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	(Sponsor this newsletter) SpaceX rocket lifts off on cargo run, then lands at launch site By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - An unmanned SpaceX rocket blasted off from Florida early on Monday to send a cargo ship to the International Space Station, then turned around and landed itself back at the launch site. The 23-story-tall Falcon 9 rocket, built and flown by Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 12:45 a.m. EDT (0445 GMT). Also aboard the capsule was a metal docking ring of diameter 7.8 feet (2.4 m), that will be attached to the station, letting commercial spaceships under development by SpaceX and Boeing Co. ferry astronauts to the station, a $100-billion laboratory that flies about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. Read More » Man Gets Zika from Sex with Female Partner, in First A woman in New York City who was infected with Zika passed the virus to her male partner during sex, marking the first report of female-to-male sexual transmission of this virus. Previously, all reports of sexual transmission of the Zika virus have been cases of men passing it to their sexual partners, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The new report "adds to the growing body of knowledge about the sexual transmission of Zika," the CDC said. Read More » Prince Harry Checks HIV: Who Else Should Get Tested? Member of the British royal family Prince Harry took an HIV test this week, with the goal of destigmatizing testing for the virus. "If you're a man, woman, gay, straight, black, white, whatever — even ginger — why wouldn't you come and have a test?" Prince Harry said. About one in eight people with HIV in the U.S. don't know they're infected with the virus, according to the CDC. Read More » Shoe-Wearing Robot's No Flatfoot — It Walks Like a Person A bipedal robot can now put its best foot forward, stepping with a heel-toe motion that copies human locomotion more closely than flat-footed robot walkers can. By rocking its "feet" forward from the heel and pushing off at the toe, the DURUS robot closely imitates the walking motion of people, making it more energy-efficient and better at navigating uneven terrain, according to Christian Hubicki, a postdoctoral fellow in robotics at the Georgia Institute of Technology and one of the researchers who helped DURUS find its footing. Enhanced walking capabilities could help robots navigate environments that people move around in, and could improve the performance of bots created for disaster response, Hubicki told Live Science. Read More » 2,000-Year-Old Dog Graveyard Discovered in Siberia The carefully buried remains of five dogs were recently found in a 2,000-year-old doggy graveyard near the Arctic Circle in Siberia, according to archaeologists. This discovery at the Ust-Polui archaeological site, in Salekhard, Russia, reveals close relationships between the region's people and their animal "best friends" two millennia B.C. The dogs likely served as pets, workers and sources of food — and possibly as sacrificial offerings in religious ceremonies, the researchers said. "The role of dogs at Ust-Polui is really complex and variable," Robert Losey, an archaeologist at the University of Alberta in Canada, wrote in an email to Live Science from Salekhard, where he is carrying out fieldwork at Ust-Polui. Read More » 'Dragon Silk' Armor Could Protect US Troops Genetically modified silkworms that spin special fibers, known as "Dragon Silk," could soon be used to protect soldiers in the U.S. Army, its manufacturer, Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, announced this week. The U.S. Army recently awarded the Michigan-based company a contract to test its silk products, Kraig Biocraft Laboratories announced on Tuesday (July 12). "Dragon Silk scores very highly in tensile strength and elasticity," which makes is one of the toughest fibers known to man, Jon Rice, the chief operations officer at Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, said in a statement. Read More » U.N. tombstone listing celebrated as rare joint success in Balkans A World Heritage listing for 70,000 medieval tombstones spread across four countries that emerged from Yugoslavia's bloody break up in the 1990s was praised on Monday as a rare example of successful cooperation between the former foes. Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, whose neighbourly relations often suffer over disputes dating back to the war, spent six years persuading the United Nations to protect the graveyards as part of their shared heritage. Bosnia's Civil Affairs Minister Adil Osmanovic announced on Monday that a committee of the U.N. Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) had recognised the unique and universal cultural value of the tombstones, known as stecci. Read More » Ancient Bug Jumped Out of Its Skin to Escape Gooey Trap An ancient event preserved in a piece of amber reads from left to right like an enigmatic story told in three mysterious emojis: a strand of hair followed by an insect exoskeleton next to a single mushroom. Read More » 'Primitive Machine' Within Great Pyramid of Giza Reconstructed The ancient Egyptians created a simple yet elaborate system of blocks and grooves within the Great Pyramid of Giza to protect the King's Chamber from tomb robbers. In an upcoming episode of the Science Channel's "Unearthed," that system comes to life via computer animations. In the episode, Egyptologist Mark Lehner describes the system for viewers, calling it a "very primitive machine." Lehner leads Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), a team that has been excavating at Giza for about 30 years. Read More » Ancient Roman Soldier with Ornate Belt Discovered in UK Grave The 1,600-year-old remains of a middle-age man buried alongside an ornate belt decorated with images of dolphins and dogs have been found in a grave in Leicester, England, archaeologists report. The belt's style suggests that its owner worked as a solider or civil servant during the Late Roman period, during the second half of the fourth century A.D or the early fifth century A.D., the archaeologists, from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS), said on July 7. The team made the discovery during an excavation in which they dug up 83 skeletons from a Late Roman cemetery in Leicester's West End. Read More » Kickstarter Project Aims to 'Back Up Humanity' in Cosmic Cloud "We sometimes use the phrase, 'We want to back up humanity,' which is not a joke — we want to do this," project co-founder Philip Lubin, a physics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told Space.com. Indeed, Lubin, co-founder Travis Brashears (a physics undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley) and their colleagues are looking to the masses for funding, via a Kickstarter campaign that launched today (July 18). This money will be used to launch a "humanity chip" full of images and other data provided by Kickstarter contributors to low-Earth orbit, likely in mid-2017, project team members said. Read More »
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FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

	Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News
	(Sponsor this newsletter) SpaceX to try again to send docking ring for space taxis to station By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX will make a second attempt on Monday to deliver one of two docking rings to the International Space Station, a crucial step in enabling U.S. commercial space taxis to ferry astronauts to the orbiting lab, NASA said on Sunday. Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, tried last year to deliver a ring for the first time, but the equipment was destroyed during a launch accident. "I know how critical this is for NASA," Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president for mission assurance, said during a press conference on Saturday. Read More »
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FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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	(Sponsor this newsletter) Boeing aims for supersonics and Mars at outset of second century By Alwyn Scott SEATTLE (Reuters) - The Boeing Co marked its centennial on Friday with plans to sharpen its focus on innovation, including ambitious projects for supersonic commercial flight and a rocket that could carry humans to other planets. The enterprise established by William Boeing in a Seattle boathouse has faced numerous "bet the company" moments over its 10 decades to bring out new planes such as the 707 and 747. "We have won for 100 years because of innovation," Muilenburg said. Read More » Victoria Beckham Smooches Daughter: Did She Cross a Line? A photo of Victoria Beckham kissing her 5-year-old daughter, Harper, on the lips has sparked a wave of outrage online. Some commenters called the photo "disgusting" and "wrong," but others defended Beckham's show of affection. Although some people may find the gesture odd, a mother kissing her daughter is not inappropriate, said Dr. Alan Manevitz, a clinical psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Read More » Time on His Side? Jagger a Dad Again at Age 72 Mick Jagger, the septuagenarian lead singer of the Rolling Stones, is expecting his eighth child — his first with 29-year-old partner, Melanie Hamrick. Epidemiologists have noted that there is an increased risk of certain conditions, particularly schizophrenia and autism, in children who have older fathers, according to Brian Lee, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics with the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University in Pennsylvania. "Both older mothers and older fathers are more likely to have children with autism" than younger parents are, Lee told Live Science. Read More » Weird Science on SpaceX Dragon Is Tiny, Melty, Beating and Radioactive SpaceX's ninth commercial cargo mission, launching early Monday (July 18), is lugging a selection of strange science to the International Space Station — living, beating heart cells, microbes from a nuclear disaster, a tiny DNA sequencer and more. The six crewmembers on the station have been preparing for the supply ship's arrival early on Wednesday, July 20, when NASA astronaut (and current space station commander) Jeff Williams will grapple the craft with the space station's 57.7-foot (17.6-meter) robotic arm. Then, once the craft is berthed to the space station, the real work will begin: Over the next five weeks, the station crew will unload its provisions, including more than 2,2000 lbs. (1,000 kilograms) of research supplies and science experiments. Read More »
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FeedaMail: Science News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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	(Sponsor this newsletter) Lucky bug eluded eternal entombment in 50 million-year-old amber An Oregon State University scientist on Thursday described a remarkable piece of amber -fossilized tree sap - containing a mushroom, a strand of mammalian hair and the recently shed exoskeleton of an insect that got away from the oozing sticky stuff in the nick of time, escaping eternal entombment. The tiny bug looks similar to insects alive today known as walking sticks, whose stick-like appearance provides camouflage that helps keep them safe from hungry birds and other predators. "The mushroom was growing at the base of a tree," Oregon State entomologist and amber expert George Poinar said. Read More » First Ever? Discovery of Philistine Cemetery Draws Criticism A 3,000-year-old graveyard with the bones of about 200 individuals discovered in Ashkelon, Israel, is being hailed as the first (and only) Philistine cemetery ever found. If valid, the finding would reveal more about a mysterious people known as the Philistines. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Philistines came from the Aegean Sea region, along with other groups of people, during the 12th century B.C, at a time when cities and civilizations in Greece and the Middle East were collapsing. Read More » 'Extinct' Volcano Near Rome Rumbles to Life A volcano outside Rome, long thought extinct, is rumbling to life. Colli Albani is a volcanic complex of hills located 19 miles (30 kilometers) from the center of Rome. There are no historical records of eruptions from Colli Albani, so it was long thought to be extinct, according to the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Read More » 'Snowfox' GPS Phone Helps Parents Keep Tabs on Young Kids A new, screenless phone for young kids could help parents stay in touch with their children, without the adults having to worry that their kids are glued to smartphones. The new device, called Snowfox, also comes equipped with a GPS tracker, letting parents know where their kids are, while helping children learn independence by letting them roam to places where they are allowed. Snowfox's battery and low-power electronics let it operate for a week on a single charge, according to the company. Read More » These Ducks Aren't Lame — They Can Think Abstractly Ducklings can wrap their tiny brains around ideas like "same" and "different" even when they're scarcely more than 24 hours old, a new study finds. In a new study, newly hatched ducklings were shown paired objects that either matched each other in shape or color, or differed from each other. The researchers found that the ducklings were able to recognize and respond to other objects that were similarly grouped, a mere 30 minutes later. Read More » Fish Venom Unveiled: Toxins Evolved Many Times, Study Shows More than 2,000 species of fish are venomous, and a new analysis of these animals shows that the most common way they deliver their venom is through spines on their backs. The research, which analyzed the evolution of venom and its delivery mechanisms among freshwater and saltwater fish, also found that venom glands arose 18 separate times among fish. "For the first time ever, we looked at the evolution of venom across all fishes," lead author William Leo Smith, assistant curator at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute, said in a statement. Read More » Zika Outbreak Could Be Over in 3 Years, Study Predicts The current Zika outbreak taking place in much of South and Central America will be largely over in three years' time, a new study predicts. "The current explosive epidemic will burn itself out due to a phenomenon called herd immunity," Neil Ferguson, a professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London's School of Public Health, said in a statement. "Because the virus is unable to infect the same person twice — thanks to the immune system generating antibodies to kill it — the epidemic reaches a stage where there are too few people left to infect for transmission to be sustained," Ferguson said. Read More » Paper in a Top Medical Journal Has Unexpected Author: Barack Obama In an unusual move for a sitting president, Barack Obama has published a scholarly paper in a scientific journal. The paper, which discusses the success and future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was published Monday (July 11) in the prestigious medical journal JAMA. It may be the first time a sitting president has authored a complete academic article — with an abstract, findings and conclusions  — that's been published in a scientific journal, at least in recent history. Read More »
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