GoogleTrends

Thursday, January 9, 2014

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Scale of Universe Measured with 1-Percent Accuracy

WASHINGTON — An ultraprecise new galaxy map is shedding light on the properties of dark energy, the mysterious force thought to be responsible for the universe's accelerating expansion. A team of researchers working with the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) has determined the distances to galaxies more than 6 billion light-years away to within 1 percent accuracy — an unprecedented measurement. "There are not many things in our daily lives that we know to 1-percent accuracy," David Schlegel, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the principal investigator of BOSS, said in a statement. Scientists working with BOSS mapped the locations of 1.2 million galaxies and found that their new measurements support the idea of the "cosmological constant" — an idea first proposed by Albert Einstein.

International Space Station Gets Life Extension Through 2024

NASA and White House officials are announcing plans today (Jan. 8) to keep the International Space Station running through at least 2024 — a four-year life extension for the largest spacecraft ever built. The NASA decision will allow scientists to use the International Space Station for at least the next 10 years, maximizing the science return on the $100 billion orbiting laboratory, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's chief of exploration and human spaceflight operations, said in a teleconference. Previous lifetime projections for the space station called for it be shut down in 2020. "There's some pretty significant benefits in announcing us to go beyond 2020," Gerstenmaier said, adding that the agency will maintain its annual $3 billion space station budget through the extension.

'Whiteout' Over Great Lakes Seen from Space (Photo)

The five Great Lakes, in all their glory, barely peek out from the veil of clouds and whooshing snowfall above them in a new satellite image captured Monday (Jan. 6) as the Arctic's polar vortex barreled southward. NOAA's GOES-East satellite snapped this Midwest "whiteout" of sorts at 3:15 p.m. EST (2015 UTC), before sunset, providing side illumination to the clouds and lake-effect snow, which forms when cold air moves over warmer lake waters. "The posted GOES image is a blend of the satellite-observed visible and thermal-infrared brightness of the scene, overlaid on a NASA-provided true-color historical-satellite image of the USA," Dennis Chesters of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., wrote in an email. This resulting image shows an area that extends from the Minnesota-Canadian border in the upper left to the Chesapeake Bay, including the Great Lakes, where temperatures dipped to an average of 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 7 degrees Celsius) with a wind chill near minus 50 F (minus 45 C), according to NASA.

Polar Vortex Brought Flurry of Frost Quakes to Canada

Frost quakes typically strike after a rapid temperature drop, such as the big chill that hit Ontario when the polar vortex swept through on last week. These "frost quakes" were reported throughout Ontario, with the first complaints of cracks and booms starting on Twitter around 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 2 and peaking about 2 a.m. ET Friday, Jan. 3. Natural Resources Canada did not record any shaking on its seismometer network, said Allison Bent, a seismologist with Earthquakes Canada in Ontario. "With frost quakes, almost all the energy is on the surface, so if you're close to it you feel it quite strongly, but not enough energy gets into the ground to pick it up far away," Bent told LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

Great White Sharks Live As Long As Humans

Great white sharks can live almost as long as humans — 70 years or more — much longer than scientists previously thought. "White sharks in the northwest Atlantic are considerably older than previous age estimates," some of which pegged the oldest great white sharks at around 23 years old, said study co-author Li Ling Hamady, an oceanography graduate student at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. Figuring out a great white shark's age is tricky. Researchers typically look at shark teeth, ear bones, vertebrae and bony rods in the skeleton to make age estimations.

Lions Face Extinction in West Africa

Lions in West Africa are on the brink of extinction, new research suggests. Fewer than 250 adults may be left in West Africa, and those big cats are confined to less than 1 percent of their historic range. The new study, detailed today (Jan. 8) in the journal PLOS ONE, suggests that without dramatic conservation efforts, three of the four West African lion populations could become extinct in the next five years, with further declines in the one remaining population, study co-author Philipp Henschel, the lion program survey coordinator for Panthera, a global wildcat conservation organization, wrote in an email. The majestic lion once roamed throughout West Africa, from Nigeria to Senegal.

Mysterious Wanderings of Tiger Sharks Tracked

A new four-year study of tiger sharks off the coast of Australia has revealed patterns in the animals' mysterious migratory wanderings, including curious differences based on the gender and age of the sharks. The study, led by Jonathan Werry, a researcher at Griffith University in Australia, tracked 33 tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) using satellite and acoustic transmitters as they traveled across the Coral Sea, which lies between the Great Barrier Reef, off the east coast of Australia, and the Pacific island of New Caledonia. The researchers found that mature female sharks tend to be the ones making long-distance journeys across the Coral Sea — between the deep ocean and the more shallow, coastal waters — while adult males and younger females were found to linger in oceanic reefs away from the coasts. "In the reef system in the center of the Coral Sea, 500 nautical miles [575 miles, or 930 kilometers] from either coastline, we saw extraordinary year-round residency for mature males and pre-reproductive females," Werry told LiveScience.

New Glue Could Mend Broken Hearts

The glue bonds to heart tissue, and is as strong as stitches or staples, sealing wounds while avoiding complications, say its inventors, Jeffrey M. Karp, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, andDr. The researchers said the company may get approval to use the glue in Europe by the end of 2015.

'Nutcracker Man' Ate Tiger Nuts (Not What it Sounds Like)

A strong-jawed extinct relative of humans called "Nutcracker Man" might have lived up to its name by munching on tiger nuts — that is, grass bulbs known as tiger nuts still eaten in parts of the world today, researchers say. The extinct creature, officially called Paranthropus boisei, roamed across East Africa 1.4 million to 2.4 million years ago, living alongside the direct ancestors of humanity.

7 Crazy Things That Happen Only When It's Really Cold

So as you stay toasty indoors, free of frostbite, check out these 7 "cool" effects of sub-zero temperatures. Normally, pure water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). Pure alcohol freezes at a frigid minus 173 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 114 degrees Celsius), so the stronger the alcohol, the colder it will need to be outside for the trick to work.

Fate of Ark of the Covenant Revealed in Hebrew Text

A newly translated Hebrew text claims to reveal where treasures from King Solomon's temple were hidden and discusses the fate of the Ark of the Covenant itself. King Solomon's Temple, also called the First Temple, was plundered and torched by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II in the sixth century B.C., according to the Hebrew Bible. The Ark of the Covenant is a chest that, when originally built, was said to have held tablets containing the 10 commandments. The newly translated text, called "Treatise of the Vessels" (Massekhet Kelim in Hebrew), says the "treasures were concealed by a number of Levites and prophets," writes James Davila, a professor at the University of St. Andrews, in an article in the book "Old Testament Pseudepigrapha More Noncanonical Scriptures Volume 1" (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013).

The Obama Legacy in Planetary Exploration (Op-Ed)

It is frustrating, at a time when other nations are in ascendancy in space, that the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama seems committed to undermining the nation's own solar system exploration program. It has taken the National Research Council's (NRC) recommendations for prioritizing planetary investments in bad economic times and turned those recommendations upside down. The administration continues to favor large, directed projects at the expense of programs and missions that are openly competed. Now, the Obama Administration is preparing to go after the seed corn of the U.S. solar-system exploration program: its planetary research and analysis programs.

Hot New Wood Stoves: High-Tech & Eco-Friendly

But wood as a fuel source has some inherent drawbacks, especially the gases, particulate matter and other pollutants produced by burning logs. A new generation of high-efficiency wood stoves, however, has become available that are as low in emissions as they are high in energy efficiency. And as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduces new regulations designed to make wood stoves even more efficient, people are rediscovering wood as a smart, renewable source of energy. Last week, the EPA proposed tightening its emission standards for wood stoves: Currently, the EPA certifies wood stoves that produce no more than 7.5 grams of fine particulate matter per hour, but new regulations would reduce that level to 4.5 grams per hour by next year, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports, and lower it again to 1.3 grams per hour by 2019.

5 Odd Religions Coming to a Statehouse Near You

After a Christian religious group received permission in 2012 to erect a monument devoted to the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City, another religious group — The Satanic Temple — is formally requesting to erect its own monument. The statue is nothing if not controversial: "In my opinion, this Satanist monument does not meet with the values of Oklahomans," Oklahoma State Rep. Bob Cleveland told CNN. Inspired by the Jedi Knights from the "Star Wars" film franchise, Jedi followers "believe in peace, justice, love, learning and benevolence," according to the Temple of the Jedi Order's website. Though there are several entities claiming to be Jedi organizations, the Temple of the Jedi Order was officially registered as a religion in the state of Texas in 2005.

Placebo Effect May Account for Half of Drug's Efficacy

Even when a medication works, half of its impact on a patient may be due to one aspect of the placebo effect: the positive message that a doctor provides when prescribing the treatment, according to a new study. Researchers designed an elaborate study, in which 66 people suffering from migraine headaches were given either a placebo, or a common migraine drug called Maxalt. The pain-relieving benefits of the migraine drug increased when patients were told they were taking an effective drug for the treatment of acute migraine. And when the identities of Maxalt tablets and placebo pills were switched, patients reported similar pain relief from placebo pills labeled as Maxalt as from Maxalt tablets labeled as a placebo, according to the study published today (Jan. 8) in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Why Depression, OCD May Be More Common than Thought

The true burden of mental-health disorders might be underestimated by most studies because they use a certain common survey approach to assess the percentage of people with these conditions, researchers say. Using the information from all of the interviews, they found the rates of six mental disorders to be considerably higher than those ascertained based on just the last interview, which is called the retrospective method and is commonly used in studies. "We found that estimates of the lifetime prevalence of mental disorders were between two to 12 times lower when we looked at people's responses at the last interview, compared with when we looked at reports from preceding interviews," said study researcher Adam Spira, an assistant professor of mental health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The new study suggests that people of all ages don't recall past episodes of mental disorders.

Ancient Greeks Used Portable Grills at Their Picnics

More than 3,000 years ago, they used portable grill pits to make souvlaki and non-stick pans to make bread, new cooking experiments suggest. The Mycenaean civilization, which was the backdrop for Homer's "Odyssey" and "Iliad," thrived in Greece during the late Bronze Age from around 1700 B.C. until the society mysteriously collapsed around 1200 B.C. The Mycenaeans left behind amazing palaces and gold-littered tombs at sites like Pylos and Mycenae, but in these places, archaeologists also have found less glamorous artifacts, such as souvlaki trays and griddles made from gritty clays. It wasn't clear how these two types of pans were used, said Julie Hruby of Dartmouth College, presenting her research at the Archaeological Institute of America's annual meeting here on Saturday (Jan. 4). "We don't have any recipes," Hruby told LiveScience.

Sangamo to develop blood disorder drugs with Biogen

(Reuters) - Sangamo Biosciences Inc said it would collaborate with Biogen Idec Inc to develop treatments for a group of inherited blood disorders in a deal for up to $320 million. Sangamo shares jumped as much as 30 percent to a six-year high of $17.73 on the Nasdaq on Thursday morning. Biogen will use Sangamo's genome-editing technology to develop drugs targeting sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia. It will provide Sangamo $20 million upfront and reimburse costs related to research and development.

Massive Utah Landslide Triggered Earthquakes

One of the largest landslides in U.S. history, caused by a collapse last year at a copper mine in Utah, triggered earthquakes, the first time rock avalanches have been known to do so, researchers say. Investigators analyzed a mammoth landslide at the Bingham Canyon copper mine in the Oquirrh Mountains near Salt Lake City, operated by the Kennecott Utah Copper Corp. At more than 3,180 feet (970 meters) deep, the mine is the largest artificial excavation in the world. In total, Kennecott estimated about 165 million tons (150 million metric tons) slid nearly 1.8 miles (3 kilometers), probably making it the largest non-volcanic landslide to have occurred in North America in modern times. The damage from the Bingham Canyon rockslide is estimated at nearly $1 billion, potentially making it the most expensive landslide in U.S. history.

Ancient Nursery of Bizarre Spoon-Billed Sharks Discovered

Stunningly preserved baby sharks with bizarre, long snouts — as well as egg cases from the same species — may be the oldest convincing evidence of an ancient shark nursery. In unpublished work on egg casings found in Germany, paleontologists have inferred the presence of another ancient shark nursery that is 330 million years old, but "this is the first time we have eggs and fossilized hatchlings in the same place, proving it's a shark nursery," said study co-author Lauren Sallan, a paleontologist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The Bandringa fossils were discovered in a coal mine in Mazon Creek, Ill., in 1969. Over time, researchers discovered many other fossils that looked somewhat different from the Mazon Creek specimens, and concluded they were two separate species of Bandringa.

Orbital Sciences Launches Landmark Private Cargo Mission to Space Station

The commercial spaceflight company Orbital Sciences Corp. launched a robotic spacecraft from Virginia's Eastern Shore Thursday (Jan. 9) on a milestone flight: the company's first official cargo delivery to the International Space Station.

Hot Tubs, Spas Can Spread Illness in Winter

Disease outbreaks tied to swimming happen even in the winter, often after people go in hot tubs or spas, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 2009 and 2010, there were 81 outbreaks and 1,326 cases of illness in the United States linked to recreational water exposure (in pools, lakes, hot tubs, etc.), according to information reported from 28 states and Puerto Rico. Eighteen of these outbreaks (22 percent) were linked with hot tubs or spas, and about 40 percent of the outbreaks occurred in February or March, according to the report. Healthy people can develop Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections, including ear infections or skin rashes, after exposure to hot tubs that have not been properly chlorinated, according to the CDC.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Docs Fail to Discuss Alcohol's Risks with Patients

About 38 million U.S. adults report binge drinking, but only 1 in 4 binge drinkers said a health professional had ever talked with them about the dangers of excessive drinking, according to the new report, which surveyed about 165,000 people in 44 states in 2011. "Drinking too much alcohol has many more health risks than most people realize," CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden told reporters today (Jan. 7). Studies have shown that asking patients about their drinking behavior and briefly counseling heavy drinkers on health risks effectively reduces alcohol consumption, and these practices are considered important in preventing disease, similar to blood pressure and breast cancer screening, the researchers said. Most common form of excessive drinking is binge drinking, defined as consuming four or more drinks for women and five or more drinks for men, on one occasion.

New Exoplanet Imager Snaps 1st Photos of Alien Worlds

WASHINGTON — Astronomers have detected nearly 1,000 planets outside of our own solar system, but little is known about their composition. Now, the Gemini Observatory's Planet Imager enables scientists to image exoplanets directly. "Almost nothing is known about the composition of the planets Kepler is seeing," principal investigator Bruce MacIntosh, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said in a news conference here today (Jan. 7) at the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), an instrument at the 8-meter Gemini South telescope in Chile, can see exoplanets in the outer solar system of young stars.

Smoking Rates Drop Globally, but Millions Still Light Up

Because the world population grew in the same period, the total number of smokers increased from 721 million in 1980 to 967 million in 2012, according to the report published today (Jan. 7) in the journal JAMA. "Despite the tremendous progress made on tobacco control, much more remains to be done," study co-author Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said in a statement.

Wow! Hubble Snaps Super-Deep View of Universe (Photos)

WASHINGTON — A new set of breathtaking photos reveals a never-before-seen deep view of the universe. Released as the first "Frontier Fields" view from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the new images mark the deepest-ever observations of a cluster of galaxies. The images also capture background galaxies more than 12 billion light-years away, whose light has been magnified and brightened by the immense gravity of Abell 2744 in a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, researchers said. "The Frontier Fields is combining the power of nature's telescopes — these massive clusters of galaxies — with Hubble to provide the intrinsically deepest yet view of the universe," Jennifer Lotz, a principal investigator with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said here today (Jan. 7) during a press conference at the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

Furry Fans: Why Prairie Dogs Do 'the Wave'

Prairie dogs foraging near their burrows frequently pop up on their back legs, front paws in the air, and cry "wee-oo," a behavior that spreads throughout the pack as quickly as "the wave" at a football game. "Probably the most striking implication of the whole thing is it reveals to us that these prairie dogs have a concept of others as unique individuals," said study researcher James Hare, a biologist at the University of Manitoba. Prairie dogs find strength in numbers, and scientists knew that the rodents employ a complex system of alarm calls when danger nears. Previously, researchers had suggested that prairie dogs gave a wave of jump-yips as an "all clear" message.

Private Cygnus Cargo Ship Launching to Space Station Today: Watch It Live

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — A privately built robotic spacecraft is poised to blast off from Virginia's freezing cold Eastern Shore today (Jan. 8) on a debut delivery flight to the International Space Station, and you can watch it live online. The commercial spaceflight company Orbital Sciences will launch its first Cygnus cargo mission from a pad here at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility at 1:32 p.m. EDT (1832 GMT) to deliver more than a ton of supplies for astronauts in orbit. The spacecraft will launch atop a commercial Antares rocket, also built by Orbital Sciences. You can watch the Cygnus spacecraft launch live online here, courtesy of NASA TV.

Sun Unleashes 1st Major Solar Flare of 2014 (Video)

A massive solar flare erupted from the sun on Tuesday (Jan. 7), rising up from what appears to be one of the largest sunspot groups seen on the star's surface in a decade, NASA officials say. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a video of the huge solar flare as it developed, showing it as an intense burst of radiation from a colossal sunspot region known as AR1944. The sunspot group — which is currently in the middle of the sun as viewed from Earth — is "one of the largest sunspots seen in the last 10 years," NASA officials wrote in a statement. It occurred at 1:32 p.m. EST (1832 GMT) and came just hours after an M7.2-class flare. Space weather officials at the the Space Weather Prediction Center overseen by NOAA are expecting the flare to spark geomagnetic storms in Earth's magnetic field when a wave of super-hot solar plasma associated with the flare - known as a coronal mass ejection - reaches Earth in the next few days.

First Dinosaur Fossils from Saudi Arabia Discovered

A plant-eating titanosaur and a sharp-toothed theropod are the first confirmed dinosaur fossils ever found in Saudi Arabia, scientists reported Dec. 26 in the journal PLOS ONE. Dinosaur fossils are rare in the Arabian Peninsula; "This discovery is important not only because of where the remains were found, but also because of the fact that we can actually identify them," Benjamin Kear, lead study author, said in a statement. "These are the first taxonomically recognizable dinosaurs reported from the Arabian Peninsula," said Kear, a paleobiologist at Uppsala University in Sweden.

Ancient Syrian Trade Routes Recreated with Google Earth

Google Earth may be a fun way to bring the far reaches of the present-day globe to people's fingertips, but archaeologists are now using the high-tech software to recreate maps of ancient civilizations. Kristina Neumann, a doctoral candidate in the department of classics at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, used Google Earth to track trade around the ancient city of Antioch, located in present-day southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, at the beginning of its takeover by the Roman Empire in 64 B.C. Neumann found the use of Antioch's civic coins was more widespread than was previously thought, suggesting the city had developed broad political authority within the region before being absorbed into the Roman Empire. Neumann used the movement of ancient coins to track political relationships between cities, since authorities typically decided which foreign currencies were accepted in commerce. As such, if coins from Antioch were prevalent in a neighboring city, the two governments likely shared a political agreement, Neumann explained.

I (Barely) Spy: Starfish Have Poor Vision, Are Color Blind

Starfish may have the incredible ability to regenerate their limbs, but when it comes to the power of sight, these marine creatures fall a bit short, a new study finds. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark studied the eyes of Linckia laevigata, a species of starfish commonly found in the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the western and central Pacific Ocean; "We studied their spectral sensitivity, meaning what colors of light they see, and found that they don't have color vision," said study lead author Anders Garm, an associate professor in the department of biology at the University of Copenhagen. The researchers also found that starfish do not see sharp, clear images.

Huge Solar Flare Delays Private Rocket Launch to Space Station

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — A huge solar flare unleashed by the sun has delayed plans to launch a private cargo ship to the International Space Station today (Jan. 8) due to worry over space weather radiation. The event occurred as the commercial spaceflight company Orbital Sciences was preparing to launch a landmark cargo delivery flight to the space station today with its Antares rocket and robotic Cygnus spacecraft. "Early this morning the Antares launch team decided to scrub today's launch attempt due to an unusually high level of space radiation that exceeded by a considerable margin the constraints imposed on the mission to ensure the rocket's electronic systems are not impacted by a harsh radiation environment," Orbital Sciences officials said in a statement today. The Antares rocket was awaiting an afternoon launch at its pad here at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility when the decision was made.

Can a Pill Give You Perfect Pitch?

Before your next karaoke contest, you might want to visit a pharmacist: Researchers have found that a drug known as valproate, or valproic acid, might help people learn how to produce perfect pitch. Besides the assistance valproate could give to "American Idol" contestants, the study is intriguing because it suggests the adult brain can learn better and faster through drugs that enhance its "neuroplasticity." Perfect pitch, which scientists refer to as absolute pitch, is the rare ability to identify or produce the pitch of a musical note without any reference point. Experts believe that the ability to produce absolute pitch may be a genetic trait that must be nurtured through musical training in early childhood — by the age of 5, ideally — or it's unlikely to develop.

'Most Threatened' Tribe Gets Respite from Illegal Loggers

A tribe of indigenous Brazilians dubbed the world's most threatened are getting some breathing room in a new government effort to remove illegal loggers and ranchers from tribal lands. The Awá, a group of about 450 men, women and children who are among the 800,000 or so indigenous residents of Brazil have been in a long legal battle over the rights to their lands in northeastern Brazil. "This is a momentous and potentially lifesaving occasion for the Awá," said Stephen Corry, the director of Survival International, a tribal advocacy group that began a campaign to save the Awá in 2012. That deadline, however, passed without action as FUNAI lacked manpower and coordination with local agencies, Survival International reported.

Ancient Sea Monsters Were Black, Study Finds

Ancient leatherback turtles, toothy predators called mosasaurs and dolphinlike reptiles called ichthyosaurs all had black pigmentation, researchers report today (Jan. 8) in the journal Nature. The animals' blackness likely helped them in a variety of ways, said study researcher Johan Lindgren, a mosasaur expert at Lund University in Sweden. "We suggest … that they used it not only as camouflage and UV protection, but also to be able to regulate their body temperature," Lindgren told LiveScience.

U.S. polar vortex brings Big Chill to forest pests: scientists

By Ian Simpson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The record cold U.S. temperatures may have a silver lining - killing off some tree-eating forest pests that have spread dangerously as the general climate warms up, scientists said. The deep freeze that shattered decades-old records this week - causing fatalities and snarling air, road and rail traffic - could adversely affect pests such as the emerald ash bore, which is responsible for killing more than 10 million trees, said Robert Venette, a research biologist with the U.S. Forest Service in St. Paul, Minnesota. Eighty percent of emerald ash bore may have been destroyed where temperatures fell to -22 to -26 Fahrenheit (-30 to 32 Celsius), he said. And we've been seeing those kind of temperatures here in Minnesota, particularly in the Twin Cities and points north," Venette explained.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe