Science news

• Habitat loss puts cheetah population on brink

  26-12-2016 23:09 via cbc.ca
  
  Amid population declines for many wildlife species in Africa, conservationists are sounding alarm bells for the cheetah, the fastest animal on land.
  
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• Vera Rubin, pioneering astronomer, dies at 88

  26-12-2016 22:50 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Astronomer Vera Rubin, whose pioneering work led to the theory of dark matter, dies at 88.
  
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• Vera Rubin, who did pioneering work on dark matter, dies

  26-12-2016 22:35
  PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) — Vera Rubin, a pioneering astronomer who helped find powerful evidence of dark matter, has died, her son said Monday.
  
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• Pioneering astronomer Vera Rubin dies at 88

  26-12-2016 22:35 via cbc.ca
  
  Vera Rubin, the pioneering U.S. astronomer who helped find powerful evidence of dark matter, has died. She was 88.
  
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• Fake news story ignites Pakistan-Israel feud on Twitter

  26-12-2016 21:28 via cbc.ca
  
  A fake news story has touched off a tense Twitter confrontation between Pakistan and Israel, in an episode that underlines the potentially harmful impact of such stories on sensitive global affairs.
  
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• Cheetahs heading towards extinction as population crashes

  26-12-2016 21:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A new study estimates there are just 7,100 now left in the wild as they face growing conflict with humans.
  
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• When disaster strikes, forensic engineers often get the call

  26-12-2016 20:01 via cbc.ca
  
  University of Toronto engineering professor Doug Perovic is helping to grow the forensic engineering field by teaching a course as part of a new certificate program — one the university says is the first of its kind in Canada.
  
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• Ash tree genome sequenced for first time

  26-12-2016 17:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  UK scientists have decoded the genome of the ash in the fight against a devastating plant disease.
  
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• Time of Death? Check the Body's 'Necrobiome'

  26-12-2016 14:30
  
  It's a line you'll hear in almost any crime show after someone finds the body — the detective turns to the medical examiner and asks, "Time of death?" But in real life, medical examiners don't have a very precise method for figuring out how long ago someone died. Now, researchers say they could use the bacteria found on the body to provide a more accurate way to pinpoint the time of death, according to a new study. Currently, medical examiners estimate the time of death by physically inspe
  
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• Your Giving Brain: Are Humans 'Hardwired' for Generosity?

  26-12-2016 14:28
  
  In one study, researchers scanned participants' brains to identify connections between generous behavior and brain activity. In the other, scientists dampened activity in areas of the brain associated with impulse control, to see if that would alter a person's empathetic actions. In addition, the findings suggest a path toward treating people with conditions that lower their ability to understand others: Someday, people whose social cognition is impaired could be helped by treatments that regula
  
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• Beaming Moon Over Denver: Skywatcher Snaps a Long Supermoon Exposure

  26-12-2016 13:56
  
  A beam of light appears to pierce through the sky in this stunning long-exposure of the supermoon full moon of November. Astrophotographer Jeff Warner took the image of the moon rising over Denver as captured from Green Mountain in Lakewood, Colorado on Nov. 14. November's supermoon —a term used to describe a full moon is at its perigee, or closest point to Earth during the lunar orbit — was the biggest and brightest supermoon in almost 69 years.
  
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• The snow finally arrived... but just too late for a white Christmas

  26-12-2016 12:17
  
  After a mild Christmas Day, it was a different story on Boxing Day.
  
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• Self-publishing startup Wattpad looks to move its stories to the TV airwaves

  26-12-2016 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Toronto-based Wattpad has signed a partnership deal with Universal to turn some of the 300 million stories on its self-publishing app into TV shows.
  
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• Russian physicists measure the loss of dark matter since the birth of the universe

  26-12-2016 06:00
  
  (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) The discrepancy between the cosmological parameters in the modern Universe and the Universe shortly after the Big Bang can be explained by the fact that the proportion of dark matter has decreased. The authors of the study could calculate how much dark matter could have been lost and what the corresponding size of the unstable component would be. Researchers may explore how quickly this unstable part decays and say if dark matter is still disintegrati
  
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• Researchers map how the brain processes faces from sight to recognition

  26-12-2016 06:00
  
  (Carnegie Mellon University) Researchers used highly sophisticated brain imaging tools and computational methods to measure the real-time brain processes that convert the appearance of a face into the recognition of an individual. They are hopeful that the findings might be used in the near future to locate the exact point at which the visual perception system breaks down in different disorders and injuries, ranging from developmental dyslexia to prosopagnosia, or face blindness.
  
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• Military health system will test U-M-developed concept under newly signed defense bill

  26-12-2016 06:00
  
  (University of Michigan Health System) A health care reform idea originated by University of Michigan faculty will get a major test among members of the nation's military and their families, thanks to a provision in the national defense spending bill signed by President Obama on Friday.
  
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• Mechanisms in reversible infantile liver failure illuminated

  26-12-2016 06:00
  
  (Kumamoto University) Researchers in Japan have used a novel murine model to show that a deficiency of the mitochondrial enzyme MTU1 has strong effects on the liver and on embryonic development in general.
  
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• Is there such a thing as an emotional hangover? NYU researchers find that there is

  26-12-2016 06:00
  
  (New York University) Emotional experiences can induce physiological and internal brain states that persist for long periods of time after the emotional events have ended, a team of New York University scientists has found.
  
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• Fat fuels the road to cancer cell spread

  26-12-2016 06:00
  
  (VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)) Cancer cells spread to other sites in the body through promoting the growth of new 'roads' to travel on. In a study to be published on Dec. 26 in Nature, an international and multidisciplinary team of researchers, led by Prof. Dr. Peter Carmeliet (VIB-KU Leuven), discovered how a shift to increased fat utilization is required for the development and growth of these 'roads,' termed lymphatic vessels -- a special kind of blood vessels.
  
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• Engineers create programmable silk-based materials with embedded, pre-designed functions

  26-12-2016 06:00
  
  (Tufts University) Tufts University engineers have created a new format of solids made from silk protein that can be preprogrammed with biological, chemical, or optical functions, such as mechanical components that change color with strain, deliver drugs, or respond to light.
  
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• Animal biology, human health dominate 2016 EurekAlert! trending news list

  26-12-2016 06:00
  
  (EurekAlert!) News releases about the fight against Zika, a happy sex life, and dogs were among 2016's most popular on EurekAlert!, a science news service operated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). For the first time, an infographic made its way to the top five most-shared list.
  
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• Typhoon leaves 1 dead, messes up Christmas in Philippines

  26-12-2016 04:23
  
  A typhoon that spoiled Christmas Day in parts of the Philippines weakened slightly on Monday as it roared toward a congested region near the country's capital, officials said. They said Typhoon Nock-Ten ...
  
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