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Saturday, January 18, 2014

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Israeli prize honors foreign scientists, artist

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prestigious Wolf Prize this year will honor American, Canadian, Swedish and Taiwanese scientists.

Mock Mars Mission: How to Drive on the Red Planet

Editor's Note: In the Utah desert, scientists are attempting to recreate what a real-life mission to Mars might be like, and SPACE.com contributor Elizabeth Howell is along for the ride. After rolling forward a few feet, I checked a small mirror on my left arm to watch Paula Crock's progress behind me. As we ventured several miles away from Utah's Mars Desert Research Station, we were figuring out how to safely maneuver vehicles while wearing mock spacesuits.

Smoking Report: Why 'Lighting Up' Causes So Many Diseases

Fifty years after the first U.S. Surgeon General's report in 1964 warned about the link between smoking and lung cancer, research continues to identify more diseases that are directly caused by smoking. Cigarette smoke contains thousands of compounds, including 69 known to be carcinogens, chemicals that are directly involved in causing cancer. They are carried through the blood to many organs," said Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California at San Francisco, who was not involved in compiling the report. In colorectal cancer, tumors often originate in the glands and the cells that cover the inside of the bowel.

Pelvic Bone in Museum Storage May Be King Alfred the Great's

A piece of an ancient pelvis bone that had been tucked away in museum storage might belong to the English King Alfred the Great or his son Edward, scholars announced Friday (Jan. 17). Archaeologists had mounted a search to find the lost remains of Alfred the Great, who was king of Wessex and dominated England from 871 until his death in 899. Last year, researchers exhumed an unmarked grave at Saint Bartholomew's Church in Winchester, England, but none of the bodies buried there were a match with Alfred. After that initial disappointment, the group then turned to bones in storage boxes at the Winchester City Museum that had been excavated from a nearby monastery, Hyde Abbey, in the 1990s.

Supreme Court Confusion: Why Judging Distance Is Tough

The justices of the Supreme Court may be among the best legal minds in the country, but they have no eye for distances — and new research may help explain why. After the tests, the researchers "trained" the volunteers to conduct virtual experiments: They placed motion-capture tags on the participants' forearms, and asked them to reach for a virtual cylinder on a computer screen.

T. Rex Set for April Road Trip to Washington, D.C.

Stopped dead in its tracks when the government shut down, a famous T. rex skeleton will finally make its road trip from Montana to Washington, D.C., this spring. Officials at the dinosaur's new home, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, announced Friday (Jan. 17) that the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton is set to arrive on April 15, two weeks before the museum's fossil hall closes for a major five-year renovation. Randall Kremer, a spokesperson for the museum, said the dinosaur's arrival will mark the most significant addition to the museum since the Hope Diamond was donated to the collection in 1958. Rancher Kathy Wankel is credited with the dinosaur's discovery after spotting the creature's arm bones poking out of Montana's Fort Peck reservoir in 1988.

'Sixth Sense' Can Be Explained by Science

At least one type of "sixth sense" isn't real, new research suggests. The new study, detailed Monday (Jan. 13) in the journal PLOS ONE, found that what people perceive as a sixth sense may simply be their vision systems detecting changes they can't articulate. "People can sense things that they believe they cannot see," such as changes in a person's appearance, said study co-author Piers Howe, a vision scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Howe's interest was piqued when a student came to him claiming she had a quasi-magical sixth sense.

Mock Mars Mission: Stunning Night Sky Shines Over Utah Outpost

Editor's Note: In the Utah desert, scientists are attempting to recreate what a real-life mission to Mars might be like, and SPACE.com contributor Elizabeth Howell is along for the ride. HANKSVILLE, Utah — In the desert here, the nearly full moon was so bright that we didn't even need a flashlight to walk to the Mars Desert Research Station Musk Observatory. About 100 feet away from our Habitat, two crew members had captured (the Andromeda Galaxy M31) in the telescope at the Mars Society observatory, which is a tiny room just barely big enough to fit a crew of five or six.

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Friday, January 17, 2014

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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5 Phrases That Will Kill Your Kickstarter Campaign (And 12 That Won't)

If you ask the creators of successful Kickstarter projects how they got funded, they'll probably tell you it was thanks to a strong community of supporters, press coverage, social media shares, or some other factor that they put a lot of time and effort into. Georgia Tech assistant professor Eric Gilbert and doctoral candidate Tanushree Mitra studied the language used in every Kickstarter campaign launched since June 2012. "Our research revealed that the phrases used in successful Kickstarter campaigns exhibited general persuasion principles," said Gilbert, who runs Georgia Tech's computer social lab. Gilbert and Mitra were intrigued by the huge variance between Pebble, the most successful Kickstarter campaign to date with more than $10 million in pledges, and Ninja Baseball, a well-publicized PC game that earned just one-third of its $10,000 goal.

Geminid Meteor Streaks Over Frozen Pennsylvania Lake (Photo)

Astrophotographer Jeff Berkes captured this photo on Dec. 13 from French Creek State Park, Penn., during the annual Geminid meteor shower. "After a series of winter storms and cold temperatures, this frozen lake set the scene for the first meteor shower of the winter— the Geminids," Berkes wrote SPACE.com in an email. Meteor showers are created when the Earth makes its way through the leftover debris of comets or asteroids. Editor's note: If you have an amazing night sky photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Simulating Surgery On a Mock Mars Mission

Editor's Note: In the Utah desert, scientists are attempting to recreate what a real-life mission to Mars might be like, and SPACE.com contributor Elizabeth Howell is along for the ride. HANKSVILLE, Utah — Within days of beginning our two-week stay at the Mars Desert Research Station, crew members already encountered minor medical problems — a sore back and a cold or flu among them. Take this six-member crew and put them on a 900-day mission to Mars, and it's possible that something could happen two or three times that would require the use of anesthesia, according to Crew 133 health and safety officer Matthieu Komorowski.

Mountains May Suck Up Carbon Better Than Thought

Given that soil is involved in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the results suggest that mountains may have the potential to influence global climate, researchers say. Previous research had suggested there's a "speed limit" to the rate of new soil production and weathering on rapidly eroding mountain ranges. To test if this speed limit can be broken, researchers analyzed soil samples from the western Southern Alps of New Zealand. Through tectonic activity, these mountains uplift, or grow, faster than most others on Earth — this phenomenon also erodes rocks and exposes new soil that is able to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through a process called chemical weathering.

You, Too, Can Smash Atoms!

While most high-school students are stuck building science fair experiments with a funnel, some popsicle sticks or a few parts from Radio Shack, a few lucky ones will have the opportunity to take their science to a whole new level. CERN, the Geneva, Switzerland-based physics organization that runs the Large Hadron Collider that recently found the Higgs Boson, is opening up a particle beamline for students with the best research proposal. The beams accelerate protons and other particles to incredibly high speeds, and the focused beams are then fed to experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider, which smashes beams together to create tiny subatomic particles. The Proton Synchrotron beam line will be open to a total of nine teams of up to 30 students over age 16, along with one adult coach.

How Queen Bees Reign Over Reproduction

When it comes to reproduction in social insects, nobody competes with the queen. Now, researchers have found that queen ants, wasps and bumblebees all use a similar type of chemical to signal fertility, which their ancestors evolved millions of years ago. These chemical signals, called pheromones, are thought to make workers infertile. Studying how these pheromones evolved could provide a window onto how social insects developed their cooperative living system.

Can Chinese Herbal Medicine Reduce Diabetes Risk?

For people with elevated blood sugar levels, taking Chinese herbal medicines may reduce the risk of developing diabetes, early research from China suggests. Nearly 400 people in China with prediabetes were randomly assigned in the study to take either an herbal medicine called Tianqi (a mixture of 10 Chinese herbal medicines; People with prediabetes have elevated blood sugar levels that are not yet high enough to be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. At the end of the year, 36 participants in the Tianqi group and 56 in the placebo group developed Type 2 diabetes.

Your Name in Space: NASA Asteroid Probe Latest Mission to Fly Names

NASA is inviting the public to submit their names to fly to an asteroid and back aboard a robotic spacecraft set to leave Earth in two years. If the space agency's offer sounds familiar, that's because it is: NASA has been collecting and launching names on its space-bound missionsfor more than 15 years. NASA and The Planetary Society's "Messages to Bennu!" is the latest incarnation of the "send your name to space" public outreach program.

China Launches Hypersonic Missile Test, Downplays Fears

China's recent test of a hypersonic vehicle should not unduly alarm the United States or any other nation, Chinese military officials say. The test of China's new "hypersonic glide vehicle," which apparently took place Jan. 9, was not designed to advance the nation's ability to penetrate American missile defense systems, according to a statement issued by China's Ministry of National Defense. "It is normal for China to conduct scientific experiments within its borders according to its plans," the statement reads, the state-run newspaper China Daily reported today (Jan. 16). China's hypersonic glide vehicle is likely launched atop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), then released at an altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers) or less, according to the Washington Free Beacon, which first reported the test on Jan. 13.

Dogs' Closest Wolf Ancestors Went Extinct, Study Suggests

But the origin of this domestication remains stubbornly mysterious. "The dogs all form one group, and the wolves all form one group, and there's no wolf that these dogs are more closely related to of the three that we sampled," said study researcher John Novembre, a professor of genetics at the University of Chicago. Fossil evidence for domestication dates back as far as 33,000 years, based on the shape of the skull and on ancient DNA analysis. Novembre and his colleagues wanted to refine the understanding of domestication using high-quality, full genomes.

Best US States for Child Kidney Transplants Revealed

Consider moving to Georgia, or one of the other states where the odds of quickly getting a life-saving kidney donation are much higher than in other places. This discrepancy is particularly troublesome, researchers say, because children awaiting a kidney transplant must undergo kidney dialysis treatment, the mechanical filtering of their blood, several times a week. The procedure is especially hard on their arteries, and studies have shown these children's risk of early death, often from cardiovascular disease, is four times higher compared with that for children fortunate enough to get a donated kidney. Moreover, suitable kidneys are likely available to help the approximately 2,000 children nationwide waiting for a kidney transplant, if only the distribution could be handled better, said Dr. Sandra Amaral, of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania and senior author of the report.

Are New Execution Drugs 'Cruel and Unusual'?

Dennis McGuire, convicted of the rape and murder of a pregnant woman in 1989, was executed today in Ohio using a combination of two drugs that had never before been used in an execution. Attorneys for McGuire and medical experts argued that the use of the drugs represented an unconstitutional, "cruel and unusual" execution, because of the possibility that McGuire would be conscious and in pain as he died. "Ohio is taking drugs that are normally used for things like a colonoscopy, and they're giving massive overdoses to kill people," Dr. Jonathan Groner, a professor of clinical surgery at The Ohio State University, told TIME. The first drug McGuire received, midazolam, is in a class of drugs called benzodiazepines, which are prescribed by doctors to treat anxiety, seizures and insomnia.

Even Baby's 'Fake' Crying Builds Relationship with Mom

The infant "appeared to cry deliberately to get her mother's attention and convey to her [mother] that she wanted her to come closer and play with her again," study researcher Hiroko Nakayama, of the University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo, wrote in the December issue of the journal Infant Behavior and Development. "This appeared to be an instance of fake crying," Nakayama said.

Snow Leopards Photographed for the 1st Time in Uzbekistan

A camera trap snapped the first-ever pictures of the elusive snow leopard in Uzbekistan. Even better, it caught not one, but two of the endangered cats on camera. The new images of the cats released by conservation groups Panthera and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) confirm that there are at least two individual snow leopards in the Gissar Nature Reserve, a protected part of the Pamir Mountains that can be visited only for scientific research. Uzbekistan, which is about the size of California, is one of 12 countries in Asia where snow leopards still roam through rugged mountainous terrain.

Male Spiders Must Twerk — or Be Eaten

Miley Cyrus may have made "twerking" a household word, but male black widow spiders are the real masters of the rump-jiggling dance move. These arachnids twerk their abdomens to avoid getting eaten by potential mates. "They take a few steps and then they stop and vibrate their abdomen, and then they take a few steps and vibrate again," study researcher Samantha Vibert, a doctoral candidate at Simon Fraser University in Canada, said of the males. Vibert knew from observing hobo spiders (Tegenaria agrestisi) that mating spiders perform elaborate dances.

Scientists seek cause of catastrophic fish kill in Nevada lake

Biologists scrambled on Thursday to unravel the mystery behind a massive fish kill in a popular manmade lake in Nevada that draws thousands of anglers each winter for prized game fish such as trout. More than 100,000 stocked fish such as bass and catfish are estimated to have perished in the lake in the northern city of Sparks in recent weeks in an unprecedented die-off that has destroyed the entire fishery, said Chris Healy, spokesman for the state Department of Wildlife. "We're seeing oxygen levels that are totally lethal to fish," Healy said. The depleted oxygen levels pose no threat to human or pet health, and sampling of the water shows no evidence of pollution or contaminants, said Adam Mayberry, spokesman for the city of Sparks.

Mock Mars Mission: How to Stay Clean on the Red Planet

HANKSVILLE, UTAH – During an orientation walk around the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah on Jan. 5, our crew confronted a steep hill. Have a burning question about the mission or a picture you really would like to see from the site?

New Device May Put DNA Testing in Doctors' Hands

United Kingdom company QuantuMDX now has a working prototype for a device intended to quickly test a sample of blood, sputum (saliva mixed with mucus) or even tumor cells for genetic markers that provide information to guide a doctor's decisions on how to treat a patient. "We want to put a full diagnostic test into the palms of health professionals' hands," said Elaine Warburton, chief executive officer of QuantuMDX and the company's cofounder. The prototype is about the size of an iPad 5, or 6.6 by 9.4 inches (17 by 24 centimeters), but thicker. In about six months, Warburton said she anticipates the device will be reduced to about the size of an iPad mini, 5.3 by 7.9 in.

New England's 'Lost' Archaeological Sites Rediscovered

Take a walk in the New England woods, and you may stumble upon the overgrown remains of a building's foundation or the stacked stones of a wall. Examinations of airborne scans of three New England towns revealed networks of old stone walls, building foundations, old roads, dams and other features, many of which long were forgotten. These features speak to a history that Katharine Johnson, an archaeologist and study researcher, wants to see elucidated. "I think there is a general idea of what was happening, but it is not as well understood as it could be," Johnson, a doctoral student at the University of Connecticut, told LiveScience.

Kilauea Eruption Triggered Unusually Strong Earthquakes

Strong earthquakes can occur when molten-hot magma rapidly pressurizes volcanoes, researchers found after studying activity at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano during 2007. The researchers found that Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, located on Hawaii's Big Island, has been erupting since 1983.

Why Is It So Hot in Australia?

Record-high heat has scorched Australia this week, with temperatures exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) for several days in a row in some areas. Blazing temperatures have hit athletes and fans at the Australian Open in Melbourne, in what forecasters said could be the hottest stretch of weather in a century for the city. "Almost all heat waves form due to unusually strong areas of high pressure at high altitudes — or a so-called ridge in the jet stream," said Jason Samenow, weather editor at The Washington Post. Samenow said the heat wave is already Australia's second this year, following record heat earlier in January.

NY State Lawmakers Weigh Ban on Sale of Ivory

NEW YORK — At a public hearing held today (Jan. 16) here in Manhattan, state lawmakers discussed the need to tighten restrictions on the sale of ivory in New York, with some raising the possibility of a statewide ban on the trade. A diverse panel of diplomats, law enforcement officials, research scientists and activists testified before the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation to evaluate the effectiveness of existing laws and regulations to protect endangered species and halt the illegal sale of ivory. New York is one of the largest markets for illegal ivory in the United States, and despite laws in place to restrict its sale, enforcement of these regulations has remained a challenge, said Maj. Scott Florence, acting direct of the division of law enforcement at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Vitamin D Reduces Pain in People with Fibromyalgia

Taking vitamin D supplements may alleviate chronic pain in people with fibromyalgia who have low levels of the vitamin, according to a new study from Austria. Patients with fibromyalgia syndrome suffer from chronic, body-wide muscle and joint pain, and fatigue. Previous studies have pointed to the possible role of vitamin D in the perception of chronic pain. In the new study, researchers studied whether raising patients' vitamin D levels to the recommended range would help with some of their symptoms.

Japan to Test Space Junk Cleanup Tether Soon: Report

Japanese scientists are getting ready to launch a test of a space junk-cleaning tether, according to press reports. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) researchers are developing an electrodynamic tether designed to generate electricity that will slow down space-based debris, according to a report from Agence France Presse. The slowed-down space junk will fall into lower and lower orbits until burning up harmlessly in Earth's atmosphere. "We have two main objectives in the trial next month," Masahiro Nohmi, associate professor at Kagawa University, who is working with JAXA on the project, told the AFP.

Landmark Sexuality Survey Foiled by Teen Jokes

Teenagers who thought it would be funny to fake being gay may have skewed the results of a landmark 1990s adolescent health survey, a new research paper argues. "We need to be careful when we do our research that our sexual-minority participants are representative of the gay youth population so that we can accurately and adequately represent their lives," study co-author Ritch Savin-Williams, a human development researcher at Cornell University, said in a statement. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health survey, colloquially known as Add Health, asked 14,000 teenagers detailed questions about their health, well-being and other behaviors in four waves from 1994 to 2008.

Extremely Rare Gangrene Strikes Man after Routine Hemorrhoid Treatment

For one man in the UK, a routine treatment for hemorrhoids resulted in a rare, life-threatening complication that required a number of surgeries and powerful antibiotics to save his life, according to a new report of his case. The 80-year-old man had undergone rubber band ligation to treat inflamed hemorrhoids, a common outpatient procedure that a doctor performs in the office. In rubber band ligation, a small elastic band is tied around the base of hemorrhoid, which is a swollen blood vessel in the rectum or anus. Rubber band ligation is the most commonly used technique for treating inflamed hemorrhoids because it is an effective, low-risk treatment, said Dr. Daryl Subramaniam, a surgeon at Royal Sussex County Hospital, in East Sussex, who treated the man.

Sydney's Bald Reef Gets a Seaweed Transplant

Seaweed transplants could help revive an underwater forest off the coast of Sydney, Australia, that was wiped out by sewage dumping decades earlier, a new study suggests. The large brown seaweed species Phyllospora comosa, commonly called crayweed, once thrived off the city's shores, providing food and shelter for other undersea creatures like fish and abalone. But in 2008, researchers discovered that this macroalgae had disappeared from a 43-mile (70 kilometers) stretch of Sydney's coastline — and that it had probably been missing for years. During the 1970s and 1980s, a high volume of Sydney's sewage was pumped into the water close to shore.

California Colby Wildfire Seen from Space

New satellite images reveal the rapid growth of a wildfire that is burning in Glendora, Calif., near Los Angeles. Though the Colby fire started small yesterday (Jan. 16), ash and smoke hovered over much of the metropolitan area by the afternoon, and has led to air quality advisories for the region. The images were captured using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers on NASA's Terra and Aqua Satellites. The fast-moving fire, which has consumed more than 1,700 acres and destroyed five homes, according to The Los Angeles Times today (Jan. 17), may be a harbinger of a rare winter fire season for the region.

Hellish Northridge Earthquake: Is Los Angeles Safer 20 Years Later?

Roaring like a freight train from hell, the Northridge earthquake threw sleeping Angelenos from their beds at 4:31 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1994. Los Angeles firefighters watched their massive fire trucks hop across a station garage in time with the seismic waves. With more than $40 billion in property and economic losses, Northridge was one of the most expensive natural disasters in U.S. history. California geologists say their big cities are overdue for another devastating earthquake.

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