moving at such a rapid rate it is changing the shape of the land at a rate that can be recorded by GPS. They have explained for the first time why the upward motion of Earth's crust in the Northern Antarctic Peninsula is currently taking place so quickly.

Shorter men live longer, study shows Posted: 09 May 2014 08:07 AM PDT Short height and long life have a direct connection in Japanese men, according to new research. Shorter men are more likely to have a protective form of the longevity gene, FOXO3, leading to smaller body size during early development and a longer lifespan. Shorter men are also more likely to have lower blood insulin levels and less cancer.

Love makes you strong: Romantic relationships help neurotic people stabilize their personality Posted: 09 May 2014 04:41 AM PDT It is springtime and they are everywhere: Newly enamored couples walking through the city hand in hand, floating on cloud nine. Yet a few weeks later the initial rush of romance will have dissolved and the world will not appear as rosy anymore. Nevertheless, love and romance have long lasting effects.

New insight into star cluster formation: Stars on the outskirts actually are the oldest Posted: 08 May 2014 10:29 AM PDT Using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and infrared telescopes, astronomers have made an important advance in the understanding of how clusters of stars come into being. Researchers studied two clusters where sun-like stars currently are forming -- NGC 2024, located in the center of the Flame Nebula, and the Orion Nebula Cluster. From this study, they discovered the stars on the outskirts of the clusters actually are the oldest.

NASA telescopes coordinate best-ever flare observations Posted: 07 May 2014 06:23 PM PDT On March 29, 2014, an X-class flare erupted from the right side of the sun ... and vaulted into history as the best-observed flare of all time. The flare was witnessed by four different NASA spacecraft and one ground-based observatory -- three of which had been fortuitously focused in on the correct spot as programmed into their viewing schedule a full day in advance.

Archaeologists use drone images to uncover ancient New Mexico village Posted: 07 May 2014 06:53 AM PDT Despite a long history of studies that demonstrate the potential of aerial thermography to reveal surface and subsurface cultural features, technological and cost barriers have prevented the widespread application of thermal imaging in archaeology. This research succesfully high-resolution thermal imagery using a drone to uncover an ancient New Mexico village, revealing never-seen-before structures.

Galaxy's biggest telescope harnesses most precise measurement of spinning star Posted: 06 May 2014 04:44 AM PDT An international team of astronomers has made a measurement of a distant neutron star that is one million times more precise than the previous world's best. The researchers were able to use the interstellar medium, the 'empty' space between stars and galaxies that is made up of sparsely spread charged particles, as a giant lens to magnify and look closely at the radio wave emission from a small rotating neutron star.

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