|  Kate Upton Goes Zero-G for Sports Illustrated's 2014 Swimsuit Issue  | Swimsuit-clad model Kate Upton dives and floats, not in water, but through the air for a new spread in Sports Illustrated. Upton flew on a Zero Gravity Corporation flight to model new bikini and one-piece fashions in weightlessness for Sports Illustrated's 2014 Swimsuit Issue, which hit newsstands today (Feb. 18). Upton's weightless experience shows what it might be like to model while in outer space, according to ZERO-G officials.
| Read More » Flying Bat-Inspired Robots May Take to the Skies Researchers studied how fruit bats use their wings to manipulate the air around them. "Bats have different wing shapes and sizes, depending on their evolutionary function," Danesh Tafti, a professor in the department of mechanical engineering and director of the High Performance Computational Fluid Thermal Science and Engineering Lab at Virginia Tech, said in a statement. Fruit bats, and more than 1,000 other species of bats, have wings made of flexible, "webbed" membranes that connect their fingers, the researchers said. Fruit bats typically weigh about an ounce (30 grams), and their fully extended wings can each measure roughly 6.7 inches (17 centimeters) in length, Tafti said. Read More » Genetic Process Behind Calico Kitty Coats Visualized  | The new technique, which will be described today (Feb. 18) at the 58th annual meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Francisco, helps visualize the process behind calico cats' patchy, multi-colored fur. Humans have 22 pairs of regular chromosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes. Under a microscope, the sex chromosomes look somewhat like an X or a Y in shape just before cell division. (Most of the time, all chromosomes just look like amorphous blobs with complicated shapes ) [7 Diseases You Could Learn About from a Genetic Test]
| Read More » Air Turbulence: How Dangerous Is It?  | Like long security lines and bad coffee, air turbulence is one of the headaches travelers face when they decide to board an airplane. The 119 passengers and crew aboard United Airlines Flight 1676 experienced severe turbulence yesterday (Feb. 17) as their Boeing 737 was about to land after an otherwise-calm flight from Denver to Billings, Mont.
| Read More » Sochi Slopes Seen from Space (Photo)  | While hockey players and figure skaters are competing inside Sochi's monumental new stadiums along the Black Sea coast, skiers and snowboarders are striving for Olympic glory farther inland in the Caucasus Mountains.
| Read More » San Francisco's Deadly 1906 Earthquake Was Last of Three  | California's rock-and-roll reputation was set more than a century ago, when a devastating earthquake flattened San Francisco in 1906. Afterward, the northern San Andreas Fault, the state's massive earthquake-maker, lay quiet for eight decades — until 1989's Loma Prieta quake, which shook up the 1989 World Series game at Candlestick Park. In the 70 years before the 1906 earthquake, the San Andreas Fault unleashed three earthquakes bigger than magnitude-6 in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco, researchers report in this month's issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America. That means that the northern San Andreas Fault's earthquake pattern may be different than previously thought.
| Read More » 'Acne Bacteria' Hopped from Humans to Grapevines Grapevines can't grow zits, but they do carry bacteria related to the acne-causing pathogen found on human skin, according to a new report describing the first known case of a bacterium transferring from a human to a plant. So when researchers based at the Research and Innovation Center – Fondazione Edmund Mach in Italy analyzed bacterial colonies growing on the common grapevine Vitis vinifera in Northeast Italy, they were surprised to find a previously unknown relative of P. acnes living in the bark of the plant. Based on the genetic makeup of the new bacterium, as compared to other related strains, and the evolutionary history of those other strains, the researchers estimate farmers transferred the pathogen to the plants roughly 7,000 years ago. Since then, the bacterium has become entirely plant-adapted, and it can no longer return to its original human host, the team reports today (Feb. 18) in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. Read More » Bears Use Wildlife Crossings to Find New Mates As more and more roads cut across the territories of wild animals, wildlife crossings are being built to bridge these barriers. Now, a team of researchers at Montana State University has compared the genetics of grizzly bears and black bears at road crossings in the Canadian Rockies, finding the bears do indeed move across the Trans-Canada Highway, and breed with mates on the other side. The study provides the first proof that wildlife crossings maintain genetic diversity, the researchers say. "Roads connect human populations, but fragment wildlife populations," wrote the authors of the study, detailed today (Feb. 18) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Read More » Cats and Dogs May See in Ultraviolet  | Visible light (that humans can see) spans from red to violet, and beyond the visible lie ultraviolet wavelengths. The lens of the human eye blocks ultraviolet light, but in animals with UV-transparent lenses, ultraviolet light reaches the retina, which converts the light into nerve signals that travel to the brain where the visual system perceives them. Even in animals whose retinas aren't very sensitive to UV light, some of the light is still absorbed. The team found that many of the animals, including hedgehogs, dogs, cats, ferrets and okapis (relatives of giraffes that live in the central African rainforest), have lenses that allow some ultraviolet light through, suggesting these animals may see in the ultraviolet.
| Read More » NASA Teaches Humanoid Robonaut 2 Medical Skills for Space Emergencies (Video)  | NASA is training a humanoid space robot to pull double duty as an emergency doctor in space — a surrogate physician that could one day be controlled by experts on Earth to help sick or injured astronauts. The $2.5 million Robonaut 2, nicknamed R2, is designed to work alongside the astronauts and even take over some of their more tedious duties inside and outside the International Space Station. The new NASA training is adding telemedicine skills to that mix. The tests were performed using a ground-based version of R2 robot, the mechanical twin of the one currently aboard the space station.
| Read More » Great Pyramid at Giza Vandalized to 'Prove' Conspiracy Theory  | Two German men who visited the Egyptian pyramids in April 2013 now face criminal charges for their attempt to prove their "alternative history" conspiracy theories through vandalism. The men, Dominique Goerlitz and Stefan Erdmann, were joined by a third German, a filmmaker who accompanied them to document their "discoveries." Goerlitz and Erdmann, who are not archaeologists but have instead been described as "hobbyists," allegedly smuggled the artifacts out of the country in violation of strict antiquities laws, according to news reports. In addition to the three Germans, six Egyptians are being held in connection with the case, including several guards and inspectors from the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry who allowed the men into the pyramid.
| Read More » 12-Year-Old Invents Braille Printer Using Lego Set  | A 12-year-old student from California has created a Braille printer by repurposing parts from a Lego set. Shubham Banerjee, a seventh-grade student from Santa Clara, Calif., developed the Braille printer using toy construction Lego pieces. The low-cost invention could be an accessible solution for blind and disadvantaged people across the globe, Banerjee said. The printer, dubbed Braigo (short for Braille with Lego), was created from the Lego Mindstorms EV3 set, which retails for $349.
| Read More » Moon, Mars and Star Form Celestial Triangle Wednesday Night  | Shining brightly with a fiery hue well above the moon will be the planet Mars, with the bluish star Spica completing the triangle far to the moon's upper right. The planet Mars is in the midst of a "triple conjunction" with Spica, which is typically the 16th brightest star in the sky.
| Read More » New Maps Show How Habitats May Shift with Climate Change  | As regional temperatures shift with climate change, many plants and animals will need to relocate to make sure they stay in the range of temperatures they're used to. Now, a team of 21 international researchers has identified potential paths of these twists and turns by mapping out climate velocities— the speed and intensity with which climate change occurs in a given region — averaged from 50 years of satellite data from 1960 through 2009, and projected for the duration of the 21st century. "We are taking physical data that we have had for a long time and representing them in a way that is more relevant to other disciplines, like ecology," said co-author Michael Burrows, a researcher at the Scottish Marine Institute. The resulting maps indicate regions likely to experience an influx or exodus of new species, or behave as a corridor or, conversely, a barrier, to migration.
| Read More » Money, Sleep and Love: What Makes a Happy Parent? Who is happier: Parents or non-parents? Social psychologists are moving past the simple yes-or-no question of whether kids make people happy, as studies have failed to find strong differences in happiness between parents and non-parents. "Overall, there's not much difference between parents and non-parents, but when you start to take a more detailed approach, you see some differences emerge," said Katie Nelson, a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of California, Riverside. Studies attempting to compare parents and non-parents have variously found that kids make people happier; Read More » Lettuce-Based Electric Wires Sprout in the Lab  | LONDON — Move over, copper wires. Computer scientist Andrew Adamatzky of the University of West England did a series of tests with four-day-old lettuce seedlings. Next, he applied electrical potential between electrodes ranging from 2 to 12 volts, and calculated the seedling's so-called potential transfer function that shows output potential as a fraction of input potential — the amount of energy produced relative to energy put in.
| Read More » Countries with the Deadliest Roads Revealed  | On average, 18 out of 100,000 people on the planet die in car accidents each year, but that fatality rate varies widely across different countries. Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+.
| Read More » Get Up! Prolonged Sitting May Raise Risk of Disability Older adults who spend a lot of time sitting may be at increased risk of having a disability, regardless of how much they exercise, a new study suggests. The study is published today (Feb. 19) in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health. Read More » Squeak! Ancient Helium Escaping from Yellowstone  | The giant magma blob beneath Yellowstone National Park unleashed tons of ancient helium gas when it torched North America, according to a new study. "The amount of crustal helium coming out is way more than anyone would have expected," said Jacob Lowenstern, lead study author and scientist-in-charge at the U.S. Geological Survey's Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. Yellowstone National Park's famous geysers burble within the remains of a supervolcano that first exploded 2.1 million years ago.
| Read More » Big Discovery: Tiny Electron's Mass More Precisely Measured Scientists have made the most precise measurement yet of the electron's atomic mass. "It is a major technical improvement," said Edmund Myers, a physicist at Florida State University, who wrote an accompanying News & Views article today (Feb. 19) in the journal Nature, where the new measurement is detailed. The new measurement could one day be used in experiments to test the Standard Model, the reigning physics theory that describes the tiny particles that make up the universe. But before the new value can be used to test the basic physics theory, other fundamental constants need to be measured at higher precision, Myers said. Read More » Fecal Transplant Regulations Too Strict, Some Say Physicians use fecal transplants to treat certain intestinal infections, but the procedures recently came under strict regulations, with the Food and Drug Administration managing the transplants as though they were a drug treatment. This regulation has made it harder for patients to receive fecal transplants, and in a new paper, some researchers are calling for the transplants to instead be regulated as a tissue, akin to blood donations. The raw material for fecal transplants isn't hard to come by, and so in the face of what some see as current over-regulation, an underground market for the transplants will likely spring up, the researchers argued today (Feb. 19) in the journal Nature. At the same time, they said, more research is needed on the long-term effects of fecal transplants. Read More » How Stars Die: Lopsided Nature of Supernovas Revealed  | Further material falling onto this collapsed core can bounce off it, causing a violent shock wave that blasts matter outward. For decades "our best model of supernova explosions forced the stars to collapse symmetrically," said study lead author Brian Grefenstette, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "The problem is that when you try to make a star explode by forcing it to collapse symmetrically, the star doesn't explode," Grefenstette told Space.com. This failure apparently happens in symmetrical models because that shock wave that starts at the center of the star and is supposed to destroy it gets trapped by all of the material above it.
| Read More » 5 Private Moon-Race Teams Compete for Bonus $6 Million  | Landing on the moon is no easy feat, and five teams competing for the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize might just get a little more money to help them send their probes to the lunar surface. Astrobiotic, Moon Express, Team Indus, Hakuto and Part-Time-Scientists are all in the running to win "milestone prizes" later this year, Google Lunar X Prize officials announced today (Feb. 19). To win the grand prize, a company's spacecraft will need to be the first in the competition to move 1,650 feet (500 meters) on the moon and send video, images and data back to Earth from the lunar surface. The milestone prizes are designed to help teams overcome financing problems they could be facing while trying to compete, officials said.
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