Science news

• SpaceX raps ULA bid to get U.S. waiver for Russian engines

  08-10-2015 23:44
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has slammed a bid by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, to get a waiver from a U.S. ban on Russian rocket engines for military use.
  
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• Blue skies and water ice discovered on Pluto

  08-10-2015 23:39
  The first color images of Pluto's atmospheric hazes, returned by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft last week, reveal that the hazes are blue.
  
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• Certain blood markers may indicate early signs of kidney disease

  08-10-2015 23:36
  Newly discovered blood markers may lead to improved and earlier diagnoses of kidney disease, according to a study. The findings could help clinicians monitor patients' kidney health.
  
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• Smoking, heavy alcohol use are associated with epigenetic signs of aging

  08-10-2015 23:35
  Cigarette smoking and heavy alcohol use cause epigenetic changes to DNA that reflect accelerated biological aging in distinct, measurable ways, according to research. The researchers estimated biological age using a previously validated epigenetic "clock" , calculated the difference between biological age and chronological age, and assessed the relationship between tobacco and alcohol use and premature aging.
  
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• Presenting options to patients: Menu approach good for patients, physicians

  08-10-2015 23:35
  Presenting and discussing a menu of treatment options is good for both the patient and the physician according to a new article.
  
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• Caution: Weird material shrinks when warm

  08-10-2015 23:35
  Most materials swell when warm, and shrink when cool. But some weird materials do the opposite. Although thermal expansion, and the cracking and warping that often result, occurs everyday -- in buildings, electronics, and almost anything else exposed to wide temperature swings -- physicists have trouble explaining why solids behave that way. New research into a material that has negative thermal expansion may lead to a better understanding of why materials change volume with temperature at all.
  
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• Adult high blood pressure risk identifiable in childhood

  08-10-2015 23:35
  Groups of people at risk of having high blood pressure and other related health issues by age 38 can be identified in childhood, new research suggests. The findings are the latest to emerge from the internationally renowned Dunedin Study, which has tracked more than a 1000 people born in Dunedin in 1972-73 from birth to the present.
  
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• Experts caution on study citing method to predict sexual orientation

  08-10-2015 23:28
  (Reuters) - U.S. researchers on Thursday said they had found a way to predict male sexual orientation based on molecular markers that control DNA function, but genetics experts warned that the research has important limitations and will not provide definitive answers to a potential biological basis for sexual preference.
  
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• Chemical tags on DNA appear to differ between gay and straight men

  08-10-2015 23:27
  
  DNA marks distinguished homosexual men from heterosexual men with in a small twin study.
  
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• Growth, climate in focus as world economic leaders meet

  08-10-2015 23:19
  
  The search for billions of dollars still needed to fight climate change topped the agenda Thursday as world economic leaders met seeking to kick-start growth while tackling global warming.
  
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• Widespread coral bleaching threatens world’s reefs

  08-10-2015 22:57
  
  The world’s corals are experiencing their third major bleaching event in 17 years.
  
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• Idaho nuclear lab director eyes new generation of scientists

  08-10-2015 22:51
  
  BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho's federal nuclear facility can become the nation's premier energy security lab while also bolstering the region's economy, the new director says.
  
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• Surprise! Pluto Has Blue Skies (Photo)

  08-10-2015 22:44
  
  The more scientists learn about Pluto, the more interesting the dwarf planet gets. During its historic flyby of Pluto this past July, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft discovered towering ice mountains and vast glaciers on the frigid body. "Who would have expected a blue sky in the Kuiper Belt?" New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, said in a statement today (Oct. 8).
  
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• 'The Martian' Misses Out on a Faster Way to Mars (Op-Ed)

  08-10-2015 22:08
  
  Edward Belbruno is a mathematician and an artist. Full of cliff-hangers, where you don't know what's going to happen from one moment to the next, the book depicts astronaut Mark Watney, mistakenly left for dead as his fellow crewmembers hastily escape a storm on Mars. Unfortunately, NASA can't just send a resupply mission right away to give Watney needed the food, water, air and other basic supplies he desperately needs for survival.
  
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• Ancient Ethiopian man's genome illuminates ancestry of Africans

  08-10-2015 21:54
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - DNA extracted from the skull of a man buried 4,500 years ago in an Ethiopian cave is providing new clarity on the ancestry of modern Africans as well as shedding light on an influx of people from the ancient Middle East into the Horn of Africa.
  
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• Blue skies, frozen water detected on Pluto

  08-10-2015 21:41
  
  Pluto has blue skies and patches of frozen water, according to the latest data out Thursday from NASA's unmanned New Horizons probe, which made a historic flyby of the dwarf planet in July.
  
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• New Horizons spacecraft finds blue skies, frozen water on Pluto

  08-10-2015 21:30 via cbc.ca
  
  If you stood on the surface of Pluto, you'd be looking up at a blue sky, just like on Earth. And you might find your feet on the red ice of a frozen lake.
  
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• New adipogenic cocktail that produces functional adipocytes from mesechymal stromal cells

  08-10-2015 21:29
  Multipotent mesechymal stromal cells (MSCs) have been recognized as a source of adipocytes both in vivo and in vitro. It is reported that, simultaneous activation of canonical signaling pathways by dexamethasone through the glucocorticoid receptor and CCAAT-enchancer-binding proteins (C/EBPs) and rosiglitazone through peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-gamma), is sufficient for inducing adipogenic differentiation from MSCs, producing functional adipocytes.
  
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• Seeing in a new light

  08-10-2015 21:28
  New discoveries at the cellular and molecular levels have been made about how the eye processes light. The findings improve the scientific understanding of the signaling cascade necessary for phototransduction -- the process by which light is converted into electrical signals in the photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye.
  
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• Inside-out plants let biologists watch how cellulose forms

  08-10-2015 21:28
  Researchers have been able to watch the interior cells of a plant synthesize cellulose for the first time by tricking the cells into growing on the plant's surface, according to a new paper. Cellulose, the structural component of cell walls that enables plants to stay upright, is the most abundant biopolymer on earth. It's a critical resource for pulp and paper, textiles, building materials, and renewable biofuels.
  
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• Math story time at home bolsters achievement in school

  08-10-2015 21:22
  Use of an iPad app that fosters parent-child interactions around math markedly increases children's math achievement across the school year, especially for children with parents who are habitually anxious about math.
  
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• Shackleton medals fetch £585,000

  08-10-2015 21:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A number of medals awarded to Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton raise £585,000 at a London auction.
  
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• Netflix hikes monthly subscription price by $1 for new customers

  08-10-2015 21:19 via cbc.ca
  
  Streaming video service Netflix is raising the price of one of its main pricing packages by $1 a month for new customers in Canada and the U.S.
  
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• Vulnerable nations launch 'V20' to fight climate change

  08-10-2015 21:18
  
  Finance ministers from 20 of the countries most vulnerable to climate change launched the "V20" group Thursday to marshal resources for their nations' fight against the impact of global warming.
  
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• Introducing Reactions, Facebook's solution to the 'dislike button' problem

  08-10-2015 21:11 via cbc.ca
  
  Instead of one dislike button, users are getting six more nuanced emojis.
  
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• Orangutans threatened by Indonesia's haze, agricultural burning

  08-10-2015 20:57 via cbc.ca
  
  Indonesia's choking haze and the fires creating it are threatening the country's already endangered populations of orangutans.
  
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• NASA Mars rover finds clear evidence for ancient, long-lived lakes

  08-10-2015 20:33
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Three years after landing in a giant Martian crater, NASA's Curiosity rover has found what scientists call proof that the basin had repeatedly filled with water, bolstering chances for life on Mars, a study published on Thursday showed.
  
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• Artificial lung demonstrates how aerosols move and behave in deepest part of lungs

  08-10-2015 20:29
  A life-sized artificial human lung is the first diagnostic tool for understanding in real time how tiny particles behave in the deepest part of the human lungs. It could shed light on airborne pollution risks, and be used for the evaluation/design respiratory system drugs.
  
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• New clues about how humans become tool users

  08-10-2015 20:28
  New research gives researchers a unique glimpse at how humans develop an ability to use tools in childhood while nonhuman primates -- such as capuchin monkeys and chimpanzees -- remain only occasional tool users.
  
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• Rocket with secret payload launches from California coast

  08-10-2015 20:26
  
  VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — A rocket carrying a secret payload for the U.S. government has successfully launched from the central California coast.
  
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• Machines have nothing on mom when it comes to listening

  08-10-2015 20:26
  More than 99% of the time, two words are enough for people with normal hearing to distinguish the voice of a close friend or relative amongst other voices. His study involved playing recordings to Canadian French speakers, who were asked to recognize on multiple trials which of the ten male voices they heard was familiar to them. "Merci beaucoup" turned out to be all they needed to hear.
  
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• Environmental memories transmitted from a father to his grandchildren

  08-10-2015 20:26
  If you have diabetes, or cancer or even heart problems, maybe you should blame it on your dad's behavior or environment. Or even your grandfather's. That's because, in recent years, scientists have shown that, before his offspring are even conceived, a father's life experiences involving food, drugs, exposure to toxic products and even stress can affect the development and health not only of his children, but even of his grandchildren. But, despite a decade of work in the area, scientists haven'
  
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• Ancient genome from Africa sequenced for the first time

  08-10-2015 20:26
  The first ancient human genome from Africa to be sequenced has revealed that a wave of migration back into Africa from Western Eurasia around 3,000 years ago was up to twice as significant as previously thought, and affected the genetic make-up of populations across the entire African continent. 
  
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• EpiPens save lives but can cut like a knife

  08-10-2015 20:24
  Epinephrine autoinjectors can be life-saving for patients experiencing anaphylaxis -- a life-threatening emergency -- but according to a new case series, the most commonly used autoinjector appears to be contributing to injuries in children.
  
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• Scientists build a digital piece of a rat's brain

  08-10-2015 20:22
  If you want to learn how something works, one strategy is to take it apart and put it back together again. For 10 years, a global initiative called the Blue Brain Project has been attempting to do this digitally with a section of juvenile rat brain. The project presents a first draft of this reconstruction, which contains over 31,000 neurons, 55 layers of cells, and 207 different neuron subtypes.
  
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• One in eight children at risk for measles, analysis shows

  08-10-2015 20:22
  Gaps in measles vaccination rates place one in eight children at risk for becoming sick from the highly contagious illness, according to an analysis of American national vaccination coverage.
  
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• Evolution of kangaroo-like jerboas sheds light on limb development

  08-10-2015 20:22
  With their tiny forelimbs and long hindlimbs and feet, jerboas are oddly proportioned creatures that look something like a pint-size cross between a kangaroo and the common mouse. How these 33 species of desert-dwelling rodents from Northern Africa and Asia evolved their remarkable limbs over the past 50 million years from a five-toed, quadrupedal ancestor shared with the modern mouse to the three-toed bipedal jerboa is detailed in a new paper.
  
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• Ancient Mars Had Long-Lasting Lakes, Boosting Chances for Life

  08-10-2015 20:19
  
  Ancient Mars harbored long-lasting lakes, boosting the odds that life could have existed on the Red Planet billions of years ago, a new study suggests. A series of freshwater lakes within Mars' 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) Gale Crater likely persisted for hundreds or thousands of years at a time, and perhaps even longer, according to the new study, which is based on observations made by NASA's 1-ton Curiosity rover. While these individual lakes were apparently transient, drying out and filling
  
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• In the sex lives of male worms in the lab, one gene makes a big difference

  08-10-2015 20:16
  For tiny nematode worms of the species Caenorhabditis elegans -- males are rare and all but irrelevant in nature. That's because the vast majority of C. elegans individuals are self-fertilizing hermaphrodites. In the laboratory environment, males of the species do turn up with some regularity, and now researchers have discovered natural variation in a single gene produces males with excretory pores that attract the sexual attentions of other males.
  
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• A long look back at fishes' extendable jaws

  08-10-2015 20:16
  When it comes to catching elusive prey, many fishes rely on a special trick: protruding jaws that quickly extend their reach to snap up that next meal. Now, researchers have found a clever way to trace the evolution of jaw protrusion in fishes over many millions of years.
  
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• Pets may soon be spayed, neutered with injection instead of surgery

  08-10-2015 20:07 via cbc.ca
  
  There have been two big developments in the world of birth control: U.S. scientists come up with a method that could be used to spay or neuter your pet with an injection instead of surgery; and a Japanese team is a step closer to creating the male birth control pill.
  
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• Core Finding: Earth's Frozen Center Formed a Billion Years Ago

  08-10-2015 20:02
  
  What's more, the new findings suggest that Earth's magnetic field, which is powered by the swirling flow of liquid iron surrounding the inner core, could continue going strong for quite a while, said study co-author Andy Biggin, a paleomagnetism researcher at the University of Liverpool in England. "The theoretical model which best fits our data indicates that the core is losing heat more slowly than at any point in the last 4.5 billion years and that this flow of energy should keep the Earth's
  
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• Mars crater 'used to contain lakes that existed for thousands of years'

  08-10-2015 20:00
  
  A Martian crater now being explored by the Nasa rover Curiosity once contained lakes that remained for up to 10,000 years at a time - long enough to support life.
  
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• Into Africa: Ancient skeleton sheds light on reverse migration

  08-10-2015 20:00
  
  Ancient man’s DNA helps reveal extent of Eurasian farmers’ back-to-Africa migration some 3,000 years ago.
  
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• Ancient Mars had long-lasting lakes of liquid water

  08-10-2015 20:00
  
  New evidence gathered by NASA’s Curiosity rover suggests Gale Crater once contained a stable lake of liquid water.
  
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• Beirut protest turns violent, politicians postpone talks

  08-10-2015 19:45
  
  Lebanese security forces fired tear gas and water canon to break up an anti-government protest in Beirut on Thursday, and the country's fractious leaders postponed talks aimed at resolving a political crisis that is feeding public discontent. Anger at Lebanon's government has fuelled repeated protests in recent months. Discontent with widely perceived corruption and incompetence came to a head in July when the government failed to agree a solution to a trash disposal crisis and piles of garbage
  
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• Blue sky and red ice at Pluto, NASA spacecraft discovers

  08-10-2015 19:37
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The sky over Pluto may not be sunny but it's undoubtedly blue.
  
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• This Pig-Nosed Rat with Vampire Teeth Will Haunt Your Dreams

  08-10-2015 19:31
  
  It has a nose like a cute little piglet's, ears that only a mother could love and teeth that would make Dracula run in fear: This odd-looking rodent captured researchers' attention when they discovered it back in 2013, but now they've described it as a new species. The elusive animal, aptly named the hog-nosed rat (Hyorhinomys stuempkei), inhabits the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. In 2013, researchers studying the island's other rat species caught two of these pig-snouted rodents inside traps.
  
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• Epidural, spinal anesthesia safe for cesarean deliveries, study finds

  08-10-2015 19:12
  New research could ease the minds of expectant mothers who may be nervous about epidurals or spinal anesthesia for childbirth. According to ASA practice guidelines, spinal or epidural anesthesia is preferred for most cesarean deliveries. However, general anesthesia may be administered in some cases, such as an emergency cesarean delivery.
  
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• Breast cancer genomic analysis reveals invasive lobular carcinoma subtypes

  08-10-2015 19:12
  Researchers analyzed hundreds of breast cancer samples to reveal genetic drivers of invasive lobular carcinoma, the second most commonly diagnosed invasive form of breast cancer. The work, the researchers said, could lead to personalized treatment approaches for the disease.
  
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