Science news

• Treating roads with oil and gas wastewater may spread harmful pollution

  30-05-2018 23:49
  
  When spread on roads, wastewater from oil and gas production can leach radium and other contaminants into the environment, a new study finds.
  
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• The first land-walking vertebrates may have emerged from salty estuaries

  30-05-2018 23:29
  
  Early tetrapods were transitional creatures — not only between land and water, but also between fresh and salty environments.
  
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• Oldest known lizard fossil pushes group’s origins back 75 million years

  30-05-2018 22:24
  
  CT scan reveals hidden identity of an unusual lizard fossil found years ago in the Italian Alps.
  
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• Canada cannot profess to be a climate leader if it's buying pipelines, say environmentalists

  30-05-2018 22:17 via cbc.ca
  A former UN official who helped develop the Paris Agreement says Canadians must ask tough questions of their government's climate change ambitions in light of the recent Trans Mountain pipeline purchase.
  
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• A Matter of Taste: Can a Sweet Tooth Be Switched Off in the Brain?

  30-05-2018 22:10 via rss.sciam.com
  A study describes the complex brain circuitry that lets us identify, savor (or recoil from) a taste -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• China invites all UN countries to use its future space station

  30-05-2018 21:21 via cbc.ca
  China has announced that all member states of the United Nations will be welcome to cooperate with China to use its future China Space Station.
  
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• The first Americans could have taken a coastal route into the New World

  30-05-2018 20:00
  
  Alaskan glaciers retreated in time for ancient coastal entries of the first Americans.
  
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• Oldest lizard fossil fills evolutionary 'missing link'

  30-05-2018 19:00 via cbc.ca
  A finger-sized fossil creature found in the Italian Alps is the earliest lizard ever discovered, filling a long-time gap in the fossil record, Canadian scientists report.
  
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• Two different forms of water isolated for first time

  30-05-2018 18:54 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists have isolated the two different forms of water molecule for the first time.
  
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• Spotting whales from 240 metres like finding 'a needle in a haystack'

  30-05-2018 18:23 via cbc.ca
  With 460,000 square kilometres of ocean to survey, and only about 450 North Atlantic right whales left in the world, the people trying to spot the endangered giants from airplanes this summer have a very tough assignment.
  
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• School shooting video game removed online after backlash

  30-05-2018 18:04 via cbc.ca
  A Seattle-area company has removed a school shooting video game from its online platform following widespread backlash.
  
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• Japanese whale hunters kill 122 pregnant minke

  30-05-2018 18:02 via bbc.co.uk
  The team caught 333 minkes, many of which were pregnant females, in its Antarctic "field survey".
  
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• Skeleton of man crushed by stone while fleeing Mount Vesuvius uncovered in Pompeii

  30-05-2018 15:33 via cbc.ca
  Officials at the Pompeii archeological site have announced a dramatic new discovery: the skeleton of a man crushed by an enormous stone while trying to flee the explosion of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
  
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• Stronger, Wetter, Slower: How Hurricanes Will Change

  30-05-2018 13:30 via rss.sciam.com
  Experts show how 22 recent hurricanes would be different if they formed near the end of this century-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Pompeii victim crushed by boulder while fleeing eruption

  30-05-2018 13:24 via bbc.co.uk
  Archaeologists find a man who, fleeing the initial Vesuvius eruption, was hit by a giant boulder.
  
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• Finally, a plan on how to include pregnant women in clinical trials

  30-05-2018 13:00
  
  The FDA is providing initial guidance on how to include pregnant women in clinical trials that study drugs, research that has largely excluded this group in the past.
  
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• How Close Are We--Really--to Building a Quantum Computer?

  30-05-2018 12:45 via rss.sciam.com
  Intel’s head of quantum computing talks about the challenges of developing algorithms, software programs and other necessities for a technology that doesn’t yet exist-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
  
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• Scientists call for protection of geological, historical sites on other planets

  30-05-2018 10:38 via cbc.ca
  MUN's Jack Matthews says as nations and private companies increasingly explore and develop outer space, there's a growing threat to extraterrestrial environments.
  
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• So your financial information is being bought and sold on the internet. Now what?

  30-05-2018 10:00 via cbc.ca
  Hackers are threatening to release the financial data of 90,000 BMO and Simplii customers. It isn't an isolated case. A growing online black market for personal information that has flourished in recent years. And once your financial information is out there, there's not a whole lot you can do.
  
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• Hacking attacks at BMO and CIBC's Simplii highlight why cybersecurity cannot be a patchwork job: Don Pittis

  30-05-2018 10:00 via cbc.ca
  News that fraudsters had broken through security at two of Canada's biggest banks and were threatening to release the account information of 90,000 Canadians is somewhat like an old-fashioned bank robbery. But in our digital age, it is many times worse.
  
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• Five per cent of digital consumers say they always access content illegally, says survey

  30-05-2018 10:00 via cbc.ca
  A $95,000 survey for the federal government found that about one in 10 Canadians who consume content digitally said they had received a notice of alleged copyright infringement from their internet service provider. One-quarter said they then abandoned their digital piracy - while another quarter said they ignored the notice.
  
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• Young physicist receives renowned award in Venice

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Goethe University Frankfurt) The theoretical physicist Hannah Petersen has been awarded the Zimanyi Medal of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The award is in honor of her work on relativistic heavy ion collisions. This young researcher has been the leader of a Helmholtz Young Investigators Group at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung since 2012 and is a professor teaching at the Goethe University in Frankfurt.
  
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• Workplace dress codes present barriers to people living with disabilities

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (University of Missouri-Columbia) According to the US Census, nearly 20 million people of working age live with a disability. While past research has indicated that people living with disabilities face barriers in workplace participation, researchers from the University of Missouri have now found one hindrance to workplace participation for people with disabilities is the lack of appropriate clothing. This barrier increases their stigma and decreases their confidence.
  
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• UTSA researchers study stuttering and develop technology to enhance brain function

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (University of Texas at San Antonio) A team of researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio received a two-year, $387,000 grant, from the National Institutes of Health, to develop technology that will identify brain activity patterns that contribute to stuttering and use that technology to train people how to optimize brain functions.
  
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• UTA to help Boeing plan to teach employees to work alongside bots, robots, AI

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (University of Texas at Arlington) Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington have received a new grant from Boeing to help the organization understand future learning environments where new technologies such as bots, robots, and artificial intelligence are active participants in teams alongside workers.
  
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• The ideal balance of 1960: Beyond poverty and before overconsumption

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Springer) While remembering the sixties sounds nostalgic, it also appears to make sense. In that decade the balance of the quality of life and sustainability was at its best according to a study on the history of the sustainability of the Netherlands by, among others, TU Eindhoven and the University of Groningen. Their book 'Well-being, Sustainability and Social Development, The Netherlands 1850-2050' covers some 800 pages and is available through SpringerOpen as an open access book.
  
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• TGen and Huntsman Cancer Institute receive $6.7 million grant to battle a hidden enemy

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (The Translational Genomics Research Institute) In an effort to combat metastatic breast cancer, the US Department of Defense has jointly awarded a $6.7 million grant to Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah, and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope.HCI will focus on the biology of an important cellular pathway in metastatic breast cancer, while TGen will focus on drug development and supervise clinical trials to test those drugs.
  
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• Teaching chores to an AI

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, CSAIL ) Recently, computer scientists have been working on teaching machines to do a wider range of tasks around the house. In a new paper spearheaded by MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the University of Toronto, researchers demonstrate 'VirtualHome,' a system that can simulate detailed household tasks and then have artificial 'agents' execute them, opening up the possibility of one day teaching robots to do such t
  
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• Surgical technique improves sensation, control of prosthetic limb

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Brigham and Women's Hospital) Researchers at the Center for Extreme Bionics at the MIT Media Lab have invented a new neural interface and communication paradigm that is able to send movement commands from the central nervous system to a robotic prosthesis, and relay proprioceptive feedback describing movement of the joint back to the central nervous system in return.This involves a novel surgical approach to limb amputation implemented at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital.
  
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• Supercomputers provide new window into the life and death of a neutron

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) A team has enlisted powerful supercomputers to calculate a quantity, known as the 'nucleon axial coupling' or gA, that is central to our understanding of a neutron's lifetime.
  
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• Sugarcane pest produces foam to protect itself from heat

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) Brazilian researchers found that the root spittlebug nymph produces bubbles by feeding on sap, to form a thermal insulator foam that maintains an optimal body temperatures during development. Knowledge of the foam's physical and chemical properties can pave the way for research on compounds that could destabilize the bubbles and eliminate the pests' nymphs in the process.
  
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• Study examines tax compliance behavior in small business owners

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Wiley) A new Applied Psychology study examines the ethical behaviors of small business owners in terms of tax compliance versus avoidance, and how internalized values and external punishment may come into play.
  
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• Space technologies to help improve environmental and living conditions at banks of the Ganges

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (University of Leicester) An international team led by University of Leicester scientists monitors land use, food and water security at Ganges Basin.
  
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• Sniffing out real truffles

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (American Chemical Society) At a cost of thousands of dollars per pound, truffles are an expensive food. The fungi are prized for their distinctive aroma, and many foods claim truffles or their aromas as ingredients. But some of these foods may actually contain a much less pricey synthetic truffle compound. To help detect food fraud, researchers report in Analytical Chemistry that they have developed a technique that discriminates between these natural and synthetic compounds.
  
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• Sensory-based food education encourages children to eat vegetables, berries and fruit

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (University of Eastern Finland) Sensory-based food education given to 3- to 5-year-old children in the kindergarten increases their willingness to choose vegetables, berries and fruit, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland. Sensory-based food education offers new tools for promoting healthy dietary habits in early childhood education and care. The findings were published in Public Health Nutrition.
  
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• Self-driving cars must reduce traffic fatalities by at least 75 percent to stay on the roads

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Society for Risk Analysis) The race is on for companies to present their driverless cars to the public, but recent collisions involving autonomous vehicles developed by Uber Technologies Inc. and Tesla Inc. have led consumers to questions whether these vehicles can alleviate traffic issues and increase safety.A new study published in Risk Analysis examined the question 'How safe is safe enough for self-driving vehicles (SDVs)?'
  
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• Seismometer readings could offer debris flow early warning

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (California Institute of Technology) A debris flow that struck Montecito, Calif., in January was detected by a nearby seismometer.
  
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• Recycled electrical products lead to hazardous chemicals appearing in everyday items

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (University of Plymouth) Hazardous chemicals such as bromine, antimony and lead are finding their way into food-contact items and other everyday products because manufacturers are using recycled electrical equipment as a source of black plastic, according to a new study.
  
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• Rebranded Social Psychological Bulletin opens up to the world with PsychOpen GOLD & ARPHA

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Pensoft Publishers) Social Psychological Bulletin, formerly known as the Polish-born Psychologia Spoleczna, has rebranded and evolved to reflect its new international outlook and dedication to social psychological research and open science practices. In order to truly open up to both academia and the society, the journal joins two prime movers in the open science field -- the Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information with its unique PsychOpen GOLD platform and the high-tech innovative journa
  
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• Public transit agencies should not have to disclose safety planning records in court, similar to laws for state highway agencies and passenger railroads, says new report

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine) To enable public transit agencies to engage in more rigorous and effective safety planning, their safety planning records should not be admissible as evidence in civil litigation, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
  
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• Promising news from biomedicine: DNA origami more resilient than previously understood

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Aalto University) Study shows these nanostructures can survive in extremely low magnesium concentrations, opening up a broad spectrum of biophysical and biomedical applications.
  
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• Promise of faster, more accessible schizophrenia diagnosis, Rutgers study shows

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Rutgers University) A Rutgers study shows how the hand-held device RETeval may prove to be a more accessible way to diagnose schizophrenia, predict relapse and symptom severity, and assess treatment effectiveness.
  
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• Prevalence of eating disorders taken from largest sample in the United States

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Elsevier) Biological Psychiatry has published a new study revising the outdated estimates of the prevalence of eating disorders in the United States. The new estimates were based on a nationally representative sample of 36,309 adults -- the largest national sample of US adults ever studied. The findings estimate that 0.80 percent of US adults will be affected by anorexia nervosa in their lifetime; 0.28 percent will be affected by bulimia nervosa; and 0.85 percent will be affected by binge eatin
  
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• Press registration opens for 2018 fall national meeting of the American Chemical Society

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (American Chemical Society) Journalists may now apply for press credentials for the American Chemical Society's (ACS') 256th National Meeting & Exposition, one of the largest scientific conferences of the year, at http://www.xpressreg.net/register/acsf0818/media/start.asp. The meeting will be held Aug. 19-23, 2018, in Boston.
  
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• Powered by citizen volunteers, air pollution study gets $1.6 million

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Colorado State University) The Citizen-Enabled Aerosol Measurement for Satellites (CEAMS) project, a CSU-led, NASA-funded effort for measuring local air quality, has just received the green light for full speed ahead. Following a successful pilot phase in Fort Collins, Colorado over the past year, NASA has re-upped CEAMS to the tune of $1.6 million over three years.
  
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• Poll: Half of older adults don't use health provider's secure patient communication site

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan) A new poll suggests that many older adults still aren't using online systems to communicate with the doctors and other health care providers they rely on -- despite the widespread availability of such systems. Only about half of people aged 50 to 80 have set up an account on a secure online access site, or 'patient portal.' The likelihood was higher among those who were younger, more educated or had higher incomes.
  
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• OSA to launch new gold open-access journal, OSA Continuum

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (The Optical Society) The Optical Society (OSA) today announced it will begin publishing a new open-access journal, OSA Continuum, in September 2018.The new Journal will accept contributions from the broad optics and photonics community.
  
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• One-step, 3D printing for multimaterial projects developed by WSU researchers

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Washington State University) New WSU research could potentially help manufacturers reduce 3D printing manufacturing steps and use one machine to make complex products with multiple parts in one operation. Until now, 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, has been limited to using mostly one material at a time.
  
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• Older men with higher levels of sex hormones could be less religious

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (Springer) The level of sex hormones such as testosterone in a man's body could influence his religiosity. A new study by Aniruddha Das of McGill University in Canada in Springer's journal Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology now adds to the growing body of evidence that religiosity is not only influenced by upbringing or psychological makeup, but physiological factors could also play a role.
  
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• Oil and gas wastewater on the road could mean health and environment woes

  30-05-2018 06:00
  (American Chemical Society) A truck kicking up dust as it speeds down a dirt road is a typical image in country music videos. But this dust from unpaved roads is also an environmental and health hazard. To prevent dust clouds, some states treat dirt motorways with oil and gas wastewater. Now one group reports in Environmental Science & Technology that this wastewater contains harmful pollutants that have the potential to do more harm than good.
  
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