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	(Sponsor this newsletter) Bird brain? Dodos were not so dumb after all By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The dodo is an extinct flightless bird whose name has become synonymous with stupidity. Scientists said on Wednesday they figured out the dodo's brain size and structure based on an analysis of a well-preserved skull from a museum collection. The research suggests the dodo, rather than being stupid, boasted at least the same intelligence as its fellow members of the pigeon and dove family. Read More » This Sugar May Be New Weapon Against Fructose This could be the implication of a new study on mice revealing that a natural sugar called trehalose prevents a diet high in fructose, or fruit sugar, from causing fatty liver disease. "In general, if you feed a mouse a high-sugar diet, it gets a fatty liver," said Dr. Brian DeBosch, a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who led the study. The mice given the trehalose also had lower body weights at the end of the study and lower levels of circulating cholesterol, fatty acids and triglycerides, than the control mice not give the water, DeBosch added. Read More » The Science Behind Hitler's Possible Micropenis  History buffs know that Adolf Hitler had an undescended testicle, but a new review of his medical records suggests that der Führer also had other genital problems, including a condition called a micropenis. In fact, Hitler had a slew of below-the-belt problems, according to the new book, "Hitler's Last Day: Minute by Minute," (Short Books Ltd, 2015), by historians Jonathan Mayo and Emma Craigie. After reading Hitler's medical records, they said they found evidence that Hitler had a condition called penile hypospadias, in which the opening to the urethra is not at the tip of the penis, but either somewhere along the shaft or at its base, according to news reports. Read More » Kalamazoo Shooting: When Is a Person Brain Dead? But based upon the possibility that Kopf could die from her injuries, at the request of and with the permission of her parents, the team treating Kopf contacted an organ donation organization, Dr. Aaron Lane-Davies, the medical director of Bronson Children's Hospital in Kalamazoo, where Kopf is being treated, said in a statement. In the statement emailed from a hospital spokeswoman to Live Science today, Lane-Davies said that the treatment team had not yet begun to conduct a series of exams that is used to determine whether a person is brain dead. Kopf was not declared brain dead, he said. Read More » Apollo 10 astronauts heard 'outer space' music during 1969 moon mission Apollo 10 astronauts heard what they described as "outer space type music" during their historic mission around the dark side of the moon in 1969, according to a NASA audio tape. Crew members Eugene Cernan and John Young discuss the odd whistling sound in the tape that was confidential in 1969 at the height of the space race with the Soviet Union. NASA said the tape, which was featured on the U.S. Science cable network earlier this week, was made publicly available since 1973. A NASA engineer said the unusual sound was interference between the module and the mission command center's radios. Read More » Space projects lured $1.8 billion in venture capital last year: report By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Venture capital groups invested $1.8 billion in commercial space startups in 2015, more than in the last 15 years combined, a report by aerospace consultants the Tauri Group shows. The lion's share of the 2015 space investments was a $1 billion round of financing for Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, founded and overseen by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, who also runs Tesla Motors Inc. "The year 2015 was a record-setting year for space ventures, with investment and debt financing of $2. ... Read More » SpaceX delays launch, ocean-landing try until Thursday due to weather By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - SpaceX on Wednesday postponed for at least 24 hours the scheduled Florida launch of a Falcon 9 rocket on a satellite-delivery mission and attempted return-landing at sea because of poor weather conditions, a company official said. Blast-off of the 23-story-tall booster and its payload, a SES-9 communications satellite, was rescheduled for 6:46 p.m. EST/2346 GMT on Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, SpaceX said. The flight would be the second of more than 12 planned this year by Space Exploration Technologies, the private rocket launch service owned and operated by high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. Read More » Unexpected Stop for Marijuana Tourists? The Emergency Room A phenomenon called "marijuana tourism" may be leading to an uptick in marijuana-related emergency-room visits in Colorado, one of the few states where recreational use of the drug is legal, a new report finds. Since it became legal to sell marijuana in Colorado in 2014, the number of emergency-room visits possibly related to marijuana has increased more among out-of-state residents, compared with Colorado residents, according to the report. The data match what doctors have been reporting seeing, anecdotally, in emergency rooms, said Dr. Howard Kim, an emergency medicine physician at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, and an author of the report. Read More » Virtual reality takes center stage at MWC With virtual reality (VR) on course to become a $1 billion global business, the launch of the eagerly-awaited HTC Vive VR headset has been one of the highlights of this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona.     The Taiwanese electronics company HTC set up a booth at the four day exhibition, showcasing how the consumer edition will operate when it goes on sale in April. Read More » Bizarre Solar-Powered Worms Are Social Sunbathers A serendipitous observation and a new series of computer simulations reveal that the mint-sauce worm is a social animal. The worms would swim next to one another in parallel and form little "flotillas," Franks said. Read More » Dinosaur Was Giving 'the Finger' Due to Bone Deformity The beast set a record for most upper-body injuries ever seen on a theropod dinosaur (a group of bipedal, mostly meat-eating dinosaurs), the researchers said. The previous record-holder is Sue, the famous Tyrannosaurus rex on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, who has a total of four bone injuries on its shoulder and forelimbs. "We not only exceeded the record [for theropod injuries], we doubled it," said study co-author Phil Senter, a professor of biology at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. Read More » Boston Dynamics' New Atlas Robot Can't Be Pushed Around (Video) Robotics company Boston Dynamics released a new video yesterday (Feb. 23) showcasing its upgraded Atlas robot, and the footage features a slew of impressive (and somewhat unsettling) new capabilities. The humanoid Atlas robot, which has been overhauled with a sleeker design, can be seen at the beginning of the video walking around untethered before it opens the front door to Boston Dynamics' office and steps outside. The new-and-improved robot is "designed to operate outdoors and inside buildings," Boston Dynamics wrote in a description of the video posted on YouTube. Read More » Food for Thought: Human Teeth Likely Shrank Due to Tool Use Wisdom teeth may have shrunk during human evolution as part of changes that started with human tool use, according to a new study. The research behind this finding could lead to a new way of figuring out how closely related fossil species are to modern humans, scientists added. Although modern humans are the only surviving members of the human family tree, other species once lived on Earth. Read More » Baby Gorilla Thriving After Rare C-Section Delivery A baby gorilla was recently delivered by a rare emergency caesarean procedure, after her mother developed a potentially life-threatening condition, according to officials at the Bristol Zoo Gardens in the United Kingdom. The baby western lowland gorilla was born on Feb. 12, weighing in at 2 pounds and 10 ounces (just over 1 kilogram), and zoo officials said she initially needed help breathing on her own. Animal keepers are now hand-rearing the baby gorilla and report that she is doing well, though the animal will not yet be on view to the public, according to the Bristol Zoo. Read More » World's first thermal imaging phone camera While most exhibitors at this week's Mobile World Congress (MWC) are focused on products for personal consumers, a British company has launched a rugged handset aimed at tradespeople.     Bullitt has developed the Cat S60 smartphone, in conjunction with construction equipment maker Caterpillar and premium technology company FLIR Systems Inc.     Until now users wanting to access thermal imaging on their smartphone have had to buy an accessory to clip onto the device, whereas the sensor developed by FLIR in its Lepton microcamera is fully integrated. ... Read More »
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