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Wednesday, October 28, 2015

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Tractor beams of science fiction becoming a reality

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The tractor beam, a staple of science fiction including "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" that is employed to grab spaceships and other things remotely, is entering the realm of reality. Researchers on Tuesday said they have developed a tractor beam that uses high-amplitude sound waves to levitate, move and rotate small objects without making contact with them. "As a mechanical wave, sound can exert significant forces on objects.

Private Spaceflight Industry Aims to Shake Off a Rough Year

Over the past 12 months, robotic resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by both Orbital ATK and SpaceX failed, and Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo broke apart during a test flight, killing the vehicle's co-pilot and seriously wounding its pilot. Orbital ATK and SpaceX plan to be flying again before the year is out, for example, and Virgin Galactic is nearly finished building SpaceShipTwo number two.

Falling Space Junk Will Burn Up In Earth's Atmosphere Next Month

A piece of space junk will fall back to Earth next month, giving researchers a chance to study how incoming objects behave when they hit the planet's atmosphere. The object, which is known as WT1190F, is expected to enter Earth's atmosphere on Nov. 13 above the Indian Ocean, about 62 miles (100 kilometers) south of Sri Lanka. "The object is quite small, at most a couple of meters in diameter, and a significant fraction if not all of it can be expected to completely burn up in the atmosphere," Tim Flohrer, of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Space Debris Office at the European Space Operations Center in Germany, said in a statement.

'Let's Go Mets!' Astronaut Mike Massimino Roots for His Home Team

Attention, sports fans! Game 1 of the 2015 World Series between the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals launches tonight (Oct. 27), and not even astronauts are immune to baseball fever. "The Mets are about to begin the World Series and I want to wish them the best of luck," Massimino says in the 21-second video.

Real-Life 'Tractor Beam' Can Levitate Objects Using Sound Waves

It may seem straight out of "Star Trek," but it's real: Scientists have created a sonic "tractor beam" that can pull, push and pirouette objects that levitate in thin air. The sonic tractor beam relies on a precisely timed sequence of sound waves that create a region of low pressure that traps tiny objects that can then be manipulated solely by sound waves, the scientists said in a new study. Though the new demonstration was just a proof of concept, the same technique could be adapted to remotely manipulate cells inside the human body or target the release of medicine locked in acoustically activated drug capsules, said study co-author Bruce Drinkwater, a mechanical engineer at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom.

Cutting Sugar Made Obese Kids Healthier in 10 Days

There can be no more dancing around the fact that, for children, consuming added sugar contributes to a litany of chronic diseases, particularly obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, scientists concluded in new research published today (Oct. 27). In the study, researchers closely monitored 43 obese children and found that reducing the consumption of added sugar — even while maintaining the same number of calories, and the same amount of non-sugary junk food such as potato chips — led to a dramatic improvement in a cluster of health measures in just 10 days. The kids lowered their cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar and lost a little weight, too, despite no change in their calorie intake or physical activity.

Leading Causes of Death in the US: What's Changed Since 1969?

Five of the six top causes of death in America — including stroke, cancer and diabetes — now have lower death rates than they have in past years, according to a new report. To investigate the deadliest conditions in the United States, researchers pulled national mortality data from death certificates, looking at the period from 1969 to 2013. Deaths from stroke had the most substantial decrease, falling 77 percent (from 156 deaths per 100,000 people to 36 deaths per 100,000 people) during the study period, and heart disease was close behind, down by about two-thirds (from 520 deaths per 100,000 people to 169 deaths per 100,000 people), the researchers found.

Tractor beams of science fiction becoming a reality

NASA Astronauts Making Spacewalk Debut at Space Station Today: Watch Live

American astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren plan to spend nearly six-and-a-half hours working outside the International Space Station during their spacewalk, which will be dedicated to "station upgrades and maintenance tasks," according to NASA. Both Kelly and Lindgren have said they are excited for today's spacewalk, which will include (among other tasks) the installation of a protective cover on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a $2 billion particle physics detector that has been performing science on the station's exterior since 2011.

Einstein Is Right About General Relativity — Again

Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity has been proven right again — and this time, physicists have pinned down just how precise it is: Any deviations from his theory of general relativity are so small that they would change calculations by just one part in 10,000 to one part in 100,000. Time after time, experiments have proved that Einstein's theory of general relativity, which describes the way gravity behaves, especially when dealing with high speeds and large masses. In the new study, physicists looked at gobs of data on planetary orbits to look for tiny anomalies that couldn't be explained by either Isaac Newton's theory of gravity — in which gravity is a force between objects that depends on their masses — or Einstein's general relativity theory, which says gravity is a warping of space-time itself.

Gem-Filled Warrior's Tomb Discovered in Ancient Greek City

Archaeologists who thought they were excavating the site of an ancient house in Greece recently uncovered something much more rare: a wealthy Bronze Age warrior's tomb, chock-full of precious metals and colorful gemstones. The tomb, which dates back some 3,500 years to 1500 B.C., was found by an international group of researchers led by archaeologists from the University of Cincinnati. Gold cups and jewelry, as well as hundreds of beads made from precious stones like amethyst and jasper, also surrounded the remains of the deceased Mycenaean warrior, who once lived near what is now the city of Pylos, on the southwest coast of Greece.

Record-Breaking 408 Earthquakes Hit Bay Area City Over Past 2 Weeks

A whopping 408 earthquakes have hit San Ramon, California, in the past two weeks, including 11 in one 24-hour stretch. This record-breaking earthquake swarm is nothing to fear, however, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Periods of tectonic unrest are common in the area and probably don't presage a larger quake, the USGS said.

What Would an Alien Megastructure Look Like? Sci-Fi Authors Weigh In

Researchers aren't sure what's going on, and they have posited that some sort of light-blocking "alien megastructure" is a possible — though unlikely — explanation. "We are the most skeptical people on the planet," Robert J. Sawyer, a Canadian sci-fi writer who regularly discusses alien life in his novels, told Space.com. Sawyer added that journalists, by contrast, often pump up the news because they "smell front page." And while Sawyer supports the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) because it is so cheap to listen for radio signals, he said it's meaningful that, in five decades of searching, nothing has come up so far.

For 'The Ordinary Spaceman' Clayton Anderson, Astronaut Life Is Anything But

When Clayton Anderson began to write about his 30-year NASA career, he was warned that astronaut memoirs are "a dime a dozen, and all the same." But that didn't deter him — and his new book is far from an "ordinary" space narrative. In "The Ordinary Spaceman: From Boyhood Dreams to Astronaut" (University of Nebraska Press, 2015), Anderson traces his childhood, career, 15 applications to the astronaut training program and, finally, his training and two flights to space (one of which was a long-duration flight), Anderson covers his daily activities and unusual experiences with detailed and humorous observations. In a recent interview, Space.com caught up with Anderson to hear more about his new memoir, the challenges of being an astronaut and unusual space pastimes.

290-Million-Year-Old Creature Could Sprout New Limbs

If an ancient amphibian lost a limb or a tail, it could simply sprout a new one, according to researchers who found fossil evidence of limb regeneration dating back 290 million years. The finding shows that some Carboniferous and Permian period animals had regenerative abilities a full 80 million years before salamanders, one of the few modern-day animal groups that can fully regenerate their limbs and tail, existed in the fossil record. The fact that other tetrapods — a group comprised of four-legged vertebrates, including amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds — had regenerative abilities suggests there are multiple ways to regrow limbs, said study lead researcher Nadia Fröbisch, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Berlin.

Google Can Help You Find the Perfect Halloween Costume

Not sure what to be for Halloween? Google may be able to help. A new Google Trends tool shows you what costumes are popular right now in your area and around the country, so you can be sure to wear something more original than, say, a Stormtrooper costume to this weekend's festivities.

DIY Halloween Costumes: 7 Geeky Getups for Any Party

With Halloween less than a week away, science nerds everywhere are scrambling to put the finishing touches on their costumes. A Halloween costume depicting dark matter can pretty much look however you want it to look, because no one knows what dark matter really is. Adorn yourself in these articles of clothing, and then slink around the party, saying mysterious things like, "Are my axions showing?" Also, be sure to do a lot of unpredictable things, like grab people and hold them in one place (explain that dark matter was once believed to be a sort of "glue" that held galaxies in place) and then push them away (explain that astronomers are no longer sure that dark matter actually serves as an anchor for anything).

Dog robot copes with tough terrain

By Jim Drury Swiss researchers have built an electrically actuated, walking, climbing, running four-legged robot that can handle difficult terrain. The 'dog' robot is called StarlETH - its name pronounced 'Starlet' and featuring the acronym for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH). According to lead researcher Marco Hutter, "it's meant to be a robot that can climb over obstacles, so being very versatile.

Watch This Amazing World View Test Flight for Balloon-Based Space Tourism

Arizona-based World View Enterprises, which aims to loft paying customers to the stratosphere beneath a giant balloon, launched an uncrewed test flight Saturday (Oct. 26). "This test flight is symbolic of a major step towards a new era of accessible space travel for us all," World View CEO and co-founder Jane Poynter said in a statement. Saturday's trial demonstrated that World View's system can lift off gently, successfully transition from balloon floating to aerodynamic parafoil flight at high altitudes, and descend and land smoothly, company representatives said.

New Disk of Young Stars Found in Milky Way

A group of young stars has been caught loitering near the center of the Milky Way galaxy, a region previously thought to be dominated by a more mature population. Astronomers say the stars form a disk (previously unknown to scientists) that passes through the outer part of the dusty, peanut-shaped bulge at the galactic center. The thick forest of dust located at the Milky Way's galactic center is a place where even the bright flame of a burning star can be nearly impossible for astronomers to see.

Spacewalkers prep station for space taxi parking spots

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Two U.S. astronauts wrapped up nearly seven hours of electrical work and maintenance chores outside the International Space Station on Wednesday, part of an ongoing upgrade to prepare the outpost for new commercial space taxis. Station commander Scott Kelly and flight engineer Kjell Lindgren left the station's airlock around 8:30 a.m. Eastern time (1230 GMT), the first spacewalk for both astronauts. NASA had hoped to have the station outfitted with two new berthing slips before the end of the year so that commercial space taxis under development by Boeing and privately owned Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, would have places to park.

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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Pooped out: absence of big mammals foils ecosystem fertilization

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - You can call it the fertilization cessation, and scientists say it has had a disruptive effect on ecosystems around the world. A study unveiled on Monday showed that the extinction or precipitous population declines of large land and sea mammals starting at the end of the last Ice Age and continuing through today has deprived ecosystems of a vital source of fertilization in their dung, urine and, after death, decomposing bodies. The scientists said these large mammals including whales, mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, rhinos, huge armadillos as well as seabirds and migrating fish like salmon played a key role in making Earth fertile by spreading nutrients across oceans, up rivers and deep inland.

Tiny Pluto Moon Kerberos Unveiled (Photos)

Pluto's tiny satellite Kerberos has gotten its first close-up. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has beamed home photos of Kerberos captured during the probe's historic flyby of Pluto on July 14. The newly received images show that Kerberos is smaller and much brighter than researchers had expected.

Happy #Arachtober! Spiders Take Over the Web for Halloween

Photographers and researchers from around the world are teaming up to share spectacular (and sometimes skin-crawling) photos of one of Halloween's most popular mascots: spiders. But even if they're not your favorite animals, spiders do capture the spirit of the season, and these eight-legged beauties happen to be very cooperative models, according to the folks who started Arachtober, the group devoted to sharing spider-themed photos on social media. Arachtober started in 2007 as a friendly exchange between two Flickr-using macrophotographers, Joseph Connors IV and Ashley Bradford.

Milky Way's Monster Black Hole Belches Big, But Why?

When the monster back hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy belched out an exceptionally high number of powerful X-ray flares last year, it made astronomers wonder — is this a sign that the beast chowed down on a passing gas cloud, or is this lack of cosmic etiquette typical for black holes? The black hole at the center of the Milky Way, known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A* for short), is typically very quiet – it doesn't eat a lot of material, and there is relatively little light that radiates from the region around it. Could the bright flares seen in August 2014 have been caused by a gas cloud that passed too close to the black hole, and become an unsuspecting snack?

Astronaut's #spacerocks Contest to Award Space Patches for Song Titles

Astronaut Tim Peake will challenge his Twitter followers to do just that during his upcoming stay on the International Space Station. A few times each week while he is in orbit, Peake plans to tweet lines from the lyrics of his favorite songs. The first person to reply to each tweet with the song's correct title and artist will win a special patch flown in space.

Ancient Super-Predators Could Take Down Young Mammoths

"The probable role these large predators played in maintaining stable ecosystems hasn't been recognized until now," said the study's lead author, Blaire Van Valkenburgh, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. This brings up the question of what prevented widespread habitat destruction in the Pleistocene epoch, which lasted from about 1 million to 11,000 years ago. Back then, a much greater diversity of megaherbivores — plant-eaters 1,760 lbs. (800 kilograms) and larger — roamed the Earth.

Chemicals in Personal Products May Stimulate Cancer More Than Thought

A group of chemicals commonly used in cosmetics and other personal-care products may stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells at doses much lower than previously thought, a new study finds. The study was done on human breast cancer cells growing in lab dishes, and it's unclear whether these chemicals, called parabens, act the same in the human body.

Microbe Masterpieces: Scientists Create Cool Art from Bacteria

What do Vincent van Gogh's painting "The Starry Night," a map of New York City and a countryside harvest landscape have in common? Perhaps not much, but all of these images can be re-created by growing colorful microbes in petri dishes — and they were for this year's Agar Art Contest, an unusual annual competition sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology. First place went to Mehmet Berkmen of New England Biolabs, who worked with artist Maria Penil to create piece called "Neurons." The petri dish was painted to look like nerve cells using the yellow-tinged bacteria called Nesterenkonia and the orange-colored bacteria called Deinococcus and Sphingomonas.

Diabetes Blood Test Urged for All Overweight US Adults

All overweight and obese adults in the United States should be routinely screened for abnormal blood glucose levels as part of a heart disease risk assessment, according to new government recommendations. It's the first time the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a panel of medical experts that makes recommendations on the effectiveness of preventive health services, has advised that American adults ages 40 to 70 who are overweight or obese undergo a blood test for diabetes, even if they have no symptoms of the disease. Excess weight is a known — but modifiable — risk factor for Type 2 diabetes.

Pediatricians Unveil Game Plan for Safer Youth Football

Parents who may be having second thoughts about allowing their children to strap on a helmet or score a touchdown may get some comfort from a new policy statement on youth football injuries from the American Academy of Pediatrics. In its statement, the AAP outlined a series of recommendations to improve children's safety while participating in youth football leagues, such as USA Football and Pop Warner.

Lions Are Disappearing Across Africa

Lions are disappearing from most of the African continent, and the decline is especially evident in West Africa, according to new research. The lion population has has been in decline since 1992, largely because of conflicts with native herders and declines in lions' prey species, the new survey found. Almost two-thirds of the more than 8,000 lions studied live in populations facing decline.

Underwater robot to raise ocean awareness

By Ben Gruber BERKELEY, Cal (Reuters) - It started off as a treasure hunt. Sifting through a magazine from the 1970's, Eric Stackpole pointed out an article to David Lang that hinted at the location of a pile of gold that has been missing for more than 100 years. ...

Relativity's Legacy: Your Guide to Traveling the Galaxy in Only 20 Years

Paul Sutter is a research fellow at the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste and visiting scholar at the Ohio State University's Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics (CCAPP). Sutter is also host of the podcasts Ask a Spaceman and RealSpace, and the YouTube series Space In Your Face.

Would You Rather Be Stranded on Mars or the Moon? XPrize CEO Answers (Video)

Chanda Gonzales, senior director, Google Lunar XPrize, contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The moon is not only our nearest neighbor in space but also an essential stepping-stone to the rest of the universe, and the opportunity to learn from our closest neighbor can provide the necessary experience to further humanity's presence in the solar system and beyond.

To Preserve the Earth, Rethink Our Relationship with Nature (Op-Ed)

Justin Adams, global managing director, lands, at The Nature Conservancy contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Just last week, the global community saw the launch of the U.N.'s new and ambitious 15-year Sustainable Development Goals. In the run-up to COP21, more conversations have shifted to the nexus of food, water and energy, and about poverty, climate change and risk.

What's the Next Network? The Lighting All Around You (Op-Ed)

Hugh Martin is chairman and chief executive officer of Sensity Systems. In 2011, he was named CEO for Fortune magazine's "Executive Dream Team: The startup edition." Martin created the vision for the light sensory network and for Sensity Systems, which capitalizes on conversions to LED lighting to create high-speed, sensor-base, multiservice, open networking platforms. This Op-Ed is part of a series provided by the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers, class of 2015. The next time you drive past a street light or walk under a light pole as you cross a parking lot to your car, take a moment to ponder this: that same lighting fixture illuminating your path might someday also keep you safer, guide you to where you're headed, lead you to an open parking space, and even make your business more profitable and your customers more loyal.

New tech makes hybrid buses cost-effective

By Jim Drury Artemis's new Digital Displacement (DD) power system this year won the company a prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award. The company, owned by Mitsubishi, hit the headlines earlier this year when a 7MW (megawatt) wind turbine containing a Digital Displacement transmission (DDT) hydraulic system was deployed to operate as a floating wind-turbine in deep water 20 kilometers off Fukushima. Until now hydraulic pumps and motors have been controlled by varying the stroke of pistons with an adjustable mechanism, but have proved inefficient for automotive transmissions and wind turbines.

Tractor beams of science fiction becoming a reality

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