Science news

• Scientists' work recognised in New Year Honours

  30-12-2016 23:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The work of a number of the UK's leading scientists has been recognised in the New Year Honours.
  
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• Celebrating New Year's? You'll have to wait an extra second

  30-12-2016 21:35 via cbc.ca
  
  While many people will be counting down to ring in the new year, they'll have to make room for an extra second.
  
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• 'Leap Second' Will Make New Year's Eve Just a Little Bit Longer

  30-12-2016 20:45
  
  World clocks will officially add a "leap second" at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is the time standard set by highly precise atomic clocks. The extra second of party time is designed to reconcile two ways of keeping time: atomic clocks, and clocks based on the Earth's rotation. "Earth is slowing down over geological time, and that can lead to a problem when you've got a ton of clocks," Demetrios Matsakis, chief scientist at the U.S. Naval Observatory
  
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• NASA asteroid-hunting project spots new comet — and maybe a 2nd

  30-12-2016 20:41 via cbc.ca
  
  A space-hunting program has spotted what could be two new comets, one that will pass Earth in February.
  
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• Private vehicles add to Delhi's pollution woes

  30-12-2016 20:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Despite its alarming pollution levels, Delhi has seen an explosion in the number of private vehicles, while public transport is in decline, environmentalists warn.
  
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• Alaskan Aurora Mimics Spiral Galaxy in Spectacular Skywatcher Photo

  30-12-2016 19:56
  
  This image of the aurora borealis reminds astrophotographer John Chumack of another cosmic beauty – a barred spiral galaxy. Chumack took the image on a 2016 trip to Alaska, an annual event for him and a group of skywatchers. "Aurora borealis spiral in Alaska! Sure looks like a barred spiral [galaxy] in the sky," Chumack wrote in an email to Space.com.
  
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• 'New Year's Eve Comet' and More: Three Flybys Will Kick Off 2017 New Year

  30-12-2016 19:52
  
  Wednesday (Dec. 28), NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory tweeted a video about Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková, which has been growing more prominent in the sky since Dec. 15. On New Year's Eve, the comet will be visible through a telescope or binoculars near the crescent moon, sporting a blueish-green head and thin, fan-shaped tail, NASA researchers said. But there will likely be two more comets (or a comet and an asteroid) in store for skywatchers in early 2017, NASA said.
  
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• Nasa photographer captures stunning image of the ISS crossing the sun

  30-12-2016 19:52
  
  The spacecraft is visible as a tiny silhouette.
  
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• An Out Of This World #MannequinChallenge

  30-12-2016 19:29
  
  If you haven't heard by now, a new viral phenomenon has hit the Internet. The initial Mannequin Challenge is credited to students in Jacksonville, Florida, but has spread across the globe and videos have grown more complicated and intricate.
  
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• Apple to cut iPhone production in Jan-March quarter: report

  30-12-2016 19:24 via cbc.ca
  
  Apple Inc will trim production of iPhones by about 10 percent in the January-March quarter of 2017, the Nikkei financial daily reported on Thursday, citing calculations based on data from suppliers.
  
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• These astronauts took the Mannequin Challenge to new heights on the ISS

  30-12-2016 19:17
  
  Microgravity yeah!
  
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• Using 'fire to fight fire' to combat disease could make it worse, tests show

  30-12-2016 18:29
  A treatment billed as a potential breakthrough in the fight against disease, including cancer, could back-fire and make the disease fitter and more damaging, new research has found. Ground-breaking research has found that introducing 'friendlier' less-potent strains into a population of disease-causing microbes can lead to increased disease severity.
  
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• New research may offer hope for post-traumatic stress treatment

  30-12-2016 18:22 via cbc.ca
  
  Post-traumatic stress disorder can be a debilitating condition. It's estimated that it affects nearly one in 10 Canadian veterans who served in Afghanistan. Now, there's promising research that could lead to the treatment of PTSD.
  
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• China says it will shut down ivory trade by end of 2017

  30-12-2016 18:11
  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — China says it will shut down its ivory trade at the end of 2017 in a move designed to curb the mass slaughter of African elephants.
  
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• Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster Arrives for Display at Arizona Museum

  30-12-2016 18:07
  
  Visitors to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona now only need to walk a short distance in order to get up close with a very large piece of space shuttle history. In fact, they only need to go from the museum's parking lot to the walkway leading to the main entrance to encounter the 149-foot-long (45 meter) solid rocket booster that was delivered on Thursday (Dec. 29). "It will be the first thing that people see when they come," said James Stemm, director of collections at the Pima A
  
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• Space Shredder: Sun May Be Tearing Asteroids Apart

  30-12-2016 17:55
  
  With a cloud of trailing debris, a rocky object known as 3200 Phaethon straddles the line between asteroid and comet. New research suggests that the sun may be slowly shredding Phaethon to pieces due to its close orbit. "Phaethon may be a breakup in slow motion," Paul Wiegert, an astronomer at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, said at the Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Pasadena, California.
  
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• Moon and Venus Shine Over Toronto Skyline

  30-12-2016 17:55
  
  Astrophotographer Mike Killian took the image on Dec. 2 from Toronto. “My girlfriend's place in Toronto has a great balcony view facing the city skyline to the west, so I knew if we had clear skies we would have a gorgeous view of the crescent moon and Venus over the city, setting together in the twilight following sunset,” Killian wrote in an email to Space.com.
  
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• Cheetahs Are Racing Toward Extinction

  30-12-2016 17:40
  
  The cheetah, the world's fastest land animal, is headed toward extinction, largely due to unprecedented habitat loss, scientists announced in a new study. The research revealed that only 7,100 cheetahs remain globally and that the speedy animal has lost 91 percent of its historic habitat range. In Zimbabwe, where the cheetah distribution is well-documented, the population has plummeted from 1,200 individuals in 2000 to about 170 individuals in 2016, according to the study.
  
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• China announces ban on ivory trade by end of 2017

  30-12-2016 17:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  China announces a ban on all ivory trade and processing activities by the end of 2017.
  
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• Ancient Stone Bowl Unearthed in Jerusalem Perplexes Experts

  30-12-2016 17:22
  
  It's unclear whether a mysterious 2,100-year-old stone bowl fragment recently unearthed in Jerusalem belonged to royalty or a commoner, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced late last week. The fragment — made from chalk, a type of limestone — is small enough to fit in a person's hand. Although the name itself is Greek, many Jews used it during the Hellenistic period, The Times of Israel reported.
  
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• New class of hydrogen sulfide donor molecules

  30-12-2016 16:35
  Researchers have designed molecules with the potential to deliver healing power to stressed cells -- such as those involved in heart attacks. The research, at a cellular level in the lab, involves organic molecules that break down to release hydrogen sulfide when triggered by oxidative stress.
  
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• Lack of standards for infant cereals threatens child nutrition in lower-income countries

  30-12-2016 16:35
  The first global analysis of infant cereals sold in lower-income countries highlights the need for basic quality assurance services to improve nutritional consistency and healthy growth of infants from 6 to 24 months of age.
  
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• Role for immune cells in cancer’s ability to evade immunotherapy

  30-12-2016 16:32
  One of the main reasons cancer remains difficult to treat is that cancer cells have developed a multitude of mechanisms that allow them to evade destruction by the immune system. One of these escape mechanisms involves a type of immune cell called myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). A recent study provides new insight into how MDSCs enable tumor cells to circumvent immune attack and offer the potential for improving cancer immunotherapy.
  
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• Endometrial cancer mutations are detectable in uterine lavage fluid before a cancer is diagnosed

  30-12-2016 16:32
  Mutations that have been linked to endometrial cancer can be found in the uterine lavage fluid of pre- and post-menopausal women both with and without detectable cancer.
  
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• Biologist's ant research provides long-term look at effects of climate change

  30-12-2016 16:32
  Many scientists have attempted to tackle how climate change will affect the natural world by determining the thermal tolerance of various species, then predicting what will happen to them as our world warms. However, this approach as a way to understand nature has its drawbacks because one species never acts alone, so comprehending how global change impacts these interactions is crucial to a holistic understanding.
  
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• Nothing amiss in environment where scores of sea creatures washed up dead

  30-12-2016 15:47 via cbc.ca
  
  The Department of Fisheries and Oceans say there is nothing out of the ordinary with the environment near where thousands of sea creatures washed up on some beaches near Digby, N.S.
  
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• Previewing 2017's Biggest Skywatching Events Using Mobile Astronomy Apps — Part 1

  30-12-2016 12:59
  
  In this edition of Mobile Astronomy, we'll tell you how you can use Mars to see nearly all the planets through your binoculars or backyard telescope, including tough-to-find Uranus and Neptune. Don't worry — part two will cover the eclipse, as well as opportunities to see Mercury shine, Jupiter's moons cross the planet and our own moon cover a star.
  
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• Space Colonies Will Start Out Like the Wild West, Grow Family-Friendly

  30-12-2016 12:56
  
  While the first settlements may rely on individuals, as the outposts grow more self-sustaining, families will likely become the colonists of choice, a panel of experts said. "The socioeconomic origins of colonists are going to change over time," science fiction author Charles E. Gannon told Space.com. Earlier this year at Dragon Con in Atlanta, Gannon was part a panel of scientists and science communicators who discussed how future space colonies might look and act, and how such developments mig
  
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• Ryan Gosling to Portray Neil Armstrong in Universal Biopic 'First Man'

  30-12-2016 12:53
  
  Actor Ryan Gosling will portray Neil Armstrong in Universal Studios' biopic about the Apollo 11 astronaut, "First Man," to be directed by Damien Chazelle. Gosling, who currently stars in Chazelle's latest movie, "La La Land," now in theaters, secured the deal to appear as the first moonwalker this month. "Gosling has been orbiting the project since late 2015, but it was only in December that a deal was reached," wrote The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday (Dec. 29).
  
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• Sunspots' Tangled Tale: Why the Sun Has Spots

  30-12-2016 12:49
  
  Paul Sutter is an astrophysicist at The Ohio State University and the chief scientist at COSI science center. Explaining the source of sunspots is a pretty tough nut to crack. People have known about the features for centuries — early Chinese and medieval European stargazers noted down when they saw faint blotches in the morning or evening sun — but it wasn't until recently that scientists came up with a half-satisfactory answer for where the spots come from.
  
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• All the extreme fog pictures you need after a misty morning

  30-12-2016 12:17
  
  If one more person says it looks like Silent Hill…
  
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• China court sentences 23 people to jail for smuggling fuel

  30-12-2016 11:41
  BEIJING (Reuters) - An court in eastern China has sentenced 23 people to jail of up to 15 years for smuggling refined fuel, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday. They were found to have smuggled more than 35,000 tonnes of refined oil since 2013, and authorities confiscated two oil tankers, Xinhua citied the customs administration of Nanjing city as saying. China has stepped up efforts to crack down on fuel smuggling, which has increased after authorities raised consumption taxes on oil pr
  
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• Syrian forces and allies clash with rebels near Damascus - monitors, rebel official

  30-12-2016 11:32
  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces and their allies clashed with rebels near Damascus on Friday, and used helicopter gunships in raids in the area in the latest violence to disrupt a nationwide ceasefire that otherwise appeared to hold, monitors said. The clashes took place in a rebel-held valley northwest of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A rebel official also reported clashes in the area, where the Syrian army began an offensive last week to recapture the area
  
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• 16 mind-blowing science facts we learned in 2016

  30-12-2016 09:08
  
  Humans once had a penis bone. True story.
  
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• Gene therapy for liver disease advancing with the help of adeno-associated viral vectors

  30-12-2016 06:00
  
  (Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News) Liver-directed gene therapy delivered using adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors to treat diseases such as hemophilia have advanced into human testing. The potential for continued technological improvements to expand the therapeutic applications of gene therapy to treat liver disorders and the remaining clinical challenges are examined in a comprehensive review article published in Human Gene Therapy.
  
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• Ancient DNA can both diminish and defend modern minds

  30-12-2016 06:00
  
  (Arizona State University) A new study shows cognitive decline may be influenced by the interaction of genetics and ... worms?
  
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• The year 2016 in archaeology

  30-12-2016 03:40 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Here's a selection of the most inspiring findings in archaeology revealed this year.
  
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• Just a second! Extra time to be added to final minute of 2016

  30-12-2016 03:31
  Scientists say the "leap second" is needed to compensate for a slowdown in the Earth's rotation. Peter Whibberley, a senior research scientist at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, said: "Leap seconds are needed to prevent civil time drifting away from Earth time. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service in Paris decides when leap seconds are needed, and they are always announced about six months in advance.
  
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• Scientists test water to narrow down what's killing herring, sea creatures

  30-12-2016 03:01 via cbc.ca
  
  Federal scientists are testing water samples from St. Marys Bay near Digby, N.S., hoping to determine what caused thousands of herring and sea creatures to wash ashore in the area.
  
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• Prevalence of black bobcats in New Brunswick puzzles biologist

  30-12-2016 02:46 via cbc.ca
  
  Why New Brunswick seems to be a hotspot for completely black bobcats is a puzzle for one biologist.
  
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• Appearance of black bobcats in New Brunswick puzzles biologist

  30-12-2016 02:46 via cbc.ca
  
  Why New Brunswick seems to be one of only two places where completely black bobcats live is a puzzle for one biologist.
  
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• Tribes get say in land management but worry about Trump

  30-12-2016 01:59
  
  SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Native Americans who have long bemoaned their lack of participation in federal land decisions scored a major victory when President Barack Obama designated a new national monument in Utah that gives five tribes an opportunity to weigh in on the management of their ancestral home.
  
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• Debbie Reynolds' Death: Can You Die of a Broken Heart?

  30-12-2016 00:17
  
  Actress Debbie Reynolds died from a stroke on Dec. 28, just one day after her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher, died from a heart attack, Variety reported. Reynolds, who starred in film classics such as "Singin' in the Rain," was 84. Reynolds told her son shortly before her stroke, "I miss her so much.
  
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• Long-Sought 'Attack' Signal in Type 1 Diabetes Identified

  30-12-2016 00:16
  
  In people with type 1 diabetes, the body wages a ruthless campaign of destruction against certain cells in the pancreas because it mistakes them for foreign invaders. The cells that are destroyed, called beta cells, normally produce certain proteins in packages called exosomes. The new study found that, when the cells are in trouble, such as after an infection or other stressful event, these packages are decorated with chemical warning signals that may act as homing beacons that lure immune cell
  
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• Carrie Fisher's Death: What Happens When the Heart Stops Beating?

  30-12-2016 00:15
  
  Actress Carrie Fisher died today (Dec. 27), after suffering a heart attack while on a flight from London to Los Angeles on Dec. 23, People magazine reports. Fisher was 60 years old. Fisher, who shot to fame in her iconic role as Princess Leia in the "Star Wars" films, is reported to have had a heart attack 15 minutes before the plane landed at LAX, according to TMZ.
  
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