GoogleTrends

Friday, January 15, 2016

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Ebola Outbreak Declared Over in West Africa

West Africa is now free of Ebola, marking an end to the devastating epidemic that plagued the region for two years. The three hardest-hit countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — have not had any new Ebola cases for at least 42 days, according to a statement from the World Health Organization released today (Jan. 14). Health officials typically wait 42 days to declare a country Ebola-free, because this is twice as long as the 21-day incubation period of the virus (the time it takes for a person infected with the virus to show symptoms).

Stephen Hawking: Black Holes Have 'Hair'

Black holes may sport a luxurious head of "hair" made up of ghostly, zero-energy particles, says a new hypothesis proposed by Stephen Hawking and other physicists. The new paper, which was published online Jan. 5 in the preprint journal arXiv, proposes that at least some of the information devoured by a black hole is stored in these electric hairs. Still, the new proposal doesn't prove that all the information that enters a black hole is preserved.

In an Oil Boom, Reason to Mourn 55 Mph Speed Limit (Op-Ed)

In December, U.S. lawmakers voted to end the nation's decades-long ban on the export of crude oil, which was passed to limit American dependence on foreign oil. The embargo drove up the price of oil. With the aim of achieving energy independence, the U.S. Congress banned the export of crude oil and created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency supply of petroleum to weather shocks in the oil market.

Without Basic Knowledge, Innovation Fails (Op-Ed)

Vikram Jandhyala is the vice provost for innovation at the University of Washington. Understanding how innovation actually happens is one of the most intricate, and important, intellectual conversations occurring in technology circles, and it's clear that basic knowledge — long ignored — plays a central role. Basic knowledge can come from the social sciences, health sciences, policy studies, law, social work, anthropology, and critically, business and finance.

Growing vegetables via smartphone

By Ben Gruber LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - Growing your own produce just got really easy. This is a farm cube - a fully enclosed ecosystem capable of growing vegetables indoors. "In this one (Farm Cube), the one cycle, around six weeks, 200 pieces or 100 pieces depending on different vegetables," said Jack Ting, CEO of Taipei-based OPCOM, developers of the automated farming technology. Seedlings are loaded into the cube. Not home and worried about your farm cube?

NASA adds commercial mini-shuttle to space station supply fleet

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA hired a third company to fly cargo to the International Space Station, adding an innovative space plane built by Sierra Nevada Corp to the fleet, the U.S. space agency said on Thursday. Privately owned Sierra Nevada will join incumbents Space Exploration Technologies and Orbital ATK in ferrying supplies to the space station beginning in late 2019. Terms of the contracts were not immediately disclosed, but NASA previously said it intended to spend about $1 billion to $1.4 billion on the program annually.

Ancient people conquered the Arctic at least 45,000 years ago

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The frozen carcass of a woolly mammoth found in Siberia with unmistakable signs of spear wounds is providing evidence that people inhabited Arctic regions thousands of years earlier than previously known. Russian scientists on Thursday said the male mammoth excavated from a bluff on Yenisei Bay on the Arctic Ocean was killed by hunters 45,000 years ago, providing the earliest indication of the presence of humans in the Arctic.

NASA adds commercial mini-shuttle to station supply fleet

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA hired a third company to fly cargo to the International Space Station, adding an innovative space plane built by Sierra Nevada Corp to the commercial fleet, the U.S. space agency said on Thursday. Privately owned Sierra Nevada will join incumbents Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, and Orbital ATK in ferrying supplies to the space station beginning in late 2019, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said. NASA estimates it will need about four cargo runs per year, but expects to spend "significantly" less than $14 billion overall, station program manager Kirk Shireman told reporters on a conference call.

Scientists spot brightest supernova yet, outshines Milky Way

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have discovered the brightest star explosion ever, a super supernova that easily outshines our entire Milky Way.

Future Diabetes Treatment? Human Skin Cells Coaxed to Make Insulin

Human skin cells can be reprogrammed to produce the hormone insulin, which could one day help patients better control their diabetes. Additionally, the researchers noted, the cells are not completely identical to the human pancreatic cells that normally produce insulin in the body. What's more, although the cells could potentially help people with type 2 diabetes someday, their current design would not help people with type 1 diabetes, which is an autoimmune disorder, said Matthias Hebrok, director of the University of California, San Francisco Diabetes Center.

Hidden Plague? New Theory on How Disease Spread So Perilously

One reason the plague was able to spread so massively across Europe during the Middle Ages may have been that the bacteria that caused the disease lay hidden, in some unknown animal reservoir, for centuries, a new study reports. In the study, researchers in Germany hypothesize that the bacteria Yersinia pestis, which causes plague and killed millions of people, may have survived in Europe in an unknown host during the second plague pandemic, which lasted from the 14th to the 17th century. The idea came after the researchers analyzed the DNA from the skeletal remains of 30 plague victims who were buried at two grave sites in Germany.

Wearable Devices Move Toward Disease Treatment

For example, a device called Quell, which attaches to the upper calf, could help reduce chronic pain for some people, according to the company. The device stimulates nerves in the leg with an electrical current, which, in turn, triggers a response from the central nervous system that can block pain signals anywhere in the body, the company says. The company says Quell automatically adjusts the strength of the current during a therapy session, and it has a sleep mode that automatically starts a session every 2 hours during the night.

Virus Linked to Birth Defects Requires Action, Doctors Say

The rapid spread of a disease called Zika virus urgently requires attention, two leading researchers say. Zika virus is the most recent in a list of viruses that were formerly confined to remote niches of the world but are now expanding their reach into the Northern Hemisphere. Much about these viruses is still poorly understood, wrote Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and Dr. David Morens, senior scientific advisor for the NIAID, in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday (Jan. 14).

China to land probe on dark side of moon in 2018: Xinhua

China plans to land the first probe ever on the dark side of the moon in 2018, marking another milestone in its ambitious space program, the official Xinhua news agency reported. China has launched a new round of work focused on lunar exploration, coming about two years after it made the first "soft landing" on the moon since 1976 with the Chang'e-3 craft and its Jade Rabbit rover. Previous spacecraft have seen the far side of the moon, that is never visible from earth, but none has landed on it.

Why Are Venomous Sea Snakes Washing Up on California Beaches?

A beachgoer got quite the slithery surprise when a 20-inch-long (50 centimeters) venomous sea snake washed ashore at Coronado Dog Beach near San Diego Tuesday (Jan. 12). The yellow-bellied sea snake (Pelamis platura) is very uncommon in California, but three (including this latest sighting) have washed ashore in Southern California in the past few months. The beachgoer who found the yellow-bellied sea snake Tuesday alerted lifeguards to the serpent at around 2:30 p.m. local time, according to a statement from the city of Coronado.

122-Foot Titanosaur: Staggeringly Big Dino Barely Fits into Museum

An incredibly long-necked dinosaur, with leg bones the size of couches, is so massive that is has invaded not one, but two rooms at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City. The enormous titanosaur — an herbivorous beast that weighed 70 tons (64 metric tons) when alive some 100 million years ago — is the newest permanent exhibit to join the museum.

Magnetic Device Lets Smartphones Test Your Blood

Smartphones equipped with portable devices that magnetically levitate cells might one day help diagnose diseases in the home, clinic or lab, researchers say. Nowadays, smartphones are incredibly powerful portable computers that include handy devices such as multimegapixel cameras, and they can be found in both developing and developed countries. Increasingly, researchers are exploring ways for smartphones to be used not only for posting selfies and playing video games, but also to help save lives by rapidly performing medical tests anywhere there are smartphones — that is, virtually anywhere around the world.

Scientist: No known antidote for botched drug test in France

The chief neuroscientist at a hospital in Rennes, where a botched drug trial has left six people hospitalized, says there's no known antidote to the experimental drug they were testing. Professor Gilles ...

Ex-army major becomes first British astronaut to spacewalk

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Tim Peake became the first astronaut representing Britain to walk in space when he left the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday to fix a power station problem, generating huge interest back in his homeland. Peake and a NASA crewmate were scheduled to spend more than six hours outside the station, a $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. "A proud moment," said Peake, as he floated outside the airlock on a mission that included preparing the outpost for new commercial space taxis.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe

Thursday, January 14, 2016

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

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.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe