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Thursday, August 20, 2015

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Japan cargo ship embarks on International Space Center supply mission

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - After three botched missions to resupply the International Space Center since October, an unmanned cargo ship blasted off from southern Japan on Wednesday with food, water and gear needed to keep the research station and its crew functioning. A 19-story H-2B rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 1150 GMT and put the HTV capsule into orbit 15 minutes later, a NASA Television broadcast showed. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, who arrived at the outpost last month, will use the station's robot arm on Monday to pluck the capsule from orbit and anchor it to the Harmony module.

Epic Trailer for 'The Martian' Questions the Value of a Human Life in Space

An epic new trailer for the movie "The Martian" looks even more intense than the last one, and it raises some intriguing questions about the value of human life in space exploration. Set to the howling Jimi Hendrix song "All Along the Watchtower," the new trailer for "The Martian," directed by Ridley Scott, features some thrilling (and stressful) clips of astronauts braving Martian storms, rocket launchethes and other near-death experiences. The film focuses on astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon), who is mistakenly presumed dead by his fellow Mars explorers and is left behind on the Red Planet.

Scientists call for new review of herbicide, cite 'flawed' U.S. regulations

U.S. regulators have relied on flawed and outdated research to allow expanded use of an herbicide linked to cancer, and new assessments should be urgently conducted, according to a column published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday. There are two key factors that necessitate regulatory action to protect human health, according to the column: a sharp increase in herbicide applied to widely planted genetically modified (GMO) crops used in food, and a recent World Health Organization (WHO) determination that the most commonly used herbicide, known as glyphosate, is probably a human carcinogen. The opinion piece was written by Dr. Philip Landrigan, a Harvard-educated paediatrician and epidemiologist who is Dean for Global Health at the Mount Sinai Medical Centre in New York, and Chuck Benbrook, an adjunct professor at Washington State University's crops and soil science department.

Scientists call for new review of herbicide, cite 'flawed' U.S. regulations

U.S. regulators have relied on flawed and outdated research to allow expanded use of an herbicide linked to cancer, and new assessments should be urgently conducted, according to a column published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday. There are two key factors that necessitate regulatory action to protect human health, according to the column: a sharp increase in herbicide applied to widely planted genetically modified (GMO) crops used in food, and a recent World Health Organization (WHO) determination that the most commonly used herbicide, known as glyphosate, is probably a human carcinogen. The opinion piece was written by Dr. Philip Landrigan, a Harvard-educated pediatrician and epidemiologist who is Dean for Global Health at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, and Chuck Benbrook, an adjunct professor at Washington State University's crops and soil science department.

No Asteroid Is Threatening to Hit Earth Next Month, NASA Says

There's no reason to fear a devastating asteroid strike next month, NASA experts say. For the last few months, rumors have circulated on the Internet that a big asteroid will slam into Earth near Puerto Rico between Sept. 15 and Sept. 28, wreaking widespread destruction throughout coastal regions of the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and northern South America. "There is no scientific basis — not one shred of evidence — that an asteroid or any other celestial object will impact Earth on those dates," Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.

'Smart Drug' Modafinil Actually Works, Study Shows

The "smart drug" modafinil actually does work for some people, improving their performance on long and complex tasks, also enhancing decision-making and planning skills, a new review of studies finds. Modafinil, also known by its brand name Provigil, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat people with sleep disorders such as narcolepsy. "This is the first overview of modafinil's actions in non-sleep-deprived individuals since 2008, and so we were able to include a lot of recent data," Ruairidh McLennan Battleday, a co-author of the new review and a lecturer at the University of Oxford in England, said in a statement.

New GMO Controversy: Are the Herbicides Dangerous?

Although genetically modified organisms (GMOs) don't appear by themselves to have ill effects on human health, the herbicides used on these crops could be an overlooked health threat, some researchers say in a controversial new opinion piece. People have been manipulating genes in plants for centuries, but arguing that this means GMOs are safe "misses the point that GM crops are now the agricultural products most heavily treated with herbicides, and that two of these herbicides may pose risks of cancer," Dr. Philip Landrigan, a professor of preventive medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and Charles Benbrook, a crop and soil scientist at Washington State University, wrote in an opinion article published in the Aug. 20 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

Vomit Machine Proves Viruses Can Go Flying

Bad news: You know that last stomach bug you picked up, the one that gave you stomach cramps, diarrhea and nausea? "Even though it's a small percentage [of the virus particles] that makes it into the bio-aerosolized form, and the majority is in the liquid form, when you convert these small percentages to absolute numbers, the numbers are large enough that they're above the infectious dose of the norovirus," study researcher Francis de los Reyes III, an environmental engineer at North Carolina State University, told Live Science.

Why the 'Prime Meridian of the World' Shifted Hundreds of Feet

Once called the Prime Meridian of the World, the invisible line running north to south that divides the world into Eastern and Western hemispheres passed through the Airy Transit Circle — a 19th-century telescopic instrument at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England. A change in finding out which way is down — from using a basin of liquid mercury to relying on satellites around Earth, researchers have found. Nowadays, any point on Earth's surface can be described by its latitude and longitude — lines of latitude run from east to west, while lines of longitude run from north to south.

'Base Jumping' Spider Soars from Rainforest Treetops

In addition to these arachnids, lots of small insects (including many species of ants and bristletails) are known to engage in similar behavior — leaping from the tippy tops of trees with total confidence, even though they don't have wings to help them along, said Stephen Yanoviak, an associate professor of biology at the University of Louisville and lead author of the new study. Selenops, often called "flatties" because of their exceedingly thin bodies, blend in well in tropical forest environments, the researchers said. Then, they took the spiders high up into the forest canopy and turned the cups upside down.

Long Misunderstood, Hummingbird Tongue Works Like Micropump

The slender hummingbird tongue has been misunderstood for more than 180 years, a new study finds. Since 1833, scientists thought that hummingbird tongues used capillary action — a phenomenon in which liquid flows through narrow areas, even working against gravity — to slurp up floral nectar. Researchers got this intriguing (but wrong) idea because the birds have long groves on their tongues that look like open cylinders, said Alejandro Rico-Guevara, lead researcher of the new study and a research associate of functional morphology at the University of Connecticut.

Fire blazes at Paris science museum; 2 firefighters injured

PARIS (AP) — A fire damaged multiple levels of the main science museum in Paris on Thursday, and two firefighters suffered injuries fighting the flames.

To Pluto and Beyond: Planetarium Show Wows Space Fans

The first-ever flyby of Pluto left scientists and the public wide-eyed, and the surprises will likely keep on coming. At the American Museum of Natural History here, Emily Rice, an astrophysicist at the College of Staten Island, and Jackie Faherty, an astronomer with the Carnegie Institute, took an audience on a journey with New Horizons last week to highlight the science.

Curiosity Rover Snaps Awesome Selfies on Mars During Mountain Trek

NASA's Curiosity rover captured a glorious selfie on Mars this month, shortly before resuming its trek up a huge Red Planet mountain.

Detecting Ripples in Space-Time, with a Little Help from Einstein

Marco Cavaglia is an assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Mississippi and a member of the LIGO team. "Since Newton's first law of motion associates change of speed and direction to a force, the planet's response to the space-time curvature produced by the sun may be interpreted by an observer as a force: gravity.

Denver's 'Corpse Flower' Really Does Smell Like Rotting Meat

From the front of the 3-hour line where thousands of people wait to sniff the first bloom of a giant corpse flower in Colorado, the stench is more like a whiff. This is the smell used by the corpse flower, or titan arum, to lure flies and beetles to its blossom. Around the back of the greenhouse here at the Denver Botanic Gardens, the smell is stronger, drawn out by the fans that circulate air through the building.

Skin Cancer More Aggressive with Fewer Moles Present

People who have fewer moles may be at higher risk for aggressive melanoma than those with more numerous moles, according to a new study. Researchers reviewed the charts of 281 patients with the skin cancer melanoma who visited a Boston hospital in 2013 and 2014. Of all the patients, 89 had 50 or more moles, whereas the remaining 192 had fewer than 50 moles.

Post-Workout Ice Baths May Weaken Muscles

Taking a post-workout ice bath — a technique promoted for relieving muscle soreness — may actually reduce gains in muscle mass and strength, a small new study suggests. The other half cooled down actively, by riding exercise bikes after each workout. The researchers found that, at the end of the study, muscle strength and mass increased more in the men who cooled down on exercise bikes than in those who took ice baths.

Giant 'Battle Bot' Could Get Makeover Ahead of Epic Duel

Finally, there's a crowdfunding campaign for people who want to watch giant robots fight to the death. MegaBots Inc. — a Boston-based company that builds huge, human-operated, fighting robots — launched a Kickstarter campaign today (Aug. 19) to raise money to develop a huge, gun-toting robot, in preparation for an upcoming "duel" with a similar "battle bot" from Japan. In June, the MegaBots team took to YouTube to challenge its one and only competitor, Suidobashi Heavy Industry of Japan, to a robot duel.

Land Vanishes Under Monsoon Floods in New Satellite Image

A river in Myanmar appears swollen with monsoon rain in a new photo taken from space. The overflowing Irrawaddy River — the longest river in the country — is emblematic of the worst floods to hit the Southeast Asian nation in decades. The torrential rains have displaced thousands of people and caused over 70 deaths, according to local coverage in The Star Online.

You Can Send Your Name to Mars Aboard NASA's InSight Lander

Your name could land on Mars a year from now aboard NASA's next Red Planet mission. The space agency is inviting people around the world to submit their names to be etched on a silicon chip that will be affixed to the InSight Mars lander, which is scheduled to blast off in February 2016 and touch down on the Red Planet seven months later. "Our next step in the journey to Mars is another fantastic mission to the surface," Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement.

Where Are All the Dark Energy and Dark Matter?

Two experiments on Earth are helping to shine light on the hidden characteristics of dark energy and dark matter — elusive phenomena that make up nearly 95 percent of the universe but remain hidden from direct detection. The new dark matter and dark energy experiments narrowed the realm where the mysterious material can lie, thus helping scientists to better understand the strange stuff that, together, constitutes the majority of the universe. In search of the mysterious "chameleon particle" — a potential source of dark energy — a team of scientists, led by Paul Hamilton, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, measured the forces acting on a falling cesium atom.

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Wednesday, August 19, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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If Pluto Keeps Spewing Nitrogen, Why Is It Still Full of It?

Something mysterious is happening on the surface of Pluto: No matter how much nitrogen the atmosphere releases into space, it's still chock-full of the stuff. New work examines the possible culprits for the stealthy nitrogen resupply, hinting at active geologic activity inside the dwarf planet. Pluto's atmosphere has 10,000 times lower pressure than Earth's at the surface, and hundreds of tons of nitrogen are escaping every hour.

Japanese Supply Ship to Launch Toward Space Station: How to Watch Live

A robotic Japanese cargo ship will launch toward the space station Wednesday morning (Aug. 19), and you can watch the liftoff live. You can watch a webcast of the HTV-5 launch live, beginning at 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT), courtesy of NASA TV. If all goes according to plan, the freighter will arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday (Aug. 24) after a five-day flight.

Ghostly Particles Detected Beneath Earth

Using giant vats of organic liquid buried under a mountain in Italy, scientists have shed new light on the origins of ghostly particles known as neutrinos generated by the Earth. This research could yield insights into what radioactive elements lie deep inside the Earth and how they influence the churning of the Earth's innards, researchers added. Neutrinos are subatomic particles generated by nuclear reactions and the radioactive decay of unstable atoms.

'Winged Monster' Rock Art Finally Deciphered

The mystery surrounding the ancient rock paintings of Utah's Black Dragon Canyon has finally been solved. For decades, researchers and creationists have debated whether the vibrant red pictographs are images of humans and animals, or rather, depictions of a large winged monster, possibly a pterosaur. It is not a pterodactyl," said co-lead researcher Paul Bahn, a freelance archaeologist.

Japan Launches Vital Supplies (and Mice) Toward International Space Station

A robotic Japanese cargo vessel launched toward the International Space Station this morning, embarking on a five-day journey to the orbiting lab to deliver tons of supplies and experiment gear, including a rodent crew of 12 mice.

'Corpse Flower' Blooms in Denver: How to Watch Live

The first-ever bloom of a stinky "corpse flower" in the Rocky Mountain region is happening here today (Aug. 19). The corpse flower, or titan arum, is famous for its rare-but-enormous blossoms. But what really makes corpse flowers famous is their stench.

Young Children Aim for 'Tomorrowland' in Summer Space Challenge

A summer challenge sponsored by X Prize and Disney Junior invites kids ages 2 to 8 to develop "out-of-this-world" creations — and the grand prize is a trip to Florida's Kennedy Space Center to see a SpaceX rocket launch. Celebrities kicked off the challenge, called "Miles from Tomorrowland: Space Missions," last month at the New York Hall of Science by leading children in STEAM-based art projects and activities. The technology award organization X Prize is well known for a $30 million series of lunar mission milestone awards co-sponsored by Google, and it has teamed up with Disney before for a video contest focused on older kids.

E-Cigarette Use May Be Gateway to Conventional Smoking

Teens who use electronic cigarettes may be more likely to start smoking conventional tobacco products than teens who have never tried e-cigarettes, according to a new study. "The study found that 14-year-olds who had used e-cigarettes for recreational purposes were four times more likely to start smoking at least one harmful tobacco product — including regular cigarettes, a hookah tobacco water pipe and/or cigars — over the next year," said Adam Leventhal, an associate professor of preventive medicine and psychology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and a co-author of the study, published today (Aug. 18) in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The new study showed a link between e-cigarette use in teens and an increased chance of smoking other products later on, but it did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between them, Leventhal noted.

To Build a Gas Giant Planet, Just Add Pebbles

Gas-giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn form quickly by scooping up pebble-size building blocks and pushing smaller potential planets out of the way, new research suggests. Over time, the dust grains clump together to form pebbles, asteroid-size planetesimals and eventually whole planets, clearing out paths through the dust and debris. "This is the first model that we know about that you start out with a pretty simple structure for the solar nebula from which planets form, and end up with the giant-planet system that we see," study lead author Harold Levison, an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Colorado, told Space.com.

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