Science news

• Memory cells enhance strategy for fighting blood cancers

  14-02-2016 23:01
  
  Immune therapy made more powerful with memory T cells.
  
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• Loss for words can be a rare brain disorder, not Alzheimer's

  14-02-2016 22:54
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — A mysterious brain disorder can be confused with early Alzheimer's disease although it isn't robbing patients of their memories but of the words to talk about them.
  
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• New clues illuminate mysteries of ancient Egyptian portraits

  14-02-2016 22:29
  
  New analyses shed light on how ancient Egyptian “mummy paintings” were made.
  
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• World's Oldest Wild Bird Just Became a Mom for the 40th Time

  14-02-2016 19:36
  
  The Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis), named Wisdom, is at least 65 years old but shows no signs of slowing down. Wildlife officials wasted no time in naming the chick, dubbing it K?kini, which means "messenger" in Hawaiian. "Wisdom is an iconic symbol of inspiration and hope," refuge manager Robert Peyton said in a statement.
  
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• Buzzworthy View: See the World Through a Wasp's Eyes

  14-02-2016 19:35
  
  Before a ground wasp leaves its burrow to forage, it takes to the air to perform a peculiar aerodynamic exercise: looping in arcs around the nest and gradually gaining height and distance before flying away. Solitary wasps — along with other insects — are known to perform "learning flights" when they leave their nests, making repeated loops around the nest location. Solitary ground wasps' maneuvers are conducted with precision and follow a distinct pattern common among insect species
  
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• Reptile Dysfunction: Snake Loses Wild Battle Against Spider (Photo)

  14-02-2016 19:34
  
  A farmer in Australia who lives "in the middle of nowhere" got a creepy treat over the weekend when he came upon a dead snake dangling like a titanic trophy from the web of a daddy longlegs. "When I walked out to the shed on Sunday and saw this brown snake strung up by a daddy longlegs in its web, I couldn't believe it," said Patrick Lees, who runs a farm of cereal crops in Weethalle, New South Wales. "I'd never seen anything like it before," Lees told Live Science.
  
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• Sometimes busting myths can backfire

  14-02-2016 19:00
  
  When Neil deGrasse Tyson busted the flat-Earth myth on Twitter, he got the world’s attention. But did the myth-busting work? Or did it backfire?
  
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• No date set for Saudi king's visit to Russia - SPA

  14-02-2016 18:41
  DUBAI (Reuters) - No date has been set for Saudi King Salman's visit to Russia, Saudi Arabia's state news agency SPA reported on Sunday citing a source at the foreign ministry. Russia's RIA news agency reported on Wednesday that the king plans to visit Moscow in mid-March, quoting Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.. SPA said recent media reports about the visit were incorrect. Russia and Saudi Arabia are backing opposing sides in the Syria conflict, and both countries are major oil exporters. (Reporting
  
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• Re-creating womb sounds perks preemies’ attention

  14-02-2016 17:47
  
  Babies born prematurely may benefit from hearing a recording of their mothers’ voices and heartbeats.
  
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• Tiny bare-bones brains made in lab dishes

  14-02-2016 17:10
  
  A reliable way to make standard-issue minibrains could help scientists study the human brain.
  
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• Feral parakeets taking over London, prompting concerns they'll push out native birds

  14-02-2016 17:00 via cbc.ca
  
  In London, parakeets are everywhere and their populations are spreading throughout the U.K. and Europe, prompting concerns the invasive species could harm native ecosystems.
  
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• Navy considers electric gun for a Zumwalt-class destroyer

  14-02-2016 16:15
  BATH, Maine (AP) — Development of a futuristic weapon depicted in video games and science fiction is going well enough that a Navy admiral wants to skip an at-sea prototype in favor of installing an operational unit aboard a destroyer planned to go into service in 2018.
  
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• Quantum Entanglement: Love on a Subatomic Scale

  14-02-2016 13:19
  
  When talking about love and romance, people often bring up unseen and mystical connections. Such connections exist in the subatomic world as well, thanks to a bizarre and counterintuitive phenomenon called quantum entanglement. In 1964, physicist John Bell posited that such changes can occur instantaneously, even if the particles are very far apart.
  
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• What values are important to scientists?

  14-02-2016 06:00
  
  (Michigan State University) While many people are marking today scrutinizing the virtues of their Valentines, Michigan State University revealed a first-of-its-kind study on the virtues and values of scientists. The study, presented at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., surveyed nearly 500 astronomers, biologists, chemists, physicists and earth scientists to identify the core traits of exemplary scientists.
  
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• Tip sheet: Johns Hopkins researchers present findings at science conference in D.C.

  14-02-2016 06:00
  
  (Johns Hopkins Medicine) Johns Hopkins researchers will present at the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2016 Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
  
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• Progress in fighting cancer and infections with T cell therapy

  14-02-2016 06:00
  
  (Technical University of Munich (TUM)) The quest to bring immunotherapy into widespread clinical use against cancer and infectious diseases has made great strides in recent years. For example, clinical trials of adoptive T cell therapy are yielding highly promising results. The latest progress is being reported at AAAS 2016 by three international leaders in the field: Professor Dirk Busch, Technical University of Munich; Professor Chiara Bonini, San Raffaele Scientific Institute; and Professor S
  
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• New hardware to expand fast fiber-to-the-home

  14-02-2016 06:00
  
  (University College London) The cost of deploying fast fiber connections straight to homes could be dramatically reduced by new hardware designed and tested by UCL researchers. The innovative technology will help address the challenges of providing households with high bandwidths while futureproofing infrastructure against the exponentially growing demand for data.
  
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• Market integration could help offset climate-related food insecurity

  14-02-2016 06:00
  
  (Purdue University) Global market integration is key to buffering future commodity prices and food security from the negative effects of climate change on agriculture, says a Purdue University agricultural economist.
  
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• Educator challenges AAAS to join the search for Next Einstein

  14-02-2016 06:00
  
  (African Institute for Mathematical Sciences) Applied mathematics is at a promising juncture in the developing world. Applied mathematics has become a regional priority for research and education, and the last few years have seen the creation of several mathematical research centers in Africa, funded by the World Bank and international organizations and promoted by the Next Einstein Initiative. These innovative centers are now actively engaged in training a cadre of mathematical scientists and p
  
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• Drones for research: DePaul University archaeologist to explain UAV use at Fifa

  14-02-2016 06:00
  
  (DePaul University) The use of drones to document and monitor the Fifa landscape in Jordan for the past three years reveals that looting continues at the site, though at a measurably reduced pace, according to Morag M. Kersel, a DePaul University archaeologist. "Drones are proving to be powerful new tools to archaeologists for documenting excavation, mapping landscapes and identifying buried features. They also can be applied to monitor site destruction and looting in the present," she said.
  
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• Does living near an oil or natural gas well affect your drinking water?

  14-02-2016 06:00
  
  (Stanford University) Does living near an oil or natural gas well affect the quality of your drinking water?'The answer to that question is usually 'no,' but there are exceptions,' said Stanford Professor Rob Jackson. He has foundvery high levels of natural gas in the tap water near active wells, and a surprising number of hydraulically fractured wells that penetrate shallow freshwater aquifers.'In no other industry would you be allowed to inject chemicals into a source of drinking-quality water
  
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• Detective scientists discover ancient clues in mummy portraits

  14-02-2016 06:00
  
  (Northwestern University) Northwestern University researchers have taken CSI to a new level: employing science to investigate details of the materials and methods used by Roman-Egyptian artists to paint mummy portraits more than 2,000 years ago. Clues about the paintings' underlying surface shapes and colors provide very strong evidence as to how many of the portraits and panel paintings were made. The researchers concluded that three of the paintings likely came from the same workshop and may h
  
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• AAAS 2016 -- Food security: Building resilience into the world's food system

  14-02-2016 06:00
  
  (ETH Zurich) The world's food system faces increased exposure to risk from natural disasters to economic and political crises, from climate change to resource degradation. Feeding growing urban populations across the globe presents unprecedented challenges for an already volatile system. Can a holistic approach involving optimization models and big data increase resilience and strengthen food across the entire food value chain?
  
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• Cancer Saliva Test 'Could Be In Homes By 2020'

  14-02-2016 04:55
  
  A 10-minute saliva test could revolutionise the diagnosis of cancer - with the scientist behind the technique hoping it will be available in the UK within four years. Current tests for cancer often have a two-week turnaround time, but this breakthrough means a diagnosis "can be done in a doctor's office while patients wait". So far, saliva tests on lung cancer patients have had "near-perfect" accuracy and the professor who pioneered the breakthrough has told Sky News it could be used to diagnose
  
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• North Korea took 70 percent of Kaesong wages for weapons programme - South Korea

  14-02-2016 04:12
  South Korea said 70 percent of the U.S. dollars paid as wages and fees for the suspended Kaesong industrial project, run jointly with the North, had been diverted for Pyongyang's weapons programme and luxury goods for leader Kim Jong Un. It is the first formal acknowledgement by the South that the 55,000 North Korean workers at the Kaesong complex saw little of the $160 they were paid on average a month. South Korea on Wednesday suspended the project as punishment for the North's long-range rock
  
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• Magnitude-5.8 quake shakes New Zealand city of Christchurch

  14-02-2016 03:57
  WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A magnitude-5.8 earthquake shook the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Sunday but there were no immediate reports of serious damage, nearly five years after a deadly, more powerful quake destroyed much of the city center.
  
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• Cement study seeks nuclear waste solution

  14-02-2016 01:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  UK scientists say they have produced a new mix of cement that should be much more effective at containing nuclear waste in a deep repository.
  
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