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Saturday, November 14, 2015

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Friday the 13th: Why There Are 3 'Unlucky' Days This Year

Today's inauspicious (or perhaps completely insignificant) date comes on the heels of a Friday the 13th in both February and March of this year. Today is the third and last Friday the 13th of the year, but it's also the final Friday the 13th in a series of seven years, in which three of those years had three Friday the 13ths. In 2009, there were three Friday the 13th dates.

Smithsonian Seeking Space Fans to Retype Apollo Spacecraft Packing Lists

Are you a fan of the Apollo moon landings? If so, then the Smithsonian might have the perfect pastime project for you. The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. has launched its first collaboration with the Smithsonian's Transcription Center to digitize the long lists of equipment that flew along with the Apollo astronauts from the Earth to the moon and back.

'Star Wars' Costume Exhibit Reveals Creativity Behind Force Fashion

The exhibit, titled "Rebel, Jedi, Princess, Queen: Star Wars and the Power of Costume," features items from every corner of that galaxy far, far away, ranging from Boba Fett's banged-up armor to many of Queen Amidala's ornate gowns. "'Star Wars' is so much a part of our cultural identity," said Laela French, senior manager of archives and exhibits at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which curated the exhibit in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.

North American Mammoths Actually Evolved in Eurasia

The famous Columbian mammoth — an 11-ton creature known for traversing North America during the last ice age — might actually be the same species as the Eurasian steppe mammoth, a new study finds. The discovery suggests that the first mammoth to enter North America was the Eurasian steppe mammoth, and not its ancestor, a European creature called Mammuthus meridionalis. The two species differed greatly — the steppe mammoth had many more adaptations to living in cold weather.

Bay Bridge Pier to Go Boom: The Science of Implosions

Residents of San Francisco and Oakland may get a booming treat early Saturday morning.

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Friday, November 13, 2015

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Lone Star Flight Museum to Land Where NASA Astronaut Jets Take Off

HOUSTON — For 24 years, former astronaut Bonnie Dunbar came to Ellington Field to fly. On Monday (Nov. 9), she returned to the southeast Houston airport, the home to NASA's aircraft operations, to dig — in honor of the history, and future, of flight. Dunbar, who launched aboard five space shuttle missions between 1985 and 1998, was among the dignitaries who took up a shovel of dirt to symbolically break ground on the new site of the Lone Star Flight Museum.

Mars' Lost Atmosphere: MAVEN Probe Scientist Explains New Finding

The MAVEN spacecraft recently revealed that Mars' once-thick atmosphere was stripped away by powerful solar activity at some time in its history. "MAVEN has been focused on trying to understand the changing Mars climate," Jakosky told Space.com. The new findings from MAVENshow that the Martian atmosphere was lost to space, with large amounts stripped away by strong solar activity — as opposed to the atmosphere going down into the soil.

European scientists say weedkiller glyphosate unlikely to cause cancer

By Barbara Lewis BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer in humans, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said on Thursday, and the agency proposed a higher limit on the daily amount of residue of the popular weed killer deemed safe if consumed. The EFSA advises EU policymakers and its conclusion could lead the 28-member European Union to renew approval for glyphosate, which was brought into use by Monsanto Co in the 1970s and is used in its top-selling product Roundup as well as in many other herbicides around the world. ...

1 in 45 US Kids Has an Autism Spectrum Disorder

About 1 in 45 children in the United States has an autism spectrum disorder, according to a new government estimate of the condition's prevalence in 2014. This new report is based on data collected during the yearly National Health Interview Survey, from interviews of parents about their children, and is the first report of the prevalence of autism in the U.S. to include data from the years 2011 to 2014, according to the researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Although the new estimate looks like a significant increase from the CDC's previous estimate — which put the autism spectrum disorder rate at 1 in 68 children — the previous estimate was made using data from a different CDC survey, called the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, which gathers information from children's medical records.

Here's How Many Americans Are Now Obese

Nearly 38 percent of U.S. adults are obese, according to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 2013 and 2014, 37.7 percent of U.S. adults had a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, which is considered obese, according to a new CDC report. What is clear is that obesity rates have increased over the last decade.

Brain Scan May Predict Chance of Coma Recovery

Using a scanning technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), doctors have zeroed in on a poorly studied brain region called the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) that appears to be involved with consciousness. This work is also ongoing.

Woman in Africa Survives Double Whammy of Ebola, Stroke

A middle-age woman in Africa who became infected with Ebola suffered a stroke during her bout with the virus but managed to survive both maladies, according to a new report of her case. The woman's case suggests that Ebola complications could include stroke, but more research is needed to say for sure, the authors said. The woman, in her 40s or 50s, went to an Ebola treatment center in West Africa in January 2015, according to the case report.

Construction of Giant Next-Generation Telescope Begins in Chile

Construction of the world's biggest telescope is now underway. A star-studded groundbreaking ceremony here in the Chilean Andes Wednesday evening (Nov. 11) — attended by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, United States ambassador to Chile Michael Hammer and other dignitaries — officially ushered the $1 billion Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) into the construction phase. When it's finished, GMT will boast a light-collecting surface more than twice as wide as that of any existing optical scope, and it will return images 10 times sharper than those of NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope, project representatives say.

NASA's Innovative Drone Glider Prototype Aces Test Flight

A remotely piloted aircraft achieved an important research milestone last month when a subscale "flying wing" glider successfully completed a series of flight tests. Previously, development on this concept led to some preliminary work on a NASA glider for Mars called Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars (Prandtl-m), designed with the idea that it could sail through the thin atmosphere of the Red Planet. "[Prandtl-D No. 3] flew beautifully," Albion Bowers, NASA Armstrong chief scientist and Prandtl-D project manager, said in a statement from the agency about the Oct. 28 flights.

Ultrathin Graphene Can Improve Night Vision Tech

Night-vision windshields on cars might one day be possible with advanced thermal imaging technology based on flexible, transparent, atomically thin sheets of carbon, researchers say. Thermal imaging lets people see the invisible infrared rays that objects shed as heat. Thermal imaging devices have helped soldiers, police, firefighters and others see in the dark and in smoky conditions so they can better do their jobs.

El Nino sends rare tropical visitors to California waters

El Nino's warm currents have brought fish in an unexpected spectrum of shapes and colors from Mexican waters to the ocean off California's coast, thrilling scientists with the sight of bright tropical species and giving anglers the chance of a once-in-a-lifetime big catch. Creatures that have made a splash by venturing north in the past several weeks range from a whale shark, a gentle plankton-eating giant that ranks as the world's largest fish and was seen off Southern California, to two palm-sized pufferfish, a species with large and endearing eyes, that washed ashore on the state's central coast. Scientists say El Nino, a periodic warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific, has sent warm waves to California's coastal waters that make them more hospitable to fish from the tropics.

Incan Child Sacrified to the Gods Reveals History of American Expansion

The mummy of an Incan child who was sacrificed to the gods more than 500 years ago belonged to a previously unknown offshoot of an ancient Native American lineage, new research finds. The child, a 7-year-old who was found frozen in the highest reaches of the Andes in Argentina, was part of a genetic lineage that arose when humans were beginning to cross the Bering Strait or first migrating into the Americas, the researchers found.

Mysterious 'Blood Rain' Tints Water a Gruesome Hue

Residents of several villages in northwest Spain received an unpleasant surprise last fall, when they noticed that the water in their fountains had turned a gory shade of red. The tint wasn't left behind by a guilty murderer's bloody hands, but rather by microscopic algae that arrived in a recent rainfall. Speculation ran rampant, blaming everything from contaminants dropped from airplanes to biblical plagues (a similar "blood rain" episode in Kerala, India, in 2001 sparked suggestions that the rain had extraterrestrial origins).

Lost Pharaoh? Great Pyramid May Hide Undiscovered Tomb

Speculation swirls anew that within Egypt's Great Pyramid of Khufu there lies a hidden tomb, possibly holding the pharaoh himself, sealed there for thousands of years. The discovery of so-called thermal anomalies by a team scanning the pyramid suggests an as-yet-unidentified open space that could be evidence of a tomb. Scientists and explorers have been searching for an undiscovered tomb within the Great Pyramid since the 19th century, so far failing to find one.

Friday the 13th Times 3: Why So Many 'Unlucky' Days in 2015?

'WTF' Space Junk Meets Fiery Demise as Scientists Watch (Video)

The mysterious space junk WT1190F fell from the sky this morning, and scientists had a flying, ringside seat as the object burned up in multicolored fireballs. A new video of the falling WT1190F shows the first observations taken by a worldwide collaboration of researchers watching from a Gulfstream 450 business jet as the object returned to Earth to meet its fiery doom. European Space Agency officials suggest the debris is likely from an old rocket mission, and the science team's analysis should help reveal the space junk's ultimate origin.

Teens Are Happier Than in the Past — Why Are Adults So Miserable?

"My conclusion is that our current culture is giving teens what they need, but not mature adults what they need," Twenge said. Twenge, the author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled — and More Miserable Than Ever Before" (Free Press, 2006), became interested in studying changes in happiness after seeing several conflicting papers on the topic. Very quickly, Twenge said, a pattern emerged: The eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders of today are happier than the eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders of previous decades.

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Thursday, November 12, 2015

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'Superduck' dinosaur provides insight into elaborate head crests

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a warm, lush environment near a meandering river 79.5 million years ago in Montana, a dinosaur nicknamed "Superduck" munched on leaves and kept a lookout for predators related to Tyrannosaurus rex that might threaten its herd. It was a member of a plant-eating group called duck-billed dinosaurs, known for beaks resembling a duck's bill, common during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period. Many duck-billed dinosaurs boasted head crests of various shapes and sizes.

Bee-lieve it or not: people liked honey back in the Stone Age

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Murals from ancient Egypt's vibrant New Kingdom era depicting bees and honey amid scenes of everyday life some 4,400 years ago provide early evidence of people using of beehive products. Scientists said on Wednesday they have found evidence of beeswax in pottery made by Stone Age people from early farming cultures in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, including in cooking pots from a site in eastern Turkey dating to about 8,500 years ago. "The distinctive chemical fingerprint of beeswax was detected at multiple Neolithic sites across Europe, indicating just how widespread the association between humans and honeybees was in prehistoric times," organic geochemist Mélanie Roffet-Salque of the University of Bristol in Britain said.

New 'Making North America' Series Explores Continent's Rich History

The first part of the "Making North America" series has already aired, but the second installment will air tonight (Nov. 11) at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT (check local listings). The host of the series, Kirk Johnson, is a renowned paleontologist and director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Throughout the series, Johnson flies, swims, hikes and rappels around the North American continent, speaking to experts and using (literally) earth-shattering special effects to guide viewers through North America's billions of years of history. It turns out that the land isn't, err, set in stone, and the North American continent has been through some pretty drastic changes.

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.

Germany, U.S. in hot pursuit of 'messenger' drug molecules

In theory, the promise of mRNA is enormous, ranging from cancer to infectious diseases to heart and kidney disorders, since it could be used to tackle the 80 percent of proteins that are difficult to affect with existing medicines. Despite a recent sell-off in biotech stocks, sparked by U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's threat to crack down on drug pricing, enthusiasm for mRNA, is rising. Privately-held CureVac in the university town of Tuebingen, which already has backing from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates thanks to its vaccine work, last week raised $110 million from new investors, valuing it at $1.6 billion.

Astronomers discover new distant object in the solar system

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronomers have discovered what appears to be a miniature planet that is the most distant body ever found in the solar system, scientists said on Wednesday. "We can't really classify the object yet, as we don't know its orbit," said Scott Sheppard, an astronomer with the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. "We only just found this object a few weeks ago." Based on its reflectivity, scientists believe the icy body, known as V774101, is between 300 and 600 miles (500 to 1,000 km) in diameter, roughly half the size of Pluto. Currently, the most distant planet-like bodies in the solar system are Sedna, discovered in 2003, and VP113, discovered in 2012.

Part of Pluto's Heart Was 'Born Yesterday'

Pluto has a surprisingly youthful heart — the smooth, round region on the dwarf planet'ssurface is no more than 10 million years old, a blink of an eye in the 4.5-billion-year lifetime of the solar system. The large,western lobe of the "heart" on Pluto's surface is also known as Sputnik Planum, and it is strikingly free of craters. Researchers with NASA's New Horizons mission said this is surprising, because such processes require an internal heat source, which is often lost in small bodies like Pluto.

Strategic Command Issues Statement on Trident Missile Test that Freaked Out the West Coast

With images like these, it's no wonder California — not to mention the Twittersphere — freaked out Saturday evening when an unannounced test of a submarine-launched Trident missile lit up the evening sky. Photographer Porter Tinsley and her wife were on the shore of California's desolate Salton Sea taking long exposures and time lapses with three different cameras when they witnessed what they thought at the time was a chemical or nuclear weapon detonating over Los Angeles two and a half hours to the west. The test occurred the same day U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, called out Russia for engaging in "challenging activities" at sea, in the air, in space and cyberspace.

Robot salamander helping scientists unlock spinal secrets

By Matthew Stock A robotic salamander that can replicate the amphibian's movement to an unprecedented degree of accuracy has been built by robotic engineers in Switzerland. Called Pleurobot, it can reproduce the many postures and positions of a real salamander, and can even swim underwater. Researchers hope it will give neuroscientists an important new tool for further understanding the way the nervous system co-ordinates movement in vertebrates.

Ozone Hole Over Antarctica Nears Record-Breaking Size Again

The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is nearing record-breaking size again, scientists say. In fact, new observations show that the infamous "ozone hole" is currently larger than the entire continent of North America. Researchers at the German Aerospace Center are using Earth-observing satellites to monitor the protective ozone layer and recently reported that a large, nearly circular hole over Antarctica extends over an area measuring 26 million square km (10 million square miles).

How Robots Are Building a 3D-Printed Metal Bridge in Amsterdam

The quaint, cobblestoned city of Amsterdam is about to get a modern addition: a 3D-printed footbridge. The bridge will be constructed entirely by robots that can "print" complex steel objects in midair. The autonomous bots are like mechanical, torch-wielding welders that melt together layer upon layer of steel to form a solid object, said Tim Geurtjens, MX3D's co-founder and chief technology officer.

European scientists say weedkiller glyphosate unlikely to cause cancer

By Barbara Lewis BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer in humans, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which nevertheless proposed new limits on Thursday on the amount of residue of the weedkiller deemed safe for humans to consume. The EFSA advises EU policymakers and its conclusion could pave the way for the 28-member European Union to renew approval for glyphosate, which was brought into use by Monsanto in the 1970s and is used in its top selling product Roundup as well as in many other herbicides around the world. Environmental groups have been calling for a ban after the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, said in March that glyphosate was "probably carcinogenic to humans".

Hoping to find life on other planets, astronomers start on giant Chile telescope

By Gram Slattery CERRO LAS CAMPANAS, Chile (Reuters) - Chilean President Michelle Bachelet put hammer to stone on an Andean mountaintop on Wednesday evening to mark the start of construction for one of the world's most advanced telescopes, an instrument that may help shed light on the possibility of life on distant planets. The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), scheduled to be completed by 2024, will have a resolution 10 times that of the Hubble spacecraft. Such technology, astronomers say, will help humans determine how the universe formed and if planets hundreds of light years away could support life.

Why the Pyramids Spawn So Many Wacky Theories

GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson stands by an odd theory he floated at a commencement address: that the Egyptian pyramids are not pharaohs' tombs, but ancient grain silos built by the biblical Joseph. Indeed, though the pyramids are some of the most well-researched ancient structures in the world, they have a long-standing tendency to attract crackpot theories. Like Carson, these people ignore massive amounts of contemporary evidence about the pyramids.

Dog-Size Rats Once Lived Alongside Humans

Scientists on an expedition to the island nation of East Timor discovered fossils representing seven new species of giant rats, all larger than any species ever found. The biggest of them would have tipped the scales at 11 lbs. (5 kilograms), about 10 times as much as a modern rat, according to Julien Louys, a paleontologist and research fellow at the Australian National University, who presented the findings in October at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Calling the dig sites fossil-rich would be an understatement, Louys told Live Science.

Darwin's 'Origin of Species' Voted Most Influential Academic Book

Women's rights, the foundations of capitalism and the warping of space-time can all take a backseat to meticulous descriptions of long-beaked finches, at least if public opinion is any measure. A group of academic booksellers, publishers and librarians conducted the survey in advance of Academic Book Week in the United Kingdom. In Darwin's theory, species emerge through natural selection, where genetic changes lead some in a population to be more fit for their environment than their competitors.

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