Science news

• Your internet provider can't pick which apps and services count against your data cap, says CRTC

  20-04-2017 22:00 via cbc.ca
  
  Zero-rating might sound like a good deal, but critics say it violates a core principle of net neutrality — and Canada's telecommunications regulator agrees.
  
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• China launches 1st cargo spacecraft destined for its space station

  20-04-2017 21:51 via cbc.ca
  
  ​China on Thursday launched its first unmanned cargo spacecraft on a mission to dock with the country's space station, marking further progress in the ambitious Chinese space program.
  
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• Collider data hint at unexpected new subatomic particles

  20-04-2017 21:47
  
  A set of particle decay measurements could be evidence for new physics.
  
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• Scientists create fluid that seems to defy physics

  20-04-2017 20:57 via cbc.ca
  
  Imagine something that reacts totally opposite to the way it should. That's what scientists at Washington State University have created, and it could help them better understand our universe.
  
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• Transgenerational transmission of environmental information in C. elegans

  20-04-2017 19:27
  The environment experienced by an animal can sometimes influence gene expression for one or a few subsequent generations. Here, we report the observation that a temperature-induced change in expression from a Caenorhabditis elegans heterochromatic gene array can endure for at least 14 generations. Inheritance is primarily in cis with the locus, occurs through both oocytes and sperm, and is associated with altered trimethylation of histone H3 lysine 9 (H3K9me3) before the onset of zygotic transcr
  
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• The interaction of human population, food production, and biodiversity protection

  20-04-2017 19:27
  Research suggests that the scale of human population and the current pace of its growth contribute substantially to the loss of biological diversity. Although technological change and unequal consumption inextricably mingle with demographic impacts on the environment, the needs of all human beings—especially for food—imply that projected population growth will undermine protection of the natural world. Numerous solutions have been proposed to boost food production while protecting bi
  
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• Stromal Gli2 activity coordinates a niche signaling program for mammary epithelial stem cells

  20-04-2017 19:27
  The stem cell niche is a complex local signaling microenvironment that sustains stem cell activity during organ maintenance and regeneration. The mammary gland niche must support its associated stem cells while also responding to systemic hormonal regulation that triggers pubertal changes. We find that Gli2, the major Hedgehog pathway transcriptional effector, acts within mouse mammary stromal cells to direct a hormone-responsive niche signaling program by activating expression of factors that r
  
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• Single-cell RNA-seq reveals new types of human blood dendritic cells, monocytes, and progenitors

  20-04-2017 19:27
  Dendritic cells (DCs) and monocytes play a central role in pathogen sensing, phagocytosis, and antigen presentation and consist of multiple specialized subtypes. However, their identities and interrelationships are not fully understood. Using unbiased single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of ~2400 cells, we identified six human DCs and four monocyte subtypes in human blood. Our study reveals a new DC subset that shares properties with plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) but potently activates T cells, thus r
  
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• Quantitative 3D evolution of colloidal nanoparticle oxidation in solution

  20-04-2017 19:27
  Real-time tracking of the three-dimensional (3D) evolution of colloidal nanoparticles in solution is essential for understanding complex mechanisms involved in nanoparticle growth and transformation. We used time-resolved small-angle and wide-angle x-ray scattering simultaneously to monitor oxidation of highly uniform colloidal iron nanoparticles, enabling the reconstruction of intermediate 3D morphologies of the nanoparticles with a spatial resolution of ~5 angstroms. The in situ observations,
  
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• Neonatal acquisition of Clostridia species protects against colonization by bacterial pathogens

  20-04-2017 19:27
  The high susceptibility of neonates to infections has been assumed to be due to immaturity of the immune system, but the mechanism remains unclear. By colonizing adult germ-free mice with the cecal contents of neonatal and adult mice, we show that the neonatal microbiota is unable to prevent colonization by two bacterial pathogens that cause mortality in neonates. The lack of colonization resistance occurred when Clostridiales were absent in the neonatal microbiota. Administration of Clostridial
  
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• Microtubules acquire resistance from mechanical breakage through intralumenal acetylation

  20-04-2017 19:27
  Eukaryotic cells rely on long-lived microtubules for intracellular transport and as compression-bearing elements. We considered that long-lived microtubules are acetylated inside their lumen and that microtubule acetylation may modify microtubule mechanics. Here, we found that tubulin acetylation is required for the mechanical stabilization of long-lived microtubules in cells. Depletion of the tubulin acetyltransferase TAT1 led to a significant increase in the frequency of microtubule breakage.
  
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• Low-temperature activation of methane on the IrO2(110) surface

  20-04-2017 19:27
  Methane undergoes highly facile C–H bond cleavage on the stoichiometric IrO2(110) surface. From temperature-programmed reaction spectroscopy experiments, we found that methane molecularly adsorbed as a strongly boundcomplex on IrO2(110) and that a large fraction of the adsorbed complexes underwent C–H bond cleavage at temperatures as low as 150 kelvin (K). The initial dissociation probability of methane on IrO2(110) decreased from 80 to 20% with increasing surface temperature from 17
  
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• iPTF16geu: A multiply imaged, gravitationally lensed type Ia supernova

  20-04-2017 19:27
  We report the discovery of a multiply imaged, gravitationally lensed type Ia supernova, iPTF16geu (SN 2016geu), at redshift z = 0.409. This phenomenon was identified because the light from the stellar explosion was magnified more than 50 times by the curvature of space around matter in an intervening galaxy. We used high-spatial-resolution observations to resolve four images of the lensed supernova, approximately 0.3 arc seconds from the center of the foreground galaxy. The observations probe a
  
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• Greater role for Atlantic inflows on sea-ice loss in the Eurasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean

  20-04-2017 19:27
  Arctic sea-ice loss is a leading indicator of climate change and can be attributed, in large part, to atmospheric forcing. Here, we show that recent ice reductions, weakening of the halocline, and shoaling of the intermediate-depth Atlantic Water layer in the eastern Eurasian Basin have increased winter ventilation in the ocean interior, making this region structurally similar to that of the western Eurasian Basin. The associated enhanced release of oceanic heat has reduced winter sea-ice format
  
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• Fructose-driven glycolysis supports anoxia resistance in the naked mole-rat

  20-04-2017 19:27
  The African naked mole-rat’s (Heterocephalus glaber) social and subterranean lifestyle generates a hypoxic niche. Under experimental conditions, naked mole-rats tolerate hours of extreme hypoxia and survive 18 minutes of total oxygen deprivation (anoxia) without apparent injury. During anoxia, the naked mole-rat switches to anaerobic metabolism fueled by fructose, which is actively accumulated and metabolized to lactate in the brain. Global expression of the GLUT5 fructose transporter and
  
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• Ecosystem management as a wicked problem

  20-04-2017 19:27
  Ecosystems are self-regulating systems that provide societies with food, water, timber, and other resources. As demands for resources increase, management decisions are replacing self-regulating properties. Counter to previous technical approaches that applied simple formulas to estimate sustainable yields of single species, current research recognizes the inherent complexity of ecosystems and the inability to foresee all consequences of interventions across different spatial, temporal, and admi
  
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• Control of muscle formation by the fusogenic micropeptide myomixer

  20-04-2017 19:27
  Skeletal muscle formation occurs through fusion of myoblasts to form multinucleated myofibers. From a genome-wide clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) loss-of-function screen for genes required for myoblast fusion and myogenesis, we discovered an 84–amino acid muscle-specific peptide that we call Myomixer. Myomixer expression coincides with myoblast differentiation and is essential for fusion and skeletal muscle formation during embryogenesis. Myomixer localiz
  
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• Biodiversity losses and conservation responses in the Anthropocene

  20-04-2017 19:27
  Biodiversity is essential to human well-being, but people have been reducing biodiversity throughout human history. Loss of species and degradation of ecosystems are likely to further accelerate in the coming years. Our understanding of this crisis is now clear, and world leaders have pledged to avert it. Nonetheless, global goals to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss have mostly not been achieved. However, many examples of conservation success show that losses can be halted and even reversed.
  
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• Biased partitioning of the multidrug efflux pump AcrAB-TolC underlies long-lived phenotypic heterogeneity

  20-04-2017 19:27
  The molecular mechanisms underlying phenotypic variation in isogenic bacterial populations remain poorly understood. We report that AcrAB-TolC, the main multidrug efflux pump of Escherichia coli, exhibits a strong partitioning bias for old cell poles by a segregation mechanism that is mediated by ternary AcrAB-TolC complex formation. Mother cells inheriting old poles are phenotypically distinct and display increased drug efflux activity relative to daughters. Consequently, we find systematic and
  
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• Beyond the roots of human inaction: Fostering collective effort toward ecosystem conservation

  20-04-2017 19:27
  The term "environmental problem" exposes a fundamental misconception: Disruptions of Earth’s ecosystems are at their root a human behavior problem. Psychology is a potent tool for understanding the external and internal drivers of human behavior that lead to unsustainable living. Psychologists already contribute to individual-level behavior-change campaigns in the service of sustainability, but attention is turning toward understanding and facilitating the role of individuals in collective
  
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• A parity-breaking electronic nematic phase transition in the spin-orbit coupled metal Cd2Re2O7

  20-04-2017 19:27
  Strong electron interactions can drive metallic systems toward a variety of well-known symmetry-broken phases, but the instabilities of correlated metals with strong spin-orbit coupling have only recently begun to be explored. We uncovered a multipolar nematic phase of matter in the metallic pyrochlore Cd2Re2O7 using spatially resolved second-harmonic optical anisotropy measurements. Like previously discovered electronic nematic phases, this multipolar phase spontaneously breaks rotational symme
  
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• Bill Gates Enthusiastic about Disease-Fighting Progress

  20-04-2017 19:20 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Mass distribution of medications, international partnerships and targeted research are on track to eradicate sleeping sickness, Guinea worm and other ancient ailments
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Bose faces lawsuit over allegations its headphones spy on users

  20-04-2017 15:07 via cbc.ca
  
  Bose Corp spies on its wireless headphone customers by using an app that tracks the music, podcasts and other audio they listen to, and violates their privacy rights by selling the information without permission, a lawsuit charged.
  
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• The Brain Boasts Its Own Social Network

  20-04-2017 14:45 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Widely interconnected regions detect the status of friends and acquaintances
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• CRTC rules today on video, music streaming services and data plans

  20-04-2017 14:33 via cbc.ca
  
  Canada's telecommunications watchdog is set to release a decision today that could change whether all video and music streaming services count towards customers' cellular data plans.
  
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• Environmental group sues Catherine McKenna for failing to report on efforts to save caribou habitat

  20-04-2017 13:12 via cbc.ca
  
  An environmental group is taking Canada's environment minister to court for what it says is a failure to uphold its responsibilities laid out in the Species at Risk Act.
  
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• Some of the Parts: Is Marijuana's "Entourage Effect" Scientifically Valid?

  20-04-2017 12:45 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Industry players swear pot’s many chemicals work in concert, but most scientists hear a THC solo
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• American, Russian en route to joining Space Station crew

  20-04-2017 09:58 via cbc.ca
  
  A Soyuz space capsule has blasted off for the International Space Station, carrying an American astronaut making his first space flight and a veteran Russian cosmonaut.
  
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• UAB performs Alabama's first transplant where cadaver liver is 'kept alive' outside body

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Alabama at Birmingham) A new clinical trial seeks to determine whether a machine that pumps warm, oxygenated blood in cadaver kidneys outside of the body can improve quality of the organ prior to transplant.
  
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• Summit to examine issues confronting Great Lakes

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Illinois at Chicago) 'Untrouble the Waters' features Great Lakes mayors, environmental advocates and community leaders who will address critical issues impacting the Great Lakes region.
  
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• Study shows hearing tests miss common form of hearing loss

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (University at Buffalo) Traditional clinical hearing tests often fail to diagnose patients with a common form of inner ear damage that might otherwise be detected by more challenging behavioral tests, according to the findings of a University at Buffalo-led study published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.
  
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• Seeing quadruple: Four images of the same supernova, a rare find

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Galaxies bend light through an effect called gravitational lensing that helps astronomers peer deeper into the cosmos.
  
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• Saiful Chowdhury named ASMS 'emerging investigator' for work linked to cancer, aging

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Texas at Arlington) The American Society of Mass Spectrometry has named Saiful Chowdhury, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at The University of Texas at Arlington, as one of the leading emerging investigators worldwide for his work developing new techniques using mass spectrometry to differentiate protein modifications linked to cancer and aging.
  
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• Researchers produce detailed map of potential Mars rover landing site

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (Brown University) Mineral deposits in a region on Mars called Northeast Syrtis Major suggest a plethora of once-habitable environments. By mapping those deposits in the region's larger geological context, the research could help set the stage for a possible rover mission.
  
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• Recognizing foreign accents helps brains process accented speech

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (Penn State) Our brains process foreign-accented speech with better real-time accuracy if we can identify the accent we hear, according to a team of neurolinguists.
  
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• Rare supernova discovery ushers in new era for cosmology

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) With from an automated supernova-hunting pipeline based at NERSC, astronomers have captured multiple images of a gravitationally lensed Type 1a supernova. This detection is currently the only one of its kind, but astronomers believe that if they can find more they may be able to measure the rate of the Universe's expansion within four percent accuracy. Fortunately, two Berkeley Lab researchers do have a method for identifying more of these events using
  
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• Rare brightening of a supernova's light found by Caltech's Palomar Observatory

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (California Institute of Technology) An international team of astronomers has, for the first time, seen a cosmic magnification of the light from a class of supernova called Type Ia.
  
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• NASA sees the formation of early Atlantic Ocean Tropical Depression 1

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) A low pressure area in the Atlantic Ocean, located southwest of the Azores was designated as Subtropical Depression One on April 19 as NASA examined its rainfall. By April 20 it had become the Atlantic's first tropical depression.
  
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• NASA sees the end of ex-Tropical Cyclone 02W

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite spotted the remnants of Tropical Cyclone 02W southeast of Taiwan in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean as the system was dissipating.
  
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• Medicaid expansion linked with increase in prescriptions filled for chronic conditions

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) During the first one and a half years of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the number of prescriptions filled by adults using Medicaid coverage increased by 19 percent in states that expanded Medicaid compared to states that did not, according to a new study from a Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health researcher and colleagues. The largest increases were for medications to manage chronic conditions such as diabetes, and for birth control.
  
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• Man hunts for lost shipwrecks using NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper's 'treasure map from space'

  20-04-2017 06:00 via cbc.ca
  
  In the new Discovery Channel series Cooper's Treasure, Darrell Miklos travels the world in search of long-lost shipwrecks using a treasure map made from space.
  
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• Light rays from a supernova bent by the curvature of space-time around a galaxy

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (Stockholm University) An international research team led by Ariel Goobar at Stockholm University has detected for the first time multiple images from a gravitationally lensed Type Ia supernova. The new observations suggest promising new avenues for the study of the accelerated expansion of the universe, gravity and distribution of dark matter in the universe.
  
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• Hubble observes first multiple images of explosive distance indicator

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (ESA/Hubble Information Centre) A Swedish-led team of astronomers used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to analyze the multiple images of a gravitationally lensed type Ia supernova for the first time. The four images of the exploding star will be used to measure the expansion of the Universe. This can be done without any theoretical assumptions about the cosmological model, giving further clues about how fast the Universe is really expanding. The results are published in the journal Science.
  
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• Hubble celebrates 27 years with two close friends

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (ESA/Hubble Information Centre) This stunning cosmic pairing of the two very different looking spiral galaxies NGC 4302 and NGC 4298 was imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The image brilliantly captures their warm stellar glow and brown, mottled patterns of dust. As a perfect demonstration of Hubble's capabilities, this spectacular view has been released as part of the telescope's 27th anniversary celebrations.
  
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• Effects of alcoholism on the brain's reward system may be different in women than in men

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (Massachusetts General Hospital) A collaborative study between researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston University School of Medicine has found evidence implying that alcoholism may have different effects on the reward system in the brains of women than it does in men.
  
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• Economists price BP oil spill damage to natural resources at $17.2 billion

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (University of California - San Diego) The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest maritime oil spill in US history. Almost seven years to the day after the start of the environmental disaster, researchers have published a price tag of the damage done to natural resources: $17.2 billion.
  
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• Crystals grown aboard space station provide radiation detecting technology

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (NASA/Johnson Space Center) Research into crystal growth in microgravity was one of the earliest investigations conducted aboard the International Space Station and is continued to this day. The unique microgravity environment of space provides an ideal setting for producing crystals that are more perfect than their terrestrial-grown counterparts. The Crystal Growth of Cs2LiYCl6:Ce Scintillators in Microgravity (CLYC-Crystal Growth), a Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS)-spons
  
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• Can we see a singularity, the most extreme object in the universe?

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) Scientists at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research have found new ways to detect a bare or naked singularity, the most extreme object in the universe. This finding has possible astrophysical implications.
  
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• AGU journal commentaries highlight importance of Earth and space science research

  20-04-2017 06:00
  
  (American Geophysical Union) The American Geophysical Union (AGU) today published a collection of 27 essays as commentaries in its scientific journals highlighting the important role Earth and space science research plays in society.
  
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