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Saturday, June 20, 2015

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NYC Ivory Crush Sends Strong Anti-Poaching Message

NEW YORK — Some 1,500 people gathered in New York City's Times Square today (June 19) to witness the destruction of 1 ton of confiscated ivory — a move intended to demonstrate to the world that objects made from poached ivory have no value.

Will Pope Francis' Climate Encyclical Change the World?

Pope Francis has drawn the world's attention with a new encyclical that urges action on climate change. The papal letter, titled "Laudato si," or "On Care for Our Common Home," paints a bleak picture of Earth as sick and poisoned at almost every level. "The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth," Pope Francis wrote in the document, which is typically sent to bishops of all Roman Catholic churches.

Daddy's Here! Why Fathers Call Themselves 'Dad' Around Children

Parents are often their children's language coaches, said Lisa Pellerin, an associate professor of sociology at Ball State University in Indiana. "They're using the terms that they want the child" to use, Pellerin said. Parents may also avoid using pronouns such as "I" or "you" because they are "too abstract and it's somewhat confusing to kids," said Emie Tittnich, an infant mental health specialist at the University of Pittsburgh.

Earth's Mysteriously Light Core Contains Brimstone

Biblical views of the center of the Earth as a hellish pit raging with fire and brimstone have some support from new research. "In a way, we can also say that we have life imitating art," study lead author Paul Savage, a research scientist in the Department of Earth Sciences at Durham University in the United Kingdom, said in a statement."For millennia, tales have been told of the underworld being awash with fire and brimstone. The researchers estimate that the Earth's core contains 10 times the amount of sulfur than in the rest of the world, or comparable to about 10 percent of the mass of the moon.

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Friday, June 19, 2015

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Oklahoma's Surge in Earthquakes Due to Oil Production

Oklahoma is not known for its earthquakes, but in recent years episodes of ground shaking have surged, with the U.S. Geological Survey releasing a rare warning last May saying the risk of a damaging earthquake in Oklahoma had significantly increased. Now scientists say they know why seismic events have taken such a leap in the state: wastewater from oil and gas production that gets injected back into the ground. But even if companies stop injecting the water into the ground there, the researchers say the man-made earthquakes won't suddenly come to a halt due to a time delay they found between injection and seismic activity.

Happy New Year, Mars! NASA Toasts Martian Calendar Milestone

It's New Year's Day on the Red Planet today and NASA is celebrating in style with an epic three-day party in Mars itself … Mars, Pennsylvania, that is. NASA scientists and Mars experts have descended on the town of Mars to celebrate the Martian New Year today (June 18) with a press conference at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT), which you can watch live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV. The press briefing, which NASA will convene at a flying saucer spaceship monument in Mars, Pennsylvania, kicks off a weekend of Mars-themed activities by NASA to inspire kids to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics – all fields that the space agency says it will need in its push to the Red Planet.

SyFy's 'Killjoys' Launches Bounty Hunters Across the Final Frontier

A trio of bounty hunters chase wanted criminals through space in the original science fiction series "Killyjoys," which debuts on the Syfy network tonight (June 19). In the fictional world of "Killjoys," people travel via spaceship through "the Quad," a central planet and its three moons populated by an array of human cultures (the pilot episode features some stunning images of the system). You can watch the first four minutes of the pilot episode here on Space.com.

Mix-n-Match Arms: Jellyfish Rearrange Limbs After Injury

Common moon jellies have an uncommon fix for injuries: When they lose limbs, they don't regrow them. This "symmetrization" is a never-before-seen method of self-repair, and one that probably helps jellies stay alive in the wild. Many invertebrates can regrow limbs, but scientists had never observed this sort of rearrangement before, said study researcher Michael Abrams, a graduate student in biology and biological engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

8 Million Dog Mummies Found in 'God of Death' Mass Grave

In ancient Egypt, so many people worshiped Anubis, the jackal-headed god of death, that the catacombs next to his sacred temple once held nearly 8 million mummified puppies and grown dogs, a new study finds. The catacomb ceiling also contains the fossil of an ancient sea monster, a marine vertebrate that's more than 48 million years old, but it's unclear whether the Egyptians noticed the existence of the fossil when they built the tomb for the canine mummies, the researchers said. Ancient Egyptians built the temple and catacomb in honor of Anubis in Saqqara, a burial ground in the country's ancient capital of Memphis.

Gladiator Fights Revealed in Ancient Graffiti

Hundreds of graffiti messages engraved into stone in the ancient city of Aphrodisias, in modern-day Turkey, have been discovered and deciphered, revealing what life was like there over 1,500 years ago, researchers say. "Hundreds of graffiti, scratched or chiseled on stone, have been preserved in Aphrodisias — more than in most other cities of the Roman East(an area which includes Greece and part of the Middle East)," said Angelos Chaniotis, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton New Jersey, in a lecture he gave recently at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum. "Graffiti are the products of instantaneous situations, often creatures of the night, scratched by people amused, excited, agitated, perhaps drunk.

Giant 'Earth Stethoscope' Spies on Planet's Wonky Behavior

The international system, called the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), has been spying on Earth for the past 18 years, but researchers are still finding fresh ways to interpret its data. Here's a look at four things the CTBTO can see, hear and sniff on planet Earth. The CTBTO began as an anti-nuclear network that would help countries monitor and ban rogue explosions in the atmosphere, underwater or underground.

Real-Life 'Jurassic World' Dinos May Be 10 Years Off, Scientist Says

None of these sound quite as terrifying as the reptilian star in "Jurassic World," which set box-office records when it opened this past weekend. "Chickens and all birds are carrying much bigger chunks of dinosaur DNA than we are ever likely to find in the fossil record," said James Horner, the inspiration for the original Jurassic Park's Alan Grant. More recently, in his lab at Montana State University, Horner has been experimenting with bird DNA alteration for more than a decade.

Smart cycle jacket could save lives on Mexico City's roads

Mexico City's bumper-to-bumper traffic is a problem for the sprawling capital city's cyclists. Two inventors have developed a cyclist's vest complete with indicators, brake lights and an alert systems that can call for help. Damian Real, a physics students, came up with the design for the smart bike jacket with his partner Riberto Rivas, a maths major, at Mexico's National Autonomous University.

1 Ton of Illegal Ivory Will Be Publicly Destroyed in NYC Friday

In a public display against elephant poaching, U.S. officials will pulverize a huge store of illegal ivory tomorrow (June 19) in Times Square, in the heart of New York City. "The scale of the crisis has gotten to the point where 35,000 [African] elephants are killed every year — 96 a day," said John Calvelli, executive vice president of public affairs for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Calvelli, and other representatives from government and nongovernmental agencies, will speak at the event, which is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. EDT in Duffy Square-Broadway Plaza in Times Square.

Did Sharks Really Kill That Cute Baby Dolphin?

A Philadelphia woman captured a shocking photo of a half-eaten baby dolphin while visiting the beach in Wildwood, New Jersey, last Saturday (June 13). The photo of the newborn animal's decimated carcass — allegedly rendered that way by sharks — was posted to Facebook and has since gone viral. Many people who saw the photo concluded that the Jersey shore is no longer a safe place for dolphins.

DNA sleuthing pinpoints two African elephant poaching hot spots

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - DNA testing on tons of ivory seized from traffickers has identified two elephant poaching "hot spots" in Africa in a development scientists hope will spur a crackdown on the illegal trade decimating the population of Earth's largest land animal. Scientists said on Thursday genetic tests on 28 large ivory seizures, each more than half a ton, pinpointed the geographic origin of the tusks from the two types of African elephant, the savanna elephant and the somewhat smaller forest elephant. "We were very, very surprised to find that over the last decade almost all of these seizures came from just two places in Africa," said University of Washington biologist Samuel Wasser, whose study appears in the journal Science.

'The Next Trans Fat': Experts Predict Coming Food Battles

After years of research showing the harms of trans fat, the unhealthy substance has finally been banned as a food additive. On Tuesday (June 16), the Food and Drug Administration ruled that trans fat is not "generally recognized as safe" to be added to food, meaning that the ingredient will now be considered an illegal food additive. Companies have three years to either remove trans fat from their food, or petition the FDA for permission to use the additive in specific cases.

Here's More Proof Earth Is in Its 6th Mass Extinction

Diverse animals across the globe are slipping away and dying as Earth enters its sixth mass extinction, a new study finds. Over the last century, species of vertebrates are dying out up to 114 times faster than they would have without human activity, said the researchers, who used the most conservative estimates to assess extinction rates. Much of the extinction is due to human activities that lead to pollution, habitat loss, the introduction of invasive species and increased carbon emissions that drive climate change and ocean acidification, the researchers said.

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Thursday, June 18, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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How to Choose a Sunscreen That Protects You

Fewer than half of the 114 study participants could correctly identify how well a sunscreen protected against health problems such as sunburn, photoaging (premature aging of the skin caused by exposure to sunlight) and skin cancer just by looking at the product's label, according to the researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago who conducted the study. And it's not just the small sampling of people who participated in the study who have trouble deciphering sunscreen labels, said Dr. Jennifer Stein, an assistant professor of dermatology at New York University's Langone Medical Center who was not involved in the study. "At least half of the patients I see — especially this time of year — ask me questions about sunscreen," Stein told Live Science.

Which State Has the Highest Death Rate from Injuries?

West Virginia is the state with the highest rate of death from injuries, such as those sustained in car crashes, falls, fires and drug overdoses, while New York has the lowest rate, according to a new report. Researchers analyzed information on death rates from injuries — both intentional and unintentional — in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., between 2011 and 2013. In West Virginia, there were about 98 deaths from injuries per 100,000 people.

Curbing Accidental Pregnancies: Docs Should Mention IUDs, Implants

Young women who talk with a doctor about long-term contraception may have fewer unintended pregnancies, a new study suggests. Research has shown that intrauterine devices (IUDs) and progestin implants — which can prevent pregnancy for years after they are inserted — are more effective at preventing pregnancy than other, more widely used methods such as condoms or birth control pills. Considering that about 50 percent of pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended, the researchers wanted to see whether training health providers on how to educate young women about IUDs and implants would affect the number of unintended pregnancies.

Online human breast milk craze has serious health risks: experts

Writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, specialists said there was little evidence to support claims that the milk - traded via websites in a lucrative market for adult buyers - is some kind of super food that can boost health and fitness and ward off disease. On the contrary, the experts warned, raw and unpasteurized human breast milk bought online can expose consumers to many serious infectious diseases, including hepatitis, HIV and syphilis. It is also potentially very hazardous if used to replace a healthy balanced diet, Sarah Steele, a specialist at the global health and policy unit at Queen Mary University of London, wrote in the journal.

Sleep through my piece, please, composer Max Richter says

By Michael Roddy LONDON (Reuters) - People since time immemorial have been dozing off in concert halls. Now British composer Max Richter has written an eight-hour-long piece called "SLEEP" which he says is designed to make people nod off during the performance -- with beds provided. "It's an eight-hour lullaby," Richter, one of Britain's leading contemporary composers, said in a statement released on Wednesday, which adds that the piece, which features electronic sounds and a lulling cello line, is literally "intended to send the listener to sleep".

In Search for Alien Life, Experts Reveal Cutting-Edge Science

Where can scientists find clues to help them locate and understand life beyond Earth? According to speakers at the 2015 Astrobiology Science Conference, the hunt begins in many locations, from planets beyond our solar system to the ground beneath our feet. At a news briefing hosted by NASA, three speakers discussed a wide range of ways that scientists are assisting in the search for life elsewhere in the universe.

The Science of Race: Why Rachel Dolezal Can't Choose to Be Black

The media and the public have been buzzing about the bizarre case of Rachel Dolezal, the former head of the Spokane, Washington, chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who says she identifies as black despite being born white. In a "Today" show interview that aired yesterday (June 16), Dolezal hinted at a mismatch between her appearance and how she saw herself from a young age. "I was drawing self-portraits with the brown crayon instead of the peach crayon, and black, curly hair," Dolezal said in the interview.

Mind Meld: Social Wasps Share Brainpower

Wasps that live in large, social colonies may "share" brainpower, a new study finds. Perhaps social wasps make up for these smaller "higher thinking" areas by working together and sharing brainpower, the researchers said. "The idea is basically that, by communicating and responding to colony mates, a social insect is under less pressure to assess and respond to its environment on its own," said lead researcher Sean O'Donnell, a professor of biodiversity, earth and environmental science at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Search for King Henry's Tomb Centers on English Playground

In the wake of an archaeological dig that found the bones of Richard III beneath a parking lot in Leicester, England, British historians and archaeologists are turning to a church and school yard in the town of Reading in search of the remains of Henry I, who ruled England from 1100 to 1135. The modern buildings are on the site of the old Reading Abbey, which was shut down — its abbot was hanged for treason — in 1539. "We have a very good idea, within a few feet or yards, of where Henry was buried," said John Mullaney, a local historian and author of "Reading's Abbey Quarter: An Illustrated History" (Scallop Shell Press, 2014).

Finding Amelia Earhart: New Expedition Could Solve Decades-Long Mystery

The search for Amelia Earhart is on (again). An organized search party called "The Earhart Project," led by The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, also known as TIGHAR (pronounced "tiger"), is in its second week of searching for clues surrounding the mysterious disappearance of legendary aviator Amelia Earhart. The Earhart Project is testing the hypothesis that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, made an emergency landing, and eventually died, on Gardner Island, also called Nikumaroro, an uninhabited island in the Republic of Kiribati, in the western Pacific Ocean.

Southpaws Down Under: Most Kangaroos Are Lefties

Those boxing kangaroos have a secret: They're southpaws. New research finds that the eastern gray kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) and the red kangaroo (Macropus rufus) prefer to use their left forelimbs when feeding and grooming. The discovery of handedness in kangaroos is surprising, scientists said.

Ancient 'Kennewick Man' skeleton was Native American: study

The much-anticipated results of a study of DNA taken from the hand bone of the so-called Kennewick Man, a 8,500-year-old skeleton discovered in Washington state in 1996, suggest the man was most closely related to Native American populations, a team of international researchers said on Thursday. The DNA findings, published online in the journal Nature, contradict a 2014 study based on anatomical data that suggested the skeleton was most closely related to Polynesian or indigenous Japanese populations. The Kennewick Man, named for the site of his discovery near the banks of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, has been at the center of a bitter legal dispute between scientists, who want to study the remains, and a coalition of Native American tribes, which is arguing for their reburial.

That's right, kangaroos are left-handed

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Research on wild kangaroos in Australia is challenging the notion that having a strong hand preference is a trait that developed primarily in people and other primates. Scientists said on Thursday that these Australian marsupials displayed a natural preference for using their left hand for feeding, self-grooming and other activities. "We found a pronounced degree of 'handedness,' comparable to that in our species," said biologist Yegor Malashichev of Saint Petersburg State University in Russia.

'Astronaut Wives Club' Blasts Off: Co-star Talks Cast Sisterhood

In "The Astronaut Wives Club," debuting tonight (June 18) on ABC, viewers meet the seven women who stood behind America's first spacemen as the space age literally got off the ground in the early 1960s. The flip side of "The Right Stuff," the series follows Louise Shepard, Betty Grissom, Annie Glenn, Rene Carpenter, Jo Schirra and Trudy Cooper as they strive to hold down the homefront while also supporting their husbands Alan, Gus, John, Scott, Wally and Gordo on NASA's Project Mercury missions. Marge Slayton, the seventh of the spouses, is thrust into the same spotlight as the other wives but faces additional hurdles given her own past and the path that her husband, Deke, will follow to reach space.

In NASA First, Cubesats Headed to Mars with InSight Lander

WASHINGTON — Two tiny cubesats, the first NASA plans to send to another planet, will keep watch on the agency's InSight mission as it descends to the Martian surface in September 2016, an agency official said June 9. MarCO will be NASA's first interplanetary cubesats, according to the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which is building the spacecraft. "News about the status of InSight's landing could come hours earlier with MarCO," Joel Krajewski, MarCO program manager at JPL, wrote in a June 10 email.

Internet Cat Videos Keep You Purring, Study Finds

Internet cat videos don't just result in major "LOLs," they also deliver significant health benefits, a new study suggests. That's right: Watching the online antics of Lil Bub, Grumpy Cat, Colonel Meow and all their kitty friends can boost your energy level, heighten your positive emotions and decrease your negative feelings, according to Jessica Gall Myrick, a media researcher at Indiana University in Bloomington. "Some people may think watching online cat videos isn't a serious enough topic for academic research, but the fact is that it's one of the most popular uses of the Internet today," Myrick said in a statement.

Trans Fat May Impair Memory

Even as a new rule will force food companies to stop adding trans fat to food, research continues to show the negative effects of trans fat on health. In the study, researchers found that men ages 45 and younger who consumed high amounts of trans fat performed worse on a memory test than men whose consumption of trans fat was lower. "Trans fats were most strongly linked to worse memory in men during their high-productivity years," study author Dr. Beatrice A. Golomb, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, said in a statement.

Online Breast Milk Carries Health Hazards, Report Warns

Human breast milk is available on the Internet, and people are buying not only raw milk but also products such as breast-milk-flavored ice cream and lollipops, researchers say. Breast milk websites are plastered with health claims stating that breast milk is a natural superfood that can help people build muscles and immunity, according to the authors of the article, led by Sarah Steele, a lecturer at the Global Health and Policy Unit of Queen Mary University of London. Breast milk is beneficial for infants, and scientists are studying the health effects of its molecular components, but it shouldn't be part of an adult's diet, the researchers said.

Unhealthy Data? US Dietary Guidelines Criticized

At issue is the fact that U.S. dietary guidelines are based heavily on data from self-reported questionnaires, on which ordinary people reported the types of food and drinks they consume day-to-day. But ordinary people can forget, guess or even lie their way through the questionnaires. For the past five decades, such questionnaires have been at the heart of a program called the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which is run by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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