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 »

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

	Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News
	(Sponsor this newsletter) 'Pop-Up' 3D Structures Can Mimic Brain Circuits By mimicking children's pop-up books, scientists can now make complex microscopic 3D shapes that model brain circuitry and blood vessels, researchers say. Materials scientist John Rogers, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and his colleagues want to create similarly complex devices that can wrap around these biological structures, potentially supporting or improving their function. To manufacture these structures, the scientists fabricate 2D patterns of ribbons on stretched elastic silicone rubber. The 2D patterns are designed so that there are both strong and weak points of stickiness between the patterns and the silicone rubber they sit on. Read More » This Computer Program Can Beat Anyone at Poker Computers have figured out how to win at chess, checkers and tic-tac-toe, and now, a computer program has conquered the game of poker. A research team led by Michael Bowling, a professor of computer science at the University of Alberta in Canada, developed a computer program that can outplay humans at a two-player poker game — specifically, heads-up limit hold 'em. Read More » Venus Points the Way to Mercury in Night Sky This Week Mercury is one of the brightest planets in the sky, but very few skygazers ever see it. This week, for five evenings, Mercury will be within 1 degree of the brilliant planet Venus, making it easy to spot. Venus is the brightest object in the sky other than the sun and moon, so is easily spotted low on the western horizon about half an hour after sunset. This week it will be joined by the tiny planet Mercury. Read More » Hubble Telescope Captures Best View Ever of the Andromeda Galaxy The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing new photo of the Andromeda Galaxy. The new mosaic image represents the sharpest and largest mosaic image of the Milky Way's galactic neighbor ever taken, Hubble officials said. Read More » Retro NASA Travel Posters Invite You to Real Alien Worlds The three posters — created by Joby Harris and David Delgado, visual strategists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California — feature artistic renderings of what it might be like to stand (or fly) on one of a trio of imagination-capturing alien worlds. The planet is the first small planet discovered in what might be its star's habitable zone — the area around a star that would allow a planet to support liquid water on its surface. NASA officials don't know if the planet is rocky or has a surface "buried beneath thick layers of gas and ice," according to the poster. "Prospects for life on this unusual world aren't good as it has a temperature similar to dry ice," the NASA poster says. Read More » Japan reorients space effort to bolster security, drive exports TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is shifting its space program toward potential military uses in a new policy hailed on Friday as a "historic turning point" by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who wants to strengthen defence and boost exports.     The move comes as emerging powers such as China and India join the United States to expand space activities for commercial and security purposes. Last year, Abe eased a postwar curb on arms exports and on allowing troops to fight overseas, as part of a more robust military and diplomatic posture for Japan. ... Read More » 'Invisibilia' Podcast Explores Bizarre Workings of the Human Mind From how people deal with their deepest, darkest thoughts to the experience of living in a world without fear, a new podcast explores the hidden forces that shape human behavior. Hosted by Alix (pronounced Ah-LEES) Spiegel and Lulu Miller, contributors to the popular radio programs "This American Life" and "Radiolab," the show is produced by National Public Radio. Read More » Easter Island's Demise May Have Surprising New Explanation The downfall of Easter Island may have had more to do with preexisting environmental conditions than degradation by humans, according to a new study of the remote speck of land made famous by its enormous stone-head statues. Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, was first settled around A.D. 1200, and Europeans landed on its shores in 1722. Scientist and author Jared Diamond argued in his 2005 book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" (Viking Press) that prior to European contact, the indigenous people of the island degraded the environment to the extent that they could no longer thrive. The new study suggests that Easter Island's people were, indeed, suffering before Europeans came along. Read More » Coolest Eco-Friendly Technologies at CES 2015 Companies from around the globe are debuting technologies here at CES that aim to remedy today's most pressing environmental problems. Electronics company LG announced a whole line of "greener" home appliances that use less energy and water than the company's previous models, and Mercedes announced a new luxury vehicle powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Here are some of the coolest green tech products being showcased at CES. Read More » 10,000 Steps? New Trackers Go Beyond the Data Dump "Lots of data from our wearables and beyond is just data," said Dr. Daniel Kraft, a pediatrician and the founding executive director of Exponential Medicine, at a talk here at the 2015 CES. For example, a wearable device called StoneCrysus, which will be available in February 2015, says it can calculate people's metabolic rate based on measures like their heart and respiration rates. StoneCrysus allows users to track the food they're eating with a user-friendly picture of their meal— they can place portions of common foods on an image of a plate, said Dr. David Landers, a cardiologist and co-founder of the Edgewater, N.J., company that makes the device. Read More » New Implant Lets Paralyzed Rats Walk Again An experimental flexible implant that connects directly to the spinal cord might someday lead to a treatment for people with spinal cord injuries, and could possibly help people with paraplegia move again, researchers say. They call the soft, stretchable device "e-dura," after the dura mater, which is one of the layers of protective membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. The researchers implanted the device into rats — it rests on the spinal cord, and delivers electric signals, as well as drugs, to the surrounding nerves, triggering them to fire impulses. One obstacle is that electronics are made of stiff materials, whereas the spinal cord and its protective covering are more flexible. Read More » So Long, Ugly Fitness Trackers: Fashionable Devices Debut The makers of the Mira band clearly took fashion into account when designing this fitness tracker, which is aimed at women. Like the Activité, the Activité Pop has two hand dials: one that shows the time of day, and a smaller dial that shows users' progress toward their activity goals. Read More » Weather Looks Good for Bold SpaceX Launch on Saturday: Watch Live Mother Nature appears to be cooperating for the planned launch Saturday (Jan. 10) of SpaceX's next robotic cargo mission to the International Space Station, a launch that will also include a potentially epic demonstration of reusable rocket technology. Weather forecasters are predicting an 80 percent chance of good conditions Saturday morning at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. SpaceX aims to bring the Falcon 9's first stage back to Earth for a precision landing on an "autonomous spaceport drone ship" in the Atlantic Ocean. The bold and unprecedented maneuver is part of SpaceX's ongoing effort to develop fully and rapidly reusable rockets, which the company's billionaire founder, Elon Musk, has said could slash the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100. Read More » When You Stray From a Trail, Invasive Species Follow Rachel DeSantis is a junior at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park. Deep (and even not so deep) in the Frederick City Watershed in Frederick, Md., the Japanese stiltgrass grows in thick, luscious bunches. The watershed, a popular destination for mountain bikers and hikers, offers 9.5 miles (15.3 kilometers) of sanctioned trails for public use. "These [unsanctioned] trail networks can help spread invasive species into areas where they'd otherwise be excluded," said Kiel Edson, a graduate student researching the plants as part of a University of Maryland partnership with the city of Frederick. Read More » Magnetic Pulses May Reboot Stroke Recovery (Op-Ed) More than 750,000 Americans experience a stroke each year in the United States. When one side of the brain is damaged by stroke, the healthy side tends to generate much more activity to compensate for the immobile side. Often, stroke patients can have a rapid partial recovery in the first few months after a stroke, then the spontaneous healing process slows down after about three to six months, and then slows even further after a year. Up to this point, doctors have not known how to reset the brain back into the state of rapid recovery that we see in the initial months after a stroke. Read More » Will People Ever Trust E-Signatures?  Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.  Read More » Cosmic Renaissance: Why Space Is Popular Again (Op-Ed) Nicholas Thurkettle is a lifelong outer-space enthusiast and co-author, with M.F. Thomas, of the acclaimed sci-fi thriller "Seeing by Moonlight" (BookBaby, 2013). He contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The first British group to top the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States was not The Beatles but a group that went by the name The Tornados. Read More » Anti-Flu Meds Are Especially Important This Flu Season, CDC Says This year's flu season is severe. So far, at least 26 children in the United States have died of influenza, and thousands of elderly people have been hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It might even save your life," CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said today (Jan. 9). Read More »

TRENDS IN NEUROSCIENCES

	TRENDS IN NEUROSCIENCES
	(Sponsor this newsletter) The role of inflammatory cytokines as key modulators of neurogenesis Neurogenesis is as a complex neurobiological process by which new neurons are generated from neural stem cells (NSCs) [1]. The ability of stem cells to self-renew and then differentiate into specific cell subtypes has been demonstrated both in vitro [2] and, more recently, in vivo [3]. For this reason, the term 'neural progenitor cells' (NPCs) is now used to loosely define all dividing cells with some ability to generate different neural units [3]. Current data have estimated that approximately 700 new neurons are added to the adult human hippocampus daily, suggesting that adult hippocampal neurogenesis has a critical role in mediating human brain functions, such as memory formation and cognition [4,5]. Read More »

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

	Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News
	(Sponsor this newsletter) Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory dies in small plane crash LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 47-year-old scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who worked on robotic systems for exploring Mars and extreme environments on Earth has died in a small plane crash in Los Angeles, officials said on Saturday. Alberto Behar spent 23 years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he worked on instruments for the rover Curiosity which landed on Mars in 2012 and the Mars Odyssey orbiter that launched in 2001, the Pasadena, California-based institution said in a statement. ... Read More » Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory dies in small plane crash LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 47-year-old scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who worked on robotic systems for exploring Mars and extreme environments on Earth has died in a small plane crash in Los Angeles, officials said on Saturday. Alberto Behar spent 23 years at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he worked on instruments for the rover Curiosity which landed on Mars in 2012 and the Mars Odyssey orbiter that launched in 2001, the Pasadena, California-based institution said in a statement. ... Read More » Astronauts Get Their Own LEGO Minifigures on Space Station The astronauts and cosmonauts onboard the International Space Station now have three new crewmates who look a lot like them — only much smaller. LEGO minifigures customized to look like NASA astronaut Terry Virts, Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shklaperov and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti were recently revealed as being on the orbital outpost. Read More » Mars Microbe Traces Spotted by Rover? Probably Not, Curiosity Team Says Intriguing features photographed by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity probably don't have a biological origin, mission team members say. An outside researcher recently analyzed photos Curiosity took of an ancient sedimentary outcrop called Gillespie Lake, and noted some similarities to "microbially induced sedimentary structures" (MISS) here on Earth. Study author Nora Noffke, a geobiologist who is not a member of the Curiosity team, said the Gillespie Lake features could be consistent with a biological origin, but stressed repeatedly that this was just a hypothesis, and that she didn't regard the structures as proof of past Mars life. Curiosity team members also noticed the Gillespie Lake structures (which include domes, cracks and pockets, among other shapes), said mission project scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Read More »