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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

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Happier People Keep Healthier as They Age

Being healthy can make a person happy, but happiness itself may also lead to better health, according to a new study. Researchers found that people who enjoy life tend to maintain better physical function than those who don't in daily activities as they age. The study participants reported how much they enjoyed life by rating statements such as "I enjoy the things that I do," and "I enjoy being in the company of others." [7 Things That Will Make You Happy] Using in-person interviews, the researchers examined whether participants experienced impairments in their daily activities, such as getting out of bed, getting dressed or bathing.

Sleeping Rosetta Spacecraft Wakes Up for Historic Comet Rendezvous and Landing

A European probe awoke from a deep sleep Monday (Jan. 20) to gear up for an unprecedented comet rendezvous and landing this year that will cap a 10-year voyage across the solar system. After two and a half years in hibernation, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft emerged from its slumber while cruising nearly 418 million miles (673 million kilometers) from the sun. The wakeup call, which was due to begin at 5 a.m. EST (1000 GMT), took hours as Rosetta switched on heaters to warm itself after its long night in the cold depths of space. "We can definitely see a signal from Rosetta!" [Photos: Europe's Rosetta Comet Mission in Pictures]

Cold Snaps Highlight Need for Updated Furnace Standards (Op-Ed)

Meg Waltner is a manager of building energy policy for NRDC. This Op-Ed was adapted from a post to the NRDC blog Switchboard. Waltner contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. These costly energy bills highlight the need for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to update energy-saving standards for furnaces for the first time in decades and set the first-ever standards for furnace fans (these fans circulate air from the furnace to the rest of your house).

International Action Can Save the Polar Bear (Op-Ed)

Bradnee Chambers, executive secretary of the United Nations Environment Programme Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The polar bear is now a symbol of the many species whose survival is at risk because of the effects of climate change and pollution. The polar bear might look cute and cuddly, making it a perfect icon for Coca-Cola and many other organizations that wish to use its iconic recognition value to promote their cause or product. But the polar bear is also a vulnerable species listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List — one that requires constant attention and sound conservation management if humanity is to ensure the polar bear's existence for future generations.

In Elephant Society, Matriarchs Lead (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. A recent book called "Behemoth: The History of the Elephant in America," by Montana State University Professor Ronald Tobias, is a great source for information about these iconic mammals. The first elephant to visit American shores arrived April 13, 1796, on a boat called America captained by one Jacob Crowninshield.

Montana Landowners May Soon Shoot, Trap More Wolves (Op-Ed)

Zack Strong is an NRDC wildlife advocate in Bozeman, Mont. This Op-Ed was adapted from a post to the NRDC blog Switchboard. Strong contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Last month, more than a million Americans registered their opposition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) proposed plan to remove Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves in most of the lower-48 United States. This was the largest number of comments ever submitted on a federal action involving endangered species.

Is a Rhino Hunt Really Conservation? (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. A Texas hunting club recently auctioned off an endangered black rhino, purportedly to save other black rhinos and their homes in Namibia.

Should NASA Ames Be Renamed After Sally Ride? (Op-Ed)

Should NASA's Ames Research Center in northern California be renamed to honor Sally Ride, America's first woman in space? The news that Congress has renamed NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center for the late first moonwalker Neil Armstrong got me thinking: If NASA were to name its centers today, who would the space agency honor? Robert Goddard is known well enough for his leading role in early rocketry to also continue serving as the Maryland center's namesake. The John H. Glenn Research Center in Ohio and the newly designated Armstrong Research Center in southern California would also likely rank on any list drafted today (considering they were renamed such in recent years).

Can 'Skull Theory' Reveal Sex of an Unborn Baby?

Parents dying to know their baby's sex before birth can typically find out with an ultrasound at 20 weeks. There's no way to judge the sex of a fetus from the shape of a skull on a grainy ultrasound. "It makes no sense," said Kristina Killgrove, a bioarchaeologist at the University of West Florida.

Giant Planet-Forming Ring Spotted Surprisingly Far from Young Star

Alien planets may be forming inside a giant gas ring located surprisingly far from its young parent star, scientists say. Japanese astronomers spotted the giant planet-forming ring while studying new images of the star named HD 142527 taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, in the Chilean desert. The powerful radio telescopes that make up ALMA offer astronomers a chance to peek at cosmic phenomena that are normally invisible. By detecting light with very short wavelengths, in the millimeter and submillimeter range, ALMA can spot the clouds of gas and dust where new stars are form, as well as the disks of debris around stare where planets are born.

Earthquake Shaking Could Be Worse for Vancouver

Vancouver, British Columbia, is one of the handful of major North American metropolises with no damaging earthquakes since modern seismic monitors were invented. Recent earthquakes in other cities, such as Christchurch, New Zealand, and Los Angeles, show that damage can concentrate in zones defined by buried geologic structures, such as sedimentary basins (lows or valleys filled by sediment). A new study seeks to better understand how the big Georgia Basin surrounding Vancouver will fare in the next earthquake. The Georgia Basin is a shallow, wide bowl filled by silt, sand and glacial deposits.

Spacecraft Rosetta roused from slumber on comet-chasing quest

By Maria Sheahan FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Comet-chasing spacecraft Rosetta woke from nearly three years of hibernation on Monday to complete a decade-long deep space mission that scientists hope will help unlock some of the secrets of the solar system. Rosetta, which was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2004, is due to rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and land a probe on it this year in an unprecedented maneuver. Scientists hope data the probe gathers will allow them to peek into a kind of astronomical time capsule that has preserved for millions of years clues as to what the world looked like when our solar system was born. "Since comets are so primitive, they can give scientists a chance to understand how the solar system formed, where it came from," Rosetta spacecraft operations manager Andrea Accomazzo told Reuters ahead of the wake-up call.

Fitness Trackers & Sleep: How Accurate Are They?

Many fitness trackers measure not only the number of steps you take every day and the calories you burn, but also your sleep habits, with some trackers even claiming to measure the time you spend in each stage of sleep. Although it might be fun to pore over the data, sleep experts say they are skeptical of fitness wristbands' accuracy in measuring sleep. Some trackers go a step further: the Jawbone UP breaks down sleep time into deep and light stages, and the Basis B1 recently launched a new sleep analysis that aims to measure REM sleep in addition to deep and light sleep stages. Fitness trackers' ability to measure sleep often comes from sensors called accelerometers, which detect a wearer's motion, along with the speed and direction of that motion.

One-Quarter of Sharks and Rays at Risk of Extinction

A quarter of the world's sharks and rays are at risk of extinction, according to a new assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The latest update to the IUCN's "Red List" of threatened species, which found ray species to be at higher risk than sharks, is part of a first-ever global analysis of these marine species. In fact, only 23 percent of shark, ray and chimaera species are categorized as being safe, or of "least concern," IUCN officials said. "Our analysis shows that sharks and their relatives are facing an alarmingly elevated risk of extinction," Nick Dulvy, co-chair of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group and Canada Research Chair at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, said in a statement.

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Monday, January 20, 2014

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Robotic probe to awaken for comet rendezvous, landing

After a 10-year journey, Europe's Rosetta spacecraft is due to end its hibernation on Monday and prepare for an unprecedented mission to orbit a comet and dispatch a lander to the surface. Rosetta's on-board alarm clock is due to go off at 5 a.m. EST (1000 GMT), but it will take the spacecraft about seven hours to warm up its star tracking navigation gear, fire up rocket thrusters to slow its spin, turn on its transmitter and beam a message back to Earth, the European Space Agency said in a status report posted on its website. Ground control teams hope to have confirmation of Rosetta's resuscitation by 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT), the European Space Agency said. It is due to reach a 2.4-mile diameter comet called 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August.

Comet-Chasing Rosetta Spacecraft Wakes from Deep Sleep Monday: Watch It Live

After more than two years in a deep sleep, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft is due to awake from its "hibernation" mode at 5 a.m. EST (1000 GMT) on Monday to gear up for an August arrival at its comet target. To mark the occasion, ESA officials will celebrate with a special day-long series of press briefings from the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany. The Rosetta spacecraft launched in 2004 on a decade-long journey to the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. But in mid-2011, Rosetta entered a 31-month "hibernation" as it sailed out toward the orbit of Jupiter — where the available sunlight was too low to power all of its systems.

Rosetta Spacecraft Waking Up for Final Leg of Comet Journey

Rosetta, the first spacecraft built to orbit a comet and land a probe on these icy nomads, is now waking up after more than two years of slumber, and videos filmed as part of an international competition will help greet the spacecraft after it awakens. By analyzing the composition of the comet, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft will help scientists learn more about the role comets have played in the evolution of the solar system and life on Earth. You can watch the Rosetta comet probe wake-up webcast live here, courtesy of the European Space Agency. The mission's final destination is the mysterious Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, which Rosetta is scheduled to reach in August.

For NASA, 2014 Brings a Big Year for Commercial Spaceflight (Video)

Four private companies working to build commercial spaceships to launch NASA astronauts into space are gearing up for a big year in 2014, space agency officials say. This year, private spaceflight companies Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada Corp., Boeing Space Exploration and SpaceX — which are all NASA partners the space agency's commercial crew program — will continue to perform tests and reviews for their respective space systems. NASA officials are planning on announcing one or two more Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contracts by August that would lead to commercial systems flying astronauts to the International Space Station.

The 5 Places Millennials Want to Work Most

"What are your plans after graduation?" It's a question that high school and college students are forced to answer ad nauseam to every academic adviser and older relative. If students don't have a post-grad plan yet, the very mention of this question can induce fear and panic. Since 2008, the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS), a nationwide organization of student academic scholars and young professionals, has released an annual survey highlighting the fields, companies and environments in which its members hope to work. James Lewis, president and co-founder of the NSHSS, said that businesses that want to attract, hire and retain top young, diverse talent should be paying attention to the career goals of this up-and-coming generation of workers.

Too Many Jobs? When Job Hopping Hurts Your Resume

Paul McDonald, senior executive director at Robert Half, said that because the job market has been unpredictable in recent years, most employers understand that job candidates may have had short stints in some positions. "Too much voluntary job hopping can be a red flag." [8 Words That Will Land Your Resume in the Trash] Robert Half offers questions employees should ask themselves when determining if they should stay at their current job or look for a new one: Have you looked within your current company?

Money Isn't The Only Thing Making Bosses Happy

A study by the Pew Research Center revealed that in addition to earning higher salaries, America's bosses are more satisfied with their family life, jobs and overall financial situation than nonmanagerial employees are. Additionally, top managers who have children are less likely than other working parents to say parenthood has been an obstacle to job advancement. Top managers are also significantly more likely than those who work for them to think of their job as a career and less likely to say it's just a job. The study showed that four in 10 top managers said they are very satisfied with their financial situation, compared with just 28 percent of nonmanagerial workers.

Scientists hope comet-chaser spacecraft wakes up

BERLIN (AP) — Scientists at the European Space Agency are expecting an important call.

Panda Cub Bao Bao Makes Public Debut at National Zoo

Visitors to the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., can finally get a glimpse of the panda cub Bao Bao. Bao Bao, whose name means "precious" or "treasure" in Mandarin, was born on Aug. 23, 2013 to the 15-year-old panda Mei Xiang. The cub is one of more than 300 pandas living in captivity worldwide, most of them in China. The only other zoo in the United States that currently has newborn pandas on exhibit is Zoo Atlanta, where female twins were born in July.

Sunshine May Lower Your Blood Pressure

While too much sun exposure may bring on skin cancer, researchers have found evidence getting some rays could protect against high blood pressure, a condition known as the silent killer. Researchers in the United Kingdom gave healthy study volunteers a dose of Ultraviolent-A (UVA) radiation in a lab, correspondingto what they would receive while under the sun for about 30 minutes during summer in Southern Europe. In response, the participants' blood vessels dilated, and their blood pressure decreased, the researchers report. "But sunlight and the potential contribution the skin may make has never been on the radar," said study researcher Martin Feelisch, professor of experimental medicine and integrative biology at the University of Southampton.

Melatonin Linked to Prostate Cancer Risk

Men with higher levels of the sleep hormone melatonin may be less likely to develop prostate cancer, a new study suggests. The research also revealed that men who had higher levels of melatonin in their urine had a 75 percent decreased risk of advanced prostate cancer, compared with men with lower melatonin levels. "It's notable that we found a stronger association between melatonin levels and more advanced prostate cancer," said study researcher Sarah Markt, a doctoral candidate in the department of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

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