Science news

• Brazil orders 11.5 million yellow fever vaccines

  25-01-2017 22:37
  
  SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil's Ministry of Health has ordered 11.5 million doses of yellow fever vaccines to reinforce its stockpiles amid the largest outbreak of the disease the country has seen since 2000, officials said Wednesday.
  
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• USDA Calls Scientist Gag Order a "Misunderstanding"

  25-01-2017 22:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  But some scientists still say an unprecedented clampdown may be underway
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• Privacy experts call for rules on government monitoring social media

  25-01-2017 21:10 via cbc.ca
  
  Privacy experts are calling on the Treasury Board to draft guidelines to govern government officials who want to consult social media posts of Canadians.
  
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• Endings make way for new beginnings for Earth and SN

  25-01-2017 21:06
  Editor in chief Eva Emerson discusses major changes for life on Earth and at Science News.
  
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• Readers weigh in on mathematical animals and more

  25-01-2017 21:05
  Animal math, dinosaur digestion and more in reader feedback from our December 10, 2017, issue.
  
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• Future of giant radio telescope in Puerto Rico in limbo

  25-01-2017 20:51
  
  SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The future of one of the world's largest single-dish radio telescopes is in question after the U.S. National Science Foundation announced Wednesday it was accepting proposals from those interested in assuming operations at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
  
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• With dinosaurs out of the way, mammals had a chance to thrive

  25-01-2017 20:30
  
  The animals that lived through the great extinction event had a range of survival strategies to get them through.
  
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• Some lucky birds escaped dino doomsday

  25-01-2017 20:30
  
  Dino doomsday took out early birds too, but a lucky few survived.
  
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• Devastation detectives try to solve dinosaur disappearance

  25-01-2017 20:30
  
  Dinosaurs and others faced massive losses 66 million years ago from an asteroid impact, volcanic eruptions or maybe a mix of the two.
  
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• U.S. agency employees refuse to be muzzled by Trump administration

  25-01-2017 20:20 via cbc.ca
  
  Following White House emails to various environmental agencies directing them to stop social media posts, an "unofficial resistance" team creates independent Twitter account.
  
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• Boeing Unveils New Spacesuits for Starliner Astronaut Taxi (Photos)

  25-01-2017 20:15
  
  The NASA astronauts who fly aboard Boeing's new spaceship will wear sleek, blue suits that are lighter, simpler and more comfortable than the bulky orange gear of the space shuttle era, company representatives said. Unveiled today (Jan. 25), the new "Boeing Blue" spacesuits for the Starliner capsule weigh about 20 lbs. (9 kilograms) each with all of their accessories, compared to 30 lbs. (13.6 kg) for the old space shuttle suits, NASA officials said.
  
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• Gene-edited cells keep cancer babies well more than one year on

  25-01-2017 20:06
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - Two babies rescued from previously incurable leukemia after receiving infusions of gene-edited immune cells are doing well at home more than a year after initial treatment, scientists said on Wednesday.
  
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• Hive Mind: New Approach Could Improve on Crowd Wisdom

  25-01-2017 20:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Asking people how many others agree with them could yield more accurate estimates
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• Your sci-fi hologram dream just got a step closer to reality

  25-01-2017 19:57
  
  The future has arrived.
  
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• Kuwait minister calls for dialogue between Iran, Gulf states in rare visit

  25-01-2017 19:54
  Kuwait’s foreign minister made a rare visit to Tehran on Wednesday and called for frank dialogue between Iran and its regional neighbours, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported. Tensions have risen between predominantly Shi'ite Iran and the mainly Sunni Arab countries of the Gulf, particularly Saudi Arabia, over their support for opposing sides in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen.
  
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• Bony head ornaments signal some supersized dinosaurs

  25-01-2017 19:46
  
  Bony headwear like bumps and horns is tied to bigger bodies in the theropod dinosaur family tree.
  
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• Pluto's Moon Charon Had Its Own, Icy Plate Tectonics

  25-01-2017 19:00
  
  Using data from the New Horizons spacecraft, which flew past Pluto and Charon in July 2015, Ross Beyer and his colleagues on the mission team investigated features on Charon's surface to understand how they formed. Certain features on Charon seemed to have formed in the same way, the scientists found. The researchers noticed there were fissures that looked a lot like seafloor-spreading zones or rift valleys on Earth.
  
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• Perplexing Pulsars Explained by Geometric Particle Trails

  25-01-2017 19:00
  
  Photographs of geometrically shaped trails of high-energy particles ejected from two pulsars as they zip through the Milky Way galaxy have helped scientists better understand why the two objects emit very different kinds of light. Pulsars are a type of neutron star that forms following a supernova explosion, when a massive star collapses in on itself. Pulsars spin at varying speeds, and some of them emit steady beams of light.
  
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• Nearby Alien Planet's Climate Swings May Be Too Wild for Life

  25-01-2017 19:00
  
  This planet, known as Wolf 1061c, resides in the "habitable zone" of its host star, that just-right range of distances where liquid water could theoretically exist on a world's surface. For starters, Wolf 1061c — which circles a star located just 14 light-years from Earth's sun — lies at the inner edge of the habitable zone, similar to where Venus is in Earth's solar system. Venus has a hellish environment today, with surface temperatures reaching nearly 900 degrees Fahrenheit (480 d
  
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• New Canadian quantum computer called twice as powerful as last one, but what does that mean?

  25-01-2017 18:33 via cbc.ca
  
  With more qubits, researchers can solve certain problems more efficiently, and in some cases, faster. But a universal quantum computer, one that can solve a wider range of problems, is still a way off.
  
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• Sportscaster's Surprise Cancer Reveal: 5 Cervical Cancer Facts

  25-01-2017 17:39
  
  Sportscaster Erin Andrews has revealed she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2016, and went back to work just days after undergoing surgery to treat the condition. In an interview with the sports news website MMQB, the 38-year-old Andrews said that a routine checkup last June led her doctors to run some follow-up tests for cervical cancer. A few days after her operation, Andrews flew from Los Angeles to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to cover a National Football League (NFL) game.
  
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• Speedy TB Treatment Could Combat Drug Resistance

  25-01-2017 17:38
  
  Tuberculosis in mice can be cured much faster than normal by simply tweaking the standard regimen of antibiotics, new research shows. The finding may lead to a markedly shorter course of treatment for tuberculosis in humans and may reduce the risk of the infection becoming resistant to the antibiotics.
  
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• Is Burnt Toast Bad for You? The Science of Cancer and Acrylamide

  25-01-2017 17:38
  
  A new warning about the health risks of eating browned potatoes and burnt toast draws a link between a chemical called acrylamide and an increased risk of cancer. The warning comes from the United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency, which launched a campaign on Jan. 23 called "Go for Gold" that's aimed at reducing the amount of acrylamide that people eat. The name refers to the golden color people should aim for when cooking starchy foods, instead of cooking further, to the point of reaching a dark
  
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• Many U.S. states confused in light of EPA contract freeze by White House

  25-01-2017 17:10 via cbc.ca
  
  ​A Trump administration freeze on new Environmental Protection Agency contracts and grant awards raised fears that states and other recipients could lose essential funding for drinking water protection, hazardous waste oversight and a host of other programs — while a communications blackout left them dangling in uncertainty.
  
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• Newfound Asteroid 'Rerun' Zips Harmlessly By Earth

  25-01-2017 17:00
  
  The asteroid 2017 BX buzzed by Earth at a range of 162,252 miles (261,119 kilometers) — about 30 percent closer than the distance between the Earth and the moon — at 11:54 p.m. EST (0454 Tuesday GMT), according to online Slooh observatory, which tracked the object late Tuesday in a live webcast at Slooh.com. The asteroid 2017 BX is seen in this image (in circle) ahead of its close Earth flyby on Jan. 24, 2017. The asteroid passed by at a distance of 162,252 miles (261,
  
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• Northumbria University 'life-threatening' caffeine test fine

  25-01-2017 16:57 via bbc.co.uk
  
  University is fined £400,000 after students are given 100 times too much caffeine in an experiment.
  
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• Trump's 'control-alt-delete' on climate change policy

  25-01-2017 16:47 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Are the Trump team's actions on climate and energy the opening shots in a war on knowledge?
  
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• Hidden Heart Risks? Masked Hypertension May Affect 17 Million

  25-01-2017 16:37
  
  Nearly one in eight Americans who think that they have normal blood pressure may have a type of high blood pressure that doesn't show up at the doctor's office, a new study finds. The phenomenon, called "masked hypertension," refers to a condition in which a person's blood pressure measurements are normal when taken in a doctor's office but elevated outside the office, during the individual's day-to-day activities, the study said. People with masked hypertension may be at increased risk for hear
  
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• Liberals look to artificial intelligence to boost economy

  25-01-2017 16:22 via cbc.ca
  
  The federal Liberals are expected to use the upcoming federal budget to foster the development of cutting-edge artificial intelligence in the hope it will be a springboard to attracting investment and creating a highly-skilled new sector of jobs.
  
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• Tiny, Underwater Robots Offer Unprecedented View of World's Oceans

  25-01-2017 15:23
  
  For their initial deployments, the Mini-Autonomous Underwater Explorers (M-AUEs) were able to record the 3D movements of the ocean's internal waves — a feat that traditional instruments cannot achieve. Study lead author Jules Jaffe, a research oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said current ocean measurements are akin to sticking a finger in a specific region of the water. The swarm's first mission was to investigate how the ocean's internal waves moved.
  
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• Mindfulness meditation helps you handle stress better, scientists say

  25-01-2017 15:20
  
  Researchers say meditation lowers “biomarkers of stress response in anxiety disorder”.
  
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• Google offers a glimpse into its fight against fake news

  25-01-2017 15:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Nearly 200 publishers were kicked off its advertising network in November and December of last year — some, for violating Google's new policy on serving misleading content to users.
  
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• Visit Pluto! New Video Simulates Landing on Dwarf Planet

  25-01-2017 13:00
  If you've ever wondered what it might be like to land on Pluto, NASA has the video for you. A new color movie combines more than 100 images taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during the probe's historic Pluto flyby in the summer of 2015. NASA unveiled the video Thursday (Jan. 19), the 11th anniversary of New Horizons' launch, in 2006.
  
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• Travel the Solar System with New PBS Programs This Year

  25-01-2017 13:00
  The shows spotlight August's solar eclipse that will sweep across the United States, the American astronaut who spent nearly a year in space and our species' furthest-traveling spacecraft. The first show, Nova's "Solar Eclipse," will cover the solar eclipse just hours after it happens on Aug. 21, 2017. "NOVA's fastest turnaround film to date, 'Solar Eclipse' will be the ultimate companion to this spectacular celestial event," PBS representatives said in a statement.
  
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• Moon Beer? Brewing Experiment Short-Listed for Indian Lunar Lander

  25-01-2017 13:00
  
  A team of University of California San Diego (UCSD) engineering students is in a ferment, all hopped up to see if beer can be brewed on the moon. Their experiment is designed to test the viability of yeast on the moon. The spacecraft is owned by the Indian startup Team Indus, a participant in the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize competition.
  
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• Martian Heart: 'The Space Between Us' Tells a Stellar Love Story (Featurette)

  25-01-2017 13:00
  Although the new movie "The Space Between Us" concerns a young boy on Mars, cast members and crew said everyone can relate to his dilemma as he pines for love. Sixteen-year-old Gardner Elliot (played by Asa Butterfield) was born on Mars because his mother was pregnant when she and several other astronauts flew to the Red Planet. Gardner grows up in a small colony on Mars, but yearns for Earth after meeting a girl called Tulsa on the internet (played by Britt Robertson).
  
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• Lawsuit Over 'Star Trek' Fan Film Settled

  25-01-2017 13:00
  
  Axanar Productions — the company that planned to launch a feature-length, fan-supported "Star Trek" film — has reached a settlement with copyright holders CBS Studios and Paramount Pictures following a lawsuit. A statement from Axanar and a joint statement from CBS and Paramount detail how the new film "Axanar" will be released. Instead of being a feature-length film, it will be shown as two 15-minute segments on YouTube, commercial free.
  
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• 'Climate Engineering' Could Be Bad for Skywatching, Astronomy

  25-01-2017 13:00
  
  Tinkering with the sky to fight climate change would make it more difficult for astronomers and skywatchers to observe the heavens, a new study suggests. Spraying particles into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight and help cool the Earth down — a strategy known as stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) — would brighten city night skies considerably and decrease light clarity in rural areas, the study said. SAI would be "very, very bad news for astronomy," said study author Charles Zend
  
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• US national park deletes tweets on climate change after they went viral and people think it has something to do with Donald Trump

  25-01-2017 12:08
  
  The park told the US media that their account “had been compromised”.
  
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• Cassini Captures Another Stunning View of Saturn and Its Rings

  25-01-2017 11:40
  
  NASA's Cassini spacecraft is known for some of the most extraordinary images of Saturn, and its rings and moons, that we have seen. A telescope on Earth could never capture a view of Saturn like this, NASA officials wrote in an image description. While Cassini captured this view of Saturn with a wide-angle camera on Oct. 28, 2016, NASA only released the photo Jan. 16.
  
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• NASA takes you on a ride to Pluto in new video

  25-01-2017 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  NASA has released a movie consisting of more than 100 images of Pluto that gives people an out-of-this-world experience as they fly to the distant planet.
  
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• Russia says technical checks may delay some space rocket launches

  25-01-2017 10:39
  
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's space agency said on Wednesday it had ordered extra checks to be made on its Proton-M rockets, meaning it might be forced to delay some satellite launches this year.
  
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• EU body: Climate change poses increasingly severe risks

  25-01-2017 09:40
  
  COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The European Environment Agency says the continent is facing rising sea levels and more extreme weather, such as more frequent and more intense heat waves, flooding, droughts and storms because of climate change.
  
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• When will soggy California drop water restrictions?

  25-01-2017 06:27
  
  FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Much of California has gone from withered to water-logged this winter, but the state's top water regulator is not ready to lift emergency conservation measures enacted during the height of the drought.
  
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• Endangered Hawaiian monk seal population rises to 1,400

  25-01-2017 06:21
  
  HONOLULU (AP) — The population of Hawaiian monk seals — one of the world's most critically endangered marine mammals — has been increasing 3 percent a year for the past three years, federal wildlife officials said.
  
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• Women with early periods at increased risk of early or premature menopause

  25-01-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Queensland) A large international study has found that women who began menstruation before age 11 have an 80 percent higher risk of early or premature menopause. This risk increased in women without children and early periods. The researchers recommend health practitioners begin monitoring at risk women earlier in life and implement prevention strategies to combat the increased risk of chronic disease that is associated with early menopause.
  
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• Video game ratings work, if you use them

  25-01-2017 06:00
  
  (Iowa State University) Nearly every video game sold or downloaded comes with a rating that provides age-appropriate guidelines based on the game's content. Critics have questioned the effectiveness of ratings, but new research from Iowa State University finds children spend less time playing violent video games when their parents use the rating system to guide purchases and set rules for video game play.
  
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• Using Big Data to understand immune system responses

  25-01-2017 06:00
  
  (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) An enzyme found in many bacteria, including the bacterium that gives us strep throat, has given mankind a cheap and effective tool with which to edit our own genes. This technology, called CRISPR, is also being used to understand many biological processes, including how the immune system responds to a viral attack.
  
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• Top high-energy prize awarded to LSU physicist and LIGO scientist Gabriela González

  25-01-2017 06:00
  
  (Louisiana State University) The 2017 Rossi Prize has been awarded to Gabriela González and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration for the first direct detections of gravitational waves, for the discovery of merging black hole binaries and for beginning the new era of gravitational-wave astronomy.
  
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• Tissue engineering advance reduces heart failure in model of heart attack

  25-01-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Researchers have grown heart tissue by seeding a mix of human cells onto a 1-micron-resolution scaffold made with a 3-D printer. The cells organized themselves in the scaffold to create engineered heart tissue that beats synchronously in culture. When the human-derived heart muscle patch was surgically placed onto a mouse heart after a heart attack, it significantly improved heart function and decreased the amount of dead heart tissue.
  
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