GoogleTrends

Friday, June 10, 2016

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Private company wants U.S. clearance to fly to the moon

By Irene Klotz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. government agencies are working on temporary rules to allow a private company to land a spacecraft on the moon next year, while Congress weighs a more permanent legal framework to govern future commercial missions to the moon, Mars and other destinations beyond Earth's orbit, officials said. Plans by private companies to land spacecraft on the moon or launch them out of Earth's orbit face legal obstacles because the United States has not put in place regulations to govern space activities, industry and government officials said. A 1967 international treaty obliges the United States and other signatories to authorize and supervise space activities by its non-government entities.

In mapping eclipses, world's first computer maybe also told fortunes

By Michele Kambas ATHENS (Reuters) - A 2,000-year-old astronomical calculator used by ancient Greeks to chart the movement of the sun, moon and planets may also have had another purpose - fortune telling, say researchers. Heralded as the world's first computer, the Antikythera Mechanism is a system of intricate bronze gears dating to around 60 BC, used by ancient Greeks to track solar and lunar eclipses. It was retrieved from a shipwreck discovered off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901.

U.S. regulator says too many drugmakers chasing same cancer strategy

By Deena Beasley CHICAGO (Reuters) - A new type of cancer drug that takes the brakes off the body's immune system has given drugmakers some remarkable wins against the deadly disease, but a top U.S. regulator says too many companies are focused on the same approach. Dr. Richard Pazdur, head of the Food and Drug Administration's office of oncology products, was referring to therapies designed to disable the PD-1 protein that tumors use to evade the immune system. The FDA has approved such treatments from Merck & Co, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and Roche Holding AG, each of which have list prices of $150,000 per year.

No scientific basis for postponing Brazil Olympics due to Zika: minister

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil's Health Minister Ricardo Barros said on Friday there is no scientific basis for postponing the Olympics because of the Zika virus, explaining that lower temperatures and fewer mosquitoes reduced the chance of infection in August when the games will be held. "We are not considering it (postponing the games)," Barros told a foreign media briefing in Rio de Janeiro. (Reporting by Paulo Prada Editing by W simon)

2 Teens Die After Drinking Racing Fuel & Soda Mix

Two teens in Tennessee died in January after drinking a mixture of racing fuel and soda at a party, which appears to have been concocted as a substitute for alcohol, according to a new report. Before the party, one of the teens took a bottle of racing fuel from the home of a family friend and mixed an unknown amount of the fuel with soda in a 2-liter bottle, according to the report. Racing fuel is an additive that can be poured into a gas tank to increase the performance of a car or motorcycle.

Cancer Clues in the Breath: Test Could Ease Screening

A simple breath test can detect changes in people who have undergone surgery for lung cancer, a new study reports. Researchers found that three chemical markers known as carbonyl compounds, which are gases released when people exhale, were reduced in patients with lung cancer after they had an operation to remove their tumors, compared with before their operations. This study demonstrated that levels of certain chemical markers associated with a tumor went down in people after they had surgery for lung cancer, said Dr. Victor van Berkel, a thoracic surgeon at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky, who was a co-author of the study.

Food Labels Have You Confused? Try the No-Label Diet

In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized plans for a new Nutrition Facts label for packaged foods, with the hope that it will help Americans take better control of their health. If more Americans got back to buying single-ingredient food products, we'd be a far healthier country.

Attorney: US using 'untested legal theory' against scientist

The attorney for a nuclear engineer accused of helping a Chinese energy company build nuclear reactors with U.S. technology says the government's case involves "novel and untested legal theories." ...

'Minecraft' Tree in 'Lost World' Forest May Be Tropics' Tallest

A tree familiar to players of the computer game "Minecraft" could also be the tallest tree in the tropics, conservationists have found. Their discovery was described in an announcement published online June 8 by the University of Cambridge. "Yellow meranti" is also one of the sapling "species" available to Minecraft users in the game's "Forestry" modification pack, and it grows into a mahogany tree.

Globalized economy more susceptible to weather extremes, scientists warn

By Megan Rowling BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The globalization of the world's economy this century has made it far more vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather, including heat stress on workers, scientists said on Friday. A study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University showed production losses caused by high temperatures, predicted to rise further with climate change, now spread more easily from one place to another as they ripple through global supply chains. This is because production has become more interlinked since the turn of the century, said co-author Anders Levermann, a top climate change expert at the Potsdam Institute.

The bright side: global 'light pollution' obscures starry nights

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Vincent van Gogh peered out the window of the Saint-Paul asylum at the nighttime sky in Saint-Rémy in 1889, he saw the brilliant light of innumerable stars over southern France that inspired his evocative painting "The Starry Night." But nights no longer are so starry for billions of people. About 83 percent of the world's population, including more than 99 percent in Europe and the United States, live in areas beset by nocturnal "light pollution" from the incessant glow of electric lights, researchers said on Friday. "It is surprising how in a few decades of lighting growth we have enveloped most of humanity in a curtain of light that hides the view of the greatest wonder of nature: the universe itself," said Fabio Falchi of the Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute in Italy, who led the research published in the journal Science Advances.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe

Thursday, June 9, 2016

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

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.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

(Sponsor this newsletter)

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.

(Sponsor this newsletter)

Delievered to you by Feedamail.
Unsubscribe