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	(Sponsor this newsletter) Astronomers find a tailless comet, first of its kind By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronomers have found a first-of-its-kind tailless comet whose composition may offer clues into long-standing questions about the solar system's formation and evolution, according to research published on Friday in the journal Science Advances. The so-called "Manx" comet, named after a breed of cats without tails, was made of rocky materials that are normally found near Earth. Most comets are made of ice and other frozen compounds and were formed in solar system's frigid far reaches. Read More » Simulating Mars exploration, British astronaut guides rover from space British astronaut Tim Peake drove a rover on Mars on Friday -- or at least pretended to by test-driving the exploration vehicle on earth remotely from space. From the International Space Station (ISS) some 250 miles above earth, the European Space Agency astronaut guided rover prototype "Bridget" around a cave set up in an area simulating Mars's sandy and rocky surface in Stevenage, England. The experiment was part of the Multi-Purpose End-To-End Robotic Operation Network (METERON) program looking at how astronauts can work robots from space. Read More » Africa's giant eye in the sky proving worth its SALT By Wendell Roelf SUTHERLAND, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa's SALT telescope has helped detect the first white dwarf pulsar, the latest co-discovery that has astronomers eager to use the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere to unlock the galaxy's secrets. Quick reaction times, as well as being significantly cheaper than similar European or American facilities in producing the science are key competitive advantages, said a senior astronomer at the SALT consortium during a media visit. "SALT is now living up to expectations, producing high-quality science data that probe the far reaches of the universe," said Ted Williams, a director at the South African Astronomical Observatory managing the site. Read More » Astronomers find a tailless comet, first of its kind By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronomers have found a first-of-its-kind tailless comet whose composition may offer clues into long-standing questions about the solar system's formation and evolution, according to research published on Friday in the journal Science Advances. The so-called "Manx" comet, named after a breed of cats without tails, was made of rocky materials that are normally found near Earth. Most comets are made of ice and other frozen compounds and were formed in solar system's frigid far reaches. Read More »
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FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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	(Sponsor this newsletter) Slumber party: reptiles, like us, have REM sleep and may dream By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Research in a German laboratory involving five lizards called Australian bearded dragons indicates that these reptiles may dream and could prompt a fundamental reassessment of the evolution of sleep. Scientists said on Thursday they have documented for the first time that reptiles, like people, experience rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep and another sleep stage called slow-wave sleep. Because REM sleep is when dreaming occurs in people, the findings suggest that these lizards dream, too. Read More » Do Australian Dragons Dream? Sleep Discovery Surprises Scientists Maybe, according to new research that finds rapid eye movement (REM) and slow-wave sleep in a lizard, the Australian dragon, for the first time. REM sleep is characterized by brain waves that look similar to waking brain activity. In mammals, the large muscles of the body are immobile, but the eyes twitch randomly during REM sleep. Read More » Repairs to keep ULA rocket grounded until summer, company says By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - United Launch Alliance's workhorse Atlas 5 rocket will remain grounded until this summer while engineers fix a problem that triggered an early engine shutdown during its last flight, the space venture said on Friday. The Atlas 5 rocket that blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on March 22 successfully delivered an Orbital ATK cargo ship to the International Space Station for NASA. United Launch Alliance, or ULA, is a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.. Engineers have traced the problem to a fuel control valve in the RD-180 engine that reduced the amount of kerosene delivered during the boost phase of the flight, ULA said in a statement. Read More » China aims for manned moon landing by 2036 China wants to put astronauts on the moon by 2036, a senior space official said, the latest goal in China's ambitious lunar exploration program. China in 2003 became the third country to put a man in space with its own rocket after the former Soviet Union and the United States. It has touted its plans for moon exploration and in late 2013 completed the first lunar "soft landing" since 1976 with the Chang'e-3 craft and its Jade Rabbit rover. Read More » Did Opioids Kill Prince? Why It's So Easy to Overdose Exactly what caused Prince's sudden death last week is still unknown, but there have been reports that prescription painkillers were found with the singer-songwriter when he died. Experts say there are a number of ways in which prescription opioids can be lethal, particularly if they are taken in combination with other drugs, or if someone starts using the drugs again after a period of sobriety. What's more, people are often not aware of just how easy it can be to overdose on these drugs, said Dr. Scott Krakower, assistant chief of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York. Read More » Teens Who Do Jell-O Shots More Likely to Binge Drink About 20 percent of underage drinkers in the United States consume alcoholic Jell-O shots, and these youth are also more likely to engage in binge drinking and other risky behaviors, a new study finds. On average, Jell-O shot users consumed 31 alcoholic drinks per month, compared with 19 alcoholic drinks among nonusers. About 73 percent of Jell-O shot users were binge drinkers, meaning they consumed five or more alcoholic drinks in a row, compared with 48 percent of nonusers. Read More » Having More Friends May Mean Feeling Less Pain People in the study who had larger social networks appeared to have a higher tolerance for pain, according to the findings, which were published today (April 28) in the journal Scientific Reports. In the study, the researchers wanted to see if people with larger social networks had higher levels of chemicals in the brain called endorphins. Endorphins are linked to feelings of pleasure, as well as reduced feelings of pain. Read More » Spanking Makes Kids More Defiant, Studies Suggest In fact, kids who were spanked were more likely to defy their parents, have mental health problems and be anti-social, the research finds. "Our analysis focuses on what most Americans would recognize as spanking and not on potentially abusive behaviors," Elizabeth Gershoff, an associate professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement. A 2014 UNICEF study found that about 80 percent of parents spank their children worldwide. Read More » 'Lost' Medieval Music Performed for First Time in 1,000 Years The language of music is universal, but can be lost over time. After a 20-year reconstruction effort, a researcher and a performer of medieval music have brought "lost" songs from the Middle Ages back to life. The "Songs of Consolation" were recently performed at the University of Cambridgein the United Kingdom. Read More » Power Up with Pee: New Fuel Cell Could Generate Cheap Electricity Researchers have developed a way to create affordable and renewable electricity with a fuel cell that runs on urine. The new device relies on natural biological processes of so-called electric bacteria, essentially living cells that eat and breathe electricity. "These electric bacteria are a fascinating type of bacteria that are capable of transferring electrons generated by the breaking down of organic compounds extra-cellularly," said study co-author Mirella Di Lorenzo, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Bath, in the United Kingdom. Read More » Pop went the weasel and down went the Large Hadron Collider GENEVA (AP) — It's one of the physics world's most complex machines, and it has been immobilized — temporarily — by a weasel. Read More »
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FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

	Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News
	(Sponsor this newsletter) Mysterious 'Haloes' on Pluto Puzzle Scientists The discovery of strange halo-like craters on Pluto has raised a new mystery about how the odd scars formed on the icy world. Pluto's "halo" craters are clearly visible in a new image from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which made the first-ever flyby of the dwarf planet in July 2015. In the image, a black-and-white view reveals dozens of ringed craters (NASA describes these formations as "haloed") strewn across the dark landscape of Vega Terra, a region in the far western reaches of the hemisphere photographed by New Horizons during its flyby. Read More » Scientists: Dakota oilfield wastewater spills release toxins Scientists say wastewater spills from oil development in western North Dakota are releasing toxins into soils and waterways, sometimes at levels exceeding federal water quality standards. Read More » SpaceX breaks Boeing-Lockheed monopoly on military space launches The U.S. Air Force on Wednesday awarded billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX an $83 million contract to launch a GPS satellite, breaking the monopoly that Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co have had on military space launches for more than a decade. The Global Positioning System satellite will be launched in May 2018, Air Force officials said. It breaks the monopoly on launching military space and national security payloads held by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Read More » SpaceX breaks Boeing-Lockheed monopoly on military space launches By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force on Wednesday awarded billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX an $83 million contract to launch a GPS satellite, breaking the monopoly that Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co have held on military space launches for more than a decade. The Global Positioning System satellite will be launched in May 2018 from Florida, Air Force officials said. It ends the exclusive relationship between the military and United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Read More » Russia launches inaugural rocket from new spaceport at second attempt MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia launched its inaugural rocket from a new cosmodrome on Thursday, a day after a technical glitch thwarted the much-publicized event in a sign of continued crisis in the nation's space industry. An unmanned Soyuz rocket carrying three satellites roared off from the launch pad at Vostochny cosmodrome in the Amur Region near China's border at 0501 Moscow time (0201 GMT), Russian news agencies reported. ... Read More » Half Australia's Great Barrier Reef northern coral 'dead or dying': scientists (This April 20 story has been corrected in headline and first paragraph to show that 50 percent of northern coral is dead or dying not entire reef) By Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian scientists said on Wednesday that just seven percent of the Great Barrier Reef, which attracts around A$5 billion ($3.90 billion) in tourism every year, has been untouched by mass bleaching that is likely to destroy half of the northern coral. In the northern Great Barrier Reef, it's like 10 cyclones have come ashore all at once," said Professor Terry Hughes, conveyor of the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce, which conducted aerial surveys of the World Heritage site. "Our estimate at the moment is that close to 50 percent of the coral is already dead or dying," Hughes told Reuters. Read More » Why Pregnant Women Are More Prone to Yeast Infections The Food and Drug Administration is investigating whether a medication used for treating yeast infections may pose risks if women take it during pregnancy. Today, the agency announced that it is reviewing the results of a recent study from Denmark that found a link between the medication, called oral fluconazole (brand name Diflucan) and an increased risk of miscarriages. The study, published Jan. 5 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that pregnant women who took oral fluconazole were 48 percent more likely to have a miscarriage than women who didn't take the drug. Read More » Ancient Hyenas Ate Human Relatives Half a Million Years Ago Tooth marks on the leg bone of a hominin, an ancient human relative, suggest that the poor soul had a gristly end, a new study finds. The tooth marks and fractures on the roughly 500,000-year-old femur indicate that a large carnivore, likely an extinct hyena, chewed on the bone, the researchers said. It's not surprising that a large, carnivorous predator would hunt down a hominin, said study lead researcher Camille Daujeard, a researcher in the Department of Prehistory at the National Museum of Natural History in France. Read More » Earth Gets Greener as Globe Gets Hotter The excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has created a greener planet, a new NASA study shows. The radical greening "has the ability to fundamentally change the cycling of water and carbon in the climate system," lead author Zaichun Zhu, a researcher from Peking University in Beijing, said in a statement. Green leafy flora make up 32 percent of Earth's surface area. Read More » In risks to bees, study finds not all neonicotinoids are equal By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - A group of chemical insecticides known as neonicotinoids that have been banned in Europe due to fears about potential harm to bees have been found in new research to have very differential risks for bumblebees. Scientists who conducted the research said their findings showed that at least one neonicotinoid in the banned group - clothianidin – may have been unfairly named as among the offenders. This insecticide did not show the same detrimental effects on bee colonies as the others, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, the researchers found. Read More » Acting Sorry: Why Johnny Depp Owed Australia an Apology Johnny Depp's latest most-watched (and highly critiqued) performance is just a little more personal than his typical thespian challenges. In a video shared on YouTube on April 17 by Australian officials, Depp appeared with his wife, actress Amber Heard, offering words of apology for violating the country's biosecurity regulations last year. Heard had illegally brought the couple's two pet Yorkshire terriers into Australia on April 21, 2015, without an import permit and without first subjecting them to a mandated quarantine — a requirement for all cats and dogs introduced into the country. Read More » An Unusual Case of a Bulging Esophagus He probably swallowed a type of substance called a caustic lye, such as bleach, which can eat away at the lining of the esophagus, said Dr. David Hackam, a surgeon-in-chief at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, who was not involved in the man's case. Next, the doctors would have hooked up the lower end of the esophagus to the small intestine, he said. Read More » Fit in 60 Seconds? 1-Minute Workout May Be Good Enough People who say they don't have time to exercise may be out of excuses: A new study finds that just 1 minute of sprinting, along with 9 minutes of light exercise, leads to similar improvements in health and fitness as a 50-minute workout at a moderate pace. Such exercise may be an option for people who want to boost their fitness, but don't have a whole lot of time to commit to regular exercise, the study suggests. "Most people cite 'lack of time' as the main reason for not being active", study co-author Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario, said in a statement. Read More » 'Mindfulness' May Keep Depression from Coming Back People in the study who received this type of therapy, called mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), were 31 percent less likely to experience a relapse of depression beyond the first year compared with those who did not receive this type of therapy, according to the findings, which were published today (April 27) in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. MBCT combines two approaches for keeping depression symptoms at bay: the practice of mindfulness, or being aware of your emotions, and cognitive therapy, which involves identifying unhealthy thought patterns and developing constructive ways to approach them, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Ultimately, MBCT may work to prevent depression because it teaches people the "skills to stay well," the researchers wrote in the study, which was led by Willem Kuyken, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Oxford in England. Read More » Unlucky 7? Emergency Surgery Usually Means These Operations Just seven common operations account for the vast majority of emergency surgeries performed in the U.S., a new study finds. Those seven surgeries made up 80 percent of all emergency surgical procedures, according to the study. The researchers focused on a broad category of operations called general surgery, which includes a wide-range of surgeries, many of which are performed on the abdomen. Read More » Scientists Find New Way to Tan or Lighten Skin Scientists have uncovered how human skin cells control pigmentation — a discovery that could lead to safer ways to tan or lighten the skin. Researchers found that skin color can be regulated by estrogen and progesterone, two of the main female sex hormones. Although this much was known to a limited degree, the new research revealed two cellular receptors that appear to control this process in skin cells called melanocytes. Read More » SpaceX undercut ULA rocket launch pricing by 40 percent: U.S. Air Force By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force will save 40 percent by buying a GPS satellite launch from Elon Musk's SpaceX compared with what United Launch Alliance has been charging, the head of the Space and Missile Systems Center said on Thursday. The Air Force on Wednesday awarded SpaceX an $83 million contract to launch the satellite, breaking the monopoly that ULA partners Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co had held on military space launches for more than a decade. The disclosure of the cost gap between SpaceX and ULA highlights the challenge the latter will face in competing for future launch business. Read More »
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