Tuesday, April 26, 2016

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Blaze guts Delhi museum housing dinosaur fossil

A fire on Tuesday damaged a museum of natural history in the Indian capital that had scores of exhibits of plants and animals, among them a 160-million-year-old dinosaur fossil. More than a hundred firemen battled for about three hours to douse the flames that broke out early on Tuesday on the top floor of the National Museum of Natural History. "The damage is huge," said Rajesh Panwar, deputy chief of the Delhi Fire Service, adding that some part of the museum was being renovated and that its fire fighting system was out of operation.


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He Will Rock You: Decoding Freddie Mercury's Vocal Prowess

As the lead singer of the legendary rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury possessed a voice with the quicksilver qualities of his mercurial last name, soaring to seemingly impossible heights before descending to rumbling depths, and lending a signature drama to Queens' distinctive sound. During the two decades that Mercury led the band, the extent of his impressive vocal abilities were the subject of much speculation, but they were never studied in depth. Using acoustic data from sampled recordings and vocal re-enactments, they evaluated Mercury's speaking and singing voice.


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William Shatner: 'Star Trek' Tech Is 'Not That Far-Fetched'

William Shatner knows a thing or two about sci-fi tech. The 85-year-old actor is best known for his portrayal of the fictional Captain James Kirk, the courageous and willful leader of the starship Enterprise from the original "Star Trek" TV series. The show, which debuted in 1966, exposed audiences to spaceships, intergalactic space travel and a bevy of high-tech, futuristic gadgets.


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New Wearable Device Is Virtual Ski Coach Inside Your Boot

The Carv insert does not sink under pressure as memory foam does, but it does remember and record where it experiences pressure, with the help of 48 sensors, according to MotionMetrics. The sensors are designed to pick up subtle changes in pressure distribution and to track acceleration, rotation speed and location, said Jamie Grant, CEO of MotionMetrics. The insert is less than a millimeter thick and doesn't affect the user's ability to ski, according to the company.


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Tesla Coils 'Sing' in Electrifying Performance

ArcAttack creates music using two giant structures called Tesla coils, which were invented by the eccentric genius Nikola Tesla in 1891, as part of his dream to develop a way to transmit electricity around the world without any wires. Now, more than 120 years later, a band that is described by its founding member, Joe DiPrima, as a "mad scientist-slash-rock group," has found an innovative way to use these tower-like structures for entertainment. When they are played, the Tesla coils emit a soft buzz before unleashing long tentacles of electricity.


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Battling cancer with light

Researchers have for the first time used a technique called optogenetics to prevent and reverse cancer by manipulating electrical signals in cells. Lead author on the study Brook Chernet injected frog embryos with two types of genes, an oncogene to predispose them to cancer and another gene to produce light sensitive "ion channels" in tumor-type cells. Ion channels are passageways into and out of the cell that open in response to certain signals.

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Researchers use light to battle cancer

By Ben Gruber BOSTON (Reuters) - In an intriguing approach to the fight against cancer, researchers for the first time have used light to prevent and reverse tumors using a technique called optogenetics to manipulate electrical signaling in cells. Scientists at Tufts University performed optogenetics experiments on frogs, often used in basic research into cancer because of the biological similarities in their tumors to those in mammals, to test whether this method already used in brain and nervous system research could be applied to cancer. "We call this whole research program cracking the bioelectric code," said biologist Michael Levin, who heads the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology.

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Heads up: intact skull sheds light on big, long-necked dinosaurs

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A beautifully preserved fossil skull unearthed in Argentina is giving scientists unparalleled insight into the sensory capabilities and behavior of a group of dinosaurs that were the largest land animals in Earth's history. Scientists announced on Tuesday the discovery of the skull as well as neck bones of a newly identified dinosaur called Sarmientosaurus that roamed Patagonia 95 million years ago. CT scans of the skull revealed its brain structure and provided close understanding of its hearing, sight and feeding behavior.


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Monday, April 25, 2016

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Wind energy converter inspired by ancient boats

By Amy Pollock and Mohamed Haddad A bladeless wind energy convertor inspired by the sailing boats of Ancient Carthage is set to breeze past traditional turbines in terms of efficiency, according to its Tunisian developers. A Tunisian start-up has taken inspiration from the sailing boats of Ancient Carthage to develop a bladeless, non-rotating wind energy convertor that is more efficient than traditional turbines as well as safer and quieter, according to the developers. Tunis-based Saphon Energy says the aerodynamic bowl-shaped sail on its turbine is capable of capturing twice as much wind energy over the same swept area as a conventional turbine.

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Astronaut runs marathon in space -- but slower than on earth

(Reuters) - British astronaut Tim Peake became the first man to complete a marathon in space on Sunday, running the classic 26.2 mile distance while strapped to a treadmill aboard the International Space Station. As part of the London Marathon, Britain's biggest mass participation race, the 44-year-old spaceman saw London's roads under his feet in real time on an iPad as, 250 miles below him, more than 37,000 runners simultaneously pounded the streets. Peake covered the distance in three hours 35 minutes 21 seconds, which was a world away from the time recorded by the real race winner, Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge, whose 2:03:05 was the second fastest ever recorded.


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Spectacular Auroras Captured in Dramatic New Time-Lapse Video

The shimmering atmospheric lighting displays known as auroras have never looked sharper than in a new ultra-high-definition video that was shot in space. The stunning time-lapse footage was captured from the International Space Station in 4K ultra high definition (UHD), a video format with a resolution of 3,840 pixels horizontal by 2,160 pixels vertical. As the space station passes overhead, the auroras' colorful, translucent light displays — mostly shades of brilliant greens with some purple and yellow hues — hover above Earth.


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Oldest Viking Crucifix Uncovered in Denmark

A solid-gold cross depicting Jesus with his arms outstretched may be Denmark's oldest crucifix, dating back more than 1,100 years. The gorgeous pendant was unearthed in March by a hobbyist with a metal detector. Found in a field on the island of Funen, Denmark, the Viking jewelry piece may have been worn by a Viking woman, according to the Viking Museum at Ladby, where the pendant was on display.


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Lap Dinos? Gigantic Sauropods Started Out Chihuahua-Size

Now, the discovery of the animal's fossilized bones suggests that the family of ginormous dinosaurs that this titanosaur belonged to started out small — each about the size of a Chihuahua — and were precocial, a new study finds. "Baby Rapetosaurus gives us our first in-depth look at a sauropod within just a few weeks of hatching," said study lead researcher Kristina Curry Rogers, an associate professor of biology and geology at Macalester College in Minnesota. "That's where I found them several years ago, when I was searching for bones of ancient crocodiles and turtles," Curry Rogers told Live Science in an email.


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How Jet-Black Metal Converts Sunlight to Steam Power

Steam power, once a major force behind the Industrial Revolution, could be coming back into fashion, after Chinese researchers designed the world's "darkest metal" that converts sunlight to steam at roughly 90 percent efficiency. Despite being made from gold, the so-called "plasmonic absorber" is jet black as it absorbs 99 percent of light in the visible to mid-infrared spectrum. Its designers say this is a dramatic improvement over previous metal absorbers and comparable to the world's darkest material, carbon-nanotube (CNT) arrays.

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Levitating Sled Sets New World Speed Record

A new magnetic levitating (maglev) sled has blasted its way to a world speed record. The lightning-fast sled is officially the fastest object of its kind, according to the U.S. Air Force. The 2,000-lb. (900 kilograms) sled, which was designed by an Air Force squadron to test the delicate instruments inside weapons systems, broke the world record for speed on March 4, eclipsing its own previous record that had been set just two days earlier.


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Bizarre Ant Life Rafts Have Assigned Seating

It's weird enough that some ant species can work together to build living rafts in the event of a flood. Fire ant species make similar rafts, clinging to one another with their jaws, claws and sticky leg pads.


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Drug Overdose Deaths Increased 70-Fold in These US Counties

Some U.S. counties have seen a 70-fold increase in drug overdose deaths in the last few decades, a new study finds. However, the areas with the highest increases in drug overdose deaths are not always the places with the most drug trafficking, as identified by the government, the study found. This suggests that drugs are passing through some high-trafficking counties without affecting death rates of the people in those regions, but are causing problems in other parts of the country, the researchers said.

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Woman's Paranoia Had an Unusual Cause

The 43-year-old woman in Turkey had become suddenly suspicious of her husband's infidelity, and had started looking through his phone and personal belongings, the doctors who treated her wrote in their report of her case, published in March in the journal BMJ Case Reports. The woman came to see doctors in January 2015, seeking medical help for her paranoia about her husband's behavior, said Dr. C. Onur Noyan, a psychiatrist at NPIstanbul Neuropsychiatry Hospital in Istanbul who treated the woman and was the lead author of the case report. The doctors conducted a detailed psychiatric evaluation and concluded that the woman had experienced a brief psychotic attack, Noyan said.

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Why Some 'Unhealthy' Eating Behaviors Might Not Be That Bad

Dining out or eating canned foods might not actually be so bad for your waistline, a new study from Spain suggests. People who said they ate while watching TV at least two times a week, or didn't plan how much to eat before they sat down to a meal, were more likely to gain weight, compared with people who didn't report engaging in these unhealthy eating behaviors. But many other behaviors that are typically thought of as unhealthy — including eating pre-cooked or canned foods, buying snacks from a vending machine, and eating at fast food restaurants more than once a week — were not linked to weight gain.

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Saturday, April 23, 2016

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Volatile Sakurajima Volcano is a Lightning Laboratory

Jeffrey Johnson, associate professor of geosciences at Boise State University, contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Japan is a country of volcanoes, and Sakurajima is one of its most infamous. Its notoriety stems from its poor behavior in 1914, when powerful explosions and pyroclastic flows forced the evacuation of the small volcanic island.


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For Social Work to Work, People Need to Know They Belong (Op-Ed)

Belonging is a psychological lever that has broad consequences for people's interests, motivation, health and happiness, suggests Gregory Walton, a psychologist at Stanford University in California who has published a series of studies on the subject. In social work, it's just as important to help vulnerable clients build meaningful relationships and increase their sense of community as it is to deliver direct services, like food and shelter. When social service agencies fill basic needs for the impoverished, unemployed or lonely, progress is usually measured in meals served, people sheltered or jobs placed.

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Healthy Eating Trick: Use Tech to Order Food

In a third experiment, researchers asked students to choose between a Twix and a banana for a snack. When students made their choice out loud, 62 percent chose the Twix. In comparison, when the students chose by pushing a button, 35 percent chose the Twix, and when they wrote down their choice, 43 percent chose the Twix.

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Zap! Sparking the Brain Stimulates Creativity

That spark of creativity you crave might begin with a tiny zap. Results showed an in increase in creative thinking after the zaps, demonstrating for the first time that electrical stimulation can enhance creativity, the researchers said. But before you try the DIY route by licking your finger and sticking it in a socket, the researchers warned that they are in the early stages of understanding how electrical stimulation may enhance thought.

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This Look Makes Candidates More Electable

Researchers found that Americans preferred to vote for candidates who appeared more competent, according to the study, published today (April 21) in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. Chinese participants, on the other hand, valued candidates who appeared to have better social skills, the researchers found. It turned out that the appearance of competence, or the ability to complete certain goals, was more important to American participants, while the appearance of "social competence," or the ability to navigate social situations and be sensitive to the needs of others, played a greater role in the decision for Chinese participants.

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How Your Diet Affects Your Risk of Colon Polyps

Eating foods known to promote inflammation may increase a person's risk of developing polyps in the large intestine, or colon, a new study finds. "Inflammation is very consistently associated with [a person's] risk of colon cancer," said Dr. Roberd Bostick, a professor of epidemiology at Emory University in Georgia and the senior author on the study that was presented here Tuesday (April 19) at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting. In the study, the researchers used a "food-based inflammation" score that they had developed in a previous study.

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