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Tuesday, September 1, 2015

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New guidelines for cancer doctors aim to make sense of gene tests

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has issued guidelines on how cancer doctors should approach the use of new genetic tests that screen for multiple cancer genes at the same time, including counseling patients about genes whose contribution to cancer is still poorly understood. The guidelines aim to educate doctors about the risks and benefits of new genetic tests, argue for regulation to assure quality and call for more equitable reimbursement of the cost of the tests from private and public insurers. The falling price of genome sequencing has made it possible for cancer doctors to cheaply test for a wide variety of mutated genes that could guide treatment or predict a person's risk for cancer.

LEGO to Launch: Astronaut from Denmark Taking Danish Toys to Space Station

Denmark's first astronaut is launching to the International Space Station with a Danish toy that is famous worldwide. Andreas Mogensen will fly to the space station with LEGO minifigures bearing the official logo of his mission for the European Space Agency (ESA). "ESA and LEGO Education have partnered together for this mission," Mogensen wrote as part of an AMA, or "Ask Me Anything," on the website Reddit in reply to a question submitted by collectSPACE.

Yearlong Mock Mars Mission Will Test Mental Toll of Isolation

In the confines of a 36-foot-wide (11 meters) and 20-foot-high (6 m) solar-powered dome in a remote location on the island of Hawaii, the six team members will have to live together for 365 days. "We hope that this upcoming mission will build on our current understanding of the social and psychological factors involved in long-duration space exploration," Kim Binsted, principal investigator for HI-SEAS, said in a statement from the University of Hawaii.

'Galaxy Quest' Movie May Become TV Show

A favorite of many science fiction fans, the 1999 movie "Galaxy Quest" is about a group of actors who play space explorers on a "Star Trek"-like TV series. Last April, entertainment outlets reported that Paramount Television was interested in selling the project, and last Thursday (Aug. 27), Entertainment Weekly reported that the studio had found a buyer.

'How We'll Live on Mars': Q&A with Author Stephen Petranek

Stephen Petranek, an award-winning journalist and technology forecaster, thinks people will be living on Mars within 20 years. Petranek states his case in a new book called "How We'll Live on Mars" (Simon & Schuster/TED, 2015). Complementing Petranek's TED talk of the same name, the book paints a picture of humanity's first journey to the Red Planet, which he sets in 2027, and describes the key technologies needed to reach, survive and thrive on the planet and exactly how that process would play out.

Titanic's Last Lunch Menu Up for Auction

Before the RMS Titanic plunged into the icy waters of the North Atlantic, passengers aboard the storied passenger ship may have feasted on corned beef, potted shrimp and dumplings, according to an unusual artifact from the doomed ship — a lunch menu dated April 14, 1912, the day before the tragic sinking. The menu, along with several other items from the Titanic's final days afloat, will be put up for auction Sept. 30 in New York City. The crumpled menu is expected to sell for at least $50,000, according to Lion Heart Autographs, the online auction house handling the sale.

Robots on the Run! 5 Bots That Can Really Move

Earlier this month, the Google-owned robotics company Boston Dynamics released a video of its humanoid robot running through a forest. Boston Dynamics has a handful of bots that run just as well as Atlas, and researchers from other institutions are also building machines that can ramble about in the real world. If you need proof, check out the blooper reel from this year's DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), a humanoid-robot competition hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Fossils Show How Ancient Seafloor Gave Rise to Life

Signs of 125-million-year-old life lurk in rocks drilled from deep under the seafloor near Spain and Portugal, new research finds. The rocks date to a time when the Earth's mantle, the viscous layer just below the outer crust, was exposed to seawater. Scientists have long suspected that this mix of deep-Earth rocks and ocean water could have created conditions ripe for life.

First Dane goes into space -- to test bike gear

Denmark will send its first man into space on Wednesday and in keeping with the country's love of all things cycling, one of his jobs will be to test new equipment on Danish-made exercise bikes at the International Space Station. Dubbed "Denmark's Gagarin" by European Space Agency officials after the first man in space, Andreas Mogensen will lift off at 0437 GMT (12:37 a.m. EDT) accompanied by Russian Sergei Volkov and Kazakh Aidyn Aimbetov on ESA's 10-day "sprint" mission. The aim is to test equipment in areas of telerobotics and communications as well as monitoring the impact of space travel on Mogensen himself as his short voyage is unique in missions that normally last several months, according to ESA.

SpaceX rocket grounded for 'couple more months,' company says

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla (Reuters) - SpaceX plans to keep its Falcon 9 rocket grounded longer than planned following a launch accident in June that destroyed a space station cargo ship, the company president said on Monday. The privately held company, owned and operated by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, previously had slated Falcon 9's next flight for no earlier than September. "We're taking more time than we originally envisioned, but I don't think any one of our customers wants us to race to the cliff and fail again," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said at a webcast panel discussion at the AIAA Space 2015 conference in Pasadena, California.

Another Fatal Brain Disease May Come from the Spread of 'Prion' Proteins

What's more, the researchers say that the prion they believe causes MSA, called alpha-synuclein, is the first new prion to be discovered in half a century. "Based on these findings, we conclude that MSA is a prion disorder, and that alpha-synuclein is the first new bona fide prion to be discovered, to our knowledge, in the last 50 years," the researchers, from the University of California, San Francisco, wrote in the Aug. 31 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Because prion diseases can be transmitted through certain types of contact with infected tissue, the findings suggest a potential concern for doctors and researchers who work with tissue from MSA patients, the researchers said.

Ouch! Volunteers Get Tick Bites for Science

We all know that some ticks bite, but just how eager certain species are to feed on humans, and how quickly people react to their bites, is less clear in some cases. Lone star ticks (Amblyomma americanum) are common in the Southern United States, although they are also found in the Eastern and South-Central U.S., and they are known to bite people. Ten ticks were placed on the inside of a bottle cap, and each participant had two bottle caps secured to his or her body (one on each arm), for a total of 20 ticks per participant.

'Gray Swan' Hurricanes Could Strike Unexpected Places

"Gray swan" hurricanes — storms with impacts more extreme than history alone would predict — could ravage cities in Florida, Australia and the Persian Gulf, researchers say. By the end of the century, climate change could dramatically increase the chance of damage from these unexpected storms, scientists added. Rare, unpredictable events with major impacts have been called "black swans." In contrast, what Ning Lin, a climate scientist at Princeton University, and her colleagues dub "gray swans" are events with impacts beyond what might be thought of as likely based on the historical record alone.

'Bizarre,' Human-Size Sea Scorpion Found in Ancient Meteorite Crater

About 460 million years ago, a sea scorpion about the size of an adult human swam around in the prehistoric waters that covered modern-day Iowa, likely dining on bivalves and squishy eel-like creatures, a new study finds. The ancient sea scorpions are eurypterids, a type of arthropod that is closely related to modern arachnids and horseshoe crabs. The findings — which include at least 20 specimens — are the oldest eurypterid fossils on record by about 9 million years, said study lead researcher James Lamsdell, a postdoctoral associate of paleontology at Yale University.

'Lego-Stacking' Technique Could Help Scientists Grow Human Organs

The advance may enable scientists to test customized medicines before injecting them into a patient and, ultimately, to grow whole human organs, the scientists say. The main difficulty scientists have faced in building organs is properly positioning the many cell types that constitute any given organ tissue. Gartner said scientists are still years away from growing whole organs to replace diseased ones.

Primordial sea beast resembled ancient Greek warship

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the earliest big predators to prowl Earth's primordial waters was a sea scorpion nearly 6 feet (1.7 meters) long whose body looked a bit like an ancient Greek warship. "Pentecopterus was an incredibly bizarre animal, with a long head that looked somewhat like the prow of a ship, a narrow body and massively enlarged limbs that it used to capture prey," Yale University paleontologist James Lamsdell said. Pentecopterus was named after a type of galley used by the ancient Greeks known as a penteconter, which the creature resembles with its narrow body and long head, Lamsdell said.

Unearthing NASA's 'Worm': Reissue of Manual Celebrates Retired NASA Logo

A 40-year-old book that gave rise to one of NASA's most iconic logos is being relaunched as a limited edition reprint on Kickstarter. The NASA Graphics Standards Manual, first published in January 1976, defined a new graphic identity for the U.S. space agency. As designed by Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn, the guide introduced a stark logotype, on which the letters "N-A-S-A" were "reduced to their simplest form, replacing the red, white and blue circular emblem with the white block letters," as Danne's original introduction to the book described.

Deaf mice cured with gene therapy

In a laboratory at Boston Children's Hospital a cure for genetic deafness is taking shape. Lead researcher Jeff Holt says that if all goes as planned, children of the future who lose their ability to hear due to genetic mutation will never go deaf. To test their treatment protocol, Holt and his team used two types of deaf mice that model the dominant and recessive genetic mutations of TMC1 in humans.

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Monday, August 31, 2015

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Kerry, Obama to raise global warming issues in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Scientists are "overwhelmingly unified" in concluding that humans are contributing to global climate change, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday night, and the public is slowly getting the full picture.

Earth's Moving Mantle Leads to Earthquakes in Unusual Places

It has long been a mystery why some earthquakes strike towns in seemingly earthquake-proof regions, but researchers now have a potential explanation for why temblors sometimes rattle where they're not expected. Understanding the underlying source of these quakes could help officials prepare for their associated hazards. Researchers found that intraplate earthquakes — which occur in the middle, instead of at the borders, of tectonic plates — are influenced by convection, or heat-driven movements, of the molten mantle beneath the planet's cold, solid crust.

Parents: Talk About Alcohol When Kids Are 9

Parents should start talking to their children about alcohol at age 9, says a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics aimed at preventing binge drinking in young people. As many as 50 percent of high school students currently drink alcohol, and within that group, up to 60 percent binge drink, the authors wrote in the report, published today (Aug. 31) in the journal Pediatrics. The reason to start talking to kids about alcohol before they even reach middle school is that "kids are starting to develop impressions [about alcohol] as early as 9 years," said Dr. Lorena Siqueira, clinical professor of pediatrics at Florida International University and co-author of the new report.

How to Find 'Strange Life' on Alien Planets

Detecting signs of life very different from that of Earth in the atmospheres of alien planets may be difficult, but it is possible, researchers say. The team, led by Sara Seager of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), did not focus solely on Earth-like life. "What we've been trying to do is move away from that," William Bains, also of MIT, said during the Astrobiology Science Conference in Chicago in June.

NASA Tech Aims for Precise Landings on Mars (Video)

Getting a robotic spacecraft to nail a pinpoint landing is still just a dream for engineers, but a new technology could make it easier to reach distant destinations with better precision. The new Mars landing technology, which is being co-developed by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and the University of Texas at Austin, compares pictures of the ground below to images already stored in the spacecraft's computer, to figure out how close to get to the landing site. NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, for instance, was targeted to land in a zone that measured 4 miles by 12 miles (7 by 20 kilometers).

Should You Stop Counting Calories?

To better fight obesity and its related diseases, people should stop counting calories and instead focus on eating nutritious foods, several researchers argue in a new editorial. Similar to quitting smoking, people who change their diet can see rapid improvements in their heart disease risk, the researchers wrote. For example, in a study of 2,000 heart attack survivors, those who were advised to eat fish were less likely to die during the study period than those who were not advised to eat fish, with improvements starting within a few months of the diet change, the editorial says.

Sexual Harassment in the Animal Kingdom? How Female Guppies Escape

Animal-behavior scientists discovered that female fish who were most bothered by this type of sexual harassment started to swim in a different, more efficient way. Researchers from the University of Glasgow and the University of Exeter, both in the United Kingdom, tested the effects of this harassment on Poecilia reticulata guppies. "In the wild, especially during the dry season, [guppies] can be trapped together in small pools for months," said study lead author Shaun Killen, a biologist at the University of Glasgow.

Sumatran Rhino Goes Extinct in the Wild in Malaysia

The Sumatran rhino is now considered extinct in the wild in the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia, according to a new study. No wild Sumatran rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) have been found on the Malaysian peninsula since 2007, and what are thought to be the last two female rhinos in Malaysian Borneo were caught and placed in captive breeding programs in 2011 and 2014. In order to save the Sumatran rhino from extinction, it will be necessary to designate the regions where rhinos breed as protected areas, called intensive management zones (IMZs), and to consolidate other, isolated rhinos into these zones to maximize their chances of reproducing, the researchers said.

Jet of Electric Current Boosts Space Weather at Equator

Solar explosions can threaten power grids even in areas near the equator, places long thought safe from such disruptions from the sun, say researchers who studied a weird flow of electricity pulsing above the equatorial regions.

Life Might Spread Across Universe Like an 'Epidemic' in New Math Theory

As astronomers get closer to finding potential signatures of life on faraway planets, a new mathematical description shows how to understand life's spread — and to determine if it's jumping from star to star. "Life could spread from host star to host star in a pattern similar to the outbreak of an epidemic," study co-author Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) said in a statement.

Human Eye's Blind Spot Can Shrink with Training

The blind spot of the human eye can be shrunk with certain eye-training exercises, thus improving a person's vision slightly, a small new study suggests. In the study of 10 people, researchers found that the blind spot — the tiny region of a person's visual field that matches up with the area in the eye that has no receptors for light, and hence cannot detect any image — can shrink 10 percent, with special training. That amount of change "is quite an improvement, but people wouldn't notice, as we are typically unaware of our blind spots," said study author Paul Miller, of the University of Queensland in Australia.

Elusive Sea Creature with Hairy, Slimy Shell Spotted After 31 Years

The Allonautilus scrobiculatus, a species of mollusk in the same family as the nautilus, was spotted off the coast of Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific in early August, the scientists said. The Allonautilus' shell has been known to science since the 1700s. The Allonautilus is so rare likely because it is completely reliant on scavenging to survive, Ward said.

SpaceX rocket grounded for 'couple more months,' company says

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - SpaceX plans to keep its Falcon 9 rocket grounded longer than planned following a launch accident involving the unmanned booster in June, the company president said on Monday. The privately held company is owned and operated by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, who earlier this summer was targeting the Falcon 9's next flight for September. "We're taking more time than we originally envisioned, but I don't think any one of our customers wants us to race to the cliff and fail again," Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, said at a webcast panel discussion at the AIAA Space 2015 conference in Pasadena, California.

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