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Friday, November 22, 2013

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Just 2 Genes from Y Chromosome Needed for Male Reproduction

The Y chromosome is often thought of as defining the male sex. Now scientists find that only two genes on the Y chromosome are needed in mice for them to father offspring. In the study, researchers injected two Y-chromosome genes into mouse embryos that lacked a Y chromosome, and found the embryos grew into adult mice that could produce offspring — not through the typical get-together with a female mouse, but through assisted reproduction techniques. "Only two Y-chromosome genes are needed to have children with the help of assisted reproduction," study author Monika Ward, a reproductive biologist at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, told LiveScience.

Neutrino Detector Finds Elusive Extraterrestrial Particles in 'Major Breakthrough'

Using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica, researchers found the first evidence of neutrinos from outside the solar system since 1987. "It is a major breakthrough," said Uli Katz, a particle physicist at University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, in Germany, who was not involved with the research. For the past century, scientists have pondered the source of cosmic rays, which contain the energy of a rifle bullet in a single atomic nucleus. It's thought that objects such as supernovas, black holes or gamma ray bursts mayproduce cosmic rays, but their origin is difficult to detect.

Strange Discovery: Giant Dust Ring Found Near Venus Orbit

Scientists have found a huge, diffuse ring of dust near the orbit of Venus, marking the second time such a structure has been discovered in our solar system. "If we could see it unaided from Earth (which of course we can't because it is far too faint), it would stretch 45 degrees either side of the sun," study lead author Mark Jones, of The Open University in the United Kingdom, told SPACE.com via email. Several different space missions — including the Soviet Union's Venera 9 and 10 probes in the 1970s — have spotted hints of a dust ring near Venus, but the evidence had not been conclusive. They modeled the way a ring near Venus should scatter light, then looked for the feature in images captured by NASA's twin STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) probes, which have been studying the sun since launching in late 2006.

Research shows closer ties between Native Americans, Europeans

By Jim Forsyth SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Native Americans have closer genetic ties to people in Eurasia, the Middle East and Europe than previously believed, according to new research on a 24,000-year-old human bone. Genome sequencing on the arm bone of a 3-year-old Siberian boy known as the "Mal'ta Boy," the world's oldest known human genome, shows that Native Americans share up to one-third of their DNA with people from those regions, said Kelly Graf, a research assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M University and a member of the international research team. The results add a new dimension to earlier beliefs that Native Americans were mostly descended from East Asians who crossed the land bridge from Siberia to North America some 14,000 years ago, Graf said on Thursday.

International Space Station: 15 Facts for 15 Years in Orbit

Fifteen years ago Wednesday (Nov. 20), the Russian-built Zarya, or "Sunrise," module, also known as the functional cargo block (FGB), lifted off atop a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin the most complex scientific and engineering project in history. It would take 13 years for the space station's assembly to be declared "complete," although it is still being expanded. To mark the 15th anniversary, SPACE.com partner collectSPACE.com compiled a countdown of 15 facts about the International Space Station. Circling Earth at 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour) every 92 minutes, the crew members aboard the International Space Station "experience 15 or 16 sunrises and sunsets every day," NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Project Office describes.

5 Enduring Kennedy Assassination Theories

On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy died in Dallas, Texas, the victim of a shot through the head that rung out as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza. The spot, marked with a white X, became the birthplace of dozens of conspiracy theories. The Warren Commission's investigation of the JFK assassination, commissioned by Lyndon B. Johnson in the months following Kennedy's death, determined that the killer was a former U.S. Marine named Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, who fired three shots from the Texas School Book Depository along the motorcade route. According to Gallup, 52 percent of Americans believed the Kennedy assassination was a conspiracy in the week after the president's death.

Mars Rover Curiosity Sidelined by Electrical Glitch

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has stopped gathering data for a few days while engineers investigate an electrical problem that cropped up over the weekend. On Sunday (Nov. 17), the mission team noticed a change in the voltage difference between the body of the Curiosity rover and its electricity-distributing power bus. "The vehicle is safe and stable, fully capable of operating in its present condition, but we are taking the precaution of investigating what may be a soft short," Curiosity project manager Jim Erickson, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement Wednesday (Nov. 20). The voltage difference between Curiosity's chassis and its power bus had been about 11 volts since the rover touched down inside Mars' Gale Crater in August 2012.

Evolution debate again engulfs Texas Board of Ed

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Board of Education has refused to approve a biology book by one of the nation's largest publishers, pending an expert review of supposed "errors" on evolution.

Evolution debate again engulfs Texas board

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The long-simmering battle over teaching evolution in Texas boiled over at a late-night meeting, as the Board of Education extended preliminary approval of new science books for use in classrooms across the state but held up one biology text because of alleged factual errors.

The Secret to Career Success: Branding Yourself

While businesses work hard to build up their brand, too many of their employees aren't doing the same for themselves, one researcher suggests. Nathan Hiller, an associate professor of management at Florida International University, argued during this year's Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology annual conference that it is increasingly important for employees to ensure their own marketability by creating a brand within their organization. The strategy, termed "personal branding," allows employees to clearly define their potential and separate themselves from others in the workplace while demonstrating unique contributions to their organization. "Personal branding is simply making others both within and outside the workplace aware of one's capabilities."

Does God Make People Work Harder?

A study revealed that employees working in environments that support their right to be open about their religious beliefs feel safer, have better working relationships with colleagues, and are more likely to be engaged in their work. Patrick Hyland, of Sirota Survey Intelligence and one of the study's authors, said it is important to note the differences between having a spirituality-accepting workplace and religious proselytizing. He says spirituality at work is not about getting employees to buy into a specific set of religious beliefs. "It's about helping employees tap into their personal core values and work towards goals that are both personally and professionally meaningful," Hyland said.

Bringing Back the Unconscious: The Latest Science on Awakenings

But the latest research hints that some of them may still retain reserves of conscious awareness and that there may be ways to reach them — with sleeping pills, antiviral medications, or electric stimulation — and help them to reawaken. George Melendez was all but dead in January of 1998, when he was pulled from the wreckage of a car that had landed in a small pond on a golf course near Houston, TX. Medics revived him but the combined brain trauma of the accident and near drowning left the then 23-year-old college student in what doctors call a minimally conscious state—awake and occasionally aware of his surroundings but incapable of producing any reliable responses—verbal or otherwise. It's these patients, such as Melendez, that scientists are hoping to reach.

After Months In Space, NASA Astronaut Karen Nyberg Readapts to Life On Earth (Video)

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg is readjusting to life with two feet on the ground. Nyberg just returned to the Earth's surface after spending more than five months living and working in space on the International Space Station. She landed in Kazakhstan on Nov. 10 in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin. She also flew a two-week mission on the space shuttle Discovery in 2008, and although it was a shorter mission than her space station stint, Nyberg is having an easier time readjusting to Earth-bound life this time around.

Tails of Comet ISON and Comet Lovejoy Caught in Stunning Time-Lapse Video

Singapore-based sky photographer Justin Ng pieced together a stunning time-lapse video of two comets streaking across the pre-dawn sky. The video of two incoming comets, captured on Nov. 11, shows the incoming Comet ISON with its long wispy tail as well as the newfound Comet Lovejoy, which is gradually brightening. "The video covers 50 minutes of imaging time for ISON and 90 minutes of imaging time for Lovejoy," Ng wrote. Comets ISON and Lovejoy are both headed for a dangerous dive toward the sun much to the delight of skywatchers and astronomers.

8 Most Famous Assassinations in History

Friday (Nov. 22) marks the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. That death stunned the world and caused an outpouring of public grief unprecedented in modern United States history. Some even say that the killing of the 35th president altered the course of history, and that the United States would not have become embroiled in the Vietnam War had he lived. From the stabbing of Julius Caesar to the shooting of Mahatma Gandhi, here are eight of the most famous assassinations in history.

If JFK Lived: 5 Ways History Would Change

John F. Kennedy surviving his assassination has always been an irresistible twist for authors of alternate histories. Some are fanciful, such as the 1992 short story collection "Alternate Kennedys," which sent the clan to Hollywood. Others take a serious turn, reversing the 1960s' amazing progress in civil rights. Here are five intriguing ways history may have changed if Kennedy had survived the assassination attempt, or if gunman Lee Harvey Oswald had never taken the shot.

Meet the Gigantic Carnivore That Kept T. Rex Down

An enormous carnivorous dinosaur that once roamed North America kept Tyrannosaurus rex from achieving its potential for millions of years, a new discovery suggests. The new dinosaur, dubbed Siats meekerorum, is part of a group of giant predators known as carcharodontosaurs, and it's only the second of this group to be discovered in North America. North Carolina State University paleontologist Lindsay Zanno discovered the Siats bones eroding out of a hillside in Utah in 2008. "It's easily the most exciting thing that I've found so far," Zanno, who heads the paleontology lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science, told LiveScience.

Oldest Royal Wine Cellar Uncorked in Israel

Archaeologists have uncovered the oldest known palatial wine cellar in the Middle East at a site in Israel. The storage room stocked at least 3,000 bottles' worth of the intoxicating beverage in massive pottery jars, researchers report today (Nov. 22) at the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research in Baltimore. The closest modern analogue is a Greek wine flavored with pine resin called retsina, study researcher Assaf Yasur-Landau of the University of Haifa, told reporters. The find is important less for the wine's palate and more for what it reveals about the culture of the ancient Canaanites, a group that dominated what is now Israel and Lebanon.

E-Cigarettes Just More Smoke and Mirrors, Doctors Say

At first, electronic cigarettes were a novelty — something a braggart in a bar might puff to challenge the established no-smoking policy, marveling bystanders with the fact that the smoke released from the device was merely harmless vapor. Now, e-cigarettes are poised to be a billion-dollar industry, claimed as the solution to bring in smokers from out of the cold, both figuratively and literally, as e-cigarettes promise to lift the stigma of smoking and are increasingly permitted at indoor facilities where smoking is banned. What's being debated is the degree to which they are less dangerous than traditional cigarettes. E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices, often shaped like traditional cigarettes, with a heating element that vaporizes a liquid nicotine solution, which must be replaced every few hundred puffs.

Young Woman Dies of Rare Heart Condition After Falling on Beach

According to the case report, the impact of the woman's body on the sand when she fell was enough to prompt a rare heart condition called commotio cordis, in which the heart is jolted into an arrhythmic pattern, after which it stops altogether. Commotio cordis is caused by an abrupt blow to the heart, usually by something small like a baseball, that strikes at a very specific time, said Dr. Emile Daoud, professor of internal medicine at the Ohio State University Medical Center, who was not involved in the woman's case. "This throws everything into chaos," Daoud told LiveScience. Commotio cordis is quite rare, killing between two to four people yearly in the United States, according to the study.

5 Places Already Feeling the Effects of Climate Change

But while most climate predictions look ahead to the potential risks 50 or 100 years from now, there are places around the globe that are already being impacted by global warming. Satellite measurements have demonstrated that the waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef have warmed by 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) on average over the past 25 years. A 2012 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that half of the Great Barrier Reef was lost in the past 27 years. Higher-than-normal ocean temperatures cause corals to expel the tiny animals and algae that live inside them.

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Wednesday, November 20, 2013

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Spectacular Comet ISON Shines Bright in New Photo from Chile Telescope

A dazzling new image captures Comet ISON blazing up as it heads toward its highly anticipated close encounter with the sun next week. The photo, taken with the TRAPPIST national telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows Comet ISON streaking through space in the early hours of Nov. 15, a brilliant blue cloud of material surrounding its core. ISON was discovered in September 2012 by two Russian amateur astronomers. But folks hoping to catch a glimpse of Comet ISON don't need to wait until next month;

Sun Fires Off Powerful Solar Flare (Video)

The sun unleashed a powerful solar flare early Tuesday (Nov. 19), the latest in a series of intense storms this month from Earth's closest star. While the powerful solar flare was not aimed directly at Earth when it erupted, it did trigger a radio blackout at 5:26 a.m. EST (1026 GMT), officials with NOAA-led Space Weather Prediction Center said. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught sight of the solar flare and captured a high definition video of the solar eruption. The solar flare ranked as an X1-class event, one of the strongest types of storms the sun can have.

Global Warming Causes 'Acid Indigestion' for Sea Urchins

Spiny green sea urchins face a new challenge from climate change: As the oceans become more acidic, urchin larvae struggle to digest their food, new research finds. The study is the first to prove that ocean acidification can cause digestive problems for marine animals, though scientists have long been alarmed at the trend for other reasons. Earlier studies have focused on calcification, or the process by which marine animals draw minerals from the water to build shells and skeletons, study researcher Meike Stumpp, a former Ph.D. student at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research and the University of Kiel in Germany, said in a statement. Gastric pH is the level of acidity in the digestive system.

5 Ways Toilets Change the World

For example, about 290,000 gallons (1.1 million liters) of raw sewage goes into the Ganges River in India every minute, according to the World Health Organization.

'Dueling Dinosaur' Fossils Fail to Sell at Auction

NEW YORK — Discovered side-by-side in the Montana badlands, two fossilized dinosaurs failed to sell at auction here today (Nov. 19) in a packed room of prospective buyers, curious onlookers and reporters. Bonhams auction house, which handled the sale of the so-called Dueling Dinosaurs, had estimated the creatures would sell for between $7 million $9 million. "I am very confident that we're going to find scientific homes" for the fossils that didn't sell, said Thomas Lindgren, co-consulting director of the natural history department at Bonhams in Los Angeles, who put together today's natural history auction.

NASA's IceBridge Mission Back in Action Over Antarctica

NASA's Operation IceBridge campaign is officially underway in Antarctica, and researchers completed the mission's first science flight over the continent's icy expanse yesterday (Nov. 18), snapping a spectacular picture of the scenery while they were at it. During their first research outing, IceBridge scientists surveyed glaciers as they flew over the Transantarctic Mountains, which extend 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) across the continent, and divide East Antarctica from West Antarctica. This is the first time that NASA's Operation IceBridge mission has been stationed in Antarctica. In previous seasons, IceBridge flights took off from Punta Arenas in southern Chile, but mission managers say that operating directly from the icy southern continent will enable scientists to conduct longer flights, and to explore regions of Antarctica that were out of range until now.

NASA puts out call for commercial space taxis

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Despite budget uncertainties, NASA on Tuesday issued a solicitation for a commercially operated space taxi to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, an attempt to break Russia's monopoly on crew transport by 2017. The United States has been without a human space transportation system since 2011 when NASA retired its three-ship shuttle fleet due to high operating costs and fundamental safety questions. NASA's so-called Commercial Crew program is intended to address both cost and safety concerns, as well as return the capability to fly people to space from U.S. soil. The new solicitation asks for proposals for final design, development, test, evaluation and certification of a human space transportation system, including ground operations, launch, orbital operations, return to Earth and landing.

Dazzling Nighttime Rocket Launch Puts 29 Satellites In Orbit, a New Record

A spectacular rocket launch from Virginia's eastern shore late Tuesday (Nov. 19) lit up the night sky like an artifical sun, kicking off a record-breaking mission to put 29 satellites into orbit. The Orbital Sciences-built Minotaur 1 rocket launched into space at 8:15 p.m. EST (0115 GMT Wednesday) from NASA's Wallops Flight Faciltiy in Virginia to begin the ORS-3 mission, which is run by the U.S. military's Operationally Responsive Space Office. After a 45-minute delay caused by an issue with a downrange tracking station, the Minotaur 1 roared to life, carving an arc of flame into the night sky that was likely visible along the East Coast from Maine down to Florida, and from as far inland as Indiana and Michigan, according to viewing maps provided by NASA and Orbital Sciences. A so-called "PhoneSat" built by NASA and the first-ever satellite designed and built by high school students were among the spacecraft hitching a ride into orbit on the four-stage Minotaur 1 rocket.

Cosmonaut Alexander Serebrov, Veteran of 4 Space Missions, Dies at 69

Alexander Serebrov, a Soviet-era cosmonaut who once held the Guinness World Record for the most spacewalks and who was the first to test drive a "space motorcycle," has died at 69, according to Russia's federal space agency. Serebrov retired from the Russian space program in May 1995 to work as an advisor to then President Boris Yeltsin on issues relating to spaceflight.

Dueling dinosaur fossils fail to sell at New York auction

By Curtis Skinner NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fossils of two dinosaurs locked in a death match failed to sell at auction on Tuesday despite predictions they would fetch a record $9 million. The top bid for the dinosaur fossils was $5.5 million and did not meet the reserve price, Bonhams auction house said. The most expensive dinosaur fossil ever sold at auction is a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton named Sue, which fetched $8.3 million in 1997. Thomas Lindgren, co-consulting director of natural history for Bonhams, said he is confident that the dueling dinos will sell in the future.

What 11 Billion People Mean for Food Security

"We need to find new ways of growing food." One obstacle to increasing food production will be climate change, which is predicted to reduce crop yields in certain parts of the world.

Frankenstein to Star Trek: Sci-Fi Museum Coming to D.C.

Fans of Captain Kirk and Captain Nemo unite: A new science-fiction museum coming to Washington, D.C. "There really wasn't a comprehensive science-fiction museum here in the United States or internationally," said Greg Viggiano, executive director of the new venture. "I thought, maybe somebody should do something about this," Viggiano told LiveScience. The content will start with Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, considered by many the first sci-fi author, and run through to present-day material.

Dinosaur Bone Damaged in WWII Revealed with 3D Printing

During World War II, a bomb fell on the museum's east wing, collapsing the basement where dinosaur fossils were stored. Many fossils were reduced to dust in the bombing, and the ones that survived were scattered and mixed up. One expedition, in Tanzania, ran from 1909 to 1913 and brought back 235 tons of fossils, labeled with letters based on their locations. The other fossils came from a 1909 discovery in Halberstadt, Germany.

Double Nobel Prize winning biochemist Fred Sanger dies at 95

Fred Sanger, a double Nobel Prize-winning British biochemist whose work pioneered research into the human genome, has died at the age of 95, the University of Cambridge said on Wednesday. Sanger, who once described himself as "just a chap who messed about in his lab", worked with colleagues to develop a rapid method of DNA sequencing - a way to "read DNA" - which became the forerunner for the work on mapping the human genome. He won his first Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1958 for work on determining the structure of insulin, and the same Nobel 22 years later for his work on DNA, the material that carries all the information about how living things look and function. Colin Blakemore, a Cambridge professor of neuroscience and philosophy said Sanger was "a real hero of twentieth-century British science", adding it was "impossible to exaggerate" the impact of his work on modern biomedical science.

Spectacular Night Rocket Launch Wows Skywatchers on US East Coast (Photos)

A dazzling rocket launch that hurled a record 29 satellites into orbit from Virginia's eastern shore Tuesday night was also visible to potentially millions of observers on the U.S. East Coast, thrilling skywatchers who photographed the amazing space shot. The Orbital Sciences-built Minotaur 1 rocket launched a cornucopia of satellites into orbit Tuesday (Nov. 19) at 8:15 p.m. EST (0115 GMT Wednesday) from a pad at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. Because of the launch's trajectory, it was expected to be visible from northeastern Canada to Florida, and as far inland as Kentucky, according to Orbital Sciences officials. "What an amazing sight to see," skywatcher Debbie Stone, who watched the rocket launch from Charlton, Mass., told SPACE.com in an email. Stone's long-exposure view of the launch shows the Minotaur 1 rocket as an arc of light over a dark landscape.

Frederick Sanger, double Nobel winner, dies at 95

LONDON (AP) — British biochemist Frederick Sanger, who twice won the Nobel Prize in chemistry and was a pioneer of genome sequencing, has died at the age of 95.

People with Autism More Likely to Hear Colors, See Sounds

People with autism may be more likely than others to have synesthesia, a condition in which people experience a mixing of their senses, such as hearing tastes and shapes, and seeing numbers in colors, a new study from Europe suggests. Researchers tested 164 people with autism and 97 people without autism by giving them online questionnaires designed to evaluate whether they had synesthesia. They found synesthesia occurred in about 7 percent of people who didn't have autism, a figure within the range of previously reported rates. The findings may provide new insights into common factors that underlie brain development in these separate conditions, said study researcher Simon Baron-Cohen, a professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge in the U.K.

Brain Surgeons Get Practice Using Brains Made on 3D Printers

Now, by combining models of brains made on 3D printers and images of simulated surgery, faculty at the University of Florida (UF) are making sure their surgeons get just this kind of training. Researchers at the university have developed a unique "mixed reality" surgery simulator that gives doctors-in-training a chance to perform real surgery techniques on 3D-printed models derived from actual patients' brains and skulls. "We can create a physical model, so the residents learn to put their hands in the right position," said Dr. Frank Bova, head of the university's radiosurgery/biology lab, which produces the training simulators. The team is currently creating a comprehensive training curriculum by compiling a library of previous surgery cases to use in 3D models, Bova said.

Moms' Bacteria May Affect Brain Development in Baby Mice

The range of bacteria, or microbiome, that young mice are exposed to influences their brain development, the researchers said. In the new study, the researchers exposed pregnant mice to a range of stressors before the mice gave birth. For example, the researchers exposed the mice to the scent of a predator, or put marbles in their cage overnight, which "freaks the mice out," said study researcher Tracy Bale, a neuropharmacologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Furthermore, the stressed mothers' offspring had similarly lowered amounts of Lactobacillus bacteria in their guts.

Double Nobel Prize winning biochemist Fred Sanger dies at 95

Fred Sanger, a double Nobel Prize-winning British biochemist who pioneered research into the human genome, has died at the age of 95, the University of Cambridge said on Wednesday. Sanger, who once described himself as "just a chap who messed about in his lab", worked with colleagues to develop a rapid method of DNA sequencing - a way to "read DNA" - which became the forerunner for the work on mapping the human genome. He won his first Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1958 for work on determining the structure of insulin and the second 22 years later for his work on DNA, the material that carries all the information about how living things look and function. Only four people in history have been awarded the Nobel Prize twice.

New Cave-Dwelling 'Shrimp' Discovered in California

A translucent underwater cave dweller that looks like a skeleton and travels like an inchworm is the newest member of California's array of marine life. Scientists found a new species of skeleton shrimp — a group of tiny crustaceans that are actually caprellid amphipods, not shrimp — in vials collected from a small cave offshore of Southern California's Catalina Island. The two vials, one containing a male and one containing a female, were housed in the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. Lead study author José Manuel Guerra-García, a caprellid expert at the University of Seville in Spain, realized the "shrimp" were a never-before-recognized species during a 2010 visit to the museum.

Surgeons Get Practice Using Brains Made on 3D Printers

15 Years in Orbit: The International Space Station By the Numbers

After 15 years of construction, harrowing spacewalks and repairs the International Space Station is still going strong in orbit around Earth. Here are some interesting NASA facts about the teenage station as it embarks upon its 16th year in orbit:

International Space Station Celebrates 15th Birthday in Orbit

The International Space Station celebrates its 15th birthday today (Nov. 20), marking the day in 1998 when a Russian rocket lifted the first piece of what is now the largest manmade structure ever built in space. Today, the space station is about the size of a football field with roughly the same amount of liveable space as a six-bedroom house. The module that started it all, Zarya, also known as the Functional Cargo Block (FGB), is mostly used for storage now. But initially it was intended to serve as a central node of orientation control, communications and electrical power as other parts of the space station were added, according to NASA.

Why Monkeys and Apes Have Colorful Faces

For Old World monkeys and apes, species that live in larger social groups have complex, colorful facial patterns, whereas those that live in smaller groups have simpler, plainer faces, the study researchers found. "Faces are really important to how monkeys and apes can tell one another apart," study researcher Michael Alfaro, an evolutionary biologist at UCLA, said in a statement, adding, "We think the color patterns have to do both with the importance of telling individuals of your own species apart from closely related species and for social communication among members of the same species." In the study, Sharlene Santana, a postdoctoral fellow in Alfaro's lab, developed a way to quantify the complexity of primate faces in photographs. The team also took into account evolutionary relationships among the primate species.

Rich-poor divide deepens over aid to cope with global warming

By Nina Chestney WARSAW (Reuters) - Rich and poor were deadlocked on Wednesday over how to raise aid to help developing countries cope with the damaging effects of global warming, in a setback at United Nations climate talks in Warsaw seeking progress towards a 2015 accord. Bolivia and other developing countries accused the rich of failing to show willingness to discuss aid or compensation for losses and harm due to global warming, such as rising sea levels or creeping desertification. The two-week Warsaw talks, due to end on Friday, are trying to lay the foundations for a new global climate accord meant to be agreed in 2015 and enter into force from 2020. For many poorer countries, the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines earlier this month has raised the urgency of compensation.

Military Vets & Celebrities Embark on Epic Race to the South Pole

Three teams of wounded military veterans and their celebrity teammates will soon begin a grueling race to the South Pole in an attempt to trek more than 200 miles (335 kilometers) in 16 days through the bone-chillingly cold conditions of Antarctica. The teammates completed cold-weather training in Iceland in March, team training throughout the summer, and recently finished a final round of snow preparation in October.

Haiyan Destruction in Philippines Visible from Space

From hills laid bare by winds to coastlines swamped by floodwaters, the massive swath of destruction across the Philippines city of Tacloban from Super Typhoon Haiyan is visible even from space.

Poll to Name National Zoo Panda Cub Closes Friday

There are just a few days left to cast a vote to name the newest giant panda cub at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C. These are the five candidates for the panda's name (in Mandarin Chinese) with their meanings: Combined this represents a sign of luck for panda cooperation between China and the U.S. According to the zoo's latest update, the 3-month-old panda cub now weighs 10.34 lbs. (4.7 kilograms) and is just starting to crawl and move around independently.

Textured Surface Could Create Ultra-Waterproof Materials

The new surface takes advantage of the fact that rougher, uneven textures cause water droplets to bounce off of them more quickly. The new method could be used for many applications, including waterproof clothing and sports gear, as well as anti-icing tech for airplane wings. But Kripa Varanasi, a mechanical engineer at MIT, and his colleagues, decided to take a look for themselves. They used a high-speed camera to film water droplets as they bounced off a silicone wafer sprayed with a highly water-repellent coating.

Ancient Siberian Skeletons Confirm Native American Origins

The DNA gleaned from two ancient Siberian skeletons is related to that of modern-day Native Americans and western Eurasians, new research suggests. The genetic material from the ancient Siberians provides additional evidence that the ancestors of Native Americans made the arduous trek from Siberia across the Bering Strait into the Americas. But it also reveals there were multiple waves of migrations in Asia around this time, said Mark Hubbe, a biological anthropologist at The Ohio State University who was not involved in the study. "This brings a new level of complexity to what we think happened in Asia," Hubbe told LiveScience.

Mars Meteorite Reveals 1st Look at Ancient Martian Crust

A meteorite found last year in the Sahara Desert is likely the first recognized piece of ancient Martian crust, a new study reports. The Mars meteorite NWA 7533 is 4.4 billion years old and contains evidence of long-ago asteroid strikes, suggesting that the rock came from the Red Planet's ancient and cratered southern highlands, researchers said. "We finally have a sample of the Martian highlands, that portion of Mars that holds all the secrets to Mars' birth and early development," lead author Munir Humayun of Florida State University told SPACE.com via email. "It's the part of Mars' history where the oceans and atmosphere developed, and where life would have developed if it ever did on Mars," Humayun added.

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