Science news

• 'A Beautiful Planet' IMAX Trailer Offers 1st Look at Astronauts' Earth Views

  08-03-2016 23:30
  
  Those words, spoken by Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti in the newly-released movie trailer for "A Beautiful Planet," summarize the IMAX 3D film, which opens in theaters on April 29. IMAX made the film in cooperation with NASA.
  
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• Train services could face disruptions with flooding and severe gales predicted

  08-03-2016 23:27
  
  Uh oh…
  
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• Why Tonight's Total Solar Eclipse Has NASA Excited (Video)

  08-03-2016 22:56
  
  Editor's note for March 8, 10:45 pm ET: The total solar eclipse of 2016 has ended. To see our full wrap up, read: Total Solar Eclipse Wows Skywatchers Across Indonesia, Pacific Region. When the sun goes dark, NASA's work is just beginning.
  
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• New chameleon has strange snout, odd distribution

  08-03-2016 22:42
  
  A new species of chameleon from Tanzania echoes the unusual range of the kipunji monkey.
  
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• Google computer takes on human Go champion with $1M prize at stake

  08-03-2016 22:26 via cbc.ca
  
  One of the world's top players of the game Go will take home $1 million US if he beats a Google computer in a five-match tournament that starts tonight.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] Pannexin1: A mediator of NMDA and adrenergic receptor signaling

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Pannexin1 mediates excitotoxicity in neurons and vasoconstriction in vascular smooth muscle.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] New connections: Reprogramming NK and T cells to attack cancer

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Blocking the effects of TGF-β on natural killer cells and T cells may improve the destruction of cancer cells.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] Limiting inflammation with p62

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Without the adaptor protein p62, macrophages produce tissue-damaging amounts of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1β.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] Kras rewires metabolic networks

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  A Kras mutation rewires metabolic networks in lung cancer cells to increase glucose uptake and reduce oxidative stress damage.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] Fatty diet alters stem cells

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  A high-fat diet enhances the regenerative and tumor-forming activities of intestinal stem cells through a mechanism involving PPAR-δ.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] Actin' against BRAF inhibitors

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Blocking actin polymerization prevents YAP and TAZ activation and resistance to BRAF inhibitors in melanoma.
  
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• [Editorial Guide] Focus Issue: The ins and outs of ORAI in immune cells

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Understanding how ORAI activity is regulated will lead to better understanding of immune cell function and diseases involving the immune system.
  
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• [Research Article] The adhesion molecule PECAM-1 enhances the TGF-β-mediated inhibition of T cell function

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Blocking an adhesion molecule on the surface of T cells may enhance antitumor activity.
  
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• [Podcast] Science Signaling Podcast for 8 March 2016: Calcium signaling and ROS in monocytes

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Redox-insensitive ORAI calcium channels enable monocytes to sustain calcium signaling while still producing bactericidal reactive oxygen species.
  
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• [Research Article] Cell type-specific glycosylation of Orai1 modulates store-operated Ca2+ entry

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  T cells and mast cells may use differential glycosylation of Orai1 to regulate storeoperated calcium signaling.
  
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• [Research Article] A calcium-redox feedback loop controls human monocyte immune responses: The role of ORAI Ca2+ channels

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Monocytes adjust deadly reactive oxygen species production by altering the subunit composition of the ORAI calcium channel.
  
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• [Focus] The CAR that drives Ca2+ to Orai1

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  A Ca2+-accumulating region in Orai1 facilitates ion permeation and contributes to selectivity.
  
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• [Focus] Sterol hindrance of Orai activation

  08-03-2016 22:22 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Cholesterol inhibits CRAC channels which replenish intracellular stores.
  
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• Total solar eclipse to sweep across Indonesia

  08-03-2016 22:09
  
  Tens of thousands of sky gazers will watch a total solar eclipse sweep across Indonesia on Wednesday, with parties, prayers and tribual rituals to mark the spectacle in the world's biggest archipelago nation.
  
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• VIDEO: Rare whale spotted off Madagascar coast

  08-03-2016 21:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  An Omura's whale and its calf has been spotted off the coast of Madagascar
  
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• In activist video, rivers of rubbish flow in Lebanon

  08-03-2016 21:40
  
  Activists poked fun at the Lebanese tourism ministry over a video it commissioned showing natural beauty by releasing their own aerial footage of garbage festering across the country.
  
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• How private should your online browsing history be? Your thoughts

  08-03-2016 21:35 via cbc.ca
  
  A new project keeps track of all the websites you visit and lets you share parts of your web history with others. We asked what you thought about it and you weighed in via our CBC Forum discussion.
  
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• Shooting And Stabbings As Biden Visits Israel

  08-03-2016 21:28
  
  Israel has been struck by three terror attacks in the space of two hours after shootings and stabbings in cities across the country. The attack in Jaffa started at the port. The attack took place as US vice president Joe Biden arrived to meet Israeli President Shimon Peres nearby.
  
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• Mystery solved: Why Mercury is so dark

  08-03-2016 21:11 via cbc.ca
  
  Mercury is the planet closest to the dazzling light of the sun. So why is its colour so dark? Scientists think they've finally figured out the answer, which relates to something that happened billions of years ago.
  
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• The U.S. Government Launches a $100-Million "Apollo Project of the Brain"

  08-03-2016 21:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Intelligence project aims to reverse-engineer the brain to find algorithms that allow computers to think more like humans
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Venezuela opposition starts multi-pronged push to oust Maduro

  08-03-2016 20:03
  By Andrew Cawthorne and Deisy Buitrago CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's opposition alliance launched a campaign on Tuesday to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro via street protests, a recall referendum or a constitutional amendment cutting his term. "Change is coming and no one can stop it," Jesus Torrealba, the head of the Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition, told reporters. Hungry for power after 17 years of socialist rule begun by the late Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's opposition capitalized on p
  
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• Landmark science forum aims to halt Africa brain drain

  08-03-2016 19:46
  
  Africa's top scientists, policymakers and start-ups gathered Tuesday for a landmark conference aimed at stemming the continent's brain drain and encouraging governments to nurture research in fields from virology to maths.
  
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• Humanoid robots have realistic skin, expressive faces

  08-03-2016 19:26 via cbc.ca
  
  New human-like robots, which can show basic emotions and answer simple questions, are increasingly being used in the fields of teaching and customer service.
  
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• Iran missile tests did not violate Iran nuclear deal - White House

  08-03-2016 19:23
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran's recent ballistic missile tests did not violate the nuclear agreement with Tehran, the White House said on Tuesday, adding that it would review the launch to determine the appropriate response. In a daily press briefing with reporters, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House was still reviewing whether it would be necessary to raise the issue of the tests before the United Nations Security Council. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Susan Heavey; writi
  
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• How much of your web browsing do you want to be public?

  08-03-2016 19:02 via cbc.ca
  
  Where you spend your time online can reveal a lot about you. So how much do you want others to know about your online habits? As CBC Radio technology columnist Dan Misener explains, a new research project called "Eyebrowse" wants you to make your web browser history public.
  
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• Total Solar Eclipse Today: Slooh's 'StarShare Camera' Lets You Share Photos

  08-03-2016 18:54
  
  You don't have to visit Indonesia to photograph the total eclipse of the sun today (March 8). Though the "path of totality" for today's solar eclipse is limited to islands in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean region (where it will actually be Tuesday, March 9), you can watch the celestial event online live via the Slooh Community Observatory beginning at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT), or here at Space.com, courtesy of Slooh. People can also capture and share eclipse images on their favorite social me
  
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• Slippery Asteroid Surprises Scientists With Early Earth Flyby

  08-03-2016 18:54
  
  An asteroid zoomed past Earth at a safe distance Monday (March 7), a day earlier than scientists had predicted. The near-Earth asteroid 2013 TX68 flew by our planet at 8:42 a.m. EST (1342 GMT) Monday at a distance of 2.54 million miles (4.09 million kilometers), according to researchers at the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who pegged the object's diameter at between 56 and 177 feet (17 to 54 meters). This threat would likely come via serious climate effects, with the impact fr
  
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• EU delays weedkiller decision amid cancer uproar

  08-03-2016 18:41
  
  The EU postponed a decision Tuesday on whether to extend the approval of a key weedkiller ingredient for another 15 years amid an international uproar that it may cause cancer.
  
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• The World's Most Innovative Research Institutions

  08-03-2016 18:36
  
  (Reuters) - Silicon Valley’s hoodie-wearing tech entrepreneurs are the poster kids of innovation. But the innovators who are really changing the world are more likely to wear labcoats and hold government-related jobs in Grenoble, Munich or Tokyo. That's the conclusion of Reuters’ Top 25 Global Innovators – Government, a list that identifies and ranks the publicly funded institutions doing the most to advance science and technology.
  
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• Stephen Hawking on how inspirational teacher transformed him from 'lazy pupil' to Cambridge professor

  08-03-2016 18:34
  
  “My handwriting was bad, and I could be lazy,” says the renowned physicist of his school days.
  
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• Syrian Kurds accuse insurgents of shelling district with chemical agents

  08-03-2016 18:27
  BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) - The Syrian Kurdish militia YPG on Tuesday accused Islamist and other rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad's forces of shelling a mainly Kurdish residential district in the northern city of Aleppo with chemical agents. YPG fighters have been battling the insurgents for weeks on a heavily contested frontline that includes the district and countryside near Aleppo. Many insurgents view the YPG as allies of Assad, a charge the Kurds deny.
  
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• Winter warmer-land: US breaks record for hottest winter

  08-03-2016 18:19
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal meteorologists say the winter that has just ended was the hottest in U.S. records, thanks to the combination of El Nino and man-made global warming.
  
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• A Demon Ate the Sun: How Solar Eclipses Inspired Superstition

  08-03-2016 18:14
  
  The first and only total solar eclipse of 2016 will roll across the sky this week. Total solar eclipses — when the moon's shadow blocks the sun entirely — are spectacular events, highly anticipated by astronomers, astrophotographers and casual spectators alike. Throughout history, cultures around the world sought to provide context and explanation for eclipses, and like the eclipses themselves, the legends attached to the events were dramatic. This week's total solar eclipse wil
  
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• Clues to why the 'sea dragons' died out

  08-03-2016 18:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A dramatic shift in the Earth's climate killed off marine reptiles that swam at the time of the dinosaurs, according to a new study.
  
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• Zika 'link' to new, paralysing disease: report

  08-03-2016 17:44
  
  Suspected of causing brain damage in babies and a rare neurological ailment in adults, the Zika virus was linked by researchers Tuesday to a third disorder: paralysis-causing myelitis.
  
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• Climate change wiped out prehistoric 'sea dragon': study

  08-03-2016 17:43
  
  Prehistoric global warming wiped out the ichthyosaur, a toothy, dolphin-like reptile that disappeared from Earth's oceans tens of millions of years before the last dinosaurs, researchers said Tuesday.
  
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• European-Russian Mission to Mars Launches Next Week

  08-03-2016 17:27
  
  The next robotic mission to Mars will launch in less than a week, if all goes according to plan. The first part of the two-phase, joint European-Russian ExoMars mission is scheduled to blast off atop a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kakakhstan on March 14. The Proton's payload consists of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and a lander called Schiaparelli, both of which should arrive at Mars in October after a seven-month cruise.
  
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• Oklahoma fracking industry asked to help reduce earthquakes

  08-03-2016 16:21 via cbc.ca
  
  State regulators on Monday asked oil and natural gas producers in central Oklahoma to decrease their wastewater disposal operations to try to temper the sharp increase in the number and severity of earthquakes in the energy-rich state.
  
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• Brains, Minds, AI, God: Marvin Minsky Thought Like No One Else (Tribute)

  08-03-2016 15:52
  
  Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the creator, writer and host of "Closer to Truth," a public television series and online resource that features the world's leading thinkers exploring humanity's deepest questions (Peter Getzels, producer/director). Kuhn contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
  
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• Why Can't Quantum Mechanics Explain Gravity? (Op-Ed)

  08-03-2016 15:51
  
  Paul Sutter is an astrophysicist at The Ohio State University and the chief scientist at COSI Science Center. Sutter is also host of the podcasts Ask a Spaceman and RealSpace, and the YouTube series Space In Your Face. Sutter contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
  
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• Microbial Manifesto: The Global Push to Understand the Microbiome (Kavli Roundtable)

  08-03-2016 15:50
  Read more perspective pieces on the Kavli Expert Voices landing page. With a unified focus, researchers hope to learn how microbiomes could not only cure infectious diseases and reduce antibiotic drug resistance, but also reclaim exhausted farmland, cut fertilizer and pesticide use, and produce new fuels and carbon-based chemicals. Such analyses show that microbial communities can be incredibly diverse , including hundreds of thousands of different microbial species, all interacting with one ano
  
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• Five years on, Japan tsunami scars visible and invisible

  08-03-2016 15:46
  
  The eye in the sky tells the story: satellite imagery from Japan's tsunami-ravaged Pacific coast shows the catastrophic aftermath of vibrant communities destroyed five years ago -- and their struggle to recover even now.
  
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