Science news

• Syria's opposition tell U.N. Ban continued govt truce violation would hamper peace talks

  28-02-2016 21:10
  Syria's opposition said that what it called continued violations by the Syrian government and its allies of a U.S.-Russia truce deal would make the resumption of U.N.-backed negotiations "unattainable". In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the opposition also said violations would undermine "international efforts to guarantee the continuation of the truce and will lead to the collapse of the UN-adopted political process.
  
  Read more

• Iran judiciary chief - Westerners helped block hardliners in poll

  28-02-2016 21:08
  DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's hardline judiciary chief on Sunday accused reformists of working with Westerners to block hardliners from winning seats in Friday's elections for the Assembly of Experts, an influential leadership body. In a statement, Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani said reformists had coordinated with "American and English media outlets" to prevent what he called some servants of the people from entering the assembly, which has the task of selecting the country's most powerful figure, t
  
  Read more

• Virtual reality 'heroin cave' aimed at helping addicts kick habit

  28-02-2016 18:55
  
  HOUSTON (Reuters) - Addicts in a new study at the University of Houston will strap on virtual reality headsets and navigate a "heroin cave" to help them try and kick their addictions.
  
  Read more

• Buzz Aldrin: Mars Could Become Human Colony

  28-02-2016 17:49
  
  One of the world's most famous astronauts believes that a human colony should be established on Mars. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the second man to set foot on the Moon in 1969 and believes humans could touch down on the red planet by 2040. Dr Aldrin says an outpost on Mars would require people to live on the planet for long periods to set up a colony that would be fully self-sufficient.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Syrian's rebels deny government reports of shelling areas in Latakia province

  28-02-2016 17:40
  A Syrian rebel group denied on Sunday state media reports that armed groups had fired dozens of mortar rounds into rural areas of the country's coastal Latakia province. Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for the First Coastal Division, an FSA group operating in the rural Latakia area, said rebels were committed to a U.S.-Russian deal on a cessation of hostilities. Syria's state news agency accused "terrorist groups" of firing dozens of mortar rounds into rural areas in northern Latakia and caused a number o
  
  Read more

• Buzz Aldrin: Getting to Mars 'is the easy part'

  28-02-2016 17:28
  
  The planet Mars may be around 250 million miles away, but getting there is the easy part, according to astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.
  
  Read more

• Revolutionary Guards - poll winners will shield Iran independence

  28-02-2016 16:58
  TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards on Sunday said the winners of Friday's elections would protect the Islamic Republic against foreign enemies, and the high turnout was evidence of broad popular support of the ruling system. "There is no doubt that the election winners will do their best to protect Iran's dignity, power and independence; resolve the main issues for society and the people; and defeat the global arrogance (United States) by their awareness and wisdom," the Gua
  
  Read more

• Obama launches 'take your child to the lab' week

  28-02-2016 15:26
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is launching a version of "take your child to work day" that's focused on America's science laboratories instead of its corporate workspaces.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Sunday Shopping Plans Anger Church Leaders

  28-02-2016 12:56
  
  Church leaders from across the country have written an open letter to the Government warning that allowing shops to stay open for longer on Sundays would "disrupt the rhythms of community life". Senior figures from the Church of England, the Catholic Church, the Church in Wales, the United Reform Church, the Methodist Church and the Salvation Army have written in the Daily Telegraph, saying: "In a world of increasing commodification the space for shared time and activities is becoming increasing
  
  Read more

• Iran's pro-reform Rafsanjani says no one can resist popular will

  28-02-2016 12:24
  Top Iranian pro-reform politician Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in a message two days after elections in which reformists made strong gains, said on Twitter on Sunday that no one could resist the will of the people. Former president Rafsanjani, an ally of pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani, is leading the race for membership of the influential Assembly of Experts, a body that chooses Iran's most powerful figure, the supreme leader.
  
  Read more

• China to launch second space lab in third-quarter: state media

  28-02-2016 11:30
  
  BEIJING (Reuters) - China will put a second space laboratory in orbit in the third quarter of this year, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday, part of the country's plan to have a permanent manned space station in service around 2022.
  
  Read more

• App made in Toronto helping people with disabilities navigate cities

  28-02-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  An app made in Toronto uses crowdsourcing to determine which buildings and businesses are accessible to people with disabilities — and it's taking off around the world.
  
  Read more

• When sea levels rise, damage costs rise even faster

  28-02-2016 06:00
  
  (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)) Damages from extreme events like floods are even more relevant than the mean sea level itself when it comes to the costs of climate impacts for coastal regions. A team of scientists now provides a method to quantify monetary losses from coastal floods under sea-level rise. For the first time, the scientists show that the damage costs consistently increase at a higher rate than the sea-level rise itself.
  
  Read more

• Subaru-HiCIAO spots young stars surreptitiously gluttonizing their birth clouds

  28-02-2016 06:00
  
  (National Institutes of Natural Sciences) An international has used a new infrared imaging technique to reveal dramatic moments in star and planet formation, with the HiCIAO camera on the Subaru Telescope. These seem to occur when surrounding material falls toward very active baby stars, which then feed voraciously on it even as they remain hidden inside their birth clouds. The results of their work shed new light on our understanding of how stars and planets are born.
  
  Read more

• New fast radio burst discovery finds 'missing matter' in the universe

  28-02-2016 06:00
  
  (National Institutes of Natural Sciences) An international team of scientists using a combination of radio and optical telescopes identified the distant location of a fast radio burst for the first time. This discovery has allowed them to confirm the current cosmological model of the distribution of matter in the universe.
  
  Read more

• Global alliance for rethinking aquaculture in developing economies of the Indian Ocean

  28-02-2016 06:00
  
  (Conservation X Labs) The innovationXchange in Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is launching a global alliance, in partnership with Conservation X Labs, SecondMuse, NineSigma, and the World Wildlife Fund, to source new solutions and engage new solvers to rethink the future of aquaculture particularly around three areas:  Rethinking feeds used in aquaculture; Redesigning aquaculture systems; and Creating new ocean products, to improve both food security and enhance sustain
  
  Read more

• Device 'fingerprints' could help protect power grid, other industrial systems

  28-02-2016 06:00
  
  (Georgia Institute of Technology) Researchers are using the unique electronic 'voices' produced by devices on the electrical grid to determine which signals are legitimate and which signals might be from attackers. These fingerprints could also be used to protect networked industrial control systems in oil and gas refineries, manufacturing facilities, wastewater treatment plants and other critical industrial systems.
  
  Read more

Follow @ScienceUKnews on Twitter!