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Thursday, June 11, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Privately funded spacecraft spreads its solar sails

A privately funded space project to demonstrate an innovative solar sail passed with flying colors despite a series of near-fatal technical issues, program managers said on Wednesday. The 11-pound (5 kg) LightSail spacecraft, tucked inside a 4- by 4- by 12-inch (10- by 10- by 3-centimeter) box, hitched a ride into orbit aboard an Atlas 5 rocket carrying the U.S. Air Force's X-37B robot space plane on May 20. Funded by members of The Planetary Society, a California-based space advocacy organization, LightSail was intended to demonstrate how a tiny motor could unfurl four thin Mylar films into an area as big as a living room.

Honey-based mead may curb antibiotic resistance, say makers

By Ilze Filks Scientists in Sweden are launching their own mead - an alcoholic beverage made from a fermented mix of honey and water - based on old recipes which they say could help in the fight against antibiotic resistance. Together with a brewery, the scientists who have long studied bees and their honey, have launched their own mead drink - Honey Hunter's Elixir. Lund University researcher Tobias Olofsson said mead had a long track record in bringing positive effects on health.

Thrusters on Soyuz Spacecraft at Space Station Fire Unexpectedly

Thrusters on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that's docked at the International Space Station fired unexpectedly on Tuesday (June 9), temporarily changing the huge complex's orientation in orbit.

Beyond games, Oculus virtual reality headset finds medical uses

By Yasmeen Abutaleb SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - To help treat soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, Jennifer Patterson turned to a gadget typically associated with video games: the virtual reality headset from Oculus, a company Facebook Inc bought for $2 billion last year. Patterson, an engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh, studied a software used on the prototype of the head-mounted display that creates virtual settings, such as a Middle Eastern-themed city or desert road, that soldiers would otherwise avoid, as a way to help them recover from their PTSD. While there are no estimates of the potential size of the market for virtual reality applications in the health care field, analysts say that success in this area would likely spur even broader adoption in a range of industries, such as education, fashion, media and telecommunications.

LightSail Spacecraft Snaps Solar Sail Selfie in Space (Photo)

The Planetary Society's tiny LightSail spacecraft has sent a photo of its deployed solar sail down to Earth, confirming that the cubesat's shakeout flight has been a complete success. The cubesat — whose mission is funded by members and supporters of The Planetary Society, a California-based nonprofit — overcame two troubling orbital incidents before unfurling its sail on Sunday (June 7). "I'm very proud to say that our LightSail test mission was a success," Planetary Society CEO and former TV "Science Guy" Bill Nye said in a statement today (June 10).

Trek On, Spock: Asteroid Now Carries Leonard Nimoy's Name

The legacy of Leonard Nimoy has reached the Final Frontier: on June 2, a 6-mile-wide (9.6 km) asteroid was named 4864 Nimoy in his honor. The asteroid travels within the main asteroid belt — between Mars and Jupiter — and orbits the sun every 3.9 years. It was originally discovered at the European Southern Observatory in 1988.

Color-Changing 'Squid Skin' Designed in Lab

Artificial skin mimicking that of squids and octopuses could one day lead to electronic camouflage suits, researchers say. Octopuses, squid and cuttlefish are all cephalopods, sea creatures that can rapidly change the color of their skin to conceal themselves or to communicate with others. Now, materials scientist Aaron Fishman at the University of Bristol in England and his colleagues have designed a system that mimics how cephalopod skin works.

Ancient Church Uncovered During Highway Project in Israel

A 1,500-year-old church has been discovered at a Byzantine period rest stop on the road connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, archaeologists announced today (June 10). The ancient road station and church, uncovered during a highway construction project, sit next to a seep spring called 'Ain Naqa'a, which is on the outskirts of Moshav Bet Neqofa, a settlement in Jerusalem. Along the old road, which was likely paved in the Roman period, "other settlements and road stations have previously been discovered that served those traveling the route in ancient times," Annette Nagar, the director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a statement.

Space trio leave orbital outpost for delayed return to Earth

By Irene Klotz and Dmitry Solovyov CAPE CANAVERAL/ALMATY (Reuters) - An international space trio climbed into a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on Thursday and left the International Space Station after 199 full days in orbit to begin their delayed return to Earth, NASA Television showed. Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts of NASA, Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency and Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov gave a hearty hug to three crewmen remaining aboard the ISS before sealing themselves into the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft shortly after 0700 GMT (3 a.m. EDT). No issues whatsoever at this stage," Russia's Mission Control near Moscow reported as the spacecraft floated away from the ISS.

Soyuz Capsule Returns Trio to Earth After Nearly 200 Days on Space Station

Three space station crew members have returned home to the Earth after spending nearly 200 days off the planet. "We got to spend 200 days in space together, a few bonus days, but you just couldn't ask for a better group of people to spend this time in space with," Virts said before he and his crewmates left for Earth.

Multitasking During Exercise May Ramp Up the Workout

In the study of older adults, researchers found that, when people completed easy cognitive tasks while they were cycling on a stationary bike, their cycling speed increased. "Every dual-task study that I'm aware of shows that, when people are doing two things at once, they get worse" at those tasks, study author Lori Altmann, an associate professor of speech, language and hearing sciences at the University of Florida, said in a statement. The participants completed 12 cognitive tasks while they were sitting in a quiet room, and then they did the tasks again as they were cycling.

Insect Parts and Mouse Poop: Gross Things in Your Food

Nobody wants to find insect parts, rat hairs, mouse poop or maggots in their food. For example, it's fine with the FDA for Americans to accompany their Thanksgiving turkeys with cranberry sauce containing an average of 15 percent mold filaments, based on a count made when samples of the sauce are viewed under a microscope. "Food defects are not things that cause people to get sick," said Benjamin Chapman, a food safety specialist and associate professor at North Carolina State University at Raleigh.

College Rape Prevention Program Cuts Risk by 50%

In the study, more than 400 women at three universities in Canada took part in a rape resistance program, which consisted of four 3-hour sessions that included lectures, discussion on rape prevention, and ways to practice what they learned. One year later, nearly 10 percent of the women in the brochure group reported that they had been raped, where a perpetrator used force, threats or incapacitating drugs to rape her. Women in the rape resistance group were also less likely to experience an attempted rape, where the perpetrator tried to rape the woman but was not successful.

Some Heartburn Drugs May Increase Heart Attack Risk

In the study, researchers found that adults who were prescribed proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) as a treatment for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) were 16 to 21 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack over a 17-year period, compared with people who were not using these common medications. Popular PPIs include Nexium, Prilosec and Prevacid.

iPhone Will Track Your Sex Life: Is That Helpful?

An update to Apple's Health app that is set for release this fall will let users track their sex lives, but experts say this tracking feature alone has little value for people's health. The sexual-activity tracking feature will be included as part of a new "reproductive health" section within Apple's Health Kit app, which will be available with the iOS9 update. A simple log of your sexual activity is not very useful by itself, except to perhaps make people feel good or bad about themselves, said Dr. Elizabeth Kavaler, a specialist in female urology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

The writing's on the wall with Phree smart pen

A digital pen that allows users to document and share a digital copy of a scribble, sketch or note written on any surface has been developed in Israel. When paired with a smartphone, 'Phree' frees users from the need to write on paper or the screen itself. Resembling traditional hand-held pens in size and shape, its developers say that Phree's appeal is in preserving the ancient act of writing or drawing while keeping up with technological advancements.

Watch the Moon Photobomb Uranus in Slooh Occultation Webcast Today

The planet Uranus will slip behind the moon today (June 11) in a celestial event known as an occultation, and you have a chance to watch it live online. The online Slooh Community Observatory will stream live telescope views of Uranus as it is blocked by the moon in a free webcast at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) that can be seen at the Slooh website: http://www.slooh.com. You can also watch the Uranus webcast on Space.com, courtesy of Slooh.

Egg or sperm? Scientists identify a gene that makes the call

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Providing insight into the sometimes mysterious biology of reproduction, researchers in Japan have identified a gene that controls whether the reproductive precursor cells known as germ cells eventually become sperm or eggs. The scientists on Thursday described experiments involving a small fish called the medaka, or Japanese rice fish, that revealed the role of a gene called foxl3 in controlling the fate of germ cells. Germ cells are present in the bodies of vertebrates of both sexes, but the molecular mechanism that drives them to develop into either sperm, the male reproductive cell, or an egg, the female reproductive cell, has been elusive.

Egg or sperm? Scientists identify a gene that makes the call

Were Dinosaurs Warm-Blooded? New Study Fuels Debate

Dinosaurs were once thought to be the cold-blooded kings of the Mesozoic era. Dinosaurs are considered reptiles, so scientists had assumed the beasts were cold-blooded like their kin, meaning they depended on their environments to regulate their body temperature. The sluggish metabolism of such a cold-blooded dinosaur would have forced it to lumber slowly across its ancient scape.

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Wednesday, June 10, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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'Cave of the Skulls' Robbers Get Prison Term in Israel

A band of antiquities thieves were sentenced to 18 months in prison after being caught red-handed looting an ancient cave in Israel. The six thieves were caught plundering the 2,000-year-old archaeological site known as the "Cave of the Skulls." In the process, they destroyed some of the cliffside where the cave was located. The looters pled guilty to damaging an ancient site, excavating an ancient site without a permit, conspiring to commit a crime, and unlawfully residing in Israel, according to a statement from the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Dinosaur fossils preserve apparent red blood cells, collagen

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - They looked, as one researcher said, like "rubbish," eight seemingly inconsequential Cretaceous Period dinosaur fossils that sat in a London museum's collection for more than a century after being found in Canada's Alberta province. Tests showed that these had striking similarities to blood cells from an emu, a large Australian flightless bird.

Oh, You Deer: Newborn Mini Fawn Is Seriously Cute

A baby deer you can hold in one hand, of course. Belonging to one of the world's smallest deer species, this southern pudu deer (Pudu puda) will grow to be just 12 to 18 inches (30 to 46 cm) tall at the shoulder, according to zoo officials. There are two distinct species of pudu — the southern pudu that inhabit the lower Andes of Chile and southwest Argentina, and the northern pudu (Pudu mephistophiles) that inhabit the lower Andes of Ecuador, northern Peru and Colombia.

Huge Supersonic Parachute Ripped to Shreds in NASA 'Flying Saucer' Test

A gigantic supersonic parachute that NASA is developing to help land heavy payloads on Mars was torn apart during yesterday's "flying saucer" test flight over Hawaii, agency officials said. The 100-foot-wide (30 meters) parachute — the biggest such chute ever deployed — unfurled well and apparently inflated fully, or nearly fully, Monday (June 8) before being ruptured by the fast-rushing air during the second flight test of NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project. "At some point at or near full inflation, the parachute was damaged, and the damage propagated further until the parachute could no longer survive the harsh supersonic environment," LDSD principal investigator Ian Clark, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said during a news conference today (June 9).

China's big biotech bet starting to pay off

By Alexandra Harney and Ben Hirschler SHANGHAI/LONDON (Reuters) - Years of pouring money into its laboratories, wooing scientists home from overseas and urging researchers to publish and patent is starting to give China a competitive edge in biotechnology, a strategic field it sees as ripe for "indigenous innovation." The vast resources China can throw at research and development - overall funding more than quadrupled to $191 billion in 2005-13 and the Thousand Talents Program has repatriated scientists - allow China to jump quickly on promising new technologies, often first developed elsewhere. CRISPR, which allows scientists to edit virtually any gene they target, is akin to a biological word-processing program that finds and replaces genetic defects.

Brain-computer interface reverses paralysis in stroke victims

By Ben Gruber St. Louis, Missouri - After three strokes that left the right side of his body paralyzed, Rick Arnold told his wife Kim that he had just one wish. In the very beginning, it was to hold her hand," said Arnold, a paramedic firefighter from Missouri who suffered the first of three paralyzing strokes in 2009. These days Arnold can hold his wife's hand again thanks in part to a new device that could potentially change the rules on how well stroke victims recover. Arnold is using brain-machine interface technology developed by Eric Leuthardt, a neurosurgeon at Washington University in St. Louis.

Chimps Get Drunk on Palm Wine

Humans' closest living relatives may have a drinking habit: Scientists spied intoxicated wild chimps soaking up palm wine with leaves and squeezing it into their mouths. Alcohol consumption is seen across nearly all modern human cultures that have access to fermentable materials. This prevalence led scientists to suggest what is known as the "Drunken Monkey Hypothesis" — that alcohol consumption might have provided a benefit of some kind to the ancestors of humanity, and perhaps also to the ancestors of chimpanzees, humanity's closest living relatives.

Frozen Ovarian Tissue Works a Decade Later: Woman Gives Birth

A 27-year-old woman in Belgium is now a mom after giving birth to a baby more than a decade after her ovarian tissue was removed and frozen, according to a new study. The woman had her ovarian tissue frozen in her early teens, before she underwent a bone marrow transplant to treat her sickle cell anemia. Such transplants involve drugs that can destroy the ovaries.

Spinal Injuries Increasing Among Older Adults

Although the rate of traumatic spinal cord injuries has remained relatively stable in the United States for nearly two decades, there has been a significant increase in these injuries among people ages 65 and older, according to a new study. The study included more than 63,000 patients ages 16 and older who suffered acute traumatic spinal cord injuries between 1993 and 2012.

Can a Pill Increase a Woman's Libido? 5 Things That Affect Female Sex Drive

Last week, an expert panel voted to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve a drug called flibanserin, which is touted as boosting women's desire for sex. If the FDA decides the drug is safe and effective, it could soon find its way into bedrooms across the United States. However, sexual desire is complicated, and some experts aren't sure that a pill is really the cure for an ailing female mojo.

Marijuana Exposure Among Kids Under 6 Rises Sharply

The rich aromas of freshly baked chocolate brownies may lead children to inadvertently consume marijuana, researchers say. In a new study, the researchers found that the rate of marijuana exposure in young children increased significantly from 2003 to 2013. As more states look to legalize marijuana, the risk for exposure to the drug can rise among children, the researchers said.

NASA Aiming for Multiple Missions to Jupiter Moon Europa

NASA's highly anticipated mission to Europa in the next decade may be just the beginning of an ambitious campaign to study the ocean-harboring Jupiter moon. In the early to mid-2020s, NASA plans to launch a mission that will conduct dozens of flybys of Europa, which many astrobiologists regard as the solar system's best bet to host life beyond Earth. Space agency officials hope this effort paves the way for future missions to Europa — including one that lands on the icy moon to search for signs of life.

Showering in Space: Astronaut Home Video Shows Off 'Hygiene Corner'

Staying clean in space is a challenge, something that Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti knows well after spending several months on the International Space Station (ISS). In two videos, Cristoforetti showed off the shower aboard the station, a spot that she called the "hygiene corner," as well as one of the two toilets. "This is the place where I wash, brush my teeth or, after workouts, take a shower ISS-style," Cristoforetti said in a video produced by the European Space Agency.

Woman's Tattoos Mistaken for Cancer on Imaging Test

When a California woman with cervical cancer underwent a body image scan, doctors noticed bright areas in her lymph nodes, suggesting her cancer had spread. The 32-year-old woman with four children had recently been diagnosed with cervical cancer. In November 2012, her doctors requested the imaging scan to check to see if the cancer had spread (metastasized) to other parts of her body.

Biggest Ring Around Saturn Just Got Supersized

A giant ring around Saturn is even larger than thought, spanning an area of space nearly 7,000 times larger than Saturn itself, researchers say. "We knew it was the biggest ring, but know we find it's even bigger than we thought, new and improved," the study's lead author, Douglas Hamilton, a planetary scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park, told Space.com. The immense ring was discovered around Saturn in 2009.

'Celestial Butterfly' Nebula Spreads Its Wings in Photos, Video

The celestial view, captured by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, is actually the result of dust spit out of a dying star that is then shaped by a stellar companion to form what looks like a bipolar planetary nebula with symmetrical wings. ESO scientists also created a video view of the butterfly-like nebula to showcase the new images. In this case, it looks like the transition is just getting started, ESO officials explained.

Will Dreadnoughtus Dinosaur Lose Its Heavyweight Title?

Dreadnoughtus — the immense, long-necked dinosaur recently uncovered in Patagonia — may not be as heavy as scientists once thought, a new study suggests. Instead of weighing a whopping 60 tons, Dreadnoughtus schrani likely weighed between 30 and 40 tons, the researchers who published the new study said, although not everyone agrees on this estimate. However, Kenneth Lacovara, the paleontologist who discovered the dinosaur, isn't convinced.

Your Birth Month May Predict Your Risk for Certain Diseases

In the study, researchers found that people's birth months were linked with the risk of getting one or more of 55 different diseases. Overall, people in the study who were born in May were least likely to get a birth-month-related disease, whereas people born in October were most likely to get one. "This data could help scientists uncover new disease risk factors," Nicholas Tatonetti, the senior author of the study and an assistant professor of biomedical informatics at Columbia University, said in a statement.

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