Science news

• Study says grass carp have invaded 3 of the Great Lakes

  27-01-2017 23:52
  TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Scientists say grass carp have invaded three of the Great Lakes and pose a significant environmental risk. But they say there's still time to prevent them from becoming established.
  
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• 'Astronauts' Start 8-Month Mars Simulation in Hawaii

  27-01-2017 23:49
  
  Another long-term space simulation is underway at the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii, where six crewmembers entered a small, isolated dome Jan. 19 as a part of the HI-SEAS mission. This is the fifth iteration of HI-SEAS, also known as the Hawai'i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation. NASA is funding this mission and a sixth mission, scheduled for 2018, for $1 million.
  
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• California clears hurdle for cancer warning label on Roundup

  27-01-2017 22:43
  
  FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — California can require Monsanto to label its popular weed-killer Roundup as a possible cancer threat despite an insistence from the chemical giant that it poses no risk to people, a judge tentatively ruled Friday.
  
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• Japanese Craft Leaves Space Station to Conduct Space-Junk Experiment

  27-01-2017 22:00
  
  A Japanese cargo ship undocked from the International Space Station today (Jan. 27) and will spend the next week doing a science experiment in orbit before burning up in Earth's atmosphere on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 5). HTV-6, also known as Kounotori 6, is Japan's sixth cargo resupply mission to the space station. It arrived at the orbiting lab in December with nearly 5 tons of supplies, including food, water, science gear, spare parts and Christmas gifts for the crewmembers.
  
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• NASA Touches Down at Super Bowl Festival

  27-01-2017 21:58
  
  It's almost time for the 2017 Super Bowl, and visitors to the game's host city of Houston should make their way to Discovery Green in the city's downtown starting tomorrow (Jan. 28). Houston is, of course, home to NASA headquarters at the Johnson Space Center, so it was fitting that NASA and various private spaceflight companies should contribute to Super Bowl Live, the nine-day festival starting Saturday (Jan. 28) that will lead up to the big game.
  
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• Rogue antibody linked to severe second dengue infections

  27-01-2017 21:55
  
  Alternate antibody may indicate whether someone is susceptible to severe dengue disease.
  
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• Grass carp have arrived in Great Lakes, study concludes

  27-01-2017 21:52 via cbc.ca
  
  Grass carp are considered the greatest invasive species threat to the Great Lakes because they "aggressively outcompete" native fish for food and are capable of overtaking an ecosystem, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
  
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• CDC's Canceled Climate Change Summit Raises Self-Censorship Concerns

  27-01-2017 21:30 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Scheduled speakers cite political sensitivities, but the government’s disease-control agency has not offered a reason
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• Holocaust Memorial selfie-takers apologise to Israeli shamer

  27-01-2017 21:11
  German-Israeli satirist Shahak Shapira, who set up a website shaming selfie-takers at Berlin's Holocaust Memorial, says he has halted the project for now after a dozen people apologised for their disrespect. Stop doing it," Shapira told Reuters Television. It is often used by visitors for picnics, yoga and other activities that Shapira said he found troubling.
  
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• NASA unveils spaceship hatch 50 years after fatal Apollo 1 fire

  27-01-2017 21:08
  By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA on Friday marked the 50th anniversary of Apollo 1's fatal launchpad fire with the first public display of the scorched hatch that trapped three astronauts in the spaceship during a routine pre-launch test. NASA astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee died when thick smoke filled the crew module of the Apollo 1 capsule on Jan. 27, 1967. Emergency rescue teams rushed to battle the fire at the launchpad, located at what is
  
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• Why salmonella doesn’t want you to poop out

  27-01-2017 21:00
  
  Salmonella bacteria fight infection-driven losses in appetite to keep hosts just healthy enough for transmission.
  
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• Toxic mercury in aquatic life could spike with greater land runoff

  27-01-2017 20:26
  A highly toxic form of mercury could jump by 300 to 600 percent in zooplankton – tiny animals at the base of the marine food chain – if land runoff increases by 15 to 30 percent, according to a new study. And such an increase is possible due to climate change, according to a new pioneering study.
  
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• Scientists find brain hormone that triggers fat burning

  27-01-2017 20:24
  Biologists have identified a brain hormone that appears to trigger fat burning in the gut. Their findings in animal models could have implications for future pharmaceutical development.
  
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• A wolf's stowaways

  27-01-2017 20:24
  Since the year 2000, the Eurasian grey wolf, Canis lupus lupus, has spread across Germany. For researchers, a good reason to have a closer look at the small “occupants” of this returnee and to ask the question whether the number and species of parasites change with an increasing wolf population. This was the case, because the number of parasite species per individual wolf increased as the wolf population expanded. Furthermore, cubs had a higher diversity of parasite species than olde
  
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• Climate change may boost toxic mercury levels in sea life

  27-01-2017 20:10
  
  Increased runoff to the ocean due to climate change could raise neurotoxic mercury in coastal sea life by disrupting the base of the food web.
  
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• Giant 'Hot Jupiters' May Grow Even Larger with Age

  27-01-2017 19:45
  
  Giant planets that orbit near their stars can grow even bigger as they age, a new study finds. Previous research has found a growing number of exoplanets that are larger than expected based on theoretical models of planetary formation and evolution. "The size of a gas giant planet is primarily set by the heat in the deep interior of the planet, and since these planets are not generating [new] heat internally, you would expect them to cool and contract over time," said study lead author Joel Hart
  
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• Snooze patterns vary across cultures, opening eyes to evolution of sleep

  27-01-2017 19:42
  
  Sleep plays out differently across cultures, but a consistent cycle of z’s and activity appears crucial.
  
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• Challenging traditional theories on organisms' 'range expansion'

  27-01-2017 19:13
  As climate change and biological invasions continue to impact global biodiversity, scientists suggest that the way organisms move to new areas, called range expansion, can be impacted directly by evolutionary changes.
  
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• Research suggests way to improve stroke treatments

  27-01-2017 19:12
  Working with animal models, researchers now have demonstrated the potential of giving a drug in combination with tPA that might improve stroke outcomes and increase the window of opportunity for the therapy.
  
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• New survey finds many Americans want changes to ACA but few support immediate repeal

  27-01-2017 19:12
  According to a new national survey on Americans' opinions on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 12 percent of Americans want the ACA kept in its current form, 40 percent say it should be preserved with improvements, 16 percent say the law should be repealed immediately, and 31 percent want a repeal to wait until a replacement is ready.
  
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• Apollo 1: Three Stars Commemorate a Sad Anniversary

  27-01-2017 19:08
  
  Today (Jan. 27) is a sad day for NASA, marking the 50th anniversary of when a flash fire occurred during a launch-pad test of the Apollo/Saturn space vehicle, which was being prepared for its first piloted flight.
  
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• NASA opens exhibit on 50th anniversary of Apollo 1 fire

  27-01-2017 18:45
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA opened an exhibit Friday honoring the astronauts in the Apollo 1 fire — 50 years to the day they died.
  
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• Rogue government tweeters in U.S. could be prosecuted as hackers

  27-01-2017 18:36 via cbc.ca
  
  Who are the federal government's rogue tweeters, using official agency social media accounts to poke President Donald Trump? Are these acts of civil disobedience, or federal crimes?
  
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• Rogue government tweeters could be prosecuted as hackers

  27-01-2017 18:36 via cbc.ca
  
  Who are the federal government's rogue tweeters, using official agency social media accounts to poke President Donald Trump? Are these acts of civil disobedience, or federal crimes?
  
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• Lucy in the Sky with Protein: Key to LSD's Psychoactive Potency Found?

  27-01-2017 18:00 via rss.sciam.com
  
  The discovery of how LSD changes a protein’s structure may explain why the drug is so powerful, and why its trips are so long and strange
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Britain plan to leave Euratom could delay new nuclear build

  27-01-2017 17:51
  
  LONDON (Reuters) - British plans to leave the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) when it exits the European Union could raise costs, delay new nuclear power projects and complicate research and international cooperation agreements, experts said on Friday.
  
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• Australia's 'fairy possum' faces uncertain future

  27-01-2017 17:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A tiny possum, an emblem of the state of Victoria in Australia, is rapidly heading towards extinction, say scientists.
  
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• 'Survival gene' stops strains of TB mutating into deadly 'superbugs'

  27-01-2017 17:30
  A newly found 'survival gene' stops strains of TB mutating into deadly 'superbugs,' outlines a new report. The discovery of a gene called NucS that dramatically reduces mutation rates in mycobacteria -- the infectious microbe which causes tuberculosis (TB).
  
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• Safe uti­li­za­tion of die­ta­ry su­gars requi­res dy­na­mic cont­rol of re­dox ba­lance

  27-01-2017 17:30
  Without dynamic control of redox balance animals lose their ability to survive on sugar-rich food. The regulatory system to control redox balance involves sugar-dependent gene regulation and protein phosphorylation.
  
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• Roots of Alzheimer's disease can extend as far back as the womb

  27-01-2017 17:30
  Biochemical reactions that cause Alzheimer's disease could begin in the womb or just after birth if the fetus or newborn does not get enough vitamin A, according to new research. These new findings, based on studies of genetically-engineered mice, also demonstrate that supplements given to newborns with low levels of vitamin A could be effective in slowing the degenerative brain disease.
  
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• Rapid trait evolution crucial to species growth

  27-01-2017 17:30
  Rapid evolution at the edges of a given species habitat may play a larger role in population expansions than previously suspected, according to the results of a new study.
  
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• New review of medicinal compounds in toad secretions compiled

  27-01-2017 17:30
  The cane toad, which overran Australia when introduced there, and Panama's iconic, endangered golden frog both belong to the family Bufonidae. Researchers combed through many research papers to compile all of the known chemicals produced by members of this amphibian family well known to practitioners of folk medicine. This is a first step toward the identification of new pharmaceuticals from amphibians at a time when human diseases are becoming alarmingly antibiotic resistant.
  
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• Nanoparticles hitchhiking their way along strands of hair

  27-01-2017 17:30
  In shampoo ads, hair always looks like a shiny, smooth surface. But for physicists peering into microscopes, the hair surface looks much more rugged, as it is made of saw-tooth, ratchet-like scales. In a new theoretical study scientists have demonstrated that massaging hair can help to apply drug treatment -- encapsulated in nanoparticles trapped in the channels formed around individual hairs -- to the hair roots.
  
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• Chronic sleep deprivation suppresses immune system

  27-01-2017 17:30
  Many people report getting sick when they don't get enough sleep. A new study helps explain why. Researchers took blood samples from 11 pairs of identical twins with different sleep patterns and discovered that the twin with shorter sleep duration had a depressed immune system, compared with his or her sibling.
  
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• The link between growth of retail-based clinics, nurse practitioner scope-of-practice reform

  27-01-2017 17:29
  Just as primary care provider shortages are becoming acute, retail-based clinics in pharmacies and grocery stores are set to fill the gap in accessible patient care. Yet in some states, access to this convenient care is constrained due to restrictive scope-of-practice laws.
  
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• Scientist uncovers physics behind plasma-etching process

  27-01-2017 17:29
  A team of physicists has uncovered some of the physics that make possible the etching of silicon computer chips, which power cell phones, computers, and a huge range of electronic devices.
  
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• Impact of genetics on human height is not increasing

  27-01-2017 17:29
  The relative impact of genetics on height does not increase with improvements to the standard of living. These are the findings of an international research group that analyzed the impact of genetic and environmental factors on adult height over a span of more than a century. The research material comprised 40 twin cohorts, including more than 143,000 twin pairs from 20 countries.
  
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• Anthropologists uncover art by (really) old masters

  27-01-2017 17:29
  An international team of anthropologists has uncovered a 38,000-year-old engraved image in a southwestern French rockshelter -- a finding that marks some of the earliest known graphic imagery found in Western Eurasia and offers insights into the nature of modern humans during this period.
  
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• Stem cell secretions may protect against glaucoma

  27-01-2017 17:28
  Stem cell secretions, called exosomes, appear to protect cells in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye, a new study in rats shows. The findings point to potential therapies for glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness in the United States.
  
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• Oral devices reduce sleep apnea but may not affect heart disease risk factors

  27-01-2017 17:28
  In patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), oral appliances that treat the condition by moving the lower jaw forward appear to improve sleep but not reduce key risk factors for developing heart and other cardiovascular disease, according to new research.
  
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• AP WAS THERE: 50 years ago, AP reported on fatal Apollo fire

  27-01-2017 17:28
  
  CAPE KENNEDY, Fla. (AP) — The three Apollo I astronauts were killed tonight by a flash fire that trapped them aboard the huge spacecraft designed to take man to the moon by 1970.
  
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• Paris and Michael Jackson: Does Depression Run in Families?

  27-01-2017 17:19
  
  Paris Jackson recently spoke about struggling with both depression and anxiety. When family members have the same mental health condition, is it a coincidence, the result of sharing the same household environment or evidence that the condition is heritable? Depression is "in the same class as many other complex disorders, like diabetes," in terms of its heritability, Myrna M. Weissman, a professor of epidemiology and psychiatry at Columbia University in New York, told Live Science.
  
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• Scientists Grow Mouse Pancreas Inside a Rat

  27-01-2017 17:18
  
  In a recent experiment to help out mice that were missing their pancreases, scientists grew new pancreases from mouse stem cells in the bodies of rats, and then transplanted those pancreases into the mice. The work holds promise for alleviating the severe shortage of donated human organs, they said. "However, there is a much greater evolutionary distance between humans and pigs or sheep than there is between mice and rats, and this could create challenges," said the study's senior author, Hiromi
  
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• Why Fancy Baby Monitors Aren't Needed for Healthy Babies

  27-01-2017 17:14
  
  Today's high-end baby monitors do far more than just show video of a little one — some offer to measure babies' vital signs, including their breathing and heart rate, and let parents track all this info on their smartphones. There is currently no evidence that such monitors are accurate, the researchers said.Moreover, using these devices may lead to false alarms about babies'  health and safety that do not actually mean that there is something is going wrong, the researchers said. For
  
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• Can a Roommate's Genes Influence Your Health?

  27-01-2017 17:14
  
  In a new study, researchers found that the genetics of a mouse's cage mate can affect its own health in a multitude of ways. "The take-away message here is that we need to pay attention to the genetic makeup of social partners, since in some cases it affects health more than the individual's own genes," said Amelie Baud, a postdoctoral fellow at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, England, and first author on the study. "This is something we did not know before," Baud told Live Sci
  
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• Early Menopause Linked to a Woman's Reproductive History

  27-01-2017 17:13
  The age at which women get their first period, along with the number of children they have, may influence when they enter menopause, a new study from Australia finds. Women in the study who got their first period before age 12 and had no children were five times more likely to experience premature menopause, and twice as likely to experience early menopause, than were women who got their first period at age 12 or later, and who had two or more children. A woman’s age at her first period an
  
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• Cluster of Mysterious Amnesia Cases Puzzles Researchers

  27-01-2017 17:13
  
  More than a dozen people in Massachusetts suddenly developed severe amnesia, but there was no clear cause of their memory loss, leaving researchers puzzled about what exactly could have been behind these cases, according to a new report. In the report, researchers describe a cluster of 14 cases involving people who experienced sudden amnesia, and who were treated in Massachusetts from 2012 to 2016. The patients showed "striking anterograde amnesia," according to the report, from researchers at t
  
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• Scientists have created the first human-pig hybrid

  27-01-2017 15:27
  
  It’s known as a “chimera.”
  
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• NASA Displays Apollo 1 Command Module Hatches 50 Years After Fatal Fire

  27-01-2017 15:20
  
  CAPE CANAVERAL — Fifty years ago, after NASA completed its investigation into a fire that claimed the lives of three of its astronauts on the launch pad, the space agency stored the scorched remains of its first crewed Apollo spacecraft out of view at its research center in Virginia. Now, half a century after the tragedy, NASA has placed on display the three hatches from the flame-damaged Apollo 1 command module, marking the first time any artifact from the capsule has been on pu
  
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• Single-molecule technique to explain thermodynamic behavior of complex biomolecular systems

  27-01-2017 15:02
  Most thermodynamic measurements of binding reactions rely on the validity of the law of mass action and the assumption of a dilute solution. Yet, important biological systems such as allosteric ligand-receptor binding, macromolecular crowding, or misfolded molecules may not fulfill these assumptions and may require a particular reaction model. A new article reports that researchers have determined thermodynamic properties in biomolecular complex systems such as binding energies, chemical selecti
  
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