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Saturday, May 21, 2016

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'ET Comes Home' for NASA fuel tank in street ride to LA museum

A giant orange NASA fuel tank began its final journey on Saturday, along city streets to a Los Angeles science center where it will be displayed with the space shuttle Endeavour. The California Science Center has called the mission "ET Comes Home," in a play on the "external tank" name and the 1982 movie "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial." The transport is a sequel of sorts to the 2012 mission to tow Endeavour from the Los Angeles airport to the science center, a project that captivated crowds of onlookers.

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Friday, May 20, 2016

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Developers look to widen repertoire of Pepper, Japan's laughing robot

Japanese developers of a robot are asking the public to come up with ideas for what their waist-high humanoid can do and they are offering a software development kit for programmers to get creative. The fast-selling robot, known as Pepper, can already laugh and serve coffee and is being used as a waiter, salesman and customer service representative in about 500 companies in Japan, including Nestle, Mizuho Bank and Nissan. Now its creators, SoftBank Corp, have started offering a kit, Pepper SDK for Android Studio, that will allow programmers to develop new tasks.

Stolen Christopher Columbus Letter Returned to Italy

He sailed the ocean blue in 1492, and on his journey home in 1493, Christopher Columbus wrote of his voyage in a letter to his patrons, the royal husband-and-wife team Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Now, a stolen copy of the letter that had been donated to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., was returned to its rightful owner, the Italian government, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced on May 18. "Preserving records and chronicles of our past, like this letter, is of utmost importance not only to the special agents who investigate these crimes, but to the global community at large," Dan Ragsdale, deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said in a statement.

Stranded, Rarely Seen Beaked Whale Has Strange Fang

The whale, identified as a Hector's beaked whale (Mesoplodon hectori), was found south of Adelaide on Waitpinga beach in February. For the past 25 years, the South Australian Museum has done necropsies (an animal autopsy) on "as many [stranded] whales as it can from its shores," but the museum's researchers didn't expect to find anything unusual when they examined this particular whale — a female juvenile, said Catherine Kemper, a senior research scientist in mammals at the South Australian Museum. Instead, the researchers found an "intriguing" fang, which has never been seen before in a Hector's beaked whale, Kemper told Live Science in an email.

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Thursday, May 19, 2016

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Send Astronauts to Mars to Find Evidence of Life, NASA's Top Scientist Says

The chances are good that microbial life existed on Mars long ago, and sending astronauts to the Red Planet is the best way to find the evidence, NASA's chief scientist said. Though Mars is cold and dry today, the planet hosted liquid water on its surface for extended periods more than 3 billion years ago, Ellen Stofan pointed out during a talk Tuesday (May 17) at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C.

What's Up with This Spider's Enormous Eyes?

These findings confirm that spiders in the genus Deinopis, which have the largest eyes of any spider, use their humongous peepers to survive in the wild, said study lead researcher Jay Stafstrom, a doctoral student of biological sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "They're pretty hard to find," he told Live Science.

Painted Human Jawbones Used as Ancient Jewelry

Painted human mandibles that may have been worn like necklace pendants have been discovered at a ceremonial site in Mexico that dates back around 1,300 years. In the same ceremonial area, numerous whistles and figurines were also discovered. The whistles may have made owl-like sounds, archaeologists said.

Google's Gigapixel Camera Reveals Minute Details in Famous Works of Art

The beauty of the world's greatest works of art can be found in the tiniest details, from brush strokes to hidden signatures — like the miniscule dabs of paint that create the impression of light reflected on turbulent water in "The Port of Rotterdam" by Paul Signac. The Google Cultural Institute recognized this and developed the Art Camera, a custom-built robotic camera that can produce ultra-high-resolution images. Capturing works of art in gigapixel images that contain more than 1 billion pixels can reveal details otherwise invisible to the naked eye.

Hooked, Pointy or Snubbed? How Your Nose Got Its Shape

Now, new research has uncovered four genes that govern some of the variation in the human olfactory organ. "Finding out the role each gene plays helps us to piece together the evolutionary path from Neanderthal to modern humans," study co-author Kaustubh Adhikari, a cell and developmental biologist at University College London, said in a statement. Although many people think of nose shape as a purely aesthetic feature, researchers suspect that different nose shapes evolved in different environments, for different reasons, the study authors said.

Is Digital Multitasking Good for Teens?

The more time teens spend multitasking with various tech devices, the worse they tend to perform on academic tests, a small new study suggests. In the study, the researchers analyzed information from 73 eighth-grade students in Boston, who answered questions about how many hours per week they spent watching TV or videos, listening to music, playing video games, reading electronic media, talking on the phone, and text messaging.

Do Fetuses Feel Pain? What the Science Says

Utah recently passed a law that requires doctors to give anesthesia to a fetus prior to performing an abortion that occurs at 20 weeks of gestation or later. Indeed, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) said it considers the case to be closed as to whether a fetus can feel pain at that stage in development. "The science shows that based on gestational age, the fetus is not capable of feeling pain until the third trimester," said Kate Connors, a spokesperson for ACOG.

Dinosaur with 'Bent Sword' Head Spikes Unearthed in Utah

Each curved head spike measured about 4 feet (1.2 meters) long, and though their function isn't clear, they may have been used to attract mates, said study lead author Eric Lund, a graduate student of biological sciences at the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. The "horny" finding fills in an important gap in the fossil record of southern Laramidia, an area that included Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and Mexico during the Late Cretaceous period, Lund said. Researchers first unearthed pieces of the dinosaur's skull in 2006, and returned to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, in southern Utah, for a total of three field seasons to look for more of the remains.

New Frilly-Necked Dinosaur Identified

A fossil skull found in Montana a decade ago by a retired physicist has officially been declared the head of a new species of dinosaur. The new dino, dubbed Spiclypeus shipporum, looked a bit like Triceratops, but rather than three smooth horns, it sported a neck frill decorated with bony spikes, some curling in and others curling out. "This is a spectacular new addition to the family of horned dinosaurs that roamed western North America between 85 and 66 million years ago," said study researcher Jordan Mallon of the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Skywatchers can see close, bright Mars looming large this month

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in a decade this month, providing sky-watchers with a celestial show from dusk to dawn starting this week, NASA said on Thursday. On Thursday, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a photograph of Mars taken by the Hubble Space Telescope as the planet neared Earth last week. On May 30, Mars and Earth will come than they have been in a decade, NASA said.

Dinosaur duo sported exotic spikes and horns

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two newly discovered dinosaurs unearthed in the western U.S. states of Montana and Utah are illustrating the exotic appearance some of these beasts developed, with fanciful horns and spikes, toward the end of their reign on Earth. Scientists on Wednesday announced the discovery of fossils of two species that provide new insights into an important group of truck-sized, four-legged, plant-munching, horned dinosaurs that roamed the landscape late in the Cretaceous Period. Both dinosaurs were members of a group called ceratopsians that included the well-known Triceratops, typically possessing parrot-like beaks to crop low-growing herbs and shrubs, a bony neck shield, or frill, and forward-pointing facial horns.

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Wednesday, May 18, 2016

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Bringing the Past into the Future: VR Invades the Met

The Met showed off new technologies at an open house on Friday (May 13), to enhance how visitors experience and interpret art in its many forms. Virtual reality, social networking with mobile devices, and tabletop gaming were just a few of the methods employed in a number of media prototypes that museumgoers could use to interact with objects in the collection — and with each other. Players could explore the rooms and objects, and perform activities that drew from information provided during a tour of the actual spaces in the museum. The new media projects were created by the Met Digital Department and Met MediaLab, in collaboration with graduate students at the New York University Game Center.

Bits of 3.5-Billion-Year-Old Asteroid Tell Story of Monster Impact

Now, for the first time, remnants of that impact have been uncovered in ancient sediments in Australia, and they're revealing more intriguing details about the Earth at that time. The mega asteroid that battered the primeval Earth was likely between 12 and 19 miles (20 to 30 kilometers) across, dwarfing the space rock that caused the dinosaur-killing Chicxulub impact, the research suggests.

Blazing meteor creates light show across New England sky

A meteor lit up the night sky over New England and eastern Canada early on Tuesday, startling people who saw it including police officers who captured the show on a dashcam. It was also captured on some security cameras. About 100 tons of dust and sand-sized particles known as meteorites enter the Earth's atmosphere each day, though most are too small to be noticed, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

'Magic' Mirror Reveals Body Changes As You Get Fit

The device, called Naked, is the first 3D body scanner and fitness tracker designed specifically for people to use in their homes, said Ed Sclater, co-founder of Naked Labs, the California-based company behind Naked. As you rotate on the scale, ideally wearing minimal, skin-tight, workout clothing, the sensors create 3D depth maps of your body at around 30 frames per second, Sclater told Live Science.

Lessons from a Baby Bison's Death: Don't. Touch. Wildlife.

What began as a well-intentioned but ill-informed act ended with the death of a young wild animal recently at Yellowstone National Park. During the week of May 9, visitors to Yellowstone came across a solitary bison calf. Later, the newborn calf was released back into the wild, and the National Park Service (NPS) issued the visitors a citation, according to a statement from the NPS released May 16.

German to take command of International Space Station in 2018

Astronaut Alexander Gerst will become the first German and only the second European to take command of the International Space Station, the European Space Agency said on Wednesday. Gerst, 40, previously worked on the ISS in 2014. "When one looks down on the planet from space, that is a very special thing," Gerst told a news conference after being congratulated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Livestock firm Genus ramps up R&D spend in gene editing race

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - British animal genetics firm Genus is diving deeper into the hot area of gene editing, in a move Chief Executive Karim Bitar says will bring long-term gains at the cost of a hefty hike in research spending. The company, which sells pig and bull semen to farmers worldwide, has signed an exclusive global deal with privately owned Caribou Biosciences to use the U.S. firm's CRISPR/Cas9 technology to develop pig and cattle breeds. "The increase in investment will be substantial," Bitar said in an interview on Wednesday, after announcing the collaboration.

Potato-Heavy Diet Linked to High Blood Pressure

Packing potatoes into your diet may put you at higher risk for having high blood pressure, a new study finds, although the researchers acknowledged that the study presents an interesting paradox. People who reported eating four or more servings of potatoes per week were 11 percent more likely to have hypertension, compared with people who ate less than one serving of potatoes per month, according to the study. Moreover, the researchers found that replacing one daily serving of baked, boiled or mashed potatoes with one serving of nonstarchy vegetables was associated with a 7 percent decreased risk of hypertension.

Magic-Mushroom Compound Shows Potential for Treating Depression

A hallucinogenic compound called psilocybin, found in so-called magic mushrooms, has the potential to help treat people with depression one day, a small new study suggests. However, experts caution that much more research is needed to prove psilocybin's effectiveness and safety for this purpose. In the study, 12 people with depression were given psilocybin along with supportive talk therapy.

Penis Transplant: Why It's Done & What Can Go Wrong

The recent announcement of the first U.S. penile transplant is exciting news, and brings hope for many men, including injured combat veterans. On Monday (May 16), doctors announced that a 64-year-old man in Massachusetts had become the first person in the United States to receive a penile transplant. The patient, Thomas Manning, needed his penis removed in 2012 because of aggressive penile cancer.

Scientists, investors seek to identify financial risks of climate change

A Norwegian group of climate scientists will form an alliance on Thursday with investors including BlackRock Inc and the World Bank to try to assess the financial risks of rising global temperatures. The Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, Oslo (CICERO) said it wanted to help investors judge risks from global warming such as more heatwaves, floods, downpours, the extinction of animals and plants and rising seas. The head of CICERO, Kristin Halvorsen, said the aim was to help investors and researchers to "understand each other more easily so that the financial sector can define climate risks".

NASA fuel tank arrives at port ahead of trip through Los Angeles

By Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A NASA fuel tank arrived at a port on Wednesday ahead of a planned mission this weekend to tow the giant apparatus through the streets of Los Angeles and display it with the space shuttle Endeavour at a science center. The California Science Center, the museum where the external tank known as ET-94 will be placed on exhibit, posted photos online of the 154-foot-long (47-metre) chamber fixed to a barge docking in Marina del Rey on the border with Los Angeles. The orange fuel tank, which the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has donated to the center for display with Endeavour, was designed to carry propellants to thrust a space shuttle into orbit and then detach, mostly disintegrating as it fell to the ocean.

Over a third of North American bird species in danger: scientists

More than a third of all North American bird species are at risk of becoming extinct unless significant action is taken, scientists who are part of a tri-nation initiative said on Wednesday, adding that ocean and tropical birds were in particular danger. The study, compiled by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative and the first of its kind to look at the vulnerability of bird populations in Canada, the United States and Mexico, said 37 percent of all 1,154 species on the continent needed urgent conservation action. The governments of Canada, the United States and Mexico created the North American Bird Conservation Initiative in 1999.

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