|  Pope Francis Kisses Man Covered in Tumors Since assuming the papacy, Pope Francis has espoused a life of humility and compassion in the tradition of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, who adopted a life of poverty and service to the sick. There, Francis openly embraced and kissed an unidentified man covered with tumors caused by neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic disease of the nervous system. Neurofibromatosis, or NF, causes tumors to grow on nerves and nerve endings. The condition can appear in childhood or during the teen years, depending on the type of NF; Read More » Chasing a Solar Eclipse: Hitting the Bull's Eye at 44,000 Feet (First Person)  | The airplane would attempt to view the few seconds of totality — the total phase of the solar eclipse — at the very beginning of the eclipse path, where the shadow, moving at nearly 8,000 mph (12,875 km/h) was just touching down on Earth. You can follow space photography Ben Cooper @LaunchPhoto or at LaunchPhotography.com.
| Read More » European Satellite Is Falling from Space, But Where Will It Hit?  | The fate of European Space Agency's falling GOCE satellite was sealed in October, when the spacecraft ran out of the fuel needed to keep it aloft in a very low orbit above Earth. Now that the satellite's mission is over, its handlers at the European Space Agency (ESA) are closely tracking its ever-descending orbit to determine where it might fall. The GOCE satellite team's best prediction so far is for "a re-entry on Sunday, with a possibility for it slipping into early Monday," Rune Floberghagen, ESA's GOCE mission manager, told The New York Times earlier this week. Most of the 1-ton (907 kilograms) spacecraft will disintegrate during reentry, but smaller fragments of GOCE will make it all the way to the planet's surface. The Times reported that 25 to 45 fragments of the satellite are expected to survive, with the largest as big as 200 lbs. (90 kg).
| Read More » As Myth Marries Science, the Origin Story Matters (Op-Ed)  | Roger Briggs is the author of "Journey to Civilization: The Science of How We Got Here" (Collins Foundation Press, 2013). The traditional view of history has been that prehistoric humans achieved civilization for the first time about 5,000 years ago in the Middle East, and was then followed by the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and so on.
| Read More » Can New Rules Finally End Pet-Treat Poisonings? (Op-Ed)  | This Op-Ed is adapted from a post on the blog A Humane Nation, where the content ran before appearing in LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Today, the nutritional content and safety of pet food is a mainstream concern, given growing consciousness about nutrition and healthy foods and the view that pets are family members. The pet-food market has grown dramatically, with some pet food companies even marketing organic food for dogs and cats. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new proposed standards governing oversight over the pet-food industry, calling for makers of animal food sold in the United States to develop written plans to prevent food-borne illnesses, like salmonella. This much-needed upgrade of the regulatory framework comes as the FDA is still trying to determine the precise cause of a six-year spate of pet illnesses — involving more than 3,500 dogs, with nearly 600 known fatalities — apparently stemming from jerky-style pet treats.
| Read More » To Cut Carbon, a Decade is Too Long to Wait (Op-Ed)  | Jeffrey Rissman, policy analyst at Energy Innovation: Policy and Technology, contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. While there is a global consensus to cut greenhouse gasses, many approaches look to solve the crisis over decades — but, there are critical reasons that even ten years is too long to wait. First, delaying action allows natural carbon-dioxide (CO2) feedback loops — climate-altering processes that accelerate as more CO2 enters the atmosphere — to gather strength. and melting permafrost allows for the decomposition of peat bogs and the melting of methane hydrates, releasing methane into the atmosphere.
| Read More » The Dog's Telltale Tail (Op-Ed) Marc Bekoff, emeritus professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is one of the world's pioneering cognitive ethologists, a Guggenheim Fellow, and co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Read More » Hunt Club Auctions Opportunity to Kill Endangered Rhino (Op-Ed) Wayne Pacelle is the president and chief executive officer of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). This Op-Ed is adapted from a post on the blog A Humane Nation, where the content ran before appearing in LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. At the very time that the world is rallying to save the last rhinos — who are being gunned down by poachers and terror groups taking advantage of the global demand for rhino horns — the Dallas Safari Club is planning on auctioning an opportunity to shoot a critically endangered black rhino. Read More » Astronauts Improvise Olympic Torch Relay On Space Station  | There are still months remaining before the 2014 Olympic Games kick off, but nine space travelers on the International Space Station are already getting into the Olympic spirit. Meanwhile, two cosmonauts will take the Olympic torch outside the space station on Saturday in a first-ever Olympic spacewalk. The red and silver aluminum torch for the 2014 game arrived at the station with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin (who carried it), NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata when their Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked with the orbiting outpost early Thursday (Nov. 7) morning. "Mikhail Tyurin was the first person that entered the International Space Station with the torch," Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin told reporters through a translator earlier today (Nov. 8) during a news conference.
| Read More » Cosmonauts to Spacewalk with Olympic Torch Today: How to Watch Live  | For the first time in history, an Olympic torch will be taken into the vacuum of space during a spacewalk and you can watch it live online. Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryazanskiy and Oleg Kotov will venture outside the International Space Station with the red and silver aluminum Olympic torch Saturday (Nov. 9), leaving from the station's Pirs docking compartment airlock at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT). This will be the first spacewalk for Ryazanskiy and the fourth for Kotov. You can watch the spacewalk on SPACE.com starting at 9:00 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) via NASA TV.
| Read More » Mysterious Disease Turning Sea Stars to Goo May Disrupt Tidal Ecosystems  | The disease — known as sea star wasting syndrome — begins as a small lesion, and eventually results in the loss of limbs and ultimate disintegration and death of the leggy animal. The syndrome has afflicted sea star populations on the West Coast in the past, and in those instances, populations eventually bounced back, Smithsonian invertebrate zoologist Christopher Mah told LiveScience.
| Read More » Wearable Robotics: The Incredible Tech of Helping People Walk Again  | Michael Gore tripped about 11 years ago and his life changed. The flexible and supportive Indego Exoskeleton is designed to help people rehabilitate after an injury or allow people with paralysis like Gore to walk again. Gore has been working with a version of the exoskeleton since 2010, when he was in rehab at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. "It feels great," Gore, a T10 (thoracic spinal nerve 10) complete paraplegic, told LiveScience of the exoskeleton.
| Read More » 3D-Printed Fossils & Rocks Could Transform Geology  | Whether they're cracking open rocks or scanning tiny changes in topography, geologists already work in three dimensions. But one of the most popular attractions at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting in Denver last week was a 3D printer spitting out fossils, globes and fractured rocks. The 3D printer belonged to Franek Hasiuk, a geologist at Iowa State University and proprietor of the GeoFabLab, a hub for 3D geologic printing. "Humans are visual and tactile," Hasiuk told LiveScience.
| Read More » New Coiled Fibers Could Heal Damaged Hearts By growing heart cells in scaffolds made of coiled fibers, scientists could develop implants that could help people's hearts spring back into action after heart attacks. Its costs exceed $312 billion yearly, and are expected to exceed $1.5 trillion per year by 2030, according to the 2013 American Heart Association report. Heart disease often leads to heart attacks, which can cause a loss of blood flow to the heart tissue and lead to the death of heart muscle cells. With heart transplants scarce, half the people who live through a heart attack die within five years. Read More » Cosmonauts take Sochi Olympic torch on spacewalk  | By Alissa de Carbonnel BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - A pair of Russian cosmonauts took an Olympic torch into open space for the first time in history on Saturday as part of the torch relay of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. Gripping the unlit silver-and-red torch in the gloved fist of his spacesuit, Oleg Kotov crawled through a hatch and stepped outside the International Space Station some 200 miles above Earth, where he waved it triumphantly. He handed the torch to Sergei Ryazansky and they took turns posing with it, with the station, the blackness of outer space and the blue-and-white orb of Earth as backdrops. The footage, most taken from cameras mounted on the cosmonauts' spacesuit helmets, was broadcast live on U.S. space agency NASA's internet channel and Russian state television.
| Read More » Sending Olympic Torch to Space, Russia Flaunts Inspiration Superiority (Op-Ed)  | Leroy Chiao is a former NASA astronaut and commander of the International Space Station. Chiao is the special adviser for human spaceflight to the Space Foundation, and holds appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University. Soyuz 11M roared into space just a few days ago, carrying the latest crew to the International Space Station. During the mission, two cosmonauts will take the torch out on a spacewalk, to further generate publicity for the games, and for human spaceflight.
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