|  Bonobos, like humans, keep time to music: study By Irene Klotz CHICAGO (Reuters) - Some animals, like humans, can sense and respond to a musical beat, a finding that has implications for understanding how the skill evolved, scientists said on Saturday. A study of bonobos, closely related to chimpanzees, shows they have an innate ability to match tempo and synchronize a beat with human experimenters. They hear above our range of hearing," said Patricia Gray, a biomusic program director at University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Experimenters beat a drum at a tempo favored by bonobos - roughly 280 beats per minute, or the cadence that humans speak syllables. Read More » Academy honors scientists behind special effects  | BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — The scientists and inventors who make big-screen superheroes and spectacular explosions possible have their own Oscar ceremony.
| Read More » United Nations Takes Aim at Asteroid Threat to Earth  | As the anniversary of last year's surprise Russian meteor explosion nears, a United Nations action team is taking steps to thwart dangerous space rocks, including setting up a warning network and a planning advisory group that would coordinate a counterpunch to cosmic threats. A global group of experts on near-Earth objects (NEOs) met in Vienna Feb. 10 to11 for the 51st session of the United Nations' Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Space. On Feb. 15, 2013, a 65-foot-wide (19 meters) space rock detonated without warning over the city of Chelyabinsk, injuring more than 1,200 people and bringing home the reality of the asteroid threat to much of the world. The plans the experts discussed have taken shape over a decade of work by the UN Action Team on Near Earth Objects, known as Action Team 14.
| Read More » Huge Asteroid to Fly Safely By Earth Monday: Watch It Live  | Near-Earth asteroid 2000 EM26 poses no threat of actually hitting the planet, but the online Slooh Space Camera will track the asteroid as it passes by Earth on Monday. Scientists estimate that 2000 EM26 is about 885 feet (270 meters) in diameter, and it is whizzing through the solar system at a break-neck 27,000 mph (12.37km/s), according to Slooh. During its closest approach, the asteroid will fly about 8.8 lunar distances from Earth. "We continue to discover these potentially hazardous asteroids — sometimes only days before they make their close approaches to Earth," Slooh's technical and research director, Paul Cox said in a statement.
| Read More » Love, Honor & Cherish — But Share a Password? What about sharing an online calendar, or a social media profile? For a growing number of couples, digital technology is a dominant feature of their relationship, and — for better or worse — how partners use email, social media and other communication tools says a lot about their relationship. Among people in a committed relationship who use the Internet, two-thirds have shared the password to one of their accounts — email, Twitter, Facebook or an online calendar, according to a new report from Pew Research. "Sharing passwords is [a] vehicle for establishing trust," said Jane Greer, a family therapist and author of "What About Me? Read More » Lincoln vs. Eisenhower: Most Science-Friendly President to Be Voted In  | A new contest by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) pits Lincoln against Eisenhower and Kennedy against Nixon in a match-up just in time for President's Day (Feb. 17). The goal of the contest is to highlight science in the presidents' careers, "whether it's Jefferson commissioning the Lewis and Clark expedition, Theodore Roosevelt pushing for the Pure Food and Drug Act, or George H.W. Bush launching new Earth observation programs," said Aaron Huertas, a spokesman for the UCS, a nonprofit organization that promotes science in the public sphere.
| Read More » Under Active Volcanoes, Magma Sits in Cold Storage  | Strike that iconic image of a tall, snow-capped volcano sitting atop a liquid pool of hot, molten magma. "People could see the arrival of this hotter magma from below, and it eventually initiated an eruption," he said.
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