Science news

• Baby bibs, blankets contain toxins Canada banned in other products: report

  15-05-2018 21:48 via cbc.ca
  Baby bibs, mats and blankets tested by scientists with NAFTA's environmental arm contain toxic chemicals linked to higher rates of cancer, infertility and suppressed immune systems — substances already banned from most other products in Canada.
  
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• Kilauea's Next Eruptions May Mirror a Big One in Its Past

  15-05-2018 20:00 via rss.sciam.com
  A giant 1924 explosion, when steam jets blew boulders from the summit, had many of the precursors we see now-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• New connections: Kinases and phosphatases in control of mitosis

  15-05-2018 19:54 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Two studies in this week’s issue of Science Signaling reveal coordinated regulation of kinases and phosphatases during cell cycle progression.
  
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• IRE1{alpha} prevents hepatic steatosis by processing and promoting the degradation of select microRNAs

  15-05-2018 19:54 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Obesity or a high-fat diet represses the endoribonuclease activity of inositol-requiring enzyme 1α (IRE1α), a transducer of the unfolded protein response (UPR) in cells under endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. An impaired UPR is associated with hepatic steatosis and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is caused by lipid accumulation in the liver. We found that IRE1α was critical to maintaining lipid homeostasis in the liver by repressing the biogenesis of microRNAs
  
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• Global assessment of its network dynamics reveals that the kinase Plk1 inhibits the phosphatase PP6 to promote Aurora A activity

  15-05-2018 19:54 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) is an essential protein kinase that promotes faithful mitotic progression in eukaryotes. The subcellular localization and substrate interactions of Plk1 are tightly controlled and require its binding to phosphorylated residues. To identify phosphorylation-dependent interactions within the Plk1 network in human mitotic cells, we performed quantitative proteomics on HeLa cells cultured with kinase inhibitors or expressing a Plk1 mutant that was deficient in phosphorylatio
  
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• Aurora B opposes PP1 function in mitosis by phosphorylating the conserved PP1-binding RVxF motif in PP1 regulatory proteins

  15-05-2018 19:54 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) is a highly conserved protein phosphatase that performs most of the serine- and threonine-dephosphorylation reactions in eukaryotes and opposes the actions of a diverse set of serine and threonine (Ser-Thr) protein kinases. PP1 gains substrate specificity through binding to a large number (>200) of regulatory proteins that control PP1 localization, activity, and interactions with substrates. PP1 recognizes the well-characterized RVxF binding motif that is present i
  
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• A DGK{zeta}-FoxO-ubiquitin proteolytic axis controls fiber size during skeletal muscle remodeling

  15-05-2018 19:54 via stke.sciencemag.org
  Skeletal muscle rapidly remodels in response to various stresses, and the resulting changes in muscle mass profoundly influence our health and quality of life. We identified a diacylglycerol kinase(DGK)–mediated pathway that regulated muscle mass during remodeling. During mechanical overload, DGK abundance was increased and required for effective hypertrophy. DGK not only augmented anabolic responses but also suppressed ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS)–dependent proteolysis. We foun
  
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• How a deep-sea geology trip led researchers to a doomed octopus nursery

  15-05-2018 16:00
  
  A healthy population of cephalopods could be hiding nearby, though, a new study contends.
  
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• Here's What's Needed for Self-Flying Taxis and Delivery Drones to Really Take Off

  15-05-2018 15:00 via rss.sciam.com
  Whether carting pizzas or passengers, small autonomous aircraft like the ones Amazon, Uber and others are testing need sophisticated traffic management to prevent collisions-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• NASA spacecraft was sprayed by a geyser on Europa, scientists learn

  15-05-2018 14:32 via cbc.ca
  A new look at old data is giving scientists a fresh reason to view Europa, a moon of Jupiter, as a leading candidate in the search for life beyond Earth, with evidence of water plumes shooting into space.
  
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• 'The new normal'? It's too early to blame B.C.'s floods on climate change, scientists say

  15-05-2018 13:00 via cbc.ca
  Climate change is on the mind of many in B.C. as residents swelter in record-breaking heat and bail out from destructive floods, but scientists say it’s not easy to connect extreme weather events to global warming.
  
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• Kids are selective imitators, not extreme copycats

  15-05-2018 13:00
  
  Preschool-age kids have a reputation as “overimitators” based on lab tests. But in realistic test situations, kids don’t blindly imitate adults.
  
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• 10 Things You Don't Know About Yourself

  15-05-2018 13:00 via rss.sciam.com
  You probably do not understand yourself as well as you think you do-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Will NASA Go Nuclear to Return to the Moon?

  15-05-2018 12:45 via rss.sciam.com
  A new reactor design could make nuclear-powered space exploration cheap, reliable and safe-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• 'The Airbnb for hourly paid work': How a Toronto app is feeding the gig economy

  15-05-2018 12:00 via cbc.ca
  A Toronto–based app connecting restaurants and bars to workers will soon be expanding to the city's retail market, adding a new dimension to the growing gig economy — and raising questions about how to protect the workers who depend on it.
  
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• Building back up

  15-05-2018 10:21 via bbc.co.uk
  After last years first test runs, the Bloodhound supersonic car is being rebuilt ready to go faster still.
  
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• Amber Alert for missing boy sparks complaints over new mobile emergency system

  15-05-2018 10:00 via cbc.ca
  When the siren-like sounds from an Amber Alert rang out on cellular phones across Ontario on Monday, it sparked a bit of a backlash against Canada's new mobile emergency alert system.
  
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• 'Feel good' factor not CO2 boosts global forest expansion

  15-05-2018 08:56 via bbc.co.uk
  Forests are increasing around the world because of rising incomes and national wellbeing say researchers.
  
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• Your body is transparentized in a virtual environment

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Toyohashi University of Technology) Researchers at Toyohashi University of Technology, University of Tokyo and Keio University have found that visual-motor synchronicity of only the hands and feet can induce a sense of illusory ownership over an invisible body interpolated between virtual hands and feet. This active method to induce a sense of illusory ownership over an invisible body at a distance has potential applications in skill learning/transfer and the concept of body-appearance-irreleva
  
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• Whites distrust biracial people when their racial presentation varies, rutgers study finds

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Rutgers University) Whites consider biracial people to be less trustworthy if they change their racial presentation depending on circumstances, Rutgers University-New Brunswick researchers find.
  
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• VTT Marilyn, a Finnish robot car, has taken a leap towards automatic 24/7 driving

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland) VTT's robot car, Marilyn, sees better than humans in foggy, and even snowy, conditions, and can now navigate without stopping -- including in bad weather. It can also see a human through fog and avoid accident automatically.
  
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• Understanding Andean concepts of death and renewal

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (De Gruyter) Research in the Andes has yielded evidence for a complex association between settlement sites and mortuary monuments, tied to concepts of death, ancestor veneration and water.
  
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• UH philosopher recognized for work on animals and rational thought

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (University of Houston) A philosopher from the University of Houston has received the 2018 Article Prize from the American Philosophical Association for work demonstrating that a wide range of animal species exhibit 'executive control' in decision-making, acting in ways long thought to require language.
  
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• Two cool: A pair of patents filed on breakthrough materials for next-gen refrigerators

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (DOE/Ames Laboratory) Consortium members have filed a pair of provisional patent applications on two caloric materials, which are compounds that generate strong cooling effects when acted upon by magnetic, electric, or mechanical forces
  
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• Tufts University and BioLabs open coworking laboratory space for life sciences innovators

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Tufts University, Health Sciences Campus) Tufts University and BioLabs announce the opening of Tufts Launchpad | BioLabs, a fully equipped, supported and permitted biotech facility supporting high-potential, early-stage life sciences startup ventures in the Boston area. Resident companies have access to Tufts' core facilities and services.
  
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• Traditional knowledge sheds light on changing East Greenland climate and polar bear hunt

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Frontiers) Inuit polar bear hunters in East Greenland report changes to their subsistence hunting patterns as well as polar bear distribution and behavior due to decreasing sea ice and the introduction of hunting quotas in 2006. The study is the first in nearly 20 years to document traditional knowledge in East Greenland -- providing a valuable baseline for monitoring future changes and the polar bear population.
  
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• The first wireless flying robotic insect takes off

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (University of Washington) Engineers at the University of Washington have created RoboFly, the first wireless flying robotic insect. RoboFly is slightly heavier than a toothpick and is powered by a laser beam.
  
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• The big ethical questions for artificial intelligence in healthcare

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Nuffield Council on Bioethics) AI in healthcare is developing rapidly, with many applications currently in use or in development in the UK and worldwide. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics examines the current and potential applications of AI in healthcare, and the ethical issues arising from its use, in a new briefing note, artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare and research, published today.
  
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• Team achieves two-electron chemical reactions using light energy, gold

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Scientists are one step closer to building a carbon-recycling system that can harvest solar energy to efficiently convert CO2 and water into liquid fuels. By optimizing many parts of the system, the researchers say, they can now drive two-electron chemical reactions, a substantial advance over one-electron reactions, which are energy inefficient.
  
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• Taming random gene changes as our bodies start to form

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center) Scientists exploring how to tame random gene fluctuations as the embryos that become our bodies start to form have identified a control switch in the vertebrate segmentation clock of developing zebrafish. The researchers report in Cell Reports their findings could uncover methods for modulating genetic signals to prevent birth defects or cancers rooted at the earliest stages of development.
  
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• Standard Model symposium in Cleveland draws 8 Nobel winners

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Case Western Reserve University) A half dozen winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics are expected on Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University campus June 1-4 for a symposium marking the 50th anniversary of the Standard Model of Physics, which coalesced in 1967-68 and gradually became accepted as the best explanation of all matter and how it holds together. The list includes Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg, whose 1967 paper, "A Model of Leptons," is considered a cornerstone of the model.
  
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• Standard Model symposium in Cleveland draws 6 Nobel winners

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Case Western Reserve University) A half dozen winners of the Nobel Prize for Physics are expected on Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University campus June 1-4 for a symposium marking the 50th anniversary of the Standard Model of Physics, which coalesced in 1967-68 and gradually became accepted as the best explanation of all matter and how it holds together. The list includes Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg, whose 1967 paper, "A Model of Leptons," is considered a cornerstone of the model.
  
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• Scientists use Dorset, UK, as model to help find traces of life on Mars

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Imperial College London) By studying a stream on the UK coast, experts have calculated how much organic matter we might find on Mars, and where to look.
  
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• Scientists crack how primordial life on Earth might have replicated itself

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Medical Research Council) Scientists have created a new type of genetic replication system which demonstrates how the first life on Earth -- in the form of RNA -- could have replicated itself. The scientists from the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology say the new RNA utilizes a system of genetic replication unlike any known to naturally occur on Earth today.
  
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• Savanna chimpanzees suffer from heat stress

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) An international team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, has studied the physiological parameters of savanna and rainforest chimpanzees and compared their water and energy budgets as well as their stress levels. They found that the stress of maintaining their body temperature is a tremendous burden on chimpanzees living in the savanna.
  
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• Robots get a grip on Brisbane

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Queensland University of Technology) The world's biggest robotics conference is coming to Brisbane. The agenda includes robots at war and human teams going head-to-head in an attempt to solve one of the greatest gripes for households everywhere.Some of the biggest international names in robotics will converge on the city next week, and the public has the chance to meet the experts and get up close to the bots prior to the main event.
  
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• RIT hosts three-day training to understand and apply artificial intelligence technologies

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Rochester Institute of Technology) Rochester Institute of Technology is presenting a three-day workshop about artificial intelligence and how the technology is being developed to advance industries such as manufacturing, security and heath care.
  
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• Researchers use LiDAR to locate invasive fish and preserve a national treasure

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (The Optical Society) According to new research, an aircraft-mounted instrument could offer a faster way to locate and capture the non-native fish at Yellowstone National Park during the brief weeks each year when they come into shallow water to spawn.
  
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• Researchers seek to create self-assessing robots

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Carnegie Mellon University) In a parallel to how 'The Little Engine That Could' once chanted, 'I think I can, I think I can,' university researchers sponsored by the Office of Naval Research are working to impart robots and other autonomous systems with the ability of self-assessment. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon, Brigham Young University, Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts Lowell will develop methods and metrics for machine self-assessment.
  
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• Researchers find new way to stimulate cellular recycling process

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Brown University) In research that could lead to future therapies for age-related diseases, Brown University researchers have found a new way to stimulate the process by which cells recycle their spare parts.
  
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• Researchers call for transgender-inclusive healthcare providers

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Springer) More should be done to take care of the mental health of transgender people in the US, a new survey carried out in Colorado indicates. The survey results show that four in every ten respondents suffered from depression, while one in every 10 tried to commit suicide in the year prior to the survey being conducted.
  
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• Researcher warns China's program 'riskiest environmental project in history'

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (James Cook University) A global expert on infrastructure says that China's plan to crisscross half of the Earth with massive transportation and energy projects is environmentally the riskiest venture ever undertaken.
  
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• Research pinpoints optimal age of puppy cuteness

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Arizona State University) Canine researcher Clive Wynne's research reveals more about the depth and origin of the human-dog relationship.
  
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• OHSU one of three centers selected to study cells at atomic level

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Oregon Health & Science University) OHSU will become a national center for an imaging technique that is revolutionizing structural biology. In partnership with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, OHSU becomes one of three national centers established by the National Institutes of Health in cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM.
  
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• Not quite a 'double bind' for minority women in science

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Ohio State University) Many studies have shown that both minority and women scientists face disadvantages in reaching the highest levels of their careers. So it would make sense that minority women would face a 'double bind' that would particularly disadvantage them. But a new study using a massive database of scientific articles suggests that minority women actually face what might be called a 'one-and-a-half bind.'
  
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• No motor, no battery, no problem

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (California Institute of Technology) Engineers have created a soft robot that does not rely on a motor to propel itself through the water.
  
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• New 'Silk Road' brings challenges and opportunities for biodiversity conservation

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig) In an article published in Nature Sustainability, scientists argues that environmental protection should be a priority for the 'Belt and Road' initiative. This Chinese project would then represent not only an investment to foster international trade but also an opportunity for sustainable development leadership. Among the team, who calls for rigorous strategic environmental and social assessments, are researchers fro
  
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• New hope for patients with depression and anxiety

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg) There is a strong link between depression and anxiety disorders and autoimmune thyroiditis (AIT), a chronic thyroid condition affecting approximately 10 percent of the population. Scientists at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have now proven that special treatment could help many sufferers, especially women.
  
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• Neutrons measured with unprecedented precision using a 'magneto-gravitational trap'

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (Indiana University) Researchers at the IU Center for the Exploration of Energy and Matter have developed a highly accurate way to measure neutron decay rates. It could provide new insight into the state of the universe after the Big Bang.
  
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• National trial: EEG brain tests help patients overcome depression

  15-05-2018 06:00
  (UT Southwestern Medical Center) A UT Southwestern study -- to be published in the June edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry -- found that measuring electrical activity in the brain can help predict a patient's response to an antidepressant.
  
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