Science news

• Sex, bombs and political gaffes: How censorship works on popular Chinese apps

  01-11-2016 23:49 via cbc.ca
  
  A group of Canadian researchers have reverse-engineered three of China's biggest live streaming apps to learn more about how corporations there censor discussions about everything from sex to government corruption.
  
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• Researchers reverse-engineer Chinese streaming services to learn how they're censored

  01-11-2016 23:49 via cbc.ca
  
  A group of Canadian researchers have reverse-engineered three of China's biggest live streaming apps to learn more about how corporations there censor discussions about everything from sex to government corruption.
  
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• Experts concerned by SpaceX plan to fuel rockets with people aboard

  01-11-2016 23:45
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A proposal by Elon Musk's SpaceX to fuel its rockets while astronauts are aboard poses safety risks, a group of space industry experts that advises NASA has told the U.S. space agency.
  
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• Dams like Muskrat Falls produce more greenhouse gas than expected: study

  01-11-2016 23:40 via cbc.ca
  
  Some scientists are questioning whether energy produced by man-made dams is as green as previously believed.
  
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• Japan nudges wary firms to invest in Russia to help resolve islands dispute

  01-11-2016 23:05
  By Takashi Umekawa and Linda Sieg TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government is lobbying its firms to invest in Russian projects to help secure a breakthrough in a festering territorial row with Moscow when President Vladimir Putin visits Japan in December, sources told Reuters. The dispute over four islands north of Japan's Hokkaido, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kuriles in Russia, has kept Tokyo and Moscow from signing a peace treaty formally ending their conflict in Worl
  
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• Biggest telescope may switch location

  01-11-2016 22:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  One of the world's biggest telescope projects might be forced to move its location.
  
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• Biggest telescope may swap continents

  01-11-2016 22:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  One of the world's biggest telescope projects might be forced to move its location to a different continent.
  
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• Eyes offer window into brain’s timekeepers

  01-11-2016 22:00
  
  In new experiments of time perception, when pupils were large, monkeys underestimated a second.
  
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• How do you commemorate Canada's first female astronaut? With a silver, glow-in-the-dark coin

  01-11-2016 21:00 via cbc.ca
  Bondar captured the imaginations of Canadians in 1992 when she flew in space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery as a member of Mission STS-42. She was also the first neurologist to travel to space.
  
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• Seismic risks remain after Italian quakes

  01-11-2016 20:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  There remains the potential for future quakes in Italy’s Apennines region, say scientists who have reviewed the latest satellite maps of the region.
  
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• Niger Delta leaders want army out and oil firms to relocate to region

  01-11-2016 20:29
  By Felix Onuah ABUJA (Reuters) - Leaders from the Nigeria's Niger Delta called on Tuesday on President Muhammadu Buhari to pull the army out from the oil hub, order oil firms to move headquarters there and spend more on development to end militancy in the region. Buhari met leaders from the southern swampland for the first time since militants started a wave of attacks on oil pipelines in January to push for a greater share of oil revenues.
  
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• [Research Article] Stem-piped light activates phytochrome B to trigger light responses in Arabidopsis thaliana roots

  01-11-2016 20:26 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Light conducted through plant tissues activates a photoreceptor in the roots of Arabidopsis thaliana.
  
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• [Research Article] Obligatory role for GPER in cardiovascular aging and disease

  01-11-2016 20:26 via stke.sciencemag.org
  The G protein-coupled receptor GPER promotes hypertension and aging-induced tissue damage through reactive oxygen species.
  
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• [Research Article] Heparan sulfate differentially controls CXCL12a- and CXCL12γ-mediated cell migration through differential presentation to their receptor CXCR4

  01-11-2016 20:26 via stke.sciencemag.org
  One isoform of a chemokine must bind to heparan sulfate to productively engage its receptor.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] New connections: Getting the good without the bad

  01-11-2016 20:26 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Designer hormones possess only the benefits and not the side effects of the endogenous versions.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] Male pheromones and high temperature reduce life span

  01-11-2016 20:26 via stke.sciencemag.org
  In nematodes, male pheromones shorten the life span of hermaphrodites but stimulate reproduction, and a neuropeptide protects against high temperature-induced aging.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] Inducing transcription from multiple directions

  01-11-2016 20:26 via stke.sciencemag.org
  A kinase phosphorylates both a transcription factor and a histone to activate inflammation-related gene expression.
  
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• [Editors' Choice] Complementing caspase 11

  01-11-2016 20:26 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Complement signaling increases caspase 11-dependent cell death and worsens sepsis.
  
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• Italy Quakes: What Makes an Earthquake an Aftershock?

  01-11-2016 18:15
  
  A magnitude-6.6 earthquake that rocked central Italy on Sunday (Oct. 30) was not only the strongest earthquake to strike the region in 36 years, but it was also the latest in a series of powerful tremors. Following the earthquake, Italy's geophysics and volcanology institution Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) reported 560 post-quake tremors, which are typically referred to as aftershocks. While most aftershocks are minor, some can be as strong as the earthquake that preceded
  
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• A.I. 'Nightmare Machine' Knows What Scares You

  01-11-2016 17:50
  
  The idea of artificial intelligence (AI) — autonomous computers that can learn independently — makes some people extremely uneasy, regardless of what the computers in question might be doing. The project, appropriately enough, is named "Nightmare Machine." Digital innovators in the U.S. and Australia partnered to create an algorithm that would enable a computer to understand what makes certain images frightening, and then use that data to transform any photo, no matter how harmless-l
  
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• Where did the moon come from? Scientists posit new theory

  01-11-2016 17:33 via cbc.ca
  
  How did Earth get its moon? According to a new theory, it involved a huge, violent impact billions of years ago that vapourized a sizeable chunk of our planet.
  
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• Scientists propose new theory about how Earth got its moon

  01-11-2016 17:33 via cbc.ca
  
  How did Earth get its moon? According to a new theory, it involved a huge, violent impact billions of years ago that vapourized a sizeable chunk of our planet.
  
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• Practical matters will outweigh puritanism for evangelical Rio mayor

  01-11-2016 17:12
  By Paulo Prada RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - In a city best known for bacchanalia and flesh-filled beaches, the election of an evangelical bishop as mayor has some free-wheeling residents of Rio fretting. "Don't expect a theocracy in Rio anytime soon," said Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. "Evangelicals have a long-term political project and the last thing they want is to seem like radicals." Part of a shift to the right in Brazil after thirteen yea
  
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• Thousands of baby turtles released into Peruvian Amazon

  01-11-2016 17:11 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Thousands of baby Taricaya turtles have been released into the Peruvian Amazon as part of an effort to save them from extinction.
  
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• Mount St. Helens is a cold-hearted volcano

  01-11-2016 17:00
  
  Geophysics reveals that deep beneath Mount St. Helens, there’s no source of hot magma, just a wedge of cold serpentinite rock. Where is the missing heat?
  
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• Space Walk of Fame Renames Florida Facility 'American Space Museum'

  01-11-2016 16:12
  
  The U.S. Space Walk of Fame Museum, founded in 2001, has been renamed the American Space Museum. "The name change was a logical next step in our evolution as it gives visitors a better idea of what they'll experience at our facility," said Tara Dixon Engel, the American Space Museum's executive director, in a statement. The 6,100-sq. foot (570-sq. m) museum, which moved into its current Titusville building in 2014, displays artifacts and collectibles donated by astronauts and space wor
  
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• You Can 3D Print Your Own Mini Universe

  01-11-2016 16:00
  
  Good news: It is now possible to do both of these things — all you need is a 3D printer. Researchers at the Imperial College London have created the blueprints for 3D printing the universe, and have provided the instructions online so anyone with access to a 3D printer can print their own miniature universe. The researchers' representation of the universe specifically depicts the cosmic microwave background (CMB), or a glowing light throughout the universe that is thought to be leftover ra
  
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• Would You Use Pot If It Were Legal? Here's What Americans Say

  01-11-2016 15:57
  
  Exactly how many people might start smoking marijuana in states where it becomes legal could vary widely depending on the specifics of each state's laws, such as whether employers can fire someone for smoking it, according to a new study. "Legalization isn't a 'yes or no' question," said lead researcher Mike McLaughlin, a doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Public Health, who presented the findings here today (Oct. 31) at the meeting of the American Public Health Association. For the study,
  
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• Facebook & Real-World Friends: What's a Healthy Balance?

  01-11-2016 15:56
  
  It turns out that logging into Facebook to put a heart emoji under a photo of your best friend's new baby may actually be good for you — provided that you also actually follow through in the real world, perhaps by buying a coffee for that frazzled new mom. "Interacting online seems to be healthy when the online activity is moderate and complements interactions offline," study author William Hobbs, a postdoctoral fellow at Northeastern University in Boston, said in a statement. "It is only
  
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• Naval Special Warfare Trainees Face Tiny Enemy: Bacteria

  01-11-2016 15:55
  
  The cases highlight the unique stresses this group of trainees, called Naval Special Warfare trainees, face that may put them at risk for infection with this bacterium, called Shewanella algae. Naval Special Warfare trainees include Navy SEALS, Navy divers and other specialists. The bacterium is common in seawater, but most healthy people don't get sick from it even if they come into contact with the microbe.
  
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• Brain-Infecting Parasite May Be More Common in NY Than Experts Thought

  01-11-2016 15:54
  
  Brain infections from a parasite called Taenia solium are more common on Long Island, New York, than experts previously thought, a new study finds. T. solium is found in raw or undercooked pork. If a person eats undercooked pork that contains this parasite in its larval stage, when it has partially developed, a tapeworm can grow in his or her intestine.
  
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• The southern San Andreas has a smaller, neighboring fault to its west

  01-11-2016 15:00
  
  The newly-discovered Salton Trough Fault runs parallel to the southern San Andreas Fault in California, potentially affecting the region’s earthquake risk.
  
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• Cosby lawyers demand 'memory tests' from 'casting couch' accusers

  01-11-2016 14:44
  Bill Cosby's lawyers said they will demand "competency and memory tests" from 13 women accusing the entertainer of sexual assault. Cosby's lawyers have warned they will challenge sexual misconduct claims dating as far as the 1960s by arguing the case is reminiscent of the "casting couch" era - when sexual favours were traded in the entertainment industry. "The fact that even the most fervently held memories can actually be tainted - or altogether false - is supported by a vast existing and
  
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• Safe, but stormy ending: Texas man alone on N.L. island ends streaming adventure

  01-11-2016 14:39 via cbc.ca
  
  The adventure of a Texas man surviving on a deserted island in Fortune Bay while streaming live on Facebook has ended safely, but ahead of schedule.
  
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• Structural deficits may explain mood-independent cognitive difficulties in bipolar disorder

  01-11-2016 14:32
  Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a new study reports a link between reduced functional activation and reduced cortical thickness in the brains of patients with bipolar disorder. The abnormalities were found in patients not currently experiencing depression or mania, which suggests that there is a structural basis for altered neural processing that may help explain why cognitive deficits persist even during periods of normal mood.
  
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• Scientists discover the 'switch' that makes breast cancer cells aggressive

  01-11-2016 14:32
  By controlling a molecular switch, scientists could potentially make aggressive cancers more sensitive to conventional drugs and improve treatment outcomes, say researchers.
  
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• How autoimmune disease is prevented: Mechanism discovered

  01-11-2016 14:32
  A previously unknown safety mechanism in our immune system keeps the body free from autoimmune diseases. Researchers have discovered that a cell in our inherited immune system can prevent our adaptive (learned) immune system from reacting to the body’s native cells, which can otherwise lead to autoimmune diseases such as SLE.
  
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• Being fit protects against health risks caused by stress at work

  01-11-2016 14:32
  It is a well-known fact that fitness and well-being go hand in hand. But being in good shape also protects against the health problems that arise when we feel particularly stressed at work. As reported by sports scientists, it therefore pays to stay physically active, especially during periods of high stress.
  
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• Nigeria's Buhari meets Niger Delta leaders, militants in Abuja

  01-11-2016 14:21
  By Felix Onuah ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday met leaders from the Niger Delta and representatives of militant groups who have been attacking oil facilities in the region. A Reuters reporter saw state governors and traditional rulers from the swamp lands meet Buhari and top security and army officials at the presidential villa in Abuja. A government official said militant groups had also sent representatives. There was no immediate word on the outcome of the ta
  
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• Nigeria's Buhari meets Niger Delta leaders, militants in Abuja - official

  01-11-2016 13:03
  ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday met leaders from the Niger Delta and representatives of militant groups which have been attacking oil facilities in the restive region, a witness and official said. A Reuters reporter saw state governors and traditional rulers from the swamp lands meet Buhari and top security officials at the presidential villa in Abuja. An official said militant groups had also sent representatives. (Reporting by Felix Onuah; writing by Ulf Laess
  
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• Stand down sniffer dogs - spinach can now detect explosives

  01-11-2016 11:47
  
  Just don’t put these in your salad.
  
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• Wow! Saturn Rings and Weird Hexagon Vortex Dazzle in NASA Photo

  01-11-2016 11:30
  
  If you're trying to make the case that Saturn is the most beautiful planet in the solar system, this new photo could be Exhibit A. The image, which was captured by NASA's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft, shows the gas giant's iconic rings, its complex, many-banded atmosphere and the bizarre six-sided vortex that swirls around the planet's north pole. Cassini took the newly released photo on July 16, when it was about 1 million miles (1.6 million km) from Saturn, NASA officials said.
  
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• Watch Astronaut Chris Hadfield Read to an Adorable Puppet Dog

  01-11-2016 11:30
  
  Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield reads his new picture book, "The Darkest Dark" (Little, Brown and Co., 2016), to an eager rock-star dog in an episode of the new Amazon Prime video series "Bookaboo," which was released online Oct. 28. The eight-episode first season came out all at once on Amazon's streaming service, and features celebrities reading to the puppy backstage. "He's sort of got this strange cockney accent and a very delighted but almost aging-rock-star view of the world, whi
  
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• These NASA Photos of a Space Station Crew Landing Are Simply Gorgeous

  01-11-2016 11:29
  
  When the Expedition 49 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) came to an end over the weekend, three space travelers returned to Earth on a Soyuz spacecraft while a NASA photographer capturing their arrival from the air in some spectacular photos.
  
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• Space Zen: This Space Station Fly-Through is Supremely Serene

  01-11-2016 11:29
  
  If the stresses of life are starting to fry your nerves, might we recommend the soothing balm of a video fly-though of the International Space Station, set to an ultra-smooth saxophone solo and deep, meditative bass tones. In the new video, posted by NASA on Thursday (Oct. 27), viewers take a visual tour of the station, with only a calming soundtrack as their guide. In September 2015, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, announced a partnership with Harmonic to create NASA
  
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• How Many Planets Can Fit Inside a Star's Habitable Zone?

  01-11-2016 11:28
  
  How many planets can fit into the habitable zone around a star? The answer they came up with is five rocky planets the mass of Earth around a small, dim star (called a red dwarf). In the past 20 years or so, astronomers have confirmed the existence of nearly 3,400 planets outside Earth's solar system, many of which NASA's Kepler space telescope discovered.
  
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• As water dries up, West Bank village thirsts for a less precarious supply

  01-11-2016 11:19
  By Fabiola Ortiz AL JAB'A, West Bank (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A mountainous Palestinian community in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Al Jab'a differs in many ways from surrounding Israeli settlements but it shares one worry with its neighbours – a shortage of water. In the last few decades the West Bank has seen rainfall decrease and groundwater levels fall with drought expected to become "more frequent (and) more intense", according to a 2012 United Nations Environment Programme (UN
  
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• Nepal drains dangerous glacial lake to safe level

  01-11-2016 11:02
  KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Army soldiers and local villagers have finished digging through rocks and boulders to drain a glacial lake just south of Mount Everest, bringing the water to a safe level and possibly preventing an outburst that could have flooded several villages, officials said Tuesday.
  
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• A new skin patch could help children with peanut allergies

  01-11-2016 08:11
  
  The new findings are promising but more research is needed.
  
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• Mexico: Deforestation for avocados much higher than thought

  01-11-2016 05:30
  
  MEXICO CITY (AP) — Deforestation caused by the expansion of Mexican avocado orchards is much higher than previously thought, authorities said Monday.
  
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