Science news

• US Air Force to Launch 2 Military Surveillance Satellites Tonight: Watch Live

  18-08-2016 23:30
  
  The U.S. Air Force will launch two surveillance satellites early Friday morning (Aug. 19), and you can watch the action live.
  
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• Twins, especially male identical twins, live longer

  18-08-2016 23:01
  Analysis of almost 3,000 pairs of Danish twins shows that they live longer than the general population. The authors believe it reflects the benefits of lifelong social support.
  
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• Supernova Ashes Found in Fossils Hint at Extinction Event

  18-08-2016 23:01
  
  Supernova ash has been discovered in fossils that were created by bacteria on Earth, a new study finds. Because the fossils contain a variety of iron that is most likely the product of a supernova event that occurred light-years from Earth, this finding also suggests that the event might have played a role in an extinction event on Earth, researchers said. Supernovas are powerful explosions of giant, dying stars.
  
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• Why Russian tuberculosis is the most infectious

  18-08-2016 22:59
  Scientists conducted a large-scale analysis of the proteins and genomes of mycobacterium tuberculosis strains that are common in Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union and found features that provide a possible explanation for their epidemiological success.
  
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• Smoking marijuana provides more pain relief for men than women

  18-08-2016 22:59
  Men had greater pain relief than women after smoking marijuana, a new study has found. Despite differences in pain relief, men and women did not report differences in how intoxicated they felt or how much they liked the effect of the active cannabis.
  
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• Twitter suspended 360,000 accounts since mid-2015 for promoting terrorism

  18-08-2016 21:25 via cbc.ca
  
  Twitter said Thursday it has suspended 360,000 accounts since mid-2015 for violating its policies banning the promotion of terrorism and violent extremism.
  
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• 92-metre Airlander 10 combines plane and airship technology

  18-08-2016 21:18 via cbc.ca
  
  The world's largest airship, Airlander 10, completed its maiden trip on Wednesday at London's Cardington airfield, after a postponement due to technical concerns on Sunday.
  
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• Hoverflies (probably) can’t sense gravity

  18-08-2016 21:04
  
  Acrobatic insects called hoverflies may simply use visual and airflow cues and not gravity to orient their bodies midair.
  
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• Satellite images used to predict poverty

  18-08-2016 20:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Researchers have combined satellite imagery with AI to predict areas of poverty across the world.
  
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• Kerry to travel to Kenya, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia

  18-08-2016 20:48
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Kenya, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia next week for talks with senior government officials on regional issues, the State Department said on Thursday. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the visit to Kenya would focus on South Sudan's peace process and Somalia's political transition. In Nigeria, he would meet President Muhammadu Buhari to discuss cooperation on the fight against Boko Haram militants, the Nigerian economy an
  
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• Only Some of @realDonaldTrump's Tweets Are Actually Donald Trump

  18-08-2016 20:45 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Sentiment analysis finds ghosts in the presidential candidate’s machine
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• Sprawling Blue Cut Wildfire in California Spied by NASA Satellites

  18-08-2016 20:37
  
  As a wildfire blazes through a mountain pass in Southern California, two NASA satellites were able to snap photos of the smoke from space. The Blue Cut fire, named after the hiking trail where the blaze began, has been spreading through the mountains and deserts east of Los Angeles since Tuesday (Aug. 16) morning. NASA's Terra satellite was able to catch a view of the smoke plumes rising and spreading over California's skies when the satellite flew over the area at 11:50 a.m. on Wednesday (
  
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• NASA Opens Research Portal for Scientists

  18-08-2016 20:37
  
  NASA has a new web portal highlighting the research funded by the agency, and promises to put all its peer-reviewed studies online in less than a year. The research will be available on PubSpace, an archive maintained by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. There is no charge to register, and the data can be downloaded and analyzed, NASA officials said.
  
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• Flying Cockroaches! Heat Sends Your Favorite Pests Soaring

  18-08-2016 20:20
  
  "Cockroaches, like all insects, are cold-blooded, meaning their activity rate increases with temperature," said Jules Silverman, an entomologist and professor at North Carolina State University, in an interview with Live Science. This also means that the species of cockroach that are able to fly (and most of them are capable) are probably more likely to do so in warmer places, said Silverman. If you think that flying cockroaches are especially horrific, you probably live somewhere with a colder
  
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• Are cellphones brain savers? Or are they eating into our memories?

  18-08-2016 20:06 via cbc.ca
  
  How much is our reliance on smartphones as memory aides affecting the way our brains work? CBC Radio science columnist Torah Kachur looks into a new Canadian review of the benefits, and costs, of these daily "information offloads."
  
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• Lava meets the sea, puts on fire-spitting show in Hawaii

  18-08-2016 19:54
  
  VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK, Hawaii (AP) — For the first time in three years, lava from a volcano on Hawaii's Big Island has crept down miles of mountainside and is dripping into the Pacific Ocean, where it's creating new land and putting on a crackling, hissing, fire-spitting show.
  
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• Rare Tyrannosaurus rex skull arrives at Seattle museum

  18-08-2016 19:47
  SEATTLE (AP) — Paleontologists with Seattle's Burke Museum have unearthed the bones of a Tyrannosaurus rex that lived more than 66 million years ago.
  
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• Tourists flock to Kilauea Volcano lava streams

  18-08-2016 18:39 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Tourists flock to Hawaii's Kilauea volcano after lava from its Pu'u O'o vent reached the sea. Aerials - Lava Ocean Tours.
  
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• Uber to use self-driving cars to haul people in next few weeks

  18-08-2016 18:10 via cbc.ca
  
  Uber passengers in Pittsburgh will be able to summon rides in self-driving cars with the touch of a smartphone button in the next several weeks.
  
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• Zika kills brain cells in adult mice

  18-08-2016 18:00
  
  Zika virus may harm more than babies: The virus can infect and kill brain cells in adult mice, too.
  
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• Eating shuts down nerve cells that counter obesity

  18-08-2016 18:00
  
  A group of nerve cells shut down when food hits the lips, a study of mice finds.
  
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• Biologists remove dead conjoined twin from endangered turtle

  18-08-2016 17:51
  ROME (AP) — Marine biologists in southern Italy have separated conjoined twin loggerhead turtles and released the surviving newborn into the Mediterranean Sea.
  
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• Cold couture: Oetzi the Iceman rocked bear fur hat 5,300 years ago

  18-08-2016 17:35 via cbc.ca
  
  Scientists say Oetzi the Iceman wore clothes made of brown bear pelt and roe deer when he died in the Alps 5,300 years ago.
  
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• Do the worst clubs have the best fans? Scientific research suggests that might be the case

  18-08-2016 17:32
  
  Could your team’s poor form bind you closer together?
  
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• A global audience joins Prof Michael Sandel to discuss the world's response to climate change.

  18-08-2016 17:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A global audience joins Prof Michael Sandel to discuss the world's response to climate change.
  
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• New Space Boots Vibrate to Help Astronauts Navigate

  18-08-2016 17:18
  
  A NASA spacesuit — also known as an Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) — is decked out with various gadgets that provide life support and technical assistance to astronauts during missions where they have to leave their spacecraft. Most astronauts fall because spacesuits limit their ability to both see and feel the terrain around them, according to the MIT researchers who created the new boots.
  
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• Snail 'Swat teams'

  18-08-2016 17:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Australian researchers are investigating if the scent of giant sea snails could help repel millions of coral-eating starfish from the Great Barrier Reef.
  
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• New research adds to increasing worries about calcium supplements

  18-08-2016 16:46
  
  This study shows that supplements increase the post-stroke dementia risk for women.
  
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• Manchester and Dublin are better places to live than London, say global rankings

  18-08-2016 16:20
  
  They will never let Londoners live it down.
  
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• 16th-Century Shipwrecks Found Amid Rocket Debris Off Florida Coast

  18-08-2016 16:20
  
  It's relatively common to find debris from rocket launches in the waters off Cape Canaveral in Florida, but divers exploring the seabed recently uncovered artifacts from an age of exploration long before America's space program: 22 cannons and a marble monument in what they think are three 16th-century Spanish shipwrecks. The finds include three ornate bronze cannons — two that are 10 feet (3 meters) long and one that is 7 feet (2 m) long — and the marble monument, engraved with the
  
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• What's Causing Louisiana's Historic Flooding?

  18-08-2016 16:18
  
  Tremendous downpours have inundated parts of Louisiana over the last few days, resulting in disastrous flooding and forcing thousands of people from their homes. An "inland sheared tropical depression" is how the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service (NWS) described the heavy rain event on Friday morning (Aug. 12). The NWS also noted that the moisture content in the atmosphere was close to an all-time record for the area, even higher than observations during
  
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• Study finds ancient Iceman wore hat made of bear skin

  18-08-2016 16:01
  
  BERLIN (AP) — Scientists say Oetzi the Iceman wore clothes made of brown bear pelt and roe deer when he died in the Alps 5,300 years ago.
  
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• Breast cancer study links two genes to survival rates

  18-08-2016 15:54
  
  The results of the study could give us a new way of assessing women’s survival chances from breast cancer.
  
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• Ukraine could introduce martial law if eastern fighting worsens - Poroshenko

  18-08-2016 15:46
  Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Thursday he did not rule out introducing martial law and a new wave of military mobilisation if the conflict with pro-Russian separatists worsened. Poroshenko made his comments as fresh tension with Russia over Crimea reignited fears that a fragile ceasefire deal hammered out in the Belarussian capital Minsk in February 2015 could collapse following the deadliest month of fighting in a year. "If the situation escalates in the east and in Crimea we don
  
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• DNA traces origins of Iceman's ragtag wardrobe

  18-08-2016 15:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A new analysis shows that Oetzi the Iceman's clothes came from at least five species of animal, including a hat of brown bear fur.
  
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• How to get Ötzi’s look

  18-08-2016 15:00
  
  DNA from Ötzi the Iceman’s clothes and quiver traced to both domesticated and wild animals.
  
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• India air pollution death rate to outpace China - researcher

  18-08-2016 14:52
  The increase in people dying in India from air pollution will outpace the rate of such deaths in China, as India drags its heels over environmental rules while opening more coal mines, the head of a U.S. research group said on Thursday. "India's situation is getting worse at a much faster speed than China," Dan Greenbaum, president of Boston-based Health Effects Institute (HEI), told Reuters in Beijing. "It is definitely the case because India has not taken as much action on air pollution." HEI
  
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• Feel the Burn--New World Chilies Traced Back Nearly 17 Million Years

  18-08-2016 14:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  American chili peppers, both tongue-scorching and bland, have a single common ancestor that evolved in South America
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• Ancient Bling: Exquisite Jewelry Found in Tomb of Chinese Woman

  18-08-2016 13:59
  
  Around 1,500 years ago, at a time when China was divided, a woman named Farong was laid to rest wearing fantastic jewelry, which included a necklace of 5,000 beads and "exquisite" earrings, archaeologists report. Her tomb was discovered in 2011 in Datong City, China, by a team of archaeologists with the Datong Municipal Institute of Archaeology who were surveying the area before a construction project. Farong's tomb was dug into the ground, and her skeleton (which is now in poor condition) was f
  
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• No, That Ancient Mausoleum Is Not the 'World's 1st Pyramid'

  18-08-2016 13:58
  
  The discovery of a 3,000-year-old pyramid-shaped mausoleum in Kazakhstan has gone viral over the past 24 hours, with several media outlets proclaiming the structure to be the world's first pyramid. The mausoleum is 6.6 feet (2 meters) high and about 49 by 46 feet (15 by 14 m) long, said Viktor Novozhenov, an archaeologist with the Saryarka Archaeological Institute at Karaganda State University in Kazakhstan who helped excavate the mausoleum.
  
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• Coral Reefs Flourish Thanks to … Fish Pee?

  18-08-2016 13:54
  
  Getting peed on is a good thing, at least for coral reefs, scientists have found. This, combined with nitrogen excreted from their gills, is crucial for coral reef survival and growth, according to recent studies. When scientists studied areas with heavy fishing, they found that almost half of the key nutrients needed to maintain a healthy reef ecosystem were missing.
  
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• Creep Show: Video Captures the Violent Act of Coral Bleaching

  18-08-2016 13:52
  
  A blob of a coral has been caught violently pulsating, with tentacles wriggling every which way, as it ejects its algal residents in a time-lapse video of the phenomenon called bleaching. The video revealed for the first time how the mushroom coral Heliofungia actiniformis, which is a single polyp, physically reacts to heat stress. "Mass coral bleaching events are a concern for scientists globally with recent events on the Great Barrier Reef highlighting the threat of elevated water tempera
  
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• Will the Great Attractor Destroy Us?

  18-08-2016 13:45
  
  Somewhere, in the deepest reaches of the cosmos, far from the safe confines of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, lies a monster. We call it the Great Attractor, and until recently, its true nature has been a complete mystery. The Great Attractor was first discovered in the 1970s when astronomers made detailed maps of the Cosmic Microwave Background (the light left over from the early universe), and noticed that it was slightly (and "slightly" here means less than one one-hundredth of a degree Fahr
  
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• SpaceX, Bigelow Aerospace Among Headliners of SpaceCom Conference in November

  18-08-2016 13:44
  
  A conference this November aims to help make it easier for companies to profit in space. The SpaceCom meeting and expo, to be held in Houston from Nov. 15 through Nov. 17, will feature keynote speeches by number of prominent people, including Bigelow Aerospace founder Robert Bigelow, SpaceX Director of Crew Operations Garrett Reisman and Jean-Jacques Dordain, former director general of the European Space Agency (ESA). While those presentations will be highlights, SpaceCom won't be just talk.
  
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• Space May Be the Best Place to Grow Bone Formation Protein Crystals

  18-08-2016 13:43
  
  Crystals of proteins that could be useful in medical research can be grown bigger and better in space than on Earth, according to the results of experiments performed on the International Space Station. Medical research often focuses on examining how proteins work. A better understanding of a protein's 3D structure can, for example, help scientists improve how well a medicine works, or find out the best ways to kill a germ.
  
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• Mars-Like Environment Lies Deep Beneath Earth's Surface

  18-08-2016 13:43
  
  For the last four years, astrobiologists with Mars Analogues for Space Exploration (MASE), a program that is funded by the European Science Foundation, have been studying the underground environment of England's Boulby Mine — a place that appears to bear some similarities to Mars. The new work, which includes analyzing salty features on the walls of the mine, will help scientists understand where to look for life on the Red Planet and how to explore the Martian environment when humans even
  
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• Flaming fuel on water creates ‘blue whirl’ that burns clean

  18-08-2016 13:00
  
  Scientists found a way to burn fuel on water that leaves little soot behind.
  
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• New 'smart homes' increase the safety and independence of the elderly

  18-08-2016 12:19
  
  They include motion sensors and a panic button.
  
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• Canada develops new polar bear tracking system to fight smugglers

  18-08-2016 12:00 via cbc.ca
  
  A pilot project, in which Nunavut conservation officers are inserting microchips in polar bear hides, could help international efforts to stop wildlife trafficking.
  
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• Indigenous Australians fight nuclear dump plan on 'sacred land'

  18-08-2016 09:35
  By Timothy Large HAWKER, Australia (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Enice Marsh remembers the black clouds of "poison stuff" that billowed from the northwest after British atomic bomb tests in the 1950s spread fallout across swathes of South Australia. Now a new kind of radioactivity could head to her ancestral home in the remote Flinders Ranges - a nuclear waste dump.
  
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