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Friday, October 9, 2015

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Ancient Ethiopian man's genome illuminates ancestry of Africans

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - DNA extracted from the skull of a man buried 4,500 years ago in an Ethiopian cave is providing new clarity on the ancestry of modern Africans as well as shedding light on an influx of people from the ancient Middle East into the Horn of Africa. Until now, genome sequencing efforts on ancient people have focused on remains from cooler, drier climes that tend to better preserve DNA. The cave, sitting 6,440 feet (1,963 meters) above sea level in southwestern Ethiopia's Gamo highlands, was discovered in 2011, University of Cambridge geneticist Andrea Manica said.

Idaho nuclear lab director eyes new generation of scientists

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The new director of Idaho's federal nuclear facility says he sees plenty of opportunity to make it the nation's premier energy security lab while also bolstering the region's economy.

'The Martian' Misses Out on a Faster Way to Mars (Op-Ed)

Edward Belbruno is a mathematician and an artist. Full of cliff-hangers, where you don't know what's going to happen from one moment to the next, the book depicts astronaut Mark Watney, mistakenly left for dead as his fellow crewmembers hastily escape a storm on Mars. Unfortunately, NASA can't just send a resupply mission right away to give Watney needed the food, water, air and other basic supplies he desperately needs for survival.

Surprise! Pluto Has Blue Skies (Photo)

The more scientists learn about Pluto, the more interesting the dwarf planet gets. During its historic flyby of Pluto this past July, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft discovered towering ice mountains and vast glaciers on the frigid body. "Who would have expected a blue sky in the Kuiper Belt?" New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, said in a statement today (Oct. 8).

SpaceX raps ULA bid to get U.S. waiver for Russian engines

By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has slammed a bid by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, to get a waiver from a U.S. ban on Russian rocket engines for military use. Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla Motors and chief executive of SpaceX, told Defense Secretary Ash Carter that federal law already allowed ULA to use "a substantial number" of engines.

Experts caution on study citing method to predict sexual orientation

U.S. researchers on Thursday said they had found a way to predict male sexual orientation based on molecular markers that control DNA function, but genetics experts warned that the research has important limitations and will not provide definitive answers to a potential biological basis for sexual preference. Findings from the study, which has yet to be published or reviewed in detail by other scientists, were presented at a meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Baltimore.

ZomBee Watch helps scientists track honeybee killer

HURLEY, N.Y. (AP) — While scientists have documented cases of tiny flies infesting honeybees, causing the bees to lurch and stagger around like zombies before they die, researchers don't know the scope of the problem.

Science won't stop until it beats AIDS, says HIV pioneer

By Kate Kelland PARIS (Reuters) - More than 30 years after she identified one of the most pernicious viruses to infect humankind, Francoise Barre Sinoussi, who shared a Nobel prize for discovering HIV, is hanging up her lab coat and retiring. While a cure for AIDS may or may not be found in her lifetime, the 68-year-old says, achieving "remission" - where infected patients control HIV in their bodies and, crucially, can come off treatment for years - is definitely within reach.

No-Brainer: Bike Helmets Protect Noggins and Face Bones

Wearing a bicycle helmet may seem like a no-brainer, but preteens and teens tend not to wear them, even though helmets dramatically decrease the odds of a traumatic brain injury, a new study finds. Bike riders who wear helmets are 58 percent less likely to get a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) after an accident compared with riders who aren't wearing helmets, according to the findings presented today (Oct. 8) at the 2015 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons in Chicago. Researchers at the University of Arizona Medical Center looked at the records in a national injury database of 6,267 people who had an intracranial hemorrhage (a brain bleed)following bicycle-related accidents in 2012.

9 Million US Kids at Risk for Measles

About 9 million U.S. children are susceptible to measles, either because they haven't received the vaccine against the viral disease or because they aren't up to date with their shots, a new study shows. The findings suggest that although enough people are vaccinated to prevent measles from spreading widely in the United States, there could still be large outbreaks of the disease, due to clusters of unvaccinated children, the researchers said. "We can't get complacent" about vaccinating kids against the measles, said study researcher Robert Bednarczyk, an assistant professor of global health at Emory University in Atlanta.

Black Burger, Green Poop: Halloween Meal's Odd Effects Explained

Burger King recently introduced its Halloween Whopper — the restaurant's signature hamburger is sporting a black bun during October. "Sometimes stool color is very important, and sometimes we can get worried inappropriately about the color of stool," Dr. Ian Lustbader, a clinical associate professor of medicine and a gastroenterologist at New York University's Langone Medical Center, told Live Science. Most likely, it's the food coloring in the bun, Lustbader said.

Ancient Ethiopian man's genome illuminates ancestry of Africans

Myth Busted: Conspiracy Theorists Do Believe Stuff 'Just Happens'

The sheriff of Douglas County in Oregon where a mass shooting occurred on Oct. 2 is in hot water after the discovery that he posted a "Sandy Hook truther" video to Facebook in 2013. Contrary to popular opinion, the research finds, people who think conspiratorially aren't more likely to assume everything happens for a reason, rejecting the likelihood of random chance, than people who don't hold conspiracy beliefs. "What we show is that the psychology of conspiracy theories is located in a rather high level of cognition, perhaps at the level of beliefs and ideology and not at the level of a deeper personality or perception mode," said study researcher Sebastian Dieguez, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

Selena Gomez's Diagnosis: What Is Lupus?

The pop star Selena Gomez recently announced that she was diagnosed with lupus and underwent chemotherapy for the condition in 2013. "I was diagnosed with lupus, and I've been through chemotherapy. This may be the first time that Gomez fans have heard of the disease.

Secrets, Sci-Fi & Uncertainty: Jeff Bezos and the Future of Private Spaceflight

In September, billionaire Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos announced that Blue Origin, the private spaceflight company he founded, would build a facility at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, kicking off a new phase for the company as it pursues the construction of an orbital space vehicle. The move to Florida's Space Coast, however, may force the company to step into the spotlight. Following the announcement ceremony at Cape Canaveral last month, Bezos talked with the media about his childhood obsession with the space program and science fiction books, and how that passion has motivated his business pursuits and shaped his ultimate goal to eventually put "millions of people" into space.

Private Dream Chaser Space Plane Poised for New Flight Tests in 2016

A space plane that would continue the legacy of NASA's shuttle program is getting ready for a second stage of flight testing, according to representatives from the Sierra Nevada Corp. At a gathering of the top leaders and innovators in the commercial spaceflight industry here yesterday (Oct. 7), Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president of Sierra Nevada's space systems division, discussed the status of the two "Dream Chaser" space planes, which could one day fly astronauts or cargo to the International Space Station or other destinations. The vehicle will begin its second stage of testing at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in early 2016.

Nestle spends $70 million on U.S. health science hub

Nestle's health science division is investing $70 million in a product technology center that will become the unit's new U.S. headquarters and research hub, the division said on Friday. The Bridgewater, New Jersey center will further Nestle's healthcare push as the Swiss company delves deeper into nutritional therapy and the high-margin medicines arena. Opening in 2016, the hub will relocate the unit's current research and development activities from Minneapolis and its current headquarters from nearby Florham Park.

Putting Astronauts on Mars: NASA Lays Out Three-Phase Plan

NASA aims to put boots on Mars in the 2030s after first gathering human-spaceflight experience and expertise in low Earth orbit and the "proving ground" of cis-lunar space near the moon. NASA has been working on this three-stage path to the Red Planet for some time, and the space agency lays out the basic plan in a 36-page report called "Journey to Mars: Pioneering Next Steps in Space Exploration," which was released Thursday (Oct. 8). "This strategy charts a course toward horizon goals while delivering near-term benefits and defining a resilient architecture that can accommodate budgetary changes, political priorities, new scientific discoveries, technological breakthroughs and evolving partnerships," William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement.

Boom in gene-editing studies amid ethics debate over its use

WASHINGTON (AP) — The hottest tool in biology has scientists using words like revolutionary as they describe the long-term potential: wiping out certain mosquitoes that carry malaria, treating genetic diseases like sickle cell, preventing babies from inheriting a life-threatening disorder.

The Origins of Religion: How Supernatural Beliefs Evolved

The vast majority of the U.S. population does not belong to the Catholic Church, and a growing percentage of Americans are not affiliated with any organized religion at all, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Centers. This understanding of how the world worked facilitated the rapid decision-making process that humans had to go through when they heard a rustling in the grass.

Scientists predict drier Horn of Africa as climate warms

By Megan Rowling BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The Horn of Africa is becoming drier in step with global warming, researchers said on Friday, contradicting some climate models predicting rainier weather patterns in a region that has suffered frequent food crises linked to drought. A new study using a sediment core extracted from the Gulf of Aden found the East African region covering Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia has dried at an unusually fast rate over the past century. Lead author Jessica Tierney, an associate professor at the University of Arizona, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation the research team was confident the drying was linked to rising emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases, and was expected to continue as the region heats up further.

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