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Thursday, November 19, 2015

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Curiosity Rover Headed to Dark Sand Dunes on Mars

NASA's Curiosity rover will soon get history's first up-close look at Martian sand dunes. Curiosity is headed toward the dark Bagnold Dunes, which lie in the northwestern foothills of the towering Mount Sharp, and should begin investigating the sandy feature in the next few days, NASA officials said. Curiosity will study one dune that's as wide as a football field and as tall as a two-story building, NASA officials said.

Astronomers see planet still growing in its stellar womb

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronomers have taken the first images of a planet still in formation, a discovery expected to shed light on how giant planets manage to beef up early in their lives, research published on Wednesday showed. Astronomers used a telescope in Arizona to peer at a young star located about 450 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Astronomers previously suspected that a giant planet was orbiting in the gap.

Alarming new "superbug" gene found in animals and people in China

By Kate Kelland LONDON, (Reuters) - A new gene that makes bacteria highly resistant to a last-resort class of antibiotics has been found in people and pigs in China - including in samples of bacteria with epidemic potential, researchers said on Wednesday. "All use of polymyxins must be minimized as soon as possible and all unnecessary use stopped," said Laura Piddock, a professor of microbiology at Britain's Birmingham University who was asked to comment on the finding. Researchers led by Hua Liu from the South China Agricultural University who published their work in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal found the gene, called mcr-1, on plasmids - mobile DNA that can be easily copied and transferred between different bacteria.

Hobbits Were a Separate Species, Ancient Chompers Show

An ancient, 3-foot-tall (0.9 meters) human whose diminutive stature has earned it the nickname "hobbit" has puzzled evolutionary scientists since its little bones were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores. Some have suggested the individual was a Homo sapien with some miniaturizing disorder. Now, teeth from the hobbit suggest it belonged to a unique species rather than a modern human with a growth disorder.

French Flags on Facebook: Does Social Media Support Really Matter?

In the aftermath of the coordinated terrorist attacks across Paris last Friday (Nov. 13), support popped up in the new public arena: Facebook. The social network rolled out a tool allowing users to easily put a French flag overlay on members' profile pictures to express sympathy with the victims. "Got a French flag on your Facebook profile picture?

Aston Martin debuts Castrol's 90 second oil change tech

By Matthew Stock Motor-oil firm Castrol, part of the BP Group, has launched a removable container that packages the oil and filter into one unit, making changing a car's oil a far simpler task. The Nexcel oil cell is to be fitted as standard in the new Aston Martin Vulcan track-only supercar, while the technology is expected to be in regular cars within five years. The developers say the bucket-shaped unit makes an oil change much easier and cleaner.

Earth-Like Exoplanet May Be Too Radiation-Blasted to Host Life

?"Large coronal mass ejections have the potential to strip away any atmosphere that a close-in planet like Kepler-438b might have, rendering it uninhabitable," study co-author Chloe Pugh, of the University of Warwick in England, said in a statement. "With little atmosphere, the planet would also be subject to harsh UV [ultraviolet] and X-ray radiation from the superflares, along with charged particle radiation, all of which are damaging to life," Pugh added. Kepler-438b, which lies about 470 light-years from Earth, may be able to retain an atmosphere if it possesses a global magnetic field like Earth does, the researchers said.

Lunar Lovers, Why Now Is the Best Time to Moon Watch

One of the first things every new moon watcher learns is that, when observing the moon, timing is everything.

How to Flirt in Panda: Bears' Squeaks Decoded

Maybe that sounds like nonsense to the average person, but to panda bears, those sounds may translate roughly to "let's get busy," "stop bothering me" or "more, please" respectively, according to a new study of panda bear sounds.

Not So Precious: Eyeless 'Smeagol' Arachnid Discovered in Underground Lair

In a deep, dank cave in Brazil, a pale, blind creature lurks, never venturing out to feel the sun. Researchers recently found the creature in its underground lair, a limestone cave in southeastern Brazil, and described it for the first time today (Nov. 18) in the journal ZooKeys. You may know harvestmen as "daddy longlegs," those spiderlike critters that crawl all over the yard during the summer months.

'X-Ray Vision' Tech Uses Radio Waves to 'See' Through Walls

"X-ray vision" that can track people's movements through walls using radio signals could be the future of smart homes, gaming and health care, researchers say. A new system built by computer scientists at MIT can beam out radio waves that bounce off the human body. Receivers then pick up the reflections, which are processed by computer algorithms to map people's movements in real time, they added.

'RoboBees' with Laser Eyes Could Locate Disaster Victims

Mechanical eyes that shoot laser beams could one day help robot bees fly without crashing into obstacles, researchers say. These laser eyes could also one day help people control smartphones, tablets, laptops, wearable technology and other mobile devices using only gestures, the researchers added. Previous research found that robot bees are capable of flying while tethered and moving while submerged in water.

FDA approves first genetically modified salmon for consumption

(Reuters) - AquaBounty Technologies' salmon became the first genetically engineered animal to receive U.S. approval for human consumption, setting the stage for more such approvals. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday the company's genetically engineered Atlantic salmon was as nutritious as the farm-raised ones and was safe for consumption.

You Share 70% of Your Genes with This Slimy Marine Worm

Over 500 million years ago, humans and certain worms shared a common ancestor, and people still share thousands of genes with the worms, said scientists who recently sequenced genomes from two marine worm species. The results suggest humans and acorn worms, so called because of their acorn-shaped "heads," are distant cousins, said the researchers, led by Oleg Simakov of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University in Okinawa, Japan. The researchers analyzed genes from two acorn worm species: Ptychodera flava, collected off Hawaii, and Saccoglossus kowalevskii, from the Atlantic Ocean.

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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Charlie Sheen Has HIV: What It's Like to Live with the Virus

"I am, in fact, HIV positive," Sheen, 50, told Matt Lauer on the NBC show "Today," adding that when he learned of his status about four years ago, it was "a hard three letters to absorb." "It's a turning point in one's life," he said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1.2 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV. "It's much more like a chronic illness," said Rosenthal, who is not involved in treating Sheen.

Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz launches $200 million Bio Fund

By Sarah McBride SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz put itself on the map with software investing. Now, it plans to take its software-heavy approach to biology and medicine, with a new $200 million fund for the hybrid sector and a former Stanford professor to run it. Vijay Pande, who previously taught chemistry, structural biology and computer science at Stanford University, is taking the helm of the new Bio Fund.

Emoji Snags 'Word of the Year' (Here's Why That Makes Sense)

It's official: Oxford Dictionaries word of the year isn't a word at all, it's "face-with-tears-of-joy," the most globally used emoji in 2015. The smiley face with oversized tears made up a whopping 20 percent of all emojis used in the United Kingdom and 17 percent of those used in the United States, according to the Oxford Dictionaries blog. "Emojis are no longer the preserve of texting teens — instead, they have been embraced as a nuanced form of expression, and one which can cross language barriers," according to the Oxford Dictionaries blog post, which explained the rationale for the "word" choice.

Where Will the 1st Astronauts on Mars Land?

The ideal Red Planet crewed site should be of high scientific value — allowing pioneers to search for signs of Mars life and investigate other intriguing questions — and also possess enough resources to help sustain expeditionary crews, scientists and engineers said. They came to these and other conclusions at the First Landing Site/Exploration Zone Workshop for Human Missions to the Surface of Mars, which was held here Oct. 27 though Oct. 30 at the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

'Stretch Marks' on Phobos Show Martian Moon Is Falling Apart

Long, thin "stretch marks" on the surface of Phobos are early signs that the Martian moon is falling apart, new research suggests. Phobos is a tiny moon that is closer to Mars than any other moon in the solar system is to its planet. "We think that Phobos has already started to fail, and the first sign of this failure is the production of these grooves," Terry Hurford, a research assistant at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, who led the study, said in a statement.

Armadillos Carrying Leprosy Bacteria Spreading in Southern US

The armadillos in the southern United States carrying the bacteria that can cause leprosy are now found over a much larger geographic range than just a few years ago, a new study suggests. The nine-banded armadillos that can transmit the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae to humans were once thought to be primarily confined to parts of Louisiana and Texas. Leprosy — which is usually called by its modern name, Hansen's disease — is curable with antibiotics, and has a low risk of being spread among people.

Baby's New Leukemia Treatment Could Help Others with Cancer

A gene-editing technology that made headlines recently for successfully treating a baby with leukemia may one day be used to treat other types of cancers, experts say. Layla Richard was just 14 weeks old when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where she was treated. Then, they edited the cells' genes, which gave the cells the ability to attack the cancer, and injected the cells into Layla.

Weird Mucus Parasites Are Actually Jellyfish

Microscopic parasites only a few cells large are essentially greatly degenerated jellyfish, a finding that could expand the definition of the animal kingdom, researchers say. "When people think of an animal, they think of a macroscopic, multicellular, complex organism, and now they'll have to expand their definition of an animal to include very simple microscopic organisms," study co-author Paulyn Cartwright, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Kansas,told Live Science. Investigators analyzed myxozoans, a very diverse group of more than 2,100 microscopic parasites whose name means "mucus animals" in Greek, which refers to how scientists thought they were once associated with slime molds.

1,700-Year-Old Mosaic Once Decorated Luxurious Villa Courtyard

A hungry lion taking down its prey and colorful fish leaping from the sea — these two nature-inspired scenes make up part of a large tile mosaic that was recently uncovered in Israel. The mosaic served as a courtyard floor in a wealthy household some 1,700 years ago, archaeologists say. The ancient artwork was unearthed last year by archaeologists from the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) who were preparing the site of a new visitors center in the municipality of Lod, a city located about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) southeast of Tel Aviv.

Data science is key piece in Monsanto long-term growth plan: CEO

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Monsanto Co's long-term growth plans, which include new crop-boosting technologies and expansion into new markets, relies heavily on data science, the "glue that holds the pieces together," Chief Executive Hugh Grant said on Wednesday.

Formation of Alien Worlds Photographed for 1st Time

For the first time ever, astronomers have directly observed planets in the process of being born.

'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Will Likely Be a Real (Star)Killer!

To paraphrase a beloved Jedi, that's no moon — but it's one step closer: the upcoming "Star Wars" movie promises a weaponized enemy base carved from an ice planet.

Deke Slayton to Fly, Again: Orbital ATK Names 2nd Ship for Astronaut

Deke Slayton waited 16 years to fly in space after he was selected as one of the original seven Mercury astronauts in 1959. Grounded for more than a decade as the result of a heart condition, when Slayton finally did fly, he was the "world's oldest space rookie," a distinction the then-President of the United States, Gerald Ford, highlighted when he asked the 51-year-old pilot if he had any recommendations for those who would like to follow in his footsteps. Forty years later, Slayton's advice, and name, are living on in a commercial spaceflight company's continuing efforts to supply the International Space Station.

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