Science news

• Virgin Galactic's Second SpaceShipTwo to Roll Out on Feb. 19

  05-01-2016 23:29
  
  Virgin Galactic will roll out and christen its second SpaceShipTwo on Feb. 19, 15 months after its first suborbital spacecraft was lost during a test flight. The space tourism company, together with The Spaceship Company, Virgin's manufacturing subsidiary, will reveal the newly completed vehicle at its Final Assembly, Integration and Test Flight Hangar (FAITH) located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Stephen Hawking, the famed theoretical physicist and cosmologist, is expected to
  
  Read more

• Black Hole's Epic Belch May Solve Stellar Mystery

  05-01-2016 23:29
  
  A black hole's epic "burp" may help solve one of the deep mysteries of the galactic core. The dust-filled expanses of spiral galaxies like the Milky Way are bursting with star formation — the dustier the area is, the more likely it is for new stars to form there. Smaller, elliptical galaxies also show little star formation.
  
  Read more

• Alien Atmospheres: The Search for Signs of Life

  05-01-2016 23:29
  
  The search for signs of life beyond the solar system is kicking into a higher gear. Scientists are working to compile a catalog of gases that could potentially be evidence of life, so researchers will know what to look for when scanning the atmospheres of rocky, Earth-like alien planets. "Every way we have possible, people [are] trying to find exo-Earths," planetary scientist Sara Seager, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said last month at the American Astronomical Society's Extreme
  
  Read more

• 'Star Trek' Postal Stamps Beaming in for 50th Anniversary

  05-01-2016 23:28
  
  Set phasers to mail! With space as much a "final frontier" today for "Star Trek" fans as it was in 1966, a new set of stamps will commemorate the sci-fi franchise's 50th anniversary. According to the U.S. Postal Service, the four stamps are supposed to be inspired by "classic elements" of the first television series of the "Star Trek" franchise, which aired between 1966 and 1969. The show followed the exploits of the USS Enterprise and its crew, helmed by Capt. James T. Kirk.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Four armed men set Saudi Aramco bus on fire in oil province

  05-01-2016 22:44
  DUBAI (Reuters) - Four armed men set a bus on fire on Tuesday carrying workers in Saudi Arabia's oil-producing Eastern Province, state news agency SPA reported. State oil company Saudi Aramco said none of its employees had been injured but gave no further details. SPA said the men had stopped the bus in the district of Qatif, the home of prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed on Saturday with 46 other men. ...
  
  Read more

• High-intensity interval training has great gains — and pain

  05-01-2016 22:25
  
  Intense spurts of activity followed by brief rest can improve heart health, blood glucose and muscle endurance. But some question if the pain of HIIT workouts will impede the popularity.
  
  Read more

• U.N. council urges Yemen's warring parties to resume ceasefire

  05-01-2016 22:16
  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday urged the warring parties in Yemen to resume a "meaningful, sustainable" ceasefire after a Saudi-led coalition ended a more than two-week-old truce amid accusations it had been repeatedly violated by both sides. The ceasefire began on Dec. 15 in tandem with U.N.-brokered peace talks. The coalition officially ended the truce on Saturday, saying it could not be maintained because of "the continuation of t
  
  Read more

• Runaway stars leave infrared waves in space

  05-01-2016 22:08
  Astronomers are finding dozens of the fastest stars in our galaxy. When some speedy, massive stars plow through space, they can cause material to stack up in front of them in the same way that water piles up ahead of a ship. Called bow shocks, these dramatic, arc-shaped features in space are leading researchers to uncover massive, so-called runaway stars.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• [Research Article] Rosmarinic acid is a homoserine lactone mimic produced by plants that activates a bacterial quorum-sensing regulator

  05-01-2016 22:03 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Plants release rosmarinic acid, which mimics bacterial quorum-sensing signals, to interfere with bacterial communication.
  
  Read more

• [Research Article] Inclusion bodies enriched for p62 and polyubiquitinated proteins in macrophages protect against atherosclerosis

  05-01-2016 22:03 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Sequestration of aggregated proteins by p62 prevents macrophages from exacerbating atherosclerosis.
  
  Read more

• [Research Article] Comprehensive RNAi-based screening of human and mouse TLR pathways identifies species-specific preferences in signaling protein use

  05-01-2016 22:03 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Comparative analysis of mouse and human macrophages reveals conserved and species-specific use of Toll-like receptor signaling components.
  
  Read more

• [Editors' Choice] Reprogramming lipid metabolism to boost antiviral responses

  05-01-2016 22:03 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Changes in cholesterol biosynthetic flux affect the sensitivity of an antiviral immune pathway.
  
  Read more

• [Editors' Choice] Impairing cognition with TNF-α

  05-01-2016 22:03 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Hippocampal astrocytes stimulated by TNF-α contribute to cognitive defects.
  
  Read more

• [Editors' Choice] Allosteric regulation of Warts

  05-01-2016 22:03 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Hippo pathway regulators allosterically switch the conformation of the kinase Warts.
  
  Read more

• [Editorial Guide] 2015: Signaling Breakthroughs of the Year

  05-01-2016 22:03 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Signaling research advances aid in understanding cellular and organismal regulation, as well as have biomedical, agricultural, and industrial implications.
  
  Read more

• Andromeda galaxy scanned with high-energy X-ray vision

  05-01-2016 22:03
  NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has captured the best high-energy X-ray view yet of a portion of our nearest large, neighboring galaxy, Andromeda. The space mission has observed 40 "X-ray binaries" -- intense sources of X-rays composed of a black hole or neutron star that feeds off a stellar companion.
  
  Read more

• Meteorologists: 'Darth Nino' ties record for strongest seen

  05-01-2016 22:01
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Meteorologists say the current El Nino has stormed its way into the record books, tying 1997-1998 as the strongest recorded.
  
  Read more

• Rover rounds Martian dune to get to the other side

  05-01-2016 22:00
  NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, partway through the first up-close study ever conducted of extraterrestrial sand dunes, is providing dramatic views of a dune's steep face, where cascading sand has sculpted very different textures than the wavy ripples visible on the dune's windward slope.
  
  Read more

• Documentary Probes Challenger Disaster on 30th Anniversary (Exclusive Video)

  05-01-2016 21:59
  
  A powerful new documentary takes a fresh look at the space shuttle Challenger explosion, a tragedy that is still seared into the minds of a generation 30 years after the smoke cleared.
  
  Read more

• Scientists discover nursery ground for sand tiger sharks in Long Island's Great South Bay

  05-01-2016 21:10
  Scientists and veterinarians have discovered something noteworthy in the near shore waters of Long Island's Great South Bay: a nursery ground for the sand tiger shark, a fearsome-looking but non-aggressive fish.
  
  Read more

• Injuries among Dungeness crab fishermen examined in new study

  05-01-2016 21:10
  Commercial Dungeness crab fishing on the West Coast is one of the highest risk occupations in the United States, based on fatality rates. But non-fatal injuries in the fishery appear to go largely unreported, a new study shows.
  
  Read more

• Mosquitoes more likely to lay eggs in water sources near flowers

  05-01-2016 21:09
  Certain mosquitoes are more likely to lay eggs in water sources near flowers than in water sources without flowers, according to a new article.
  
  Read more

• Dandelion uses latex to protect its roots against insect feeding

  05-01-2016 21:09
  Dandelions are troublesome weeds that are detested by most gardeners. Yet dandelions also have many insect enemies in nature. However, they can protect themselves with their latex, a milky, bitter-tasting sap. Scientists have demonstrated that a single latex compound protects dandelion roots against voracious cockchafer larvae. Thus, latex plays a crucial role in dandelion defense against root feeders.
  
  Read more

• Revolutionary Neuroscience Technique Slated for Human Clinical Trials

  05-01-2016 21:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Optogenetics may treat chronic pain and other neurological disorders
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
  Read more

• 50 years ago, a promising agent pulled

  05-01-2016 21:00
  DMSO was promised to cure everything from headache to the common cold. But human testing stopped in 1965.
  
  Read more

• Micro Porcupines to Snow Leopards: WCS's Favorite Wildlife Photos of 2015

  05-01-2016 20:52
  
  Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights
  
  Read more

• Will Concussions Keep Kids from Football? (Op-Ed)

  05-01-2016 20:51
  Dr. Uzma Samadani is chair for traumatic brain injury research at Hennepin County Medical Center and associate professor of neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Robert Glatter is director of sports medicine and traumatic brain injury in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital and assistant professor at the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. You hear about it in news stories and see it in movies: People are struggling to understand what the risk is of a co
  
  Read more

• Top 5 Space Questions of 2015…with Answers! (Op-Ed)

  05-01-2016 20:51
  
  Paul Sutter is a visiting scholar at The Ohio State University's Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics (CCAPP). Sutter is also host of the podcasts Ask a Spaceman and RealSpace, and the YouTube series Space In Your Face. Is the light from a supernova dangerous?
  
  Read more

• Can Games Be a Game-Changer for Climate? (Op-Ed)

  05-01-2016 20:50
  
  2015 will be remembered as a watershed moment in the fight against global warming. It's against this backdrop that Barnard College Arctic scientist Stephanie Pfirman introduced a new toy she developed to explain the impact of climate change. Pfirman and her collaborator, Columbia University professor Joey Lee, set out to design a game that would be as entertaining as it was educational.
  
  Read more

• In Real Universe, Rockers Coheed and Cambria Still Reach for the Stars (Video)

  05-01-2016 20:49
  
  Rock band Coheed and Cambria has sailed the skies of sci-fi for much of the group's 14-year career. Coheed and Cambria's latest effort, "The Color Before the Sun" is the group's first non-sci-fi concept record. "I am definitely influenced by anything off of this planet," Sanchez told Space.com.
  
  Read more

• Confronting the Multiverse: What 'Infinite Universes' Would Mean

  05-01-2016 20:47
  
  Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the creator, writer and host of "Closer to Truth," a public television series and online resource that features the world's leading thinkers exploring humanity's deepest questions. Kuhn is co-editor, with John Leslie, of "The Mystery of Existence: Why Is There Anything at All?" (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). The universe is huge, but it is only with recent discoveries that we can realize how inconceivably immense the universe, or multiple universes, may actually be.
  
  Read more

• AstroCritic Review: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

  05-01-2016 20:46
  
  Leroy Chiao is a former NASA astronaut and ISS commander. He is the co-founder and CEO of OneOrbit and serves as the special adviser for human spaceflight to the Space Foundation, and the Houston Association for Space and Science Education. Chiao contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
  
  Read more

• Do Girls Have 'Protection' from Autism? (Op-Ed)

  05-01-2016 20:45
  
  Alycia Halladay, chief science officer for the Autism Science Foundation, contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. For years, scientists have reported a higher autism prevalence in males than in females. Most studies show about a 4:1 ratio in the prevalence of autism in boys compared with girls, meaning boys are four times as likely to receive an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis.
  
  Read more

• Huge raptor spotted in southern Ontario identified as out-of-place Arctic falcon

  05-01-2016 20:21 via cbc.ca
  
  Ducks in Windsor and Essex County will need to start watching their backs. A predator from the Arctic may still be in the neighbourhood.
  
  Read more

• Huge gyrfalcon said to be hanging out in LaSalle

  05-01-2016 20:21 via cbc.ca
  
  Ducks in Windsor and Essex County will need to start watching their backs. A predator from the Arctic may still be in the neighbourhood.
  
  Read more

• Rare galaxy with 2 black holes has 1 starved of stars

  05-01-2016 20:12
  
  KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — An astrophysicist has discovered something even rarer than a double-black hole galaxy: a skinny black hole.
  
  Read more

• New model uses public health statistics to signal when disease elimination is imminent

  05-01-2016 19:42
  Ecologists have developed a model showing that public health surveillance data can be used to signal when a disease is approaching eradication. Their research lays the groundwork for a potential new tool in the fight against infectious diseases.
  
  Read more

• Study of a pregnant cockroach paves a new direction in genetics research

  05-01-2016 19:32
  Examination could hold wider applications on how stress during pregnancy affects mothers and offspring.
  
  Read more

• Novel RNA delivery system may treat incurable blood cancers

  05-01-2016 19:31
  Mantle Cell Lymphoma is considered the most aggressive known blood cancer, and available therapies are scarce. A new study offers tangible hope of curing the currently incurable cancer -- and others like it.
  
  Read more

• Bacteria, electrons spin in similar patterns

  05-01-2016 19:31
  Scientists have identified an unexpected shared pattern in the collective movement of bacteria and electrons: As billions of bacteria stream through a microfluidic lattice, they synchronize and swim in patterns similar to those of electrons orbiting around atomic nuclei in a magnetic material.
  
  Read more

• Service-learning courses can positively impact post-graduate salaries

  05-01-2016 19:27
  Service-learning experiences in college can reach beyond the classroom -- and help grow graduates' bank accounts once they enter the workforce, according to a recent study. The study centered on a group of college students who graduated in 2010 and found that they made about $4,600 more annually in their first full-time job if they had participated in service-learning courses while earning their degrees.
  
  Read more

• Levetiracetam shows promise for treatment of feline audiogenic reflex seizures

  05-01-2016 19:27
  New findings about the treatment of the syndrome of feline audiogenic reflex seizures (FARS) have been provided by experts in a new article. FARS is a problem of older cats, which typically exhibit myoclonic seizures (brief, shock-like jerks of a muscle or a group of muscles) in response to certain high-pitched sounds.
  
  Read more

• Kaolin effectively controls whitefly in beans

  05-01-2016 19:27
  Scientists determined the influence of kaolin on development of populations of whitefly in greenhouses, and its effect on the physiological characteristics of bean crops. Results showed a high percentage of efficacy on whitefly control in plants treated with 5 percent kaolin. Foliar applications of kaolin decreased transpiration and enhanced the contents of leaf chlorophyll without affecting yield. The findings show that use of kaolin particle film can be an alternative tool for managing bean cr
  
  Read more

Follow @ScienceUKnews on Twitter!