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Thursday, June 9, 2016

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Scientists decipher 11 subtypes in acute leukaemia gene study

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists unpicking the gene faults behind an aggressive blood cancer called acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) have found it is not a single disease, but at least 11 different ones with important differences for patients' likely survival chances. The findings, from the largest study of its kind, could improve clinical trials for testing and developing new AML drugs and change the way patients are diagnosed and treated in future, according to the international team of researchers. "We have shown that AML is an umbrella term for a group of at least 11 different types of leukaemia," said Peter Campbell, who co-led the study from Britain's Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Scientists decipher 11 subtypes in acute leukemia gene study

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists unpicking the gene faults behind an aggressive blood cancer called acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have found it is not a single disease, but at least 11 different ones with important differences for patients' likely survival chances. The findings, from the largest study of its kind, could improve clinical trials for testing and developing new AML drugs and change the way patients are diagnosed and treated in future, according to the international team of researchers. "We have shown that AML is an umbrella term for a group of at least 11 different types of leukemia," said Peter Campbell, who co-led the study from Britain's Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

First element discovered in Asia named 'nihonium', after Japan

Japanese scientists behind the discovery of element 113, the first atomic element found in Asia - indeed, the first found outside Europe or the United States - have dubbed it "nihonium" after the Japanese-language name for their country. "I believe the fact that we, in Japan, found one of only 118 known atomic elements gives this discovery great meaning," said Kosuke Morita, a university professor who led the discovery team from the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science. "Another important meaning is that until now, all the elements in the periodic table have been discovered in Europe and the United States," he told a news conference on Thursday.

Miniature 'Hobbit' Humans Had Even Smaller Ancestors

Ancestors of the mysterious extinct human lineage nicknamed "hobbits" may have been discovered, a new study finds. The newfound individuals may have been even littler than the hobbits, and date much further back in time (from some 700,000 years ago), scientists added. This suggests these ancestors may have shrunk rapidly after reaching the islands where the hobbits lived, the scientists said.

Fish Can Recognize and Remember Human Faces

A wee-brained tropical fish can distinguish between human faces in a lineup, researchers have found. Recognizing human faces is a difficult task. Because nearly all human faces have the same basic attributes, recognizing a face requires distinguishing subtle differences in facial features, said Cait Newport, a zoologist and Marie Curie research fellow at the University of Oxford.

Sex-Reversed Bearded Dragons Lay Eggs, Act Like Males

Bearded dragon babies that are genetically male but have the physical and reproductive traits of females have hatched in a lab in Australia. In some kinds of lizards, an individual's sex is determined by sex chromosomes, just as it usually is in humans. In other types of lizards, the temperature at which an egg develops determines sex.

Flash Mob! Glowing in Fishes More Widespread Than Thought

And since the first of these creatures lit up the seas about 150 million years ago, the ability to produce light — known as bioluminescence — evolved across fish species far more often than scientists suspected, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed lineages of glowing fishes, tracing them back to their origins in the early Cretaceous period (145.5 million to 65.5 million years ago). And there are likely many more instances of evolving bioluminescence radiating throughout the entire tree of life, study co-author John Sparks told Live Science.

Silver Shekel Stash: 2,000-Year-old Coins Uncovered in Israel

A hidden hoard of silver coins buried more than 2,000 years ago was recently discovered tucked inside a rock crevice, during an excavation in Modi'in, Israel, southeast of Tel Aviv. The Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) described the cache of 16 coins in a statement released yesterday (June 7), dating them to 126 B.C. The site where the coins were found is thought to be an ancient agricultural estate that belonged to a Jewish family. Called shekels and half-shekels, the coins in the remarkable collection appeared to have been deliberately selected, with each of the nine consecutive years between 135 B.C. and 126 B.C. represented by one or two coins, Donald Tzvi Ariel, head of the Coin Department at the IAA, said in the statement.

How Accurate Are Fertility Tracking Apps?

Researchers analyzed more than 50 popular websites and smartphone apps that offer to predict a woman's "fertility window," or the days during a woman's menstrual cycle when she can become pregnant. They found that the fertility windows predicted by the apps and websites varied widely, and that many of these windows included days after ovulation, when the chances that sexual intercourse will result in pregnancy are close to zero. "Because there is no rigorous screening process in effect to vet these websites and apps, we recommend caution in their use to assist with fertility," they said.

Child's Rare Injury: What Is Internal Decapitation?

A boy in Idaho who was recently in a high-speed car crash has survived a rare injury called an "internal decapitation," which is typically fatal, and is more common in children than in adults. The 4-year-old boy, named Killian, and his mother, were driving home from a birthday party when a hailstorm hit, and their car skidded into oncoming traffic and collided with another car, according to the New York Times. During the crash, the ligaments in Killian's neck that attach his skull to his spine were severed, which is referred to as internal decapitation.

Working Together? Male and Female Brains Just Aren't in Sync

When men and women work together, their brains may not take the same approach to cooperating, a new study suggests. In the new study, the areas of the brain that lit up were synchronized when two guys worked together to do a task, and when two women did, although the areas were different in men and women. In pairs where there was one man and one woman, the brain activity didn't sync up.

European ruling on olive tree cull sparks fear in Italy

European countries can be forced to cull olive trees to stop the spread of a deadly bacterium, the European Union ruled on Thursday, sparking concern in a grove-dotted region of Italy. The EU court rejected an appeal from an Italian tribunal over a European Commission order to destroy all olive trees potentially infected with the Xylella fastidiosa pathogen, called "olive tree leprosy". The controversial cull order came into force last year in the Puglia region in Italy's "heel", but the regional Italian court suspended it and questioned the Commission directive.

Scientists turn chief global warming gas into harmless stone

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have a found a quick way — but not a cheap one — to turn heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas into harmless rock.

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Wednesday, June 8, 2016

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Science Gear Installed on NASA's Next Big Space Telescope

The successor to NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope is now a big step closer to its anticipated 2018 launch. Technicians have installed the science instruments on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an $8.8 billion observatory that will study some of the most distant objects in the universe and scan the atmospheres of alien planets for signs of life, among other tasks. The installation required a crane and about two dozen engineers and technicians, who attached the science package in a huge clean-room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

India's colonial-era monsoon forecasting to get high-tech makeover

By Mayank Bhardwaj NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's forecasting of the monsoon - the crop-nourishing seasonal rains that are the lifeblood for farmers in the country of 1.3 billion people - is getting a high-tech makeover. Jettisoning a statistical method introduced under British colonial rule in the 1920s, India's meteorology office is spending $60 million on a new supercomputer to improve the accuracy of one of the world's most vital weather forecasts in time for next year's rains. The new system, based on a U.S. model tweaked for India, requires immense computing power to generate three-dimensional models to help predict how the monsoon is likely to develop.

Electric eels can kill horses, new research confirms

By Ben Gruber MIAMI (Reuters) - Experiments at Vanderbilt University have proven a 200-year-old observation that electric eels can leap out of water and shock animals to death, a claim originally made by 19th century biologist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. During a field trip to the Amazon basin in 1800, Humboldt said he saw electric eels leaping out of the water and delivering enough voltage to kill a horse. A biologist who has been studying eels for several years, Catania said he not only validated the original account but found evidence that leaping eels were far more terrifying than even von Humboldt realized.

In the lab: six innovations scientists hope will end malaria

By Katy Migiro ARUSHA, Tanzania (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - After being abandoned as too ambitious in 1969, global plans to eliminate malaria are back on the agenda, with financial backing from the world's richest couple, Bill and Melinda Gates, and U.S. President Barack Obama. The Gateses aim to eradicate malaria by 2040 by doubling funding over the next decade to support the roll out of new products to tackle rising drug resistance against the disease. Six innovations scientists are working on are: * New insecticides: Mosquitoes are becoming resistant to insecticides used to spray inside homes and in bed nets.

In the lab: six innovations scientists hope will end malaria

Are 'Hands-Free' Phone Calls Really Safer for Drivers?

"A popular misconception is that using a mobile phone while driving is safe as long as the driver uses a hands-free phone," Graham Hole, a psychology lecturer at the University of Sussex in England and an author of the study, said in a statement. In the first experiment, 60 people, divided into three groups of 20, completed a simulated driving course with a series of road hazards. In the second group, the people were asked true or false questions while they carried out the driving simulation.

Soda Pop Music? Entertainers Endorse Junk Food, Study Finds

Music may be food for the soul, but the food and beverages that pop singers endorse these days may be more like food for the grave, according to a new study. Nearly every food or beverage endorsed by musicians who scored a hit in the Billboard Hot 100 Chart in the years 2013 and 2014 is unhealthy, the study found. Think Justin Timberlake hawking for McDonald's, Drake selling Sprite, Beyoncé endorsing Pepsi and Britney Spears promoting pork rinds.

Obesity Rate in US Women Climbs to 40%

The obesity rate among U.S. women continues to tick upward, with the latest study showing that about 40 percent of American women are obese. However, the obesity rate in U.S. men has stayed about the same over the past decade, the study found. In the study, researchers gathered new data on U.S. obesity rates from a national survey conducted during 2013-2014, and also looked at changes in obesity rates over the previous nine-year period.

Why Are Shark Attacks on the Rise?

Shark attacks have dominated Australian headlines during the past week, with two fatalities occurring just a few days apart in waters near Perth. Those attacks may not be just a coincidence or bad luck: Shark attacks have been on the rise, with more attacks reported worldwide last year than in any other year on record, according to an annual survey. The International Shark Attack File (ISAF), a database of shark attacks maintained by the Florida Museum of Natural History (FMNH), includes a yearly summary of so-called "unprovoked attacks" — aggressive interactions initiated by sharks against people in the sharks' habitat, without any prior contact — and tallied 98 such attacks in 2015.

Retro Robot from the 1920s May Get 2nd Chance at Life

Britain's first robot was a dazzling sight to behold, with broad shoulders, light-bulb eyes and a thick-barreled chest.

UK scientists find new 3-parent IVF technique safe in lab tests

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - A study of a new 3-parent IVF technique designed to reduce the risk of mothers passing hereditary diseases to their babies has found it is likely to work well and lead to normal pregnancies, British scientists said. Britain's parliament voted last year to become the first in the world to allow the 3-parent in-vitro-fertilization (IVF)technique, which doctors say will prevent incurable inherited diseases but critics see as a step towards "designer babies". Having completed pre-clinical tests involving more than 500 eggs from 64 donor women, researchers from Britain's Newcastle University said the technique, called "early pronuclear transfer", does not harm early embryonic development.

New fossils may settle debate over 'Hobbit' people's ancestry

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fossils unearthed on the Indonesian island of Flores may resolve one of the most intriguing mysteries in anthropology: the ancestry of the extraordinary diminutive human species dubbed the "Hobbit."Scientists on Wednesday described bone fragments and teeth about 700,000 years old retrieved from an ancient river bed that appear to belong to the extinct Hobbit species, previously known only from fossils and stone tools from a Flores cave ranging from 190,000 to 50,000 years old. The species, called Homo floresiensis, stood about 3-1/2 feet tall (106 cm), possessing a small, chimpanzee-sized brain. The new fossils "strongly suggest" the Hobbit evolved from large-bodied, large-brained members of the extinct human species Homo erectus living in Asia, said palaeoanthropologist Yousuke Kaifu of the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.

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Tuesday, June 7, 2016

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Astronauts get first look inside space station's new inflatable module

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Monday floated inside an experimental inflatable module that will test a less expensive and potentially safer option for housing crews during long stays in space, NASA said. Station flight engineers Jeff Williams and Oleg Skripochka opened the hatch to the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, at 4:47 a.m. EDT (0847 GMT) on Monday. Designed and built by privately-owned Bigelow Aerospace, BEAM is the first inflatable habitat to be tested with astronauts in space.

New research finds low risk of Zika virus at Olympics

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - New research attempting to calculate the risk of the Zika virus at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro may reassure organizers and many of the more than 500,000 athletes and fans expected to travel to the epicenter of the epidemic. The World Health Organization, acknowledging the concern, has called a meeting of its Zika experts to evaluate the transmission risk posed by the Olympics. The debate has played out largely in the absence of models calculating the risk to tourists attending the Olympics. New projections obtained by Reuters suggest the risk is small.

Russia delays launch to space station to ensure safety of new spaceship

The flight of the next crew to the International Space Station has been postponed until July 7 from June 24 in order to ensure the safety of the first launch of their new "Soyuz-MS" spaceship, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Monday. A series of additional tests of the spaceship's software is required, Roscosmos said, citing the decision of a state commission which met earlier on Monday. Russian Commander Anatoly Ivanishin, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Japan's Takuya Onishi are due to take off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the "Soyuz-MS".

Eating Fat Doesn't Make You Fat, Study Finds

It seems logical to think that eating a high-fat diet would tip the scale upward, but a new study suggests that might not be the case. Men and women in the study who followed a high-fat, Mediterranean diet that was rich in either olive oil or nuts lost more weight and reduced their waist circumference more than the people in the study who were simply instructed to reduce their fat intake, according to the study. The Mediterranean diet, rich in healthy fats and plant proteins, has been linked in previous studies to a wide range of health benefits, including a reduced risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes — two conditions that are also linked to obesity.

Muhammad Ali's Death: Can Head Injuries Cause Parkinson's?

Boxing champion Muhammad Ali lived with Parkinson's disease for three decades before his death on Friday (June 3) at the age of 74, and many have wondered whether Ali's boxing career caused him to develop the neurological disorder. Although it's likely that frequent head injuries played a role in the boxer's Parkinson's disease, certain genes may have also increased his susceptibility to the disease, experts said. "[It's] likely his repeated head injuries contributed to his Parkinson's disease," said Dr. Barbara Changizi, a neurologist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, who was not involved with Ali's treatment.

Bacteria Are Everywhere, Even in Ovaries

Women's fallopian tubes and ovaries were once thought to be free of bacteria, but a small new study finds that these microorganisms do live naturally in this part of the reproductive tract. What's more, the findings suggest that women with ovarian cancer may have different, more harmful bacteria in their fallopian tubes and ovaries, but much more research is needed to confirm this idea, the researchers said. In the study, the researchers analyzed tissue samples from 25 women who had been through menopause and were undergoing surgery to have their uterus, fallopian tubes or ovaries removed.

Supreme Insect! Praying Mantis Named After Ruth Bader Ginsburg

A new praying mantis has been identified, and like Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it has a fondness for prominent neckwear. The new leaf-dwelling species was discovered in the wilds of Madagascar and named Ilomantis ginsburgae, after Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. "This species description of Ilomantis ginsburgae is novel since it relied heavily on the features of the female genitalia," lead author Sydney Brannoch, a Case Western Reserve University doctoral candidate, said in a statement.

Tiny Dancers: Meet 7 New Peacock Spider Species

They're fuzzy. They're colorful. And they wave their legs in the air like they just don't care.

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