Science news

• Inspectors shut Rio zoo to smarten animal enclosures

  14-01-2016 23:42
  
  Authorities shut the public zoo in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday until the city improves living conditions for the animals there, environmental officials said.
  
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• Massive dinosaur skeleton will spill out of hall at famed New York museum

  14-01-2016 22:59
  
  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Even by the standards of New York's American Museum of Natural History - home of an enormous blue whale model that draws visitors from around the world - this is big.
  
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• Growing vegetables via smartphone

  14-01-2016 22:55
  
  LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - Growing your own produce just got really easy. This is a farm cube - a fully enclosed ecosystem capable of growing vegetables indoors.  
  
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• India's smog-choked capital ends car ban trial

  14-01-2016 22:42
  
  New Delhi wrapped up Friday a controversial trial of driving restrictions that took about a million cars off its roads, with arguments still raging about whether it is the right approach to cutting smog in the world's most polluted capital.
  
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• Stephen Hawking: Black Holes Have 'Hair'

  14-01-2016 22:34
  
  Black holes may sport a luxurious head of "hair" made up of ghostly, zero-energy particles, says a new hypothesis proposed by Stephen Hawking and other physicists. The new paper, which was published online Jan. 5 in the preprint journal arXiv, proposes that at least some of the information devoured by a black hole is stored in these electric hairs. Still, the new proposal doesn't prove that all the information that enters a black hole is preserved.
  
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• Without Basic Knowledge, Innovation Fails (Op-Ed)

  14-01-2016 22:23
  
  Vikram Jandhyala is the vice provost for innovation at the University of Washington. Understanding how innovation actually happens is one of the most intricate, and important, intellectual conversations occurring in technology circles, and it's clear that basic knowledge — long ignored — plays a central role. Basic knowledge can come from the social sciences, health sciences, policy studies, law, social work, anthropology, and critically, business and finance.
  
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• In an Oil Boom, Reason to Mourn 55 Mph Speed Limit (Op-Ed)

  14-01-2016 22:23
  In December, U.S. lawmakers voted to end the nation's decades-long ban on the export of crude oil, which was passed to limit American dependence on foreign oil. The embargo drove up the price of oil. With the aim of achieving energy independence, the U.S. Congress banned the export of crude oil and created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency supply of petroleum to weather shocks in the oil market.
  
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• New Mexico is 1st to issue plans to sue EPA over mine spill

  14-01-2016 22:07
  
  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico plans to sue the federal government and the owners of two Colorado mines that were the source of a massive spill last year that contaminated rivers in three Western states, officials said Thursday.
  
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• Peek inside Google's new Canadian engineering headquarters

  14-01-2016 21:43 via cbc.ca
  
  A secret room off the library, a climbing wall, a full-time chef — take a tour through the new Google Canada headquarters in Kitchener, Ont.
  
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• Scientists spot brightest supernova yet, outshines Milky Way

  14-01-2016 21:40
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have discovered the brightest star explosion ever, a super supernova that easily outshines our entire Milky Way.
  
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• Exploding star shines brighter than any supernova seen

  14-01-2016 21:35
  
  The brightest exploding star ever detected has bewildered scientists with its incredible power, shining 570 billion times brighter than the Sun and twice as potent as any known supernova, scientists said Thursday.
  
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• Colossal dinosaur cast goes on display in NY

  14-01-2016 21:13
  
  A cast and fossils from a brand new species of titanosaur, one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered, went on display on Thursday in New York for the first time.
  
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• NASA adds commercial mini-shuttle to space station supply fleet

  14-01-2016 20:59 via cbc.ca
  
  NASA is adding a third company to its short list of space station suppliers, a Nevada business that will bring back a mini version of the shuttle.
  
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• APNewsBreak: New Mexico to sue EPA over mine spill

  14-01-2016 20:55
  
  ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico plans to sue the federal government and the owners of two Colorado mines that were the source of a massive spill last year that contaminated rivers in three Western states, officials said Thursday.
  
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• Colossal star explosion detected

  14-01-2016 20:52 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Astronomers have seen what could be the most powerful supernova yet detected - an event so big it shone with 570 billion times the brightness of our Sun.
  
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• Like to stream U.S. Netflix? The party's almost over, company says

  14-01-2016 20:46 via cbc.ca
  
  ​Netflix says it's planning on cracking down on users who use virtual private networks and proxy services to view content not available in their countries.
  
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• U.S. says concrete has been poured at Iran's Arak reactor

  14-01-2016 20:45
  Concrete has been poured into the core of Iran's Arak nuclear reactor, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday, a move critical to the implementation of the nuclear agreement Tehran reached with major powers. U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed the concrete has been poured into the reactor's central vessel. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday the core of the reactor had been removed and was to be filled with concrete and destroyed.
  
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• Ebola Outbreak Declared Over in West Africa

  14-01-2016 20:35
  West Africa is now free of Ebola, marking an end to the devastating epidemic that plagued the region for two years. The three hardest-hit countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — have not had any new Ebola cases for at least 42 days, according to a statement from the World Health Organization released today (Jan. 14). Health officials typically wait 42 days to declare a country Ebola-free, because this is twice as long as the 21-day incubation period of the virus (the time it t
  
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• Montana approves relocation of sage grouse to Canada

  14-01-2016 20:27
  HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana will send dozens of sage grouse to the Canadian province of Alberta in a plan approved Thursday that faces opposition from some lawmakers who say the state should first look to bolster its own fragile population of the bird.
  
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• Most Powerful Supernova Ever Discovered Blasts Away Competition

  14-01-2016 20:23
  
  A blazing-bright object appears to be the most luminous supernova ever witnessed, and it's blowing the top off researchers' models of how such explosions are powered. When certain stars reach the end of their fuel supply, or gain a sudden influx of new material, they explode into a brilliant last stand called a supernova. The All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) searches for changing spots of light in the sky, and caught the glowing feature when it brightened in June.
  
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• Astronomers spot brightest supernova yet in distant galaxy

  14-01-2016 20:11
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronomers have found a distant supernova, or exploded star, 20 times brighter than the Milky Way galaxy, according to research published on Thursday.
  
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• Bones of hunted mammoth show early human presence in Arctic

  14-01-2016 20:08
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — The remains of a mammoth that was hunted down about 45,000 years ago have revealed the earliest known evidence of humans in the Arctic.
  
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• Measuring brain waves may help predict a patient’s response to anesthesia

  14-01-2016 20:00
  
  Brain signatures hint at whether a person will resist or succumb to anesthesia.
  
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• Humans visited Arctic earlier than thought

  14-01-2016 20:00
  
  Human weapon injuries on mammoth bones show humans were in the Arctic up to 15,000 years earlier than researchers thought
  
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• Found: The Most Powerful Supernova Ever Seen

  14-01-2016 20:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  A stellar explosion almost 600 billion times brighter than the sun pushes the limits of physics 
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• Exploding star is the brightest supernova ever seen

  14-01-2016 20:00
  
  The brightest known supernova put out more energy than 500 billion suns.
  
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• Gulf of St. Lawrence hits highest temperature in 100 years

  14-01-2016 19:56 via cbc.ca
  
  The Gulf of St. Lawrence reached its highest recorded average temperature in a century in 2015, scientists say.
  
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• How's your internet service? The CRTC wants to know

  14-01-2016 19:41 via cbc.ca
  
  Do you have an opinion about internet speed and pricing in Canada? Canada's telecom regulator wants to hear it.
  
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• Irishman gets year in prison for rhinoceros horn trafficking: US

  14-01-2016 19:27
  
  An Irish national has been sentenced to a year in prison for trafficking in endangered rhinoceros horns, the US Justice Department said.
  
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• Liberia declared Ebola-free but World Health Organization warns 'the job is not done'

  14-01-2016 18:53
  Liberia was declared free of the Ebola virus by global health experts on 14 January, a milestone that signalled an end to an epidemic in West Africa that has killed more than 11,300 people. "Today WHO declares the end of the most recent outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Liberia, the outbreak that was associated with the flare-up of cases in mid-November," said Rick Brennan, Emergency Risk Management and Humanitarian Response for WHO. Liberia was the last affected country to get the all-clear, w
  
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• Ontario library wins award for lending out mobile internet sticks

  14-01-2016 18:52 via cbc.ca
  
  The Kitchener Public Library has won a provincial aware for its popular program that allows people to check out wi-fi hotspot devices.
  
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• Kitchener library wins award for lending out mobile internet sticks

  14-01-2016 18:52 via cbc.ca
  
  The Kitchener Public Library has won a provincial aware for its popular program that allows people to check out wi-fi hotspot devices.
  
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• Egypt unveils rare whale fossil museum to boost tourism

  14-01-2016 18:49
  
  VALLEY OF THE WHALES, Egypt (AP) — Egypt has unveiled what it says is the Middle East's first museum dedicated to fossils and showcasing an early form of whales, now extinct and known as the "walking whale."
  
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• Mysterious human species left behind stone tools on Indonesian island

  14-01-2016 18:47 via cbc.ca
  
  The diminutive prehistoric human species dubbed the "Hobbit" that inhabited the isle of Flores apparently had company on other Indonesian islands long before our species, Homo sapiens, arrived on the scene.
  
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• Two more sperm whales wash up dead on Dutch beach

  14-01-2016 18:43
  
  Two more sperm whales became stranded and died on the Dutch coast a day after five others, likely from the same pod, lost their lives nearby in a rare North Sea beaching, experts said Thursday.
  
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• As first run of gravitational wave search winds down, rumors abound

  14-01-2016 18:39
  
  Advanced LIGO has completed its first search for gravitational waves. Researchers are crunching the data as rumors swirl of a detection.
  
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• Boo! New dinosaur skeleton will spill out of hall at famed New York museum

  14-01-2016 18:35
  By Barbara Goldberg NEW YORK (Reuters) - Even by the standards of New York's American Museum of Natural History - home of an enormous blue whale model that draws visitors from around the world - this is big. A new, 122-foot (37-meter) dinosaur skeleton to be unveiled on Friday is too long to fit in the fossil hall and so its neck and head will poke out towards the elevator banks, offering a surprise greeting when the lift doors open. The dinosaur, so recently discovered it is not yet formally na
  
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• 'Grieving' kangaroo in viral photos was just horny, scientist says

  14-01-2016 18:32 via cbc.ca
  
  A series of photos of kangaroos that some on social media have called 'heartwarming' and 'touching' may actually be much creepier than initially thought.
  
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• NASA set to award space station cargo contracts

  14-01-2016 18:22
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A three-way competition to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA has ended, and the U.S. space agency is set to announce the winners on Thursday.
  
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• U.S. Coal Production Hits 30-Year Low

  14-01-2016 18:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  After a high in 2008 output and exports have plummeted
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Chemicals threaten Europe's killer whales with extinction

  14-01-2016 17:42
  
  Killer whales in European waters face extinction due to outlawed but long-lived pollutants that also threaten several species of dolphins, according a study released Thursday.
  
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• Honduras: Ancient White City artefacts removed from jungle

  14-01-2016 17:40
  Archaeologists in the dense jungle of Honduras began extracting dozens of artefacts on 12 January from what is thought to be the mythical White City, a site where they believe twin cities from an ancient civilisation once thrived. The artefacts were unearthed at the site of an unknown civilisation which was discovered in 2012, in the eastern Mosquitia region of Honduras, about 200 miles north-east of the Honduran capital. President Juan Orlando Hernandez visited the site and talked to archaeolog
  
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• Arrest warrant issued for former Niger Delta militant Tompolo

  14-01-2016 17:36
  Nigerian authorities issued an arrest warrant on Thursday for a former militant leader from the oil-producing Niger Delta region after he failed to appear in court to face corruption charges, high court officials said. Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, was a leader of rebels in the Delta region in the early 2000s. Fears that the volatile region could erupt again rose after Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim, beat the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, on an anti
  
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• What's the real colour of snow? Weather myths busted on The Nature of Things

  14-01-2016 17:16 via cbc.ca
  
  Can a plane survive a lightning strike? And where's the safest place to hide during a tornado? Scientist Jennifer Gardy's new documentary looks at the myths and science of weather on CBC TV's The Nature of Things.
  
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• What Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs showed us about the risks of technology

  14-01-2016 16:53 via cbc.ca
  
  There's no question that the tools created by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs are shaping our lives. But what lessons can we glean from looking at the way tech titans approach technology and privacy in their personal lives?
  
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• Police warrants of cell records in 'tower dumps' breach privacy, judge rules

  14-01-2016 16:46 via cbc.ca
  
  Sweeping police search warrants forcing companies to turn over the cellphone records of thousands of innocent customers breach people's privacy and violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, an Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled.
  
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• Peel police warrant for cell records breached privacy rights, judge rules

  14-01-2016 16:46 via cbc.ca
  
  Sweeping police search warrants forcing companies to turn over the cellphone records of thousands of innocent customers breach people's privacy and violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, an Ontario Superior Court judge has ruled.
  
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• Rare January hurricane forms in the Atlantic: forecasters

  14-01-2016 16:36
  
  Hurricane Alex formed in the Atlantic near the Azores Thursday, becoming the first in January in nearly 80 years, US forecasters said.
  
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• Justin Trudeau calls Waterloo Region 'extraordinary hub' for innovation

  14-01-2016 16:26 via cbc.ca
  
  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received a tour of Google's new Canadian headquarters Thursday in Kitchener, Ont., and praised the region as an "extraordinary hub" for innovation "at the cutting edge of the global economy."
  
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• Regulating Netflix would lead to censorship, Cogeco CEO says

  14-01-2016 16:13 via cbc.ca
  
  Although he shares the frustrations about video on demand services like Netflix, Cogeco's chief executive says he's opposed to government intervention that could open the door to tighter supervision of the Internet.
  
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