GoogleTrends

Monday, December 2, 2013

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

China launches lunar probe carrying 'Jade Rabbit' buggy

China launched its first ever extraterrestrial landing craft into orbit en route for the moon in the small hours of Monday, in a major milestone for its space program. The Chang'e-3 lunar probe, which includes the Yutu or Jade Rabbit buggy, blasted off on board an enhanced Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in China's southwestern Sichuan province at 1:30 a.m. (12.30 p.m. EDT). President Xi Jinping has said he wants China to establish itself as a space superpower, and the mission has inspired pride in China's growing technological prowess. If all goes smoothly, the rover will conduct geological surveys and search for natural resources after the probe touches down on the moon in mid-December as China's first spacecraft to make a soft landing beyond Earth.

A Universe Made of Stories: Why We Need a Science and Technology Dialogue

Found! First Known Predator To Lure Prey By Mimicking Flowers

The orchid mantis, which resembles a flower, takes on this appearance in order to lure in prey, researchers say. In fact, orchid mantises are even better at drawing in insects than some actual blossoms;

High Chairs Help Toddlers Learn Messy Words

"If you expose them to these things when they're in a high chair, they do better," study researcher Larissa Samuelson, a psychologist at the University of Iowa, said in a statement. "They're familiar with the setting and that helps them remember and use what they already know about nonsolids." [That's Incredible! 9 Brainy Baby Abilities]

SpaceX plans third launch attempt on Monday

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, plans to try again on Monday to launch its first commercial communications satellite after its Falcon 9 rocket was twice sidelined by technical issues, officials said. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket and a 3.5-ton (3,175 kg) communications satellite owned by Luxembourg-based SES S.A. was targeted for 5:41 p.m. EST (2241 GMT) on Monday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Robotic Mars Landing Module Named 'Schiaparelli' to Honor 19th-Century Astronomer

A future Mars landing module tasked with mapping the Red Planet will bear the name of the Earthling that did it first. It was Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli who first mapped the surface of Mars in the late 19th century, and when the European Space Agency's ExoMars module begins to map the Martian surface in 2016, it will be named in honor of its famed namesake. "Considering the importance of Giovanni Schiaparelli's pioneering observations of Mars, it was an easy decision to give his name to the ExoMars module that is paving the way to the further exploration of the Red Planet," Alvaro Giménez, ESA's Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, said in a statement.

'Secret' Labyrinth of Tunnels Under Rome Mapped

Deep under the streets and buildings of Rome is a maze of tunnels and quarries that dates back to the very beginning of this ancient city. Now, geologists are venturing beneath Rome to map these underground passageways, hoping to prevent modern structures from crumbling into the voids below.

Weird Organ Makes Koalas Sound Like Frogs Vomiting

Simple calculations suggest koalas should have high-pitched voices. That's because the pitch generated by an object is linked to its size, and usually animals' vocal chords tend to be large or small according to the mass of their bodies. The animals actually have an extra "organ" outside the larynx, which contains the vocal chords that mammals and other animals use. In the koala's case, the vocal chords consist of long fleshy folds of tissue in the soft pallet between the upper throat, or pharynx, and the nasal cavities. When the koalas breathe in, they can push air through these "velar vocal folds," as the authors call them, to make low-pitched sounds, according to the study.

How to Preserve Historic Moon Landing Sites for Posterity

On Sunday (Dec. 1), China launched a spacecraft designed to land safely on the lunar surface, and some private companies hope to stage launches to the moon as well. If industry and other nations aren't careful, the uptick in lunar traffic might disturb the landing sites from the Apollo era, as well as Russia's landing sites on the lunar surface. In order to protect the United States' lunar heritage, U.S. legislators have recently proposed a "moon bill" that would qualify the Apollo landing sites as a national park. the United States, Russia and 126 other nations have ratified the treaty.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe

Sunday, December 1, 2013

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

India's Mars mission enters second stage; outpaces space rival China

By Shyamantha Asokan NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's first mission to Mars left Earth's orbit in the early hours of Sunday, clearing a critical hurdle in its journey to the red planet and overtaking the recent efforts of rival Asian giant China. The success of the spacecraft, scheduled to orbit Mars by next September, would carry India into a small club of nations including the United States, Europe, and Russia, whose probes have orbited or landed on Mars. India's venture, called Mangalyaan, faces further hurdles still on its journey to Mars. "While Mangalyaan takes 1.2 billion dreams to Mars, we wish you sweet dreams!" India's space agency said in a tweet soon after the event, referring to the citizens of the world's second-most populous country.

'Zombie' comet ISON may be back from the dead

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A smaller, paler version of Comet ISON may have survived incineration in the sun's corona and may be brightening, scientists said on Friday. Since its discovery in September 2012, Comet ISON has been full of surprises. Conflicting pictures of the comet's future continued until Thursday when ISON apparently flew too close to the sun. Its long tail and nucleus seemingly vaporized in the solar furnace, dashing hopes of a naked-eye comet visible in Earth's skies in December.

Ancient 'Ghostbuster Demon' Creatures Pooped Together

Enormous herds of rhinolike animals turned parts of what is now Argentina into minefields of dung, new fossils reveal. These massive herbivores were dicynodonts, mammal-like reptiles that looked something like a cross between a rhinoceros and the demon dogs from "Ghostbusters." Argentine researchers have now found that these dicynodonts pooped in communal latrines, designated areas for depositing dung. "This is the only case of megaherbavore latrine and it's the oldest," found fossilized, said study researcher Lucas Fiorelli of the Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica in La Rioja, Argentina. Fiorelli and his colleagues began excavating in northwest Argentina two years ago and quickly uncovered fossilized poop — known as coprolites — by the bucket load.

China launches lunar probe carrying 'Jade Rabbit' moon buggy

China launched its first ever extraterrestrial landing craft into orbit en route for the moon in the small hours of Monday, in a major milestone for its space program. The Chang'e-3 lunar probe, which includes the Yutu or Jade Rabbit buggy, blasted off on board an enhanced Long March-3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China's southwestern Sichuan province at 1:30 a.m. (12.30 p.m. EDT). President Xi Jinping has said he wants China to establish itself as a space superpower, and the mission has inspired widespread pride in China's growing technological prowess. If all goes smoothly, the rover will conduct geological surveys and search for natural resources after the probe touches down on the moon in mid-December as China's first spacecraft to make a soft landing beyond Earth.

National Zoo's Panda Cub Named Bao Bao

The newest giant panda cub at the Smithsonian's National Zoo was named Bao Bao on Sunday (Dec. 1) in a ceremony in Washington, D.C. Bao Bao, which means "treasure" or "precious," beat out four other Mandarin monikers, including: Combined this represents a sign of luck for panda cooperation between China and the U.S. During the naming ceremony, the success of the panda breeding program was praised by zoo officials, the Chinese ambassador and U.S. first lady Michelle Obama.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe

Saturday, November 30, 2013

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Space Shuttle Replica Vandalized with Graffiti in Houston

A replica of a NASA space shuttle on display in Houston was defaced Wednesday (Nov. 27), when vandals sprayed racial and political graffiti on the side of the full-size mockup. "Unfortunately, someone vandalized our high-fidelity mock shuttle," said Melanie Johnson, the director of education for Space Center Houston, the visitor center for NASA's Johnson Space Center where the model is located. The graffiti, which included the phrase, "Houston, we are the problem," was limited to the side of the space shuttle that faced away from the center's parking lot. "To the person who did this — you really need to check yourself, because you're making it bad for all other decent people in this town," the driver told Houston CBS-affiliate KHOU.

The Kind of Boss Most Likely to Seek Revenge

A study by researchers at the University of Kent and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and the University of Adelaide in Australia revealed that people who are not accustomed to holding power are more likely to be vengeful when placed in charge compared with experienced power holders, who were found to be more tolerant of perceived wrongdoing. Mario Weick, a researcher at the University of Kent and one of the study's co-authors, said the results provide a firm indication of the relationship between power and revenge.

Religious Social Media Posts Cost Jobs

A study from Carnegie Mellon University revealed that while there are a number of personal questions employers are not legally allowed to ask during the interview, job candidates who post those details on social networks are opening themselves up to potential hiring discrimination. "Our experiment focused on a novel tension: the tension between the law — which, in the United States, protects various types of information, making it risky for certain personal questions to be asked during interviews — and new information technologies, such as online social networks, which make that same information often available to strangers, including interviewers and employers," said Alessandro Acquisti, associate professor of information technology and public policy and one of the study's authors. While the majority of organizations don't use social networks as part of their hiring process, researchers found that those that do tend to be biased against some applicants. "While it appears that a relatively small portion of U.S. employers regularly searches for candidates online, we found robust evidence of discrimination among certain types of employers," said Christina Fong, senior research scientist at Carnegie Mellon, another of the study's authors.

Giant Electric Fields May Supercharge Particles In Earth's Radiation Belts

Huge electric fields in the radiation belts around Earth may help explain how electrons surrounding the planet can be accelerated to speeds near that of light, researchers have found in a new study. These findings, detailed Dec. 2 in the journal Physical Review Letters, could help shed light on the radiation belts of planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, as well as the behavior of the sun during flares and of bodies beyond the solar system, such as stellar nurseries, neutron stars and incredibly energetic black holes known as quasars.

China Will Launch Its 1st Moon Rover, 'Jade Rabbit,' On Sunday

China is counting down to the launch of its first moon landing mission, a mission poised to blast off Sunday (Dec. 1) to send the country's first lunar lander and rover to Earth's nearest neighbor. China's first moon rover is called Yutu, which means "Jade Rabbit" in Chinese, according to state media reports. It will launch with the Chang'e 3 moon lander on Sunday 12:30 p.m. EST (1730 GMT), though it will be 1:30 a.m. Monday, Dec. 2 at China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center. If all goes well, the Chang'e 3 mission will land on the moon on Dec. 14, according the European Space Agency, which is providing mission tracking of the lander and rover for China's space agency.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe