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Thursday, April 23, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Scientists: Over 143M Americans live in quake-prone areas

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Scientists say more than 143 million Americans in the Lower 48 states now live in earthquake-prone areas.

Kermit the Frog Look-Alike Discovered in Costa Rica

Already dubbed a real-life Kermit, a new species of frog has been identified in the rainforests of Costa Rica. The inch-long creature, scientifically named Hyalinobatrachium dianae, joins Costa Rica's 13 other glass frogs, named for their translucent bodies through which you can view their organs. One of the characteristics that sets the new species apart from other glass frogs is the advertisement call males use to attract females. Study leader Brian Kubicki told CBS News that this frog "sounds more like an insect than most other frogs," which might be why it went unnoticed for so long.

'Safest bike ever' devised by British entrepreneur

Crispin Sinclair and his team have created the Babel Bike, which they are seeking to fund via crowd-sourcing website Indigoego. According to Sinclair, the Babel's protective cage positioned around the rider, combined with a double seatbelt and host of other safety features make it very safe. In large cities like London one of the biggest dangers for cyclists is being struck by a lorry, often without the lorry driver even being aware that a collision has occurred. In addition to the protective cage stopping the cyclist from being crushed against railings or another vehicle, the Babel's automatic horn - as loud as a car horn - alerts a lorry driver to the accident.

Abandoned Baby Tiger Triplets Thrive with Zoo's Aid

Three male Amur tiger cubs were born Tuesday (April 21) at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Powell, Ohio. The baby tigers each weighed 2.5 pounds (1.1 kilograms) at birth, which falls within the typical range of 1.5 to 3 pounds (0.7 to 1.4 kg) for tiger cubs, according to zoo staff. The cubs are now in an incubator, but they are feeding vigorously and are already looking strong, zoo officials said. At such an old age and with one undersized ovary, "there were a number of strikes against her," said Harry Peachey, curator of Asia Quest at the Columbus Zoo.

Traces of Ancient Earthquakes Hidden in Cave Rocks

Shattered cave formations in the central United States may preserve one of the longest records of powerful earthquakes in this region. Historical records from European settlers provide vivid accounts of deadly earthquakes in states such as Missouri, Tennessee and Illinois. For instance, in 1811 and 1812, people saw the ground ripple like ocean waves when the New Madrid Fault Zone unleashed earthquakes thought to be greater than magnitude 8. Geologist John Tinsley says smashed cave formations could provide a new way to fill in the seismic gap.

Blue Bell's Listeria Scare: How It Grows in Ice Cream

With news that Blue Bell Creameries is recalling all of its products because they may be tainted with Listeria bacteria, many are wondering exactly what Listeria is, and how it could raise questions about the food safety of a company's entire product line. In the most recent outbreak, Listeria infections linked with Blue Bell sickened at least five people in Kansas, three of whom died. But just what is Listeria, and how did it get into frozen ice cream? We asked an expert to explain what the bacterium is, how it grows, and what consumers can do to protect themselves from listeriosis, which is the disease caused by Listeria.

Cancer Tech: New Devices Could Speed Up Treatment

Treating cancer is sometimes a process of trial and error, because any given drug or drug combination does not work the same for all patients. Now, two research teams say they have found ways to speed up the process by allowing doctors to try multiple treatments at once: One is an implantable device, and the other is a special injection device. In Seattle, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the company Presage Biosciences designed a device called CIVO that includes up to eight needles arranged in an array. "Ordinarily, when I write a prescription, I have no way to know if the cancer is resistant" to the drug that's being prescribed, said Dr. James Olson, a pediatric oncologist at Fred Hutchinson and the senior author of the CIVO report, published today (April 22) in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Women Who Received HPV Vaccine May Need Another Shot

Women who receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine may be more likely to be infected with certain high-risk strains of the virus than women who do not get the vaccine, according to a new study. The findings suggest that, although the vaccine is effective in protecting against four strains of HPV, women who received it may still benefit from getting another, recently approved HPV vaccine that protects against nine strains of the virus, the researchers said. "Vaccinated women who got the quadrivalent [four-strain] vaccine may get the nine-valent [strain] vaccine as further protection for them," said Fangjian Guo, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas Medical Branch and one of the researchers on the new study. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that girls and young women ages 9 to 26 get any HPV vaccine to protect against cervical cancer, as some strains of HPV have been linked to cervical cancer.

Defying the odds, Hubble telescope still going strong after 25 years

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA on Thursday marked the silver anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope with fireworks, of a celestial kind, conveyed by the orbiting observatory itself. To commemorate Hubble's launch on April 24, 1990, NASA selected a picture of a stellar nursery located about 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina.

NASA Unveils Spectacular Photo for Hubble Telescope's 25th Birthday

The colorful gas cloud to the left of the star cluster is a hotbed of stellar birth known as Gum 29, located 20,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Carina. You can take a video tour of the new Hubble image, courtesy of NASA. "Hubble has completely transformed our view of the universe, revealing the true beauty and richness of the cosmos," said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, in a statement from NASA. The anniversary image was revealed today (April 23) during a Hubble celebration event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Speakers at the event included NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate John Grunsfeld, Hubble Senior Project Scientist Jennifer Wiseman and Space Telescope Science Institute Interim Director Kathryn Flanagan.

Genome study reveals lonely end for the world's woolly mammoths

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most complete genetic information assembled on woolly mammoths is providing insight into their demise, revealing they suffered two population crashes before a final, severely inbred group succumbed on an Arctic Ocean island. Scientists unveiled on Thursday the first two full genomes of these mighty elephant relatives emblematic of the Ice Age, showing they experienced an extensive loss of genetic diversity before perishing roughly 4,000 years ago. Well-preserved DNA came from two mammoths: a 45,000-year-old calf carcass from Siberia, and a 4,300-year-old molar from a mammoth in the last population isolated on remote Wrangel Island, off the Russian mainland. Inbreeding was detected in the Wrangel Island mammoth.

Beyond Hubble: Future Space Observatories Will Carry Telescope's Legacy Forward

Few researchers could have predicted the diversity of the Hubble Space Telescope's workload when the iconic observatory launched into orbit a quarter-century ago this week. For example, Hubble helps scientists search for exoplanets, which were first discovered two years after the famous telescope's April 24, 1990, launch. Hubble also charts the universe's accelerating expansion, a surprise discovery the instrument helped make in 1998. Also astounding, from a technological perspective, is that Hubble continues to work perfectly, 25 years after launch, thanks to five different servicing missions astronauts performed between 1993 and 2009.

First experiment 'editing' human embryos ignites ethical furor

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) - Biologists in China reported carrying out the first experiment to alter the DNA of human embryos, igniting an outcry from scientists who warn against altering the human genome in a way that could last for generations. The study from China appeared last weekend in an obscure online journal called Protein & Cell. In an interview published on Wednesday on the news site of the journal Nature, lead author Junjiu Huang of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou said both Nature and Science had rejected the paper, partly for ethical reasons. "There have been persistent rumors" of this kind of research taking place in China, said Edward Lanphier, chief executive of California-based Sangamo BioSciences Inc and part of a group of who called last month for a global moratorium on such experiments.

Fossil Teeth Suggest Humans Played Role in Neanderthal Extinction

Ancient teeth from Italy suggest that the arrival of modern humans in Western Europe coincided with the demise of Neanderthals there, researchers said. This finding suggests that modern humans may have caused Neanderthals to go extinct, either directly or indirectly, scientists added. Neanderthals are the closest extinct relatives of modern humans. Recent findings suggest that Neanderthals, who once lived in Europe and Asia, were closely enough related to humans to interbreed with the ancestors of modern humans — about 1.5 to 2.1 percent of the DNA of anyone outside Africa is Neanderthal in origin.

First experiment 'editing' human embryos ignites ethical furore

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) - Biologists in China reported carrying out the first experiment to alter the DNA of human embryos, igniting an outcry from scientists who warn against altering the human genome in a way that could last for generations. The study from China appeared last weekend in an obscure online journal called Protein & Cell. In an interview published on Wednesday on the news site of the journal Nature, lead author Junjiu Huang of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou said both Nature and Science rejected the paper, partly for ethical reasons. "There have been persistent rumours" of this kind of research taking place in China, said Edward Lanphier, chief executive of California-based Sangamo BioSciences Inc and part of a group of scientists who called last month for a global moratorium on such experiments.

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Wednesday, April 22, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Oklahoma scientists say earthquakes linked to oil and gas work

Oklahoma geologists have documented strong links between increased seismic activity in the state and the injection into the ground of wastewater from oil and gas production, a state agency said on Tuesday. Currently, Oklahoma is recording 2-1/2 earthquakes daily of a magnitude 3 or greater, a seismicity rate 600 times greater than observed before 2008, the report by the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) said. It is "very likely that the majority of the earthquakes" are triggered by wastewater injection activities tied to the oil and gas industry, the OGS said. Prior to 2008, Oklahoma averaged less than two a year.

Making Sense of Scents: Why Odors Spark Memory (Podcast)

Wendy Suzuki is a professor of neural science and psychology in the Center for Neural Science at New York University (NYU). While vision is arguably the sense scientists have studied the longest and most deeply, the human sense of smell is more complicated, more ancient, and more difficult to describe and observe.

Cassiopeia: The Banished Queen Ruling the Night Sky

Huw James is a science communicator, fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and guest lecturer at the University of South Wales.

Voices of Rare 'Talking' Turtles May Prevent Their Extinction

Years ago, in the Brazilian Amazon, I was exposed to a prevalent philosophy for how animals relate to humans, one I did not expect. I made the decision to move to Manaus in the Amazon, and have since devoted myself to working with science colleagues and local communities to conserve wildlife, especially endangered turtles.

Will Mobile Labs Finally Halt Killer Frog Fungus? (Op-Ed)

Tracie Seimon is a molecular scientist for the Zoological Health Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). She is based at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. This article is the first in a series celebrating the contributions of women to the practice of conservation. Seimon contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The chytrid fungus is a modern-day scourge of toads, salamanders and frogs around the globe, one of the greatest conservation threats amphibians face.

Deals in dark helped bitcoin take off, says chief scientist

By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Without dealings in the "grey areas" of the global economy, bitcoin might not have grown to be worth the $3 billion (1.99 billion pounds) it is today, according to Gavin Andresen, the closest thing the digital currency has to a CEO. Andresen, a self-confessed "all-around geek", is chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, a non-profit group he helped set up three years ago to support and promote the digital currency. Andresen acknowledged it has been used in the United States for online gambling, which was effectively outlawed there until December 2011, with banks barred from transmitting bets. "Without those uses maybe it would have taken longer (for bitcoin to get to where it is)," he told Reuters over coffee at a conference organised by the Bitcoin Foundation in London, where a push into financial technology is making the city a hub for the virtual currency.. In its early days, "the Internet was for porn.

How to Celebrate Earth Day 2015 with NASA

Today (April 22) is the 45th anniversary of Earth Day, and NASA has a series of activities planned to celebrate the beauty of our home planet. NASA astronauts are given some credit for the origins of Earth Day, as the pictures they take of our planet from space – particularly a famous Earthrise-over-the-moon photo by the Apollo 8 crew in 1968 – showed Earth as a delicate blue marble in space. "NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future," the space agency wrote in a statement. Below is a list of the many ways that NASA is celebrating Earth Day.

'Flawless' 100-Carat Diamond Could Fetch $25 Million

A 100-carat, nearly flawless diamond is slated to hit the auction block today at Sotheby's in New York City. The gorgeous jewel, which is the largest emerald-cut, flawless diamond to be auctioned off, is the centerpiece of the Sotheby's Magnificent Jewels auction. Diamonds also exhibit something called maximal symmetry, meaning the bonds among the gems' carbon atoms can't be crushed or shifted to produce a more symmetrical shape. "You're talking on the order of 100 kilometers (62 miles) or more down into the Earth," George Harlow, a geologist who specializes in mineralogy and crystallography at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, previously told Live Science.

Fading Gems: 10 Places to Visit Before They're Gone

This Polynesian island nation, located between Hawaii and Australia, may be a tropical paradise, but it risks becoming submerged by rising seas as a warming climate melts ice sheets and causes water to expand. Experts predict that, even with a conservative greenhouse-gas-emissions scenario, sea levels in the region will rise by up to 17.7 inches (45 cm) by 2090, according to a report by Australia's Pacific Climate Change Science Program, and such a rise could make Tuvalu uninhabitable. Few snorkel spots are as well known as Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The increased acidity affects creatures like coral that use calcium carbonate to form their shells, and the Great Barrier Reef could be one of the first casualties.

Why Beachgoers Let Sexual Assault Happen Right Before Their Eyes

A recent video of a sexual assault — on a crowded Florida beach, in broad daylight — raises a question: Why didn't one of the hundreds of bystanders step in to help the victim? Though perplexing, the phenomenon — known as the "bystander effect" — is common, experts said. "There's this kind of paradoxical relationship, where the more people [there are who] observe an incident, the less likely any single individual is to help," said Peter Ditto, a professor of psychology and social behavior at the University of California, Irvine.

Delaying Pregnancy May Reduce Risk of Ovarian Cancer

Women who give birth to their first child in their mid-30s or later may have a lower risk of ovarian cancer compared with those who give birth to their first child earlier than that, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed information from nearly 1,700 women living in Los Angeles who had ovarian cancer and about 2,380 women living in the same area who did not have ovarian cancer. The researchers found that each five-year increase in a woman's age at the birth of her first child corresponded to a 16 percent lower risk of ovarian cancer. So, for example, women who gave birth to their first child at age 35 or later had a 46 percent decrease in their risk of ovarian cancer compared with women who gave birth to their first child when they were younger than 20.

Breath of Fresh Air: How Smartphones Can Help Asthma Sufferers

As smartphones become ubiquitous, several companies are taking advantage of these portable computers to track when and where people with asthma need their medication. The data collected by the smartphones are giving researchers a clearer overall picture of asthma attacks and inhaler use, which, in turn, could allow researchers to map out the areas linked to respiratory disease and even reveal some of the underlying triggers of asthma symptoms. "We're collecting data about daily lives and medications," said Chris Hogg, chief operating officer of Propeller Health, a company in Madison, Wisconsin, that provides both hardware and software for managing asthma. Whenever Propeller's "smart" inhaler is used, the phone's geolocation services log exactly where the patient is when he or she is using it.

Visible Light Spectrum from Alien Planet Measured for 1st Time (Video)

Astronomers have detected an exoplanet's visible-light spectrum directly for the first time ever, a milestone that could help bring many other alien worlds into clearer focus down the road. The scientists used the HARPS instrument on the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile to study the spectrum of visible light reflected off the exoplanet 51 Pegasi b, which lies about 50 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. 51 Pegasi b, a "hot Jupiter" gas giant that orbits close to its parent star, was spotted in 1995, when it became the first alien world ever discovered around a sunlike star.

Happy Earth Day! 5 Ways to Get Kids to Help the Planet

From conserving natural resources to fighting food waste, here are five ways to get kids involved in Earth Day. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental nonprofit advocacy group headquartered in New York, has other tips for green teams, such as encouraging school districts to switch to cleaner, nondiesel buses.

Bullet-proof Bloodhound car aims for 1,000mph record

By Matthew Stock Described as "part Formula 1 car, part space rocket and part supersonic jet", the Bloodhound Supersonic Car is aiming to be the world's first 1,000mph car when it attempts to set a new world record in 2016. The car's British designers say they are pushing the limits of science, with the Bloodhound a catalyst for cutting-edge research in fields such as aerodynamics and sustainable high-tech engineering. At their headquarters near Bristol, the Bloodhound team is busy constructing and assembling the vehicle's 3,500 bespoke components ahead of the car's unveiling in August. Bloodhound SSC (supersonic car) will be driven by Wing Commander Andy Green who set the current record of 763mph (1228kmh) at the wheel of ThrustSSC in 1997.

Morphing wings allow drones to keep flying through midair collisions

By Ben Gruber Palo Alto, California, United States - Amanda Stowers is beating up on her drone as her professor watches on with glee. No matter how hard or how many times Amanda hits the drones' wing, it always recovers and keeps on flapping. Stowers says that even drones equipped with advanced sensors can't avoid the inevitable. The ability to maneuver in tight and cluttered environments could allow drones to play an important role in search and rescue operations, giving first responders the ability to search for survivors remotely.

Russia cuts space funding as economic crisis bites

By Jack Stubbs MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is cutting spending on its space program by more than a third over the next 10 years because of the country's economic crisis, forcing it to scrap plans to develop a super-heavy launch rocket. Space exploration is a subject of national pride in Russia, rooted in the Cold War "space race" with the United States that saw Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin become the first man in orbit. The collapse of the Soviet Union starved the program of funds, but President Vladimir Putin has nurtured plans for a revival. Russia is planning to develop its own space station by 2023 but economic constraints are growing.

Planet Mercury Shines Near Mars Tonight: When and Where to Look

Tonight (April 22), about half an hour after sunset, there is a chance to observe the two smallest planets, Mercury and Mars, shining close to each other. Any earlier or later either the background sky is too bright, or Mercury is too close to the horizon. This evening, Mercury will be joined by Mars, which is heading behind the sun towards conjunction on June 14. Because Mars is on the far side of the sun, it is now more than two magnitudes fainter than Mercury.

Lyrid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight: How to See It

The online Slooh community observatory will air a free Lyrids webcast at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT on April 23) at its website: www.slooh.com. When we pass that part of our orbit, we ram through the dusty debris left behind by the comet.

How do you tell a boy dinosaur from a girl dinosaur?

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For extinct creatures like dinosaurs known only from fossils, it is notoriously difficult to differentiate the males from the females of a species because sex distinctions are rarely obvious from the skeletons. Stegosaurus, which roamed the western United States about 150 million years ago, was a large, four-legged plant-eater with two rows of plates along its back, as well as two pairs of spikes at the end of its tail to clobber predators. "Males typically invest more into their ornamentation than do females, so the larger wide plates were likely from males," said Evan Saitta, a 23-year-old paleontology graduate student at Britain's University of Bristol whose study appears in the journal PLOS ONE. Anatomical and other differences between the sexes of a single species, like a male lion's mane or a male deer's antlers, are called sexual dimorphism.

Stegosaurus' Bony Plates May Reveal Dino's Sex

The plates of the Stegosaurus — the large, bony discs that lined the dinosaur's neck, back and tail in two staggered rows — may have differed between males and females, a new study finds. An analysis of the 150-million-year-old remains of the species Stegosaurus mjosi show that some individuals had wide plates, whereas others had tall plates. These anatomical differences may distinguish males and females — a concept known as sexual dimorphism, said the study's author, Evan Saitta, a graduate student of paleobiology at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom who began the study as part of his senior thesis at Princeton University. "It's the most convincing evidence we have so far of sexual dimorphism in a dinosaur," excluding birds, the living descendants of dinosaurs, Saitta told Live Science.

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