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Wednesday, March 4, 2015

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U.S. ends program flagging 'sensitive' patent requests

A little known but controversial program that flagged sensitive patent applications involving potentially touchy subjects such as AIDS vaccines and abortion devices has been scrapped by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The program, called the Sensitive Application Warning System, began in 1994 and was meant to notify the agency's leadership of applications that could generate extensive or unfavorable publicity. "Upon careful consideration, the USPTO has concluded that the SAWS program has only been marginally utilized and provides minimal benefit," the agency said in a notice posted to its website on Monday night. The agency's review of the program, conducted in January, came after attorneys Kate Gaudry and Thomas Franklin at law firm Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton revealed details of the program in December from documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Cyborg Roaches Could Be Used to Find Disaster Survivors

Fleets of cyborg cockroaches could someday roam into damaged nuclear power plants or collapsed mines to carry out reconnaissance or locate survivors. A team of researchers implanted live cockroaches with electrodes that stimulate the nerves in the insects' antennae, enabling the scientists to steer the creatures around like remote-controlled toys. While people may normally think of cockroaches as pests that live on human waste, these insects are better than any small-scale robots that exist today, said Hong Liang, a materials scientist at Texas A&M University in College Station, and co-author of the study published online today (March 4) in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

UK scientists work out weight of Sophie the Stegosaurus

LONDON (AP) — Scientists at a British museum have worked out the weight of Sophie, one of the world's most complete Stegosaurus skeletons.

Penguins Rapidly Conquered New Zealand After Humans Ate Rivals

Bones left behind by a penguin that was eaten to extinction reveal that a remarkably fast turnover in species occurred after Polynesian seafarers wiped out New Zealand's weird wildlife, a new study reports. Archaeological evidence has already confirmed the first humans to arrive in New Zealand treated the islands like a giant buffet. The first Pacific Islanders arrived in the late 13th century, and within 200 years, about 40 percent of the islands' bird species had vanished, studies show. Rats traveling with the settlers drove the extinction of smaller bird species, while human hunters vanquished the megafauna, including the nine species of large, flightless moa.

Image Captures Light's Spooky Dual Nature for 1st Time

This strange behavior is a consequence of quantum mechanics, bizarre rules of physics that govern the behavior of subatomic particles. "This experiment demonstrates that, for the first time ever, we can film quantum mechanics — and its paradoxical nature — directly," study co-author Fabrizio Carbone, a researcher at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, said in a statement.

'Nightmare Bacteria' Require Old and New Weapons

"Superbug" bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics have the potential to create a nightmare scenario for modern medicine, but experts are hopeful that doctors will be able to slow the spread of these scary infections, by both traditional means and new innovations. Recently, a Los Angeles hospital announced that more than 100 patients treated there had potentially been exposed to CRE, or carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, bacteria that are resistant to many antibiotics. The bacteria appear to have contaminated a piece of medical equipment used at the facility called an endoscope, which is a flexible tube that doctors use to view the digestive tract. Endoscopies are generally considered to be low-risk procedures, but two of the patients died from their infections, the hospital said.

In a Zombie Outbreak, Head for the Rocky Mountains

In the event of a zombie outbreak, the best way to avoid getting infected is to stay away from populated areas, according to a new study. To figure out the best way to survive a zombie apocalypse, a team of researchers modeled what would happen if an epidemic of the undead were to hit the United States. "We did a full U.S.-scale simulation of 307 million individuals and thousands of outbreaks, to see who ended up infected and who did not," said Alex Alemi, a graduate student in theoretical physics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Heroin Overdose Deaths Nearly Quadruple in 13 Years

In 2000, the group with the highest rate of heroin overdose deaths was black adults ages 45 to 64, with a rate of 2 deaths per 100,000 yearly. In contrast, in 2013, the group with the highest death rate was white adults ages 18 to 44, with a rate of 7 deaths per 100,000, according to the report. Heroin overdose deaths were more common among men than women. Doctors don't know for certain the reasons why heroin deaths are increasing, but it's thought that the increase in prescription pain medication use and abuse has been a contributing factor, said Dr. Scott Krakower, assistant unit chief of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York, who was not involved with the report.

Kids Get Flu Every 2 Years, Adults Twice a Decade

Children get the flu more often than adults do, a new study finds. "There's a lot of debate in the field as to how often people get flu, as opposed to flu-like illness caused by something else," said Adam Kucharski, the study's lead researcher and a fellow at the London School of Hygiene &Tropical Disease in the United Kingdom. When people get sick with the flu, their immune systems produce antibodies that target proteins on the virus surface, and after a person recovers, "the infection will show up when a blood sample is subsequently tested," Kucharski said. In other words, the blood retains a memory of the flu strains that have infected a person in the past.

Israel uses military expertise to join commercial space race

By Ari Rabinovitch HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - Israel is embarking on a five-year mission to stake its claim on a crowded new frontier, the $250 billion a year commercial space market. Using the expertise of a defense industry that created technology such as the "Iron Dome" missile interceptor, Israel plans to move beyond its current focus on spy and military communications satellites into producing civilian devices, some small enough to fit in your hand. "The idea was that we have a well-developed space infrastructure for our defense needs, and without a big financial investment, we can use it to grab a few percentage points of the commercial market as well," said Issac Ben-Israel, chairman of the Israel Space Agency. Ben-Israel hopes the country will capture at least a three percent market share, but it faces competition from global technology giants looking for new markets and industries.

Jaws Not Brains Define Early Human Species

The extinct human species long thought of as the earliest known member of the human family may be at least a half million years older than previously thought, according to state-of-the-art computer models of the species. These extinct species, like modern humans, were members of the genus Homo. The species long thought of as the earliest known member of that genus was Homo habilis, or "handy man," which paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey and his colleagues discovered in 1964. Thekey Homo habilis fossil is known as Olduvai Hominid 7, or OH 7 for short, which consists of a lower jaw, parts of a braincase and hand bones of a single individual.

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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Jesus' House? 1st-Century Structure May Be Where He Grew Up

Jesus' hometown — in modern-day Israel have identified a house dating to the first century that was regarded as the place where Jesus was brought up by Mary and Joseph. It was first uncovered in the 1880s, by nuns at the Sisters of Nazareth convent, but it wasn't until 2006 that archaeologists led by Ken Dark, a professor at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, dated the house to the first century, and identified it as the place where people, who lived centuries after Jesus' time, believed Jesus was brought up. Whether Jesus actually lived in the house in real life is unknown, but Dark says that it is possible.

Celiac Disease in Kids Detected by Growth Screenings

Measuring children's height and weight as they grow can be a powerful indicator of whether they have the digestive condition called celiac disease, and may help doctors diagnose children with the disorder earlier, a new study finds. When used together, five calculations that are done based a child's height and weight — such as how much a child's height varies from the average for age and gender, and how this measure changes over time — were able to detect celiac disease in 84 percent of boys and 88 percent of girls with the disorder, according to the study, published online today (March 2) in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. The findings echo other studies that have also found that children with celiac disease often weigh less and don't grow as fast or as tall as their typical peers, the researchers said. Furthermore, when the researchers looked back at the height of children already diagnosed with celiac disease, they found girls were shorter than expected for two years before they were diagnosed, and boys were shorter for one year before their diagnosis, when compared with a reference group.

Peanut Eaters May Live Longer, Study Finds

Peanuts may not only be a tasty snack but they may also help people live longer, a new study suggests. Researchers found that the people in the study who ate the most peanuts and tree nuts (such as walnuts, pecans and almonds) every day had a lower risk of dying over a five- or six-year period than the people who ate the least peanuts and tree nuts, or none of them. "We showed that peanuts have similar cardiovascular benefits to tree nuts," said study researcher Dr. Xiao-Ou Shu, a professor of medicine in the division of epidemiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. "If people are not allergic to them, they should consider eating more peanuts for their heart-health benefits because they are cheaper and more affordable than other nuts," Shu said.

Syria's civil war linked partly to drought, global warming

WASHINGTON (AP) — The conflict that has torn Syria apart can be traced, in part, to a record drought worsened by global warming, a new study says.

Designer Superbabies Could Rewrite Human Reproduction (Op-Ed)

ControlCatalyst Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Catching a Fireball in the Cold

His images recently illustrated the book "The Secret Galaxy" by Fran Hodgkins (Tilbury House Publishers, 2014). In Maine, the temperature was a bone-chilling zero degrees on the night of Feb. 16, and getting colder with a slight wind chill. Since last September, my girlfriend/business partner and I had been planning a night sky shoot at Sandy Point Beach on the Penobscot River in Stockton Springs, about an hour's drive away.

Aided by Art, Theory of Life's Extra-Solar Origin Gets Boost

Edward Belbruno is a mathematician and an artist. His paintings are in major collections and exhibited throughout the United States, and he regularly consults with NASA from his position as a cosmology researcher at Princeton University. He is also author of "Fly Me to the Moon" (Princeton University Press, 2007). Litho, from the Greek lithos, for stone, and panspermia from the Greek for "all seeds," the hypothesis suggests life began on Earth more than 4 billion years ago as the planet was under constant bombardment from the rocky debris of the early solar system.

Want to Cut Your Cancer Risk? Lose That Weight (Op-Ed)

ASCO determined most people understand obesity is associated with a significantly elevated risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes — but not cancer. During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity nationwide, and rates remain stubbornly high. Researchers are exploring several hypotheses for how extra body fat can increase a person's cancer risk.

U.S. science probe nears unexplored dwarf planet Ceres

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A NASA science satellite on Friday will wrap up a 7-1/2-year journey to Ceres, an unexplored dwarf planet in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, scientists said on Monday. Ceres, namesake of the Roman goddess of agriculture, is already providing intrigue.

Iceland's Largest Eruption Ends…Maybe

Iceland's biggest volcanic eruption in more than 200 years has ended for now. Scientists with the Icelandic Meteorological Office declared an end to the six-month-long eruption on Saturday (Feb. 28). However, scientists will still watch for signs that magma is building pressure beneath Bardarbunga volcano, the source of Holuhraun's lava. A series of eruptions could take place in the coming months to years either underneath the volcano or in a different location, or Bardarbunga could go back to sleep.

4 NASA Satellites to Seek Energy Eruptions in Earth's Magnetic Field

NASA is gearing up to launch a quartet of new satellites this month, to study a driving force behind solar storms that threaten Earth's satellites and power grids. The satellites, which make up NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (or MMS), will launch on March 12 from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to study a phenomenon known as magnetic reconnection in the magnetic field around Earth. Magnetic reconnection occurs when magnetic field lines break apart and reconnect, releasing huge amounts of energy and charged particles — sometimes straight at the Earth. While scientists have studied magnetic reconnection for decades in an effort to better understand its relation to space weather and solar storms, the MMS satellites will be the first experiment to intentionally pass directly through areas where the phenomenon occurs and create a three-dimensional view of it, mission scientists said.

Study finds gorilla origins in half of human AIDS virus lineages

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Revealing new details about the origins of AIDS, scientists said on Monday half the lineages of the main type of human immunodeficiency virus, HIV-1, originated in gorillas in Cameroon before infecting people, probably via bushmeat hunting. HIV-1, which causes AIDS, is composed of four groups, each coming from a separate cross-species transmission of a simian version of the virus from apes to humans. ...

Against the Science, Meat Pushes Back into U.S. Diet (Op-Ed)

Dr. Michael Greger is the director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States. Every five years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issue the "Dietary Guidelines for Americans," which are intended to encourage individuals to eat a healthful diet. The advisory council's report, just published for the 2015 guidelines, is cause for celebration on many fronts. The nutrition experts who created it seemed to be less susceptible to industry influence, and their report could lead to the most evidence-based dietary guidelines the nation has ever adopted.

Old Medicines Give New Hope for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (Essay)

People with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD, have a genetic disorder where the body does not produce dystrophin, a protein that helps keep muscle cells intact — as a result, the condition causes muscles to rapidly break down and weaken. As a cardiologist and professor at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, I partnered with a team of DMD experts from around the nation in a clinical trial that tested the combination of eplerenone (an aldosterone antagonist that serves as a potassium-sparing diuretic) and either a angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB). In this human trial, we enrolled 42 boys with DMD who showed evidence of early heart muscle damage by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging.

Dwarf Planet Ceres to Be Revealed in 'Stunning Detail' by NASA Probe

A NASA probe will arrive at Ceres Friday morning to begin unraveling the many mysteries of the dwarf planet — including the puzzling bright spots that blaze on its cratered surface. NASA's Dawn spacecraft is scheduled to slip into orbit around Ceres — the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter — at 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT) on Friday, March 6, wrapping up a deep-space chase that lasted two-and-a-half years. If all goes according to plan, Dawn will become the first spacecraft ever to orbit a dwarf planet, as well as the first to circle two celestial objects beyond the Earth-moon system. "It's clear that discoveries lie ahead, and Ceres will be revealed in stunning detail, just like Vesta," Dawn Deputy Principal Investigator Carol Raymond, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said during a news conference today (March 2).

Curt Michel, Scientist-Astronaut Who Left NASA After Losing the Moon, Dies at 80

Curt Michel, an astrophysicist who was among NASA's first scientist-astronauts but who resigned when it became clear he would not fly to the moon, died on Feb. 23. Curt Michel's death was reported on Friday (Feb. 27) by Rice University in Houston, where served as a faculty member before and after his time with NASA. "Although he retired in 2000 after 37 years at Rice, Michel continued to keep an office on campus, where he pursued his studies of solar winds [and] radio pulsars," stated the university in a press release. Michel was an assistant professor for space science at Rice when he was selected with NASA's fourth group of astronauts in June 1965.

3 to 5 Cups of Coffee a Day May Lower Risk of Heart Attacks

Good news for people who drink coffee every day: Consuming a moderate amount of coffee could lower the risk of clogged arteries that can lead to a heart attack, a new study finds. The study of healthy young adults in Korea found that, compared with people who didn't drink coffee, those who drank three to five cups of java per day had a lower risk of having calcium deposits in their coronary arteries, which is an indicator of heart disease. The study participants who drank three to four cups had the lowest risk of developing clogged arteries seen in the study, said Dr. Eliseo Guallar, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, and co-author of the study published today (March 2) in the journal Heart. "But the risk went down with just one cup per day," compared with the risk of people who drank no coffee, Guallar added.

Hit the Sack! People Who Get a Good Night's Sleep Are Happier

Happiness and a good night's sleep seem to go hand in hand, a new poll suggests.

Harvard prevention trial studies tau, Alzheimer's other protein

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Alzheimer's researchers at Harvard for the first time are scanning the brains of healthy patients for the presence of a hallmark protein called tau, which forms toxic tangles of nerve fibers associated with the fatal disease. The new scans are part of a large clinical trial called Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's or A4, the first designed to identify and treat patients in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's, before memory loss begins. Patients accepted into the A4 trial already have deposits of beta amyloid, the other protein associated with Alzheimer's. The addition of the tau scan will allow scientists to get a much clearer picture of the events that lead to Alzheimer's. The disease affects 5 million Americans, and 16 million are projected to be afflicted by 2050. Dr. Reisa Sperling of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who is leading the 1,000-patient trial, said tau is commonly found in small amounts in healthy people over age 70, but it is generally confined to an area of the brain called the medial temporal lobe.

Hundreds of Medieval Bodies Found Under Paris Supermarket

More than 200 bodies were recently unearthed in several mass burials beneath a Paris supermarket. The bodies, which were lined up head to feet, were found at the site of an ancient cemetery attached to the Trinity Hospital, which was founded in the 13th century. The burials were discovered during renovations to the basement of the Monoprix Réaumur-Sébastopol supermarket, located in the second-arrondissement neighborhood of Paris. The site was once the location of the Trinity Hospital, which was founded in 1202 by two German noblemen.

Amazing Photo of Green Comet Lovejoy Captured by Dark Energy Camera

The world's most powerful digital camera caught an amazing glimpse of Comet Lovejoy when it passed in front of the sensitive field of view. At the time, Lovejoy was 51 million miles (82 million kilometers) from Earth. "Our favorite [memory] all was the accidental observation of Comet Lovejoy," wrote the blog Dark Energy Detectives (a blog of the Dark Energy Survey) of the sighting. The image was captured while astronomers were scanning the southern sky for the five-year Dark Energy Survey, which aims to learn more about dark energy, the mysterious force that is accelerating the universe's expansion.

Why Do Geysers Erupt? It Boils Down to Plumbing

Geysers erupt — sending steam and hot water hundreds of feet into the air, and often releasing a frightening screech and the stench of rotten eggs — because of a series of loops and side chambers hidden deep below the surface that allows water to boil first at the top and then cascade downward, the study found. Half of them are located in Yellowstone National Park, drawing more than 3 million tourists each year. To better understand the system hidden deep below the surface, Michael Manga, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, has spent years studying geysers in Chile and Yellowstone National Park.

Secret Service Will Test-Fly Drones Over US Capital

The U.S. Secret Service has announced it will soon begin flying unmanned aerial vehicles over Washington, D.C. The drone was piloted by an employee of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, who decided to test-fly his friend's quadcopter in the early hours of the morning and crashed it, The Washington Post reported. The man was off-duty at the time, and was not involved in any work related to drones, the NGA said in a statement. The high-profile incident exposed a gap in security that the Secret Service has been trying to fix for years, the Post reported. The announcement that drones will fly over D.C. comes just weeks after the government announced a set of rules governing the use of commercial drones in the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) regulations, released Feb. 15, specify that drones up to 55 lbs. (25 kilograms) are permitted to fly at speeds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) and up to 500 feet (150 meters) in altitude.

Global Warming Brought on California's Severe Drought

California's severe and ongoing drought is just a taste of the dry years to come, thanks to global warming, a new study finds. "California's warming trend is driving an increase in the risk of drought," said study co-author Daniel Swain, a doctoral student in climate science at Stanford University in California. "Warming in California has made it more probable that when a low precipitation year occurs, it occurs in warm conditions and is more likely to produce severe drought," said lead study author Noah Diffenbaugh, an associate professor in the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford.

Power System Failure Eyed in US Military Satellite Explosion

The military weather satellite that exploded in orbit last month apparently died of old age, U.S. Air Force officials say.

Ceres Science: NASA Probe to Study Dwarf Planet's Bright Spots and More

There's something highly reflective on Ceres twinkling at NASA's Dawn spacecraft, and scientists hope to figure out what it is after the probe arrives at the dwarf planet later this week. The bright-spot mystery is just one question Dawn will tackle after it enters orbit around Ceres at about 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT) on Friday (March 6). "Ceres has really surprised us, and the first images have produced some really puzzling features that have got the team, and I think some other people, really excited," Dawn Deputy Principal Investigator Carol Raymond, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said during a news conference Monday (March 2). The two bright spots are close to each other inside a 57-mile-wide (92 kilometers) crater that sits at about 19 degrees north latitude on Ceres, which is the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

U.S. satellite likely exploded after temperature spike: Air Force

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A U.S. military weather satellite appears to have exploded while in orbit last month after a sudden temperature spike in its power system, producing 43 pieces of new space debris, the Air Force said on Tuesday. The blast, which was first reported by the industry trade publication Space News, was the second Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft to experience a catastrophic breakup in 11 years. Launched in 1995, the Air Force satellite was serving as an operational spare in the seven-member DMSP network. On Feb. 3, flight controllers observed a sudden temperature spike in the DMSP-F13 satellite's power system and quickly shut down its non-essential systems, but the spacecraft lost the ability to position itself, the Air Force said in a statement.

New Pet Therapy Guidelines: No Cats in Hospitals

A visit from a furry companion can give comfort to patients in the hospital, but new guidelines recommend that only dogs — and not cats — be allowed in hospitals for pet therapy programs. The guidelines, from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), are aimed at reducing the potential risks from having animals in hospital facilities.

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