Science news

• New microscopy system captures 'lost' fluorescence, improving resolution

  11-08-2016 23:16
  Taking a cue from medical imaging, scientists have invented a multi-view microscope that captures higher-resolution, 3D images of live cells and tissues without upping the dose of potentially harmful radiation the specimens receive.
  
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• Lack of American engineers and scientists

  11-08-2016 23:16
  A new study identifies factors that could lead more young students to successful careers in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.
  
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• Children score low on cardiovascular health measures

  11-08-2016 23:16
  Most children are born with ideal cardiovascular health and promoting good heart health should begin at birth. While most children have ideal blood pressure, about 91 percent of American children have poor diets.
  
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• Sunburned? Extragalactic Radiation Is a Tiny Bit to Blame

  11-08-2016 23:14
  
  Every second, every square meter of Earth is bombarded by about 10 billion photons that originated beyond the Milky Way, according to a new study that measured this "extragalactic background light" (EBL) with unprecedented accuracy. That seems like a big number, but those 10 billion photons represent just ten-trillionths of the total number that bathe every square meter of the planet, study team members said.
  
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• California island foxes removed from endangered species list

  11-08-2016 22:13
  
  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Not long ago, foxes native to the Channel Islands off the California coast teetered on the edge of extinction.
  
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• Visitors concerned about Zika but still plan to travel to Florida, study shows

  11-08-2016 22:00
  With more than 20 cases of non-travel related Zika reported in South Florida, tourists express more concern with travel to the state but still plan to come, a new study shows.
  
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• How did primate brains get so big?

  11-08-2016 22:00
  Virtual brains reconstructed from ancient, kiwi-sized primate skulls could help resolve one of the most intriguing evolutionary mysteries: how modern primates developed large brains.
  
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• Backup plans may keep you from achieving your goal, research shows

  11-08-2016 21:59
  When it comes to setting organizational and personal goals, making a backup plan has been seen as a sensible way to deal with uncertainty -- to be prepared if things don't go as expected. However, new research challenges that conventional wisdom.
  
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• Mobile phone bills in Canada among highest in 8-country study, report says

  11-08-2016 21:58 via cbc.ca
  
  Canadians continue to pay some of the highest rates for wireless service in the G7 and Australia, according to a study commissioned by the CRTC.
  
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• These animals outlive humans: Top 10 longest living critters

  11-08-2016 21:21
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a dozen animals live longer than we do. A new study estimates that at least one Greenland shark lived about 392 years, making it the longest-living animal with a backbone.
  
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• Why's that Olympic pool green? Scientists weigh in

  11-08-2016 20:56 via cbc.ca
  
  The Olympic diving pool in Rio caused a buzz when its water turned an eye-catching green colour earlier this week. Here's a scientific look at the explanations offered by Olympic officials.
  
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• Greenland shark now oldest living animal with backbone

  11-08-2016 20:50
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — In the cold waters of the Arctic, a denizen of the deep lurked for centuries. Now scientists calculate that this female Greenland shark was the Earth's oldest living animal with a backbone.
  
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• Wind power fiercer than expected

  11-08-2016 20:35
  As the US' first wind farm is installed in Rhode Island this week, a new study shows offshore wind may be even more powerful and turbulent than expected in the Northeast. The findings could have important implications for the future development of American offshore wind farms -- assessing how much wind power can be produced, what type of turbines to use, how many turbines should be installed and the spacing between them.
  
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• We understand that social media does not equal social interaction

  11-08-2016 20:35
  If you worry that people today are using social media as a crutch for a real social life, a study will set you at ease. A new study found that people are actually quite adept at discerning the difference between using social media and having an honest-to-goodness social interaction.
  
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• Visualization of newly formed synapses with unprecedented resolution

  11-08-2016 20:35
  The spatial arrangement of synapses has a critical role in neuronal function, but the rules that govern this precise synaptic localization remain unknown. Researchers have identified mechanistic and functional elements that govern synapse formation and have established new insights about how synapses are formed in cortical neurons in early postnatal stages.
  
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• Structural images shed new light on a cancer-linked potassium channel

  11-08-2016 20:35
  Using cryo-electron microscopy, researchers gained new insights about how the channel functions based on what they saw in the section that spans the cell's membrane. The channel has been found in a number of cell types, including in tumors, where it is thought to have a cancer-promoting effect.
  
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• Shark Found In British Waters Can Live To Grand Age Of 400

  11-08-2016 20:35
  Some Greenland sharks, slow-moving giants which can be more than five metres long, have been found to be 400 years old, according to new research. The new research, led by Julius Nielsen from the University of Copenhagen and Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, has been published in the journal Science. The massive shark has a heavy cylindrical body and a short rounded snout, according to the Shark Trust.
  
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• Sequencing of fungal disease genomes may help prevent banana armageddon

  11-08-2016 20:35
  Researchers have discovered how a group of three closely related fungal pathogens have evolved into a lethal threat to the world's bananas, whilst scientists have unraveled the DNA of the fungus that causes black Sigatoka disease in bananas.
  
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• Longest-lived vertebrate is Greenland shark: Lifespan at least 400 years

  11-08-2016 20:32
  Greenland sharks live at least as long as 400 years, and they reach sexual maturity at the age of about 150, a new study reports.
  
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• Discovery of sunlight-driven organic chemistry on water surfaces

  11-08-2016 20:32
  Fatty acids found on the surface of water droplets react with sunlight to form organic molecules, a new study reports, essentially uncovering a previously unknown form of photolysis.
  
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• Global warming's next surprise: Saltier beaches

  11-08-2016 20:26
  Batches of sand from a beach on the Delaware Bay are yielding insights into the powerful impact of temperature rise and evaporation along the shore that are in turn challenging long-held assumptions about what causes beach salinity to fluctuate in coastal zones that support a rich network of sea creatures and plants.
  
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• Drug sensitivity restored in breast cancer tumors

  11-08-2016 20:26
  A team of cancer researchers has uncovered one way certain tumors resist vital medication.
  
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• Scientists Identify 20 Alien Worlds Most Likely to Be Like Earth

  11-08-2016 20:18
  
  An international team of researchers has identified the 20 most Earth-like worlds among the more than 4,000 exoplanet candidates that NASA's Kepler space telescope has detected to date, scientists report in a new study. All 20 potential "second Earths" lie within the habitable zones of their sun-like stars — meaning they should be able to harbor liquid water on their surfaces — and are likely rocky, the researchers said. Identifying these Earth-like planets is important in the hunt f
  
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• Mars Life? 20 Years Later, Debate Over Meteorite Continues

  11-08-2016 20:18
  
  Twenty years ago, NASA scientists and their colleagues announced they had spotted possible signs of Mars life in a meteorite. In 1996, researchers led by David McKay, Everett Gibson and Kathie Thomas-Keprta from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston suggested that they might have found microbial fossils in a meteorite from Mars known as Allan Hills 84001 (ALH 84001). The meteorite was first discovered in 1984 by geologists riding snowmobiles through the Allan Hills region of Antarctica.
  
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• Scientists estimate a Greenland shark lived about 400 years

  11-08-2016 20:17
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists now calculate that Greenland sharks are Earth's oldest living animals with backbones.
  
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• Kurds say Islamic State oil overseer killed in joint ops with U.S.

  11-08-2016 20:06
  The Islamic State militant in charge of the group's oil operations in Iraq and Syria was killed on Thursday in a joint operation between the Iraqi Kurdish and U.S. Special forces, the Kurdistan Region Security Council said in a statement. Sami Jassim al-Jabouri, also known as Haji Hamad, and his aide were killed ''in the vicinity of Qaim,'' an Iraqi town near the Syrian border, the statement said.
  
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• Study ranks Greenland shark as longest-lived vertebrate

  11-08-2016 20:00
  
  Radiocarbon in eye lenses suggests mysterious Greenland sharks might live for almost 400 years.
  
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• Sneaky virus helps plants multiply, creating more hosts

  11-08-2016 20:00
  
  Plant virus makes hosts more attractive to pollinators, ensuring future virus-susceptible plants.
  
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• Sleep deprivation hits some brain areas hard

  11-08-2016 20:00
  
  Brain scan study reveals hodgepodge effects of sleep deprivation.
  
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• Greenland sharks may live 400 years, scientists say

  11-08-2016 20:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Step aside Galapagos tortoises, the Greenland shark may be the longest-living vertebrate on Earth with a 400-year lifespan, says a new study.
  
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• Deep, Flooded Canyons Found on Saturn's Moon Titan (Video)

  11-08-2016 19:52
  
  The newfound Titan canyons are up to 1,870 feet (570 meters) deep and feature slopes that are at least 40 degrees steep, though they're fairly narrow, with maximum widths of around 0.5 miles (0.8 kilometers), researchers said.
  
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• Studies shine light on mysterious placenta, how it goes awry

  11-08-2016 19:47
  
  WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists carefully probe a placenta donated after birth, bluish umbilical cord still attached. This is the body's most mysterious organ, and inside lie clues to how this giver of life forms — and how it can go awry, leading to stillbirth, preterm birth, even infections like the Zika virus that somehow sneak past its protective barrier.
  
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• Perseid Meteor Shower Weather Forecast: The Best US Views Are Out West

  11-08-2016 19:44
  
  If you're hoping to get a good view tonight, the best weather prospects favor the western U.S., most notably anywhere west of a line extending from roughly International Falls, Minnesota, southwest to El Paso, Texas. Skies are expected to be partly cloudy to clear during the late-night hours of Thursday night into Friday, thanks chiefly to a zone of high pressure spread out over the central Rockies. The exception will be near and along the northern and central California coast, where low clouds
  
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• Astronaut to Hand Off Space-Flown Football at Houston Super Bowl LI Event

  11-08-2016 19:44
  
  Just before astronaut Scott Kelly touched down after almost a year on board the International Space Station, he helped kick off a year-long countdown to Super Bowl LI (51). "The next best place — to space — for a Super Bowl is our hometown of Houston," said Kelly, as he tossed around, or rather floated a football as part of a video recorded for the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee on board the orbiting outpost. The game is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 5, 2017, at NRG Stadium in Housto
  
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• Wildlife-friendly farming shown to benefit UK moths

  11-08-2016 19:16
  Wildlife-friendly farming schemes can help boost the abundance of many UK moth species, a new study has found.
  
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• Unproven stem cell therapies for lung disease on the rise despite promise of new treatments

  11-08-2016 19:16
  Stem cell medical tourism and unproven stem cell interventions are growing and concerning issues for patients afflicted with lung disease. According to researchers, there are an increasing number of clinics worldwide offering expensive stem cell-based therapies that are ineffective or have no proven benefit.
  
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• Disrupting mitochondrial function could improve treatment of fungal infections

  11-08-2016 19:16
  By identifying new compounds that selectively block mitochondrial respiration in pathogenic fungi, scientists have identified a potential antifungal mechanism that could enable combination therapy with fluconazole, one of today's most commonly prescribed fungal infection treatments. Severe, invasive fungal infections have a mortality rate of 30-50 percent and cause an estimated 1.5 million deaths worldwide annually. Current antifungal therapies are hampered by the increasingly frequent emergence
  
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• Autophagy under the microscope as never before

  11-08-2016 19:16
  We don't tend to wrap our recycling waste in bubble wrap but that's essentially what cells do during the cellular recycling process called autophagy. Researchers have viewed the earliest stages of this encapsulation and recycling process in super resolution to reveal what's happening in unprecedented molecular detail.
  
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• Two Zika proteins responsible for microcephaly identified

  11-08-2016 19:15
  Researchers have tracked down two Zika proteins potentially responsible for thousands of microcephaly cases in Brazil and elsewhere -- taking one small step toward preventing Zika-infected mothers from birthing babies with abnormally small heads. The Zika virus contains 10 proteins, but only NS4A and NS4B matter when it comes to microcephaly. These miscreant proteins, researchers discovered, have two shared life goals: to handicap fetal brain formation and to mobilize their malevolent forces.
  
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• Run, jump, throw: The physics behind Olympic events explained

  11-08-2016 18:59 via cbc.ca
  
  The Perimeter Institute in Waterloo is offering people a quick snapshot explaining the physics involved in Olympic events like running, diving and discus-throwing.
  
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• Iraq corruption row won't derail Mosul offensive, says US envoy

  11-08-2016 18:39
  Iraq's offensive to dislodge Islamic State from its de facto capital Mosul is on track despite a spat between two senior politicians over alleged corruption in the military, the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting the militant group said. Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi and parliament speaker Salim al-Jabouri last week exchanged accusations of bribery over defence contracts, leading to judicial investigations and sparking concerns that the offensive could be delayed. Asked about how the spat
  
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• Facebook reinforces stereotypes about cat people and dog people

  11-08-2016 18:33 via cbc.ca
  
  Researchers at the social network sorted through the profiles of about 160,000 people who shared photos of cats or dogs and found that those who prefer Felix over Fido are more likely to be single.
  
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• Dear FIFA: There Is No Scientific Test to Prevent Age Fraud

  11-08-2016 18:15 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Soccer federation’s tests to combat “age doping” and bar suspected older players from youth events should be red carded
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Lions in West and Central Africa apparently unique

  11-08-2016 18:05
  Lions in West and Central Africa form a unique group, only distantly related to lions in East and Southern Africa, biologists have discovered.
  
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• Venus may have been habitable, NASA climate modeling suggests

  11-08-2016 18:04
  Venus may have had a shallow liquid-water ocean and habitable surface temperatures for up to two billion years of its early history, according to NASA computer modeling of the planet's ancient climate.
  
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• Dietary compound linked to heart disease may be influenced by gut microbiome

  11-08-2016 18:04
  A new study reports new results that raise questions about whether circulating TMAO causes heart disease or whether it is simply a biomarker, or a sign, of developing disease.
  
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• What3words keeps Olympics visitors on track in Rio

  11-08-2016 17:33
  
  (Reuters) - An innovative addressing system that assigns every patch of earth in the world an easy to remember three-word address is being used to help visitors get around at the Olympics in Rio de Jeneiro. Some 500,000 foreigners are expected to pass through the city during the Games that run until August 21.
  
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• This year’s Perseid meteor shower will be especially flashy

  11-08-2016 17:30
  
  This year’s Perseid meteor shower could produce up to 200 meteors per hour as Earth plows through the debris trail of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle.
  
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• In Surprise Recovery, Paralyzed Patients Move After Using Brain Devices

  11-08-2016 17:14
  Several patients who had been paralyzed in their lower limbs for years have now regained some feeling and movement in their limbs, after learning to control a robotic exoskeleton with their brain, a new study says. The findings were unexpected — researchers had been training the patients to use so-called brain-machine interfaces, including the robotic exoskeleton, with the hope that the patients could one day use the machines to help them walk again. But the training appears to have had ad
  
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• Atlantic Canada sharks a 'rare spectacle,' says DFO technician

  11-08-2016 17:09 via cbc.ca
  
  Some recent shark sightings around Nova Scotia have people thinking twice about dipping their toes in the Atlantic Ocean. But scientists say the large predators remain a small risk — and a rare sight.
  
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