Science news

• McKenna hits back at 'ridiculous' Conservative language on climate change and NAFTA

  04-09-2017 22:35 via cbc.ca
  Canada's push to get climate change action included in a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement is turning into a heated domestic dispute just as it makes its debut at the official negotiating table.
  
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• Fish on antidepressants: Concern over concentration of drugs in species from Niagara River

  04-09-2017 21:47 via cbc.ca
  Researchers studying fish from the Niagara River have found that human antidepressants and remnants of these drugs are building up in their brains.
  
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• Schizophrenia, memory deficits: Solving the mystery behind a most stubborn symptom

  04-09-2017 18:04
  Disruptions to the brain's internal GPS result in some of the severe memory deficits seen in schizophrenia. The new study in mouse models of the disorder marks the first time that schizophrenia's effects have been observed with such precision and clarity. The findings offer a promising entry point for attacking a near-universal and debilitating symptom of schizophrenia, memory deficits, which has thus far withstood all forms of treatment.
  
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• More 'losers' than 'winners' predicted for Southern Ocean seafloor animals

  04-09-2017 18:04
  A new study of the marine invertebrates living in the seas around Antarctica reveals there will be more 'losers' than 'winners' over the next century as the Antarctic seafloor warms.
  
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• Face value: Brain's ability to recognize faces is shaped through repeated exposure, study suggests

  04-09-2017 18:04
  Scientists have long deemed the ability to recognize faces innate for people and other primates -- something our brains just know how to do immediately from birth. However, the findings of a new study cast doubt on this longstanding view.
  
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• Golden Record is for aliens, but Earth's MixTape is for you

  04-09-2017 17:38 via cbc.ca
  Saint Mary's University technician Mike Dunlavy starts podcast about record that's been travelling in space for 40 years.
  
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• Turbulent times: Drones edging out helicopter film pilots, videographers

  04-09-2017 17:00 via cbc.ca
  The drone has taken a hit on Canada's small but mighty pool of helicopter pilots and aerial videographers, even putting veteran Jim Filippone, who worked on X-Men movies, Tron: Legacy and the old CBC show Danger Bay, out of business after more than 30 years in the air.
  
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• Spiritual convictions and group identities inspire terrorist acts, study finds

  04-09-2017 17:00
  
  Sacred values and becoming one with comrades fuels terrorist acts, a report finds.
  
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• Drones edging out helicopter film pilots, videographers

  04-09-2017 17:00 via cbc.ca
  The drone has taken a hit on Canada's small but mighty pool of helicopter pilots and aerial videographers, even putting veteran Jim Filippone, who worked on X-Men movies, Tron: Legacy and the old CBC show Danger Bay, out of business after more than 30 years in the air.
  
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• Memorial held for green campaigner

  04-09-2017 16:23 via bbc.co.uk
  Around 200 members of family and colleagues attended a memorial for Stephen Tindale.
  
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• Study in early stage breast cancer shows that even small tumors can be aggressive

  04-09-2017 15:38
  Even small tumors can be aggressive, according to a study in patients with early stage breast cancer. Researchers found that nearly one in four small tumors were aggressive and patients benefited from chemotherapy. Aggressive tumors could be identified by a 70-gene signature.
  
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• Indigenous storytelling is a new asset for biocultural conservation

  04-09-2017 15:36
  Some of the areas hosting most of the world's biodiversity are those inhabited by indigenous peoples. In the same way that biodiversity is being eroded, so is the world's cultural diversity. As a result, there have been several calls to promote biocultural conservation approaches that sustain both biodiversity and indigenous cultures.
  
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• Reindeer grazing protects tundra plant diversity in a warming climate

  04-09-2017 15:34
  Climate warming reduces the number of plant species in the tundra, but plant-eating animals, such as reindeer and voles, can turn this negative effect into something positive.
  
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• White nationalists are using DNA ancestry tests to prove 'purity'

  04-09-2017 13:22 via cbc.ca
  White nationalists are using DNA tests to legitimize their "purity," says sociology researcher Joan Donavan. It's not how the test was intended to be used.
  
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• NASA's 2 long-lived Voyager spacecraft explore the 'very empty' spaces between stars

  04-09-2017 11:00 via cbc.ca
  Forty years ago, NASA launched two Voyager spacecraft that opened our eyes on our solar system. Now these workhorses are exploring regions of space we barely understand.
  
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• Can't stop fiddling with your phone in class? There's an app for that

  04-09-2017 11:00 via cbc.ca
  There's a new tool in the quest for classroom engagement —an app, created by Canadian students.
  
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• When strangers can control our lights

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) Smart home products such as lamps controlled via mobile devices are becoming ever more popular in private households. We would, however, feel vulnerable in our own four walls if strangers suddenly started switching the lights in our homes on and off. Researchers at the IT Security Infrastructures group, Friedrich-Alexander UniversitätErlangen-Nürnberg have discovered security problems of this nature in smart lights manufactured by GE, IKEA, Philips an
  
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• Team gathers unprecedented data on atmosphere's organic chemistry

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Teams of scientists from MIT and elsewhere carried out the most detailed, extended observations of atmospheric chemistry ever attempted in one place, in patch of ponderosa pine forest in Colorado, and found previously unmeasured compounds.
  
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• Superfly flight simulator helps unravel navigation in the brain

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (RIKEN) Researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan have identified two independent pathways in the fly brain that are integrated to allow successful navigation during flight. Published in Nature Neuroscience, the study combined a flight simulator designed for flies with imaging of active neurons to show that landmark locations are processed separately in the fly brain from self-motion.
  
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• Study associates schizophrenia with defective processing of messenger RNA in cells

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) An alteration impairing the expression of certain proteins might hide the genesis of part of brain dysfunctions observed in schizophrenia patients.
  
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• Scientists discover and target brain area in patients with schizophrenia who 'hear voices'

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (European College of Neuropsychopharmacology) For the first time, scientists have precisely identified and targeted an area of the brain which is involved in 'hearing voices,' experienced by many patients with schizophrenia. They have been able to show in a controlled trial that targeting this area with magnetic pulses can improve the condition in some patients. This early clinical work is presented at the ECNP conference in Paris on Tuesday 5th September, with later publication in Schizophrenia
  
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• Schizophrenia and memory deficits: Solving the mystery behind a most stubborn symptom

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (The Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University) Disruptions to the brain's internal GPS result in some of the severe memory deficits seen in schizophrenia. The new study in mouse models of the disorder marks the first time that schizophrenia's effects have been observed with such precision and clarity. The findings offer a promising entry point for attacking a near-universal and debilitating symptom of schizophrenia, memory deficits, which has thus far withstood all forms of treatment.
  
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• Rethinking serotonin could lead to a shift in psychiatric care

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Imperial College London) A better understanding of how a key chemical messenger acts in the brain could lead to a radical shift in psychiatric care, according to a new research paper.
  
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• Researchers take a holistic approach to threats to humanity

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Chalmers University of Technology) What risks threaten the entire future of humanity within the next hundred years? And what should we do to protect against them? A group of researchers will take on these questions in the autumn as part of the research program 'Existential risk to humanity' at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
  
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• Researchers devise a new way of producing hydrogen fuel

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) Researchers improved existing experiment, conducted by the scientists at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, US, and found that they could produce just as much hydrogen or more, and they even required less bacteriorhodopsin for the same amount of titanium dioxide.
  
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• One in 8 older adults in Ireland are deficient in vitamin D

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Trinity College Dublin) The figure rises to one in four during the dark winters in Ireland, while the research also points to rising age, smoking, living alone, and living in a lower socioeconomic background as factors associated with deficiency. The research has significant implications for people living in other sunlight-starved countries across the globe.
  
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• New fluorescent dyes could advance biological imaging

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) Scientists at HHMI's Janelia Research Campus have developed a new method for fine-tuning the structure of rhodamine dyes, and can now create a colorful palette of fluorescent molecules.
  
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• Mysterious protein-folding molecule could trigger metabolic disorders

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Medical University of South Carolina) A molecule with few known functions can trigger the cell's response to unfolded proteins and perpetuate metabolic disease, report researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina in an article published online ahead of print on Sept. 4, 2017. by Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.
  
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• Mobile women were key to cultural exchange in Stone Age and Bronze Age Europe

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History) At the end of the Stone Age and in the early Bronze Age, families were established in a surprising manner in the Lechtal, south of Augsburg, Germany. The majority of women probably came from Bohemia or Central Germany, while men usually remained in the region of their birth. This so-called patrilocal pattern combined with individual female mobility persisted over a period of 800 years during the transition from the Neolithic to the Early Br
  
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• Medical camera makes light work of seeing through the body

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (University of Edinburgh) Scientists at the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University have developed a camera that can see through the human body. The camera is designed to help doctors track medical tools known as endoscopes that are used to investigate a range of internal conditions.
  
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• Mayo Clinic researchers review the clinical potential of senolytic drugs on aging

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Mayo Clinic) Researchers are moving closer to realizing the clinical potential of drugs that have previously been shown to support healthy aging in animals. In a review article published online in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Mayo Clinic aging experts say that, if proven to be effective and safe in humans, these drugs could be 'transformative' by preventing or delaying chronic conditions as a group instead of one at a time.
  
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• Massive Antarctic volcanic eruptions linked to abrupt Southern hemisphere climate changes

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Desert Research Institute) New findings published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America by Desert Research Institute Professor Joseph R. McConnell, Ph.D., and colleagues document a 192-year series of volcanic eruptions in Antarctica that coincided with accelerated deglaciation about 17,700 years ago.
  
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• Links between poor sleep and poor mental well-being

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (University of Leeds) Inadequate sleep at night leads to poor memory and increases the risk of depression, anxiety and stress, according to research revealed today.
  
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• Like a revolving door: How shuttling proteins operate nuclear pores

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (University of Basel) Nuclear pore complexes are tiny channels where the exchange of substances between the cell nucleus and the cytoplasm takes place. Scientists at the University of Basel report on startling new research that might overturn established models of nuclear transport regulation. Their study published in the Journal of Cell Biology reveals how shuttling proteins known as importins control the function of nuclear pores -- as opposed to the view that nuclear pores control the shuttli
  
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• Largest ever genetic study marks likely osteoporosis treatment target

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (University of Queensland) Scientists are honing in on a potential treatment for osteoporosis, after performing the largest ever genetic study of the common age-related bone-thinning disease.Researchers from the University of Queensland and McGill University in Canada led the study, identifying 153 new gene variants associated with the loss of bone mineral density, which often result in fractures.
  
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• International research project: How can breastfeeding be promoted in Germany?

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (BfR Federal Institute for Risk Assessment) The current situation regarding the promotion of breastfeeding in Germany is being evaluated in a two-year project. The goal is to develop evidence-based packages of measures in order to support the development and implementation of national breastfeeding programs.
  
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• Humans learn complex grammatical patterns even in extremely challenging circumstances

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History) A large-scale study of languages shows that the grammar of creoles -- which emerged in multilingual situations of extreme social upheaval, like colonial slaveries -- are composed from the grammars of other languages that preceded them rather than being innovated from scratch. The study, published today in Nature Human Behavior, analyzed a large number of creole and non-creole languages to reveal the robustness of language transmission proce
  
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• First detailed decoding of complex finger millet genome

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (University of Zurich) Finger millet has two important properties: The grain is rich in important minerals and resistant towards drought and heat. Thanks to a novel combination of state-of-the-art technologies, researchers at the University of Zurich were able to decode the large and extremely complex genome of finger millet in high quality for the first time. This represents a fundamental basis for improving food security in countries like India and parts of Africa.
  
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• European XFEL: Europe's next-generation free-electron laser

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (CNRS) The European XFEL free-electron laser was inaugurated on Sept. 1, 2017, near Hamburg. By producing ultra-bright, trillion-photon X-ray flashes, this European instrument will allow scientists to map the atomic relief of viruses and even film chemical reactions. The French National Center for Scientific Research and Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission both played a leading role in the design and construction of the superconducting electron accelerator at the heart of this inte
  
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• Discovery of dynamic seasonal changes in color perception

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (National Institutes of Natural Sciences) In many areas, the environment fluctuates greatly depending on the season, and animals living in those areas must adapt to the changing environment. A research group from the National Institute for Basic Biology and Nagoya University in Japan found that color perception of Medaka, a small fish inhabiting rice fields and streams, varies greatly according to seasonal changes.
  
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• Deadly parasite messaging tactic may help curb sleeping sickness

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (University of Edinburgh) New insight into the parasites that cause sleeping sickness could offer a new pathway to tackling the disease, which poses a major threat to human health and causes severe livestock losses in parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
  
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• Building interdisciplinary bridges for research and recognition of intersexed bodies

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) The Hebrew University of Jerusalem will host an international conference, 'Building Interdisciplinary Bridges for Research and Recognition of Intersexed Bodies,' focused on the complex experiences and challenges of people born with intersexual bodies. Featuring scholars from around the world, the conference will seek to build bridges between the various communities engaged with this issue, from the medical establishment to intersex support groups and activist
  
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• Blame it on the bossa nova: How music changes our perception of touch

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences) Music touches. Until recently, this was only meant in a figurative way -- now it can also be taken literally. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences have found that touch is perceived differently, depending on the music being played. The sexier we perceive the music we are listening to, the more sensual we experience the contact if we think we are touched by another person.
  
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• Approach enables experts to look beyond IP in cyber security investigations

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (University of Plymouth) A technique which enables digital forensic investigators to assess an individual's internet use rather than simply focusing on traffic through Internet Protocol (IP) addresses has been developed by cyber security experts at the University of Plymouth and is outlined in a study published in the September 2017 issue of Computers & Security.
  
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• Angry and disconnected people more likely to support Anonymous

  04-09-2017 06:00
  (University of Kent) People who support hacking network Anonymous are more likely to be angry about perceived societal injustices and feel disconnected from the political process, new research by a psychologist at the University of Kent has shown.
  
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