GoogleTrends: April 2015

Thursday, April 30, 2015

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Graveyard of Stars May Surround Milky Way's Monster Black Hole

The remains of thousands of stars might exist in a vast graveyard near the giant black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, a region where dead stars feed on companions like zombies and unleash X-ray "howls," researchers say. Scientists have long thought that a monster black hole with the mass of 4.3 million suns, named Sagittarius A* (pronounced Sagittarius A star), lurks at the heart of the Milky Way. Recently, astronomers discovered that a surprising number of young, massive stars exist within a few dozen light-years of this black hole. "These young, massive stars are puzzling because when we think about how stars form from clouds of gas that gravitationally collapse in on themselves, it's hard to figure how these clouds could have survived long enough to form stars, given the intense gravitational pull of the supermassive black hole that's so close to them," lead study author Kerstin Perez, an astrophysicist now at Columbia University in New York, told Space.com.

Planet Mercury: Some Surprising Facts for Skywatchers

We have just entered a very favorable period for observing the so-called "elusive" planet Mercury. From now, until about May 13, you should be able to find it with not much difficulty. In 1965, radar studies showed that Mercury's rotation period is 58.65 days or almost exactly two-thirds of its orbital period of 87.969 days. This would mean that a certain point on the planet's surface faces the sun every other time that Mercury arrives at its closest point to the sun (called perihelion). In fact, if Mercury always moved with the same angular velocity that it has at perihelion, it would take only 56.6 days to orbit the sun.

Kilauea Volcano's Lava Lake Overflows (Video)

The lava lake sits in a crater within a crater: Halema'uma'u crater is the deep, wide pit at the top of Kilauea volcano. For this reason, the lava flood poses no risk to people or structures, said Matt Patrick, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. However, the fresh lava has reached the wall of Halema'uma'u crater, triggering rockfalls and spectacular explosions as cold rock hits hot lava. Close monitoring has revealed that the lava lake changes every day, rising and falling by the minute as gas builds up in the lava and then escapes.

Space Station Astronauts Take Russian Cargo Ship Failure in Stride

A robotic Russian cargo spacecraft won't make it to the International Space Station as planned this week, but astronauts aboard the orbiting lab say the failure is not the end of the world. "We are 100 percent confident that we will be living and working productively onboard the space station up until the time that the next cargo vehicle is going to come," Kornienko told reporters in a video interview Wednesday (April 29). Kornienko is one of the six crewmembers who make up the space station's current Expedition 43. He and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly are one month into an unprecedented yearlong mission that's designed to help pave the way for journeys to Mars and other deep-space destinations.

Amazing 3D View of Iconic 'Pillars of Creation' Predict Cosmic Demise (Video)

New images provide the first complete 3D view of the Pillars of Creation — some of the most iconic cosmic structures ever studied — and suggest that the glorious protrusions may be around for only another 3 million years. The new images reveal never-before-seen stars in the thick, fingerlike gas clouds, as well as new details about their orientation in space. The Pillars of Creation gained worldwide fame on Earth when they were imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, and in 2014, Hubble used its updated hardware to produce even higher definition images of the region. These cosmic protrusions are composed of dust and gas, and are part of a larger region known as the Eagle Nebula — a fertile region of new star formation.

What Chipotle's 'Ban' on Genetically Modified Foods Really Means

Chipotle's decision to prepare only food that does not contain genetically modified ingredients is adding fuel to an ongoing debate about the health and safety of these foods. But experts say the foods that contain GMOs that are currently grown in the United States are no riskier than conventionally grown foods. The "growing international consensus" among scientific organizations is that foods made from currently approved genetically modified crops are safe to eat, said Gregory Jaffe, director of biotechnology at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. "This is not an ultrahazardous technology," Jaffe told Live Science.

Deadly Gut Bacteria Infections Peak in Spring

People may be more likely to get infected with the sometimes deadly gut bacteria called "C. diff" during the spring, according to a new study. During this time period, about 2.3 million people were released from a hospital following an infection with Clostridium difficile, which can cause severe diarrhea, and frequently comes back after treatment. In the spring, there were about 62 cases of C. difficile for every 10,000 people discharged from the hospital, the study found. In winter and summer, there were 59 C. difficile cases per 10,000 people discharged from the hospital, and the lowest rate was seen in the fall, when there were 56 C. difficile cases per 10,000 hospital discharges.

'Obesity Signature' Written in Pee

A person's urine could reveal whether he or she is at risk for obesity and its related harmful conditions, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed information from more than 2,000 people in the United States and United Kingdom. The researchers found 25 chemical markers in the urine that were linked with the participants' body mass index (BMI), a ratio of height and weight that is an indicator of body fatness. The researchers call these 25 markers a "metabolic signature" of obesity.

Jeff Bezos' rocket company test-flies suborbital spaceship

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Blue Origin, a startup space company owned by Amazon.com chief Jeff Bezos, launched an experimental suborbital spaceship from Texas, the first in a series of test flights to develop commercial unmanned and passenger spaceflight services, the company said on Thursday. The New Shepard vehicle blasted off on Wednesday from Blue Origin's test facility near Van Horn, Texas, and rose to an altitude of 58 miles (93 km) before the capsule separated and parachuted back to Earth. "Fortunately, we've already been in work for some time on an improved hydraulic system ... We'll be ready to fly again soon." Blue Origin is among a handful of companies developing privately owned spaceships to fly experiments, satellites and passengers into space. Like Virgin Galactic, a U.S. offshoot of Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group, and privately owned XCOR Aerospace, Blue Origin is eyeing suborbital spaceflights, which reach altitudes of about 62 miles (100 km), as a stepping stone to orbital flight.

NASA spacecraft to crash into Mercury

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA's pioneering Messenger spacecraft is expected to end its four-year study of the planet Mercury on Thursday by crashing into the planet's surface, scientists said. Out of fuel to maneuver, Messenger is being pushed down by the sun's gravity closer and closer to the surface of Mercury. Flight controllers at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland predict that Messenger, traveling at more than 8,700 mph (14,000 kph) will hit the ground near Mercury's north pole at 3:26 p.m. EDT. During its final weeks in orbit, Messenger has been relaying more details about the innermost planet of the solar system, which turns out to have patches of ice inside some of its craters, despite its sizzling location more than twice as close to the sun as Earth.

NASA spacecraft to crash into Mercury

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA's pioneering Messenger spacecraft is expected to end its four-year study of the planet Mercury on Thursday by crashing into the planet's surface, scientists said. Out of fuel to maneuver, Messenger is being pushed down by the sun's gravity closer and closer to the surface of Mercury. Flight controllers at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland predict that Messenger, traveling at more than 8,700 mph (14,000 kph) will hit the ground near Mercury's north pole at 3:26 p.m. EDT/1926 GMT. During its final weeks in orbit, Messenger has been relaying more details about the innermost planet of the solar system, which turns out to have patches of ice inside some of its craters, despite its sizzling location more than twice as close to the sun as Earth.

Nepal Earthquake Lifted Kathmandu, But Shrank Everest

The first good view of the aftermath of Nepal's deadly earthquake from a satellite reveals that a broad swath of ground near Kathmandu lifted vertically, by about 3 feet (1 meter), which could explain why damage in the city was so severe. The new information comes from Europe's Sentinel-1A radar satellite. Scientists are racing to interpret the Sentinel data, which were made available today (April 29) just hours after the satellite passed over Nepal. Researchers detected the vertical shift in the ground by comparing before-and-after radar images from the satellite using a technique that produces an image called an interferogram.

Obama's BRAIN Initiative yields first study results

The study, describing a way to manipulate a lab animal's brain circuitry accurately enough to turn behaviors both on and off, is the first to be published under President Barack Obama's 2013 BRAIN Initiative, which aims to advance neuroscience and develop therapies for brain disorders. If scientists are able do that for the circuitry involved in psychiatric or neurological disorders, it may lead to therapies. "This tool sharpens the cutting edge of research aimed at improving our understanding of brain circuit disorders, such as schizophrenia and addictive behaviors," said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the $1 million study. Brain neurons are genetically engineered to produce a custom-made - "designer" - receptor.

Mt. Everest Shrank as Nepal Quake Lifted Kathmandu

NASA spacecraft spots possible ice cap on Pluto

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft has spotted surface features on the icy world, including a possible polar cap, images released on Wednesday show. With 60 million miles (97 million km) left to go before its July 14, 2015, encounter, New Horizons already has been able to make out surprising light and dark patches on the surface of Pluto, which is currently more than 32 times farther away from Earth than the sun. "We are starting to see intriguing features, such as a bright region near Pluto's visible pole," NASA science chief John Grunsfeld said in a statement, in reference to what scientists believe could be a polar ice cap. In the images, Pluto appears as a small, highly pixelated blob, but already scientists can see there is something very odd about its surface.

Study: Global warming to push 1 in 13 species to extinction

WASHINGTON (AP) — Global warming will eventually push 1 out of every 13 species on Earth into extinction, a new study projects.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Motion capture on a whole new level

By Ben gRUBER PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED STATES - Hanbyul Joo is working on his swing. As Joo swings, more than 500 cameras capture his motion on video. Combined and processed, those videos make up the elements for the most advanced 3D reconstruction ever achieved. The two story dome is called the Panoptic Studio and its made up of 20 panels, each of which houses 24 cameras. To handle that data we are using 120 hard drives only for the capture," said Hanbyul Joo, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States. Thousands of cables snake around the dome feeding the video singles to a bank of computers that store the data.

Scientists race to beat mosquito resistance in fight against malaria

By Alex Whiting LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Mosquitoes are rapidly developing resistance to insecticides used in bednets that millions of people rely on to protect them from malaria, experts say. Scientists are racing to develop new insecticides, warning that tens of thousands of people in Africa could die every year if mosquitoes develop full resistance before replacements are found. The issue will be a concern when the World Health Assembly meets in Geneva next month to look at proposals to eliminate malaria in 35 countries by 2030. An estimated 4.3 million deaths have been prevented since 2000, many of them because of the mass distribution of treated bednets in Africa, according to Roll Back Malaria, a partnership including the World Health Organization, UNICEF and World Bank.

Scientists race to beat mosquito resistance in fight against malaria: TRFN

Space Shuttle Enterprise Exhibit in NYC Dedicated to Fallen Astronaut Crews

Three years to day after arriving in New York City for its public display, NASA's prototype space shuttle Enterprise on Monday (April 27) was dedicated to the astronauts who lost their lives in the pursuit of space exploration. Family members of the Apollo 1, Challenger STS-51L and Columbia STS-107 crews joined NASA officials aboard the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum for the dedication. "It is our great privilege to stand alongside the families of the brave crew members of Apollo 1, Challenger, and Columbia as we dedicate space shuttle Enterprise to their heroism, vision, passion and sacrifice," Susan Marenoff-Zausner, the museum's president, said. Apollo 1 astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee died Jan. 27, 1967, as a result of a fire engulfing their spacecraft during a test on the launch pad.

Source of Antarctica's Eerie 'Bleeding Glacier' Found

Antarctica's Dry Valleys are the most arid places on Earth, but underneath their icy soils lies a vast and ancient network of salty, liquid water filled with life, a new study finds. For instance, bacteria living under Taylor Glacier stain its snout a deep blood red. The rust-colored brine, called Blood Falls, pours into Lake Bonney in the southernmost of the three largest Dry Valleys. Now, for the first time, scientists have traced the water underneath Taylor Glacier to learn more about the mysterious Blood Falls.

Scientists create 'ghosts' in the lab by tricking the brain

By Matthew Stock Lausanne, SWITZERLAND - Neuroscientists have succeeded in creating 'ghosts' in the laboratory by tricking the brains of test subjects into feeling an unexpected 'presence' in the room. Under normal circumstances the brain is able to form a unified self-perception, but lead researcher Olaf Blanke explained that when this malfunctions the brain creates a second representation of its body. Blanke's team began by analyzing the brains of 12 patients with neurological disorders who have reported having such a secondary representation of their body, in other words a ghost sensation. MRI scans revealed abnormalities with three brain regions involved in self-awareness, movement and the sense of position in space.

Doomed Antarctic Explorer's Last Photos Up for Auction

Photographs taken by explorer Robert Falcon Scott during his ill-fated trip to Antarctica are being auctioned off in London today. The photos depict day-to-day life at the base camp on Antarctica's Ross Island in the months leading up to Scott's trek to the South Pole in 1911 — a journey from which he never returned. As Scott and his team trudged toward the South Pole, Ponting stayed behind at the Ross Island base camp, where a relief party brought Scott's camera before the captain became stranded in the snow. Now, more than 100 years after the Terra Nova expedition, those photos will be up for sale at Christie's Auction House in London today (April 28), where they are expected to fetch at least $30,000 (20,000 British pounds).

Same-Sex Marriage: 6 Effects of Supreme Court's Decision

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today (April 28) about the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. "There are literally hundreds and hundreds of rights under state and federal law that are affected by whether you can marry or not," said Jeffrey Trachtman, a partner at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, a law firm with offices in New York City, Silicon Valley and Paris. Here are six ways the Supreme Court's ruling could affect the lives of same-sex couples living in the United States. If you're not married, it's generally more complicated to adopt a child, Trachtman told Live Science.

US Military's Self-Steering Bullets Can Hit Moving Targets

In what some might consider a terrifying development, the U.S. military has passed a key milestone in creating self-steering bullets.

Supply craft cannot dock with space station: Russian space agency

An unmanned cargo ship will not be able to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) because of problems after it launched, the head of the Russian space agency said on Wednesday. Igor Komarov, head of Roscosmos, listed a series of problems that had made the Progress M-27M freighter tumble out of control since early on Tuesday. "Because of this, the craft's continued flight and its docking with the ISS is not possible," he said, speaking at a news conference. The total cost of the failed mission to supply almost 3 tonnes (2,722 kg) of supplies to the ISS was 2.59 billion roubles ($50.7 million), a Roscosmos spokesman told Reuters.

Doomed Russian Space Station Cargo Ship Will Fall Back to Earth Soon

An ailing Russian cargo spacecraft is falling from space and will soon meet a fiery demise in Earth's atmosphere after suffering a serious malfunction on Tuesday (April 28), a NASA astronaut said today. The unmanned Progress 59 spacecraft is doomed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere in the next few days after failing to deliver more than 3 tons of supplies to the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly told reporters in a series of televised interviews. "We were both told recently by both the U.S. and Russian flight control centers that Roscosmos [Russia's space agency] announced that the Progress will not be docking and will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere here some days in the future to be determined," Kelly said from the station as he and crewmate Mikhail Kornienko answered questions. The launch went smoothly, but shortly after the spacecraft separated from its rocket, Russian flight controllers had difficulty receiving telemetry data from the craft.

Dark Knight of the Jurassic? Tiny Dinosaur Had Batlike Wings

The creature is the first known dinosaur with membranous wings, said Xing Xu, a paleontologist at Linyi University in China, and co-author of the study published today (April 29) in the journal Nature. "This is the most unexpected discovery I have ever made, even though I have found a few really bizarre dinosaurs in my career," Xu told Live Science in an email. The fossil comes from the Middle-Upper Jurassic period (about 160 million years ago), and was found by a farmer, in the Tiaojishan Formation of Hebei Province, China.

A pigeon-size dinosaur with bat wings? Strange but true

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists in China on Wednesday described one of the weirdest flying creatures ever discovered, a pigeon-size dinosaur with wings like a bat that lived not long before the first birds. The dinosaur, named Yi qi (meaning "strange wing" in Mandarin and pronounced EE-chee), lived about 160 million years during the Jurassic Period, about 10 million years before the earliest-known bird, Archaeopteryx. It is considered a cousin of birds, but boasted membranous wings made of skin like those of the extinct flying reptiles known as pterosaurs, which lived at the same time, and bats, which appeared more than 100 million years later, instead of the stiff, plume-like feathers of birds. "It's hard to imagine that it could have flapped very effectively, since the rod-like bone was presumably a fairly unwieldy thing to have attached to the wrist," said paleontologist Corwin Sullivan of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.

See Amazing Photos of Mercury By a Doomed NASA Spacecraft (Video)

A new NASA video celebrates the life and accomplishments of the first probe ever to orbit Mercury, just days before the spacecraft ends its landmark mission with a death plunge onto the planet's many-cratered surface. NASA's MESSENGER probe, which has been orbiting Mercury since March 2011, is nearly out of fuel and will smash into the planet on Thursday (April 30), probably around 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT), space agency officials say. NASA released the new MESSENGER video on Monday (April 27) as a tribute, and a memorial of sorts. On March 18, 2011, MESSENGER became the first probe ever to circle Mercury and just the second to study the planet up close.

Scientists find chemical clues on obesity in urine samples

The findings may also help researchers identify people who have a so-called "metabolic signature" for obesity but are not overweight, the scientists said, suggesting ways could be found to prevent them developing obesity and other metabolic diseases. According to World Health Organization (WHO) data, 13 percent of adults worldwide were obese in 2014. Thanks to technologies that can analyze the metabolic content of a urine sample, scientists can extract lots of information reflecting a person's genetic makeup and lifestyle. For this study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, scientists led by a team at Imperial College London analyzed urine samples from more than 2,000 volunteers in the United States and Britain.

4D Implant Saves Babies with Breathing Problems

Three baby boys with life-threatening breathing problems are alive today thanks to a 4D biomaterial, a medical implant designed to change shape over time, that helped them keep breathing, researchers say. "Today, we see a way to cure a disease that has been killing children for generations," said Dr. Glenn Green, a pediatric otolaryngologist at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and the senior author of a new report on the boys' cases. "The possibilities are really limitless," lead study author Dr. Robert Morrison, a research fellow and resident surgeon at the University of Michigan Health System, told Live Science. Advances in 3D printing have enabled the rapid production of medical devices that are customized for individual patients, such as hearing aids, dental implants and prosthetic hands.

People Addicted to Opioids May Benefit from ER Drug Treatment

For people who are addicted to opioid painkillers, getting treated for addiction in the emergency room rather than waiting to see an addiction specialist may be beneficial, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed information from 329 people with opioid addiction who ended up in the emergency room for any reason, including problems related to their addiction, or other medical conditions. These patients were divided into three groups: One group was referred to local addiction treatment centers, the second group was counseled for 10 minutes about addiction treatment and then referred to a treatment center, and the third group was immediately given a medication called buprenorphine, which helps with opioid withdrawal symptoms, and then given the same 10-minute counseling session and referral for addiction treatment. One month later, 78 percent of patients in the buprenorphine group were enrolled in a formal addiction treatment program, compared with just 37 percent of those who received referral information only, and 45 percent of those who had the counseling session before a referral, according to the study led by Dr. Gail D'Onofrio, of the Yale School of Medicine, in New Haven, Conn.

Having Mom in the Car Changes Teen Driver's Brain

In the study, researchers designed a driving simulation test that actually encouraged risk-taking behavior, and asked 25 teens to complete the simulation as quickly as possible. The findings suggest that distraction alone can't explain why teen drivers are more reckless when they have friends in the car, the researchers said.

Rare Sperm Whale Fossils Shed Light on Mysterious Family Tree

Rare, 7-million-year-old fossils of two extinct pygmy sperm whales are helping researchers learn about the evolution of the ocean's largest toothed whale, a new study finds. It's unclear why the sperm whales' spermaceti organ shrank over time — twice in the evolutionary record, according to an analysis of several fossils — but perhaps at one time, larger spermaceti were used to attract mates, said the study's lead researcher, Jorge Velez-Juarbe, a curator of marine mammals at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. "We really need to test this hypothesis," Velez-Juarbe told Live Science.

Hands free talk with global reach and style

By Ben Gruber San Francisco - Anytime, day or night, no matter which way you look, it seems you'll see someone with a smartphone in their hand. It allows any member, no matter their location or cellular provider to speak with another member or group of members with a simple push of a button. "The range is the Internet.

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