Science news

• Rocket maker SpaceX raises another $100 million

  27-11-2017 22:56
  (Reuters) - Elon Musk-led SpaceX has raised $100 million by selling shares, in an extension to a financing round earlier this year that raised up to $350 million, a regulatory filing showed on Monday.
  
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• Albertans face $8B bill for orphan oil wells unless rules change, lawyer says

  27-11-2017 22:46 via cbc.ca
  A longtime lawyer for landowners is warning something needs to change or else Albertans could be stuck with an $8-billion environmental cleanup of abandoned oil wells.
  
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• Here’s what really happened to Hanny’s Voorwerp

  27-11-2017 21:30
  
  Glowing clouds of gas known as Hanny’s Voorwerp offer a way to study galaxies and black holes in the distant past.
  
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• Hidden hoard hints at how ancient elites protected the family treasures

  27-11-2017 20:00
  
  A secret stash at an ancient site in Israel called Megiddo illuminates the Iron Age practice of hoarding wealth.
  
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• How bats keep an ear on their prey

  27-11-2017 19:15 via bbc.co.uk
  A structure that allows sound information to be processed extremely fast has been identified in bats' brains.
  
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• EU settles dispute over major weedkiller glyphosate

  27-11-2017 19:15 via bbc.co.uk
  The EU will renew glyphosate's licence for five years, despite some health concerns.
  
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• Clean air target 'could be met more quickly'

  27-11-2017 17:02 via bbc.co.uk
  Targets for reducing illegal levels of NO2 pollution from vehicles will be achieved more quickly than the government expects, a study says.
  
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• Rough lessons can lessen the pull of human scent on a mosquito

  27-11-2017 16:00
  
  A form of aversion therapy for mosquitoes shows they can connect human scent to a bad experience.
  
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• Off and running

  27-11-2017 15:43 via bbc.co.uk
  World land-speed record-holder Andy Green describes the performance of his new new car - Bloodhound SSC.
  
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• Would you let your kids play with AI robots?

  27-11-2017 15:38 via cbc.ca
  "What these robots are really tapping into is simulated feeling and simulated empathy, and I think we are playing with fire when we offer them to our children."
  
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• Nova Scotia waters may be great white shark mating hotspot

  27-11-2017 14:28 via cbc.ca
  An internet-famed great white shark is extending his much-watched sojourn in Atlantic Canada, in what one researcher is calling further evidence that Nova Scotia's waters may be a hot spot in the shark mating scene.
  
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• ‘Arrow of time’ reversed in quantum experiment

  27-11-2017 13:00
  
  In quantum systems, heat can flow “backward,” from cold to hot.
  
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• Beyond the Cuckoo's Nest: The Quest for Why Shock Therapy Can Work

  27-11-2017 12:45 via rss.sciam.com
  Nearly 90 years old, electroconvulsive therapy can rescue some people, but not others, from depression, bipolar and other mental disorders
  -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• York U research finds children show implicit racial bias from a young age

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (York University) In three separate studies with over 350 five- to 12-year-old white children, York University researchers found that children show an implicit pro-white bias when exposed to images of both white and black children. But the type of bias depended on what children were asked to do.The goal of the research was to gain a better understanding of children's automatic racial attitudes.
  
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• Xenophobia strongly linked to Brexit, regardless of voter age, gender or education

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Frontiers) New research provides evidence that British citizens who agreed that immigrants threaten their values and way of life were more likely to have voted for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, regardless of their age, gender or education. People who just thought it was great to be British or just valued their British identity were not more likely to reject immigrants or vote for Brexit.
  
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• Worried about holiday weight gain? your scale isn't giving you the whole picture

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) 'Weighing patients or using blood tests to detect changes, hasn't, until now, given us accurate pictures, literally, of how different fat deposits are impacted disproportionately by diet and exercise,' says Prof. Iris Shai, the primary investigator of the CENTRAL MRI trial. 'These findings suggest that moderate exercise combined with a Mediterranean/low carb diet may help reduce the amount of some fat deposits even if you don't lose signi
  
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• World leading metrology expert receives Damehood at Buckingham Palace

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (University of Huddersfield) Professor Xiangqian Jiang was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours.
  
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• Women may be more vulnerable to concussions because of 'leaner' nerve fibers, Penn study

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine) Women have smaller, more breakable nerve fibers in the brain compared to men that may make them more susceptible to concussions, suggests a new study from Penn Medicine neuroscientists published online today in the journal Experimental Neurology.
  
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• White male gun owners with money stress more likely to be morally attached to their guns

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Baylor University) White male gun owners who have lost, or fear losing, their economic footing tend to feel morally and emotionally attached to their guns, according to a Baylor University study. They are also more likely to say the violence against the government is sometimes justified.
  
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• USDA awards funds to support rural veterinary services

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (National Institute of Food and Agriculture ) The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) today announced 13 grants to support rural veterinary services and relieve veterinarian shortages in parts of the US and its insular areas. The funding from NIFA's Veterinary Services Grant Program (VSGP) is authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill.
  
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• US companies are investing less in science

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Wiley) A new article reveals that large corporations are investing less in science. From 1980 to 2006, publications by company scientists have declined in a range of industries.The result holds across a range of industries.
  
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• Underground refining to be implemented at PetroChina's deposits

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Kazan Federal University) Kazan Federal University reached agreements with PetroChina and Sinopec to implement some of its technologies at oil deposits, including in-situ refining. The works are planned at Karamay and Tahuo oilfields.
  
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• Ultrathin and flat graphene metalenses gain morace properties

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Institute for Basic Science) Lenses made of graphene and precisely pierced gold sheets are able to concentrate terahertz beams to a spot, flip its polarization and modulate its intensity.
  
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• Turning photos into an interactive experience

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Association for Computing Machinery) Computer scientists at Tel-Aviv University collaborated with researchers at Facebook to develop a new computational technique that makes it possible for users to animate still images in a highly realistic way.
  
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• Turning emissions into fuel

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Turning pollution into fuel: A new MIT method could be used to transform greenhouse gases into useful fuels and chemicals, right at the power plant.
  
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• Trigger for most common form of vision loss discovered

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (University of Virginia Health System) Researchers have discovered a critical trigger for the damaging inflammation that causes macular degeneration and ultimately robs millions of their sight. The finding may allow doctors to halt the inflammation early on, saving people from blindness.
  
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• Tracking down genetic influences on brain disorders

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (University of Basel) New findings will help to identify the genetic causes of brain disorders: researchers at the Universities of Basel, Bonn and Cologne have presented a systematic catalog of specific variable locations in the genome that influence gene activity in the human hippocampus, as they report in the journal Nature Communications.
  
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• Taste it, you'll like it

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Journal of Retailing at New York University) New research has led to a model that assesses the short- and long-term effects of in-store product sampling on sales of both the products offered on sample and competitive products.
  
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• Study: People in high-deductible plans aren't acting like consumers, may need more help

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan) More and more Americans have health insurance that requires them to open their wallets for the first few thousand dollars' worth of care they receive every year, before the insurance coverage kicks in. But a new study suggests that despite the rise in these high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), most Americans who have them aren't saving, shopping around for better prices, talking to their doctors about costs, or making other consumer-type moves.
  
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• Structure of primary optogenetic tool revealed

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) Attempts to solve the structure of ChR2 go right back to the time of its discovery in 2003. But despite the efforts of numerous research groups from across the world, the structure of the protein in its natural state has remained unknown. Now that researchers have the structure, meaningful mutations can be introduced into the protein to adjust its properties to the requirements of a specific experiment.
  
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• Some men confuse sexual interest with consent regardless of the situation, new study shows

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Binghamton University) Some men tend to confuse sexual interest with consent, regardless of the situation, according to a new paper co-written by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
  
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• Small numbers of churches embrace same-sex marriage

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (University of York) Researchers at the Universities of York and Leeds have found that the majority of places of worship that permit same-sex marriage carry out small numbers of ceremonies, with just over half having actually married a couple.
  
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• Self-help book works to combat burnout and stress -- without a therapist

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (University of Basel) Around a third of all employees find their work stressful. Interventions for stress and burnout are available, but often not accessible for many employees. A self-help book based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has the potential to reduce burnout, stress and symptoms of depression - without any therapist contact. Researchers from the University of Basel have reported these findings in the scientific journal Work & Stress.
  
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• Scientists identify key factors that help microbes thrive in harsh environments

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (University of Maryland School of Medicine) Three new studies by University of Maryland School of Medicine scientists have identified key factors that help microbes survive in harsh environments.
  
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• Removing chemical used to make Teflon-like coatings has led to fewer low birth weights and less brain damage

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (NYU Langone Health / NYU School of Medicine) Government and industry efforts since 2003 to phase out chemicals used to make non-stick coatings, such as Teflon, have prevented more than 118,000 low-weight births and related brain damage in the United States.
  
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• Reimagining autonomy in reproductive medicine

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (The Hastings Center) New Hastings Center special report examines what 'just reproduction' looks like in light of increasingly complex and costly reproductive technologies and other factors.
  
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• Radiology offers clues in cases of domestic abuse and sexual assault

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Radiological Society of North America) Radiologic signs of injury could help identify victims of intimate partner violence, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
  
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• Price changes for seven foods could save thousands of lives per year, study says

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Tufts University, Health Sciences Campus) Changing the prices of seven foods, including fruits, vegetables and sugar-sweetened beverages, could reduce annual deaths from stroke, diabetes and cardiovascular disease by 3-9 percent and address disparities in the United States.
  
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• Physicists make most precise measurement ever of the proton's magnetic moment

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (RIKEN) An international collaboration of scientists from RIKEN's Ulmer Fundamental Symmetries Laboratory (FSL), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg and GSI Darmstadt, have used high-precision techniques to make the most precise measurement to date of the magnetic moment of the proton, finding it to be 2.79284734462 plus or minus 0.00000000082 nuclear magnetons, the unit typically used to measure this property.
  
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• Physicist assumes the possibility of vestiges of an Universe previous to the Big Bang

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) In an article published in General Relativity and Gravitation, Brazilian researcher proposes to eliminate the need for cosmological spacetime singularity and argues that the current expansion phase was preceded by contraction.
  
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• Patients diagnosed with AF who seek cardiologist care more likely to survive first year

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Elsevier) Atrial fibrillation (AF) is growing to epidemic proportions worldwide. Investigators, hypothesizing that patients who received comprehensive cardiovascular care had a greater likelihood of survival during the first year following their initial diagnosis, found that cardiologist care was associated with a 32 percent lower death rate. However, views differ regarding whether this is a real effect requiring all AF patients to see a cardiologist, or an artifact of the study population. The
  
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• OFC 2018 exhibit floor expands to 700 exhibiting companies, marks 5-year growth trajectory

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (The Optical Society) OFC 2018 is expected to continue its growth trajectory with more than 700 exhibitors from leading global companies and more than 15,000 attendees.
  
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• Novice pilots improve visual responses to simulation by watching experts' eye movements

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (SUNY Downstate Medical Center) Novice military pilots can improve their visual responses to a simulated emergency procedure by observing the eye movements of expert pilots.
  
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• Nodding raises likability and approachability

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Hokkaido University) The act of nodding positively affects the subjective likability of people by about 30 percent and their approachability by 40 percent, according to a study conducted by researchers from Hokkaido University and Yamagata University in Japan.
  
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• New technique can detect impurities in ground beef within minutes

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (University of British Columbia) Researchers at the University of British Columbia have found a better way to identify unwanted animal products in ground beef. They used a laser-equipped spectrometer and statistical analysis to determine with 99 per cent accuracy whether ground beef samples included other animal parts. They were able to say with 80 per cent accuracy which animal parts were used, and in what concentration.
  
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• New study links proposed changes in US tax laws to rich-poor gap and mortality rates

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Elsevier) In a new study published in Preventive Medicine, Daniel Kim, MD, DrPH, examined actual and recently proposed tax policies and projected how these policies could affect the total number of deaths in the United States, determining that only policies that considerably raise top federal income tax rates and redistribute tax revenue to lower-income households are likely to bring large reductions in the total number of Americans that die annually.
  
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• New microscope sets a record for visualizing surface wetting properties

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Aalto University) New microscope sets a record for visualizing surface wetting properties. The microscope is 1,000 times more precise than current techniques, allowing the creation of wetting maps as a new concept for hydrophobic surface characterization.
  
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• New method benchmarks organic mixed conductors

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Northwestern University) Researchers used new materials in organic electrochemical transistors to test and compare their performances for different applications.
  
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• New HIV guidelines outline prevention strategies for high-risk populations

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (St. Michael's Hospital) New Canadian guidelines recommend the use of new medications by HIV-negative people from high-risk populations both before and after exposure to the virus to prevent HIV infection.
  
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• New computational method introduced for lighting in computer graphics

  27-11-2017 06:00
  (Association for Computing Machinery) Computing lighting that looks real remains complex and inefficient, as the necessary consideration of all possible paths light can take remains too costly to be performed for every pixel in real-time. A pair of computer scientists at Aalto University in Otaniemi, Finland, with expertise in video game development and lighting simulation algorithms, has developed a new computational method to address this key challenge.
  
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