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Saturday, October 17, 2015

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Oldest Draft of King James Bible Discovered, Historian Says

The King James Bible, the most widely read book in the English language — from which phrases like "a man after his own heart" emerged — is as storied as it is elusive. Now, a historian claims to have found the oldest known draft of the Christian text, written in messy script, in an obscure archive at the University of Cambridge. The manuscript was hidden among the papers of Samuel Ward, one of the men commissioned by King James I to translate a new version of the Christian text into English in the early 17th century.

Man's Fatal Rabies Mimicked Drug Side Effect

When a man in Missouri contracted rabies, his symptoms mimicked those of a serious drug reaction, making it hard for doctors to figure out the real cause of his illness until it was too late. The case shows that "human rabies is a fatal disease, and we need to think out of the box" to diagnose the condition, said Dr. Bhavana Chinnakotla, a medical resident at the University of Missouri, who treated the patient. Doctors thought he had muscle and joint pain, and gave him a muscle relaxant called cyclobenzaprine.

High-Stress Jobs May Raise Stroke Risk

People who have high-stress jobs may have an increased risk of stroke, according to a new analysis of previous research. In their analysis, researchers looked at six studies that involved a total of nearly 140,000 people ages 18 to 75, and examined the relationship between work stress and people's risk of stroke. The researchers found that people who had high-stress jobs were 22 percent more likely to experience a stroke than those who had low-stress jobs.

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Friday, October 16, 2015

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French president in Iceland to see global warming's damage

PARIS (AP) — The French president will take a few steps on an Icelandic glacier to experience firsthand the damage caused by global warming, ahead of major U.N. talks on climate change in Paris this year.

Why 'Doctor Who' Still Rules Time and Space After 50 Years

"Doctor Who" fans know how important it is to take bananas to a party, and the value of coincidence. And of course, while you're around weeping angels, don't you dare blink.

Colliding Galaxies Shock Particle Cloud Back to Life

Astronomers have found evidence that a collision between two galaxy clusters sent shock waves through a once brightly radiating cloud of electrons, bringing the cloud back to life.

Cold Comfort: Why People in Antarctica Are Such Boozehounds

Amid reports that scientists and contractors working in Antarctica have gotten into fights, exposed themselves and shown up to work drunk, the National Science Foundation is considering sending breathalyzers to the most southerly continent. Over a nearly 20-month period, 57 people working on the frozen continent had violated the U.S. Antarctic Program's (USAP) code of conduct, according to a July report on health and safety of the USAP. In the report, one human resources manager speculated that about 60 to 75 percent of the disciplinary action taken by her company was linked to alcohol misuse.

If Aliens Exist, Would They Have Sex?

Sexual reproduction is costly. It requires finding a mate, convincing that mate to mingle DNA with you, and opening yourself up to the possibility of sexually transmitted disease or predation while you're busy wooing. After all, mixing and matching a genome is a crapshoot, said Sally Otto, director of the Biodiversity Research Centre at the University of British Columbia.

Wearable Sensors Could Translate Sign Language Into English

Wearable sensors could one day interpret the gestures in sign language and translate them into English, providing a high-tech solution to communication problems between deaf people and those who don't understand sign language. Engineers at Texas A&M University are developing a wearable device that can sense movement and muscle activity in a person's arms. After some initial research, the engineers found that there were devices that attempted to translate sign language into text, but they were not as intricate in their designs.

Cretaceous Fur Ball: Ancient Mammal With Spiky Hair Discovered

The fossilized remains of a furry critter that once roamed the Earth alongside dinosaurs suggests that mammals have been growing hair the same way for at least 125 million years. The Spinolestes specimen is special because it was fossilized with so many of its parts intact, Luo told Live Science in an email. Before the fossil was unearthed by paleontologists in Spain, the oldest mammalian bones containing similar, hair-related microstructures dated back just 60 million years.

Mystery of Antarctica's Strange Disappearing Snow Is Solved

Antarctica is one of the coldest, snowiest parts of the globe, but there may actually be less snow across the surface of the planet's southernmost continent than scientists originally thought. Researchers studying areas of eastern Antarctica where snow is often stripped off the surface by wind, recently found that the powerful gusts are actually vaporizing massive amounts of snow, rather than blowing and redistributing it elsewhere. Scientists knew that snow was being removed from the ice sheet, but did not know how quickly it was happening, where on the continent it was occurring or to what degree wind played a role in these processes, said lead study author Indrani Das, an associate research scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Canada's frozen north feels financial burn of global warming

By Chris Arsenault YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories, Canada (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Climate change is taking a heavy economic toll on Canada's far north, with buildings collapsing as melting permafrost destroys foundations, rivers running low and wildfires all a drain on the region's limited finances, senior government officials said. A sprawling area spanning the Arctic Circle with a population of less than 50,000, Canada's Northwest Territories has spent more than $140 million in the last two years responding to problems linked to global warming, the territory's finance minister said. "Our budgets are getting squeezed dramatically from climate change," Finance and Environment Minister J. Michael Miltenberger told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Ebola May Stay in Survivors' Semen for Many Months

Male survivors of Ebola may carry the virus in their semen even months after they recover from the infection, according to a recent study. In the study, researchers looked for genetic material from the Ebola virus in semen and found that 100 percent of the specimens sampled between two and three months following an Ebola infection showed signs of the virus. Among the samples taken four to six months after an Ebola infection, 65 percent carried signs of the virus, and 26 percent of the samples taken at the seven- to nine-month mark also tested positive for the virus.

Supplements Send 23,000 People to ER Yearly

Dietary supplements are responsible for an estimated 23,000 visits to hospital emergency rooms, and more than 2,100 hospitalizations, in the United States each year, a new study reveals. Researchers found that more than one-quarter of these emergency visits involved young adults ages 20 to 34, and about one-fifth of them involved unsupervised children who swallowed adult supplements, according to the study, which was published online today (Oct. 14) in the New England Journal of Medicine. The visits involved people who had taken herbal, homeopathic and nutritional supplements, such as amino acids and probiotics, as well as vitamins and minerals, according to the study.

The Doctor-Parent Disconnect: Why Are Antibiotics Overprescribed for Kids?

When children are prescribed antibiotics that they don't need, doctors often point to pressure from parents, saying that they demand the drugs for their kids. Before the parents met with the doctor, the researchers asked them about their view of antibiotics and whether they planned to ask for the drugs. None of the parents said they had planned to ask the doctor for antibiotics at the visit, the researchers found.

North Pole of Saturn's Icy Moon Enceladus Captured in Best-Ever Photos

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured its best-ever looks at the north polar region of Saturn's ocean-harboring moon, Enceladus. Cassini zoomed within 1,142 miles (1,838 kilometers) of Enceladus Wednesday (Oct. 14), performing its 20th close flyby of the icy satellite since arriving in the Saturn system in 2004. The spacecraft has already beamed home some of the new close-encounter images, and more will come down to Earth in the next few days, NASA officials said.

NASA Manager George Mueller, 'Father of Space Shuttle,' Dies at 97

George Mueller, who led NASA's human spaceflight efforts through the first moon landing and was credited as the "father of the space shuttle," died Monday (Oct. 12) after a brief illness. NASA and sources close to Mueller's family confirmed his passing on Thursday (Oct. 15). George Mueller, as associate administrator, headed the Office of Manned Space Flight at NASA's Washington headquarters from 1963 through 1969.

Modern Hunter-Gatherers Probably Get Less Sleep Than You Do

Although it might seem that the glowing lights from smartphones and other trappings of modern life reduce people's ability to get a decent amount of shut-eye, scientists now suggest that people do not get any less sleep today than they did in prehistoric times. "We find that contrary to much conventional wisdom, it is very likely that we do not sleep less than our distant ancestors," said the study's senior author, Jerome Siegel, a sleep researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. People complain that modern life allows us less sleep than is natural, and earlier studies done on animals in captivity gave the researchers an idea for studying sleep in people, Siegel said.

Adrian Robinson's Brain Disorder: What Is CTE?

Adrian Robinson Jr., a professional football player who died by suicide earlier this year, had a brain disease, his autopsy recently revealed. Robinson, who played for several football teams, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, died on May 16. During his two years in the National Football League (NFL), he suffered several concussions.

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Thursday, October 15, 2015

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NASA Picks New Rocket Rides to Launch Small Satellites

NASA has awarded a total of $17.1 million to three companies to launch miniscule cubesats, which to date have had to tag along as secondary payloads on big rockets. "We're excited for the competition," Wiese added.

Bronze Age cemetery unearthed in southwestern Poland

DUNINO, Poland - Excavations for a motorway in southwestern Poland led to an unusual and unexpected discovery – the remains of a huge, almost perfectly preserved Bronze Age cemetery. Archaeologists thought they might find remains from the Battle of Kaczawa in 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars but not an ancient burial site. "It was a great surprise to all of us to discover a very rich, 3,000-year-old graveyard of people of the Lusatian culture," said archaeologist Izabela Kadlucka. ...

Upcoming El Niño May Be As Wild As 1997 Event

El Niño is expected to be more beast than "little boy" this year — a forecast about the weather pattern that becomes clear in newly released maps of the waters around the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The two maps show the sea-surface heights in the Pacific in October 1997 and 2015, revealing that conditions this year are looking a lot like they did during the strong El Niño event of 1997 to 1998. "Whether El Niño gets slightly stronger or a little weaker is not statistically significant now.

The Lure of Terrible Lizards: Why We Love Godzilla

Godzilla, the fictional, Tokyo-destroying sea monster, is actually a dinosaur dreamed up by the film's producer, Tomoyuki Tanaka, who let his mind wander during a flight back to Japan across the Pacific Ocean. Now, 30 movies later, people still flock to see the radioactive giant in theaters — likely because Godzilla reminds them of their childhood love of dinosaurs, said William Tsutsui, a professor of history and president of Hendrix College in Arkansas, and author of "Godzilla On My Mind: 50 Years of the King of Monsters" (St. Martin's Griffin, 2004). Tsutsui spoke about Godzilla's historical roots to a crowded room here at the 75rd annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference Tuesday (Oct. 13).

Inky Coalsack Nebula Smudges Milky Way in Striking New Views

The enormous, inky smudges of the Coalsack nebula blot out a patch of the brilliant Milky Way in a new image from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) — but someday, that murky realm will burst into light. You can see a video tour of the Coalsack nebula here, incorporating the new image. The view comes from the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter (7.2 feet) telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Amazing Jupiter Video Shows Slowing Shrinkage of the Great Red Spot

Jupiter's trademark Great Red Spot may be shrinking, but it's not going down without a fight. Amazing new maps of the Jupiter by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the Great Red Spot, a massive storm about twice the diameter of Earth, is slowing the speed at which it shrinks. The Jupiter maps, first in series of annual portraits of the outer planets, also reveal rare wave structures that scientists haven't seen for nearly 40 years.

Humans Exited Africa, and Trekked to China, Fossils Reveal

Teeth from a cave in China suggest that modern humans lived in Asia much earlier than previously thought, and tens of thousands of years before they reached Europe, researchers say. This discovery yields new information about the dispersal of modern humans from Africa to the rest of the world, and could shed light on how modern humans and Neanderthals interacted, the scientists added. Modern humans first originated about 200,000 years ago in Africa.

Stories Leap Into 3D with 'Augmented Reality' Coloring Books

Have you ever wished that the characters in your coloring book could come alive — leap from the page and dance around, perhaps? Developed by the tech nerds over at Disney Research (a network of laboratories affiliated with the Walt Disney Company), the new coloring book app turns your doodles into virtual, 3D figures that move around on screen like cartoon characters. Here's how it works: You color in one of the characters inside a regular (but app-compatible) coloring book and launch the Disney coloring app on your phone or tablet.

Nearly 30 Years After Chernobyl Disaster, Wildlife Returns to the Area

Almost 30 years after a horrific accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant released massive amounts of radiation and became one of the world's worst nuclear catastrophes, the long-abandoned site has some new inhabitants: New research finds that many native wildlife species are once again finding refuge in the human-free Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine. Scientists found that the numbers of moose, roe deer, red deer and wild boar living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone — a roughly 1,000-square-mile (2,600 square kilometers) designated area of contamination around the disaster site — are similar to the animals' population numbers in nearby uncontaminated nature reserves. In fact, they noted that wolf census data in the area has a population seven times greater than populations in nearby reserves.

Planet Hunter Geoff Marcy Resigns Following Sexual Harassment Investigation

Geoff Marcy, a leader in the field of exoplanet research, has resigned from his position as a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, following an investigation that found he violated the school's sexual harassment policies. A statement from Nicholas B. Dirks, the university's chancellor, and Claude Steele, its executive vice chancellor and provost obtained by Space.com, said Marcy resigned this morning (Oct. 14). The findings of the school investigation were first made public on Friday (Oct. 9) in a story by BuzzFeed News.

What a nightmare: sleep no more plentiful in primitive cultures

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Maybe we cannot blame late-night TV, endless Internet surfing, midnight snacks, good books, bothersome work deadlines and other distractions of modern life for encroaching on our sleep. Research unveiled on Thursday showed that people in isolated and technologically primitive African and South American cultures get no more slumber than the rest of us. Scientists tracked 94 adults from the Tsimane people of Bolivia, Hadza people of Tanzania and San people of Namibia for a combined 1,165 days in the first study on the sleep patterns of people in primitive foraging and hunting cultures.

Wet (But Warm) Winter: Strong El Niño to Usher in Lots of Rain

It's official: El Niño is back. The strong subtropical weather pattern boosts the odds for rainfall and warm temperatures across the Southern United States and the Eastern Seaboard — including drought-stricken regions such as California and the Southwest. But even if California is inundated with rain, the state's water woes probably won't be eliminated in one season, the experts said.

Pluto Is Beautiful, Complex and Thoroughly Puzzling for Scientists

The first-ever flyby of Pluto may have raised more questions than it answered. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft discovered a staggering diversity of terrain during its close approach on July 14, from towering water-ice mountains to a vast, crater-free plain largely divided into mysterious "cells" dozens of kilometers wide. New Horizons' observations also revealed that Charon, the dwarf planet's largest moon, sports a canyon system at least 650 miles (1,050 km) long and a dark polar cap that researchers informally named after Mordor, the realm of the evil wizard Sauron in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Comet's Close Encounter with Mars Dumped Tons of Dust on Red Planet

Comet Siding Spring's close shave by Mars last year provided a rare glimpse into how Oort Cloud comets behave, according to new research. Comet Siding Spring also left behind a substantial quantity of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water that couldn't be detected because Mars' atmosphere is also made up of those elements. Siding Spring's journey from the Oort Cloud — a collection of comets beyond the orbit of Neptune that stretches for hundreds of astronomical units — meant it was pristine when it showed up beside Mars.

Repaired SpaceX rocket to fly by early December, company says

(In this version of the Oct. 13 story, first sentence of third paragraph, corrects to 'upper-stage liquid oxygen tank' from 'upper-stage engine'. In second sentence of third paragraph, corrects to 'causing the tank' instead of 'causing the engine'.) JERUSALEM (Reuters)- Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, expects to return a repaired and upgraded Falcon 9 rocket to flight around the start of December, a company vice president said, less than six months after one exploded shortly after liftoff. The 208-foot-tall (63-meter) rocket carrying cargo for the International Space Station exploded less than three minutes after liftoff from Florida on June 28.

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