Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

	Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News
	(Sponsor this newsletter) Scientists: Great Lakes teeming with tiny plastic fibers TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — First, it was tiny plastic beads from facial washes and toothpaste turning up in the Great Lakes. Scientists now are raising concerns about fibers from synthetic clothing. Read More » CATS in Space: NASA Probe to Examine Climate Change A new instrument called CATS heading to the International Space Station this weekend doesn't have claws, but it does boast a powerful laser that could help researchers better understand climate change. NASA's Cloud-Aerosol Transport System instrument — which is set to launch toward the orbiting lab early Saturday (Jan. 10) aboard SpaceX's robotic Dragon cargo capsule — will track clouds and tiny particles of dust, smoke and pollution in Earth's atmosphere that influence climate. "With data from CATS, scientists may gain an improved understanding of the structure and evolution of Earth's atmosphere," NASA officials said in a statement. Read More » Novel SpaceX Falcon mission blasts off from Florida By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - An unmanned Space Exploration Technologies Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Saturday carrying a cargo capsule for the International Space Station, then turned around to attempt an unprecedented landing on earth. While the cargo ship flies toward the space station, the rocket was expected to head back to a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean some 200 miles (322 km) off Jacksonville, Fla., north of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch site. ... Read More » Daring SpaceX Rocket Landing Test Crashes After Successful Cargo Launch for NASA A commercial Falcon 9 rocket built by SpaceX successfully launched a Dragon cargo ship toward the International Space Station early Saturday (Jan. 10) — and then returned to Earth, apparently impacting its target ocean platform during a dramatic and highly anticipated landing test in the Atlantic. Read More » Nobel Prize Winners Show Playful Side in Crayon Drawings A new photography exhibit suggests that, while Nobel laureates may be geniuses in their field, most aren't very good at coloring. The exhibit, called "Sketches of Science: Photo Sessions with Nobel Laureates," opened at the University of California, Davis, campus this week. Photographer Volker Steger decided to put the laureates' coloring skills to the test in order to capture something "spontaneous," he said in a statement. "The sketches turned out to be as varied as the Nobel laureates who drew them. Read More » Smart Defense: NFL Fans Will Help Test Earthquake Warning System Tune in to a Seattle Seahawks game this NFL playoff season. Seismologists will be tracking the shimmies and shakes of Seattle's CenturyLink Field in order to test their earthquake early-warning system. "It's a silly experiment that gives us a chance to work on our equipment," said John Vidale, a professor at the University of Washington and director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN). Vidale and his colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey and other universities are developing a system called ShakeAlert, with the goal of giving residents in earthquake-prone areas a few seconds' warning before potentially deadly shaking starts. Read More » Lizard Penises Evolve at Super-Speed The study is the first to directly measure the evolution rate of the penis of any species, though researchers have long suspected that the male genitalia evolve faster than other body parts, said study researcher Julia Klaczko, a biologist at the University of Campinas in Brazil. "What we see is, sometimes, very close species have very different hemipenes or genitalia," Klaczko told Live Science. Hemipenes are the pair of organs that make up the version of a penis found in snakes and lizards. Anolis lizards are a well-studied group, and researchers have lots of information about the relationships between the species, as well as their habitats and body shapes, Klaczko said. Read More »