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Thursday, March 19, 2015

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Darwin's 'Strangest Animals' Finally Placed on Family Tree

The origins of two wacky beasts that Darwin dubbed the "strangest animals ever discovered" had remained a mystery for some 180 years. The new study reveals that these ungulates (hooved animals) native to South America descended from an ancient group of mammals called the condylarths — a sister group to the perissodactyls, which includes horses, tapirs and rhinos. Charles Darwin first collected the two species, in the genuses Macrauchenia and Toxodon, during his South American voyage on a ship called the Beagle. Famed for first postulating evolution, Darwin "soon recognized that these gigantic mammals might provide clues to his understanding of species formation," Porter told Live Science.

Mystery of Darwin's strange South American mammals solved

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To 19th century British naturalist Charles Darwin, they were the strangest animals yet discovered, one looking like a hybrid of a hippo, rhino and rodent and another resembling a humpless camel with an elephant's trunk. Ever since Darwin first collected their fossils about 180 years ago, scientists had been baffled about where these odd South American beasts that went extinct just 10,000 years ago fit on the mammal family tree. Researchers said on Wednesday a sophisticated biochemical analysis of bone collagen extracted from fossils of the two mammals, Toxodon and Macrauchenia, demonstrated that they were related to the group that includes horses, tapirs and rhinos. Some scientists previously thought the two herbivorous mammals, the last of a successful group called South American ungulates, were related to mammals of African origin like elephants and aardvarks or other South American mammals like armadillos and sloths.

Bug-Eyed Catfish Named for Greedo in 'Star Wars'

A catfish with bulging eyes has been named after Greedo, the cute "Star Wars" character with similar bulbous eyes, a tapirlike snout and funky-green skin. Researchers discovered the armored catfish with a sucker mouth, now called Peckoltia greedoi, along Brazil's Gurupi River in 1998. Jonathan Armbruster, biological sciences professor and curator of fishes at the Auburn University Museum of Natural History, realized Greedo was a fitting name after he and colleagues were examining a specimen of the species that was collected in 2005. One of his colleagues in the department of biological sciences, Chris Hamilton, "looked at the specimen and said, 'that looks like that guy from "Star Wars,'" Armbruster said in a statement.

How to Safely Observe the Total Solar Eclipse This Week

A spectacular solar eclipse will be visible in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa on Friday (March 20), but if you live in those visibility areas, make sure you're prepared to practice safe eclipse viewing before you head outside. Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield.

Hidden Channels Beneath East Antarctica Could Cause Massive Melt

A glacier the size of California in East Antarctica is in danger of melting away, which could lead to an extreme thaw increases sea levels by about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) worldwide if the glacier vanishes, a new study finds. Researchers have found two seafloor channels underneath the floating ice shelf of Totten Glacier in East Antarctica. The channels may let the warmest waters near the glacier to enter beneath the floating ice shelf, causing the rapid thinning of the ice shelf observed to date, the scientists said. As the ice shelf thins, the point where the glacier starts to float will retreat, raising the sea level, and exposing more ice to the ocean, said the study's lead author, Jamin Greenbaum, a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics.

Could a Cyanide-Laced Letter Have Harmed Obama?

A package that was sent to the White House and tested positive for traces of cyanide likely would not have harmed anyone, scientists say. Though cyanide is a deadly poison, this particular attack was unlikely to have sickened anyone, said Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical-weapons expert with SecureBio, a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) security firm based in the United Kingdom. That's because the form the cyanide likely came in — a white, powdery substance called sodium cyanide — typically must be ingested to cause harm, de Bretton-Gordon said. People handling mail at the White House probably wear gloves and follow strict protocols when coming into contact with packages, so they would be unlikely to have the necessary exposure to cause harm, he added.

Oddball 'Crystal' Survived Crash to Earth Inside Meteorite

A bizarre crystal-like mineral recently found in a meteorite that crashed to Earth perhaps 15,000 years ago adds more support for the idea that the fragile structure can survive in nature. The newfound mineral is called a "quasicrystal" because it resembles a crystal, but the atoms are not arranged as regularly as they are in real crystals. The quasicrystal hitched a ride to Earth on a meteorite that zipped from space through Earth's atmosphere and crashed to the ground. "The difference between crystals and quasicrystals can be visualized by imagining a tiled floor," said according to a statement by Princeton University in a press release.

Rocket Launch Is a Blast for First-Timer

On Thursday night, for the first time in my life, I got to watch a multi-ton rocket — literally a well-engineered bomb, to which some very smart people strapped a billion dollar science experiment — claw its way through the atmosphere with such force that it countered the pull of Earth's gravity and reached the region called outer space. The launch took place right on schedule at 10:44 p.m. EDT on Thursday, March 12 (0244 March 13 GMT), from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, sending NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission on its way into space.

Gem Engraved with Goddess' Image Found Near King Herod's Mausoleum

A translucent orange gem engraved with an image of a goddess of hunting has been found near a mausoleum built by Herod the Great, the king of Judea who ruled not long before the time of Jesus. Researchers say the ring and gem were likely worn by a Roman soldier who was stationed at the site long after Herod's death. Herod, who lived from 73 B.C. to 4 B.C., ruled as king of Judea, with support from the Roman Empire. He constructed a palace complex known as the Herodium about 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) south of Jerusalem.

9-Foot 'Butcher Crocodile' Likely Ruled Before Dinosaurs

A 9-foot-tall beast with bladelike teeth once stalked the warm and wet environs of what is now North Carolina some 230 million years ago, before dinosaurs came onto the scene there, scientists have found. They named it Carnufex, meaning "butcher" in Latin, because of its long skull, which resembles a knife, and its bladelike teeth, which it likely used to slice flesh off the bones of prey, said lead study author Lindsay Zanno, of NC State University and the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. The large creature reveals not only one of the earliest crocodylomorphs, a group that includes today's crocodiles and their close relatives, but also highlights the diversity of top predators of the time. Zanno and her colleagues discovered parts of the skull, spine and arm bone of the creature while digging in the Pekin Formation in Chatham County, North Carolina.

Rare Copy of Old Testament Reunited with 'Twin' in Israel

After its publication in 1677, the book bounced among scholars, landed in Egypt and finally fell into the hands of Micha Shagrir, an Israeli film producer and director. Shagrir died in February, but his family recently donated the text to the University of Haifa in northern Israel, which already has a near-duplicate copy of the rare text in its collection, according to a statement from the university. The Old Testament is also known as the Tanakh, an acronym that includes the Torah (the five books of Moses), Nevi'im (prophets) and Ketuvim (writings) — or TaNaKh. However, the newfound Tanakh wouldn't have graced synagogues, said Yossi Ziegler, academic director of the University of Haifa's Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library.

Total Solar Eclipse on Friday: How to Watch It Live Online

Even though most people around the world won't be able to see Friday's total solar eclipse in person, anyone with an Internet connection can watch it live online thanks to two webcasts featuring the cosmic event. The March 20 total solar eclipse — the first since November 2013 — will make the daytime sky go dark for people in the Faroe Islands and parts of the North Atlantic. You can watch the 2.5-hour-long solar eclipse webcast through the Slooh website starting at 4:30 a.m. EDT (0830 GMT) on March 20. "Nothing — and I mean absolutely nothing in nature — is as powerful and spectacular as the totality of a solar eclipse," Slooh astronomer Bob Berman said in a statement.

Energy Drinks Raise Blood Pressure, Study Finds

Energy drinks might give you some pep — but they might also be priming you for heart problems, a new study finds. The effect was far more prominent in young adults who did not consume caffeine regularly, according to the study, presented March 14 at an American College of Cardiology meeting in San Diego. In this study, the research team — led by Dr. Anna Svatikova, a cardiovascular-diseases fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota — gave a can of a commercially available energy drink to 25 healthy volunteers, whose ages ranged from 19 to 40. The researchers measured the participants' heart rate and blood pressure before and after the drinks.

Hear That? Orangutans Use Hands to Amplify Calls

When danger nears, orangutans warn their group with alarm calls, and new research shows that the animals sometimes cup their hands around their muzzles, making these calls louder and deeper. "Orangutans are the only known primate besides humans to modify and enhance sound production through external manipulation," said one of the study's researchers, Adriano Lameira, a postdoctoral fellow of evolutionary anthropology at Durham University in the United Kingdom. Researchers are used to hearing such alarm calls — sometimes called a "kiss-squeak call" — as they walk through the rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo to study orangutans. The calls could be the orangutans' way of telling predators, "Don't try to sneak up on me because I've already caught you," said the study's lead researcher, Bart de Boer, a professor of language evolution at Vrije Universiteit Brussels.

This Winter Was Warmest on Record

This winter may have brought a deep freeze to much of the northeastern United States — including record-breaking snowfall in Boston — but it was the planet's warmest winter on record, climate scientists announced yesterday (March 18).

Moon Crater from Giant Lunar Crash in 2013 Finally Found (Video)

A moon-orbiting NASA spacecraft has spotted the crater produced by one of the most powerful explosions ever observed on the lunar surface. Researchers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, caught the flash on camera at the time. They asked the team working with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) instrument, which flies aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter probe (LRO), to hunt down the new hole in the ground. "They predicted how big [the crater] was going to be based on the energy, but this was all a model," LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson, of Arizona State University, said in the NASA video about the newfound moon crater.

Dude, why is my mushroom glowing? Scientists have the answer

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If you think you see a glowing mushroom, you might not be having a psychedelic hallucination. Some mushrooms indeed are bioluminescent, including one that sprouts among decaying leaves at the base of young palm trees in Brazilian coconut forests. Researchers said on Thursday that experiments in Brazil involving the big, yellow mushroom called "flor de coco," meaning coconut flower, showed its nighttime bioluminescence attracted insects and other creatures that could later spread its spores around the forest. "The answer appears to be that fungi make light so they are noticed by insects who can help the fungus colonize new habitats." Geneticist and molecular biologist Jay Dunlap of Dartmouth College's Geisel School of Medicine said bioluminescence had independently evolved many times in such diverse life forms as bacteria, fungi, insects and fish.

Dude, why is my mushroom glowing? Scientists have the answer

Supernovas Spawned Space Dust for Ancient Galaxies, Study Finds

Giant dust clouds seen in the early universe may have been created by exploding stars, a discovery that suggests supernovas were prolific space dust factories for ancient galaxies, scientists say. "One of the most surprising things is that we were not expecting to see this at all," Lau said.

Mystery of the 'Vampire Crabs' Solved

The crabs come from the island of Java in Indonesia, according to the scientists who officially describe the species in a new report. People in the aquarium trade have known of the two crab species described in the report for at least a decade, said Peter Ng, a biology professor at the National University of Singapore and an author of the report.

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Wednesday, March 18, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Northern Lights Webcast Tonight: Watch Amped Up Auroras Live

Auroras around the world could be super-charged tonight thanks to a severe solar storm impacting Earth, but even if bad weather hinders your view of the northern lights, you can still catch them live in a webcast online. The online Slooh Community Observatory will broadcast live views of the aurora borealis from Iceland tonight (March 17), and it should be a good show. A massive geomagnetic storm is currently impacting Earth, and while there have been no reports of power outages or other issues related to the solar tempest, people have witnessed amazing auroras caused by the storm. "This Tuesday [today] we will have a ringside seat on Slooh to explore the shimmering spectacle of the Northern Lights," Slooh's Will Gater said in a statement.

A mother's quest to cure her son

By Ben Gruber At 55-years-old, Terry Jo Bichell is a couple of months away from earning a PHD in neuroscience. She says it puts her one step closer to achieving a goal she set out for herself 16 years ago - to cure her son Louis from a debilitating genetic disorder. A mother of five, Terry Jo had spent her life dedicated to helping woman and children, first as a documentary film maker in Africa and then as a nurse and midwife. "When I had my fifth kid and he turned out to be diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome I stopped caring about other woman children and other woman's problems and that is really true.

Passionate About Coral Reef Parasites

This ScienceLives article was provided to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights in partnership with the National Science Foundation. Unbeknownst even to most marine enthusiasts, parasites account for the vast majority of biodiversity on coral reefs, which are among the world's most diverse ecosystems. Sikkel says that he is often asked how he became interested in parasites. His answer: "Like most marine ecologists, I had no formal training in parasitology.

Palestinian students design vest to help the blind navigate

Palestinian students from the Polytechnic University in Hebron have created a vest that uses vibration and voice commands to allow the blind and seriously visually impaired to walk unaided. Graduate student of engineering, Abdel Rahman al-Barmeel, who helped design SASB, said the system is simple and convenient to use. The system works on directing the people by voice commands and vibration commands," said al-Barmeel. The project was developed under the supervision of the Dean of Engineering Department and Project Supervisor, Dr. Ramzi al-Qawasmi.

Most Evangelical Christians Say Science and Religion Can Coexist

"Although many politicians and the media at large portray evangelicals as distrustful of science, we found that this is more myth than reality," Elaine Howard Ecklund, a sociologist at Rice University who orchestrated the survey, said in a statement. Among evangelical Christians, about 48 percent said they see science and religion as complementary to one another, while 21 percent think science and religion refer to different aspects of reality and see them as entirely independent of one another, the survey found. Still, the share of evangelical Christians who think religion and science are in conflict (and see themselves on the side of religion) is 29 percent — more than double the figure in the general population (14 percent), the study found.

Football & Head Injuries: What the Brain Research Says

The up-and-coming professional football player Chris Borland, of the San Francisco 49ers, is now leaving the sport out of concern that a career in football would increase his risk of brain disease. On Monday (March 16), Borland announced he was retiring from football after studying the link between football head injuries and degenerative brain disease, and discussing his decision with friends, family members, concussion researchers and teammates, according to ESPN. The types of brain damage that can occur as a result of being a professional football player have received increased attention in recent years. For example, there is growing awareness of a particularly severe degenerative brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Ebola Epidemic: Why a Few Cases Could Threaten Progress

Health officials have made tremendous progress in fighting the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in recent months, but continued efforts are still needed, experts say. Ebola cases in West Africa have, in general, been declining for the past few months. For example, the number of new Ebola cases in Sierra Leone dropped from around 540 per week at the beginning of December to around 65 new cases weekly at the end of January, according to a recent report from the World Health Organization. In Guinea, there was also a drop, from about 150 cases a week in mid-December to 30 cases at end of January.

China Outlines New Rockets, Space Station and Moon Plans

Rocket builders in China are slated to augment their Long March family of boosters this year and in 2016. Additionally, China's Long March 7 and Long March 5 rockets are to make their first flights next year, according to Tan Yonghua, president of China's Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology, as reported in the state-run China Daily. The academy is China's major player in developing liquid-fuelled rocket engines. It forms part of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the major contractor for the country's space activities.

Chris Borland Leaves NFL: The Science of Football and Brain Injury

See the Spectacular Aurora Photos from St. Patrick's Day Solar Storm

Green auroras danced in skies around the world last night thanks to a massive solar storm that super-charged northern lights displays for St. Patrick's Day. Skywatchers captured stunning pictures of auroras in the northern United States, Canada, northern Europe and other parts of the world. The spectacular aurora photos were captured during a powerful geomagnetic storm that lasted through the day Tuesday (March 17) and appears to have tapered off today. Scientists working with the Slooh Community Observatory were able to broadcast their views of the northern lights from Iceland while on their way to check out the total solar eclipse happening Friday (March 20).

Sierra Nevada Unveils Cargo Version of Private Dream Chaser Space Plane

A robotic space plane may start ferrying supplies to and from the International Space Station a few years from now. Sierra Nevada Corp. today (March 17) revealed details about the autonomous cargo version of its Dream Chaser space plane, which the company hopes NASA chooses to fly the next round of cargo missions to the orbiting lab. The company also unveiled a video animation of how Dream Chaser could deliver cargo for NASA. "This represents really the next step in the evolution of Dream Chaser, not only in terms of its capabilities and what it's going to be able to do, but also in its design and its enhancements as we move forward with many of the technical advances over the last couple of years," Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of Sierra Nevada's Space Systems division, told reporters during a conference call today.

Mars colonist candidate expresses grave doubts about mission

By Irene Klotz HOUSTON (Reuters) - A contender for a one-way mission to Mars says the venture is unrealistic and will not work, according to an essay by the candidate published on Wednesday. Joseph Roche, an astrophysicist and lecturer at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, is among 100 finalists selected by Mars One, a nonprofit Dutch organization, for possible permanent resettlement on Mars in 10 years. "I do not think we will see a one-way mission in my lifetime," Roche wrote in an article published on Wednesday in the Guardian newspaper. In October, researchers with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded that the plan, which aims to establish a self-sufficient colony of 24 settlers, is flawed.

EVA at 50: Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov Took 1st Spacewalk 50 Years Ago

It lasted just 12 minutes, but history's first-ever spacewalk – 50 years ago today – took the first steps towards shaping the future of space exploration. On March 18, 1965 at 4:35 a.m. EDT (0835 GMT), Soviet-era cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first person to leave the confines of his spacecraft while in orbit and float in the vacuum of space. Leonov, who with Pavel Belyayev was flying onboard the former-Soviet Union's Voskhod 2, accomplished the first extra-vehicular activity – EVA, or spacewalk – on what was only the 14th piloted spaceflight in history. Leonov's EVA did nothing more than demonstrate, barely, that such a feat was possible, but the future spacewalks it inspired — starting with the first American EVA by Edward White three months later — blazed the path for humans to walk on the moon, build and maintain space stations and service satellites and space telescopes.

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