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Friday, December 20, 2013

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HIV's Killer Tactics Revealed, New Therapy Approach Found

The reason people who are infected with HIV die is because their white blood cells die, leaving them unable to fight infections. Now, researchers show for the first time that this cell death is caused by cellular self-destruction, and is linked with inflammation. "We found that depletion of [these cells] is more about cellular suicide, rather than murder by the virus itself," said Dr. Warner Greene, the senior author of two studies published today (Dec. 19) in the journals Nature and Science. The researchers also showed that a drug that has already been tested in humans, but not HIV patients, can prevent the depletion of these white blood cells in human cells, said Greene, who is a researcher at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, a biomedical research organization affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco.

Cancer Immunotherapy Named Science 'Breakthrough of the Year'

A type of cancer treatment that directs the body's own immune system to fight cancer cells has been named as the "breakthrough of the year" by one of the world's top science journals.

Live from Mars: Private Red Planet Mission to Beam Video to Earth in 2018

WASHINGTON — The Mars One colonization project plans to bring live video of the surface of Mars to Earth via a privately built communications satellite and lander to launch as part of an unmanned mission to the Red Planet in 2018. "When we land on Mars, we will have the most unique video footage in the solar system," Mars One co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp said in a news conference on Dec. 10. Lansdorp said public engagement is a driving force for Mars One, which aims to land humans on the Red Planet by 2025. For its unmanned mission in 2018, Mars One has partnered with Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd. (SSTL) to develop a concept for the communications satellite, which will be in Mars-synchronous orbit and provide a high-bandwidth link to relay data and live video from the planet's surface.

Hippie Chimps: New Clue May Explain Bonobo Peacefulness

Bonobos have a reputation among the great apes as "hippie chimps," and new research hints that high levels of a key thyroid hormone may play a role in keeping the animals' aggression in check. Found in the lowland forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, bonobos (Pan troglodytes) are closely related to chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) but the two diverge in behavior. Males in particular show low levels of aggression — they even maintain platonic friendships with females and stick by their mothers into adulthood. The life of male chimpanzees, meanwhile, revolves around climbing the social ladder (or at least hanging onto their current rung), and navigating cooperative and aggressive relationships with other males. Scientists recently found another big difference between the two Pan species: A key thyroid hormone decreases at a much later age in bonobos compared with chimps.

Japan's Newborn Volcanic Island Seen from Space (Photo)

A NASA satellite snapped a photograph of a tiny new island that rose out of the Pacific Ocean a few weeks ago after a volcanic eruption. Japanese officials have named the new island Niijima. It is located about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Tokyo in the Bonin Islands, an archipelago that includes the island of Iwo Jima and sits on the western edge of the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a hotbed of seismic and volcanic activity. The baby island was born on Nov. 20, 2013, when ash and tephra (solid fragments ejected by a volcano) shot into the sky from an underwater volcano, as stunning pictures from the blast show.

Massive Tsunami Could Wipe Out Hawaii's Waikiki Beach

SAN FRANCISCO — Huge tsunamis with waves as high as a four-story building could inundate the island of Oahu, washing out Waikiki Beach and flooding the island's main power plant, a new study finds. "Any of us who watched the Tohoku tsunami footage on television had to have been affected by the scale of what they saw in real time," said study co-author Rhett Butler, the interim director of the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology. Ancient traces of historical tsunamison both Hawaii Island and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska suggest that monster earthquakes at the juncture of the Pacific and the North American plates can trigger giant tsunamis bigger than Tohoku size every 325 years. Archaeobotanist David Birney was excavating in Makauwahi Sinkhole on Kauai, Hawaii, when he found huge deposits of coral, shells, beach gravel and other marine sediments inside a cave in the area.

Weight of the World: New Technique Could Weigh Alien Planets

Knowing the mass of a planet can help scientists understand more about the exoplanet's atmospheric makeup and whether its insides are rocky or gassy. Knowing the mass of a planet can also lend some insight into how it cools, its plate tectonics, how it generates magnetic fields and whether gas escapes from its atmosphere, researchers said. The main technique scientists use now is radial velocity strategy. a planet's gravitational pull is linked to its mass.

Total Volume of Saturn Moon Titan's Otherworldly Seas Calculated

The lakes and seas on Saturn's largest moon Titan hold massive amounts of liquid hydrocarbons — 40 times more than are found in Earth's proven oil reserves, new observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft suggest. Titan, which is about 1.5 times bigger than Earth's moon, harbors about 2,000 cubic miles (9,000 cubic kilometers) of liquid methane and ethane on its frigid surface, researchers announced last week. The hydrocarbons are almost all contained in an area near Titan's north pole that's just 660,000 square miles (1.62 million kilometers) in size, a region slightly larger than Alaska. The find indicates there is something favorable in the geology that restricts most liquid to Titan's northern hemisphere, researchers said.

Snorkels in Space: NASA Outfitting Spacesuits with Diver-like Device for Upcoming Spacewalks

HOUSTON — Astronauts preparing to spacewalk outside the International Space Station are outfitting their spacesuits with an unusual device: a makeshift snorkel. The astronauts, whose task it is to repair a critical cooling system necessary for keeping the outpost fully powered, have an additional concern to the "normal" challenges of a quickly-planned extra-vehicular activity (EVA, or spacewalk). During the last spacewalk to use U.S. spacesuits in July, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano had to quickly retreat to the station's airlock when a leak inside his suit's plumbing enveloped his head in water. Since then, NASA engineers and the astronauts on board the space station have been working to identify and fix the problem.

The Top 10 Science Stories of 2013

Reactivated NASA Asteroid-Hunting Probe Takes First Photos in 2.5 Years

A NASA asteroid-hunting spacecraft has opened its eyes in preparation for a renewed mission, beaming home its first images in more than 2.5 years. The Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer spacecraft, or NEOWISE, has taken its first set of test images since being reactivated in September after a 31-month-long hibernation, NASA officials announced today (Dec. 19). The space agency wants NEOWISE to resume its hunt for potentially dangerous asteroids, some of which could be promising targets for future human exploration. "The spacecraft is in excellent health, and the new images look just as good as they were before hibernation," Amy Mainzer, principal investigator for NEOWISE at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement.

Allow NASA to Do Great Things Again (Op-Ed)

NASA has pushed back its first crewed flights to the International Space Station (ISS) from 2015 to 2017 — after Congress allocated less money to the Commercial Crew program than President Barack Obama's administration says the space agency needs. That's two extra years the United States must pay Russia to taxi American astronauts to the ISS, two years when that same money could instead support American jobs back home. In the Commercial Crew Development program (or Commercial Crew), NASA is helping companies develop launch vehicles and spacecraft to transport astronauts to the ISS with partial financing while the companies pay the remainder of the development costs themselves.

Fuel Economy Reaches Record High in 2013 (Op-Ed)

Luke Tonachel is a vehicles analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Tonachel contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. In its new Fuel Economy Trends report the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finds that new automobiles sold in model year 2012 averaged a record-high 23.6 miles per gallon (mpg) — sticker value — and that model year 2013 is expected to continue the upward trend to reach a new record of 24 mpg. In recent years, automakers have been boosting fuel economy across classes of conventional gasoline cars and trucks, enhancing choices for consumers.

Carnivores in Our Midst: Should We Fear Them? (Op-Ed)

Marc Bekoff, emeritus professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is one of the world's pioneering cognitive ethologists, a Guggenheim Fellow, and co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

The Microbes in Your Gut May be Making You Fat

Cimons contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. In 2008, Rob Knight fell ill while vacationing in Peru. He is convinced the antibiotics changed the composition of the microbes in his gut in a way that finally caused him to lose weight — at least 70 pounds. "Exercise and diet, which had not worked before, began to work," says Knight, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Colorado at Boulder who studies the microorganisms that live in our bodies, known as the human microbiome.

Anti-Science Riders Lurk in Pending Farm Bill (Op-Ed)

Celia Wexler is a senior Washington representative for the Scientific Integrity Initiative at UCS. Right now, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are seeking to close an agreement on a comprehensive farm bill , crucial to the future of food stamps, farm subsidies and programs that the Union of Concerned Scientists long has supported — among them the Farmers Market Promotion Program, which would help American families eat more healthily through targeted grants to local and regional food projects. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, has a huge challenge in trying to come to terms with her House counterparts who'd like to cut the food stamp program alone by $40 billon. But the farm bill is not just about the big-ticket items.

Got Science? Champions Who Stood Up for Science in 2013 (Op-Ed)

Seth Shulman is a senior staff writer at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a veteran science journalist and author of six books. Shulman contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Scientific American 's Top 10 Science Stories of 2013

Why Ex-Military Drones Spy on Wildlife

The leading causes of death for wildlife biologists on the job are not grizzly bear maulings or poisonous snakebites. That's one reason the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is turning toward a technology more associated with military reconnaissance than conservation for its field studies. Former military drones are being repurposed as eyes in the sky to monitor volcanoes, study flood zones and track endangered wildlife — sparing biologists from risky plane rides. This program got a splash of bad publicity on Tuesday (Dec. 17) when Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) included the USGS drones as an example of government waste in his 2013 "Wastebook," dismissing the research as "counting sheep" instead of focusing on more-crucial flood gauges.

The Story of the World's First Christmas Card

The U.S. Greeting Card Association predicts Americans will send about 1.6 billion Christmas cards this year. Homemade and handwritten Christmas cards were already popular in Victorian England by the time innovator Sir Henry Cole had a clever idea to speed up his own seasonal card-writing process. Taking advantage of new printing technologies, Cole commissioned artist John Callcott Horsley to create a festive design, and he produced about 1,000 copies of his own Christmas card in 1843. After Cole used the cards he needed, he sold the rest for one shilling each, according to the Winterthur Library in Delaware, which has a copy of one of those cards donated by the ephemera collector John Grossman.

8 Ways Magic Mushrooms Explain Santa Story

The story of Santa and his flying reindeer can be traced to an unlikely source: hallucinogenic or "magic" mushrooms, according to one theory. "Santa is a modern counterpart of a shaman, who consumed mind-altering plants and fungi to commune with the spirit world," said John Rush, an anthropologist and instructor at Sierra College in Rocklin, Calif. Here are eight ways that hallucinogenic mushrooms explain the story of Santa and his reindeer. According to the theory, the legend of Santa derives from shamans in the Siberian and Arctic regions who dropped into locals' teepeelike homes with a bag full of hallucinogenic mushrooms as presents in late December, Rush said.

Will 'Green Bullets' Ruin Hunting?

But lead ammunition may be going the way of leaded gasoline, as an increasing number of wildlife conservationists and public health experts support the use of non-lead ammo, sometimes referred to as "green bullets." In October, Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed into law AB 711, a bill banning the use of lead bullets by hunters. The meat from game killed with lead bullets poses dangers to people eating it, and the lead in animal carcasses left in the field can harm other wildlife, such as the endangered California condors that live on carrion. "We are thrilled that Governor Brown has made AB 711 the law of the land," State Assemblyman Anthony Rendon said in a statement.

Humanoids to 4-Legged Machines: 'Robot Olympics' Shows Off Diverse Designs

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — This week, teams of engineers from around the world are competing in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials, a prestigious robotics competition that will showcase some of the most advanced machines in development. DARPA, a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense tasked with developing new technologies for the military, hopes the Challenge will foster the development of robots that could one day work in emergency settings deemed too dangerous for humans, said Gill Pratt, program manager of the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC). At this week's Challenge, the majority of competing robots will stand upright on two legs, and were built to resemble human beings. This is largely because DARPA envisions these robots eventually working alongside, and in the same environment, as humans, Pratt said.

Ursid Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend: How to Watch Live

When skywatchers think of meteor showers during the month of December, they immediately think of the Geminids, the most prolific and reliable of the dozen or so annual meteor displays. And yet, there is also another notable December meteor shower that, by comparison, hardly gets much notice at all — the Ursids. This year, the peak of this meteor display is due in the wee hours of Sunday morning (Dec. 22). The Ursids got their name because they appear to fan out from the vicinity of the bright orange star Kochab, in the constellation Ursa Minor, the Little Bear. Kochab is the brighter of the two outer stars in the bowl of the Little Dipper (the other being Pherkad), which seem to march in a circle like sentries around Polaris, the North Star. If you can't catch the Ursids in person, you can watch the meteor shower in a live webcast hosted by the online Slooh Space Camera.

Surprise: Louisiana Sinkhole Slid Sideways Before Collapsing

The Earth's surface slid sideways by as much as 10 inches (26 centimeters) before collapsing into a still-growing toxic sinkhole in Bayou Corne, La., a new study reports. "This was unusual for us," said Cathleen Jones, a radar scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Usually at a sinkhole, we expect to see vertical movement at the surface, some sort of subsidence," Jones said. The subtle surface changes revealed in the new study, published in the Dec. 13 issue of the journal Geology, could improve models of how the sinkhole formed, Jones said. The sideways flow was like water slipping into a bathtub drain, Jones said.

Kids' Belief in Santa Myth Is Healthy, Psychologists Say

Spoiler alert: This article contains information suggesting Santa Claus may not be real. But for many children, believing in Santa is a normal and healthy part of development, psychologists say. "I don't think it's a bad thing for kids to believe in the myth of someone trying to make people happy if they're behaving," said Dr. Matthew Lorber, a child psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. He became famous for giving gifts and money to the poor, and it's those values that are important, Lorber told LiveScience.

NASA Recreates Iconic Apollo 8 'Earthrise' 45 Years Later (Video)

Four days shy of the photo's 45th anniversary, NASA on Friday (Dec. 20) released a new simulation of the events that led to the creation of the image known as "Earthrise." The new video was created using topographic data from the space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been circling the moon since 2009. "This new simulation allows anyone to virtually ride with the astronauts and experience the awe they felt at the vista in front of them," NASA said in a release teasing the video. It was Christmas Eve 1968, and the first lunar voyagers in all of history — Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders— were emerging from behind the moon for the fourth time. What followed was an impromptu photo opportunity, first in black and white (building on the first "Earthrise" captured by NASA's Lunar Orbiterprobe two years earlier) and then after quickly locating the proper film cartridge, in stunning full color.

Mediterranean Sea Was Once a Mile-High Salt Field

SAN FRANCISCO — About 6 million years ago, a mile-high field of salt formed across the entire Mediterranean seafloor, sucking up 6 percent of the oceans' salt. Now, new research has pinpointed when key events during the formation of that "salt giant" occurred. The new research, presented here Dec. 11 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, could help unravel the mystery behind the great salt crisis. About 6 million years ago, the Strait of Gibraltar linking the Mediterranean with the Atlantic Ocean was closed and instead, two channels — one in Northern Morocco and another in Southern Spain — fed the sea with salty water and let it flow out, said study co-author Rachel Flecker, a geologist at the University of Bristol in England.

Sex Studies: Blushworthy Headlines of 2013

With that in mind, here are 10 of the sex stories most likely to have caused blushing in 2013. The study researchers found that men who did "feminine" chores such as cooking and washing had less sex than those who did not. However, research does show that people in equal partnerships are happier.

Mercury Crater Named After John Lennon

Beatles legend John Lennon, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" author Truman Capote and sculptor Alexander Calder are among the 10 artists and writers now immortalized on Mercury with impact craters bearing their names.

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Thursday, December 19, 2013

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Winter Solstice: The Sun Stands Still on Saturday

The Earth's axis currently points in a northerly direction close to the second-magnitude star Polaris, also known as the Pole Star. Because the Earth's axis points to Polaris no matter where Earth happens to be in its orbit, the sun appears to move over the year from 23.5 degrees north of the celestial equator on June 21 to 23.5 degrees south of the celestial equator on Dec. 21.

The 7 Biggest Holiday Myths

The holiday season is filled with traditions like caroling, decorating with boughs of holly and all sorts of partying, drinking and unbridled merrymaking. Myth 1: The suicide rate jumps During the 2009-2010 holiday season, almost 50 percent of news articles in which suicide was mentioned perpetuated the story that the suicide rate peaks during the holidays, supposedly when some people feel alone or isolated from family and friends, according to the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

Teens' Marijuana Use Continues to Rise

An increasing number of high-school students say they don't think regular marijuana use is harmful, according to a new report from the National Institutes of Health. About 6.5 percent of high-school seniors said they regularly smoked marijuana in 2013, compared with 6 percent in 2003 and 2.4 percent in 1993, according to the report, which was sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and included information from about 42,000 students from 389 schools across the United States. "It is important to remember that over the past two decades, levels of THC — the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana — have gone up a great deal, from 3.75 percent in 1995 to an average of 15 percent in today's marijuana cigarettes," Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told reporters today. Studies also have shown that the earlier people start using marijuana, the more likely they are to become addicted to other drugs.

Scientists prove deadly human MERS virus also infects camels

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have proved for the first time that the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus that has killed 71 people can also infect camels, strengthening suspicions the animals may be a source of the human outbreak. Researchers from the Netherlands and Qatar used gene-sequencing techniques to show that three dromedary, or one-humped camels, on a farm in Qatar where two people had contracted the MERS coronavirus (CoV) were also infected. But the researchers cautioned it is too early to say whether the camels were definitely the source of the two human cases - in a 61-year-old man and then in a 23-year-old male employee of the farm - and more research is needed. Both the men infected in Qatar recovered.

Scientists start to unpick narcolepsy link to GSK flu vaccine

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found that the sleep disorder narcolepsy can sometimes be triggered by a scientific phenomenon known as "molecular mimicry", offering a possible explanation for its link to a GlaxoSmithKline H1N1 pandemic flu vaccine. Results from U.S. researchers showed the debilitating disorder, characterized by sudden sleepiness and muscle weakness, can be set off by an immune response to a portion of a protein from the H1N1 virus that is very similar to a region of a protein called hypocretin, which is key to narcolepsy. Previous studies in countries where GSK's Pandemrix vaccine was used in the 2009/2010 flu pandemic have found its use was linked to a significant rise in cases of narcolepsy in children. Studies in Britain, Finland, Sweden and Ireland found such a link, and GSK says at least 900 narcolepsy cases associated with the vaccine have so far been reported in Europe.

Anger Disorders May Be Linked to Inflammation

For some people, violent behavior and anger may be linked with inflammation in their bodies, a new study finds. The researchers measured markers of inflammation in the blood of 70 people diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder (IED), a condition that involves repeated episodes of impulsive aggression and temper tantrums, as seen in road rage, domestic abuse and throwing or breaking objects. The study also included 61 people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders not involving aggression, and 67 participants with no psychiatric disorder, who served as controls. The results showed a direct relationship between levels of two markers of inflammation and impulsivity and aggression in people with IED, but not in control participants.

Galaxy-Mapping Gaia Spacecraft Set for Launch Thursday: How to Watch Live

The Gaia mission, scheduled to launch Thursday morning (Dec. 19), could be a bonanza for discovering exoplanets, perhaps finding more than 2,500 new alien worlds, scientists suggest. Gaia, a $1 billion (740 million euros) mission from the European Space Agency (ESA), aims to chart a 3D map of the Milky Way by surveying more than 1 billion stars, amounting to about 1 percent of the stars in the galaxy, using its billion-pixel camera. To pinpoint the position of a star in 3D — a field known as astrometry — Gaia will measure the distance of the star from the sun.

Holiday Spacewalks Set to Fix Space Station's Cooling System

Repairing a problem with the International Space Station's vital cooling system will require two or three spacewalks over the next week, NASA officials said today (Dec. 18).

Astronauts prepare for first spacewalk since helmet leak problem

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station prepared for an unexpected series of spacewalks by fabricating spacesuit snorkels they can use for breathing in case of another helmet water leak, NASA officials said on Wednesday. The spacewalks, the first of which is slated to begin at 7:10 a.m. EST (1210 GMT) on Saturday, are needed to replace one of two cooling pumps outside the $100 billion complex, which flies about 250 miles above Earth. U.S. spacewalks have been suspended since July after a spacesuit helmet worn by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano filled with water, causing him to nearly drown.

Evolution lessons in Texas biology textbook will stay, board says

By Lisa Maria Garza DALLAS (Reuters) - A panel of experts has rejected concerns by religious conservatives in Texas that a high school biology textbook contained factual errors about evolution and a state board approved the book on Wednesday for use in public schools. The debate over the Pearson Biology textbook was the latest episode of a lengthy battle by evangelicals in Texas to insert Christian and Biblical teachings into public school textbooks. Two years ago, conservatives pushed for changes in history textbooks, including one that would have downplayed Thomas Jefferson's role in American history for his support of the separation of church and state. The second-most populous U.S. state, Texas influences textbook selections for schools nationwide.

China to expand presence in Antarctica with new research bases

China will expand its presence in Antarctica by building a fourth research base and finding a site for a fifth, a state-run newspaper said on Thursday, as the country steps up its increasingly far-flung scientific efforts. Chinese scientists are increasingly looking beyond China for their research, including sending submersibles to explore the bottom of the ocean and last weekend landing the country's first probe on the moon. Workers will build a summer field camp called Taishan and look for a site for another research station, the official China Daily reported. "As a latecomer to Antarctic scientific research, China is catching up," the report cited Qu Tanzhou, director of the State Oceanic Administration's Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration, as saying.

Liftoff! European Spacecraft Launches to Map 1 Billion Stars

A European probe roared into space Thursday (Dec. 19), kicking off an ambitious mission to map a billion Milky Way stars in high resolution. The European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft lifted off its pad at Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 4:12 a.m. EST (0912 GMT) Thursday, carried aloft by a Russian Soyuz-Fregat rocket. Over the next five years, Gaia aims not only to pinpoint the locations of 1 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy, but also to determine where these stars are moving, what they are made of and how luminous they are.

In Memoriam: The Spacecraft We Loved and Lost in 2013

But what about the spacecraft that we lost? No matter the cause of death, we at SPACE.com wish to honor the spacecraft that met their end this year. From NASA-funded missions to a China-Brazil collaboration, here is our list of some of the spacecraft we loved and lost in 2013. NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft suffered a major failure this year when the second of its four reaction wheels — devices that keep the craft properly positioned in space — malfunctioned.

Elf on a Shelf: The Strange History of Santa's Little Helpers

The children of North America have a new Christmas tradition: The elf on the shelf. Alternatively panned as creepy and adored as a fun holiday ritual, the trademarked Elf on the Shelf dates back to 2005, when author Carol Aebersold self-published a tale of a little elf sent by Santa to report on children's behavior leading up to Christmas. Ancient Norse mythology refers to the álfar, also known as huldufólk, or "hidden folk." However, it's risky to translate álfar directly to the English word "elf," said Terry Gunnell, a folklorist at the University of Iceland. Some ancient poems place them side by side with the Norse gods, perhaps as another word for the Vanir, a group of gods associated with fertility, or perhaps as their own godly race.

Why Halley's Comet May Be Linked to Famine 1,500 Years Ago

A piece of the famous Halley's comet likely slammed into Earth in A.D. 536, blasting so much dust into the atmosphere that the planet cooled considerably, a new study suggests. The ice cores record large amounts of atmospheric dust during this seven-year period, not all of it originating on Earth. "I have all this extraterrestrial stuff in my ice core," study leader Dallas Abbott, of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told LiveScience here last week at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Certain characteristics, such as high levels of tin, identify a comet as the origin of the alien dust, Abbott said.

'Robot Olympics': 17 Cyborg Athletes to Vie for Glory in DARPA Challenge

Before athletes from around the world gather for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, 17 robotics teams will compete for glory — and funding — this week in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials. DARPA is the branch of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for experimenting with and developing new technologies for the military. The Robotics Challenge aims to foster the development of robots that could someday work alongside humans in the aftermath of disasters or emergencies, according to DARPA officials. "The purpose of the program is really to develop technology that can help make us much more robust to both natural and man-made disasters," said Gill Pratt, program manager of the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC).

Babies Abound at Penguin Colony Found by Poop

A recent visit to a remote Antarctic emperor penguin colony found thousands of fuzzy penguin chicks, meaning the colony is even bigger than previously thought. A team from Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica polar research station estimates there are 15,000 penguins living in four groups at the colony, on East Antarctica's Princess Ragnhild Coast. "The [good] weather this season gave us the opportunity this season to spend a bit more of time counting individual emperor penguins," said Alain Hubert, the expedition leader and founder of the International Polar Foundation, which designed and built the research station. this opinion can be reinforced by the fact that I didn't find more than five dead little chicks at the overwintering place," Hubert told LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet in an email interview from Antarctica.

Volcano Lightning Strikes — in the Lab

The electrifying displays of lightning often seen over volcanoes have now been experimentally generated in the lab, research that could help shed light on the effects volcanic eruptions have on the landscape, the scientists behind the work say. The blisteringly hot plumes of ash rising above volcanic eruptions often burst with lightning storms, the largest of which rival the most powerful thunderstorms known on Earth. Still, much remains unknown about volcanic lightning, since investigators rarely get to see these bolts in nature or get close enough to probe their electrical properties. Now, for the first time, scientists have experimentally simulated volcanic lightning in the lab, which could help model the phenomenon's origins and behavior.

US Salt Intake Drops Slightly, But Americans Still Eat Too Much

The amount of sodium Americans consume has decreased very slightly over the last decade, but most people still eat too much of the stuff, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow LiveScience@livescience, Facebook & Google+.

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