Science news

• Perseid meteor shower lights up weekend sky

  14-08-2017 20:49 via cbc.ca
  This weekend, people around the globe had their necks craned, looking to the night sky in an effort to catch some "shooting stars" as the annual peak of the Perseid meteor shower took place.
  
  Read more

• U.K. cybersecurity researcher Marcus Hutchins pleads not guilty to U.S. charges

  14-08-2017 20:25 via cbc.ca
  A British cybersecurity researcher credited with helping curb a recent worldwide ransomware attack pleaded not guilty Monday to federal charges accusing him of creating malicious software to steal banking information three years ago.
  
  Read more

• Pace of TV cord-cutting slowed 22% in first half of 2017

  14-08-2017 19:28 via cbc.ca
  Canada's biggest TV providers lost almost a quarter fewer customers in the first half of 2017 as they did the same time last year, a new report shows.
  
  Read more

• SpaceX to launch to International Space Station — with ice cream

  14-08-2017 17:47 via cbc.ca
  SpaceX plans to launch an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket scheduled to blast off at 12:31 p.m. from Florida's Kennedy Space Center.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• SpaceX successfully launches experiments, ice cream to space station

  14-08-2017 17:47 via cbc.ca
  A SpaceX capsule rocketed to the International Space Station on Monday, carrying tons of science research — plus ice cream.
  
  Read more

• Queen bees less likely to lay eggs, start colony after insecticide exposure

  14-08-2017 17:00 via cbc.ca
  Queen bumblebees exposed to thiamethoxam, a commonly used insecticide, may never lay eggs, something that would threaten the insect population, according to researchers.
  
  Read more

• Normally aloof particles of light seen ricocheting off each other

  14-08-2017 17:00
  
  Scientists spot evidence of photons interacting at the Large Hadron Collider.
  
  Read more

• Polluted water: It’s where sea snakes wear black

  14-08-2017 15:00
  
  Reptile counterpart proposed for textbook example of evolution favoring darker moths amid industrial soot.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Italy official defends killing rare bear after man mauled

  14-08-2017 13:55 via bbc.co.uk
  A rare female brown bear had to be shot in the Italian Alps as it threatened humans, a governor says.
  
  Read more

• What can we learn about Mercury’s surface during the eclipse?

  14-08-2017 13:00
  
  A spectrometer aboard twin research jets will take advantage of the total solar eclipse to make the first thermal map of Mercury.
  
  Read more

• Rock down to electric avenue: Family makes road trip from Ottawa to P.E.I. using electric car

  14-08-2017 13:00 via cbc.ca
  An electric car owner is working on changing the perception that the vehicles aren't made for long distance.
  
  Read more

• The Air Out There: Astronomers Aim to Find Atmospheres of Alien Earths

  14-08-2017 12:45 via rss.sciam.com
  Is our nearest neighboring exoplanet, Proxima b, an ‘Earth next door,’ or is it a lifeless rock?
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
  Read more

• How solar eclipses help us better understand our universe

  14-08-2017 11:00 via cbc.ca
  While we may simply enjoy the sight of a solar eclipse, scientists will be hard at work on Aug. 21 — as they always have during these spectacular events.
  
  Read more

• Bats set up home inside dinosaur at Devon theme park

  14-08-2017 10:15 via bbc.co.uk
  The lesser horseshoe bats moved in to the belly of a triceratops at the Wildlife and Dinosaur Park.
  
  Read more

• Cassini skims Saturn's atmosphere

  14-08-2017 09:34 via bbc.co.uk
  Cassini is on its final five full orbits of Saturn, getting close enough to directly "taste" its gases.
  
  Read more

• Working memory may compensate for lack of attention

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Society for Neuroscience) A study in eNeuro shows that, when remembering a sequence of events, the brain focuses on the event paid the least attention, rather than replaying the events in the order they occurred. This finding suggests that attention during the initial encoding of a memory influences how information is manipulated in working memory.
  
  Read more

• Why expensive wine appears to taste better

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (University of Bonn) Price labels influence our liking of wine: The same wine tastes better to participants when it is labeled with a higher price tag. Scientists from the INSEAD Business School and the University of Bonn have discovered that the decision-making and motivation center in the brain plays a pivotal role in such price biases to occur. The medial pre-frontal cortex and the ventral striatum are particularly involved in this. The results have now been published in the journal Scientifi
  
  Read more

• VTT to develop intelligent transport systems in cooperation with ITS Russia

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland) VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd and ITS Russia have signed a partnership agreement concerning the development of intelligent transport systems (ITS).The objective of Project CAVLANE is to develop new services, products and standards for border crossings in particular. Businesses from all over Europe are hoped to join the partnership.
  
  Read more

• UTSW identifies weight-gain receptor linked to antipsychotic drugs

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (UT Southwestern Medical Center) Many schizophrenic and depressed patients experience weight gain and type 2 diabetes in their quests for the life-changing benefits of a major class of antipsychotic drugs.
  
  Read more

• USGS awards $4.9 Million to advance the Shakealert earthquake early warning system

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (US Geological Survey) The US Geological Survey awarded approximately $4.9 million this week to six universities and a university-governed non-profit, to support transitioning the west coast 'ShakeAlert' earthquake early warning system into a production system.
  
  Read more

• University of Toronto professor awarded grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management) An economics professor at the University of Toronto is the recipient of a prestigious grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study the behavioural welfare economics of how nudges affect financial decision making.
  
  Read more

• University of Sydney charges ahead on zinc-air batteries

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (University of Sydney) University of Sydney researchers have found a solution for one of the biggest stumbling blocks preventing zinc-air batteries from overtaking conventional lithium-ion batteries as the power source of choice in electronic devices.
  
  Read more

• Understanding smartphone separation anxiety and what smartphones mean to people

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News) What factors determine nomophobia, otherwise known as smartphone separation anxiety, and what behaviors and descriptors can help identify people with high nomophobia who tend to perceive smartphones as their extended selves?
  
  Read more

• UCLA scientists identify a new way to activate stem cells to make hair grow

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences) The research, led by scientists Heather Christofk and William Lowry, may lead to new drugs that could promote hair growth for people with baldness or alopecia.
  
  Read more

• Tidally locked exoplanets may be more common than previously thought

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (University of Washington) Many exoplanets to be found by coming high-powered telescopes will probably be tidally locked -- with one side permanently facing their host star -- according to new research by astronomer Rory Barnes of the University of Washington.
  
  Read more

• The brain's solution for seeing as is and seeing flexibly

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Society for Neuroscience) New experiments described in the Journal of Neuroscience support distinct roles for two brain pathways in processing information related to an object, with one carrying a largely invariant representation of an object and the other a flexible one depending on what we do with an object.
  
  Read more

• The best place to treat type 1 diabetes might be just under your skin

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering) A group of U of T Engineering researchers has demonstrated that the space under our skin might be an optimal location to treat type 1 diabetes (T1D).
  
  Read more

• Studying the sun's atmosphere with the total solar eclipse of 2017

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) A total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth about once every 18 months. But because Earth's surface is mostly ocean, most eclipses are visible over land for only a short time, if at all. The total solar eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017, is different -- its path stretches over land for nearly 90 minutes, giving scientists an unprecedented opportunity to make scientific measurements from the ground.
  
  Read more

• 'Smiley' emojis in formal workplace e-mails could create frowns, says Ben-gurion University study

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) 'People tend to assume that a smiley is a virtual smile, but the findings of this study show that in the case of the workplace, at least as far as initial 'encounters' are concerned, this is incorrect,' Dr. Glikson says. 'For now, at least, a smiley can only replace a smile when you already know the other person. In initial interactions, it is better to avoid using smileys, regardless of age or gender.'
  
  Read more

• Smartphone tracking shows fear affects where youth spend time

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Ohio State University) Youth spend less time in their neighborhoods if area residents have a high fear of crime, according to a new study that used smartphones to track kids' whereabouts. Researchers found that adolescents aged 11 to 17 spent over an hour less each day on average in their neighborhoods if residents there were very fearful, compared to kids from areas perceived as being safer.
  
  Read more

• Secret to happiness may include more unpleasant emotions

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (American Psychological Association) People may be happier when they feel the emotions they desire, even if those emotions are unpleasant, such as anger or hatred, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
  
  Read more

• RNA: A vicious pathway to cancer ?

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Goethe University Frankfurt) According to the current doctrine, cancer cells develop due to mutations in genomic DNA. But could it be also caused also by faulty RNA molecules? A number of clues are pointing to this surprising hypothesis. Rolf Marschalek from the Institute of Pharmaceutical Biology at Goethe University Frankfurt will receive 1.25 million Euro from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to follow up these cues. Through its Reinhart Koselleck projects the DFG funds exceptionall
  
  Read more

• Researchers from TU Dresden and CiQUS obtain decacene, the largest acene synthesized ever

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Technische Universität Dresden) A research collaboration, led by professors Francesca Moresco (TUD) and Diego Peña (CiQUS), chemists from CiQUS prepared stable decacene precursors by solution chemistry, while physicists from TUD used these precursors to prepare decacene on a gold surface under ultra-high vacuum, in order to stabilize this extremely reactive compound.
  
  Read more

• Researchers from TU Dresden and CiQUS obtain decacene, the largest acene synthesised ever

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Technische Universität Dresden) A research collaboration, led by professors Francesca Moresco (TUD) and Diego Peña (CiQUS), chemists from CiQUS prepared stable decacene precursors by solution chemistry, while physicists from TUD used these precursors to prepare decacene on a gold surface under ultra-high vacuum, in order to stabilize this extremely reactive compound.
  
  Read more

• Researchers achieve major improvement for lensless computational microscopy

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (ITMO University) Scientists from ITMO University and Tampere University of Technology managed to improve computational imaging of optical signal in lensless microscopes. By employing special algorithms they increased the resolution of obtained images without any changes in the technical characteristics of microscopes.
  
  Read more

• Researchers 3-D print first truly microfluidic 'lab on a chip' devices

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Brigham Young University) Researchers at BYU are the first to 3-D print a viable microfluidic device small enough to be effective at a scale much less than 100 micrometers.
  
  Read more

• Probiotics help poplar trees clean up toxins in Superfund sites

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (University of Washington) Researchers from the University of Washington and several small companies have conducted the first large-scale experiment on a Superfund site using poplar trees fortified with a probiotic -- or natural microbe -- to clean up groundwater contaminated with trichloroethylene, or TCE.
  
  Read more

• Portland State researcher advises tracking transgender homicides

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Portland State University) More research should be pursued about violence against transgender individuals, especially among young and Black or Latina transfeminine women, according to a recent study completed a researcher and professor in the Oregon Health Sciences University-Portland State University School of Public Health.
  
  Read more

• Oxytocin and social norms reduce xenophobia

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (University of Bonn) How can xenophobia be reduced and altruism strengthened? Researchers at University Hospital Bonn have shown in a new study that the bonding hormone oxytocin together with social norms significantly increases the willingness to donate money to refugees in need, even in people who tend to have a skeptical attitude towards migrants. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
  
  Read more

• Ohio Supercomputer Center to host fifth meeting of the MVAPICH Users Group

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Ohio Supercomputer Center) A broad array of system administrators, developers, researchers and students who share an interest in the MVAPICH open-source library for high performance computing will gather at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) Aug. 14-16 for the fifth meeting of the MVAPICH Users Group (MUG).
  
  Read more

• New 3-D simulations show how galactic centers cool their jets

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) Scientists at Berkeley Lab and Purdue University developed new theories and 3-D simulations to explain what's at work in the mysterious jets of energy and matter beaming from the center of galaxies at nearly the speed of light.
  
  Read more

• Neonics put bumblebees at risk of extinction by hindering colony formation, study reveals

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (University of Guelph) Bumblebees are less able to start colonies when exposed to a common neonicotinoid pesticide, according to a new University of Guelph study.Professor Nigel Raine has discovered that exposure to thiamethoxam reduces the chances of a bumblebee queen starting a new colony by more than a quarter. Using a mathematical model, the researchers found that this rate of decline could threaten extinction of wild bumblebee populations.
  
  Read more

• NASA sees Tropical Storm Jova being ripped apart

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Satellite imagery from NOAA's GOES-West satellite showed vertical wind shear was already tearing Tropical Storm Jova apart just two days after it formed. By August 14, the storm weakened into a post-tropical cyclone.
  
  Read more

• NASA sees strengthening Tropical Storm Gert west of Bermuda

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Tropical Depression Eight (TD8) formed around 11 p.m. EDT on Saturday, August 12 about 260 miles northeast of the southeastern Bahamas. By 5 p.m. the depression strengthened into a tropical storm and was named Gert.
  
  Read more

• NASA sees a tightly wound Typhoon Banyan

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Satellite imagery from NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite showed powerful storms tightly would around Typhoon Banyan's center as it moved through the Pacific Ocean.
  
  Read more

• Lungs in space

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Houston Methodist) Houston Methodist and University of Texas Medical Branch researchers are collaborating on a study to grow lungs in space with possible implications for both astronauts and people on Earth that could lead to future therapeutics. The scientists prepared bioreactor pouches that include lung progenitor and stem cells and pieces of lung scaffolding on which the cells are expected to grow on the ISS. The experiment successfully launched aboard Space X's CRS-12 mission Aug. 14.
  
  Read more

• Lower-income children raised in counties with high upward mobility display fewer behavioral issues

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) Children who grow up in urban counties with high upward mobility exhibit fewer behavioral problems and perform better on cognitive tests, according to a study led by Princeton University.
  
  Read more

• Light-to-moderate alcohol consumption may have protective health effects

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (American College of Cardiology) Light-to-moderate drinking can lower risk of mortality from all-causes and cardiovascular disease, while heavy drinking can significantly increase risk of mortality from all-causes and cancer, according to a new study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
  
  Read more

• Intoxication increases risk for heavy drinkers to commit violence against intimate partner

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (Georgia State University) Intoxicated, heavy drinkers have a tendency to act rashly in response to negative emotions, which can intensify the risk for intimate partner aggression, according to a study by Georgia State University and Purdue University.
  
  Read more

• International team of researchers redefines cosmic velocity web

  14-08-2017 06:00
  (University of Hawaii at Manoa) The cosmic web -- the distribution of matter on the largest scales in the universe -- has usually been defined through the distribution of galaxies. Now, a new study by a team of astronomers from France, Israel and Hawaii demonstrates a novel approach. Instead of using galaxy positions, they mapped the motions of thousands of galaxies.
  
  Read more

Follow @ScienceUKnews on Twitter!