|  Perseid Meteor Shower Weather Forecast: Clear Skies for Most of US Tonight  | For many skywatchers across the United States, clear skies and a dark moon will create optimal viewing conditions for tonight's Perseid meteor shower. You can also watch a live webcast of the meteor shower courtesy of NASA TV starting at 10 p.m. EDT (0200 GMT). The annual Perseid meteor shower will take place during the predawn hours of Thursday (Aug. 13), with the best views starting at about 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT) for much of North America.
| Read More » Music boosts recovery from surgery, reduces pain By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Listening to music before, during and after surgery reduces patients' pain, eases anxiety and lessens the need for painkillers, British scientists said on Thursday. After reviewing evidence from around 7,000 patients, the scientists said people going for surgery should be allowed to choose the music they'd like to hear to maximize the benefit. "Music is a non-invasive, safe, cheap intervention that should be available to everyone undergoing surgery," said Catherine Meads from Brunel University, who co-led the research. Read More » Colorado Mine Spill Aftermath: How to Clean a River  | On Aug. 5, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) workers inadvertently breached a wall of loose debris that was holding back a pool of mustard-hued wastewater from the abandoned Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado. The EPA is now scrambling to clean up the mess.
| Read More » Bang! Exploding Star Reveals Lithium Discovery  | Now, new measurements from the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) La Silla facility in Chile reveal that the explosion is ejecting the element lithium, the first time that element has been seen in a nova system. This may help explain the topsy-turvy lithium distribution within stars, according to ESO officials. "Older stars have less lithium than expected, and some younger ones up to 10 times more." [Video: Lithium Found in Nova Blast] The amount of lithium ejected from Nova Centauri is small, less than 1 billionth the mass of Earth's sun.
| Read More » Mystery Deepens: Matter and Antimatter Are Mirror Images  | Matter and antimatter appear to be perfect mirror images of each other as far as anyone can see, scientists have discovered with unprecedented precision, foiling hope of solving the mystery as to why there is far more matter than antimatter in the universe. Everyday matter is made up of protons, neutrons or electrons. The profound mystery is, why the universe is not made up of equal parts antimatter, since the Big Bang that is thought to have created the universe 13.7 billion years ago produced equal amounts of both.
| Read More » Comet and Rosetta Spacecraft Make Closest Approach to the Sun  | After more than a year in orbit around a comet, the European Rosetta spacecraft and its icy dance partner are hitting a huge milestone: their closest approach to the sun. In late July, Rosetta's camera caught a jet eruptingin the space of less than half an hour. It is there to watch and observe changes in the comet over time, with the same suite of instruments, as opposed to a flyby — or maybe different missions having flybys at different times with different instruments," said Joel Parker, an interdisciplinary scientist on the mission.
| Read More » King Tut's Tomb May Hide Nefertiti's Secret Grave  | The burial chamber of King Tut has revealed many secrets over the years, but there may be a whopper yet to discover: the tomb of his mother, Queen Nefertiti. A scan of the wall texture in King Tutankhamun's tomb reveals indentations or faint lines, which could suggest two hidden doors. Based on other aspects of the tomb's geometry, it's possible that Nefertiti is hiding behind the door, said Nicholas Reeves, an archaeologist at the University of Arizona who has proposed the theory of Queen Nefertiti's secret tomb.
| Read More » Neighborhood Marijuana Shops Linked to Pot-Related Hospital Stays California neighborhoods that have more medical marijuana dispensaries may also have more hospitalizations related to marijuana abuse or addiction, a new study finds. In the study, researchers calculated the number of dispensaries per square mile within California ZIP codes, and found that each additional pot shop was linked to a 6.8 percent increase in the number of pot-related hospitalizations. The findings may help illuminate the effects of increased marijuana availability, as voters and state legislatures decide whether the drug should become medically or recreationally legal, the researchers wrote in their findings, which will be published in the Sept. 1 issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Read More » Comet lander still silent, scientists shift focus to drilling  | BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European scientists have revised their plans for the comet lander Philae and are now focusing on getting images and drill samples if communications are restored. After coming to rest in the shadows when it landed on a comet in November, Philae woke up in June, delighting scientists from the European Space Agency, who came up with plans for several experiments they wanted to run before working up to the most risky one - drilling into the surface. "The problem is not power, but communications," Aurelie Moussi from space agency CNES said in a webcast on Thursday.
| Read More » Comet lander still silent, scientists shift focus to drilling  | BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European scientists have revised their plans for the comet lander Philae and are now focussing on getting images and drill samples if communications are restored. After coming to rest in the shadows when it landed on a comet in November, Philae woke up in June, delighting scientists from the European Space Agency, who came up with plans for several experiments they wanted to run before working up to the most risky one - drilling into the surface. "The problem is not power, but communications," Aurelie Moussi from space agency CNES said in a webcast on Thursday.
| Read More » Supersniffing Ants Smell Things Humans Can't  | Ants may be experts at sniffing out body odor, according to a new study that reveals these insects have a "high-definition ability" to detect tiny chemical changes in the pheromones other ants give off. Scientists from the University of California, Riverside, studied how ants tell each other apart in their colonies based on tiny, nearly undetectable changes in how other ants smell. Social insects, like ants, detect each other's smells using sensors in their antennae.
| Read More » Cheers! Yeast's Evolutionary Journey Gave Beer Its Flavor Whether discussing the crisp taste of lagers or the more robust flavor of ales, beer buffs typically have plenty to say about where their preferences lie. What sets lagers and ales apart has to do with the beer's fermentation process. Now, new research explains how different strains of yeast came to be (particularly those used to make lagers), which had been something of a mystery. Read More » 'Best Meteor Shower in Years': Perseids Put on a Spectacular Show  | The moon posed no obstacle as the Perseid meteor shower peaked last night, giving some skywatchers the best views of shooting stars in years — even in areas that usually have too much light for skywatchers to see anything. The Perseid meteor shower comes around every year as Earth passes through the debris left in the wake of Comet Swift-Tuttle, a 6-mile-wide (10 kilometers) body that orbits the sun every 133 years. "Just wanted to share my shot of the meteor shower tonight with you," photographer Chris Bakley wrote in an email to Space.com.
| Read More » Tennis Ball-Size Octopuses Suction Each Other During Sex  | The larger Pacific striped octopus, or LPSO for short, engages in a variety of odd behaviors — from startling prey into its outstretched arms with a sneaky tapping motion to suctioning onto its partner during mating. Though scientists first observed the species in the 1970s, LPSOs have remained relatively unstudied until recently, said Roy Caldwell, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, whose study outlining the LPSO's odd tendencies was published today (Aug. 12) in the journal PLOS One.
| Read More » Scientists use bioengineered yeast instead of poppies to make opioids By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have invented a speedy method to make potent painkilling opioids using bioengineered baker's yeast instead of poppies, but need to fine-tune the process to make it commercially viable, according to a study published on Thursday. The new method, if it can be made more efficient, could significantly change the multibillion-dollar pain medication manufacturing business, but raises concerns about aggravating the growing problem of opioid abuse. The scientists said they altered the yeast's genetic make-up in a way that coaxed the cells to convert sugar into two opioids - hydrocodone and thebaine - in three to five days. Read More » Found! 'Young Jupiter,' the Smallest Exoplanet Directly Seen by Telescope  | Astronomers have found the smallest planet outside this solar system yet to be directly photographed by a telescope on Earth, a methane-shrouded gas giant much like a young Jupiter. This newfound alien planet, called 51 Eridani b, orbits a star about 96 light-years from Earth in a planetary system that may be much like Earth's own solar system. The discovery could shed light on how our solar system formed, scientists added.
| Read More » Drones Spook Bears  | Bears apparently find UFOs unbearable — airborne robots and other unidentified flying objects can make bear hearts beat four times faster, researchers say. This finding suggests that greater caution might be necessary with drones flying above wildlife, scientists added. Airborne drones — also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — are becoming increasingly popular, with Amazon suggesting they could deliver goods to online shoppers and tech giants such as Google potentially investigating their use to bring wireless Internet connectivity across the planet.
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