|  Sleep tight: genome secrets could help beat the bedbug's bite  | No. Bedbugs! These tiny insects have staged a global resurgence in the past two decades after being nearly eradicated in many regions, but scientists on Tuesday unveiled a complete genetic map of the bedbug that could guide efforts to foil the resilient parasite. "This is an enormous new tool for researchers interested in controlling this pest," said George Amato, director of the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. "Bed bugs are now very widespread in most major cities around the world, and they have increasingly become resistant to insecticides, making them harder to control," American Museum of Natural History entomologist Louis Sorkin said.
| Read More » Scientists map bedbug genome, follow pest through NYC subway  | NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have mapped the genome of bedbugs in New York City, then traced fragments of the nefarious pests' DNA through the subway system.
| Read More » Scientists to inject fuel in experimental fusion device  | GREIFSWALD, Germany (AP) — Scientists in northeast Germany were poised to flip the switch Wednesday on an experiment they hope will advance the quest for nuclear fusion, considered a clean and safe form of nuclear power."
| Read More » Scientists' path to usable Zika vaccine strewn with hurdles  | Making a shot to generate an immune response against Zika virus, which is sweeping through the Americas, shouldn't be too hard in theory. For a start, scientists around the world know even less about Zika than they did about the Ebola virus that caused an unprecedented epidemic in West Africa last year. Ebola, due to its deadly power, was the subject of bioterrorism research, giving at least a base for speeding up vaccine work.
| Read More » Scientists' path to usable Zika vaccine strewn with hurdles  | Making a shot to generate an immune response against Zika virus, which is sweeping through the Americas, shouldn't be too hard in theory. For a start, scientists around the world know even less about Zika than they did about the Ebola virus that caused an unprecedented epidemic in West Africa last year. Ebola, due to its deadly power, was the subject of bioterrorism research, giving at least a base for speeding up vaccine work.
| Read More » How Zika Virus Spreads: Chain of Events Explained Zika virus is "now spreading explosively in the Americas," World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said on Thursday (Jan. 28), and 3 million to 4 million people in the Americas could be infected by the virus this year alone, according to the latest WHO estimates. However, U.S. officials have said that the virus is likely to cause only small outbreaks in this country. To understand how the Zika virus spreads to new regions, and how researchers can tell whether a region is likely to experience large outbreaks or small ones, Live Science asked the experts what sequence of events has to happen in order for the virus to become established in a new region. Read More » Sexually Transmitted Zika Case Confirmed in Texas A person in Dallas appears to have spread the Zika virus to another person through sex, Texas health officials said today. Officials at Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) said that a person in the area was infected with the Zika virus after having sexual contact with another person who had returned from Venezuela, where the virus is spreading, and was ill. "Now that we know Zika virus can be transmitted through sex, this increases our awareness campaign in educating the public about protecting themselves and others," Zachary Thompson, the DCHHS director, said in a statement. Read More » Small country, big Universe - Luxembourg aims for space business By Meredith McGrath BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Luxembourg, the tiny European Union state nestled between France, Germany and Belgium, has a big new goal - it wants to be a center for space mining. Primarily known for its fund management and private banking industry, the duchy is promoting a law that would make it the first in Europe to give legal clarity to the commercial exploitation of asteroids. "In the long-term, space resources could lead to a thriving new space economy and human expansion into the solar system," Etienne Schneider, Luxembourg's economy minister told a press conference. Read More » Map of Winter Storm Jonas' Wind Shows Destructive Gusts  | Winter storm Jonas brought with it record-breaking amounts of snow and blustering winds when it plowed through the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States in late January. Now, scientists at NASA have created a new map showing the direction and speeds of the massive storm's wind gusts.
| Read More » Massive Bird Die-Off Puzzles Alaskan Scientists  | Thousands of dead seabirds have washed up on Alaskan shores over the past nine months. Nearly 8,000 common murres (Uria aalge) were found along the shores of Whittier, Alaska, in early January. Over the New Year's holiday, Alaska experienced four days of gale-force winds from the southeast that resulted in dead birds washing ashore, said Robb Kaler, a wildlife biologist for the Alaska branch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
| Read More » Meet 'Squishy Fingers': Flexible Robot Advances Undersea Research  | Meet "Squishy Fingers," a new remotely operated vehicle designed to delicately grab and take samples of coral. The ROV, described in a Jan. 20 study in the journal Soft Robotics, will help researchers collect specimens from deep underwater reefs without damaging the corals' fragile bodies. "If we're going to go down and study these systems, then we should be as gentle as we possibly can," said study co-senior author David Gruber, an associate professor of biology at Baruch College in New York City and a National Geographic emerging explorer.
| Read More » Spacewalking Russian cosmonauts begin work outside space station  | By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Two veteran Russian cosmonauts floated outside the International Space Station on Wednesday to replace experimental equipment that is testing how materials and biological samples fare in the harsh environment of space. Station flight engineers Yuri Malenchenko and Sergey Volkov left the station's airlock at 7:55 a.m. EST for what was expected to be a 5-1/2-hour spacewalk, a live broadcast on NASA Television showed. Among the cosmonauts' first tasks was to cast off a flash drive into space, giving a ceremonial send-off to recorded messages and video from last year's 70th anniversary of Victory Day, said NASA mission commentator Rob Navias.
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