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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

United Launch Alliance Wants Your Vote to Name New Rocket

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United Launch Alliance Wants Your Vote to Name New Rocket

United Launch Alliance — the rocket company that launched NASA's New Horizons probe to Pluto — is asking people around the world to help name a new kind of booster. People have until April 6 to vote on three names — Eagle, Freedom or GalaxyOne — for the ULA rocket that the company plans to use for most of its future launches. The three names are finalists from more than 400 suggestions submitted by ULA employees and space enthusiasts earlier this year. "ULA's new rocket represents the future of space — innovative, affordable and reliable," Tory Bruno, ULA's president and CEO, said in a statement.

Ancient Moon Crater Named After Amelia Earhart

Scientists have named a crater on the moon for perhaps the most famous female aviator of all time: Amelia Earhart. The massive crater, provisionally named Crater Earhart, was found thanks to to data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission (GRAIL). A team from Purdue University has been testing a new technique that sharpens the GRAIL observations of the moon to see smaller-scale features, like ridges and valleys.

NASA Astronaut Already Feels at Home in Space as 1-Year Journey Begins

NASA's Scott Kelly — one of two people spending a year on the International Space Station — already feels like the orbiting outpost is home. "It's great to be up here," veteran astronaut Kelly said during a live interview from the space station with NASA administrator Charles Bolden today (March 30). NASA officials hope that the research Kornienko and Kelly conduct on the station during their stay could help send astronauts to Mars by the 2030s. At the moment, NASA scientists know a lot about what happens to astronauts after six months in weightlessness — the usual amount of time a crewmember spends on the station.

Pesticides in Fruit Could Damage Sperm

For men who are having fertility problems, eating lots of pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables may be bad news, a new study suggests. Among the men in the study, who were all attending a fertility clinic, those who ate lots of fruits and vegetables known to contain high levels of pesticides had about half as many sperm, and almost a third fewer normal sperm, than men who consumed less of the toxin-laden produce. "These results do not mean you should stop consuming fruits and vegetables," said Dr. Jorge Chavarro, the senior author of the new study and a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard University's School of Public Health. Rather, the study suggests that men seeking a healthy sperm count should eat fruit and vegetables that are organically grown, or known to be low in pesticide residues, Chavarro said.
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Tampons Can Screen for Leaking Sewage

Ordinary tampons can detect sewage pollution, a new study shows. "It's cheap, it's easy and it does the detective work," said study co-author David Lerner, a professor of environmental engineering at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. But study author Dave Chandler, the Sheffield graduate student who came up with the tampon test, needed a cheap way to monitor stream pollution, Lerner said. Chandler realized that tampons could absorb optical brighteners, which are additives in laundry detergent, toothpaste and other cleaners that make colors and whites seem cleaner and brighter.

Dutch architects show off 3D house-building prowess

Dutch architects are using a giant 3D printer to construct a prototype house in a bid to pave the way to a sustainable, environmentally-friendly, future for construction. DUS Architects of Amsterdam began construction of the house in 2014 and the prototype walls can already be seen - and touched - on site by curious visitors. The house structure uses a plastic heavily based on plant oil that co-founder Hans Vermeulen, who initiated the project, says is waste-free and eco-friendly. Vermeulen says the building industry is one of the most polluting and inefficient around, whereas with 3D-printing, there is no waste, reduced transportation costs, and everything can be melted down and recycled.
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Solitair device aims to takes guesswork out of sun safety

By Matthew Stock Scientists in the UK have developed a new wearable device that monitors the correct amount of sun exposure for a person's skin type in order to stay healthy. The Solitair device consists of a tiny sensor to measure how much sunlight the user is exposed to, with the information synchronized to a smartphone app that offers real time recommendations on when it is time to seek out some shade. The developers hope Solitair will reduce the confusion that surrounds just how much sun we should be getting. UVA and UVB radiation from the sun damage skin-cell DNA and are partly responsible for skin ageing and for promoting skin cancer.
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'Super' Termite Hybrid May Wreak Havoc on Florida

The two most invasive termite species in the world are shacking up, producing a potentially powerful new termite hybrid in South Florida, a new study finds. Together, the Asian (Coptotermes gestroi) and Formosan (Coptotermes formosanus) subterranean termite species cause an estimated $40 billion worth of damage worldwide, the researchers said. Both types of termite have evolved separately for hundreds of thousands of years, but now human movement and trade have brought the invasive species together in Taiwan, Hawaii and South Florida. Researchers in South Florida have observed the two mating, raising concerns the hybrid offspring might have a temperature tolerance that stretches from North Carolina to Brazil, said the study's lead researcher, Thomas Chouvenc, an assistant research scientist of entomology at the University of Florida.

Aral Sea Looks Like a Painting from Space

The Aral Sea is shrinking, leaving a dried-up white lakebed where there used to be blue water. The image actually combines three separate radar scans: the red parts show data from Oct. 17 2014, the green from Dec. 28 2014 and blue from Feb. 14 2015.

How Many Americans Could Get Ebola? Study Provides Estimates

The United States could have had more than a dozen Ebola cases monthly during the height of the epidemic in West Africa last year, and a half dozen cases in treatment simultaneously, according to a new study. Researchers estimated the potential highest number and lowest number of U.S. Ebola cases, and how many people would need treatment in this country at the same time. For their report, the researchers took into account the number of people who traveled to the United States from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, as well as the number of health care workers involved with the Ebola response in those countries, including those who caught the disease in West Africa and were evacuated to the United States. The researchers estimated that under the 2014 conditions, there could be as many as 14 U.S. Ebola cases per month, and as few as 1 case per month.

Letting Kids Taste Alcohol May Promote Early Drinking

Children who try a sip of alcohol before sixth grade may be more likely to start drinking by the time they enter high school, a new study suggests. Researchers found that kids who had tastes of an alcoholic beverage before they started middle school were five times more likely to have a full drink by ninth grade, compared with their classmates who had not tasted alcohol.
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Guess Your Age? 3D Facial Scan Beats Doctor's Exam

The researchers also found that levels of several biological markers in people's blood are associated with the markers of aging that appear on people's faces. For instance, women with older-looking faces tend to have higher levels of "bad" cholesterol, the researchers found. "3D facial images can really tell your biological age," said the study's senior researcher Jing-Dong Han, a professor of computational biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Partner Institute in Shanghai. The scientists also collected blood samples from the participants, who ranged in age from 17 to 77 years old.

Wow! 8 Rocket Missions Launched in 6 Days Last Week

Spacefaring nations greeted the arrival of the Northern Hemisphere spring with a pretty impressive fireworks display last week.

Birds' Foldable Wings Could Inspire Nimble Drones

A drone that mimics the way birds fold and flap their wings could improve the design of future unmanned autonomous vehicles, and could even help the machines withstand midair collisions. Now, researchers at Stanford University have designed a 3D-printed hinge inspired by this wrist joint.

Electrical fault corrected, 'Big Bang' collider to restart soon

CERN engineers said on Tuesday they have resolved a problem that had delayed the relaunch after a two-year refit of the Large Hadron Collider particle smasher, which is probing the mysteries of the universe. The relaunch of the so-called 'Big Bang' machine had to be postponed last week because of the problem. These collisions, at almost the speed of light, create the chaotic conditions inside the LHC close to those that followed the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, from which the universe eventually emerged.

NASA Chief: 1-Year Space Station Mission Advances NASA Journey to Mars (Op-Ed)

Charles Bolden is the NASA Administrator. Today, we launch an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut to live and work in space for an entire year — the longest continuous stretch an American astronaut will have been in space.

Shocking Discovery: Egypt's 'Mona Lisa' May Be a Fake

The "Meidum Geese," as modern-day Egyptologists and art historians call it, was supposedly found in 1871 in a tomb located near the Meidum Pyramid, which was built by the pharaoh Snefru (reign 2610-2590 B.C). A man named Luigi Vassalli discovered and removed the painting, which is now located in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. "Some scholars compared it, with due respect, to 'The Gioconda' (Mona Lisa) for the Egyptian art," wrote Francesco Tiradritti, a professor at the Kore University of Enna anddirector of the Italian archaeological mission to Egypt, in a summary of his finds sent to Live Science. But while Tiradritti's research suggests the painting is a fake, a real one may be hidden underneath.

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Monday, November 23, 2015

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Expectant Moms: Coffee Won't Harm Kids' IQ

Pregnant women, perk up! It's okay to indulge in your morning cup of coffee without worrying about it affecting your child's IQ, a new study finds. In the study, researchers found that children born to women who consumed caffeine while pregnant did not have lower IQs or more behavior problems than those born to women who didn't indulge in coffee. "Taken as a whole, we consider our results to be reassuring for pregnant women who consume moderate amounts of caffeine, or the equivalent to one or two cups of coffee per day," Sarah Keim, an assistant professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and co-author of the study, said in a statement.

Speaking More Than One Language Eases Stroke Recovery

There are ways to reduce your risk of having a stroke — for example, you can exercise more and not smoke. In a new study, bilingual stroke patients were twice as likely as those who spoke one language to have normal cognitive functions after a stroke, according to findings reported today (Nov. 19) in the journal Stroke. The reason for the difference appears to be a feature of the brain called "cognitive reserve," in which a brain that has built a rich network of neural connections — highways that can can still carry the busy traffic of thoughts even if a few bridges are destroyed.

The Science of Sugar: Is Corn Syrup the Same?

Scientists are still debating whether there is a real difference between the effects on a person's health of high-fructose corn syrup and those of sugar, even as the issue features in an ongoing lawsuit. The suits stem from an earlier lawsuit that sugar refiners brought in 2011 against the corn trade group, claiming that the group's description of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as "corn sugar" and "natural" in an ad campaign was false. In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled that corn syrup could not be called sugar.

Attention Disorder Drugs May Harm Kids' Sleep

Some children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who take stimulant medications to treat their symptoms may develop sleep problems, according to a new analysis of previous research. Researchers analyzed nine previous studies involving a total of 246 children and teens that examined the relationship between ADHD medications and sleep.

These Ancient Monster Galaxies Have Scientists Perplexed

New research has revealed 574 massive, ancient galaxies lurking in the night sky, and their existence so close to the time of the Big Bang calls into question scientists' best understanding of how large galaxies form. A new video released Wednesday (Nov. 18) from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) reveals the ancient galaxies' locations. "We are talking about massive galaxies, twice as massive as the Milky Way today," said Karina Caputi, an astronomer at University of Groningen in the Netherlands and lead author on the new work.

Why NASA Europa Probe Will Study Jupiter Moon's Dust

BOULDER, Colo. — "Think about it as pieces of a puzzle," Zoltan Sternovsky said. NASA plans to launch a robotic Europa flyby mission in the early 2020s to address this question, and Sternovsky is part of a team developing one of the spacecraft's nine instruments — the Surface Dust Mass Analyzer (SUDA), which will determine the composition of materials ejected from the surface of the frigid moon. "Each instrument on the Europa mission is going to assess one piece of this puzzle," Sternovsky said here Nov. 4 at the university's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, following a presentation by SUDA principal investigator Sascha Kempf, who's also based at UC Boulder.

Cyborg Roses Wired with Self-Growing Circuits

Scientists have created a kind of cyborg flower: living roses with tiny electronic circuits threaded through their vascular systems. The miniscule electronic polymers are inserted into the plant, then almost magically self-assemble thanks to the rose's internal structure. "In a sense, the plant is helping to organize the electronic devices," said study co-author Magnus Berggren, an organic electronics researcher at Linköping University in Sweden.

Antarctica Is Gaining Ice, So Why Is the Earth Still Warming?

NASA recently released a study suggesting that the Antarctic Ice Sheet is gaining more ice than it is losing — a finding that, at first blush, seems to contradict the idea of global warming. So, how can Antarctica be gaining ice mass in a warming world where ice sheets are collapsing and the melting is predicted to increase sea levels across the globe?

Green car technologies collide in Los Angeles

By Alexandria Sage LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Asian automakers are opening up a new front in the contest to define the future of cars in California, fielding a flock of cars powered by hydrogen in a bid to woo green car buyers from Tesla Motors Inc, the battery electric vehicle leader. Toyota, Honda and Hyundai used the opening days of the Los Angeles auto show, which draws thousands of car enthusiasts in one of the world's richest vehicle markets, to tout new fuel-cell cars. Automakers plan to offer these cars in California, although the rollout will be limited.

Songbirds Woo Mates with Invisible Tap Dance

With the help of high-speed video, researchers from Hokkaido University in Japan and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany have discovered that blue-capped cordon-bleu songbirds (Uraeginthus cyanocephalus) perform foot-stomping step dances during their courtship displays that are too quick to view with the naked eye. Because the birds only start tapping when their potential mates are on the same perch, the study authors think the dancers might punctuate the display with pleasing sounds or vibrations.

Scientists on quest for friction-free oil

By Matthew Stock Scientists from BP are applying molecular science in their laboratories to make the perfect oil blend to reduce engine friction and increase efficiency. According to the company, friction caused by various metal-to-metal contact points is a major problem for car engines; costing the UK economy an estimated 24 billion pounds (36.2 billion USD) each year through lost efficiency and damage through wear and tear. The only barrier between the high-force contacts of engine surfaces is a thin layer of lubricant, but they are coming under increasing pressure from modern engines. ...

'Letterlocked' Trove: X-Rays to Peer into Sealed 17th-Century Notes

For years, Jana Dambrogio, a conservator at MIT, has been studying the elaborate ways people used to fold and seal their letters to keep busybodies and spies from reading their secrets. The way a paleontologist analyzes fossils to reconstruct extinct creatures, Dambrogio looks at the blobs of wax and the folding patterns on flat, already-opened letters in manuscript collections so that she can reverse-engineer "letterlocking" techniques. "He asked me, 'What would you do if I told you there was a trunk with 600 unopened letters?'"Dambrogio said.

For Severe Weather, 'Is This Climate Change?' Is the Wrong Question (Op-Ed)

For the first five years of his career, Alex Rodriguez averaged 37 home runs a season. Then, he moved to the Texas Rangers, where his average swelled to 52 home runs a season. A-Rod's other statistics — runs batted in, slugging average — rose as well.

Carbon Falling, Economies Rising: Expectations for the Paris Climate Summit (Op-Ed)?

Lynn Scarlett is the global managing director for public policy at The Nature Conservancy. Recently, she served as the deputy secretary and chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of the Interior and acting secretary of the Interior in 2006 during the George W. Bush administration. She contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Einstein's Unfinished Dream: Marrying Relativity to the Quantum World

Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, the U.S.' largest Large Hadron Collider research institution. Lincoln contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. This November marks the centennial of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.

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Saturday, November 21, 2015

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Watch for the Mischievous 'Demon Star' This Week

Perseus — will pass directly overhead. Its prominent variable star, Algol — known as "the Demon" — will be vividly visible as well. In case you're not familiar with the story — which, in some ways, seems almost like a soap opera — Perseus' mission was to behead the Gorgon Medusa, a hideous creature with rather unusual "naturally curly" hair composed of poisonous snakes.

Astronauts in Space Honor Paris Attack Victims (Video)

The crew of the International Space Station and flight controllers worldwide held a moment of silence this week for the victims of the Nov. 13 Paris terrorist attacks, and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly shared some remarks in a new video. The space station personnel joined a stunned and grieving world in the wake of Friday's attacks in Paris, which killed 129 people and injured 352. The space station's six-man crew took part in the tribute on Monday (Nov. 16), NASA officials said.

Giant Bling: World's Second-Largest Diamond Unearthed

A mining company operating in Botswana recently announced that it has "recovered" the second-largest diamond in the world. At 1,111 carats, the rock weighs nearly half a pound (227 grams) and measures 2.6 by 2.2 by 1.6 inches (65 by 56 by 40 millimeters). The gem is the largest of its kind to ever be found in Botswana and the largest diamond to be discovered anywhere in the world in more than 100 years, according to officials from the Lucara Diamond Corp., which discovered the massive gemstone.

More than half of Amazon tree species seen at risk of extinction

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - South America's vast Amazon region harbors one of the world's most diverse collection of tree species, but more than half may be at risk for extinction due to ongoing deforestation to clear land for farming, ranching and other purposes, scientists say. Researchers said on Friday that if recent trends continued, between 36 and 57 percent of the estimated 15,000 Amazonian tree species likely would qualify as threatened with extinction under criteria used by the group that makes such determinations, the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The researchers analyzed Amazonian forest surveys and data on current and projected deforestation areas.

Fossilized Tropical Forest Found — in Arctic Norway

A tropical forest densely packed with 12-foot-tall trees with flared trunks and curved branches of needle leaves — Dr. Seuss would have felt right at home — covered an area near the equator some 380 million years ago. During the Devonian period (416 million to 358 million years ago), Earth's first large trees were emerging. Also around this time, atmospheric carbon dioxide dropped significantly.

Spooky Action Is Real: Bizarre Quantum Entanglement Confirmed in New Tests

Two recent studies have confirmed that the "spooky action at a distance" that so upset Albert Einstein — the notion that two entangled particles separated by long distances can instantly affect each other — has been proven to work in a stunning array of different experimental setups. One experiment closed two of the three loopholes in proofs of spooky action at a distance. Another found that quantum entanglement works over astonishingly large distances.

Scientists: Fungus causes snake ailment, but reason elusive

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A fungus has been identified as the cause of a mysterious ailment that has been infecting some snake species in the eastern United States, threatening some isolated snake populations such as the timber rattlesnakes found in western Vermont.

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