Science news

• Listen: Astronauts Hear Eerie 'Music' In Space

  22-02-2016 23:35
  
  A recording of strange "music" heard by three NASA astronauts after they reached the far side of the Moon in 1969 has been made public for the first time. Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan were aboard Apollo 10 at the time, and a member of the trio can be heard in the recording comparing the sound to "outer-space-type music". The astronauts were reluctant to tell NASA bosses about the noises for fear they would not be taken seriously, or even dropped from future space missions.
  
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• 'Music' Heard by Apollo 10 Astronauts at the Moon Not from Aliens

  22-02-2016 23:28
  
  Did Apollo 10 astronauts hear alien music coming from outer space when they orbited the moon in 1969? In the audio recordings from the Apollo 10 mission (which you can hear in this video from Space.com), astronaut Gene Cernan(who was piloting the lunar module) asks John Young (who was piloting the command module) if he hears "that whistling sound?" It is Cernan who calls it "music" and says it "even sounds outer-spacey." Later, the two men ask Tom Stafford (who is in the lunar module with Cernan
  
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• The Immortals Behind the Stars (Op-Ed)

  22-02-2016 23:04
  
  Jordanna Max Brodsky is the author of the new book "The Immortals," a modern tale that follows the ancient Artemis. The ancient Greeks called constellations katasterismoi, meaning "placings of the stars" — placed by the gods.
  
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• Will the World's Largest Supercollider Spawn a Black Hole? (Op-Ed)

  22-02-2016 22:58
  
  Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, the United States' biggest Large Hadron Collider research institution. The most commonly mentioned is the idea that the LHC can make a black hole.
  
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• To Prevent Another Dust Bowl, the US Must Sow the Right Seeds

  22-02-2016 22:55
  
  Diane Banegas currently works in the area of science delivery for the research arm of the U.S. Forest Service. This is especially true if the land is in an arid region with less than 11 inches (28 centimeters) of annual precipitation.
  
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• Moon Mail: Earth's Moon Rises on New US Postage Stamp

  22-02-2016 22:45
  
  You can now use the moon to send mail around the Earth. The U.S. Postal Service on Monday (Feb. 22) began sales of "The Moon," a new postage stamp that can be used to mail a one-ounce letter to any country to which First-Class Mail International service is available. "'The Moon' features a detailed photo of the full moon," the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) wrote in a press release.
  
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• Sea levels are rising faster than they have in 2,800 years

  22-02-2016 22:31 via cbc.ca
  
  Sea levels on Earth are rising several times faster than they have in the past 2,800 years and are accelerating because of man-made global warming, according to new studies.
  
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• US, Canada to seek 40 percent cut in Lake Erie phosphorus

  22-02-2016 22:05
  TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The U.S. and Canadian governments have agreed to seek steep cuts in phosphorus runoff into sections of Lake Erie plagued by harmful algae blooms that foul drinking water and kill fish.
  
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• Vaginal ring somewhat effective at preventing HIV infection

  22-02-2016 21:40
  
  Studies of vaginal ring for HIV protection show promise, challenges.
  
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• Facebook will press on with Free Basics internet service, Zuckerberg says

  22-02-2016 21:15 via cbc.ca
  
  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg vowed Monday to press on with his 3-year-old effort to bring the developing world online, even after Indian regulators banned one of the pillars of the campaign.
  
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• Seas are rising way faster than any time in past 2,800 years

  22-02-2016 21:02
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Sea levels on Earth are rising several times faster than they have in the past 2,800 years and are accelerating because of man-made global warming, according to new studies.
  
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• 20th century sea level rose at fastest rate since founding of Rome

  22-02-2016 21:00
  
  Sea levels rose more rapidly in the 1900s than during any other century in at least 2,800 years, with global warming causing at least half that rise.
  
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• Islamic State rigs currency rates in Mosul to prop up finances

  22-02-2016 20:48
  By Stephen Kalin BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State militants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul are manipulating the exchange rate between U.S. dollars and Iraqi dinars to squeeze money out of local people as coalition bombers attack the group's finances. The U.S-led coalition has said that in addition to attacking Islamic State's fighters and leaders it will go after financial infrastructure too. Air strikes have reduced Islamic State's ability to extract, refine and transport oil, a major sou
  
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• Invasive toads will probably overrun Madagascar

  22-02-2016 20:15
  
  A new report finds that eradicating invasive Asian toads before they overtake all of Madagascar is “not currently feasible.”
  
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• Surprise! Ancient armadillos are related to modern armadillos

  22-02-2016 19:19
  
  DNA evidence proves that ancient glyptodonts are indeed related to today’s armadillos, as Charles Darwin suspected.
  
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• Full Moon and Jupiter Rendezvous in the Sky: How to See It

  22-02-2016 19:10
  
  Look to the skies tonight and tomorrow to see Jupiter and the full moon close together. Tonight (Feb. 22), Jupiter will be within 13 degrees of the full moon. Usually when the moon is this bright, it will overwhelm most stars that are this close to it, but not Jupiter.
  
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• NASA Will Use Repurposed Spy Telescope for Wide-Sky Survey

  22-02-2016 19:02
  
  NASA is ready to move forward on a new telescope that will have 100 times the field of view of the Hubble Space Telescope and will use old spy-telescope hardware. It will aim to help scientists better understand dark energy, dark matter, planets around other stars and the universe's evolution. NASA announced the WFIRST telescope with a new video to unveil the mission. It received increased public attention when the National Reconnaissance Office (a U.S. intelligence agency) made the surpris
  
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• Shelter for 120 gay refugees to open in Berlin

  22-02-2016 18:38
  
  Germany will on Tuesday open a shelter for homosexual refugees with space for more than 120 people, the association behind the project said.
  
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• Fifth of Finland's wolves killed in month-long cull

  22-02-2016 18:36
  
  Nearly one fifth of Finland's endangered wolf population was killed in a controversial month-long cull which ended at the weekend, authorities said on Monday.
  
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• Spiders Look Bigger If You’re Afraid of Them

  22-02-2016 18:05
  
  "We found that although individuals with both high and low arachnophobia rated spiders as highly unpleasant, only the highly fearful participants overestimated the spider size," Tali Leibovich, a researcher in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev in Israel, said in a statement. One day, Noga Cohen, a graduate student of clinical-neuropsychology at BGU, noticed a spider crawling along. Leibovich, who has arachnophobia, asked Cohen to get rid o
  
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• Monstrous fossils 'were armadillos'

  22-02-2016 18:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A study of 12,000-year-old DNA shows that the fearsome, car-sized, club-tailed glyptodonts were cousins of modern armadillos.
  
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• Want to Form a New Habit? Don't Overthink

  22-02-2016 17:33
  The reason, said study researcher Jennifer Labrecque, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, is that habits are encoded in the brain by the procedural memory system, which doesn't involve much conscious input. "When you try to engage two memory systems at once, they just interfere with each other," said Labrecque, who presented her findings in January at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in San Diego. The results have implications for peopl
  
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• Latest in smart textiles - a musical tablecloth

  22-02-2016 17:24
  
  A Swedish company has developed a tablecloth with both a drum kit and piano keys printed on the fabric - turning dinner into a musical recital.
  
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• Mini-Brains Allow Scientists to Study Brain Disorders

  22-02-2016 17:17
  This is your bedbug-size brain on drugs. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore are growing "mini-brains" — smaller than the period at the end of this sentence — that may contain enough human brain cells to be useful in studying drug addiction and other neurological diseases. Labs from around the world have been racing to grow these and other organoids — microscopic, yet primitively functional versions of livers, kidneys, hearts and brains grown from real human ce
  
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• Coffee Pot: What Happens When You Mix Marijuana & Caffeine?

  22-02-2016 17:16
  You can now add coffee to the growing list of foods and drinks that are available as products infused with marijuana. But what happens when you combine two psychoactive substances: marijuana and caffeine? The effects of using these two substances in combination have not been heavily researched, said Dr. Scott Krakower, the assistant unit chief of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York.
  
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• Canadians divided over human role in climate change, study suggests

  22-02-2016 15:54 via cbc.ca
  
  A study involving University of Montreal researchers looks at public perception of the role of human activity in climate change.
  
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• Study: Female Coders Better Than Men, But Perceived As Worse

  22-02-2016 15:48
  Female coders who submitted proposed changes to publicly available and freely modifiable software through a platform called GitHub had their work accepted more often than men did, according to a new study. Past studies have found differences between men and women's behavior in collaborative online projects. For instance, a 2013 survey found that just over 10 percent of open-source code contributors were women.
  
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• Ant Warfare: Fossils Reveal Insects Locked in Mortal Combat

  22-02-2016 15:47
  
  "Up until now, the oldest [termite] soldiers that we knew about were 20 million years old, so we have 80 million years longer of a record," said study researcher Philip Barden, a postdoctoral scientist at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York. The Burmese amber specimens, which are housed in the AMNH collection, are the oldest evidence of castes. Termite colonies today, just like in the Cretaceous, are made up of reproductive individuals with wings, workers responsible for co
  
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• These 30-Million-Year-Old Fossilized Flowers May Be Toxic

  22-02-2016 15:44
  
  Delicate, though possibly deadly, flowers trapped in amber for some 30 million years have been discovered, scientists report. The fossilized plants are asterids, which make up about one-third of the world's flowering plants. The two flower specimens, which have been named Strychnos electri, belong to the same genus as poisonous plants that have been used to make lethal, paralyzing substances like strychnine and curare.
  
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• Curious Crystal Dances for Its Symmetry

  22-02-2016 15:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Choreographic crystals exhibit symmetry through the orbits of their atoms rather than from strict, orderly structure
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Eating less beef key to meeting EU climate targets: study

  22-02-2016 14:59
  
  EU climate targets won't be met unless greenhouse gas emissions linked to beef and dairy consumption are dramatically reduced, a Swedish study published on Monday said.
  
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• Samsung's unveils Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, VR camera

  22-02-2016 14:36 via cbc.ca
  
  To revive interest in smartphones, Samsung and LG are improving their cameras and embracing the nascent world of virtual reality, the companies announced at the Mobile World Congress technology show.
  
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• Samsung unveils Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, VR camera

  22-02-2016 14:36 via cbc.ca
  
  To revive interest in smartphones, Samsung and LG are improving their cameras and embracing the nascent world of virtual reality, the companies announced at the Mobile World Congress technology show.
  
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• 'Superman Memory Crystal' Could Store Data for 13.8 Billion Years

  22-02-2016 14:29
  
  Copies of the Magna Carta, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the King James Bible have now been digitally stored on a piece of glass known as a "Superman memory crystal" that has the capacity to save huge amounts of information for up to 13.8 billion years, researchers say. Using a method of laser etching, researchers at the University of Southampton, in the United Kingdom, archived these documents, along with Isaac Newton's scientific treatise "Opticks," on coin-size pieces of glass
  
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• Tlicho hunters report abnormal caribou in traditional knowledge study

  22-02-2016 14:21 via cbc.ca
  
  A new traditional knowledge study suggests that Tlicho living in Wekweeti are not just worried about disappearing caribou — they're also worried about the health of those that remain.
  
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• With Xtronaut Game, Space Exploration Is in the Cards

  22-02-2016 14:03
  
  A new game, created by a NASA mission scientist, lets players take on the real-world challenges and opportunities of developing a space program: battling budget cuts, competing projects and even a government shutdown to launch research vessels into the solar system. Dante Lauretta is principal investigator on the first U.S. mission to bring asteroid samples back to Earth, called OSIRIS-REx. While preparing the mission to the asteroid Bennu, which is now scheduled for launch in September, he was
  
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• This Voice-Controlled BB-8 Is THE Droid You've Been Looking For

  22-02-2016 14:03
  
  Easily one of the most anticipated (and coolest) toys at Toy Fair 2016 was Spin Master's near-life-size version of the "Star Wars" droid BB-8. The toy stands 19 inches (48 centimeters) tall if you count the antenna, only 7 inches (18 cm) shorter than the droid in the movie. While it does come with a remote that allows you to steer the toy, this BB-8 also has a much-cooler "follow-me" mode: When you start walking, the little guy will follow right on your heels.
  
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• Stephen Hawking Wants to Ride Virgin Galactic's New Passenger Spaceship

  22-02-2016 14:03
  
  Virgin Galactic's new spaceship has the enthusiastic endorsement of one of the world's greatest scientists, who plans to fly on the vehicle one day. Famed cosmologist and physicist Stephen Hawking revealed the name of the new SpaceShipTwo suborbital craft — VSS (for Virgin Spaceship) Unity — during its star-studded unveiling ceremony Friday (Feb. 19) at Virgin's manufacturing facility here at the Mojave Air & Space Port. Unlike actor Harrison Ford and English soprano Sarah B
  
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• 'Star Trek' Quadcopter Will Let You Fly the USS Enterprise

  22-02-2016 14:03
  
  NEW YORK — "Just wait until you see the Enterprise." Those were the words we heard walking through Spin Master's booth at Toy Fair 2016. It was, surprisingly, the only "Star Trek" drone we came across at Toy Fair this year, but it fulfilled every fantasy we had for the toy. The drone is modeled after starship Enterprise NCC-1701A, the second ship in the series to bear the name Enterprise.
  
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• U.S. government should withdraw demand for iPhone hack help: Apple boss

  22-02-2016 13:38 via cbc.ca
  
  Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook says the U.S. government should withdraw its demand that Apple help the FBI hack a locked iPhone used by a shooter in the San Bernardino attack.
  
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• 3,000-Year-Old Wooden Wheel Found in Doomed Bronze-Age Town

  22-02-2016 13:37
  
  A 3,000-year-old wooden wheel has been discovered in the remains of a prehistoric town that collapsed into a river in east England. Archaeologists said the Bronze Age wheel is the largest and best-preserved of its kind, dating back to1100-800 B.C. Measuring about 3 feet (1 meter) across, and with its hub still intact, the wheel was unearthed during a dig at the Must Farm site in Peterborough, according to an announcement from Historic England, a heritage organization that is partly funding the e
  
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• HoloLens 'Teleports' NASA Scientist to Mars in TED Talk Demo

  22-02-2016 13:36
  
  Something amazing happened at the TED2016 conference today: HoloLens developer Alex Kipman "teleported" a NASA scientist onto the stage, on the surface of Mars. Jeff Norris of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was physically across the street from the auditorium in Vancouver, Canada, but with the HoloLens cameras, a hologram of him (a three-dimensional, talking hologram, which is made entirely of light) was beamed onto the stage where a virtual Mars surface was waiting. Kipman demoed the HoloLens
  
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• South Africa's Zuma to visit Iran on Sunday - statement

  22-02-2016 13:07
  JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's President Jacob Zuma will visit Iran on Sunday and Monday to "strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries" the presidency said on Monday without elaborating. Pretoria is considering building an oil refinery that will process Iranian crude to bolster its petrol supply and reduce its dependence on foreign companies. South Africa's deputy president visited Iran in November to explore opportunities for co-operation in the energy sector. (Reporting
  
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• Tuk-tuks trump elephants at Sri Lanka polo match

  22-02-2016 13:02
  
  A elephant polo tournament in Sri Lanka which was scrapped after one of the beasts went rogue has been revived with tuk-tuk taxis taking their place, to the relief of animal lovers.
  
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• Prion disease gets personal

  22-02-2016 13:00
  
  Diagnosis of a brain-wasting disease drove a married couple into science.
  
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• Nearly 20,000 People Apply For Eight NASA Jobs

  22-02-2016 12:46
  
  NASA has revealed it has had a record number of applications to become one of its astronauts. The boost is partly thanks to a social media recruitment push, and also likely linked to an increased interest in space travel as the prospect of landing humans on Mars edges closer. NASA is only looking for American citizens with at least a bachelor’s degree in engineering, biological science, physical science, mathematics or computer science.
  
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• Indonesia sinks 27 foreign boats to stop illegal fishing

  22-02-2016 12:36
  
  Indonesia sank 27 impounded foreign boats on Monday, a minister said, as the world's largest archipelago nation stepped up a campaign against illegal fishing in its waters.
  
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• Niger voting extended for second day after some polls didn't open

  22-02-2016 11:22
  By Abdoulaye Massalaki NIAMEY (Reuters) - Voting in Niger's presidential and legislative elections stretched into a second day on Monday in areas where logistical problems prevented polling the previous day, delaying the preliminary election results. President Mahamadou Issoufou, who has vowed to crush Islamist militants and reduce the country's deep poverty, is running against 14 other candidates, including Seyni Oumaru, leader of an opposition coalition. Critics say Issoufou is repressive and
  
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• Tech push for global internet access motivated by self-interest more than philanthropy

  22-02-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Net-neutrality advocates are cheering India's decision to reject Facebook's Free Basics program, but say private companies have a big role to play in spreading broadband internet access across the developing world.
  
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• Free TV for life? It's here, and it may even be legal

  22-02-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  They're promoted with the promise of "free" TV — an Android box with software that allows viewers to stream countless movies and TV shows with no monthly cable bill. What's the catch? Legally, for customers, there might not even be one.
  
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