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Thursday, April 14, 2016

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Search begins for clues in prehistoric crater linked to demise of dinosaurs

Scientists have begun drilling for core samples, nearly 5,000 feet below the seabed, of a prehistoric crater caused by an asteroid collision that is linked to the extinction of dinosaurs. The theory that their demise 66 million years ago was linked to the asteroid impact was first proposed in 1980. "The impact caused the extinction of some 75 percent of species that existed in that period," said Dr Jaime Urrutia-Fucugauchi, of the Institute of Geophysics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Too Much Alcohol? Drinking Guidelines Vary by Country

Drinking three or four alcoholic drinks in a day, on occasion, is considered safe in the U.S., but in Sweden and Germany, that's well over the amount that health authorities recommend. In the study, researchers analyzed safe drinking guidelines from 37 countries, looking at what each country defined as one "standard drink," as well as how many drinks it took to reach the recommended daily or weekly limit. They found that the amount of alcohol in a standard drink varied by 250 percent among the countries, from a low of 8 grams of alcohol in Iceland, to a high of 20 grams of alcohol in Austria.

Scientists: Greenland ice sheet is melting freakishly early

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists say Greenland's massive ice sheet this week started melting freakishly early thanks to a weather system that brought unseasonably warm temperatures and rain.

Zika Virus Does Cause Microcephaly, Report Confirms

The Zika virus can cause microcephaly — a condition in which an infant has an abnormally small brain and head — when the infant's mother is infected during pregnancy, according to a new report, published today (April 13) in the New England Journal of Medicine. The report from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that if a woman is infected with Zika during pregnancy, the result can indeed be microcephaly and other congenital problems in the babies of those women. Researchers had strongly suspected that a link existed, but they needed sufficient evidence to definitively establish that there is a direct, cause-and-effect relationship between the virus and microcephaly — not just an association between the two.

Paralyzed Man Moves Fingers with Brain Implant

A 24-year-old man whose arms and legs were paralyzed by a spinal cord injury has regained the ability to move his hand, wrist and several fingers using an electrical device in a lab, according to a new study. Burkhart became paralyzed at age 19 after he dove into a shallow wave at a beach and hit the sandy bottom, severely injuring his spinal cord. But now, using the device, Burkhart has regained functional movements, said Chad Bouton, the division leader of neurotechnology and analytics at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York.

Why People 'Lose Themselves' When They Take LSD

When people take the psychedelic drug LSD, they may feel as if the boundary that separates them from the rest of the world has dissolved, as if they are connected with everything. Ego dissolution is not a universally positive or negative experience, said Enzo Tagliazucchi, a co-author of the new study and a neuroscientist at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in Amsterdam.

Watch an Amazing Encounter Between Two Deadly Predators (Video)

A new video, captured by a wildlife photographer, provides a nonlethal answer: The video shows a wolf approaching a lynx mom and her kittens in the snowy reaches of the Carpathian Mountains in Poland. Zenek Wojtas, the wildlife photographer who caught the rare encounter, viewed the exchange as a friendly overture from one top predator to another. Both creatures were once on the brink of extinction, though their numbers have rebounded in recent years as a result of intensive efforts to protect the animals from both hunting and habitat loss.

Jeepers, Peepers! Tully Monster's Eyes Prove It's a Vertebrate

A tiny clue hidden in the bizarre eyes of the 300-million-year-old remains of a "Tully monster" has helped scientists determine that the curious creature is a vertebrate, a new study finds. Researchers analyzed the so-called monster's eyes, and found that they held two different kinds of pigment cells. Only vertebrates have these pigment cells that resemble sausages and meatballs, indicating that Tully (Tullimonstrum gregarium) wasn't an invertebrate, but rather had a backbone, they said.

Light-Up Device Lets You 'Talk' to Fireflies

One of summer's most magical sights is an otherwise ordinary field or backyard illuminated by tiny, pulsing points of living light, as fireflies emerge at dusk. With the device, which resembles the insect it was built to mimic, users can communicate with fireflies by pushing a single button to emit stored patterns of light pulses that copy actual firefly signals, issuing a "come hither" message that attracts fireflies and lets users observe them up close. Scientists have found that firefly species generate unique light patterns to communicate with their own kind and to attract mates.

Rare Collection of Shakespeare Plays Turns Up in Scottish Mansion

William Shakespeare's First Folio —the Bard of Avon's first collected edition of 38 plays, published in 1623, shortly after his death —is among the world's rarest and most valued books. The folio was discovered in the collection of the Mount Stuart house, on Scotland's Isle of Bute, and ithas been authenticated by Emma Smith, a professor of Shakespeare at the University of Oxford. At the time of Shakespeare's death, at age 52 in 1616, only about half of his plays had been published.

Supersonic Plane Sends Shock Waves Rippling Across the Sun (Photo)

A supersonic plane recently zoomed past the sun, and its light-bending shock waves were captured in a stunning new image. The plane, a T-38C manned by a pilot for the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, was photographed using an updated version of a 150-year-old technique called Schlieren photography. Schlieren photography typically uses a bright light source and a speckled background to reveal changes in the density of air.

U.N. panel to study toughest 1.5C limit on global warming

The U.N.'s panel of climate scientists agreed on Thursday to study how to limit global warming to the toughest target set by world leaders, saying even small rises in temperatures could be harmful. The panel would look into ways to restrict the rise in temperatures to 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times after a 195-nation summit in Paris agreed in December to try and phase out net greenhouse gas emissions this century. Hoesung Lee, chair of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said there were "serious risks" with even minor rises in temperatures from current levels, for instance to coral reefs and to coasts from rising sea levels.

Beer brewers toast Australian gluten-free barley

By Colin Packham SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian scientists say they have developed the world's first WHO-approved "gluten-free" barley, a breakthrough for global beer manufacturers which have had to use alternatives to barley such as rice and sorghum to brew gluten-free beer. Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said on Friday it had sold 70 tonnes of the new Kebari barley to Germany's largest brewer Radeberger, which has produced a beer to be sold in local supermarkets. "Gluten-free barley will be highly sought after, with European brewers particularly interested," said John O'Brien, a brewer of gluten-free beer in Melbourne.

U.N. panel to study toughest 1.5C limit on global warming

Heat kills: Global warming surge may rout Great Barrier Reef's natural defences

By Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - A heat surge from global warming would overwhelm the natural ability of coral in Australia's Great Barrier Reef to survive seasonal temperature changes, in much the way sun bathers would burn if they did not build their tan slowly. A study released on Thursday examined 27 years of temperature data along the world's biggest reef. It found that corals were able to cope with gains in water temperatures when the heat built up step-by-step, rather than abruptly.

Heat kills: Global warming surge may rout Great Barrier Reef's natural defenses

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Wednesday, April 13, 2016

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Obama plans to attend his final White House Science Fair

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some of America's brightest children will visit the White House as President Barack Obama holds his final science fair to highlight work that excelled in a broad range of competitions.

The Tee-Hee Test: Laughter Reveals Your Real Friends

It's no joke — laughter can actually provide clues about whether people are among friends or strangers, a new study finds. When people laugh among friends, their guffaws tend to sound more excited than when that laughter occurs between strangers, said study lead researcher Greg Bryant, an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). "It is often faster and has more irregularities in frequency and loudness that gives it an aroused sound," Bryant told Live Science in an email.

Israel's Oldest Glass Factory Discovered

Archaeologists say they've have unearthed the oldest known glass factory in Israel, dating back to the fourth century A.D. The discovery of turquoise chunks of raw glass and collapsed, ash-covered kilns provide the first archaeological evidence of glass production in Israel during the Late Roman period. "We know from historical sources dating to the Roman period that the Valley of Akko was renowned for the excellent-quality sand located there, which was highly suitable for the manufacture of glass," said Yael Gorin-Rosen, head curator of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) glass department.

Is the Universe a Simulation? Scientists Debate

Is the universe just an enormous, fantastically complex simulation? These were the big questions that a group of scientists, as well as one philosopher, tackled on April 5 during the 17th annual Isaac Asimov Debate here at the American Museum of Natural History. The event honors Asimov, the visionary science-fiction writer, by inviting experts in diverse fields to discuss pressing questions on the scientific frontiers.

No more curtains thanks to next generation window technology

By Ben Gruber Cambridge, MASS (Reuters) - - Curtains and blinds may soon be a design choice as opposed as to a tool for privacy. Windows that can transition between clear and cloudy in a second may soon be a reality thanks to technology under development at Harvard University's School of Engineering.

Swiss group buys Airbus jet for zero-gravity flights

A Swiss aerospace group plans to offer zero-gravity flights this year in an airliner that will expose thrill-seekers with strong stomachs to repeated bouts of weightlessness. In what it called a world premiere, Swiss Space Systems (S3) said on Tuesday it had bought an Airbus A340-300 jet that will carry around 70 passengers on 90-minute flights featuring 15 parabolic arcs. Each parabola will generate 20 to 25 seconds of weightlessness as passengers pass through the top of the arc.

Device harnessing thoughts allows quadriplegic to use his hands

An Ohio man paralyzed in an accident while diving in waves can now pick up a bottle or play the video game Guitar Hero thanks to a small computer chip in his brain that lets his mind guide his hands and fingers, bypassing his damaged spinal cord. Scientists on Wednesday described accomplishments achieved by 24-year-old quadriplegic Ian Burkhart using an implanted chip that relays signals from his brain through 130 electrodes on his forearm to produce muscle movement in his hands and fingers. Burkhart first demonstrated the "neural bypass" technology in 2014 when he was able simply to open and close his hand.

United Launch Alliance suspends Atlas 5 flights

By Irene Klotz COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) - United Launch Alliance said on Wednesday its Atlas 5 rocket will need to be repaired before flights resume following an early engine shutdown on its last mission. "There will be corrective action," Tory Bruno, chief executive of the joint venture by Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co,told Reuters in an interview at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. "I'm still confident that we're going to get all the missions off within a year, but there's going to be a little shuffling around," Bruno said.

Why Hope Remains for Saving the World's Largest Gorillas (Op-Ed)

Andrew Plumptre is a senior conservationist in the Uganda Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Radar Nishuli is chief park warden for the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo working for the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN). The Rwandan genocide in 1994 forced hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which two years later became embroiled in a calamitous civil war — an estimated five million lives were lost there over the following seven years.

Siblings' Dilemma? Solve Backseat Bickering with Game Theory (Op-Ed)

Kevin Zollman, a game theorist and associate professor of philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Game theory is the science of strategic thinking. While the name brings to mind a chess master or poker savant, this area of study deals with much more than what people ordinarily call "games." Although traces of game theory go back millennia, this study of strategy was invented as a field in the 1940s by mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern.

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Tuesday, April 12, 2016

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ULA to partner with Bigelow on commercial space habitats

By Irene Klotz COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) - United Launch Alliance will team with billionaire entrepreneur Robert Bigelow to market and fly habitats for humans in space, a project that hinges on space taxis being developed by SpaceX, Boeing Co and other firms, ULA and Bigelow said on Monday. The agreement, announced at a news conference at the U.S. Space Symposium in Colorado Spring, Colorado, includes a 2020 launch of a 12,000-cubic foot (330-cubic meter) inflatable habitat aboard a ULA Atlas 5 rocket, currently the only vehicle with a big enough payload container to hold the module. Bigelow told the news conference that partnering with ULA, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing, is "a potentially enormously important relationship," to open space to non-government research, commercial endeavors and tourism.

Brain scans show how LSD mimics mind of a baby

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have for the first time scanned the brains of people using LSD and found the psychedelic drug frees the brain to become less compartmentalized and more like the mind of a baby. A research team led by scientists at Imperial College London said that while normally the brain works on independent networks performing separate functions such as vision, movement and hearing, under LSD the separateness of these networks breaks down, leading to a more unified system. "In many ways, the brain in the LSD state resembles the state our brains were in when we were infants: free and unconstrained," said Robin Cahart-Harris, who led the study.

The Bible Is Really Old, Handwriting Analysis Reveals

Key parts of the Old Testament may have been compiled earlier than some scholars thought, suggests a new handwriting analysis of text on pottery shards. The shards, found at a frontier fort dating to around 600 B.C., were written by at least six different people, suggesting that literacy was widespread in the ancient kingdom of Judah, said study co-author Israel Finkelstein, an archaeologist and biblical scholar at Tel Aviv University in Israel. "We're dealing with really low-level soldiers in a remote place who can write," Finkelstein told Live Science.

New 'Rembrandt' Painting Was Created by Computer

Last week, scholars revealed an as-yet-unknown Rembrandt painting. But it turns out this mysterious picture wasn't a long-lost Rembrandt canvas uncovered in some forgotten 17th-century warehouse: It was instead made out of whole cloth by a computer algorithm and a 3D printer. The computer algorithm created the "new Rembrandt" after painstakingly studying the painter's entire corpus, then mimicking Rembrandt's painting techniques, styles and subjects.

Here's How You Can Prevent Foot Blisters While Running

All it takes is some paper tape applied to the foot in blister-prone areas before running, the researchers said. The researchers applied paper tape to just part of each runner's foot, so that the untaped areas would serve as a control. "People have been doing studies on blister prevention for 30 or 40 years and never found anything easy that works," Dr. Grant Lipman, a co-author of the study and an emergency-medicine physician at Stanford University Medical Center in California, said in a statement.

The Brain on LSD: New Scans Show Drug's Trippy Effects

From hallucinations to a loss of your sense of self, the effects of taking a drug such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) have been known for some time. Taking LSD leads to increases in activity in the visual parts of the brain, which helps to explain the visual hallucinations associated with taking the drug, according to the new study, published today (April 11) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. These results reveal how LSD can alter a person's consciousness so profoundly, said Robin Carhart-Harris, a research associate in neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London and the lead author of the study.

Zika Virus Linked with Another Brain Disease: What's ADEM?

Some people infected with the Zika virus may develop a rare neurological disorder that is similar to multiple sclerosis, a new study from Brazil suggests. The study reports two cases of people who were infected with the Zika virus and who later developed a condition called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). In people with this condition, the body's own immune system causes swelling in the brain and spinal cord, and damages the protective coating of nerve fibers called myelin.

World's Longest Snake Dies 3 Days After Being Captured

A humongous reticulated python measuring 26.2-foot-long (8 meters) long was captured at a Malaysian construction site last week, but the snake died three days later while laying an egg, news sources report. In October 2011, Medusa, a reticulated python (Python reticulatus), measured 25.1 feet (7.67 m) at her home in Kansas City, Missouri, Guinness World Records reported.

Red Crabs Swarm Like Insects in Incredible Underwater Video

A strange cloud of disturbed silt in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Panama unexpectedly led marine biologists to an incredible sight: thousands of red crabs close to the sea bottom that were "swarming like insects," according to the researchers. The scientists were in a submersible investigating biodiversity at the Hannibal Bank seamount — an underwater mountain and a known ecological hotspot — when they spotted a disturbance in the water that led them to the unusual sight at depths of 1,165 feet to 1,263 feet (355 to 385 meters).

Daily Aspirin Is Most Beneficial in Your 50s, Panel Says

Daily aspirin is also beneficial for men and women who start taking it in their 60s, but its overall benefits are smaller than those for people who start taking it in their 50s, according to the new advice from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Taking one daily low-dose (81 milligrams) aspirin tablet may be an inexpensive and effective way to help reduce the rates of heart disease, cancer and stroke, which are major causes of deaths for adults in the U.S., the USPSTF said. But when people are in their 60s, the balance between the potential benefits and possible harms of using aspirin changes, said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chairwoman of the USPSTF and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Billionaire Yuri Milner bids another $100 million to explore the cosmos

By Sarah McBride SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Billionaire Internet investor Yuri Milner announced another $100 million initiative on Tuesday to better understand the cosmos, this time by deploying thousands of tiny spacecraft to travel to our nearest neighboring star system and send back pictures. If successful, scientists could determine if Alpha Centauri, a star system about 25 trillion miles away, contains an Earth-like planet capable of sustaining life. Tuesday's announcement, made with cosmologist Stephen Hawking, comes less than a year after the announcement of Breakthrough Listen.

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