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	(Sponsor this newsletter) Spaniel-Size Triceratops Cousin Walked on Its Two Hind Legs The discovery of a spaniel-size ceratopsian that walked on its two hind legs reveals that Late Jurassic horned dinosaurs were much more diverse than previously thought, a new study finds. Researchers uncovered the remains of the 160-million-year-old, plant-eating creature in China's Gobi desert. The new specimen has a unique ornamental texture on its skull, and it's much smaller than its famous distant cousin, Triceratops, which lived about 95 million years later in North America during the Late Cretaceous, the researchers said. Read More » What Is a Human? Long-Standing Debate Surrounds Our Family Tree Several ancient human species and relatives have been unearthed in bits and pieces over the years, including one with an orange-size brain, another dubbed the "hobbit" for its miniature size and a flat-faced hominin with a huge brow ridge. Although these finds have opened more windows into the evolutionary landscape in which today's humans arose, some researchers are not convinced such discoveries belong alongside Homo sapiens. The controversy — whether the human family tree had few or many branches — is part of a long-standing debate between the so-called lumpers and splitters. Read More » 'Star Wars' Creature: Giraffe Relative Named After Queen Amidala The "Star Wars" franchise may need to update its menagerie of wonky, alienlike creatures to include a boneheaded, short-necked relative of the giraffe. The extinct relative of giraffes, Xenokeryx amidalae, takes its moniker from Queen Padmé Amidala, the wife of Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader) in the "Star Wars" prequels. The weird-looking creature may give Queen Amidala's hat maker a run for its money: X. amidalae had two ossicones (similar to horns) and a bizarre, T-shaped appendage sprouting from the top of its head, researchers noted in a study describing the creature. Read More » Elf on the Shelf: Cute or Creepy? Ten years ago, a self-published Christmas book launched a new holiday tradition: the Elf on the Shelf. In fact, experts say, the Elf on the Shelf could send some less-than-appealing messages on proper behavior, privacy and surveillance. "Think about it," said Emily Gifford, a psychologist at Child Development Associates in Scarsdale, New York. Read More » Bomb-proof bag could suppress explosion on aircraft By Matthew Stock A controlled explosion in the luggage hold of an aircraft was successfully contained by a bomb-proof lining developed by an international team of scientists. The technology shows how a plane's luggage hold may be able to contain the force of an explosion if a device hidden in an item of luggage detonates. The lining's flexibility increases its resilience in containing an explosion and any blast fragments, said Dr. Andrew Tyas, of the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, who is leading the research at the University of Sheffield. Read More » Earth May Spin Faster as Glaciers Melt Melting ice triggered by global warming may make Earth whirl faster than before and could shift the axis on which the planet spins, researchers say. Prior research found the rate at which Earth spins has changed over time. In general, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun on Earth is relentlessly slowing the planet's rate of spin. Read More » Prairie Voles' Cheatin' Heart Tied to Genes The latter may be true for prairie voles, and this absentmindedness could be inherited, according to a new study. Unlike most mammals, prairie voles bond for life (which is pretty short — only one to two years.) Once they've paired off, the males establish territories that they fiercely defend against trespassers. To investigate what might lead some males to stray, the scientists zeroed in on a gene called avpr1a, already known for its associations with both sexual fidelity and spatial memory, and a receptor — a protein molecule that receives signals and converts them to trigger responses — known as V1aR, in memory structures. Read More » 'Impossible' Feat: Scientists Measure Energy of Atoms During Reactions For the first time, scientists have accomplished a feat long thought impossible — they have measured the energy of incredibly short-lived arrangements of atoms that occur as chemical reactions are happening. This finding could help shed light on the precise inner workings of chemical reactions too complex to understand by other methods, the researchers said. The chemical reactions responsible for life, death and everything in between involve molecules transforming from one kind to another — essentially, from reactants to products. Read More » Too Much Sleeping & Sitting as Bad as Smoking & Drinking For each participant, the researchers counted how many unhealthy behaviors he or she engaged in, including smoking, drinking alcohol, eating unhealthy foods, being physical inactive, exhibiting sedentary behaviors and sleeping too much (which the researchers defined as more than 9 hours per night). But the study also showed that the combination of physical inactivity with sedentary behavior, or physical inactivity with too much sleep, were as strongly linked to mortality among the participants as the combination of smoking with heavy drinking. "Physical inactivity alone had a strong association with mortality," Melody Ding, lead author on the study and senior research fellow at the Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, told Live Science in an email. Read More » Traveling for the Holidays with Kids? How to Keep Them Safe If you're a parent traveling with young children this year, or a host welcoming friends' or relatives' babies into your home, check out the following tips from pediatricians on how to create a safe environment and ease holiday stress. The biggest dangers in a non-baby-proofed house are typically everyday things, pediatricians say. Electrical wires, steep stairs and choking hazards are common dangers, said Dr. Justin Smith, a pediatrician at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Read More » In Chile, world's astronomy hub, scientists fear loss of dark skies By Gram Slattery CERRO LAS CAMPANAS, Chile (Reuters) - When some of the world's leading astronomers scaled a frosty, Chilean peak in mid-November to break ground on a state-of-the-art, $1 billion telescope, they were stunned by an unexpectedly hazy glow. On the floor of the Atacama Desert, some 1,700 meters (5,600 ft) below the planned Giant Magellan Telescope, new streetlights lining Chile's north-south highway shone brightly. "It's like putting an oil rig in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef," said Guillermo Blanc, a University of Chile astronomy professor, who first saw the lights at the opening. Read More »
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FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

	Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News
	(Sponsor this newsletter) Obama says world "met the moment" in global warming pact WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is portraying the global warming pact reached in Paris on Saturday as the strong agreement the world needed to confront a threat to the people of all nations. Read More »
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Traces of a 'Lost' Stonehenge Appear in Rock Quarry

	Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News
	(Sponsor this newsletter) Clash of dueling climate realities: Science and politics LE BOURGET, France (AP) — Two sets of reality are clashing as climate talks go into overtime: Diplomatic real politics and hard science. Read More » Body left for science slips out of van on Texas road An elderly woman's body donated to a medical research lab was discovered on the side of a north Texas road after falling through the back window of a transport van, police said on Friday. The mortuary van carrying the body of Nell Joseph, 79, was headed to a Science Care facility in Colorado on Tuesday when a rear window broke and the cadaver slid out onto the highway without the driver noticing, said police in Denton, north of Dallas. Melinda Ellsworth, a spokeswoman for Science Care, said the van was carrying multiple donors but only Joseph's body fell off the vehicle. Read More » Singapore students build personal flying machine A team of eight engineering students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have built a personal flying machine, dubbed 'Snowstorm'. It could only be demonstrated by flying it indoors, due to Singapore's legal requirements for personal aerial vehicles. Resembling a giant drone, 'Snowstorm' comprises of motors, propellers and landing gears set within a hexagonal frame and can be controlled by the person sitting in it, or remotely. Read More » The Latest: Top climate scientist praises draft of pact LE BOURGET, France (AP) — The latest on the U.N. climate conference outside Paris (all times local): Read More » Traces of a 'Lost' Stonehenge Appear in Rock Quarry A few tantalizing pieces of evidence hint that there may have been an earlier, lost precursor to Stonehenge somewhere in Wales. Some of Stonehenge's bluestones were mined from a rocky outcrop called Craig Rhos-y-felin, part of Preseli Hills in Wales. This raises the possibility that one or two of the bluestones from Stonehenge may have first been used in some other, earlier henge in Wales before being removed from that monument and transported to the Salisbury Plain in England. Read More » Nearly 200 nations near a deal to slow global warming LE BOURGET, France (AP) — France presented negotiators from nearly 200 nations with what it called a "final draft" of an unprecedented climate deal to slow global warming and urged them to approve it on Saturday. The deal would slow rising temperatures and sea levels, and eventually hold man-made emissions to the levels that nature can absorb. Read More » Melting glaciers blamed for subtle slowing of Earth's rotation By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The melting of glaciers caused by the world's rising temperatures appears to be causing a slight slowing of the Earth's rotation in another illustration of the far-reaching impact of global climate change, scientists said on Friday. The driving force behind the modest but discernible changes in the Earth's rotation measured by satellites and astronomical methods is a global sea level rise fueled by an influx of meltwater into the oceans from glaciers, the researchers said. "Because glaciers are at high latitudes, when they melt they redistribute water from these high latitudes towards lower latitudes, and like a figure skater who moves his or her arms away from their body, this acts to slow the rotation rate of the Earth," Harvard University geophysicist Jerry Mitrovica said. Read More » Northrop says it will bid if Pentagon opens GPS satellite tender By Andrea Shalal PALMDALE, Calif. (Reuters) - Northrop Grumman Corp this week said it would bid if the U.S. Air Force opens a fresh competition for next-generation GPS satellites next year, as expected, and perhaps later on a new ground control system. Tom Vice, president of Northrop's Aerospace Systems division, said he expects the Air Force to launch a competition for new Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, and Northrop was ready to participate. Northrop already builds satellites for the U.S. intelligence community and is building the powerful new James Webb telescope for NASA. Read More »
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FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

	Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News
	(Sponsor this newsletter) SpaceX rocket aiming to fly again next week after accident By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Privately-owned Space Exploration Technologies is aiming to return its repaired Falcon 9 rocket to flight next week, following a launch accident six months ago, the company said on Thursday. For its mission on Dec. 19, the California-based SpaceX plans to launch 11 small commercial communications satellites for ORBCOMM Inc, which provides machine-to-machine messaging services, such as between retailers and shipping containers. SpaceX, which has a backlog of 60 missions worth about $8 billion, has been grounded since June 28 when its 19th Falcon 9 rocket exploded minutes after launch. Read More » Lost Tomb of 'Suleiman the Magnificent' Possibly Unearthed The lost tomb of Suleiman the Magnificent, one of the greatest rulers of the Ottoman Empire, may have been unearthed in southern Hungary. In addition to his military prowess, Suleiman "the lawgiver" simplified Ottoman legal code and funded the construction of some of Istanbul's most gorgeous architecture. Read More » A new space race: satellites could test the world's climate vows By Barbara Lewis, Richard Valdmanis and David Stanway PARIS (Reuters) - Scientists from the United States, Japan, and China are racing to perfect satellite technology that could one day measure greenhouse gas emissions from space, potentially transforming the winner into the world's first climate cop. Monitoring a single country's net emissions from above could not only become an important tool to establish whether it had met its promises to slow global warming, a point of contention at climate talks in Paris, but also help emitters to pinpoint the sources of greenhouse gases more quickly and cheaply. "We know satellite technology is evolving so that there is an increasing ability to actually tell whether countries are telling the truth." Most estimates of greenhouse gas emissions are now based on calculations of energy use and other proxy data, rather than on-the-ground measurements, leaving a huge margin of error when nations submit their figures to the United Nations. Read More » Too early to use gene editing in embryos - scientist By Julie Steenhuysen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the scientists who discovered powerful tools for altering genes is not convinced the case has been made for using the technology on human sperm, eggs and embryos. "The tools are not ready," biologist Emmanuelle Charpentier said in an interview on Wednesday during a global meeting on the technology. Changes made in the genes of human reproductive cells, known as germline cells, would be passed along to future generations. Read More » Scientists coax computers to think like people By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For artificial intelligence and smart machines to really take off, computers are going to have to be able to think more like people, according to experts in the field. The research was published in the journal Science. Read More » Scientists coax computers to think like people By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For artificial intelligence and smart machines to really take off, computers are going to have to be able to think more like people, according to experts in the field. The research was published in the journal Science. Read More » After the genome, AstraZeneca taps 'secretome' for novel drugs By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca is diving into the world of proteins secreted by cells - collectively known as the secretome - in the hunt for new drugs and better "cell factories" for making biotech medicines. The so-called secretome accounts for around one third of human proteins and the idea of mapping them all follows the decoding of the human genome in 2000, since when there has been a surge in scientific buzzwords ending in "ome". AstraZeneca hopes to get in on the ground floor of this opportunity through a three-year collaboration with the newly established Wallenberg Center for Protein Research in Sweden. Read More » Three International Space Station crewmen heading back to Earth By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Three International Space Station crew members got a jump on holiday travel, boarding a Russian Soyuz capsule on Friday for an express ride back to Earth. NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Japan's Kimiya Yui pulled away from the station at 4:49 a.m. EST (0949 GMT) as the orbital outpost soared 250 miles (400 km) over Earth, a NASA Television broadcast showed. Read More » How El Niño Made the Pacific a Hurricane Hotbed in 2015 A record-breaking number of furious storms rocked the Pacific Ocean during the 2015 hurricane season, while the Atlantic Ocean stayed relatively quiet, likely because of El Niño, new research shows. El-Niño-influenced storms raged throughout the Pacific during this year's six-month hurricane season, which lasted from June 1 to Nov. 30. But the Atlantic spent its third consecutive year with below-average storm activity, the Earth Observatory reported. Read More » Female Mass Killers: Why They're So Rare As last week's shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, unfolded, the narrative seemed sickeningly familiar: A few moments of chaos ending in multiple deaths. Female mass killers are "so rare that it just hasn't been studied," said James Garbarino, a psychologist at Loyola University Chicago who has researched human development and violence. Women commit only about 10 percent to 13 percent of homicides n the United States, said Adam Lankford, a criminal justice professor and author of "The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers" (St. Martin's Press, 2013). Read More » When Will Flu Season Start? It may be late fall, but there's not much flu going around in the United States so far this season, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And during the last week of November, 44 states reported minimal flu activity (the level of activity that's normal for the off season), while just two states (Oklahoma and South Carolina) reported increased, or moderate flu activity. No states reported high flu activity. Read More » High-School Cheerleading Injuries Are Often Severe High school cheerleaders have an overall rate of injuries that is lower than that of most other high school sports, but the injuries that do occur among cheerleaders tend to be more severe, a new study suggests. In the study of 22 high school sports, there were 17 sports that had higher injury rates than cheerleading, the researchers found. "Although overall injury rates are relatively low, cheerleading injuries may be more severe when they do occur," the researchers, from the Colorado School of Public Health and the University of Colorado, wrote in their study, published today (Dec. 10) in the journal Pediatrics. Read More » Cholesterol Levels Are a Problem for Many US Kids About 20 percent of U.S. children have problems with their cholesterol levels, such as high levels of "bad" cholesterol or low levels of "good" cholesterol, according to a new report. The report found that, overall, 7.4 percent of children ages 6 to 19 have high levels of total cholesterol, meaning their cholesterol levels are at or above 200 milligrams per deciliter. High cholesterol levels are more common in children who are obese, the report found. Read More » Why the 'Hoverboard' Scooter Is So Fly Some call them hoverboards; others call them smart or self-balancing scooters. But whatever you call the two-wheeled motorized vehicles you've probably seen rolling over sidewalks of late, one thing is certain: These futuristic gadgets are pretty cool. And the physics and mechanics that make them go are cool, too. Read More » Climate draft puts temperature limit out of reach: scientists By Nina Chestney and Alister Doyle PARIS (Reuters) - A deal to slow climate change being thrashed out in Paris fails to map out steep enough cuts in carbon dioxide emissions to limit global warming to the target of at least "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), scientists said on Friday. Negotiations on the draft agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, blamed for warming the planet and disrupting the climate, were extended by a day on Friday to Saturday to try to overcome stubborn divisions among the 195 countries taking part. The draft text, released on Thursday and subject to revision, also proposes that emissions peak "as soon as possible", with rapid cuts thereafter towards achieving "greenhouse gas emissions neutrality in the second half of the century". Read More » Climate draft puts temperature limit out of reach - scientists By Nina Chestney and Alister Doyle PARIS (Reuters) - A deal to slow climate change being thrashed out in Paris fails to map out steep enough cuts in carbon dioxide emissions to limit global warming to the target of at least "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), scientists said on Friday. Negotiations on the draft agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions, blamed for warming the planet and disrupting the climate, were extended by a day on Friday to Saturday to try to overcome stubborn divisions among the 195 countries taking part. The draft text, released on Thursday and subject to revision, also proposes that emissions peak "as soon as possible", with rapid cuts thereafter towards achieving "greenhouse gas emissions neutrality in the second half of the century". Read More »
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