Science news

• Unknowns about Zika virus continue to frustrate

  12-02-2016 23:28
  
  As worry about the Zika virus outbreak continues to ratchet up, scientists are scrambling to understand what threats the virus poses and how to stop it from spreading.
  
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• Despite rocky start, Philae comet probe has raked in science data

  12-02-2016 23:14
  
  Twelve years ago, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched a spacecraft with a very precious cargo -- a robot laboratory designed to land on a comet and photograph, prod and sniff its surface.
  
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• The Moon Visits the Hyades Monday Night

  12-02-2016 23:07
  The moon will interact with the beautiful, V-shaped Hyades cluster on Presidents Day evening. If the skies are clear in your area on Feb. 15, be sure to look up toward the moon, just past first quarter phase and high in the southern part of the sky as darkness falls. The famous Pleiades cluster is in the bull's shoulder, while the bull's face is plainly marked by the fine V-shaped cluster of the Hyades.
  
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• Vaping linked to host of new health risks

  12-02-2016 23:06
  
  Animal studies and analyses of gene activity point to broad range of potential new health risks from vaping affecting everything from sperm to heart and immunity to mental health.
  
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• Pope, Russian Orthodox chief say Christians being 'exterminated'

  12-02-2016 23:03
  HAVANA (Reuters) - Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill on Friday called on the international community to protect Christians under assault in the Middle East in apparent reference to violence by the militant group Islamic State. "In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated," they said a joint declaration following the first-ever meeting between a Roman Catholic pop
  
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• Beware Falling Rocks: Asteroid Day Will Highlight Impact Risks

  12-02-2016 23:03
  
  An international band of asteroid experts gathered Tuesday to discuss the future of asteroid research and avoidance in preparation for the second annual Asteroid Day. Now, June 30 is Asteroid Day, part of a campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of an asteroid strike on Earth. At a press conference Feb. 9, the organizations behind Asteroid Day announced their plans for the latest effort, inviting a panel of experts to speak about the need for more study of asteroids as well as a commitment t
  
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• This giant, flightless bird roamed Canada's North 50 million years ago

  12-02-2016 22:32 via cbc.ca
  
  More than 50 million years ago, Canada's Arctic was a warm, wet place, home to alligators, giant tortoises and — as it now turns out —giant, flightless birds.
  
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• The best advice on Zika virus and pregnancy is to know the unknowns

  12-02-2016 22:05
  
  There are some practical steps pregnant women and women who want to be pregnant can take to minimize risk of Zika virus infection.
  
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• 2016 Canadian International Auto Show opens in Toronto

  12-02-2016 21:52 via cbc.ca
  
  It’s show time in Toronto for the automotive crowd, as the country’s largest expo of cars, trucks, new concepts, classics and other vehicles opens at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. More than 1,000 vehicles will be on display during the Canadian International Auto Show until Feb. 21.
  
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• Quake mobile app invites public test

  12-02-2016 21:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A new app that turns a smartphone into a mobile seismometer is being rolled out by California scientists.
  
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• US, Canada and Mexico sign clean energy pact

  12-02-2016 21:32
  
  Canada, Mexico and the United States signed a draft agreement Friday to curb greenhouse gas emissions while increasing their energy interdependence.
  
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• US inspectors ensure no nasty surprises on Valentine's Day

  12-02-2016 21:28
  
  When -- or if -- that bunch of flowers arrives on Sunday for Valentine's Day, spare a thought for Edward Putland.
  
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• Feds: Remove 3 California foxes from endangered species list

  12-02-2016 21:03
  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal wildlife officials recommended Friday that three fox subspecies native to California's Channel Islands be removed from the endangered species, saying their populations have made an historic recovery.
  
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• The Future of Gravitational Wave Astronomy

  12-02-2016 20:35 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Fully opening this new window on the universe will take decades—even centuries
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• Depression linked to genes inherited from Neanderthals: study

  12-02-2016 20:30
  
  After a massive study linking tens of thousands of modern people's medical records to their genetic histories, certain genes inherited from Neanderthals have been linked to psychiatric disorders, blood clotting and addictive behaviors, researchers said Friday.
  
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• Iran says ready to put rivalries aside with Saudi Arabia

  12-02-2016 20:16
  By Robin Emmott and Noah Barkin MUNICH (Reuters) - Iran and Saudi Arabia must overcome strained relations and work for stability in Syria and the Middle East, Iran's foreign minister said on Friday, a day after Syrian peace talks brought the rivals to the same table for the first time in months. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference hours after his Saudi counterpart addressed the event, Mohammed Javad Zarif said he wanted to stop the bickering and had a simple message: "We need to work toge
  
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• New app puts an earthquake detector in your pocket

  12-02-2016 20:00
  
  Smartphone app MyShake uses motion-sensing accelerometers to detect nearby quakes. The app could provide early warnings of incoming tremors, its creators say.
  
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• Microbe mix varies by kind of home

  12-02-2016 20:00
  
  Urban homes hold more human-associated bacteria compared with rural homes. Subdivided houses with lots of rooms and poor ventilation could be to blame.
  
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• OK Go Releases First Zero-G Music Video

  12-02-2016 18:59
  
  OK Go has raised the music-video bar yet again.
  
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• This Is What Gravitational Waves Sound Like (Video)

  12-02-2016 18:58
  
  This would have blown Albert Einstein's mind: We now know what ripples in the fabric of space-time sound like. On Thursday (Feb. 11), scientists with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project announced that they had made history's first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves, mysterious phenomena first predicted a century ago by Einstein in his theory of general relativity. LIGO's two detectors — one in Louisiana and the other in Washington state &md
  
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• 'Delighted' Neil deGrasse Tyson Hails Gravitational Waves Find (Video)

  12-02-2016 18:58
  
  Neil deGrasse Tyson took the stage at Columbia University to speak after a historic result was revealed: the first direct detection of gravitational waves. Columbia University hosts several researchers in the global collaboration working on the detectors, and yesterday the collaborators finally got to reveal that they have measured impossibly tiny variations in timing caused by the merging of two black holes 1.3 billion years ago.
  
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• South Sudan rebel leader wants soldiers out in further hurdle to peace deal

  12-02-2016 17:59
  By Drazen Jorgic NAIROBI (Reuters) - South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar said on Friday he wanted soldiers cleared out of the capital before he returns to take up the post of vice president under a peace deal, in another hurdle to efforts to end more than a year of fighting. President Salva Kiir gave Machar his old job back as deputy leader late on Thursday, raising hopes of a breakthrough after months of troubled negotiations and failed ceasefires. "If this is done within a week’s time,
  
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• Defeating Zika: The Big Questions Researchers Are Trying to Answer

  12-02-2016 17:42
  
  At least a dozen research groups are now working on developing a Zika virus vaccine, according the World Health Organization (WHO). More-immediate questions will need to be addressed in order for scientists and health officials to diagnose and contain the virus in the meantime, and to determine whether Zika is linked to microcephaly — a disorder in which babies are born with smaller-than-average heads — and Guillaine-Barré syndrome, a neurological disorder. Live Science has ro
  
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• Low B12 Seen in Aging, Autism and Schizophrenia

  12-02-2016 17:41
  The brains of the elderly and younger people with autism and schizophrenia may share a common link: Both have low levels of vitamin B12, researchers say. The facts that blood levels of B12 do not always mirror brain levels of the vitamin, and that brain levels decrease more over the years than blood levels, may imply that various types of neurological diseases — such as old-age dementia and the disorders of autism and schizophrenia — could be related to poor uptake of vitamin B12 fro
  
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• High Numbers: Are More People Really Smoking Pot?

  12-02-2016 17:41
  Marijuana use may not be rising as quickly as thought — more people may simply be willing to admit to it, new research suggests. The widespread relaxation of marijuana laws in the U.S. may have reduced the stigma of smoking pot, the researchers reported today (Feb. 10) in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. The new study comes on the heels of an October 2015 study, in which researchers said they found that marijuana use had more than doubled in the U.S. over the decade between 2003 and 2013, and
  
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• A meteorite probably didn't kill that bus driver in India last week, scientists say

  12-02-2016 17:38 via cbc.ca
  
  Scientists have expressed doubt that a man in Tamil Nadu, India, was the first person to have been confirmed killed by a meteorite strike, as the state's top official has declared.
  
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• Satellites Could Help Discover Modern and Ancient Shipwrecks

  12-02-2016 17:30 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Discovering otherwise undetected shipwrecks scattered throughout the oceans could shed light on previously lost history 
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• 'Lost' Roads of Ancient Rome Discovered with 3D Laser Scanners

  12-02-2016 17:15
  
  Laser scans of Britain's terrain may reveal weathered Roman roads that have been hidden for centuries across the countryside of northern England. Over the past 18 years, the U.K.'s Environment Agency has used a technology called lidar to collect data for more than 72 percent of England's surface. This remote sensing technique bounces laser light beams off the ground to make 3D terrain maps that can peer below vegetation and reveal the contours of every ditch and boulder below.
  
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• Unmanned Sub Hunters & Robot Battle Managers On the Horizon, DARPA Says

  12-02-2016 17:14
  
  Space battles, unmanned submarine hunters and artificial intelligent systems that help human commanders make split-second decisions may sound like science fiction fodder, but military researchers are hard at work trying to make them a reality. The U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has put millions of dollars into projects to develop such technologies, as well as other projects to make cheap, reusable rockets and war technology, officials with the agency said Wedne
  
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• Data centre dilemma: How online consumption is leading to higher energy use, costs

  12-02-2016 17:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Every time you update your Facebook profile, every time you email a friend, every time you stream your favourite show, you're using data. And the energy required to power that usage is increasingly becoming a problem.
  
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• Namibia: Amazing close-up photos of African wildlife in its natural habitat

  12-02-2016 16:53
  Photographer Will Burrard-Lucas has photographed some of Africa's most iconic species, in the Namibia region of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA). In collaboration with WWF, Burrard-Lucas set up a camera trap, enabling him to photograph the animals in their natural environment without them being disturbed. Founder of Camtraptions and BeetleCam, Burrard-Lucas' use of camera traps within this project is of great benefit, due to the camera's subtlety in surveying land use a
  
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• Europe's comet-chasing Rosetta mission: timeline

  12-02-2016 16:38
  
  A timeline of Europe's Rosetta mission, which marked the end of a chapter Friday when ground controllers said they would stop trying to contact robot lab Philae on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
  
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• Philae comet lander likely dead now, scientists say

  12-02-2016 16:14 via cbc.ca
  
  European scientists have given up hope of restoring contact with space probe Philae, which successfully landed on a comet in a pinpoint operation only to lose power because its solar-driven batteries were in the shade.
  
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• U.S. sees Saudi Arabia and UAE sending commandos to Syria

  12-02-2016 16:07
  By Phil Stewart BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday he expected both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to send special operations forces to Syria to help local opposition fighters in their drive to retake the city of Raqqa from Islamic State. Carter, who has long sought greater participation of Sunni Arab allies in Syria, did not disclose how many commandos he expected them to deploy nor the timing of those deployments. "We’re going to try to give
  
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• Drought caused by El Nino threatening southern Africa: UN

  12-02-2016 15:19
  
  The El Nino weather phenomenon, one of the worst in 50 years, has caused intense drought in southern Africa that will have a "devastating" impact on the region's food security, the UN food agency warned on Friday.
  
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• Kerry, South Korea counterpart meet to discuss North Korea -State Department

  12-02-2016 15:15
  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his South Korean counterpart met in Munich on Friday to discuss North Korea's violations of Security Council resolutions and the need to continue the two countries' close coordination, the State Department said in a statement.
  
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• Farmers on alert for livestock virus

  12-02-2016 15:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Farmers are being warned to expect an outbreak of a highly infectious animal disease called bluetongue this summer.
  
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• Patients Unsure about Value of Cutting-Edge Gene Editing Technology

  12-02-2016 15:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Some affected groups are still weighing the potential benefits and threats of deploying such interventions for medical care
   
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• Patients Unsure about the Value of Cutting-Edge Gene-Editing Technology

  12-02-2016 15:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Some affected groups are still weighing the potential benefits and threats of deploying such interventions for medical care
   
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• U.S.' Kerry meets Chinese counterpart on North Korea in Munich - State Department

  12-02-2016 14:47
  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with his Chinese counterpart in Munich on Friday to discuss U.N. efforts to address repeated North Korea violations of Security Council resolutions, the State Department said. "The Secretary reaffirmed U.S. commitments to security and stability on the Korean peninsula and urged China to use their influence in Pyongyang to help the international community increase pressure on the DPRK," spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
  
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• 95 Burmese Pythons (and Counting) Captured in Everglades

  12-02-2016 14:33
  
  The Burmese python has worn out its welcome, and its time is nigh. For the second time since 2013, Florida wildlife officials are inviting people near and far to search for Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) in the Everglades. Depending on where they spot the invasive species, participants can either capture or kill the snakes, which are generally about 6 feet (almost 2 meters) in length, said Carli Segelson, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
  
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• Neanderthal-Human Trysts May Be Linked to Modern Depression, Heart Disease

  12-02-2016 14:31
  Ancient trysts between Neanderthals and modern humans may have influenced modern risks for depression, heart attacks, nicotine addiction, obesity and other health problems, researchers said. The Neanderthals were once the closest relatives of modern humans. "This raises several fascinating questions like, 'What effect does the Neanderthal DNA that remains in modern humans have on our biology?'" said study senior author John Capra, an evolutionary geneticist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
  
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• Stunning New Image Shows Gravitational Waves As Two Black Holes Merge

  12-02-2016 14:26
  
  A gorgeous new image released by NASA reveals the momentous first detection of gravitational waves rippling through space-time. "We have detected gravitational waves," David Reitze, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, said today in a news briefing. The telltale signs of relativity in action showed up as a teensy blip in the data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory — a set of two separate detectors in Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana.
  
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• Hear 2 Black Holes Merging in this Unforgettable Sound Clip

  12-02-2016 14:21
  
  A new sound file released today (Feb. 11) reveals the sound of gravitational waves rippling through space-time as two black holes merge, forming one giant black hole. "It's the first time the universe has spoken to us with gravitational waves," David Reitze, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, said today in a news briefing. To get the unforgettable sound, the researchers working with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) scientific collaboration used l
  
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• Scientists resigned to loss of contact with Philae space probe

  12-02-2016 14:10
  Scientists say there is "almost zero chance" of hearing from the Philae space probe again after it touched down on a comet more than a year ago.
  
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• Tanzanians jailed for British wildlife pilot murder

  12-02-2016 14:09
  
  Four Tanzanians facing trial for the murder of a British conservationist whose helicopter was shot down have been jailed for 20 years for possessing firearms, lawyers said Friday.
  
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• 'Time to say goodbye' to comet probe Philae: space agency

  12-02-2016 14:04
  
  Ground controllers said Friday they would stop sending commands to comet probe Philae, announcing it was "time to say goodbye" to the robot lab resting after a captivating science mission.
  
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• Apollo 11 Crew Wrote on Moon Ship Walls, Smithsonian 3D Scan Reveals

  12-02-2016 13:52
  
  Now, thanks to a surprising discovery by the Smithsonian, history can possibly add "Smelly Waste!" to that list. "By writing 'Smelly Waste!' on there, we presume that [the astronauts] were warning themselves they probably should open this locker again at their own peril — and probably leave it closed," said Allan Needell, a curator in the space history division at the museum. For the past 40 years, the Apollo 11 command module has been on display at the National Air and Space Museum in a p
  
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• Zika outbreak in Brazil: Doctors study mothers and babies for proof that virus causes microcephaly

  12-02-2016 13:50
  Doctors and researchers in Brazil are studying mothers and babies in an attempt to answer the most urgent question of the country's Zika outbreak: Is the virus causing a spike in birth defect of microcephaly, and, if so, how great is the risk? Microcephaly is a condition where a baby is born with a significantly smaller skull than would be expected. It is usually a rare neurological condition but has been occurring in Brazil with increasing frequency since the Zika outbreak.
  
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• Amazing! See the 'Most Detailed Astronomy Image' Ever Taken

  12-02-2016 13:40
  
  A collection of 16 telescopes worked together to capture the highest-resolution astronomical image ever taken, comparable to spotting a 50-cent piece on the moon while standing on the Earth, according to a statement from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). To capture the image, astronomers combined Russia's orbiting radio satellite Spektr-R with 15 ground-based radio telescopes, including the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array. The resolution of a telescope depen
  
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