Science news

• Exclusive - Saudi's deputy crown prince to visit U.S. for talks: sources

  03-06-2016 23:51
  By Warren Strobel and Yara Bayoumy WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's powerful deputy crown prince is expected to visit Washington in mid-June for talks with top U.S. officials, possibly including President Barack Obama, amid growing friction between the longtime allies, three sources familiar with the matter said on Friday. Mohammed bin Salman, son of Saudi Arabia's King Salman, has been leading a drive to end the kingdom's dependence on oil and liberalize its economy.
  
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• Scientists propose project to build synthetic human genome

  03-06-2016 23:14
  
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of 25 scientists on Thursday proposed an ambitious project to create a synthetic human genome, or genetic blueprint, in an endeavor that is bound to raise concerns over the extent to which human life can or should be engineered.
  
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• Saturn Reigns Over June's Night Sky: How and When to See It

  03-06-2016 22:08
  
  If May was "Mars month," then June certainly belongs to Saturn. In comparison, Jupiter, in its 12-year orbit, advances about one constellation a year, and Saturn, in its 29-and-a-half-year orbit, takes two or three years. Currently, we can find Saturn in the nonzodiacal constellation of Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder.
  
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• Canada lagging behind other nations in alternatives to fossil fuels: Bob McDonald

  03-06-2016 19:16 via cbc.ca
  
  For the first time, worldwide investments in alternative energy have exceeded investments in new fossil fuel projects, but Canada is still behind the major players, writes Bob McDonald.
  
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• Underwater "Lost City" Built by Microbes?

  03-06-2016 19:15 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Geologists find that ancient underwater structures off Greece were likely created by methane jets and bacteria
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• U.S. air strikes in Yemen kill 15 al Qaeda militants -Pentagon

  03-06-2016 19:04
  The U.S. military on Friday disclosed that it carried out an air strike in Yemen in May, killing four al Qaeda militants, and also revealed three other strikes that had not been previously reported. The announcement concerned strikes in Yemen that ranged from February to March and killed 11 al Qaeda militants, the Pentagon said in a statement. The total number of strikes carried out by the U.S. military in Yemen this year against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is now at nine, the state
  
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• Asteroid explosion over Arizona floods sky with light 10 times brighter than the moon

  03-06-2016 19:01 via cbc.ca
  
  An overnight asteroid explosion over Arizona lit up the sky so brightly that it appeared as if it were daylight for several seconds.
  
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• Massive rehearsal planned for Northwest mega-quake, tsunami

  03-06-2016 18:47
  
  PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Imagine a devastating earthquake and tsunami have cut off Pacific Northwest coastal communities. Phone and internet service have collapsed. Ham radio operators living on the stricken coast fire up their radios, contact emergency managers and report on the magnitude of the disaster so that no time is wasted in saving lives.
  
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• Brilliant Fireball Lights Up the Sky Over Arizona (Video)

  03-06-2016 18:34
  
  A small asteroid blazed a spectacular trail through Arizona's skies early Thursday morning (June 2), and the dramatic celestial event was caught on video. 1100 GMT) Thursday, NASA officials said. The impact of asteroid with the air created a fireball so bright that it saturated NASA meteor cameras in the region, as as this video of the brilliant event shows.
  
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• Luxembourg sets aside 200 million euros to fund space mining ventures

  03-06-2016 18:23
  
  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Luxembourg on Friday upped its bid to be a leader in the nascent space mining industry by setting aside 200 million euros ($223 million) to fund initiatives aimed at bringing back rare minerals from space.
  
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• Under attack from beetles, ancient Polish forest faces chop

  03-06-2016 18:07
  Inside Poland's ancient Bialowieza Forest, birds chirp and bison graze as visitors explore the lush green surroundings, a home to boars, beavers, lynx - and beetles. Occupying almost 580 square miles of woodland, Bialowieza is a UNESCO World Heritage site sprawling across the border with Bielorussia. Foresters working in Bialowieza and the government say the solution is to cut down more trees, to save other trees.
  
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• Maximum size of giant squid remains a mystery

  03-06-2016 18:03
  
  A scientist has come up with a new estimate of the maximum size of giant squid. He says the animals could be as long as two public buses.
  
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• New FDA Salt Targets: Which Foods Would Change Most?

  03-06-2016 17:06
  If these target sodium levels are reached over the next 10 years, some of the biggest sodium drops in packaged foods could be in certain sauces and frozen breakfast foods, according to Live Science's calculations. The sodium targets, from the Food and Drug Administration, could help reduce sodium intake for the average American by more than 1,000 milligrams per day — from 3,400 mg per day to 2,300 mg per day, the FDA said. The guidelines are voluntary, but many food companies have already
  
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• Teen Birthrates Reach Another Record Low, CDC Says

  03-06-2016 17:04
  The teen birth rate has declined almost continuously over the past two decades, according to the federal statistics. The 2015 birthrate was a 64 percent decrease from the rate's peak in 1991, at 62 births per 1,000 teens, according to the report, published today (June 2) by researchers at the CDC's Center for National Health Statistics. In the report, the researchers broke down the rate further, by smaller age groups: Among 15- to 17-year-olds, the birthrate decreased from 11 births per 1,000 te
  
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• Elon Musk talks space travel, artificial intelligence and whether life is a video game at Code Conference

  03-06-2016 16:59
  
  The Tesla and SpaceX boss had some fascinating theories to share at Code Conference in San Francisco.
  
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• Black-Death Survey Reveals Incredible Devastation Wrought by Plague

  03-06-2016 16:59
  
  The devastation wrought by the Black Death plague pandemic in medieval England has been revealed in a uniquely detailed archaeological study carried out for more than a decade with the help of thousands of village volunteers. Although some historians have played down the impact of the bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the 1300s, new research shows that the Black Death was as deadly as described in writings that have survived from the time, with some villages suffering an almost 80 pe
  
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• 19th-Century White House Garden Aligns with Solstice Sun

  03-06-2016 16:58
  
  A 19th-century garden just north of the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, D.C., was designed so that its statues align with the rising and setting sun on the summer and winter solstices, a physics professor has found. Using satellite imagery and astronomical software, Amelia Sparavigna, of Politecnico di Torino in Italy, discovered the phenomenon. The solstice sun aligns with the center of the garden, which contains a statue of President Andrew Jackson, and the endings of four w
  
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• Surprising Echo of Ancient Irish Horns in Indian Instruments

  03-06-2016 16:57
  
  It was a musical link to the past hidden in plain sight: Some modern horns played in India and neighboring regions bear a striking resemblance to ancient Irish instruments that date back to Europe's Bronze and Iron Ages, according to a new study. The comparisons suggest sustained cultural exchange between the two regions, and could help researchers to understand the origins of some Indian instruments and to reconstruct the sounds of ancient Irish music. "Some horns are frankly shockingly similar
  
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• New Artificial Intelligence Can Tell Stories Based on Photos

  03-06-2016 16:57
  Artificial intelligence may one day embrace the meaning of the expression "A picture is worth a thousand words," as scientists are now teaching programs to describe images as humans would. Now, scientists at Microsoft Research and their colleagues are developing a system that can automatically describe a series of images in much the same way a person would by telling a story. "The goal is to help give AIs more human-like intelligence, to help it understand things on a more abstract level —
  
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• Male Orb-Web Spiders Are Choosy About Their Cannibal Mate

  03-06-2016 16:57
  
  Male colonial orb-web spiders almost always get eaten by females right after mating. But perhaps it's a consolation that they get to choose their cannibal.
  
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• T. Rex May Have Had Lips

  03-06-2016 16:55
  Robert Reisz, a paleontologist at the University of Toronto, is challenging the long-standing image of meat-eating theropod dinosaurs such as T. rex. Specifically, Reisz suggests that theropods' teeth were not bared all the time, extending outside their mouths and fully visible whether their jaws were open or closed. Rather, these teeth were kept hidden, covered by scaly lips, he said in a presentation May 20 at the Canadian Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's annual meeting in Ontario.
  
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• Greek underwater formation isn't 'lost city,' scientists say

  03-06-2016 16:14
  ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Scientists say a collection of structures discovered in shallow waters off the Greek island of Zakynthos were actually formed by natural process.
  
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• 'Assassin' Captures a New Supernova, and Photographers Take Aim

  03-06-2016 16:10
  
  This particular supernova was spotted by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN, which is pronounced "assassin"). Using a total of eight telescopes in two different locations, ASAS-SN surveys the sky for the sudden appearance of very bright spots of light, which could be supernovas. On May 28, ASAS-SN spotted the supernova in M66.
  
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• These Single-Person Spaceship Ideas by Students Are Just Wild

  03-06-2016 16:09
  
  In the annals of spaceflight history, only a handful of Russian and American space travelers have experienced single-person orbital flight. But a recent three-month student competition has led to some creative interiors for a single-person spacecraft.
  
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• Stolen World: 'Planet 9' Likely Came from Another Star

  03-06-2016 16:09
  
  There may be an alien planet lurking within Earth's own solar system. "It is almost ironic that while astronomers often find exoplanets hundreds of light-years away in other solar systems, there's probably one hiding in our own backyard," study lead author Alexander Mustill, an astronomer at Lund University in Sweden, said in a statement. Earlier this year, astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, both of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, announced the possible existence
  
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• New Astrophotography Book 'Treasures of the Universe' Is Cosmic Eye Candy

  03-06-2016 16:09
  
  The white text is almost squeezed out by the full-page images of galaxies, stars and other objects. Van der Hoeven doesn't delve too deep into the science, but the added text does give readers a slightly better understanding of what the images show, and how seeing those objects in different wavelengths of light reveals new information. Images of M33 taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope (which sees the universe in infrared light) revealed that the galaxy is, in some places, twice as large as what
  
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• Schrodinger's Cat Arrives? Quantum Weirdness Gets Life Size

  03-06-2016 15:11
  
  The quantum absurdity that leads to the notion of Schrodinger's cat — in which a cat can exist in two states simultaneously — could finally be tested in an object visible to the naked eye, a new study demonstrates. Scientists have created a pendulum-like membrane that is so perfectly isolated from friction and heat "that it would just keep going for 10 years with a single push," said study co-author Simon Gröblacher, a physicist at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlan
  
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• Pygmy blue whales deepen their moans

  03-06-2016 15:00
  
  Sri Lankan pygmy blue whales are tweaking their calls — making one part deeper and keeping another part the same — but scientists can’t say why. The finding injects a new wrinkle in theories about blue whale calls.
  
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• Home Sweet Habitat: Students Help NASA Design Mars Spacecraft Living Quarters

  03-06-2016 14:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  An architecture and design class partners with NASA to develop a human-focused spacecraft environment that could take astronauts to Mars
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Hubble clocks faster cosmic expansion

  03-06-2016 13:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Universe may be expanding up to 9% faster than previously thought, according to new measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope.
  
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• Tech moguls declare era of artificial intelligence

  03-06-2016 13:03
  
  By Liana B. Baker RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence and machine learning will create computers so sophisticated and godlike that humans will need to implant "neural laces" in their brains to keep up, Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told a crowd of tech leaders this week. While Musk's description of an injectable human-computer link may sound like science fiction, top tech executives repeatedly said that artificial intelligence (AI) was on the verge of changing
  
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• University of East Anglia experts find 'lost city' was created by nature

  03-06-2016 11:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Ancient underwater remains thought to be a "long lost city" are in fact the result of a naturally occurring phenomenon, researchers find.
  
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• Snails can make complex decisions 'using just two brain cells'

  03-06-2016 11:21
  
  New research about snails could help with the creation of better robots.
  
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• Flat lens promises possible revolution in optics

  03-06-2016 11:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A flat lens made of paint whitener on a sliver of glass could revolutionise optics, its US inventors say.
  
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• Danger of Russian rocket debris downplayed by officials, but Arctic locals fear it

  03-06-2016 11:01 via cbc.ca
  
  A Russian rocket stage slated to fall in northern Baffin Bay this weekend is nothing to fear, say Russian and Canadian officials, but that message isn't sitting well with hunters.
  
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• Canadians favour 'hands off' approach to online media content rules

  03-06-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Canadian content rules need updating, the majority of respondents in a new online poll said — but people had more divided views on whether online media should be subject to the same regulations as traditional media.
  
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• Canadian content rules for online media have weaker support, survey suggests

  03-06-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Canadian content rules need updating, the majority of respondents in a new online poll said — but people had more divided views on whether online media should be subject to the same regulations as traditional media.
  
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• New blood test could speed up 'smart' cancer drug development

  03-06-2016 07:37
  
  Assessing a patient’s metabolites means doctors can find out whether a cancer drug is hitting its intended target in the body.
  
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• What impact might Brexit have on UK agriculture?

  03-06-2016 06:00
  
  (Wiley) With the United Kingdom's referendum on continued membership in the European Union (EU) approaching, experts are considering the impact of a vote to leave ('Brexit') on numerous aspects of UK society, including agriculture.
  
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• University of Delaware-led team to create realistic model of vocal cords

  03-06-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Delaware) A University of Delaware-led research team has received a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to engineer a tissue model that can be used to investigate vocal fold development, health, and disease, and more importantly, to facilitate the development and testing of new treatment options.
  
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• Technique could help climate models sweat the small stuff

  03-06-2016 06:00
  
  (Brown University) Research led by a Brown University physicist reveals a way to include small-scale dynamics into computer simulations of large-scale phenomena, which could make for better climate models and astrophysical simulations.
  
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• Study shows how judgment of sensory simultaneity may develop in the brain

  03-06-2016 06:00
  
  (Brown University) In a study using tadpoles, neuroscientists tracked how the brain develops its sense of whether two sensory inputs -- for example, vision and touch -- happened at the same time.
  
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• Study reveals how interaction between neural networks changes during working memory

  03-06-2016 06:00
  
  (Massachusetts General Hospital) Investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital have found that dopamine signaling within the cerebral cortex can predict changes in the extent of communication between key brain networks during working memory.
  
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• Study finds that our level of wisdom varies depending on the situation

  03-06-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Waterloo) While we may think some people are consistently wise, we actually demonstrate different levels of wisdom from one situation to the next, and factors such as whether we are alone or with friends can affect it, according to new research from the University of Waterloo.
  
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• Students experience 'NASA Satellites 101'

  03-06-2016 06:00
  
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Astronauts aren't the only ones who get to use NASA technology. Computer scientists and engineers at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, work to make flight software and satellite technology more accessible in an effort to engage the public and educate students.
  
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• Squeezing out opal-like colors by the mile

  03-06-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Cambridge) Researchers have devised a new method for stacking microscopic marbles into regular layers, producing intriguing materials which scatter light into intense colors, and which change color when twisted or stretched.
  
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• Social adversity early in life may affect the expression of stress-related genes

  03-06-2016 06:00
  
  (Wiley) New research suggests that early severe social deprivation may impact DNA modifications that affect the expression of stress-related genes.
  
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• Snails reveal how 2 brain cells can hold the key to decision making

  03-06-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Sussex) Scientists at the University of Sussex have discovered how just two neurons in the brain hold the key to explaining how complex behavioral decisions are made.
  
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• Skyrmions à la carte

  03-06-2016 06:00
  
  (Forschungszentrum Juelich) Magnetic vortices -- so-called skyrmions -- are presently being discussed as candidates for high density, energy-saving data storage and processing. Scientists at Kiel University and the research institute Forschungszentrum Jülich have predicted that skyrmions can be produced for applications at room temperature -- and their properties specifically adjusted -- when enveloped in magnetic layer structures. Their results have been published in the current issue (Jun
  
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• Research into building walls based on the 'Lego principle' wins international prize

  03-06-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Luxembourg) Scientists at the University of Luxembourg have developed new masonry elements for the construction of mortarless walls. The building elements are simply slotted into one another in an interlocking system, similar to that used with Lego bricks. The researcher Shahriar Agaajani has studied the characteristics of walls built in this way. For his findings, he has now received an international award from the London-based International Masonry Society for the best doctoral
  
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