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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

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Why Russia Is So Anti-Gay

The numbers come from newly released data from the Pew Research Center, which surveyed Russians on their moral attitudes in spring 2013. Just eight months before the games, Russia's governmental body, the Duma, passed a law making it illegal to distribute homosexual "propaganda" to minors, which includes staging gay pride events and advocating for gay rights. On the opening day of the Olympics (Feb. 7), police arrested at least 14 gay rights activists in St. Petersburg and Moscow, according to news reports. It's unclear what charges the activists may face, as Russia also bans unapproved protests.

Shroud of Turin: Could Ancient Earthquake Explain Face of Jesus?

The authenticity of the Shroud of Turin has been in question for centuries and scientific investigations over the last few decades have only seemed to muddle the debate. Now, a study claims neutron emissions from an ancient earthquake that rocked Jerusalem could have created the iconic image, as well as messed up the radiocarbon levels that later suggested the shroud was a medieval forgery.

Why Is It So Warm in Sochi Right Now?

A heat wave hitting Sochi this week could make the 2014 Winter Olympics the warmest in history. Temperatures in Sochi soared to 61 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius) yesterday (Feb. 10) and are forecast to hit 63 F (17 C) on Thursday (Feb. 13). The heat wave also pumped up temperatures in the mountains 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Sochi, where the outdoor events for the 2014 Winter Olympics are held. A high-pressure ridge sitting atop the Sochi area is to blame: the ridge is warming Sochi by decreasing cloudiness, keeping the skies clear and sunny.

Rules Make Vaccine Exemptions for Kids Harder to Get

In recent years, several states have passed bills that make it harder for children to gain exemptions from getting the vaccinations schools usually require, and ethicists say this trend is a good one. Between 2009 and 2012, there were 36 bills addressing the issue of exemptions to school immunization mandates introduced in 18 states, according to a new study. Although most of these bills (86 percent) sought to make exemptions easier to obtain — for example, by allowing parents to cite their personal beliefs as a reason for vaccine exemption — none of these bills passed, according to the study. On the other hand, five bills were introduced that sought to make exemptions harder to obtain — for example, by requiring a doctor's signature for children seeking an exemption.

HPV Vaccine: 2 Doses May Reduce Risk of Genital Warts

Just two doses of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine may considerably reduce the risk of developing genital warts, although getting the recommended three doses provides the most protection, a new study from Sweden suggests. The findings suggest that vaccination programs should continue providing the recommended three doses, said study researcher Lisen Arnheim-Dahlström, of the department of medical epidemiology and biostatistics at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. However, more long-term studies are needed first, to examine the effect of two doses on genital warts and the initial stages of cervical cancer. A few small studies have already suggested that one or two doses of the HPV vaccine may protect reasonably well against HPV infection.

Bob Costas Takes a Break: Why Pink Eye Is So Contagious

News that NBC anchor Bob Costas will take a night off from the hosting the networks' Olympics broadcast because of an infection that spread to both his eyes might have you wondering: Why is pink eye so contagious? Last week, Costas appeared on air with one red, swollen eye, and said he expected the eye infection to clear up by the weekend. But, in fact, the infection spread to both eyes by Monday, and Costas told the "Today" show that he would take at least one night off from the Olympic primetime broadcast. But one of the common causes of pink eye is a virus called adenovirus, said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

Crikey! Crocodiles Can Climb Trees

In Australia, Africa and North America, it's climbin' crocodiles you have to worry about. Four species found on three continents showed this behavior, which may help the reptiles regulate their body temperature and survey their habitat. "The most frequent observations of tree-basking were in areas where there were few places to bask on the ground, implying that the individuals needed alternatives for regulating their body temperature," the authors wrote online Jan. 25 in the journal Herpetology Notes. Crocodiles, like other reptiles are ectothermic (also called "cold-blooded"), meaning they can't regulate their own body temperature and so must rely on outside sources such as the sun.

Winter Storm Battering Southeast Seen from Space

An Earth-watching satellite has spotted the latest winter storm threatening to paralyze the southeastern United States. A foreboding band of white clouds stretches from the Texas Gulf Coast to far beyond the eastern shores of the Carolinas in the new image captured at 1:15 p.m. EST (1815 UTC) on Feb. 11 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's GOES-East satellite. The National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center warned that the South could see a "paralyzing ice storm" this week. Weather officials said some residents in northern Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina could see up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) of snow (and perhaps even 8 inches, or 20 cm, in some areas).

Is It the End for the Monarch's Cross-Continent Migration? (Op-Ed)

Sylvia Fallon is a senior scientist for the NRDC. This Op-Ed was adapted from a post to the NRDC blog Switchboard. I just smiled to myself, because unlike him, I knew that this wasn't just any butterfly — it was a monarch butterfly. It carries this protection with it as it traverses the entire country from the forests of Mexico to the wildflowers of Texas through the prairies of the Midwest and back again.

Why 'Protected Lands' Too Often Lose Protection (Op-Ed)

Roopa Krithivasan is a social scientist at WWF. Working with the Conservation Science Program's social science group, she helps examine patterns, trends, causes and implications of protected area downgrading, downsizing and degazettement (PADDD). A lot of great conservation science happens out in the field. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is involved in efforts ranging from tracking key species movements to community collaborations that improve human lives and the environment.

After Surviving Breast Cancer, Yoga May Be Recovery Key (Op-Ed)

Breast cancer survivors have a lot to think about when it comes to their recovery. But for breast cancer survivors, sometimes just the thought of exercise can make them want to sit down and rest. A cancer survivor is often weak from the treatments he or she has gone through. Consistently, cancer survivors' average fitness levels are about 30 percent lower than those of sedentary people without a cancer history.

A Coal Baron Digs a Deeper Hole (Op-Ed)

Elliott Negin is the director of news and commentary at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Robert E. "Bob" Murray, the pugnacious owner of Ohio-based coal giant Murray Energy Corp., keeps his lawyers busy. Besides appealing safety fines, over the past few years his company has sued two news organizations — the Charleston Gazette and Huffington Post — for defamation and the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration for levying "unfounded and baseless violation citations." More recently, the company turned it up a notch, announcing it will sic its lawyers on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Why Would Royal Dutch Shell Abandon the Arctic? (Video)

Geologists estimate that the Arctic holds more than 20 percent of the planet's oil and gas resources. Royal Dutch Shell's recent decision to cancel drilling plans for 2014 is just the latest in a long line of setbacks, underscoring the reality that easy oil is a thing of the past. Shell purchased leases in the Beaufort Sea in 2005 and in the Chukchi Sea in 2008. Plans to begin exploratory drilling in 2010 were put on hold when the administration of President Barack Obama imposed a moratorium following the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf.

A Chocolate a Day? (Op-Ed)

This Op-Ed was adapted from an article in the Washington Post. Tallmadge contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. That's what many chocolate companies would like you to believe in their Valentine's Day advertisements. While studies have shown that cocoa provides many positive health effects, the chocolates you buy from your local stores may not impart those benefits.

How Peer Pressure Explains Vaccination Rates

In a purely rational world, vaccination rates would vacillate constantly depending on how much people fear getting sick. But now, scientists have added in the missing puzzle piece that explains why vaccination rates stay high in the real world — or, in some cases, low. The reason, it turns out, is peer pressure. Public health officials frequently worry about low levels of childhood vaccination, often driven by debunked concerns that vaccines are linked with autism.

Fairness May Have Roots in Spite, Study Finds

Fairness may have darker roots than previously believed, according to new research that finds spiteful behavior can lead others to act fairly. "What we found is an alternative evolutionary path towards fair behavior," said study researcher Patrick Forber, a philosopher at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. A spiteful person pays that price to do something to hurt someone else.

Mammograms Do Not Reduce Breast Cancer Deaths, Study Finds

Yearly mammograms in middle-age women do not reduce breast cancer deaths — these tests are essentially as good as physical examination alone, according to a new 25-year study from Canada. The study, which included nearly 90,000 women ages 40 to 59, is the latest to question the value of routine mammography. Mammography is performed routinely to screen women for breast cancer, with the goal of early diagnosis. In some cases, early detection does not necessarily mean the cancer can be cured, and in some others, treatments work even if cancer is discovered at later stages.

Women Face High Sexual Assault Rates Globally

The researchers reviewed articles and reports published between 1998 and 2011, and consulted international databases and surveys to find estimates of sexual violence against women, including girls older than 15. They found that, worldwide, 7.2 percent of women reported non-partner sexual violence during their lifetimes. The global picture varied widely: the highest rates of sexual violence were seen in central and southern Sub-Saharan Africa, including Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, with 21 percent in Democratic Republic of Congo. Rates were about 16 percent in New Zealand and Australia, 13 percent in the United States and Canada, 11.5 percent in Western European regions and 8 percent in Eastern European countries.

Live Up North? Your Gut May Have More 'Fat' Microbes

People who live in colder climates tend to have more of the gut microbes associated with obesity, a new study suggests. Researchers found that people living farther north, in generally colder locales, have more of the bacterial group Firmicutes and fewer of the group Bacteriodes within their guts. Previous research has shown that people with more Firmicutes bacteria tended to be heavier, while people with leaner bodies had more Bacteriodes. Still, the new findings support the hypothesis that certain obesity-associated microbial communities are "too good at digesting food," meaning they break food down in a way that leaves more calories available for a person's body to use, said study co-author Taichi Suzuki, a doctoral candidate in integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Bird lovers, space buffs square off over proposed Florida launch pad

By Irene Klotz NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - Florida's plan to build a commercial space launch complex in a federal wildlife refuge surrounding the Kennedy Space Center drew sharp words from environmentalists and strong support from business boosters during the project's first public hearing on Tuesday. Advocates say the proposed spaceport is needed to retain and expand Florida's aerospace industry, which lost about 8,000 NASA and civilian jobs after the shutdown of the space shuttle program in 2011. Opponents of the plan to carve out about 200 acres from the 140,000-acre (57,000-hectare) Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge cite concerns over protecting the refuge's water, seashore, plants and wildlife, which include 18 federally listed endangered species. You don't have that anywhere else in Florida," said Ted Forsgren with Coastal Conservation Association of Florida, which strongly opposes the project.

Rocket-Engraved Coins Celebrate 50 Years of European Space Exploits

A new collectible set of gold and silver coins has been minted in France to celebrate the past half century of European cooperation in space. The Monnaie de Paris, France's national mint, has issued the "50 Years of European Space Cooperation" collection in time for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the two organizations that led to today's European Space Agency (ESA). Established in 1964, the European Launcher Development Organization (ELDO) and the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) merged more than a decade later to create the European Space Agency. The commemorative euros are part of the French Ministry of Finance's "Europa" coin series, which since 2002 has paid tribute annually to different individuals or events that have factored into European cooperation and construction.

NASA Report: How to Defend Planet From Asteroids

The results of a workshop to find the best ways to find, track and deflect asteroids headed for Earth were released by NASA on Friday (Feb. 7). NASA's Asteroid Initiative, started in 2013, includes a mission to capture a small near-Earth asteroid and drag it into a stable orbit around the moon, and a challenge to devise the best ideas for detecting and defending against potentially dangerous asteroids. The agency put out a request for information to refine the objectives of the Asteroid Initiative, to generate other mission concepts and increase participation in the mission and planetary defense. NASA received an enthusiastic response, including from the general public.

NASA Spacecraft Sees Violent Solar Realm Beneath Sun's Surface (Photos, Video)

A writhing, violent region below the surface of the sun glows in a newly revealed video. Scientists created the video (released on Feb. 6) using footage collected by NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph spacecraft (IRIS, for short). The probe is designed to peer below the sun's surface into the "interface region." You can watch a video of the new IRIS sun footage on SPACE.com. "The spacecraft is designed to take high-resolution images of the interface region in unprecedented detail," NASA officials said in a statement announcing the video.

Drug References Found on Walls of Ancient Egyptian School

Archaeologists working in the western desert of Egypt have discovered a school dating back about 1,700 years that contains ancient Greek writings on its walls, including a text about ancient drug use that references Homer's "The Odyssey." The school — which contains benches that students could sit on to read, or stand on and write on the walls — dates back to a time when the Roman Empire controlled Egypt, and Greek was widely spoken. In 2001, a new exploration project at Amheida, now sponsored primarily by New York University, led to the discovery of the school, its Greek writings and more art scenes from the house. In the ancient world, schools were often part of other places — like private residences, city halls or temples — and, as such, are very difficult for archaeologists to identify, Raffaella Cribiore, a professor at New York University, wrote in the journal Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (a journal that publishes ancient texts).

Future Colliders May Dwarf Today's Largest Atom Smasher

LONDON — So, physicists have found the Higgs boson. It took three years for the world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), to spot the elusive Higgs boson particle, which is thought to explain how other particles get their mass. However, if scientists want to look for new physics discoveries beyond the Higgs boson, in the form of new exotic particles and interactions, even the Large Hadron Collider may not be enough, said Terry Wyatt, a physicist at the University of Manchester who works on the LHC's ATLAS detector, one of seven particle-detector experiments conducted at CERN. Speaking at a conference on the Higgs boson here at the Royal Society in January, Wyatt outlined what kind of enormous science experiments would be needed to go beyond the science that the LHC may deliver.

'RoboCop': When Will Cyborgs Walk Among Humans?

In this month's reboot of the classic "RoboCop" film, scientists create a superhuman crime fighter that is half-man, half-robot — a human outfitted with a robotic exoskeleton and whose brain is programmable like a machine. "RoboCop" — which stars Joel Kinnaman, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton and Samuel L. Jackson — opens in theaters nationwide Wednesday (Feb. 12). In the movie, policeman Alex Murphy (played by Kinnaman) is critically injured on the job and is selected for an experimental robotic law-enforcement program, masterminded by a multinational corporation with the nefarious aim of selling militarized robot soldiers to domestic, civilian law-enforcement agencies. The RoboCop body gives Murphy superhuman strength, and the embedded software enables his brain to process information as quickly and precisely as a computer.

Hugging Lions? Why Humans Are Drawn to Wild Animals

Regardless of the reason, intrusive forays into wild animals' environments often do more harm than good, for both the people and animals involved, experts say. This desire to form emotional connections with non-human living creatures, a term dubbed biophilia by the biologist E.O. Wilson, has only gotten stronger as humans have traded forest-dwelling for office cubicles and concrete jungles, said Susan Clayton, a psychology and environmental studies researcher at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Many people also have a sense that there is a non-human, transcendent spirit that suffuses the world, and feel that they can get in touch with that spirit by getting close to wild animals, Clayton said. Getting close to wild animals can also validate people's machismo or quest for adventure.

Does America Need a Bacon Intervention?

Not according to Winter Olympian Sage Kotsenburg, who tweeted Monday (Feb. 10) after winning the gold medal for slopestyle, "I wish the Sochi medals were made out of bacon!" Not according to newlyweds Tricia Snider and Tom Watson, who tied the knot last week at the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival in Iowa.

Cold Weather, Temperature Changes Tied to Stroke Risk

Significant weather changes can trigger a number of public health warnings, and now new research suggests one group may need to be extra vigilant about weather changes: People who are at risk for stroke.

Natural Disasters Bring Risk of Fungal Infections

Natural disasters can create conditions that put survivors at risk for fungal infections, which are often overlooked, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For example, after the devastating 2011 tornado in Joplin, Mo., 13 severely injured people developed a rare fungal infection called mucormycosis. Following a 1994 earthquake near Los Angeles, more than 200 people developed a fungal infection called coccidioidomycosis, also known as Valley Fever. Although not a very frequent occurrence, fungal infections following disasters may become more common with climate change, the report said.

Found: Rare Beetle Collected by Darwin 180 Years Ago

The discovery of Darwinilus sedarisi — whose scientific epithet honors both Charles Darwin and the writer David Sedaris — was announced Wednesday (Feb. 12) to coincide with the 205th anniversary of Darwin's birthday. "I spent many hours listening to Mr. Sedaris' audiobooks while preparing the specimens and the figures for this and other manuscripts," Chatzimanolis wrote.

U.S. scientists achieve 'turning point' in fusion energy quest

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. scientists announced on Wednesday an important milestone in the costly, decades-old quest to develop fusion energy, which, if harnessed successfully, promises a nearly inexhaustible energy source for future generations. For the first time, experiments have produced more energy from fusion reactions than the amount of energy put into the fusion fuel, scientists at the federally funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California said. The researchers, led by physicist Omar Hurricane, described the achievement as important but said much more work is needed before fusion can become a viable energy source. They noted that did not produce self-heating nuclear fusion, known as ignition, that would be needed for any fusion power plant.

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