Science news

• Asteroid Sampler Sneak Peek: Space.com Visits OSIRIS-REx Probe's Clean Room

  29-08-2016 23:35
  
  After lifting off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, OSIRIS-REx will spend nearly two years chasing down a carbon-rich,potentially hazardous asteroid named Bennu. If all goes according to plan, the probe will grab samples of Bennu, then return this material to Earth in 2023. NASA invited members of the media to view OSIRIS-REx on Aug. 20, inside a specialized clean room before sealing the spacecraft away in its payload fairing — a metal casing that protects the spacecraft during
  
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• Video: Adorable Baby Panda Loves Rolling Around

  29-08-2016 23:13
  
  A young panda was caught on camera having a ball, rolling around in the grass at the Gengda Wolong Panda Center in China. The baby panda, named Hua Rong, can be seen somersaulting and rolling around its habitat at the Panda Center, located in the heart of the Wolong Nature Reserve — home to wild giant pandas. Hua Rong's playtime was captured on the Panda Center's live panda cam, part of EXPLORE.org's international network of live nature cameras.
  
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• More Than 300 Reindeer Killed By Lightning: Here's Why

  29-08-2016 23:12
  
  More than 300 wild reindeer were killed after being struck by lightning in Norway, in what government officials say was an unusually deadly event. It's not uncommon for wildlife to be killed by lightning strikes, but what made this storm so deadly? Most lightning deaths that occur in groups are due to the ground current, John Jensenius, a lightning safety expert from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Verge.
  
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• Mosquito moms can pass Zika to offspring

  29-08-2016 23:00
  
  In the lab, Zika virus can pass from a female mosquito to her eggs, suggesting how infections can flare up again after adult insects dwindle.
  
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• Fishermen relieved Atlantic bluefin tuna dodges endangered species label

  29-08-2016 22:47 via cbc.ca
  
  Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans has rejected advice to list the Atlantic Bluefin tuna as an endangered species.
  
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• Fossil Sleuthing Hints at What Killed "Lucy," Our Iconic Ancestor

  29-08-2016 21:15 via rss.sciam.com
  
  CT images show fractures like those from a fall, but the original finder of the remains isn’t convinced
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• How drone and robotic technology will be used to help maximize crop yields

  29-08-2016 20:45 via cbc.ca
  
  The University of Saskatchewan has officially launched a new high-tech research centre to study food security and how Saskatchewan can grow even more for the world.
  
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• Early human ancestor Lucy 'died falling out of a tree'

  29-08-2016 20:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  New evidence suggests that the famous fossilised human ancestor dubbed 'Lucy' by scientists may have died falling from a great height - probably from a tree.
  
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• Human ancestor Lucy's cause of death solved, scientists say

  29-08-2016 20:09 via cbc.ca
  
  The famous human ancestor known as Lucy walked the Earth, but it was her tree climbing that might have led to her demise, a new study suggests.
  
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• New Apple iPhone unveiling expected next week

  29-08-2016 19:44 via cbc.ca
  
  Apple is expected to show off a new iPhone next week when the company holds its fall product launch event in San Francisco.
  
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• NASA's Juno Probe Buzzes Jupiter in Its First (and Closest) Flyby

  29-08-2016 18:34
  
  Juno arrived at Jupiter July 4 after a five-year journey, and this will be the closest approach of the entire mission, with the spacecraft grazing over the tops of Jupiter's clouds at a distance of just 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) at a speed of 130,000 mph (208,000 km/h). During this encounter, Juno had every single one of its science instruments up and running for the first time in the mission.
  
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• Mock Mars Explorers Emerge from Habitat to End Year of Isolation in Hawaii

  29-08-2016 18:34
  
  The crew had no physical contact with anyone but each other, and had limited communication with friends, family and the outside world. The crew exited the domed habitat for the first time in 12 months without wearing spacesuits, and were greeted by family, friends, the mission scientists and team members who supported them through the year, and members of the media.
  
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• Hand-Off of Space-Flown Football Launches Pre-Super Bowl Tour in Houston

  29-08-2016 18:34
  
  A football flown for five months aboard the International Space Station has now become a symbol of the next Super Bowl to be played in Houston. Astronaut Scott Kelly, who returned from a record 340-day expedition on the orbiting outpost earlier this year, handed off the flown football at Space Center Houston on Saturday (Aug. 27). "This really is an out of this world acceptance of a football," said Sallie Sargent, the president and CEO of the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee, during the "Touchd
  
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• Did fall from tree kill famous human ancestor Lucy?

  29-08-2016 17:56
  
  LOS ANGELES (AP) — The famous human ancestor known as Lucy walked the Earth, but it was her tree climbing that might have led to her demise, a new study suggests.
  
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• Will You Make More Money If You Attend a Top-Tier School?

  29-08-2016 17:51
  College tuitions are becoming prohibitively expensive for many people, with Harvard University now costing almost $61,000 a year for tuition, room, board and fees. Given the high price tag, is it worth it to graduate from a highly selective school versus a less expensive, lower-tier one? The answer is, yes, "selectivity matters a lot," at least for most majors, according to two researchers.
  
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• Freak lightning storm kills 323 reindeer in Norway

  29-08-2016 17:48
  A freak lightning storm has killed 323 reindeer in a remote mountainous area of Norway, officials said on Monday. Dead animals were found lying on top of each other, many with their antlers entangled, after the thunderstorm on the Hardanger plateau in southern Norway on Friday. "We've never had anything like this with lightning," Kjartan Knutsen of Norway's nature surveillance agency said, adding there were sometimes isolated cases of sheep or reindeer struck down.
  
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• More Parents Are Refusing Vaccinations, But Their Reasons Are Changing

  29-08-2016 17:05
  Pediatricians should continue to talk to parents who have concerns about vaccines to try to increase immunization rates, said study co-author Dr. Catherine Hough-Telford, a pediatrician at the University of Alabama. In the study, researchers surveyed 627 pediatricians in 2013 and asked them whether their patients' parents had ever refused a vaccination, or had asked to delay a vaccination. The researchers found that in 2013, 87 percent of pediatricians surveyed said they encountered vaccine refu
  
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• Facial Features and Genes: Study Taps New Connections

  29-08-2016 17:04
  But in a new study, researchers tried to make sense of how a person's genes are linked to his or her appearance. "We know from twin studies, for example, that some parts of the face seem to have a very strong genetic component," said Seth Weinberg, an assistant professor of oral biology at the University of Pittsburgh and an author of the study, which was published today (Aug. 25) in the journal PLOS Genetics. In an attempt to unravel the genetic mysteries of our mugs, the researchers took 3D im
  
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• EpiPen Alternatives Exist, and They May be Cheaper

  29-08-2016 17:04
  The soaring price of the EpiPen has garnered controversy recently, but there are alternatives to this well-known allergy treatment device. The EpiPen belongs to a class of medical devices known as epinephrine auto-injectors, which allow people to quickly inject a precise dose of the drug epinephrine. The devices are used to treat anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction that can be triggered, in people who have the corresponding allergies, by foods, insect stings, medications and certai
  
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• Mystery Solved: How Lyme Disease Bacteria Spread Around the Body

  29-08-2016 17:03
  
  When you're bitten by a tick carrying the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, the microbes travel through your bloodstream and can eventually spread to the heart, joints and nervous system. A new study sheds light on the way these bacteria latch onto the inside of blood vessel walls and move inside the vessels while fighting the forces of flowing blood. The findings also suggest ways that researchers might target the interactions between the bacteria and blood vessels in order to slow down or prev
  
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• Fossil autopsy claims Lucy fell from tree

  29-08-2016 17:00
  
  A contested study suggests a famous fossil ancestor plunged to her death.
  
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• Reindeer killed in Norway lightning storm

  29-08-2016 15:57 via bbc.co.uk
  
  More than 300 reindeer have been killed in a lightning storm on a mountain plateau in Norway.
  
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• Austrian experts recover giant tusks of rare mammoth breed

  29-08-2016 15:47
  VIENNA (AP) — An Austrian museum team has recovered two giant tusks and other remnants of what experts say are apparently the remains of a rare mammoth breed, after construction crews unearthed them while working on an Austrian freeway.
  
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• Deadly lightning storm kills more than 300 reindeer

  29-08-2016 15:45 via cbc.ca
  
  More than 300 wild reindeer have been killed by lighting in central Norway.
  
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• Deadly lightning kills more than 300 reindeer in Norway

  29-08-2016 15:45 via cbc.ca
  
  More than 300 wild reindeer have been killed by lighting in central Norway.
  
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• Proxima b: Lasers Might One Day Power Ship to Closest Alien Planet

  29-08-2016 15:27
  The discovery of a potentially Earth-like planet around Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our sun, has ignited interest in whether the alien world could support life — and if so, how humans might one day launch a space probe to the newfound planet. The so-called Breakthrough Starshot project, unveiled in April by billionaire investor Yuri Milner and renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, proposes using a laser to push a tiny, wafer-size spaceship to some fraction of the speed of light, an
  
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• GluMI cells are anything but

  29-08-2016 15:00
  
  GluMI cells are no downers in the retina.
  
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• U.S. says uncoordinated actions in north Syria help Islamic State

  29-08-2016 13:48
  Uncoordinated operations and manoeuvres in northern Syria will give Islamic State more space, the U.S. Department of Defense said on Monday, calling on Turkey and Syrian opposition groups to stop fighting each other. In a statement, it also said the United States had reiterated a demand that the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia cross back to the east of the Euphrates river and it understood that such a movement had "largely occurred". In a cross-border campaign in Syria, Turkey and its Syrian rebel al
  
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• New wind tunnel reveals bird flight secrets

  29-08-2016 13:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Researchers at Stanford University have designed a unique bird tunnel to observe how tiny birds fly.
  
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• Research into cow burps could cut methane emissions, and budgets

  29-08-2016 13:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Some cows are more food efficient than others, which means they don't eat as much as other cows their size.
  
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• Bacteria-sized molecules created in lab

  29-08-2016 13:00
  
  Cesium atoms with high-energy electrons pair up to form giant molecules.
  
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• Syrian Kurdish YPG: Turkey's claim of fighting west of Euphrates pretext for land grab

  29-08-2016 11:40
  The chief spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Monday that Turkey's claims that is it fighting YPG forces west of the Euphrates river in northern Syria were untrue and a pretext for seizing Syrian territory. "There are absolutely no YPG military reinforcements being sent towards Manbij. Turkey's claims that it is fighting the YPG west of the Euphrates have no basis in truth and are merely flimsy pretexts to widen its occupation of Syrian land," Redur Xelil told Reuters.
  
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• Shetland turbines at Bluemull Sound connected to grid

  29-08-2016 11:15 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Turbines installed off the coast of Shetland could herald a "new era" in tidal energy, according to the company running the project.
  
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• Life on Mars: Moment Nasa crew emerges from year-long trial

  29-08-2016 10:52 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A Nasa team has emerged from a Mars simulation in Hawaii, where they lived in near isolation for a year.
  
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• China's Xi reshuffles key party posts ahead of congress

  29-08-2016 08:10
  By Ben Blanchard and Benjamin Kang Lim BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping has reshuffled three top provincial-level Communist Party posts as he seeks to place his men in key positions ahead of a once-every-five-years congress next year, and more new appointments are likely soon. The party congress, expected to be held next autumn, will see Xi further cement his hold on power by appointing close allies into the party's ruling inner core, the 25-member Politburo and the seven-member
  
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• Nasa ends year-long Mars simulation on Hawaii

  29-08-2016 07:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A team of six people complete a Nasa-funded Mars simulation in Hawaii, after living in a dome in near isolation for a year.
  
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• Mars Simulation Ends After A Year's Isolation

  29-08-2016 06:25
  Six scientists have emerged from a year-long self-enforced isolation in order to simulate what it would be like to live on Mars.
  
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• Mars isolation experiment in Hawaii ends

  29-08-2016 06:16
  
  The six people who went into isolation for a year in Hawaii to help NASA plan for a mission to Mars emerged Sunday, happy to breathe fresh air and meet new people.
  
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• Will insects be the food of the future? Find out at ICE 2016

  29-08-2016 06:00
  
  (Entomological Society of America) At the 2016 International Congress of Entomology, which will be held Sept. 25-30 in Orlando, entomophagy -- the eating of insects -- will be discussed during three different symposia.
  
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• UTA engineer working to develop bioinks for use in 3-D printing of tissues, organs

  29-08-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Texas at Arlington) Kyungsuk Yum, an assistant professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department of UTA's College of Engineering, has earned a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop nanocomposite hydrogel bioinks that could be used for that purpose.
  
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• Use it or lose it: UMD study shows that stopping exercise decreases brain blood flow

  29-08-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Maryland) University of Maryland School of Public Health researchers examined cerebral blood flow in master athletes (ages 50-80 years) before and after a 10-day period during which they stopped all exercise. Using MRI brain imaging techniques, they found a significant decrease in blood flow to several brain regions important for cognitive health, including the hippocampus, after they stopped their exercise routines.
  
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• University of Akron researchers find thin layers of water can become ice-like at room temperature

  29-08-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Akron) New research by scientists at The University of Akron shows that a nanometer-thin layer of water between two charged surfaces exhibits ice-like tendencies that allow it to withstand pressures of hundreds of atmospheres. The discovery could lead to better ways to minimize friction in a variety of settings
  
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• The CONSERVE trial: Noninvasive imaging can guide more selective invasive coronary angiography

  29-08-2016 06:00
  
  (European Society of Cardiology) In stable symptomatic patients with suspected coronary artery disease, a strategy of using noninvasive computed tomography to guide the selective use of invasive coronary angiography was safe, and less expensive compared with direct invasive angiography.
  
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• The brain performs feats of math to make sense of the world

  29-08-2016 06:00
  
  (PrincetonUniversity) Princeton University researchers have found that the brain is quite good at rapidly and subconsciously calculating the likelihood of various events, and remain flexible enough to account for new information. They traced these abilities to a region of the brain located just behind our eyes known as the orbitofrontal cortex.
  
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• SwRI to demonstrate low-cost miniature solar observatory

  29-08-2016 06:00
  
  (Southwest Research Institute) Southwest Research Institute will flight test a miniature solar observatory on a six-hour high-altitude balloon mission scheduled for the end of August. The SwRI Solar Instrument Pointing Platform (SSIPP) is a complete, high-precision solar observatory about the size of a mini fridge and weighing 160 pounds.
  
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• Super cement's secret

  29-08-2016 06:00
  
  (DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) Mayenite is one smart cement -- it can be turned from an insulator to a transparent conductor and back. It is also suitable for use as semiconductors in flat panel displays. The secret behind mayenite's magic is a tiny change in its chemical composition. In new work in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers show how components called electron anions help to transform crystalline mayenite, also called C12A7, into semiconducting gla
  
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• Standing up for weight management

  29-08-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Pittsburgh) A new study from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education examined the potential weight management benefits of sit-stand desks. Pitt's researchers found that regular use of a height-adjustable workstation, when combined with other low-intensity activities, is an effective measure for maintaining weight for most people.
  
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• Simple equation predicts force needed to push objects through sand

  29-08-2016 06:00
  
  (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) For those of you who take sandcastle building very seriously, listen up: MIT engineers now say you can trust a very simple equation to calculate the force required to push a shovel -- and any other 'intruder'-- through sand. The team also found that the same concept, known as the resistive force theory, can generate useful equations for cohesive materials like muds.
  
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• Purest yet liver-like cells generated from induced pluripotent stem cells

  29-08-2016 06:00
  
  (Medical University of South Carolina) A team of researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina and elsewhere has found a better way to purify liver cells made from induced pluripotent stem cells. This new methodology could facilitate progress toward an important clinical goal: the treatment of patients with disease-causing mutations in their livers by transplant of unmutated liver cells derived from their own stem cells.
  
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• Public and media invited to Goddard to celebrate launch of asteroid mission

  29-08-2016 06:00
  
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Members of the public and the media are invited to celebrate the launch of NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample return mission to an asteroid, on Thursday, Sept. 8, at 5:30 p.m. This free event will be held at the NASA Goddard Visitor Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and is open to the public.
  
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