GoogleTrends

Monday, February 8, 2016

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Zika Sexual Transmission in US Prompts Health Warning

After a person in Dallas was confirmed to have contracted the Zika virus through sex, U.S. health officials are warning men who travel to countries where Zika is spreading to take steps to prevent spreading the virus through sex. If a man has a pregnant partner, and has traveled to any of the more than 20 countries where Zika virus is spreading, he should either abstain from sex, or use condoms, until the end of his partner's pregnancy, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today (Feb. 5). The warning comes because health officials are concerned about a strong link between Zika virus infection during pregnancy and a birth defect called microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and face lifelong cognitive impairments.

Super Bowl Teams' Cities See Spike in Flu Deaths

Football fans in Denver and Charlotte might want to be extra vigilant about hand washing during the Big Game this Sunday — a new study finds that cities whose teams play in the Super Bowl have an increase in deaths due to flu that year. It found that counties that had teams advance to the Super Bowl had an 18 percent increase in flu deaths among people over age 65, compared to counties that didn't have a team in the Super Bowl that year. The researchers suspect that Super Bowl parties and other social events that bring people together for the game lead to an increase in flu transmission, particularly for those areas that have teams playing.

Electric Patch Helps Some People with PTSD in Small Study

People suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could someday be treated with the help of an electric patch worn on their head when they are sleeping, researchers say. In the small new study, 12 people who had been suffering from PTSD and depression for an average of 30 years — and were already being treated with psychotherapy, medication or both — wore the patch each night while sleeping, over an eight-week period. The researchers found that the severity of the participants' PTSD decreased by an average of more than 30 percent, and the severity of their depression dropped by an average of more than 50 percent, over the study period.

Scientists investigate suspected meteorite death in southern India

By Sandhya Ravishankar CHENNAI (Reuters) - Indian scientists are investigating whether a man was killed by a meteorite, which if confirmed would be the first recorded death from falling fragments of space rock in almost 200 years.Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, has said a bus driver at a college in her state was killed by the meteorite and awarded 100,000 rupees ($1,470) in compensation to his family."A meteorite fell within the college premises," Jayalalithaa said. Jayalalithaa, a former film star, left tight-lipped local officials struggling to explain the mystery blast at the engineering college that left a small crater and broke windows.

New dinosaur species offers evolutionary clues

By Jim Drury Paleontologists say a 201-million-year-old dinosaur fossil found two years ago on a Welsh beach could offer vital clues to understanding the evolution from the late Triassic to the early Jurassic Period. Dracoraptor hanigani has been classified as a new species. It's one of the oldest Jurassic dinosaurs ever found, and among the most complete specimens from the time period. The early Jurassic period is crucial in the evolutionary history of dinosaurs. It followed an extinction event in the late Triassic era that wiped out more than half the species on Earth and may have created the subsequent global dominance of the dinosaurs, led by the likes of Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor. According to Cindy Howells, palaeontology curator at the National Museum of Wales where the fossil is on display, "it's an important find in the early Jurassic because at that time dinosaurs were just starting to diversify.

Scientists investigate suspected meteorite death in southern India

By Sandhya Ravishankar CHENNAI (Reuters) - Indian scientists are investigating whether a man was killed by a meteorite, which if confirmed would be the first recorded death from falling fragments of space rock in almost 200 years. Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, has said a bus driver at a college in her state was killed by the meteorite and awarded 100,000 rupees ($1,470) in compensation to his family. "A meteorite fell within the college premises," Jayalalithaa said.

Ravens Know When Food-Thieving Rivals Are Watching

Now scientists have found that ravens seem to know when they're being watched by a rival that might steal from them, and then take steps to hide their food. Previous behavior studies with scrub jays, which are raven relatives, showed that they could interpret other bird's thieving intentions — if they spied another jay watching them while they had food, they hid the food away. But the scientists behind the new study wondered — did the jay with the food really know what the rival bird was "thinking?" Maybe it simply followed the other bird's gaze to conclude that it meant to steal from them.

Baby Frogs Dine on Mom's Unfertilized Eggs

Discovered in wet forests in eastern Taiwan, the frogs are dimorphic, with the females having a slight size advantage, measuring 1.6 inches (41 millimeters) in length, compared with the male's 1.37-inch (35 mm) bodies. Follow us @livescience, Facebook& Google+.

Samurai Secrets: 1888 Martial Arts Manual for Cops Revealed

A newly translated 19th-century book, written by samurai, describes martial arts techniques designed to help police officers of the time. The book, which contains illustrated instructions, was published in 1888, a time when the samurai class had lost many of its privileges and the formally secretive martial art schools that taught the samurai were willing to divulge their secrets. This book drew on the expertise of 16 martial arts schools operating in Japan in 1888.

Scientists investigate suspected meteorite death in Tamil Nadu

By Sandhya Ravishankar CHENNAI (Reuters) - Indian scientists are investigating whether a man was killed by a meteorite, which if confirmed would be the first recorded death from falling fragments of space rock in almost 200 years. Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, has said a bus driver at a college in her state was killed by the meteorite and awarded 100,000 rupees ($1,470) in compensation to his family. "A meteorite fell within the college premises," Jayalalithaa said.

Hawking Wants to Power Earth With Mini Black Holes: Crazy or Legit?

If you answered, "Get a mini black hole to orbit Earth," then you and physicist Stephen Hawking may be thinking on the same wavelength. In a lecture on Feb. 2, the famed scientist said tiny black holes, about as massive as the average mountain, could power all of the world's energy needs. "There is nothing technically wrong with this idea, but it is not very practical, at least within the next 10,000 years," said Sabine Hossenfelder, a physicist at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics, who blogs at backreaction.blogspot.com.

Magnetic 'MoonWalker' Shoes Help You Defy Gravity

The shoe, named "20:16 MoonWalker," relies on N45 neodymium magnets, which are among the most powerful permanent magnets known. As permanent magnets, they create their own force field, without an external current, and work like refrigerator magnets. "There are different levels of magnets, like N40, 42 and 45," said Patrick Jreijiri, a mechanical engineer and designer for the 20:16 MoonWalker.

Early Bird or Night Owl? It May Be in Your Genes

According to a new study by the genetics company 23andMe, the preference for being a "morning person" — someone who enjoys waking up early and going to bed early — rather than being an "evening person," who tends to stay up late at night and desperately reaches for the snooze button when the alarm goes off in the morning, is at least partially written in your genes. "I find it interesting to see how genetics influences our preferences and behaviors," said study co-author David Hinds, a statistical geneticist at 23andMe, a privately held genetic testing company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Circadian rhythms are roughly 24-hour cycles of activity controlled by the brain that tell our bodies when to sleep and help regulate other biological processes.

Feline Friends: Leopard Cats Likely Domesticated in Ancient China

Wild leopard cats may have been domesticated by farmers in China more than 5,000 years ago, according to a new study of feline fossils. Today's pet cats (Felis catus) descend from the wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica) native to the Middle East and Southwest Asia. But recent discoveries of cat fossils in China have muddled that narrative.

Antiperspirant May Boost Variety of 'Bugs' Living on Your Armpits

If you're an antiperspirant user, you probably slather on the stuff in order to wipe out odor-causing bacteria. The use of antiperspirants and deodorant alter the skin microbiome, according to a new open-access study published in the journal PeerJ on Tuesday (Feb. 2). Antiperspirants reduce the total number of bacteria dramatically, but seem to leave a more diverse group of survivors than what is seen on the underarms of people who use just deodorant or nothing at all.

Treasures Dug Up by Tomb Robbers Returned to Italy

At least 45 boxes filled with archaeological treasures have been returned to Italy after they were hidden in a Geneva warehouse by a disgraced British art dealer, Swiss authorities said. Swiss investigators suspect that tomb robbers illegally dug up most of these antiquities at ancient cemeteries in central Italy's Umbria and Lazio regions, where the Etruscan civilization thrived 2,500 years ago before the rise of Rome. The Etruscans are particularly famous for producing beautiful sarcophagi, or coffins, carved with reclining life-size human figures.

Whooping Cough Booster Wears Off in Teens

A booster vaccine aimed at protecting teens against whooping cough may wear off over time, a new study suggests. In the study, researchers looked at about 1,200 cases of whooping cough (also called pertussis) that occurred among a population of about 280,000 teens in California between January 2006 and March 2015. Despite high vaccination rates against the disease among teens, there were two major outbreaks in this group in California, in 2010 and 2014.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe

Saturday, February 6, 2016

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Where the Super Bowl Meets Space: NASA's Aerodynamics Lab

Only a few miles away is the NASA Ames Research Center, where engineers can use wind tunnels, water channels and other tools to study the aerodynamics of rockets, airplanes — and even footballs. In Ames' Experimental Aero-Physics Branch lab, scientists use a fluid dynamics chamber to recreate the conditions of an object flying through the air. "What we are looking for in the smoke patterns is, at what speed the smoke patterns suddenly change," Rabi Mehta, chief of the Experimental Aero-Physics Branch at Ames, said in a statement.

Super Bowl Showdown: Would Broncos or Panthers Win a Real-Life Matchup?

While people are stocking up on Buffalo wings and potato chips in advance of the Super Bowl this Sunday, fans are split on who has the best chances of winning: the Denver Broncos or the Carolina Panthers. It turns out that the Super Bowl mascots would be a fairly even match out in the wild, too: While a panther is powerful and stealthy, broncos tend to live in herds, and they have strength in numbers, said Don Moore, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian's National Zoo, on assignment at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). "I think a panther could probably take a bronco on a good cat day and a tired bronco day," Moore told Live Science.

Seriously? That Ancient Greek Statue Does Not Depict a Laptop

There's a new conspiracy theory out there, but instead of invoking big government or aliens, it questions whether there's a laptop carved into an ancient Greek statue. The theory, proposed by the anonymous YouTube user StillSpeakingOut, ventures that the ancient Oracle of Delphi may have foreseen the invention of laptops, and told people about it. "Just so we are clear, I'm not saying that this relief was depicting an ancient laptop computer," StillSpeakingOut said in the 100-second-long video.

Could You Stomach the Horrors of 'Halftime' in Ancient Rome?

All of Rome came to the Games: rich and poor, men and women, children and the noble elite alike. He triumphed in one match that pitted him against a bear, a lion and a leopard, all of which were released to attack him at once.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe

Friday, February 5, 2016

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Ancient wildebeest cousin boasted bizarre dinosaur-like trait

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In an ancient streambed on Kenya's Rusinga Island, scientists have unearthed fossils of a wildebeest-like creature named Rusingoryx that boasted a weird nasal structure more befitting of a dinosaur than a mammal. The hollow structure may have enabled the horned, hoofed grass-eater to produce a low trumpeting sound to communicate over long distances with others in its herd, Ohio University paleontologist Haley O'Brien said. "This structure was incredibly surprising," O'Brien said.

Europe's shift to dark green forests stokes global warming-study

By Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - An expansion of Europe's forests towards dark green conifers has stoked global warming, according to a study on Thursday at odds with a widespread view that planting more trees helps human efforts to slow rising temperatures. Forest changes have nudged Europe's summer temperatures up by 0.12 degree Celsius (0.2 Fahrenheit) since 1750, largely because many nations have planted conifers such as pines and spruce whose dark colour traps the sun's heat, the scientists said. Overall, the area of Europe's forests has expanded by 10 percent since 1750.

Race Is a Social Construct, Scientists Argue

More than 100 years ago, American sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois was concerned that race was being used as a biological explanation for what he understood to be social and cultural differences between different populations of people. In an article published today (Feb. 4) in the journal Science, four scholars say racial categories are weak proxies for genetic diversity and need to be phased out. They've called on the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to put together a panel of experts across the biological and social sciences to come up with ways for researchers to shift away from the racial concept in genetics research.

Energy Evolves as 4th Industrial Revolution Looks to Nature (Op-Ed)

Lynn Scarlett is global managing director for policy at The Nature Conservancy. In Davos, Switzerland, at the 2016 World Economic Forum annual meeting, industry leaders focused on what they call the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Whereas the First Industrial Revolution used steam and waterpower in manufacturing, the second used electricity to power factories, allowing production on a much larger scale.

Five Facts That Reveal a Warming Planet (Op-Ed)

"Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we did not deny Sputnik was up there," Obama said. Despite decades of research, too many U.S. politicians still deny climate change , a phenomenon so thoroughly documented as to find agreement among virtually every leading body of American scientists — NASA, NOAA, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society, just to name a few. 1) Climate change never took a break.

Italian consortium set to win giant Chile telescope contract

An Italian consortium, including construction company Astaldi Spa, is close to securing a contract to build the world's largest telescope in the Chilean desert, project owner the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said on Thursday. The ESO said its finance committee had agreed to enter into final discussions with the consortium, which was the winning bidder to design, manufacture, transport and build the main dome and structure for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The consortium includes major Italian builder Cimolai and subcontractor the EIE Group, as well as Astaldi.

Inadequate testing thwarts efforts to measure Zika's impact

By Paulo Prada RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - One major hurdle is thwarting efforts to measure the extent of the Zika epidemic and its suspected links to thousands of birth defects in Brazil: accurate diagnosis of a virus that still confounds blood tests. Genetic tests and clinical symptoms have enabled scientists to partially track Zika, and Brazil guesses up to 1.5 million people have been infected in the country. The World Health Organization says as many as 4 million people could become infected across the Americas and that Zika has already been locally transmitted in at least 30 countries.

Here's the Happiest State in the Country

Hawaii has been ranked the top state for well-being, regaining its "happy spot" from last year's winner, Alaska, according to a new survey. The survey, conducted by Gallup Healthways between December 2015 and January 2016, found that the Aloha State topped the list based on factors such as its residents having a sense of purpose, sense of community, financial well-being and physical well-being. Other healthy and happy states included those in the Mountain West, such as Montana, Colorado and Wyoming, which also topped the list.

Millennials See Themselves As Narcissistic, Too (And It Bothers Them)

Millennials, roughly defined as the generation born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s, often hear that they're the most narcissistic, entitled generation of all time. Millennials do view themselves as a bit more narcissistic than generations before them, but not to the extent that older generations do, according to new research presented Jan. 29 at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) in San Diego. Different research methods have found that individualism is on the rise in American culture, with younger generations reporting less empathy and more self-focus than generations before.

Weird Ancient Wildebeest Sported Duck-Billed Dinosaur Nose

Duck-billed dinosaurs and an ancient wildebeest-like animal lived tens of millions of years apart, but they have strikingly similar, peculiar noses, a new study finds. "The nasal dome is a completely new structure for mammals — it doesn't look like anything you could see in an animal that's alive today," Haley O'Brien, a doctoral student of paleophysiology at Ohio University in Athens, said in a statement. The idea for the study surfaced in 2009, when study co-author J. Tyler Faith, a lecturer in archaeology at the University of Queensland in Australia, and his colleagues were investigating a fossil site at Bovid Hill near Lake Victoria in Kenya.

India says no rush on GM food but will not stand in way of science

By Mayank Bhardwaj NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India needs more data before deciding whether to permit commercial growing of its first genetically modified food crop, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Friday, but indicated it would not stand "in the way of science" despite protests. A committee of government and independent experts is seeking more information from a team of Indian scientists who have spent almost a decade on laboratory and field trials for a GM mustard crop. "We have to feed more than a billion mouths and we have to raise productivity... (but)we will not compromise on people's health." The meeting, the third held to evaluate field trial data on GM mustard this year, had raised hopes among scientists that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is keen to push technology to lift food productivity.

Dutch Police Deploy Drone-Disabling Birds of Prey

For law enforcement officers around the world, partnering with animals is a time-honored tradition. In a statement released Jan. 31, the Dutch National Police Corps announced a new initiative using birds of prey to intercept unwanted drones. The program was developed and tested in partnership with Guard from Above (GFA), a Dutch company located in the Hague that specializes in training large, predatory birds to "hunt" and subdue robotic prey.

Conquer Mont Blanc from Your Couch with Google Street View

It's now possible to scale the brilliant, snowcapped peaks of Mont Blanc, one of Europe's tallest mountains, from the comfort of your couch.

Fine-Tune the World with 'Augmented Reality' Earbuds

In the future, these devices could enable translation of live speech, much like the "universal translators" in "Star Trek," said researchers at Doppler Labs, where the Here system was invented. "We believe in a future where supercomputers can fit in the ears," Noah Kraft, co-founder and CEO of Doppler Labs, told Live Science. The Here system differs from both virtual reality and augmented reality headsets.

Scientists find Zika in saliva, urine; unclear if can transmit infection

Zika has been identified in the saliva and urine of two patients infected by the virus, a leading Brazilian health institute said on Friday, adding that further studies are needed to determine if those fluids could transmit the infection. Scientists at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a public health institute, said they used genetic testing to identify the virus in samples from two patients while they had symptoms and were known to have Zika, the mosquito-borne viral infection that has sparked a global health scare. It is the first time the virus has been detected in saliva and urine, scientists told reporters in Rio de Janeiro.

Scientists find Zika in saliva, urine; unclear if can transmit infection

Tarantula in Black: Dark, Hairy Spider Named After Johnny Cash

A newly discovered tarantula sports a black coat that is as dark and brooding as its celebrity namesake: the renowned singer Johnny Cash. Tarantulas, the hairy spiders that stole movie scenes and won hearts in popular films like "Home Alone," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and "Dr. No," take a starring role in a new study that reorganizes their group, reclassifying the majority of 55 known tarantula species and adding 14 new ones, including the creepy-crawly named for Cash. The study researchers evaluated close to 3,000 tarantulas from across the American Southwest.

Scientists turn to drones to count growing seal colonies

On a remote island off of Nantucket, scientists are using a tool most commonly associated with war and surveillance to get a look at fuzzy baby seals. Researchers who want to get a handle on the growth ...

Scientists find Zika in saliva, urine; unclear if can transmit infection

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe