Science news

• NASA Orders Second Astronaut Flight from SpaceX

  01-08-2016 23:21
  
  NASA has ordered a second crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) from SpaceX, which will provide the orbital service using its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule. The order is the fourth and last guaranteed one that NASA will make under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts the agency recently signed with SpaceX and Boeing. "The order of a second crew rotation mission from SpaceX, paired with the two ordered from Boeing, will help ensure reliable acces
  
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• Record Launch! Jack White's Label Plays Disc at 18 Miles High

  01-08-2016 23:20
  
  Singer-songwriter Jack White has taken music to new heights — literally. White's Third Man Records launched a turntable beneath a balloon last month, becoming the first entity to play a record high up in Earth's atmosphere. "Our main goal from inception to completion of this project was to inject imagination and inspiration into the daily discourse of music and vinyl lovers," White, who is best known as the force behind the influential band The White Stripes, said in a statement.
  
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• University of Texas holds first memorial of 1966 rampage that left 16 dead

  01-08-2016 23:03
  By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The University of Texas on Monday held its first memorial of a shooting rampage half a century ago that left 16 people dead, with a survivor of the massacre leading a procession across the field where she was hit by the sniper and her unborn child was killed. Claire Wilson James walked past the spot where, at age 18, she spent nearly 90 minutes on the pavement in the hot sun next to her slain boyfriend on Aug. 1, 1966. The Texas tower shooting - so-nam
  
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• Zika-carrying mosquitoes eluding control efforts in Miami

  01-08-2016 22:49
  
  Florida adds 10 new cases of locally acquired Zika infection, prompting the CDC to issue travel warning for pregnant women. Mosquitoes in Miami may be resistant to insecticides.
  
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• U.S. Warns Pregnant Women to Avoid Zika Area in Florida

  01-08-2016 21:30 via rss.sciam.com
  
  The CDC issued a travel alert for one-square-mile zone north of Miami
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• CDC Warns Pregnant Women to Avoid Zika Area in Florida

  01-08-2016 21:30 via rss.sciam.com
  
  The agency issued a travel alert for one square-mile area north of Miami
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• Supercharged Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks This Month

  01-08-2016 21:13
  
  The Perseids are here: The dazzling meteor shower's peak of activity is Aug. 12, but you can already see its streaks of light peppering the sky. Skywatchers are particularly excited about this year's Perseids. "Next, we move into the August Perseids, which is perhaps the most popular meteor shower of all," Cooke told Space.com in our summer meteor shower guide.
  
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• Astronaut-Aquanauts: 50 People Have Now Orbited Earth and Lived Undersea

  01-08-2016 21:13
  
  Reid Wiseman is back on the surface of the Earth. A NASA astronaut since 2009, Wiseman logged 165 days on the International Space Station two years ago. "Proud to be the 50th human who has orbited Earth and lived under the sea," Wiseman wrote on Twitter.
  
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• Virgin Galactic's space tourism rocket gets its operating licence

  01-08-2016 21:09
  
  Could we all be going to space one day?
  
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• Woolly mammoths’ last request: Got water?

  01-08-2016 21:00
  
  Woolly mammoths survived on an Alaskan island thousands of years after mainland mammoths went extinct. But they died out when their lakes dried up, thanks to a warming climate and rising sea levels.
  
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• Drivers still liable in accidents, even in near-driverless cars, law firm says

  01-08-2016 20:31 via cbc.ca
  
  Until Canadians own cars that truly drive themselves, they can forget getting off the legal hook if they're in an accident with a vehicle that still has a steering wheel, suggests a report from Canada's biggest law firm.
  
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• Mysterious shackled skeletons found in ancient Greek mass grave

  01-08-2016 20:23 via cbc.ca
  
  Archeologists have found 80 shackled skeletons in an ancient Greek cemetery who appear to be victims of a mass execution. But who they were, how they got there and why they appear to have been buried with a measure of respect — that all remains a mystery.
  
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• Otherworldly Beauty: Astronomy Photography Contest Highlights Astounding Shots

  01-08-2016 18:49
  The Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with Insight Investment and BBC Sky at Night Magazine. This is competition's eighth year, and it received "a record number of over 4,500 spectacular entries from enthusiastic amateurs and professional photographers from over 80 countries spanning the globe," according to a statement from the observatory. The photo titled "Crystal Brilliance," taken by Tommy Richardsen of Norway, captures a sce
  
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• 'The Hubble Cantata' Weds Live Music with VR Views of the Cosmos

  01-08-2016 18:21
  
  An event combining virtual reality and live musical performance aims to bring together a 20-piece orchestra, a 100-person choir and breathtaking views of the cosmos captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. "The Hubble Cantata"will premiere in Brooklyn, New York, on Aug. 6 at the Prospect Park Bandshell, as part of the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival. As audience members don cardboard headsets and activate a free app, immersive VR animations created from actual Hubble photos will transform Prosp
  
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• Where Do the World’s Tallest and Shortest People Live?

  01-08-2016 18:17
  
  They found, for instance, that South Korean women and Iranian men showed the largest increases in average height over the past 100 years, with South Korean women gaining an average of 8 inches (20.2 cm) between 1916 and 2014, and Iranian men growing an average of 6.5 inches (16.5 centimeters) taller. Men and women in the United States also experienced a growth spurt, but to a lesser degree. In 1914, U.S. men were the third tallest in the world, and U.S. women were the fourth tallest.
  
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• Yemen government leaves Kuwait talks after Houthis reject UN plan

  01-08-2016 17:25
  Yemeni government negotiators said they were leaving peace talks in Kuwait on Monday after Houthi militia foes rejected a United Nations proposal aimed to ending their country's war. Foreign Minister Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi insisted the government was not abandoning the peace process, but suggested it would only return if the Houthis and a powerful local ally lifted their objections to the UN plan. "We've agreed to the initiative ... we are now leaving the territory of the brotherly state of Kuw
  
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• Eat more plant protein instead of animal protein to live longer, study says

  01-08-2016 17:04
  
  And if you do have to eat protein, choose chicken or fish.
  
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• Pigeons can be trained to detect what's a cancerous tumour and what's not

  01-08-2016 16:37 via cbc.ca
  
  A study shows that pigeons have a remarkable ability to tell the difference between benign and malignant tumours. Their diagnostic skills could make them natural "surrogates" for human observers, say researchers.
  
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• Nigerian man arrested in $60M email scam

  01-08-2016 16:25 via cbc.ca
  
  A Nigerian accused of scamming $60 million from companies around the world through fraudulent emails has been arrested after months of investigation, Interpol and Nigeria's anti-fraud agency said Monday.
  
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• 'Hacking nerves can control disease'

  01-08-2016 16:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Controlling human nerve cells with electricity could treat a range of disease including type-2 diabetes, a new company says.
  
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• Unique 3D Views of Alaskan Forest Captured with Laser Scanner

  01-08-2016 16:05
  
  Scientists are zeroing in on a slice of forest in Alaska, using a powerful laser scanner to probe the area and produce unique 3D views of the trees that call the forest home. Earlier this month, scientists working on NASA’s ABoVE field campaign performed ground surveys of a birch forest in the Tanana Valley of interior Alaska. The ground surveys complement data collected in 2014 using the so-called G-LiHT airborne imager, which produces views that can't be achieved using satellite ima
  
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• Dartmoor lynx returned to zoo after weeks on run

  01-08-2016 15:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A lynx that escaped from Dartmoor Zoo is back in his pen after more than three weeks on the run.
  
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• Wild nature claims place in Romanian capital

  01-08-2016 15:28
  "We’re in luck, all the birds are showing themselves," said Ignat, who discovered Vacaresti park in 2011 on assignment from National Geographic. Ignat is one of four founders of the Vacaresti Nature Park Association, which has spent the last four years lobbying authorities to grant the wetlands protected status. "We must have met local and central public authorities more than 250 times," said its director Dan Barbulescu.
  
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• Little Hope for Breeding Healthier English Bulldogs, Study Shows

  01-08-2016 15:05
  The English bulldog's flat face and adorable skin folds are just a couple of its distinctive traits. But a new study finds that boosting the dog breed's health could be difficult, particularly if breeders don't cross the English bulldog with another breed. The study found that there's not much genetic diversity within the English bulldog population, which will make it hard to improve their health without going outside the breed to bring new genes into the mix.
  
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• What Really Caused the Voices in Joan of Arc's Head?

  01-08-2016 15:01
  
  Joan of Arc's claim to fame — the mysterious voices she heard and visions she saw during the Hundred Years' War — may actually have been due to a form of epilepsy, Italian researchers suggest. Dr. Guiseppe d'Orsi, a neurologist at the University of Foggia in Italy, and Paola Tinuper, an associate professor of biomedical and neuromotor sciences at the University of Bologna, also in Italy, described their hypothesis in a letter to the editor, published in May in the journal Epilepsy &a
  
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• Tall Order--Heights in Other Countries Elevate But U.S. Stature Tops Off

  01-08-2016 15:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  As U.S. men fall behind and South Korean and Latvian women get taller, researchers suggest using height as a measure of development
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• Boy's 'perfect' remains give scientists chance to recreate prehistoric brain in 3D

  01-08-2016 15:00 via cbc.ca
  
  The 17,000-year-old remains of a boy found in Italy are providing scientists with the opportunity to gain a better understanding of everything from what our late-paleolithic human ancestors ate to the progression of human speech, Megan Williams writes from Rome.
  
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• Most of World's Biggest Beasts Could Be Extinct by 2100

  01-08-2016 14:58
  
  One day, your grandchildren may open their science textbooks and read about elephants, tigers and lions as majestic, extinct creatures that once roamed the Earth like woolly mammoths and Triceratops. That is the message of a new paper, written by dozens of conservation biologists from around the world. To forestall that future, governments and conservation organizations should implement several steps to prevent the mass extinction, the scientists report.
  
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• Simple Exoplanet Calculation Describes Alien Atmospheres in a Flash

  01-08-2016 13:20
  
  A new mathematical formula predicts the ratio of particular molecules in the atmospheres of far-off planets, letting researchers more easily tell when something unusual is happening there. The new method is tailor-made to predict the ratios of nine important atmospheric molecules built from carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, so researchers can quickly learn what combination of molecules should be found on a high-temperature planet without using complicated simulations. The first hint of life
  
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• Gullies on Mars Likely Not Carved by Liquid Water, NASA Says

  01-08-2016 13:19
  
  Gullies that lace the surface of Mars appear similar to those carved out on Earth by flowing water — but a new a deep look at the Red Planet turned up no evidence that the life-giving liquid is the cause of the Martian features. The surface of Mars appears to light up in pastel shades of pink, purple, blue and green in a new image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). While some scientists had theorized that the gullies form in a fashion similar to gullies on Earth — typical
  
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• Black Holes' Cosmic 'Choir Singers' Finally Identified

  01-08-2016 13:19
  
  Now, new data from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) spacecraft has begun to identify some of the voices. "We knew this cosmic choir had a strong high-pitched component, but we still don't know if it comes from a lot of smaller, quiet singers, or a few with loud voices," study co-author Daniel Stern, NuSTAR project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.
  
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• Banking Britain's brains: The story of a scientific resource

  01-08-2016 12:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Researchers and donors tell the story of how your brain tissue can help with medical research.
  
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• Banking brains

  01-08-2016 12:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Researchers and donors tell the story of how your brain tissue can help with medical research.
  
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• Google's parent company partners to make bioelectronic medicine

  01-08-2016 12:29 via cbc.ca
  
  Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline is forming a joint venture with a unit of Google's parent that will invest in the relatively new field of bioelectronic medicine.
  
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• Google sister company partners to make bioelectronic medicine

  01-08-2016 12:29 via cbc.ca
  
  One of Google's sister companies will team up with pharmaceuticals firm GlaxoSmithKline to develop tiny implants that can tap nerves and change their electronic signals as a way of treating chronic illnesses.
  
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• Dissecting brains for medical research

  01-08-2016 12:26 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Dr Laura Palmer shows us what happens inside a brain bank and and explains why such donations are vital.
  
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• The beginning of August could be wetter than the whole of July

  01-08-2016 11:34
  
  While sun-lovers hoping for a lengthy heatwave in the next fortnight may be disappointed, the month should avoid being a washout.
  
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• Four killed in Saudi Arabia in cross-border shelling from Yemen

  01-08-2016 11:18
  Four people were killed and three wounded in Saudi Arabia when a shell fired from inside Yemen exploded in a town close to the border, Saudi civil defence said on Monday. The shell hit Samtah, in the southwestern Saudi border region of Jizan, a tweet by the Saudi civil defence said. Seven Saudi soldiers and dozens of Houthi fighters were killed in heavy fighting on the border with Yemen on Sunday, as the main combatants in Yemen's war prepared for a further week of peace talks in Kuwait.
  
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• Australia's tectonic speed leaves cartographers behind

  01-08-2016 07:46
  By Pauline Askin SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia, which rides on the world's fastest-moving continental tectonic plate, is heading north so quickly that map co-ordinates are now out by as much as 1.5 metres (4.9 feet), say geoscientists. "There are tweets coming out saying: 'Hey does that mean my neighbours pool is in my property now?' Clearly not!" said Dan Jaksa, Australian Datum Manager at Geoscience Australia, a government body. Australia's continental tectonic plate is moving north at a rate o
  
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• MH370 was flown into water, says Canadian air crash expert

  01-08-2016 07:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  One of the world's leading air crash investigators tells Australian TV he believes Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was deliberately flown into the sea.
  
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• Trading changes how brain processes selling decisions

  01-08-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Chicago) Experience in trading changes how the human brain evaluates the sale of goods, muting an economic bias known as the endowment effect in which people demand a higher price to sell a good than they're willing to pay for it. The findings by University of Chicago researchers to be published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences come from a set of experiments on why traders are less susceptible to the effect.
  
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• These tiny satellites could take on NASA's riskiest missions (video)

  01-08-2016 06:00
  
  (American Chemical Society) At the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, NASA is preparing tiny satellites the size of briefcases for a mission to Mars. Matt Davenport and JPL Chief Engineer for Interplanetary Small Spacecraft Andrew Klesh geek out on CubeSats in the latest Speaking of Chemistry episode. Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/OGmiv53La0o.
  
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• Tapping crowd-sourced data unearths a trove of depression genes

  01-08-2016 06:00
  
  (NIH/National Institute of Mental Health) Scientists have discovered 15 genome sites - the first ever -- linked to depression in people of European ancestry.Many play a role in sculpting the developing brain. But -- in a twist -- the researchers didn't have to sequence anyone's genes! Instead, they analyzed data already shared by people who had purchased their own genetic profiles via an online service and elected to participate in its research option.
  
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• Synthetic vaccine particles immune tolerance mechanism published in Nature Nanotechnology

  01-08-2016 06:00
  
  (The Yates Network) Preclinical studies show that Selecta Biosciences' proprietary immune therapies use a targeted mechanism of action to improve the efficacy and safety of biologic therapeutics and to address autoimmune diseases and allergies. The company is developing targeted antigen-specific immune therapies for rare and serious diseases. The data in Nature Nanotechnology support Selecta's lead clinical program, showing Selecta's SVP-Rapamycin induces antigen-specific immune tolerance and pr
  
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• Swapping substrates improves edges of graphene nanoribbons

  01-08-2016 06:00
  
  (American Institute of Physics) Miniscule ribbons of graphene are highly sought-after building blocks for semiconductor devices because of their predicted electronic properties. But making these nanostructures has remained a challenge. Now, a team of researchers from China and Japan have devised a new method to make the structures in the lab. Their findings appear in the current issue of Applied Physics Letters.
  
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• Study using animal model provides clues to why cocaine is so addictive

  01-08-2016 06:00
  
  (Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center) Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center are one step closer to understanding what causes cocaine to be so addictive.
  
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• Study shows heat dangers of inflatable bounce houses

  01-08-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Georgia) Heat safety issues in bounce houses can put children in danger, says a new University of Georgia study.
  
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• St. Paul Island mammoths most accurately dated 'prehistoric' extinction ever

  01-08-2016 06:00
  
  (Penn State) While the Minoan culture on Crete was just beginning, woolly mammoths were disappearing from St. Paul Island, Alaska, according to an international team of scientists who have dated this extinction to 5,600 years ago.
  
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• Smartwatch interface could improve communication, help prevent falls at nursing homes

  01-08-2016 06:00
  
  (Binghamton University) Poor communication systems at nursing homes can lead to serious injury for residents who are not tended to in a timely manner. A new smartwatch app being developed at Binghamton University could help certified nursing assistants (CNAs) respond to alerts more quickly and help prevent falls.
  
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• Shaking up surgery

  01-08-2016 06:00
  
  (Hiroshima University) A small vibrating device added to surgical tools could improve surgeons' sensitivity to different shapes and textures inside their patients' bodies.Engineers from Hiroshima University have designed the small vibrating device to attach to any existing hand-held surgical tool and be used instantly, without requiring extra training for doctors.'Typical medical tools obtain information about the patient's condition.There are very few devices that aim to enhance the doctor's sk
  
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