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Wednesday, August 19, 2015

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If Pluto Keeps Spewing Nitrogen, Why Is It Still Full of It?

Something mysterious is happening on the surface of Pluto: No matter how much nitrogen the atmosphere releases into space, it's still chock-full of the stuff. New work examines the possible culprits for the stealthy nitrogen resupply, hinting at active geologic activity inside the dwarf planet. Pluto's atmosphere has 10,000 times lower pressure than Earth's at the surface, and hundreds of tons of nitrogen are escaping every hour.

Japanese Supply Ship to Launch Toward Space Station: How to Watch Live

A robotic Japanese cargo ship will launch toward the space station Wednesday morning (Aug. 19), and you can watch the liftoff live. You can watch a webcast of the HTV-5 launch live, beginning at 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT), courtesy of NASA TV. If all goes according to plan, the freighter will arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday (Aug. 24) after a five-day flight.

Ghostly Particles Detected Beneath Earth

Using giant vats of organic liquid buried under a mountain in Italy, scientists have shed new light on the origins of ghostly particles known as neutrinos generated by the Earth. This research could yield insights into what radioactive elements lie deep inside the Earth and how they influence the churning of the Earth's innards, researchers added. Neutrinos are subatomic particles generated by nuclear reactions and the radioactive decay of unstable atoms.

'Winged Monster' Rock Art Finally Deciphered

The mystery surrounding the ancient rock paintings of Utah's Black Dragon Canyon has finally been solved. For decades, researchers and creationists have debated whether the vibrant red pictographs are images of humans and animals, or rather, depictions of a large winged monster, possibly a pterosaur. It is not a pterodactyl," said co-lead researcher Paul Bahn, a freelance archaeologist.

Japan Launches Vital Supplies (and Mice) Toward International Space Station

A robotic Japanese cargo vessel launched toward the International Space Station this morning, embarking on a five-day journey to the orbiting lab to deliver tons of supplies and experiment gear, including a rodent crew of 12 mice.

'Corpse Flower' Blooms in Denver: How to Watch Live

The first-ever bloom of a stinky "corpse flower" in the Rocky Mountain region is happening here today (Aug. 19). The corpse flower, or titan arum, is famous for its rare-but-enormous blossoms. But what really makes corpse flowers famous is their stench.

Young Children Aim for 'Tomorrowland' in Summer Space Challenge

A summer challenge sponsored by X Prize and Disney Junior invites kids ages 2 to 8 to develop "out-of-this-world" creations — and the grand prize is a trip to Florida's Kennedy Space Center to see a SpaceX rocket launch. Celebrities kicked off the challenge, called "Miles from Tomorrowland: Space Missions," last month at the New York Hall of Science by leading children in STEAM-based art projects and activities. The technology award organization X Prize is well known for a $30 million series of lunar mission milestone awards co-sponsored by Google, and it has teamed up with Disney before for a video contest focused on older kids.

E-Cigarette Use May Be Gateway to Conventional Smoking

Teens who use electronic cigarettes may be more likely to start smoking conventional tobacco products than teens who have never tried e-cigarettes, according to a new study. "The study found that 14-year-olds who had used e-cigarettes for recreational purposes were four times more likely to start smoking at least one harmful tobacco product — including regular cigarettes, a hookah tobacco water pipe and/or cigars — over the next year," said Adam Leventhal, an associate professor of preventive medicine and psychology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and a co-author of the study, published today (Aug. 18) in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The new study showed a link between e-cigarette use in teens and an increased chance of smoking other products later on, but it did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between them, Leventhal noted.

To Build a Gas Giant Planet, Just Add Pebbles

Gas-giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn form quickly by scooping up pebble-size building blocks and pushing smaller potential planets out of the way, new research suggests. Over time, the dust grains clump together to form pebbles, asteroid-size planetesimals and eventually whole planets, clearing out paths through the dust and debris. "This is the first model that we know about that you start out with a pretty simple structure for the solar nebula from which planets form, and end up with the giant-planet system that we see," study lead author Harold Levison, an astronomer at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Colorado, told Space.com.

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Tuesday, August 18, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Mass Grave Suggests Ancient Village Wiped Out by Massacre

A 7,000-year-old mass grave holding at least 26 adults and children, many of them with smashed skulls and broken legs, is likely evidence of an early Neolithic massacre, a new study finds. A number of individuals also had broken leg bones (tibiae and fibulae), indicating they were tortured before death, or mutilated afterward, said the study's lead researcher, Christian Meyer, a bioarchaeologist who conducted the study while at the University of Mainz in Germany. The researchers also found two bone arrowheads in the grave, weapons that were likely used against the victims, Meyer said.

Wild Inflatable Space Elevator Idea Could Lift People 12 Miles Up

Space enthusiasts and sci-fi fans, rejoice: The space elevator may be one step closer to reality. A Canadian space company was recently awarded a patent for a space elevator that would reach about 12 miles (20 kilometers) above the Earth's surface. Although space elevators have been considered a theoretical technology, they have been billed as a cheaper alternative to rocket launches, especially when it comes to sending heavy objects or people into space.

Medicine's Dark Side: Docs' Bad Behavior Exposed

The reason for publishing these accounts is to expose "dark underbelly" of medicine, and to encourage health professionals to speak up when they see such inappropriate behavior, according to the editors of the journal, Annals of Internal Medicine. In the essay, an anonymous author described one day when he was teaching a medical humanities class to medical students. One medical student, named David in the essay, spoke up and said that something happened to him that he can't forgive.

Illumina partners with private equity firm on gene JV: sources

Gene-sequencing giant Illumina Inc, private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC and venture capital firm Sutter Hill Ventures have agreed to invest $100 million to seed a new consumer-facing human genome platform called Helix, according to people familiar with the deal. San Francisco-based Helix aims to provide a new kind of environment that will sequence, store and analyze individuals' genetic data and provide a marketplace of services through various partners, allowing people to explore their geneology or understand their risk for inherited disease. To accomplish that, Helix plans to create one of the world's largest next-generation DNA sequencing labs and make the data accessible on a secure and protected database.

'Sea Monster' Figurehead Hauled from the Baltic Sea

A sea monster that lay hidden beneath the waves for five centuries has finally been recovered from the Baltic Sea. The "monster" — a ship figurehead that may show a scowling dog or perhaps a fantastical sea dragon with a helpless human clutched in its jaws — was fixed atop the Gribshunden, a vessel that last sailed in 1495. "What is unique is that there are no other warships from this time in the world," said Marcus Sandekjer, the director of the Blekinge Museum in Karlskrona, Sweden, where the figurehead is being kept.

Constellation Sagittarius: Archer, Dipper or Teapot?

Bow, arrow, milk ladle or teapot — the constellation called the Archer appears as many things besides, and you can find it down near the southern horizon this week. The many faces of the constellation Sagittarius may be an example of the psychological phenomenon pareidolia, in which the mind perceives a familiar pattern where none actually exists. After all, the "connect-the-dots" pictures of constellations we have come to recognize are all formed out of stars of varying brightness, scattered randomly across the sky.

Are Smart Mini Sensors the Next Big Thing? (Op-Ed)

Dror Sharon is co-founder and CEO of Consumer Physics, developer of the SCiO palm-size molecular sensor. An electrical engineer, Sharon has previously served in leadership positions at two VC-backed hardware and optics startups and was an early stage technology investor. This Op-Ed is part of a series provided by the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers, class of 2015.

The Dangers of Going Gluten-Free (Op-Ed)

This article is an exclusive for Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. More and more Americans are on the anti-wheat warpath trend, as the label "gluten free" appears on everything from craft beer to cat food. For those with celiac disease, a life-threatening autoimmune disorder that destroys the gastrointestinal tract, going gluten-free is critical to avoid damage to the small intestine. Such facts haven't stopped the food industry from taking advantage of the trend, and gluten-free products have grown to represent a $9 billion market in 2014, according to the Burdock Group, which specializes in food market research, among other issues.

'Young Jupiter' 51 Eridani b: Why Directly Imaging an Exoplanet Is Big (Kavli Q+A)

Adam Hadhazy, writer and editor for The Kavli Foundation, contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Astronomers have spied a new alien world, 51 Eridani b, that they believe strikingly resembles a young Jupiter. With a mass only about twice that of our Solar System's king planet, 51 Eridani b stands as perhaps the coldest and smallest exoplanet ever to be directly imaged.

Swim On! Rescued Great White Shark Likely Still Alive

A great white shark famously saved last month by Cape Cod beachgoers is likely still alive and swimming, said a shark expert. Before it was released, experts pinned an acoustic tag to the shark's dorsal fin, which is on its back. A system of acoustic receivers — located about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) south of where researchers released the shark — picked up the animal's unique signal within two weeks of the rescue, said Gregory Skomal, afisheries biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, who helped save the shark.

People with ALS May Consume More Calories, But Weigh Less

People with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are known to experience changes in their metabolism after their diagnosis — for example, they burn more calories while at rest. In the study, the researchers surveyed about 670 people with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, shortly after their diagnosis. The researchers found that before their symptoms started, the people with ALS had a higher calorie intake — consuming an average of 2,258 calories a day — than those who didn't develop ALS, who consumed an average of 2,119 calories per day.

How to Combat the Global Cybercrime Wave (Op-Ed)

Dmitri Alperovitch is a computer security researcher and co-founder & CTO of CrowdStrike Inc., which provides cloud-based endpoint protection. This Op-Ed is part of a series provided by the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers, class of 2015. Alperovitch contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Paying for Nature's Bounty? It May be the Cheaper Alternative (Op-Ed)

Jane Carter Ingram is director of the Ecosystems Services Program for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). The recent encyclical "On Care for Our Common Home" by Pope Francis focused attention on the critical importance of our natural environment. Water filtration is a perfect example.

Confederate Warship, Weapons Recovered from Georgia River

Government officials are pulling approximately 250,000 lbs. (113,000 kilograms) of the warship CSS Georgia's armored siding — the ship's skeleton — from the Savannah River. "The historical significance is evident in everything we do," Jason Potts, the U.S. Navy's on-scene commander, said on Aug. 12, the Associated Press reported. Officials decided to remove the sunken ship before the start of a joint state and federal project to deepen the Savannah River's shipping channel from 42 feet to 47 feet (12.8 to 14.3 m).

Mom's Bacteria During Pregnancy Linked with Preterm Birth

The bacteria in a pregnant woman's body may provide clues to her risk of going into labor early, according to a new study. Researchers found that the pregnant women in the study with lower levels of bacteria called Lactobacillus in the vagina had an increased risk of preterm labor, compared with women whose vaginal bacterial communities were rich in this type of bacteria. Moreover, among the women with lower levels of Lactobacillus, a higher abundance of two other bacterial species — Gardnerella and Ureaplasma — was tied to an even more pronounced risk of preterm labor, the investigators found.

World's First Flowers May Have Bloomed Underwater

A fluffy, frondy plant that wouldn't look out of place in a lake today was one of the oldest flowering plants on Earth, new research finds. "It's a very, very early experiment or divergence in the sexual reproduction of flowering plants," Dilcher told Live Science. In other areas, Ceratophyllum fossils are found in the same rock layers as shelled animals called ammonites.

Big Human Relative Sported Modern Hands

Scientists have discovered the oldest known fossil of a hand bone to resemble that of a modern human, and they suggest it belonged to an unknown human relative that would have been much taller and larger than any of its contemporaries. This new finding reveals clues about when modern humanlike hands first began appearing in the fossil record, and suggests that ancient human relatives may have been larger than previously thought, researchers say in a new study. "The hand is one of the most important anatomical features that defines humans," said study lead author Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo, a paleoanthropologist at Complutense University of Madrid.

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