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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

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Jesus' House? 1st-Century Structure May Be Where He Grew Up

Jesus' hometown — in modern-day Israel have identified a house dating to the first century that was regarded as the place where Jesus was brought up by Mary and Joseph. It was first uncovered in the 1880s, by nuns at the Sisters of Nazareth convent, but it wasn't until 2006 that archaeologists led by Ken Dark, a professor at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, dated the house to the first century, and identified it as the place where people, who lived centuries after Jesus' time, believed Jesus was brought up. Whether Jesus actually lived in the house in real life is unknown, but Dark says that it is possible.

Celiac Disease in Kids Detected by Growth Screenings

Measuring children's height and weight as they grow can be a powerful indicator of whether they have the digestive condition called celiac disease, and may help doctors diagnose children with the disorder earlier, a new study finds. When used together, five calculations that are done based a child's height and weight — such as how much a child's height varies from the average for age and gender, and how this measure changes over time — were able to detect celiac disease in 84 percent of boys and 88 percent of girls with the disorder, according to the study, published online today (March 2) in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. The findings echo other studies that have also found that children with celiac disease often weigh less and don't grow as fast or as tall as their typical peers, the researchers said. Furthermore, when the researchers looked back at the height of children already diagnosed with celiac disease, they found girls were shorter than expected for two years before they were diagnosed, and boys were shorter for one year before their diagnosis, when compared with a reference group.

Peanut Eaters May Live Longer, Study Finds

Peanuts may not only be a tasty snack but they may also help people live longer, a new study suggests. Researchers found that the people in the study who ate the most peanuts and tree nuts (such as walnuts, pecans and almonds) every day had a lower risk of dying over a five- or six-year period than the people who ate the least peanuts and tree nuts, or none of them. "We showed that peanuts have similar cardiovascular benefits to tree nuts," said study researcher Dr. Xiao-Ou Shu, a professor of medicine in the division of epidemiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. "If people are not allergic to them, they should consider eating more peanuts for their heart-health benefits because they are cheaper and more affordable than other nuts," Shu said.

Syria's civil war linked partly to drought, global warming

WASHINGTON (AP) — The conflict that has torn Syria apart can be traced, in part, to a record drought worsened by global warming, a new study says.

Designer Superbabies Could Rewrite Human Reproduction (Op-Ed)

ControlCatalyst Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Catching a Fireball in the Cold

His images recently illustrated the book "The Secret Galaxy" by Fran Hodgkins (Tilbury House Publishers, 2014). In Maine, the temperature was a bone-chilling zero degrees on the night of Feb. 16, and getting colder with a slight wind chill. Since last September, my girlfriend/business partner and I had been planning a night sky shoot at Sandy Point Beach on the Penobscot River in Stockton Springs, about an hour's drive away.

Aided by Art, Theory of Life's Extra-Solar Origin Gets Boost

Edward Belbruno is a mathematician and an artist. His paintings are in major collections and exhibited throughout the United States, and he regularly consults with NASA from his position as a cosmology researcher at Princeton University. He is also author of "Fly Me to the Moon" (Princeton University Press, 2007). Litho, from the Greek lithos, for stone, and panspermia from the Greek for "all seeds," the hypothesis suggests life began on Earth more than 4 billion years ago as the planet was under constant bombardment from the rocky debris of the early solar system.

Want to Cut Your Cancer Risk? Lose That Weight (Op-Ed)

ASCO determined most people understand obesity is associated with a significantly elevated risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes — but not cancer. During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity nationwide, and rates remain stubbornly high. Researchers are exploring several hypotheses for how extra body fat can increase a person's cancer risk.

U.S. science probe nears unexplored dwarf planet Ceres

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A NASA science satellite on Friday will wrap up a 7-1/2-year journey to Ceres, an unexplored dwarf planet in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, scientists said on Monday. Ceres, namesake of the Roman goddess of agriculture, is already providing intrigue.

Iceland's Largest Eruption Ends…Maybe

Iceland's biggest volcanic eruption in more than 200 years has ended for now. Scientists with the Icelandic Meteorological Office declared an end to the six-month-long eruption on Saturday (Feb. 28). However, scientists will still watch for signs that magma is building pressure beneath Bardarbunga volcano, the source of Holuhraun's lava. A series of eruptions could take place in the coming months to years either underneath the volcano or in a different location, or Bardarbunga could go back to sleep.

4 NASA Satellites to Seek Energy Eruptions in Earth's Magnetic Field

NASA is gearing up to launch a quartet of new satellites this month, to study a driving force behind solar storms that threaten Earth's satellites and power grids. The satellites, which make up NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (or MMS), will launch on March 12 from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to study a phenomenon known as magnetic reconnection in the magnetic field around Earth. Magnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic field lines break apart and reconnect, releasing huge amounts of energy and charged particles — sometimes straight at the Earth. While scientists have studied magnetic reconnection for decades in an effort to better understand its relation to space weather and solar storms, the MMS satellites will be the first experiment to intentionally pass directly through areas where the phenomenon occurs and create a three-dimensional view of it, mission scientists said.

Study finds gorilla origins in half of human AIDS virus lineages

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Revealing new details about the origins of AIDS, scientists said on Monday half the lineages of the main type of human immunodeficiency virus, HIV-1, originated in gorillas in Cameroon before infecting people, probably via bushmeat hunting. HIV-1, which causes AIDS, is composed of four groups, each coming from a separate cross-species transmission of a simian version of the virus from apes to humans. ...

Against the Science, Meat Pushes Back into U.S. Diet (Op-Ed)

Dr. Michael Greger is the director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States. Every five years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issue the "Dietary Guidelines for Americans," which are intended to encourage individuals to eat a healthful diet. The advisory council's report, just published for the 2015 guidelines, is cause for celebration on many fronts. The nutrition experts who created it seemed to be less susceptible to industry influence, and their report could lead to the most evidence-based dietary guidelines the nation has ever adopted.

Old Medicines Give New Hope for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (Essay)

People with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD, have a genetic disorder where the body does not produce dystrophin, a protein that helps keep muscle cells intact — as a result, the condition causes muscles to rapidly break down and weaken. As a cardiologist and professor at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, I partnered with a team of DMD experts from around the nation in a clinical trial that tested the combination of eplerenone (an aldosterone antagonist that serves as a potassium-sparing diuretic) and either a angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB). In this human trial, we enrolled 42 boys with DMD who showed evidence of early heart muscle damage by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.

Dwarf Planet Ceres to Be Revealed in 'Stunning Detail' by NASA Probe

A NASA probe will arrive at Ceres Friday morning to begin unraveling the many mysteries of the dwarf planet — including the puzzling bright spots that blaze on its cratered surface. NASA's Dawn spacecraft is scheduled to slip into orbit around Ceres — the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter — at 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT) on Friday, March 6, wrapping up a deep-space chase that lasted two-and-a-half years. If all goes according to plan, Dawn will become the first spacecraft ever to orbit a dwarf planet, as well as the first to circle two celestial objects beyond the Earth-moon system. "It's clear that discoveries lie ahead, and Ceres will be revealed in stunning detail, just like Vesta," Dawn Deputy Principal Investigator Carol Raymond, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said during a news conference today (March 2).

Curt Michel, Scientist-Astronaut Who Left NASA After Losing the Moon, Dies at 80

Curt Michel, an astrophysicist who was among NASA's first scientist-astronauts but who resigned when it became clear he would not fly to the moon, died on Feb. 23. Curt Michel's death was reported on Friday (Feb. 27) by Rice University in Houston, where served as a faculty member before and after his time with NASA. "Although he retired in 2000 after 37 years at Rice, Michel continued to keep an office on campus, where he pursued his studies of solar winds [and] radio pulsars," stated the university in a press release. Michel was an assistant professor for space science at Rice when he was selected with NASA's fourth group of astronauts in June 1965.

3 to 5 Cups of Coffee a Day May Lower Risk of Heart Attacks

Good news for people who drink coffee every day: Consuming a moderate amount of coffee could lower the risk of clogged arteries that can lead to a heart attack, a new study finds. The study of healthy young adults in Korea found that, compared with people who didn't drink coffee, those who drank three to five cups of java per day had a lower risk of having calcium deposits in their coronary arteries, which is an indicator of heart disease. The study participants who drank three to four cups had the lowest risk of developing clogged arteries seen in the study, said Dr. Eliseo Guallar, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, and co-author of the study published today (March 2) in the journal Heart. "But the risk went down with just one cup per day," compared with the risk of people who drank no coffee, Guallar added.

Hit the Sack! People Who Get a Good Night's Sleep Are Happier

Happiness and a good night's sleep seem to go hand in hand, a new poll suggests.

Harvard prevention trial studies tau, Alzheimer's other protein

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Alzheimer's researchers at Harvard for the first time are scanning the brains of healthy patients for the presence of a hallmark protein called tau, which forms toxic tangles of nerve fibers associated with the fatal disease. The new scans are part of a large clinical trial called Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's or A4, the first designed to identify and treat patients in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's, before memory loss begins. Patients accepted into the A4 trial already have deposits of beta amyloid, the other protein associated with Alzheimer's. The addition of the tau scan will allow scientists to get a much clearer picture of the events that lead to Alzheimer's. The disease affects 5 million Americans, and 16 million are projected to be afflicted by 2050. Dr. Reisa Sperling of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who is leading the 1,000-patient trial, said tau is commonly found in small amounts in healthy people over age 70, but it is generally confined to an area of the brain called the medial temporal lobe.

Hundreds of Medieval Bodies Found Under Paris Supermarket

More than 200 bodies were recently unearthed in several mass burials beneath a Paris supermarket. The bodies, which were lined up head to feet, were found at the site of an ancient cemetery attached to the Trinity Hospital, which was founded in the 13th century. The burials were discovered during renovations to the basement of the Monoprix Réaumur-Sébastopol supermarket, located in the second-arrondissement neighborhood of Paris. The site was once the location of the Trinity Hospital, which was founded in 1202 by two German noblemen.

Amazing Photo of Green Comet Lovejoy Captured by Dark Energy Camera

The world's most powerful digital camera caught an amazing glimpse of Comet Lovejoy when it passed in front of the sensitive field of view. At the time, Lovejoy was 51 million miles (82 million kilometers) from Earth. "Our favorite [memory] all was the accidental observation of Comet Lovejoy," wrote the blog Dark Energy Detectives (a blog of the Dark Energy Survey) of the sighting. The image was captured while astronomers were scanning the southern sky for the five-year Dark Energy Survey, which aims to learn more about dark energy, the mysterious force that is accelerating the universe's expansion.

Why Do Geysers Erupt? It Boils Down to Plumbing

Geysers erupt — sending steam and hot water hundreds of feet into the air, and often releasing a frightening screech and the stench of rotten eggs — because of a series of loops and side chambers hidden deep below the surface that allows water to boil first at the top and then cascade downward, the study found. Half of them are located in Yellowstone National Park, drawing more than 3 million tourists each year. To better understand the system hidden deep below the surface, Michael Manga, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, has spent years studying geysers in Chile and Yellowstone National Park.

Secret Service Will Test-Fly Drones Over US Capital

The U.S. Secret Service has announced it will soon begin flying unmanned aerial vehicles over Washington, D.C. The drone was piloted by an employee of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, who decided to test-fly his friend's quadcopter in the early hours of the morning and crashed it, The Washington Post reported. The man was off-duty at the time, and was not involved in any work related to drones, the NGA said in a statement. The high-profile incident exposed a gap in security that the Secret Service has been trying to fix for years, the Post reported. The announcement that drones will fly over D.C. comes just weeks after the government announced a set of rules governing the use of commercial drones in the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) regulations, released Feb. 15, specify that drones up to 55 lbs. (25 kilograms) are permitted to fly at speeds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) and up to 500 feet (150 meters) in altitude.

Global Warming Brought on California's Severe Drought

California's severe and ongoing drought is just a taste of the dry years to come, thanks to global warming, a new study finds. "California's warming trend is driving an increase in the risk of drought," said study co-author Daniel Swain, a doctoral student in climate science at Stanford University in California. "Warming in California has made it more probable that when a low precipitation year occurs, it occurs in warm conditions and is more likely to produce severe drought," said lead study author Noah Diffenbaugh, an associate professor in the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford.

Power System Failure Eyed in US Military Satellite Explosion

The military weather satellite that exploded in orbit last month apparently died of old age, U.S. Air Force officials say.

Ceres Science: NASA Probe to Study Dwarf Planet's Bright Spots and More

There's something highly reflective on Ceres twinkling at NASA's Dawn spacecraft, and scientists hope to figure out what it is after the probe arrives at the dwarf planet later this week. The bright-spot mystery is just one question Dawn will tackle after it enters orbit around Ceres at about 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT) on Friday (March 6). "Ceres has really surprised us, and the first images have produced some really puzzling features that have got the team, and I think some other people, really excited," Dawn Deputy Principal Investigator Carol Raymond, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said during a news conference Monday (March 2). The two bright spots are close to each other inside a 57-mile-wide (92 kilometers) crater that sits at about 19 degrees north latitude on Ceres, which is the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

U.S. satellite likely exploded after temperature spike: Air Force

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A U.S. military weather satellite appears to have exploded while in orbit last month after a sudden temperature spike in its power system, producing 43 pieces of new space debris, the Air Force said on Tuesday. The blast, which was first reported by the industry trade publication Space News, was the second Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft to experience a catastrophic breakup in 11 years. Launched in 1995, the Air Force satellite was serving as an operational spare in the seven-member DMSP network. On Feb. 3, flight controllers observed a sudden temperature spike in the DMSP-F13 satellite's power system and quickly shut down its non-essential systems, but the spacecraft lost the ability to position itself, the Air Force said in a statement.

New Pet Therapy Guidelines: No Cats in Hospitals

A visit from a furry companion can give comfort to patients in the hospital, but new guidelines recommend that only dogs — and not cats — be allowed in hospitals for pet therapy programs. The guidelines, from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), are aimed at reducing the potential risks from having animals in hospital facilities.

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Monday, March 2, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Astronauts Add Antennas, Cables to Space Station in 3rd Spacewalk

The International Space Station is now three steps – or rather spacewalks – closer to being ready for the arrival of new U.S. commercial crewed spacecraft with the successful completion of a two-astronaut outing on Sunday morning (March 1). NASA astronauts Terry Virts and Barry "Butch" Wilmore ventured outside the orbiting outpost for the third time in eight days to prepare the station for new docking ports to be added later this year. On Sunday, Virts and Wilmore routed some 400 feet (122 meters) of cables and installed two antenna booms that will provide navigational data to spacecraft approaching the complex. Virts and Wilmore completed the 5-hour, 38-minute spacewalk at 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT), having started the excursion at 6:52 a.m. EST (1152 GMT).

SpaceX rocket blasts off with world's first all-electric satellites

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - A Space Exploration Technologies rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Sunday to put the world's first all-electric communications satellites into orbit. The 22-story tall booster soared off its seaside launch pad at 10:50 a.m. EST, the third flight in less than two months for SpaceX, as the privately owned, California-based company is known. Perched on top of the rocket were a pair of satellites built by Boeing and owned by Paris-based Eutelsat Communications and Bermuda-based ABS, whose majority owner is the European private equity firm Permira. The satellites launched on Sunday are outfitted with lightweight, all-electric engines, rather than conventional chemical propulsion systems, to reach and maintain orbit.

Dirt-Watching NASA Satellite Deploys Giant Space Antenna (Video)

A recently launched NASA satellite has just deployed a giant antenna in space. The huge tool will help scientists collect unprecedented data that could help craft better weather forecasts around the world. The space agency's Soil Moisture Active Passive spacecraft (SMAP) is tasked with beaming back new global soil moisture maps designed to aid in crafting more effective warning systems for floods, droughts and other possible emergencies. "Just this Tuesday, SMAP completed a critical step in its journey toward becoming a productive member of NASA's Earth-observing fleet," Peg Luce, deputy director of the Earth Science Division at NASA, said during a news conference Thursday (Feb. 26).

Elusive 'Dark Photons' Still Lurking in the Shadows

A giant atom smasher has found no trace of a mysterious particle called the dark photon.

Ancient Bolivians Stripped Flesh from Dead Bodies in Ritual Complex

At an ancient ritual complex in Bolivia, archaeologists discovered the ruins of a room where dead bodies were dissolved down to their bones in sizzling pots of caustic chemicals. Founded during the late first century A.D., the site known as Khonkho Wankane was one of the smaller ceremonial centers to pop up in the Andes Mountains around Lake Titicaca before the rise of the more famous nearby ancient city of Tiwanaku. At its height, Khonkho Wankane (sometimes spelled Qhunqhu Wankani) covered about 17 acres (7 hectares) with at least three sunken temples, several large platforms, a big central plaza and quite a few circular houses. "We expected to find typical household stuff — grinding stones, cooking pots and things like that — but the assemblage was quite different," said Scott Smith, an archaeologist at Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania.

Chatty Machines? Future Computers Could Communicate Like Humans

Researchers are trying to break down the language barrier between humans and computers, as part of a new program from the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA), which is responsible for developing new technologies for the U.S. military. The program — dubbed Communicating with Computers (CwC) — aims to get computers to express themselves more like humans by enabling them to use spoken language, facial expressions and gestures to communicate. "[T]oday we view computers as tools to be activated by a few clicks or keywords, in large part because we are separated by a language barrier," Paul Cohen, DARPA's CwC program manager, said in a statement. Computers previously developed by DARPA are already tasked with creating models of the complicated molecular processes that cause cells to become cancerous.

Most Docs Have Concerns About Delaying Vaccines But Do It Anyway

Researchers surveyed more than 500 U.S. pediatricians and family physicians, and asked whether they had received a request from parents to "spread out" their child's vaccines over a longer period than the length of the recommended vaccine schedule. Some parents make these requests because they have concerns about the recommended vaccine schedule — for example, they may think that their child is getting too many vaccines in a short period, according to the study. But nearly all doctors had concerns about straying from the recommended schedule: 87 percent said that parents who chose to spread out vaccines were putting their children at risk for contracting preventable infectious diseases, and 84 percent said the alternative schedules were more painful for children, because they had to come back to the doctor more times for injections. The doctors who were surveyed reported using a number of strategies to respond to these requests, including telling parents that they would immunize their own children according to the recommended schedule, and explaining that following an alternative schedule puts children at risk for infectious diseases.

Bionic Eye Lets Blind Man See Again

A bionic eye implant is now allowing a blind man to see the outlines of his wife after 10 years in darkness. The implant, called a retinal prosthesis, consists of a small electronic chip that is placed at the back of the eye to send visual signals directly into the optic nerve. The bionic eye doesn't have enough electrodes to recreate the details of human faces, but for the first time since he lost his vision, the man can make out the outlines of people and things, and walk without a cane. The Minneapolis-St. Paul man, Allen Zderad, suffered from a genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa, in which the cells in the retina that gather light gradually die.

Meet 2 New Spider Species: 'Skeletorus' and 'Sparklemuffin'

Two gorgeous new species of peacock spiders nicknamed "Skeletorus" and"Sparklemuffin" have been discovered in Australia, according to a new report. The two new species were found in southeast Queensland by Madeline Girard, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley who studies peacock spiders, and a friend who went with her into the field. Girard affectionately gave the nickname Sparklemuffin to one of the species, Maratus jactatus, which has bluish and reddish stripes on its abdomen. Sparklemuffin looks similar to three previously discovered species in this group of peacock spiders, whereas Skeletorus looks very different from all the other known species in the group.

Using Faulty Forensic Science, Courts Fail the Innocent (Op-Ed)

Karen Kafadar is Commonwealth Professor and chair of the Department of Statistics at the University of Virginia and a member of the Forensic Science Standards Board. Anne-Marie Mazza is the director of the Committee on Science, Technology and Law of the National Academy of Sciences. Historically, forensic science has had a huge impact on identifying and confirming suspects in the courtroom, and on the judicial system more generally. Forensic scientists have been an integral part of the judicial process for more than a century.

These 5 Supplements Do Nothing for Alzheimer's, Despite Claims (Op-Ed)

She has published widely on the dietary supplement controversy. On Feb. 3, the New York State attorney general's office demanded that four major retailers — GNC, Target, Walmart and Walgreens — remove certain store-brand herbal supplements from their shelves pending further quality-control measures. DNA testing on the supplements showed that a whopping 79 percent contained none of the herbs listed on their labels. Just as bad, the tests indicated the supplements often contained cheap fillers such as powdered rice, pine, citrus, houseplants and wheat — the latter despite claims on some labels that a product was wheat- and gluten-free.

Surgeon's Helper: 3D Printing Is Revolutionizing Health Care (Op-Ed)

Scott Dunham is a senior analyst for SmarTech Markets Publishing, which focuses exclusively on additive manufacturing and 3D printing. Dunham is a regularly featured speaker at 3D printing industry events worldwide, and he will be presenting at the Additive Disruption Summit on April 1 and the RAPID conference on May 19. Health care is a constant topic of debate today — but health care is not all about politics. While makers of professional 3D printers are specifically developing, and promoting, dental uses for 3D-printed technology, the universe of non-dental medical applications is now entering a phase of rapid growth.

Forging Metamaterials: Labs Craft Invisibility Cloaks, Perfect Lenses and Nanostructures (Kavli Roundtable)

Alan Brown, writer and editor for the Kavli Foundation, edited this roundtable for Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The very fact that we have to specify the type of metamaterial tells you that any definition is not as simple as saying it's just something that doesn't exist in nature.

U.S. 'Pet' Tiger Trade Puts Big Cats at Great Risk (Op-Ed)

Nicole Paquette is the vice president of wildlife protection at The Humane Society of the United States. They are bred repeatedly and forced to produce litter after litter — so many litters that there are now far too many tigers in the United States, and not enough responsible and experienced facilities to care for them. One of the main causes of tiger overpopulation in the United States is some facilities use tiger cubs for public handling. For a fee, members of the public can play with, bottle-feed, swim with or have their photo taken holding a tiger cub.

Mystery Woman Buried Near Richard III

Archaeologists found a lead coffin buried in the ruins of an English medieval church, just feet from the grave of British King Richard III. When they opened the tomb, they expected to find the skeleton of a knight or a friar. She was interred sometime in the late 13th or 14th century, before Richard was hastily buried at the monastery known as Grey Friars in Leicester, England. In fact, Richard III is the only man archaeologists have examined from the site so far. "We were naturally expecting to find friars," Grey Friars site director Mathew Morris told Live Science.

Lockheed invests in Rocket Lab's U.S. unit to keep pace with innovation

Lockheed Martin Corp said on Monday it had made a strategic investment in the U.S. unit of New Zealand's Rocket Lab, which is building a carbon-composite rocket, the Electron, to launch small satellites into orbit for less than $5 million. Lockheed spokesman Matt Kramer didn't say how big the investment was, but said the company saw potential applications for Rocket Lab's technologies light lift, hypersonic flight technologies and low-cost flight testing. Rocket Lab disclosed Lockheed's investment Monday when it announced that it had completed a Series B financing round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

Companies' tests used in 'superbug' scope cleaning flawed: FDA

The scopes were linked to the exposure of 179 patients to drug-resistant bacteria at UCLA's Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Los Angeles and may have contributed to two deaths. In early 2014, following a superbug outbreak at a hospital in Illinois, the FDA asked Fujifilm Holdings Corp, Olympus Corp and Pentax, which make the devices, to submit their test results for review, Dr. Stephen Ostroff, the agency's chief scientist, said in an interview. In some cases the tests were poorly carried out. In others, they were properly conducted but the cleaning and disinfecting protocol failed, said Ostroff, who will become the FDA's acting commissioner when Dr. Margaret Hamburg leaves at the end of March. The deficiencies in the companies' tests has not been reported. The flawed data calls into question the reliability of all current cleaning and disinfecting protocols and expose a weakness in the FDA's regulation of such devices - one which the agency is now moving to close.

Plant Plastics Seed New Tech, from Miatas to Tea Bags

Jacqueline Conciatore is a science writer for the U.S. National Science Foundation. Every year in the United States, more governments enact such restrictions, which are part of a larger shift away from petroleum-based plastic. Bioplastics are made wholly or in part from renewable biomass sources such as sugarcane and corn, or from the digest of microbes such as yeast. Some bioplastics are biodegradable or even compostable, under the right conditions.

Apple to Wal-Mart, Big Biz is Betting on Green Energy (Op-Ed)

Lynn Scarlett, managing director for public policy at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. While everyone still has to carry around a phone charger for the forseeable future, Apple is taking a different approach to its own energy supply. For Apple, the benefits are clear. Apple's decision affirms that clean energy, climate solutions and economic opportunity can converge.

What Would It Be Like to Live on Mars?

The idea of living on Mars has been a staple of science fiction since the 19th century, when American astronomer Percival Lowell speculated that the channels on the Red Planet were really ancient canals built by intelligent extraterrestrials. In 1965, NASA's Mariner 4 spacecraft completed the first Martian flyby, and six years later, the Soviet Union's Mars 3 lander became the first spacecraft to land softly on Mars. Since then, there have been numerous successful missions to the Red Planet, including the deployment of four Mars rovers — the now-defunct Sojourner and Spirit, and the still-active Opportunity and Curiosity — and NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which produced a map of the entire planet. NASA is now planning for a manned mission to Mars, which is slated for the 2030s.

SpaceX Rocket Launches 2 Communications Satellites Into Orbit (Video)

The private spaceflight company SpaceX launched a pair of communications satellites to space Sunday (March 1), and you can see amazing videos and photos of the liftoff. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida at 10:50 p.m. EST (0350 March 2 GMT) carrying the ABS 3A and EUTELSAT 115 West B satellites to orbit. Now firing their ion thrusters to reach geo station [geostationary orbit] over Europe & Asia," SpaceX founder Elon Musk wrote on Twitter just after liftoff. The two satellites are the "first all-electric propulsion satellites, they carry no liquid propellant – rather, they reach orbit entirely via a lighter and more efficient electric propulsion system," SpaceX representatives wrote in a news release.

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