|  Apple's ResearchKit to give scientists ready access to study subjects  | By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Apple Inc on Monday released ResearchKit, an open-source software tool designed to give scientists a new way to gather information on patients by using their iPhones. Several top research institutions have already developed applications to work on the ResearchKit platform, including those pursuing clinical studies on asthma, breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes and Parkinson's disease. They include Stanford University School of Medicine and Weill Cornell Medical College. "With hundreds of millions of iPhones in use around the world, we saw an opportunity for Apple to have an even greater impact by empowering people to participate in and contribute to medical research," said Jeff Williams, Apple's senior vice president of Operations, said in a statement.
| Read More » More Measles Outbreaks 'Will Undoubtedly Occur,' Experts Warn More measles outbreaks are sure to occur in the United States because of people refusing vaccinations, researchers say. So far this year, 170 people in 17 states have been sickened with measles, and most of these cases are part of a large measles outbreak that started in Disneyland at the end of December, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The outbreak captured attention in part because it has sickened infants who were too young to be vaccinated, as well as children who aren't able to receive the vaccine for medical reasons, Dr. Neal Halsey and Dr. Daniel Salmon, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, wrote in an editorial published today (March 9) in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. Last year, there were 23 outbreaks of measles in the U.S. (most outbreaks are smaller than the Disneyland outbreak), including a total of nearly 650 cases of the disease, they said. Read More » Astronauts Filming New IMAX Movie Deliver 'Deluge of Beautiful Images'  | Astronauts on the International Space Station are about a third of the way through filming scenes for a new IMAX documentary to be released next year, the film's director revealed in a new interview. Toni Myers, the filmmaker behind "Hubble 3D" and IMAX's other shot-in-space giant screen movies, gave an update about her new project in a NASA interview on Wednesday (March 4). "The IMAX project is a film about our planet and our future on it and off it," Myers told a NASA commentator at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
| Read More » On Mars, Opportunity Rover Spots Weird Rocks Near Marathon Finish Line  | NASA's Opportunity Mars rover is taking a break in the home stretch of its Red Planet marathon to study some rocks the likes of which it's never seen before. The intriguing rocks lie atop a hill overlooking a site dubbed Marathon Valley — so named because Opportunity will have traveled the marathon distance of 26.2 miles (42.195 kilometers) on Mars by the time it gets there. The examined rock is rich in silicon and aluminum, and its composition is different than anything observed by Opportunity or its twin, Spirit, on the Red Planet, NASA officials said. The golf-cart-size rovers found plenty of such evidence, helping reshape researchers' understanding of the Red Planet and its history.
| Read More » Mini army drones developed A Polish firm who develop new technologies for the military has devised a system of miniature drones capable of operating from vehicles for surveillance and even directly supporting infantry units. WB electronics, which already manufactures surveillance and target acquisition systems for the Polish army, teamed up with another firm, Optimum, to develop drones with camera systems capable of attacking small targets with explosive charges. Read More » Cockroaches have personalities, study finds  | The discovery could explain why cockroaches are considered such great survivors and able to adapt to inhospitable surroundings. Scientists studied the behavior of Periplaneta americana, or the American cockroach, when exposed to light. The tests were carried out over a period of three months, with 16 cockroaches for each trial released in a round arena beneath a bright light. These chips transmitted their location to a nearby computer where researchers could monitor whether or not they were venturing out into the open light or hiding under a shelter.
| Read More » Dealing with Asteroid Threats: UN Completes First Planning Phase  | A special United Nations team on hazardous asteroids has been dissolved after completing its task of setting up organizations to deal with planet-threatening space rocks. The UN's Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space formally dissolved its Action Team 14, in recognition of the group's successful completion of its mandate to coordinate international mitigation efforts for near-Earth object (NEO) threats, officials announced last month. "Action Team 14 coordinated the establishment of the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG) and the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), and thus played a vital role in the international community's response to any potential near-Earth object impact threat," said Elöd Both of Hungary, chair of the subcommittee. Their existence is truly a tangible and very important step in protecting Earth from an impact by an asteroid or in mitigating the consequences if the Earth should receive an impact," said Sergio Camacho, who served as chair of Action Team 14 (AT-14).
| Read More » Florida Isn't the Only State to 'Ban' Climate Change Florida, one of the states most susceptible to the effects of climate change and sea-level rise, verbally banned state environmental officials from using the term "climate change," an investigation revealed. North Carolina, Louisiana and Tennessee have all passed laws that attempt to cast doubt on established climate science in boardrooms and classrooms. The reality of climate change due to human activity has been widely accepted by climate scientists, and some experts worry that attempts to deny the science could prevent states from preparing for sea level rise, extreme weather and other effects of a warming planet. In an investigation published yesterday (March 8), the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR) found evidence of an unwritten policy that banned officials at the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from using specific terms related to climate change in official communications, emails or reports. Read More » Ancient Chilean Mummies Now Turning into Black Ooze: Here's Why  | The famous Chinchorro mummies, which have remained preserved in Chile for more than 7,000 years, are now under threat from increased levels of moisture. Humid air is allowing bacteria to grow, causing the mummies' skin "to go black and become gelatinous," said Ralph Mitchell, a professor emeritus of applied biology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who examined the rotting mummies.
| Read More » Toxic Lead Pollution Left Its Mark in Andes Mountains  | Toxic lead buried in icy layers of an Andes glacier reveals that leaded gasoline was the region's worst polluter in the past 2,000 years, a new study reports. For instance, the research team found spikes in lead pollution during the height of the Tiwanaku-Wari culture (450 to 950) and the Inca Empire (450 to 1532). Pollution levels also rose when invaders expanded the local silver and copper mines during colonial times (1532 to 1900), and when there was a tin boom in the early 1900s, according to the report, published March 6 in the journal Science Advances. But the Swiss researchers discovered that lead levels tripled in the 1960s, when leaded gasoline was introduced, adding more lead pollution to the glacier than at any time in the past 2,000 years.
| Read More » ESA Launches Stargazer Lottie Essay Contest for Young Astronomers  | Calling all young astronomers and creative writers! The European Space Agency is asking for kids 12 and under to submit their most fantastic stories inspired by the stars for a chance to win a Stargazer Lottie doll. Stargazer Lottie is one of Space.com's favorite new space-themed toys because she's full of real space science: she comes with her own telescope, solar system trading cards and a list of famous female astronomers. The European Space Agency (ESA) stated on the contest website that the stories can be written in any language, "So don't worry if English isn't your first language! Stargazer Lottie is produced by Arklu Ltd., and belongs to the Lottie family of dolls, which includes a Pirate Queen Lottie, Kawaii Karate Lottie, Robot Girl Lottie and the new Fossil Hunter Lottie.
| Read More » Cavers Find Ancient Hoard of Coins and Jewelry in Israel  | While spelunking in northern Israel, cavers stumbled upon a hidden stash of ancient coins and jewelry from the era of Alexander the Great, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced today (March 9). IAA officials suspect locals may have put these artifacts in the cave for safekeeping during a time of political unrest 2,300 years ago — but they wouldn't have been the first.
| Read More » Why Head Transplants Won't Happen Anytime Soon  | Although an Italian neurosurgeon recently boasted that he plans to conduct a human head transplant within two years, experts say this proposal is scientifically and ethically absurd. The surgeon said he plans to achieve this feat by joining the spinal cords of the severed head and new body. "I don't think it's possible," said Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, a professor of reconstructive plastic surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, who performed the world's most complete facial transplant in 2012. In other words, because researchers have not found a way to rejoin two parts of an injured person's spinal cord, it's difficult to think that they could join two spinal cords from two different people.
| Read More » Keeping Up with Kim Kardashian: Butt Augmentation Gets Bigger "There are plenty of people that are fascinated by watching Kim Kardashian or Nicki Minaj or some of these women who have larger bottoms, and they strive for that," said Dr. Michael Edwards, the president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, which collected the data. Though liposuction, breast augmentation and Botox remain the most popular cosmetic procedures, buttock augmentation has grown dramatically in the last year. In 2014, more than 10 million procedures were performed by board-certified plastic surgeons, according to the data. Read More » Apple Tool Could Transform How Doctors Gather Your Data Apple's new iPhone platform could enable doctors to dramatically increase the amount of health data they can gather on patients, the company says. The company revealed the platform, called ResearchKit, today at a talk at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. ResearchKit allows doctors to develop their own apps to gather data on people's health conditions, from asthma to Parkinson's disease. The new system also makes it easy for medical researchers to enroll patients in clinical trials, a typically expensive and slow process. Read More » Brain's 'Pain Meter' Identified "We have identified the brain area likely to be responsible for the core 'it hurts' experience of pain," Irene Tracey, who is the lead author of the study and a professor of anesthetic science at the University of Oxford in England, said in a statement. Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter. Read More » $1.1 Million Brain Prize Awarded for Technique to Visualize Live Brain Cells  | The world's most valuable prize for neuroscience research was awarded today (March 9) to four German and American scientists who invented a microscopy technique that reveals the finest structures of the brain, in both health and disease. American scientists Karel Svoboda and David Tank and German scientists Winfried Denk and Arthur Konnerth shared the $1.08-million (1 million euro) Brain Prize for the invention and development of two-photon microscopy, a technique to create detailed images of brain cells and the connections, or synapses, between them, in action. "Thanks to these four scientists, we're now able to study the normal brain's development and attempt to understand what goes wrong when we're affected by destructive diseases such as Alzheimer's and other types of dementia," Povl Krogsgaard-Larsen, chairman of the Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation, which awards The Brain Prize, said in a statement. Two-photon microscopy is an advanced form of fluorescence microscopy, a technique that involves labeling parts of cells with molecules that glow, or fluoresce, when light of a certain wavelength shines on them (typically ultraviolet light).
| Read More » Chameleons' Color-Changing Secret Revealed  | The chameleon's uncanny ability to change color has long mystified people, but now the lizard's secret is out: Chameleons can rapidly change color by adjusting a layer of special cells nestled within their skin, a new study finds. Unlike other animals that change color, such as the squid and octopus, chameleons do not modify their hues by accumulating or dispersing pigments within their skin cells, the researchers found. To investigate how the reptiles change color, researchers studied five adult male, four adult female and four juvenile panther chameleons (Furcifer pardalis), a type of lizard that lives in Madagascar.
| Read More » Soprano Brightman to hit new high note with space station trip  | By Anastasia Gorelova LONDON (Reuters) - After a stellar career ranging from the disco hit "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper" to global success in "Phantom of the Opera", British soprano Sarah Brightman is preparing for a unique performance: a live concert from space. Brightman, 54, will be the eighth space tourist, and first professional singer, traveling as one of a three-person team to the International Space Station in a Soyuz space rocket that will launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept. 1. "I cannot explain in full why this is something that has been very strong within me," Brightman said on Tuesday at a press launch event for her trip. Brightman is reported by British media to have paid 35 million pounds ($53 million) for the trip.
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