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Friday, April 1, 2016

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A gorilla named Susie illustrates genome similarities with humans

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A gorilla named Susie is helping provide fresh insight into the genetic similarities and differences between people and these endangered apes that are among our closest living relatives. Scientists on Thursday unveiled an upgraded version of the gorilla genome based on DNA from Susie, an 11-year-old Western lowland gorilla at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio, that fills in many gaps present in the first gorilla genetic map published in 2012. The new research revealed that gorillas and humans are slightly more closely related genetically than previously recognized, with the genomes diverging by just 1.6 percent.

Probe of ULA rocket engine early cutoff focuses on fuel system

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - The Russian-made rocket motor that catapulted a United Launch Alliance booster toward orbit last week shut down six seconds early apparently because of a fuel system problem, the company said on Thursday, in its first explanation of the issue. The ULA Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on March 22 carrying an Orbital ATK cargo ship bound for the International Space Station. The rocket's Russian-made RD-180 engine shut down about six seconds early, but the booster's second-stage motor compensated for the shortfall by firing longer, ULA said in a statement.

A gorilla named Susie illustrates genome similarities with humans

Purple Digging Frog Undergoes Amazing Transformation

A strange purple species of frog that lives most of its life underground undergoes a drastic change from rock-clinging tadpole to grown-up digger, new research finds. While most frog tadpoles swim freely in the water, the Indian purple frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis) spends its tadpole time clinging, with its suckerlike mouth, to the undersides of rocks. "For these remarkable frogs, being clinging and digging specialists seems to have enabled them to survive since the Jurassic," study co-author Madhava Meegaskumbura, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka, said in a statement.

10-Million-Year-Old Snake Revealed in Living Color

The fossilized remains of a snake that lived 10 million years ago don't look very colorful to the naked eye today. Though the pigment grains held within the snake's cells were long gone when scientists discovered the fossil, the cell shapes resembled several types of pigment cells in modern snakes that contain various kinds of color information. Matching the ancient and modern cell shapes allowed researchers to use modern snake color cell data as a road map.

Morgan Freeman Delves into 'The Story of God' in Nat Geo Special

"Over the past few months, I've traveled to nearly 20 cities in seven different countries on a personal journey to find answers to the big mysteries of faith," Freeman said in a statement. The idea for the miniseries took root when Freeman was visiting Istanbul about six years ago with film producer Lori McCreary, who helped Freeman found the Revelations Entertainment production company. "The man said no, that Muslims celebrated these stories, too," Freeman said.

Relic of Beheaded Medieval Swedish King Might Be Authentic

To open a medieval reliquary containing a saint's bones, you have to have a good reason, said Sabine Sten. Sten is an osteoarchaeologist (a type of scientist who studiesskeletal remains from archaeological sites) at Uppsala University in Sweden. Two years ago, she got permission to open a reliquary (a container used to hold objects deemed holy) at the Uppsala Cathedral, to study the bones of Erik Jedvardsson, a medieval Swedish king turned saint.

Scientists Hijack Bugs, Turn Them into Cyborgs

For decades, scientists have looked to insects for inspiration when designing robots, with the hope of learning from millions of years of evolution. In the past two decades, instead of attempting to create intricate robots that mimic the complexity of the insect form, researchers have tried hijacking bugs to turn them into robots themselves. Although the researchers acknowledged that cyborg insects do have a number of drawbacks compared to true robots, such as limited life spans, they have several advantages, too.

5 Ways Science Could Make Football Safer

Now, in response to concerns from the public and players about injuries, research into making football safer has become a leading topic of discussion for the NFL and many sports medicine organizations, experts say. An investigation published last week by The New York Times revealed that concussion research from the National Football League (NFL) was incomplete to the point of being misleading. According to the Times, data that the NFL used in 13 peer-reviewed articles, which supported the NFL's claims that brain injuries from football cause no extended harm to players, left out over 100 diagnosed concussions, including the injury that ended the career of Steve Young.

Needle Stuck in Woman's Heart Gives Her a Stroke

A 48-year-old woman in China suffered a stroke that was later found to be caused by a finger-length needle stuck in her heart, according to a new case report. The needle had pierced the woman's chest a few months before the stroke (although the case report doesn't say how it happened). It had penetrated layers of tissue and had gotten stuck in her heart muscle.

It's a Girl! Ancient Viral Genes May Determine a Baby's Sex

It's a boy! Or maybe it's a girl, but either way, new research suggests that the sex of mouse babies, and perhaps the sex of human babies, may be influenced by a newfound way to deactivate ancient viral genes that have been embedded in mammal genomes for more than a million years. In the research, the scientists looked at viral DNA that is active in the mouse genome. Viral DNA can become part of an animal's genome when a kind of virus called a retrovirus infects a cell, and slips its genes into the DNA of host cells.

Zika Revealed: Here's What a Brain-Cell-Killing Virus Looks Like

The destructive Zika virus has been visualized for the first time, shedding light on similarities and differences between this and related viruses, according to a new study. The new findings may be helpful in developing effective antiviral treatments and vaccines against the Zika virus, the researchers said. "The structure of the virus provides a map that shows potential regions of the virus that could be targeted by a therapeutic treatment, used to create an effective vaccine, or [used] to improve our ability to diagnose and distinguish Zika infection from that of other related viruses," Richard Kuhn, the director of the Purdue University Institute for Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Diseases in Indiana and a co-author on the study, said in a statement.

Tribeca Film Debate: Why the Anti-Vaxxers Just Won't Quit

The anti-vaccination movement regained attention due to actor Robert De Niro's decision late last week to pull the film "Vaxxed" from the Tribeca Film Festival, which he runs. Despite the public pressure to pull the film — not to mention the innumerable studies showing that vaccines are safe — there are many reasons the movement persists, sociologists told Live Science. "We know vaccines carry some risk, and we know that risk is very small," said Jennifer Reich, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Denver.

Pentagon awards $75 million for advanced textiles institute

The Pentagon will partner with a consortium of 89 universities, manufacturers, non-profits, and other groups to establish an institute that would research materials "that can see, hear, sense, communicate, store energy, regulate temperature, monitor health, change color, and much more," Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday. Carter announced the initiative in a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which will host the institute. The Pentagon has awarded $75 million for the purpose, funding it said had been matched by over $240 million from non-federal sources.

April Fools' Day! Why People Love Pranks

Pranks have not been thoroughly studied, though researchers have found that people find being tricked a very aversive experience. Prank-based humor can be cruel or kind, loved or hated, but it's anything but simple. Pranks "combine a whole bunch of theories, potentially, of laughter," said Cynthia Gendrich, a professor of acting and directing at Wake Forest University who teaches a seminar on why people laugh.

Hidden King Tut Chambers? Not So Fast, Officials Caution

Egypt's new antiquities minister, Khaled El Anany, sounded caution this morning at a press conference in Luxor over the claim that Tutankhamun's tomb holds two hidden chambers. Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves, of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project, had proposed that two hidden chambers were lurking in the tomb of Tutankhamun and that the hidden rooms may hold the tomb of Queen Nefertiti, the stepmom of King Tutankhamun.

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Thursday, March 31, 2016

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Chinese AI team plans to challenge Google's AlphaGo: state media

A team from China plans to challenge Google's AlphaGo, the artificial intelligence (AI) program that beat a world-class player in the ancient board game Go, the state-owned Shanghai Securities News reported on Thursday. Scientists from the China Computer Go team will issue a challenge to AlphaGo by the end of 2016, said attendees at an event in Beijing organized by the Chinese Go Association and the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, according to the report. The event was 'The Forum for Understanding the AlphaGo War between Man and Machine and Chinese Artificial Intelligence', Shanghai Securities News reported on its website.

Diminutive 'Hobbit' people vanished earlier than previously known

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The extinct human species dubbed the "Hobbit" vanished from its home on the Indonesian island of Flores far earlier than previously thought, according to scientists who suspect our species may have had a hand in these diminutive people's demise. Researchers on Wednesday said they recalculated the age of bones of the species, named Homo floresiensis, found inside a Flores cave, and determined it disappeared about 50,000 years ago rather than 12,000 years ago as previously estimated. The Hobbit's discovery in 2003 created a scientific sensation.

305-Million-Year-Old 'Almost Spider' Unlocks Arachnid History

The arachnid, locked in iron carbonate for 305 million years, reveals the stepwise evolution of arachnids into spiders. "It's not quite a spider, but it's very close to being one," said study researcher Russell Garwood, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Arachnids are an ancient group with murky origins, Garwood told Live Science.

Did Hobbits Live Alongside Modern Humans?

The extinct human lineage nicknamed "the hobbit" for its miniature body may have vanished soon before or soon after modern humans arrived on the hobbits' island home, rather than living alongside modern humans for thousands of years as was previously thought, researchers say. By using new techniques to date hobbit skeletons and the sediment where they were buried, researchers determined that the "hobbit" species, Homo floresiensis, likely vanished earlier than prior estimates had suggested. "Homo floresiensis reminds us that human diversity was far greater in the past than it is today," said study co-lead author Matthew Tocheri, a paleoanthropologist at Lakehead University in Ontario.

Headless Bard? Shakespeare's Skull Pilfered by Grave Robbers

William Shakespeare — arguably the greatest playwright of all time — is missing his head, scientists have discovered. Archaeologists recently scanned the famed writer's grave with ground-penetrating radar. Instead, Shakespeare's body is wrapped in cloth and buried inside a shallow grave less than 3 feet (1 meter) deep, the researchers said.

Could this megacopter carry people?

By Jim Drury Students who have a remote-controlled multicopter drone that set a Guinness World Record for the heaviest payload ever lifted by such a vehicle say they hope to get permission to fly a person in its structure. The University of Oslo team built the large unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), over an 18 month period. It contains 13 propellers and eight hexacopters powered by a total of 48 motors that reside on a frame built from aluminum and plywood. Last October it broke the world record by lifting a payload of 61 kilograms (134lb 7.6oz) into the air and holding it there for 37 seconds, elevated to a height of at least one meter at all times. The record attempt was far from easy, with the drone unable to lift its initial payload of 73 kilograms and having to reduce its weight.

'Abortion Pill' Gets New Label: 5 Things to Know About Mifepristone

The Food and Drug Administration has approved changes to the label for mifepristone, also known as "the abortion pill," the agency said this week. The new label says that the drug (sold under the brand name Mifeprex) can be taken later in pregnancy and at a lower dose than what was recommended on the old label. "These laws compelled health care providers to use an outdated, inferior and less effective regimen," Planned Parenthood said in a statement, weighing in on the FDA's new rule.

Marijuana Addiction Linked to Genetics

People with certain genetic markers may be at higher risk for marijuana dependence, a new study suggests. Researchers found a link between three genetic markers and symptoms of marijuana dependence, a condition in which people can't stop using the drug even though it interferes with many aspects of their lives, such as their relationships or their jobs. What's more, the study showed some overlap between the genetic risk factors for marijuana dependence and the genetic risk factors for depression, suggesting a possible reason why these two conditions often occur together, the researchers said.

Zika Misperceptions: Many in US Unaware of Key Facts

Many people in the U.S. are not aware of key facts about the Zika virus, according to the results of a new poll. Researchers found that, for example, in households that included a woman who was either pregnant or considering getting pregnant in the next year, 1 in 4 people were not aware of the link between the Zika virus during pregnancy and microcephaly, a birth defect that causes an abnormally small brain and head. "We have a key window before the mosquito season gears up in communities within the United States mainland to correct misperceptions about Zika virus so that pregnant women and their partners may take appropriate measures to protect their families," Gillian SteelFisher, director of the poll and a health policy research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a statement.

Expedition Unknown: Saving Marine Mammals Is a Daunting Task (Op-Ed)

Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

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Wednesday, March 30, 2016

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Experts Doubt Claims of 'Hidden Chambers' in King Tut's Tomb

Radar experts are casting doubt on claims that King Tutankhamun's tomb contains hidden, undiscovered chambers — and they're calling for more data to be released. At a March 17 newsconference, officials at Egypt's antiquities ministry released radar data that they said showed the presence of hidden cavities inside the tomb of King Tut. The scans, carried out by Japanese radar technologist Hirokatsu Watanabe, "suggest the presence of two empty spaces or cavities beyond the decorated North and West walls of the burial chamber," they said in a statement.

'Unicorns' Lumbered Across Siberia 29,000 Years Ago

Large, four-legged beasts, each with a single horn growing from its head, once ambled across part of western Siberia, in what is now Kazakhstan. Sometimes referred to as "unicorns" because of their single horns, these animals were originally thought to have gone extinct 350,000 years ago. A 1923 publication by paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn estimated the creatures to be larger than any of the modern rhino species.

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