Science news

• Tribes want protections to remain for sacred grizzly bears

  13-11-2015 22:51
  
  BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — American Indians across the Western U.S. are challenging moves by federal wildlife officials to lift protections for grizzly bears that roam a vast wilderness centered on Yellowstone National Park, citing worries over potential trophy hunting of a species many tribes consider sacred.
  
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• US, Mexico sign deal on sharing satellite data directly

  13-11-2015 22:34
  
  MEXICO CITY (AP) — The United States and Mexico signed a deal Friday for Mexico to capture and process land-surface imagery and data directly from a U.S.-operated satellite.
  
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• Obama climate plan puts squeeze on coal state governor

  13-11-2015 22:26
  
  HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Democratic governors are being squeezed by the mandate in President Barack Obama's climate change plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions — perhaps none more than Montana's Steve Bullock, the one governor in a coal-producing state who faces re-election next year.
  
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• Smithsonian Seeking Space Fans to Retype Apollo Spacecraft Packing Lists

  13-11-2015 22:18
  
  Are you a fan of the Apollo moon landings? If so, then the Smithsonian might have the perfect pastime project for you. The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. has launched its first collaboration with the Smithsonian's Transcription Center to digitize the long lists of equipment that flew along with the Apollo astronauts from the Earth to the moon and back.
  
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• Al Gore hopeful of Paris climate summit success

  13-11-2015 22:10
  
  Nobel laureate Al Gore said Friday a shift in global attitudes and well-advanced negotiations boosted hopes of success at a UN climate summit which opens in Paris in just over two weeks.
  
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• Obama, Hollande back 'ambitious and durable' climate deal

  13-11-2015 21:30
  
  US President Barack Obama and his French counterpart Francois Hollande on Friday voiced support for an "ambitious and durable" climate deal, amid questions about the legal status of any Paris accord.
  
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• California police pull over self-driving Google car for going too slowly

  13-11-2015 21:29 via cbc.ca
  
  A police officer pulled over a car in California recently with the intention of giving the driver a ticket, but there was one problem: there was no driver.
  
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• Psychedelic blasts of colour reveal planetary secrets

  13-11-2015 20:49 via cbc.ca
  
  NASA's false-colour imagery unveils what the human eye can't see in psychedelic splendour.
  
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• Apple's iPad Pro: What's new, how it works and who might need it

  13-11-2015 20:38 via cbc.ca
  
  Designed with professionals in mind, the Pro is Apple's way of reaching new consumers as sales of iPads — and tablets in general — decline.
  
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• Chilly cages may skew disease studies in lab mice

  13-11-2015 20:30
  
  Mice studies on diet and human disease might be marred by stress of cold temperatures in their cages.
  
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• Photographer James Balog's struggle to capture climate change

  13-11-2015 20:23 via cbc.ca
  
  Photographer James Balog has made it his mission to document the world's melting glaciers. Brent talks to James about the logistical challenges of his work as he gets ready to head to Paris for the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference.
  
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• Viva vagus: Wandering nerve could lead to range of therapies

  13-11-2015 20:00
  
  Researchers are testing ways to stimulate the vagus nerve to treat a slew of ailments
  
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• Unsupervised, Mobile and Wireless Brain–Computer Interfaces on the Horizon

  13-11-2015 20:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Researchers are working to engineer practical devices that patients can use in their homes
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• Unsupervised, Mobile and Wireless Brain Computer Interfaces on the Horizon

  13-11-2015 20:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Researchers are working to engineer practical devices that patients can use in their homes
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Teens Are Happier Than in the Past — Why Are Adults So Miserable?

  13-11-2015 19:59
  
  "My conclusion is that our current culture is giving teens what they need, but not mature adults what they need," Twenge said. Twenge, the author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable Than Ever Before" (Free Press, 2006), became interested in studying changes in happiness after seeing several conflicting papers on the topic. Very quickly, Twenge said, a pattern emerged: The eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders of today are ha
  
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• More tests confirm quantum spookiness

  13-11-2015 19:51
  
  New experimental results confirm and strengthen evidence for the “spooky” reality of quantum physics.
  
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• U.S.-led strikes target Islamic State oil revenues - Pentagon

  13-11-2015 19:40
  
  By Idrees Ali and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-led air strikes in Syria have inflicted "significant damage" to Islamic State's ability to fund itself, the Pentagon said on Friday. Recent strikes in an air operation dubbed "Tidal Wave II" have been concentrated on oil facilities in the Dayr Az Zawr region, which provide an estimated two-thirds of Islamic State's oil revenue, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said at a news briefing. "We believe that by cutting off its oil supply we
  
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• Nintendo fans lose their minds over Cloud in Smash Bros., female Link character Linkle

  13-11-2015 19:34 via cbc.ca
  
  Nintendo unleashed a bevvy of announcements ahead of the holiday retail season Thursday with a new edition of their Nintendo Direct live-stream events.
  
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• Friday the 13th: Why There Are 3 'Unlucky' Days This Year

  13-11-2015 19:27
  
  Today's inauspicious (or perhaps completely insignificant) date comes on the heels of a Friday the 13th in both February and March of this year. Today is the third and last Friday the 13th of the year, but it's also the final Friday the 13th in a series of seven years, in which three of those years had three Friday the 13ths. In 2009, there were three Friday the 13th dates.
  
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• Friday the 13th Times 3: Why So Many 'Unlucky' Days in 2015?

  13-11-2015 19:27
  
  Today's inauspicious (or perhaps completely insignificant) date comes on the heels of a Friday the 13th in both February and March of this year. Today is the third and last Friday the 13th of the year, but it's also the final Friday the 13th in a series of seven years, in which three of those years had three Friday the 13ths. In 2009, there were three Friday the 13th dates.
  
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• 'WTF' Space Junk Meets Fiery Demise as Scientists Watch (Video)

  13-11-2015 19:22
  
  The mysterious space junk WT1190F fell from the sky this morning, and scientists had a flying, ringside seat as the object burned up in multicolored fireballs. A new video of the falling WT1190F shows the first observations taken by a worldwide collaboration of researchers watching from a Gulfstream 450 business jet as the object returned to Earth to meet its fiery doom. European Space Agency officials suggest the debris is likely from an old rocket mission, and the science team's anal
  
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• EU officials were Volkswagen whistleblowers, say US authorities

  13-11-2015 18:28
  
  EU officials tipped off a US environmental group about Volkswagen's emissions cheating scam, an American official told German media, as the embattled company said the widening scandal had hurt sales.
  
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• Incan Child Sacrified to the Gods Reveals History of American Expansion

  13-11-2015 18:15
  
  The mummy of an Incan child who was sacrificed to the gods more than 500 years ago belonged to a previously unknown offshoot of an ancient Native American lineage, new research finds. The child, a 7-year-old who was found frozen in the highest reaches of the Andes in Argentina, was part of a genetic lineage that arose when humans were beginning to cross the Bering Strait or first migrating into the Americas, the researchers found.
  
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• Space junk problem needs to be dealt with: Bob McDonald

  13-11-2015 18:14 via cbc.ca
  
  The mantra 'reduce, reuse, recycle' has been employed for decades to handle our garbage here on earth. It’s time now to apply those same rules in space, writes Bob McDonald.
  
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• Mysterious 'Blood Rain' Tints Water a Gruesome Hue

  13-11-2015 18:13
  
  Residents of several villages in northwest Spain received an unpleasant surprise last fall, when they noticed that the water in their fountains had turned a gory shade of red. The tint wasn't left behind by a guilty murderer's bloody hands, but rather by microscopic algae that arrived in a recent rainfall. Speculation ran rampant, blaming everything from contaminants dropped from airplanes to biblical plagues (a similar "blood rain" episode in Kerala, India, in 2001 sparked suggestions that the
  
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• Lost Pharaoh? Great Pyramid May Hide Undiscovered Tomb

  13-11-2015 18:12
  
  Speculation swirls anew that within Egypt's Great Pyramid of Khufu there lies a hidden tomb, possibly holding the pharaoh himself, sealed there for thousands of years. The discovery of so-called thermal anomalies by a team scanning the pyramid suggests an as-yet-unidentified open space that could be evidence of a tomb. Scientists and explorers have been searching for an undiscovered tomb within the Great Pyramid since the 19th century, so far failing to find one.
  
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• Olive disease research gets EU funds

  13-11-2015 18:10 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The European Commission says it will provide seven million euros (£5m) for research into a disease that poses a "very serious threat" to the continent's olive production.
  
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• Two-stage process formed moon, simulations suggest

  13-11-2015 17:55
  
  Certain elements absent from lunar samples but present on Earth might be hidden deep inside the moon, a relic from how it was put together.
  
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• Famed number π found hidden in the hydrogen atom

  13-11-2015 17:45
  
  Emergence of weird formula is likely not a sign of a profound connection
  
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• Newly found miniature planet is most distant object in the solar system

  13-11-2015 17:23 via cbc.ca
  
  Astronomers have discovered what appears to be a miniature planet that is the most distant body ever found in the solar system, scientists said on Wednesday.
  
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• Oh the Places We Won't Go: Humans Will Settle Mars, and Nowhere Else [Excerpt]

  13-11-2015 17:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Planetary Society co-founder Louis Friedman argues the Red Planet will be humanity’s final destination, but our robots could reach the stars
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Odd system features something like a planet orbiting something not quite like a star

  13-11-2015 16:45
  
  Pair is intermediate “missing link” in size between star-planet and planet-moon systems
  
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• It’s a dance-off! Vote for your 'Dance Your Ph.D.' video winner!

  13-11-2015 16:45
  
  Watch the finalists in four categories and pick your favorite overall
  
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• El Nino sends rare tropical visitors to California waters

  13-11-2015 16:44
  
  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - El Nino's warm currents have brought fish in an unexpected spectrum of shapes and colors from Mexican waters to the ocean off California's coast, thrilling scientists with the sight of bright tropical species and giving anglers the chance of a once-in-a-lifetime big catch.
  
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• Robots and Humans Are Partners, Not Adversaries [Excerpt]

  13-11-2015 16:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  For decades robots have been unlocking strange new worlds under the watchful eyes of the humans that put them there. A roboticist explains the need to better understand this partnership
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Ice sculpture festival suffers from Belgian balmy weather

  13-11-2015 15:55
  
  BRUGES, Belgium (AP) — Ice sculptures really aren't really cut out for this kind of balmy November weather.
  
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• See space junk 'WTF' blaze to Earth as Friday the 13th fireball

  13-11-2015 15:27 via cbc.ca
  
  A hunk of space junk nicknamed WTF fell to Earth in a blaze of glory early today — Friday the 13th.
  
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• Ultrathin Graphene Can Improve Night Vision Tech

  13-11-2015 15:05
  
  Night-vision windshields on cars might one day be possible with advanced thermal imaging technology based on flexible, transparent, atomically thin sheets of carbon, researchers say. Thermal imaging lets people see the invisible infrared rays that objects shed as heat. Thermal imaging devices have helped soldiers, police, firefighters and others see in the dark and in smoky conditions so they can better do their jobs.
  
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• Kurdish forces seize Iraq's Sinjar town from Islamic State

  13-11-2015 14:52
  
  By Isabel Coles NEAR SINJAR TOWN (Reuters) - Kurdish peshmerga forces backed by U.S. air strikes seized the Iraqi town of Sinjar from Islamic State on Friday, a Reuters witness said, in one of the most significant counter-attacks since the militants swept through the north last year. "ISIL defeated and on the run," the Kurdistan regional security council said in a tweet, using an acronym for Islamic State. It said the peshmerga had secured Sinjar's wheat silo, cement factory, hospital and severa
  
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• 'Regional disaster' warning as S.Africa suffers drought

  13-11-2015 14:50
  
  Five of South Africa's nine provinces have been declared drought disaster areas for agriculture following one of the driest rainy seasons in decades, the government said Friday, warning of a potential "regional disaster."
  
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• Worshippers killed as bomb hits Yemen mosque in Houthi-dominated region - residents

  13-11-2015 14:48
  
  A bomb exploded on Friday during midday prayers at a mosque frequented by Houthi supporters in Yemen's northwestern Mahwit region, killing several worshippers and wounding others, residents said. At least 5,600 Yemenis have been killed in seven months of war, in which Iran-allied Houthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have been battling armed supporters of an exiled government backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition. Supporters of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi res
  
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• EU officials were VW whistleblowers: US authorities

  13-11-2015 14:24
  
  It was EU officials who tipped US authorities off about German auto giant Volkswagen's emissions cheating scam, the head of California's environment agency CARB told German media.
  
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• Putting the big chill on cryotherapy

  13-11-2015 14:00
  
  Evidence is lacking for whole-body cryotherapy as a treatment for muscle soreness.
  
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• Precarious future: The battle to save Taiwan's Queen's Head

  13-11-2015 13:44
  
  Scientists are battling to save Taiwan's ancient "Queen's Head" rock from erosion -- but the island is split over whether technology should be used to preserve the precarious natural masterpiece.
  
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• Iraqi Kurdistan president says Islamic State defeated in Sinjar

  13-11-2015 13:09
  
  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish regional President Massoud Barzani said on Friday that the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar had been seized from Islamic State militants in an offensive by Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led air strikes. "The liberation of Sinjar will have a big impact on liberating Mosul," Barzani told reporters atop Mount Sinjar, overlooking the town. The offensive could provide critical momentum in efforts to recapture Mosul, an Islamic State bastion. (Reporting by Isabel Coles;
  
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• Construction of Giant Next-Generation Telescope Begins in Chile

  13-11-2015 13:04
  
  Construction of the world's biggest telescope is now underway. A star-studded groundbreaking ceremony here in the Chilean Andes Wednesday evening (Nov. 11) — attended by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, United States ambassador to Chile Michael Hammer and other dignitaries — officially ushered the $1 billion Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) into the construction phase. When it's finished, GMT will boast a light-collecting surface more than twice as wide as that of any existing opti
  
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• Weird Space Junk Falls to Earth on Friday the 13th: Watch It Online

  13-11-2015 13:01
  
  An unknown space object will crash through Earth's atmosphere Friday morning (Nov. 13) — and a Slooh webcast will show the first observations live after the object re-enters off the coast of Sri Lanka. The bizarre object WT1190F has been orbiting Earth for years on an elliptical path and is likely a piece of a rocket body a few meters in diameter, European Space Agency (ESA) officials said in a statement. It will hit Earth's atmosphere at 1:19 a.m. EST (0619 GMT) Friday morning, and s
  
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• New Dwarf Planet In Our Solar System May Be The Farthest One Yet

  13-11-2015 13:01
  
  A newly found object may set a new record for the most distant dwarf planet in the solar system. The object, called V774104, lies about nine and a half billion miles from the sun, or two to three times farther away than Pluto. V774104 is a little less than half Pluto's size, and like Pluto it may move closer toward or farther away from the sun during its orbit, but those details of its motion cannot yet be determined.
  
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• NASA's Innovative Drone Glider Prototype Aces Test Flight

  13-11-2015 13:01
  
  A remotely piloted aircraft  achieved an important research milestone last month when a subscale "flying wing" glider successfully completed a series of flight tests. Previously, development on this concept led to some preliminary work on a NASA glider for Mars called Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars (Prandtl-m), designed with the idea that it could sail through the thin atmosphere of the Red Planet. "[Prandtl-D No. 3] flew beautifully," Albion Bowers, NASA Armst
  
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• Dinosaur bones found in Bay of Fundy cliffs

  13-11-2015 12:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Experts find some of Canada's oldest dinosaur bones embedded in red sandstone on the northern shore of Nova Scotia.
  
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