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Friday, July 17, 2015

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Aiyeeeee! Human screams jolt brain's fear-response center

Researchers who explored how the brain handles a scream said on Thursday the loud, high-pitched sound targets a deep brain structure called the amygdala that plays a major role in danger processing and fear learning. "We knew pretty well what frequencies are used by speech signals and the brain regions involved in speech processing: the auditory cortex and higher order regions such as Broca's area, for instance," said University of Geneva neuroscientist Luc Arnal, whose research appears in the journal Current Biology.

Research: Polar bears can't conserve energy during fasting

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A study of an Alaska polar bear population in summer concludes the bear's biology will not help stave off starvation in the face of global warming.

Forbidden Love: Don't Kiss Your Chickens, CDC Says

A number of people around the United States have become sick with Salmonella after bringing backyard chickens indoors, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of June 29, at least 181 people have come down with Salmonella during 2015, in four separate outbreaks spanning 40 states. Of the ill people who researchers reached for interviews, 86 percent reported having contact with baby chicks, ducklings or other live poultry.

'Very Light' Smoking Common Among Young Women

Young American women commonly smoke, but only very lightly, or they smoke on some days but not others, a new study finds. Overall, about 30 percent of the women were current smokers, whereas 28 percent were former smokers and 41 percent had never smoked. Most of the current smokers were "very light smokers," who smoked five or fewer cigarettes per day.

Depressed? Your Smartphone May Tell

The participants also completed a questionnaire intended to measure their symptoms of depression. About half of the participants had no symptoms of depression, while the other half had symptoms ranging from mild to severe. The researchers found that by using only the data from the participants' phones, they could identify which participants had symptoms of depression with 87 percent accuracy.

Revealed by New Horizons, Pluto's 'Heart' Named for Planet's Discoverer

As NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew by and beyond Pluto on Tuesday (July 14), it carried with it the ashes of the American astronomer who discovered the dwarf planet in 1930. Now, the mission's science team has further memorialized Clyde Tombaugh by giving Pluto's prominent heart-shaped feature his name.

See Double Crescents of Venus and the Moon with Binoculars

On the evening of Saturday (July 18) the crescent moon, as it moves eastward across the sky, will appear to pass directly below the crescent planet Venus, which itself is moving westward across the sky. To the naked eye, Venus appears like a brilliant pinpoint of light. Turn your binoculars on it, and that slight additional magnification will allow you to see that Venus is also a narrow crescent.

Dying for a Selfie? Why People Risk Their Lives For Self-Photos

Selfies seem to be everywhere these days: on the campaign trail, at the Oscars, even at funerals. Officials in Russia recently launched a campaign warning of the dangers of selfies after a number of selfie-related injuries and deaths occurred in the country. But why have selfies become so popular, to the point that people are willing to risk their lives to take the perfect snapshot of themselves?

Chimps Can Spot Faces Like Humans Do

Chimpanzees can quickly identify the faces of other chimps, as well as those of human adults and babies. These new findings could shed light on human and chimp evolution, scientists say.

Screaming Triggers Alarm Bells in the Brain

In the 1959 film "The Tingler," obsessed scientist Vincent Price battled a centipedelike creature that only human screams could kill. "If you ask a person on the street what's special about screams, they'll say that they're loud or have a higher pitch," said study senior author David Poeppel, who heads a speech and language-processing lab at New York University.

Apollo-Soyuz Spawned 1st Handshake in Space by US-Soviet Crews 40 Years Ago

The Cold War experienced a bit of a thaw 40 years ago today (July 17), thanks to some off-Earth cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The historic Apollo-Soyuz Test Project meetup showed that two different space vehicles could dock in orbit, but it had far-reaching diplomatic consequences as well.

NASA Unveiling New Pluto Flyby Photos Today: How to Watch Live

NASA will reveal more of the New Horizons spacecraft's up-close photos of Pluto and its moons today (July 17), and you can watch the unveiling live. The new images, which New Horizons captured during its historic flyby of Pluto on Tuesday (July 14), will be released and discussed at a news conference that starts today at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). You can follow it live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.

Renowned scientist who helped lead mission to Jupiter dies

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Claudia Alexander, a brilliant, pioneering scientist who helped direct NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter and the international Rosetta space-exploration project, has died at age 56.

Ghostly Particle with No Mass Finally Created in the Lab

The mysterious particle, called a Weyl fermion, emerged from a crystal of a material called a semi-metal. By bombarding the crystal with photons, the team produced a stream of electrons that collectively behaved like the elusive subatomic particles. The new discovery not only sheds light on the behavior of one of the most elusive fundamental particles, it could pave the way for ultra-low-power electronics, said study co-author Su-Yang Xu, a physicist at Princeton University in New Jersey.

Bendy Liquid Metal Coils Could Make Stretchable Loudspeakers

Coils of liquid metal could be used to make stretchable loudspeakers and microphones, potentially leading to new kinds of hearing aids, heart monitors, and wearable and implantable devices, researchers say. Now, scientists in Korea have created a stretchable acoustic device by replacing this rigid coil with a deformable, liquid metal coil. The scientists operated the device by electrically charging the liquid metal coil, turning it into an electromagnet that could push back and forth off the neodymium magnet to either detect or emit sound.

Finally, Bacon-Flavored Health Food Has Arrived

Bacon-flavored seaweed is the new kale. Dulse is usually harvested in the wild, dried out and then sold for up to $90 a pound, according to researchers at the Oregon State University (OSU) Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, who developed the domesticated strain of the plant. The OSU researchers are working on making dulse more affordable and more widely available.

Scientists puzzle over Pluto's polygons

By Irene Klotz NEW YORK (Reuters) - New pictures relayed by the first spacecraft to visit distant Pluto show odd polygon-shaped features and smooth hills in an crater-free plain, indications that the icy world is geologically active, New Horizons scientists said on Friday. "We had no idea that Pluto would have a geologically young surface," said lead researcher Alan Stern, with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "It's a wonderful surprise." The goal of the $720 million New Horizons mission is to map the surfaces of Pluto and its primary moon Charon, assess what materials they contain and study Pluto's atmosphere.

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Thursday, July 16, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Pluto Unveiled: NASA Photos Reveal Ice Mountains and Active Moon

After 85 years as a mystery, the surface of Pluto is finally coming into focus, with a new NASA photo revealing towering ice mountains rising from its surprisingly youthful face. NASA today unveiled the first close-up photos of Pluto and two of its five moons as seen by the New Horizons spacecraft, which buzzed the dwarf planet Tuesday (July 14) during a historic flyby. One photo revealed a mountain range rising 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) into Pluto's sky, along with a surface just 100 million years old at the most.

Tiny Pluto sports big mountains, New Horizons finds

The results are the first since the piano-sized spacecraft capped a 3 billion mile (4.82 billion km), 9-1/2-year-long journey to pass within 7,800 miles (12,550 km) of Pluto on Tuesday. New Horizons is now heading deeper into the Kuiper Belt, a region of the solar system beyond Neptune that is filled with thousands of Pluto-like ice-and-rock worlds believed to be remnants from the formation of the solar system, some 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists do not know how Pluto formed such big mountains, the tallest of which juts almost 11,000 feet (3,350 meters) off the ground, nearly as high as the Canadian Rockies.

Genetically modified diamondback moth offers pest control hope

Scientists in Britain say they have developed a way of genetically modifying and controlling an invasive species of moth that causes serious pest damage to cabbages, kale, canola and other similar crops worldwide. In what they said could be a pesticide-free and environmentally-friendly way to control insect pests, the scientists, from the Oxford University spinout company Oxitec, developed diamondback moths with a "self-limiting gene" which dramatically reduced populations in greenhouse trials. "This research is opening new doors for the future of farming with pest control methods that are non-toxic and pesticide-free," said Neil Morrison, an Oxitec research scientist who led the study.

New Pluto Photos Contain Multitude of Mysteries

Scientists are stunned at the incredible new images of the surface of Pluto, its largest moon Charon and its farthest-flung moon Hydra, which are just the tip of the scientific iceberg that will be sent back by NASA's New Horizons probe in the wake of its epic flyby. New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto at 7:49 a.m. (1149 GMT) Tuesday morning (July 14), but it took almost 24 hours for scientists to get a sneak peek at the treasure trove of data that the probe picked up. It will take 16 months for the spacecraft to beam home the entire volume of information it collected during its historic Pluto encounter.

Solar-powered plane grounded nine months in Hawaii by battery damage

A solar-powered plane halfway through an attempt to circle the globe will be grounded in Hawaii for at least nine months because of battery damage sustained during its record 118-hour flight to Oahu from Japan, the project team said on Wednesday. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft dubbed Solar Impulse is not expected to take off on the next leg of its journey - a planned four-day, four-night flight to Phoenix, Arizona - until late April or early May 2016, the team said. Additional time is needed to repair the plane's four batteries, which store energy from the sun during daylight hours to keep the aircraft powered overnight, allowing it to remain aloft around the clock on extreme long-distance flights.

Why Beached Great White Shark Was Such a Rare Sight

A young, great white shark had a near-death experience when the retreating tide left it stranded on a beach in Cape Cod on Monday afternoon (July 13). It was a rare event, and not just because people saved the life of a vilified marine creature, shark experts told Live Science. Great whites rarely wash up on beaches because they typically live in the open water, far away from the coast, said George Burgess, a shark expert at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Wild Milky Way Map Reveals Hidden Loops of Multicolored Microwaves

Currents of bold color swirling in the image above look like an impressionist's painting, but are actually a map of microwaves emanating from the Milky Way galaxy. The low-energy light waves also reveal the presence of a ring of dust that cordons off a third of the sky. This new microwave map of the galaxy comes from the European Space Agency's Planck satellite, which launched in 2009 to measure the microwave light left over from the Big Bang.

NASA Funds Titan Submarine, Other Far-Out Space Exploration Ideas

NASA has just funded seven far-out space-exploration concepts, including a submarine that would explore the hydrocarbon seas of Saturn's huge moon Titan, an origami energy reflector and rapid space transit with an electric sail.

Bill Cosby Deposition: What Is Somnophilia?

Allegations that comedian Bill Cosby drugged and raped multiple women since the 1970s have brought a controversial psychological term to the surface: somnophilia, a fetish for sex with a sleeping person. In fact, sexual fetishes, or paraphilias are a hot-button topic in the psychological community. "Paraphilias and things like sexual sadism are not really used by psychologists and therapists," said Anna Randall, a clinical psychologist and sex therapist who practices in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

Big Daddy of Primates: Lemur Has Giant Testes

A recently discovered lemur from Madagascar has the largest testes per body weight of any primate, new research finds. If the northern giant mouse lemur were the size of a human, its testes would be as big as grapefruits, said Christoph Schwitzer, the director of conservation at the Bristol Zoological Society in the U.K. The lemur (Mirza zaza) was first named by science in 2005, and researchers knew nothing about its diet and lifestyle — though the animal is already listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Designers build spiral staircase to the treetops

By Matthew Stock People of all ages could soon be able to climb to the tops of trees thanks to two design graduates from London's Royal College of Art (RCA). Designers Robert McIntyre and Thor ter Kulve came up with the idea for CanopyStair as a final year project at the RCA for their Design Products postgraduate program. McIntyre said that the more they developed the concept the more they realized its potential for unlocking a largely undiscovered wilderness that everyone could enjoy.

Velociraptor's Cousin Flaunted Fabulous Feathers, Tiny Arms

A flamboyant cousin of the fearsome Velociraptor, covered in layers of showy feathers from head to tail, once stalked meaty prey in the forests of what is now northeastern China. A farmer found the fossil in Liaoning Province in northeastern China, an area famous for its feathered dinosaur fossils. Researchers reported on the first known dinosaur fossil with preserved feathers (Sinosauropteryx) from the province in 1996, and "now we have thousands of different dinosaur fossils covered in feathers," said co-researcher Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh.

New Photos of Pluto and Moon Surprise, Puzzle Scientists

The first up-close images of Pluto and its biggest moon, Charon, are making scientists rethink the inner workings of these and other icy, far-flung worlds. The new Pluto photos, which were captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft during its historic flyby on Tuesday (July 14), show that both the dwarf planet and Charon have been geologically active in the recent past.

Too Much Sitting Linked to Women's Cancer Risk

Sitting for a long time is linked with a variety of diseases, including an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Now, a new study finds that sitting may be particularly harmful for women by raising their risk of developing several cancers. Women in the study who sat more than 6 hours a day were at a higher risk of developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer and the blood cancer multiple myeloma compared with women who sat less than 3 hours a day.

Most Women Who Have Abortions Don't Regret Them

The idea that women may regret having an abortion has been used to support restrictions against the procedure. "Claims that women suffer from psychological harm from their abortions, and that large proportions of women come to regret their abortions over time, at least in these data, are simply not true," said study researcher Corinne Rocca, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. The notion of abortion regret is often cited in legislation requiring that women undergo mandatory ultrasounds or waiting periods before an abortion.

Douching May Expose Women to Harmful Chemicals

Women who use vaginal douches — a type of feminine care product — may be at a risk of increased exposure to chemicals called phthalates, which have been tied to negative effects on health, according to a new study.

Aiyeeeee! Human screams jolt brain's fear-response center

No solace for food-deprived polar bears as sea ice wanes

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Polar bears are the kings of the ice surface covering the top of the globe, but the ongoing loss of the Arctic sea ice on which they hunt seals is causing summer food deprivation that threatens these imposing white-furred predators. Researchers who monitored the body temperature, activity levels and movements of 30 bears found they limited their summer energy expenditure a bit, but not enough to compensate for the food deprivation they face. The findings indicate polar bears cannot use reduced metabolic rates to extend their reliance on stored body fat when food becomes scarce.

New dinosaur called 'fluffy feathered poodle from hell'

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have unearthed a spectacularly preserved, nearly complete fossil in northeastern China of a feathered dinosaur with wings like those of a bird, although they doubt the strange creature could fly. Considering its mouth full of sharp teeth and its overall oddness, University of Edinburgh paleontologist Steve Brusatte dubbed the dinosaur, named Zhenyuanlong suni, a "fluffy feathered poodle from hell." A member of a group of dinosaurs called raptors closely related to birds, it was a cousin of Velociraptor, although that dinosaur, featured inaccurately in the "Jurassic Park" films as much bigger than it was, lived about 40-50 million years later.

Pluto's Big Moon Charon Has a Bizarre Mountain in a Moat (Photo)

A newly released Charon photo, which was taken by NASA's New Horizons probe during its epic Pluto flyby Tuesday (July 14), reveals a mountain rising out of a big hole on the 750-mile-wide (1,200 kilometers) moon's surface. The feature, which is visible at the bottom left-hand corner of the inset, is "a large mountain sitting in a moat," Jeff Moore, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, said in a statement.

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