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Thursday, January 30, 2014

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At Least 20% of Human DNA Is Neanderthal

At least one-fifth of the Neanderthal genome may lurk within modern humans, influencing the skin, hair and diseases people have today, researchers say. Although modern humans are the only surviving human lineage, other groups of early humans used to live on Earth. The closest extinct relatives of modern humans were the Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and Asia until they went extinct about 40,000 years ago. Recent findings revealed that Neanderthals interbred with ancestors of modern humans when modern humans began spreading out of Africa perhaps about 40,000 to 80,000 years ago, although some research suggests the migration began earlier.

First-Ever Weather Map of Failed Star Reveals Patchy Alien Clouds

Scientists have created the first weather map of a space oddity known as a brown dwarf, revealing a rare glimpse at alien weather patterns on the failed, wannabe star. The map shows the weather on the surface of WISE J104915.57-531906.1B (called Luhman 16B for short), the nearest brown dwarf to Earth at 6.5 light-years away. Brown dwarfs are called failed stars because they are larger than gas giant planets like Jupiter, yet still too small to produce nuclear fusion like a true star. "Previous observations have inferred that brown dwarfs have mottled surfaces, but now we can start to directly map them," the new study's lead author, Ian Crossfield of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, said in a statement.

Modern humans more Neanderthal than once thought, studies suggest

Although Neanderthals became extinct 28,000 years ago in Europe, as much as one-fifth of their DNA has survived in human genomes due to interbreeding tens of thousands of years ago, one of the studies found, although any one individual has only about 2 percent of caveman DNA. "The 2 percent of your Neanderthal DNA might be different than my 2 percent of Neanderthal DNA, and it's found at different places in the genome," said geneticist Joshua Akey, who led one of the studies. Put it all together in a study of hundreds of people, and "you can recover a substantial proportion of the Neanderthal genome." Both studies confirmed earlier findings that the genomes of east Asians harbor more Neanderthal DNA than those of Europeans. According to the paper by geneticists at Harvard Medical School, published in Nature, about 1.4 percent of the genomes of Han Chinese in Beijing and south China, as well as Japanese in Tokyo come from Neanderthals, compared to 1.1 percent of the genomes of Europeans.

Long lunar night wait for China's malfunctioning Jade Rabbit moon rover

Chinese scientists will have to wait until the end of a long lunar night, lasting about 14 earth days, to see if repair efforts on the country's first moon rover, dubbed Jade Rabbit, were successful, state media said. Jade Rabbit began experiencing "mechanical control abnormalities" on Saturday when entering the lunar night, which exposes the surface to extreme cold over about 14 earth days. "The complicated environment on the moon's surface is frequently the main reason leading to abnormalities in the lunar vehicle," Pang Zhihao, an expert from the China Academy of Space Technology, told state media. China landed Jade Rabbit, named after a lunar goddess in traditional Chinese mythology, in mid-December to domestic fanfare on a mission to conduct geological surveys and search for natural resources.

Alaska Heat & Atlanta Snow: What Happened?

A killer winter storm paralyzed the South yesterday, but it was sunny and warm in Alaska, with record high temperatures. The jet stream roars along Alaska's coastline and then sharply twists, diving south into Washington before flowing toward the Midwest, completely cutting off California. Because the jet stream is the dividing line between cold, Arctic air from the north and warm air from the south, these unusual undulations are steering frigid air into the eastern half of the country this winter. (Remember the polar vortex?) Meanwhile, Alaska is basking in relative warmth: The town of Port Alsworth tied the highest temperature ever recorded in January in Alaska on Monday: 62 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius).

At least 20% of Neanderthal DNA Is in Humans

At least one-fifth of the Neanderthal genome may lurk within modern humans, influencing the skin, hair and diseases people have today, researchers say.

Sexual Problems Affect Young Adults Too

Sex problems do not only affect middle age and older people — teens and young adults have difficulties with sex too, a new study from Canada shows. The study included only boys and girls who were sexually active, out of 411 people in that age range who initially responded to the survey. Study participants reported extensive sexual experience and most were heterosexual and in committed relationships. Half of the participants reported having a sexual problem, and half of those young people reported being significantly distressed about their problem.

Testosterone May Help Boost Women's Low Libido

Women who experience a drop in their sex drive after taking antidepressants might be helped by testosterone therapy, a new study from Australia suggests. In the study, women on antidepressants who wore a patch that delivered the hormone testosterone daily reported having more sexual experiences they called "satisfying," compared with women who wore a placebo patch. By the end of the three-month study, those who wore the testosterone patch had about two additional satisfying sexual experiences per month, compared to their typical number. In contrast, those who wore the placebo patch had about the same number of satisfying sexual experiences at the beginning and end of the study.

Soon, the World Will Look to Brazil for Water and Resources (Op-Ed)

Michael Reuter is The Nature Conservancy's director of freshwater for North America and has focused his career on the management of large freshwater systems for both people and nature. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Few places have what Brazil has. Because from now on, billions of people globally — perhaps nine billion by 2050 — will look to Brazil, whether they know it or not, for essential goods and services.

Milky Way Multiplicity (Op-Ed)

Mike Taylor has been a landscape and studio photographer for 20 years combined and counting. Living in Maine offers me some great opportunities to capture the beauty of our night sky with very little light pollution. Acadia National Park is one of my favorite spots for night photography, where the sky is dark, open and full of wonder. On Earth Day morning in April 2013, I spent quite a few hours photographing the night sky at this awe-inspiring locale, using a flashlight to illuminate the foreground sand and rocks.

Predicting Super Bowl Snow is an Epic Forecasting Challenge (Op-Ed)

Henson contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Next month's Super Bowl will be the first ever held in an open stadium in the northern United States. Most people realize that local weather forecasts become increasingly unreliable more than a few days out. However, once you get to about one to two weeks from kickoff, you're in a more interesting time window — a place where weather forecasts, seasonal predictions and climatological guidance intersect.

U.S. Energy Efficiency to Jump — Celebrate It (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. With tighter efficiency standards finally kicking in for 60-watt and 40-watt light bulbs this month, the Heritage Foundation's blog recently encouraged Americans to "stock up on incandescent bulbs" before the federal government "takes them away." According to the Heritage Foundation, those old, outmoded incandescent bulbs have "become a symbol in the fight for consumer freedom and against unnecessary governmental interference into the lives of the American people."

Rains Spurred by Climate Change Killing Penguin Chicks

Penguin-chick mortality rates have increased in recent years off the coast of Argentina — a trend scientists attribute to climate change and expect to worsen throughout the century, a new study finds. From 1983 through 2010, researchers based at the University of Washington in Seattle monitored a colony of roughly 400,000 Magellanic penguins living halfway up the coast of Argentina on a peninsula called Punta Tombo. It revealed that starvation and predation were the most common and consistent chick killers over the years, but that hypothermia was the leading cause of death during years with heavy rainstorms, which became more prevalent throughout the study period — a trend that is consistent with climate models projecting the effects of climate change in the region. "They have to have waterproof feathers to survive," study co-author Dee Boersma told LiveScience.

Groups Sue Feds to Protect Blue Whales and Dolphins Off California (Op-Ed)

Michael Jasny is director of the NRDC Marine Mammal Project. Jasny contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Last month, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency that the U.S. Congress charges with protecting whales and other marine life, gave the U.S. Navy permission to harm marine mammals on an unprecedented scale. Off Southern California and Hawaii alone, the Navy is now allowed to kill 155 marine mammals outright, permanently injure another 2,000, temporarily deafen hundreds of thousands more, and cause widespread disruption of feeding, nursing and other behaviors that are essential to the animals' survival — a total of more than 9 million incidents over the next five years.

Wildlife Across the Globe Rely on Pristine Antarctic Waters: Protect Them (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 nations, members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), were following through on obligations from the international treaty that established the commission in 1982 to conserve the marine animals of Antarctica, and in particular, its krill resources. Krill is especially abundant in the global food web, and as a result, scientists estimate that three-quarters of all marine life is maintained by the nutrient-rich waters from Antarctica's Southern Ocean. At the Hobart conference, the commission's member states discussed establishing two international marine protected areas in Antarctica, which would have been the world's largest.

Simulating Mars Terraforming, on Earth (Video)

Kai Staats, documentary filmmaker and member of the MarsCrew134 team, contributed this article to SPACE.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Her research is in extremophiles, organisms that live in extreme environments such as the glaciers of Greenland; Michaela first came across extremophiles at University College London, where she completed a Masters of Science Planetary Science degree with First Class Honors. Michaela's studies have brought her to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as an exchange student from her home country of Slovakia, and as a research fellow at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Girl's Back Hair Was Sign of Spine Problems

A young girl's thick back hair was actually a sign of spine problems, according to a new report of the case. The girl, a 3-year-old living in Taiwan, was taken to the doctor for removal of a tuft of course hair on her lower back. Just after she was born, the child had undergone magnetic resonance imagining, which showed she had a split spinal cord, a condition known as diastematomyelia, as well as a fluid-filled cyst in the spinal cord, called syringomyelia. Some of her spinal fluid was also leaking out onto the skin surface.

Squatters Rights: Why Do Humans Need Toilet Paper and Animals Don't? (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. Some, motivated by this finding, began watching dogs at dog parks to see if there was any trend in how dogs oriented themselves when they peed or pooped. The results were about 50:50 — supporting or refuting the recent discovery — and I cautioned them that they likely needed more control over the situation to make an accurate assessment because when dogs are together they show a strong tendency to orient themselves to the location of another dog or dogs.

For Men with ADHD, Taking Meds May Mean Fewer Car Accidents

Adults with ADHD are more likely to have traffic accidents than people without this condition, but they may be safer on the road if they take medication, according to a new study from Sweden. Researchers looked at 17,000 people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and counted how many serious traffic accidents they had between 2006 and 2010. For comparison, they also included a group of people who did not have ADHD. By the end of the study period, 6.5 percent of men with ADHD, and about 4 percent of women with ADHD had at least one serious traffic accident, compared with about 2 percent of people without ADHD.

Rare Sight: Crescent Venus, Mercury Spotted in Daytime Sky (Photos)

The brilliant planet Venus and tiny Mercury take center stage these amazing, and rare, daytime sky photos captured this month by an amateur astronomer. Skywatching photographer Chris Shur snapped the striking views of a crescent Venus and bright Mercury on Jan. 18 from Payson, Ariz. At the time, both planets were 10 degrees - about the width of a closed fist held at arm's length - to either side of the noontime sun. He took the photos with an Explore Scientific AR152 refractor telescope (6-inch) mounted on the side of the 12-inch, DMK 51AU03.AS camera, and Baader Continuum + IR/UV blocker filter.

This Wall-Crawling Gecko Robot May Fly in Space One Day (Video)

Meet Abigaille: a six-legged gecko-inspired robot that may one day climb walls in space. Engineers from Canada and the European Space Agency looked to geckos to make adhesive robot feet that wouldn't shed their sticking power in the harsh vacuum of space. "This approach is an example of 'biomimicry,' taking engineering solutions from the natural world," Michael Henrey of Canada's Simon Fraser University said in a statement.

Now for the weather on Luhman: Cloudy with a chance of molten iron rain

You think the weather is bad on Earth lately. The first weather maps from this dim, gaseous object known as a brown dwarf, show a complex structure of patchy clouds, comprised of liquid iron and other minerals stewing in scorching temperatures, a pair of studies show. Computer models indicate that as a brown dwarfs cools, liquid droplets containing iron and other minerals form in their atmospheres. Brown dwarfs are bigger than Jupiter-sized planets, but too small for nuclear fusion, the signature process that gives a star its shine.

Flying Snake Morphs into UFO Shape to Glide

The findings, published today (Jan. 29) in The Journal of Experimental Biology, show that the Southeast Asian snake's flattened, UFO-like cross-section gives it the right aerodynamic properties for gliding. "The shape is unusual," said study co-author Jake Socha, a biomechanics researcher at Virginia Tech.

Less Snow Threatens Antarctica's Fragile Ice Shelves

Antarctica's summer meltwater ponds are beautiful killers. Given an escape route down to the ice, the sapphire-blue water jacks open fractures and crevasses in ice shelves, breaking them apart. Most ice shelves — floating, frozen plateaus permanently attached to the shore — have a thick blanket of snow that protects them from meltwater. But climate change may soon transform these downy snow blankets into threadbare sheets, putting more ice shelves in the Antarctic Peninsula at risk of collapse, a new study finds.

Scientists hail breakthrough in embryonic-like stem cells

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - In experiments that could open a new era in stem cell biology, scientists have found a simple way to reprogram mature animal cells back into an embryonic-like state that allows them to generate many types of tissue. Chris Mason, chair of regenerative medicine bioprocessing at University College London, who was not involved in the work, said its approach in mice was "the most simple, lowest-cost and quickest method" to generate so-called pluripotent cells - able to develop into many different cell types - from mature cells. The researchers took skin and blood cells, let them multiply, then subjected them to stress "almost to the point of death", they explained, by exposing them to various events including trauma, low oxygen levels and acidic environments. Within days, the scientists found that the cells had not only survived but had also recovered by naturally reverting into a state similar to that of an embryonic stem cell.

California weighs giving tax break to space exploration firms

By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - For-profit space explorers who make California their headquarters would not have to pay property taxes on their rockets and space stations under a bill that advanced in the state legislature on Wednesday. The move is aimed at stopping an effort by Los Angeles County to collect levies on equipment owned by the privately held SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. It is part of a broader effort by lawmakers to revitalize California's flagging aerospace sector, once among the nation's largest and key to the state's economy. "This bill will create thousands of new, high-paying jobs right here in California," said state Democratic Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, the bill's author.

Commercial Space Travel Training Company Gets FAA Approval

A new commercial spaceflight training company wants to help you develop the right stuff for flying to space. Waypoint 2 Space — a Houston-based company aimed at helping commercial astronauts train for spaceflight — just received Federal Aviation Administration safety approval for their plan to train would-be astronauts. "This achievement is an important milestone for us and for the commercial spaceflight industry as a whole," Kevin Heath, chief executive officer of Waypoint 2 Space said in a statement. "The FAA is working very hard to assure that space vehicles, launch sites and training programs are the safest they can be and we believe this safety approval for our programs is another step in that direction.

New 'Swamp Monster' Skull Found in Texas

A toothy, long-nosed skull found in Texas belonged to a "swamp monster" that lived more than 200 million years ago. The creature is a previously unknown type of phytosaur, an extinct creature that hunted fish and other prey along the shallow edges of rivers and lakes. "They had basically the same lifestyle as the modern crocodile, by living in and around the water, eating fish, and whatever animals came to the margins of the rivers and lakes," study researcher Bill Mueller, assistant curator of paleontology at the Museum of Texas Tech University, said in a statement. Phytosaurs are a common find in the Cooper Canyon formation in Garza County, Texas, where the new species was discovered.

Upgraded Deep-Sea Sub Alvin Heading Back to Work

After undergoing a $41-million makeover over the past three years, the United States' deepest-diving manned submersible, Alvin, has been cleared to get back to work bringing scientists to the darkest parts of the ocean once again. The newly upgraded Alvin was certified this month to dive up to 12,470 feet (3,800 meters) below the surface, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), which operates the Navy-owned sub. After additional tests, Alvin's operators hope the sub will be certified dive to 14,760 feet (4,500 m) later this year. Alvin has been used in more than 4,600 dives in its 50-year history.

Whale of a Tale: Rare Marine Fossil Found at School

A whale fossil that's been sitting on the grounds of a Southern California school for perhaps 80 years may be a previously unknown species. However, museum paleontologist Howell Thomas believes the skull belongs to a new species of extinct sperm whale. "It's a pretty remarkably complete skull," said Martin Byhower, a 7th-grade science teacher who first noticed the skull and alerted Thomas. Chadwick School is a private K-12 school in Palos Verdes, not far from Long Beach, Calif. Almost 80 years ago, when the campus was constructed, builders left boulders of hard sedimentary rock, known locally as Palos Verdes stone, sitting around, sometimes incorporating them into the school buildings.

Testosterone Again Linked to Heart Risks

For some men, taking testosterone may triple the risk of having a heart attack, according to a new study. Researchers looked at medical records of more than 48,500 men ages 65 and younger who were taking testosterone (in forms of gels, patches or injections), and followed them for three months. The results showed that among men with a history of heart disease, 15 men per 1,000 had a heart attack during the three months after they started taking testosterone compared with five men per 1,000 before testosterone was prescribed. For men who didn't have heart problems in the past, the risk of a heart attack didn't change when they started taking testosterone, according to the study published today (Jan. 29) in the journal PLOS ONE.

What Is Norovirus?

Once again, a cruise ship is limping into port carrying hundreds of passengers and crew sickened by norovirus. But what exactly is norovirus, and why does it spread so easily on cruise ships? Today (Jan. 29), the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Explorer of the Seas returned to port in Bayonne, N.J., after a suspected outbreak of norovirus struck almost 600 of the vessel's passengers and crew, according to NBC News. People sometimes refer to a norovirus infection as "stomach flu," even though the virus is not related to influenza.

NASA Moon Probe Spotted by Robotic Lunar Sibling (Photos)

In a moment of lunar synchronicity, a moon-orbiting NASA probe spied another one of the space agency's spacecraft from its spot in orbit. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter caught sight of NASA's LADEE moon dust probe as both spacecraft sped around the moon at nearly 3,600 mph (1,600 meters per second) on Jan. 14. LRO and LADEE were a mere 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) apart as the photo was taken. LADEE (the name is short for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) can barely be seen as a somewhat blurry smudge above the moon's pockmarked surface, however this photo was no accident.

Best Time to See Mercury in Night Sky Is Now

Stargazers have the best chance of the year to spot Mercury in the evening sky over the next week, but only if you know how to find the elusive planet. The problem with Mercury is that it never strays very far from the sun. In fact, it is said that famed Johannes Kepler, who figured out the laws of planetary motion, never saw Mercury in his entire life in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The best time to spot Mercury is about half an hour after sunset (or half an hour before sunrise).

Primeval 'Devil Frog' May Have Sported Anti-Dinosaur Armor

The monster frog, Beelzebufo ampinga, lived during the Cretaceous Period in what is now Africa, and sported spiky flanges protruding from the back of its skull and platelike armor down its back, almost like a turtle shell. The researchers first discovered a few bone fragments from a mystery frog in Madagascar in 1998, but it wasn't until 2008 that they had enough pieces to identify the species, which they dubbed the devil frog, or Beelzebufo ampinga. When the team analyzed the frog's morphology, they found that physically, it fit in with a family of horned frogs called the Ceratophryidae, which are now found only in South America. But to reach Madagascar from South America, the frogs would have needed to hop along a passageway, possibly through Antarctica, that linked the two landmasses.

See the New Supernova in Galaxy M82 Today in Live Webcast

A new supernova discovered by students in London is starring in a new webcast, and you can watch it live online today (Jan. 30). Supernova 2014J was spotted by four undergraduate students observing galaxy M82 while astronomer Steve Fossey taught them how to use a telescope at the University College London Observatory on Jan. 21. Fossey and his students will take part in the online Slooh Space Camera webcast about the exploding star discovery beginning at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT). Ben Cooke, Tom Wright, Matthew Wilde and Guy Pollack — the astronomy students speaking with Slooh today — caught sight of the star explosion after Fossey saw something odd when adjusting the telescope.

Some Doctors Mistakenly Inject Oral Vaccine

Some health care providers make a mistake when giving the rotavirus vaccine to babies, injecting the vaccine as a shot instead of placing drops in the infant's mouth as is required, a new report finds. Before the vaccine, 20 to 60 children younger than age 5 died yearly from the infection, and 55,000 to 70,000 were hospitalized every year, according to the CDC.

Some Babies Mistakenly Injected with Oral Vaccine

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Wednesday, January 29, 2014

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Real-Life Hit Men Nothing Like 'Sherlock' Shadowy Snipers

In the second season of the BBC's hit show "Sherlock," shadowy snipers threaten the eponymous detective's friends by skulking around stairwells with high-powered rifles or infiltrating their homes and workplaces. The study of contract killings spanning from 1974 to 2013, published in The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, finds that assassinations are often rather mundane. "Hit men are familiar figures in films and video games, carrying out 'hits' in underworld bars or from the rooftops with expensive sniper rifles," David Wilson, a criminologist Birmingham City University's Center for Applied Criminology, said in a statement. Wilson and his colleagues were interested in studying contract killing, in which someone pays another person to carry out a murder.

Year-Round Arctic Ice Cooled Earth Earlier Than Thought

The Arctic Ocean had an icy head start on Antarctica as the Earth cooled down after an extreme warm spell about 55 million years ago, a new study finds. Until now, evidence for perennial sea ice in the Arctic was just 18 million years old. The Arctic Ocean was frozen through summer by 36.7 million years ago, according to a study published yesterday (Jan. 26) in the journal Nature Geoscience. "This tells us the Arctic Ocean may have played a major role in causing climate to change," said Dennis Darby, a geological oceanographer at Old Dominion University in Virginia and lead study author.

Earth's Conveyor Belts Trap Oceans of Water

At subduction zones, where one plate bends deep beneath another, the sinking plate acts like a conveyor belt, carrying more than an ocean's worth of water into the mantle — the layer beneath Earth's outer crust — over billions of years, researchers report in the Jan. 10 issue of the journal Geology. Though the lifetime of a single subduction zone is much shorter than a billion years, the cumulative effect of all of Earth's subduction zones trundling water downward into the mantle means more water could be stored in the planet's deep layers than previously thought, the study researchers said in a statement. "This supports the theory that there are large amounts of water stored deep in the Earth," Tom Garth, lead study author and an earthquake seismologist at the University of Liverpool in the U.K., said in the statement. Knowing how much water gets into the mantle is important for modeling how plate tectonics works and how magma (molten rock) rises from the mantle to Earth's surface, the researchers said in a statement.

Famous Amnesia Patient's Brain Cut into 2,401 Slices

At age 27, H.M., whose real name was Henry Molaison, underwent an experimental surgical treatment for his debilitating epilepsy. His surgeon removed the medial temporal lobe, including a structure called the hippocampus. His case brought about the idea that the hippocampus may have a crucial role in retaining learned facts, replacing the notion that memories are scattered throughout the brain. "Much of what we know about human memory, it has one way or another to do with H.M.," said study researcher Jacopo Annese, director of The Brain Observatory in San Diego.

Newly Discovered Brain Region Helps Make Humans Unique

The brain region, called the lateral frontal pole prefrontal cortex, was described today (Jan. 28) in the journal Neuron, and is linked to higher thinking processes. "We tend to think that being able to plan into the future, be flexible in our approach and learn from others are things that are particularly impressive about humans," Matthew Rushworth, an experimental psychologist at Oxford University, said in a statement. The new brain region is located within a larger region called the ventrolateral frontal cortex, which in past studies has been tied to higher thinking. The research team next mapped connections among different regions of the ventrolateral frontal cortex, then divided the brain region into 12 areas that seemed to be constant across all participants.

Scratching Away at the Mystery of Itch

But many people suffer from chronic itch, which has no direct cause and can be a debilitating condition with few options for relief. "When people hear about itch, they think about a mosquito bite or chicken pox, which is irritating but very temporary," said Diana Bautista, a cell and developmental biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who wrote an article summarizing our current understanding of itch, published today (Jan. 28) in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Bautista said people often laugh when she tells them she studies itch. But "from a clinical perspective, chronic itch is a really widespread problem, and incredibly difficult to treat," she told LiveScience.

28 Years Ago, Challenger Shuttle Disaster Gave NASA Painful Lesson (Op-Ed)

Hugh Harris was the Voice of NASA. He spent 35 years with the agency, many as director of the Public Affairs Office at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), the home port of the U.S. space shuttle fleet. He is also author of the new e-book "Challenger: An American Tragedy, The Inside Story from Launch Control." Harris contributed this article to SPACE.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Could HD Cameras On Space Station Help Save Planet Earth?

"Our goal is to take a little bit of the view that people have from space and get it out over the Web in as near real-time as possible, and at the same time wrap a business around it that works," Urthecast CEO Scott Larson told SPACE.com. "Now we need to calibrate and commission and continue to focus both cameras, including the medium-resolution camera.

Preterm Birth Linked with Asthma

Babies who are born prematurely may be at increased risk for developing asthma or another type of wheezing disorder later in childhood, a new study finds. About 14 percent of children born preterm (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) were diagnosed with a wheezing disorder, such as asthma, later in childhood, compared with about 8 percent of children who were born at full term (37 weeks or more).

Former Space Shuttle Commander Flies Virgin Galactic's Private Spaceship for 1st Time

Any test pilots hoping to match Rick "CJ" Sturckow's resume must now be feeling seriously discouraged.

New Baby Boom? How Global Birthrates Could Bounce Back

Almost the world over, women are having fewer children than ever before. Predicting the future of fertility is tough, said lead researcher Martin Kolk, a doctoral student in demography at Stockholm University. "What we do know," Kolk told LiveScience, "is that ignoring this role of fertility correlations across the generations, that is probably wrong." [Crowded Planet: 7 (Billion) Population Milestones] Approximately 11 billion people will walk the planet by 2100, a population likely to tax Earth's water supply, waste-management and food resources.

Why Generous Donors Give Anonymously

The most generous donors may give anonymously to avoid violating social norms, new research suggests. "People don't really like deviating from established norms in groups," said study author Nichola Raihani, an evolutionary biologist at the University College London.

Cosmonauts make repeat spacewalk for Canadian video venture

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A pair of Russian cosmonauts floated outside the International Space Station on Monday in a second attempt to set up cameras for a Canadian space video venture. Station commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy initially installed a telescope video camera and a medium-resolution still imager for Vancouver-based UrtheCast Corp during a December 27 spacewalk. However, cabling issues prevented ground control teams from verifying if the imagers were receiving power, so Kotov and Ryazanskiy brought both back inside the station so ground control teams could try to resolve the problem.

27 Dimensions! Physicists See Photons in New Light

But to make them work, it's necessary to measure the quantum state of particles such as photons or atoms. Quantum states are numbers that describe particle characteristics such as momentum or energy. In a study detailed in the Jan. 20 issue of the journal Nature Communications, researchers from the University of Rochester and the University of Glasgow took a direct measurement of a photon's 27-dimensional quantum state. To understand a 27-dimensional quantum state, think about a line described in two dimensions.

Ruins of Bustling Port Unearthed at Egypt's Giza Pyramids

TORONTO — The remains of a bustling port and barracks for sailors or military troops have been discovered near the Giza Pyramids. The archaeologists have been excavating a city near the Giza Pyramids that dates mainly to the reign of the pharaoh Menkaure, who built the last pyramid at Giza. Also near the pyramids they have been excavating a town, located close to a monument dedicated to Queen Khentkawes, possibly a daughter of Menkaure. Several discoveries at the city and Khentkawes town suggest Giza was a thriving port, said archaeologist Mark Lehner, the director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates.

Scientists create embryonic-type stem cells without embryos

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - In experiments that could open a new era in stem cell biology, scientists have found a cheap and easy way to reprogramme mature cells from mice back into an embryonic-like state that allowed them to generate many types of tissue. Chris Mason, chair of regenerative medicine bioprocessing at University College London, who was not involved in the work, said its approach was "the most simple, lowest-cost and quickest method" to generate so-called pluripotent cells - able to develop into many different cell types - from mature cells.

Inside Stephen Hawking: PBS Documentary Explores Famed Scientist's Life Tonight

On the heels of his bombshell claim that black holes — as scientists have traditionally thought of them — may not exist, Stephen Hawking will tell the story of his life in a new PBS documentary that premieres tonight (Jan. 29). Simply titled "Hawking," the TV portrait will follow the famed astrophysicist "from boyhood under-achiever to PhD genius, and from a healthy cox on the Oxford rowing team to diagnosis of motor neuron disease, given just two years to live — yet surviving several close brushes with death," according to PBS. Stephen Hawking, who turned 72 this month, has lived for decades with motor neurone disease (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), which has rendered his immobile and without the ability to speak. In it, he quite controversially claimed that there might not be such a thing as an event horizon — the point at which not even light can escape a black hole — which, in turn, could mean "that there are no black holes."

Scientists create embryonic-type stem cells without embryos

Hong Kong to Destroy More Than 30 Tons of Ivory

Following in the footsteps of China and the United States, conservation officials in Hong Kong announced that they will destroy their stockpile of confiscated ivory. Hong Kong will start burning more than 30 tons (28 tonnes) of elephant tusks and other ivory products in the first half of 2014, but the disposal of the massive hoard might not be complete for another two years, officials said last week in a video of the announcement released by the non-profit group WildAid. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has estimated that some 96 elephants are killed each day on average, mostly for their ivory. As Hong Kong is a major transit point for ivory headed to China, conservation groups lauded the decision.

A New Method for Making Stem Cells

Scientists have found a new way of creating stem cells, which are cells that have the ability to turn into any type of tissue, using mouse cells. If the method works for human cells, it could ultimately be used to create tissue for people who need organ transplants, and to study diseases such as cancer. The researchers called the stem cells they made "STAP cells" (an abbreviation for stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency). Researchers in Japan first demonstrated the ability to make stem cells from adult cells in 2006.

Scientists create embryonic-type stem cells without embryos

Asteroid Belt Reveals Drama of Early Solar System Evolution

A better understanding of the asteroid belt has revealed just how dynamic the solar system was in its early days, a new study reports. "In modern dynamical models, the giant planets are thought to have migrated over substantial distances, shaking up the asteroids — which formed throughout the solar system — like flakes in a snow globe, and transporting some of them to their current locations in the asteroid belt," Francesca DeMeo and Benoit Carry, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Paris Observatory, respectively, write in a study published online today (Jan. 29) in the journal Nature.

Bizarre Magnetic Particle Revealed in Ultra-Cold Lab Experiment

And the monopole and electron system behaves just as English physicist Paul Dirac predicted it would in 1931. Though the new experiment, described today (Jan. 29) in the journal Nature, doesn't prove that such monopoles exist outside the lab in other magnetic systems, it could help physicists know what to look for in nature, said study co-author David Hall, a physicist at Amherst College in Massachusetts. All known magnets have a north and south pole: Break a magnetic compass needle in two, for instance, and there will always be two smaller magnets with both poles. "You can slice up your needle as much as you like and you can even get down to the atomic level, and you'll still have a north pole and a south pole," Hall told LiveScience. Even electrons and protons have two poles.

Obama Declares Climate Change a 'Fact': Now What?

An emphatic five words spoken by President Obama last night during the State of the Union (SOTU) address were bittersweet for some climate scientists. "Climate change is a fact," Obama said. Scientists have known human-caused climate change is real, and while Obama has never said anything to the contrary, his declarative acknowledgement of the phenomenon is important. "I applauded," after the remark, said Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the independent National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo.

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