Science news

• China appears to push back on U.S. bid to choke North Korea coal exports

  10-10-2016 23:38
  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - China appears to have pushed back on a U.S. bid to close a U.N. loophole that allows North Korea to export coal for "livelihood purposes," saying the well-being of North Koreans is a priority in negotiations on possible new U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang. Since North Korea's fifth and largest nuclear test four weeks ago, the United States and China, a close ally of North Korea, have been negotiating a new draft Security Council resolution to punish Pyo
  
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• 'Safe' Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Batteries Are Still Exploding

  10-10-2016 23:03
  
  Samsung has reportedly suspended production of the company's Galaxy Note 7 smartphone because the devices — plagued by battery problems that were causing some phones to catch fire — are still at risk of exploding. Last month, Samsung issued a global recall of the Galaxy Note 7 after several incidents in which the phone's lithium-ion battery caught fire. There are seven reports thus far of "safe" Galaxy Note 7s exploding, reported Ars Technica.
  
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• [Erratum] Erratum for the Research Article: "Targeting the kinase activities of ATR and ATM exhibits antitumoral activity in mouse models of MLL-rearranged AML" by I. Morgado-Palacin, A. Day, M. Murga, V. Lafarga, M. E. Anton, A. Tubbs, H.-T. Chen, A. Erg

  10-10-2016 22:44 via stke.sciencemag.org
  An author's last name is corrected and middle initial is inserted. A closing parenthesis in a sentence in the Abstract has also been added.
  
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• [Erratum] Erratum for the Research Article: "Peripheral motor neuropathy is associated with defective kinase regulation of the KCC3 cotransporter" by K. T. Kahle, B. Flores, D. Bharucha-Goebel, J. Zhang, S. Donkervoort, M. Hegde, G. Hussain, D. Duran, B.

  10-10-2016 22:44 via stke.sciencemag.org
  An author's name is corrected.
  
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• Lower pound a 'welcome change', says former bank chief Lord King

  10-10-2016 22:42
  
  The former Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King, has told Sky News that the plunge in the pound is a "welcome change" for the UK economy. Lord King said that recent fears over the behaviour of the pound, which has fallen to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985, were overblown. Last week the pound suffered a "flash crash", falling suddenly from $1.26 to $1.14 in the space of a few seconds, prompting the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, to warn that the UK would face an extended period of tu
  
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• Air Force's X-37B Space Plane Mystery Mission Wings by 500 Days in Orbit

  10-10-2016 22:30
  
  The U.S. military launched the robotic X-37B space plane on May 20, 2015, marking the fourth flight for the Air Force program. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lofted the spacecraft from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to kick off the OTV-4 mission (short for Orbital Test Vehicle-4). Exactly what the winged space plane's duties are while it's in orbit continues to remain a tight-lipped affair.
  
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• Mars Rover Opportunity to Make Daring Descent into Gully

  10-10-2016 22:04
  
  NASA's Opportunity rover is still having grand adventures more than 12 years after touching down on Mars. Now, the agency plans to send Opportunity into a gully that may have been shaped by water in the ancient past. Opportunity's daring descent will be a first for a Mars rover, and it could yield significant insight into how Red Planet gullies form.
  
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• Facebook launches Workplace, a business version of Facebook

  10-10-2016 21:17 via cbc.ca
  
  Facebook is launching a communications tool on Monday for businesses, nonprofits and other organizations. Called Workplace, the platform is ad-free and not connected to users' existing Facebook accounts.
  
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• European Spacecraft Prepares to Land on Mars Next Week

  10-10-2016 21:05
  
  Ready for descent — deploy thrusters! The Schiaparelli spacecraft, part of the European Space Agency's (ESA) ExoMars mission to Mars, has received its landing commands for its expected Oct. 19 touchdown on the Red Planet, and a new video shows how the spacecraft will descend. Launched on March 14, the ExoMars mission rocketed two connected spacecraft, the Trace Gas Orbiter and its Schiaparelli lander, toward Mars.
  
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• New York City at risk of flooding every two decades - climate study

  10-10-2016 21:02
  By Sebastien Malo NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Hurricanes could start flooding New York City's coastline as often as every 20 years due to the effects of climate change on sea-level rise and hurricane activity, scientists said on Monday. "That's approximately - worst case scenario - once every 20 years," said Benjamin Horton, part of a team of U.S. scientists who published their findings in a study. The projections act as a reminder of the human cost of climate change, said Horton, in
  
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• Why the risk of the 'Big One' in B.C. is heightened every 14 months

  10-10-2016 21:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Recent studies show that most megathrust earthquakes are more likely to happen during a slow slip event, when thousands of tiny tremors show up on seismographs. B.C.'s next batch is expected in February 2017.
  
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• Jupiter’s spooky sounds: Emissions from Jupiter’s auroras captured

  10-10-2016 20:19
  When a NASA spacecraft made its first full orbit around Jupiter, an instrument on board recorded haunting sounds befitting the Halloween season.
  
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• Astronauts going to Mars 'could be at risk of space brain dementia'

  10-10-2016 19:58
  
  Study raises questions about long-term effects on the brain as a result of extended space flights.
  
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• Stem Cells May Help Repair Broken Monkey Hearts

  10-10-2016 19:47
  
  Stem cells may be able to repair broken hearts, a small new study in monkeys finds. In the study, the researchers transplanted heart muscle cells that were made from the stem cells of a macaque into the damaged hearts of five other macaques. The transplanted cells integrated with the monkeys' own heart muscle cells and allowed their damaged hearts to function better, according to the study, published today (Oct. 10) in the journal Nature.
  
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• Haiti needs 'massive response' after hurricane - U.N. chief

  10-10-2016 19:38
  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A "massive response" is needed to help Haiti in the wake of Hurricane Matthew and the United Nations is mobilizing on all fronts to help get the recovery under way, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday. A massive response is required. U.N. teams are working with local officials to assess needs." The United Nations appealed for $119 million on Monday to bring life-saving assistance to 750,000 people in southwestern Haiti, which is reelin
  
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• Stratolaunch to Launch Pegasus Rockets

  10-10-2016 19:00
  
  Stratolaunch Systems will use the giant aircraft the company is currently developing to launch Pegasus rockets from Orbital ATK as part of a "multi-year" partnership, the two companies announced Oct. 6. Under the agreement, Orbital ATK will provide "multiple" Pegasus XL rockets, currently launched by its own Lockheed L-1011 aircraft, to Stratolaunch Systems, which will launch them from its own aircraft. An illustration released by Stratolaunch showed three Pegasus XL rockets suspended
  
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• Physicist Brian Cox has a theory on why we'll never find aliens

  10-10-2016 18:22
  
  And his answer doesn’t bode well for the future of mankind.
  
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• U.N. chief says 'massive response' needed to help Haiti

  10-10-2016 17:38
  UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday that a "massive response" was needed to help Haiti in the wake of Hurricane Matthew and that the United Nations was mobilizing on all fronts to help get the recovery underway. "Some towns and villages have been almost wiped off the map," Ban told reporters. "Tensions are already mounting as people await help. A massive response is required. U.N. teams are working with local officials to assess needs." (Reporti
  
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• Russian social media site set up for pets

  10-10-2016 17:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Russian social media site launches platform for pets.
  
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• Hair Plugs? Joe Buck Puts Cosmetic Addictions in Spotlight

  10-10-2016 17:04
  
  Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck recently shared that he had an addiction to hair plugs, and it almost cost him his career. In an exclusive with Sports Illustrated and in his upcoming memoir, Buck described the overwhelming fear he had of losing his hair. It's possible that a tremendous fear of hair loss and an addiction to hair plugs could be linked to both a self-esteem issue and external social influences, said sociologist Amnon Jacob Suissa, a professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal w
  
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• Why 'Hoppy' Beer May Be Better for Your Liver

  10-10-2016 17:03
  
  The hops found in beer not only add flavor, but also may lessen the damaging effects of alcohol on the liver, a new study in mice suggests. In the study, the researchers gave mice regular beer with hops, a special beer without hops, or plain ethanol (alcohol). After 12 hours, the mice that were given the beer with hops showed less buildup of fat in their livers than the mice that were given ethanol.
  
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• Schiaparelli Mars probe 'ready for all eventualities'

  10-10-2016 16:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The European Schiaparelli probe will make its landing attempt on Mars prepared even to handle dust storms if that is what the planet throws up, the mission team says.
  
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• Back from the Dead? Goliath Worms 'Drown' and Recover

  10-10-2016 16:27
  
  And during their pupa stage — encased in a chrysalis before transforming into adult moths — they can survive for days at a time without surfacing. Researchers discovered that the hardy caterpillars of Manduca sexta moths could recover after spending as much as 4 hours immersed in water. The pupae were even more resilient, emerging after a five-day soak and showing no long-term ill effects.
  
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• The Spooky Secret Behind Artificial Intelligence's Incredible Power

  10-10-2016 16:25
  
  Spookily powerful artificial intelligence (AI) systems may work so well because their structure exploits the fundamental laws of the universe, new research suggests. The new findings may help answer a longstanding mystery about a class of artificial intelligence that employ a strategy called deep learning. Deep neural networks often perform astonishingly well at solving problems as complex as beating the world's best player of the strategy board game Go or classifying cat photos, yet know one fu
  
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• 2,000-Year-Old Pompeii Home Reconstructed in 3D

  10-10-2016 16:23
  
  Archaeologists have digitally reconstructed a house in Pompeii to show what life must have been like for a rich Roman banker 2,000 years ago. The Italian city was famously buried in volcanic ash —and frozen in time — in A.D. 79, when Mount Vesuvius erupted. The vast ruins of Pompeii have been explored since the 18th century, and archaeologists today still flock to the site to uncover more of the city's secrets.
  
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• NASA Artifacts, Historic Facilities Damaged by Hurricane Matthew: Photos

  10-10-2016 16:05
  
  Hurricane Matthew blew the top off of a historic rocket, tore part of the roof off a house used by astronauts and toppled a space shuttle-era gantry arm on exhibit at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Hurricane Matthew delivered sustained winds of 90 mph (145 km/h) and gusts that exceeded 105 mph (170 km/h) as it advanced northwards along the Space Coast overnight Thursday into Friday, about 26 miles (42 km) off the coast of Cape Canaveral. "It was determined that the center received some
  
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• Unexpectedly Deep Seismic Activity Found Along California Fault

  10-10-2016 15:36
  
  In Southern California, scientists listening to rumblings deep underground found seismic activity at deeper-than-expected levels, and it may signal new earthquake extremes, according to a new study. In order to better see these so-called micro signals, a group of researchers temporarily deployed detectors along the Newport-Inglewood fault (NIF), which stretches nearly 50 miles (80 kilometers), from Culver City to Newport Beach, in Southern California. "It's very helpful for us to do these kinds
  
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• Silkworms can produce super-silk if you feed them right

  10-10-2016 15:29
  
  The super-silk is conductive and twice as durable, and may be used for building wearable electronics and even medical implants.
  
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• Butterfly numbers drop a mystery, say experts

  10-10-2016 15:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A huge drop in the number of butterflies in the UK is causing confusion among wildlife experts.
  
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• Bagels, Pretzels and the Nobel Prize in Physics

  10-10-2016 14:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  If you're baffled by the phrase “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter,” we're here to help
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Major Dust Storm Could Soon Hit Mars

  10-10-2016 13:44
  
  Global dust storms on Mars threaten robotic rovers traversing the Martian surface, as well as astronauts that may one day set up camp on the Red Planet. "Mars will reach the midpoint of its current dust storm season on October 29th of this year," James Shirley, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in the statement.
  
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• Perfect Lineup of Satellites Finds 'Missing Link' in Aurora Mystery

  10-10-2016 13:11
  
  "These observations reveal the missing link in the conversion of magnetic energy to particle energy that powers the aurora," Evgeny Panov, a researcher at the Space Research Institute at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Gratz and lead author of a paper reporting the connection, said in a statement from NASA. Panov and his colleagues captured images of the disruption of Earth's magnetic-field lines in space using NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMI
  
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• World Leaders Try to Ban Another Greenhouse Gas

  10-10-2016 13:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Eliminating refrigerants known as HFCs could prevent a leap in global warming
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• 'Martian Gardens' Help Scientists Find the Best Veggies to Grow on Mars

  10-10-2016 13:00
  
  A human round-trip journey to Mars may take as long as two and a half years, and one major challenge for these kinds of extended missions is determining how to pack enough food for those astronauts. Simulated "Martian gardens," developed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and the Florida Tech Buzz Aldrin Space Institute, are helping researchers overcome food production challenges associated with Mars' barren landscape.
  
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• African elephants walk on their tippy-toes

  10-10-2016 13:00
  
  Pressure plates reveal how African elephants load their feet when they walk, providing clues to pachyderm podiatry problems.
  
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• Call for action to protect 'the lungs of the sea'

  10-10-2016 11:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  More than 100 scientists from 28 countries have called for global action to protect seagrass meadows, which provide food and shelter for fish, marine mammals and birds.
  
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