Science news

• Arsenic from Chilean mines found in Antarctica

  07-12-2015 23:57
  
  Researchers in Antarctica have found ice with traces of arsenic that originated at copper mines in northern Chile, said a study released Monday.
  
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• Iran tested missile, breaching U.N. Security Council resolutions

  07-12-2015 23:29
  
  Iran tested a new medium-range ballistic missile last month in a breach of two U.N. Security Council resolutions, two U.S. officials said on Monday. Fox News earlier on Monday on its website cited Western intelligence sources as saying the test was held near Chabahar, a port city near Iran's border with Pakistan. All ballistic missile tests by Iran are banned under a 2010 Security Council resolution that remains valid until a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers is implemented.
  
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• Archaeologists Survey Seaplanes Sunk During Pearl Harbor Attack

  07-12-2015 22:20 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Better equipment, visibility allow University of Hawaii researchers to map and photograph planes lost during the December 7, 1941 bombing
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• 36 countries launch world alliance for geothermal energy

  07-12-2015 22:03
  
  Thirty-six countries gave the official start Monday to an initiative to promote geothermal energy in developing economies as a cleaner alternative to oil, gas and coal.
  
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• Early progress seen at UN talks seeking to avert climate disaster

  07-12-2015 21:38
  
  Ministers seeking to avoid climate catastrophe reported rare cooperation Monday as they launched five days of frenetic negotiations in Paris to reach a historic global deal.
  
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• Gut bacteria compounds bring cockroaches together

  07-12-2015 21:33
  
  Gut bacteria in young German cockroaches (Blattella germanica) produce fragrant compounds that, when excreted, attract other roaches.
  
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• New dating of dino ancestor challenges Triassic timeline

  07-12-2015 21:00
  
  New dates for geologic layers of well-known fossil formation show that dinosaurs and their ancient relatives were separated by less time than researchers thought.
  
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• N. Korea 'declares war' on deforestation at Paris climate talks

  07-12-2015 20:09
  
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has launched a war on deforestation, the country's foreign minister said Monday at the Paris climate talks, pledging to "actively engage" in global environment efforts.
  
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• Defences against the indefensible?

  07-12-2015 20:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Can flood defences always protect vulnerable communities from the impact of "exceptional" weather events, such as Storm Desmond?
  
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• Arnold Schwarzenegger: Don't listen to the climate change cynics

  07-12-2015 19:20
  
  Former California governor and Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger told delegates at the COP21 climate conference on 7 December to ignore the naysayers who say a global deal is out of reach. The motivational address came as ministers representing many of the 195 parties met in Paris, with the talks moving into their second phase before a 11 December deadline for an agreement. Schwarzenegger said: "I know there are the cynics around here, when you walk around Paris, that say there will be no tre
  
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• 'Stage is set' for historic world climate pact: Kerry

  07-12-2015 19:19
  
  US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Monday that a week of hard bargaining lies ahead at UN climate talks in Paris but argued the "stage is set" for a historic deal
  
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• Netflix, YouTube dominate internet usage in North America

  07-12-2015 19:06 via cbc.ca
  
  Streaming has taken over the internet and now accounts for more than 70 per cent of North American downloads at peak times, up from less than 35 per cent in 2010, a new report shows.
  
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• DNA editing shows success in mosquito sterilization

  07-12-2015 19:01
  A new gene drive that sterilizes females could reduce numbers of malaria mosquitoes
  
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• Climate talks a chance to 'rise to history', UN says

  07-12-2015 19:01
  
  Ministers from around the planet launched a five-day scramble in Paris Monday to answer "the call of history" with a deal to spare mankind from climate disaster.
  
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• Shipwreck from 1708 may contain world's most valuable sunken treasure

  07-12-2015 18:47 via cbc.ca
  
  A Spanish galleon that went down off the South American nation's coast more than 300 years ago has been discovered with what may be the world's most valuable sunken treasure.
  
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• Fusion power getting closer, say UK scientists

  07-12-2015 18:38
  As world leaders meet in Paris to agree a legal framework aimed at limiting use of fossil fuels and the resulting rises in global temperatures, a UK company says it could be as little as five years from making "reactor relevant" fusion, a potential game changer in energy production.
  
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• Japanese Probe Makes 2nd Try to Orbit Venus, But Did It Succeed?

  07-12-2015 18:06
  
  A Japanese spacecraft should be orbiting Venus now, if all went according to plan Sunday (Dec. 6). The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe fired its small attitude-control thrusters for 20 minutes Sunday evening in a second and final attempt to enter Venus orbit. Akatsuki's first try — which came exactly five years earlier, on Dec. 6, 2010 — failed when the probe's main engine conked out during the orbit-insertion burn, sending the spacecraft sailing off into dee
  
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• Chinese researchers unveil brain powered car

  07-12-2015 17:50
  
  China's first mind-controlled car has been developed by researchers in the north-east port city of Tianjin.
  
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• Little Male Songbird Makes Colorful Splash at Brooklyn Park

  07-12-2015 17:42
  
  A stunningly colorful little male songbird has drawn a big crowd to Brooklyn's Prospect Park this week. The painted bunting (Passerina ciris), a member of the cardinal family, has never (in recent memory) been spotted in the treasured 526-acre (2.1 square kilometers) park. "This is the first recorded sighting of a male painted bunting in Brooklyn in recent memory," stated the Prospect Park Alliance.
  
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• Stick-Figure Science: Cartoonist Makes Complicated Stuff Simple

  07-12-2015 17:35
  
  Randall Munroe once designed robots at NASA, and now he's undertaken a comparably tough task: describing the science of complex "stuff" such as elevators, the Mars Curiosity rover and nuclear reactors using only the 1,000 most commonly used words in the English language. Granted, Munroe's new book "Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words"(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015) contains diagrams of the things he's explaining, such as "boxes that make clothes smell better" (washing machines a
  
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• CERN in a Shoebox? Tiny Particle Accelerators Are Coming

  07-12-2015 17:27
  
  Scientists could soon develop particle accelerators that can fit into a shoebox, experts say. The project, which is still in its infancy, would rely on lasers, rather than microwaves, to ramp particles to near light speed. Using lasers, "you can accelerate particles in a shorter distance to get to a higher energy," said Joel England, a researcher at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, and one of the principal researchers involved in the project.
  
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• Pamela Anderson visits Kremlin to lobby for animal protection

  07-12-2015 17:23
  
  Actress Pamela Anderson on Monday urged Russia to step up the fight to protect rare animals as she met President Vladimir Putin's powerful chief of staff at the Kremlin.
  
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• Twitter unveils top tweets of 2015

  07-12-2015 17:17 via cbc.ca
  
  Twitter has unveiled the most retweeted tweets and top hashtags of 2015, prominently featuring One Direction, President Obama and #JeSuisParis.
  
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• There’s no hiding from new camera

  07-12-2015 17:00
  
  A new camera tracks objects hidden around a corner by detecting light echoes, similar to the way bats use sound to find prey.
  
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• CO2 emissions 'to stall, even decline'

  07-12-2015 17:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  For the first time, global emissions of carbon dioxide are likely to stall and perhaps decline this year, even as the world economy grows, according to new research.
  
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• Watch Venus disappear behind moon in broad daylight

  07-12-2015 16:34 via cbc.ca
  
  You may be able to spot an unusual event in the sky in broad daylight this morning — the moon will pass in front of Venus in an event called an occultation.
  
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• Venus and the moon put on a show in broad daylight

  07-12-2015 16:34 via cbc.ca
  
  An unusual celestial event was visible in broad daylight this morning — the moon passed in front of Venus in an event called an occultation.
  
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• 9 Hacks for Making Healthier Holiday Cookies

  07-12-2015 16:21
  
  When a huge array of holiday cookies is out on display, people do not have just one cookie and feel satisfied, said Libby Mills, a nutrition and cooking coach in Philadelphia and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Those extra calories can add up to too many, at a time when people are already frequently celebrating around food and beverages, Mills said. This is a good reason to be smart about the size of cookie that you eat or bake, and to stick with a smaller cookie, said Sa
  
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• New Superbug's Genetic Trick Could Help It Spread

  07-12-2015 16:16
  
  Health experts are keeping a close eye on a type of antibiotic-resistant bacteria called CRE that, while still rare, has the potential to become more widespread in the United States. A new report released on Thursday said that in the past five years, researchers have identified 43 patients in the United States who became sick with infections from one type of CRE. These cases all involved CRE that share a particular method of defeating the antibiotics: they have enzymes called OXA-48-like carbape
  
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• Wi-Fi 'Allergies': Is Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Real?

  07-12-2015 16:15
  
  For some time now, people with unexplained and recurring headaches, dizziness and skin irritation have been blaming their often severe discomfort on sensitivity to electromagnetic field sources, a condition sometimes called electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In a recent case, the family of a 15-year-old girl in the United Kingdom who died by suicide said the girl had suffered from an allergy to Wi-Fi signals. Participants in a survey of peop
  
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• Rabbit Fever on the Rise in the US, CDC Says

  07-12-2015 16:15
  
  Over the past two decades, about 125 yearly cases of the disease, also referred to as tularemia (named after Francisella tularensis, the bacterium that causes it), have been reported in the United States. Those cases involved people ages 10 months to 89 years in Colorado (43 cases), Nebraska (21), South Dakota (20) and Wyoming (16). "This was something we noticed happening here in Nebraska, and when we contacted our colleagues in neighboring states, they were having similar experiences," Dr. Cai
  
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• Many People Who Would Benefit from Statins Aren't Taking Them

  07-12-2015 16:15
  
  The study found that cholesterol-lowering drugs would be recommended for about 78 million U.S. adults because they have either high cholesterol levels or risk factors for heart disease. And although lifestyle changes such as exercise and weight loss can help lower cholesterol levels, 35.5 percent of adults who would benefit from lowering their cholesterol levels said they aren't taking these drugs or making lifestyle changes to lower their cholesterol levels. Minority populations, including blac
  
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• Predisposition to Obesity May Be Carried in Sperm

  07-12-2015 16:14
  
  The results may provide a biological clue as to why children of obese fathers may be predisposed to being obese, the researchers said. The information in the sperm cells that varied depending on the weight of the men in the study was "epigenetic" information, meaning it helps to determine how much or how often certain genes become activated. "In our study, we found that obese men had different epigenetic signals in their sperm cells compared to lean men, and these signals were carried
  
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• Chinese surpass U.S. hunters in buying Canadian polar bear furs

  07-12-2015 16:02 via cbc.ca
  
  A new analysis shows Chinese consumers with an appetite for luxury have taken over from American sport hunters as the main buyers of Canadian polar bear fur. The study found no evidence that exporting the furs threatens the animals.
  
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• 400-Year-Old Embalmed Hearts Found Under French Convent

  07-12-2015 16:01
  
  Four hundred years after they were buried in heart-shaped lead urns, five embalmed human hearts have been discovered in a cemetery in northwestern France. The hearts were discovered underneath the basement of the Convent of the Jacobins in Rennes, where archaeologists with France's National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research have been excavating graves for the past several years, ahead of a plan to turn the site into a conference center. So far, the archaeologists have unearthed hu
  
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• Superquiet Supersonic: NASA Aims for Softer Booms

  07-12-2015 15:56
  
  The space agency is currently developing technologies that could make supersonic planes less noisy and therefore less "annoying" for those on the ground. NASA and its partners in the aviation industry are building "low-boom aircraft," with different designs than those used in older supersonic jets, like the retired Concorde. The new generation of planeswill have a body shape that reduces the "annoying noise, rattle and vibration" that occurs when aircraft break the sound barrier, creating the sh
  
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• UN climate talks a chance to 'rise to history'

  07-12-2015 15:28
  
  Ministers from around the planet Monday launched a five-day scramble in Paris to answer "the call of history" and strike a deal to spare mankind from climate disaster.
  
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• Beijing issues first smog 'red alert'

  07-12-2015 15:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Schools in Beijing are to close and outdoor construction to stop after the Chinese capital issued its first "red alert" over smog levels.
  
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• Plans For City's Tallest Skyscraper Unveiled

  07-12-2015 15:01
  
  Plans have been unveiled for a new skyscraper which could become the tallest building in London's financial district. It would include what developers claim would be the highest free public viewing gallery in London. According to Eric Parry Architects, the tower would contain 90,000 square metres of internal office space, accommodate 10,000 workers, and include 1,500 bicycle parking spaces.
  
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• Marijuana Madness: Hopped-Up Weed May Pose Risks for Users

  07-12-2015 15:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Preliminary studies reveal harmful effects of highly potent cannabis, but causal links remain unclear
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• Warehouse blaze sweeps through slum in India's Mumbai

  07-12-2015 14:14
  
  A warehouse fire swept through a slum in India's financial capital of Mumbai on Monday, triggering a series of gas cylinder explosions, fire brigade and police officials said. Broadcaster NDTV reported two people died in the fire in a northern suburb and a Reuters photographer said he saw one body in the wreckage. A city hospital employee said at least four casualties had been brought in by rescue workers, but fire fighters said others had been taken to private hospitals.
  
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• US envoy Kerry joins climate talks to drive 'ambitious deal'

  07-12-2015 14:14
  
  US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Paris on Monday for the final intense days of negotiation at a UN conference seeking a landmark pact on climate change.
  
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• Venus Pulls 'Vanishing Act' Behind the Moon on Monday

  07-12-2015 14:05
  
  On Monday (Dec. 7), the planet Venus will do a vanishing act behind the moon, but you'll have to be in the right place on Earth to see it without the sun's interference. On Monday, the moon will pass in front of the brightest of them all, the planet Venus, in what is called a lunar occultation.
  
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• Japan's Asteroid-Bound Hayabusa2 Buzzes Earth for a Speed Boost

  07-12-2015 14:05
  
  A Japanese spacecraft buzzed Earth on Thursday (Dec. 3) on its way to meet an asteroid in a few years. It's too early to say if the asteroid-bound Hayabusa2 probe is on the correct path after its closest approach at 6:08 a.m. EST today (Dec. 3), officials said. The goal of the flyby was to use Earth's gravitational pull to give Hayabusa2 a speed boost, helping the craft make its 2018 date with the asteroid Ryugu.
  
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• Best-Ever Pluto Photos Show Breathtaking Views of Dwarf Planet

  07-12-2015 14:05
  
  Get ready to be amazed: NASA today unveiled the best-ever images of Pluto, revealing the dwarf planet's varied and exotic landscape in amazing detail. The spectacular photos, which were captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its historic Pluto flyby on July 14, show close-up views of the dwarf planet's towering water-ice mountains and vast plains, resolving fine details such as layering on individual crater walls. You can see the images in this dazzling flyover video from NASA, w
  
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• Russian Satellite Set To Crash Back To Earth

  07-12-2015 13:45
  
  Russia has lost contact with a newly launched military satellite which will now fall back to Earth. State news agency TASS says it failed to separate from the Soyuz-2.1B booster rocket after its launch from the Plesetsk cosmodrome on Saturday. It took a decade to develop and was created to scan the Earth's oceans and weather systems from space, and to spot submarines.
  
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• VIDEO: US 'wants binding climate deal rules'

  07-12-2015 13:28 via bbc.co.uk
  
  As politicians make a final push for a global climate pact in Paris, the US energy secretary says the processes around verification and climate targets should be binding.
  
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• Japanese probe succeeds in second try at Venus orbit

  07-12-2015 13:15
  
  After 10 trips around the sun, Akatsuki appears to be circling its target
  
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• Australian scientists welcome new government's $1 billion ‘Ideas Boom’

  07-12-2015 13:00
  
  Incoming prime minister Malcolm Turnbull reverses deeps budgets cuts
  
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• Mysterious Egyptian Mummy Has Head Full of Dirt

  07-12-2015 12:58
  
  A mysterious Egyptian mummy dating back about 3,200 years has dirt in the skull, a new investigation reveals. The presence of what looks like dark sediment inside the mummy's head is bizarre, said the researchers, who used computed tomography (CT) to peer inside the mummy. "It's some form of material added into the brain case while the brain was left inside," Jonathan Elias, the director of the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, said in a statement.
  
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