GoogleTrends

Sunday, April 5, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

'Big Bang' particle collider restarts after refit: CERN

ZURICH/GENEVA (Reuters) - Scientists at Europe's nuclear research center CERN said on Sunday they had restarted their Large Hadron Collider (LHC) "Big Bang" machine after a two-year refit, launching a new bid to resolve some of the mysteries of the universe. In a live blog covering the restart, CERN said one of the two beams had completed the circuit of the LHC. The LHC had been shut down for two years for a refit of its machinery and wiring. Any new discoveries it makes are unlikely to emerge until mid-2016. (Reporting by Joshua Franklin and Robert Evans; editing by John Stonestreet)

CERN restarts 'Big Bang' collider after two-year refit

ZURICH/GENEVA (Reuters) - Scientists at Europe's particle physics research centre CERN on Sunday restarted their "Big Bang" Large Hadron Collider (LHC), embarking on a new bid to resolve some mysteries of the universe and look for "dark matter". Hopes for the second run lie in breaking out of what is known as the Standard Model of how the universe works at the level of elementary particles, and into "New Physics".

CERN restarts "Big Bang" collider after two-year refit

How Easter Helped Bring Down a Medical Myth About Ulcers

Some people will celebrate Easter this Sunday. Some scientists, meanwhile, will celebrate the birthday of the humble bacterium Helicobacter pylori. H. pylori infects more than half of the world's population. Many people who carry the bacterium won't ever experience any symptoms of the infection, but it's the culprit behind most ulcers and many cases of stomach cancer — and it hid, unidentified, inside human stomachs for thousands of years.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe

Saturday, April 4, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

World Will Get More Religious by 2050

The world is becoming more religious, as the number of agnostics and others who don't affiliate with a certain religion shrinks as a percentage of the global population. By 2050, just 13 percent of people in the world will say they are unaffiliated, compared with 16 percent who said the same in 2010, according to a new Pew Research Group survey. The United States is an exception, where more Americans are expected to flee organized religion. Islam will grow faster than any other major religion, and at a higher rate than the world population balloons, the survey found.

Shortest Total Lunar Eclipse of the Century Visible Early Saturday

Don't forget to look skyward in the early hours of Saturday morning (April 4), to catch a glimpse of the shortest total lunar eclipse of the century. The moon will be completely swallowed by Earth's shadow for just 4 minutes and 43 seconds on Saturday morning, according to NASA officials. The total eclipse begins at 6:16 a.m. EDT (1016 GMT). "For early humans, [a lunar eclipse] was a time when they were concerned that life might end, because the moon became blood red and the light that the moon provided at night might have been taken away permanently," Mitzi Adams, an astronomer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said during a news conference today (April 3).

Easter Science: 5 Odd Facts About Eggs

For instance, kiwi eggs take up about 25 percent of the mother's body, making it the largest egg of any bird, relative to its mother's body size, according to researchers at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City. "If you try to push one of those eggs, because it's so heavy at one end, it will actually spin in a circle," said Paul Sweet, the ornithology collection manager at AMNH. Eggshells are largely made of calcium carbonate, which looks white to the human eye, according to "The Book of Eggs" (University of Chicago Press, 2014).

2011 Japan Tsunami Unleashed Ozone-Destroying Chemicals

The 2011 tsunami that struck Japan released thousands of tons of ozone-destroying chemicals and greenhouse gases into the air, a new study shows. The damaged insulation, refrigerators, air conditioners and electrical equipment unleashed 7,275 tons (6,600 metric tons) of halocarbons, the study reported. Halocarbon emissions rose by 91 percent over typical levels in the year following the earthquake, said Takuya Saito, lead study author and senior researcher at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, Japan. The six halocarbons measured in the study are a group of chemicals that attack the Earth's protective ozone layer and can also contribute to global warming.

Amped-Up Atom Smasher Will Restart This Weekend

It's a great day for particle physics fans: The world's largest atom smasher has been cleared to start running again as early as this weekend. After a two-year hiatus, researchers and engineers planned to restart the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) last week, but an electrical short delayed the process. Scientists quickly found the glitch: a small piece of metal lodged in the wiring of one of the LHC's powerful electromagnets. "It's a bit like deliberately blowing a fuse," Paul Collier, head of beams at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), which manages the LHC, told Nature News.

Bizarre Syndrome Makes Visitors to Jerusalem Go Crazy

As Christians and Jews around the world prepare to celebrate the holidays of Easter and Passover, many will flock to the city of Jerusalem. Some psychiatrists have dubbed this condition "Jerusalem syndrome," and say it happens in people who have no prior history of mental illness. "I'd never heard of it before," admitted Simon Rego, director of psychology training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. Jerusalem syndrome was first identified in 2000.

For Some Kids, Easter Egg Hunts Pose Allergy Risk

Several children in Florida experienced allergic reactions after they secretly ate chocolate during an Easter egg hunt, without their parents realizing it, according to a new report of the cases. The four children — two boys and two girls, ages 4 to 7 years old — had all previously been diagnosed with a nickel allergy, a condition in which people experience skin rashes when they come in contact with the metal. In each child's case, their symptoms had improved for two to five months, but then they all wound up at the doctor with flare-ups about two to five days after that year's Easter Sunday. "They all came in on the same two-day period," said Dr. Sharon Jacob, a dermatologist who treated the children at the University of Miami.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe

Friday, April 3, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Deadly snakes 'milked' to create potent new anti-venom

By Mathew Stock LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND / KADUNA, NIGERIA - The puff adder is one of sub-Saharan Africa's most deadly snakes. The venom extracted here is being used to create a potent new anti-venom that could treat bites from every poisonous snake found in the region. Dr. Robert Harrison is leading the research at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, where they've collected 21 of the region's most lethal snake species - 450 animals in total. "32,000 people are dying from snake bite every year in sub-Saharan Africa.

Oh, baby: study shows how surprises help infants learn

"Our hypothesis was that infants might be using these surprising events as special opportunities to learn, and we show that is indeed the case," said cognitive psychologist Aimee Stahl of Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, whose research appears in the journal Science. The study involved 110 11-month-olds, with roughly equal numbers of girls and boys.

Joni Mitchell's Mysterious Skin Disease: What Causes Morgellons?

Joni Mitchell was hospitalized on Tuesday after being found unconscious in her apartment, according to the 71-year-old singer's website. In recent years, Mitchell has said that she suffers from many ailments, including a strange and controversial condition called Morgellons disease, The New York Times reported. People who suffer from Morgellons say they have a bizarre range of symptoms including sensations of crawling or stinging on and under their skin, skin sores and the appearance of stringlike fibers that seem to sprout from the sores, according to the Mayo Clinic.

How a Zero Gravity Cocktail Glass Could Be Space Hospitality's Future

This is where Samuel Coniglio said he hopes to fill the gap. The long-time space tourism advocate has created a "zero-gravity" cocktail glass designed to use grooves to keep the liquid in. Coniglio's group, called Cosmic Lifestyle Corp., launched a Kickstarter campaign to get funds and publicity for their idea. While fundraising has been slow — a little more than $3,400 raised of the $30,000 needed, with about a day to go — Coniglio said the publicity alone has been a huge success for the project.

Manned Mars Mission Plan: Astronauts Could Orbit by 2033, Land by 2039

NASA could get astronauts to Mars orbit by 2033 and onto the Red Planet's surface by 2039, a new report by a nongovernmental organization suggests. At a news conference this morning (April 2), representatives of The Planetary Society presented the results of a workshop organized to discuss the feasibility and cost of a crewed mission to orbit the Martian moon Phobos in 2033, leading up to a crewed landing on the Red Planet in 2039. They concluded that such a plan could indeed fit within NASA's human space exploration budget. "We believe we now have an example of a long-term, cost-constrained, executable humans-to-Mars program," Scott Hubbard, a professor in the Stanford University Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of The Planetary Society's board of directors, said in a statement.

U.S. to halt expanded use of some insecticides amid honey bee decline

(Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Thursday it was unlikely to approve new or expanded uses of certain pesticides while it evaluates the risks they may pose to honey bees. The EPA notice came the day after Oregon's largest city suspended the use of the pesticides on its property to protect honey bees. The unanimous vote on Wednesday by the Portland City Commission came despite protests from farmers, nursery owners and others who claimed the insecticide was crucial in combating pests that destroy crops and other plants. Portland is among at least eight municipalities that have banned the chemicals. The EPA is conducting an assessment of the six types of neonicotinoids and their impact on honey bees, with its evaluation of four expected by 2018 and the remaining two a year later.

What It Would Be Like to Live on Uranus' Moons Titania and Miranda

Uranus would be a fascinating planet to visit, but living there would be extremely difficult. In all, Uranus has 27 known moons, and its five largest satellites are often considered its "major moons." If we wanted to set up permanent bases on Uranus's satellites, Titania and Miranda are great targets — Titania presents the strongest gravity (almost 4 percent of Earth's), and Miranda has a surface ripe for exploration. "When [Voyager 2] flew past in 1986, it was winter and dark on the whole northern hemispheres of all the moons, so we could only see a portion of their southern hemispheres," Jeff Moore, a planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in California said. Images from Voyager 2 show that Titania's southern hemisphere has numerous craters and tectonic landforms, including canyons and faults, some of which could be interesting locations to visit.

What It Would Be Like to Live on Saturn's Moons Titan and Enceladus

"If you were in the outer solar system and you had to make an emergency landing, go to Titan," NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay told Space.com. Titan is the only moon in our solar system with a dense atmosphere and thick cloud cover.

Super Species: Animals with Extreme Powers Invade Museum

"Given enough time, natural selection can produce some pretty wondrous things," said exhibit curator John Sparks, an ichthyologist at AMNH. As individuals reproduce, their offspring may have genetic mutations that neither of their parents had.

Total Lunar Eclipse Saturday: How to See the Blood Moon

Turnabout is fair play: The full moon will be totally eclipsed early Saturday morning (April 4), just 15 days after it caused a total eclipse of the sun. On that date, the so-called "supermoon" will take a deeper plunge through the umbra and will also be moving close to its maximum orbital velocity.

Anne Frank Likely Died Earlier Than Believed

Anne Frank, the young Jewish teenager whose diary became one of the most iconic portrayals of the Holocaust, likely died about a month earlier than her official death date, a new historical analysis finds. The Frank sisters died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but the exact dates of their deaths are unknown. Now, the Anne Frank House, an organization devoted to preserving Anne's memory and her family's hiding place in Amsterdam, has released a new study that puts Anne's death in February 1945, earlier than previously believed. During the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, Annelies Marie Frank and her family spent two years living in a secret apartment in the building where her father, Otto, worked.

Cleaning with Bleach May Lead to Childhood Infections

A splash of bleach can kill germs on a kitchen counter, but it may also cause health problems in children, a new study finds. Children in the study who lived in homes or went to schools where bleach was used for cleaning had higher rates of influenza, tonsillitis and other infections, compared with kids who weren't exposed to bleach, the researchers found. The researchers surveyed parents of more than 9,100 children ages 6 to 12 living in the Netherlands, Finland and Spain. The parents answered questions about how often in the past year their children had several infections, including the flu, tonsillitis, sinusitis, bronchitis, otitis and pneumonia.

Odd Tune: Trumpeter's Neck Swells Like a Bullfrog

The patient had seen numerous doctors, but none could find anything wrong with him, even after they ran a CT scan of his neck, said the report's lead author, Rachel Edmiston, an EMT trainee at Central Manchester University Hospital in the United Kingdom. They also asked him to maintain good oral hygiene and healthy eating habits, so that he could avoid bacterial overgrowth in the affected, bubblelike area.

Drug-Resistant Stomach Bug Increasing in US

The bacteria caused several outbreaks in the United States in the past year, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bacteria, called Shigella sonnei, can cause diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever and is typically treated with the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. There was also an outbreak of 95 cases in San Francisco that was not linked with international travel. Shigella causes about half a million cases of diarrhea in the United States each year, and the disease can be spread from person to person, or through contaminated food or water, the CDC says.

Eerie Green Space Clouds Glow in New Hubble Photos

The eight eerie objects betray the past presence of quasars, the most luminous objects in the universe, whose powerful beams of radiation lend the clouds their ethereal glow, researchers said. "In each of these eight images, a quasar beam has caused once-invisible filaments in deep space to glow through a process called photoionization," officials with the European Space Agency (ESA), which partners with NASA on the Hubble project, wrote in a statement. "Oxygen, helium, nitrogen, sulphur and neon in the filaments absorb light from the quasar and slowly re-emit it over many thousands of years," the officials added. This process can result in a quasar, which blasts jets of high-energy radiation and particles out into space.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe