|  Alcohol Disorders: Nearly 1 in 3 Adults Are Problem Drinkers Researchers also found that in a given year, about 14 percent of American adults misuse alcohol, which researchers refer to as having "alcohol use disorder." This yearly rate translates to an estimated 32.6 million Americans with drinking problems during a 12-month period. "The study found that the risk of alcohol use disorders appears to be going up in the last decade," said George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the agency that conducted the research. Not only is problem drinking becoming more widespread, but the intensity of drinking is also going up, Koob said. Read More » Study shows Pluto's moons in chaos By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Pluto's outer moons are continuously toppled and turned as they battle the joint gravitational forces of their parent planet and its primary moon Charon, a study published on Wednesday showed. "It as if Pluto and Charon are two weights at the end of a dumbbell, two very unbalanced weights, and that dumbbell is rotating. The four other moons are responding to the gravity fields of both objects," astronomer Mark Showalter told reporters on a conference call. Read More » U.S. researchers uncover secret of Greenland's vanishing lakes By Richard Valdmanis BOSTON (Reuters) - Scientists were baffled last year after meltwater lakes atop Greenland's ice sheet suddenly drained out at rates rivaling Niagara Falls. Now a team of U.S. researchers says it has figured out the bizarre phenomenon and that could help them forecast global sea-level rise. Vertical shafts in the ice sheet, called moulins, can funnel melt water beneath parts of the glacier and lift them up. Read More » NASA Developing Plans for Human Missions to Cislunar Space in 2020s  | While NASA does not yet have specific plans for human missions beyond 2021, the agency is in the early stages of developing a sequence of missions in cislunar space in the 2020s to prepare for later missions to Mars. Those plans, which could involve both international and commercial partners, would test out habitation modules and other technologies on missions around the moon ranging from several weeks to a year. "The concepts that we're working on today call for us to begin in the early '20s with a set of missions involving Orion to get some early experience in cislunar space, leading to a series of longer missions," said Skip Hatfield, manager of the Development Projects Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center, during a session of the Humans to Mars Summit here May 6.
| Read More » Shielded Microbes Can Survive Space  | Outer space might be the toughest environment for life, but some hearty microbes have been able to survive in it for surprising amounts of time. Persistent strains of microbes have been discovered in spacecraft clean rooms. Still, understanding how well microbes can survive in space is of importance when sending out orbiters or landers around bodies that might present the right conditions for life, such as Mars.
| Read More » Chimp Chefs? These Primates Could Cook, If Given the Tools  | You may not want to hand them an apron and spatula just yet, but chimpanzees have many of the smarts to cook food, researchers found in a series of experiments with sweet potatoes and carrots. Finding that humans' closest living relatives possess many of the critical cognitive capabilities to prepare cooked food could help resolve the question of when humans began cooking, the researchers said. Previous research has shown that chimps and other animals prefer cooked food to raw food.
| Read More » 20-Foot Monster Shark Once Trolled Mesozoic Seas  | The massive fish, Leptostyrax macrorhiza, would have been one of the largest predators of its day, and may push back scientists' estimates of when such gigantic predatory sharks evolved, said study co-author Joseph Frederickson, a doctoral candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Oklahoma. Frederickson, who was then an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, had started an amateur paleontology club to study novel fossil deposits. In 2009, the club took a trip to the Duck Creek Formation, just outside Fort Worth, Texas, which contains myriad marine invertebrate fossils, such as the extinct squidlike creatures known as ammonites.
| Read More » Fighting Ebola: Antidepressant and Heart Drug Show Promise  | Two drugs approved for use in people — an antidepressant and a heart drug — might hold promise for treating Ebola, a new study in mice suggests. The researchers screened about 2,600 compounds for their ability to hinder Ebola virus activity, and found 30 drugs that were effective against the virus in a lab dish. Two of the drugs appeared particularly promising for their action against Ebola — the antidepressant sertraline (brand name Zoloft) and a heart drug called bepridil (brand name Vascor).
| Read More » How 'Beautiful Mind' Mathematician John Nash's Schizophrenia 'Disappeared' Mathematician John Nash, who died May 23 in a car accident, was known for his decades-long battle with schizophrenia — a struggle famously depicted in the 2001 Oscar-winning film "A Beautiful Mind." Nash had apparently recovered from the disease later in life, which he said was done without medication. But how often do people recover from schizophrenia, and how does such a destructive disease disappear? Nash developed symptoms of schizophrenia in the late 1950s, when he was around age 30, after he made groundbreaking contributions to the field of mathematics, including the extension of game theory, or the math of decision making. Read More » Why There's (Still) No Viagra for Women  | The first "female Viagra" drug touted as boosting women's sexual desire could be approved today, assuming the Food and Drug Administration decides the medicine is safe and effective. But odds don't look good, as the FDA has already rejected the drug, called flibanserin, twice. And even if flibanserin does get approved, it's unlikely to work the same magic on a couple's sex life as Viagra does, said two experts, Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and Dr. Elizabeth Kavaler, a urologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
| Read More » Squee! New Absurdly Tiny Frogs Found in Brazil  | Scientists have uncovered seven new species of teeny-tiny frogs, each smaller than a thumbnail, in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest. The brightly colored little frogs are all part of the genus Brachycephalus, a group known since the 1800s to inhabit the cloud forests of southern Brazil.
| Read More » Meet 'Hellboy,' the dinosaur with exotic horns and frill  | By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists had a heck of a time getting the remarkable fossil of a dinosaur they dubbed "Hellboy" out of the hard limestone along a Canadian river bank where it was entombed for 68 million years, but the diabolic task proved gratifying. The scientists on Thursday described one of the most unique horned dinosaurs ever discovered, a beast boasting an exotic set of facial horns and spines around the edge of the bony frill at the back its skull. "This new animal is definitely one of the weirdest horned dinosaurs," said paleontologist Caleb Brown of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta.
| Read More » Study dismisses 'hiatus' in global warming, says temperatures up  | By Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - An apparent slowdown in the pace of global warming in recent years may be an illusion based on skewed data, according to a study on Thursday that found no break in a trend of rising temperatures. In 2013, the U.N. panel of climate experts reported a "hiatus" in warming since about 1998, despite rising man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. The new U.S. study in the journal Science, based on a re-analysis of worldwide temperature data, found no pause in the warming blamed by most climate experts for producing heatwaves, downpours and higher sea levels.
| Read More » Study dismisses "hiatus" in global warming, says temperatures up  | By Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - An apparent slowdown in the pace of global warming in recent years may be an illusion based on skewed data, according to a study on Thursday that found no break in a trend of rising temperatures. In 2013, the U.N. panel of climate experts reported a "hiatus" in warming since about 1998, despite rising man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. The new U.S. study in the journal Science, based on a re-analysis of worldwide temperature data, found no pause in the warming blamed by most climate experts for producing heatwaves, downpours and higher sea levels.
| Read More » New fed data shows no stopping or slowing of global warming  | WASHINGTON (AP) — Global warming has not stopped or even slowed in the past 18 years, according to a new federal study that rebuts doubters who've claimed that that heating trends have paused.
| Read More » What a Face! 'Hellboy' Dino Sported Head Crown, Teeny Eye Horns  | About 70 million years ago, a bizarre-looking relative of Triceratops with a crownlike frill, tall nose horn and tiny eye horns tread over the ancient landscape of southeastern Alberta, a new study finds. Researchers dubbed the unusual horned beast Regaliceratops peterhewsi, from the Latin "regalis," meaning royal, in honor of the dinosaur's unique crowned frill, as well as after Canada's Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, the researchers said in the study. Naming aside, the skull is the first evidence that horned dinosaurs lived in that particular geographic region of Alberta, said Caleb Brown, a paleobiologist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.
| Read More » Pentagon appeals for scientists' help tracking anthrax shipments By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Thursday asked microbiologists for help in tracking samples of anthrax that the army shipped to at least 51 labs in 17 U.S. states and three foreign countries, according to an announcement shared with Reuters. The request indicates that the Pentagon does not know where the anthrax wound up. Researchers who had worked with it at the Dugway Proving Ground biological lab in Utah thought the anthrax samples that they shipped had been killed, but at least one of the labs that received it said it in fact contained live spores. Read More » Amazon, Google race to get your DNA into the cloud  | By Sharon Begley and Caroline Humer NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is in a race against Google Inc to store data on human DNA, seeking both bragging rights in helping scientists make new medical discoveries and market share in a business that may be worth $1 billion a year by 2018. Academic institutions and healthcare companies are picking sides between their cloud computing offerings - Google Genomics or Amazon Web Services - spurring the two to one-up each other as they win high-profile genomics business, according to interviews with researchers, industry consultants and analysts. That growth is being propelled by, among other forces, the push for personalized medicine, which aims to base treatments on a patient's DNA profile. The human genome is the full complement of DNA, or genetic material, a copy of which is found in nearly every cell of the body.
| Read More » NASA Marks 50 Years of Mission Control, Plans Apollo Room Restoration  | HOUSTON — NASA's historic Mission Control is soon to be made even more historic. The agency's original control room in Houston, which first went active 50 years ago Wednesday (June 3), has been dormant since 1992. A National Historic Landmark, today it is a public tour stop and features the authentic consoles used for the Apollo 11 moon landing and Apollo 13 in-flight emergency, among 40 other space missions.
| Read More » Dragon Tales: Zookeeper's Komodo Bite Raises Questions The woman, a zookeeper in Omaha, Nebraska, was bitten on the hand by a juvenile Komodo dragon while caring for the creature inside its cage, according to news reports. Are captive Komodo dragons dangerous to humans? The short answer to this question is yes and no, according to Kenneth Morgan, manager of reptiles at the Phoenix Zoo in Arizona, who has worked with Komodo dragons in captivity for more than 20 years. Read More » Suicidal Sexcapades: 2 Newfound Marsupials Do It to Death  | Two chubby marsupial species that would literally die for sex (albeit 14-hour sessions) have been discovered Down Under, researchers now report. After sex is complete, with some sprees lasting as long as 14 hours, stress hormones in males skyrocket, causing their immune systems to collapse, "and they all drop dead before the females give birth to a single baby," lead study author Andrew Baker, a mammalogist at the Queensland University of Technology's Science and Engineering department, said in a statement.
| Read More » 'Dear Pluto': Campaign Asks Kids to Say 'Hi' to Dwarf Planet  | Kids around the world can say hello to Pluto ahead of the first-ever flyby of the dwarf planet this summer. A campaign called "Dear Pluto" is asking children to submit greetings to the dwarf planet, both in written and video form. The idea is to help generate excitement about the solar system and space science — especially NASA's New Horizons mission, which will capture the first up-close looks at Pluto during a July 14 flyby that brings it within just within 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) of the frigid world.
| Read More » Pluto Probe Should Have Clear Sailing Amid Tiny Moons  | A NASA spacecraft's path to Pluto this summer should be relatively smooth and safe, a new and improved portrait of the dwarf planet's moons suggests. The New Horizons probe will make the first-ever flyby of Pluto on July 14, cruising within 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) of the frigid world's surface. Last month, New Horizons began hunting for rings, undiscovered moons and other hazards that could potentially trip the spacecraft up in the home stretch of its historic journey.
| Read More » Why Your Next Flu Shot Will Be Different  | Next season's flu shot will contain two new flu strains that weren't present in last season's shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials are making the change in the hope that next season's flu shot — which will be released in the autumn — will be a better match to the strains that are actually circulating, and will do a better job of preventing flu cases. Last season's flu shot was not very effective at preventing the flu: People who got the shot were just 19 percent less likely to visit the doctor for flu than people who did not get the shot, according to a new CDC report.
| Read More » Losing Sense of Smell Linked with Earlier Deaths People who have problems with their sense of smell may be at increased risk for dying sooner than those who don't have trouble smelling, a new study suggests. This could put a person at higher risk of death from other causes. Read More » Herpes Virus Gives Man a Blistery Finger Infection  | A man with a red and blistered pinky finger got an unexpected diagnosis from his doctor: His finger infection wasn't caused by bacteria, but rather by the herpes virus, which usually affects the genitals or causes cold sores around the mouth, according to a new case report. In rare cases, including in this 23-year-old man, the herpes virus can cause a condition called herpetic whitlow, the report stated. If left untreated, or if treated improperly, it can lead to complications such as herpetic encephalitis, which is a herpes infection of the brain, according to the report, published May 23 in Journal of Medical Case Reports.
| Read More » Robot Showdown: Droids to Face Off in DARPA Robotics Challenge  | This weekend, some of the world's most sophisticated robots will go head-to-head in a competition that tests their ability to assist humans in a natural or man-made disaster. The DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals, funded by the U.S. military's R&D branch, will pit 25 teams against each other as their robots attempt to complete a series of physical challenges, all while navigating around disrupted communications between the bots and their human operators. The challenge, which began in 2012, was inspired by the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, in which an earthquake and tsunami led to the buildup of explosive gas in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
| Read More » Huge Beached Oarfish Sports 7-Foot-Long Ovaries  | The 13.5-foot-long (4 meters) carcass that washed up on the beach of Catalina Island on Monday (June 1) was that of an oarfish, a rarely seen fish that typically sticks to deep water. The creature, which is equipped with impressively long ovaries, may have washed ashore just minutes before it was spotted, according to Amy Catalano, a conservation coordinator for the nonprofit Catalina Island Conservancy and one of the people who discovered the oarfish on the beach. In October 2013, an even bigger oarfish (18 feet, or 5.5 m) came ashore at Catalina Island.
| Read More » Charlie Charlie Challenge: Can You Really Summon a Demon?  | The so-called Charlie Charlie Challenge is based on shaky science (the objective is to summon a malignant spirit from beyond the grave), but there are some real and powerful forces behind this parlor game, according to one expert. Here's how the Charlie Charlie Challenge works: players balance one horizontally aligned pencil on top of a vertically aligned pencil (essentially, in the shape of a cross). Two of the quadrants are labeled "yes" and two are labeled "no." Players then invite a spirit, Charlie, to play with them.
| Read More » LightSail Solar Sail Spacecraft Goes Silent Again  | A tiny cubesat has fallen silent in orbit for a second time, just two days before it was supposed to deploy its solar sail. The nonprofit Planetary Society's LightSail spacecraft has not communicated with Earth since Wednesday afternoon (June 3), shortly after an apparently successful solar-panel deployment, mission team members said. "Mission managers believe the cubesat's batteries are in a safe-mode-like condition designed to protect the electronics until power levels are safe for operations," The Planetary Society's Jason Davis wrote in a mission update Wednesday evening.
| Read More » NASA Mars Spacecraft Enter Communications Blackout Sunday  | An alignment of Mars, Earth and the sun will force NASA's fleet of Red Planet spacecraft to fend for themselves for two weeks beginning on Sunday (June 7). This celestial geometry, known as a Mars solar conjunction, makes radio communications between the two planets difficult — and potentially dangerous, as choppy or garbled instructions could actually harm spacecraft or hamper their missions, NASA officials said. As a result, engineers won't send commands to NASA's three active Mars orbiters, or to the agency's two rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity, during this two-week stretch.
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