Science news

• Facebook sorry for 'terrible error' that killed off still-living users

  11-11-2016 23:08 via cbc.ca
  
  If your Facebook page says you're dead, don't believe it. It's telling a lot of people that today.
  
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• Nat Geo's 'Mars' Miniseries Ready for Scientifically Accurate Liftoff

  11-11-2016 22:54
  
  Watch humanity's first voyage to Mars unfold in National Geographic's new miniseries "Mars." The show premieres Monday (Nov. 14) at 8 p.m. EST in the U.S. "Mars" portrays the story of the first crewed mission to the Red Planet with a unique storytelling format. Scripted scenes that take place in the year 2033 depict the journey to Mars, but these scenes are spliced with present-day interviews with real scientific experts.
  
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• Mysterious Unidentified Object Crashes in Myanmar

  11-11-2016 22:42
  
  Unidentified piece of an aircraft, believed to be an engine, falls near Hpakant jade mine | #Myanmar https://t.co/W2im1NOCdh pic.twitter.com/NFRCJiAYM5— The Myanmar Times (@TheMyanmarTimes) November 11, 2016
  
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• iPad Game Helps Treat Lazy Eye in Kids

  11-11-2016 22:04
  
  Kids with lazy eye — or amblyopia, the medical term for the condition — may improve their vision by playing a specially designed iPad game, a new study finds. The findings suggest that treatments for lazy eye that require children to use both eyes, as the iPad game does, "may yield faster gains than patching," the researchers, from a nonprofit eye research institute called the Retina Foundation of the Southwest, in Dallas, wrote in the Nov. 10 issue of the journal JAMA Ophthalmology.
  
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• Housing and job ads on Facebook will no longer exclude users based on race

  11-11-2016 21:41 via cbc.ca
  
  Facebook said on Friday it would no longer allow certain advertisers to exclude racial or ethnic groups when placing ads on its service, following criticism that the practice was discriminatory.
  
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• John Kerry talks climate change but not Trump in Antarctica

  11-11-2016 21:31
  
  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry didn't comment on President-elect Donald Trump's election victory on Friday while visiting Antarctica, but did say that citizens who care about limiting emissions might ...
  
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• A 'Star Trek' Future in Space Depends on Presidential Vision, New Documentary Says

  11-11-2016 21:30
  
  Although the timing of the release is coincidental to Tuesday's U.S. election, which will see a Republican president take office after eight years of a Democrat in charge, Hildebrandt said he hopes the fresh face in Washington will spur some politicians to watch the film. "I feel like these congressmen and senators, they believe in the space program," Hildebrandt told Space.com.
  
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• NASA's earliest and greatest astronauts star in new exhibit

  11-11-2016 21:01
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA's earliest and greatest astronauts gathered at Kennedy Space Center on Friday to mark the grand opening of a new space exhibit in which they're the stars.
  
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• Trump's climate plan "catastrophic" - France's Royal

  11-11-2016 20:18
  By Alister Doyle MARRAKESH, Morocco (Reuters) - Donald Trump's plan to drop out of world cooperation on slowing climate change would be "absolutely catastrophic" and weaken the United States, France's environment minister said on Friday. Trump has called global warming a hoax, wants to cancel the Paris Agreement and halt all U.S. funding of U.N. global warming programmes.
  
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• Surgery for back pain reduces problems with sex life-related pain

  11-11-2016 20:08
  For patients with degenerative spinal disease, surgery is more effective in reducing pain that interferes with sexual activity, compared to nonsurgical treatment.
  
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• Scientists develop tissue-engineered model of human lung and trachea

  11-11-2016 20:08
  Scientists have developed a tissue-engineered model of lung and trachea which contains the diverse cell types present in the human respiratory tract.
  
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• Safest locations for wastewater injection

  11-11-2016 19:33
  New maps of the geologic forces contributing to earthquakes in Texas and Oklahoma could help reduce the likelihood of humanmade temblors associated with wastewater injection, say investigators.
  
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• Physical, mental states for focusing attention, exercising self-control

  11-11-2016 19:30
  Researchers are studying the ideal physical and mental states to help children and adults pay attention and practice self-control, by combining computer-game testing with a simultaneous ongoing analysis of heart-rate and skin activity.
  
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• Plants modulate accumulation of metabolites at organ level

  11-11-2016 19:29
  Scientists have developed a computational metabolomic approach to measure metabolic diversity in different plant tissues, a new report outlines.
  
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• Decision-making: Primitive reward-driven behaviors may bias the information people choose to sample

  11-11-2016 19:23
  The way people make decisions often seems irrational. One explanation for this behavior is that they seek evidence that confirms what they already believe, a phenomenon called 'confirmation bias'. But new research suggests that confirmation bias may not be the only factor that influences how people sample information. The tendency to choose items associated with rewards -- known as 'Pavlovian approach' -- can also bias the information people choose to sample, according to new research.
  
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• Even physicists are 'afraid' of mathematics

  11-11-2016 19:21
  Physicists avoid highly mathematical work despite being trained in advanced mathematics, new research suggests.
  
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• Traumatic stress changes brains of boys, girls differently

  11-11-2016 19:20
  Traumatic stress affects the brains of adolescent boys and girls differently, according to a new brain-scanning study. Among youth with post-traumatic stress disorder, the study found structural differences between the sexes in one part of the insula, a brain region that detects cues from the body and processes emotions and empathy. The insula helps to integrate one's feelings, actions and several other brain functions.
  
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• Immune cells may facilitate tumor growth by forming primitive vascular channels

  11-11-2016 19:07
  A new study suggests there may be a way to limit tumor growth by targeting immune system cells called macrophages.
  
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• 'Arrival': A Close Encounter with Aliens Delves into Life and Loss

  11-11-2016 18:38
  
  "Arrival" (2016) is a science-fiction movie that is at once devastating and uplifting, and conveys both the terror and the unblinking fascination that would likely overwhelm the first humans to make contact with an alien race. In "Arrival," a dozen large, smooth, stone-like ships appear in the sky at 12 random locations around the world, and it's not immediately clear where they're from or why they're here. Language expert Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is called in to try to communicate with the alie
  
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• Astronauts' Adventures Come Alive in New 'Heroes & Legends' Attraction

  11-11-2016 18:37
  
  Suddenly, you are Alan Shepard, standing at the base of a rocket that will soon loft you into history as America's first astronaut to launch into space. As you look up at the Mercury-Redstone, raising your hand to block the glare from nearby spotlights, you realize that the rocket now in front of you is almost identical to the one you saw just minutes earlier as you proceeded up the rampway to enter this place. The experience, one of several first-person views that virtually places you into the
  
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• Protozoan parasite increases risk of colitis, study reveals

  11-11-2016 18:11
  Mice infected with the common gut parasite Tritrichomonas muris are at an increased risk of developing inflammatory colitis, new research shows. These findings expand the type of gut-resident microorganism that can affect the health of their host and suggest that related parasites may cause gastrointestinal disease in humans.
  
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• Skin bacteria could protect against disease

  11-11-2016 18:07
  There are more and more examples of the ways in which we can benefit from our bacteria. According to new research, this is true for the skin as well. The work has shown that the most common bacteria on human skin secrete a protein which protects us from the reactive oxygen species thought to contribute to several skin diseases. The protein has an equally strong effect on dangerous oxygen species as known antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E.
  
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• New findings show promise for treatment of Graves' disease and other ocular disorders

  11-11-2016 18:07
  Aryl hydrocarbon receptor ligands that block myofibroblast formation and collagen production in thyroid eye disease may be the key, according to a new report.
  
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• New findings about the deformed wing virus, a major factor in honey bee colony mortality

  11-11-2016 18:07
  In recent years, massive losses of honey bee colonies have occurred during winter in Europe and North America. It could be shown that the Varroa mite and the deformed wing virus are the main factors responsible for the alarming bee mortality. Researchers have succeeded for the first time in simulating the course of disease using artificial genetic material of the virus.
  
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• Genomic tools to combat the spread of the invasive Asian longhorned beetle

  11-11-2016 18:07
  The Asian longhorned beetle, also known as the starry sky beetle, is native to eastern Asia but has successfully invaded North America and Europe where it infests maple, birch, willow, elm, and poplar trees. An international team of scientists report on the sequencing, annotation, and comparative exploration of this beetle's genome in an effort to develop novel tools to combat its spread and better understand the biology of invasive wood-boring pests.
  
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• City dwellers in Middle Ages no worse off than village dwellers

  11-11-2016 18:07
  City dwellers in the Middle Ages were probably no worse off than people living in villages. Both groups had very different health risks, one experts has concluded.
  
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• Brain development: How a 'molecular compass' regulates proper cell division

  11-11-2016 18:07
  Researchers have unraveled how a tiny microRNA molecule controls growth and differentiation of brain cells.
  
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• Venezuela government, opposition renew dialogue amid low expectations

  11-11-2016 17:49
  Venezuela's opposition and the government of President Nicolas Maduro are set to meet on Friday as part of a Vatican-backed dialogue process meant to ease a political standoff taking place amid a spiralling economic crisis. Neither side appeared optimistic, with the opposition insisting on a recall referendum against Maduro and the government showing little indication of agreeing to that. The government released a small group of jailed opposition activists following the start of talks last week,
  
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• Narwhals are really, really good at echolocation

  11-11-2016 17:33
  
  Audio recordings from the Arctic suggest that narwhals take directional sonar to the extreme.
  
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• New Record! Robot Solves Rubik's Cube in Less Than a Second

  11-11-2016 17:22
  
  Solving a Rubik's Cube is an impressive feat by itself, but now, a robot can do it in record time, cracking the 3D puzzle about 10 times faster than the human who holds the world record. German technology company Infineon staged the record attempt at the Electronica trade fair in Munich this week, as a way to highlight its self-driving-car technology. "It takes tremendous computing power to solve such a highly complex puzzle with a machine," Infineon said in a statement.
  
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• How safe is your smart home?

  11-11-2016 16:58 via cbc.ca
  
  Recent DDos attacks suggest not so much.
  
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• Wait, what?! Beagle 2 Mars probe 'didn't crash land and actually came close to success'

  11-11-2016 16:36
  
  New analysis reveals it managed to deploy at least three of its four solar panels.
  
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• How lightning strikes can improve storm forecasts

  11-11-2016 15:48
  Real-time lightning observations could significantly improve forecasts of large storm events, say scientists. Apart from ground stations, weather forecasts are heavily dependent on weather satellites for information to start or "initialize" the numerical weather prediction models that are the foundation of modern weather prediction. What's missing is accurate, real-time information about air moisture content, temperature and wind speed in places where there are no ground stations.
  
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• Teens with asthma almost twice as likely to smoke as their healthy counterparts

  11-11-2016 15:47
  Curiosity is a driving factor in why most kids start smoking, and the same is true for kids with asthma. A new study found adolescents with asthma were twice as likely to smoke as kids without asthma. And they continue to smoke well into their teen years, even though they know smoking is particularly bad for their lungs.
  
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• What Will a Trump Presidency Mean for Science?

  11-11-2016 15:46
  
  President-elect Donald Trump is likely to affect science when he comes into office next year, with the potential to change everything from climate change action and the Keystone pipeline to sex education and fetal tissue research. But some of Trump's statements are at odds with science. For instance, there is no real evidence that vaccines cause autism, but in 2014, Trump made a series of tweets and statements saying that the two were linked, according to Business Insider.
  
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• 'Firework' Drones Swarm the Sky, Setting New World Record

  11-11-2016 15:42
  
  Fireworks sparkled in the night sky over a football field in Germany recently, but no one heard a single boom. The pyrotechnics-free display was part of Intel Corporation's fake-fireworks drone program. With a 500-drone fleet, Intel broke its own Guinness World Record for the most unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) airborne simultaneously.
  
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• Dave the Giant Earthworm Sets Record in UK, World

  11-11-2016 15:42
  
  Imagine being in your garden and stumbling on an enormous earthworm that measures about as long as a standard bowling pin is tall, and that weighs about the same as a small chocolate bar. The encounter, while likely startling, ended up being a record-setting encounter for a man in the United Kingdom, after he came across what has now been crowned the earthworm that is not only the longest ever found in the U.K., but also the heaviest known wild worm in the world. It was then sent to the Natural
  
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• Oldest Beer Brewed from Shipwreck's 220-Year-Old Yeast Microbes

  11-11-2016 15:41
  
  Yeast microbes from the world's oldest bottle of beer — a 220-year-old bottle found in one of Australia's earliest shipwrecks — are being used to create a new, modern beer with the characteristic taste of the 18th-century brew. The yeast was grown from the contents of a bottle of beer recovered from the wreck of the Sydney Cove, a British trading ship that got caught in a storm near the island of Tasmania, off Australia's south coast, in 1797 while on its way from Calcutta to the pri
  
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• Maine Legalizes Marijuana for Recreational Use

  11-11-2016 15:32
  
  Voters in Maine have decided to legalize recreational marijuana use, the Associated Press reported today. Maine is now the fourth state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in this election, following California, Nevada and Massachusetts. The Maine law allows people ages 21 and over to use marijuana recreationally.
  
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• Why Copying Yoga Poses from Magazines Could Be a Bad Move

  11-11-2016 15:31
  
  Yoga poses depicted in magazines and other media outlets may draw eyeballs, but most people probably shouldn't try them, a new study suggests. Images of yoga in the media often show poses that are unsafe, or just aren't doable for the average person, the researchers said. "They might feel that they're not flexible enough and [yoga] isn't something their body is capable of doing," Vladagina said.
  
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• HIV Test to Go: USB Tool Could Aid Developing Countries

  11-11-2016 15:31
  
  A new technology that fits on a USB stick can be used to test for levels of HIV in people's blood, which could aid in treatment of the disease in developing countries, according to a new study. The device has a chip that uses just a drop of blood to detect HIV levels, the researchers said. It creates an electrical signal that is sent to a USB stick, which can then be read by a computer.
  
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• The Mysteries of 'Dreamless Sleep' Come to Light

  11-11-2016 15:30
  
  Deep, dreamless sleep has long been thought of as a state of unconsciousness, but in a new paper, several researchers suggest that consciousness may not completely disappear when the mind recedes into deep sleep. Instead, the article's authors suggest, people actually experience a range of different states within dreamless sleep. Traditionally, dreamless sleep has been straightforwardly defined as the part of sleep that occurs you're not dreaming, and it has been looked at as one uniform stage.
  
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• Brain's Support Cells Could Explain Mysterious "Spreading Pain"

  11-11-2016 15:15 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Scientists uncover how non-neuronal cells induce synaptic plasticity in pain circuits, potentially across long distances
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Shock and Loss for the Losing Side: How to Heal, Individually and Together

  11-11-2016 15:05 via rss.sciam.com
  
  In the wake of the election a psychologist offers solace to those feeling shock, grief or dread
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• What not to do when your kid tells a lie

  11-11-2016 15:00
  
  We teach children that lying is naughty, but it’s actually a sign of good brain development.
  
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• Night delight: 'supermoon' to grace Earth's skies

  11-11-2016 14:58
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - The largest, brightest full moon in nearly seven decades will be on display in the coming days, promising Earth-bound sky-watchers a celestial "supermoon" spectacle.
  
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• South Africa's Eskom CEO resigns over anti-graft watchdog report

  11-11-2016 14:32
  South African state power utility Eskom Chief Executive Brian Molefe said on Friday he would step down in January, a week after he was implicated in a report by the anti-graft watchdog on allegations of influence peddling. The report by the constitutionally mandated watchdog - the Public Protector - raised questions over coal deals between the Eskom and a company controlled by the family of Indian-born businessmen who are friends with President Jacob Zuma. "It is rather what I feel to be the cor
  
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• Trump's Plans to Shake Up the Tech World

  11-11-2016 14:30 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Look for the president-elect to pick a new FCC chairman, limit online privacy protections and stem the flow of tech talent from other countries
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• How Trump Could Erase Decades of Climate Change Action

  11-11-2016 14:18
  
  Donald Trump has said that one of the top priorities for his presidency would be to remove the United States from international agreements to curb greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, Trump has said he would renege on the historic Paris climate pact. In addition, he has selected Myron Ebell, who is skeptical that human-caused climate change is occurring, to spearhead the transition of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the new administration, as reported by ClimateWire.
  
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• Diver Finds Long-Lost Nuke While Hunting Sea Cucumbers

  11-11-2016 14:17
  
  A man diving off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, may have stumbled upon a nuclear weapon that the United States lost decades ago. Now, the Royal Canadian Navy is scoping out the strange object to see if it is indeed a Mark IV bomb that was jettisoned by an American pilot in 1950 just before his plane crashed. The man, Sean Smyrichinsky, was using an underwater scooter to hunt for sea cucumbers near Pitt Island, when he came upon a weird bagel-shaped object.
  
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