ScienceDaily: Most Popular News

---

• The bend in the Appalachian mountain chain is finally explained
• Revealed: The mystery behind starling flocks
• Measuring nurture: Study shows how 'good mothering' hardwires infant brain
• Transplantation of new brain cells reverses memory loss in Alzheimer's disease model
• Smallest Swiss cross: Made of 20 single atoms

The bend in the Appalachian mountain chain is finally explained Posted: 18 Jul 2014 08:56 AM PDT The 1,500-mile Appalachian mountain chain runs along a nearly straight line from Alabama to Newfoundland -- except for a curious bend in Pennsylvania and New York State. Researchers now know what caused that bend -- a dense, underground block of rigid, volcanic rock forced the chain to shift eastward as it was forming millions of years ago.

Revealed: The mystery behind starling flocks Posted: 18 Jul 2014 06:56 AM PDT The mystery behind the movements of flocking starlings could be explained by the areas of light and dark created as they fly, new research suggests. The research found that flocking starlings aim to maintain an optimum density at which they can gather data on their surroundings. This occurs when they can see light through the flock at many angles, a state known as marginal opacity. The subsequent pattern of light and dark, formed as the birds attempt to achieve the necessary density, is what provides vital information to individual birds within the flock.

Measuring nurture: Study shows how 'good mothering' hardwires infant brain Posted: 17 Jul 2014 06:45 AM PDT By carefully watching nearly a hundred hours of video showing mother rats protecting, warming, and feeding their young pups, and then matching up what they saw to real-time electrical readings from the pups' brains, researchers have found that the mother's presence and social interactions -— her nurturing role -— directly molds the early neural activity and growth of her offsprings' brain.

Transplantation of new brain cells reverses memory loss in Alzheimer's disease model Posted: 15 Jul 2014 06:43 PM PDT A new study has revealed a way to alleviate the learning and memory deficits caused by apoE4, the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, improving cognition to normal levels in aged mice. The success of the treatment in older mice, which corresponded to late adulthood in humans, is particularly important, as this would be the age that would be targeted were this method ever to be used therapeutically in people.

Smallest Swiss cross: Made of 20 single atoms Posted: 15 Jul 2014 05:50 AM PDT The manipulation of atoms has reached a new level: Physicists were able to place 20 single atoms on a fully insulated surface at room temperature to form the smallest "Swiss cross", thus taking a big step towards next generation atomic-scale storage devices.

You are subscribed to email updates from Most Popular News -- ScienceDaily To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610