ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

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• Schizophrenia and cannabis use may share common genes
• Should the Higgs boson have caused our universe to collapse? Findings puzzle cosmologists
• Titan's building blocks might pre-date Saturn
• New type of dust discovered in Martian atmosphere
• Hormone-disrupting activity of fracking chemicals worse than initially found
• Archaeo-astronomy steps out from shadows of the past
• Scientists tie social behavior to activity in specific brain circuit

Schizophrenia and cannabis use may share common genes Posted: 24 Jun 2014 06:33 AM PDT Genes that increase the risk of developing schizophrenia may also increase the likelihood of using cannabis, according to a new study. Previous studies have identified a link between cannabis use and schizophrenia, but it has remained unclear whether this association is due to cannabis directly increasing the risk of the disorder. The new results suggest that part of this association is due to common genes.

Should the Higgs boson have caused our universe to collapse? Findings puzzle cosmologists Posted: 24 Jun 2014 06:32 AM PDT British cosmologists are puzzled: they predict that the universe should not have lasted for more than a second. This startling conclusion is the result of combining the latest observations of the sky with the recent discovery of the Higgs boson.

Titan's building blocks might pre-date Saturn Posted: 23 Jun 2014 02:07 PM PDT A combined NASA and European Space Agency (ESA)-funded study has found firm evidence that nitrogen in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan originated in conditions similar to the cold birthplace of the most ancient comets from the Oort cloud. The finding rules out the possibility that Titan's building blocks formed within the warm disk of material thought to have surrounded the infant planet Saturn during its formation.

New type of dust discovered in Martian atmosphere Posted: 23 Jun 2014 07:42 AM PDT Scientists have discovered a new peculiarity of the Martian atmosphere. The scientists had analyzed satellite-acquired data and concluded that the dust particles in the planet's atmosphere can be of two types.

Hormone-disrupting activity of fracking chemicals worse than initially found Posted: 23 Jun 2014 07:39 AM PDT Many chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can disrupt not only the human body's reproductive hormones but also the glucocorticoid and thyroid hormone receptors, which are necessary to maintain good health, a new study finds.

Archaeo-astronomy steps out from shadows of the past Posted: 23 Jun 2014 06:23 AM PDT From the 'Crystal Pathway' that links stone circles on Cornwall's Bodmin Moor to star-aligned megaliths in central Portugal, archaeo-astronomers are finding evidence that Neolithic and Bronze Age people were acute observers of the Sun, as well as the Moon and stars, and that they embedded astronomical references within their local landscapes.

Scientists tie social behavior to activity in specific brain circuit Posted: 19 Jun 2014 09:52 AM PDT A particular brain circuit has been linked by researchers to mammals' tendency to interact socially. Stimulating this circuit -- one among millions in the brain -- instantly increases a mouse's appetite for getting to know a strange mouse, while inhibiting it shuts down its drive to socialize with the stranger. The new findings may throw light on psychiatric disorders marked by impaired social interaction such as autism, social anxiety, schizophrenia and depression, said the study's senior author.

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