Science news

• Trump’s proposed 2018 budget takes an ax to science research funding

  26-05-2017 23:26
  
  Administration would cut total federal research spending by about 17 percent, according to a preliminary estimate.
  
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• Planting trees can't counter carbon emissions: Bob McDonald

  26-05-2017 23:05 via cbc.ca
  
  Trees absorb carbon dioxide, but we just can't plant enough to absorb all our fossil fuel emissions.
  
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• Secretive Facebook project wants to turn thoughts to text

  26-05-2017 22:39 via cbc.ca
  
  One of the hottest topics at next week's Code Conference will be Facebook's efforts to connect technology directly to our bodies, including a way to translate thoughts directly into text.
  
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• Terrorists' moral judgment probed in psychology test

  26-05-2017 20:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Researchers say their study identifies "cognitive factors" that might lie behind brutal acts.
  
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• Europeans try to convince Trump not to pull out of climate accord

  26-05-2017 19:01 via cbc.ca
  
  European leaders have mounted a last-ditch effort to stop President Donald Trump from abandoning the Paris climate accord, using multiple meetings this week to sell the American leader on the global agreement to reduce carbon emissions.
  
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• Endangered turtles saved by citizens of Ontario hamlet

  26-05-2017 19:00 via cbc.ca
  
  For years, on a 3.6-kilometre roadway in southern Ontario, thousands of turtles and snakes were struck and killed. Then residents of the small town decided to put an end to it.
  
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• Running is contagious among those with the competitive bug

  26-05-2017 17:00
  
  Can behaviors really be contagious? Runners log more miles when their friends do — especially if they want to stay leader of the pack, a new study finds.
  
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• Britain's great explorations now online

  26-05-2017 14:16 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Royal Geographical Society is releasing films of its scientific explorations from the early 20th Century.
  
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• Who Will Build the World's First Commercial Space Station?

  26-05-2017 13:15 via rss.sciam.com
  
  A start-up aims to add new construction to the International Space Station to prep for a private sector orbital outpost
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• Magnetism disrupts winds on ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanet

  26-05-2017 13:00
  
  Simulations of HAT-P 7b’s magnetic field give clues to why the exoplanet’s winds blow both east and west.
  
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• Brood Awakening: 17-Year Cicadas Emerge 4 Years Early

  26-05-2017 12:45 via rss.sciam.com
  
  Scientists search for the mysterious cause, as millions of hatching bugs loudly buzz the night away
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• Using the wrong emoji can cost you — literally

  26-05-2017 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  A recent case in the Israeli courts saw a defendant pay $3000 because of a few texts and emojis. While this all might seem a little silly, it signals a not-so-silly shift in the way communication is changing.
  
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• Malicious hackers say they demanded $50,000 ransom for stolen Bell data

  26-05-2017 11:00 via cbc.ca
  
  After 1.9 million email addresses were stolen from Bell's system, a person using the online handle "exodus" claimed to be one of two people behind the theft.
  
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• Can fish skin help treat burns?

  26-05-2017 06:08 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Doctors in Brazil are experimenting with a new treatment for burns by using fish skin.
  
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• Tornado spawning Eastern US storms examined by NASA's GPM satellite

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) On Wednesday May 24, 2017, severe weather affected a large area of the eastern United States. That's when the Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite passed over the area and found extremely heavy rainfall and towering clouds in the system.
  
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• 'Tiny clocks' crystallize understanding of meteorite crashes

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Western Ontario) Scientists from Western University and the University of Portsmouth are using new imaging techniques to measure the atomic nanostructure of ancient crystal fragments at meteorite impact sites. The end goal? To understand when impacts ended and life began.
  
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• Study takes step toward mass-producible quantum computers

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Study takes step toward mass-producible quantum computers.
  
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• Penn State DNA ladders: Inexpensive molecular rulers for DNA research

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (Penn State) New license-free tools will allow researchers to estimate the size of DNA fragments for a fraction of the cost of currently available methods. The tools, called a DNA ladders, can gauge DNA fragments ranging from about 50 to 5,000 base pairs in length.
  
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• Ontario town's 10-year, $2.7 million effort to save endangered turtles offers global lessons, template

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (Terry Collins Assoc) With C$2.7 million in government and private funding from Canada and the US, a 10-year community-led project on the north shore of Lake Erie has dramatically reduced roadkill on a thoroughfare running through a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.A new paper estimates 89 percent fewer turtles and 28 percent fewer snakes now venture onto Ontario's Long Point Causeway, an important achievement in protecting at-risk species offering a model for other communities worldwide.
  
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• No green light for latest traffic light app following expert evaluation

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Huddersfield) Psychologist Dr Kyle Wilson takes a 'human look' at a new vehicle traffic light app ahead of plans to introduce similar devices into 'connected vehicles'
  
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• New photocatalyst speeds up the conversion of carbon dioxide into chemical resources

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (DGIST (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology)) A new oxygen-deficient titanium dioxide prepared with Mg reduction method drastically improves the carbon dioxide conversion efficiency up to three times the efficiency of existing photocatalyst. It is expected to be applied for carbon dioxide resources and reduction technology.
  
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• New cellular target may put the brakes on cancer's ability to spread

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (Johns Hopkins University) Researchers have discovered a biochemical signaling process that causes densely packed cancer cells to break away from a tumor and spread the disease elsewhere in the body.
  
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• New £3.5 million microscope and ion accelerator now operational

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Huddersfield) THE completion of a £3.5 million research facility means that the University of Huddersfield is established as one of Europe's leading centres for the use of ion beams as a tool for the investigation of issues ranging from nuclear technology and nanoparticles to semiconductors and the effects of radiation exposure on materials in space.
  
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• Nagoya University researchers break down plastic waste

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (Nagoya University) Nagoya University team develops ruthenium catalysts to hydrogenate inert amide bonds under mild conditions. Molecular design of the catalyst framework promotes a key step of the reaction, the transfer of hydrogen to the amide, to greatly improve reactivity. This new low-energy approach may enable designer peptide synthesis and facilitate break down of plastic waste into more useful compounds.
  
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• Mind-controlled device helps stroke patients retrain brains to move paralyzed hands

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (Washington University School of Medicine) Stroke patients who learned to use their minds to open and close a plastic brace fitted over their paralyzed hands gained some ability to control their own hands when they were not wearing the brace, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The participants, all of whom had moderate to severe paralysis, showed significant improvement in grasping objects.
  
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• Laptops and tablets in the classroom: How to integrate electronic devices in the university

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Seville) For the authors, the high correlation between student tablet use and greater activity on social networks is worrying. They define this devices as a double-edged sword, as they can be the Trojan horse in which online entertainment invades the classroom in a massive way.
  
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• Fungal enzymes team up to more efficiently break down cellulose

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (DOE/Joint Genome Institute) Cost-effectively breaking down bioenergy crops into sugars that can then be converted into fuel is a barrier to commercially producing sustainable biofuels. Bioenergy researchers are looking to fungi for help; collectively, they can break down almost any substance on earth, including plant biomass. Enabled by US Department of Energy Office of Science User Facilities, a team reports for the first time that early lineages of fungi can form enzyme complexes capable of d
  
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• Designer viruses stimulate the immune system to fight cancer

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (Université de Genève) Swiss scientists from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and the University of Basel have created artificial viruses that can be used to target cancer. These designer viruses alert the immune system and cause it to send killer cells to help fight the tumor. The results, published in the journal Nature Communications, provide a basis for innovative cancer treatments.
  
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• Construction begins on the world's first super telescope

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Oxford) Scientists are a step closer to understanding the inner-workings of the universe following the laying of the first stone, and construction starting on the world's largest optical and infrared telescope.With a main mirror 39 meters in diameter, the Extremely Large Telescope, is going to be, as its name suggests, enormous. Unlike any other before it, ELT is also designed to be an adaptive telescope and has the ability to correct atmospheric turbulence, taking telescope engin
  
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• Conch shells may inspire better helmets, body armor

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) MIT engineers have uncovered the secret to the exceptional toughness of conch shells, and say the same principles can be used for body armor and helmets.
  
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• Chemical array draws out malignant cells to guide individualized cancer treatment

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Melanoma is a particularly difficult cancer to treat once it has metastasized, spreading throughout the body. University of Illinois researchers are using chemistry to find the deadly, elusive malignant cells within a melanoma tumor that hold the potential to spread. Once found, the stemlike metastatic cells can be cultured and screened for their response to a variety of anti-cancer drugs, providing the patient with an individualized treatment plan ba
  
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• CCNY-UTEP partner to produce next generation Latino professors

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (City College of New York) The City College of New York is partnering with the University of Texas at El Paso to educate the next generation of Hispanic professors in environmental sciences and engineering. Entitled 'Collaborative Research: The Hispanic AGEP Alliance for the Environmental Science and Engineering Professoriate,' the five-year project is funded by a $3.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation. It begins July 1, 2017.
  
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• Camera on NASA's Lunar Orbiter survived 2014 meteoroid hit

  26-05-2017 06:00
  
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Images from LRO show a brief violent movementof one of the Narrow Angle Cameras in October of 2014.
  
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• Yukon looks to preserve and manage grizzly bear population

  26-05-2017 03:22 via cbc.ca
  
  Yukon's grizzly population appears to be doing well, even as the species faces threats elsewhere. 'So, the writing's on the wall that this is a species that if we're not careful ... we could be in that situation.'
  
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