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Monday, January 11, 2016

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Illumina, partners make $100 million bet to detect cancer via blood test

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Gene sequencing company Illumina Inc is going after the next big advance in cancer detection, working to develop a universal blood test to identify early-stage cancers in people with no symptoms of the disease. On Sunday, San Diego-based Illumina said it would form a new company, called Grail, with more than $100 million in Series A financing. Illumina will be the majority owner.

Crushed by Ice: Ships from 1871 Whaling Disaster Possibly Found

Before sea ice formed along Alaska's Arctic coastline this winter, marine archaeologists discovered the wrecks of two 19th-century ships that likely met their demise during a famous whaling disaster. In September 1871, 33 whaling ships became stuck in pack ice off the coast of Wainwright, Alaska. "The loss of the ships was a significant blow to the whaling industry, particularly the New Bedford (Massachusetts) companies, which owned most of the vessels lost," said Brad Barr, an archaeologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Narcissist in Chief? How Trump's Ego Reflects US Culture

With less than a month to go before Iowa's Republican primary caucus, Donald Trump remains atop the presidential candidate polls. His popularity appears unblemished despite brash statements, personal insults thrown at his opponents and rampant speculation over his perceived narcissistic tendencies.

First Flower Seeds from Dinosaur Era Discovered

Recently, researchers discovered tiny Cretaceous flower seeds dating back 110 million to 125 million years, the oldest-known seeds of flowering plants. For the first time, scientists were able to detect seed embryos, the part of the seed where a new plant grows and emerges, and food storage tissues surrounding them. Else Marie Friis, lead author of the study and professor emerita at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, has analyzed some of these fossil remains of angiosperms — flowering plants — preserved in soils in Portugal and North America.

'Kidnapped' Sharks Use Their Noses to Navigate Back to Shore

Sharks may use their keen sense of smell to navigate the vast ocean, a new study finds. Researchers made the finding after catching leopard sharks (Triakis semifasciata), transporting them about 6 miles (9 kilometers) away from shore and stuffing some of the sharks' noses with Vaseline-soaked cotton. The scientists then released the sharks and tracked whether those with an impaired sense of smell had trouble finding their way back to shore.

Ancient Rome Was Infested with Human Parasites, Poop Shows

In fact, the empire was infested with a greater number of human parasites, such as whipworm, roundworm and Entamoeba histolytica dysentery, than during prior time periods. "I was very surprised to find that compared with the Bronze Age and Iron Age, there was no drop in the kind of parasites that are spread by poor sanitation during the Roman period," said the study's author Piers Mitchell, a lecturer of biological anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. In spite of such admirable baths and toilets, "neither of those things seemed to have actually increased the health of people in Roman times," although it probably would have helped them smell better, Mitchell told Live Science.

How to Teleport Info Out of a Black Hole

Quantum teleportation of subatomic particles could be used to retrieve information from a black hole, a new algorithm suggests. The information that can be extracted from this hypothetical black hole is quantum information, meaning that instead of existing in either a 0 or 1 state, like a classical bit, the data collected would exist as a superposition of all potential states. "We've demonstrated concretely that it is possible, in principle, to retrieve some quantum information from a black hole," said study co-author Adam Jermyn, a doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge in England.

European scientists make last-ditch attempt to contact comet lander

By Victoria Bryan BERLIN (Reuters) - European scientists will send a command into space on Sunday to try to move and restore contact with the comet lander Philae that has fallen silent since the summer. After coming to rest in the shadows when it landed on a comet in November, Philae woke up in June as the comet approached the sun, giving scientists hope that the lander could complete some experiments that it had not done before its solar-powered batteries ran out.

Don't tell Ahab: scientists find the real great white whale

Call me "Albicetus." Scientists on Wednesday said fossils unearthed in 1909 in Santa Barbara, California, that had been wrongly categorized for decades as belonging to a group of extinct walruses were the remains of a fearsome sperm whale that swam the Pacific Ocean 15 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch. "Because the fossil specimen is a pale white color, and an ancient sperm whale, it seemed appropriate to honor Melville's infamous whale," said researcher Alex Boersma of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History in Washington.

No hiatus in global warming, says IPCC chief

By Nina Chestney PARIS (Reuters) - Global warming has not paused, but more research is needed to understand the level that might cause tipping points, or irreversible damage to the earth's climate system, the chair of the U.N. panel of climate scientists told Reuters on Tuesday. In 2013, the panel reported a slowdown or "hiatus" in warming since about 1998, despite rising man-made emissions of greenhouse gases, heartening sceptics who said the risks of climate change had been exaggerated. "There is no hiatus (in global warming).

Counting Steps: Are You Walking More, But Enjoying It Less?

Using a fitness tracker or smartwatch to count your steps every day may lead you to boost your activity levels, but you may find that you enjoy your activity less than you would if you weren't tracking yourself, new research suggests. It turns out that all that tracking can turn pleasurable hobbies like walking into chores, which could make people stop doing those once-enjoyable tasks when they feel they're off the clock, the researchers said. "In general, tracking activity can increase how much people do," Jordan Etkin, a marketing professor at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business, said in a statement.

Acupuncture Causes Bacterial Infection in Rare Case

In the case, a 67-year-old man in Australia developed a serious bacterial infection after completing a five-week course of acupuncture aimed at relieving the pain and stiffness from his neck arthritis, also known as cervical spondylosis. After feeling feverish and ill for several days and also experiencing worsening neck pain, the man went to the hospital emergency room to find out what was wrong with him, according to the case report, published online Dec.11 in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

The Thanksgiving Sky: The Moon Meets a Bright Star at Dawn

As the moon moves around the Earth in its monthly orbit, it often passes in front of background stars. Such events are called "lunar occultations" and one will happen Thursday at dawn in a Thanksgiving lunar treat.

Tribute to a Starman: David Bowie Mourned by Astronauts, Scientists

Astronauts, scientists and members of the spaceflight industry are joining people all over the world in mourning the death of music icon David Bowie, who passed away Sunday (Jan. 10) after a battle with cancer.

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Sunday, January 10, 2016

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Beyond Step Counts: 4 New Ways to Track Health

Wearables that count steps and track heartbeats are a dime a dozen these days, but now some new health gadgets are aiming to look inside the body in new ways, to track everything from hydration to hemoglobin levels. The device works by sending different wavelengths of light into the body, and then measuring how much of that light is absorbed, Rymut told Live Science. Another product on display here at CES, called Ember, from the California-based company Cercacor, is a noninvasive hemoglobin tracker for athletes.

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Saturday, January 9, 2016

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SpaceX to retry ocean rocket landing after success on land

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX will attempt to land its next Falcon 9 rocket on a barge in the Pacific Ocean, seeking another milestone a month after landing a booster on the ground in a spaceflight first, the company said on Friday. The Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a NASA ocean-monitoring satellite, is slated to blast off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Jan. 17. About two minutes after liftoff, the first stage of the rocket will separate, flip around, fire engines to slow its fall, deploy landing legs and attempt to touch down on a floating landing pad in the Pacific Ocean.

Paper airplanes go high-tech at CES

By Ben Gruber The humble paper airplane has just been given a digital upgrade. Israeli firm PowerUp Toys showed off a paper plane equipped with some of the latest drone technology at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. "We are actually introducing first person view flight (FPV) to paper airplanes. So you experience flight as if you were a pilot but on a paper airplane that you folded, which is kind of crazy," said PowerUp Toys CEO, Shai Goetein. It's certainly crazy, but Goetein thinks consumers will find it fascinating. ...

Big-Eared Statues Reveal Ancient Egyptian Power Couple

Six ancient statues of Egyptians, some with round faces and big ears, have been found near the Nile River in Upper Egypt. The statues, which were once sloughed off their original bluff in an earthquake and buried in Nile silt, are of a man named Neferkhewe and his family. Neferkhewe bore the titles of chief of the Medjay (northern Sudan) and overseer of the foreign lands some 3,500 years ago, during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose III. The statues, and the carved alcove in which they reside, had been open to the elements for at least 1,500 years before being buried, but the carvings are in incredible condition, said John Ward, the assistant director of the Gebel el Silsila Survey Project that uncovered the statues.

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Friday, January 8, 2016

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Dinosaur Tracks Reveal Odd Mating Dance

An analysis of the newfound marks suggests they are the first known evidence of a type of mating display behavior known as "scraping," common in modern ground-nesting birds. Paleontologists found scores of these "scrapes," areas in the rock that were shallowly scarred by multiple scratch marks. Martin Lockley, co-author of the study and emeritus professor of geology at the University of Colorado, Denver, told Live Science that these scrape marks were unlike anything the scientists had seen before.

Ötzi the Iceman May Have Suffered Stomach Bug

The famous Ötzi, a man murdered about 5,300 years ago in the Italian Alps, had what's now considered the world's oldest known case of Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that can cause ulcers and gastric cancer, a new study finds. It's unclear whether the ancient iceman did, in fact, have ulcers or gastric cancer because his stomach tissue didn't survive. Today, about half of the world's human population has H. pylori in their gut, but only one in 10 people develop a condition from the bacteria, the researchers said.

Human imprint has thrust Earth into new geological epoch : study

By Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - The indelible imprint left by human beings on Earth has become so clear that it justifies naming a new geological epoch after mankind, experts said on Thursday. The dawn of the "Anthropocene" would signal the end of the Holocene epoch, considered to have begun 11,700 years ago at the end of the Ice Age. "Human activity is leaving a pervasive and persistent signature on Earth," said a report in the journal Science by an international team led by Colin Waters of the British Geological Survey.

World's first passenger drone unveiled at CES

By Ben Gruber LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, UNITED STATES (REUTERS) - There are hundreds of drones competing for attention in Las Vegas at 2016 Consumer Electronics Show. This is the Ehang 184, the world's first passenger drone. The UAV is completely autonomous, relying on sensors and computers to navigate from take off to landing.

Ancient Citadel Finds New Home in Apartment Building

A 3,400-year-old citadel near Israel's Mediterranean coast will soon be part of a modern, high-rise apartment building, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Architects are designing a building that will enclose the citadel, which will reside in the basement, said the IAA, which plans to formally announce the project tomorrow (Jan. 7) at a joint archaeological conference of the Northern Region of the IAA and the University of Haifa in Israel. Archaeologists uncovered the citadel during a recent excavation in the coastal city of Nahariya in northern Israel.

Strange New State of Hydrogen Created

By crushing Earth's lightest element with mind-boggling pressures, scientists have revealed an entirely new state of matter: phase V hydrogen. The squished hydrogen is a precursor to a state of matter first proposed in the 1930s, called atomic solid metallic hydrogen. And so, in crushing hydrogen at such high pressures, the physicists also got a glimpse of the inner atmosphere of a gas giant, where pressures reach millions of (Earth) atmospheres.

European scientists make last-ditch attempt to contact comet lander

The Big Picture: What the New Diet Guidelines Mean for You

Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at New York University Langone Medical Center, thinks this approach is a good start. A healthy eating pattern is "an easier concept for people to understand," than, for example, delineating serving sizes, calorie counts and daily totals, Heller told Live Science. Elisabetta Politi, the nutrition director at the Duke Diet & Fitness Center in North Carolina, agreed.

More Young People Report Same-Sex Attractions

In particular, more men now say they are "mostly attracted to the opposite sex," rather than "only" attracted to the opposite sex compared to previous years, according to the survey from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new trend may result from greater societal acceptance of same-sex relationships, said Ritch Savin-Williams, a professor of developmental psychology at Cornell University who researches sexual orientation and behavior. This change, however, probably doesn't mean that more men now than in the past are feeling same-sex vibes, said Savin-Williams, who was not involved in the survey.

Why Crows Hold Funerals

The scientists cited an earlier study showing that American crows gather and act aggressively, behavior known as "mobbing," in response to audio playback of a crow's distress call, played near a dead crow. The researchers wanted to know if they would also learn to associate dead crows — and threats to themselves — with specific predators.

3 High-Tech Ways to Track What You Eat

One gadget, called DietSensor, claims to be able to scan your food with a beam of light and tell you its nutritional content, such as how much protein, fat and carbohydrates it contains. It does this by analyzing how the molecules in the food interact with the light, according to the company, which presented the device here at CES. This causes the molecules in the food to vibrate, and produce an optical signature that is unique for that food, the company says.

Got Allergies? Blame Neanderthals

Genetic variants found in modern humans that originally came from Neanderthals may predispose the human immune system to overreact to environmental allergens, according to two new studies published today (Jan. 7) in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The studies also found that interbreeding with Neanderthals may have helped ancient humans, who came from Africa, get a head start in settling Europe. "Neanderthals, for example, had lived in Europe and western Asia for around 200,000 years before the arrival of modern humans.

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