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Monday, June 13, 2016

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Scientists use climate, population changes to predict diseases

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists say they have developed a model that can predict outbreaks of zoonotic diseases – those such as Ebola and Zika that jump from animals to humans – based on changes in climate. "Our model can help decision-makers assess the likely impact (on zoonotic disease) of any interventions or change in national or international government policies, such as the conversion of grasslands to agricultural lands," said Kate Jones, a professor who co-led the study at University College London's genetics, evolution and environment department. Around 60 to 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases are so-called "zoonotic events", where animal diseases jump into people.

Scientists use climate, population changes to predict diseases

Genius: Can Anybody Be One?

For Mensa, the exclusive international society comprising members of "high intelligence," someone who scores at or above the 98th percentile on an IQ or other standardized intelligence test could be considered genius. In his new science series "Genius" on PBS, Stephen Hawking is testing out the idea that anyone can "think like a genius." By posing big questions — for instance, "Can we travel through time?" — to people with average intelligence, the famed theoretical physicist aims to find the answers through the sheer power of the human mind. "It's a fun show that tries to find out if ordinary people are smart enough to think like the greatest minds who ever lived," Hawking said in a statement.

Filling the Periodic Table: New Names for the Newest Elements

The new names were announced Wednesday (June 8) by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the organization that standardizes chemical element names. The endings of each of the proposed names (such as –ium) reflect the element's place in the periodic table. The rest of the name is specific to each element's discovery, according to a statement that IUPAC issued in recommending the new names.

'Smart' Blocks Turn Lego Creations into Web-Connected Toys

The new devices, from Israel-based Brixo Smart Toys, use chrome-plated blocks that conduct electricity to connect batteries with electronics. "The human body resists electrical currents from passing though it — it has a high electrical resistance," said Brixo founder Boaz Almog, a quantum physicist at Tel Aviv University.

Shock and Awe: Eels Leap to Deliver Electrifying Attacks

In a "shocking" turn of events, a researcher has discovered that electric eels can intensify their electrical attacks by leaping from the water to make physical contact with animals that threaten them, according to a new study. The finding provides support for a famous but previously contested observation of a dramatic interaction between electric eels and horses dating back to 1800. When 19th-century naturalist Alexander von Humboldt set out to collect electric eels in South America, local fishermen introduced him to the concept of "fishing with horses" — herding 30 hapless horses into the eels' pool to sap their electrical charges so the eels could be gathered safely.

Long-Term Marijuana Use Linked to Changes in Brain's Reward System

People who use marijuana for many years respond differently to natural rewards than people who don't use the drug, according to a new study. Researchers found that people who had used marijuana for 12 years, on average, showed greater activity in the brain's reward system when they looked at pictures of objects used for smoking marijuana than when they looked at pictures of a natural reward — their favorite fruits. "This study shows that marijuana disrupts the natural reward circuitry of the brain, making marijuana highly salient to those who use it heavily," study author Dr. Francesca Filbey, an associate professor of behavioral and brain science at the University of Texas at Dallas, said in a statement.

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Saturday, June 11, 2016

FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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CO2 Gets Stoned: Method Turns Harmful Gas Into Solid

Essentially, they relied on a sped-up version of natural processes to take the carbon dioxide (CO2) spewed from a power plant in Iceland and transform the gas into a solid. This ability to capture carbon dioxide and store it indefinitely may help curb the levels of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere and stem global warming, the researchers noted. "We need to deal with rising carbon emissions," lead study author Juerg Matter, now an associate professor of geoengineering at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, said in a statement.

Leading British scientists warn leaving EU will hurt funding

A group of Britain's most eminent scientists have endorsed the campaign for the UK to remain in the European Union, saying that leaving could damage research. In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, published on Saturday, 13 Nobel Laureates including John Gurdon, Peter Higgs and Paul Nurse said the EU allows scientists to move freely and collaborate in ways that would be lost if Britain votes to quit the 28-member bloc. The scientists also say that European funding would be cut if Britain voted to pull out of the 28-member EU.

Solar plane lands in New York City during bid to circle the globe

(Reuters) - A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. "Such a pleasure to land in #NYC! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe.

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Friday, June 10, 2016

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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.

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