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Friday, April 8, 2016

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Scientists Nuke a Fake Comet to Create Ingredients for Life

By cooking up a faux comet, scientists have produced the first formation of a key sugar required for life as we know it. By creating ices similar to those detected by the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, which made the first landing on a comet, scientists were able to produce ribose, a sugar that serves as an important ingredient in RNA, an essential ingredient for life. "There is evidence for an 'RNA world' — an episode of life on Earth during which RNA was the only genetic material," Cornelia Meinert, an associate scientist at the University Nice Sophia Antipolis, told Space.com by email.

New Bizarre State of Matter Seems to Split Fundamental Particles

A bizarre new state of matter has been discovered — one in which electrons that usually are indivisible seem to break apart. The new state of matter, which had been predicted but never spotted in real life before, forms when the electrons in an exotic material enter into a type of "quantum dance," in which the spins of the electrons interact in a particular way, said Arnab Banerjee, a physicist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The findings could pave the way for better quantum computers, Banerjee said.

Ancient Water Bird Survived Attack by Short-Necked 'Sea Monster'

Scientists have found what may be the world's luckiest Hesperornis — an ancient water bird that escaped the snapping jaws of a plesiosaur about 70 million years ago in prehistoric South Dakota. Still, the plesiosaur got a good bite out of the Hesperornis, a large, flightless diving bird that lived during the late Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs roamed the world. "Basically, the plesiosaur came in from the side," said study co-author Bruce Rothschild, a professor of medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University.

Here's How Money Could Actually Buy Happiness

Money really can buy happiness — if you buy things that "match" your personality, a new study from the United Kingdom suggests. Researchers analyzed more than 76,000 purchases that 625 people made over a six-month period, and grouped the purchases into categories based on how they might be tied to a personality trait. For example, purchases involving "eating out in pubs" were tied to the personality trait of extroversion (a person who is sociable and outgoing), while purchases involving "charities" and "pets" were tied to the personality trait of agreeableness (a person who is compassionate and friendly).

Even Babies Will 'Sell Out' for a Price

"It's a study I like to call 'the deal with the devil,'" said study researcher Arber Tasimi, a graduate student in the Department of Psychology at Yale University. Tasimi and Yale psychologist Karen Wynn were interested in finding out the age at which kids will avoid a wrongdoer, even if it comes at a cost to the kids themselves. So Tasimi and Wynn decided to look at this moral dilemma in children on both sides of that age cutoff.

Injection of Tiny Beads Could Curb Hunger, Promote Weight Loss

A small injection could lead to decreased feelings of hunger as well as major weight loss, a small new study finds. The procedure, known as bariatric arterial embolization, has only been tested in seven patients, and much more research will be needed in order to confirm its safety and effectiveness. However, the doctors who completed the study are "excited about the possibility of adding [the procedure] as another tool for health care providers to offer patients in the effort to curb" the obesity epidemic, said Dr. Clifford Weiss, the director of interventional radiology research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the leader of the study, in a statement.

From Shredded C-Notes to Corn: Weird Materials Make Their Way into Cars

Nikhil Gupta is an associate professor, and Steven Zeltmann is a student researcher, in the Composite Materials and Mechanics Laboratory of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering. The 2016 New York International Auto Show opened to the public on March 25 with exciting displays of expensive and exotic cars that defy the imagination with high speed and high technology.

Clearing the Air, China Now Leads World in Clean Energy (Op-Ed)

Lynn Scarlett, is a former deputy secretary and chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of the Interior and currently is global managing director of policy at The Nature Conservancy. Scarlett contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. China is embracing this change as it is poised to move from leading emitter of greenhouse gasses to leader in renewable energy investments.

Suit that mimics life at age 85 has no creases, just creaks

By Barbara Goldberg JERSEY CITY, N.J. (Reuters) - With the push of a button, a perfectly healthy 34-year-old museum-goer named Ugo Dumont was transformed into a confused 85-year-old man with cataracts, glaucoma and a ringing in his ears known as tinnitus. Dumont had volunteered at Liberty Science Center on Tuesday to don a computer-controlled exoskeleton that can be remotely manipulated to debilitate joints, vision and hearing and shared with the crowd what aging feels like decades before his time. Headphones muffled his hearing while goggles left him with only peripheral vision due to macular degeneration while the suit's joints were adjusted to simulate the stiffness of rheumatoid arthritis.

Inflatable habitat heading for test run on space station

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - An inflatable human habitat was scheduled for launch to the International Space Station on Friday for a two-year test to see how the lightweight, fabric module compares with traditional orbiting enclosures made from metal, NASA said. The prototype habitat, built by Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace, was packed inside a capsule slated for liftoff aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 4:43 p.m. (2043 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The scheduled launch marks the fourth mission for high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk's privately owned Space Exploration Technologies since a rocket failure last June destroyed a cargo ship being carried on a resupply mission bound for the space station.

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Thursday, April 7, 2016

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Testing the Multiverse: Beyond the Limits of Science? (Op-Ed)

Robert Lawrence Kuhn is the creator, writer and host of "Closer to Truth," a public television series and online resource that features the world's leading thinkers exploring humanity's deepest questions (produced and directed by Peter Getzels). This essay is the second in a series of three on the multiverse. The first is available at: "Confronting the Multiverse: What 'Infinite Universes' Would Mean." Kuhn contributed this essay to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed.

A Paradox From Climate Change Past (Video)

Human history is rife with stories of environmental catastrophe and powerful civilizations felled by climate change — the Mayans, the Egyptians, the Sumerians. "Climate change causes crisis, and a generation of scientists and historians have now reconstructed that essential relationship," said Georgetown University historian Dagomar Degroot. Degroot studies the Little Ice Age, a period of global cooling from around 1500 to 1850, during which temperatures dropped 0.6 degrees Celsius in the Northern Hemisphere.

South America's prehistoric people spread like 'invasive species'

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When the first prehistoric people trekked into South America towards the end of the Ice Age, they found a wondrous, lush continent inhabited by all manner of strange creatures like giant ground sloths and car-sized armadillos. Only much later did people muster exponential population growth after forming fixed settlements with domesticated crops and animals. "Humans are just like any other invasive species," Stanford University biology professor Elizabeth Hadly said.

South America's prehistoric people spread like 'invasive species'

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When the first prehistoric people trekked into South America toward the end of the Ice Age, they found a wondrous, lush continent inhabited by all manner of strange creatures like giant ground sloths and car-sized armadillos. Only much later did people muster exponential population growth after forming fixed settlements with domesticated crops and animals. "Humans are just like any other invasive species," Stanford University biology professor Elizabeth Hadly said.

Scientists seek crowdfunding to test 'chemical castration' of pedophiles

Researchers from Sweden are seeking crowdfunding to test a type of "chemical castration" in men who report having paedophilic thoughts and fantasies. The team from Sweden's Karolinska Institute want to see whether a drug called degarelix - a hormone therapy that blocks brain signals which stimulate the testicles to produce testosterone - reduces the men's sexual urges. While not all people with paedophilia molest children, child sexual abuse is a widespread problem with around 1 in 10 girls and 1 in 20 boys suffering abuse, according to Christoffer Rahm, a Swedish consultant psychiatrist leading the planned trial.

Alaska volcano goes quiet but remains 'restless,' scientists say

An Alaskan volcano that began erupting 10 days ago, belching an ash cloud 20,000 feet (6,906 meters) high that triggered aviation warnings, ended its latest round of seismic activity on Wednesday but may not stay quiet for long, scientists said. Satellite observations showed no evidence of further "eruptive activity" on Mount Pavlof and low levels of seismic activity suggested that the volcano had subsided, the Alaska Volcano Observatory said in a statement. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a "red" aviation alert in response to the ash cloud, which required that local and regional flights, including cargo air traffic out of Anchorage, be re-routed.

Scientists seek crowdfunding to test 'chemical castration' of paedophiles

By Kate and Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers from Sweden are seeking crowdfunding to test a type of "chemical castration" in men who report having paedophilic thoughts and fantasies. The team from Sweden's Karolinska Institute want to see whether a drug called degarelix - a hormone therapy that blocks brain signals which stimulate the testicles to produce testosterone - reduces the men's sexual urges. While not all people with paedophilia molest children, child sexual abuse is a widespread problem with around 1 in 10 girls and 1 in 20 boys suffering abuse, according to Christoffer Rahm, a Swedish consultant psychiatrist leading the planned trial.

Scientists seek crowdfunding to test 'chemical castration' of paedophiles

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers from Sweden are seeking crowdfunding to test a type of "chemical castration" in men who report having paedophilic thoughts and fantasies. The team from Sweden's Karolinska Institute want to see whether a drug called degarelix - a hormone therapy that blocks brain signals which stimulate the testicles to produce testosterone - reduces the men's sexual urges. While not all people with paedophilia molest children, child sexual abuse is a widespread problem with around 1 in 10 girls and 1 in 20 boys suffering abuse, according to Christoffer Rahm, a Swedish consultant psychiatrist leading the planned trial.

Scientists look at hangers-on amid mass die-off of bats

ALTAMONT, N.Y. (AP) — As white-nose syndrome kills millions of bats across North America, there's a glimmer of hope at hibernation spots where it first struck a decade ago: Some bats in some caves are hanging on.

To help curb climate change, stop wasting food: scientists

By Megan Rowling BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Reducing food waste around the world would help curb emissions of planet-warming gases, lessening some of the impacts of climate change such as more extreme weather and rising seas, scientists said on Thursday. Up to 14 percent of emissions from agriculture in 2050 could be avoided by managing food use and distribution better, according to a new study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). "Agriculture is a major driver of climate change, accounting for more than 20 percent of overall global greenhouse gas emissions in 2010," said co-author Prajal Pradhan.

To help curb climate change, stop wasting food: scientists

One Question Could Help Spot Drinking Problems in Teens

One simple question may reveal a lot about a teen's risk of developing an alcohol problem, a new study finds. The study focused on teen alcohol screening, or questions that doctors can ask to flag those who may be at risk for problem drinking. Results showed that one question — how many days they drank in the past year — was particularly good at spotting those at risk for a drinking problem, which researchers call alcohol use disorder.

Street Heroin Use Could Be Curbed with Morphine-Like Drug

Heroin addiction is notoriously difficult to overcome, but a new study finds that some people with particularly serious addictions may benefit from treatment with a drug related to morphine. The study, from researchers in Canada, focused on the small portion of people with heroin addiction who have tried and failed to treat their addiction multiple times with existing medications — mainly, the oral medications methadone and buprenorphine — and who continue to use street drugs and engage in illegal activity to obtain the drugs. Among this specific group, treatment with medical-grade heroin has been shown to be effective in reducing illegal heroin use and getting people to stick with treatment.

Are You Impulsive? Maybe Your Brain Is to Blame

Some people's brain structures may lower their inhibitions and make it easier for them to engage in risky or impulsive behavior, according to a new study. Researchers examined more than 1,200 healthy young adults with no history of psychiatric disorders or substance dependence. "The findings allow us to have a better understanding of how normal variation in brain anatomy in the general population might bias both temperamental characteristics and health behaviors," said Avram Holmes, an assistant professor of psychology and psychiatry at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, who led the study.

SpaceX's Dragon Is Launching a Huge Science Haul to Space Station Friday

Packed in the Dragon cargo ship, among supplies for the crew, will be a group of fungi that could help scientists develop new medicines, as well as the latest installment in a series of experiments to grow vegetables in space. The cargo also will include live mice that will be part of an experiment that could help scientists develop drugs to prevent muscle degeneration in astronauts or people on Earth. Friday's launch will be SpaceX's eighth mission to the station, as part of NASA's Commercial Resupply Mission.

To help curb climate change, stop wasting food - scientists

Bad Touch: Intimate Robot Interactions Cause Discomfort

Li and his colleagues Wendy Ju and Byron Reeves at Stanford University will present their findings on June 13 at the annual conference of the International Communication Association in Fukuoka, Japan. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+.

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