Science news

• Giant tortoise, huge carnivorous plant among Top 10 new species of 2016

  25-05-2016 23:43 via cbc.ca
  
  A giant tortoise and a large carnivorous plant are among the Top 10 new species of 2016, the International Institute for Species Exploration says.
  
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• Exxon takes 'small step' on climate

  25-05-2016 22:58 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Shareholders at Exxon Mobil AGM reject most proposals but voted in favour of a resolution that could see a climate activist elected to the board in the future.
  
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• Climate-cooling aerosols can form from tree vapors

  25-05-2016 22:57
  
  Climate-cooling, cloud-seeding aerosols can form in the atmosphere without the sulfuric acid spewed from fossil fuel burning, new research suggests.
  
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• Space-Craft: NASA Offers Origami Model of Space Station's Expandable Habitat

  25-05-2016 22:52
  
  The space agency has created "origaBEAMi," a print, fold and inflate-it-yourself miniature paper model of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM). The real BEAM was launched aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule in April and is scheduled to be deployed to its full-size Thursday morning (May 26). Aboard the orbiting outpost, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams will lead the operations to inflate BEAM, initially introducing air, very slowly, through a small manual valve feeding from the supply i
  
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• Fort McMurray wildfire ash reaches all the way to Spain

  25-05-2016 22:02 via cbc.ca
  
  Ash and soot from the Fort McMurray wildfire has drifted all the way to Europe and could speed the melting of Greenland's ice sheet, says a fire ecologist.
  
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• Crews assess damage after tornadoes, hail, rain pound Plains

  25-05-2016 21:58
  
  DODGE CITY, Kan. (AP) — Western Kansas survey crews took advantage of calm conditions Wednesday to assess damage from severe weather that swept through the Great Plains, and the National Weather Service said more storms could be on the horizon.
  
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• Swallow This Robot: Foldable Droid Could Mend Stomachs

  25-05-2016 21:37
  
  A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has proposed a new, minimally invasive way of using biocompatible and biodegradable miniature robots to carry out tasks inside the human body. The researchers have already demonstrated origami-inspired robots capable of swimming, climbing and carrying a load twice their weight, but creating an ingestible device that can operate inside a stomach presented a whole new set of challenges, said Shuhei Miyashita, who was part of the
  
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• The length of a second might change but don't worry, you won't notice it

  25-05-2016 21:21
  
  The new optical clock could reduce the number of seconds we’ve apparently lost since the time of the universe.
  
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• Fruit fly’s giant sperm is quite an exaggeration

  25-05-2016 21:12
  
  Giant sperm, about 20 times a male fruit fly’s body length, could make the insects the champs of supersized sexual ornaments.
  
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• NASA's yearlong spaceman still has sore feet, fatigue

  25-05-2016 20:41
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA's yearlong spaceman says even after 2 ½ months back on Earth, his feet are still sore.
  
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• Alzheimer’s culprit may fight other diseases

  25-05-2016 20:00
  
  A notorious Alzheimer’s villain may help bust microbes.
  
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• Neanderthal stone structures discovered

  25-05-2016 19:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Researchers investigating a cave in France have identified mysterious stone rings that were probably built by Neanderthals.
  
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• Why the tiny fruit fly has giant sperm: Size matters to her

  25-05-2016 19:30
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — For a long time, the debate has gone on: Does size matter to females? Biologists now say, definitively, that it does.
  
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• Contract to construct giant telescope

  25-05-2016 19:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The contract is signed that will lead to the construction of one of this century's key astronomical facilities - the European Extremely Large Telescope.
  
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• This is how to curve a ball backwards

  25-05-2016 19:07
  
  The Magnus effect is pretty common in football – but the reverse Magnus effect, not so much. Here’s why.
  
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• Scientists: Underground stone rings made by Neanderthals

  25-05-2016 19:04
  BERLIN (AP) — Two mysterious stone rings found deep inside a French cave were probably built by Neanderthals about 176,500 years ago, proving that the ancient cousins of humans were capable of more complex behavior than previously thought, scientists say.
  
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• Mars Makes Closest Approach to Earth in 11 Years on May 30

  25-05-2016 19:02
  
  Last Sunday morning (May 22), Mars reached opposition with the sun, meaning the Red Planet, Earth and the sun were all arrayed in a straight line. This Monday evening (May 30) at 5:35 p.m. EDT (2135 GMT), Mars will be the closest it has been to Earth since Oct. 5, 2005: 0.50321377 astronomical units (AU), or 46,762,695 miles (75,279,709 kilometers). Opposition and closest Earth approach occur on different days because the orbit of Mars is elliptical.
  
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• World's Largest Telescope Now Has a Construction Contract

  25-05-2016 19:01
  
  Construction will soon begin on what is slated to be the largest optical telescope ever built. Today (May 25), the European Southern Observatory announced that it has selected a contractor to build the dome and main facility of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) in the mountains of the Atacama Desert in Chile. The E-ELT will have an aperture of 127 feet (39 meters).
  
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• Stone circles show Neandertals’ social, technical skills

  25-05-2016 19:00
  
  Ancient human relatives built circular stalagmite structures inside a French cave.
  
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• Alberta's oilsands are a top producer of harmful air pollutants, study finds

  25-05-2016 19:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Alberta's oilsands industry is one of the biggest sources in North America of harmful air pollutants called secondary organic aerosols, a new Environment Canada study has found.
  
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• A Mitsubishi fit for a queen. Why 20K bees couldn't leave this SUV alone

  25-05-2016 18:38 via cbc.ca
  
  After 20,000 bees swarm an SUV for two days straight, the culprit is revealed: they were just trying to follow their Queen Bee, who had snuck under the car's windshield wiper.
  
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• Robot Sumo Tourney Pushes Students' Innovative Skills

  25-05-2016 18:20 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Winning this mechanized shoving match takes the right mix of might and agility—or at least a robot that works when switched on
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Huge swarms of bats wreak destruction in Australian town

  25-05-2016 18:09 via cbc.ca
  
  More than 100,000 bats have descended on the holiday town of Batemans Bay in New South Wales, Australia, with one local politician declaring it a disaster after residents were hit with a wave of dirt and destruction.
  
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• 'Polar bear hybrid' shot in Canada

  25-05-2016 18:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A possible grizzly-polar bear hybrid has been shot by a hunter in northern Canada.
  
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• Physicist Kip Thorne Talks Black Holes at the Genius Gala Awards

  25-05-2016 17:39
  Four innovators received awards at the fifth annual Genius Gala at Liberty Science Center in New Jersey, turning Friday night here into a geekfest. The brilliant recipients included paleontologist Jack Horner, astrophysicist Kip Thorne, architect Frank Gehry and social psychologist Ellen Langer from Harvard University. During his acceptance speech, Thorne said he felt "like a fraud" and that he's "not a genius." Thorne honored the colleagues he worked with while discovering gravitational waves t
  
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• Light Behaving Badly: Strange Beams Reveal Hitch in Quantum Mechanics

  25-05-2016 17:27
  A hidden property of corkscrew, spiraled beams of light could put a hitch in quantum mechanics. The photons, or light particles, inside these light-based Möbius strips spin with a momentum previously thought to be impossible. The findings could shake up some of the assumptions in quantum mechanics, the rules that govern the menagerie of tiny subatomic particles.
  
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• Confirmed: The Soil Under Your Feet Is Teeming with Life

  25-05-2016 17:25
  
  That's the message of a new atlas describing the biodiversity of soil, to be released tomorrow (May 25) at the United Nations Environmental Assembly in Nairobi, Kenya. Soil even has its own microbiome containing at least a million bacterial species. Only about a quarter of worm species, 6 percent of fungi and less than 2 percent of soil bacteria have been studied and categorized.
  
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• Centuries-Old Artifacts Discovered Beneath Malcolm X's Childhood Home

  25-05-2016 17:24
  
  An excavation at the house in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood ended last week. The house, located at 72 Dale Street, was built in 1874 and has been owned by Malcolm's family since the 1940s. Malcolm lived there with his older half sister Ella Little-Collins after his father died and his mother was institutionalized.
  
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• Why Having the 'Ideal' Partner Doesn't Mean You'll Be Happy

  25-05-2016 17:19
  In the search for a romantic partner, it seems reasonable to think that finding a man or woman who checks off many of the boxes on your list of "ideal mate" characteristics would lead to a happier relationship. Researchers found that people's satisfaction in their romantic relationships was not linked with how well their mate's qualities lined up with their ideal traits, according to the findings, published online April 12 in the journal Psychological Science. Instead, relationship happiness dep
  
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• New Obesity Treatment: Gas-Filled Balloons

  25-05-2016 17:19
  A new obesity treatment that involves swallowing a capsule that contains a balloon may help people lose more weight than they would by just dieting, a new study suggests. In the study, 185 obese people (with a body mass index of 30 to 40), received the balloon treatment, called the Obalon 6-Month Balloon System. After six months, participants in the balloon group lost an average of 6.8 percent of their body weight, compared to an average of 3.5 percent in the sham group.
  
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• Colorectal Cancer on the Rise in Adults Under 50

  25-05-2016 17:18
  The number of U.S. adults who are diagnosed with colorectal cancer before age 50 is on the rise, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed information from more than 1 million colorectal cancer cases that were diagnosed from 2004 to 2013, using the U.S. National Cancer Data Base. During that time, the number of colorectal cancer cases in people under 50 years old increased by 11.4 percent, which translates to an increase of about 136 cases each year during the study period, according to the study,
  
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• Just How Short Can Your Workout Be?

  25-05-2016 17:17
  If your workouts involve vigorous exercise, they can be shorter, experts say. "You can get more bang for your buck with vigorous exercise," said Dr. Edward Laskowski, co-director of Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. Specifically, new research suggests that a type of workout known as interval training may allow people to get fit in much less time than is required with traditional endurance exercise.
  
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• Get ready for it to be as hot as Hollywood this Bank Holiday weekend

  25-05-2016 17:12
  
  OK, ok – we admit it’s only going to be that warm in certain parts of the UK. Here’s where the sunshine will be….
  
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• Seismic experiment might reveal thickness of Europa’s ice

  25-05-2016 16:46
  
  Crashing an empty rocket fuel tank into the surface of Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, could help scientists figure out the thickness of the ice.
  
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• Laser beams and breathalyzers: measuring cow burps for climate science

  25-05-2016 16:46 via cbc.ca
  
  By using laser beams and breathalyzers to measure cow burps, Alberta scientists hope to cut down on the harmful emissions created by Canada’s cattle industry.
  
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• 'Dinosaur crater' drill project success

  25-05-2016 16:43 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Chicxulub drill project declared a success
  
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• The HAWC Has Landed — Observatory Maps the High Energy Sky

  25-05-2016 16:09
  
  These metal tanks make up the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Gamma-Ray Observatory, or HAWC for short, which is being used to map the sky in high-energy gamma-rays. The new map reveals a cosmic landscape that resembles the isolated desert where HAWC's detectors make their home, sparsely littered with sources of light. The release of HAWC's first complete sky map last month effectively signified that HAWC is now a participating member of the observing community, and has already begun to perform on
  
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• Alien Life? Radiation May Erase Mars, Europa Fossils

  25-05-2016 16:08
  
  The hunt for signs of alien life in the solar system may be much tougher than researchers had thought, thanks to the damaging effects of radiation. Two separate studies suggest that galactic radiation would quickly degrade biological material on the surface of Mars and Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa, two of the prime targets in the search for past or present extraterrestrial life. Objects in the solar system are bathed in radiation from the sun and large planets such as Jupiter.
  
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• Microsoft makes deep cuts to smartphone business

  25-05-2016 15:07 via cbc.ca
  
  Microsoft Corp announced more big cuts to its smartphone business on Wednesday, just two years after it bought handset maker Nokia in an ill-fated attempt to take on market leaders Apple and Samsung.
  
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• After $100 million heist, bank messaging service will up security

  25-05-2016 14:52 via cbc.ca
  
  The SWIFT secure messaging service that underpins international banking says plans to launch a new security programme as it fights to rebuild its reputation in the wake of the $106 million Bangladesh Bank heist.
  
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• Trump unlikely to be able to renegotiate climate deal – U.N. climate chief

  25-05-2016 14:09
  By Susanna Twidale COLOGNE (Reuters) - Donald Trump would be "highly unlikely" to be able to renegotiate the global accord on climate change if elected U.S. president, the U.N.'s climate chief said on Wednesday, as doing so would require the agreement of 195 countries. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told Reuters earlier this month he was "not a big fan" of the climate accord and would seek to renegotiate elements of the deal. "As we all know, Donald Trump relishes making
  
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• Rare wasp species found on New Brunswick beaches

  25-05-2016 13:31 via cbc.ca
  
  A species of wasp that was thought to be a candidate for the endangered species list has been spotted at Shediac's Parlee Beach and many other locations along New Brunswick's eastern shore.
  
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• Women in sports are often underrepresented in science

  25-05-2016 13:00
  
  More and more women are taking up recreational and competitive sports. But when it comes to exercise science, the studies don’t reflect that trend.
  
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• Crayfish and worms may die out together

  25-05-2016 12:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A study finds that bizarre, tentacled worms which live attached to crayfish are at risk of extinction, alongside the crayfish themselves.
  
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• VIDEO: Storm-chasers film Kansas tornados

  25-05-2016 12:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A news crew has been filming tornados outside Dodge City in Kansas. At least two people were injured in severe storms.
  
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• Hospital expansion sows concern among scientists testing drought-resistant crops

  25-05-2016 11:30 via cbc.ca
  
  Agricultural scientists are conducting special research into drought-resistant soybeans in the uniquely sandy-soiled research fields of the Central Experimental Farm that lie adjacent to the Civic campus of The Ottawa Hospital — land that's now being eyed for a possible 60-acre hospital expansion.
  
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• 'Like being punched in the face': Feds target laser attacks on planes with #NotABrightIdea

  25-05-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Calls to ban hand-held lasers that endanger aircraft crew and passengers are ramping up, and the federal government is turning to social media for help.
  
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• CRTC pushes cable providers, public to tell all about new $25 basic TV packs

  25-05-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  The CRTC is calling on cable providers to publicly explain their $25 basic TV packages at hearings in September — but members of the public with something to say about the so-called "skinny" packages can weigh in online.
  
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• Solar Impulse aims for Pennsylvania

  25-05-2016 10:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The sun-powered aircraft Solar Impulse takes off from Dayton, Ohio, on a 750km flight to Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania.
  
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• Kyrgyzstan protests over Kazakh minister's toilet cleaning comment

  25-05-2016 09:03
  Kyrgyzstan's foreign ministry has summoned a Kazakh diplomat after Kazakhstan's culture and sports minister said he felt sorry for Kyrgyz migrant labourers having to clean public toilets in Russia. The Kyrgyz foreign ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday that Arystanbek Mukhamediuly's comments were insulting, "had provoked negative reaction from the Kyrgyz public and were not in line with the allied spirit of Kyrgyz-Kazakh relations". Kazakhstan is far richer than its neighbour, thanks to
  
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