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Thursday, January 14, 2016

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Scientist argues her case for UK license to "edit" human embryos

A scientist set out her argument on Wednesday for being given a British license to conduct controversial experiments which would alter the DNA of human embryos. Critics of the proposed research say it is effectively genetically modifying human embryos and represents a "slippery slope" towards a future of designer babies.

Scientist argues her case for UK licence to 'edit' human embryos

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - A scientist set out her argument on Wednesday for being given a British licence to conduct controversial experiments which would alter the DNA of human embryos. Critics of the proposed research say it is effectively genetically modifying human embryos and represents a "slippery slope" towards a future of designer babies.

Ancient tools show mysterious humans occupied Indonesian island

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The diminutive prehistoric human species dubbed the "Hobbit" that inhabited the isle of Flores apparently had company on other Indonesian islands long before our species, Homo sapiens, arrived on the scene. Scientists on Wednesday announced the discovery of stone tools at least 118,000 years old at a site called Talepu on the island of Sulawesi, indicating a human presence. "We now have direct evidence that when modern humans arrived on Sulawesi, supposedly between 60,000 and 50,000 years ago and aided by watercraft, they must have encountered an archaic group of humans that was already present on the island long before," said archaeologist Gerrit van den Bergh of University of Wollongong in Australia.

Scientists Make Gains on 'Universal' Ebola Medicine

Scientists have created a single treatment that may fight the two deadliest strains of the Ebola virus. The current Ebola medicine now being tested in humans, called ZMapp, is only aimed at the Zaire Ebola strain, which is responsible for the most recent and deadliest outbreak. Sudan ebolavirus and the Zaire strain, called Zaire ebolavirus, together have been responsible for about 95 percent of Ebola deaths since the virus was first identified in 1976, according to CDC data.

Whooping Cough Outbreak: How Effective Is the Vaccine?

An outbreak of whooping cough, or pertussis, at a Florida preschool in which nearly all the students had been fully vaccinated against the disease, raises new concerns about the vaccine's effectiveness, a new report suggests. During a 5-month period between September 2013 and January 2014, 26 preschoolers, two staff members and 11 family members of the students or staff at the facility in Leon County came down with whooping cough, according to a report of the outbreak published today (Jan. 13) in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. Only five of 117 students attending the preschool had not received all of the shots required by their age.

Frozen Poop Is As Good As Fresh Poop for C. Difficile Treatment

For patients with the difficult-to-treat intestinal infection caused by a bacterium called Clostridium difficile, a "poop transplant" that uses frozen poop may be as effective as one that uses fresh poop, a new study suggests. Frozen-poop transplants have a number of advantages over fresh-poop transplants for use in patients with C. difficile, said study author Dr. Christine Lee, an infectious-disease specialist at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. In the study, researchers looked at more than 200 adults who had C. difficile infections that were recurrent or unresponsive to other types of treatment.

First-Time Moms Are Getting Older in US

The age at which U.S. women have their first baby is going up, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From 2000 to 2014, the average age of a mother's first birth rose from 24.9 to 26.3, data from the CDC report found. In the report, published today (Jan. 14), the researchers attributed the shift to two main factors: a decrease in the percentage of women having their first birth before age 20, and an increase in the percentage having their first birth over age 30.

'Las Vegas of Ants' Visible on Google Earth

Not far from the Grand Canyon, near a landmark called Vulcan's Throne, the ground is dotted with strange, barren circles, visible from orbit. Physicist Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, a specialist in image processing and satellite imagery analysis at the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy, noticed the bizarre polka- dot features while studying the dimensions of the Grand Canyon rim in Google Earth. In a valley near the cinder cone volcano Vulcan's Throne, on the canyon's North Rim, Sparavigna saw dirt circles, irregularly spaced in the scrubby desert vegetation.

Mysterious 'Hobbit' Relative May Have Lived on Isolated Island

A mysterious relative of the extinct human species nicknamed the "hobbit" may have once lived on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, new research suggests. The fossils belonged to an unknown hominin, a close relative of modern humans. As such, these potential direct ancestors of hobbits may have descended from Homo erectus, the earliest undisputed ancestor of modern humans.

Orphaned Baby Chimps Suffer Lasting Social Effects

Being orphaned as a baby may have a bigger impact on chimpanzees than was previously thought, a new study finds. Scientists found that when infant chimpanzees were taken from their parents, the chimps groomed fellow animals considerably less in later life. The researchers already knew that the social behaviors of former lab chimpanzees differ based on the age they were taken away from their mothers, so the scientists wanted to compare these effects with chimps that were orphaned but reared around other animals in a zoo.

Frogs 'Talk' Using Complex Signals

A recent study of a Brazilian torrent frog, Hylodes japi, shows that this species employs a more nuanced communication system than any other known frog species. In fact, researchers found that the tiny H. japi had a sizable repertoire of calls and displays that was more complex than any seen before in anurans, the animal order that includes frogs and toads. Scientists have long recognized that vocal calls are frogs' chief means of communication, but recent studies detail a growing body of evidence for visual cues used in communication among several frog species, said the study authors.

Malaysia Aircraft Search Turns Up 1800s Shipwreck

The search for the mission Malaysia Airlines plane that disappeared over the Indian Ocean in 2014 has discovered something else: a 19th-century shipwreck. Searchers discovered the shipwreck while combing the Indian Ocean for remnants of Flight MH 370, which vanished without a trace on March 8, 2014. On Jan. 2, the search team sent an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), dubbed the Havila Harmony, to follow up on the anomalous find.

Boo! New dinosaur skeleton will spill out of hall at famed New York museum

By Barbara Goldberg NEW YORK (Reuters) - Even by the standards of New York's American Museum of Natural History - home of an enormous blue whale model that draws visitors from around the world - this is big. A new, 122-foot (37-meter) dinosaur skeleton to be unveiled on Friday is too long to fit in the fossil hall and so its neck and head will poke out toward the elevator banks, offering a surprise greeting when the lift doors open. The dinosaur, so recently discovered it is not yet formally named, is so tall that the cast of its skeleton grazes the museum's 19-foot (6-meter) ceilings, museum spokeswoman Aubrey Miller said on Thursday.

NASA set to award space station cargo contracts

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - A three-way competition to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA has ended, and the U.S. space agency is set to announce the winners on Thursday. Incumbents Space Exploration Technologies and Orbital ATK are vying with privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp., which is developing a robotic, reusable miniature space plane known as Dream Chaser. A news conference is scheduled for 4 p.m. EST to unveil the winning bids, NASA said. ...

Astronomers spot brightest supernova yet in distant galaxy

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronomers have found a distant supernova, or exploded star, 20 times brighter than the Milky Way galaxy, according to research published on Thursday. The massive supernova is about 3.8 billion light-years away in a galaxy roughly three times the size of the Milky Way, scientists wrote in a report in this week's issue of the journal Science. The cosmic blast was first spotted on June 14, 2015, in an automated search for supernovas conducted by a global network of small telescopes.

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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

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U.S. patent agency to decide inventor of powerful gene editing technology

By Andrew Chung NEW YORK (Reuters) - A showdown between two teams of top U.S. scientists over who was first to invent a breakthrough gene-editing technology known as CRISPR formally began on Monday as a U.S. government agency launched proceedings to decide the issue. The outcome could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars as scientists say the powerful technology allows for easier and more precise genetic engineering in living cells. A tribunal within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which initiated the proceeding known as an interference, will now examine both sides' evidence, a process that could take months, to determine who should own a patent on the technology.

EU food safety watchdog hits back at scientists in glyphosate spat

By Barbara Lewis BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The head of Europe's food safety watchdog has written to a group of nearly 100 senior scientists strongly rejecting their criticisms in an ongoing row about the safety of weed-killer ingredient glyphosate. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which advises EU policymakers, in November issued an opinion that glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer. The IARC said in March that glyphosate is "probably carcinogenic to humans".

EU food safety watchdog hits back at scientists in glyphosate row

By Barbara Lewis BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The head of Europe's food safety watchdog has written to a group of nearly 100 senior scientists strongly rejecting their criticisms in a row about the safety of weed-killer ingredient glyphosate. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which advises European Union policymakers, issued an opinion in November that glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer. The IARC said in March that glyphosate is "probably carcinogenic to humans" while environmental groups have been calling for a ban on glyphosate.

Buccaneer Bones: Possible Pirate Skeleton Found Under Scotland Schoolyard

Dead men tell no tales, but scientists can still learn much about them from their bones. Archaeologists recently determined that a skeleton found buried on a primary school's property in Edinburgh, Scotland, dates back to the 16th century and likely was that of a criminal. When human remains unexpectedly turned up during excavation work for the Victoria Primary School's expansion, archaeologists were soon putting together the pieces — quite literally, as the skull was broken during its discovery — to find out how old the remains were and to whom they may have belonged.

Prize-Winning Photos Capture Magical World of Underwater Creatures

Shimmering against a background of deepest black, an image of a rarely seen larval cusk-eel captured by photographer Jeff Milisen earned the top prize in the Underwater Photography Guide's 2015 Ocean Art Contest.

Will You Win Powerball? A Vending Machine Death Is More Likely

The winner of this Wednesday's Powerball drawing is poised to collect a staggering $1.3 billion (before taxes). But with the discouraging odds of 1 in 292.2 million, it's extremely unlikely that you'll find yourself with the winning ticket. In fact, you're more likely to die from a vending-machine-related accident than to draw the lucky number. (The odds of dying from a vending-machine-related accident are 1 in 112 million, according to

Global warming could stave off next ice age for 100,000 years

By Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming is likely to disrupt a natural cycle of ice ages and contribute to delaying the onset of the next big freeze until about 100,000 years from now, scientists said on Wednesday. In the past million years, the world has had about 10 ice ages before swinging back to warmer conditions like the present. In the last ice age that ended 12,000 years ago, ice sheets blanketed what is now Canada, northern Europe and Siberia.

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Tuesday, January 12, 2016

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Pocket-Sized Device Charges Your Phone with Water

Swedish startup MyFC unveiled its cool technology, dubbed JAQ, here at CES on Jan. 6. The device, which is small enough to slip into your back pocket, is a fuel cell charger. It uses saltwater and oxygen to convert chemical energy into electricity.

How to Avoid Low Back Pain: Exercise and Education

Shoe inserts, back-support belts and other gadgets aimed at preventing low back pain may be a waste of money. Instead, exercise is the best way to ward off this common problem, a new review of studies suggests. The researchers found evidence that an exercise program alone, or exercise along with education about how to prevent back pain, was effective in averting an episode of low back pain and reducing people's use of sick time at work.

C-Section or Vaginal? Baby's Gut Bacteria Linked to Delivery Method

The gut bacteria of 6-week-old babies may be related to the way the infants were delivered and what they have been eating, a new study suggests. The babies in the study who were delivered vaginally had a different composition of gut bacteria than the babies who were delivered by cesarean section, the researchers found. Moreover, the babies who had been fed only breast milk since birth had a different composition of gut bacteria at 6 weeks old than the babies who were fed both breast milk and formula, and the babies who were fed only formula, the researchers found.

Archaeologists hail find of 'best-preserved' UK Bronze Age dwellings

Archaeologists said on Tuesday they had discovered what were believed to be the best-preserved Bronze Age dwellings ever found in Britain, providing an extraordinary insight into prehistoric life from 3,000 years ago. The settlement of large circular wooden houses, built on stilts, collapsed in a fire and plunged into a river where it was preserved in silts leaving them in pristine condition, Historic England said. Discoveries from the dwellings in Whittlesey, in central England, which archaeologists said had been frozen in time and dated from between 1000-800 BC, included pots with food inside and finely woven clothing.

Iceman mummy reveals new clues about stomach bacteria

A 5,300 year-old mummified corpse known as the Iceman, or Oetzi, is offering scientists new clues about a stomach infection. Scientists at the EURAC Institute of Mummies and the Iceman in northern Italy removed the bacteria Helicobacter pylori from the mummy and conducted a DNA analysis. It showed the Iceman had an unmixed strain of the bacteria not seen in modern humans.

Why Earth's Largest Ape Went Extinct

The biggest primate that ever walked the Earth may have died out because of its giant size and limited diet, new research suggests.

Prosthetic Leg with Hoofed Foot Discovered in Ancient Chinese Tomb

The 2,200-year-old remains of a man with a deformed knee attached to a prosthetic leg tipped with a horse hoof have been discovered in a tomb in an ancient cemetery near Turpan, China. "The excavators soon came to find that the left leg of the male occupant is deformed, with the patella, femur and tibia [fused] together and fixed at 80 [degrees]," archaeologists wrote in a paper published recently in the journal Chinese Archaeology. The man couldn't straighten his left leg out so the prosthetic leg, when attached, allowed the left leg to touch the floor when walking.

Task Force Issues New Breast Cancer Screening Recommendations

Women who have an average risk of breast cancer should have mammograms every two years from ages 50 to 74, according to the latest recommendations released today by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). Average-risk women in their 40s also may benefit from getting mammograms, but their overall likelihood of seeing a benefit is smaller, and the potential for harm is larger than for average-risk women age 50 and older, according to the USPSTF's recommendations, published online today (Jan. 11) in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

Gulp. Sugary Drinks Linked to 'Deep' Fat

People who drink sugary beverages, such as soda or fruit juice, daily tend to gain a type of body fat associated with diabetes and heart disease, a new study finds. Researchers looked at about 1,000 middle-age people over a six-year period and found that those who drank sugar-sweetened beverages tended to have more "deep," or visceral, fat. Previous research has linked sweet drinks with other health risks.

Forehead Teeth? 'Deformed' Mountain Lion Puzzles Experts

The hunter spotted the young male mountain lion near Preston, a city in southeastern Idaho, on Dec. 30, 2015. The hunter saw the mountain lion attack a dog on private property before running off into the hills, the department said in a statement. With the help of hounds, the hunter tracked the mountain lion for 3 hours before legally harvesting it.

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