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Tuesday, August 4, 2015

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Cold Comfort: Why Office Air Conditioning Is Biased Against Women

Office building managers who set air conditioners to frigid temperatures are not only sending shivers up the spines of workers, they're also wasting money and energy, a new study finds. Air-conditioning and heating standards in office environments were originally set based on the resting metabolic rates — a measure of how much energy a person uses at rest — for males, the researchers said. In fact, the standards were developed in the 1960s to accommodate the resting metabolic rate of a 40-year-old man who weighs 154 lbs. (70 kilograms), they said.

Bug Bots! These Insect-Inspired Robots Can Jump on Water

Swarms of robots inspired by water-hopping insects could one day be used for surveillance, search-and-rescue missions and environmental monitoring, researchers say.

U.S. drones capture breath samples from humpback whales in study

BOSTON (Reuters) - Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Cape Cod have begun using a helicopter-style drone to monitor humpback whales off the coast, collecting breath samples from their blowholes and taking aerial pictures. The scientists first deployed the 32-inch "hexacopter" drone in July to help assess the health of whales living in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, about 45 miles (72 km) east of Boston, where there is significant ship traffic and pollution, Woods Hole said in a release on Monday. ...

Measles Vaccine: Images of Sick Kids May Convince Skeptics

The best ways to convince people of the benefits of vaccinations may be to show them pictures of a child with measles or to have them read a description of the disease written by a mom whose child was infected, according to a new study. These ways are more effective than showing people information summarizing recent research that shows there is no link between vaccines and an increased risk of autism in children, the researchers found. The researchers found that directing people's attention to the risks posed by not getting vaccinated by showing them the pictures of sick children and having them read a mom's written account of her child's disease changed their attitudes, leading them to think more positively about vaccinations, study author Zachary Horne, a graduate student at the University of Illinois, said in a statement.

Picky Eating in Kids Tied to Anxiety, Depression

Almost everyone knows a 4-year-old who's never eaten an apple, subsists off hot dogs and spaghetti or eats only white food. But a new study suggests that such picky eating isn't the norm, and that it may even hint at future mental health issues, in some cases. Children who are selective eaters are likelier to develop anxiety, depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to the study, published today (Aug. 3) in the journal Pediatrics.

Vader Crater, Kirk & Spock! 'Star Wars,' 'Star Trek' Collide on Pluto Moon

The "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" universes are coming together on Pluto's big moon Charon. The team behind NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which performed the first-ever Pluto flyby last month, has unofficially named some Charon craters after characters from both beloved sci-fi franchises. For example, newly released maps created by the New Horizons crew reveal that Charon now has a Vader Crater, as well as impact features named after fellow "Star Wars" principals Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.

3D Supernova Simulation Turns Back Clock on Star Explosions

Enormous stars collapse in ultramassive supernova explosions — now in 3D! For the first time ever, researchers have turned back the clock on a star's final moments to simulate how wrinkles in its violent collapse trigger a vast explosion. "Almost all supernova simulations follow about 1 second of physical time," said Sean Couch, a physicist and astronomer at Michigan State University and lead author of the new paper. Such a feat was very technologically demanding, but it proved necessary because models starting right at the collapse just wouldn't explode in a supernova, Couch said.

Can Young Blood Improve Old Brains?

The blood of young people may hold compounds that benefit the brains of older people with Alzheimer's disease, so scientists are now looking at whether transfusions may help people with the condition. Research in animals has shown that the blood of the young may counter some of the effects of aging in older brains. For instance, it might help to improve learning and memory, as well as generate new brain cells.

Soda Fizzles: US Appetite for Sugary Drinks Wanes

America's seemingly bottomless thirst for soda may be waning, according to a new Gallup poll. Diet and regular soda are at the top of the list of things that people said they try to avoid in their diets, with 62 percent saying they avoid drinking diet soda, and 61 percent saying they avoid regular soda, according to Gallup.

Goliath Gates: Entrance to Famous Biblical Metropolis Uncovered

A massive gate unearthed in Israel may have marked the entrance to a biblical city that, at its heyday, was the biggest metropolis in the region. The town, called Gath, was occupied until the ninth century B.C. In biblical accounts, the Philistines — the mortal enemies of the Israelites — ruled the city. The new findings reveal just how impressive the ancient Philistine city once was, said lead archaeologist of the current excavation, Aren Maeir, of Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

Apollo Moon Rocket Engines Recovered by Amazon CEO Preserved for Display

Two and a half years after an expedition led by the CEO of Amazon.com raised them off the ocean floor, the historic rocket engine parts that launched NASA astronauts on at least three missions to the moon are now preserved for museum display. The conservation team at the Cosmosphere International SciEd Center and Space Museum (formerly known as the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center) in Hutchinson, Kansas completed researching and stabilizing the 25,000 pounds (11,340 kg) of Saturn V F-1 engine parts in June. The mangled and twisted Apollo artifacts were recovered by a privately-financed effort organized by Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos more than four decades after the engines were used in the launches of the first, second and fifth manned moon landings.

Eco-friendly 3D printed supercar

By Ben Gruber A California automotive start-up is hoping their prototype supercar will redefine car manufacturing. The sleek race car dubbed 'Blade' didn't come off an assembly line - but out of a 3D printer. Kevin Czinger of Divergent Microfactories has spent most of his career in the automotive industry.

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Monday, August 3, 2015

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Gobbling Up Space Debris: A Pac-Man Approach Proposed

The intent is to eliminate threatening, human-made orbital debris. A new entry to de-litter Earth orbit is the Clean Space One project, spearheaded by researchers from eSpace, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne's (EPFL) Center for Space Engineering and Signal Processing 5 Laboratory and HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland. SwissCube is a joint cubesat project of various laboratories at EPFL and universities in Switzerland.

Star Trek-style home elevator could replace stairlifts

By Matthew Stock For people living in a house with more than one storey, stairlifts or home elevators are often a necessity of life as they get older and find it harder to get up and down the stairs. Normal stairlifts have the disadvantage of being a permanent and visible addition to a staircase, while traditional home elevators are bulky and often impractical for most homes. A company in England is hoping their novel design will fill the gap in the market for a new kind of home elevator.

Tree of 40 Fruit: Dazzling Franken-Tree Has Roots in Science

The so-called "Tree of 40 Fruit" — blossoming in a variety of pretty pink hues when completed — is rooted in science. The eye-catching artistic rendering of the tree brought worldwide attention to its creator, Sam Van Aken, a professor in the school of art at Syracuse University in New York. "[Van Aken has] taken the idea of a single root stock and a single variety and amplified it to express something creative, and that's the artistic side of it for him," said Greg Peck, an assistant professor of horticulture at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

Acceptance of Gays and Lesbians Is Growing Dramatically

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, many gays and lesbians celebrated. A quick glance at most public opinion polls reveals that explicit attitudes toward gays and lesbians have been on the upswing for some time. For example, more than half of Americans — 53 percent — told the Gallup organization that they supported same-sex marriage in 2011, up from 27 percent in 1996.

Remains of Nazi-Destroyed Synagogue Found Using Radar

Ground-penetrating radar is helping archaeologists locate the buried remains of the Great Synagogue of Vilna in Lithuania, a Jewish place of worship that was destroyed by the Nazis during World War II, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) reports. Lithuanian Jews, also known as Litvaks, worshipped there until it was lost during the Holocaust about 70 years ago, according to the IAA. Excavations of the synagogue are scheduled to commence in 2016, and any artifacts found will be put on display as part of a memorial for the synagogue and its congregation, the IAA said.

Weed: Good for the Bones?

Got pot? Marijuana might take a cue from the famous advertising slogan for milk. The compound cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD), which is a nonhallucinogenic chemical in marijuana plants, helps heal bone fractures, the research finds.

Sparse Snow on Cascade's Mount Baker Viewed from Space

New photos taken from space show the significant snow loss this year atop Mount Baker, in Washington state. A camera on NASA's satellite Landsat 8 captured a photograph on July 9 showing snow cover of about 17 square miles (45 square kilometers) atop the mountain. A previous photo, taken July 3, 2013, by the same satellite, shows that the snow cover then extended 47 square miles (123 square kilometers).

International Astronomical Union Meeting Kicks Off in Hawaii

More than 3,500 astronomers and space scientists from 75 countries are expected to attend the XXIX (29th) International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly meeting, being held from Aug. 3 to Aug. 14.

Do Not Pit Animal Welfare Against Starving Children (Op-Ed)

Chetana Mirle is the director of Farm Animal Welfare at Humane Society International. Simply producing more food doesn't always mean that the people who need the food get it. I learned this well before I began my career protecting chickens, pigs and the other billions of animals raised and killed for food each year.

Is Our Universe a Fake?

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the creator, writer and host of "Closer to Truth," a public television and multimedia program that features the world's leading thinkers exploring humanity's deepest questions. Kuhn is co-editor, with John Leslie, of "The Mystery of Existence: Why Is There Anything at All?" (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). Kuhn contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Primeval Procreation: Strawberrylike Animal Shows Oldest Reproduction

Many scientists consider the creatures, called rangeomorphs, some of Earth's first complex animals, although it's impossible to know exactly what these organisms were, the researchers said. Rangeomorphs could grow up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) in length, but most were about 4 inches (10 centimeters) long. What's more, rangeomorphs don't appear to have been equipped with mouths, organs or the ability to move around, and the animals likely absorbed nutrients from the water, the researchers said.

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Sunday, August 2, 2015

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Snake in the Grass! Huge Everglades Python Shows Invasive Issue

A giant python — about as long as a shipping container — that was captured in Everglades National Park in Florida earlier this month has now been euthanized, authorities say. The accidental finding of this snake shows how easily even huge pythons can remain hidden in Florida's swampy south, experts say. The creature weighed a whopping 133 lbs. (60 kilograms), and at 18-feet, 3-inches (5.6 meters), was almost as long as the largest python ever captured in the state of Florida, which was 18-feet, 8-inches long (5.7 meters).

New Ebola Vaccine: Will It Help to End Outbreaks?

Experts welcomed the news today that a recent trial of an Ebola vaccine suggests the shot is highly effective at preventing the disease, and said that the the vaccine may stem outbreaks in the future even if not everyone is vaccinated. The study shows that the new vaccine, known as VSV-ZEBOV, "may help finally extinguish this [Ebola] outbreak," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease specialist and a senior associate at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Center for Health Security. In the study, researchers in Guinea vaccinated people who had contact with people who were infected with Ebola, as well as the contacts of those contacts — a technique known as "ring vaccination" (referring to vaccinating the ring of people surrounding a case).

Viral Soda Infographic: How Does Cola Really Affect the Body?

An infographic that breaks down what happens in your body after you drink one Coke has gone viral, but health experts say some information in the graphic is exaggerated. In addition, while soda is certainly not a healthy food choice, drinking a sugar-sweetened beverage once in a while wouldn't necessarily make a person unhealthy, the experts said. "If you're drinking one soda on occasion … that doesn't equate to it being necessarily unhealthy," said Heather Mangieri, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and owner of the nutrition consulting company Nutrition Checkup in Pittsburgh.

Epic Yearlong Space Mission Documented in Time Magazine Web Series

On July 8, Time magazine posted the first two episodes in a 10-part documentary Web series following NASA astronaut Scott Kelly's unprecedented yearlong space mission. The documentary, which will be released in stages throughout the 12 months Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are spending aboard the International Space Station, offers an inside look not only into the mission, but also into Kelly's life as an astronaut. "We will continue with at least nine hours of interviews with Scott, his family, the girlfriend he's leaving behind and the doctors who will be looking after him while he's in orbit," Time representatives said in a statement about the documentary.

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Saturday, August 1, 2015

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U.S. Air Force closely following SpaceX blast probe: general

The U.S. Air Force is involved in and closely following a SpaceX-led investigation into the explosion that destroyed an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket minutes after liftoff from Florida on June 28, a top general said on Friday. Lieutentant General Samuel Greaves, who heads the Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center, did not address those concerns directly.

New Dinosaur's Powerful Sniffer Helped It Track Prey

While pursing his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, Steven Jasinski fulfilled a childhood dream: he discovered a brand new dinosaur. Jasinski, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science and curator of paleontology and geology at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, was reviewing the museum's collection when he found a fossil that caught his eye. "As soon as I looked at the specimen, I could tell it was not the dinosaur it was thought to have been," he told Live Science.

Lexus' New Hoverboard Is Cool, But Will It Fly?

Last month, Japanese auto manufacturer Lexus unveiled its newest product, and it's not another luxury SUV. The video shows the sleek board floating over what appears to be regular cement in a skateboard park, leading some hoverboard enthusiasts to speculate that, at long last, someone has produced a flying skateboard that you can actually ride in a halfpipe or down a sidewalk. But, if you thought Lexus' new toy would turn you into Marty McFly from "Back to the Future Part II" (the one with the epic hoverboard chase scene), think again.

America Offline? 15 Percent of US Adults Don't Use the Internet

Email, Facebook, cat videos — these are just a few of the things that 15 percent of American adults are missing out on every day because they don't use the Internet. However, that 15 percent is a huge reduction from the percentage of Americans who did not use the Internet in 2000, according to a new analysis of survey data by the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C. In that year, almost half of all Americans (48 percent) said they didn't go online. Since then, despite efforts by the government and social service organizations to encourage Americans to get online, that number hasn't budged, according to Pew.

Blue Moon of 2015 Thrills Skywatchers with Lunar Beauty (Photos)

The second full moon of July wowed skywatchers around the world - and even in space - on Friday, offering the lunar treat of a so-called Blue Moon that won't be seen again until 2018. NASA and Space.com readers across the United States and abroad captured amazing photos of the Blue Moon on Friday (July 31), but perhaps the most remote view came from space. When in space 4 a [year] everything is possible," NASA astronaut Scott Kelly wrote on Twitter while posting a photo of the full moon.

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