Science news

• The supernova that wasn't: A tale of three cosmic eruptions

  02-09-2016 23:53
  Long-term observations with the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that Eta Carinae, a very massive star system that has puzzled astronomers since it erupted in a supernova-like event in the mid 19th century, has a past that's much more violent than they thought. The findings help rewrite the story of how this iconic and mysterious star system came to be and present a critical piece of the puzzle of how very massive stars die.
  
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• New images of Jupiter

  02-09-2016 23:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  NASA has released spectacular images of Jupiter that have never been seen before.
  
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• FDA bans chemicals in antibacterial soaps

  02-09-2016 22:49
  
  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled against 19 antibacterial soap ingredients, citing insufficient evidence of bacteria-killing and safety problems.
  
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• NASA spacecraft beams back close-up views of Jupiter's poles

  02-09-2016 22:22
  
  LOS ANGELES (AP) — A NASA spacecraft has sent back the best views of Jupiter yet, revealing turbulent storms in the north pole.
  
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• Gene mutations that lead to more aggressive colorectal cancer in African American patients discovered

  02-09-2016 22:18
  Scientists who last year identified new gene mutations unique to colon cancers in African Americans, have now found that tumors with these mutations are highly aggressive and more likely to recur and metastasize.
  
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• Juno transmits first intimate snapshots of Jupiter

  02-09-2016 22:07
  
  Hurricane-like clouds spiral over Jupiter’s poles, new photos taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveal.
  
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• [Research Resource] Proteome-wide analysis of arginine monomethylation reveals widespread occurrence in human cells

  02-09-2016 22:05 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Arginine methylation is prevalent throughout the proteome and regulates the localization and function of splicing and RNA transport factors.
  
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• [Research Article] Distinct microenvironmental cues stimulate divergent TLR4-mediated signaling pathways in macrophages

  02-09-2016 22:05 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Macrophages exhibit distinct phenotypes when a shared receptor is stimulated by molecules associated with either infection or injury.
  
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• [Podcast] Science Signaling Podcast for 30 August 2016: Human arginine methylome

  02-09-2016 22:05 via stke.sciencemag.org
  The human arginine methylome reveals the extent and importance of this posttranslational modification.
  
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• [Meeting Report] Quantitative human cell encyclopedia

  02-09-2016 22:05 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Brenda J. Andrews, A. J. Marian Walhout, Ravi Iyengar, The Human Cells Project Working Group
  
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• [Editors' Choice] WNK1 inhibits T cell adhesion

  02-09-2016 22:05 via stke.sciencemag.org
  The kinase WNK1 inhibits the integrin-mediated adhesion of T cells and promotes their migration.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] PDAC puts its neighbors to work

  02-09-2016 22:05 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Mitochondria in pancreatic tumor cells use alanine released by pancreatic stellate cells undergoing autophagy in the nutrient-poor microenvironment.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] DNA memories for mating

  02-09-2016 22:05 via stke.sciencemag.org
  The process of transcribing a long noncoding RNA lets yeast control the response to mating signal.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] A lock that cuts its own key

  02-09-2016 22:05 via stke.sciencemag.org
  DWARF14 is a strigolactone receptor that hydrolyzes its ligand but remains covalently bound to one of the reaction products.
  
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• NASA Reinstalls Water Tank Reclaimed from Space Shuttle Endeavour

  02-09-2016 22:04
  
  One year after its removal from the space shuttle Endeavour, a metal water tank has been returned by NASA to the California Science Center and reinstalled inside the retired orbiter. NASA requested the return of the tanks so that they could be reused as part of a planned water storage system for the International Space Station.
  
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• Jupiter's Wild North Pole, Southern Auroras Photographed for 1st Time

  02-09-2016 22:04
  
  NASA's Juno spacecraft has beamed home the first-ever photos of Jupiter's north pole, and scientists can hardly believe their eyes. Juno captured the images on Aug. 27, when the probe skimmed just 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops during the first of three dozen close flybys of the solar system's largest planet. "First glimpse of Jupiter's north pole, and it looks like nothing we have seen or imagined before," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, of the Southwes
  
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• 'Carnage' As Wingsuit BASE Jumping Death Spree Reaches 20

  02-09-2016 21:48
  
  Wingsuit BASE jumping is in crisis after a deadly summer saw 15 jumpers die in the space of a single month. The latest death in Canada - a man wearing a Vampire-themed wingsuit - brings the total for the year to an unprecedented 20. At least one person died while posting footage of his flight live on Facebook.
  
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• New model could help improve prediction of outbreaks of Ebola and Lassa fever

  02-09-2016 21:20
  Potential outbreaks of diseases such as Ebola and Lassa fever may be more accurately predicted thanks to a new mathematical model. This could in turn help inform public health messages to prevent outbreaks spreading more widely.
  
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• 'Materials that compute' advances as engineers demonstrate pattern recognition

  02-09-2016 21:20
  The potential to develop 'materials that compute' has taken another leap, after researchers for the first time have demonstrated that the material can be designed to recognize simple patterns. This responsive, hybrid material, powered by its own chemical reactions, could one day be integrated into clothing and used to monitor the human body, or developed as a skin for 'squishy' robots.
  
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• NASA's Delayed Mars Lander Will Launch in 2018

  02-09-2016 21:00
  
  A mission to study the inner workings of Mars is now set to launch in the spring of 2018, NASA announced today (Sept. 2). The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, or InSight, was originally scheduled to launch in March 2016, but NASA delayed the launch indefinitely due to a serious structural problem with one of the probe's two science instruments. Now, scientists with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been tasked with fixing the problem before the 2
  
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• FIND offers simple guidance for lost person searches

  02-09-2016 20:23
  The new FIND software uses Lost Person Locator statistics of decisions and patterns made by lost individuals in over 150,000 past cases, known as lost person behavior.
  
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• Placenta in females, muscle mass in males: Dual heritage of a virus

  02-09-2016 20:22
  It was already known that genes inherited from ancient retroviruses are essential to the placenta in mammals. Scientists have now revealed a new chapter in this astonishing story: these genes of viral origin may also be responsible for the more developed muscle mass seen in males.
  
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• 'Ghost snake' discovered in Madagascar

  02-09-2016 20:22
  Researchers discovered a new snake species in Madagascar and named it 'ghost snake' for its pale grey coloration and elusiveness. The researchers named it Madagascarophis lolo, pronounced 'luu luu,' which means ghost in Malagasy.
  
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• Adapting to stress: Understanding the neurobiology of resilience

  02-09-2016 20:22
  New research examines the way our bodies, specifically our brains, become “stress-resilient.” There is a significant variation in the way individuals react and respond to extreme stress and adversity—some individuals develop psychiatric conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder or major depressive disorder—others recover from stressful experiences without displaying significant symptoms of psychological ill-health, demonstrating stress-resilience.
  
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• Crop domestication is a balancing act: Some ants are still trying to get it right

  02-09-2016 20:21
  The ancestors of leaf-cutter ants swapped a hunter-gatherer lifestyle for a bucolic existence on small-scale subsistence farms. A new study has revealed that living relatives of the earliest fungus-farming ants still have not domesticated their crop, a challenge also faced by early human farmers.
  
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• A strange thing happened in the stratosphere

  02-09-2016 20:21
  High above Earth's tropics, a pattern of winds changed recently in a way that scientists had never seen in more than 60 years of consistent measurements.
  
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• First stars formed even later than previously thought

  02-09-2016 18:58
  ESA's Planck satellite has revealed that the first stars in the Universe started forming later than previous observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background indicated. This new analysis also shows that these stars were the only sources needed to account for reionising atoms in the cosmos, having completed half of this process when the Universe had reached an age of 700 million years.
  
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• Zolushka sighting: The tiger Cinderella story continues

  02-09-2016 18:54
  Brought into captivity as a nearly starved, 3-month old cub, the tigress that became known as Zolushka (Russian for "Cinderella") flourished in a rehabilitation center designed to prepare her for life back in the wild. Without a mother (probably lost to poachers) Zolushka learned how to kill natural wild prey presented to her in the rehabilitation center, where she was kept far from people to preserve her innate fear of humans. New photographs just released from Bastak Reserve in the Russian Far
  
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• Doctors need better ways to figure out fevers in newborns

  02-09-2016 18:54
  
  When a very young baby gets a fever, doctors scramble to figure out the cause. A new type of test may ultimately help identify whether the culprit is bacterial or viral.
  
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• Spiritual meditation plus medication: Best medicine for migraines?

  02-09-2016 18:53
  New research examines whether or not, and to what extent, a combination of spiritual meditation and migraine medication affects analgesic medication usage.
  
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• New law to give marginalised Kenyan communities land titles

  02-09-2016 18:53
  By Katy Migiro NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Impoverished nomadic communities across Kenya are to receive land titles under a new law that experts hope will help end land conflicts, boost development and improve investor relations. The Community Land Bill, signed into law by Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta on Aug. 31, lays out the steps for communities to acquire titles to their ancestral land. Around two-thirds of Kenya's land is customarily owned by communities without formal title d
  
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• Air lubrication: Only big bubbles do the trick

  02-09-2016 18:53
  Blowing bubbles underneath a ship’s hull, causes them to be pushed against the surface. In the surface layer between the ship and water, these air bubbles cause less friction: it’s also known as air lubrication. In practice, friction can be reduced 20 percent, with a huge impact on fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emission. The precise mechanism is still unknown, as the local water flow is complex and turbulent. As scientists demonstrate, the size of the bubbles make a big differe
  
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• New knowledge about the building blocks of life

  02-09-2016 18:52
  A study of an enzyme that helps build and repair DNA in living organisms increases our understanding of how these processes are controlled and how we can use this to combat infections.
  
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• Jupiter's north pole unlike anything encountered in solar system

  02-09-2016 18:49
  NASA's Juno spacecraft has sent back the first-ever images of Jupiter's north pole, taken during the spacecraft's first flyby of the planet with its instruments switched on. The images show storm systems and weather activity unlike anything previously seen on any of our solar system's gas-giant planets.
  
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• SpaceX Investigating Cause of Falcon 9 Rocket Explosion

  02-09-2016 18:33
  
  SpaceX is investigating why the company's Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a prelaunch test yesterday (Sept. 1), but it's unclear when there will be any definitive answers. The powerful explosion destroyed both the two-stage Falcon 9 and the Amos-6 communications satellite, which the rocket was scheduled to launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday (Sept. 3). Nobody was injured, SpaceX representatives said.
  
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• U.S. Bans Common Chemicals in Antibacterial Soaps

  02-09-2016 18:30 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Although there is no conclusive evidence of danger to humans, antibacterials’ benefits have not been proved to exceed potential risks
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• There is a weird theory going around that alien spaceships are spying on the ISS

  02-09-2016 18:27
  
  Two flashing lights were seen flickering above a capsule attached to the space station.
  
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• Juno probe returns close-up Jupiter pictures

  02-09-2016 18:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The US space agency releases pictures and other data from the Juno probe, which has just made its first close approach to Jupiter since going into orbit in July.
  
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• Pokemon Go in the classroom? Teacher says yes

  02-09-2016 18:02 via cbc.ca
  
  Turns out this summer's most popular smartphone game is chock full of learning opportunities that have one teacher itching to use it in the classroom.
  
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• 'Star Trek': Mission New York — Celebrate Show's 50th Anniversary This Weekend

  02-09-2016 17:29
  
  NEW YORK — "Star Trek" creators, stars and avid fans — and NASA — will gather together this weekend (Sept. 2-4) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the beloved franchise.
  
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• NASA to Launch Asteroid-Sampling Mission Next Week

  02-09-2016 17:23
  
  The launch of NASA's first asteroid-sampling mission is less than a week away and won't be affected by a nearby SpaceX rocket explosion that occurred yesterday (Sept. 1), space agency officials say. On Thursday, Sept. 8, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, kicking off a two-year journey to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu. "@OSIRIS-Rex remains on Sep. 8," NASA officials wrote on Twitter after the rocket explosion yesterday.
  
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• Lasting Childbirth Pain Tied to Postpartum Depression

  02-09-2016 17:22
  Women who continue to experience pain from childbirth one month after having a baby may be more likely to develop postpartum depression, a new study suggests. Specifically, researchers found that women in Singapore who had pain that lasted longer than four weeks after they gave birth had higher scores on tests that measured the women's risk for postpartum depression. The findings suggest that persistent childbirth pain in women is linked with a greater risk for postpartum depression, said Dr. Ba
  
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• Why Taller People May Be Better at Judging How Far Away Things Are

  02-09-2016 17:21
  The human brain depends on a certain model to provide "the best guess of where objects could be located," said study co-author Teng Leng Ooi, a professor of optometry at The Ohio State University. "Our previous studies have shown that the intrinsic bias is an imaginary curve that extends from one's feet and slants upward to the far distance," Ooi told Live Science in an email. Over three experiments, objects were presented in different levels of light, with different amounts of information to he
  
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• US Marijuana Use Grows As Fewer People Worry About the Risks

  02-09-2016 17:21
  Marijuana use is on the rise in the U.S., and one reason may be that people perceive the drug as less harmful than people did in the past, according to new research. The authors of the new study say their findings, published today (Aug. 31) in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry, suggest that more education about the risks of marijuana is needed. Other reports have also shown that marijuana use is increasing, said lead authorDr.
  
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• How LSD Permits Leaping Word Associations

  02-09-2016 17:20
  The study didn't address questions about the effect of the psychedelic drug on creativity or mental health, but could lead to new research in those areas, said lead researcher Neiloufar Family, a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. "Our results do hint toward having access to further-away associations under the influence of psychedelics," Family told Live Science. In the study, Family and her colleagues asked 10 people to complete a rather dull picture-naming t
  
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• Wearable tracker keeps tabs on patients, soldiers

  02-09-2016 17:16
  Wearable sensing device tracks movements, ambient environment, bio-signals and more.
  
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• No longer lost in the blink of an eye

  02-09-2016 17:16
  Researchers have re-invented the eye drop with technology that can deliver medicine much more efficiently, making life easier for patients. They have created microscopic packets of medicine that lodge themselves imperceptibly in the base of the tear film that makes up the wet surface of the eye.
  
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• Living with dementia: Life story work proves successful

  02-09-2016 17:14
  Life story work has the potential to help people with dementia, a pioneering study has demonstrated. Life story work involves helping people to record aspects of their past and present lives along with future hopes and wishes, often in a book or folder or, increasingly, in music, film and multi-media formats.
  
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• Hereditary diseases are the price of protection against infections

  02-09-2016 17:14
  Balancing selection is responsible for helping us fend off pathogens, but also for the occurrence of mutations in our genome that predispose us to hereditary diseases.
  
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• First look at SpaceX's Hyperloop test track in California

  02-09-2016 17:14
  
  The dream for a super-fast transport is taking steps towards reality.
  
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