Science news

• Pressure mounts on North Korea to abandon rocket launch

  03-02-2016 23:37
  By Jack Kim and Nobuhiro Kubo SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) - International pressure grew on North Korea to call off a planned rocket launch, seen by some governments as another missile test, while Japan put its military on alert to shoot down any rocket that threatens its territory. North Korea notified United Nations agencies on Tuesday of its plan to launch what it called an "earth observation satellite" some time between Feb. 8 and 25. Pyongyang has said it has a sovereign right to pursue a space pr
  
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• Largest rocky world found

  03-02-2016 23:19
  
  A planet roughly half the size of Neptune might be 100 percent rock, making it the largest known rocky world.
  
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• Crescent Moon Joins Predawn 'Planet Parade' Thursday

  03-02-2016 22:05
  
  For the last couple of weeks, early risers have been enjoying the "parade of the planets," as all of the naked-eye planets gather in the dawn sky. Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter have been strung like glistening jewels across the southern sky. For the next few mornings, the waning crescent moon will join the array, as Mercury moves to its best position this month.
  
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• Video shows only known US jaguar roaming Arizona mountains

  03-02-2016 21:57
  
  TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The only known wild jaguar in the United States is seen roaming around a creek and other parts of a mountain range just south of Tucson in the first publicly released video of the giant cat.
  
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• Human Brain's Bizarre Folding Pattern Recreated in a Vat

  03-02-2016 21:57
  
  Scientists have discovered exactly how the human brain gets its crinkly, wrinkly appearance in utero. It turns out that the huge explosion in the number of brain cells in the brain's outer layer, called the cortex, forces that layer to swell and then collapse in on itself to form those characteristic creases. "This simple evolutionary innovation, with iterations and variations, allows for a large cortex to be packed into a small volume, and is likely the dominant cause behind brain folding, know
  
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• Why Sand Tiger Shark Devours Aquarium Mate (Video)

  03-02-2016 21:54
  Any sharks that want to enhance their reputation as fearsome predators should follow the lead of a sand tiger shark at the Coex Aquarium in Seoul, South Korea, that surprised aquarium goers by devouring a fellow shark — and taking nearly a day to finish the job. This sand tiger shark (not to be confused with a tiger shark) is an 8-year-old female, measuring 7.22 feet (2.2 meters) long, Reuters reported. "It's unfortunate anytime you see something like that, regardless of what the circumsta
  
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• Spacewalking Russian cosmonauts begin work outside space station

  03-02-2016 21:10
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Two veteran Russian cosmonauts floated outside the International Space Station on Wednesday to replace experimental equipment that is testing how materials and biological samples fare in the harsh environment of space.
  
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• Strange, Dense Matter: The Power of Neutron Stars [Video]

  03-02-2016 21:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  A live Webcast Wednesday evening will discuss the latest science of neutron stars—some of the densest and weirdest objects in space
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• Smart band-aid on the horizon

  03-02-2016 20:57
  
  Cambridge, MASS (Reuters) - Wearable electronics will revolutionize the way doctors diagnose and treat patients, according to researchers at MIT, who are developing stretchable hydrogels that share many of the same properties of human tissue.
  
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• PewDiePie, Lilly Singh and other YouTube stars to headline original shows, movies

  03-02-2016 20:56 via cbc.ca
  
  YouTube's viral video stars, many of whom have a fan following in the millions, are set to appear next week in original movies and a show, as the video site attempts to attract users to its paid service.
  
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• U.S. private space companies plan surge in launches this year

  03-02-2016 20:50
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. private space companies Space Exploration Technologies and United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and BoeingN>, have scheduled more than 30 launches from Florida this year, up from 18 last year, according to company and Air Force officials.
  
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• Russian cosmonauts breeze through spacewalk outside space station

  03-02-2016 20:27
  By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Two veteran Russian cosmonauts returned to the International Space Station on Wednesday after replacing experiment equipment that is testing how materials and biological samples fare in the harsh environment of space. Station flight engineers Yuri Malenchenko and Sergey Volkov left the station's airlock at 7:55 a.m. EST (1255 GMT) for what was expected to be a 5-1/2-hour spacewalk, a live broadcast on NASA Television showed. Malenchenko and Volkov
  
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• France urges North Korea to avoid tensions with ballistic test

  03-02-2016 20:24
  France's Foreign Ministry voiced concerns on Wednesday about reports North Korea is preparing a ballistic test, urging the country to avoid moves that could fuel tensions in the region. The ministry said that a test would be a violation of international obligations and would merit a firm response from the international community. "We call on North Korea to abstain from any gesture that would risk further increasing regional tensions and to fully and immediately implement United Nations Security
  
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• VIDEO: Meet the mysterious deep-sea 'sock'

  03-02-2016 19:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The mystery of a deep-sea creature that resembles a discarded purple sock has been solved, scientists report.
  
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• Mystery of 'sock of the deep' solved

  03-02-2016 19:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A decades-long mystery of a deep-sea creature that resembles a discarded purple sock has been solved, scientists say.
  
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• Removing worn-out cells makes mice live longer and prosper

  03-02-2016 19:00
  
  Senescent cells promote aging, and removing them makes mice live longer, healthier lives.
  
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• Spacewalkers collect experiment, toss flash drive overboard

  03-02-2016 18:54
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Spacewalking Russians gathered seeds and spores that have been stuck outside the International Space Station for months if not years and gave a ceremonial send-off Wednesday to a flash drive containing special messages for their motherland.
  
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• Researchers break down the science behind 'Resting Bitch Face'

  03-02-2016 18:34 via cbc.ca
  
  Face-reading software shows that people believed to have "resting bitch face" are more likely to show signs of contempt that those believed to have genuinely neutral expressions.
  
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• ‘Three-parent babies’ are ethically permissible, U.S. panel says

  03-02-2016 18:07
  A panel of experts concludes that clinical experiments that create “three-parent babies” are ethical, with limits.
  
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• Germany says carbon emissions down sharply in 2014

  03-02-2016 18:02
  
  Germany was able to substantially reduce emissions of carbon gases in 2014, even if a major re-think is still needed in the transport and farming sectors, the German environment ministry said on Wednesday.
  
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• The Hidden Harm of Antidepressants

  03-02-2016 18:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  An in-depth analysis of clinical trials reveals widespread underreporting of negative side effects, including suicide attempts and aggressive behavior
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• Luxembourg's ultimate offshore investment: space mining

  03-02-2016 17:55
  
  Luxembourg is the first country in Europe to stake out rights for the mining of so-called "near-Earth objects" such as asteroids, according to officials
  
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• Cellphone records to play big role in Tim Bosma murder trial

  03-02-2016 17:49 via cbc.ca
  
  Police used cellphone records, suspect descriptions and a witness's recollection of a unique tattoo to identify a suspect in the Tim Bosma case. Those pieces all led them to Dellen Millard, court heard Wednesday.
  
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• 'Interstellar message in a bottle' to arrive at North Star in 434 years

  03-02-2016 17:07
  Messages from people from around the world are to be beamed into space at the speed of light.
  
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• Fine Brothers abandon 'react' trademark attempt after sparking online outrage

  03-02-2016 17:00 via cbc.ca
  
  After Fine Brothers Entertainment faced the overwhelming wrath of the internet following an attempt to trademark the word "react," the duo behind the popular YouTube channel is back-pedalling.
  
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• Meet 'Squishy Fingers': Flexible Robot Advances Undersea Research

  03-02-2016 16:58
  
  Meet "Squishy Fingers," a new remotely operated vehicle designed to delicately grab and take samples of coral. The ROV, described in a Jan. 20 study in the journal Soft Robotics, will help researchers collect specimens from deep underwater reefs without damaging the corals' fragile bodies. "If we're going to go down and study these systems, then we should be as gentle as we possibly can," said study co-senior author David Gruber, an associate professor of biology at Baruch College in New York Ci
  
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• Dutch police use real eagles to counter drones

  03-02-2016 16:40
  
  Dutch police are turning to a phalanx of winged predators to solve the problem of unauthorised drone flights in restricted areas such as airports and over crowds: eagles.
  
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• How Zika Virus Spreads: Chain of Events Explained

  03-02-2016 16:09
  Zika virus is "now spreading explosively in the Americas," World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said on Thursday (Jan. 28), and 3 million to 4 million people in the Americas could be infected by the virus this year alone, according to the latest WHO estimates. However, U.S. officials have said that the virus is likely to cause only small outbreaks in this country. To understand how the Zika virus spreads to new regions, and how researchers can tell whether a region
  
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• Sexually Transmitted Zika Case Confirmed in Texas

  03-02-2016 16:08
  A person in Dallas appears to have spread the Zika virus to another person through sex, Texas health officials said today. Officials at Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) said that a person in the area was infected with the Zika virus after having sexual contact with another person who had returned from Venezuela, where the virus is spreading, and was ill. "Now that we know Zika virus can be transmitted through sex, this increases our awareness campaign in educating the public about
  
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• Small country, big Universe - Luxembourg aims for space business

  03-02-2016 16:01
  
  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Luxembourg, the tiny European Union state nestled between France, Germany and Belgium, has a big new goal - it wants to be a center for space mining.
  
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• Map of Winter Storm Jonas' Wind Shows Destructive Gusts

  03-02-2016 16:00
  
  Winter storm Jonas brought with it record-breaking amounts of snow and blustering winds when it plowed through the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States in late January. Now, scientists at NASA have created a new map showing the direction and speeds of the massive storm's wind gusts.
  
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• Smartphones Could Generate Own Power with New Coating

  03-02-2016 15:53
  A transparent material that can be attached to a smartphone's touch screen could help the device generate electricity whenever anyone taps it, researchers in China say. Touch screens are now found on most cell phones and tablet computers. Using a touch screen typically involves finger taps, and scientists at Lanzhou University in China reasoned that the mechanical energy from these motions could be converted into electricity to charge the phone's batteries, which could significantly extend the w
  
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• Massive Bird Die-Off Puzzles Alaskan Scientists

  03-02-2016 15:50
  
  Thousands of dead seabirds have washed up on Alaskan shores over the past nine months. Nearly 8,000 common murres (Uria aalge) were found along the shores of Whittier, Alaska, in early January. Over the New Year's holiday, Alaska experienced four days of gale-force winds from the southeast that resulted in dead birds washing ashore, said Robb Kaler, a wildlife biologist for the Alaska branch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
  
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• Scientists in Germany switch on nuclear fusion experiment

  03-02-2016 15:37
  
  GREIFSWALD, Germany (AP) — Scientists in Germany have switched on an experiment they hope will advance the quest for nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power.
  
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• EU lawmakers back diesel test loopholes despite VW scandal

  03-02-2016 15:37
  
  EU lawmakers on Wednesday waved through plans to allow diesel car makers to exceed pollution limits, in a big victory for the auto industry after the Volkswagen scandal.
  
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• Spacewalkers collect experiments, toss flash drive overboard

  03-02-2016 15:29
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Spacewalking Russians gathered seeds and spores that have been stuck outside the International Space Station for months if not years and gave a ceremonial send-off Wednesday to a flash drive containing special messages for their motherland.
  
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• Connected toys especially vulnerable to hackers, security experts warn

  03-02-2016 15:24 via cbc.ca
  
  Recently discovered security flaws in toys such as the Fisher Price Smart toy and HereO smartwatch highlight just how badly the toy industry has neglected security in connected toys, theoretically exposing kids to online threats, internet security researchers say.
  
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• Zika virus: In Catholic Latin America, pregnant women consider abortion over microcephaly fears

  03-02-2016 15:08
  For thousands of women in Latin American countries, the joy of pregnancy has given way to fear. Maternity wards across the region are full of women waiting anxiously for ultrasound scans that will indicate whether the child they are carrying has a shrunken head and damaged brain, as a result of a condition called microcephaly. Some women face a dilemma, pitting their religious beliefs about abortion against the risk that their babies could be born with abnormally small heads and a short life exp
  
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• Russians go spacewalking to collect experiments, test glue

  03-02-2016 14:49
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Two Russians took a spacewalk Wednesday to install fresh experiments outside the International Space Station and gather biological samples stuck outside for years.
  
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• Stunning Nasa animation reveals dynamic magnetic fields of the Sun

  03-02-2016 14:47
  A stunning Nasa animation has captured magnetic field activity on the Sun from January 2011 to July 2013, displaying it through multi-coloured moving lines. The video, uploaded online on 29 January, shows how magnetic field lines shoot off the powerful star, with some looping back towards the surface. The lines themselves are invisible to the human eye but are captured using an instrument called a magnetograph, which measures the strength and direction of magnetic fields.
  
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• Scientists test experimental nuclear fusion device with hydrogen fuel

  03-02-2016 14:36 via cbc.ca
  
  Scientists in northeast Germany were poised to flip the switch Wednesday on an experiment they hope will advance the quest for nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power.
  
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• Nuclear fusion device's 1st test with hydrogen declared a success

  03-02-2016 14:36 via cbc.ca
  
  Scientists in Germany flipped the switch Wednesday on an experiment they hope will advance the quest for nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power.
  
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• 'Everything went well today' with German nuclear fusion device test

  03-02-2016 14:36 via cbc.ca
  
  Scientists in Germany flipped the switch Wednesday on an experiment they hope will advance the quest for nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power.
  
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• Powerful Black-Hole Wind Ruffles Spiral Galaxy

  03-02-2016 13:56
  
  A huge, windy swirl of gas — usually found in the largest, most active galaxies — commands the center of a spiral similar to the Milky Way and may disrupt the galaxy's star formation process, new research shows. The galaxy, spotted by the European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM-Newton satellite telescope observatory, is, like the Milky Way, a spiral with a supermassive black hole at the center. The gases and winds swirl around the black hole at about 10 percent of the speed of light, the s
  
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• Join the Starfleet Academy for a Day: 'Star Trek' Exhibit Goes on Tour This Year

  03-02-2016 13:54
  
  The exhibit, which will fill a 10,000-square-foot (930 square meters) space in the museum, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the famed space franchise and will include props, costumes and technology (such as a medical tricorder table or planet projection mapping). Exact dates for the New York City appearance of Starfleet Academy have not been released. "The exhibition offers visitors the chance to experience life as a Starfleet Academy cadet as they attend the Academy's Career Day in the 26th c
  
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• Saturn Looks Regal in Cassini Photo, Methane Gas and All

  03-02-2016 13:53
  
  A new black-and-white photograph taken by the Cassini probe shows the methane gas on Saturn, and captures the planet's regal air. The sixth planet from the sun is often defined by its system of rings, but the body of Saturn is also an incredible sight to behold. In this image, Cassini captured wavelengths of light that are absorbed by methane — darker regions indicate more methane.
  
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• NASA's Next Great Space Telescope: The Quest Begins

  03-02-2016 13:53
  
  The hunt is on! NASA has begun a quest to select its next big instrument to study the cosmos. Observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope have revolutionized humanity's view of the cosmos. What kind of space telescope does NASA aim to build a few decades from now?
  
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• Cosmonauts Taking Spacewalk Outside Space Station Today: Watch It Live

  03-02-2016 13:40
  
  Two cosmonauts are venturing outside the International Space Station for a 5.5-hour spacewalk this morning, and you can watch all the action live. Yuri Malenchenko and Sergey Volkov of the Russian federal space agency, which is called Roscosmos, will exit the orbiting lab at around 8:10 a.m. EST (1310 GMT) today (Feb. 3). You can watch the extravehicular activity (EVA) live here at Space.com beginning at 7:30 a.m. EST (1230 GMT), courtesy of NASA TV.
  
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• Tim Peake: British astronaut educates children with space ping-pong

  03-02-2016 12:23
  British astronaut Tim Peake played ping-pong with a glob of water and fielded questions from school children on 2 February, as part of an effort to teach school children about space. Hundreds of children gathered at the World Museum in Liverpool to participate in a special question-and-answer session with Peake, who is currently at the International Space Station. Nearly 300,000 children in the United Kingdom were able to watch the special live feed, BT reported on its website.
  
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• Higher temperatures make Zika mosquito spread disease more

  03-02-2016 12:09
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — The mosquito behind the Zika virus seems to operate like a heat-driven missile of disease. The hotter it gets, the better the mosquito that carries Zika virus is at transmitting its buffet of dangerous illnesses, scientists say.
  
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