Science news

• Oil pipeline safety rule scaled back after cost objections

  13-01-2017 23:47
  
  President Barack Obama's administration scaled back new safety measures for the sprawling network of fuel pipelines that crisscross the United States on Friday, following oil industry complaints that they ...
  
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• Spelunking on Mars: Bob McDonald

  13-01-2017 23:46 via cbc.ca
  
  Exploring the deepest caves on Earth could help us find life in outer space.
  
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• President Obama to NASA: Thanks for Sending My Signature to Mars

  13-01-2017 23:39
  
  NASA's Curiosity Mars rover arrived at the Red Planet in 2012, carrying a special embellishment: a plaque with signatures from the country's top officials, including U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
  
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• WATCH LIVE @ 12:54 pm ET Today: SpaceX Rocket Launch, Landing Attempt

  13-01-2017 23:30
  
  A SpaceX rocket will take to the skies Saturday (Jan. 14) for the first time since a Sept. 1 launchpad explosion. You can watch the highly anticipated liftoff — which is scheduled to take place at 12:54 p.m. EST (1754 GMT), with an attempt to land the rocket back on Earth shortly thereafter — live in the window below, courtesy of SpaceX:
  
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• WATCH LIVE @ 12:54 pm ET Saturday: SpaceX Rocket Launch, Landing Attempt

  13-01-2017 23:30
  
  A SpaceX rocket will take to the skies Saturday (Jan. 14) for the first time since a Sept. 1 launchpad explosion. You can watch the highly anticipated liftoff — which is scheduled to take place at 12:54 p.m. EST (1754 GMT), with an attempt to land the rocket back on Earth shortly thereafter — live in the window below, courtesy of SpaceX:
  
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• Here's how earwax might clean ears

  13-01-2017 22:29
  
  Science seeks inspiration in earwax for dreams of self-cleaning machinery.
  
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• Reef fish that conquer fear of sharks may help control excess algae

  13-01-2017 21:56
  Coral reef fish experience landscapes of fear based on how much shelter from predators is available, new research concludes. But they are willing to move past that fear if the payoff in a delicious meal of algae is high enough, the investigators found.
  
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• Cleverly designed tuberculosis vaccine shows promise in mice

  13-01-2017 21:55
  A clever new tuberculosis vaccine has shown promise in trials in mice. If it succeeds, it will be the first new TB vaccine in a century. With the rise of multidrug resistant tuberculosis, the difficulty of curing the disease, and the large annual death toll, a successful vaccine could be a huge benefit to public health -- especially in low- and middle income countries.
  
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• Bloodstream infections: Most common type of health care-associated infections in children

  13-01-2017 21:55
  A new study establishes the prevalence and type of health care-associated infections (HAIs) in children in Europe and describes risk factors for infection in this population.
  
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• Your cell phone could curb the intensity of your workout

  13-01-2017 21:54
  Talking or texting on a cell phone during exercise will lower the intensity of a workout and also affect balance, new research shows.
  
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• Research helps protect loggerhead turtles

  13-01-2017 21:54
  A long-running research and conservation project is helping save an at-risk species of turtle, report scientists.
  
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• Older, fitter adults experience greater brain activity while learning

  13-01-2017 21:54
  Older adults who experience good cardiac fitness may be also keeping their brains in good shape as well. In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, older adults who scored high on cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) tests performed better on memory tasks than those who had low CRF. Further, the more fit older adults were, the more active their brain was during learning.
  
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• Composite material for water purification

  13-01-2017 21:54
  Fresh, clean water coming directly from the tap is a true luxury. In developing countries, people often have no choice but to use a contaminated river for drinking water. Water filters can help by quickly converting polluted surface or ground water into safe drinking water. In a new article, researchers have now introduced a novel multifunctional composite material that removes inorganic, organic, radioactive, and microbial impurities from water.
  
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• Adaptive management of soil conservation is essential to improving water quality

  13-01-2017 21:54
  The quality of our rivers and lakes could be placed under pressure from harmful levels of soluble phosphorus, despite well-intended measures to reduce soil erosion and better manage and conserve farmland for crop production, a new study shows. The team of international scientists found that increased levels of soluble phosphorus in rivers entering Lake Erie, in the USA, may be linked to conservation measures.
  
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• Environmentally-friendly soy air filter developed

  13-01-2017 21:53
  A new soy-based air filter can capture toxic chemicals such as carbon monoxide and formaldehyde, which often escape other types of filters.
  
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• Arabica coffee genome sequenced

  13-01-2017 21:53
  The sequencing of the genome of Coffea arabica, the species responsible for more than 70 percent of global coffee production, has now been announced by researchers.
  
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• 'Star Trek Timelines' Marks Game's 1st Anniversary with Special Event

  13-01-2017 21:26
  
  The mobile game "Star Trek Timelines" turns one year old on Jan. 14, and its developer celebrating this weekend with a special in-game event and announcements of a new player-versus-player mode. A year ago in the game's storyline, corresponding with when it was first released online, characters and set pieces from all across the "Star Trek" universe were pulled together via a strange event the game called a "temporal anomaly," according to a statement by Disruptor Beam, the game's developer... T
  
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• Scientists map beaver genome for Canada's 150th birthday

  13-01-2017 21:01 via cbc.ca
  
  A team of molecular geneticists at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children has sequenced the genome of the Canadian beaver to mark the country's sesquicentennial.
  
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• How Do Brain Cells Tell Us Where We're Going? 

  13-01-2017 20:30 via rss.sciam.com
  
  New findings provide a more complex profile of the brain’s “internal GPS”
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Astronauts Breeze Through Spacewalk to Boost Space Station Power Grid

  13-01-2017 20:30
  
  Two astronauts embarked on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) today to complete an upgrade to the station's power supply. NASA astronaut and space station commander Shane Kimbrough set out with French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency this morning (Jan. 13) at 6:22 a.m. EST (1122 GMT), nearly 40 minutes ahead of schedule. From the speed and efficiency of his work today, it was hard to tell that this was Pesquet's first spacewalk.
  
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• Previewing 2017's Biggest Skywatching Events Using Mobile Astronomy Apps — Part 2

  13-01-2017 20:07
  
  In this second part of our 2017 preview, we'll cover how you can use mobile apps to spot elusive Mercury, see the motions of Jupiter's largest moons and the planet's Great Red Spot, and track the Planetary Society's shiny solar sailing spacecraft, called LightSail 2, when it launches later this year. 2017 brings two excellent opportunities to spot the elusive planet Mercury, even with the naked eye, and you can preview the events and plan your observations using astronomy apps. As the innermost
  
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• Watch the picnic basket: Bear sightings surge in Connecticut

  13-01-2017 20:04
  
  HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Keep an eye on the picnic basket. Bear sightings are surging across Connecticut.
  
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• New ‘smart’ fibers curb fires in lithium-ion batteries

  13-01-2017 20:00
  
  To stifle battery fires, scientists create component with heat-release flame retardant.
  
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• Trump picked Giuliani for his cybersecurity expertise —but many industry members haven't heard of his work

  13-01-2017 19:34 via cbc.ca
  
  President-elect Donald Trump's new cybersecurity expert, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, has run a cybersecurity consulting business since 2003 and claims to offer services to its clients, but few in the industry are familiar with his work in that area or his company.
  
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• Trump picked Giuliani for his cybersecurity expertise — but many industry members haven't heard of his work

  13-01-2017 19:34 via cbc.ca
  
  President-elect Donald Trump's new cybersecurity expert, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, has run a cybersecurity consulting business since 2003 and claims to offer services to its clients, but few in the industry are familiar with his work in that area or his company.
  
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• Older adults walk more for money, opportunity to donate to charity

  13-01-2017 19:30
  Personal and social goals may be effective in motivating older adults to exercise, according to a new study.
  
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• Eat hot peppers for a longer life? Study

  13-01-2017 19:30
  Consumption of hot red chili peppers is associated with a 13 percent reduction in total mortality, a large prospective study has found.
  
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• Are herders, livestock bad for rare wildlife? It's complicated

  13-01-2017 19:30
  A new article looks at the positive and negative relationships occurring between pastoralists, livestock, native carnivores and native herbivores in the world’s largest unfenced grassland and desert.
  
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• Though complex, new peanut allergy guidelines are based on science

  13-01-2017 19:29
  
  Unlike some past recommendations, new guidelines state that introducing babies to peanut-containing foods early is generally OK, with certain caveats.
  
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• Targeted therapy for sleep disorders helps patients with muscular dystrophy

  13-01-2017 19:29
  Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is the most common adult muscular dystrophy, and many patients with DM1 suffer from various sleep and respiratory disorders. In a new study, researchers found that because there is wide range of sleep problems, treatments do not fit a "one size fits all" model.
  
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• Astronauts upgrade station power system in six-hour spacewalk

  13-01-2017 18:53
  By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Two astronauts floated outside the International Space Station on Friday for a six-hour spacewalk to replace ageing batteries for the laboratory's solar power system, an upgrade needed to keep the outpost running into the next decade, NASA said. U.S. astronaut Shane Kimbrough left the station’s airlock at about 6:30 a.m. EST (1130 GMT) to begin his second spacewalk this month. Kimbrough and Pesquet breezed through work on the batteries and co
  
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• French, US astronauts install batteries outside space station

  13-01-2017 18:40
  
  French astronaut Thomas Pesquet floated into space on his first-ever spacewalk Friday, and helped install three new, refrigerator-sized lithium-ion batteries to upgrade the power system at the International Space Station.
  
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• Scientists engineer animals with ancient genes to test causes of evolution

  13-01-2017 18:11
  Scientists have created the first genetically modified animals containing reconstructed ancient genes, which they used to test the evolutionary effects of genetic changes that happened in the deep past on the animals’ biology and fitness.
  
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• To the Moon! Private Team Fully Funded for Google Lunar X Prize Race

  13-01-2017 18:01
  Moon Express — one of five teams still competing for the Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) — has secured $20 million in "Series B" funding, bringing the total funds the group has raised from private investors to more than $45 million, representatives of the Florida-based company said. "We now have all the resources in place to shoot for the moon," Moon Express co-founder and CEO Bob Richards said in a statement. The other teams in the running, in addition to Moon Express, are SpaceIL from
  
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• This spectacular light display in Canada will make you think there is an alien invasion

  13-01-2017 16:17
  
  But there’s a perfectly logical explanation for it.
  
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• Winter is leaving, for some of us, climatologist says

  13-01-2017 15:54 via cbc.ca
  
  It's the dead of winter and — despite how ominous that might sound — the country's top climatologist says that's actually a good thing.
  
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• Stem Cells Could Restore Vision After Eye Disease

  13-01-2017 15:51
  
  Researchers used stem cells to grow new retina tissue in a lab, and then transplanted that tissue into mice that had end-stage retinal degeneration. More than 40 percent of the mice gained the ability to see light as the result of the procedure, the researchers said. "We were at first very excited to see that the transplants do robustly respond to light," Dr. Michiko Mandai, the first author of the paper and a deputy project leader at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Japan, told Liv
  
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• Baby Farms of the Future? Docs Warn of Ethical Issues from New Tech

  13-01-2017 15:51
  
  In the not-too-distant future, scientists may be able to create human sperm and egg cells in a lab dish. In a new paper, researchers at Harvard and Brown universities discuss the theoretical implications of creating sperm and egg cells in a lab dish, referred to as "in vitro gametogenesis," or IVG. IVG is not yet possible in humans — just from a scientific standpoint, many technical barriers remain before human gametes could be made from other human cells, the authors said.
  
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• How Brain Cells Can Predict Your Age

  13-01-2017 15:50
  
  As we get older, our brain cells show changes, and now a new study finds that certain changes happen so reliably that by themselves they can reveal a person's age. In the study, researchers analyzed brain tissue samples from 480 people who died between the ages 16 and 106. They found that, with age, certain types of brain cells called glial cells showed a shift in their gene expression patterns in certain regions of the brain.
  
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• US Health Report: Exercising More, But Mental Health Suffers

  13-01-2017 15:49
  
  A new federal report shows that although the country has made progress in some areas, such as increasing how much exercise people get and lowering the number of teens who smoke cigarettes, it's fallen behind in others, particularly in taking care of mental health. The new report, published today (Jan. 11) by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), detailed the country's progress in meeting a set of 10-year national health goals that were set in 2010 as part of an ini
  
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• Is That Chest Pain Serious? New Blood Test Could Tell

  13-01-2017 15:48
  
  Now, a new blood test could quickly give doctors a sense of a patient's risk for serious heart problems, such as a heart attack or even death, a new study finds. The test measures the blood levels of a molecule called trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), according to the study, published today (Jan. 10) in the European Heart Journal. TMAO is produced when gut bacteria break down foods, including red meat, eggs and dairy, the researchers wrote.
  
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• Group: Government animal disease lab needs better oversight

  13-01-2017 15:44
  MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A government lab in Madison that researches dangerous illnesses such as chronic wasting disease and West Nile virus has mishandled some of the animals used in testing and needs increased oversight, an environmental group alleges in a complaint filed Thursday.
  
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• Gifted students benefit from ability grouping

  13-01-2017 15:40
  Schools should use both ability grouping and acceleration to help academically talented students, reports a new study that examined a century of research looking at the controversial subject.
  
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• Increased cooperation between preschool, CHC to identify children with mental health problems

  13-01-2017 15:34
  It is beneficial to systematize the exchange of information between parents, preschool and child care centres (CHCs) to increase the focus on young children with mental health problems, research concludes.
  
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• Sensory stimuli control dopamine in the brain

  13-01-2017 15:33
  The type and intensity of stimuli control the activity of nerve cells that release the neurotransmitter dopamine, report scientists.
  
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• Cyanobacteria: The future of sunscreen?

  13-01-2017 15:33
  Sunscreens and moisturizers derived from biological sources such as cyanobacteria could represent a safer alternative to current, synthetically produced cosmetics, research suggests.
  
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• WATCH LIVE NOW: Astronauts Spacewalking Outside Space Station

  13-01-2017 15:30
  
  Astronauts at the International Space Station are spacewalking today to complete power upgrades to the station's power system. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, a first-time spacewalker, kicked off their spacewalk at 6:22 a.m. EST (1122 GMT), more than 30 minutes ahead of schedule. The spacewalk will last about 6.5 hours. Live coverage of the spacewalk will stream live on NASA TV. The live stream will also appear in the space below court
  
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• Researchers discover self-assembling 2D and 3D materials

  13-01-2017 15:04
  Self-assembly of matter is one of the fundamental principles of nature, directing the growth of larger ordered and functional systems from smaller building blocks. Self-assembly can be observed in all length scales from molecules to galaxies. Now, researchers report a novel discovery of self-assembling two- and three-dimensional materials that are formed by tiny gold nanoclusters of just a couple of nanometres in size, each having 102 gold atoms and a surface layer of 44 thiol molecules.
  
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• Researchers achieve major breakthrough in flexible electronics

  13-01-2017 15:04
  Semiconductors, which are the very basic components of electronic devices, have improved our lives in many ways. They can be found in lighting, displays, solar modules and microprocessors that are installed in almost all modern day devices, from mobile phones, washing machines, and cars, to the emerging Internet of Things. To innovate devices with better functionality and energy efficiency, researchers are constantly looking for better ways to make them, in particular from earth-abundant materia
  
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• A clear picture of bacteria

  13-01-2017 15:04
  A new study has frozen bacteria extremely fast to gain a true-to-nature image of the internal and external structure.
  
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