Basic ocean conditions such as current directions and water temperature play a huge role in determining the behavior of young migrating salmon as they move from rivers and hit ocean waters for the first time -  and how the fish fare during their first few weeks in the ocean has a profound impact on species' ability to survive into adulthood.

Late nights are not great for most people and especially roe children, according to a new paper. 
Teenagers who go to bed late during the school year are more prone to academic and emotional difficulties in the long run, compared to their earlier-to-bed counterparts.

The scholars analyzed longitudinal data from a nationally representative cohort of 2,700 U.S. adolescents of whom 30 percent reported bedtimes later than 11:30 p.m. on school days and 1:30 a.m. in the summer in their middle and high school years. By the time they graduated from high school, the school-year night owls had lower GPA scores, and were more vulnerable to emotional problems than teens with earlier bedtimes

Even 20 minutes of moderate exercise a few times per week during pregnancy enhances the newborn child's brain development, according to a new paper.

In the past, obstetricians would tell women to take it easy and rest during their pregnancy. Now it is now commonly accepted that too much inactivity is more of a health concern and so for women not at risk of losing a pregnancy, some exercise is recommended.  And it may have a benefit for the baby as well.

"Given that exercise has been demonstrated to be beneficial for the adult's brain, we hypothesized that it could also be beneficial for the unborn child through the mother's actions," says study co-author Professor Daniel Curnier of the University of Montreal.

Tiny self-assembling transport networks, powered by nano-scale motors and controlled by DNA, have been developed. And the system can construct its own network of tracks spanning tens of micrometers in length, transport cargo across the network and even dismantle the tracks.

Researchers were inspired by the melanophore, used by fish cells to control their color. Tracks in the network all come from a central point, like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Motor proteins transport pigment around the network, either concentrating it in the center or spreading it throughout the network. Concentrating pigment in the center makes the cells lighter, as the surrounding space is left empty and transparent.

Ever since the term 'junk DNA' was coined (1) - like the 'God particle' it quickly spun out of control due to colloquial misunderstanding of what it meant scientifically - and even more so when the human genome was decoded and it was discovered that only about 3 percent of the entire genome contains information that encodes for proteins, the question has been, 'what is happening in all that other stuff?'

Scientists have described a new species of scorpion, Euscorpius lycius, from  the regions of the Muğla and Antalya Provinces in Southwestern Turkey, what was once known as ancient Lycia, fought over by Persians and Greeks for centuries due to it being a good source of wheat and timber. The last remaining Greeks were forced to leave after the 1919-1922 war with Turkey.

Euscorpius is a genus of scorpions, commonly called small wood-scorpions. As their name suggest these scorpions don't impress with a large size, the biggest representative being around 5 cm long. The group is widespread in North Africa and across Europe. Euscorpius scorpions are relatively harmless, with poison that has effects similar to a mosquito bite.

'Huh?' - what you tell your children not to say when they did not understand what you just told them - has nonetheless taken over the word. 

Supernovae, those intensely bright objects formed when a star reaches the end of its life, 'start' with a big, expelling most of their material out into space, and it's always interesting when we see it.

Spiral galaxy NGC 6984 played host to one of these explosions back in 2012, SN 2012im. Now, another star has exploded, forming supernova SN 2013ek, which is visible in this image as the prominent, star-like bright object just slightly above and to the right of the galaxy's center.

A new study has affirmed the hypothesis that microorganisms which produce methane swim toward the hydrogen gas they need to stay alive.

The sun emitted its sixth significant flare since Oct. 23, 2013, peaking at 11:26 p.m. EST on Nov. 7, 2013.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation - the radiation from a flare can't pass through Earth's atmosphere to affect us but, when intense enough, they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.

This flare is classified as an X1.1 flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. An X2 is twice as intense as an X1, an X3 is three times as intense, etc.