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Wednesday, January 29, 2014

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Real-Life Hit Men Nothing Like 'Sherlock' Shadowy Snipers

In the second season of the BBC's hit show "Sherlock," shadowy snipers threaten the eponymous detective's friends by skulking around stairwells with high-powered rifles or infiltrating their homes and workplaces. The study of contract killings spanning from 1974 to 2013, published in The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, finds that assassinations are often rather mundane. "Hit men are familiar figures in films and video games, carrying out 'hits' in underworld bars or from the rooftops with expensive sniper rifles," David Wilson, a criminologist Birmingham City University's Center for Applied Criminology, said in a statement. Wilson and his colleagues were interested in studying contract killing, in which someone pays another person to carry out a murder.

Year-Round Arctic Ice Cooled Earth Earlier Than Thought

The Arctic Ocean had an icy head start on Antarctica as the Earth cooled down after an extreme warm spell about 55 million years ago, a new study finds. Until now, evidence for perennial sea ice in the Arctic was just 18 million years old. The Arctic Ocean was frozen through summer by 36.7 million years ago, according to a study published yesterday (Jan. 26) in the journal Nature Geoscience. "This tells us the Arctic Ocean may have played a major role in causing climate to change," said Dennis Darby, a geological oceanographer at Old Dominion University in Virginia and lead study author.

Earth's Conveyor Belts Trap Oceans of Water

At subduction zones, where one plate bends deep beneath another, the sinking plate acts like a conveyor belt, carrying more than an ocean's worth of water into the mantle — the layer beneath Earth's outer crust — over billions of years, researchers report in the Jan. 10 issue of the journal Geology. Though the lifetime of a single subduction zone is much shorter than a billion years, the cumulative effect of all of Earth's subduction zones trundling water downward into the mantle means more water could be stored in the planet's deep layers than previously thought, the study researchers said in a statement. "This supports the theory that there are large amounts of water stored deep in the Earth," Tom Garth, lead study author and an earthquake seismologist at the University of Liverpool in the U.K., said in the statement. Knowing how much water gets into the mantle is important for modeling how plate tectonics works and how magma (molten rock) rises from the mantle to Earth's surface, the researchers said in a statement.

Famous Amnesia Patient's Brain Cut into 2,401 Slices

At age 27, H.M., whose real name was Henry Molaison, underwent an experimental surgical treatment for his debilitating epilepsy. His surgeon removed the medial temporal lobe, including a structure called the hippocampus. His case brought about the idea that the hippocampus may have a crucial role in retaining learned facts, replacing the notion that memories are scattered throughout the brain. "Much of what we know about human memory, it has one way or another to do with H.M.," said study researcher Jacopo Annese, director of The Brain Observatory in San Diego.

Newly Discovered Brain Region Helps Make Humans Unique

The brain region, called the lateral frontal pole prefrontal cortex, was described today (Jan. 28) in the journal Neuron, and is linked to higher thinking processes. "We tend to think that being able to plan into the future, be flexible in our approach and learn from others are things that are particularly impressive about humans," Matthew Rushworth, an experimental psychologist at Oxford University, said in a statement. The new brain region is located within a larger region called the ventrolateral frontal cortex, which in past studies has been tied to higher thinking. The research team next mapped connections among different regions of the ventrolateral frontal cortex, then divided the brain region into 12 areas that seemed to be constant across all participants.

Scratching Away at the Mystery of Itch

But many people suffer from chronic itch, which has no direct cause and can be a debilitating condition with few options for relief. "When people hear about itch, they think about a mosquito bite or chicken pox, which is irritating but very temporary," said Diana Bautista, a cell and developmental biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who wrote an article summarizing our current understanding of itch, published today (Jan. 28) in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Bautista said people often laugh when she tells them she studies itch. But "from a clinical perspective, chronic itch is a really widespread problem, and incredibly difficult to treat," she told LiveScience.

28 Years Ago, Challenger Shuttle Disaster Gave NASA Painful Lesson (Op-Ed)

Hugh Harris was the Voice of NASA. He spent 35 years with the agency, many as director of the Public Affairs Office at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), the home port of the U.S. space shuttle fleet. He is also author of the new e-book "Challenger: An American Tragedy, The Inside Story from Launch Control." Harris contributed this article to SPACE.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Could HD Cameras On Space Station Help Save Planet Earth?

"Our goal is to take a little bit of the view that people have from space and get it out over the Web in as near real-time as possible, and at the same time wrap a business around it that works," Urthecast CEO Scott Larson told SPACE.com. "Now we need to calibrate and commission and continue to focus both cameras, including the medium-resolution camera.

Preterm Birth Linked with Asthma

Babies who are born prematurely may be at increased risk for developing asthma or another type of wheezing disorder later in childhood, a new study finds. About 14 percent of children born preterm (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) were diagnosed with a wheezing disorder, such as asthma, later in childhood, compared with about 8 percent of children who were born at full term (37 weeks or more).

Former Space Shuttle Commander Flies Virgin Galactic's Private Spaceship for 1st Time

Any test pilots hoping to match Rick "CJ" Sturckow's resume must now be feeling seriously discouraged.

New Baby Boom? How Global Birthrates Could Bounce Back

Almost the world over, women are having fewer children than ever before. Predicting the future of fertility is tough, said lead researcher Martin Kolk, a doctoral student in demography at Stockholm University. "What we do know," Kolk told LiveScience, "is that ignoring this role of fertility correlations across the generations, that is probably wrong." [Crowded Planet: 7 (Billion) Population Milestones] Approximately 11 billion people will walk the planet by 2100, a population likely to tax Earth's water supply, waste-management and food resources.

Why Generous Donors Give Anonymously

The most generous donors may give anonymously to avoid violating social norms, new research suggests. "People don't really like deviating from established norms in groups," said study author Nichola Raihani, an evolutionary biologist at the University College London.

Cosmonauts make repeat spacewalk for Canadian video venture

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A pair of Russian cosmonauts floated outside the International Space Station on Monday in a second attempt to set up cameras for a Canadian space video venture. Station commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy initially installed a telescope video camera and a medium-resolution still imager for Vancouver-based UrtheCast Corp during a December 27 spacewalk. However, cabling issues prevented ground control teams from verifying if the imagers were receiving power, so Kotov and Ryazanskiy brought both back inside the station so ground control teams could try to resolve the problem.

27 Dimensions! Physicists See Photons in New Light

But to make them work, it's necessary to measure the quantum state of particles such as photons or atoms. Quantum states are numbers that describe particle characteristics such as momentum or energy. In a study detailed in the Jan. 20 issue of the journal Nature Communications, researchers from the University of Rochester and the University of Glasgow took a direct measurement of a photon's 27-dimensional quantum state. To understand a 27-dimensional quantum state, think about a line described in two dimensions.

Ruins of Bustling Port Unearthed at Egypt's Giza Pyramids

TORONTO — The remains of a bustling port and barracks for sailors or military troops have been discovered near the Giza Pyramids. The archaeologists have been excavating a city near the Giza Pyramids that dates mainly to the reign of the pharaoh Menkaure, who built the last pyramid at Giza. Also near the pyramids they have been excavating a town, located close to a monument dedicated to Queen Khentkawes, possibly a daughter of Menkaure. Several discoveries at the city and Khentkawes town suggest Giza was a thriving port, said archaeologist Mark Lehner, the director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates.

Scientists create embryonic-type stem cells without embryos

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - In experiments that could open a new era in stem cell biology, scientists have found a cheap and easy way to reprogramme mature cells from mice back into an embryonic-like state that allowed them to generate many types of tissue. Chris Mason, chair of regenerative medicine bioprocessing at University College London, who was not involved in the work, said its approach was "the most simple, lowest-cost and quickest method" to generate so-called pluripotent cells - able to develop into many different cell types - from mature cells.

Inside Stephen Hawking: PBS Documentary Explores Famed Scientist's Life Tonight

On the heels of his bombshell claim that black holes — as scientists have traditionally thought of them — may not exist, Stephen Hawking will tell the story of his life in a new PBS documentary that premieres tonight (Jan. 29). Simply titled "Hawking," the TV portrait will follow the famed astrophysicist "from boyhood under-achiever to PhD genius, and from a healthy cox on the Oxford rowing team to diagnosis of motor neuron disease, given just two years to live — yet surviving several close brushes with death," according to PBS. Stephen Hawking, who turned 72 this month, has lived for decades with motor neurone disease (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), which has rendered his immobile and without the ability to speak. In it, he quite controversially claimed that there might not be such a thing as an event horizon — the point at which not even light can escape a black hole — which, in turn, could mean "that there are no black holes."

Scientists create embryonic-type stem cells without embryos

Hong Kong to Destroy More Than 30 Tons of Ivory

Following in the footsteps of China and the United States, conservation officials in Hong Kong announced that they will destroy their stockpile of confiscated ivory. Hong Kong will start burning more than 30 tons (28 tonnes) of elephant tusks and other ivory products in the first half of 2014, but the disposal of the massive hoard might not be complete for another two years, officials said last week in a video of the announcement released by the non-profit group WildAid. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has estimated that some 96 elephants are killed each day on average, mostly for their ivory. As Hong Kong is a major transit point for ivory headed to China, conservation groups lauded the decision.

A New Method for Making Stem Cells

Scientists have found a new way of creating stem cells, which are cells that have the ability to turn into any type of tissue, using mouse cells. If the method works for human cells, it could ultimately be used to create tissue for people who need organ transplants, and to study diseases such as cancer. The researchers called the stem cells they made "STAP cells" (an abbreviation for stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency). Researchers in Japan first demonstrated the ability to make stem cells from adult cells in 2006.

Scientists create embryonic-type stem cells without embryos

Asteroid Belt Reveals Drama of Early Solar System Evolution

A better understanding of the asteroid belt has revealed just how dynamic the solar system was in its early days, a new study reports. "In modern dynamical models, the giant planets are thought to have migrated over substantial distances, shaking up the asteroids — which formed throughout the solar system — like flakes in a snow globe, and transporting some of them to their current locations in the asteroid belt," Francesca DeMeo and Benoit Carry, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Paris Observatory, respectively, write in a study published online today (Jan. 29) in the journal Nature.

Bizarre Magnetic Particle Revealed in Ultra-Cold Lab Experiment

And the monopole and electron system behaves just as English physicist Paul Dirac predicted it would in 1931. Though the new experiment, described today (Jan. 29) in the journal Nature, doesn't prove that such monopoles exist outside the lab in other magnetic systems, it could help physicists know what to look for in nature, said study co-author David Hall, a physicist at Amherst College in Massachusetts. All known magnets have a north and south pole: Break a magnetic compass needle in two, for instance, and there will always be two smaller magnets with both poles. "You can slice up your needle as much as you like and you can even get down to the atomic level, and you'll still have a north pole and a south pole," Hall told LiveScience. Even electrons and protons have two poles.

Obama Declares Climate Change a 'Fact': Now What?

An emphatic five words spoken by President Obama last night during the State of the Union (SOTU) address were bittersweet for some climate scientists. "Climate change is a fact," Obama said. Scientists have known human-caused climate change is real, and while Obama has never said anything to the contrary, his declarative acknowledgement of the phenomenon is important. "I applauded," after the remark, said Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the independent National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo.

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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Fresh Magma Could Help Power Geothermal Plants

While drilling for sources of geothermal energy in northeastern Iceland in 2009, geologists unexpectedly hit fresh magma and went on to create the first-ever magma-enhanced geothermal energy system. Geothermal power plants generally gather heat from fissures in the Earth's solid crust, not directly from the molten rock below that produces that heat. Geologists and industry representatives with the Icelandic Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) set out to drill an exploratory well about 2.5 to 3 miles (4 to 5 kilometers) deep within Iceland's Krafla caldera in search of heat-yielding fissures, but stopped short when they hit fresh magma only 1.3 miles (2.1 km) down. Drilling into molten rock is rare, since only a small portion of the crust contains plumes of magma close enough to the surface to reach with a drill, and only one other case of hitting magma in a borehole has ever been recorded — in Hawaii, in 2007.

Boeing Tests Mammoth Hydrogen-Powered Drone

A massive unmanned spy plane being developed by Boeing completed its sixth test flight in mid-December, setting a new prototype endurance record by flying for more than five hours, company officials said.

Pesticide DDT Linked with Alzheimer's Disease

Exposure to the pesticide DDT, which was banned in the United States in the 1970s but is still found in the environment, may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease, a new study suggests. Among the people with the highest levels of DDE, those who carried a gene known to increase the risk for Alzheimer's disease scored lower on a test of mental abilities than those without the gene. Further, exposing brain cells in a dish to either DDT or DDE increased the production of a protein involved in the formation of amyloid plaques, the brain plaques that are hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. If future studies confirm the findings, doctors may one day use patients' DDE levels along with their genes to identify those people at increased risk for Alzheimer's disease, the researchers said.

Pesticide DDT Linked to Alzheimer's Disease

British scientists seek go-ahead for GM 'Omega-3' crop trial

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have applied for permission to run an open-air field trial of a genetically modified (GM) crop they hope may one day become a sustainable and environmentally friendly source of healthy Omega-3 fats. The proposed trial - likely to generate controversy in a nation where GM foods have little public support - could start as early as May and will use Camelina plants engineered to produce seeds high in Omega-3 long chain fatty acids. No GM crops are currently grown commercially in Britain and only two - a pest-resistant type of maize and a potato with enhanced starch content - are licensed for cultivation in the European Union (EU). But scientists at Britain's agricultural lab Rothamsted Research have developed Camelina plants to produce Omega-3 fats that are known to be beneficial to health but normally found only in oils in increasingly limited fish stocks.

Black Carbon Soot Greater in China, India Than Thought

New global estimates of black carbon emissions — a major component of soot — suggest that certain regions of China and India experience two to three times greater levels of this pollutant than previous models have suggested, a new study reports. Black carbon is an aerosol (or small particle suspended in the air) produced when fossil fuels, biofuels or agricultural waste do not burn completely during combustion due to an insufficient oxygen supply. The pollutant is harmful to human health when inhaled, and has been linked to cardiovascular and respiratory problems, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Existing estimates of global human exposure to black carbon have been relatively poorly defined, often taking whole countries into account as single entities, rather than recognizing how different regions of countries may differ in exposure levels.

Cosmonauts Repeat Spacewalk to Add Earth-viewing Cameras to Space Station

It was 'take two' for the installation of commercial video cameras on the outside the International Space Station Monday (Jan. 27), as Russian cosmonauts ventured out on a second spacewalk to add the two Earth-viewing cameras to the orbiting outpost's exterior. But despite getting both of the cameras properly installed again, the two cosmonauts had to return inside the space station without one of the cameras returning a good signal. Expedition 38 commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy opened the hatch to the station's Pirs docking compartment at 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT), starting their second spacewalk in a month aimed at installing the cameras for Vancouver, Canada-based UrtheCast Corp. Kotov's and Ryazanskiy's earlier outing on Dec. 27, which set a Russian duration recordof 8 hours and 7 minutes, ended with the two UrtheCast cameras being brought back inside the space station due to connectivity issues.

NASA puts out call for commercial lunar landers

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Under a new program called Lunar Catalyst, U.S. space agency NASA will provide free technical expertise, equipment, facilities and software to help selected companies develop lunar landers, officials said on Monday. "The intent of this initiative is to stimulate and help commercialization," Jason Crusan, who oversees NASA's advanced exploration programs, said during a conference call with prospective bidders on Monday. Development of commercial lunar landers would join a growing list of space transportation services that have attracted interest from U.S. companies, including Boeing Co and Alliant Techsystems Inc. NASA already has turned over cargo deliveries to the International Space Station to privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, and Orbital Sciences Corp. The companies hold NASA flight services contracts worth a combined $3.5 billion. NASA wants a balanced approach in which its contributions will help accelerate the development of industry projects, Crusan said during a follow-on conference call with reporters.

Kids' Vitamins Often Exceed Recommended Doses

Young children who take vitamins may be consuming much greater levels than recommended of the nutrients, a new study suggests. The researchers determined the level of vitamins that children would consume if they used the product as directed. For example, dietary supplements for children ages 1 to 4 contained, on average, about 300 percent of the daily recommended levels of vitamin A, thiamin and riboflavin, 500 percent of the recommended level of vitamin C and more than 900 percent of the recommended level of biotin. Vitamin D was the only vitamin that was present at or below recommended levels for both age groups.

Devastating Plague Strains Arose Twice, Could Return

Many centuries before the Black Death wiped out a third to half of Europe, an equally virulent pandemic called the Plague of Justinian killed upwards of 100 million people in just two short years between 541 and 543 A.D. Now, an international team of researchers analyzing the remains of two people killed by the Plague of Justinian has concluded that the pandemics arose from two distinct strains of the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The strain that caused the Plague of Justinian likely went extinct long before the emergence of the Black Death in the 14th century. The bacterium that causes the bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, resides in the intestines of certain fleas that feed on rodents.

Yoga Holds Benefits for Breast Cancer Survivors

Women who are recovering from breast cancer treatment may have even more reasons to sign up for a yoga class, with a new study suggesting the practice can lessen cancer-related fatigue and reduce inflammation in the body. It's the first exercise trial in breast cancer survivors to show reductions in inflammation, said study researcher Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus. To find out whether practicing yoga could affect women's moods, fatigue and levels of inflammation, Kiecolt-Glaser and her colleagues at Ohio State recruited 200 breast cancer survivors. The women ranged in age from 26 to 76, and they had completed treatment for either early or later-stage breast cancer.

Scientists find ancient plague DNA in teeth

LONDON (AP) — Scientists say two of the deadliest pandemics in history were caused by strains of the same plague and warn that new versions of the bacteria could spark future outbreaks.

Black Holes Get Even Weirder with New Stephen Hawking Theory

Black holes may be even weirder than scientists had thought, according to a new paper by famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. In the article, Hawking contends that the notion that even light cannot escape a black hole's gravitational pull once it passes a certain point — known as the event horizon — may not be true. Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts the existence of black holes — objects so incredibly massive and dense they pull everything nearby into themselves, and past a point known as the event horizon, not even light cannot escape them. But two years ago, theoretical physicist Joseph Polchinski of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara and colleagues discovered a wrinkle in the theory, dubbed the Firewall Paradox.

Sperm's 'Swimming Pool' May Affect Health of Offspring

An embryo's development depends on more than just the sperm and egg that formed it — it is also impacted by the interaction between male seminal fluid and the environment in the female reproductive tract, a new study shows. Researchers examined mice that were conceived in a lab from a male whose seminal vessicle gland had been removed, and therefore was not producing seminal fluid. To see the impact of the maternal environment, they also implanted eggs produced normally in females whose mate had its seminal vesicle removed. The finding "shows that the seminal fluid is not just a swimming pool for sperm," said John Eppig, a professor at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, who edited the paper, published online today (Jan. 27) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Preventing and Treating a Cold: What Works?

Washing hands and taking zinc may be the best ways to avoid getting the common cold, and over-the-counter pain relievers are the recommended treatments to alleviate the symptoms, according to a new review. The common cold strikes adults two to three times a year on average, while children under age 2 develop colds about six times a year, according to the study. They detailed their findings today (Jan. 27) in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The researchers reviewed 67 randomized, controlled trials looking at cold prevention, and concluded that regularly washing the hands, as well as using alcohol-based disinfectants and gloves, are likely effective in preventing the cold.

Five NASA Earth-Science Missions Blasting Off in 2014

The launch of a precipitation-measuring satellite next month kicks off a busy year for NASA's Earth-observation program. The space agency will launch five Earth-science missions in 2014, starting with the Feb. 27 liftoff of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center. The GPM rain-mapping mission, a joint effort between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will provide near real-time observations of rainfall and snowfall every three hours all over the world, improving scientists' understanding of climate change and the global water cycle, NASA officials said. "The water cycle, so familiar to all school-age young scientists, is one of the most interesting, dynamic, and important elements in our studies of the Earth's weather and climate," NASA science chief John Grunsfeld said in a statement.

Wanted: Private Robot Moon Lander Ideas for NASA

NASA is looking for innovative new ideas for robotic missions to the moon, and the space agency hopes private spaceflight companies may have the right stuff to help out. This month, the space agency rolled out its new Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown initiative (dubbed Lunar CATALYST for short) to give private companies a chance to develop robotic moon landers with help from NASA. While the space agency won't provide any funding for the commercial projects, private companies selected for the program will have access to a range of NASA perks.

Holy Snow Rollers! Strange Snowballs Invade the US

A strange and rare winter weather marvel appeared overnight in Eastern states blasted by blustery winds — snow sculpted into fanciful shapes such as doughnuts and hollow tubes. They were a social media phenomenon today (Jan. 27), sweeping Twitter and Facebook as people from Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania posted images of their yards dotted with strange snowballs. According to the National Weather Service, snow rollers need just the right combination of light, sticky snow, strong (but not too strong) winds and cold temperatures to form. It's been about 10 years since snow rollers were reported in western Pennsylvania, but snow rollers appeared in near Spokane, Wash., in 2009.

Science: Yep. Rebound Sex Is Real

In a study that may not surprise anyone who has ever experienced a breakup, researchers found that up to one-third of college students who had recently been in a breakup had sex to "rebound" from their relationship within a month of the split. "People really do use sex as a way to get over or get back at their ex-partner in the aftermath of a breakup," said study researcher Lynne Cooper, a psychologist at the University of Missouri. "Google 'rebound' or 'revenge sex,'" she told LiveScience. She and Lindsay Barber, a master's student in psychology, recruited 170 college students who had been through a breakup in the last eight months.

$1.7 Million Personal Submarine Lets You 'Fly' Underwater

The DeepFlight Super Falcon, developed by California-based Hawkes Ocean Technologies, is a two-seater, winged submersible that can take passengers on undersea joyrides. The custom-built underwater vehicles are designed to dive below the surface, swim amongst marine animals, deftly navigate through underwater canyons, and even perform aquatic barrel rolls, reported the San Francisco Chronicle. "It is like an airplane with wings upside down," Graham Hawkes, founder and chief technical officer of Hawkes Ocean Technologies, told the Chronicle. The submersible can carry two or three passengers, depending on the configuration of the vehicle, and can dive to a depth of about 394 feet (120 m).

Humans Managed Rainforests of Southeast Asia for Thousands of Years

The "untouched" rainforests of Southeast Asia may have been more manhandled than previously thought. In present-day Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Thailand and Vietnam, humans started burning and managing forests to make way for food-bearing plants as early as 11,000 years ago, soon after the end of the last ice age, a new study suggests. "It has long been believed that the rainforests of the Far East were virgin wildernesses, where human impact has been minimal," study researcher Chris Hunt, a paleoecologist at Queen's University Belfast, said in a statement. Ancient people of Southeast Asia didn't exactly replace their tropical forests with rows of cereal crops and pens of domesticated animals — the features that are typically associated with the dawn of agriculture, at least in the Eurocentric view, Hunt and colleagues explained in the Journal of Archaeological Science last month.

Unusual Coral Reef Thrives in Acidified Waters

The growing acidity of the world's oceans is a worrying threat to coral reefs, which support an amazing array of marine life, and are generally harmed as ocean acidity rises. But a vibrant reef in the western Pacific Ocean is bucking this trend: Researchers have found that the coral there thrives, rather than suffers, in locally acidic conditions. Coral reefs grow by extracting calcium and carbonate ions from seawater and combining them to form calcium carbonate, the same hard mineral found in clam and snail shells. Given this basic chemistry, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) were recently surprised to find a healthy, expansive coral reef ecosystem in the western Pacific islands of Palau thriving in acidity levels that laboratory studies have shown to slow or even stunt growth in other corals.

300,000-Year-Old Caveman 'Campfire' Found in Israel

A newly discovered hearth full of ash and charred bone in a cave in modern-day Israel hints that early humans sat around fires as early as 300,000 years ago — before Homo sapiens arose in Africa. The finds could shed light on a turning point in the development of culture "in which humans first began to regularly use fire both for cooking meat and as a focal point — a sort of campfire — for social gatherings," said archaeologist Ruth Shahack-Gross of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. "They also tell us something about the impressive levels of social and cognitive development of humans living some 300,000 years ago," Shahack-Gross added in a statement. The centrally located fire pit is about 6.5 feet (2 meters) in diameter at its widest point, and its ash layers suggest the hearth was used repeatedly over time, according to the study, which was detailed in the Journal of Archaeological Science on Jan. 25.

Solar Wind Creates Water in Star Dust, Implications for Life

Solar wind can form water on interplanetary dust, potentially adding to the primordial soup that gave rise to life on Earth, scientists say. The creation of water via the solar wind could help explain the presence of water on the moon and on asteroids. The wind could also have formed water on interplanetary dust, which, in turn, could have rained water down on Earth and other rocky planets. "Interplanetary dust continually lands on the Earth and other solar system bodies," said study co-author Hope Ishii, an astromaterials scientist at the University of Hawaii.

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