Science news

• Send Astronauts to Mars to Find Evidence of Life, NASA's Top Scientist Says

  18-05-2016 23:52
  
  The chances are good that microbial life existed on Mars long ago, and sending astronauts to the Red Planet is the best way to find the evidence, NASA's chief scientist said. Though Mars is cold and dry today, the planet hosted liquid water on its surface for extended periods more than 3 billion years ago, Ellen Stofan pointed out during a talk Tuesday (May 17) at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C.
  
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• Can We Talk to E.T.? Workshop Mulls Alien Intelligence

  18-05-2016 23:52
  
  Scientists are gathering in Puerto Rico today (May 18) to discuss the many forms alien intelligence could take. During the daylong workshop, called "The Intelligence of SETI: Cognition and Communication in Extraterrestrial Intelligence," astronomers, biologists and other researchers will discuss the best ways to craft a message that could potentially be understood by alien civilizations. "Philosophical questions aside, from a pragmatic perspective, if we are to send a message, we must desig
  
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• Dinosaur duo sported exotic spikes and horns

  18-05-2016 23:14
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two newly discovered dinosaurs unearthed in the western U.S. states of Montana and Utah are illustrating the exotic appearance some of these beasts developed, with fanciful horns and spikes, toward the end of their reign on Earth.
  
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• Chinese jets conduct 'unsafe' intercept of US spy plane: Pentagon

  18-05-2016 23:02
  
  Two Chinese fighters have conducted an "unsafe" intercept of a US spy plane in international air space over the South China Sea, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
  
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• Hornbills join toucans in the cool beak club

  18-05-2016 22:56
  
  Like toucans, southern yellow-billed hornbills keep things chill with cool beaks.
  
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• Over a third of North American bird species in danger: scientists

  18-05-2016 22:54
  
  OTTAWA (Reuters) - More than a third of all North American bird species are at risk of becoming extinct unless significant action is taken, scientists who are part of a tri-nation initiative said on Wednesday, adding that ocean and tropical birds were in particular danger.
  
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• Ecuador coast hit by two earthquakes; one dead

  18-05-2016 21:56
  By Alexandra Valencia QUITO (Reuters) - Two earthquakes struck Ecuador's coast on Wednesday, leading to one death and light damage in the same region where a magnitude 7.8 tremor killed more than 650 people last month. Wednesday's tremors, measuring 6.7 and 6.8 in magnitude, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, cut electricity in some coastal areas and sent people running into the streets as far away as the highland capital of Quito, witnesses said. President Rafael Correa said the epicentre
  
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• 1.56-billion-year-old fossils add drama to Earth’s ‘boring billion’

  18-05-2016 21:24
  
  Ancient multicellular eukaryotes big enough to be seen by the naked eye discovered in 1.56-billion-year-old rock in China may be an ancestor of modern algae.
  
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• Space Shuttle External Tank Completes Sea Voyage, Arrives in Los Angeles

  18-05-2016 21:04
  
  NASA's last existing external tank built to launch the space shuttle has made landfall in Los Angeles after a five-week ocean journey. The massive orange-brown tank, which left New Orleans atop a barge April 12, arrived in Marina del Rey, California Wednesday morning (May 18). "[The tank] has entered the breakwater of the marina!" the California Science Center stated on Twitter.
  
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• The Arctic Ocean is about to get spicier

  18-05-2016 21:00
  
  Variations in the saltiness and temperature of seawater of the same density, called spiciness, could increase as the Arctic Ocean warms.
  
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• Genetically engineered food safe to eat, say top scientists

  18-05-2016 20:46
  
  No GM crops are being grown commercially in the UK.
  
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• Database launched to gather, study DNA from Midwestern twins

  18-05-2016 20:36
  SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Researchers are hoping twins who live in the Midwest will contribute DNA to a project aimed at gaining insights into traits and diseases specific to the region.
  
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• New horned dinosaur species discovered in Montana by amateur

  18-05-2016 20:34
  
  A novice fossil collector's lucky find in a remote Montana badlands more than a decade ago represents a new kind of spectacularly-horned dinosaur, researchers announced Wednesday. The bones unearthed near ...
  
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• NASA fuel tank arrives at port ahead of trip through Los Angeles

  18-05-2016 20:15
  
  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A NASA fuel tank arrived at a port on Wednesday ahead of a planned mission this weekend to tow the giant apparatus through the streets of Los Angeles and display it with the space shuttle Endeavour at a science center.
  
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• Horned dinosaur with nasty infection reveals new species

  18-05-2016 20:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Once upon a time, a scrappy horned dinosaur with a nasty bone infection died on the banks of a coastal river in Montana. Here's how "Judith" was found by a man out for a walk, and then recognized as a new species, with help from a Canadian museum.
  
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• Seriously? A Tetris movie is coming from Mortal Kombat's producer

  18-05-2016 19:24 via cbc.ca
  
  It could be a blockbuster. At least that's what a Chinese-American movie studio hopes to produce in a sci-fi thriller based on the popular 1980s video game Tetris.
  
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• Ecuador hit by two earthquakes; minor injuries reported

  18-05-2016 19:22
  By Alexandra Valencia QUITO (Reuters) - Two earthquakes struck Ecuador's coast on Wednesday, causing minor injuries and light damage in the same region where a magnitude 7.8 tremor killed more than 650 people last month. Wednesday's tremors, measuring 6.7 and 6.8 in magnitude, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, cut electricity in some coastal areas and sent people running into the streets as far away as the highland capital of Quito, witnesses said. President Rafael Correa said the epicent
  
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• Are the birds all right? Environment minister shares report

  18-05-2016 19:21 via cbc.ca
  
  Birds are in decline in Canada and threatened with extinction around the world, reports in recent years have shown. But how are different species doing across North America today? Watch live starting 2 p.m. ET.
  
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• A billion birds have vanished from North America

  18-05-2016 19:21 via cbc.ca
  
  A billion birds have disappeared from North America since 1970, and a third of bird species across the continent are threatened with extinction, a new report says.
  
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• April temperatures break records across the globe

  18-05-2016 19:15
  
  Average temperatures continue to rise across the world.
  
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• This meteor lit up the night sky over the US and Canada and had people wondering if it could actually be aliens

  18-05-2016 18:38
  
  It really looked like it got close.
  
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• Brazilian judge sentences Lula's ex-chief of staff to 23 years

  18-05-2016 18:23
  A one-time chief of staff for former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sentenced to 23 years in prison on Wednesday for corruption, money-laundering and conspiracy in a vast bribery scandal at the state-run oil company. Jose Dirceu, a top power broker in the leftist Workers Party that governed Brazil from 2003 until last week, previously had been sentenced separately by the Supreme Court to over 10 years in prison for running a congressional vote-buying operation. "Not even a con
  
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• Potato-Heavy Diet Linked to High Blood Pressure

  18-05-2016 18:14
  Packing potatoes into your diet may put you at higher risk for having high blood pressure, a new study finds, although the researchers acknowledged that the study presents an interesting paradox. People who reported eating four or more servings of potatoes per week were 11 percent more likely to have hypertension, compared with people who ate less than one serving of potatoes per month, according to the study. Moreover, the researchers found that replacing one daily serving of baked, boiled or m
  
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• Magic-Mushroom Compound Shows Potential for Treating Depression

  18-05-2016 18:14
  A hallucinogenic compound called psilocybin, found in so-called magic mushrooms, has the potential to help treat people with depression one day, a small new study suggests. However, experts caution that much more research is needed to prove psilocybin's effectiveness and safety for this purpose. In the study, 12 people with depression were given psilocybin along with supportive talk therapy.
  
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• Rare Tumor May Cause ADHD Symptoms in Some Kids

  18-05-2016 18:13
  In rare cases, children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) actually have a tumor that appears to cause symptoms similar to those of ADHD, according to a small new study. The researchers evaluated 43 children with rare tumors of the adrenal gland, called pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas. They found that nine of the children (21 percent) had been diagnosed with ADHD before doctors discovered their tumors.
  
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• Penis Transplant: Why It's Done & What Can Go Wrong

  18-05-2016 18:13
  The recent announcement of the first U.S. penile transplant is exciting news, and brings hope for many men, including injured combat veterans. On Monday (May 16), doctors announced that a 64-year-old man in Massachusetts had become the first person in the United States to receive a penile transplant. The patient, Thomas Manning, needed his penis removed in 2012 because of aggressive penile cancer.
  
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• Half of Parents Keep Kids' Leftover Painkillers at Home

  18-05-2016 18:13
  
  Nearly half of parents whose children were once prescribed pain medication kept the leftover pills at home, a new poll finds. Nearly one-third of the parents who participated in the poll reported that their children had been prescribed at least one pain medication, most often related to surgery, illness or injury. Of these prescriptions, 60 percent were for opioids such as oxycodone or hydrocodone, according to the results from the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health
  
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• German to take command of International Space Station in 2018

  18-05-2016 17:56
  
  COLOGNE, Germany (Reuters) - Astronaut Alexander Gerst will become the first German and only the second European to take command of the International Space Station, the European Space Agency said on Wednesday.
  
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• Mark and Scott Kelly Joining 'Crew' of Astronauts with Schools Named for Them

  18-05-2016 17:48
  
  A New Jersey elementary school is about to become the newest member of the "crew" of U.S. educational institutions that have been named for astronauts. On Thursday (May 19), Pleasantdale Elementary School will be formally renamed in honor of Mark and Scott Kelly, former NASA astronauts who attended the school while growing up in West Orange, New Jersey. Mark flew on four space shuttle missions, including commanding the final mission of the orbiter Endeavour, while his identical twin brother Scot
  
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• Stuck on hot: Earth breaks 12th straight monthly heat record

  18-05-2016 17:39
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Earth's heat is stuck on high. Federal scientists said the globe shattered monthly heat records for an unprecedented 12th straight month as April smashed the old record by half a degree.
  
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• Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg meets with conservatives amid bias allegations

  18-05-2016 17:25 via cbc.ca
  
  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with conservatives, including radio host Glenn Beck, to discuss claims that its 'trending topics' feature is biased against their viewpoints.
  
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• Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg meeting with conservatives amid bias allegations

  18-05-2016 17:25 via cbc.ca
  
  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is meeting with conservatives, including radio host Glenn Beck, to discuss claims that its 'trending topics' feature is biased against their viewpoints.
  
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• 'Magic' Mirror Reveals Body Changes As You Get Fit

  18-05-2016 17:17
  
  The device, called Naked, is the first 3D body scanner and fitness tracker designed specifically for people to use in their homes, said Ed Sclater, co-founder of Naked Labs, the California-based company behind Naked. As you rotate on the scale, ideally wearing minimal, skin-tight, workout clothing, the sensors create 3D depth maps of your body at around 30 frames per second, Sclater told Live Science.
  
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• Lessons from a Baby Bison's Death: Don't. Touch. Wildlife.

  18-05-2016 17:16
  
  What began as a well-intentioned but ill-informed act ended with the death of a young wild animal recently at Yellowstone National Park. During the week of May 9, visitors to Yellowstone came across a solitary bison calf. Later, the newborn calf was released back into the wild, and the National Park Service (NPS) issued the visitors a citation, according to a statement from the NPS released May 16.
  
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• U.S. weather observer blown away by 175 km/h winds

  18-05-2016 17:09 via cbc.ca
  
  Two weather observers stationed atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire have shown the internet just how windy it can get up there.
  
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• Helen Sharman's 1991 space mission 'feels like yesterday'

  18-05-2016 17:03
  A quarter of a century has passed, but for Helen Sharman the memory of being the first Briton in space is so vivid that it "feels like yesterday".
  
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• Superbubble! Young Stars Highlight Glowing Gas Cloud (Photo, Video)

  18-05-2016 16:53
  
  The gas cloud, a nebula called LHA 120-N55, is about 163,000 light-years away from Earth and is situated in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy that's one of the Milky Way's satellites. The gaseous N55 is inside of a superbubble, a vast structure which occurs when winds from new stars and shockwaves from supernova explosions, caused by dying stars, blow away the gas and dust those stars used to possess. "The material that became N55, however, managed to survive as a small remnant p
  
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• What to expect at Google I/O 2016 developers conference

  18-05-2016 16:16 via cbc.ca
  
  Virtual reality? AI? An annual Google conference that serves as a launching pad for its latest products and innovations starts today. Here's what to expect.
  
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• Google unveils Daydream VR system, Allo chat service, Google Home

  18-05-2016 16:16 via cbc.ca
  
  From virtual reality to a new smart-home speaker, Google is showing off just how pervasive it has become even as it's squeezed by its biggest competitors - Facebook, Apple and Amazon.
  
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• Math offers new view of brain and its disorders

  18-05-2016 16:15
  Editor in chief Eva Emerson discusses new insights into the brain's role in mental illness, sleep, and ancient rituals.
  
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• Zika, psychobiotics and more in reader feedback

  18-05-2016 16:00
  Readers respond to the April 2, 2016, issue of Science News with thoughts on Zika virus, planetary science, microbes in mental health and more.
  
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• Livestock firm Genus ramps up R&D spend in gene editing race

  18-05-2016 15:45
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - British animal genetics firm Genus is diving deeper into the hot area of gene editing, in a move Chief Executive Karim Bitar says will bring long-term gains at the cost of a hefty hike in research spending.
  
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• The bizarre mating ritual of a bee parasite

  18-05-2016 14:41
  
  Stylops ovinae insects — parasites found in mining bees — have short lives filled with trauma.
  
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• Is the Moon Our Ticket to the Solar System? Q&A with Author Paul D. Spudis

  18-05-2016 14:33
  
  In his new book, "The Value of the Moon: How to Explore, Live and Prosper in Space Using the Moon's Resources," (Smithsonian Books, 2016), planetary scientist and author Paul D. Spudis explains why the moon could be a critical stepping stone for robotic and human missions to other solar system destinations. Following in the footsteps of people like aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun and science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, Spudis uses recent lunar science to show that the moon contains the
  
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• Einstein's Theory of Relativity Holds True for Early Universe, 3D Map Confirms

  18-05-2016 14:33
  
  Just over one hundred years after Albert Einstein proposed his general theory of relativity, scientists have mapped nearly 3,000 ancient galaxies to confirm its rules held true in the early universe. Researchers created a 3D map of the galaxies' positions to confirm that the effects of relativity are consistent through the life of the universe, suggesting that dark energy plays a role in the universe's expansion. Using the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan's Subaru telescope in Hawaii,
  
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• Mysterious Mars Methane Spike Not a Seasonal Event

  18-05-2016 14:32
  
  A big methane spike that NASA's Mars rover Curiosity detected two years ago was not due to seasonal changes on the Red Planet, NASA scientists said. "It was an episodic release, still unexplained," NASA officials said of the methane surge.
  
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• Molecular 'Midwives' Helped Give Birth to RNA

  18-05-2016 14:32
  
  RNA, a close molecular relative of DNA, is used within living cells to carry out a wide variety of important biological functions, including protein synthesis. DNA and RNA are both extremely complex molecules, a fact that has fueled a long-standing debate about the origins of life. RNA looks potentially older and more versatile than DNA, so many scientists believe that RNA came before DNA.
  
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• Buzz Aldrin Says US Presidential Candidates Should Aim for Mars

  18-05-2016 14:32
  
  Buzz Aldrin has some words of advice for presidential candidates Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The next president of the United States could carve out a lasting legacy for him- or herself by putting the nation firmly on the path to Mars, the former Apollo 11 moonwalker said today (May 17) at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C. "A president who appeals to our higher angels and takes us closer to the heavenly body we call Mars will not only make history — he or
  
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• VIDEO: China's new deep sea submarine

  18-05-2016 14:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Look inside a life-size model of a submarine which the Chinese hope will take humans to the very bottom of the ocean - the Mariana Trench, in the Pacific.
  
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• VIDEO: Hunting universe's strangest particles

  18-05-2016 13:52 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Deep underground, beneath Daya Bay in the south of China, scientists are hunting for the oddest particles in the cosmos - neutrinos.
  
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