Tuesday, February 23, 2016

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Will the World's Largest Supercollider Spawn a Black Hole? (Op-Ed)

Don Lincoln is a senior scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermilab, the United States' biggest Large Hadron Collider research institution. The most commonly mentioned is the idea that the LHC can make a black hole.


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To Prevent Another Dust Bowl, the US Must Sow the Right Seeds

Diane Banegas currently works in the area of science delivery for the research arm of the U.S. Forest Service. This is especially true if the land is in an arid region with less than 11 inches (28 centimeters) of annual precipitation.


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Ancient armored mammal from Argentina was a huge armadillo

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - DNA coaxed out of a 12,000-year-old fossil from Argentina is providing unique insight into one of the strangest Ice Age giants: a tank-like mammal the size of a small car with a bulbous bony shell and a spiky, club-shaped tail. Scientists said on Monday their genetic research confirmed that the creature, named Doedicurus, was part of an extinct lineage of gigantic armadillos. Doedicurus was a plant-eater that weighed about a ton and roamed the pampas and savannas of South America, vanishing about 10,000 years ago along with many other large Ice Age animals.


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Thought-controlled prosthetic limbs possibly within reach, scientists say

By Jarni Blakkarly SYDNEY (Reuters) - Thought-controlled prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs and computers may be available within a decade, say Australian scientists who are planning to conduct human trials next year on a high-tech implant that can pick up and transmit signals from the brain.    Animals have already been tested with the device, called a stentrode, which is the size of a matchstick and planted inside a blood vessel near the brain. "The big breakthrough is that we now have a minimally invasive brain-computer interface device which is potentially practical for long-term use," said Terry O'Brien, head of medicine at the Department of Medicine and Neurology at the University of Melbourne. The current method for accessing brain signals requires complex open-brain surgery and becomes less effective over several months, which means it is rarely applied, he said.


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Thought-controlled prosthetic limbs possibly within reach, scientists say

By Jarni Blakkarly SYDNEY (Reuters) - Thought-controlled prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs and computers may be available within a decade, say Australian scientists who are planning to conduct human trials next year on a high-tech implant that can pick up and transmit signals from the brain.    Animals have already been tested with the device, called a stentrode, which is the size of a matchstick and planted inside a blood vessel near the brain. "The big breakthrough is that we now have a minimally invasive brain-computer interface device which is potentially practical for long-term use," said Terry O'Brien, head of medicine at the Department of Medicine and Neurology at the University of Melbourne. The current method for accessing brain signals requires complex open-brain surgery and becomes less effective over several months, which means it is rarely applied, he said.


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Volkswagen-Size Armored Mammal Is Armadillo Ancestor

A new genetic analysis of the glyptodont, an ancient armored creature the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, reveals that it's closely related to the modern-day armadillo. "The data sheds light on the familial relations of an enigmatic creature that has fascinated many but was always shrouded in mystery," study researcher Hendrik Poinar, an evolutionary geneticist and physical anthropologist, said in a statement. Now, a genetic analysis shows that the glyptodont is nestled deeply within the armadillo family and should be treated like a close relative, the researchers said.


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Gorilla born by rare caesarean section delivery at British zoo

A baby gorilla has been delivered by a rare caesarean section at a British zoo in an operation performed by a hospital gynaecologist, the zoo said on Tuesday. Professor David Cahill, a gynaecologist at a nearby hospital who has delivered hundreds of babies by caesarean but never a gorilla, was drafted in to perform the operation, one of just a handful ever carried out worldwide. "I have since been back to visit Kera and the baby gorilla, it was wonderful to see them both doing so well." The baby girl gorilla weighed just over a kilogram (2 lbs 10oz) at birth 11 days ago.


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Homesteading in Space: White House Science Office Seeks Sci-Fi Inspiration

Roughly 70 space scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, along with storytellers, artists, directors, and producers met to show their interest in science fiction and space exploration with a view toward future "homesteading" in space. Other co-sponsors were the National Academy of Sciences, Science & Entertainment Exchange, and the Museum of Science Fiction.


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'Space Archaeologists' Show Spike in Looting at Egypt's Ancient Sites

As economic and political instability rocked Egypt, looters increasingly plundered the country's archaeological sites, leaving holes across the nation's ancient landscapes. That's the trend reported today in the journal Antiquity by archaeologists who used satellite images to monitor sites in Egypt from 2002 to 2013. For the last several years, "space archaeologist" Sarah Parcak, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has pored over satellite images to discover lost pyramids, tombs and cities buried in Egypt.


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Dreamlike Seahorse Picture Snags Top Prize

Lopresti's striking photo of a spiny seahorse in waters near Trieste, Italy, rose above submissions from entrants in 54 countries in the the annual Underwater Photographer of the Year (UPY) contest. The image, titled "Gold," also claimed first place in the contest's macro photography category. Motion blur in the waves conveys the undulation of moving water, while the sharply focused and brilliantly yellow seahorse's head and body emerge from the deep blue sea surrounding it.


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Scientists Find 8 New Species of Spider with Whiplike Legs

A pair of elongated, whiplike legs that are actually sophisticated environment sensors distinguish an unusual arachnid known as the whip spider, also called the tailless whip scorpion. Scientists recently described eight new species of this long-legged spider that are native to Brazil, nearly doubling the number of known species in the genus Charinus. Thanks to the new species discoveries, Brazil now boasts the greatest diversity of whip spiders in the world.


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Scientists Isolate Antibodies That Fight Ebola

An Ebola survivor's blood and a new technique for isolating immune cells may have opened up new ways to combat the deadly virus.


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Come on, Already! Impatience Linked to Chromosome Length

Impatient people may be more likely to have shorter telomeres, parts of human chromosomes that that tend to get shorter as people age, according to a new study.

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Small Weight Loss Leads to Big Health Gains

Losing just 5 percent of your body weight can have significant positive effects on your health, a new small study finds.

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Young Adults Ignore Stroke Symptoms That Could Save Their Lives (Op-Ed)

Dr. David Liebeskind is director of outpatient stroke and neurovascular programs and director of the Neurovascular Imaging Research Core at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. He contributed this article to Live Science's  Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights


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10 Reasons California Is 'Greener' than New York (Op-Ed)

@deaton_jeremy. Deaton contributed this article, a response to " 10 Reasons NY is 'Greener' than CaliforniaExpert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.


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10 Reasons New York Is 'Greener' Than California (Op-Ed)

10 Reasons California Is 'Greener' Than New YorkExpert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.


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Are Genetic Weapons the Best Tools to Fight Zika Virus? (Op-Ed)

Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

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Monday, February 22, 2016

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

feedamail.com Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Study: Female Coders Better Than Men, But Perceived As Worse

Female coders who submitted proposed changes to publicly available and freely modifiable software through a platform called GitHub had their work accepted more often than men did, according to a new study. Past studies have found differences between men and women's behavior in collaborative online projects. For instance, a 2013 survey found that just over 10 percent of open-source code contributors were women.

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Ant Warfare: Fossils Reveal Insects Locked in Mortal Combat

"Up until now, the oldest [termite] soldiers that we knew about were 20 million years old, so we have 80 million years longer of a record," said study researcher Philip Barden, a postdoctoral scientist at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York. The Burmese amber specimens, which are housed in the AMNH collection, are the oldest evidence of castes. Termite colonies today, just like in the Cretaceous, are made up of reproductive individuals with wings, workers responsible for constructing tunnels and collecting food and soldiers responsible for defense.


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These 30-Million-Year-Old Fossilized Flowers May Be Toxic

Delicate, though possibly deadly, flowers trapped in amber for some 30 million years have been discovered, scientists report. The fossilized plants are asterids, which make up about one-third of the world's flowering plants. The two flower specimens, which have been named Strychnos electri, belong to the same genus as poisonous plants that have been used to make lethal, paralyzing substances like strychnine and curare.


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HoloLens 'Teleports' NASA Scientist to Mars in TED Talk Demo

Something amazing happened at the TED2016 conference today: HoloLens developer Alex Kipman "teleported" a NASA scientist onto the stage, on the surface of Mars. Jeff Norris of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory was physically across the street from the auditorium in Vancouver, Canada, but with the HoloLens cameras, a hologram of him (a three-dimensional, talking hologram, which is made entirely of light) was beamed onto the stage where a virtual Mars surface was waiting. Kipman demoed the HoloLens for the audience and, for the first time, revealed this new holographic teleportation aspect of the technology.


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Mini-Brains Allow Scientists to Study Brain Disorders

This is your bedbug-size brain on drugs. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore are growing "mini-brains" — smaller than the period at the end of this sentence — that may contain enough human brain cells to be useful in studying drug addiction and other neurological diseases. Labs from around the world have been racing to grow these and other organoids — microscopic, yet primitively functional versions of livers, kidneys, hearts and brains grown from real human cells.

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Scientists find how 'superbugs' build their defences

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists in Britain have found how drug-resistant bacteria build and maintain a defensive wall -- a discovery that paves the way for the development of new drugs to break through the barrier and kill the often deadly "superbugs". In recent decades, bacteria resistant to multiple drugs, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or Clostridium difficile, have grown into a global health threat, while superbug strains of infections like tuberculosis and gonorrhoea have become untreatable. The World Health Organization has warned that many antibiotics could become redundant this century, leaving patients vulnerable to deadly infections and threatening the future of medicine.

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Coffee Pot: What Happens When You Mix Marijuana & Caffeine?

You can now add coffee to the growing list of foods and drinks that are available as products infused with marijuana. But what happens when you combine two psychoactive substances: marijuana and caffeine? The effects of using these two substances in combination have not been heavily researched, said Dr. Scott Krakower, the assistant unit chief of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York.

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Want to Form a New Habit? Don't Overthink

The reason, said study researcher Jennifer Labrecque, a psychologist at the University of Southern California, is that habits are encoded in the brain by the procedural memory system, which doesn't involve much conscious input. "When you try to engage two memory systems at once, they just interfere with each other," said Labrecque, who presented her findings in January at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in San Diego. The results have implications for people who are trying to learn new habits, Labrecque said.

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Scientists find how "superbugs" build their defences

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists in Britain have found how drug-resistant bacteria build and maintain a defensive wall -- a discovery that paves the way for the development of new drugs to break through the barrier and kill the often deadly "superbugs". In recent decades, bacteria resistant to multiple drugs, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or Clostridium difficile, have grown into a global health threat, while superbug strains of infections like tuberculosis and gonorrhoea have become untreatable. The World Health Organization has warned that many antibiotics could become redundant this century, leaving patients vulnerable to deadly infections and threatening the future of medicine.


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Latest in smart textiles - a musical tablecloth

By Jim Drury A Swedish company has developed a tablecloth with both a drum kit and piano keys printed on the fabric - turning dinner into a musical recital. Li Guo and Mats Johansson from Smart Textiles, a technology company based in the southern Swedish city of Boras, are behind the smart fabric creation.

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Spiders Look Bigger If You're Afraid of Them

"We found that although individuals with both high and low arachnophobia rated spiders as highly unpleasant, only the highly fearful participants overestimated the spider size," Tali Leibovich, a researcher in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev in Israel, said in a statement. One day, Noga Cohen, a graduate student of clinical-neuropsychology at BGU, noticed a spider crawling along. Leibovich, who has arachnophobia, asked Cohen to get rid of the "big" spider.


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