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Saturday, August 8, 2015

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Boeing Gets $6.6 Million More for XS-1 Military Space Plane

Boeing has gotten another $6.6 million to continue developing its concept for the United States military's XS-1 robotic space plane.

Overuse of Workout Supplements Highlights Men's Body Image Issues

Some men who use excessive amounts of workout supplements such as protein powders and bars may have eating disorders, new research suggests. Researchers found that, of the 195 men in the study, 29 percent said they were concerned about their own use of workout supplements. Moreover, 8 percent of the men said their doctor had told them to cut back on workout supplements or stop using them, and 3 percent had been hospitalized for problems with their liver or kidneys due to their use of such supplements.

US Military Awards New Contracts for XS-1 Space Plane

This story was updated at 7:10 p.m. EDT.

Why Does Plague Still Occur in the Western US?

Three cases of plague have occurred in the United States in recent months, and although the illness is rare, it's not uncommon to have a few cases here each year. Most recently, a girl in California became sickened with plague after visiting Yosemite National Park and the nearby Stanislaus National Forest in mid-July, according to the California Department of Public Health. There were also two deaths from plague in Colorado this summer — in early June, a 16-year-old boy in Larimer County died, and this week, an adult in Pueblo City died.

Can Sexting Have Benefits for Couples?

Sexting is common among U.S. adults, and although the practice is often portrayed as risky or just bad behavior, it may have benefits for couples, a new study suggests. About 74 percent said they sexted when they were in a committed relationship, and 43 percent said they sexted during a causal relationship. What's more, sexting appeared to have some benefits: People who sexted more had higher levels of sexual satisfaction, the study found.

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Friday, August 7, 2015

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Yawn! School Starts Too Early for Teens, CDC Says

School start times that are too early can contribute to lack of sleep among teens, most of whom don't get the recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours of shut-eye, the report said. In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that middle and high schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. "Getting enough sleep is important for students' health, safety, and academic performance," Anne Wheaton, an epidemiologist in CDC's Division of Population Health and co-author of the agency's new report, said in a statement.

Simple Chemical Stops Prion Disease

Mad cow, scrapie and Creutzfeld-Jakob disease are all diseases of the brain that debilitate before they kill, and have no cure, or even many good treatment options beyond supportive care. Prions are a distinct type of protein — they can self-replicate, said Adriano Aguzzi, professor of neuropathology at the University of Zurich, who led the study. When a prion comes into contact with a normal protein, it makes the normal protein alter its shape, and become a prion, too.

Stress May Sabotage Diet Willpower

In that tough decision about whether to snack on an apple or a donut, stress may be a deciding factor, according to a new study. The study found that a moderate amount of stress can weaken a person's willpower to choose healthier food when making food decisions. Researchers in Switzerland asked people to choose a food to eat, after the individuals had experienced moderate stress.

How to Set High Goals Without Burning Out, According to Science

Researchers analyzed 43 studies on perfectionism and burnout, and found that holding high expectations — whether for academic achievements, career goals or athletic pursuits — isn't necessarily a bad thing. It is this aspect of perfectionism that leads to burnout, said study co-author Andrew Hill, a sports psychologist at York St. John University in England. "You can fail as many times as you like, as long as you don't feel like that reflects on your self-worth," Hill said.

Q&A: A look at the science on Hawaii's Mauna Kea

HONOLULU (AP) — Atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea, where some Native Hawaiians have been peacefully protesting the construction of what would be one of the world's largest telescopes, astronomers have spent the last 40 years observing our universe and helping make some of the most significant discoveries in their field.

JetHawks Baseball Team Honoring Astronaut with Bobblehead

Astronaut Jerry Ross, who shares the world record for the most missions into outer space, has been decorated with military and NASA medals, enshrined into a hall of fame and awarded an honorary doctorate. For Jerry Ross is about to be immortalized as a bobblehead. The honor comes from the Lancaster JetHawks, the Minor League Baseball team located in southern California near Edwards Air Force Base, NASA's Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center and the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Walking Dead: How Wasp Overlords Control Spider Zombies

The manipulative relationship between the wasp and the spider begins when a female wasp attacks the orb weaver in its web. Firmly attached to the spider, the egg develops into a larva, which eventually does kill its host, but not before the spider serves it as a slave throughout the early stages of development, said Keizo Takasuka, a postdoctoral fellow at Kobe University's Graduate School of Agricultural Science in Japan and lead author of a new study exploring the relationship between R. nielseni and the orb weaver. Over the past several years, Takasuka has headed to the Shinto shrines of Hyogo prefecture to collect spiders enslaved by the parasitic larvae of R. nielseni.

3D-Printed Spy Drones Could Be Built at Sea

A 3D-printed drone was recently launched from a British military warship and successfully flew to shore, a demonstration that could pave the way for futuristic spy drones that can be printed at sea. Engineers at the University of Southampton, in the United Kingdom, built the unmanned aircraft using 3D printing, which has been used to create everything from pelvic implants to a prosthetic tortoise shell. The drone was launched off the front of the Royal Navy warship HMS Mersey.

New Breast Pump Could Offer More Freedom for Busy Moms

It's the first week of August, and that can mean only one thing: It's World Breastfeeding Week. Every year, from Aug. 1 to Aug. 7, the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) sponsors a campaign to educate the public about the benefits (and challenges) of breast-feeding. WABA centers its global campaign around a different theme every year.

Even Slightly Preterm Babies Face Risks

Infant death rates in the United States continue to decline, but babies born even just a few weeks early are at considerably higher risk for death than those born at full term, according to a new report. In 2013, there were 5.96 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births in the United States, down slightly from 5.98 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2012, according to the report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. infant mortality has dropped 13 percent since 2005, when there were 6.86 deaths for every 1,000 live births, the report said.

'Mega-Giant' Aneurysm Removed from Man's Brain

An auto mechanic in Boston survived the removal of a rare "giant aneurysm" from his brain, according to a new report of the man's case. Aneurysms larger than 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) are rare, and are called "giant aneurysms," but the size of this man's aneurysm was a whopping 7 centimeters (2.75 inches), which is extremely unusual, according to the report. "A 7-centimeter aneurysm is mega-giant — it's about the size of a good-sized peach," said Dr. Nirav Patel, the neurosurgeon at Boston Medical Center who performed the man's surgery and co-authored the case report, published today (Aug. 5) in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Dangerous Roads: States with Most Drunk Drivers Revealed

People who live in Hawaii are the likeliest of those of any state to drive drunk, and Midwesterners also have high rates of drunk driving, according to a new report of drunk driving rates in the United States. The results show a stark difference in drunk driving rates among states and regions, as well as between men and women. In 2013, more than 10,000 people died in car crashes in which the driver had a blood alcohol concentration above 0.08 percent, the legal limit for drunk driving.

NY Legionnaires' Outbreak Highlights Nationwide Rise

A large outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in New York City has put the illness in the spotlight in recent weeks, but experts say the illness needs more attention in general, as cases have increased nationwide over the last decade. Since the outbreak was first reported, on July 10, 86 people in the South Bronx have been sickened with Legionnaires' disease, including seven who have died. The disease is a type of pneumonia caused by the bacteria Legionella, which live in watery environments.

Elephant-Size Underwater Blob Mystifies Divers

Those glittery specks are squid eggs, and the blob is called a squid egg nest, said Michael Vecchione, director of the NOAA National Systematics Laboratory at the Smithsonian and a curator of cephalopods at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The divers are lucky to have found one so close to shore, said Vecchione, who wasn't part of the dive.

Slooh Webcast to Mark Rosetta Comet Mission's Closest Sun Approach Saturday

Last November, the European Space Agency's (ESA) washing-machine-size Philae lander detached from its orbiting Rosetta mothership and came to rest on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a harrowing and dramatic double-bounce touchdown. Comet 67P will make its closest pass to the sun next Thursday (Aug. 13), with Philae still along for the ride, and ESA and the online Slooh Community Observatory will mark the event with a webcast that begins at 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT) Saturday (Aug. 8). You can watch the show directly from Slooh at the observatory's website: www.slooh.com.

See Mercury, Jupiter and Bright Star Form a Celestrial Trio at Sunset

Over the next few nights, observers with clear skies and a great view of the low western horizon may be able to observe a triple conjunction between the planets Mercury and Jupiter and the bright star Regulus. Look for this celestial trio tonight (Aug. 7), with Jupiter, Regulus and Mercury aligning to form an equilateral triangle in the western night sky that measures about 1 degree per side. Mercury will be on top, Regulus to the left, and Jupiter to the right.

Why Cats Have Vertical Pupils

Vertical-slit pupils are most common among nocturnal predators that ambush their prey, according to the new research, published today (Aug. 7) in the journal Science Advances. The observation that predators tend to have vertical pupils and prey horizontal ones dates back to the 1940s, but no one had ever quantified that difference, said Martin Banks, a vision researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Thursday, August 6, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Ancient Galaxy Is Most Distant Ever Found

Astronomers have spotted the farthest-flung galaxy in the known universe. The discovery team used an infrared spectrograph at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii to detect EGSY8p7's "Lyman-alpha emission line" — basically, hydrogen gas heated up by ultraviolet radiation streaming from the galaxy's newborn stars. Seeing a Lyman-alpha line at such a great distance came as a surprise to the researchers.

Miscarriage: Facts, Myths and Mysteries

When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg shared on his social-networking site that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are expecting a baby girl, the father-to-be also revealed some more sobering news: The couple had three miscarriages during the several years they tried to conceive. "It's a lonely experience," Zuckerberg wrote. Recent research shows that Zuckerberg isn't the only person who has worried about feeling blamed for a miscarriage.

New York City Outbreak: What Is Legionnaire's Disease?

At least seven people in New York City have died and 86 have been infected in an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease. In addition, most people who do get Legionnaires' can be treated with antibiotics. From its source to its treatment, here are some of the most important things to know about the disease and the current outbreak.

Opuntia or Ogmios? New Exoplanet Names To Be Announced Next Week

The votes are in! Thirty-two exoplanets will get new names that were chosen in an open vote by the general public. The "Name the Exoworlds" campaign, created by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), gave the public the opportunity to vote on new names for stars and planets in 20 exoplanet systems. "This is another attempt by the union to engage the public in the activities of the union," said Piero Benvenuti, IAU's assistant general secretary, in a media briefing on Monday (Aug. 3).

Moon Crosses Earth's Face in Amazing Million-Mile Video

The Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) studies the solar wind and snaps vivid shots of Earth's surface from its position about 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from the planet. Recently, the moon entered DSCOVR's field of view, and the spacecraft caught the amazing lunar transit on time-lapse video. "It's surprising how much brighter Earth is than the moon," Adam Szabo, DSCOVR project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement.

No Tusks: Ancient Walrus Cousin Looked More Like a Sea Lion

About 10 million years ago, a distant cousin of the modern walrus snapped at fish as it swam near the shore of what is now modern Japan, a new study finds.

Rosetta 1 Year Later: Historic Comet Mission Still Intrigues

One year ago today, a spacecraft slipped into orbit around a comet for the first time ever.

Ancient Reptiles Attacked with Giant Fangs

Ancient mammal-like reptiles that once grazed across the globe may have possessed many of the fighting tactics seen in modern herbivores, including head butting and attacks with giant fangs, researchers say. The new finding comes from an analysis of two such bizarre anomodonts, both the size of large dogs: Tiarajudens eccentricus and Anomocephalus africanus. Vertebrate paleontologist Juan Carlos Cisneros at the Federal University of Piauí in Teresina, Brazil, and his colleagues recently discovered Tiarajudens eccentricus, an odd saber-toothed anomodont that once dined on leaves and stems amidst the dunes, ponds and streams of ancient Brazil.

Planet Earth Shines in Weather Satellite's 1st Photo from Space

Africa looked awash in splotches of dusty pink, vibrant green and a swirl of white clouds in an image snapped Tuesday (Aug. 4) by Europe's newest weather satellite, according to an announcement from the European Space Agency (ESA). After ESA scientists spent 11 days configuring the satellite, they handed its controls over to the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) on July 26. EUMETSAT researchers immediately got to work, and had the satellite take its first picture Tuesday using its SEVIRI imager.

Dancing Peacock Spider Is a Web Sensation

If you don't think spiders are super-cute, then you've probably never seen Maratus personatus perform its very elaborate, oh-so-adorable mating dance. The males of this newly described species of peacock spider get seriously groovy when wooing lady spiders, and, luckily for arachnophiles, one biologist thinks their dance moves are worthy of recording (and then setting to funky music). Jürgen Otto, a mite biologist and peacock spider enthusiast at the Australian Department of Agriculture in Sydney, maintains a YouTube channel devoted to sharing the mating dances of these spiders in a way that even arachnophobes can appreciate.

Fly catcher robot to speed up insights into Alzheimer's

By Ben Gruber PALO ALTO, California - Stanford University researchers are using the most sophisticated fly catcher in the world with the potential to speed up the rate of scientific insight into diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Utilizing robotics, computer vision, and high speed cameras along with a powerful suit of sensors, this robot can handle and study fruit flies with unprecedented speed and accuracy. Fruit flies and humans share more than 50 percent of the genes known to affect human disease, making them crucial to genetic research. "Historically the fruit fly has been an important model for the study of various biological processes and has led to important discoveries initially in genetics but then in other fields as well," said Mark Schnitzer, a professor of biology and applied physics at Stanford University.

NASA extends contract with Russia for rides to Space Station

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA extended its contract with Russia to fly astronauts to the International Space Station due to budget cuts that have delayed commercial U.S. alternatives, the U.S. space agency said on Wednesday. Extending the contract through 2017 will cost the United States about $490 million, NASA chief Charles Bolden wrote in a letter to Congress. The deal for U.S. taxpayers to pay Moscow more than $80 million per seat on a Soyuz rocket comes at a time when Washington is ratcheting up sanctions against Russia in response to its actions in Ukraine.

Frogs from Hell: Their Venomous Head Spikes Could Kill You

In the wilds of Brazil, researchers have discovered frogs with venomous spikes on their heads. Most amphibians, such as frogs, newts and salamanders, concentrate or secrete poisons in skin glands to ward off predators. Frogs include some of the most toxic animals on Earth — for instance, the 2-inch-long (5-centimeter) golden poison dart frog has enough toxin to kill 10 grown men, and the indigenous Emberá people of Colombia have used its poison for centuries in blowgun darts.

Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek's 'Uhura,' Will Fly on NASA's SOFIA Observatory

While it's not quite beaming up to a spacecraft, a "Star Trek" celebrity plans to take part in a special NASA flight to observe the universe. Nichelle Nichols, best known for playing Lt. Nyota Uhura on "Star Trek: The Original Series," will join the crew of the SOFIA (Stratospheric Infrared Observatory) aircraft on Sept. 17, the star announced July 31. "I am honored to say that I will be among the first non-essential personnel to experience NASA's newest telescope: SOFIA," Nichols wrote on StarPower, a website celebrities use to raise money for charities.

Drones in Space! NASA's Wild Idea to Explore Mars (Video)

A team of NASA engineers wants to put drones on Mars. Now, the Swamp Works team at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is developing a dronelike robot that works in dark, low- or no-atmosphere environments, and can recharge itself by returning to its lander mothership. "This is a prospecting robot," Rob Mueller, senior technologist for advanced projects at Swamp Works, said in a statement.

Fly Over Ceres' Mysterious Mountain and Bright Spots in Incredible Video

With or without 3D glasses, a newly released video tour of Ceres offers a new perspective on the dwarf planet's dramatic and diverse surface. "This mountain is among the tallest features we've seen on Ceres to date," Dawn science team member Paul Schenk, a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, said in a statement.

Warning for Nepal: April Earthquake Didn't Unleash All Its Energy

The devastating earthquake that struck Nepal in April released only a fraction of the energy still trapped in the underlying fault, meaning the area has the potential to host another large earthquake in the future, researchers say. "The Main Himalayan Thrust is a fault that has produced large earthquakes every century or so," said study lead author Jean-Philippe Avouac, a geophysicist at the University of Cambridge in England. "Nepal lost two kings to these quakes, one in 1255, another in 1344.

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