Science news

• Nuclear waste ship leaves France for Australia

  15-10-2015 23:51
  
  A ship carrying 25 tonnes of nuclear waste left France for Australia on Thursday despite protests from environmental campaigners who said they were concerned about "deficiencies" in the vessel.
  
  Read more

• Danish zoo dissects lion cub for enthralled young audience

  15-10-2015 23:44 via cbc.ca
  
  Danish zoo staff dissected a nine-month-old lion cub in front of an audience of enthralled young children on Thursday, as a social media storm about the gruesome display raged outside.
  
  Read more

• Alaska OKs hunting of muskoxen stranded on sea ice

  15-10-2015 23:33 via cbc.ca
  
  Alaska game officials have legalized an unusual new hunt that will allow residents to harvest muskoxen stranded on ice floes.
  
  Read more

• French abattoir probed over grisly animal cruelty video

  15-10-2015 23:14
  
  A French abattoir was put under investigation Thursday after undercover video emerged showing cattle having their throats slit while conscious, pigs being gassed in a cage and a horse being beaten with an electric prod.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• PewDiePie tops Forbes list of YouTube millionaires

  15-10-2015 22:39 via cbc.ca
  
  Forbes has published its first ever list of top earners on YouTube , with the irrepressible Felix Kjellberg (better known as PewDiePie) heading the charts with pretax earnings of $12 million U.S.
  
  Read more

• Teeth from Chinese cave recast history of early human migration

  15-10-2015 22:30
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A trove of 47 fossil human teeth from a cave in southern China is rewriting the history of the early migration of our species out of Africa, indicating Homo sapiens trekked into Asia far earlier than previously known and much earlier than into Europe.
  
  Read more

• Dolphins, sea lions found dead on Mexico island

  15-10-2015 22:23
  
  Four sea lions, 11 sea turtles and 21 dolphins have mysteriously turned up dead on an island in northwestern Mexico, sparking an investigation, authorities said Thursday.
  
  Read more

• Pluto mission's first journal paper

  15-10-2015 22:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The first scientific paper to come out of the New Horizons probe's historic flyby of Pluto is published and raises questions about its formation.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Dimetrodon’s diet redetermined

  15-10-2015 22:22
  
  The reptilelike Dimetrodon dined mainly on amphibians and sharks, not big herbivores as scientists once believed.
  
  Read more

• 3 new mysteries about Pluto and its moons

  15-10-2015 22:03 via cbc.ca
  
  Scientists have released the first published scientific results from July's historic flyby of Pluto and its moons, highlighting new discoveries and the new mysteries that have arisen with those discoveries.
  
  Read more

• Team wants to sell lab grown meat

  15-10-2015 21:58 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Dutch team who have grown the world's first burger in a lab say they hope to have a product on sale in five years.
  
  Read more

• Pluto reveals variety of rich colors, stunning experts

  15-10-2015 21:29
  
  Pluto contains a rich variety of colors on its surface, according to observations out Thursday from NASA's New Horizons probe that stunned astronomers.
  
  Read more

• 'Digital skin' activates brain cells

  15-10-2015 20:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Engineers have built a sensor that detects touch and produces electrical pulses just like skin does: the pulses get faster when the pressure increases.
  
  Read more

• Sleep time in hunter-gatherer groups on low end of scale

  15-10-2015 20:38
  
  Hunter-gatherer communities in Africa and South America have similar sleeping patterns as people living in postindustrial societies, researchers find.
  
  Read more

• What a nightmare: sleep no more plentiful in primitive cultures

  15-10-2015 20:30
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Maybe we cannot blame late-night TV, endless Internet surfing, midnight snacks, good books, bothersome work deadlines and other distractions of modern life for encroaching on our sleep.
  
  Read more

• Wet (But Warm) Winter: Strong El Niño to Usher in Lots of Rain

  15-10-2015 20:28
  
  It's official: El Niño is back. The strong subtropical weather pattern boosts the odds for rainfall and warm temperatures across the Southern United States and the Eastern Seaboard — including drought-stricken regions such as California and the Southwest. But even if California is inundated with rain, the state's water woes probably won't be eliminated in one season, the experts said.
  
  Read more

• USB Killer device can destroy your computer in seconds

  15-10-2015 20:26 via cbc.ca
  
  A Russian researcher has developed a prototype device that looks like a normal USB key, but can completely destroy a computer's motherboard and circuitry if you plug it in.
  
  Read more

• Pluto among the 'most diverse worlds'

  15-10-2015 20:20 via bbc.co.uk
  What has Nasa mission taught us about Pluto?
  
  Read more

• Pluto Is Beautiful, Complex and Thoroughly Puzzling for Scientists

  15-10-2015 20:15
  
  The first-ever flyby of Pluto may have raised more questions than it answered. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft discovered a staggering diversity of terrain during its close approach on July 14, from towering water-ice mountains to a vast, crater-free plain largely divided into mysterious "cells" dozens of kilometers wide. New Horizons' observations also revealed that Charon, the dwarf planet's largest moon, sports a canyon system at least 650 miles (1,050 km) long and a dark polar cap that resear
  
  Read more

• Comet's Close Encounter with Mars Dumped Tons of Dust on Red Planet

  15-10-2015 20:14
  
  Comet Siding Spring's close shave by Mars last year provided a rare glimpse into how Oort Cloud comets behave, according to new research. Comet Siding Spring also left behind a substantial quantity of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water that couldn't be detected because Mars' atmosphere is also made up of those elements. Siding Spring's journey from the Oort Cloud — a collection of comets beyond the orbit of Neptune that stretches for hundreds of astronomical units — meant it was pris
  
  Read more

• Five surprising discoveries about Pluto

  15-10-2015 20:00
  
  Here are five key (though not necessarily new) findings in the paper that epitomize the surprising complexity of the Pluto system.
  
  Read more

• Environment of the Cantabrian Region over the course of 35,000 years reconstructed

  15-10-2015 19:21
  By combining three important palaeoclimatic records (small vertebrates, marine microfauna and stable isotopes of herbivores), a multidisciplinary team has reconstructed past environments of the Cantabrian Region (Spain) with the best resolution ever achieved.
  
  Read more

• US neuroscientists call for creation of 'brain observatories'

  15-10-2015 19:18
  What is the future of the BRAIN Initiative? This national White House Grand Challenge involving more than 100 laboratories in the United States has already made progress in establishing large-scale neuroscience goals and developing shared tools. And now leading American neuroscientists call for the next step: a coordinated national network of neurotechnology centers or 'brain observatories.'
  
  Read more

• First steps to create biodegradable displays for electronics

  15-10-2015 19:18
  Americans, on average, replace their mobile phones every 22 months, junking more than 150 million phones a year in the process. Now researchers are on the path to creating biodegradable electronics by using organic components in screen displays. The researchers' advancements could one day help reduce electronic waste in the world's landfills.
  
  Read more

• Cancer-driving signals cause high-risk neuroblastoma

  15-10-2015 19:18
  Researchers have discovered details of the abnormal molecular signals and biological events that drive a high-risk form of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. Having investigated a signaling network involving three cancer-causing genes, the scientists aim to use these findings to develop more effective targeted treatments.
  
  Read more

• Buzzing bees can't resist caffeinated nectar

  15-10-2015 19:18
  For many people, the best start to the day is a nice, fresh cup of joe. Now, researchers find that honey bees find caffeinated beverages -- er, nectar -- irresistible too.
  
  Read more

• £1bn lagoon deal 'desperately needed'

  15-10-2015 19:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Agreement on the subsidy for the £1bn Swansea tidal lagoon project is "desperately needed", Welsh Economy Minister Edwina Hart says.
  
  Read more

• French climate change sceptic weatherman taken off air

  15-10-2015 18:16
  
  A high-profile French TV weatherman has been taken off air after writing a book in which he questions climate change.
  
  Read more

• Poorer, smaller nations investing in cyberespionage tools despite leaks, lawsuits

  15-10-2015 18:14 via cbc.ca
  
  Researchers say some smaller, poorer nations are now using spy software, suggesting that recent data leaks and lawsuits have not deterred governments from investing in off-the-shelf cyberespionage products.
  
  Read more

• Caffeinated plants give bees a buzz

  15-10-2015 18:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  An experiment with artificial nectar shows that bees are attracted to and even 'drugged' by caffeinated plants.
  
  Read more

• 26 more elephants poisoned in Zimbabwe: official

  15-10-2015 18:10
  
  A total of 26 more elephants have been found dead from cyanide poisoning in Zimbabwe, taking the toll to 40 in two months, parks officials said Thursday.
  
  Read more

• Bees get hooked on flowers’ caffeine buzz

  15-10-2015 18:02
  
  Flowers drug honey bees with caffeinated nectar to trick them into returning, causing the bees to shift their foraging and dancing behaviors.
  
  Read more

• Using experts 'inexpertly' can lead to policy failure

  15-10-2015 18:01
  Expert advice can often be compromised by human frailties -- like their current mood or what their values are -- and should be treated accordingly, experts say.
  
  Read more

• Sex pheromone assembly line in Manduca sexta

  15-10-2015 18:01
  Scientists have discovered a new evolutionary mechanism: A single amino acid change in a female moth enzyme is responsible for the production of new sex pheromones. The susceptibility of desaturases to major shifts in their specificities, due to minor mutations, may contribute to the divergence in moth pheromone communication and the evolution of new insect species.
  
  Read more

• Researchers find neural switch that turns dreams on and off

  15-10-2015 18:01
  In dream or REM sleep, brain activity is more like awake than non-REM activity, and muscles are paralyzed. Various regions of the brain affect REM sleep, but neuroscientists have found a group of neurons in the medulla that seem to play a key role. Activating them makes mice go immediately into REM sleep, while inactivating them abolishes it. REM control could be useful for researchers studying the function of sleep in animals.
  
  Read more

• New potential indirect effects of humans on water quality

  15-10-2015 18:01
  A newly studied class of water contaminants that is known to be toxic and hormone disrupting to marine animals is present, researchers say, likely due in part to indirect effects of human activity.
  
  Read more

• Shining light on orphan receptors

  15-10-2015 18:00
  Light has been used for the first time to activate a receptor for which the compound binding and controlling it naturally is unknown, researchers suggests. A team of scientists has now employed its novel application of optogenetics to identify a new compound that inhibits the orphan receptor ROS1, which has been linked to several forms of cancer.
  
  Read more

• Shape of a pipe dramatically affects how pollutants will spread

  15-10-2015 18:00
  The shape of a pipe has a large effect on the spreading of particles suspended in the fluid flowing through the pipe. Calculations show that round pipes produce symmetrical spreading along the flow direction, whereas rectangular pipes give an asymmetry.
  
  Read more

• Neuroscientist team calls for a National Brain Observatory

  15-10-2015 18:00
  
  Group behind presidential BRAIN Initiative offers ambitious new proposal
  
  Read more

• Chances are, you’re getting enough sleep

  15-10-2015 18:00
  
  New study finds hunter-gatherers get no more sleep than industrialized societies
  
  Read more

• NOAA: Thanks to El Nino, the US looks pretty wet this winter

  15-10-2015 17:58
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Forecasters say this winter El Nino will leave a big wet but not necessarily snowy footprint on much of the United States, including parched California.
  
  Read more

• What's behind your thirst? Discovery advances our understanding of how our brain controls body hydration, temperature

  15-10-2015 17:57
  Scientists have made a breakthrough that advances our understanding of how the brain detects and prevents dehydration. The findings could have important clinical implications, as the key protein they discovered could be a target for the development of treatments and diagnostic tests for many health problems associated with the imbalance of bodily fluids.
  
  Read more

• Towards a favorable systemic radio-immunotherapy target

  15-10-2015 17:57
  Survival probability of Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) has improved significantly over the past two decades. Monoclonal antibodies against targeted proteins on Reed-Sternberg cells in HL though a popular choice for immunotherapy have yet to demonstrate complete responses. In a new study, researchers have considered the ripple effects of 90Y-daclizumab, a drug which targets CD25+ tumor cells in Hodgkin's Lymphoma during radio-immunotherapy. The results demonstrated 30.4 percent complete and 19.6 percent
  
  Read more

• Tiny plant shows us how living things cope with big changes

  15-10-2015 17:57
  A small freshwater plant that has evolved to live in harsh seawater is giving scientists insight into how living things adapt to changes in their environment. In adapting to new surroundings, organisms must develop ways to perform everyday functions, such as securing food and oxygen, and reproducing. The latest study is one of the first to track such a significant lifestyle transition in the lab, instead of relying on fossil clues.
  
  Read more

• New avenue for combating deterioration in blood stem cells

  15-10-2015 17:57
  Using mouse embryos, researchers have replicated the deterioration with aging of blood stem cells, particularly red blood cells, and were able to alleviate the fetal anemia suffered by the mouse embryos and prevent death in 40 percent of the cases. This is a first step towards the development of potential treatments for anemia caused by a deficient activity of these stem cells, such as the aplastic anemia in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
  
  Read more

• Mutations driving leukemia identified

  15-10-2015 17:57
  An international team of scientists has identified novel genes associated with chronic lymphocytic leukemia through the analysis of high-throughput sequencing data.
  
  Read more

• Scientists develop genetic blueprint of inner ear cell development

  15-10-2015 17:48
  Using a sensitive new technology called single-cell RNA-seq on cells from mice, scientists have created the first high-resolution gene expression map of the newborn mouse inner ear. The findings provide new insight into how epithelial cells in the inner ear develop and differentiate into specialized cells that serve critical functions for hearing and maintaining balance.
  
  Read more

• Rare mutation may extend survival in lung cancer patients with brain metastases

  15-10-2015 17:48
  Most patients with non-small cell lung cancer that has metastasized to the brain have a dire prognosis. But researchers have identified a subset of those patients with a rare genetic mutation who are living significantly longer than patients without the mutation.
  
  Read more

• Shift in weaning age supports hunting-induced extinction of Siberian woolly mammoths

  15-10-2015 17:47
  Chemical clues about weaning age embedded in the tusks of juvenile Siberian woolly mammoths suggest that hunting, rather than climate change, was the primary cause of the elephant-like animal's extinction.
  
  Read more

• Grizzly population in western Alberta doubles in a decade, study finds

  15-10-2015 17:43 via cbc.ca
  
  The number of grizzly bears in the Foothills east of Banff and Jasper national parks is showing strong recovery, according to a new study by fRI Research.
  
  Read more

Follow @ScienceUKnews on Twitter!