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	(Sponsor this newsletter) 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 » Astronomers photograph a baby Jupiter in another solar system By Irene Klotz Astronomers have taken a photograph of a baby planet beyond the solar system that may reveal clues as to how planets such as Jupiter are formed and influence their planetary siblings, a study released on Thursday shows. The planet, which is about double the size of Jupiter, is positioned a bit farther away from its parent star than Saturn orbits the sun. 51 Eridani b is one of the smallest planets beyond the solar system to be directly imaged. Read More » US Military's Top-Secret X-37B Space Plane Mission Nears 3-Month Mark The United States Air Force's X-37B space plane has now been in orbit for nearly three months on its fourth mystery mission. The X-37B spacecraft launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on May 20, kicking off a mission dubbed OTV-4 (short for Orbital Test Vehicle-4). OTV-4 is the second flight of the second X-37B vehicle built for the Air Force by Boeing. Read More » NASA Test-Fires Engine for Next-Generation Megarocket (Video) NASA put the engine at the heart of its huge next-generation rocket to the test again today (Aug. 13). The agency performed a nearly 9-minute-long "hot fire" test of an RS-25 engine at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Four RS-25s will power the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, which NASA is developing to get astronauts to asteroids, Mars and other deep-space destinations. Read More » Genes Confirm: Octopuses Are Brainy and Weird Octopuses are known to be brainiacs — they can mimic flounder in a flash, unscrew themselves out of a sealed jar and even use coconut shells to build a mobile home. Determining how octopuses' brains and bodies evolved "represents a first step to understanding these really cool animals at a new level," said Caroline Albertin, the lead researcher on the study and a graduate student studying evolution of animal development at the University of Chicago. "The octopus nervous system is organized in a totally different way from ours: The central brain surrounds the esophagus, which is typical of invertebrates, but it also has groups of neurons in the arms that can work relatively autonomously, plus huge optic lobes involved in vision," study co-author Daniel Rokhsar, a professor of genetics and genomics at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement. Read More » Ancient Footprints May Show Dinosaur Duo Strolling Along the Beach About 142 million years ago, two carnivorous dinosaurs wandered along a beach and left their large footprints behind in the sand, a new study finds. These footprints, now fossilized, are helping researchers understand what types of dinosaurs lived in what is now modern-day northern Germany. Read More » Scientists researching brain disorders create super-clever mice By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have genetically modified mice to be super-intelligent and found they are also less anxious, a discovery that may help the search for treatments for disorders such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Researchers from Britain and Canada found that altering a single gene to block the phosphodiesterase-4B (PDE4B) enzyme, which is found in many organs including the brain, made mice cleverer and at the same time less fearful. "Our work using mice has identified phosphodiesterase-4B as a promising target for potential new treatments," said Steve Clapcote, a lecturer in pharmacology at Britain's Leeds University, who led the study. Read More » Ancient Monolith Suggests Humans Lived on Now-Underwater Archipelago During a high-resolution mapping of the seafloor surrounding Sicily, researchers discovered an ancient treasure: a stone monolith spanning 39 feet (12 meters), resting on the bottom of the Mediterranean. "It was a great," said lead researcher Emanuele Lodolo, a staff researcher at the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics in Italy. Read More » Low-Fat vs. Low-Carb Diets: Which Trims More Fat? Following a low-fat diet may help dieters lose more body fat than following a low-carb diet, according to a new study. In comparison, the same people lost 1.9 ounces (53 grams) of fat per day while following a low-carb diet for the same amount of time. "A lot of people have very strong opinions about what matters for weight loss, and the physiological data upon which those beliefs are based are sometimes lacking," study author Kevin Hall, a metabolism researcher at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, said in a statement. Read More » 'Exercise Hormone' Irisin Really Does Exist The "exercise hormone" irisin has generated controversy among scientists — some say it's produced when humans work up a sweat, and holds promise as a weight-loss treatment, but others contend that irisin doesn't even really exist in people. Read More » Melanoma Risk May Be Higher After Organ Transplant People who receive organ transplants may have an increased risk of developing the deadly skin cancer melanoma, according to a new study. Researchers found that the risk of melanoma among the organ transplant recipients in the study was about double that of people in the general population. Moreover, the organ transplant recipients faced a risk of regional-stage melanoma - cancer that has begun to spread to other parts of the body - that was about quadruple that of the general population. Read More » Jimmy Carter's Cancer: How Doctors May Find Where It Started Former President Jimmy Carter has not revealed much about his recent cancer diagnosis, but an important part of caring for anyone with cancer is finding out where the disease started, so that doctors can best treat it, experts say. Yesterday, Carter released a statement saying that during a recent liver surgery, doctors discovered metastatic cancer. Metastatic means cancer that has spread to other parts of the body from where it started. Read More » Beautiful Corals in Home Aquariums Can Poison You Aquarium enthusiasts and people who work in aquarium stores should be aware that some types of coral produce dangerous toxins that can be hazardous to your health, according to a new report. The report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, describes 10 cases of toxin poisoning in Alaska between 2012 and 2014 that were linked to zoanthid corals, a common type of coral in home aquariums. Some zoanthid contain high levels of palytoxin, a toxin that can cause life-threatening symptoms if people touch, inhale or ingest it, the CDC said. Read More » Mobile Health Tech Looks Promising, But Does It Work? Smartphone apps, health-monitoring devices and wearable sensors that collect real-time data have the potential to help Americans improve their heart health. In a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association published in the journal Circulation, a committee of heart-health experts evaluated the scientific evidence on the mobile health technologies that people might use to reduce their risk of heart disease. "The review found that the research on mobile health technologies is still in the very early stages, and more research is needed to understand the role of mobile solutions for cardiovascular disease prevention," said Dr. Jun Ma, a professor of public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a co-author of the statement. Read More »
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