Your Daily Posterous Spaces Update

	August 25th, 2012 レイトショー Posted 1 day ago by Koichi Mitsui to s a s u r a u 2 空いてる。 Neandertal's brawny arm suggests language Posted 1 day ago by Futurity to Holy Kaw! Research confirming that a Neandertal was right-handed could suggest a capacity for language, a new study shows. Handedness—a uniquely human trait—signals brain lateralization. The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and plays a role in language. So, the University of Kansas researchers conclude, if Neandertals were primarily right-handed, they may have also had a capacity for language. Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons 20,000 quakes rumble Antarctic glacier's ice Posted 1 day ago by Futurity to Holy Kaw! 1 A new study identifies about 20,000 earthquakes—one every 25 minutes or so for a year—on the David Glacier in Antarctica. "The best idea we have is that during those 300 days, a dirty patch of ice was in contact with the mount, changing the way stress was transferred," says Penn State geoscientist Lucas K. Zoet. "The glacier is experiencing earthquakes again, although at a different rate." Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Photo credit: Fotolia Self-charging power cell stores energy Posted 1 day ago by Futurity to Holy Kaw! A new type of power cell can convert mechanical energy—from walking, for example—to chemical energy and store the power until it is released as electrical current. “People are accustomed to considering electrical generation and storage as two separate operations done in two separate units,” says Zhong Lin Wang, a professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “We have put them together in a single hybrid unit to create a self-charging power cell, demonstrating a new technique for charge conversion and storage in one integrated unit.” Full story at Futurity. More research news from top universities. Photo credit: Gary Meek/Georgia Tech Is an overactive brain to blame for depression? Posted about 22 hours ago by Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! 2 When we think of depression, communication difficulties definitely come to mind, but who would have thought an overabundance of dysfunctional connections within the brain were to blame? According to Andrew Leuchter and his team at UCLA: Using functional MRI and electroencephalography (EEG), [they] measured the activity of depressed patients' brains at rest. They found that the limbic and cortical areas, which together produce and process our emotions, sent a barrage of neural messages back and forth to one another—much more than in the brains of healthy patients. These signals, Leuchter says, can amplify depressed people's negative thoughts and act like white noise, drowning out the other neural messages telling them to move on. While other research seems to confirm these findings, scientists are not sure if the condition is a cause or effect of depression, but it could offer new, brighter avenues of treatment for patients who are desperately trying to escape wandering down the dark side of memory lane. Full story at Scientific American. Discoveries in mental health. Photo credit: Fotolia A Wampa arm to wipe the windshield Posted about 19 hours ago by Kate Rinsema to Holy Kaw! Are you one of those people who are too impatient to grab the scraper and end up with a wet and freezing hand to start off the winter’s day commute? No worries this year with an Empire Strikes Back-inspired Wampa hand that’ll have those fingers as toasty as if you had gutted the creature yourself and climbed inside. Full story at ThinkGeek via Technabob. Nice and cozy with Star Wars. Sent by Posterous. Change your email settings or unfollow. Other questions? We'd love to help.