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Saturday, November 9, 2013

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Pope Francis Kisses Man Covered in Tumors

Since assuming the papacy, Pope Francis has espoused a life of humility and compassion in the tradition of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, who adopted a life of poverty and service to the sick. There, Francis openly embraced and kissed an unidentified man covered with tumors caused by neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic disease of the nervous system. Neurofibromatosis, or NF, causes tumors to grow on nerves and nerve endings. The condition can appear in childhood or during the teen years, depending on the type of NF;

Chasing a Solar Eclipse: Hitting the Bull's Eye at 44,000 Feet (First Person)

The airplane would attempt to view the few seconds of totality — the total phase of the solar eclipse — at the very beginning of the eclipse path, where the shadow, moving at nearly 8,000 mph (12,875 km/h) was just touching down on Earth. You can follow space photography Ben Cooper @LaunchPhoto or at LaunchPhotography.com.

European Satellite Is Falling from Space, But Where Will It Hit?

The fate of European Space Agency's falling GOCE satellite was sealed in October, when the spacecraft ran out of the fuel needed to keep it aloft in a very low orbit above Earth. Now that the satellite's mission is over, its handlers at the European Space Agency (ESA) are closely tracking its ever-descending orbit to determine where it might fall. The GOCE satellite team's best prediction so far is for "a re-entry on Sunday, with a possibility for it slipping into early Monday," Rune Floberghagen, ESA's GOCE mission manager, told The New York Times earlier this week. Most of the 1-ton (907 kilograms) spacecraft will disintegrate during reentry, but smaller fragments of GOCE will make it all the way to the planet's surface. The Times reported that 25 to 45 fragments of the satellite are expected to survive, with the largest as big as 200 lbs. (90 kg).

As Myth Marries Science, the Origin Story Matters (Op-Ed)

Roger Briggs is the author of "Journey to Civilization: The Science of How We Got Here" (Collins Foundation Press, 2013). The traditional view of history has been that prehistoric humans achieved civilization for the first time about 5,000 years ago in the Middle East, and was then followed by the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and so on.

Can New Rules Finally End Pet-Treat Poisonings? (Op-Ed)

This Op-Ed is adapted from a post on the blog A Humane Nation, where the content ran before appearing in LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Today, the nutritional content and safety of pet food is a mainstream concern, given growing consciousness about nutrition and healthy foods and the view that pets are family members. The pet-food market has grown dramatically, with some pet food companies even marketing organic food for dogs and cats. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new proposed standards governing oversight over the pet-food industry, calling for makers of animal food sold in the United States to develop written plans to prevent food-borne illnesses, like salmonella. This much-needed upgrade of the regulatory framework comes as the FDA is still trying to determine the precise cause of a six-year spate of pet illnesses — involving more than 3,500 dogs, with nearly 600 known fatalities — apparently stemming from jerky-style pet treats.

To Cut Carbon, a Decade is Too Long to Wait (Op-Ed)

Jeffrey Rissman, policy analyst at Energy Innovation: Policy and Technology, contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. While there is a global consensus to cut greenhouse gasses, many approaches look to solve the crisis over decades — but, there are critical reasons that even ten years is too long to wait. First, delaying action allows natural carbon-dioxide (CO2) feedback loops — climate-altering processes that accelerate as more CO2 enters the atmosphere — to gather strength. and melting permafrost allows for the decomposition of peat bogs and the melting of methane hydrates, releasing methane into the atmosphere.

The Dog's Telltale Tail (Op-Ed)

Marc Bekoff, emeritus professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is one of the world's pioneering cognitive ethologists, a Guggenheim Fellow, and co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Hunt Club Auctions Opportunity to Kill Endangered Rhino (Op-Ed)

Wayne Pacelle is the president and chief executive officer of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). This Op-Ed is adapted from a post on the blog A Humane Nation, where the content ran before appearing in LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. At the very time that the world is rallying to save the last rhinos — who are being gunned down by poachers and terror groups taking advantage of the global demand for rhino horns — the Dallas Safari Club is planning on auctioning an opportunity to shoot a critically endangered black rhino.

Astronauts Improvise Olympic Torch Relay On Space Station

There are still months remaining before the 2014 Olympic Games kick off, but nine space travelers on the International Space Station are already getting into the Olympic spirit. Meanwhile, two cosmonauts will take the Olympic torch outside the space station on Saturday in a first-ever Olympic spacewalk. The red and silver aluminum torch for the 2014 game arrived at the station with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin (who carried it), NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata when their Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked with the orbiting outpost early Thursday (Nov. 7) morning. "Mikhail Tyurin was the first person that entered the International Space Station with the torch," Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin told reporters through a translator earlier today (Nov. 8) during a news conference.

Cosmonauts to Spacewalk with Olympic Torch Today: How to Watch Live

For the first time in history, an Olympic torch will be taken into the vacuum of space during a spacewalk and you can watch it live online. Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryazanskiy and Oleg Kotov will venture outside the International Space Station with the red and silver aluminum Olympic torch Saturday (Nov. 9), leaving from the station's Pirs docking compartment airlock at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT). This will be the first spacewalk for Ryazanskiy and the fourth for Kotov. You can watch the spacewalk on SPACE.com starting at 9:00 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) via NASA TV.

Mysterious Disease Turning Sea Stars to Goo May Disrupt Tidal Ecosystems

The disease — known as sea star wasting syndrome — begins as a small lesion, and eventually results in the loss of limbs and ultimate disintegration and death of the leggy animal. The syndrome has afflicted sea star populations on the West Coast in the past, and in those instances, populations eventually bounced back, Smithsonian invertebrate zoologist Christopher Mah told LiveScience.

Wearable Robotics: The Incredible Tech of Helping People Walk Again

Michael Gore tripped about 11 years ago and his life changed. The flexible and supportive Indego Exoskeleton is designed to help people rehabilitate after an injury or allow people with paralysis like Gore to walk again. Gore has been working with a version of the exoskeleton since 2010, when he was in rehab at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. "It feels great," Gore, a T10 (thoracic spinal nerve 10) complete paraplegic, told LiveScience of the exoskeleton.

3D-Printed Fossils & Rocks Could Transform Geology

Whether they're cracking open rocks or scanning tiny changes in topography, geologists already work in three dimensions. But one of the most popular attractions at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting in Denver last week was a 3D printer spitting out fossils, globes and fractured rocks. The 3D printer belonged to Franek Hasiuk, a geologist at Iowa State University and proprietor of the GeoFabLab, a hub for 3D geologic printing. "Humans are visual and tactile," Hasiuk told LiveScience.

New Coiled Fibers Could Heal Damaged Hearts

By growing heart cells in scaffolds made of coiled fibers, scientists could develop implants that could help people's hearts spring back into action after heart attacks. Its costs exceed $312 billion yearly, and are expected to exceed $1.5 trillion per year by 2030, according to the 2013 American Heart Association report. Heart disease often leads to heart attacks, which can cause a loss of blood flow to the heart tissue and lead to the death of heart muscle cells. With heart transplants scarce, half the people who live through a heart attack die within five years.

Cosmonauts take Sochi Olympic torch on spacewalk

By Alissa de Carbonnel BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - A pair of Russian cosmonauts took an Olympic torch into open space for the first time in history on Saturday as part of the torch relay of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games. Gripping the unlit silver-and-red torch in the gloved fist of his spacesuit, Oleg Kotov crawled through a hatch and stepped outside the International Space Station some 200 miles above Earth, where he waved it triumphantly. He handed the torch to Sergei Ryazansky and they took turns posing with it, with the station, the blackness of outer space and the blue-and-white orb of Earth as backdrops. The footage, most taken from cameras mounted on the cosmonauts' spacesuit helmets, was broadcast live on U.S. space agency NASA's internet channel and Russian state television.

Sending Olympic Torch to Space, Russia Flaunts Inspiration Superiority (Op-Ed)

Leroy Chiao is a former NASA astronaut and commander of the International Space Station. Chiao is the special adviser for human spaceflight to the Space Foundation, and holds appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University. Soyuz 11M roared into space just a few days ago, carrying the latest crew to the International Space Station. During the mission, two cosmonauts will take the torch out on a spacewalk, to further generate publicity for the games, and for human spaceflight.

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Friday, November 8, 2013

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Moon Surprise: Lunar Craters Are Bigger on Near Side

"When we look at the maps of both hemispheres, we realize there are more big basins on the near side than on the far side," said Katarina Miljkovic of the Institute de Physique du Globe de Paris, lead author of the new moon study published in the Nov. 8 issue of the journal Science. Using data gathered by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft, Miljkovic and her colleagues ran computer simulations to model the effects of long-ago impacts on the moon's crust. Instead, the malleable surface of the near side was able to expand, creating larger basins and displacing more of the crust, even if the impactor was not necessarily huge, Miljkovic found. In light of this new work, however, ideas about that period, known as the "late heavy bombardment," might need to be altered, Miljkovic said.

Antarctic Glacier Flow Controlled by Speed Bumps Below

Beneath Antarctic glaciers sliding quickly toward the sea, researchers now find that stripes of extremely high friction exist that help control the rates at which giant chunks of ice flow into the ocean. As climate is changing globally, scientists concerned about melting ice caps and subsequent rising sea levels have focused on ice streams near the margins of the Antarctic Ice Sseet, the largest mass of ice on Earth. The rates at which these ice streams drain to the sea vary and are controlled by factors that have largely been unclear to scientists. Researchers had known that the more firmly ice sheets are stuck to the bedrock beneath them, the more slowly they will move, but much else was uncertain.

Astronomers 'dumbfounded' by six-tailed asteroid

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - - Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have spotted a freakish asteroid with six comet-like tails of dust streaming from its body like spokes on a wheel, scientists said on Thursday. "We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it," astronomer David Jewitt with the University of California at Los Angeles, said in a statement. In September astronomers used the sharp-eyed orbiting Hubble telescope to zero in on the object, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Not only is the asteroid sporting six tails, follow-up observations 13 days later showed it had changed shape.

New Limb Regeneration Insight Surprises Scientists

100 Years After Death, Evolution's Other Discoverer Gains Recognition

I had a headache the rest of the day, so great was the excitement produced by what will appear to most people a very inadequate cause." (The Malay Archipelago, 1869) Imagine if you could get that excited about anything, let alone insect collecting, as Alfred Russel Wallace, who died 100 years ago today (Nov. 7), did in this journal entry made during the eminent, if overlooked, field biologist's journey across the Malay Archipelago between 1854 and 1862.

5 Foods That Face Changes with Trans Fat Ban

The Food and Drug Administration's announcement today (Nov. 7) that trans fats could be phased out means that some popular food products may need to be reformulated in the future to comply with the law. If trans fat are not GRAS, they would become illegal food additives, unless food companies can prove that they are not harmful to health, which would be a challenge, Michael R. Taylor, the FDA's deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, told the New York Times. Before the decision is finalized, the FDA is seeking public comment for 60 days to hear from the food industry and other experts to determine how long it would take food manufacturers to phase out trans fats, and how the change would impact small businesses. Trans fats are produced when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make it more solid, and companies began adding the ingredient to processed food in the 1950s to lengthen the shelf-life and flavor stability of their products, the FDA said.

A Weighty Issue: Chris Christie and Obesity in Politics

For its Nov. 18 issue, Time magazine raised a few eyebrows — and hackles — by running a photograph of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie next to the headline, "The Elephant in the Room." The recently re-elected governor has famously struggled with his weight, which topped 350 lbs. (159 kilograms) before he had gastric-band surgery in February. With the help of a British doctor, he lost about 60 lbs. (27 kg) at one point, but struggled to keep the weight off throughout his life.

Lady Gaga in Space: Pop Star to Sing on Virgin Galactic Rocket Ride

Lady Gaga is planning to fly to space. The famed 27-year-old pop singer is scheduled to blast off on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo in early 2015, according to press reports. Gaga will reportedly sing one song during her trip into suborbital space. The source also told the publication that Gaga's entourage would accompany her on the space flight.

Bizarre Asteroid with Six Tails Spotted by Hubble Telescope (Photos)

Astronomers have spotted a never-before-seen phenomenon in our solar system's asteroid belt: a space rock with six tails, spewing dust from its nucleus like spouts of water radiating from a lawn sprinkler. More detailed observations with the powerful Hubble Space Telescope in September revealed a clearer picture of asteroid, showing it had six comet-like tails. "We were literally dumbfounded when we saw it," researcher David Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles said in a statement from NASA.

FDA Takes Steps to Ban Trans Fat

Artificial trans fats in foods may soon be a thing of the past, according to a new announcement from the Food and Drug Administration.

NASA Tracks Super Typhoon Haiyan From Space (Photos)

A NASA satellite has been keeping an eye on Super Typhoon Haiyan as the monster storm pounds the Philippines with torrential rain and the most powerful winds seen in a generation.

Canada Launches New Space Robot-Themed $5 Bill into Circulation

Canadians can now cash in on their country's contributions to the International Space Station with the release of a new five dollar bill emblazoned with the orbiting outpost's Canadarm2 robotic arm. The Bank of Canada began circulating the new $5 note on Thursday (Nov. 7), seven months after debuting the space-inspired design aboard the space station. Recently-retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who in April revealed the first of the blue-color bills while serving as commander of the station's Expedition 35 crew, came to the Canadian Space Agency's Quebec headquarters to help launch the polymer currency. The new bill features the Canadian-built Canadarm2 and Dextre, robotic arms and manipulators that were used to build and now maintain the space station and which have gone on to symbolize Canada's ongoing contribution to the international space program.

No Proof That Cosmic Rays Cause Global Warming, Study Says

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in September, it is "extremely likely" that human activities have caused most of the warming of the planet's surface since the 1950s. One of the more persistent is that global warming is caused by cosmic rays and changes in levels of solar radiation. As the theory goes, cosmic rays — which are thought to emanate from supernovas, explosions of distant stars — can increase the number of clouds in Earth's atmosphere by filling the atmosphere with charged particles, upon which water vapor condenses. However, during times of increased solar radiation, fewer cosmic rays enter the atmosphere, as they are deflected by charged particles spit out from the sun.

Bright Planet Venus Has Phases Like the Moon

The brilliant planet Venus is now a beautiful evening "star" in the late-fall twilight, shining brightly in the southwest through the purple dusk. But did you know Venus has phases like the moon that are visible in telescopes?

Russian Fireball Fallout: Huge Asteroid Numbers Raise Stakes of Impact Threat

A new analysis of the Russian meteor explosion that injured more than 1,000 people in the city of Chelyabinsk this past February estimates that similar impacts occur about seven times more often than previously thought. That means there could be more than 20 million near-Earth asteroids roughly 62 feet (19 meters) wide — the size of the Chelyabinsk object — rather than three or four million, scientists say, adding to the Russian meteor explosion's importance as a teachable moment. "It has attracted more attention to the threat," Lindley Johnson, program executive for NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program, said of the Chelyabinsk event in a teleconference with reporters Wednesday (Nov. 6). The Russian meteor caught scientists and citizens of Chelyabinsk by surprise, exploding without warning on Feb. 15.

Low Sexual Desire Plagues Men, Too

Studies of sexual dysfunction typically focus on gender-specific problems: Lack of desire among women and performance problems for men. "Our findings showed that male sexual interest cannot be reduced to a simple equation," she said.

Tiny 3D-Printed Liver Slices Pave Way for Growing Organs

Organovo, a San Diego-based startup, sees the liver as a solid stepping-stone for perfecting the science of building human organs in the lab. "The liver has the ability to regrow itself," said Keith Murphy, CEO of Organovo. That represents a huge leap from the company's previous benchmark in April, when it showed that its liver slices could maintain liver function for just over five days. The results suggest that the 3D-printed liver slices function about as normally as a typical human liver.

UN draft stresses risk of global warming, from economy to health

By Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming poses a mounting threat to health, economic growth, crops and water supplies, according to a draft report by top scientists that puts unprecedented emphasis on the risks of a changing climate. A leaked 29-page draft by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), about the impacts of rising temperatures and due for release in March 2014, mentions "risk" 139 times against just 41 in its last assessment in 2007. The increased stress on risk may make the case for cutting greenhouse gas emissions clearer both to policymakers and the public by making it sound like an insurance policy for the planet, analysts say. Many governments, meeting in Warsaw from November 11-22 for U.N. talks on climate change, have long pleaded for greater scientific certainty before making billion-dollar investments in everything from flood barriers to renewable energies.

Pig-Like Beast Leads the Way to Ancient Cave Drawings

On the trail of the pig-like creatures in Brazil, researchers made an unexpected and rare discovery: cave drawings showing armadillos, birds and reptiles, etched into stone thousands of years ago. Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) made the find while surveying white-lipped peccaries in Brazil's Cerrado plateau, a vast savanna region, in 2009. "Since we often work in remote locations, we sometimes make surprising discoveries, in this case, one that appears to be important for our understanding of human cultural history in the region," Alexine Keuroghlian, a researcher with WCS's Brazil program, said in a statement.

Your Pee Could Power Future Robots

There's a new use for artificial hearts, and it involves a more taboo bodily fluid than blood. A device that mimics the squeezing action of the human heart has been used to pump urine into a microbial fuel cell, which could power robots that convert the waste into electricity. "In the future, we hope the robots might be used in city environments for remote sensing," where they could help to monitor pollution, said study researcher Peter Walters, an industrial designer at the University of the West of England.

Is It OK to Drink While Pregnant? Why Scientists Really Don't Know

Whether drinking small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy affects the mind of the unborn child is a topic of much current research, and now new findings suggest there are key lifestyle differences between pregnant women who sip and those who don't that most research on the topic hasn't taken into account. Looking at data gathered on more than 63,000 pregnant women in Denmark, the study researchers found that women who said they drank a small amount of alcohol during their pregnancies tended to be healthier, in many ways, than the women who said they completely abstained from alcohol upon learning they were pregnant. "Women who drink and women who do not drink in pregnancy are very different on a large number of characteristics," said study researcher Janni Niclasen, a psychology researcher at the University of Copenhagen. Such women may have the mind-set that, "I'm doing everything else right, so the occasional drink may not hurt," or that these women, who also tend to be well educated, think, "I did all right, and so will my child," Niclasen speculated.

Boy's Bone Marrow Transplant May Have Cured His Peanut Allergy

A 10-year-old boy got a surprise bonus after being treated for leukemia: The very same procedure that cured his cancer also may have cured his severe peanut allergy. The boy remains cancer-free, and peanut-allergy free, following a bone marrow transplant to treat his acute lymphoblastic leukemia, said the doctors who presented his case today (Nov. 8) at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) in Baltimore. This two-for-one cure is not unprecedented, but is rare and provides new insights into the nature of allergies and the workings of the immune system. Public awareness of peanut allergies is especially high;

Bullying Syndrome? How Maltreatment Affects Health

But while the common images of bullying — kids shoved against lockers, and "mean girls" slinging gossip — emphasize bullying as a social ill, medical professionals increasingly see bullying as a public health issue. Dr. Jorge Srabstein, medical director of the Clinic for Health Problems Related to Bullying at the Children's National Medical Center (CNMC), has long emphasized bullying's very real physical and psychological health effects. "Bullying is linked to a wide range of health issues, both physical and emotional symptoms," said Srabstein, who has both studied the issue and treated thousands of children in his practice. Instead, they get headaches accompanied by anxiety, stomachaches and depression, Srabstein said.

Promising Comet ISON Now Brightening for Stargazers on Earth

Comet ISON — a potentially dazzling, but so far disappointing, comet — finally appears to be brightening as seen from Earth. While Comet ISON has remained somewhat dark since coming back into view for skywatchers, the comet might now be on track for a brilliant show when it makes it close pass with the sun at the end of November.

Scientists expect satellite crash next week

The European Space Agency says its GOCE research satellite will crash to Earth on Sunday night or during the day on Monday, but debris is unlikely to cause any casualties. Scientists say the 1,100-kilogram ...

Indians and Europeans Share 'Light-Skin' Mutation

Indians share a gene with Europeans that plays a significant role in coding for lighter skin, new research suggests. The Indian subcontinent has an enormous variation in skin color. "We have dark brown [tones], yellow tones and whitish-pinkish tones," said study lead author Chandana Basu Mallick, a biologist at the University of Tartu in Estonia. "We have quite a range and diversity in the biological spectrum of skin color." [10 Things That Make Humans Special]

Some Americans Log More than 24 Hours Daily on Devices

Much of that increase is due to the rise of multitasking and the use of multiple media devices at once, said James Short, study co-author and the director of the Information Storage Industry Center at the University of California San Diego. "From the point of view of Nielsen, their data says that the television is on, but I'm not paying attention to it."

New Hammerhead Shark Species Found Off South Carolina

When new species are found near populated areas, they are often small and inconspicuous, not, for example, a hammerhead shark. But that's exactly what a team of researchers discovered along the coast of South Carolina. The new species looks virtually identical to the scalloped hammerhead, but is genetically distinct, and contains about 10 fewer vertebrae, or segments of backbone, new research shows. The new species, named the Carolina hammerhead (Sphyrna gilbert), gives birth to shark "pups" in estuaries near the shore off the Carolinas, according to a study published in August in the journal Zootaxa.

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