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Wednesday, December 2, 2015

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'Dinosaur disco' footprints reveal lifestyle of Jurassic giants

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - On a platform of rock jutting into the Atlantic on Scotland's Isle of Skye, hundreds of newly discovered dinosaur tracks are changing the way scientists view the lifestyle of some of the largest creatures ever to walk the Earth. Scientists on Tuesday said they found the vast collection of Jurassic Period footprints, some reaching 28 inches (70 cm) in diameter, made when dinosaurs called sauropods waded through shallow water in a brackish lagoon 170 million years ago. "There were clearly lots of sauropods moving all around this lagoon.

Diagnosing malaria with a cell phone

By Ben Gruber COLLEGE STATION, TX (Reuters) - New technology that transforms a cell phone into a mobile polarized microscope can diagnose malaria in a Rwandan village with the same level of accuracy as a hi-tech lab in a major Western city, according to Texas A&M University biomedical engineers developing the device. "The way they diagnose malaria now is with a microscope but it is with a big bench top microscope that is relatively complicated to use, takes a trained technician, and you have to have the facility for that scope in a centralized lab somewhere. The device images a blood sample using polarized light that can detect a malaria parasite byproduct called Hemozoin crystals which appear as very bright dots in the image and are an accurate indicator of infection.

Amid Controversy, Japanese Whaling Ships Return to Antarctic Ocean

Japan sent two whaling ships back to Antarctica's Southern Ocean today (Dec. 1) after a one-year hiatus, resuming seasonal whale hunts that have come under increasing scrutiny and censure from the international community. Under a revised whaling plan, Japan proposes to kill 333 minke whales this year for research purposes — significantly fewer than past years' annual kill limit of 935 whales. Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which oversees the country's whaling program, stated on its website that researchers will study the whales' fish consumption and measure their competition with fisheries, creating ecosystem models for managing marine resources.

U.S. bill ends legal quandary over mining rights in space

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - - A new law clears U.S. companies to own what they mine from asteroids and other celestial bodies, ending a legal quandary that had overshadowed technical and financial issues facing the startups, industry officials said on Tuesday. The Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, signed by President Barack Obama last week, includes provisions that authorize and promote exploration and recovery of space resources by U.S. citizens, although no one can claim ownership of a celestial body. "It's not unlike fishing vessels in international waters," said Bob Richards, chief executive of Moon Express, a lunar transportation and mining company.

Ethicists square off over editing genes in human embryos

By Julie Steenhuysen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Debate over the use of powerful new gene editing tools in human eggs, sperm and embryos grew heated on Tuesday as scientists and ethicists gathered at an international summit to discuss the technology, which has the power to change the DNA of unborn children. Several groups have already called for restrictions on use of the technology known as CRISPR-Cas9, which has opened up new frontiers in genetic medicine because of its ability to modify genes quickly and efficiently. Hille Haker, chair of Catholic Moral Theology at Loyola University Chicago, argued on Tuesday in favor of a two-year international ban on research that involves changing human reproductive cells, also known as germline cells.

Growing push to expose more students to computer science

Moving her finger over the laptop trackpad, 6-year-old Lauren Meek drags and drops a block of code to build a set of instructions. She clicks the "run" button and watches as the character moves ...

Scientists, ethicists tackle gene editing's ethics, promise

WASHINGTON (AP) — A hot new tool to edit the human genetic code has a big wow factor: the promise of long-sought cures for intractable diseases. But depending on how it's used, that same tool could also alter human heredity.

One for the road: Breakthrough claimed with pot-booze breathalyzer

An Oakland company working with scientists from the University of California at Berkeley is claiming a breakthrough in the race to develop an instant roadside marijuana breathalyzer. Hound Labs Inc, whose device is also uniquely designed to double up as an alcohol breathalyzer, is among a handful of companies and researchers hoping to capitalize on increasingly relaxed marijuana laws in the United States. Hound Labs said on Wednesday it had found an accurate way to measure THC - the psychoactive component in cannabis - within one or two blows.

Global soil loss a rising threat to food production: scientists

By Chris Arsenault TORONTO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - One third of the world's arable land has been lost to soil erosion or pollution in the last 40 years, and preserving topsoil is crucial for feeding a growing population, scientists said in research published during climate change talks in Paris. It takes about 500 years to generate 2.5 cm (one inch) of topsoil under normal agricultural conditions, and soil loss has accelerated as demand for food rises, biologists from Britain's Sheffield University said in a report published on Wednesday. "Soil is lost rapidly but replaced over millennia, and this represents one of the greatest global threats to agriculture," Sheffield University biology Professor Duncan Cameron said in a statement with the report.

Oh Snap: Trap-Jaw Ants Jump with Their Legs, Too

Trap-jaw ants are known for using their powerful jaws to launch themselves into the air, somersaulting several times their own body length to evade predators. Scientists recently discovered a trap-jaw species that leaps with its legs, a behavior that is extremely rare in ants and previously unknown in the trap-jaw family. Magdalena Sorger of North Carolina State University and author of the study describing this unusual behavior, was collecting trap-jaw ants in Borneo with a field assistant in 2012, when they noticed something "extremely strange," she told Live Science.

Huge Geometric Shapes in Middle East May Be Prehistoric

Thousands of stone structures that form geometric patterns in the Middle East are coming into clearer view, with archaeologists finding two wheel-shaped patterns date back some 8,500 years. And some of these giant designs located in Jordan's Azraq Oasis seem to have an astronomical significance, built to align with the sunrise on the winter solstice.

An Ancient Nessie? Long-Neck Dinos Once Prowled Scottish Lagoon

Hundreds of dinosaur footprints and handprints dating to 170 million years ago adorn the shore on the Isle of Skye, making it the largest dinosaur site ever discovered in Scotland, a new study finds. The discovery proves that dinosaurs — likely long-necked, four-legged, herbivorous sauropods — splashed around Scotland during the Middle Jurassic period, the researchers said. "These footprints were made in a lagoon, which is a pretty interesting environment for dinosaurs," said study lead researcher Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh.

World's Oldest Peach Pits Reveal Juicy Secrets

The world's oldest peach fossils have been discovered in southwestern China, according to a new report. "If you imagine the smallest commercial peach today, that's what these would look like," Peter Wilf, a professor of paleobotany at Pennsylvania State University, said in a statement. In 2010, Wilf's colleague Tao Su, an associate professor at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden in China's Yunnan province, collected eight peach fossils that were exposed during the construction of a new road near the North Terminal Bus Station in Kunming, the capital of the province.

Doctors Could 3D-Print Micro-Organs with New Technique

Gone are the days when 3D printers merely built plastic trinkets — scientists say 3D-printed structures loaded with embryonic stem cells could one day help doctors print out micro-organs for transplant patients. Embryonic stem cells, obtained from human embryos, can develop into any kind of cell in the body, such as brain tissue, heart cells or bone. Scientists typically experiment with embryonic stem cells by dosing them with biological cues that guide them toward developing into specific tissue types — a process called differentiation.

Safe Sleeping Is Just 1 Part of Preventing SIDS

A safe sleeping environment is crucial for preventing sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), but it is not the only factor that determines the risk of the syndrome in babies, according to a new study. The rates of SIDS in the United States have decreased dramatically since 1992, when the American Academy of Pediatrics first recommended placing babies on their backs to sleep, instead of on their tummies, and since the importance of reducing suffocation hazards, such as soft bedding in cribs, has been recognized, the researchers said. "I work with a lot of parents whose children have died from SIDS, and the general climate is one where, because of the success of controlling the sleep environment, the parents often feel that they are responsible for the deaths of their children," said study author Dr. Richard Goldstein, of Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center.

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Tuesday, December 1, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Cobwebs Hold Genetic Secrets About Spiders and Their Prey

You may want to think twice before vacuuming up any pesky cobwebs you find around your home — these messy spider lairs may contain valuable information (valuable to scientists, that is). Knowing exactly which species of spider built a web in a certain area, as well as knowing what that spider feasted on, is important information for researchers in a variety of fields — from conservation ecology to pest management, said study lead author Charles C.Y. Xu, a graduate student in the Erasmus Mundus Master Programme (MEME) in evolutionary biology, a joint program hosted by four European universities and Harvard University in the United States. "There's a variety of different methods to study [spiders]," Xu told Live Science.

A Prehistoric Murder Mystery: Earth's Worst Mass Extinctions

Paul Wignall is the author of "The Worst of Times: How Life on Earth Survived Eighty Million Years of Extinctions" (Princeton University Press). Beginning 260 million years ago, this phase included the worst mass extinction in Earth's history at the end of the Permian period, another mass extinction at the end of the Triassic period and several more major crises. The crises of this worst-ever 80 million years all share many features in common, especially intense global warming and remarkable changes in the ocean that led to widespread stagnation.

The Future of Driverless Vehicles (Roundtable)

Jeffrey Miller, IEEE member and associate professor of engineering practice at the University of Southern California, contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Void of personal and professional opinions, this announcement did a great service for the driverless vehicle industry, promoting awareness of this emerging technology. In late August, IEEE —the world's largest professional organization of engineers — hosted a roundtable at the University of Southern California to discuss the current condition and future development of the autonomous vehicle industry.

Why Sleep? Why Dream?

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the creator, writer and host of "Closer to Truth," a public television series and online resource that features the world's leading thinkers exploring humanity's deepest questions. Kuhn is co-editor, with John Leslie, of "The Mystery of Existence: Why Is There Anything at All?" (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). Kuhn contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Scientists debate boundaries, ethics of human gene editing

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rewriting your DNA is getting closer to reality: A revolutionary technology is opening new frontiers for genetic engineering — a promise of cures for intractable diseases along with anxiety about designer babies.

Supersize Me: Atom Smasher Reaches Highest Energies Yet

The world's largest atom smasher has supersized its collisions, crashing heavy lead atoms into one another at the highest energy levels yet.

Angry Birds? Seagulls Implicated in Baby-Whale Deaths

Hundreds of baby whales died off the coast of Argentina between 2003 and 2014, and seagulls may have played a role in their deaths, a new study suggests. Gull harassment of right whales off Argentina's Península Valdés has been observed since the 1970s. Since then, researchers from universities and conservation institutions in Argentina and the United States have monitored the gulls' behavior.

Amazon Unveils Its Delivery Drone of the Future

Amazon unveiled a prototype drone yesterday that could one day deliver packages to online shoppers' doorsteps just minutes after they press the "buy" button. The new drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), was created for Prime Air, a same-day delivery service that Amazon first announced in 2013. In the new YouTube video yesterday (Nov. 29) describing this futuristic service, the company said that its small drones (they weigh just 55 pounds, or 25 kilograms) could deliver packages in 30 minutes or less.

Hawaii's Majestic Mauna Kea Stars in '3D' Photo from Space

Mauna Kea, Hawaii's tallest volcano, is circled by clouds in a photo taken by an International Space Station astronaut. The setting sun cast dark shadows along the volcano's eastern flank, lending a depth to the image which is unusual in satellite views of Earth. A tiny ring of white specks at the volcano's summit represents the Mauna Kea astronomical observatory, the largest observatory in the world.

New from the biotech store: an improved gene editing tool

Scientists have developed an improved gene editing tool that significantly reduces potentially dangerous "off-target" edits, promising an even more precise and efficient system for manipulating human DNA. Tuesday's news that U.S. researchers have re-engineered the so-called CRISPR-Cas9 system to slash editing errors comes as experts meet in Washington for a three-day summit to discuss the ethical and policy issues surrounding the field.

European satellite to test method to find ripples in space, time

From a vantage point 93 million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth, the European-built spacecraft, known as LISA Pathfinder, is expected to break ground in the search for the ripples, known as gravitational waves, caused by fast-moving, massive celestial objects such as merging black holes. Black holes are so dense with matter that not even photons of light can escape the powerful gravitational effects. God knows what we will learn," said European Space Agency deputy mission scientist Oliver Jennrich.

'Last-Resort' Antibiotics Fail Against New Superbugs

Some bacteria have finally breached the last wall of humans' antibiotic stronghold, according to a new study from China. In the study, researchers found a gene in one strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) that protects these bacteria against one of the antibiotics considered to be a last resort. The results are "extremely worrying," study author Jian-Hua Liu, a professor at South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, said in a statement.

High Cholesterol Rate Dropping in America, Says CDC

Americans are moving in the right direction when it comes to cholesterol levels, a new report finds. The percentage of adults with high total cholesterol decreased from 18 percent in 1999 to 2000 to 11 percent in 2013 to 2014, according to the findings, published today (Dec. 1). HDL cholesterol is considered the "good" type of cholesterol, so lower levels are considered less healthy.

Your Brain Is a Mosaic of Male and Female

There is no such thing as a "male brain" or a "female brain," new research finds. Instead, men and women's brains are an unpredictable mishmash of malelike and femalelike features, the study concludes. "Our study demonstrates that although there are sex/gender differences in brain structure, brains do not fall into two classes, one typical of males and the other typical of females, nor are they aligned along a 'male brain–female brain' continuum," the study researchers wrote today (Nov. 30) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Science Behind the Power of Giving (Op-Ed)

Jenny Santi is a philanthropy advisor to some of the world's most generous philanthropists and celebrity activists, and was the head of philanthropy services (Southeast Asia) for the world's largest wealth manager. A Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy, Santi is a frequent commentator on the topic and has been quoted in The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, on Channel NewsAsia, and on BBC World News. The morning of Dec. 26, 2004, Czech model Petra Nemcova, then age 25, and her fiancé, photographer Simon Atlee, 33, were vacationing in the resort town of Khao Lak, Thailand.

Satellite launch to test Einstein's idea on space and time delayed

A European satellite launch to find ripples in space that can be caused by merging black holes has been delayed due to a technical problem with its Vega rocket, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Tuesday. The European-built spacecraft, known as LISA Pathfinder, was due to be launched from French Guiana at 0415 GMT on Wednesday. Such delays due to technical issues or poor weather are not unusual.

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