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Wednesday, December 16, 2015

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Panda passion: Study reveals secret of fruitful captive breeding

Scientists studying captive breeding of the endangered bamboo-eating bears said on Tuesday pandas are far more likely to mate successfully and produce cubs when they show through a complex series of behaviors a preference for a potential mate. When giant pandas in captive breeding experiments displayed no such preference, despite being deemed genetically suitable as a pair, their chances of successfully mating dropped to zero. "Incorporating mate choice into conservation breeding programs could make a huge difference for the success of many endangered species breeding programs, increasing cost-effectiveness and overall success," said conservation biologist Meghan Martin-Wintle of the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

See the 'Star Wars' Worlds Exoplanet Scientists Can't Help But Love

From the icy reaches of Hoth to the tiny inferno of Mustafar, every "Star Wars" fan has a favorite alien world from this iconic science fiction franchise. Space.com took the opportunity to ask 20 of these folks about their favorite "Star Wars" worlds. The scientists we polled were almost evenly split among three worlds from the "Star Wars" original trilogy: Hoth (from "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back,"), Tatooine (from "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope,"), and the moon of the planet Endor (from "Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi.").

Smuggled Ancient Wall Carving Returned to Egypt

A 2-foot-long wall carving featuring the pharaoh Seti I is back in Egypt after being repatriated from the United Kingdom, the Egyptian minister of antiquities announced Monday (Dec. 14). Egypt has long pushed for the return of ancient artifacts — an effort that is only intensifying as political upheaval deters Egyptian tourism. The stela was smuggled out of Egypt from an illegal dig, according to the Ministry of Antiquities.

New X Prize Challenge: Map Ocean Floor

Yesterday (Dec. 14), Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of X Prize, announced the launch of the Shell Ocean Discovery X Prize, a three-year global competition that challenges researchers to build better technologies for mapping what Diamandis called one of the "greatest unexplored frontiers" — Earth's seafloor. "Our oceans cover two-thirds of our planet's surface and are a crucial global source of food, energy, economic security and even the air we breathe, yet 95 percent of the deep sea remains a mystery to us," Diamandis said yesterday at a keynote address during the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco. Right now, researchers have better maps of Mars than they do of Earth's seafloor, he added.

Drought Could Kill Off Many of the World's Trees

Drought could kill vast swaths of forests around the world if global warming isn't contained, new research suggests. What's more, climate predictions seem to suggest that droughts will be much more common in the United States, said William Anderegg, a biologist at Princeton University who studies forests and climate change. "The droughts of the future look to be more frequent and more severe," Anderegg said here yesterday (Dec. 14) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

Satellite Imagery Reveals Most Lightning-Prone Places on Earth

The place most likely to be struck by lightning in the world is one spot above Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela, according to new data. 283 of the most lightning-prone villages, cities or towns were in Africa.

Young Smokers May Be Switching to Cigarette Alternatives

The percentage of young adults in the United States who smoke cigarettes has dropped in recent years, but the decline could be due to this population switching from cigarettes to other forms of tobacco, a new poll suggests. The Gallup poll found that over the last decade, the smoking rate among 18- to 29-year-olds in the United States dropped 12 percentage points: from 34 percent of people in this age group smoking in 2001-2005 to 22 percent in 2011-2015. In past years, young adults were more likely than people over 30 to smoke cigarettes, but now, the smoking rate among young adults is similar to the rate among people ages 30 to 49 and those ages 50 to 64, Gallup said.

Stress May Raise Risk of Memory Problems in Older People

Feeling very high amounts of stress may increase older people's risk of developing the memory problems that often precede Alzheimer's disease, a new study shows. Researchers found that older people in the study who were highly stressed were more than twice as likely to develop problems with their memory as those who had low levels of stress. The new results suggest that finding ways to lower stress levels in older people early on may help delay, or even prevent, the onset of Alzheimer's disease, the researchers said.

Shingles Linked to Increased Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke

A bout of shingles may increase your risk for other serious health conditions — namely, a stroke or a heart attack — a new study finds. People in the study who had shingles, a disease caused by the herpes zoster virus, faced a 2.4-fold increased risk of stroke, and a 1.7-fold increased risk of heart attack during the first week following their shingles diagnosis, according to the findings published today (Dec. 15) in the journal PLOS Medicine. Because cardiovascular events are major causes of mortality, it's important to understand what causes these events, and what can be done to prevent them, said Caroline Minassian, a researcher at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the lead author on the study.

Zika Virus Spreading in the Americas: What You Should Know

Infections with Zika virus, which is carried by mosquitos, are on the rise across the Americas, raising concerns among health officials. On Thursday (Dec. 10), officials in Panama announced the country's first case of locally acquired Zika virus — meaning that a person caught the disease from a mosquito in that country, rather than while traveling elsewhere — raising the number of countries in the Americas with reported cases of Zika infections to 10. Previously, on Dec. 1, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) had issued an alert about the virus.

Better Watch Out for Deer Ticks This Holiday Season

Unusually high fall temperatures in the northeastern United States have let blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), also known as deer ticks, remain active later into December than usual. This means that a visit to a Christmas tree farm could bring an unexpected encounter with a bloodsucking hitchhiker. Adult ticks are normally at their most active during the spring and summer months, and their activity usually tapers off as cold weather arrives.

Citizen Scientists Reveal Wildlife Changes as Sea Ice Melts (Op-Ed)

Seabird McKeon a biodiversity scientist with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Increasingly, citizen scientists are stepping in to monitor the shifts, a positive step in an uncertain path forward. In particular, birders and whale watchers are documenting wildlife sightings and revealing shifts in animal movements in the planet's northern hinterlands.

When Is 'Gene Editing' Dangerous? (Video)

Robert Sanders, media relations officer for the University of California, Berkeley, contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. What if correcting the sickle cell mutation in the human genome made people more susceptible to malaria? These are the potential dangers of making changes to the human genome that can be passed down to future generations, and an issue that has become more urgent with the advent of CRISPR-Ca9, an easy-to-use and cheap way to precisely edit animal and plant genomes.

The Universe is Dying? Now What?

Paul Sutter is a visiting scholar at The Ohio State University's Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics (CCAPP). Yes, the universe is dying. The universe, as defined as "everything there is, in total summation," isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Should Families Going Through Divorce Have Court-Ordered Psychiatrists? (Op-Ed)

In 2003, Mejias became the first Latino elected to the Nassau County Legislature, where he served from 2004 to 2010. Divorce is an all too common occurrence that can cause families to put their children at risk for a lifetime of daily mental and emotional problems. According to psychologist Judith Wallerstein, who followed a group of children of divorce for 25 years, divorce is not a sudden obstacle the child faces, but a life-changing occurrence that alters their self-views and their opinion of the world at large.

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Tuesday, December 15, 2015

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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It Ain't Got That Swing: Putin's Unusual Walk Shaped by KGB

A long-standing peculiarity in Russian president Vladimir Putin's walk — with his right arm held almost immobile, while his left arm swings freely — has sparked speculation over the years about its origins, with rumors ranging from an in-utero stroke to a childhood bout with polio. Now, a new study by a group of neurologists reaches a very different conclusion, pinning the source of Putin's gait on the training he received while he was in the Soviet Union's KGB, the nation's national security agency. In the study, published online today (Dec. 14) in the journal The BMJ, the researchers discovered that several other prominent Russian officials displayed a similar gait, which they say could also be linked to KGB training intended to keep a man's "gun arm" close to his holster, ready to draw a weapon at a moment's notice.

Why Are There So Many Bob Dylan Lyrics in Medical Lit? The Answer, My Friend…

Hey, Mr. Scientist man: Bob Dylan references in biomedical literature have increased "exponentially" since 1990, a new study finds. In the study, the researchers conducted a search of the biomedical papers published through May 2015 and found 213 references "unequivocally citing" the singer/songwriter. The most popular Dylan songs referenced were "The Times They Are a-Changin'," which had 135 citations, and "Blowin' in the Wind," which had 36 citations, according to the study, which was published in the annual Christmas issue of The BMJ (a lighthearted edition of the medical journal that normally publishes serious research).

Antidepressants May Raise Autism Risk in Later Pregnancy Stages

Women in a new study who took antidepressants during their second and third trimesters of pregnancy showed an 87 percent increased risk of having a child with an autism spectrum disorder, compared with women who did not take medications for depression while expecting. The researchers also found that mothers who used a certain class of antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), had more than double the risk of having a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to the study published today (Dec. 14) in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. ASD is a group of conditions that includes autism, Asperger syndrome or other pervasive developmental disorders.

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.

Study documents sea lion brain damage due to algae's toxin

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A toxin produced by marine algae is inflicting brain damage on sea lions along California's coast, causing neurological and behavioral changes that can impair their ability to navigate in the sea and survive in the wild, scientists said on Monday. Brain scans on 30 California sea lions detected damage in the hippocampus, a brain structure associated with memory and spatial navigation, in animals naturally exposed to the toxin known as domoic acid, the researchers said.

Rocket with three-man crew blasts off to space station

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a three-man international crew, including Britain's first professional astronaut, Tim Peake, blasted off on Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-19M spaceship lifted off at 1703 p.m. local time (1103 GMT), beginning its six-hour journey to the International Space Station, and successfully reached its designated orbit about 9 minutes later. (Reporting by Shamil Zhumatov; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Dmitry Solovyov)

Lurking Beneath the 'Mona Lisa' May Be the Real One

A hidden portrait lying beneath Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting may depict the real "Mona Lisa," at least if one man's theory is correct. Reflected light waves from the painting have revealed four different phases, or images, beneath the surface of "La Gioconda." The third of these images is a woman who looks very different from the one now known as "Mona Lisa." This, in fact, may be the real Lisa, the woman that da Vinci was commissioned to paint in 1503, said Pascal Cotte, the founder of Lumiere Technologies, who announced his findings on Tuesday (Dec. 9) at a news conference in Shanghai.

Backyard Bonanza: Medieval Outhouses and Roman Roads Unearthed

Rubbish pits, storage areas, outhouses, wells and short walls to keep the neighbors at bay are a few of the things that archaeologists in England recently unearthed while digging beneath an old bus depot in the city of Leicester. Dating back to the 12th through 16th centuries, these artifacts were found in what was once an area of densely packed houses and shops, according to archaeologists from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS). And beneath the garden walls (and the rubbish) the archaeologists found the remains of another, more ancient cityscape.

'Plucking' Light Particles from Laser Beams Could Advance Quantum Computing

A novel method for "plucking" individual particles of light out of a laser pulse could lead to major breakthroughs in quantum computing, researchers say. Using a combination of supercooled atoms and cutting-edge optical technology, physicists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel were able to extract a single photon from a beam of light. Individual photons are of great interest to physicists because they are governed by the laws of quantum mechanics rather than the rules of classical physics (which normally apply to light).

Water Art: Phytoplankton Bloom Turns Ocean into a Masterpiece

It may look like a painting by Vincent van Gogh, but this mass of swirling colors is really a satellite image depicting a huge bloom of phytoplankton, or microscopic marine plant life, in the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. NASA acquired the image on Sept. 23 using its Suomi NPP weather satellite. To create this artful picture, NASA combined data from the red, green and blue infrared bands of VIIRS with additional data about the levels of chlorophyll (green pigments found in algae and plants) present in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Enormous Plesiosaur Once Swam Around Ancient Patagonia

Grapefruit-size vertebra and robust rib bones come into view in irregular chunks of sandstone as paleontologist Fernando Novas uses a hammer and chisel to chip away at what may be one of the largest and most complete skeletons of a long-necked marine reptile called a plesiosaur. The beast would've swum using enormous flippers in the waters, covering what is now Patagonia, some 65 million years ago, Novas and his colleagues have found. Paleontologists are still carefully removing the hard sandstone surrounding the plesiosaur's skeleton, but they expect the newfound marine reptile will be a previously unknown genus and species, said project leader Novas, a paleontologist at the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Urine for some fertilizer

By Ben Gruber GAINESVILLE, FL (Reuters) - It's called the 'Swamp', a stadium that packs more than 90,000 fans when the University of Florida Gators host a home game. If Environmental Engineering Professor Treavor Boyer has his way, this field and all of the people attending the football games will be part of a massive science experiment in sustainability. The experiment would involve re-purposing the abundant amounts of urine produced at the stadium which Boyer views as a resource that is currently going to waste. Urine is nutrient rich, containing high concentrations of nitrogen as well as phosphorous and potassium. "What you'll see is that you can collect enough nitrogen over those seven home football games to meet the nutrient requirements for that field for the growing season," said Boyer. His idea is to stop streaming urine to a waste water facility and collect the pee in giant vats at the stadium instead to then use to fertilize the field. "So you collect urine in the storage tank.

Vermont medical school delves into marijuana science

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — As more states allow for the use of medical marijuana, the University of Vermont is offering a course in the science of the drug — and the professors say they are challenged by a lack of research on what has long been a taboo topic.

Apple CEO: More computer science and coding education needed

NEW YORK (AP) — Teaching kids to code is just as important as teaching them any other language. And the younger they start learning it, the better, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Wednesday.

Don't tell Ahab - scientists find the real great white whale

Call me "Albicetus." Scientists on Wednesday said fossils unearthed in 1909 in Santa Barbara, California, that had been wrongly categorized for decades as belonging to a group of extinct walruses were the remains of a fearsome sperm whale that swam the Pacific Ocean 15 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch. "Because the fossil specimen is a pale white colour, and an ancient sperm whale, it seemed appropriate to honour Melville's infamous whale," said researcher Alex Boersma of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History in Washington.

KKR wins battle for forensic science firm LGC

By Hannah Brenton LONDON (Reuters) - KKR has won the auction to buy UK forensic sciences group LGC from Bridgepoint, the private equity firm said on Tuesday, after fighting off competition from three other sponsors that also submitted second round bids. KKR fought off bids from rivals EQT, Carlyle Group and CVC. The investment in LGC will be made primarily by the KKR European Fund IV.

No hiatus in global warming, says IPCC chief

By Nina Chestney PARIS (Reuters) - Global warming has not paused, but more research is needed to understand the level that might cause tipping points, or irreversible damage to the earth's climate system, the chair of the U.N. panel of climate scientists told Reuters on Tuesday. In 2013, the panel reported a slowdown or "hiatus" in warming since about 1998, despite rising man-made emissions of greenhouse gases, heartening skeptics who said the risks of climate change had been exaggerated. However, more recent research by the U.S. ...

Scientists assembled for Monsanto say herbicide not carcinogenic, disputing WHO report

By Karl Plume CHICAGO (Reuters) - A panel of scientists is disputing a World Health Organization report published earlier this year that concluded glyphosate, the world's most widely used weed killer and main ingredient in Monsanto Co's Roundup herbicide, is probably carcinogenic to humans. The 16-member panel, assembled by Intertek Scientific & Regulatory Consultancy, will present its findings to the annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis on Monday, aiming to publish the study at a later date after peer review. Monsanto paid Intertek for the panel's work.

Fusion power getting closer, say UK scientists

By Jim Drury As world leaders meet in Paris to agree a legal framework aimed at limiting use of fossil fuels and the resulting rises in global temperatures, a UK company says it could be as little as five years from making "reactor relevant" fusion, a potential game changer in energy production. A British company believes it is within five years of achieving "reactor relevant" fusion, a major landmark in the six decade long scientific search for the veritable Holy Grail of energy production. Fusion is how stars produce energy. It occurs when the nuclei of light atoms, such as hydrogen, are fused together under extreme pressure and heat. Tokamak Energy, from Oxfordshire, believes that the third version of their compact, spherical tokamak reactor will be able to reach temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius by 2020.

Stick-Figure Science: Cartoonist Makes Complicated Stuff Simple

Randall Munroe once designed robots at NASA, and now he's undertaken a comparably tough task: describing the science of complex "stuff" such as elevators, the Mars Curiosity rover and nuclear reactors using only the 1,000 most commonly used words in the English language. Granted, Munroe's new book "Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words"(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015) contains diagrams of the things he's explaining, such as "boxes that make clothes smell better" (washing machines and dryers) and a "hole-making city boat" (oil rig), that help readers understand each concept. Munroe studied math and physics in college, but constantly worried that people would think he was stupid if he didn't always use the correct technical term, he said at a reading in New York City on Tuesday (Nov. 24), the day of his book's release.

Scientists enlist the big gun to get climate action: Faith

PARIS (AP) — The cold hard numbers of science haven't spurred the world to curb runaway global warming. So as climate negotiators struggle in Paris, some scientists who appealed to the rational brain are enlisting what many would consider a higher power: the majesty of faith.

Watt or Fleming? RBS seeks Scottish scientist for plastic banknote

Royal Bank of Scotland is asking the public to choose a Scottish scientist or other innovator to feature on its first plastic 10 pound note. Edinburgh-based RBS said on Monday nominees must be historical figures who are Scottish or have made a significant contribution to Scotland in the field of science and innovation. Graham Bell, who invented the telephone, and Watt, who improved the design and function of the steam engine, are both in the Scottish Science Hall of Fame.

AP Interview: Redford says fighting global warming is urgent

PARIS (AP) — American actor and environmental activist Robert Redford called global warming "an urgent matter" Friday and encouraged mayors to reduce local emissions even as world diplomats are trying to work out a global climate accord.

The Latest: Redford says fighting global warming is urgent

LE BOURGET, France (AP) — The latest news from the U.N. climate conference in Paris, which runs through Dec. 11. All times local:

How Stupid Can You Be? Science Counts the Ways

Forrest Gump once said, "Stupid is as stupid does." Turns out, he was right.

'Spooky Action at a Distance' Author George Musser Talks Physics Loopholes

All of the phenomena are examples of nonlocality, which Albert Einstein famously described as "spooky action at a distance." (The book's subtitle refers to the phenomenon's significance to black holes, the Big Bang and theories of everything.) There are hints of nonlocality in multiple fields of physics, and Musser chronicles the messy struggle to understand how it fits into the theories and assumptions that make up physicists' understanding of the universe. Space.com talked with Musser about his new book and the concept of nonlocality, which he called unsettling, in the sense of something that drives research forward — unsettling but also intriguing.

China issues rules banning dishonesty in science publishing

BEIJING (AP) — After a series of scandals, Chinese regulators overseeing the field of academic publishing for scientific articles have issued rules explicitly banning dishonest practices.

To See Deep into Space, Start Deep Underground (Op-Ed)

Constance Walter is the communications director for the Sanford Underground Research Facility. She explores the stars vicariously through the physics experiments running nearly a mile underground in the former Homestake Gold Mine. She contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

What Triggered the Big Bang? It's Complicated (Op-Ed)

Paul Sutter is a visiting scholar at The Ohio State University's Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics (CCAPP). We've all heard of the Big Bang theory (I'm talking about the cosmological model, not the TV show), but it's important to understand what that theory is and what it's not. Let me take this opportunity to be precisely, abundantly, emphatically, ridiculously, fantastically clear: The Big Bang theory is not a theory of the creation of the universe.

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.

Modern science detects disease in 400-year-old embalmed hearts

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the ruins of a medieval convent in the French city of Rennes, archaeologists discovered five heart-shaped urns made of lead, each containing an embalmed human heart. It turns out three of them bore tell-tale signs of a heart disease very common today. "Every heart was different and revealed its share of surprises," anthropologist Rozenn Colleter of the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research said on Wednesday.

Cygnus Spacecraft Hauling Science to Space Station on Return-to-Flight Mission

The first launch of the private Cygnus cargo spacecraft since an October 2014 rocket explosion aims to deliver a wealth of science equipment and experiments to the International Space Station. The uncrewed Cygnus, which is built by the aerospace company Orbital ATK, is scheduled to blast off Thursday (Dec. 3) at 5:55 p.m. EST (2255 GMT) atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. You can watch the broadcast of the launch here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.

Spaceflight Is Entering a New Golden Age, Says Blue Origin Founder Jeff Bezos

Early Monday (Nov. 23), the private spaceflight company Blue Origin made a major stride in the pursuit of fully reusable rockets, when it launched an uncrewed vehicle into space and then soft-landed the rocket booster on the ground. "It was one of the greatest moments of my life," said Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin's founder, speaking about the landing in a press briefing yesterday (Nov. 24). "And my teammates here at Blue Origin, I could see felt the same way.

Turkey and Football: How Astronauts Celebrate Thanksgiving in Space

Thanksgiving in space will be a lot like the holiday down here on the ground — minus the gravity, of course. Like most Americans, NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren have Thanksgiving (Nov. 26) off, and they'll spend the day aboard the International Space Station (ISS) watching football and enjoying a turkey-centric feast, agency officials said. Kelly and Lindgren gave viewers a look at that feast in a special Thanksgiving video this week, breaking out bags of smoked turkey, rehydratable corn, candied yams and potatoes au gratin.

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