Science news

• Today, Not Groundhog Day, Is Winter's Actual Midpoint

  04-02-2016 23:07
  
  Once again, Groundhog Day (Feb. 2) has come and gone, and if you're in my line of work – a broadcast meteorologist – you know that it's the day each year that everyone looks to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for a forecast of whether we will see a continuation of winter, or whether we will enjoy an early spring. According to History.com, the first official celebration of the Groundhog Day took place on Feb. 2, 1887. This inaugural celebration was the idea of Clymer Freas and took pl
  
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• New tarantula named after Johnny Cash

  04-02-2016 23:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Among 14 newly described species of tarantula is Aphonopelma johnnycashi, which lives near Folsom Prison in California.
  
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• Why some birds sing elaborate songs in the winter

  04-02-2016 23:00
  
  Several obvious hypotheses fail to explain why great reed warblers sing in winter.
  
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• U.S. assets to track expected North Korean space launch - Carter

  04-02-2016 22:40
  NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nevada (Reuters) - The United States will position its missile defence assets to track an expected North Korean missile launch, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Thursday. Carter declined comment any specific plans to move a large Sea-based X-Band radar to a different location or position Navy ships in the region ahead of the launch. He said the United States remained concerned about North Korea's nuclear and missile development programs. (Reporting by Andrea Shala
  
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• Brazil researchers hope to test Zika virus treatment in a year

  04-02-2016 22:33
  By Daniel Flynn and Brad Haynes SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Leading researchers in Brazil are borrowing techniques used to accelerate the fight against Ebola in the hope of developing a Zika virus treatment that could be tested in humans in a year. Professor Jorge Kalil, head of the state-run Butantan Institute, told Reuters this week scientists there planned to use animals to produce antibodies to tackle the virus, which is suspected of causing brain damage in more than 4,000 infants in the South Ame
  
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• Brazil reports Zika infection from blood transfusions

  04-02-2016 22:33
  Brazilian health officials said on Thursday they have confirmed two cases of transmission of Zika through transfusions of blood from donors who had been infected with the mosquito-borne virus that is spreading rapidly through the Americas. Marcelo Addas Carvalho, director of the Blood Centre at the Sao Paulo state University of Campinas, said genetic testing confirmed that a man who received a blood transfusion using blood from a donor with Zika in March 2015 became infected with the virus, alth
  
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• Italian consortium set to win giant Chile telescope contract

  04-02-2016 22:32
  
  SANTIAGO (Reuters) - An Italian consortium, including construction company Astaldi Spa, is close to securing a contract to build the world's largest telescope in the Chilean desert, project owner the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said on Thursday.
  
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• Data gaps hinder explanation for Alaska seabird die-off

  04-02-2016 22:30
  
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Federal scientists investigating a massive die-off of common murres (merz) off Alaska say they're facing multiple unknowns about the seabirds, including what they eat in winter.
  
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• Inadequate testing thwarts efforts to measure Zika's impact

  04-02-2016 22:29
  
  RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - One major hurdle is thwarting efforts to measure the extent of the Zika epidemic and its suspected links to thousands of birth defects in Brazil: accurate diagnosis of a virus that still confounds blood tests.
  
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• Meet the tarantula in black

  04-02-2016 22:26
  
  Named for Johnny Cash, a new species of tarantula makes its home in the shadow of Folsom Prison.
  
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• Obama seeks $10 US-a-barrel oil tax to fund clean transport

  04-02-2016 22:19 via cbc.ca
  
  U.S. President Barack Obama is proposing to implement a $10 US-a-barrel tax on oil in the 2017 budget he presents to Congress next week, the White House says. The proposed fee would fund a range of green transportation initiatives.
  
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• Energy Evolves as 4th Industrial Revolution Looks to Nature (Op-Ed)

  04-02-2016 22:12
  Lynn Scarlett is global managing director for policy at The Nature Conservancy. In Davos, Switzerland, at the 2016 World Economic Forum annual meeting, industry leaders focused on what they call the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Whereas the First Industrial Revolution used steam and waterpower in manufacturing, the second used electricity to power factories, allowing production on a much larger scale.
  
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• New tarantula is named after music legend Johnny Cash

  04-02-2016 22:11
  
  Scientists scouring the fields of Folsom, California found a new kind of black tarantula which they have named after Johnny Cash, the American music legend who sang of the jailhouse blues.
  
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• Five Facts That Reveal a Warming Planet (Op-Ed)

  04-02-2016 22:11
  "Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we did not deny Sputnik was up there," Obama said. Despite decades of research, too many U.S. politicians still deny climate change , a phenomenon so thoroughly documented as to find agreement among virtually every leading body of American scientists — NASA, NOAA, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society, just to na
  
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• Here's how fruit flies sing to find love

  04-02-2016 22:10 via cbc.ca
  
  Did you know that male fruit flies sing to get the attention of the ladies? New research suggests that fruit flies can even adjust their singing to suit their audience. CBC Radio science columnist Torah Kachur explains why that's a big surprise.
  
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• Whale washes ashore on British beach

  04-02-2016 22:09
  
  A sperm whale washed up in shallow water off a beach in Britain on Thursday, the 29th such stranding in Europe in the last two weeks.
  
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• Morocco launches first solar power plant

  04-02-2016 21:58
  
  King Mohammed VI on Thursday inaugurated Morocco's first solar power plant, a massive project that the country sees as part of its goal of boosting its clean energy output.
  
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• How tree planting in Europe may have actually boosted global warming

  04-02-2016 21:24 via cbc.ca
  
  An expansion of Europe's forests towards dark green conifers has stoked global warming, according to a study on Thursday at odds with a widespread view that planting more trees helps human efforts to slow rising temperatures.
  
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• Ancient wildebeest cousin boasted bizarre dinosaur-like trait

  04-02-2016 21:14
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In an ancient streambed on Kenya's Rusinga Island, scientists have unearthed fossils of a wildebeest-like creature named Rusingoryx that boasted a weird nasal structure more befitting of a dinosaur than a mammal.
  
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• NASA Jupiter Probe Fine-Tunes Path to Giant Planet

  04-02-2016 20:32
  
  A NASA spacecraft now has Jupiter more squarely in its sights ahead of its July 4 arrival at the solar system's largest planet.
  
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• 100-Foot Asteroid to Buzz Earth Next Month

  04-02-2016 20:32
  
  An asteroid as long as a basketball court will give Earth a close shave next month — though scientists aren't sure just how close. The space rock could come as close as 11,000 miles (17,700 kilometers) — less than 5 percent of the distance from Earth to the moon — or stay up to 9 million miles (14.5 million km) away during the flyby, NASA officials said. "The variation in possible closest-approach distances is due to the wide range of possible trajectories for this ob
  
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• Race Is a Social Construct, Scientists Argue

  04-02-2016 20:22
  More than 100 years ago, American sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois was concerned that race was being used as a biological explanation for what he understood to be social and cultural differences between different populations of people. In an article published today (Feb. 4) in the journal Science, four scholars say racial categories are weak proxies for genetic diversity and need to be phased out. They've called on the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to put together a pan
  
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• Forest management not so hot at fighting warming

  04-02-2016 20:00
  
  Forest management practices in Europe have slightly worsened climate change, new research shows.
  
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• Colombia warns on Zika baby risk

  04-02-2016 19:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Health officials in Colombia are warning that as many as 600 babies could be born with microcephaly this year.
  
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• Soviets nailed first landing on moon

  04-02-2016 19:00
  
  The first spacecraft to safely land on the moon touched down on the lunar surface in 1966.
  
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• Health officials want more Zika samples, data from Brazil

  04-02-2016 18:03
  
  RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil is not sharing enough samples and disease data to let researchers determine whether the Zika virus is, as feared, linked to the increased number of babies born with abnormally small heads in the South American country, U.N. and U.S. health officials say.
  
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• Nasa says asteroid 2013 TX68 could pass as close to 11,000 miles from Earth on 5 March

  04-02-2016 18:02
  Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced on 2 January that a small asteroid could pass relatively close to Earth next month – in fact, much closer to our planet than the Moon. Asteroid 2013 TX68 is to make its closest pass by Earth on 5 March. The average distance of the Moon from the Earth, by comparison, is 238,555 miles, according to Nasa.
  
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• Microbes may help bears stay healthy when fat for hibernation

  04-02-2016 18:00
  
  Brown bears fatten up for hibernation without suffering from weight-related problems. A new study shows that their gut microbes may help.
  
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• Brazil confirms Zika infection from a blood transfusion

  04-02-2016 17:49
  Brazilian health authorities confirmed on Thursday a case of transmission of Zika through a transfusion of blood from a donor who had been infected with the mosquito-borne virus that is spreading rapidly through the Americas. The health department of Campinas, an industrial city near Sao Paulo, said a man with gunshot wounds became infected with Zika after multiple blood transfusions in April 2015. Officials said they determined that one of the people whose donated blood was used in the transfus
  
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• 4 New 'Flatworm' Species: No Brains, No Eyes, No Problem

  04-02-2016 17:41
  
  Four new species of deep-sea flatwormlike animals that look like deflated whoopee cushions and lack complex organs have helped solve a complicated puzzle about their group's placement on the tree of life, scientists found.  
  
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• Kik Messenger under scrutiny over possible link to U.S. teen's murder

  04-02-2016 17:14 via cbc.ca
  
  Kik Messenger, a Canadian-made smartphone app popular among younger teens, is on the defensive following the stabbing death of a 13-year-old girl in Virginia who told friends she was using Kik to connect with an 18-year-old man.
  
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• Head Trauma Linked to Same 'Plaques' Seen in Alzheimer's

  04-02-2016 16:28
  People with brain injuries from trauma to the head may have a buildup of the same plaques seen in people with Alzheimer's disease in their brains, a small, new study suggests. Moreover, the areas of the brain where the plaques were found in people with brain injuries overlapped with the areas where plaques are usually found in people with Alzheimer's. "People, after a head injury, are more likely to develop dementia, but it isn’t clear why," study co-author David Sharp, a neurology profess
  
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• Riding High: Pot-Smoking Drivers Evade Blood Tests

  04-02-2016 16:27
  People who drive after smoking marijuana are at greater risk of car crashes, but blood tests to check for the drug may not be a reliable way to catch impaired drivers, a new study suggests. Researchers found that levels of marijuana's active ingredient — tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC — decrease very quickly in the blood. This means that a person who was impaired by marijuana while behind the wheel might not have a positive test result by the time a test is administered a few hours lat
  
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• Aging May Slow When Certain Cells Are Killed

  04-02-2016 16:27
  Killing off certain aging cells in the body may lead to a longer life, suggests a new study done in genetically engineered mice. The drug that the researchers administered to the mice only worked because the mice were transgenic, and researchers "can't make transgenic humans," noted Christin Burd, an assistant professor of molecular genetics at The Ohio State University, who was not involved in the new study. In the study, the researchers developed the genetically engineered mice.
  
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• New HPV Vaccination Recommendations Released

  04-02-2016 16:26
  Health officials issued new recommendations this week in an update to the vaccine schedule for children, including a recommendation to get a new type of vaccine against HPV, and an update to the timing of this vaccine for some children. The updated schedule for children and teens was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with a corresponding policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The update is an opportunity to remind people that "vaccine-preventabl
  
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• Zika Prevention: The Buzz on Genetically Modified Mosquitoes

  04-02-2016 16:25
  With Zika virus on the rise in parts of South and Central America, experts are seeking new ways to curb the spread of the potentially dangerous virus. The Zika virus can cause an infection with mild symptoms, but experts are concerned that infections in pregnant women may lead to a condition called microcephaly in their children. On Feb. 1, the World Health Organization announced that microcephaly possibly linked to the Zika virus constitutes a public health emergency.
  
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• No cause found yet for botched French drug trial - minister

  04-02-2016 16:04
  By Reuters Staff PARIS (Reuters) - - An initial report into a drug trial in northwestern France that left one person dead and five others hospitalized last month did not identify the exact cause, French Health Minister Marisol Touraine said on Thursday. Touraine told a news conference that the condition of the five people who were hospitalized was improving and that the trial had been conducted in line with regulations. "It's not possible to identify the direct causes of the accident," Touraine
  
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• Zika virus: Precious samples sought from Brazil by U.S., Europe

  04-02-2016 15:56 via cbc.ca
  
  ​Brazil is not sharing enough samples and disease data to let researchers determine whether the Zika virus is, as feared, linked to the increased number of babies born with abnormally small heads in the South American country, U.N. and U.S. health officials say.
  
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• Doing these things can lead to bear, cougar, coyote attacks

  04-02-2016 15:27 via cbc.ca
  
  Risky human behaviour in the outdoors has been a factor in a growing number of attacks on people by large carnivores such as bears, cougars and coyotes, says a study.
  
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• TPP would be disastrous for Canada's innovators, Jim Balsillie warns

  04-02-2016 13:50 via cbc.ca
  
  Jim Balsillie says future and present innovation in Canada will wither under the weight of the just-signed Trans Pacific Partnership. The former co-CEO of Research in Motion speaks out against a deal he says will see Canadians generating prosperity for others.
  
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• Daddy Longlegs Fossil Keeps Erection for 99 Million Years

  04-02-2016 13:50
  
  That's how long the penis of a newly discovered arachnid fossil has been standing at attention. The harvestman, a spider relative also known as a daddy longlegs, was encased in amber during the Cretaceous in what is now Myanmar. "It was very surprising to see the genitals, as they are usually tucked away inside the harvestman's body," said Jason Dunlop, the curator of the arachnid, millipede and centipede collections at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, who reported the discovery online
  
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• Moon Mission's Living Monuments: Apollo 14's 'Moon Trees' 45 Years Later

  04-02-2016 13:39
  
  The "Moon Trees" — redwoods, loblolly pines, sycamores, Douglas firs and sweetgums sprouted from seeds carried to the moon and back between Jan. 31 and Feb. 9, 1971 — are reminders of the Apollo 14 mission, even if some, if not many, of the trees' locations have now been lost to the passage of time. Commander Alan Shepard and lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell explored the moon's Fra Mauro highlands, while command module pilot Stuart Roosa orbited above. Shepard and Mitchell conducted
  
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• Audi Rockets to Super Bowl with Apollo Astronaut-Themed Ad

  04-02-2016 13:39
  
  Audi on Wednesday (Feb. 3) debuted its astronaut-themed ad, "Commander," which is scheduled to run Sunday (Feb. 7) during the first quarter of the game between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers football teams. When his son hands over the keys to an Audi R8 V10 Plus, he gets behind the wheel and relives the thrill of a Saturn V-rocket-like ride under the stars.
  
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• The Truth Is Out There: CIA Publishes UFO Investigation Tips

  04-02-2016 13:22
  
  In 1947, New Mexico police officer Lonnie Zamora was chasing a speeding car when he heard a loud noise. What Zamora reported is still under intense dispute decades later. Zamora backed away but saw the UFO rise into the sky and speed away until it disappeared.
  
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• Mesmerizing Satellite Video Captures Magical View of Earth

  04-02-2016 13:22
  
  Please direct your attention to the absolutely magical video of planet Earth from space. The satellite is in a geostationary orbit, positioned over Japan and Australia. The video captures an array of stunning colors, such as the reddish-brown and green landscapes, the blue hues of the ocean, as well as textures (look at those clouds!) that aren't always visible in satellite images.
  
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• When Black Holes Run Out of Gas, They Turn Off the Lights

  04-02-2016 13:21
  
  Some of the brightest objects in the known universe may abruptly go dark at the whims of the black holes that power them, new research shows. A recent study reveals a dramatic example of this newly discovered type of object, called a "changing-look quasar," which seems to have winked out in as little as a decade when its black hole no longer had gas to suck in. "This is an intrinsic change in the gas that's falling on the supermassive black hole," Jessie Runnoe, a postdoctoral student at Pennsyl
  
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• Russian Spacewalkers Maintain Experiments, Launch Ceremonial Flash Drive Into Space

  04-02-2016 13:21
  
  Two cosmonauts completed a spacewalk today to retrieve, install and adjust experiments clinging to the outside of the International Space Station and to jettison a ceremonial flash drive into space. Sergey Volkov and Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian federal space agency, known as Roscosmos, ventured outside the station today (Feb. 3) for a quicker-than-planned spacewalk of 4 hours and 45 minutes. The mission was Volkov's fourth spacewalk and mission commander Malenchenko's sixth &m
  
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• Planet-Building 'Flying Saucer' Disk Is Surprisingly Cool (Video)

  04-02-2016 13:21
  
  Everyone knows that UFOs are cool, but the surprisingly low temperatures of one cosmic flying saucer may force astronomers to rethink their ideas about how planets form. Scientists have made the first direct measurements of large dust grains in the planet-forming region of a disk dubbed the Flying Saucer, which surrounds a young star in the star-formation region Rho Ophiuchi, about 400 light-years from Earth. The researchers created a video to zoom in on the cosmic Flying Saucer to highligh
  
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• Lego 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Video Game Coming in June (Video)

  04-02-2016 13:20
  
  Good news for "Star Wars" fans who can't get enough of "The Force Awakens": The popular Lego video game series will add a new installment that closely mirrors the hit film. Even the newly released trailer for the Lego "Force Awakens" video game — which will hit stores on June 28 — has some inside jokes for people who obsessively watched the film's trailer last year, anxiously awaiting the first "Star Wars" movie to hit theaters since "The Clone Wars" in 2008. In the trailer, Lego Kyl
  
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• Major Tim to ground control - happy birthday to my amazing wife

  04-02-2016 12:45
  Major Tim Peake sent a birthday message to his wife from space on Chris Evans's Radio 2 breakfast show.
  
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