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 US Military Aids Recovery in Typhoon-Ravaged Philippines Read More » Lice Reveal Clues to Human Evolution GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Clues to human evolution generally come from fossils left by ancestors and the molecular trail encoded in the human genome as it is tweaked over generations. in spite of human attempts to get rid of the parasites, their persistence has made them a potential reservoir of information for those who want to know more about human evolution and history, said David Reed, associate curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History, on Sunday (Nov. 3) here at the ScienceWriters2013 conference. Clues from the bloodsucking hitchhikers, for instance, suggest modern humans intermingled with Neanderthals (a theory also supported by other genetic research) and that humans may have first put on clothing before leaving Africa. Read More »Inside the Most High Tech Cab in New York: Car Force One Read More » Bacteria Control Hyena Communication Read More » Incoming Comet ISON Now Visible in Binoculars Read More » Effect of Most Vitamins on Cancer Is Inconclusive Taking vitamin E or beta-carotene does not appear to reduce the risk of cancer or cardiovascular disease, according to a new review from a government-appointed panel of experts. However, there isn't enough evidence to say whether other vitamins or minerals (such as vitamin D, calcium and selenium) or multivitamins reduce the risk of these two conditions, according to the review from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Although the effect of vitamins is unclear, some studies do suggest that a healthy diet reduces the risk of cancer and heart disease, the researchers said. "In the absence of clear evidence about the impact of most vitamins and multivitamins on cardiovascular disease and cancer, health care professionals should counsel their patients to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet that is rich in nutrients," said Dr. Michael LeFevre, co-chair of the task force. Read More »Astronaut Sees Super Typhoon Haiyan from Space (Photo) Read More » Dig for Hominid Bones Begins in Cradle of Humankind Read More » Execs Watching Porn a Leading Cause of Computer Viruses While employees may get the brunt of the blame for security breaches, company leaders are doing their fair share of damage as well, a new study finds. Research from ThreatTrack Security revealed that 40 percent of security professionals found that a device used by a member of their company's senior leadership team had been infected by malware because of a visit to a pornographic website, and nearly 60 percent of the security professionals surveyed have cleaned malware from a device after an executive clicked on a malicious link or was duped by a phishing email. In addition, 45 percent of respondents said they have found malware on a senior leader's device because the executive allowed a family member to use it, with one-third of security professionals discovering it on an executive's mobile devices because they installed a malicious app. ThreatTrack CEO Julian Waits Sr. said that while it is discouraging that so many malware analysts are aware of data breaches that enterprises have not disclosed, it is no surprise that the breaches are occurring. Read More »GlaxoSmithKline heart drug misses goal in major study Read More » The Physics of Peeing, and How to Avoid Splash-Back Enter the Splash Lab at Brigham Young University, where researchers are trying to figure out how to prevent urinal splash-back. Fluid dynamics scientist Randy Hurd and his graduate adviser, Tadd Truscott, created a model of the male urethra on a 3D printer — a cylinder measuring 0.31 inches by 0.12 inches (8 millimeters by 3 millimeters). Before reaching the urinal walls, the urine stream broke up into individual droplets. The greatest pee splash occurred when the urine stream came in angled perpendicular to the urinal wall, down to about 45 degrees. Read More »Recognizing Giant Leaps: Google Lunar XPRIZE Establishes Milestone Prizes (Op-Ed) Read More » Giant Moon-Forming Impact On Early Earth May Have Spawned Magma Ocean Read More » 4 Secrets of Creativity from Pixar's President Read More » Health 'Score' on Food Packages May Help Consumers Make Healthier Choices For people trying to wade though nutrition labels and choose healthy options, a front-of-package food label that boils down nutrition information to a single "score" may be the most user-friendly approach, a new study suggests. In recent years, the fronts of some food packages have been decorated with short food labels, which are intended to briefly summarize a product's nutrition, and make unhealthy ingredients (such as high levels of saturated fat) highly visible to consumers. However, there is currently no standard for what information needs to be on these labels, leading to a variety of front-of-package food labeling systems that may confuse consumers, said study researcher Christina A. Roberto, a psychologist and epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health. The new study attempted to help answer this question by comparing five front-of-package food labeling systems, as well as packages with no label. Read More »Can You Give HPV to Yourself? One potential risk factor for getting oral infections with the human papillomavirus (HPV) may have been overlooked by researchers: giving it to yourself. In a new study, women who engaged in behaviors that could potentially transfer HPV from their genitals to their mouths were nearly four times more likely to have an oral HPV infection than those who did not engage in such behaviors. (Presumably, women would need to already have an HPV infection in their genitals for such a transfer to occur.) The results held even after the researchers took into account other behaviors that could increase the women's risk of oral HPV infection, such as their number of oral sex partners. Read More »People with Depression May Age Faster People suffering from depression may be aging faster than other people, according to a new study from the Netherlands. In the study of about 1,900 people who had major depressive disorders at some point during their lives, along with 500 people who had not had depression, researchers measured the length of cell structures called telomeres, which are "caps" at the end of chromosomes that protect the DNA during cell division. Normally, telomeres shorten slightly each time cells divide, and their length is thought to be an index of a cell's aging. The researchers found telomeres were shorter in people who had experienced depression compared with people in the control group. Read More »Big Brother: Streetlights That Watch and Listen They look like ordinary streetlights, shining down on Las Vegas sidewalks after the sun has set. But Sin City's new streetlights have a few special capabilities that have civil libertarians up in arms. The city is installing Intellistreets, a brand of street lighting that is capable of recording video and audio of pedestrians and motorists. What happens in Vegas, it seems, no longer stays in Vegas. Read More »Underwater Mission by Jacques Cousteau's Grandson Postponed Read More » How Typhoon Haiyan Compares to the 2004 Tsunami Super Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the central Philippines on Friday (Nov. 8), affecting millions and displacing hundreds of thousands. It will likely go down as one of the five strongest storms in the last 50 years, even though estimates of the storm's strength vary, said Brian McNoldy, a tropical storm expert at the University of Miami. Jeff Weber, a researcher at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., put Haiyan in the top three strongest storms, as measured by wind speed at landfall. "The last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami," said Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, the head of a United Nations disaster assessment team that visited the area on Saturday, according to The New York Times. Read More »11/12/13: What Makes Today So Special? Perhaps it's only notable for spawning a midweek blitz of weddings or a rush to buy lucky lotto tickets, or being a good day for Count von Count. A David's Bridal survey estimated that more than 3,000 brides would get married today across the United States — a 722 percent increase compared with this Tuesday last year. "Iconic dates have become a trend in the United States, reaching new heights when over 65,000 couples tied the knot on 07/07/07," Brian Beitler, chief marketing officer for David's Bridal, said in a statement. Read More »How the Brain Creates Out-of-Body Experiences The findings, presented here Sunday (Nov. 10) at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, highlight which brain regions are active when a person has an out-of-body experience. The findings suggest the brain relies on a complex interplay of information from different senses to produce the experience of being inside of a body — even when it's someone else's. Read More »New Type of Quasar Found, Baffling Scientists Read More » | ||||
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| Satellite likely incinerated after re-entering Earth's atmosphere: officials By Irene Klotz ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A large science satellite that mapped Earth's gravity likely re-entered the atmosphere where most of it incinerated on Sunday, about three weeks after running out of fuel and beginning to lose altitude, officials said. Ground tracking stations' last contact with Europe's Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, or GOCE, was at 5:42 p.m. (2242 GMT) as it passed 75 miles above Antarctica, Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Agency's space debris office, wrote in a status report posted on the European Space Agency's website. The official designation of space is the Karman line, 62 miles above Earth. About 25 percent of the car-sized satellite was expected to have survived re-entry, with debris most likely falling into the ocean, European Space Agency officials said. Read More »International space crew returns Olympic torch to Earth Read More » Soyuz Spacecraft Carrying Olympic Torch, Crew of 3 Returns to Earth Read More » 1-ton European Satellite Falls to Earth in Fiery Death Dive Read More » Incredible Technology: How to Launch Superfast Trips to Mars Read More » From Space Cooking to Disaster Plans: Astronaut Chris Hadfield Reveals Cosmic Life Lessons (Video) Read More » Best Age for Woman's First Child? 25, Poll Finds Most Americans think the best time for a woman to have her first child is at age 25 or younger, whereas most think first-time dads should be 26 or older, according to a new Gallup poll. The timing of life milestones such as marriage and parenthood has shifted over the years. There are biological reasons to have children earlier rather than later. Women are most fertile in their late teens and early 20s, and older dads confer increased risks for schizophrenia, autism and other mental health disorders onto their children, according to a 2011 study in the journal Translational Psychiatry. Read More »Veterans Bring the Whig Party Back Though you may remember it from high-school history class, the Whig Party gave America some of the most utterly forgettable presidents of the 1800s. (If the names Millard Fillmore, Zachary Taylor and John Tyler fail to inspire much patriotic fervor in you, you're not alone.) Nonetheless, a new Whig Party — calling itself the Modern Whig Party, or MWP — has risen from the ashes of history and is poised for a comeback. Robert "Heshy" Bucholz, a card-carrying MWP member, was elected last week as an election judge in Philadelphia, making him the first Whig to win any elected office in the city since 1854, according to Philly.com. Read More »Smuggled Chinese Artifacts Lead to Charges A Florida art dealer is facing heavy fines and possible prison time in connection with an ancient artifact smuggling case. Francois B. Lorin, 74, of Winter Park, was hit with obstruction of justice charges after he forged documents in an attempt to legitimize an illegal shipment of ancient Chinese objects, federal authorizes allege. U.S. Customs and Border Protection discovered the artifacts in Miami, Fla., in June 2011. They detained the shipment from Hong Kong "due to inconsistencies between the shipping documentation and physical examination," said a spokesperson with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Read More »Snakes Control Blood Flow to Boost Vision Read More » By the Numbers: 5 Cultural Facts About Veterans Read More » Babies Named After Dads: Which States Have More (And Why) Dale Earnhardt Jr., was one. So was Martin Luther King Jr. And who could forget Harry Connick Jr.? In the United States, southern and western states are strongly influenced by honor culture ethics, thanks to immigration by the Scotch-Irish, scientists say. "Sometimes culture plays a hidden or subtle role in the kinds of names we're attracted to," said study researcher Ryan Brown, a psychologist at the University of Oklahoma. Read More »Electron Appears Spherical, Squashing Hopes for New Physics Theories Electron Appears Spherical, Squashing Hopes for New Physics Theories Read More »Job Interview Advice for Veterans: Practice A new study from Military Benefit Association revealed that half of the veterans recently separated from the U.S. military and are currently unemployed have not had a full- or part-time job since leaving the military. Roy Gibson, a retired U.S. Air Force Senior Master Sgt. and president of the Military Benefit Association, said one critical aspect to landing new work for veterans is ensuring they are well-prepared for the job search process, including any interviews they may go on. When going on an interview, it is important that veterans can accurately describe their skills and what they can bring to the table. Gibson said research shows that more than 70 percent of hiring managers find it difficult to ascertain recent veterans' skill sets based on their resume alone. Read More »Cosmonauts Wore Special Space Patch for Olympic Torch Spacewalk Read More » Catholic Education No Better Than Public Schooling, Study Suggests Catholic schools don't provide a better education than public schools, at least when it comes to basics like math and reading, new research suggests. Children at Catholic schools don't improve their math or reading scores on standardized tests across elementary school and don't show better behavioral outcomes than public school children, according to the study, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Urban Economics. "Across many outcomes, both academic and behavioral, we don't find anything that seems to point to a real benefit of Catholic schools over public schools," study co-author Todd Elder, an economist at Michigan State University, said in a statement. Many an adult remembers sitting through classes taught by Catholic priests and nuns, and more than 2 million children are currently enrolled in one of 6,700 Catholic schools across the country, according to the National Catholic Educational Association. Read More »US to Destroy 6 Tons of Ivory This Week Read More » | ||||
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