Science news

• Bondage, gifts and cannibalism: A spider's Valentine's Day

  12-02-2017 22:15 via cbc.ca
  
  With Valentine's Day approaching, a bit of bondage could be in the cards, perhaps some dancing or a gift before things get spicy. Oh, there's also the possibility of some cannibalism after a bit of passionate procreation.
  
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• SpaceX's Falcon 9 Rocket Stands Atop Historic NASA Launchpad for 1st Time

  12-02-2017 14:35
  
  SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has gone vertical at NASA's historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) for the first time. The California-based company is getting ready for a planned Feb. 18 liftoff from LC-39A, which is part of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Falcon 9 will blast SpaceX's robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA, if all goes according to plan.
  
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• Rare books worth £2m stolen in 'Mission: Impossible heist'

  12-02-2017 13:05
  A gang has reportedly stolen antique books worth more than £2m from a warehouse in a daring heist likened to the Mission: Impossible movies. Early works by Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci and Italian scientist Galileo were also reportedly stolen, along with a 1569 edition of Dante's Divine Comedy. The books, belonging to three dealers, were being stored in a warehouse near Heathrow Airport in west London before being flown to the US for this weekend's 50th California International Antiquar
  
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• Race for kilowatts empties Bosnian lake

  12-02-2017 08:33
  
  Bosnia's fisheries watchdog gazes over an expanse of sand and mud, a space once occupied by a large thriving lake but recently emptied in the race for electricity production.
  
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• Australian bushfires threaten properties, close roads

  12-02-2017 08:16
  By Harry Pearl SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian authorities ordered the evacuation of some sparsely populated rural areas of New South Wales on Sunday as bushfires, fanned by extreme heat and strong winds, raged across the state, threatening homes and closing roads. A heat wave on Australia's east coast saw temperatures hit records in some parts of the state, creating conditions that officials said were worse than those preceding Victoria's 2009 "Black Saturday" fires, Australia's worst bush fire e
  
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• Hundreds of whales in second New Zealand stranding able to swim free

  12-02-2017 06:55
  By Harry Pearl SYDNEY (Reuters) - New Zealand conservation authorities said 240 pilot whales that were stranded overnight at a remote bay which only days earlier had a larger beaching refloated themselves on Sunday and were swimming offshore. "We had 240 whales strand yesterday in the afternoon and we were fearful we were going to end up with 240 dead whales this morning," Herb Christophers, a Department of Conservation spokesman said. "But they self-rescued, in other words the tide came in and
  
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• UMD physicist improves method for designing fusion experiments

  12-02-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Maryland) University of Maryland physicist Matt Landreman has made an important revision to a software tool used to design fusion experiments known as stellarators. The new method results in designs that create a magnetic field suitable for confining blazing-hot plasma, while allowing better access for repairs and more places to install sensors. Landreman's new method is described in a paper published Feb. 13, 2017 in the journal Nuclear Fusion.
  
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• Passengers take mobile measure of comfort for railway companies

  12-02-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Birmingham) Passengers could soon be using their mobile phones to help rail companies around the globe improve the ride quality on their trains, thanks to new research.
  
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• Nicotine exposure during and after pregnancy can cause hearing problems in children

  12-02-2017 06:00
  
  (The Physiological Society) Nicotine exposure, before and after birth, can cause a child to have hearing problems due to abnormal development in the auditory brainstem. This is according to a mouse model study published in The Journal of Physiology.
  
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• 'Anti-aging' hormone could unlock new treatments for kidney and heart disease

  12-02-2017 06:00
  
  (King's College London) A new study by researchers at King's College London has found that patients with diabetes suffering from the early stages of kidney disease have a deficiency of the protective 'anti-aging' hormone, Klotho.
  
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• More than 200 whales swim away after New Zealand stranding

  12-02-2017 05:41
  
  Whale lovers in New Zealand finally got some good news on Sunday after more than 200 stranded whales managed to refloat themselves overnight and swim away, while volunteers managed to save another 17 whales ...
  
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• New Zealand whales: Hundreds refloat on high tide at Farewell Spit

  12-02-2017 03:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  More than 200 whales that became stranded at Farewell Spit on Saturday are freed by the tide.
  
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• Bolivia begins fumigation against locust plague

  12-02-2017 02:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Chemical spraying began in Santa Cruz department, the eastern grain region of the country.
  
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• Turkmenistan leader certain to win third term in vote

  12-02-2017 00:31
  Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is certain to secure a third term in office in Sunday's presidential election, maintaining his grip on power in the isolated gas-rich nation. Berdymukhamedov, 59, has run the former Soviet republic of five million people with an iron fist for a decade after succeeding equally autocratic president-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov who died in 2006. Berdymukhamedov, a dentist by training, has kept in place Niyazov's repressive political system which tolerates no
  
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