FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

	Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News
	(Sponsor this newsletter) Pluto's Odd Dark Spots Continue to Puzzle Scientists (Photos) The images reveal a great deal of variation and complexity across Pluto's surface — including the four large dark patches near the equator first spotted by New Horizons late last month. "This object is unlike any other that we have observed," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said during a news briefing today (July 6). New Horizons captured the new photos last Wednesday (July 1) and Friday (July 3), shortly before suffering a glitch that sent it into a precautionary "safe mode" on Saturday (July 4). Read More » How to See The Scorpion in July's Night Sky Only Orion (the Hunter), the staple of the wintertime sky, has more bright stars. From around 40 degrees north latitude — for cities such as Philadelphia, Denver and Reno — the entire figure of Scorpius just manages to clear the southern horizon. The most noteworthy object in Scorpius is Antares, a distinctly reddish star of the 1st magnitude that marks the heart of the Scorpion. Read More » Is Mars Humid Enough to Support Life? Mars may appear to be dry and desolate, but the Red Planet can be surprisingly humid — perhaps humid enough to support life, some scientists say. "The conditions on Mars, where the relative humidity is high and the available water vapor is approximately 100 precipitable microns, is the equivalent of the drier parts of the Atacama Desert in Chile," John Rummel, of East Carolina University, told Space.com by email. Read More » What's Inside Saturn Moon Enceladus? Geyser Timing Gives Hints The geysers that burst from the surface of Enceladus indicate that this Saturnian satellite is more than just a ball of ice. Previous work has suggested that the geysers are caused by the tidal pull of Saturn on Enceladus, but the timing of those explosions with the motions of the two bodies doesn't quite line up based on models. The new research provides insight into what kind of internal arrangement might be responsible for the timing of the geysers. Read More » Mean Machines: US & Japan Mega-Robots to Battle Two huge, Transformer-type bots — one from Japan, the other from the United States — could soon be facing off in the ultimate futuristic duel. Last week, the geeks over at MegaBots — a Boston-based startup devoted to the art of robot combat — challenged their one and only competitor, Suidobashi Heavy Industry of Japan, to a duel in a YouTube video. Read More » The future of travel? A tube called Hyperloop This was originally the brainchild of billionaire U.S. entrepreneur Elon Musk, who envisioned being able to whisk passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under half an hour. Two years after unveiling plans for a futuristic, high-speed Hyperloop transportation system, Musk has now announced plans for building a test track in southern California and a competition for prototype pods. Several companies subsequently announced plans for pilot projects in California, Texas and other locations, but Musk and his companies, which include privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, and Tesla Motors Inc electric car company, were not involved. Read More » Cause of Falcon rocket accident still eludes SpaceX, CEO says By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - SpaceX is still homing in on why its Falcon 9 rocket exploded after liftoff last week, unable to resolve conflicting data radioed back to the ground before the explosion, CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday. SpaceX plans to take its findings to the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees U.S. commercial launches, NASA and some customers to see if an outside eye can help resolve the conundrum. Read More » Teaching old dogs new tricks with 'smart harness' (This July 6 story is refiled to correct name in paragraph 12) North Carolina State University researchers have developed new technology designed to improve communication between dogs and humans. Researchers at North Carolina State University are combining their love for dogs with their love of technology. A joint project between the computer science and electrical and computer engineering departments and the College of Veterinary Medicine has developed new technology designed to improve communication between dogs and humans. Read More » US scientists: Warm oceans cause concern of coral bleaching HONOLULU (AP) — Abnormally warm ocean temperatures are creating conditions that threaten to kill coral across the equatorial Pacific, north Pacific and western Atlantic oceans, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday. Read More » When Did Women Start to Outlive Men? It's well known that women live longer than men do, but this wasn't always the case: A new study finds that differences between men and women's life expectancies began to emerge in the late 1800s. They found that over this time period, death rates decreased among both men and women. For example, among people born before 1840, death rates were about the same for men and women of a given age. Read More » Low Testosterone May Raise Depression Risk Men with lower levels of testosterone may be at increased risk of depression, a new study finds. Researchers found that more than half of the men in the study who had lower levels of testosterone had a diagnosis of depression, or showed symptoms of the condition, while a quarter of participants were taking medication for the disease. The vast majority of male participants in the new George Washington University study also were found to be overweight or obese, and so for comparison, the researchers pointed to a recent survey of U.S. adults finding that 6 percent of those overweight or obese were depressed. Read More » Child's Mysterious Paralysis Tied to New Virus So far, more than 100 children in 34 states have suddenly developed muscle weakness or paralysis in their arms or legs, a condition known as acute flaccid myelitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previously, researchers linked a virus called enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), which can cause respiratory illness similar to the common cold, with some of these cases. In the new study, researchers say that one case of paralysis, in a 6-year-old girl, is linked with another strain of enterovirus, called enterovirus C105. Read More » 'Direct From Pluto': Science Channel to Air New Horizons' Flyby Images With less than nine days to go in its nine-year journey to Pluto, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is on the verge of delivering the first up-close images of the mysterious dwarf planet. And when those historic images arrive on Earth, they are set to star in a new hour-long special, "Direct from Pluto: The First Encounter," premiering on the Science Channel on Wednesday, July 15, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. "Science Channel viewers will see the very first close-up images of Pluto's surface and its moons, and learn more as leading experts discuss the previous planet's status as well as uncover some surprising research," the channel described in a release shared with collectSPACE.com. Read More » Painkiller Abuse Tied to Skyrocketing Heroin Use in US People who are addicted to opioids are 40 times more likely than others to abuse heroin, making the abuse of prescription opioid painkillers the strongest risk factor for heroin use, according to a new report. "Heroin use is increasing at an alarming rate in many parts of society, driven by both the prescription opioid epidemic and cheaper, more available heroin," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People who are addicted to opioids are primed for heroin addiction because opioids are essentially "the same chemical, with the same impact on the brain, as heroin," Frieden said at a news conference today. Read More »
	(Sponsor this newsletter)
	Delievered to you by Feedamail. Unsubscribe

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

	Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News
	(Sponsor this newsletter) New Horizons Glitch Won't Affect Pluto Flyby, NASA Says NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will be ready for its epic Pluto flyby next week despite a recent glitch, mission team members say. New Horizons went into a precautionary "safe mode" on Saturday (July 4) after experiencing an anomaly, but the problem did not turn out to be serious. New Horizons' handlers say the probe should be back to normal science operations by Tuesday (July 7), exactly one week before it performs the first-ever flyby of Pluto. Read More » Low-Flying Science: How 2 Pilots Pulled Off Amazing Stunt We've come a long way since Kitty Hawk. A pair of British pilots recently pulled off a daring aviation stunt, becoming the first to fly two planes in formation through a building. Read More » Cats Are City Slickers Cats may be city slickers that rarely venture out into the wilderness, a new study suggests. In fact, the new study shows that feral cats roam in urban and suburban parks and yards, but they rarely set their paws down in wilder green spaces. The new finding is good news for wildlife, especially birds, in more rural settings, said study author George Hess, an urban conservation scientist at North Carolina State University. Read More » 5 Odd Facts About Lewis Carroll Alice fell down the famous rabbit hole 150 years ago, after family friend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll) told the story to the Liddell sisters on a boat trip down the Thames on July 4, 1862. Ten-year-old Alice Liddell, delighted by the tale, asked him for a written copy of the story. Carroll published the adventures in 1865, and the book hasn't gone out of print since. Read More » Why Conservatives Have Better Self-Control Conservatives may have more self-control than liberals, a new study suggests. The study researchers posit that the differences in self-control may stem from beliefs about free will, or the concept of being "responsible for your outcomes," as the study's lead author, Joshua Clarkson of the University of Cincinnati, told Live Science. "Effective self-control comes down to the extent to which you believe that you can control your behavior," Clarkson said. Read More » Universal Rhythm: People Dance to Same Beat Across the Globe Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called music "the universal language of mankind." Now researchers may know why. "Our findings help explain why humans make music," study researcher Thomas Currie from the University of Exeter said in a statement. Currie, along with Pat Savage, a doctoral student at the Tokyo University of the Arts, and their colleagues analyzed music from around the world, examining 304 recordings from the online Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. Read More » Overweight Colorectal Cancer Patients Survive Longer People with advanced colorectal cancer who are overweight or obese may survive longer than their thinner counterparts, a new study suggests. "These results are surprising," Dr. Yousuf Zafar, the study's lead researcher and an associate professor of medicine at Duke University, said in a statement. Obesity has long been considered a risk factor for both the development of colorectal cancer and the recurrence of the disease among those who have had it previously. Read More » Cancer Forecast: Why More People Will Die, Even As Death Rates Fall Cancer death rates will continue to decline in the United States through 2020, including death rates from some of the most common cancers in both men and women, a new study says. However, because the population is growing and getting older, the total number of cancer deaths will increase during that same period, the researchers said. The increases will be most pronounced among black and white men and black women, they said. Read More » Should Placebos Be Used to 'Treat' Patients? Placebos offer real therapeutic value: Although they cannot cure an illness, they can make patients feel better. In a provocative essay published today (July 1) in The New England Journal of Medicine, Harvard Medical School professor Ted Kaptchuk proposes that placebos should be considered valuable components of medical care and important tools in relieving patients' symptoms — and not simply an inconvenient baseline that "real medicines" are compared to within medical studies. A placebo — the word comes from the Latin phrase meaning "I shall please" — is a fake pill or procedure that can provide a psychological benefit because the patient thinks he or she is getting real treatment. Read More » Teaching old dogs new tricks with 'smart harness' North Carolina State University researchers have developed new technology designed to improve communication between dogs and humans. Researchers at North Carolina State University are combining their love for dogs with their love of technology. A joint project between the computer science and electrical and computer engineering departments and the College of Veterinary Medicine has developed new technology designed to improve communication between dogs and humans. Read More » Spiders, Ahoy! 8-Legged Critters Can 'Sail' Over Water Spiders can dance on water like tiny ballerinas pirouetting across a slippery stage. Researchers discovered that spider dancing (also known as spider sailing) is a part of the "ballooning" process — a popular method of transportation for many species of spiders. When ballooning, spiders typically climb to the top of a plant, stick their spinnakers into the air and shoot out a long strand of silk, which catches a breeze and hoists the silk (and the spider) into the air. Read More » Company Aims to Offer On-Demand Meteor Showers A group of Japanese scientists say they have a shooting-star secret formula — an undisclosed chemical mixture packed into tiny, inch-wide balls that the team hopes to eject from a satellite to create on-demand meteor showers, AFP reports. A Japanese start-up company called ALE is partnering with researchers at multiple universities to create the artificial meteor showers, which will cost around $8,100 per meteor for buyers. Read More » Guns Don't Deter Crime, Study Finds "The one thing that would have at least ameliorated the horrible situation in Charleston would have been that if somebody in that prayer meeting had a conceal carry or there had been either an off-duty policeman or an on-duty policeman, somebody with the legal authority to carry a firearm and could have stopped the shooter," presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said in a Fox News interview on June 19. "We found no support for the hypothesis that owning more guns leads to a drop or a reduction in violent crime," said study researcher Michael Monuteaux, an epidemiologist and professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Numerous studies have found that gun ownership correlates with gun homicide, and homicide by gun is the most common type of homicide in the United States. Read More » Historic flyby of Pluto on track despite probe glitch, NASA says By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA said on Monday it expects the New Horizons spacecraft to be back in service on Tuesday after a computer glitch on the weekend threatened its upcoming historic flyby of Pluto. Nearing the end of a 9.5-year journey to solar system's unexplored outer reaches, New Horizons shut down radio communications with Earth for a nail-biting 81 minutes on Saturday. The cause of the problem was a timing flaw in the final batch of software uploaded to the spacecraft, NASA said in a status report late Sunday. Read More » Wheel Worries: Mars Rover Curiosity Dealing With Damage NASA's Mars rover Curiosity faces ongoing wheel wear and tear as it continues its trek across the rock-strewn Red Planet. The car-size Curiosity rover has been on duty since landing on Mars in August 2012. Curiosity has six aluminum wheels, each with its own individual motor. Read More » New Brain-Like Computer May Solve World's Most Complex Math Problems A new computer prototype called a "memcomputer" works by mimicking the human brain, and could one day perform notoriously complex tasks like breaking codes, scientists say. These new, brain-inspired computing devices also could help neuroscientists better understand the workings of the human brain, researchers say. In contrast, Massimiliano Di Ventra, a theoretical physicist at the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues are building "memcomputers," made up of "memprocessors," that both process and store data. Read More »
	(Sponsor this newsletter)
	Delievered to you by Feedamail. Unsubscribe

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

	Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News
	(Sponsor this newsletter) Russian Cargo Spacecraft Arrives at Space Station A robotic Russian resupply ship arrived at the International Space Station early Sunday morning (July 5), ending a streak of two straight cargo-mission failures. Read More » Pluto Probe Suffers Glitch 10 Days Before Epic Flyby A glitch caused NASA's New Horizons spacecraft to go dark for more than an hour Saturday (July 4), just 10 days before its historic flyby of Pluto. "During that time, the autonomous autopilot on board the spacecraft recognized a problem and — as it's programmed to do in such a situation — switched from the main to the backup computer," New Horizons team members wrote in an update Saturday. Members of an "anomaly review board" are currently investigating the issue and working to get New Horizons back up to speed. Read More » New Horizons space probe suffers glitch on approach to Pluto By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA scientists were working on Sunday to revive the New Horizons spacecraft after it suffered a computer malfunction just nine days before it was due to fly past Pluto. On Saturday, an unknown glitch caused New Horizons to switch to a backup computer, which triggered an 81-minute break in radio communications with mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, NASA said in a status report. "Full recovery is expected to take from one to several days," NASA said. Read More » New Horizons space probe suffers glitch on approach to Pluto By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA scientists were working on Sunday to revive the New Horizons spacecraft after it suffered a computer malfunction just nine days before it was due to fly past Pluto. On Saturday, an unknown glitch caused New Horizons to switch to a backup computer, which triggered an 81-minute break in radio communications with mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, NASA said in a status report. "Full recovery is expected to take from one to several days," NASA said. Read More »
	(Sponsor this newsletter)
	Delievered to you by Feedamail. Unsubscribe