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Wednesday, October 14, 2015

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Hold On to Your Lightsabers: Here Comes 'Star Wars Rebels' Season 2

You don't have to wait for December's "The Force Awakens" film to get your "Star Wars" fix — Season 2 of Disney XD's "Star Wars Rebels" premieres tomorrow! Cast members and creators previewed the twists and turns of the animated TV show's second season at a New York Comic Con panel Thursday (Oct. 8). "Star Wars Rebels" tells the backstory behind the Rebel Alliance, which was portrayed in the "Star Wars" movies (14 years after the events of "Star Wars: Episode III").

Leading Astronomer Violated Sexual Harassment Policies, Investigation Finds

Geoff Marcy, a leader in the field of exoplanet science, was found to have "violated campus sexual harassment policy" at the University of California, Berkeley, where he works, an investigation by the university has concluded. The investigation, conducted by the school's Title IX office, "stemmed from a number of incidents believed to have occurred between 2001 and 2010 and involved students who have since graduated," according to a statement from the university obtained by Space.com. The results of the investigation were first reported to the public in a story by BuzzFeed News published last Friday (Oct. 9).

Listeria Outbreak Mystery: Weird Chemistry Tainted Caramel Apples

Researchers may have finally found the source of a 2014 Listeria outbreak that was traced to caramel apples, a new study finds. Caramel apples were not considered to be a hospitable breeding ground for the disease-causing bacteria, Listeria monocytogenes. The juice from apples is acidic, and that acidity makes it hard for bacteria to grow, said Kathleen Glass, the associate director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Food Research Institute and lead author on the study.

Repaired SpaceX rocket to fly by early December, company says

Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, expects to return a repaired and upgraded Falcon 9 rocket to flight around the start of December, a company vice president said, less than six months after one exploded shortly after liftoff. The 208-foot-tall (63-meter) rocket carrying cargo for the International Space Station exploded less than three minutes after liftoff from Florida on June 28. The cause of the accident was traced to a faulty bracket inside the rocket's upper-stage engine.

Mom's Stress During Pregnancy Tied to Teen's Coordination Problems

Children born to women who experienced stressful events during pregnancy may be less coordinated in their body movements as teenagers, according to a new study. The new findings suggest that "programs aimed at detecting and reducing maternal stress during pregnancy" may improve the long-term outlook for these children, study author Beth Hands, professor of human movement at the University of Notre Dame Australia, said in a statement. In the study, doctors asked 2,900 women in Australia twice during their pregnancies — at 18 weeks and 34 weeks — whether they had experienced stressful events while they were pregnant.

Israeli engineer designs grounded drone delivery service

Israeli industrial designer Kobi Shikar has come up with the concept of a parcel delivery drone that will never get off the ground - and that's just fine with him. The Transwheel Delivery Drone is a sensor-packed motorized unicycle that Shikar says could be an earthbound alternative to Amazon's futuristic plans to use drone multicopters to deliver packages to your front door. It's a compromise, Shikar believes, between the need for speedy delivery and the dangers of flying drones encroaching on commercial airspace.

Solar plane prepares for Amazon mission

By Jim Drury Student engineers from ETH Zurich are preparing to fly their world-record breaking solar plane over the Amazon rainforest. The team is fitting its AtlantikSolar unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for a 400 kilometer, 12 hour, flight as it seeks to push the endurance limits of solar planes. The team broke the flight endurance world record for any aircraft below 50 kilograms by flying continuously on solar powered batteries for 81.5 hours (over four days and three nights) in Zurich.

Bye, Bye, Playboy Bunnies: 5 Ways Porn Affects the Brain

Playboy Magazine announced yesterday (Oct. 12) that it was revamping its design. "Playboy's great success was that it legitimized sexualized images in the context of good fiction, interesting articles and groundbreaking interviews," Kim Wallen, a psychologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, wrote in an email to Live Science. The magazine, which first exploded into public consciousness when it published nude shots of Marilyn Monroe in 1953, has been losing readers for years, according the Alliance for Audited Media., largely thanks to the rise of Internet pornography.

Stars and Oil: Milky Way Shines Over Texas Oilfield (Photo)

The Milky Way illuminates a pump jack working at night in Texas. While oil fields through the state are well lit, this landscape shot captures the spectacular night sky. Astrophotographer Matt Smith captured this image near Batesville in South Texas on May 25.

New 'Habitability Index' Could Help Guide Search for Alien Life

The "habitability index" metric could help guide the operations of future observatories, such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), that will scan exoplanet atmospheres for signs of life, scientists said. "Basically, we've devised a way to take all the observational data that are available and develop a prioritization scheme so that as we move into a time when there are hundreds of targets available, we might be able to say, 'OK, that's the one we want to start with," study lead author Rory Barnes, of the University of Washington, said in a statement. Traditionally, assessing habitability has been a yes-or-no affair, with researchers attempting to determine whether or not an alien world resides in the "habitable zone" of its host star.

Ultrathin Microlenses Could Boost Space Science and Tech

"These flat lenses will help us to make more-compact and robust imaging assemblies," Mahmood Bagheri, a microdevices engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. Typical lenses, such as those used in eyeglasses or magnifying glasses, rely on curvature to bend and focus light. The new flat lenses can manipulate light in ways that are nearly impossible for conventional lenses, and they take up less space, allowing for smaller electronics.

Happy Ada Lovelace Day! Exhibit Honors 1st Computer Programmer

A century before the first computer was developed, an Englishwoman named Ada Lovelace laid the theoretical groundwork for an all-purpose device that could solve a host of mathematically-based problems. Widely credited as being the first-ever computer programmer, Lovelace's pioneering work is explored in a new exhibit that opens today (Oct. 13) at the Science Museum, London, in the United Kingdom. Tech geeks around the world are commemorating Lovelace's achievements today, as they do every year in mid-October — a day known as Ada Lovelace Day.

Twins! Toronto Zoo Welcomes 2 Baby Pandas

Two giant-panda cubs were born today (Oct. 13) at the Toronto Zoo, becoming the first pandas ever born on Canadian soil. The zoo's female giant panda, Er Shun, gave birth to the first cub early this morning, at 3:31 a.m. EDT. The first cub weighed 6.6 ounces (187.7 grams), and its slightly younger twin weighed 4 ounces (115 g).

Lilly pill trumps Humira in arthritis study

(Reuters) - Eli Lilly and Co's experimental pill for rheumatoid arthritis proved superior to Abbvie Inc's leading injectable Humira treatment in a large study, which analysts said could prod them to raise sales forecasts for the medicine. Lilly said on Wednesday it was the first study to show that a once-daily oral treatment was superior to $13 billion-a-year Humira, the world's best-selling drug, in improving signs and symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. It was the fourth successful late-stage trial for Lilly's medicine, called baricitinib, which it is developing in partnership with Incyte Corp. "What is disclosed is quite impressive - about as good an outcome as Lilly could hope for," Sanford Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson said in a research note.

Science of Sexy: Why Emilia Clarke Reigns Supreme

In many ways, it's not surprising Esquire picked Clarke, who plays the fearless dragon rider and rightful heir to the Iron Throne on Game of Thrones. Data from the dating website OkCupid reveals that men up to the age of 50 rate women between the ages of 20 and 24 the most beautiful. "From the time you're 22, you'll be less hot than a 20-year-old, based on this data," Christian Rudder, one of the founders of OkCupid, told fivethirtyeight.com.

Two Small Pluto Moons Get Their Close-Ups (Photos)

Pluto's small moons are starting to come out into the light. The most jaw-dropping photos captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its historic July flyby of Pluto depict the dwarf planet or its largest moon, Charon. "Nix isn't very large, and there is a very fine line between an impact that will make a crater that big and one that will break Nix apart," New Horizons team member Simon Porter, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, wrote in a blog post last week.

'Cute furball' is best-preserved mammal from dinosaur age

This intrepid little guy now is providing the best look ever at the mammals that thrived during the Mesozoic Era, the age of dinosaurs. "Yes, indeed, it is the best-preserved mammal fossil from the Mesozoic," University of Bonn paleontologist Thomas Martin said.

Baby Duck-Billed Dinos Unearthed in 'Dragon's Tomb' Nest

Scientists examining a roughly 1-foot-long (0.3 meters) piece of rock from the Dragon's Tomb site, which is located in the Gobi Desert, discovered at least three new baby Saurolophus angustirostris fossils. Saurolophus were large duck-billed hadrosaurs with distinctive crests on the top of their heads.

(Bee)autiful Shot: Pollen-Covered Eyeball Wins 'Small World' Photo Contest

More than 2,000 photographers submitted images to the 2015 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition, but just 20 of those images were chosen as winners. The first-place picture of the bee's eye was taken by Australian photomicrographer Ralph Grimm, who spent 4 hours mounting the eye under a microscope and focusing the instrument to capture the stunning shot. Grimm, a high school teacher and former beekeeper, said that, in light of the ongoing collapse of bee colonies worldwide, he hopes his image is a reminder of the important role these pollinators play in local ecosystems.

Teeth from Chinese cave recast history of early human migration

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A trove of 47 fossil human teeth from a cave in southern China is rewriting the history of the early migration of our species out of Africa, indicating Homo sapiens trekked into Asia far earlier than previously known and much earlier than into Europe. Scientists on Wednesday announced the discovery of teeth between 80,000 and 120,000 years old that they say provide the earliest evidence of fully modern humans outside Africa. The teeth from the Fuyan Cave site in Hunan Province's Daoxian County place our species in southern China 30,000 to 70,000 years earlier than in the eastern Mediterranean or Europe.

At Icy Saturn Moon Enceladus, Cassini Begins Final Close Encounters

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spent a decade studying Saturn and its family of moons. Cassini's first flyby, which occurred this morning at 6:41 a.m. EDT (3:41 PDT/1041 GMT), bringing the spacecraft within 1,142 miles (1,839 kilometers) of Enceladus.

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Tuesday, October 13, 2015

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Earth's Gravitational Pull Cracks Open the Moon

Earth's gravitational pull is massaging the moon, opening up faults in the lunar crust, researchers say. Just as the moon's gravitational pull causes seas and lakes to rise and fall as tides on Earth, the Earth exerts tidal forces on the moon. Scientists have known this for a while, but now they've found that Earth's pull actually opens up faults on the moon.

Chilean scientists create contraceptive vaccine for dogs

Veterinary scientists in Chile have invented a contraceptive vaccine for dogs, which can be used in both males and females, and may provide an inexpensive option to help control the country's growing canine population. Scientists from the University of Chile Veterinary and Livestock Faculty developed the vaccine from an existing formula used to sterilize pigs, as professor Leonardo Saenz explains. What we did was to take the concept of immuno-castration which already existed and we developed and improved for use in domestic animals, mainly in dogs, and to create an alternative for pigs, better than what already exists.

Daniel Fells' Infection: How Often Does MRSA Lead to Amputation?

The nasty superbug MRSA has been linked to life-threatening conditions such as body-wide inflammation and organ failure, and now the NFL reports that New York Giants player Daniel Fells may lose his foot due to complications from an MRSA infection. Doctors found that his ankle was infected with a bacterium called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, and they fear that the infection might have spread to Fells' bone, which could make an amputation necessary, according to the NFL. Doctors say that people with MRSA infections seldom need to have a limb amputated.

Many Doctors Would Work While Sick with Flu, Fever

The findings are based on a survey of 474 doctors at an academic hospital in California who were at various stages in their medical careers. 6 Superbugs to Watch Out For Copyright 2015 LiveScience, a Purch company.

Ground Control to 'The Martian': Good Luck with Them Potatoes

In the new movie "The Martian," released this week, fictional NASA astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) gets stranded on Mars and must use his wits to survive. In it, Watney is part of NASA's Ares 3 mission to the Red Planet. Watney, impaled by a flying antenna, is assumed dead, while the other crewmembers, scrambling for their own lives, leave his body behind.

A Matter of Class: 2,400-Year-Old Tombs Yield Ancient Aristocrats

A 2,400-year-old underground tomb complex, containing what appears to be an aristocratic family, has been discovered near the ancient city of Soloi in northern Cyprus. The complex contains three burial chambers, two of which were intact while the third had been looted.

Nichelle Nichols, Uhura on 'Star Trek,' Boldly Rides NASA's Flying Observatory

Uhura flies again: "Star Trek" actress Nichelle Nichols had the chance last month to ride aboard NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, a telescope-bearing Boeing 747 airplane. Nichols, best known for her role as Lt. Uhura on the original "Star Trek," joined scientists and educators on board the high-flying telescope, called SOFIA. A recent NASA video documented Nichols' SOFIA ride for Trek fans everywhere to enjoy.

How NASA and 'The Martian' Teamed Up to Inspire Students About Mars

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? More than 10,000 students from across the country recently participated in a digital learning network at Kennedy Space Center with NASA scientists, astronauts and cast members from the new film "The Martian."

Beyond the Helix: 'Supercoiled' DNA Twists into Crazy Shapes

"This is because the action of drug molecules relies on them recognizing a specific molecular shape — much like a key fits a particular lock," said study co-author Sarah Harris, a physicist at the University of Leeds in England. After molecular biologists James Watson and Francis Crick first published a paper on the structure of DNA in 1953, the double helix became the iconic symbol of the code of life. "When Watson and Crick described the DNA double helix, they were looking at a tiny part of a real genome, only about one turn of the double helix.

More Kids Are Getting Ear Surgery to Avoid Being Bullied

A 6-year-old boy in Salt Lake City, Utah, recently had plastic surgery to make his ears stick out less, and parents everywhere weighed in on the family's decision, perhaps without knowing all of the facts about this operation. The young boy had been bullied because of his ears — his classmates had referred to them as "elf ears," Inside Edition originally reported. In fact, this type of surgery is becoming more common, said Dr. David Staffenberg, chief of pediatric plastic surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.

Repaired SpaceX rocket to fly by early December, company says

By Irene Klotz JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, expects to return a repaired and upgraded Falcon 9 rocket to flight around the start of December, a company vice president said, less than six months after one exploded shortly after liftoff. The 208-foot-tall (63-meter) rocket carrying a load of cargo for the International Space Station exploded less than three minutes after liftoff from Florida on June 28. The cause of the accident was traced to faulty bracket inside the rocket's upper-stage engine.

Astronauts test high definition 4K camera in space

Astronauts on the International Space Station inserted an effervescent tablet in a floating ball of water to test a new device that can record four times the resolution of a normal high definition camera. NASA said higher resolution images and frame rate videos from the new RED Epic Dragon camera can provide more information when used in scientific experiments.

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Monday, October 12, 2015

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Many Americans Don't Get Recommended Vaccines Before Travel

One study of Americans visiting travel clinics found that more than half of those who were recommended to get a measles vaccination did not do so before traveling. "Americans planning international travel should see their health care providers or visit a travel clinic four to six weeks before the trip to learn what vaccines are recommended before heading to their destinations," said Dr. Emily Hyle, an instructor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, who led the measles vaccine study. About half of all U.S. measles case are tied to people who catch the disease while traveling abroad, Hyle said.

Teens Want to Know Genetic Test Results

When genetic testing is done in adolescents, they don't have the option to learn about these types of results — but a new study reveals that teens would overwhelmingly prefer to know. In the new study, the researchers surveyed a group of adolescents and found that 83 percent of them would prefer to know the results of a genetic test, even if the results were about conditions that would not affect them until adulthood. When adults undergo genetic testing, there's a huge consent process, and they can decide whether they want access to any incidental findings, said lead study author Dr. Sophia Hufnagel, a pediatric geneticist at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Destined for Glasses? Firstborn Kids More Likely Nearsighted

Firstborn children may have a slightly higher risk of becoming nearsighted later in life, compared with later-born siblings, new research suggests. In the study, researchers looked at birth order and nearsightedness in about 89,000 people, ages 40 to 69. However, when the researchers adjusted their results for education levels, such as the highest educational degree the people had attained, it turned out education accounted for about 25 percent of the link between birth order and the risk of nearsightedness.

Is Stephen Hawking Right About Hostile Aliens?

"We have brains that are three times bigger than those of our closest relatives," said Mark Flinn, an anthropologist at the University of Missouri who has researched the emergence of human intelligence. "You need to have the better mousetrap every time.

Buzz Aldrin: Apollo 11's 50th Anniversary Should Kick Off Crewed Mars Effort

The 50th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon would be a fine occasion to kick off a serious effort to put astronauts on Mars, Buzz Aldrin says. Buzz Aldrin would like the president of the United States — whomever it happens to be — to announce a firm crewed Mars commitment on July 20, 2019, the "golden anniversary" of the giant leaps Aldrin and fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong took on the lunar surface in 1969. "We can progress with a national holiday of July 20, and begin to remind people of all the great progress that we made in the '60s and '70s, and how that reflects through cooperative means into the future," Aldrin told Space.com.

Great Scott! 'Back to the Future' Documentary to Bring Back Our Favorite Time Machine

Where they're going, they won't need roads: a new documentary spotlighted at New York Comic-Con examines the making of the "Back to the Future" trilogy and its 30-year impact on pop culture and society. Yesterday morning (Oct. 8) at New York Comic Con, 300 fans filed into a panel room at the Javits convention center to get sent back… to 2013, when director Jason Aron first turned to the crowdfunding website Kickstarter to produce a documentary about the beloved time-travel movie trilogy. Fellow filmmakers Louis Krubich and Lee Leshen joined him onstage, where they reminisced about the process and showed clips from the upcoming film that's poised to release right around Oct. 21, 2015 — the time protagonist Marty McFly visits in the second "Back to the Future" movie.

Many Kids with Mental Health Issues See Only Pediatricians

One in three children who were diagnosed and treated for mental health conditions on an outpatient basis saw their primary-care doctors for this care, a new study reports. Using data from a nationally representative survey, the researchers found that about 35 percent of children receiving mental health care in the past year had appointments only with their primary-care physicians compared with about 26 percent who saw only psychiatrists and 15 percent who saw only psychologists or social workers. The findings highlight the role that primary-care providers are playing on a national level in caring for children with mental health conditions, said Dr. Jeanne Van Cleave, a pediatrician at MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston.

This Computer Chip Will Self-Destruct in 5 Seconds

The new method uses silicon computer wafers attached to a piece of tempered glass that shatters into smithereens when heated in one spot. The heat can be turned on via a remote, which in the future could conceivably be triggered by anything from Wi-Fi to a radiofrequency signal, said Gregory Whiting, a materials scientist and manager of the Novel Electronics Group that produced the chip at PARC, a Xerox company.

No More Sticky Mess! Scientists Develop Slower-Melting Ice Cream

Indulging in an ice cream cone on a hot summer day can be a refreshing but sticky treat. Now, scientists are trying to take some of the mess out of this simple pleasure by developing ice cream that melts slower than conventional varieties. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Dundee, both in the United Kingdom, discovered that a protein called BsIA, normally found in large bacterial communities in structures called biofilm, can be used as an ingredient to keeps everything combined in ice cream.

Gene editing could pave way for pig organ transplants: U.S. study

U.S. researchers have used a new gene editing technique to trim away potentially harmful virus genes that have impeded the use of pig organs for transplants in humans. The study, published in the journal Science, expands on capabilities of the genome editing tool known as CRISPR–Cas9, which works as a type of molecular scissors that can selectively trim away unwanted parts of the genome. Previous efforts with the technology have only managed to cut away six areas of the genome at one go.

Gene editing could pave way for pig organ transplants - US study

Florida circus elephants find second career in research

At a Florida retirement home for former circus elephants, residents enjoy a steady diet of high-quality hay and local fruits and vegetables, as well as baths and occasional walks. For these majestic beasts, this life of relative leisure at the 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation comes after years on the road, entertaining America in "The Greatest Show on Earth" for Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus. In March, the circus company announced with some reluctance that it would end its elephant acts by 2018.

Rat Brain Reconstructed in a Computer

Scientists have digitally recreated a slice of a juvenile rat's brain — including 31,000 brain cells, of 207 different types, with 37 million connections. The computer-simulated brain achievement is part of the Blue Brain Project, whose aim is to create a rat brain and, eventually, a human brain inside a computer. The team first conducted tens of thousands of experiments in live juvenile rats, painstakingly cataloging the types of neurons and synapses, or brain cell connections.

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