Science news

• Deaths of North Atlantic right whales puzzle Canadian scientists

  31-07-2017 23:20
  TORONTO (Reuters) - North American conservationists are scrambling to find out why North Atlantic right whales are dying in unprecedented numbers, with nine deaths in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence in two months, according to Canadian authorities.
  
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• Water turns black near Niagara Falls

  31-07-2017 22:04 via cbc.ca
  The water near the base of Niagara Falls turned an alarming shade of black before tourists' eyes over the weekend following a foul-smelling discharge from a wastewater treatment plant.
  
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• Travelling to the U.S. to watch the solar eclipse? Cellphone coverage could be spotty

  31-07-2017 21:33 via cbc.ca
  If you're planning to travel to the U.S. and livestream next month's total solar eclipse, ​here's a thought: Keep your phone in your pocket, put on your paper shades and just enjoy the celestial wonder.
  
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• Newly discovered lymph hydraulics give tunas their fancy moves

  31-07-2017 20:00
  
  There’s still some anatomy to discover in fishes as familiar as bluefin and yellowfin tunas.
  
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• Scientists develop scorpion 'milking machine' for disease research

  31-07-2017 19:42
  CASABLANCA, Morocco (Reuters) - Extracting venom from scorpions can be a dangerous, but rewarding, task.
  
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• Mice with a mutation linked to autism affect their littermates’ behavior

  31-07-2017 19:00
  
  Genetically normal littermates of mutated mice behave strangely, suggesting that the social environment plays a big role in behavior.
  
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• ​Apple fails to end lawsuit claiming it 'broke' FaceTime

  31-07-2017 17:22 via cbc.ca
  Apple Inc. has failed in its bid for a dismissal of a lawsuit led by two Californians that claims the company disabled the popular FaceTime video conferencing feature on older iPhones to force users to upgrade.
  
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• Judge recommends permit for contested Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii

  31-07-2017 16:44 via cbc.ca
  A construction permit should be granted for a giant telescope planned for a Hawaii mountain summit that some consider sacred, a hearings officer recommended Wednesday.
  
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• The Art of Neuroscience

  31-07-2017 14:00 via rss.sciam.com
  The winners of an annual contest capture the brain at its most beautiful
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Coming Soon? A Solar Eclipse Near You

  31-07-2017 13:15 via rss.sciam.com
  Use the interactive map below to find the next solar spectacular in your region
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• Diamond joins the realm of 2-D thin films, study suggests

  31-07-2017 13:00
  
  Scientists squeezed graphene sheets into diamondene.
  
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• 2 more dead North Atlantic right whales found in western Newfoundland

  31-07-2017 11:08 via cbc.ca
  Three North Atlantic right whales have washed ashore on western Newfoundland's coast in the last few weeks, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
  
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• Researchers unearth 'tectonic events' that formed Canadian sapphires

  31-07-2017 11:00 via cbc.ca
  Treasure-hunting Canadian researchers say they have figured out how to find sapphire deposits by identifying the exact sequence of geologic events that create the sparkling gemstone.
  
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• WSU study shows muted stress response linked to long-term cannabis use

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Washington State University) A new study by Washington State University psychology researchers reveals a dampened physiological response to stress in chronic cannabis users. This is the first study to examine the effects of acute stress on salivary cortisol levels in chronic cannabis users compared to non-users.
  
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• Women show cognitive advantage in gender-equal countries

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Association for Psychological Science) Women's cognitive functioning past middle age may be affected by the degree of gender equality in the country they live in, according to new findings from Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
  
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• Wiley content sharing launches across Wiley Online Library

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Wiley) John Wiley and Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa and JWb), today announced the launch of Wiley Content Sharing across its research portfolio.
  
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• Undocumented immigration doesn't worsen drug, alcohol problems in US, study indicates

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Despite being saddled with many factors associated with drug and alcohol problems, undocumented immigrants are not increasing the prevalence of drug and alcohol crimes and deaths in the United States, according to a new University of Wisconsin-Madison study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
  
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• Understanding how fishers fish on coral reefs can inform fishery management strategies

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Dartmouth College) A Dartmouth study of spearfishing on a Caribbean coral reef illustrates how understanding the process of fishing can help in developing management strategies to address overfishing and coral reef protection worldwide. Understanding which fish are targeted, when, why and where in a coral reef habitat, are important details that extend beyond catch limits or even bans that so often define fishing regulations. The findings are published in PLOS ONE.
  
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• Tobacco industry steps up tactics to reduce impact of display ban

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (University of Stirling) Tobacco manufacturers are offering retailers incentives to promote their products in a bid to mitigate the effects of the advertising ban, a University of Stirling study has found.
  
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• The undertaker's census

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) Scientists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama tested a new technique: recruiting carrion-eating flies to detect mammals. This new method surpasses standard techniques, detecting more species than researchers could count along trails or photograph with hidden cameras.
  
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• Taboo around vaginal bleeding endangers women's health

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health) The culture of silence around vaginal bleeding at all stages of life endangers women's health and is compounded by limited access to clean water, sanitation, and factual information in low and middle-income countries, according to a study conducted at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.An approach that looks at vaginal bleeding as more than a monthly period and addresses the needs of girls and women across the life course
  
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• Supreme Court rulings can signal a shift in societal norms

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) When the Supreme Court issued its 2015 ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, Americans understood the decision as a signal of Americans' increasing support of same-sex marriage, according to a study published by Princeton University.
  
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• Study links violence exposure, obesity in teens

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Duke University) Teens consumed more unhealthy foods and beverages on days they were exposed to violence, and suffered from fatigue due to poor sleep the following day, according to a new study by Duke researchers. Those behaviors, especially increased soda consumption, are important predictors of weight gain.
  
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• Statistical analysis to explain mechanism in state of general anesthesia

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (American Statistical Association) Emery Brown, the Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and of Computational Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, will present new insight involved in conducting and analyzing experiments in this field July 31 at the 2017 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM).
  
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• States find rewards from high-tech investments, given time and patience

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) States have spent millions to develop high-tech industry, with its promise of good jobs and economic growth. And the public investment generally pays off, including in places that might seem less than ideal, according to a national study of such investments in the 1980s and 1990s. The key for these state programs is often time, patience and modest expectations, says University of Illinois sociology professor Kevin Leicht, the study's lead author.
  
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• Spanking can be detrimental for children's behavior, even 10 years later

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (University of Missouri-Columbia) Researchers at the University of Missouri have found that physical discipline experienced during infancy can negatively impact temperament and behavior among children in the fifth grade and into their teenage years.
  
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• Shared housing, shared behavior in mouse model of autism

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Society for Neuroscience) Mice genetically modified to model autism spectrum disorders (ASD) cause changes in the behavior of their unmodified littermates when housed together. The findings, published in eNeuro, show how social environment shapes behaviors characteristic of mouse models for ASD and have implications for the interpretation of results obtained from mouse models of psychiatric disorders.
  
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• Sad! Drifting word meanings may be creating two different political languages

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Penn State) If the current political discourse sounds a little like people are speaking two different languages, Penn State psychologists, who studied political rhetoric over the past three presidential elections, say that may be close to the case, semantically speaking.
  
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• Rice University chemists make laser-induced graphene from wood

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Rice University) Rice University scientists have made a form of graphene that can be cut with a table saw. They turned pine into laser-induced graphene and used it to make proof-of-concept electrodes for water splitting and supercapacitors.
  
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• RI to require coverage of fertility preservation for at-risk patients

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Care New England ) Rhode Island has become the first state to pass a law explicitly requiring coverage for fertility preservation prior to gonadotoxic medical therapy, treatment that could directly or indirectly cause infertility.
  
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• Researchers build a patch to help cardiac muscle beat more strongly after a heart attack

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) After a heart attack, scarring of the cardiac muscle limits the heart's ability to pump. With a three-year, $452,000 award from the National Institutes of Health, a team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute aims to address this problem by bioengineering a patch to help cardiac muscle beat more strongly and efficiently. The work centers on biopolymer microthreads that can be braided into cable-like structures that mimic human muscle fibers and other connective tiss
  
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• Research on nitric oxide-releasing nanoparticles reveals viable skin infection treatment

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (George Washington University) A research team led by Adam Friedman, MD, associate professor of dermatology at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences, has found that topically applied nitric oxide-releasing nanoparticles are a viable treatment for deep fungal infections of the skin caused by dermatophytes.
  
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• Research at University of Illinois to investigate oil field biosouring with new technology

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) A new research project at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois seeks to solve a $90 billion global problem in the oil industry while making oil drilling less harmful to the environment. Bruce Fouke, Professor in the departments of Geology and Microbiology and director of the Roy J. Carver Biotechnology Center, was awarded a three-year grant from the Dow Chemical Comp
  
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• Quasars may answer how starburst galaxies were extinguished

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (University of Iowa) University of Iowa astronomers have located quasars inside four dusty starburst galaxies. The observations suggest quasars may starve this type of galaxy of energy needed to form stars. Results published in the Astrophysical Journal.
  
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• Public trust in science spiked after media coverage of Zika vaccine trial

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania) Does a scientific breakthrough increase confidence in science? The question is raised by a study of public attitudes about trust in science following media coverage of the Zika vaccine trial in 2016.
  
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• Picture perfect

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (University of California - Santa Barbara) When taking a picture, a photographer must typically commit to a composition that cannot be changed after the shutter is released. For example, when using a wide-angle lens to capture a subject in front of an appealing background, it is difficult to include the entire background and still have the subject be large enough in the frame.
  
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• People with autism are less surprised by the unexpected

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (University College London) Adults with autism may overestimate the volatility of the world around them, finds a new UCL study published in Nature Neuroscience.
  
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• People find it difficult to judge how good their intuitions are

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (University of Kent) Whether people believe they are 'intuitive' or not may have no bearing on how they perform in tasks that require intuition, according to new research by psychologists at the University of Kent.
  
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• One-nanometer trimetallic alloy particles created

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Tokyo Institute of Technology) A researcher group of Tokyo Institute of Technology succeeded in developing precisely controlled alloy nanoparticles 'multimetallic nanoclusters (MNCs)' made of three metals: copper, platinum, and gold. They also discovered that MNCs show catalytic activity that is 24 times greater than commercially available carbon-supported platinum catalysts in the oxidization of hydrocarbons using oxygen in the air.
  
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• New system could remove two water pollutants from ag fields

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences) Algae blooms in the Gulf of Mexico use up the majority of the oxygen in the water, leading to massive "dead zones" that cannot support fish or other wildlife. The culprit? Nitrate, running off agricultural fields through tile drainage systems. But nitrate is only part of the problem. Algae in freshwater lakes and ponds flourishes when exposed to a different pollutant, phosphorus, and the tiniest amount is enoug
  
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• New statistical model examines massive amounts of data to automatically spot anomalies

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (American Statistical Association) With the number of security breaches and cyber-attacks on the rise, cyber-security experts may soon have a new tool in the fight against online threats. Patrick Rubin-Delanchy, Heilbronn Research Fellow in Statistics at the University of Oxford, will present a new statistical method for monitoring networks to automatically detect 'strange behavior' and ultimately prevent intrusion on Monday, July 31, at the 2017 Joint Statistical Meetings.
  
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• New research could make dew droplets so small, they're invisible

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Virginia Tech) Virginia Tech researchers expect that the findings will maximize the efficiency of jumping-droplet condensers, which could make power plants more efficient and enable robust anti-fogging and self-cleaning surfaces.
  
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• New MRI contrast agent tested on big animals

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Institute for Basic Science) Experiments in dogs, rabbits and monkeys show the efficacy and biocompatibility of a new MRI/MRA contrast agent in detecting stroke. This T1 MRI contrast agent based on ultrasmall iron oxide nanoparticles could become a possible alternative to clinically used gadolinium-based agents.
  
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• New in the Hastings Center Report, July-August 2017

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (The Hastings Center) Moral implications of the 'Precision Medicine Nation,' radical life extension, artificial wombs, and more.
  
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• New genomics tool CITE-Seq enables large-scale multidimensional analysis of single cells

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (New York Genome Center) A new technique developed by scientists at the New York Genome Center (NYGC) represents an important step forward for single-cell RNA sequencing, an advancing field of genomics that provides detailed insights into individual cells and makes it possible to distinguish between different cell types and to study disease mechanisms at the level of individual cells.
  
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• New drug may treat and limit progression of Parkinson's disease

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (Binghamton University) Researchers at Binghamton University have developed a new drug that may limit the progression of Parkinson's disease while providing better symptom relief to potentially hundreds of thousands of people with the disease.
  
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• New and novel technologies successfully demonstrated in soilborne disease study

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (American Phytopathological Society) Soil profiling is a powerful tool used in researching sudden death syndrome of soybean. In a new Phytobiomes journal article, titled 'Unraveling Microbial and Edaphic Factors Affecting the Development of Sudden Death Syndrome in Soybean,' Srour, et al. demonstrate, for the first time, the latest technologies to detect and profile microbial populations in 'diseased' and 'healthy' soils and to correlate their presence with the incidence and severity of SDS.
  
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• Netflix drama '13 Reasons Why' linked to suicidal thoughts

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (San Diego State University) A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine and led by San Diego State University Graduate School of Public Health Associate Research Professor John W. Ayers delved into Americans' internet search history in the days after Netflix's '13 Reasons Why' series aired, and found that queries for suicide and how to commit suicide spiked in he show's wake.
  
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• NASA tests the Webb telescope's communication skills

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) NASA called, and the Webb telescope responded. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope recently completed its Ground Segment Test Number 1 (GSEG-1), for the first time confirming successful end-to-end communication between the telescope and its mission operations center.
  
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• NASA sees Tropical Storm Nesat landfall in China

  31-07-2017 06:00
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm Nesat after it made landfall its second and final landfall in eastern China.
  
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