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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

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Private Mars One Colony Project Cuts Applicant Pool to 100 Volunteers

One hundred people are still in the running to become humanity's first Mars explorers. The Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One, which aims to land four pioneers on the Red Planet in 2025 as the vanguard of a permanent colony, has whittled its pool of astronaut candidates down to 100, organization representatives announced Monday (Feb. 16). More than 202,000 people applied to become Red Planet explorers after Mars One opened the selection process in April 2013. The latest cut came after Mars One medical director Norbert Kraft interviewed the 660 candidates who had survived several previous rounds of culling.

Mindfulness Meditation May Help Older Adults Sleep Better

Participants were randomly assigned to complete either a mindfulness meditation program — in which people learn to better pay attention to what they are feeling physically and mentally from moment to moment — or a sleep education program that taught the participants how to develop better sleep habits. After six weeks, the participants in the mindfulness group showed greater improvements in their sleep scores compared to those in the sleep education group. On average, the meditators improved their sleep score by 2.8 points, compared with 1.1 points for those in the sleep education group. Compared with the people in the sleep education group, people in the meditation group also saw greater improvements in their symptoms of insomnia, fatigue and depression.

Sleep Paralysis Linked to Genetics, Anxiety & Stressful Events

People who've experienced the strange phenomenon of sleep paralysis may feel like they can't move their body when they're falling asleep or waking up, or may have hallucinations that there's a malevolent presence pressing down on them. The results showed that genetics were partially to blame for the strange phenomenon. "The cause is still unknown, but we think it's something to do with disruption of the regular sleep cycle," said Daniel Denis, a psychologist at the University of Sheffield in England, and co-author of the study published online Feb. 9 in the Journal of Sleep Research. Sleep paralysis often occurs during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, when people are usually dreaming.

Sleep Paralysis Linked to Genetics

Boy Diagnosed With 'Fear of Growing Up'

Although the boy saw a psychologist for a year, the therapy did not help, and he was referred to treatment at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, in northern Mexico. The researchers there diagnosed the boy with gerascophobia — an excessive fear of aging — a phobia that does not appear to be very common.

Sleepless in High School: Teens Getting Less Shut-Eye

The amount of time that teens spend sleeping has substantially declined over the last 20 years, a new study suggests.

New Land Off Louisiana Seen from Space

New land is blossoming at the mouths of the Atchafalaya River and the Wax Lake Outlet in Louisiana, bucking the trend of lost ground in this Gulf state. "We are looking carefully at the Wax Lake and Atchafalaya deltas as models for building new land and preserving some of our coastal marshlands," Harry Roberts, Louisiana State University coastal studies researcher, told NASA's Earth Observatory, which released the images.

Italian Cemetery Could Preserve Cholera DNA

An Italian church graveyard could preserve more than bodies: Researchers are searching the cemetery for the DNA of ancient strains of cholera. Cholera is a deadly diarrheal disease caused by a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae. Cholera still kills today. According to the World Health Organization, there were more than 100,000 cases in 2013, and periodic epidemics send that number soaring.

Global Ocean Acidity Revealed in New Maps

Ocean acidification can now be seen from space, highlighting an ongoing danger of climate change and revealing the regions most at risk. Seawater absorbs about a quarter of the carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, that humans release into the atmosphere each year, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). These measurements are spotty and expensive to collect. Using satellite measurements, researchers at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and their colleagues have created global maps of ocean acidity that show which areas are most affected.

Mysterious Plumes on Mars Have Scientists Stumped

A mystery is brewing on Mars: Amateur astronomers spotted enormous plumes erupting off the Red Planet's surface, leaving scientists puzzled. The plumes reflect sunlight, which means they could be made of water ice, carbon dioxide ice or dust. An image by the Hubble Space Telescope from 1997 revealed another abnormally high plume, similar to the one seen in 2012, according to a statement from the European Space Agency (ESA). Scientists at the Universidad del Pais Vasco in Spain studied the images of the plumes and confirmed that they reach heights of more than 155 miles (250 km) above the surface, and cover an area of up to 310 by 620 miles (500 by 1,000 km).

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Monday, February 16, 2015

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Why Private Planes Are Nearly as Deadly as Cars

"Selfies" may have been a contributing factor to a fatal private plane crash near Denver in May 2014, according to federal officials, who discovered a GoPro camera full of self-portraits at the crash site. Since the 1970s, these stats show improvements in safety, including a 75 percent drop in total deaths from general aviation accidents, said Steve Hedges, a spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), a general aviation advocacy group.

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Sunday, February 15, 2015

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Ebola Virus Still Infectious for a Week After Death

The Ebola virus may still be able to cause disease a week after a person infected with the virus has died, a new study suggests. The study involved five macaque monkeys that had been infected with Ebola for previous research, and were euthanized after they showed symptoms of the disease. The scientists detected infectious virus on the bodies up to seven days after the monkeys' deaths. The study also detected genetic material from the Ebola virus for up to 10 weeks after death.

Leaking Brain Fluid Traced to Pilates Injury

A woman who had persistent headaches found there was a strange culprit for her pain: a Pilates class that caused her brain fluid to leak, according to a new case report. The brain fluid leak led to a persistent, worsening headache that was only alleviated when the 42-year-old British woman laid down, according to the report that was published in December in the Journal of Medical Case Reports. Though doctors never identified the exact location of the leak, the patient improved after a few weeks of bed rest and pain relievers. Cerebrospinal fluid is a clear liquid that flows between the brain and its outer covering, and between the spinal cord and its outer covering.

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Saturday, February 14, 2015

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U.S. approves biotech apple that resists browning

U.S. regulators on Friday approved two genetically engineered apple varieties designed to resist browning, rejecting efforts by the organic industry and other GMO critics to block the new fruit. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) approved the new apples, developed by the Canadian biotech company Okanagan Specialty Fruits Inc., as "unlikely to pose a plant pest risk to agriculture." Okanagan plans to market the apples as Arctic® Granny and Arctic® Golden, and says the apples are identical to their conventional counterparts except that they will not turn brown. Okanagan President Neal Carter, called the USDA approval a "a monumental occasion." "It is the biggest milestone yet for us, and we can't wait until they're available for consumers," he said in a statement. Carter said Arctic apples will first be available in late 2016 in small quantities, and it will take many years before the apples are widely distributed.

Hidden Faults Explain Earthquakes in Fracking Zones

Oklahoma, Ohio and Arkansas have experienced an unusually large number of earthquakes in recent years. In Oklahoma, hidden faults beneath the surface are primed to pop, reports a study published Jan. 27 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Some of these faults were previously unknown and threaten critical structures, such as huge oil-storage facilities, said lead study author Daniel McNamara, a U.S. Geological Survey research geophysicist based in Golden, Colorado. In the first study, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) analyzed more than 3,600 recent Oklahoma earthquakes to precisely locate known and unknown faults.

All About Me: Powerful People Inspire Themselves

During his 2014 Oscar acceptance speech for best actor, Matthew McConaughey recalled that a woman asked him as a teenager, "Who's your hero?" He replied, "You know who it is? It's me in 10 years." McConaughey, one of Time Magazine's most influential people of 2014, described how he needed a role model for inspiration and motivation, and he found those in his future self. A new study on how powerful people find inspiration shows that McConaughey is not alone. "Powerful people draw inspiration from their own experiences, not from those of others," said Gerben van Kleef, the lead researcher of the study and a professor of social psychology at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

The Nanotech View of the Microbiome (Kavli Roundtable)

Alan Brown, writer and editor for the Kavli Foundation, edited this roundtable for Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. One might grow better at higher temperatures, another if temperatures drop.

Why 'Fifty Shades' Could Give Dangerous Message to Teens (Op-Ed)

Dr. Andrew Adesman is chief of the Division of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics at Cohen Children's Medical Center (CCMC) of New York and recently co-authored aresearch review article on the adverse impact of violent video games and pornography on teenagers.

Wayward Grand Canyon Wolf Was Killed in Utah, DNA Confirms

DNA tests have confirmed that an endangered gray wolf killed in Utah in December was the same lone wolf that had been spotted and photographed near Arizona's Grand Canyon, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced this week. Gray wolves hadn't been seen in Arizona since the 1940s, but this past fall, wildlife officials began tracking a wayward wolf near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. A coyote hunter shot the wolf near the south end of the Tushar Mountains near Beaver, Utah, on Dec. 28. When the hunter realized his kill was a wolf and not a coyote, he alerted state officials and FWS began investigating the case.

Climate of Opportunity: New School Divests From Fossil Fuels (Op-Ed)

Benjamin Silverman is a recent graduate from The New School, where he was heavily involved as a student leader in the fossil fuel divestment campaign. The crisis of climate change presents us with daily reminders of how the world's runaway temperatures are getting worse. But in these trying times a new and positive trend is emerging: Human beings are rising to meet the challenges of climate change. If the hottest flames make the hardest steel, then the adversity of climate change has the potential to bring out the best in us at all levels.

Gimme Shelter: A Blueprint for Living in Extreme Environments (Op-Ed)

Stacey Severn is a science enthusiast and blogger whose writing and photos appear in StarTalk, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Huffington Post, Space.com and other platforms. She is the community manager for Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk Radio, and advisor to the Space Advisory Committee at The Explorer's Club. Dave Irwin, founder of Terra Projects, is an energetic, talented young architect whose designs merge with the Earth's natural environment. Irwin was part of the collective behind a nature-inspired installation, Rhizome, in New York's Brooklyn Bridge Park, and a number of endeavors pairing the artistic with the environment.

Valentine's Science: How Mouth Germs Shape Attraction

The human body is home to 100 trillion microbes, known collectively as the microbiome. In recent years, scientists have found that these communities of organisms are crucial for human metabolism and immune system function. "So it shouldn't be surprising that [the microbiome] has effects not only on metabolic processes, but on the way we look at things ... and even in sexual attraction," said Dr. William Miller, a retired physician, evolutionary biologist and author of the book "The Microcosm Within: Evolution and Extinction in the Hologenome" (Universal Publishers, 2013). For example, microbes may be invisible musicians in the complex orchestra of human attraction.

European Cargo Ship Leaves Space Station for Final Time

The European Space Agency's fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-5) has left the International Space Station ahead of a planned plunge into Earth's atmosphere on Sunday (Feb. 15).

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