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Wednesday, April 8, 2015

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Pluto-Features Naming Campaign Extended to April 24

You still have some time to nominate names for Pluto features that NASA's New Horizons probe will discover during its epic flyby of the dwarf planet this summer. The deadline for the "Our Pluto" naming campaign — a collaboration involving NASA, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, California — has been extended from Tuesday (April 7) to April 24. "Due to increasing interest and the number of submissions we're getting, it was clear we needed to extend this public outreach activity," Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, said in a statement. New Horizons team members will then go over the results and submit their recommendations to the IAU — which famously re-classified Pluto from "planet" to "dwarf planet" in 2006 — for official approval.

Signs of Alien Life Will Be Found by 2025, NASA's Chief Scientist Predicts

Humanity is on the verge of discovering alien life, high-ranking NASA scientists say. "I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years," NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan said Tuesday (April 7) during a panel discussion that focused on the space agency's efforts to search for habitable worlds and alien life. Former astronaut John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, shared Stofan's optimism, predicting that signs of life will be found relatively soon both in our own solar system and beyond. "I think we're one generation away in our solar system, whether it's on an icy moon or on Mars, and one generation [away] on a planet around a nearby star," Grunsfeld said during Tuesday's event.

Saturn Shines with the Moon Tonight: How to See It

I love showing Saturn to people who have never seen it through a telescope before, especially kids. Even during the warm summer months, Saturn was not at its best. In August 2009, for example, Saturn appeared rather low in the southwest sky and the rings were turned more-or-less edgewise toward Earth making them quite difficult to see.

Boy Gets Food Allergies from Blood Transfusion

A boy in Canada mysteriously became allergic to fish and nuts after he received a blood transfusion, according to a new case report. A few weeks after receiving a blood transfusion, he experienced a severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis within 10 minutes of eating salmon, according to the report, published online today (April 7) in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. His doctors suspected that the blood transfusion had triggered the reaction, they wrote in the report. Blood tests and a skin prick test suggested that he was allergic — at least temporarily — to peanuts and salmon, so his doctors advised him to avoid nuts and fish.

MRSA Superbug May Get Stronger If You Smoke

MRSA, the superbug commonly found in hospitals — apparently thrives on the stuff. In fact, cigarette smoke makes MRSA stronger and more resistant to antibiotics, which could mean it is worse for human health, according to a new study. In 2005, MRSA caused nearly 19,000 deaths in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new study began after Dr. Laura Crotty Alexander, a pulmonologist at the VA San Diego Healthcare System, noticed that many of the patients she treated who were smokers had MRSA infections, and wondered whether there was a connection.

Breast Cancer Genes: How Much Risk Do BRCA Mutations Bring?

Women with mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are at increased risk for breast and ovarian cancer, but a woman's exact cancer risk may vary greatly depending on exactly how her gene is mutated, or changed from its original form. A new study identifies a number of mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that may help doctors provide women with more precise estimates of their cancer risk. "We have women who are 70 and 80 years old who have BRCA1 [or] BRCA2 mutations and have never developed cancer of any kind," said study researcher Timothy Rebbeck, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. For example, women with BRCA mutations face decisions about their treatment, such as whether they should undergo surgery to prevent breast or ovarian cancer, or how soon they should get surgery.

Trace Amounts of Fukushima Radiation Turn Up in Canada

Very low levels of radioactive chemicals that leaked from Japan's 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster have been detected along the North American coast for the first time, scientists said yesterday (April 6). Trace amounts of cesium-134 and cesium-137 (radioactive isotopes) were found in seawater collected Feb. 19, 2015, at a dock in Ucluelet, a town on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, said Ken Buesseler, a marine chemist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The radioactive isotope numbers refer to the different numbers of neutrons carried by different versions of the cesium isotope. In the Ucluelet seawater, the amount of cesium-134 was 1.4 Becquerels per cubic meter of water (a unit of measure based on the number of radioactive decay events per second per 260 gallons of water).

Robot Reveals Sea Life Thriving Beneath Antarctic Ice

The water beneath Antarctica's thick ice may be dark and chilly, but it still harbors a surprising amount of sea life, including sea stars, sponges and anemones, according to a new underwater robotic expedition. Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel.

Disney Competition Challenges Kids to Design Futuristic Tech

Whether they're designing flying cars or teleporters, aspiring young inventors will have the chance to share their visions for the technology of the future, as part of a nationwide challenge hosted by the makers of Disney's upcoming film "Tomorrowland" and the nonprofit organization X Prize. "The future will be steered by the imaginations of our young people, and Disney is thrilled to work with X Prize to encourage and inspire the next generation of thinkers and dreamers to build the future they imagine is possible," Sean Bailey, president of Walt Disney Studios motion picture production, said in a statement. Disney joined forces with X Prize, the organization that hosts grand challenges such as the Google Lunar X Prize, to create the challenge, which was inspired by the upcoming film "Tomorrowland." The film, which premiers in U.S. theaters on May 22, is about a jaded former boy genius (played by George Clooney) and an optimistic teenager (played by Britt Robertson) who embark on a mission to a mysterious and futuristic place "somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory," according to the film's official website.

'Freak Weather Event' Sets Antarctic Heat Records

A remarkable heat wave warmed Antarctica's northernmost peninsula to slightly above 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius) in March — a record high for the normally cold continent. Previously, the hottest known temperature recorded on the continent was 62.8 degrees F (17.1 degrees C), on April 24, 1961. As Antarctica heads into the fall season, such high temperatures seem alarming. In fact, they occurred nearly three months after Antarctica's summer.

Blue Origin to Launch Private Spaceship Test Flights This Year

Blue Origin, the secretive private spaceflight company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, will begin suborbital flight tests this year of an innovative new spaceship — a milestone made possible by the firm's rocket engine success. Blue Origin president Rob Meyerson told reporters today (April 7) that the company will fly unmanned suborbital tests of its New Shepard spacecraft later in 2015. The shakedown cruises are aimed at testing the performance and reusability of the commercial launch system's BE-3 rocket engine, which Blue Origin has cleared for suborbital flight. "We're not releasing a flight date yet, but it will be later this year," Meyerson said in a teleconference.

Asteroid Early-Warning System for Potential Impacts Makes Progress

Scientists working to help safeguard the Earth from potential asteroid strikes are moving forward with a novel Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, to provide advance warning of potentially dangerous space rocks. The ATLAS project is an asteroid impact early-warning system being developed by the University of Hawaii and funded by NASA. "We have First Light," according to an ATLAS team update. In a Colorado-based test at the end of March, the Acam1 camera and ATLAS 1 telescope were tested at DFM Engineering, Inc. in Longmont, Colorado.

Basic Ingredients for Life Found Around Distant Star

For the first time, astronomers have discovered complex organic molecules, the basic building blocks for life, in a disk of gas and dust surrounding an alien star. To the researchers' surprise, the organics found around a young star called MWC 480 are not only surviving but thriving in quantities slightly higher than those thought to have existed in the early solar system. The prolific amount of material reveals that Earth's solar system is not the only one to contain these complex molecules, suggesting that the ingredients required for life to evolve may exist throughout the universe. "The very rich organic chemistry present in the young solar system, as evidenced by cometary compositions, is far from unique," lead author Karin Öberg, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts, told Space.com by email.

Tombs Filled with Dozens of Mummies Discovered in Peru

Dozens of tombs filled with up to 40 mummies each have been discovered around a 1,200-year-old ceremonial site in Peru's Cotahuasi Valley. So far, the archaeologists have excavated seven tombs containing at least 171 mummies from the site, now called Tenahaha. "The dead, likely numbering in the low thousands, towered over the living," wrote archaeologist Justin Jennings, a curator at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum, in a chapter of the newly published book "Tenahaha and the Wari State: A View of the Middle Horizon from the Cotahuasi Valley" (University of Alabama Press, 2015).

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Tuesday, April 7, 2015

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Western Canada's Glaciers Could Vanish by 2100

Canada's glacial ice draws millions of tourists and provides drinking water to two countries, but this important economic resource could disappear by the end of the 21st century, a new study finds. For the study, scientists devised a new computer model that predicts how glaciers will respond to future climate change. In the Rocky Mountains of Alberta and British Columbia, 90 percent of the spectacular mountain glaciers may vanish by 2100, according to research published today (April 6) in the journal Nature Geoscience. This region includes the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park, visited by more than 1 million people every year.

Key to Longevity Is Kindness, World's Oldest Person Said

The world's oldest person, an Arkansas woman named Gertrude Weaver, died at age 116 on Monday, according to news reports. Weaver had something in common with the woman who now holds the title of the world's oldest person: both attributed their longevity to exercise, as well as a compassionate spirit. Weaver held the title of the world's oldest person for only five days, after Misao Okawa, a Japanese woman who lived to be 117, died last Wednesday (April 1). Now, the world's oldest living person is Michigan woman Jeralean Talley, who is closely followed by Susannah Mushatt Jones of New York City and Emma Morano of Italy, all of whom are 115,USA Today reported.

11 Weight-Loss Programs After 1 Year: Which Work?

Among commercial weight-loss programs, Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig show the strongest evidence that they can help dieters keep weight off for at least 12 months, a new study suggests. Researchers found that after one year, Jenny Craig participants lost an average of 4.9 percent more weight, and people enrolled in Weight Watchers lost an average of 2.6 percent more weight than people who either dieted on their own, were given printed advice about weight loss or received a few sessions of health education and behavioral counseling. The study showed that for the majority of commercial weight-loss programs out there, researchers don't know whether or not they work, said lead author Dr. Kimberly Gudzune, a weight-loss specialist and an assistant professor of medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. In this review study, the researchers looked for published studies on weight-loss programs that were rigorous, long-term randomized controlled trials, which are considered the highest-quality data to evaluate whether a program works.

Near-Death Experiences: What Happens in the Brain Before Dying

Scientists studied the heart and brain activity of rats in the moments before the animals died from lack of oxygen, and found that the animals' brains sent a flurry of signals to the heart that caused irrevocable damage to the organ, and in fact caused its demise. "People naturally focus on the heart, thinking that if you save the heart, you'll save the brain," said study co-author Jimo Borjigin, a neuroscientist at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.

Some Popular Supplements Still Contain Untested Compound

A number of supplements marketed for weight loss and improved athletic performance contain a synthetic compound that is similar to the drug amphetamine, and that compound has not been tested in people, according to a new study. What's more, the Food and Drug Administration has known about the presence of this drug in supplements for two years, but still has not warned consumers about the issue or acted to take the supplements off the market, according to the study. The FDA "did a lot of hard work to figure out this brand-new designer stimulant was in supplements … and then failed to inform the public," said Dr. Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the new study. The FDA told Live Science that the agency does not have "a specific safety concern at this time" about these supplements.

Robotic glove could help stroke survivors

By Jim Drury A robotic glove designed to help stroke sufferers regain movement in their hands and rebuild their muscles has been developed as part of a collaborative project in Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. The device is called SCRIPT (Supervised Care and Rehabilitation Involving Personal Tele-robotics), and has been developed by researchers at the University of Hertfordshire and a team of European partners. Double stroke survivor Shani Shamah, a former financial services worker, wasn't one of those involved, but she has twice used the device to help provide feedback to SCRIPT co-ordinator Dr Farshid Amirabdollahian, who devised the glove. Shamah was not expected to survive her injuries after a second stroke within a matter of days in April 2013 left her with bleeding on the brain.

Why Dangerous Sinkholes Keep Appearing Along the Dead Sea

For millennia, the salty, mineral-rich waters of the Dead Sea have drawn visitors and health pilgrims to its shores. Nestled between Israel and the Palestinian territories to the west, and Jordan to the east, the Dead Sea is famous for is extreme salinity (34 percent salt, almost 10 times as salty as the ocean), and for having the lowest elevation on Earth, at 1,407 feet (429 meters) below sea level. But for the past few decades, the sea has been shrinking rapidly, due to the diversion of water from the Jordan River (which feeds the Dead Sea) and mineral mining from its waters in the south. The water's surface is currently receding by about 3 feet (1 m) per year, according to Hanan Ginat, a geologist and academic chairman of the Dead Sea and Arava Research Center, in Israel.

'Extinct' No Longer? Brontosaurus May Make a Comeback

The Brontosaurus is back. Because A. excelsus was famously first known as Brontosaurus until 1903, the species would revert back to that original name and become Brontosaurus once again. It's a proposal that excites some paleontologists and leaves others skeptical, but researchers say it's entirely possible that Brontosaurus may eventually regain its place in the scientific nomenclature. Mossbrucker was not involved in the new study, but is "wholly in favor of bringing the genus Brontosaurus back," he said.

Space Apps Challenge Lets Nonscientists Solve Real-World Problems

In this two-day global code-a-thon taking place April 10 to 12, participants will develop mobile applications, software, hardware, data visualization tools and platforms that solve real-world problems for both scientists and the public. Astronaut Cady Coleman and NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan will be on hand at the New York City event. "There's this huge mass of people all around the world who are incredible fans of NASA and space in general," said Sean Herron, a technologist and developer who was a member of the original NASA team that started the International Space Apps Challenge.

New Technique Shines Light on Titan, Largest Moon of Saturn (Photo)

A new image-processing technique is bringing Saturn's largest moon, Titan, into clearer view than ever before. The NASA probe, which is exploring the Saturn system, has uncovered the largest dune fields in the solar system and hydrocarbon lakes that grow and shrink with the seasons on Titan. The grainy appearance of the images particularly bothered Antoine Lucas, at the astrophysics division of France's nuclear center. Lucas worked closely with that team to apply their algorithm to the Cassini radar data, and it has made all the difference, he said.

1 in 3 Breast Cancer Patients Interested in Genetic Testing

One in three women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer may want genetic testing, to see whether they are at risk for other types of cancer, or to look at the likelihood that a family member could develop cancer, according to a new study. In the study, researchers surveyed 1,536 women who were diagnosed with breast cancer between 2005 and 2007. The scientists found that 35 percent of the women expressed a strong desire to undergo genetic testing. "Our findings suggest a marked unmet need for discussion about genetic risk," study author Dr. Reshma Jagsi, an associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan Medical School, said in a statement.

More Teens Using Long-Term Birth Control

More U.S. teens are using long-term forms of birth control that they don't have to remember every day, but these methods are still relatively uncommon, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2013, among teens seeking birth control, 7.1 percent used intrauterine devices (IUDs) or birth control implants , whereas just 0.4 percent of these teens used one of these methods in 2005, the study found. Use of these methods varied widely by state: In 2013, nearly 26 percent of teens seeking birth control in Colorado used IUDs or implants, compared to just 0.7 percent in Mississippi. Because these methods, known as long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), are the most effective types of birth control for teens, more efforts are needed to increase access to them, the CDC says.

Jeff Bezos' rocket company to begin suborbital test flights this year

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A space company owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has finished work on a rocket engine for a suborbital spaceship and expects to begin flight tests this year, Blue Origin officials said on Tuesday. The so-called New Shepard spaceship is designed to fly three people and/or a mix of passengers and payloads to altitudes about 62 miles (100 km) above Earth. It will launch from Blue Origin's west Texas facility near Van Horn, Texas, southeast of El Paso. Testing and development of the rocket engine, called BE-3, has been completed, the last major milestone before the liquid oxygen- and liquid hydrogen-fueled motor is attached to the New Shepard capsule for flight, Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson told reporters on a conference call.

New aluminum battery for smartphones can be charged in a minute

The researchers, who detailed their discovery in the journal Nature, said the new aluminum-ion battery has the potential to replace lithium-ion batteries, used in millions of laptops and mobile phones. Besides recharging much faster, the new aluminum battery is safer than existing lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst into flames, they added. A team lead by chemistry professor Hongjie Dai at Stanford University in California made a breakthrough by accidentally discovering that graphite made a good partner to aluminum, Stanford said in a statement. A prototype aluminum battery recharged in one minute, the scientists said.

Scientists restore the good name of Brontosaurus

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Paleontologists are restoring the good name of Brontosaurus more than a century after it was deemed scientifically invalid and the famous dinosaur was reclassified as another genus called Apatosaurus. They unveiled on Tuesday an exhaustive analysis of Brontosaurus remains, first unearthed in the 1870s, and those of closely related dinosaurs, determining that the immense, long-necked plant-eater was not an Apatosaurus and deserved its old name back. Paleontologist Emanuel Tschopp of Portugal's Universidade Nova de Lisboa cited important anatomical differences including Apatosaurus possessing a wider neck than Brontosaurus and being even more massively built. "The differences between Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus are numerous enough to revive Brontosaurus as a separate genus from Apatosaurus," Tschopp said.

Scientists restore the good name of Brontosaurus

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Monday, April 6, 2015

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The World's Most Powerful Atom Smasher Restarts With a Big Bang

The world's most powerful atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, which provides a window into the universe just milliseconds after the Big Bang, came back to life this morning, after more than two years of maintenance and upgrade work, and it's stronger than ever. Then at 12:27 p.m. Geneva time, another proton beam trekked around the ring in the opposite direction, officials at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) reported today (April 5). In the first run of the restart, the LHC hit energies of 450 GeV, where one GeV is equivalent to the mass of a proton. In the coming days, LHC operators plan to amp up the energy of the proton beams to the highest ever achieved.

Breast Milk Sold Online May Not Be 100% Human Milk

Buying breast milk online in order to nourish a baby with important nutrients that are not available from formula may not always be the safest choice, a new study suggests. Researchers found that one in 10 samples of breast milk that they bought over the Internet and tested contained genetic material from cow's milk. They said it was likely that the cow's milk was intentionally added to human milk, to stretch its volume. Giving babies breast milk that contains even small quantities of cow's milk could be harmful because some infants may have problems tolerating cow's milk, or they might have an allergy to cow's milk protein.

Huge Colorado Floods Helped Sculpt Mountains

In 2013, heavy rains unleashed devastating slurries of rock, soil and water on cities and towns along the Colorado Rockies. "While it strikes us as very random, our research suggests this is one of the formative processes in this landscape," said lead study author Scott Anderson, a geomorphologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Tacoma, Washington. The 2013 Colorado floods triggered more than 1,100 landslides and debris flows in the Front Range after several days of unusually heavy rain in September. The resulting debris flows carried huge volumes of rock and sediment down mountain valleys, scouring out river channels like sandpaper.

Junk Food Is Making NYC Ants More Like Humans

If you were in New York City recently and you saw a man sucking stuff off of the sidewalk with a weird contraption that resembled a water bong, you may have inadvertently witnessed serious biological fieldwork in action. To study the diet of urban ants, Clint Penick, a postdoctoral researcher at North Carolina State University, went to Broadway, aspirator in hand, to collect specimens. "Nobody ever talked to me," Penick said.

Here Be Dragons: 3 Spiky Lizard Species Found in Andes

The three new species were found in the cloud forests of Peru and Ecuador, an international research team reported today (April 6) in the journal ZooKeys. The team, led by Omar Torres-Carvajal of the Museo de Zoología QCAZ in Ecuador, also ferreted out the five other woodlizard species recorded in recent years.

Zap! New Map Charts Every Lightning Bolt

"It's taking very rapid updates," said Daniel Cecil, a member of the Global Hydrology and Climate Center's lightning team. Roughly 90 percent of the lightning strikes on Earth occur between the 38th parallel south and 38th parallel north latitudes, said Cecil. But even on equatorial land, lightning strikes vary with different types of thunderstorms. The number of lightning strikes per storm, however, is relatively low, with only a few flashes per minute, Cecil said.

Ghostly Faces and Invisible Verse Found in Medieval Text

"It's easy to think we know all we can know about a manuscript like the 'Black Book,' but to see these ghosts from the past brought back to life in front of our eyes has been incredibly exciting," Myriah Williams, a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge, said in a statement. In 1904, Sir John Williams, the founder of the National Library of Wales, bought the book, which measures 6.7 by 5 inches (17 by 12.5 centimeters). Only recently did Myriah Williams and Paul Russell, a professor at Cambridge's department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (ASNC), examine the pages of the book.

Pluto Weather Forecast: Probe Likely to Find It Gusty and Gassy

Wondering how the space weather will be around Pluto this summer? Scientists working with NASA's New Horizons mission are predicting gusts of charged particles with speeds up to 1 million mph (1.6 million km/h) that will slow as they interact with the dwarf planet's atmosphere. New Horizons, which will make a highly anticipated flyby of Pluto on July 14, has already been sampling the space weather environment in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune. "Results from those measurements are being radioed to the ground, and our team is already learning new things about the distant environment near Pluto's orbit, 3 billion miles [4.8 billion kilometers] from Earth," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Colorado, said in a statement.

Want to Live Longer? Optimal Amount of Exercise Revealed

Doing a few hours of exercise every week will probably help you live longer, but doing a whole lot more exercise doesn't provide much extra benefit, according to a new study on physical activity and longevity. Still, doing as much as 10 times the recommended amount of exercise was not linked with an increased risk of dying during the study period. In the study, researchers analyzed information from more than 660,000 people ages 21 to 98 in the United States and Sweden who answered questions about how much time they spent doing physical activity, including walking, running, swimming and bicycling. People who got some exercise, but not enough to meet the physical activity recommendations were still 20 percent less likely to die over a 14-year period than those who did not do any physical activity.

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