GoogleTrends: 02/10/14

Monday, February 10, 2014

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Ancient star helps scientists understand universe's origins

Australian astronomers have found the oldest known star in the universe, a discovery that may help to resolve a long-standing discrepancy between observations and predictions of the Big Bang billions of years ago. Dr Stefan Keller, lead researcher at the Australian National University Research School, told Reuters his team had seen the chemical fingerprint of the "first star". "It's giving us insight into our fundamental place in the universe. What we're seeing is the origin of where all the material around us that we need to survive came from." Simply put, the Big Bang was the inception of the universe, he said, with nothing before that event.

Ancient star helps scientists understand universe's origins

8 Best Jobs for Retirees

Americans may be able to start collecting retirement benefits at age 62, but in today's world, many workers are continuing to stay employed well beyond retirement age. Whether they want to earn some extra cash, continue using their career skills, or try their hand at something new, more and more senior citizens are choosing to take a part-time job after retirement. Here are eight opportunities you can pursue as a retired worker. Whether it's with a day care or nursery school, or an independent child care service, watching children for busy parents during the work day or weekends is a great gig for a retired worker.

Depression in Space: How Computer Software Could Help Astronauts Cope

Astronauts on a deep-space mission will be much too far removed to make an office call to a specialist who could help handle depression and other psychosocial issues. Now, a set of self-directed modules could help astronauts work through these issues on their own while on a deep-space mission. James Cartreine, a licensed clinical psychologist and a researcher in the Brigham and Women's Hospital's (BWH) Program on Behavioral Informatics and eHealth, also produces interactive media and videos. (BWH is an affiliate of Harvard Medical School.) That melding of psychology and media led the researcher to create a suite of interactive media programs to help astronauts manage the pressure-cooker environment of lengthy space travel.

Meteor Shower Cameras Scan Night Sky to Study Near-Earth Objects

The cameras are part of a project to monitor the night sky for meteors, buts of space dust and debris that ignite as dazzling streaks as they hit Earth's upper atmosphere. Meteor showers are produced when dust or particles from comets or asteroids burn up in the atmosphere. The meteor-watching team, led by meteorite expert Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., observed 42 showers during January and February 2012, 16 of which were new. "That leaves us with 41 parent bodies out there that cross Earth's orbit at some point, and we don't know where they are," said study researcher Beth Johnson, a physics student at San Jose State University, who presented the results of the project in January at the annual American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C.

Is the Loch Ness Monster Dead?

A veteran custodian of Loch Ness monster sightings is concerned that Nessie has not been seen in well over a year, and may be gone, according to a news report. Gary Campbell, who lives in Inverness in the United Kingdom has been keeping records of Loch Ness monster sightings for the past 17 years and has put together a list of sightings that goes back some 1,500 years, according to the BBC News. "The number of sightings has been reducing since the turn of the century but this is the first time in almost 90 years that Nessie wasn't seen at all." (Apparently three reports of possible Nessie sightings in 2013 were discredited after closer scrutiny, The Inverness Courier reported.) The Loch Ness monster first achieved notoriety in 1933 after a story was published in a local newspaper describing not a monstrous head or hump but instead a splashing in the water that appeared to be caused "by two ducks fighting." A famous photograph showing a mysterious head and neck brought Nessie international fame, but was revealed to be hoax decades later.

Hark, Quarks! Strange Tiny Particles Loom Large in New Study

The most precise measurement yet of a fundamental property of quarks — one of the building blocks of matter — brings scientists closer to finding new exotic particles. At the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Laboratory, scientists fired a beam of electrons at an atom of deuterium, or heavy hydrogen, which consists of one proton and one neutron. They looked at the way the electrons scattered after hitting the nucleus of the atom, and used that pattern to find out more about quarks, which make up protons and neutrons. The experiment is similar to one done in the late 1970s, which helped confirm that the Standard Model successfully explained the behavior of tiny particles.

Oversized Rats Could Take Over Earth After Next Mass Extinction

In the event of a future mass extinction, rats may be the animals best suited to repopulate the world, some scientists say. And if rats did "take over" after such a wipeout, they'd likely balloon in size, scientists also say. Some researchers think the Earth is on the brink of its next mass extinction that could hit within the next several centuries, as a result of human-induced habitat destruction and environmental degradation, said Jan Zalasiewicz, a geologist at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom who studies Earth history. Zalasiewicz and colleagues have developed a thought experiment in which they consider which animal might be the most likely to survive and repopulate the world if this purported mass extinction were to take place — and they concluded that rats may be the best candidates.

Female Mice Choose Mates That Don't Sing Like Dad

In the study, the researchers raised female mice with either their biological father, an unrelated father or no father at all. The female mice raised with their biological father spent most of their time in rooms playing the songs of males that were unrelated to them, the researchers found.

Birds Give Evil Eye to Ward Off Intruders

Unlike their dark-eyed relatives, rooks and crows, "jackdaw eyes are almost white, and their striking pale irises are very conspicuous against their dark feathers," Gabrielle Davidson, lead author of the study, detailed Tuesday (Feb. 4) in the journal Biology Letters, said in a statement. But do jackdaws use their bright eyes for communication? One was solid black, one had just a pair of jackdaw eyes, one had a jackdaw's face with jackdaw eyes and one had a jackdaw's face with black rook eyes. The trouble often starts when jackdaws approach nests belonging to other birds.

Microwaving Your Meals: Skipping 1 Step Can Make You Sick

During the outbreak, which occurred in summer 2010, people in 18 states fell ill with a type of bacteria called Salmonella enterica. Most of the people who fell ill in the outbreak reported cooking their meal in the microwave, but not all of them let the meal stand for the recommended time in the microwave before they dug in, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Consumers should not only follow instructions for microwaving, but should also allow the product to stand for the recommended time before consuming," the CDC said. A common feature of foodborne-illness outbreaks linked with frozen meals is the misconception that these foods are ready to eat, and just need to be reheated, the CDC said.

Sochi Olympics: Which Winter Sports Burn the Most Calories?

Regardless of whether they win gold, athletes at this year's Winter Olympics will no doubt expend a significant number of calories as they try to ski, jump and skate their way past the competition. An elite racer who weighs 220 lbs. (100 kilograms) would burn about 260 calories during 10 minutes of cross-country skiing at a pace of at least 8 mph (13 km/h), according to the Compendium. Cross-country skiing, figure skating and speed skating are aerobic activities that require a significant amount of oxygen consumption, so they burn more calories, said Richard Cotton, an exercise physiologist and national director of certification at the American College of Sports Medicine.

3 Things to Know About Your Food's Nutrition Label

Food manufacturers label foods in a way that makes foods more appealing, so you buy them — that's their job. But your job is to make healthy choices for yourself and your family. For example, a 2012 study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that college students who checked food labels were more likely to consume less fast food and added sugar, and more fiber, than those who were not in the habit of checking labels. It's easy to quickly scan a food label and miss important facts that could sabotage an otherwise healthy diet.

To the Powerless, World Weighs Heavier

The effect may be evolution's quirky way of preventing the socially powerless from exhausting their resources, said study researcher Eun Hee Lee, a doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge. "Powerful people know they have control of resources for themselves, and even others' [resources]," Lee told Live Science. Power dynamics are a fact of living as a social organism — any time there is more than one person, power dynamics exist, she said.

Gladiator Heads? Mystery of Trove of British Skulls Solved

A trove of skulls and other body parts unearthed in the heart of London may have once belonged to Roman gladiators, war captives or criminals, a new study suggests. The remains, described in the January issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, belonged to about 40 men, mostly ages 25 to 35, and were marred by violence: cheek fractures, blunt-force trauma to the head, decapitation and injuries from sharp weapons, said study co-author Rebecca Redfern, a curator and bioarchaeologist at the Museum of London.

February Stargazing: Planets, Comets and Constellations Shine in Night Sky

The constellation Orion also takes a prominent position in the winter sky, and Jupiter can be seen after sunset during February. "After the sun sets on these cold February days, look for a bright 'star' blazing high over head," officials with the Hubble Space Telescope's Space Telescope Science Institute (STSI) said in a video about February skywatching. "This is actually not a star at all, but the planet Jupiter. Uranus and Neptune can be spotted through binoculars or a telescope, Jane Houston Jones said in a NASA skywatching video.

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