GoogleTrends

Sunday, April 12, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Dinos Died Here: Getting to the Core of Asteroid Impact Mystery

The catastrophic asteroid crash blamed for the demise of the dinosaurs also left a gaping scar in the Earth. That sprawling crater made 65.5 million years ago may hold the answers to many mysteries surrounding the space-rock event.

Land Bridge Linking Americas Rose Earlier Than Thought

The Isthmus of Panama has been blamed for everything from triggering never-ending ice ages to bringing bizarre creatures like the terror bird and the opossum to North America. "The land bridge has been used to explain a lot of global phenomena about 3 million years ago, but what we're saying is the land bridge formed 10 million years before that," said lead study author Camilo Montes, a geologist at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Before the Panama land bridge formed, a deep-water channel linked the Pacific and Atlantic oceans along the equator. Closing the gap with the rise of the land bridge may have cooled the Earth's climate by changing ocean currents, thus trapping the planet in a repeated cycle of Northern Hemisphere glaciations, according to several studies.

Apollo 13 Astronaut Exhibit Re-Launches at Chicago Planetarium

Forty-five years ago, Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell "lost the moon" after an explosion crippled his spacecraft, turning his lunar landing mission into a struggle for survival.

Apollo 13 Custom LEGO Minifigures Mark Mission's 45th Anniversary

Houston, we have... Apollo 13 LEGO toy minifigures! The 2-inch-tall (5 centimeters) toy figures are modeled after the real James Lovell, Fred Haise, Jack Swigert and Gene Kranz (rather than their movie likenesses: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon and Ed Harris). "We've ended up with some pretty accurate minifigures," Nick Savage, Minifigs.me co-director, wrote in an email to collectSPACE.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe

Saturday, April 11, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

200 Years After Tambora, Indonesia Most at Risk of Deadly Volcanic Blast

Two hundred years after the biggest volcanic blast in recorded history, scientists have ranked the countries most at risk of a deadly volcanic eruption. Today (April 10) marks the 200th anniversary of the 1815 Tambora eruption in Indonesia. Sulfur dioxide from Mount Tambora lingered in the atmosphere for several years, cooling the planet and triggering crop failures, famine and human disease pandemics in North America, Europe and Asia. "People were eating cats and rats," said Stephen Self, a volcanologist at the University of California, Berkeley and an expert on the Tambora eruption.

Why Gay Conversion Therapy Is Harmful

The Obama administration recently declared its support of a ban on minors receiving a controversial form of psychotherapy known as gay conversion therapy (also called LGBTQ conversion therapy). "The overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrates that conversion therapy, especially when it is practiced on young people, is neither medically nor ethically appropriate and can cause substantial harm," Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, said in a statement. Gay conversion therapy — which its supporters claim can change the orientation of gay, lesbian and transgender people — has a long track record of not working, according to a review of the scientific literature published by the American Psychological Association (APA). What's more, research suggests the treatment can worsen feelings of self-hatred and anxiety, because it encourages people to fight or hate a sexual orientation that can't be changed.

'Silkpunk': Redefining Technology for 'The Grace of Kings' (Essay)

Ken Liu is an author whose fiction has appeared in such outlets as F&SF, Asimov's, Analog, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and Clarkesworld. Liu is the recipient of the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and The World Fantasy Award, all for "The Paper Menagerie," and won an additional Hugo for his story "Mono No Aware." Liu's debut novel, "The Grace of Kings" (Saga, 2015), the first in a fantasy series, will be published in April 2015. Contending warlords divided China into more than a dozen small kingdoms engaged in mutual warfare, until Xiang Yu, ruler of Western Chu, and Liu Bang, ruler of Han, emerged as the two dominant powers and fought a bitter war for control of all of China. The Chu-Han Contention, as the war came to be called, led to the founding of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to A.D. 220), which is often considered one of the golden ages of China's history for its technological and cultural development.

Richard Feynman's Lessons from Ants, Dinosaurs and His Dad (Video)

David Gerlach is the Executive Producer of Blank on Blank and he contributed this article and video to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. He proposed the parton model in the field of particle physics. Starting in 1966, science historian Charles Weiner interviewed Richard Feynman as part of an extensive oral history project at the American Institute of Physics. "Richard Feynman on What It Means" is part of The Experimenters series, from the creators of Blank on Blank.

For First Time, U.S. Dietary Guidelines May Boost Veggies Over Meat (Op-Ed)

In mid-February, a committee of top U.S. government scientists and nutritionists presented recommendations for the latest U.S. Dietary Guidelines. While those findings aren't news to many working in medicine and nutrition, the report represents a shift in what the government may recommend to the American public in the soon-to-be revised U.S. Dietary Guidelines. Simply reducing the amount of meat, eggs and dairy we eat has a profound effect on health, yet, instead, patients take a laundry list of drugs to battle their chronic diseases. Those findings were supported just weeks ago, at a meeting of the American Heart Association,, when researchers released results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study, which started in 1992.

Oldest Neanderthal DNA Found in Italian Skeleton

The calcite-encrusted skeleton of an ancient human, still embedded in rock deep inside a cave in Italy, has yielded the oldest Neanderthal DNA ever found. Although modern humans are the only remaining human lineage, many others once lived on Earth. The closest extinct relatives of modern humans were the Neanderthals, who lived in Europe and Asia until they went extinct about 40,000 years ago. Recent findings revealed that Neanderthals interbred with ancestors of today's Europeans when modern humans began spreading out of Africa — 1.5 to 2.1 percent of the DNA of anyone living outside Africa today is Neanderthal in origin.

Earthquake! Your Smartphone Could Give an Early Warning

Shaking a smartphone can help you pinpoint your parked car, discover a good diner and then pay for your meal. Earthquake early warning systems depend on the time delay between two sets of seismic waves. "A few seconds can be enormously helpful," said lead study author Sarah Minson, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California. The GPS warning system is deceptively simple: If the GPS receivers from just a few phones suddenly lurched in one direction, that's probably not an earthquake.

Mysterious Desert Fairy Circles Share Pattern with Skin Cells

Dotting the arid grasslands of Namibia, fairy circles have long baffled scientists as to how these round grassy patches form and why they disappear for seemingly no reason. Their mysterious nature has perhaps deepened with a new finding that the circles share a mathematical pattern with the skin cells of zebrafish.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe

Friday, April 10, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Radiation and Boredom: Manned Mars Mission Faces Challenges

"After all these years, we may actually be going to Mars," Phil Plait, an author and astronomy blogger for Slate magazine, said here today (April 9) at an event hosted by Future Tense, a partnership of Slate, the nonprofit New America Foundation and Arizona State University. NASA is building rockets and spaceships to get people there, and this equipment will be ready soon, Plait said. Indeed, NASA aims to get astronauts to the vicinity of the Red Planet by the mid-2030s. First of all, NASA needs to figure out how to keep people healthy for long periods in zero gravity.

Fears over Roundup herbicide residues prompt private testing

U.S. consumer groups, scientists and food companies are testing substances ranging from breakfast cereal to breast milk for residues of the world's most widely used herbicide on rising concerns over its possible links to disease. The focus is on glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. Testing has increased in the last two years, but scientists say requests spiked after a World Health Organization research unit said last month it was classifying glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans." "The requests keep coming in," said Ben Winkler, laboratory manager at Microbe Inotech Laboratories in St. Louis. The commercial lab has received three to four requests a week to test foods and other substances for glyphosate residues.

3,000 Goldfish! Dumped Aquarium Pets Multiply in Lake

They multiply like … fish! Apparently, a handful of goldfish dumped into a lake in Boulder, Colorado, just three years ago have reproduced and now number in the thousands. "Based on their size, it looks like they're 3-year-olds, which were probably produced from a small handful of fish that were illegally introduced into the lake," Ben Swigle, a fish biologist at the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), told Live Science. A ranger noticed the 3,000 to 4,000 goldfish a couple of weeks ago in Teller Lake #5 off Arapahoe Road and reported it to CPW. "If they escape and move downstream, they'll directly compete with our native species, all of which were here before the land was even settled," Swigle said.

Solving the Four Corners Mystery: Probes Map Methane 'Hot Spot'

A methane "hot spot" over the Four Corners region of the U.S. Southwest is undergoing serious scrutiny as scientists work to figure out why levels of the gas in the area are so high. The mysterious methane was first detected from space, via a European Space Agency satellite that can measure this potent greenhouse gas. Researchers reported the discovery in October in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, but couldn't explain where the extra methane was coming from.

Ocean of Acid Blamed for Earth's 'Great Dying'

Death by acid was the fate of the sea monsters that perished in Earth's biggest mass extinction, some 251 million years ago, a new study finds. Nearly every form of ocean life disappeared during this "Great Dying" at the end of the Permian period, when more than 90 percent of all marine species vanished, from the scorpionlike predators called eurypterids to various types of trilobites, some with alienlike stalked eyes. It's the closest Earth has ever come to completely losing its fish, snails, sea plankton and other marine creatures. Now, there is direct evidence that ocean acidification dealt the final blow to species already suffering from these huge environmental changes.

'Warm Blob' in Pacific Ocean to Blame for Wonky US Weather

A blob of warm water in the Pacific Ocean may be to blame for some of the bizarre weather in the United States this year, a new study suggests. From the dry spell in the West to the East Coast's endless snow season, the country has seen its share of weird weather so far in 2015. For that, scientists say, you can thank (or curse) a long, skinny blob in the Pacific Ocean about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) off the West Coast, stretching all the way from Mexico to Alaska. So by spring of 2014, it was warmer than we had ever seen it for that time of year," study co-author Nick Bond, a climate scientist at the University of Washington, said in a statement.

A Longer Life May Lie in Number of Anti-Inflammatory Genes

From mouse to man — and across 12 other mammal species examined — researchers found that those with more copies of genes called CD33rSIGLEC, which is involved in fighting inflammation, have a longer life span. So the new findings make sense in that having more CD33rSIGLEC genes would place firefighters on the scene, to control the fire of the immune system, Gagneux added.

Towering 'Terror Bird' Stalked Prey by Listening for Footsteps

Now, researchers have found a nearly complete skeleton of a new species of these so-called terror birds, and are learning surprising details about their hearing and anatomy. To their delight, the fossil is the most complete skeleton of a terror bird ever found, with more than 90 percent of its bones preserved, said the study's lead researcher, Federico Degrange, an assistant researcher of vertebrate paleontology at the Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra and the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in Argentina. Given its extraordinary condition, the fossil has helped researchers study the terror bird's anatomy in detail. The specimen is the first known fossilized terror bird with a complete trachea and complete palate (the roof of the mouth).

New Controversy Surrounds Alleged 'Jesus Family Tomb'

A new piece of evidence is reigniting controversy over the potential bones of Jesus of Nazareth. A bone box inscribed with the phrase "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" is potentially linked to a tomb in Talpiot, Israel, where the bones of people with the names of Jesus' family members are buried, according to a new chemical analysis. Aryeh Shimron, the geologist who conducted the study, claims that because it is so unlikely that this group of biblical names would be found together by chance, the new results suggest the tomb once held the bones of Jesus. "If this is correct, that strengthens the case for the Talpiot or Jesus Family Tomb being indeed the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth," said Shimron, a retired geologist who has studied several archaeological sites in Israel.

NASA Astronaut Is Photographing Every Baseball Stadium from Space

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station has made a game of photographing every Major League Baseball stadium from orbit — and he wants you to play along. NASA astronaut and baseball fan Terry Virts is taking pictures of the 28 North American cities that host a major-league team, then posting the photos to his Twitter and Instagram accounts (@AstroTerry and astro_terry, respectively), along with the hashtag #ISSPlayBall. The goal is to help give people a new perspective on their surroundings and inspire them to learn more about the International Space Station, NASA officials said.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe