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Monday, June 29, 2015

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SpaceX Cargo-Mission Failure Doesn't Endanger Space Station Crew, NASA Says

The three crewmembers currently aboard the International Space Station are in no danger of running out of crucial supplies despite today's failure of a SpaceX cargo mission to the orbiting lab, NASA officials said. Despite this being the third space station resupply vehicle to fail to reach its target in the last eight months, NASA officials said the crew is well stocked through October, with more supplies due to be delivered in the coming months. Michael Suffredini, NASA's International Space Station program manager, said in a press conference today following the rocket explosion that the current supply situation would have to be much more dire to consider bringing the current crewmembers home.

Will Fake Rhino Horns Curb Poaching?

A new company is engineering a synthetic rhino horn that could be indistinguishable from the natural kind. The goal is to flood the black market for rhino horn, which is prized in some parts of Asia for its purported medicinal value, according to the company, called Pembient. By decreasing the amount of money the horn fetches, the company founders hope to reduce the incentive for poachers in Africa to kill rhinos.

Red Sea's Glowing Corals are Rainbow of Colors

Deep in the Red Sea, beyond the reach of most scuba divers, coral reefs are putting on a glowing, colorful show, scientists have discovered. Researchers found the radiant corals more than 160 feet (50 meters) below the surface of the Red Sea, which separates Africa from the Arabian Peninsula. The corals' glow comes from fluorescent pigments, noted study co-author Jörg Wiedenmann, a professor of biological oceanography at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.

Solar Plane Takes Off on Record 120-Hour Flight Across Pacific

A solar-powered plane able to fly in sunshine or darkness without using any fuel took off today (June 29) on a planned 120-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean, from Nagoya, Japan, to Kalaeola, Hawaii. The Solar Impulse 2 took off from Nagoya Airfield at 3:03 a.m. local time in Japan (2:03 p.m. EDT on June 28). "This flight will be demanding and challenging particularly given its duration and the fact that no immediate landing is possible and will be a feat never accomplished before in the world of aviation," Solar Impulse officials said in a statement.

Gorgeous Night-Shining Clouds Glow in New Earth Images

This glowing layer is made up of noctilucent, or night-shining clouds. According to NASA's Earth Observatory, these clouds form when the lower atmosphere warms and the upper atmosphere cools, a pattern that occurs in late spring and summer. Noctilucent clouds far from the poles are a fairly new phenomenon, and may be related to rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Fight Childhood Obesity in the Home, New Guidelines Say

Parents and pediatricians should fight childhood obesity by improving diet and activity levels in the home, new guidelines propose. In a new paper, leading physicians' group the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is updating its guidelines, last issued more than a decade ago, about how to stem rising rates of childhood obesity. More than one-third of American children and teens are overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Women's Sexual Readiness Tied to Heart Rate

A woman's heart rate may hold clues to how easy or difficult it is for her to become sexually aroused, as well as her overall sexual function, according to new research. Women in the study with low HRV — that is, whose heart rates were very steady — were significantly more likely to report problems with arousal and overall sexual dysfunction than women with average or above-average HRV — whose heart rates varied more from moment to moment. The findings suggest that "low HRV is likely a risk factor for sexual dysfunction in women," said Amelia Stanton, co-author of the study and a clinical psychology graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin.

Baby's Gaze May Predict Later Hyperactivity

A newborn's gaze may hold clues to how he or she will behave a few years later, new research suggests. In the study, researchers looked at 80 newborns, who were just 1 day to 4 days old, and measured how long the babies focused their gazes on images that were being shown to them. The researchers found that newborns who looked at each image for less time tended to be more hyperactive and impulsive later in childhood than the newborns who looked at the images longer.

Honey Bees' African Ancestors May Hold Cure for Biting Mite Plague

Jessica Arriens, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), contributed this article to Live Science's& Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. A tiny red beast that attaches, shield-like, to the back of a bee, Varroa feeds on bee hemolymph (bee blood).

'Whispering Gallery' of Light Speaks Loudly on Disease Detection (Op-Ed)

Sarah Bates, a public affairs specialist at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Common health tests, such as pregnancy and blood sugar tests, involve putting a drop of fluid on a test strip infused with a substance that will react with a specific molecule. The strip acts as a simple biosensor, a device that detects chemicals with the help of biological molecules such as proteins or enzymes.

Precious Time: The Challenge of Building a Better Atomic Clock

At the time, sailors had no reliable method for measuring longitude, the coordinates that measure how far east and west one is from the international dateline. Longitude's key was accurate timekeeping, as the English watchmaker John Harrison knew, and clocks just weren't accurate yet. "If you want to measure distances well, you really need an accurate clock," said Clayton Simien, an NSF-funded physicist at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

The Grand Canyon Star Party: Illuminating Dark Skies

Michael Sainato is a freelancer with credits including the Miami Herald, Huffington Post and The Hill. Sainato contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Back in the late 1970s, the San Francisco Sidewalk Astronomers began setting up telescopes in the park for public use.

Listening with Lasers: Hybrid Technique Sees Into Human Body

The photons in laser light scatter when they encounter biological tissue. The approach, which combines laser light and ultrasound, is based on the photoacoustic effect, a concept first discovered by Alexander Graham Bell in the 1880s. To produce the photoacoustic effect, Bell focused a beam of light on a selenium block.

Texas Just Banned Sales of Shark Fin, Will Other States Follow?

Amanda Keledjian is a marine scientist working on Oceana U.S.A.'s responsible fishing campaign. Across the globe, sharks are being murdered for a culinary gimmick — shark fin soup, even though shark fins offer virtually no flavor or nutritional value. This weekend, the state of Texas took an important step forward for global shark conservation by becoming the 10th U.S. state to ban the trade of shark fins.

Mice of Mars: Rodents Pave Way to Red Planet

Such experiments began as far back as the late 1940s in initial tests to see if living things could withstand the extreme g-force of a rocket launch. Mice continue to play a critically important part in space experiments, mainly because the animals make excellent test subjects. Finally, because mice are mammals, they share many common characteristics with humans in terms of genetics, biology and behavior.

Real Climate Change as World Does More Than 'Show Up' (Op-Ed)

Lynn Scarlett, managing director of public policy at The Nature Conservancy, contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The lead-up to this year's climate negotiations in Paris — officially, the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) — is embodying that truth.

SpaceX Rocket Explosion Shouldn't Affect Commercial Crew Plans, NASA Says

The failure of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket during a cargo launch Sunday shouldn't have a big impact on the company's ability to fly astronauts to orbit and back a few years from now, NASA officials said. The two-stage Falcon 9 exploded Sunday (June 28) shortly after launching SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule on an attempted cargo mission to the International Space Station for NASA. The cause of the accident remains unclear at the moment, though SpaceX representatives have said they suspect some sort of issue with the rocket's second stage.

NASA Exhibits Space Shuttles Challenger, Columbia Debris for First Time

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Artifacts recovered from the wreckages of NASA's Challenger and Columbia space shuttles are for the first time now on public display, part of a powerful new exhibit that is intended to honor the two winged spacecraft and their fallen astronaut crews. NASA officials joined family members of the fallen crews Saturday (June 27) to open "Forever Remembered," a new permanent exhibit installed under the retired space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The solemn display, developed in secret over the past several years, serves to memorialize the 14 men and women who lost their lives on Challenger's and Columbia's ill-fated missions, STS-51L in 1986 and STS-107 in 2003, respectively.

Why June 30 Will Be 1 Second Longer

The year 2015 is not a leap year, but it does have a leap second, set to take place on Tuesday (June 30) at 7:59:60 p.m. EDT (23:59:60 GMT). "Earth's rotation is gradually slowing down a bit, so leap seconds are a way to account for that," Daniel MacMillan of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement. This happens because Earth's rotation is slowing down, thanks to a kind of braking force caused by the gravitational tug of war between Earth, the sun and the moon, researchers at NASA said.

Would Astronauts Have Survived the SpaceX Rocket Explosion?

Astronauts likely would have survived the rocket explosion that scuttled SpaceX's unmanned resupply mission to the International Space Station on Sunday, company representatives said. If the mishap had occurred during a crewed launch of the "Dragon V2" capsule variant, it likely would not have caused any fatalities, said SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell. "The escape system slated for the second version of Dragon would have — should certainly have taken the astronauts to a safe place after an anomaly like this," Shotwell said during a news conference following the accident Sunday.

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Sunday, June 28, 2015

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Athenian Wealth: Millions of Silver Coins Stored in Parthenon Attic

Millions of silver coins may have been stored in the attic of the Parthenon,one of the most famous structures from the ancient world, a research team says. The attic of the Parthenon is now destroyed and the coins would have been spent in ancient times. Their evidence suggests that millions of coins made up the cash reserves of the city-state of Athens and much of this hoard was stored in the attic of the Parthenon.

Continents Rose Above Oceans 3 Billion Years Ago

The continents may have first risen high above the oceans of the world about 3 billion years ago, researchers say. Currently, the continents rise an average of about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) above the seafloor. The continents are composed of a thick, buoyant crust that's about 21 miles (35 km) deep, on average, whereas the comparatively thin, dense crust of the ocean floor is only an average of about 4 miles (7 km) thick.

SpaceX Falcon rocket explodes after Florida liftoff: NASA

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - An unmanned Space Exploration Technologies rocket exploded about two minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Sunday, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station, NASA said. The 208-foot-tall (63-meter) rocket was the company's 19th Falcon 9 launch since its 2010 debut, including six previous cargo runs for NASA under a 15-flight contract worth more than $2 billion. SpaceX, as the company is known, is owned and operated by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Elusive Saturn is Easy to Spot Tonight

If you've ever struggled to identify Saturn in the night sky, be sure to look up tonight to get a clear view of the ringed planet. Finding Saturn can often be a challenge for new stargazers. To the naked eye, Saturn really isn't all that distinct, and many neophytes to astronomy may have over looked it without knowing exactly what it is.

SpaceX Rocket Fails During Cargo Launch to Space Station

An unmanned SpaceX cargo mission crashed back to Earth today (June 28), marking the third failure of a resupply flight to the International Space Station in the past eight months. Everything appeared to proceed smoothly at first, but mission controllers stopped receiving data from the rocket 2 minutes and 19 seconds after launch, NASA officials said. Will provide more info as soon as we review the data," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via Twitter today, which is, incidentally, his 44th birthday.

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Saturday, June 27, 2015

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Aratana's experimental appetite stimulator succeeds in study on dogs

(Reuters) - Animal health drugmaker Aratana Therapeutics Inc said its experimental appetite-stimulating drug was found effective in dogs in a pivotal study. Aratana shares jumped 21 percent in extended trading on Friday. The study showed that an oral 3 mg/kg dose of the drug, AT-002, given daily for four days significantly increased appetite in dogs, compared with those on placebo.

Space Stress: How 1-Year Mission Is Studying Astronaut Health

You're flying and falling at once, people are scrutinizing your every move, the light is unnatural, everyday tasks are inexplicably difficult and you see your family and friends only at a distance: Being in space is much like a stressful dream, and that constant stress must take a toll on astronauts over time. Researchers are probing how the bizarre stresses of space affect astronauts aboard the International Space Station, with an eye toward reducing negative impacts as much as possible. Over the course of the ongoing one-year mission on the orbiting lab, two spaceflyers are undergoing five behavioral health investigations to examine cognitive performance, sleep, brain structure, emotion and fatigue.

Python Eats Porcupine, Regrets It Later (Here's Why)

One of these giant snakes — which kill prey by suffocating it and then consuming it whole — recently dined on a porcupine and didn't live to brag about it. On June 14, a cyclist riding along one of the mountain bike trails at the Lake Eland Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, spotted a very engorged snake. Lots of people came to the park in the following days just to view the swollen snake, according to Jennifer Fuller, general manager at the game reserve.

'Astronaut Wives Club': Space History vs. Hollywood in 'Protocol' (Ep. 2)

"The Astronaut Wives Club," ABC's 10-part docu-drama about the spouses behind America's first spacemen, entered orbit Thursday night (June 25) with its second episode. Picking up where the premiere "Launch" left off, "Protocol" revolved around the second and third U.S. manned spaceflights from the perspectives of the astronauts' wives. "As Louise and Alan Shepard bask in the success of his mission, Betty Grissom preps for Gus' launch and turns to Louise for advice," wrote ABC in its synopsis.

How Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Could Improve Health

The Supreme Court decision that same-sex couples anywhere in the United States have a right to marry could improve the health of gay, lesbian and bisexual people, experts say. A large body of evidence shows that heterosexual people who are married have better physical and mental health than people who are not married. "We know that marriage does enhance people's health," said Richard Wight, a community health researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Public Health.

Stepping on a Scale Daily May Help You Lose Weight

In the study, researchers found that, among people who were trying to lose weight, those who weighed themselves daily and recorded their results lost about 3 percent of their body weight, on average, over the course of a year. Moreover, after that year, the people who weighed themselves daily were able to maintain their weight loss for another year, which is important because maintaining a new, lower weight without gaining pounds back tends to be more difficult for people than losing weight, the researchers said. "There are thousands of ways of losing weight," said study author David Levitsky, a professor of nutrition and psychology at Cornell University.

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