Science news

• The Case of the Disappearing Quasars

  23-11-2015 23:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  A dozen quasars in the early universe appear to have shut down in just a few years, baffling astronomers
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• Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to take 2-month paternity leave

  23-11-2015 22:11 via cbc.ca
  
  In what is likely to be seen as a major endorsement for paternity leave, Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced he will take two months off when his daughter is born.
  
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• Correction: Amazon Trees story

  23-11-2015 22:07
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — In a story Nov. 20 about Amazon trees, The Associated Press erroneously reported how much area the forest has been losing. About 15 years ago, it was losing about 11,600 square miles of forest a year, not 11.6 million square miles. That figure has dropped to about 3,800 square miles a year, not 3.8 million square miles.
  
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• Scientists engineer mosquito strain with malaria-blocking genes

  23-11-2015 21:54 via cbc.ca
  
  Scientists aiming to take the bite out of malaria have produced a strain of mosquitoes carrying genes that block its transmission, with the idea that they could breed with other members of their species in the wild and produce offspring that cannot spread the disease.
  
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• 3D grain of salt aims for world record in Vienna

  23-11-2015 21:38
  
  A three-dimensional model magnifying a grain of salt by a billion times went on show in Vienna on Monday, aiming to make it into the Guinness Book of Records.
  
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• How Earth's Hidden Magma Ocean Formed

  23-11-2015 21:37
  
  The rotation of the newborn Earth may have helped to control the evolution of a giant magma ocean sitting on top of its core, researchers say. Knowing how Earth's magma oceans evolved over time could shed light on when the plate tectonics— the shifting of the rocky slabs that make up the planet and underlie earthquakes and volcanoes — began, scientists added. Previous calculations suggested that Earth possessed one or more giant oceans of magma, or molten rock.
  
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• Panama turtle eggs could 'fry' from rising temperatures: eco-group

  23-11-2015 21:36
  
  Sea turtle eggs laid in the sand of beaches in Panama risk getting fried before hatching because of rising temperatures, an environmental protection group in the Central American country is warning.
  
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• Scientists create mosquito strain with malaria-blocking genes

  23-11-2015 21:05
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists aiming to take the bite out of malaria have produced a strain of mosquitoes carrying genes that block its transmission, with the idea that they could breed with other members of their species in the wild and produce offspring that cannot spread the disease.
  
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• Don’t flip out: Earth’s magnetic poles aren’t about to switch

  23-11-2015 21:00
  
  Earth’s waning magnetic field is returning to its long-term average, not heading toward a catastrophic magnetic reversal, new lava analysis suggests.
  
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• VIDEO: Why Philippines faces climate questions

  23-11-2015 20:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Philippines, which is vulnerable to climate change, has confirmed controversial plans for more coal-fired power stations.
  
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• Mosquitoes engineered to zap ability to carry malaria

  23-11-2015 20:47
  
  Researchers have created a gene drive that prevents mosquitoes from carrying malaria.
  
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• Danish auction house stops ivory sales after protests

  23-11-2015 20:46
  
  Denmark's second largest auction house said Monday it had stopped selling ivory products amid a social media storm over its planned sale of two tusks belonging to an African elephant.
  
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• Deadly weather disasters are getting far more frequent

  23-11-2015 20:27 via cbc.ca
  
  Weather-related disasters such as floods and heat waves have occurred almost daily in the past decade, almost twice as often as two decades ago, a UN report said on Monday.
  
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• Mars will get ring like Saturn, scientists predict

  23-11-2015 20:14 via cbc.ca
  
  The Red Planet could find itself wearing a stylish new accessory in tens of millions of years.
  
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• Five species that show why ‘bird brain’ is a stupid phrase

  23-11-2015 20:00
  
  Birds can use tools, make art and understand human language. Why do we assume they are stupid?
  
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• One of last northern white rhinos dies

  23-11-2015 19:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A northern white rhinoceros dies in a zoo in San Diego, California, leaving only three of the animals still alive in the world.
  
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• White House - European partners should improve information sharing

  23-11-2015 19:40
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Monday that the United States is committed to helping with the Belgian investigation into Islamic State militants after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris. The White House said it believes there is more that its European partners can do to improve the quality and quantity of information they share with each other, and with the United States, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a briefing. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton, Julia Edwards and D
  
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• Genetic history of Europeans revealed

  23-11-2015 19:19 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A study of ancient DNA has shed new light on the genetic history of Europeans, confirming that farming spread across Europe due to an influx of ancient people from what is now eastern Turkey.
  
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• Russia says still uncertain over OPEC-non OPEC meeting on Dec.3

  23-11-2015 19:09
  
  TEHRAN (Reuters) - Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Monday that discussions over consultations between OPEC and other oil producers on Dec.3 - a day before the group's policy-setting meeting - are still ongoing. Novak, speaking to reporters on the fringes of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Summit in Tehran, said there has been a preliminary agreement from Russia to take part in such consultations in mid-December. ...
  
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• Biofuel creators champion whisky by-products over ethanol

  23-11-2015 19:02
  
  A Scottish company has developed a commercial scale method of producing biofuel capable of fuelling cars from the unwanted residue of the whisky fermentation process. Edinburgh-based Celtic Renewables developed its process of producing biobutanol at industrial scale in Belgium and was recently awarded a £11m ($16.7m) grant by the British government to build a bespoke facility of its own in central Scotland. Professor Martin Tangney founded Celtic Renewables in 2012 as a spin-off company fr
  
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• Philippines battles climate dilemma

  23-11-2015 18:29 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Philippines, which is vulnerable to climate change, has confirmed controversial plans for more coal-fired power stations.
  
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• How farming changed the European genome

  23-11-2015 18:15
  First DNA from ancient Anatolian farmers shows how Europeans evolved, suggests early spread of celiac disease
  
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• London ethnically diverse from start

  23-11-2015 18:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A DNA study confirms London was an ethnically diverse city from its very beginnings, BBC News has learned.
  
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• For Severe Weather, 'Is This Climate Change?' Is the Wrong Question (Op-Ed)

  23-11-2015 17:52
  
  For the first five years of his career, Alex Rodriguez averaged 37 home runs a season. Then, he moved to the Texas Rangers, where his average swelled to 52 home runs a season. A-Rod's other statistics — runs batted in, slugging average — rose as well.
  
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• Carbon Falling, Economies Rising: Expectations for the Paris Climate Summit (Op-Ed)?

  23-11-2015 17:51
  
  Lynn Scarlett is the global managing director for public policy at The Nature Conservancy. Recently, she served as the deputy secretary and chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of the Interior and acting secretary of the Interior in 2006 during the George W. Bush administration.
  
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• Einstein's Unfinished Dream: Marrying Relativity to the Quantum World

  23-11-2015 17:50
  
  Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, the U.S.' largest Large Hadron Collider research institution. Lincoln contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. This November marks the centennial of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.
  
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• UK astronaut 'ready' for first space flight

  23-11-2015 17:42 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The BBC's Sarah Rainsford speaks to Tim Peake, who will soon be making history as the first British astronaut to visit the International Space Station.
  
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• Newly discovered tree could be wiped out, scientist warns

  23-11-2015 17:17
  
  A scientist who discovered a new tree in a tropical forest has warned it could be wiped out before we know its value to mankind.
  
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• 'Letterlocked' Trove: X-Rays to Peer into Sealed 17th-Century Notes

  23-11-2015 17:09
  
  For years, Jana Dambrogio, a conservator at MIT, has been studying the elaborate ways people used to fold and seal their letters to keep busybodies and spies from reading their secrets. The way a paleontologist analyzes fossils to reconstruct extinct creatures, Dambrogio looks at the blobs of wax and the folding patterns on flat, already-opened letters in manuscript collections so that she can reverse-engineer "letterlocking" techniques. "He asked me, 'What would you do if I told you there was a
  
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• Phobos to create ring around the Red Planet

  23-11-2015 17:00
  
  Mars’ moon Phobos will shatter and create a temporary ring around Mars 20 million to 40 million years from now.
  
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• Mars will someday have a ring

  23-11-2015 17:00
  
  Phobos will break up in a few million years, analysis confirms
  
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• Having trouble concentrating? This brain network may be to blame

  23-11-2015 17:00
  
  Connectivity between regions predicts likelihood of ADHD
  
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• Polar bear plays in fresh snowfall in Wisconsin Zoo

  23-11-2015 16:40
  
  One polar bear at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, Wisconsin was in a winter wonderland of its own on Sunday (22 November), playing in the fresh snowfall after an early season storm blanketed the US Midwest. A heavy autumn snowstorm hit the Midwestern US on Saturday (21 November), blanketing states from South Dakota to Wisconsin with as much as 16in of snow, slowing air travel and delaying some events for US presidential candidates.
  
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• 1/3 of songbird species declining in Banff, Jasper, Yoho parks

  23-11-2015 16:32 via cbc.ca
  
  Songbirds help bring our national parks to life, but a long-term monitoring program has found that some bird species are in trouble.
  
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• Scientists on quest for friction-free oil

  23-11-2015 16:13
  Scientists from BP are applying molecular science in their laboratories to make the perfect oil blend to reduce engine friction and increase efficiency.
  
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• Prince Charles: Climate change party to blame for Syria war

  23-11-2015 16:09
  
  LONDON (AP) — Prince Charles says climate change is partly responsible for Syria's civil war and the chaos it has unleashed.
  
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• Songbirds Woo Mates with Invisible Tap Dance

  23-11-2015 15:27
  
  With the help of high-speed video, researchers from Hokkaido University in Japan and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany have discovered that blue-capped cordon-bleu songbirds (Uraeginthus cyanocephalus) perform foot-stomping step dances during their courtship displays that are too quick to view with the naked eye. Because the birds only start tapping when their potential mates are on the same perch, the study authors think the dancers might punctuate the display with pleasing so
  
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• Santa Monica's Mountain Lions Are Stuck on an Island, and Fast Disappearing

  23-11-2015 15:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Auto accidents, rodenticides and shrinking habitat are killing urban cats that largely occupy an area surrounded by highways and development, but a proposed wildlife bridge could offer promise
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• Now only 3 northern white rhinos are left in the world

  23-11-2015 14:44 via cbc.ca
  
  One of only four northern white rhinos believed left in the world died Sunday at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
  
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• Pro-Ukraine activists block repair of sabotaged power lines to Crimea

  23-11-2015 14:42
  
  By Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets KIEV (Reuters) - Pro-Ukrainian activists prevented repairs to sabotaged power lines leading to Crimea on Monday, keeping the Russian-annexed peninsula starved of electricity for a second day and tensions between Moscow and Kiev high. Ethnic Tatars and members of Ukrainian nationalist battalions largely blocked access for engineers to four pylons in Kherson, a region of the Ukrainian mainland controlled by Kiev, which unknown attackers blew up over the weekend
  
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• Green car technologies collide in Los Angeles

  23-11-2015 14:42
  
  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Asian automakers are opening up a new front in the contest to define the future of cars in California, fielding a flock of cars powered by hydrogen in a bid to woo green car buyers from Tesla Motors Inc, the battery electric vehicle leader.
  
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• Thinning ice leads to winter warming in the Arctic

  23-11-2015 14:23
  
  Thinning Arctic sea ice could boost heat-trapping water vapor in the air during autumn and winter, leading to more ice loss.
  
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• Antarctica Is Gaining Ice, So Why Is the Earth Still Warming?

  23-11-2015 13:54
  
  NASA recently released a study suggesting that the Antarctic Ice Sheet is gaining more ice than it is losing — a finding that, at first blush, seems to contradict the idea of global warming. So, how can Antarctica be gaining ice mass in a warming world where ice sheets are collapsing and the melting is predicted to increase sea levels across the globe?
  
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• U.S., allies target 283 Islamic State vehicles, oil facility - statement

  23-11-2015 13:44
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies conducted additional strikes against Islamic State over the weekend, including two in Syria that destroyed nearly 300 Islamic State vehicles and an oil facility, the coalition leading the operations said. On Saturday, two strikes near Dayr Az Zawr and Al Hasaka destroyed 283 Islamic State vehicles and one of the militant group's crude oil collection points, according to a coalition statement released on Monday. The two were in addition to n
  
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• Why NASA Europa Probe Will Study Jupiter Moon's Dust

  23-11-2015 13:23
  
  BOULDER, Colo. — "Think about it as pieces of a puzzle," Zoltan Sternovsky said. NASA plans to launch a robotic Europa flyby mission in the early 2020s to address this question, and Sternovsky is part of a team developing one of the spacecraft's nine instruments — the Surface Dust Mass Analyzer (SUDA), which will determine the composition of materials ejected from the surface of the frigid moon. "Each instrument on the Europa mission is going to assess one piece of this puzzle," Ster
  
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• These Ancient Monster Galaxies Have Scientists Perplexed

  23-11-2015 13:23
  
  New research has revealed 574 massive, ancient galaxies lurking in the night sky, and their existence so close to the time of the Big Bang calls into question scientists' best understanding of how large galaxies form. A new video released Wednesday (Nov. 18) from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) reveals the ancient galaxies' locations. "We are talking about massive galaxies, twice as massive as the Milky Way today," said Karina Caputi, an astronomer at University of Groningen in the Nethe
  
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• New Space Mining Legislation Is 'History in the Making'

  23-11-2015 13:23
  
  Space mining just got a big boost. The U.S. Congress' passage of a bill that allows American companies to own and sell materials they extract from the moon, asteroids or other celestial bodies should help spur the development of off-Earth mining, representatives of the nascent industry say. "It sets up a firm foundation for the next phase of our business," said Chris Lewicki, president and chief engineer of Planetary Resources, which plans to mine water and metals from near-Earth asteroids.
  
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• Could Liquid Lakes Form on Mars Today?

  23-11-2015 13:23
  
  "Nobody's doubting that liquid water was on Marsat some point," Jules Goldspiel, of the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, told Space.com. He created a simulation to determine if liquid water could puddle and form pools to remain liquid today. "You could get it for a little while, potentially," said Goldspiel, who presented his results Nov. 12 at the 47th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences in National Harbor, Maryland.
  
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• Cyborg Roses Wired with Self-Growing Circuits

  23-11-2015 13:19
  
  Scientists have created a kind of cyborg flower: living roses with tiny electronic circuits threaded through their vascular systems. The miniscule electronic polymers are inserted into the plant, then almost magically self-assemble thanks to the rose's internal structure. "In a sense, the plant is helping to organize the electronic devices," said study co-author Magnus Berggren, an organic electronics researcher at Linköping University in Sweden.
  
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• VIDEO: IVF 'best option' to save white rhinos

  23-11-2015 13:15 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The chief executive of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, Richard Vigne, tells the BBC that in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) is the best option to save the northern white rhinoceros.
  
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