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Saturday, May 2, 2015

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'Wired' Underwater Volcano May Be Erupting Off Oregon

An underwater volcano off the coast of Oregon has risen from its slumber and may be spewing out lava about a mile beneath the sea. Researchers were alerted to the possible submarine eruption of the Axial Seamount, located about 300 miles (480 kilometers) off the West Coast, by large changes in the seafloor elevation and an increase in the number of tiny earthquakes on April 24. Geologists Bill Chadwick, of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and Oregon State University, and Scott Nooner, of the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, successfully forecast the eruption in a blog post in September 2014, though they had presented their ideas at a meeting before then. Axial Seamount is an underwater mountain that juts up 3,000 feet (900 meters) from the ocean floor, and is part of a string of volcanoes that straddle the Juan de Fuca Ridge, a tectonic-plate boundary where the seafloor is spreading apart.

Auditors: National Science Foundation suspends UConn grants

Auditors say the National Science Foundation has frozen more than $2 million in grant money to the University of Connecticut after a foundation investigation found two UConn professors used grant money ...

Scientists monitor undersea volcanic eruption off Oregon coast

By Courtney Sherwood PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) - An undersea volcano about 300 miles (480 km) off Oregon's coast has been spewing lava for the past seven days, confirming forecasts made last fall and giving researchers unique insight into a hidden ocean hot spot, a scientist said on Friday. Researchers know of two previous eruptions by the volcano, dubbed "Axial Seamount" for its location along the axis of an underwater mountain ridge, Oregon State University geologist Bill Chadwick said on Friday. Last year, researchers connected monitoring gear to an undersea cable that, for the first time, allowed them to gather live data on the volcano, whose peak is about 4,900 feet (1,500 meters) below the ocean surface. "The cable allows us to have more sensors and monitoring instruments than ever before, and it's happening in real time," said Chadwick, who also is affiliated with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Scientists monitor undersea volcanic eruption off Oregon coast

Penguins Use Poop to Melt Ice, Make Baby Nurseries (Video)

Gentoo penguins have given the term nesting a whole new meaning. The new insight came from thousands of hours of video taken by researchers from the University of Oxford in England, along with the Australian Antarctic Division. The researchers spent a year videotaping the behavior of a colony of Gentoo penguins on Cuverville Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula. Gentoo penguins, or Pygoscelis papua, are among the rarest of the Antarctic birds, with fewer than 300,000 breeding pairs on the icy continent, according to the British Antarctic Survey.

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Friday, May 1, 2015

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Smallpox-Like Virus Infects Lab Worker After Mishap

A lab worker in Boston became infected with a virus similar to smallpox after he accidentally stuck himself with a needle that was contaminated with the virus, according to a new report of the case. In November 2013, the 27-year-old lab worker was preforming an experiment that required him to inject mice with the vaccinia virus — which is the virus in the smallpox vaccine.

Why the Apple Watch Is Confused by Tattoos

Some Apple Watch users who have tattoos are running into problems when using the device's heart-rate monitor and other features, as it appears the ink in tattoos can interfere with the watch's sensors. This week, one person noted on the website Reddit that the Apple Watch's auto-lock would engage when it was placed over an arm tattoo, possibly indicating that the device was not registering that it was being worn. The Apple Watch monitors heart rate in the same way as the Basis Peak, the Fitbit Surge and other wrist-worn fitness trackers — they all use a light that shines into the skin to measure pulse. The Apple Watch has an LED light that flashes many times per second to detect your heartbeat, the company says.

Farewell, MESSENGER! NASA Probe Crashes Into Mercury

This violent demise was inevitable for MESSENGER, which had been orbiting Mercury since March 2011 and had run out of fuel. The 10-foot-wide (3 meters) spacecraft was traveling about 8,750 mph (14,080 km/h) at the time of impact, and it likely created a smoking hole in the ground about 52 feet (16 m) wide in Mercury's northern terrain, NASA officials said. MESSENGER was the first spacecraft ever to orbit the solar system's innermost planet, and its observations over the last four years helped lift the veil on mysterious Mercury, mission team members said. "Although Mercury is one of Earth's nearest planetary neighbors, astonishingly little was known when we set out," MESSENGER principal investigator Sean Solomon, director of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, said in a statement.

Colorado Plague Outbreak Shows It's Hard to Diagnose the Disease

Doctors and veterinarians in the southwestern United States should keep an eye out for cases of plague, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the summer of 2014, four people in Colorado became ill with pneumonic plague, in the United States' largest outbreak of the illness since 1924. Pneumonic plague is a very rare disease caused by the same type of bacteria as the bubonic plague, which is perhaps best known for causing the Black Death in Europe during the Middle Ages. In people with pneumonic plague, the bacteria infect the respiratory system.

FAA proposes fix for possible power loss issue in Boeing's 787

(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it would ask the operators of Boeing Co's model 787 airplanes to deactivate the plane's electrical power system periodically. The FAA said the new airworthiness directive was prompted by the determination that power control units on a model 787 airplane could shut down power generators if they are powered continuously for 248 days. Sudden loss of power could result in the aircraft going out of control, the directive noted. Boeing is developing a software upgrade to counter the problem.

Scientists breed Arctic fish as they study ocean warming

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A silvery fish that represents an important link in the Arctic food chain has been successfully grown in laboratory conditions, giving federal researchers a tool to learn more about the key but vulnerable species.

Rocky Planets May Have Formed from Tiny Particle Clusters

Clumps of small, glassy particles may be responsible for the formation of giant asteroids and the planetary "embryos" that collided to form rocky planets like Earth, a new study suggests. Asteroid fragments that fall to Earth as meteorites often contain tiny, round pellets known as chondrules that formed when molten droplets quickly cooled in outer space during the solar system's early years. Previous work had suggested that chondrules were the building blocks of asteroids, which, in turn, often have been thought to be the building blocks of planets. Now, computer simulations modeling the behavior of more than 150 million particles in space reveal how chondrules might have coalesced into asteroids.

In Search for Alien Life, Follow the Water

The search for life beyond Earth homes in on water, whose abundance throughout the solar system is becoming increasingly clear to scientists. Water is a polar molecule and a solvent, two properties that are important for certain chemical reactions critical to life, said NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan. "We think water is key to life as we know it," Stofan said Tuesday (April 28) during the Asimov Memorial Debate, an annual event at New York's American Museum of Natural History that was moderated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the museum's Hayden Planetarium. Jupiter's moon Europa is covered with a sheet of ice that very likely sits on top of a global ocean, and Saturn's moon Enceladus shows evidence of subsurface water as well.

Big Aftershocks May Occur at Edge of Large Quakes

Large aftershocks not only rattle nerves, they also can cause new destruction and injuries by further damaging structures hit by the initial earthquake. While there was no way to predict the deadly magnitude-7.8 earthquake that rocked Nepal on April 25, scientists are developing ways to forecast where the worst aftershocks will hit. A new study finds that the biggest aftershocks tend to strike at the edge of the original earthquake. "We're very concerned about large aftershocks," said study author Nicholas van der Elst, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

Bat Wings Harbor Special Sensory Cells

Bat wings sport a unique touch-receptor design, researchers report today (April 30) in the journal Cell Reports. Tiny sensory cells associated with fine hairs on the bat wing likely enable the animals to change the shape of their wings in a split second, granting them impressive midair maneuverability. "The wing of the bat is really a very specialized structure," study researcher Cynthia Moss, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University, told Live Science. Moss and her colleagues first began examining the miniscule hairs on bat wings two years ago, recording how the absence of these hairs influenced flight.

Early Urban Planning: Ancient Mayan City Built on Grid

An ancient Mayan city followed a unique grid pattern, providing evidence of a powerful ruler, archaeologists working at Nixtun-Ch'ich' in Petén, Guatemala, have found. This city was "organized in a way we haven't seen in other places," said Timothy Pugh, a professor at Queens College in New York.

Why Some Women Lose More Weight from Exercise

Some women may get more benefit than others from doing the same type of exercise, and genes are part of the reason why, a new study finds. The researchers looked at genes that have been linked in previous studies with an increased risk of obesity. The findings may mean that women whose genes predispose them to obesity need to do more exercise to get their desired weight-loss results, and may also need to pay more attention to their diet, said study author Yann C. Klimentidis, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "There is just a higher wall to climb if you have a high genetic predisposition [for obesity]," Klimentidis said.

Limiting global warming to 2 degrees 'inadequate', scientists say

By Laurie Goering LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Holding global warming to a 2-degree Celsius temperature rise – the cornerstone of an expected new global climate agreement in December – will fail to prevent many of climate change's worst impacts, a group of scientists and other experts warned Friday. With a 2-degree temperature hike, small islands in the Pacific may become uninhabitable, weather-related disasters will become more frequent, workers in many parts of the world will face sweltering conditions and large numbers of people will be displaced, particularly in coastal cities, the experts warned. The 2-degree goal is "inadequate, posing serious threats for fundamental human rights, labor and migration and displacement" the experts said in a series of reports commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a group of 20 countries chaired by the Philippines. Some group members, particularly Pacific island states, have previously asked for a lower temperature target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Even a Little Walking Can Improve Your Health, Study Suggests

Study participants who traded time on the sofa for a total of 30 minutes of walking during the day reduced their risk of dying over a three-year period by 33 percent. For the participants with chronic kidney disease, the risk of dying was reduced by more than 40 percent, according to the findings, published today (April 30) in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, a complement to the government's diet guidelines, recommend that people do at least 75 minutes of high-intensity aerobic physical activity (such as running, swimming or biking), or 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity (such as brisk walking) every week to reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases. But the researchers on the new study wanted to know what the minimum threshold was — the lowest amount of physical activity that could still provide health benefits, said Dr. Srinivasan Beddhu, a kidney specialist at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City and lead author of the new study.

Limiting global warming to 2 degrees "inadequate", scientists say

By Laurie Goering LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Holding global warming to a 2-degree Celsius temperature rise – the cornerstone of an expected new global climate agreement in December – will fail to prevent many of climate change's worst impacts, a group of scientists and other experts warned Friday. With a 2-degree temperature hike, small islands in the Pacific may become uninhabitable, weather-related disasters will become more frequent, workers in many parts of the world will face sweltering conditions and large numbers of people will be displaced, particularly in coastal cities, the experts warned. The 2-degree goal is "inadequate, posing serious threats for fundamental human rights, labour and migration and displacement" the experts said in a series of reports commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a group of 20 countries chaired by the Philippines. Some group members, particularly Pacific island states, have previously asked for a lower temperature target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Five Mercury Craters Named to Celebrate End of NASA's MESSENGER Mission

Just hours before NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft was expected to crash onto the surface of Mercury, ending the probe's four-year observation of the rocky planet, the winners of a contest to name five new craters on Mercury were announced. The five winning crater names are: Carolan, Enheduanna, Karsh, Kulthum and Rivera. MESSENGER, which captured stunning images of Mercury's cratered surface, crashed into the surface of the planet at at 3:26 p.m. EDT (1926 GMT) yesterday (April 30). The new crater names have been approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

A space odyssey: cosmic rays may damage the brains of astronauts

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It may not be space debris, errant asteroids, supply shortages, thruster malfunctions or even the malevolent aliens envisioned in so many Hollywood films that thwart astronauts on any mission to Mars. It may be the ubiquitous galactic cosmic rays. Researchers said on Friday long-term exposure to these rays that permeate space may cause dementia-like cognitive impairments in astronauts during any future round-trip Mars journey, expected to take at least 2-1/2 years. In a NASA-funded study, mice exposed to highly energetic charged particles like those in galactic cosmic rays experienced declines in cognition and changes in the structure and integrity of brain nerve cells and the synapses where nerve impulses are sent and received.

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Thursday, April 30, 2015

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Graveyard of Stars May Surround Milky Way's Monster Black Hole

The remains of thousands of stars might exist in a vast graveyard near the giant black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, a region where dead stars feed on companions like zombies and unleash X-ray "howls," researchers say. Scientists have long thought that a monster black hole with the mass of 4.3 million suns, named Sagittarius A* (pronounced Sagittarius A star), lurks at the heart of the Milky Way. Recently, astronomers discovered that a surprising number of young, massive stars exist within a few dozen light-years of this black hole. "These young, massive stars are puzzling because when we think about how stars form from clouds of gas that gravitationally collapse in on themselves, it's hard to figure how these clouds could have survived long enough to form stars, given the intense gravitational pull of the supermassive black hole that's so close to them," lead study author Kerstin Perez, an astrophysicist now at Columbia University in New York, told Space.com.

Planet Mercury: Some Surprising Facts for Skywatchers

We have just entered a very favorable period for observing the so-called "elusive" planet Mercury. From now, until about May 13, you should be able to find it with not much difficulty. In 1965, radar studies showed that Mercury's rotation period is 58.65 days or almost exactly two-thirds of its orbital period of 87.969 days. This would mean that a certain point on the planet's surface faces the sun every other time that Mercury arrives at its closest point to the sun (called perihelion). In fact, if Mercury always moved with the same angular velocity that it has at perihelion, it would take only 56.6 days to orbit the sun.

Kilauea Volcano's Lava Lake Overflows (Video)

The lava lake sits in a crater within a crater: Halema'uma'u crater is the deep, wide pit at the top of Kilauea volcano. For this reason, the lava flood poses no risk to people or structures, said Matt Patrick, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. However, the fresh lava has reached the wall of Halema'uma'u crater, triggering rockfalls and spectacular explosions as cold rock hits hot lava. Close monitoring has revealed that the lava lake changes every day, rising and falling by the minute as gas builds up in the lava and then escapes.

Space Station Astronauts Take Russian Cargo Ship Failure in Stride

A robotic Russian cargo spacecraft won't make it to the International Space Station as planned this week, but astronauts aboard the orbiting lab say the failure is not the end of the world. "We are 100 percent confident that we will be living and working productively onboard the space station up until the time that the next cargo vehicle is going to come," Kornienko told reporters in a video interview Wednesday (April 29). Kornienko is one of the six crewmembers who make up the space station's current Expedition 43. He and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly are one month into an unprecedented yearlong mission that's designed to help pave the way for journeys to Mars and other deep-space destinations.

Amazing 3D View of Iconic 'Pillars of Creation' Predict Cosmic Demise (Video)

New images provide the first complete 3D view of the Pillars of Creation — some of the most iconic cosmic structures ever studied — and suggest that the glorious protrusions may be around for only another 3 million years. The new images reveal never-before-seen stars in the thick, fingerlike gas clouds, as well as new details about their orientation in space. The Pillars of Creation gained worldwide fame on Earth when they were imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, and in 2014, Hubble used its updated hardware to produce even higher definition images of the region. These cosmic protrusions are composed of dust and gas, and are part of a larger region known as the Eagle Nebula — a fertile region of new star formation.

What Chipotle's 'Ban' on Genetically Modified Foods Really Means

Chipotle's decision to prepare only food that does not contain genetically modified ingredients is adding fuel to an ongoing debate about the health and safety of these foods. But experts say the foods that contain GMOs that are currently grown in the United States are no riskier than conventionally grown foods. The "growing international consensus" among scientific organizations is that foods made from currently approved genetically modified crops are safe to eat, said Gregory Jaffe, director of biotechnology at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. "This is not an ultrahazardous technology," Jaffe told Live Science.

Deadly Gut Bacteria Infections Peak in Spring

People may be more likely to get infected with the sometimes deadly gut bacteria called "C. diff" during the spring, according to a new study. During this time period, about 2.3 million people were released from a hospital following an infection with Clostridium difficile, which can cause severe diarrhea, and frequently comes back after treatment. In the spring, there were about 62 cases of C. difficile for every 10,000 people discharged from the hospital, the study found. In winter and summer, there were 59 C. difficile cases per 10,000 people discharged from the hospital, and the lowest rate was seen in the fall, when there were 56 C. difficile cases per 10,000 hospital discharges.

'Obesity Signature' Written in Pee

A person's urine could reveal whether he or she is at risk for obesity and its related harmful conditions, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed information from more than 2,000 people in the United States and United Kingdom. The researchers found 25 chemical markers in the urine that were linked with the participants' body mass index (BMI), a ratio of height and weight that is an indicator of body fatness. The researchers call these 25 markers a "metabolic signature" of obesity.

Jeff Bezos' rocket company test-flies suborbital spaceship

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Blue Origin, a startup space company owned by Amazon.com chief Jeff Bezos, launched an experimental suborbital spaceship from Texas, the first in a series of test flights to develop commercial unmanned and passenger spaceflight services, the company said on Thursday. The New Shepard vehicle blasted off on Wednesday from Blue Origin's test facility near Van Horn, Texas, and rose to an altitude of 58 miles (93 km) before the capsule separated and parachuted back to Earth. "Fortunately, we've already been in work for some time on an improved hydraulic system ... We'll be ready to fly again soon." Blue Origin is among a handful of companies developing privately owned spaceships to fly experiments, satellites and passengers into space. Like Virgin Galactic, a U.S. offshoot of Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group, and privately owned XCOR Aerospace, Blue Origin is eyeing suborbital spaceflights, which reach altitudes of about 62 miles (100 km), as a stepping stone to orbital flight.

NASA spacecraft to crash into Mercury

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA's pioneering Messenger spacecraft is expected to end its four-year study of the planet Mercury on Thursday by crashing into the planet's surface, scientists said. Out of fuel to maneuver, Messenger is being pushed down by the sun's gravity closer and closer to the surface of Mercury. Flight controllers at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland predict that Messenger, traveling at more than 8,700 mph (14,000 kph) will hit the ground near Mercury's north pole at 3:26 p.m. EDT. During its final weeks in orbit, Messenger has been relaying more details about the innermost planet of the solar system, which turns out to have patches of ice inside some of its craters, despite its sizzling location more than twice as close to the sun as Earth.

NASA spacecraft to crash into Mercury

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA's pioneering Messenger spacecraft is expected to end its four-year study of the planet Mercury on Thursday by crashing into the planet's surface, scientists said. Out of fuel to maneuver, Messenger is being pushed down by the sun's gravity closer and closer to the surface of Mercury. Flight controllers at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland predict that Messenger, traveling at more than 8,700 mph (14,000 kph) will hit the ground near Mercury's north pole at 3:26 p.m. EDT/1926 GMT. During its final weeks in orbit, Messenger has been relaying more details about the innermost planet of the solar system, which turns out to have patches of ice inside some of its craters, despite its sizzling location more than twice as close to the sun as Earth.

Nepal Earthquake Lifted Kathmandu, But Shrank Everest

The first good view of the aftermath of Nepal's deadly earthquake from a satellite reveals that a broad swath of ground near Kathmandu lifted vertically, by about 3 feet (1 meter), which could explain why damage in the city was so severe. The new information comes from Europe's Sentinel-1A radar satellite. Scientists are racing to interpret the Sentinel data, which were made available today (April 29) just hours after the satellite passed over Nepal. Researchers detected the vertical shift in the ground by comparing before-and-after radar images from the satellite using a technique that produces an image called an interferogram.

Obama's BRAIN Initiative yields first study results

The study, describing a way to manipulate a lab animal's brain circuitry accurately enough to turn behaviors both on and off, is the first to be published under President Barack Obama's 2013 BRAIN Initiative, which aims to advance neuroscience and develop therapies for brain disorders. If scientists are able do that for the circuitry involved in psychiatric or neurological disorders, it may lead to therapies. "This tool sharpens the cutting edge of research aimed at improving our understanding of brain circuit disorders, such as schizophrenia and addictive behaviors," said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the $1 million study. Brain neurons are genetically engineered to produce a custom-made - "designer" - receptor.

Mt. Everest Shrank as Nepal Quake Lifted Kathmandu

NASA spacecraft spots possible ice cap on Pluto

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - NASA's Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft has spotted surface features on the icy world, including a possible polar cap, images released on Wednesday show. With 60 million miles (97 million km) left to go before its July 14, 2015, encounter, New Horizons already has been able to make out surprising light and dark patches on the surface of Pluto, which is currently more than 32 times farther away from Earth than the sun. "We are starting to see intriguing features, such as a bright region near Pluto's visible pole," NASA science chief John Grunsfeld said in a statement, in reference to what scientists believe could be a polar ice cap. In the images, Pluto appears as a small, highly pixelated blob, but already scientists can see there is something very odd about its surface.

Study: Global warming to push 1 in 13 species to extinction

WASHINGTON (AP) — Global warming will eventually push 1 out of every 13 species on Earth into extinction, a new study projects.

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