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Monday, February 24, 2014

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Global warming won't cut winter deaths as hoped - UK study

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming will fail to reduce high winter death rates as some officials have predicted because there will be more harmful weather extremes even as it gets less cold, a British study showed on Sunday. A draft U.N. report due for publication next month says that, overall, climate change will harm human health, but adds: "Positive effects will include modest improvements in cold-related mortality and morbidity in some areas due to fewer cold extremes, shifts in food production and reduced capacity of disease-carrying vectors." However a report in the journal Nature Climate Change on the situation in England and Wales said climate warming would likely not decrease winter mortality in those places. Lead author Philip Staddon of the University of Exeter told Reuters that the findings were likely to apply to other developed countries in temperate regions that risk more extreme weather as temperatures rise. Excess winter deaths (EWDs), the number of people who die in winter compared to other times of the year, roughly halved to 31,000 in England and Wales in 2012-12 from 60,000 typical in the 1950s, official data show.

Rock around the clock: zircon crystal is oldest piece of Earth

Scientists using two different age-determining techniques have shown that a tiny zircon crystal found on a sheep ranch in western Australia is the oldest known piece of our planet, dating to 4.4 billion years ago. Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience on Sunday, the researchers said the discovery indicates that Earth's crust formed relatively soon after the planet formed and that the little gem was a remnant of it. John Valley, a University of Wisconsin geoscience professor who led the research, said the findings suggest that the early Earth was not as harsh a place as many scientists have thought. But because some scientists hypothesized that this technique might give a false date due to possible movement of lead atoms within the crystal over time, the researchers turned to a second sophisticated method to verify the finding.

5 California Children Infected by Polio-Like Illness

Over a one-year period, five children in California developed a polio-like illness that caused severe weakness or paralysis in their arms and legs, a new case study reports. In two of the children, their symptoms have now been linked with an extremely rare virus called enterovirus-68. Like the poliovirus, which has been eradicated in the U.S. since 1979 thanks to the polio vaccine, strains of enterovirus in rare cases can invade and injure the spine. These are the first reported cases of polio-like symptoms being caused by enterovirus in the United States.

Spaceport Sweden Launches Aerial Northern Lights Tours, Aims for Space (Video)

When thinking of space travel, Florida and Texas probably come to mind, but what a company in Sweden wants to help you fly to space. Spaceport Sweden one day hopes to offer flights launching from Kiruna, Sweden into suborbital space aboard space planes owned by Virgin Galactic, XCOR and other commercial spaceflight companies. "Spaceport Sweden clearly has proven it has the potential to be a world-class, space-oriented attraction, drawing 145,000 annual visitors," Spaceport Sweden's CEO Karin Nilsdotter, said in a statement. "The uniqueness of the facility and location, the authenticity of our space attractions, and the ability to be the tourism hub for Kiruna will enable Spaceport Sweden to become a top tourist destination in Swedish Lapland."

Alien Planet-Hunting Project 1640 Snaps Photos of Faraway Worlds

Project 1640 is designed to probe the atmospheres of exoplanets to create new, low-resolution images of the planets and their stars. Scientists working with Project 1640 — an imaging system at the Palomar Observatory in California — are using the specialized system to survey about 200 stars looking for a range of planets and other objects, project scientist Ben Oppenheimer said here at the American Museum of Natural History event on Feb. 5. According to AMNH officials, Project 1640 is "the most advanced and highest contrast imaging system in the world." [See photos of a star and four planets found by Project 1640] "The planets of our own solar system, of course, are planets in and of themselves and in order to understand them — and indeed this planet — I think we need to study other planets," Oppenheimer said.

How Our Milky Way Galaxy Got Its Spiral Arms

The shape of the Milky Way galaxy, our solar system's home, may look a bit like a snail, but spiral galaxies haven't always had this structure, scientists say. In a recent report, a team of researchers said they now know when and how the majestic swirls of spiral galaxies emerged in the unicerse. But in the early universe, spiral galaxies didn't exist. A husband and wife team of astronomers, Debra Meloy Elmegreen at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Bruce Elmegreen at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., analyzed an image from the Hubble Space Telescope known as the Ultra Deep Field.

900 Lives Saved Yearly by Keeping the Drinking Age at 21

Laws that maintain the legal drinking age at 21 save lives on the road, and protect young people from other hazards of drinking, according to a new review of studies. Researchers also found that current drinking restrictions have not resulted in more binge drinking among teens, as some have suggested. "Recent research ...has reinforced the position that the current law has served the nation well by reducing alcohol-related traffic crashes and alcohol consumption among youths," the researchers wrote in their study published today (Feb. 24) in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. "The evidence is clear that there would be consequences if we lowered the legal drinking age," said study researcher William DeJong of Boston University School of Public Health. [7 Ways Alcohol Affects Your Health]

Pediatricians Update Guidelines for Kids' Checkups

New guidelines released today by a leading U.S. pediatricians group recommend for the first time that healthy teens be screened for depression at their checkups, and that routine cholesterol testing begins in children at younger ages. The American Academy of Pediatrics also has other changes in store for infants, children and teens during their regular doctor's visits, including HIV testing in teenagers, and evaluating toddlers' nutrition status for iron-deficiency anemia. Last revised in 2007, the updated pediatric schedule released today (Feb. 23) includes several changes and new additions to the recommended screenings and health assessments done between infancy and adolescence. The schedule is meant as a guide for pediatricians to providing children with age-appropriate preventive care at their regular checkups.

Urgent! Lemur Crisis Prompts Conservationist Call-to-Action

Lemurs have captured the public imagination in movies such as "Madagascar," but now these adorable primates are on the brink of extinction, conservationists say. Nineteen lemur conservationists and researchers published a call-for-action to save Madagascar's 101 lemur species from the threats of deforestation and poaching stemming from the country's political woes. "Since the 2009 political crisis, the situation on the ground has been grim for the Malagasy people, but also for the lemurs, especially in terms of habitat loss. If things don't turn around, lemur extinctions will start happening," Mitch Irwin, an anthropologist at Northern Illinois University said in a statement.

200-Year-Old Douche Found Under New York's City Hall

While sifting through a 19th-century trash heap buried below Manhattan's City Hall Park, archaeologists found a dirt-caked tube that was finely carved out of bone and had a perforated, threaded screw cap. The feminine hygiene device seems to have been tossed out with the refuse of a pretty good party around the time City Hall was being built 200 years ago. "We think the trash deposit feature was from a single event, possibly a celebratory event," said Alyssa Loorya, who heads the Brooklyn-based Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants. The garbage pile was uncovered during excavations in 2010 as part of a project to rehabilitate City Hall, Loorya told Live Science.

Some Asthma Patients May Be Overmedicated, Doctors Say

People with mild asthma are advised to lower their medication dose once their asthma has been brought under control, but the best way to reduce the dose is not fully known, doctors say. "We need to find a way to help patients control their asthma, without overmedicating them," said Dr. John Mastronarde, director of the Asthma Center at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center. To control asthma, patients typically take drugs called inhaled corticosteroids, to reduce inflammation in the lungs, and long-acting beta agonists (LABAs), to open the airways. Doctors adjust the medication dose based on the patient's symptoms and lung function.

Switching Schools Linked with Mental Health Problems in Kids

In the study, children who switched schools more than three times were 60 percent more likely to have such symptoms at age 12, compared with kids who made fewer school moves up to this age. The study showed an association, and doesn't prove a cause-and-effect relationship between frequent school shifts and mental health problems. Still, it's possible that constantly being the new kid makes children feel vulnerable and socially defeated, excluded or marginalized, said study co-author Dr. Swaran Singh, a mental health researcher at the Warwick Medical School in England. Studies have also found that children who move from rural to urban settings have a higher risk of hallucinations, delusions and other fleeting psychotic thoughts, Singh told Live Science.

Pharmacy Clinics Aren't for Kids, Docs Say

The statement, from the American Academy of Pediatrics, says that retail-based clinics are not an appropriate source of primary care for children because they break up a patient's medical care, and prevent patients from having an ongoing relationship with a single doctor who helps coordinate their care. However, he said that retail-based clinics do have a place in our society.

Record-Breaking Meteorite Crash on Moon Sparks Brightest Lunar Explosion Ever

"At that moment I realized that I had seen a very rare and extraordinary event," Jose Madiedo, a professor at the University of Huelva, said in a statement. The space rock hit at a staggering speed of 37,900 mph (61,000 km/h), gouging out a new crater roughly 131 feet (40 meters) wide in an ancient lava-filled lunar basin known as Mare Nubium, Madiedo and colleagues said. If a space rock this size hit the Earth, it might create some spectacular fireball meteors, but it likely would not pose a threat to people on the ground, researchers explained. During that crash, a space rock hit at an estimated 56,000 mph (90,000 km/h), carving a new crater 65 feet (20 meters) wide.

Extreme Abuse of Calves Leads to Immediate Shuttering of N.J. Slaughterhouse (Op-Ed)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) responded quickly to shut down a New Jersey slaughterhouse plant after The HSUS asked for enforcement action and provided the federal agency with footage of our latest undercover investigation into abuses and the continuing mistreatment of downer calves — in this case, at the Catelli Bros. slaughter plant in suburban Monmouth County, N.J., Following the USDA's action, The HSUS publicly released its materials. The plant manager warned workers not to take some of these actions when the USDA inspector was around — an indirect admission that he knew that workers were breaking the law on animal handling. You may recall the 2009 HSUS investigation of Bushway — a calf slaughter plant in Grand Isle, Vt., where we found calves too weak to walk being kicked, shocked, thrown and dragged to slaughter. That case prompted The HSUS to file a petition with the USDA asking that the agency close a loophole in the regulations that allowed these downed calves to be set aside to see if they could recover enough to walk onto the kill floor.

Helpful Meds Can Become Harmful As You Grow Older (Op-Ed)

Bob Rosenblatt is a researcher, writer and journalist who writes about the intersection of finances and aging. Too many patients and too many of the doctors who first wrote the prescriptions may not realize something that was a great help in coping with anxiety and depression threatens to do great harm at a different stage in life. The category of drugs to watch out for is called benzodiazepines. Medicare Part D is covering these medications for the first time in 2013, and this calls for alertness by both patients and doctors. The following drugs are the benzodiazepines, with generic name first, then brand name in parentheses:

Why a Recent Mammography Study is Deeply Flawed (Op-Ed)

Dr. Mitva Patel is a breast radiologist at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. Medical societies and breast cancer specialists across the nation agree: the data is flawed and misleading. About 80 percent of the time mammography detects breast cancer, and the cancers that are found through mammography alone are typically small (averaging 1.0 to 1.5 centimeters). The average size of a breast cancer detected on physical examination is 2.0 to 2.5 cm.

As Prisoners Learn of Animals' Compassion, They Connect (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. For 14 years, I've been teaching animal behavior and conservation biology at the Boulder, Colo., county jail as part of the Jane Goodall Institute's Roots & Shoots Program. The course is one of the most popular in the jail — students have to earn the right to enroll, and they work hard to get in it. While there's student turnover, my fellow teachers and I are all pleasantly surprised at how science connects the inmates to various aspects of nature, and that many find it easier to connect with animals than with people.

Painful, Days-Long Erections Also Happen in Women

The condition, in which the erect penis or engorged clitoris does not return to its normal state, is called priapism, and is much more common in men than in women. These drugs block a type of receptor called alpha-adrenergic receptors.

Winter Comes Back: Return of the Polar Vortex?

Another bout of painfully cold Arctic air is on its way to the northern United States, reviving talk of what has become popularly known as the "polar vortex." By Thursday, temperatures will have dropped to as low as 30 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius) below the average temperature for this time of the year, meteorologists say, with highs dipping down into the teens in New York City and into the single digits in Chicago. Average temperatures for this time of year in those regions are generally closer to 45 and 40 F (7.2 and 4.4 C), respectively, said Bernie Rayno, a meteorologist with Accuweather. While it's not necessarily inaccurate to refer to the event as the "polar vortex," Rayno said, the increased hype around this phrase since January's deep chill has warped people's perceptions of what is actually a fairly common weather phenomenon.

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