|  Smarter, Deadlier Drones Mapped Out in Defense Plan  | Drones that can decide for themselves how best to complete a pre-programmed mission — that's just one of the many advanced capabilities the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) wants to develop over the next 25 years as part of its Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap. But drones definitely get pride of place in the document, with the DoD exploring such technologies as precision navigation, swarming munitions and increased autonomy. Unmanned aircraft currently depend on GPS for navigation. Addressing this problem, the roadmap cites the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) ongoing work with so-called pinpoint inertial guidance systems that are jam-proof.
| Read More » Relapse of 'cured' HIV patients spurs AIDS science on By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists seeking a cure for AIDS say they have been inspired, not crushed, by a major setback in which two HIV positive patients believed to have been cured found the virus re-invading their bodies once more. True, the news hit hard last month that the so-called "Boston patients" - two men who received bone marrow transplants that appeared to rid them completely of the AIDS-causing virus - had relapsed and gone back onto antiretroviral treatment. "It's a setback for the patients, of course, but an advance for the field because the field has now gained a lot more knowledge," said Steven Deeks, a professor and HIV expert at the University of California, San Francisco. He and other experts say the primary practical message is that current tests designed to detect even very low levels of HIV present in the body are simply not sensitive enough. Read More » Relapse of "cured" HIV patients spurs AIDS science on  | By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists seeking a cure for AIDS say they have been inspired, not crushed, by a major setback in which two HIV positive patients believed to have been cured found the virus re-invading their bodies once more. True, the news hit hard last month that the so-called "Boston patients" - two men who received bone marrow transplants that appeared to rid them completely of the AIDS-causing virus - had relapsed and gone back onto antiretroviral treatment. "It's a setback for the patients, of course, but an advance for the field because the field has now gained a lot more knowledge," said Steven Deeks, a professor and HIV expert at the University of California, San Francisco. He and other experts say the primary practical message is that current tests designed to detect even very low levels of HIV present in the body are simply not sensitive enough.
| Read More » Incredible Technology: How to Mine Water on Mars  | The bone-dry desert of present-day Mars may seem like the last place you would look for water, but the Red Planet actually contains a wealth of water locked up in ice. Evidence that Mars once supported liquid water has been mounting for years, and exploratory missions have found that water ice still exists on the planet's poles and just beneath its dusty surface. Accessing that water could require digging it up and baking it in an oven, or beaming microwaves at the soil and extracting the water vapor. Now, the Netherlands-based organization Mars One, which wants to establish a permanent human settlement on the Red Planet, is planning to send an unmanned lander to Mars in 2018 that would carry an experiment to demonstrate that water extraction is possible.
| Read More » UrtheCast, Russia Investigate Space Station HD Cameras After Spacewalk Glitch  | The Canadian company UrtheCast and its Russian partners are investigating what went wrong when its new Earth-watching cameras suffered a glitch shortly after being installed outside the International Space Station last week. In an eight-hour spacewalk on Friday (Dec. 27), Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy installed UrtheCast's two powerful cameras on the orbiting outpost only to have to remove and return the devices to storage after an unspecified data connection problem. UrtheCast officials announced Monday (Dec. 30) that the Earth-watching cameras were installed properly, but mission controllers were unable to confirm the cameras were receiving power from the space station, so the devices were removed as a safety precaution. George Tyc, UrtheCast's Chief Technology Officer, said the fact that neither camera could communicate with Russia's Mission Control Center just outside of Moscow suggests the root of the problem is inside the space station.
| Read More » 3D Brain Maps Guide Doctors — via iPhone  | The phones have started to fulfill this role, in part, thanks to the thousands of 3D brain images, produced by Dr. Albert Rhoton at the University of Florida, that are freely available online. "I've had young surgeons from Africa, Brazil and other countries tell me they're pulling the images into the operating room" and using them during surgery, said Rhoton, head of the Neuro-Microanatomy Lab at the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute. The images are "our small contribution to making what is a delicate, awesome experience for neurosurgery patients more accurate, gentler and safer," Rhoton told LiveScience. Rhoton has collected images of brain anatomy for as long as he's been teaching surgery — 50 years — and began moving to 3D technology 25 years ago.
| Read More » 'Baboon Syndrome': An Unusual Complication of Antibiotics  | A 40-year-old man with a sore throat and fever was diagnosed with tonsillitis, and was prescribed penicillin, a common antibiotic. But several days later, the man developed a rash over his armpits, groin and buttocks — an unusual condition known as "baboon syndrome." The condition, more formally called symmetrical drug-related intertriginous and flexural exanthema (SDRIFE), is known as baboon syndrome because the rash on the patient's buttocks resembles the red hindquarters of some monkeys. The condition is usually caused by an allergic reaction to penicillin drugs, but can also be caused by exposure to mercury or nickel, said Dr. Andreas Bircher, a dermatologist at University Hospital of Basel in Switzerland.
| Read More » Lost 'Biblical Blue' Dye Possibly Found in Ancient Fabric  | "The importance of this fabric is extremely significant as there are practically no parallels for it in the archaeological record," Israel Antiquities Authority officials say in a statement, referring to the blue color. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, thousands of textile bits from the Roman period have been found in this desert region, but only two fabrics before actually bore traces of the richly colored snail dye, which makes the new discovery all the more remarkable. "There were times when the masses were forbidden from dressing in purple clothing, which was reserved for only the emperor and his family," officials with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said in a statement. Na'ama Sukenik, a researcher with the IAA, turned up the three murex-dyed fabrics while conducting a chemical analysis of 180 textiles specimens from the Judean Desert caves for her doctoral dissertation at Bar Ilan University.
| Read More » Mission shortlists over a thousand candidates for life on Mars Mars One was set up in 2011 by two Dutch men with the goal of establishing permanent human life on Mars in 2025. The 1,058 candidates who got through to the first round come from all over the world. They must now undergo rigorous tests, including simulations of life on Mars and coping with isolation, co-founder Bas Lansdorp said. Read More » Hubble Telescope Reveals Super-Planets Covered in Alien Clouds  | Two teams of researchers used the Hubble Space Telescope to characterize the atmospheres of the two exoplanets. One of the alien planets is a so-called "super-Earth" larger than the Earth, while the other has been dubbed a "warm Neptune." Studying both types of worlds can help scientists learn to classify the atmospheres on other Earth-like planets in the future. It is classified as a "warm Neptune" because its orbit is closer to its parent star than the distance between Neptune and the sun in our solar system. As GJ 436b and the super-Earth GJ 1214b pass in front of their parent stars, the atmosphere creates a bloated sphere that precedes the body of the planet in the front and follows it in the back.
| Read More » States Take National Lead in Regulating Fracking (Op-Ed)  | They contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. In the absence of additional federal action to regulate hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), states have increasingly adopted policies to govern the technology that has opened up large reserves of previously inaccessible natural gas and oil. California, Illinois and Colorado have recently released draft fracking regulations, adding to an already significant body of existing rules and pending legislation at the state level. It can be challenging to irrefutably link a particular instance of pollution with a particular oil and gas operation, but evidence is accumulating that environmental damages from fracking are occurring : examples include methane contamination of groundwater supplies, toxic wastewater flooding nearby landsand air pollutant leakage at the well site.
| Read More » Why Cities are Adopting Open Cloud Technology (Op-Ed) Dixon leads IBM's vision, strategy and operations for teams active in cities around the world. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. With cloud computing, smaller cities have an opportunity to leapfrog giant metropolises, gaining a competitive advantage in efficiency and innovation — even without large information technology (IT) departments and vast data centers. Cloud computing is a means for cities to share a wealth of valuable data with citizens in new ways, wherever they are located, via smartphones and tablets. Read More » Six Science-Based Strategies to Beat Holiday Bloat (Op-Ed) Tallmadge contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. So, when served larger portions, we adjust our level of satiety to accommodate greater calorie intakes. Fortunately, studies have also found that the reverse is true. Read More » 'Jumping Genes' Linked to Schizophrenia  | Some so-called jumping genes that copy and paste themselves throughout the genome may be linked to schizophrenia, new research suggests. The new study, published today (Jan. 2) in the journal Neuron, suggests these jumping genes may alter how neurons (or nerve cells in the brain) form during development, thereby increasing the risk of schizophrenia, study co-author Dr. Tadafumi Kato, a neurobiologist at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan, wrote in an email. Earlier studies had found that a certain type of jumping gene, known as long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE-1), was active in human brain cells. To find out, the team conducted a post-mortem analysis of 120 human brains, 13 from patients who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
| Read More » Is Genetics Key to Climate Change Solutions? (Op-Ed) Thomas Whitham is a regents' professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the executive director of the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research at Northern Arizona University. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. One important part of the puzzle, however, involves unlocking the natural genetic diversity of plants to identify those species and populations best able to cope with changing conditions. Just as researchers have used genetics to improve food production, it can also provide solutions that maintain biodiversity and protect the services provided by native ecosystems. Read More » The Koch Brothers Are Still Trying to Break Wind (Op-Ed) Elliott Negin is the director of news and commentary at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). As Congress dithers for the umpteenth time over extending a key subsidy for wind energy, the fate of the industry once again is up in the air. Given that the planet needs to transition as quickly as possible away from coal and natural gas to carbon-free energy to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, who would be against renewing wind's tax credit? Never mind the fact that the oil and gas industry has averaged — in federal tax breaks and subsidies — four times what the wind tax credit is worth, annually, for the last 95 years. Read More » 'Tis the Season to be Jolly, or Not: Tips for Coping with Holiday Blues  | She contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. As a mood disorders specialist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, I often treat people who are suffering from the "holiday blues." Sometimes these so-called holiday blues may be caused in part by seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which is a biologically driven condition that occurs throughout the winter months when people's daily body rhythms are out of sync with the sun.
| Read More » Exercise Improves Depression in People with Parkinson's She contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Not only can exercise help with the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease, but a new pilot study that I recently completed showed that patient participation in exercise — in earlier stages of the disease — can improve depression in patients. The study, at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, also found that long-term group exercise programs are feasible for people with Parkinson's disease. Each year, about 60,000 Americans are newly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Read More » Wolves Must Not Lose Their Endangered Status (Op-Ed)  | Andrew Wetzler is director of the Land & Wildlife Program at the NRDC. This Op-Ed originally appeared on the NRDC blog Switchboard. Wetzler contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Tuesday marked the official end of the public comment period on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed nation-wide regulation removing the gray wolf from the federal list of endangered species.
| Read More » Ignoring Nature No More: The State of the Animals 2013 (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. Denise Herzing's recently gave a TED talk entitled "If We Could Talk To the Animals" about the clearly smart and emotional dolphins she and her team study.
| Read More » What Does Your Dog Want for Christmas? (Op-Ed) Brian Hare is an Associate Professor in Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke Universityand the founder of Dognition, a Web-based service that helps people find the genius in their dogs. Hare contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Read More » Who's to Blame for Climate Change? (Op-Ed) Elliott Negin is the director of news and commentary at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Negin contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The Climate Accountability Institute's new study documenting that just 90 companies are responsible for two-thirds of manmade carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution triggered some pushback in the blogosphere. Blame the likes of BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell for global warming ? Read More » New Agreement Slashing Set-Top Box Energy to Save $1 Billion Annually (Op-Ed) Noah Horowitz is a senior scientist and director of the Center for Energy Efficiency at the NRDC. This Op-Ed is adapted from a post to the NRDC blog Switchboard. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The signatories include NRDC and other energy-efficiency advocacy groups and companies in the pay-TV industry that include household names such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DIRECTV, AT&T and Motorola. Read More » Bottlenose Dolphins Oiled By Deepwater Horizon Spill are Dying (Op-Ed)  | The dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico are sick and dying. Captain Lori DeAngelis told me this last Christmas. She is more commonly known as the Dolphin Queen by the folks in Orange Beach, Ala., because she captains a boat named the Dolphin Queen and is so conversant with the local dolphins that, when she's on the water, she greets them individually by name. A study published this week in the journal Environmental Science & Technology compared bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Bay, La., that were oiled by the Deepwater Horizon spill with ones in Sarasota Bay, Fla., that did not come into direct contact with the oil spill and found that the Louisiana dolphins were sicker.
| Read More » Brooklyn and Naythyn Among First Babies of 2014 The Y's have it in 2014, if the first baby names of the year are anything to go on. Brooklyn, Layla, Rylee and Naythyn were among the first babies born in the United States on New Year's Eve, according to baby-naming website Name Candy, which tracks the first babies in each state. Naythyn, born at 12:09 a.m., hails from Oregon, while Rylee (a boy) was born at 6:34 a.m. in West Virginia. The New Year welcomed two new Brooklyns, one at 12:03 a.m. in Colorado and another in Maryland at 12:07 a.m. Read More » | |
