Science news

• Dinosaurs 'declining' before asteroid hit

  18-04-2016 23:50 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The dinosaurs were already in decline 50 million years before the asteroid strike that finally wiped them out, a study suggests.
  
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• Economic losses from disasters counted

  18-04-2016 23:44 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Natural disasters around the globe have resulted in economic losses of roughly $7 trillion since 1900, according to a new calculation from scientists.
  
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• No, the Moon Won't Turn Green on Wednesday

  18-04-2016 23:23
  
  This latest fallacy to sweep the blogosphere claims that on Wednesday (April 20), and again on May 29, the moon will appear to turn a shade of green. The full moon of April will occur on Friday, April 22.
  
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• Giant Green 'Spider' Invades Stellar Nursery in Eerie New Image

  18-04-2016 23:23
  
  The image, which NASA released Thursday (April 14), shows the Spider Nebula, a giant cloud of gas and dust that lies about 10,000 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Auriga. "In the image, infrared wavelengths, which are invisible to the unaided eye, have been assigned visible colors," NASA officials wrote in an image description. "Toward the right of center, against the black background of space, you can see a bright group of stars called 'Stock 8,'" NASA officials wrote.
  
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• Ikea's New Chainless Bike Never Rusts

  18-04-2016 22:32
  
  Dealing with a rusty bicycle chain can be a messy affair, but an innovative new bike from Ikea solves that pesky problem. The furniture retail giant recently introduced its new "Sladda" bike, which uses an oil-free and corrosion-resistant drive belt rather than a metal chain. The drive belt is designed to last about 9,320 miles (15,000 kilometers), which is about two to three times longer than a typical steel chain, according to Ikea.
  
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• Dinosaurs were dying off long before deadly asteroid strike

  18-04-2016 22:15 via cbc.ca
  
  Dinosaurs were in decline long before an asteroid strike polished them off about 66 million years ago, a study says.
  
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• Study: Dinosaurs were declining long before asteroid hit

  18-04-2016 21:19
  
  NEW YORK (AP) — Dinosaurs were in decline long before an asteroid strike polished them off about 66 million years ago, a study says.
  
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• Dinosaurs were dying out way before that giant meteor impact

  18-04-2016 21:02
  
  Scientists believe the impact finished off the creatures that were already well in decline.
  
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• Clusters of cancer cells get around by moving single file

  18-04-2016 21:00
  
  Clusters of cancer cells squeeze through thin blood vessels by aligning single file.
  
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• Kerry to meet Iran minister on nuclear deal, visit Egypt, Saudi

  18-04-2016 20:47
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Iran's foreign minister in New York on Tuesday to discuss implementation of the Iran nuclear deal as well as regional issues such as ending Syria's civil war, the U.S. State Department said on Monday. After meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Kerry will visit Egypt to see Egypt's president and foreign minister and then Riyadh to join President Barack Obama at the Gulf Cooperation Council Summit, it said in a s
  
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• BlackBerry CEO won't say if company gave RCMP encryption key for its phones

  18-04-2016 20:10 via cbc.ca
  
  BlackBerry CEO John Chen wants to assure users that the company "stood by our lawful access principles" when it helped the RCMP in a major criminal case that has raised questions about the encryption of the company's phones.
  
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• BlackBerry CEO tries to reassure users on encryption questions

  18-04-2016 20:10 via cbc.ca
  
  BlackBerry CEO John Chen wants to assure users that the company "stood by our lawful access principles" when it helped the RCMP in a major criminal case that has raised questions about the encryption of the company's phones.
  
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• Do Genes Time One's Loss of Virginity?

  18-04-2016 20:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  A U.K. study links the varying onsets of sexual activity to genes and personality traits
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• New report outlines climate change challenges on Canada's Arctic coast

  18-04-2016 19:45 via cbc.ca
  
  Communities on Canada's longest — and most northern — coastline will soon have to combat vast challenges such as storms, floods, erosion and melting sea ice in the wake of climate change, according to a Natural Resources Canada report.
  
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• Wreck of HMCS Annapolis showing signs of life, say divers

  18-04-2016 19:32 via cbc.ca
  
  It has only been a year since the Canadian Navy destroyer HMCS Annapolis was sunk in Howe Sound, and already divers are discovering plenty of new life around the old ship.
  
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• A robot to teach kids coding

  18-04-2016 18:49
  Cambridge, MASS (Reuters) - A robot named Root has been developed to expose kids of all ages to coding in a way that brings the often daunting world of computer science to life.  
  
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• Will we know extraterrestrial life when we see it?

  18-04-2016 18:00
  
  Desert varnish and certain minerals hint that life — here and elsewhere — may defy current criteria.
  
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• Ever wondered what the Northern Lights would look like from Space?

  18-04-2016 17:54
  
  NASA have released an ultra-high definition video showing just that!
  
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• Does The Full Moon Make Kids Hyper? Here’s What Science Says

  18-04-2016 17:49
  Kids really do sleep less when there's a full moon, but only by a few minutes, according to a new study that included children from a dozen countries. What's more, the study failed to find a link between the occurrence of the full moon and kids' activity levels, debunking the myth that kids are more hyper during a full moon. The study "provides solid evidence … that the associations between moon phases and children's sleep duration/activity behaviors are not meaningful from a public healt
  
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• Chemicals in Fast Food: Should You Be Worried?

  18-04-2016 17:48
  People who eat fast food may be ingesting potentially harmful chemicals called phthalates, a new study finds — another reason to avoid eating these typically unhealthy foods, experts say. However, experts emphasize that most Americans are exposed to phthalates every day, and it's not clear exactly how much of this exposure comes from fast food. Still, for people who want to reduce their exposure to phthalates, a chemical used in plastics that can leach into foods, reducing fast food consum
  
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• Mysterious Outbreak: 5 Things to Know About Elizabethkingia

  18-04-2016 17:47
  An outbreak of a rare bacterial illness that first appeared in Wisconsin has now popped up in two nearby states, officials say. This week, the Illinois Department of Public Health announced that a patient there died of an infection with the bacteria Elizabethkingia anophelis — the same bacteria that has infected 59 people in Wisconsin and one person in Michigan. Here are some important things to know about the outbreak.
  
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• Windows users should uninstall Quicktime, security alert warns

  18-04-2016 17:26 via cbc.ca
  
  The U.S. government has recommended that Windows PC users uninstall Apple Inc's QuickTime video player after security software maker Trend Micro Inc said it had discovered two new bugs in the software.
  
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• Are TV viewers actually shunning their phones to watch their favourite TV dramas?

  18-04-2016 17:07
  
  Study suggests we tend to ditch our “second screens” when watching gripping TV programmes.
  
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• Google online library challenge rejected by U.S. Supreme Court

  18-04-2016 16:36 via cbc.ca
  
  The U.S. Supreme Court is turning away a challenge to Google's online book library from authors who complain that the project makes it harder for them to market their work.
  
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• The Real Reason AI Won’t Take Over Anytime Soon

  18-04-2016 15:57
  Artificial intelligence has had its share of ups and downs recently. In what was widely seen as a key milestone for artificial intelligence (AI) researchers, one system beat a former world champion at a mind-bendingly intricate board game. In early March, a Google-made artificial intelligence system beat former world champ Lee Sedol four matches to one at an ancient Chinese game, called Go, that is considered more complex than chess, which was previously used as a benchmark to assess progress in
  
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• Turn Your Photos Into Fine-Art 'Paintings' on Free Website

  18-04-2016 15:56
  Users can upload photos and choose an art style from a selection of well-known paintings, illustrations and sketches in the online database — or even add new ones. "The algorithm uses so-called deep, artificial neural networks — a mathematical model built of units called neurons linked with each other," Kidzi?ski told Live Science in an email. One example, shared by Twitter user @claudeschneider, combined a photograph of a dancer posing in a rocky landscape with the Picasso painting
  
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• Lost Wright Brothers' 'Flying Machine' Patent Resurfaces

  18-04-2016 15:54
  
  The patent file for the Wright brothers' original "Flying Machine" has returned to the National Archives, after being misplaced 36 years ago. The Wright brothers didn't wait for the patent to be granted to take flight. On Dec. 17, 1903, the brothers lofted their flying machine into the air for 12 seconds, flying 120 feet at Kitty Hawk, on North Carolina's Outer Banks.
  
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• Neanderthal Table Manners: They Used Toothpicks, Too

  18-04-2016 15:49
  Neanderthals, the closest known extinct relatives to humans, probably had to pick annoying bits of food out of their teeth from time to time. The bits of bark likely came from toothpicks or possibly wooden tools used as a third hand during crafting, said the new study, published in the April issue of the journal Antiquity.
  
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• Shackled Skeletons Could Be Ancient Greek Rebels

  18-04-2016 15:44
  
  A trove of shackled skeletons unearthed in a mass grave near Athens may have once belonged to the followers of a tyrant who sought to overthrow the leader of ancient Greece. "These might be the remains of people who were part of this coup in Athens in 632 [B.C.], the Coup of Cylon," said Kristina Killgrove, a bioarchaeologist at the University of West Florida, in Pensacola, who was not involved in the current study. The mass grave was uncovered as archaeologists were excavating a huge cemetery i
  
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• Breakthrough As Mouse Embryos Grown In Space

  18-04-2016 15:42
  
  Chinese scientists have grown mouse embryos in space - paving the way for humans to colonise other planets. Duan Enkui, a professor at China's Institute of Zoology, said: "The human race may still have a long way to go before we can colonise space but, before that, we have to figure out whether it is possible for us to survive and reproduce in outer space like we do on Earth. NASA tried to develop mammalian embryos in space in 1996 but none of the 49 mouse embryos on board successfully developed
  
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• Why the Yukon government is buying $50K worth of camel bones

  18-04-2016 15:00 via cbc.ca
  
  The latest territorial budget included this odd item — '$50,000 to purchase two ancient Arctic camel skeletons.'
  
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• Scientists find a crab party deep in the ocean

  18-04-2016 15:00
  
  A trip to check out the biodiversity off the coast of Panama revealed thousands of crabs swarming on the seafloor.
  
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• A Long, Prosperous Life: Leonard Nimoy Remembered in New Film

  18-04-2016 13:49
  
  Like many people, Adam Nimoy has loved Mr. Spock from "Star Trek" since childhood. But Adam Nimoy's feelings run deeper, and are more complicated than yours or mine. Spock was played by Adam Nimoy's dad, Leonard Nimoy, who died of a pulmonary disorder in 2015 at the age of 83.
  
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• No Breakthrough Yet: Stephen Hawking's Interstellar 'Starshot' Faces Challenges

  18-04-2016 13:47
  
  On Tuesday (April 12), a group of scientists, engineers and investors announced Breakthrough Starshot, a$100 million initiative to study sending tiny robotic probes to the nearest starsystem beyond the sun, Alpha Centauri, within a generation. The project's architects envision building numerous spacecraft, each the size of a postage stamp and each equipped with a gossamer sail made of reflective material. A giant array of ground-based lasers would fire pulses at these miniprobes, whose sails wou
  
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• Advice from a Moonwalker: Buzz Aldrin Shares Life Lessons in New Book

  18-04-2016 13:47
  
  Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin has learned a lot over the course of his long, eventful and complicated life, and he's sharing some of the most important lessons in a new book. In "No Dream Is Too High: Life Lessons from a Man Who Walked on the Moon" (National Geographic Books, 2016), Aldrin talks about the historic highs he has experienced (becoming the second person ever to set foot on the moon, for example) as well as the soul-trying lows (recurring battles with alcoholism and depression). The book, w
  
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• Virtual Reality Comes to Spaceflight: Rocket Tours and Walks on Mars

  18-04-2016 13:46
  
  This week, the 32nd Space Symposium took place in Colorado, but it might as well have been at Cape Canaveral. A virtual-reality app created by United Launch Alliance (ULA) dropped me onto a launchpad next to a Delta IV rocket, and watching it take off gave me nearly the same thrill as seeing a launch in person. Humans should never actually get as close to a rocket launch as I got to the Delta IV rocket that took off in the VR app.
  
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• Global prize honours Cambodian activist

  18-04-2016 13:29 via bbc.co.uk
  
  An activist's undercover work to shed light on illegal logging in Cambodia's forests has been recognised by the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize.
  
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• British plane may have collided with drone at Heathrow, but lands safely

  18-04-2016 13:06 via cbc.ca
  
  A British Airways passenger aircraft was hit by what most likely was a drone as it prepared to land at Britain's Heathrow Airport, police said, increasing worries about the risks posed by increasing civil drone use.
  
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• Gravity mission passes 'sanity check'

  18-04-2016 12:39 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A European Space Agency effort to try to detect gravitational waves in space is not only technically feasible but compelling, a new report finds.
  
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• Wildfire shifts could dump more ice-melting soot in Arctic

  18-04-2016 12:00
  
  Wildfires will emit more soot into the air in many regions by the end of the century, new simulations show.
  
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• International bees helping bolster local pollinators

  18-04-2016 11:30 via cbc.ca
  
  Don't be confused by a sign at the border, imported bees are allowed in Nova Scotia with a permit and thousands packages of bees will be shipped from Australia and New Zealand, part of efforts to strengthen the local population.
  
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• Why Google, NASA are putting big money on a B.C. firm's quantum computer

  18-04-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Google. NASA. Lockheed Martin. Los Alamos National Laboratory. Big names in the worlds of big brains and cutting-edge technology are investing millions in a Canadian company's quantum computing technology despite criticism that the technology is unproven. Here's why.
  
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• VRBO 'luxury villa' turned out to be cockroach-infested 'nightmare'

  18-04-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  What was advertised on VRBO as a luxury villa turned out to be a "total nightmare" for an Ontario family, despite 5-star online reviews for the property.
  
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• Everyone lies, but politicians do it more often

  18-04-2016 10:12
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — This is the season of lies.
  
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• U.N. chief urges rival South Sudan leaders to form government soon

  18-04-2016 10:02
  By Denis Dumo JUBA (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged the leaders of war-torn South Sudan to form a transitional government quickly and roll out other parts of a fragile peace deal aimed at ending more than two years of conflict. Ban made the comments in telephone calls on Sunday with President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar, who is due to return to Juba this week to take up his former post as deputy to the president. Thousands have been killed and more than two mi
  
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• Wee can now be used to make electricity

  18-04-2016 08:19
  
  Microbial fuel cells can be used to generate electricity for as little as £1.
  
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• China launches pollution probe after hundreds of students fall sick

  18-04-2016 08:03
  Authorities in China have launched an investigation after a report that hundreds of children attending a language school built near a polluted former industrial site developed health problems, including cancer, state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday. The municipal government of Changzhou, about 100 km (60 miles) northwest of Shanghai, said that since December students and faculty at the Changzhou Foreign Languages School had been complaining about an "unusual smell" emitting from three form
  
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• When inhaling media erodes attention, exhaling provides focus

  18-04-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Wisconsin-Madison) People who often mix their media consumption -- texting while watching TV, or listening to music while reading -- are not known for being able to hold their attention on one task. But sharpening their focus may be as simple as breathing.
  
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• What screens are made of: New twists (and bends) in LCD research

  18-04-2016 06:00
  
  (DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) A research team has directly measured a spiral molecular arrangement formed by liquid crystals that could help unravel its mysteries and possibly improve the performance of electronic displays.
  
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• Vocal signals reveal intent to dominate or submit, study finds

  18-04-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) You may not win friends, but a new study finds that you can influence people simply by lowering the pitch of your voice in the first moments of a conversation.
  
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