Manipulating cell fate in the cochlea: a feasible therapy for hearing loss

	Manipulating cell fate in the cochlea: a feasible therapy for hearing loss Over the course of evolution, structures for sensing the flow or vibration of the external environment have developed in parallel with the neural networks to relay the resulting signals to the central nervous system (CNS). Hair cells, which are observed in a range of vertebrates, such as fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals, are specialized for this particular task. The cells have apically arranged hair bundles that vibrate in response to movements in the fluid-filled labyrinth of the ear or the surrounding medium in aquatic species with motion-sensing lateral line hair cells; this vibration is coupled to mechanotransduction channels. Read More »

Defeating Disease: Exhibit Shows Guinea Worm's Eradication

	Defeating Disease: Exhibit Shows Guinea Worm's Eradication A new museum exhibit will showcase the massive public health effort it took to beat the grisly parasitic infection called Guinea worm disease, and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was here today at a preview of the exhibit's opening. "The number of cases of Guinea worm disease continued decreasing in 2014, bringing Guinea worm eradication closer to the finish line," said Carter, whose organization, The Carter Center, has focused on fighting this waterborne disease since 1986 and helped develop the new exhibit. The route to wiping out the Guinea worm disease is displayed in the exhibit "Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease," which will open on Tuesday (Jan. 13) at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York. Guinea worm disease was once common in many African and Asian countries. Read More » NASA Conducts 1st Test Fire of Shuttle-Era Engine for New Rocket The space shuttle main engine (SSME), now renamed the RS-25D, fired for 500 seconds atop the A-1 test stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Four RS-25 engines are planned to power the first stage of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket on future missions, including sending astronauts to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars. The first uncrewed SLS test flight is targeted for 2018. "The RS-25 is the most efficient engine of its type in the world," said Steve Wofford, the manager of the SLS liquid engines office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where the SLS program is managed. Read More » Seismic Roundup: 2014 Saw Fewer Big Earthquakes Than 2013 Twelve large earthquakes shook the globe in 2014, seven fewer than in 2013, according to a final tally of the year's temblors by the U.S. Geological Survey. The numbers are "pretty normal," said University of Washington professor and Washington state seismologist John Vidale, though the quake data do provide some insight into the relatively recent trend of small and moderate earthquakes that have been linked to the drilling of oil wells. Read More » 220-Year-Old Time Capsule Buried by Sam Adams & Paul Revere Opened In 1795, then-Massachusetts Gov. Samuel Adams, famed patriot Paul Revere and Col. William Scollay buried a time capsule under the Massachusetts State House cornerstone in Boston, and now, after more than 200 years, its contents have been revealed. On Jan. 6, officials from the commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston carefully excavated and opened the capsule. The time capsule holds silver and copper coins dating from 1652 to 1855 (the capsule was opened in the decades following its burial in 1795) and a silver plaque that experts believe Paul Revere himself engraved. The capsule also contained a copper medal depicting George Washington, several newspapers, an impression of the seal of the commonwealth and the title page from the Massachusetts Colony Records. Read More » 170-Million-Year-Old 'Fish Lizard' Fossil Unearthed in Scotland A prehistoric marine-reptile fossil found in Scotland's Isle of Skye represents a new species that lived about 170 million years ago, a new study finds. The specimen was a member of a group of extinct marine reptiles called ichthyosaurs. "It's one of a select few specimens of that age in the world," said Stephen Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh and co-author of the study, published today (Jan. 12) in the Scottish Journal of Geology. The first ichthyosaurs ever discovered were found in England, and some of the same kinds of rocks where fossils of these animals were found exist in Scotland, Brusatte told Live Science. Read More » Don't Let Artificial Intelligence Take Over, Top Scientists Warn Artificial intelligence has the potential to make lives easier by understanding human desires or driving people's cars, but if it were uncontrolled, the technology could pose a serious threat to society. Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and dozens of other top scientists and technology leaders signed a letter warning of the potential dangers of developing artificial intelligence (AI). In addition to heavyweights like Hawking and Musk, the prominent physicist and billionaire founder of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, the letter was signed by top researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Google and other institutions. Read More » Are Computers Better Judges of Personality Than Friends? When it comes to truly knowing someone's personality, a computer may do a better job than the individual's friends and family members, a new study suggests. Scientists developed a computer model that mined the Facebook "Likes" of study participants, looking at the products, activities, sports, musicians, books and restaurants to which people gave the "thumbs up." The researchers found that this computer model predicted people's personalities more accurately than did most of the person's friends and family members, with the exception of spouses. Read More » In Bloom! Plankton Swirl Spotted from Space Captured in a satellite image that NASA released Friday (Jan. 9), the milky green and light blue swirls in the image are dense patches of phytoplankton in the ocean, including some that have have scales made of calcite, making them appear white in the image. NASA's Landsat 8 satellite captured the image of the region near Alaska's Pribilof Islands on Sept. 22, 2014. Phytoplankton form the base of the marine ecosystem and provide food to many different kinds of marine life. Near Alaska, huge blooms in the Bering Sea begin growing during the spring,after the winter ice recedes and more nutrients are available near the surface of the water. Read More » Sound Mind and Sound Body? This Protein Helps Both The scientists have found that a nerve-growth factor called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) — which was already known to enhance memory, nourish blood vessels and nerves and act as natural antidepressant — also helps the heart beat properly. The finding may explain the association seen in recent years between depression and heart disease, and also lead to new treatments for heart failure, the researchers said. BDNF is produced in the brain and, as a growth factor, helps support the generation of new nerves and blood vessels throughout the nervous system. Numerous studies have shown how mice born without the ability to make BDNF die soon after birth from neurological disorders. Read More » Crustacean shells rival plastics for keeping food fresh - study By Chris Arsenault ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Packaging made from recycled crustacean shells could reduce the need for plastic wrappings to preserve fresh vegetables, reduce oil consumption and give food a longer shelf-life, a Spanish study said. Chitosan, a bioplastic made by isolating organic matter from shrimp shells, helped preserve the shelf-life of baby carrots, said the study, published in the journal Postharvest Biology and Technology. ... Read More » Care for Some Science in Your Science Fiction? (Op-Ed) R.L. Akers is the author of the "Gryphens Saga" — "Prometheus Rebound" (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013), "Prometheus Revealed" (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014) and the short story collection "Prometheus Rising" (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014) — which blends science fiction and military thriller elements to tell a story of humanity's present day, real-world response to the threat of alien invasion. We Americans love our science fiction. Read More » Viagra Is a Miracle Drug, For Premature Babies (Op-Ed) Jennifer Tackett was careful to not drink caffeine while she was pregnant, so you can imagine how surprised she was when our team at Nationwide Children's Hospital told her we were going to give the equivalent of a cup of coffee to her premature daughter Autymn. Many people might think caffeine is the last thing a premature baby would need, but caffeine can actually help the lives of babies born prematurely. Read More » Half of Teen, Young Adult Car Crash Deaths Involve Pot or Alcohol Half of the teen and young adult drivers who die in car crashes are under the influence of either pot, alcohol, or both, suggests a new study done in states where toxicology screening for accident victims is routine. "Given the rapid changes currently underway in marijuana availability and permissibility in the U.S., understanding the effects of drug control policies on substance use behavior and adverse health outcomes, such as fatal motor vehicle crashes, has never been more important," study researcher Katherine Keyes, of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, said in a statement. Car crashes are the leading cause of death of 18- to 25-year-olds in the U.S., and driving under the influence is a major cause of accidents. Not every state conducts routine toxicology tests on car crash victims right after the accident, but those that do have come up with alarming results. Read More »

Opportunity Rover Snaps Mars Panorama from Crater Rim (Photo)

	Move over Nessie, Scotland gets a new prehistoric marine reptile By Will Dunham (Reuters) - Scotland has its very own prehistoric marine reptile - and, no, we're not talking about Nessie, the mythic Loch Ness monster. Scientists have announced the discovery of the fossil remains of a dolphin-like seagoing reptile on Scotland's Isle of Skye that lived about 170 million years ago and was about 14 feet (4.3 meters) long. The creature, named Dearcmhara shawcrossi, is a member of a group called ichthyosaurs that were among the dominant marine reptiles when dinosaurs ruled the land. ... Read More » Ebola Vaccines: Here's a Look at the 3 Front-Runners A vaccine against the Ebola virus is urgently needed, and several companies are racing to test their experimental vaccines in an effort to halt the spread of the deadly viral disease. Ebola has sickened more than 20,000 people in West Africa, and killed at least 8,200, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Read More » Exoskeleton Helps Spinal Cord Injury Patient Walk Bionic exoskeletons are helping spinal cord injury and stroke patients walk again. One man with a partial spinal cord injury, Shane Mosko, demonstrated here today (Jan. 8) at the 2015 CES how the new bionic legs operate, using a system produced by Ekso Bionics, of Richmond, California. More than 3,500 patients with either spinal cord or stroke injuries have walked more than 15 million steps with the device, said Russ Angold, the co-founder and chief technology officer of the company. But in 2000, things really took off — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) began funding exoskeleton projects. Read More » SpaceX Dragon Capsule Delivers Fresh Supplies to Space Station SpaceX's robotic Dragon resupply spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station after a two-day orbital chase. NASA astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore, commander of the station's current Expedition 42, grappled Dragon using the orbiting outpost's huge robotic arm at 5:54 a.m. EST (1054 GMT) on Monday (Jan. 12). Crewmembers will next install Dragon on the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module. Once installation is complete, astronauts will begin offloading the 5,200 pounds (2,360 kilograms) of food, spare parts and scientific experiments that Dragon brought up on this mission, the fifth of 12 unmanned cargo flights SpaceX plans to fly to the space station under a $1.6 billion deal with NASA. Read More » It's a Girl! Newborn Killer Whale Identified in Endangered Pod Ken Balcomb, a scientist at the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Washington, first spotted the baby whale swimming alongside a 43-year-old female named J-16, who has successfully given birth to three calves during her lifetime. At 43 years old, J-16 is past the age that researchers believe is possible for killer whales to still produce offspring. The new killer whale (or orca, as the whales are also known) has been christened J-50, and she is the 78th orca in the population that swims off the coast of Washington state and Canada. Killer whales are widely distributed around the world, but the J-pod is considered an endangered group by the United States and Canada. Read More » Following Tesla's Lead, Toyota Makes Fuel Cell Patents Free Toyota is making thousands of its hydrogen fuel cell patents available royalty-free, the car company announced this week at CES 2015 in Las Vegas. The company will make more than 5,600 fuel cell patentsavailable through 2020 to carmakers who produce and sell fuel cell vehicles, and to parts suppliers and companies interested in building and operating fueling stations, said Bob Carter, Toyota's senior vice president of automotive operations. The carmaker hopes the move will spur worldwide development and innovation in fuel cell technologies. It comes on the heels of a similar decision by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to make the patents of his electric car company, Tesla Motors, freely available. Read More » Did Meteorite Carve Icy Antarctic Crater? Researchers in remote East Antarctica think a massive area of fractured ice discovered last month could be a newfound meteorite impact crater. The mile-wide crater (about 2 kilometers across) is a circular scar marked by fractured, rumpled ice — a striking blot in this otherwise smooth section of Antarctica's King Baudouin Ice Shelf. It was spotted by German scientist Christian Müller during an aerial survey by plane on Dec. 20, 2014. "There was some broken ice looking like icebergs, which is very unusual on a normally flat ice shelf, surrounded by a large, wing-shaped, circular structure," said Müller, a geoscientist with Fielax, a private company assisting Antarctic research. Read More » 2015's 'Leap Second' Could Scramble Computers A "leap second" needs to be added in 2015 to make sure the time on atomic clocks stays in sync with Earth's rotational time, but some Internet companies are dreading the day. Earth's rotation has been slowing down by about two thousandths of a second every day. While this situation isn't an immediate problem, it would eventually cause clocks to become so out of sync with Earth's rotation that they would read noon during the dead of night. "Earth is slowing down over geological time, and that can lead to a problem when you've got a ton of clocks," Demetrios Matsakis, chief scientist for Time Service at the U.S. Naval Observatory, told Live Science. Read More » Fitness Trackers and Smartwatches Attract Totally Different Groups Fitness trackers seem to have gone mainstream — one in 10 adults in the United States now owns a fitness band — but it's much more uncommon for people to own smartwatches, according to a new national survey on consumer trends. The report found that 36 percent of people who own a fitness tracker are between 35 and 54 years old, 41 percent have an average income of more than $100,000 and 54 percent are women. In contrast, just 2 percent of people in the U.S. own a smartwatch, and smartwatch owners are younger and less wealthy than fitness tracker wearers, according to the report. The reason for the different demographics may have to do with public awareness of different devices, said Wes Henderek, director of Connected Intelligence for the NPD Group, a market research firm. Read More » New Wearables Track Your Stats on the Field Runners aren't the only athletes who can track their stats with a wearable device — a slew of new wearable sensors are aimed at people who play sports, and cyclists. In contact sports, wearing a fitness tracker or GPS watch on your wrist is often forbidden, because the device could harm other players. Read More » Can Microbes in the Gut Influence the Brain? Lindsay Borthwick, writer and editor for The Kavli Foundation, contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The trillions of microbes that inhabit the human body, collectively called the microbiome, are estimated to weigh two to six pounds — up to twice the weight of the average human brain. During the past 10 years, studies have linked the gut microbiome to a range of complex behaviors, such as mood and emotion, appetite and satiety, and even learning and memory. Read More » SpaceX cargo capsule reaches International Space Station By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A SpaceX Dragon capsule wrapped up a two-day journey to the International Space Station on Monday, the first U.S. cargo run to the orbital outpost in four months, a NASA TV broadcast showed. Astronauts working inside the station used a robotic crane to pluck the capsule from orbit at 5:54 a.m. EST as the spaceships sailed 262 miles (422 km) over the Mediterranean Sea. "We're excited to have it on board," station commander Butch Wilmore radioed to Mission Control in Houston. Dragon became the first U.S. ... Read More » Birth of Jaws: Tiny Fish May Be Ancient Ancestor The remains of a 415-million-year-old fish skull from Siberia — though miniscule in size — offer hints about the origins of all jawed vertebrates, ranging from reptiles to humans, a new study finds. There are two main types of living jawed vertebrates: those made of bone and those made of cartilage. "It's a very interesting fossil, and it's very small," said Sam Giles, the study's lead researcher and a paleobiology doctoral candidate at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Read More » Chinese Spacecraft Enters Orbit Around the Moon A Chinese spacecraft service module has entered orbit around the moon, months after being used in the country's landmark test flight that sent a prototype sample-return capsule on a flight around the moon and returned it to Earth. According to chief engineer Zhou Jianlian of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center the module will make its second and third braking in the early hours of today (Jan. 12) and tomorrow, Beijing time. Doing so will enable the module to enter a 127-minute orbit around the moon, Zhou said. Earlier reports noted that a camera system is onboard the service module, designed to assist in identifying future landing spots for the Chang'e 5 mission that will return lunar samples back to Earth in the 2017 time frame. Read More » Opportunity Rover Snaps Mars Panorama from Crater Rim (Photo) NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has captured a gorgeous view of the Red Planet landscape from a perch high on a crater rim. The Opportunity rover took the photo on Tuesday (Jan. 6) from atop "Cape Tribulation," on the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The summit sits about 440 feet (135 meters) above the surrounding plains — higher than any other point Opportunity has reached since arriving at Endeavour's rim in August 2011, NASA officials said. "The view is one of the grandest in Opportunity's Martian career of nearly 11 years and more than 25.8 miles (41.6 kilometers)" of driving," NASA officials said in a statement. Read More »