Science news

• Chess Machina: Computer beats human champ in Chinese chess-like game

  12-03-2016 23:29 via cbc.ca
  
  Google's Go-playing software defeated a human champion for the third straight time Saturday to clinch the best-of-five series and establish its superiority in an ancient Chinese chess-like game long thought to be the realm of humans.
  
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• Alaska scientists continue researching seabird death mystery

  12-03-2016 22:30
  
  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The common murre on Sarah Schoen's examination table lived a short, hungry life.
  
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• Venezuela opposition launches protests, Maduro counters

  12-03-2016 21:35
  By Girish Gupta and Andrew Cawthorne CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's opposition launched a new protest campaign on Saturday to oust President Nicolas Maduro, but support was thin and the ruling Socialists countered it with their own "anti-imperialist" rally. The opposition alliance is pursuing a multi-pronged strategy to oust Maduro via protests, a recall referendum or a constitutional amendment to cut his term. "Venezuela is in chaos ... more misery, more crime and more destruction," said Ruth
  
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• High Arctic Research Station focus shifts to climate change

  12-03-2016 20:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Scientists using the Canadian High Arctic Research Station in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, will now be focusing more on climate change than resource development, according to Polar Knowledge Canada.
  
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• Venezuela opposition begins protests, Maduro counters

  12-03-2016 19:21
  By Girish Gupta CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's opposition launched a new protest campaign on Saturday to oust President Nicolas Maduro, but support was thin and the ruling Socialists countered it with their own "anti-imperialist" rally. The opposition alliance has begun a multi-pronged push to oust Maduro via protests, a recall referendum or a constitutional amendment to cut his term. "Venezuela is in chaos.
  
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• 'Ultraprocessed' Foods Make Up More Than Half of Americans' Diets

  12-03-2016 16:24
  Calories from "ultraprocessed" foods make up more than half of all calories in the average American diet and account for nearly 90 percent of all added sugars, a new study finds. The researchers also found that the more ultraprocessed foods a person eats, the more likely he or she is to exceed the recommended daily limit for added sugars in the diet, according to the study. Consuming too much added sugar is "most likely contributing" to growing levels of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart diseas
  
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• World's Fastest Moving Fault Took a U-Turn Eons Ago

  12-03-2016 16:23
  
  The twisting, stretching crust lying beneath New Zealand harbors the world's fastest moving fault, new research suggests. The Alpine Fault, part of the fault zone at the point where the Pacific Plate is diving beneath the Australian Plate, has shifted the two corners of New Zealand's South Island relative to each other a whopping 435 miles (700 kilometers) over the last 25 million years. "I don't think anybody in their wildest dreams would have thought that displacements on the fault could be so
  
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• Why Do Uterus Transplants Fail?

  12-03-2016 16:19
  On Wednesday (March 9), the Cleveland Clinic announced that its patient who had received a uterus transplant had experienced a sudden complication and that the transplanted organ had to be removed. The transplant was initially performed on Feb. 25, in a 9-hour surgery. So far, there have been 12 uterus transplants in the world, and five were not successful.
  
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• Relax, Beached 'Sea Monster' Just a Whale's Head

  12-03-2016 16:18
  
  But according to a marine mammals expert, the jumbled and untidy pile of grayish skin and flesh is likely part of a sperm whale's head. Representatives of the Protección Civil y Bomberos de Acapulco (Civil Protection and Firefighters Department in Acapulco) discovered the peculiar object on Bonfil Beach, and described it as measuring about 13 feet (4 meters) in length, according to a report by the Mexican news site 24 Hours. Sabas de la Rosa Camacho, an official with the Acapulco dep
  
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• Google AI program wins third straight match to take Go series

  12-03-2016 11:28
  
  SEOUL (Reuters) - Google's artificial intelligence (AI) program on Saturday took a 3-0 lead in a five-match series against one of the world's top players of the complicated board game Go.
  
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• 'Cuddly' diplomacy: Canada's new panda cubs renew the politics of cuteness

  12-03-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  As adorable as Jai Panpan and Jai Yueyue may be, the giant panda cubs that go on public display at the Toronto Zoo today are also something of a conundrum when it comes to the politics, economics and ecology of wildlife conservation.
  
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• 5 years after Fukushima, nuclear industry alive and well

  12-03-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  The nuclear industry was chugging along in early 2011 when a massive earthquake triggered a tsunami in northeastern Japan, destroying three reactors. While the sector initially cooled, it now looks like some countries are getting back on the nuclear bandwagon.
  
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• Heston Blumenthal hosted the most stressful dinner party ever - for Tim Peake on board the ISS

  12-03-2016 08:32
  
  The astronaut videoed-in from above Africa for a taste-test of the meals Heston designed for him.
  
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• Europe, Russia embark on search for life on Mars

  12-03-2016 07:28
  
  Europe and Russia are set to launch an unmanned spacecraft Monday to smell Mars' atmosphere for gassy evidence that life once existed on the Red Planet, or may do so still.
  
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• Study finds kidney transplant donation rates vary widely across Europe

  12-03-2016 06:00
  
  (European Association of Urology) A new Europe-wide survey shows significant country-to-country differences in rates of kidney transplant donors. The survey shows for example within the EU, there is a x5 variation in the number of kidney donors per country (per head of population). This variation is probably due to different legal and social standards across Europe.
  
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• RNA sequencing opens door to accurate, highly specific test for prostate cancer

  12-03-2016 06:00
  
  (European Association of Urology) A study on non-coding RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) from prostate cancer patients has identified a series of new prostate cancer markers which can be found in urine. Combining these RNA markers into a single test potentially opens the door for simple, accurate non-invasive testing for prostate cancer. This work is presented at the European Association of Urology Congress in Munich.
  
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• Almost 1/3 of infertile men at increased risk of metabolic diseases as they age

  12-03-2016 06:00
  
  (European Association of Urology) Men with fertility problems are at increased risk of metabolic diseases as they age, according to work being presented at the European Association of Urology conference in Munich.
  
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• Mars mission targets Monday launch

  12-03-2016 05:58 via bbc.co.uk
  
  All looks good for an on-time launch on Monday of the joint European and Russian ExoMars mission, which will try to track down the Red Planet's sources of methane.
  
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• Climate chief expects 80-100 signatures on landmark treaty

  12-03-2016 05:33
  UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The official in charge of global climate negotiations says between 80 and 100 countries are expected to sign the landmark agreement to tackle climate change reached in Paris in December at a ceremony at U.N. headquarters on April 22.
  
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• Europe's rarest seabird 'faces extinction'

  12-03-2016 05:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Balearic sheerwater will be extinct within 60 years, according to a new analysis.
  
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• Year-in-space astronaut Scott Kelly announces retirement

  12-03-2016 04:28
  Astronaut Scott Kelly is hanging up his spacesuit a fter spending nearly a year in orbit.
  
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• Astronaut Scott Kelly retiring after longest U.S. space mission

  12-03-2016 04:25
  
  (Reuters) - The astronaut who holds the American record for most time spent in space, Scott Kelly, will retire from NASA on April 1, the U.S. space agency said on Friday.
  
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• Scott Kelly, NASA's One-Year Astronaut, Will Retire Next Month

  12-03-2016 03:06
  
  Astronaut Scott Kelly, who recently completed an unprecedented yearlong mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and holds the American record for most days spent off Earth, will retire from NASA on April 1, agency officials announced today (March 11). After his retirement, Kelly will continue to participate in the research related to his one-year space mission, which was designed to help pave the way for crewed missions to Mars by shedding light on the ways long-duration spaceflight
  
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• CDC: Travel OK to high-elevation cities in Zika countries

  12-03-2016 02:43
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government revised its Zika travel warnings Friday, saying it's OK for pregnant women to travel to Mexico City and other places at high elevation in outbreak regions.
  
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• Year-in-space astronaut hangs up his spacesuit, retires

  12-03-2016 01:39
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — After spending nearly a year in space, astronaut Scott Kelly is hanging up his spacesuit.
  
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• Heston Blumenthal entertains Tim Peake to earthly dinner party

  12-03-2016 01:01
  Heston Blumenthal described his nerves as he hosted a dinner party from earth for Major Tim Peake aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
  
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