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Tuesday, November 19, 2013

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NASA satellite launched to find clues about Mars' lost water

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Monday, sending a Mars orbiter on its way to study how the planet most like Earth in the solar system lost its water. Unlike previous Mars probes, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission, or MAVEN, will not be looking at or landing on the planet's dry, dusty surface. Instead, MAVEN will scan and sample what remains of the thin Martian atmosphere and watch in real-time how it is peeled away, molecule by molecule, by killer solar radiation. United Launch Alliance is a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Dueling Dinosaur Fossils Could Break Record at Auction

In 1997, a Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed Sue shattered auction expectations when Sotheby's sold it to The Field Museum in Chicago for an unprecedented $8.36 million. That remains the highest price anyone has ever paid for a dinosaur fossil at a public auction. Bonhams, which is handling the sale, has estimated the fossilized pair could fetch a price between $7million and $9 million — and that amount is a conservative estimate, said Thomas Lindgren, who put together the natural history auction. "They could bring much more than that," Lindgren told LiveScience at a preview of the auction last week.

Stinky Seduction: Promiscuous Female Mice Have Sexier Sons

"If your sons are particularly sexy, and mate more than they would otherwise, it's helping get your genes more efficiently into the next generation," study leader Wayne Potts, a biologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, said in a statement. As Potts put it, "If you're worried about your sons impinging on your own reproductive success, then why make them sexy?" Even though the sons would pass on some their father's genetic material to future generations, the fathers could pass on more directly.

Ancient Arctic Algae Record Climate Change in 'Tree Rings'

From the medieval chill called the Little Ice Age to the onset of global warming in the 1800s, the coralline algae show how Arctic sea ice has responded to climate swings for the past 650 years. For the first time, researchers now have ancient sea ice information on a yearly scale, said lead study author Jochen Halfar, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Toronto in Mississauga, Canada. "This is important for understanding the rapid, short-term changes that are currently ongoing with respect to sea ice decline," Halfar said in an email interview. (However, algae are plants and coral are animals.) Because the algae go dormant in the winter, when sea ice blocks incoming sunlight, the calcite layers develop visible bands that are similar to tree rings, Halfar said.

'Meat Mummies' Kept Egyptian Royalty Well-Fed After Death

The royal mummies of ancient Egypt apparently did, as a new study finds that "meat mummies" left in Egyptian tombs as sustenance for the afterlife were treated with elaborate balms to preserve them. Mummified cuts of meat are common finds in ancient Egyptian burials, with the oldest dating back to at least 3300 B.C. The tradition extended into the latest periods of mummification in the fourth century A.D. The famous pharaoh King Tutankhamun went to his final resting place accompanied by 48 cases of beef and poultry. University of Bristol biogeochemist Richard Evershed and his colleagues were curious about how these cuts were prepared. The oldest was a rack of cattle ribs from the tomb of Tjuiu, an Egyptian noblewoman, and her courtier Yuya.

Breast MRIs Not Always Used Appropriately, Studies Suggest

The percentage of women undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams of the breast has increased in recent years, but often, the women who could benefit the most from the procedure aren't the ones getting it, new research suggests.

Preterm Birth Linked to Chemicals in Personal Products

Pregnant women exposed to phthalates, a group of hormone-mimicking chemicals found in personal care products and processed foods, may have an increased risk of preterm delivery, a new study suggests. The study included 130 women in the Boston area who had given birth early, before 37 weeks of pregnancy, and 352 women who delivered at full term between 2006 and 2008. What's more, when the researchers looked only at the 57 women who had "spontaneous preterm delivery," meaning they didn't have a medical condition that could explain their early delivery, they found the link between exposure to phthalates and risk of preterm delivery was stronger, according to the study published today (Nov. 18) in JAMA Pediatrics. "These data provide strong support for taking action in the prevention or reduction of phthalate exposure during pregnancy," the researchers wrote in their findings.

6-Minute Rocket Launch Aims to See Promising Comet ISON Tuesday

A small rocket designed to spy galaxies billions of light-years from Earth will gaze at the brightening Comet ISON during a brief launch on Tuesday (Nov. 19) to track the icy wanderer as it speeds through the inner solar system. The NASA-sponsored FORTIS rocket launch is set to blast off at 6:30 a.m. EST (1130 GMT) on Tuesday from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in its bid to spot Comet ISON. The mission's launch window lasts about 15 minutes and will send the suborbital FORTIS rocket 60 miles (97 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, far enough outside the atmosphere to get a good look at Comet ISON just before it disappears behind the sun. After the FORTIS rocket first launched in May to study distant galaxies, its mission team soon realized the rocket could also be used to seek out carbon monoxide, oxygen, hydrogen and other elements on Comet ISON, which is headed for a super-close encounter with the sun on Nov. 28.

Lab-Made Heart Represents 'Moonshot' for 3D Printing

The idea of a 3D-printed heart grown from a patient's own fat stem cells comes from Stuart Williams, executive and scientific director of the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute in Louisville, Ky. His lab has already begun developing the next generation of custom-built 3D printers aimed at printing out a complete heart with all its parts — heart muscle, blood vessels, heart valves and electrical tissue. Still, 3D printers can only do so much bioengineering when working at the tiniest scales.

Stunning Comet ISON Photos Captured by Amateur Astronomer (Images)

A spectacular set of photos taken by an amateur astrophotographer chronicles the evolution of Comet ISON over the last few months, which has seen the much-hyped icy wanderer brighten so much that it's now visible to the naked eye. "In September, ISON was just a smudge smaller than most stars," Mike Hankey wrote SPACE.com in an email. Hankey started imaging Comet ISON using a 14.5-inch RCOS telescope located at the Sierra Remote Observatories in Auberry, Calif. He spent roughly an hour each morning imaging the comet remotely from the California observatory while he was at home in Maryland. As the weeks went on, the comet grew brighter and larger," Hankey said.

Milky Way Galaxy, Eerie Airglow Paint Night Sky Amazing Colors (Photo)

The horizon glows a haunting green, silhouetting trees on the Isle of Wight as the band of the Milky Way shines overhead in this spectacular photo recently sent in to SPACE.com by a veteran photographer.

6 Party Drugs That May Have Health Benefits

The use of illegal drugs for medicinal reasons is a controversial topic, even as more states and jurisdictions allow the use of medical marijuana and other substances every year. Because of these risks, doctors strongly advise against the unregulated use of illicit drugs, which can do more harm than good. Nonetheless, medical researchers continue to find a surprising number of health benefits in drugs widely used for recreational purposes. There's also some evidence that small amounts of psilocybin can relieve the symptoms of cluster headaches, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression.

Two-Headed Ray Fetus Found in Australia

While checking up on the pregnant female rays that he was caring for in an aquarium, Australian researcher Leonardo Guida saw that some of the animals had given birth, in April of this year. As he made note of the baby rays, an "oddly shaped, pale object in the water" caught his attention. This is the first two-headed ray or shark discovered in Australia, and one of only a few examples worldwide of this rare birth defect found in sharks and rays, said Guida, who is a doctoral student at Monash University in Melbourne.

Wild 'Roll Cloud' Tumbles Across Texas Sky

An other-worldly "roll cloud" stretching from horizon to horizon appears to tumble across the Texas sky in a new video. The cloud video, taken by a couple in Timbercreek Canyon, south of Amarillo, Texas, shows a low, tubular cloud spinning horizontally like an upended tornado. These tubelike cloud formations are a type of arcus cloud, a group of low cloud formations. Known as roll clouds, they sometimes form on the edges of thunderstorms.

2013 Global Carbon Emissions to Reach Record Level

The world is on track to emit record levels of carbon dioxide this year, according to a new report announced yesterday (Nov. 18). The study, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Earth System Science Data Discussions, found that the world is set to emit nearly 40 billion tons (36 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide by the end of 2013. The estimate represents a 2.1 percent increase over last year's emissions levels, and a 61 percent increase over 1990 levels. Earth is heating up, and there is scientific consensus that human activity — via the emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, such as methane and carbon dioxide — is the main culprit for global warming.

6 Ways to Feed 11 Billion People

The planet can definitely produce enough food for 11 billion people, experts say, but whether humans can do it sustainably, and whether consumers will ultimately be able to afford that food, are separate matters. A number of different strategies will be required, each of which will move humans a little bit closer toward closing the gap between the amount of food they have, and the amount of food they need. Beef in particular is not a very sustainable food to eat, said Jamais Cascio, a distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future, a think tank in Palo Alto, Calif. According to Cascio's calculation, the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the production of cheeseburgers in the United States each year is about equal to the greenhouse gas emissions from 6.5 million to 19.6 million SUVs over a year.

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Monday, November 18, 2013

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Chill Out, Dudes! Female Flies Have Anti-Aggression Powers

Female fruit flies have a secret superpower: Just by their presence, they keep male flies from butting heads. A new study revealing this strange insect phenomenon could eventually lead to new understandings of how human aggression functions. "This is really an entry point to study how aggression can be modulated," said Yuh Nung Jan, a professor of physiology and biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco. Hanging around ladies may or may not tamp down aggressive urges in men, but for fruit flies, females have a calming effect, Jan and his colleagues report today (Nov. 17) in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Are Educational iPad Games Really Educational?

As iPads have become ubiquitous, companies have rushed to develop educational games that teach math, physics and even urban planning. "It turns out to be pretty hard to make games or content that are better than school," said Jeremy Roschelle, director of the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International, a nonprofit research institute in Menlo Park, Calif.

Active Volcano Discovered Under Antarctic Ice Sheet

Earthquakes deep below West Antarctica reveal an active volcano hidden beneath the massive ice sheet, researchers said today (Nov. 17) in a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience. The discovery finally confirms long-held suspicions of volcanic activity concealed by the vast West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Several volcanoes poke up along the Antarctic coast and its offshore islands, such as Mount Erebus, but this is the first time anyone has caught magma in action far from the coast. "This is really the golden age of discovery of the Antarctic continent," said Richard Aster, a co-author of the study and a seismologist at Colorado State University.

NASA Launching New Mission to Mars Today: How to Watch Live

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A NASA probe is scheduled to launch to Mars today (Nov. 18), and you can watch it live online. The space agency's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft (MAVEN) is scheduled to launch atop its Atlas 5 rocket at 1:28 p.m. EST (1828 GMT) from here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. You can watch the launch live on SPACE.com via NASA TV, beginning at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT). The $671 million MAVEN will investigate the atmosphere of Mars in order to understand what could have happened to the planet in the past.

Nighttime Rocket Launch Tuesday Visible from US East Coast

NASA and the U.S. military will launch a record payload of 29 satellites from a Virginia spaceport Tuesday night (Nov. 19) on a mission that could create a spectacular sight for skywatchers along the U.S. East Coast, weather permitting. The U.S. Air Force launch will send an Orbital Sciences Minotaur 1 rocket into orbit from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va., sometime during a two-hour launch window that opens Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. EST (0030 Nov. 20 GMT). The nighttime launch could light up the sky for millions of observers along a wide swath of the Eastern Seaboard, and could be visible from just northeastern Canada and Maine to Florida, and from as far inland as Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky, depending on local weather conditions, according to NASA and Orbital Sciences visibility maps. The U.S. military's Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office is sponsoring Tuesday's launch. You can watch the nighttime launch live online here, courtesy of NASA, beginning at 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT).

Ancient City Discovered Beneath Biblical-Era Ruins in Israel

Archaeologists have unearthed traces of a previously unknown, 14th-century Canaanite city buried underneath the ruins of another city in Israel. The traces include an Egyptian amulet of Amenhotep III and several pottery vessels from the Late Bronze Age unearthed at the site of Gezer, an ancient Canaanite city. Gezer was once a major center that sat at the crossroads of trade routes between Asia and Africa, said Steven Ortiz, a co-director of the site's excavations and a biblical scholar at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Brain Stimulation May Treat Bulimia

SAN DIEGO — A mild electrical stimulation to a specific brain area could be an effective treatment for some patients with eating disorders such as bulimia, who suffer from episodes of severe binge eating and purging behaviors, researchers say. After one 42-year-old woman received the electrical stimulation, called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), as a treatment for her depression, and showed an unexpected recovery from her 20-year battle against bulimia nervosa, her doctors conducted a pilot study to see whether the treatment would also work for other patients with eating disorders, said Dr. Jonathan Downar, of the University of Toronto. Downar described the study Tuesday (Nov. 12) here at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. In the study, Downar and his colleagues recruited 20 patients with bulimia and stimulated a part of their frontal lobes called the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, which is next to the brain region usually stimulated for treating depression.

Recluse Spider Bite Eats Hole in Young Woman's Ear

She had no way of knowing then that she'd just been bitten by a Mediterranean recluse spider, and that a chunk of her ear would soon be liquefied by the spider's venom. The dead tissue made it clear to doctors that the woman had been bitten by a Mediterranean recluse, a spider whose bite is known to destroy skin and underlying fat, causing "sunken-in" scars or "a disfigured ear, if you are very unlucky," said Dr. Marieke van Wijk, a plastic surgeon in the Netherlands involved in the woman's treatment. The case is the first evidence that recluse-spider venom can also destroy ear cartilage, said van Wijk, a co-author of the case report, published last month in the Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery. Venom from recluse spiders, including the American brown recluse and its Mediterranean cousin, kills skin and fat with a mixture of chemicals, including substances that break down proteins.

Incredible Technology: How Robotic Spacecraft Spy On Mars from Orbit

NASA plans to launch its next Mars orbiter today (Nov. 18), kicking off a mission that differs markedly from the space agency's many previous Red Planet efforts. Unlike the nine other orbiters that NASA has blasted toward Mars over the last 40 years, the MAVEN spacecraft — short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution — will set its sights on the thin shell of air swirling above the Red Planet's dry and frigid surface. The spacecraft will lift off at 1:28 p.m. EST (1828 GMT) and you can watch the launch live on SPACE.com via NASA TV, beginning at 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT). NASA has been sending probes toward Mars since November 1964, when the agency launched the Mariner 3 spacecraft on an attempted Red Planet flyby.

That Lovin' Feeling: Guys' Brains Respond to Gentle Touch

In a new study, researchers from Aalto University in Finland imaged the brains of scantily clad men who were being gently touched by their partners. The social contact activated chemicals in the brain's opioid system that may be critical for maintaining social bonds with others.

What Caused the Deadly Midwestern Tornado Outbreak?

Eighty-one tornado reports were submitted to the National Weather Service (NWS) yesterday, most of them in the Land of Lincoln, though more than one report could be for the same tornado. One of the tornadoes in this area was preliminarily declared an EF-4, the second strongest type of tornado, said Illinois state climatologist Jim Angel. Sunday started out feeling "like a spring day" (a time of year more associated with tornadoes) throughout much of Illinois, with high humidity and sunny skies, Angel told LiveScience. But then it took a turn for the worse as a low-pressure system over the Great Lakes pulled in a cold front from the north and west and into central and northern Illinois.

NASA Launches Robotic Mars Probe to Investigate Martian Atmosphere Mystery

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA launched its newest Mars probe toward the Red Planet Monday (Nov. 18) on a mission to determine how the Martian atmosphere transformed the world into the desolate wasteland it is today. The robotic spacecraft, called the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution probe (MAVEN), launched atop an Atlas 5 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station here at 1:28 p.m. EST (1828 GMT), beginning a 10-month journey to Mars. "Liftoff of the Atlas 5 with MAVEN, looking for clues about the evolution of Mars through its atmosphere," NASA launch commentator George Diller said as the rocket climbed into a cloudy Florida sky. If all goes well, MAVEN should arrive at Mars on Sept. 22, 2014, mission scientists have said.

Woman's Pulse Surges Through Her Neck, Reveals Heart Condition

A 33-year-old woman in Canada who had large, abnormal pulses that were clearly visible in her neck ultimately needed surgery to combat a bacterial infection in her heart, according to a new report of her case. The pulses were observed while the woman was being evaluated to see if she needed a replacement heart valve. Such abnormal pulses are actually common, and are caused by a heart problem known as tricuspid regurgitation, said Dr. Juan Crestanello, a cardiac surgeon and assistant professor of surgery at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, who was not involved with the woman's care. Normally, as blood flows from the right atrium (an upper chamber of the heart) down into the right ventricle (a lower chamber of the heart), a valve between the two chambers, called the tricuspid valve, prevents blood from flowing backward.

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Sunday, November 17, 2013

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This Rocket Is Going to Mars with NASA's MAVEN Probe (Photos)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The Atlas 5 rocket set to take NASA's next Mars probe into space Monday is on the launch pad. Earlier today (Nov. 16) the United Launch Alliance rocket housing the space agency's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft (MAVEN) rolled out onto the pad in preparation for the launch.

The 10 Fastest Growing Job Titles

Technology jobs have replaced those in middle management as the positions employers are trying to fill most, new research shows. A study by job matching service TheLadders revealed that the fastest-growing jobs shy away from management, and instead require deep educational qualifications and specific skills in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Indicating a trend beyond employment, four of the seven fastest-growing technology jobs — DevOps engineer, iOS developer, data scientist and Android developer — did not even exist on TheLadders five years ago. "In examining job growth over the past five years, there is an undeniable demand for developers and analysts who possess unique expertise within the burgeoning STEM industries," said Shankar Mishra, vice president of data science and analytics for TheLadders.

Americans Reveal Who They'd Rather Work For: Men or Women

A recent Gallup poll found that about 60 percent of Americans still have a gender preference when it comes to their boss, and the majority of those individuals would rather work for a man. [8 Things Bosses Say That Make Workers Happy]

NASA Spacecraft Launching Monday Will Probe Mars Atmosphere Mystery

NASA's newest Mars probe is set to launch Monday (Nov. 18), on a mission to help figure out how the Red Planet shifted from a warm and wet world long ago to the cold, dry place we know today. The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN spacecraft, or MAVEN for short, is scheduled to lift off atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Monday at 1:28 p.m. EST (1828 GMT). After a 10-month cruise through deep space, MAVEN will start studying the Red Planet from orbit, seeking clues about how Mars lost most of its atmosphere in the ancient past. You can watch the launch live on SPACE.com via NASA TV beginning at 11 a.m. EST (1400 GMT).

NASA Spacecraft to Watch 2 Comets Fly By Mercury This Week (Video)

A NASA spacecraft orbiting Mercury will have a ringside seat when two comets zip by the tiny planet on Monday and Tuesday (Nov. 18 and 19). NASA's MESSENGER probe will watch as comets Encke and ISON cruise by on back-to-back days, providing "a golden opportunity to study two comets passing close to the sun," Ron Vervack of Johns Hopkins University, a MESSENGER science team member, said in a statement. NASA scientists explained the Mercury double-comet flyby in a video released Friday. "If you think of a comet as a dirty snowball, these are elements that make up the dirt.

Mars orbiter aims to crack mystery of planet's lost water

The prime suspect is the sun, which has been peeling away the planet's atmosphere, molecule by molecule, for billions of years. Exactly how that happens is the goal of NASA's new Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission, or MAVEN, which is scheduled for launch at 1:28 p.m. EST/1828 GMT on Monday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. "MAVEN is going to focus on trying to understand what the history of the atmosphere has been, how the climate has changed through time and how that has influenced the evolution of the surface and the potential habitability - at least by microbes - of Mars,' said lead scientist Bruce Jakosky, with the University of Colorado at Boulder. Scientists have glimpsed the process from data collected by Europe's Mars Express orbiter and NASA's Curiosity rover, but never had the opportunity to profile the atmosphere and space environment around Mars simultaneously.

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