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Tuesday, August 18, 2015

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Mass Grave Suggests Ancient Village Wiped Out by Massacre

A 7,000-year-old mass grave holding at least 26 adults and children, many of them with smashed skulls and broken legs, is likely evidence of an early Neolithic massacre, a new study finds. A number of individuals also had broken leg bones (tibiae and fibulae), indicating they were tortured before death, or mutilated afterward, said the study's lead researcher, Christian Meyer, a bioarchaeologist who conducted the study while at the University of Mainz in Germany. The researchers also found two bone arrowheads in the grave, weapons that were likely used against the victims, Meyer said.

Wild Inflatable Space Elevator Idea Could Lift People 12 Miles Up

Space enthusiasts and sci-fi fans, rejoice: The space elevator may be one step closer to reality. A Canadian space company was recently awarded a patent for a space elevator that would reach about 12 miles (20 kilometers) above the Earth's surface. Although space elevators have been considered a theoretical technology, they have been billed as a cheaper alternative to rocket launches, especially when it comes to sending heavy objects or people into space.

Medicine's Dark Side: Docs' Bad Behavior Exposed

The reason for publishing these accounts is to expose "dark underbelly" of medicine, and to encourage health professionals to speak up when they see such inappropriate behavior, according to the editors of the journal, Annals of Internal Medicine. In the essay, an anonymous author described one day when he was teaching a medical humanities class to medical students. One medical student, named David in the essay, spoke up and said that something happened to him that he can't forgive.

Illumina partners with private equity firm on gene JV: sources

Gene-sequencing giant Illumina Inc, private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC and venture capital firm Sutter Hill Ventures have agreed to invest $100 million to seed a new consumer-facing human genome platform called Helix, according to people familiar with the deal. San Francisco-based Helix aims to provide a new kind of environment that will sequence, store and analyze individuals' genetic data and provide a marketplace of services through various partners, allowing people to explore their geneology or understand their risk for inherited disease. To accomplish that, Helix plans to create one of the world's largest next-generation DNA sequencing labs and make the data accessible on a secure and protected database.

'Sea Monster' Figurehead Hauled from the Baltic Sea

A sea monster that lay hidden beneath the waves for five centuries has finally been recovered from the Baltic Sea. The "monster" — a ship figurehead that may show a scowling dog or perhaps a fantastical sea dragon with a helpless human clutched in its jaws — was fixed atop the Gribshunden, a vessel that last sailed in 1495. "What is unique is that there are no other warships from this time in the world," said Marcus Sandekjer, the director of the Blekinge Museum in Karlskrona, Sweden, where the figurehead is being kept.

Constellation Sagittarius: Archer, Dipper or Teapot?

Bow, arrow, milk ladle or teapot — the constellation called the Archer appears as many things besides, and you can find it down near the southern horizon this week. The many faces of the constellation Sagittarius may be an example of the psychological phenomenon pareidolia, in which the mind perceives a familiar pattern where none actually exists. After all, the "connect-the-dots" pictures of constellations we have come to recognize are all formed out of stars of varying brightness, scattered randomly across the sky.

Are Smart Mini Sensors the Next Big Thing? (Op-Ed)

Dror Sharon is co-founder and CEO of Consumer Physics, developer of the SCiO palm-size molecular sensor. An electrical engineer, Sharon has previously served in leadership positions at two VC-backed hardware and optics startups and was an early stage technology investor. This Op-Ed is part of a series provided by the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers, class of 2015.

The Dangers of Going Gluten-Free (Op-Ed)

This article is an exclusive for Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. More and more Americans are on the anti-wheat warpath trend, as the label "gluten free" appears on everything from craft beer to cat food. For those with celiac disease, a life-threatening autoimmune disorder that destroys the gastrointestinal tract, going gluten-free is critical to avoid damage to the small intestine. Such facts haven't stopped the food industry from taking advantage of the trend, and gluten-free products have grown to represent a $9 billion market in 2014, according to the Burdock Group, which specializes in food market research, among other issues.

'Young Jupiter' 51 Eridani b: Why Directly Imaging an Exoplanet Is Big (Kavli Q+A)

Adam Hadhazy, writer and editor for The Kavli Foundation, contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Astronomers have spied a new alien world, 51 Eridani b, that they believe strikingly resembles a young Jupiter. With a mass only about twice that of our Solar System's king planet, 51 Eridani b stands as perhaps the coldest and smallest exoplanet ever to be directly imaged.

Swim On! Rescued Great White Shark Likely Still Alive

A great white shark famously saved last month by Cape Cod beachgoers is likely still alive and swimming, said a shark expert. Before it was released, experts pinned an acoustic tag to the shark's dorsal fin, which is on its back. A system of acoustic receivers — located about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) south of where researchers released the shark — picked up the animal's unique signal within two weeks of the rescue, said Gregory Skomal, afisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, who helped save the shark.

People with ALS May Consume More Calories, But Weigh Less

People with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are known to experience changes in their metabolism after their diagnosis — for example, they burn more calories while at rest. In the study, the researchers surveyed about 670 people with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, shortly after their diagnosis. The researchers found that before their symptoms started, the people with ALS had a higher calorie intake — consuming an average of 2,258 calories a day — than those who didn't develop ALS, who consumed an average of 2,119 calories per day.

How to Combat the Global Cybercrime Wave (Op-Ed)

Dmitri Alperovitch is a computer security researcher and co-founder & CTO of CrowdStrike Inc., which provides cloud-based endpoint protection. This Op-Ed is part of a series provided by the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers, class of 2015. Alperovitch contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Paying for Nature's Bounty? It May be the Cheaper Alternative (Op-Ed)

Jane Carter Ingram is director of the Ecosystems Services Program for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The recent encyclical "On Care for Our Common Home" by Pope Francis focused attention on the critical importance of our natural environment. Water filtration is a perfect example.

Confederate Warship, Weapons Recovered from Georgia River

Government officials are pulling approximately 250,000 lbs. (113,000 kilograms) of the warship CSS Georgia's armored siding — the ship's skeleton — from the Savannah River. "The historical significance is evident in everything we do," Jason Potts, the U.S. Navy's on-scene commander, said on Aug. 12, the Associated Press reported. Officials decided to remove the sunken ship before the start of a joint state and federal project to deepen the Savannah River's shipping channel from 42 feet to 47 feet (12.8 to 14.3 m).

Mom's Bacteria During Pregnancy Linked with Preterm Birth

The bacteria in a pregnant woman's body may provide clues to her risk of going into labor early, according to a new study. Researchers found that the pregnant women in the study with lower levels of bacteria called Lactobacillus in the vagina had an increased risk of preterm labor, compared with women whose vaginal bacterial communities were rich in this type of bacteria. Moreover, among the women with lower levels of Lactobacillus, a higher abundance of two other bacterial species — Gardnerella and Ureaplasma — was tied to an even more pronounced risk of preterm labor, the investigators found.

World's First Flowers May Have Bloomed Underwater

A fluffy, frondy plant that wouldn't look out of place in a lake today was one of the oldest flowering plants on Earth, new research finds. "It's a very, very early experiment or divergence in the sexual reproduction of flowering plants," Dilcher told Live Science. In other areas, Ceratophyllum fossils are found in the same rock layers as shelled animals called ammonites.

Big Human Relative Sported Modern Hands

Scientists have discovered the oldest known fossil of a hand bone to resemble that of a modern human, and they suggest it belonged to an unknown human relative that would have been much taller and larger than any of its contemporaries. This new finding reveals clues about when modern humanlike hands first began appearing in the fossil record, and suggests that ancient human relatives may have been larger than previously thought, researchers say in a new study. "The hand is one of the most important anatomical features that defines humans," said study lead author Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, a paleoanthropologist at Complutense University of Madrid.

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Monday, August 17, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Human bones in Pennsylvania thought to be from 1918 flu pandemic

By David DeKok SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, Pa. (Reuters) - Forensic archaeologists on Friday began excavating a highway embankment in eastern Pennsylvania, looking for more bones believed to be from impoverished victims of the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic in 1918. The state highway department, known as PennDOT, received reports of bones in what appeared to be an impromptu burial site beneath a broad meadow that had once been the site of a poorhouse, said Bob Rescorla, a PennDOT inspector at the site. Historians say the Spanish flu pandemic touched all parts of the world and claimed tens of millions of lives.

Hiking in Bear Country? How to Prevent an Attack

News of a grizzly bear attacking a 63-year-old man, who was a skilled hiker, in Yellowstone on Friday (Aug. 7), may have even avid adventurers wondering what's the best way to escape the long and curved claws of such a wild animal. It's unclear how Lance Crosby, who had worked five seasons with Medcor, a company that runs three urgent-care clinics in the park, died. "But the preliminary results show that he was attacked by at least one grizzly bear," according to a National Park Service (NPS) statement.

Medieval Earthquake Moved River 12 Miles

An earthquake in 1570 changed the course of the Po River in Italy, new research finds. The Po, the longest river in Italy, has shifted northward about 12 miles (20 kilometers) between the towns of Guastella and Ficarolo over the past 2,800 years, researchers reported July 20 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. The 1570 temblor caused a 4- to 6-inch (10 to 15 centimeters) uplift of the right flank of the river and resulted in a major one-time shift of the final portion of the waterway, according to geoscientists Livio Sirovich and Franco Pettenati of the National Institute for Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS) in Trieste.

Megacity: Beijing Quadrupled in Size in 10 Years

Beijing has seen explosive growth in recent years, with the physical size of the city quadrupling in just a decade, a new study reveals. Researchers used satellite data to see how much the Chinese capital has expanded, and calculated changes in the urban environment as well. Using NASA's QuikScat satellite, researchers at NASA and Stanford University looked at new roads and buildings that had been constructed in Beijing between 2000 and 2009.

Why Your Eyes Dart Around When Dreaming

The vivid, bizarre images that infuse dreams are formed when people make the darting, rapid eye movements characteristic of a certain stage of sleep, new research suggests. The findings confirm a long-held scientific hypothesis that such rapid eye movements during sleep reflect a person viewing their dream-world in the same way that they would take in a scene when awake. "There was this idea that we scan the dream image, or the mental image when we dream," said study co-author Yuval Nir, a sleep researcher and neuroscientist at Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Spacecraft Makes Final Close Flyby of Saturn Moon Dione Today

The Cassini spacecraft will make one last close flyby of Saturn's pockmarked moon Dione today (Aug. 17), in search of direct evidence that the moon is geologically alive and active. Cassini, a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, has been studying the Saturn system since 2004, and its grand mission will come to a close in 2017, after the spacecraft makes a series of dives through the space between the planet and its rings. On Monday, Cassini will make its fifth close flyby of Dione, coming to within 295 miles (474 kilometers) of the moon's surface, at approximately 2:33 p.m. EDT (6:33 GMT).

Why Do Breakups Hurt More for Women? Blame Evolution

Women tend to feel the emotional pain associated with a breakup more acutely than men, but men take longer to "get over" their former lover, according to researchers from Binghamton University and University College London, both in the United Kingdom. For the study, the researchers asked 5,705 people in 96 countries to rate the physical and emotional pain they felt after a breakup on a scale from 1 (no pain) to 10 (unbearable pain). On average, women ranked their emotional pain — including feelings like sadness and depression, as well as anxiety, fear and loss of focus — as being slightly higher than those of their male counterparts (a score of 6.84 versus 6.58).

Hatfields & McCoys Gather (Peacefully) to Unearth Relics at Last Battle Site

Those doing the excavating in Pike County, Kentucky, are the Hatfields and McCoys — two families that are infamous in the United States for their epic feud, which began around the time of the Civil War and ended in 1891 after several decades of violence that claimed at least a dozen lives. In 2012, the Hatfields and McCoys were featured on National Geographic Channel's "Diggers," a show that follows two amateur relic hunters around the U.S. as they search for historical objects buried in the dirt. The feud between the Hatfields and McCoys came to a head on New Year's night 1888, when members of the Hatfield clan set fire to Randolph McCoy's home, resulting in the death of two McCoys.

Astronomical Sleuths Investigate Famous Times Square Kissers

An unlikely group of scientists, including physicists and astronomers, is helping solve one of history's most romantic mysteries: Who are the sailor and the woman in white seen kissing in the iconic "V-J Day in Times Square" photo? Taken 70 years ago today, on Aug. 14, 1945, and published later in Life magazine, the photo is synonymous with the end of World War II and Victory over Japan Day, or V-J Day. In the United States, V-J Day is celebrated on Sept. 2, the day Japan signed the official surrender documents.

Asia's Rapidly Shrinking Glaciers Could Have Ripple Effect

The glaciers in Asia's Tian Shan mountains have lost more than a quarter of their total mass over the past 50 years — a rate of loss about four times greater than the global average during that time, new research shows. By 2050, half of the remaining ice in the Tian Shan (also spelled Tien Shan) glaciers could be lost, and these shrinking glaciers could reduce valuable water supplies in central Asia and lead to fuel conflicts there, the study found. "If water resources really will decline there in the future, there is a big potential for conflicts," said the study's lead author, Daniel Farinotti, a glaciologist at the German Research Center for Geosciences and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research.

How a Tick Bite Can Lead to Limb Amputations

A woman in Oklahoma who contracted Rocky Mountain spotted fever from a tick bite recently needed to have all four of her limbs amputated as a result of her infection. The woman, 40-year-old Jo Rogers, may have been bitten by a tick while on vacation in Grand Lake, Oklahoma, in early July. Doctors tested her for West Nile virus, meningitis and other infections before finally diagnosing her with Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which is caused by the bacteria Rickettsia rickettsia and transmitted by ticks.

Smart People Live Longer — Here's Why

Smarter people tend to live longer than those with less luck in the intelligence department. About 95 percent of the relationship between intelligence and longevity is explained by genetic influences on both traits, researchers reported July 26 in the International Journal of Epidemiology. The study was somewhat limited in that most of the participants took intelligence tests during middle age, rather than in their youth.

New Temperature Record Is Huge Achievement for Superconducting

A new record-high temperature has been achieved for superconductors — extraordinary materials that conduct electricity without dissipating energy. The advance may be an important step in the long-standing quest to achieve a room-temperature superconductor, which could cities build vastly more efficient power grids, researchers say. Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with zero resistance below a certain temperature.

My Planet from Space: UN Photo Exhibit Showcases Earth's Stunning Beauty

While wandering through a maze of vividly detailed depictions of Earth's surface currently on display here at the United Nations Headquarters Visitors' Lobby, a viewer might mistake the images for abstract art. But they are real photographs, and crouched at the center of the exhibit like a spider is a 1:10 scale model of the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1A satellite — one of the sources of these incredible images. All of the images at the "My Planet from Space: Fragility and Beauty" exhibit, which runs until Sept. 9, are scientific images of Earth taken by satellites.

NASA Extracting Tanks from Retired Shuttle Endeavour for Use on Space Station

NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, retired and on exhibit in Los Angeles for the past three years, has been called back into service — or rather, parts of it have — for the benefit of the International Space Station. A NASA team working this week at the California Science Center will remove four tanks from deep inside the winged orbiter to comprise a water storage system for the space station. "The ISS [International Space Station] program has been steadily increasing the amount of crew time dedicated to science and technology development [onboard the station] through initiatives like the water storage system," NASA told Endeavour's curators at the California Science Center, according to information shared exclusively with collectSPACE.com.

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