Science X Newsletter Friday, Oct 17

Dear Reader ,

Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for October 17, 2014:

Spotlight Stories Headlines

- Whisper raises volume on objections to Guardian report
- Kickstarter project – KEECKER – rolling robot entertainment center
- Young adults found displaying symptoms of net addiction
- Data shows fewer tornado days in U.S. but more per event over past couple decades
- New populations of endangered fresh water fish found
- Surface properties command attention
- A newborn supernova every night
- Chemists tackle battery overcharge problem
- How pairs of proteins collaborate to splice RNAs into cell-specific products
- High-speed evolution in the lab – Geneticists evaluate cost-effective genome analysis
- How the brain leads us to believe we have sharp vision
- Sperm wars: Evolutionary biologist compiles international special issue on sperm competition
- Study finds that action video games bolster sensorimotor skills
- 'Red effect' sparks interest in female monkeys
- Australian volcanic mystery explained

Astronomy & Space news

	Cassini caught in Hyperion's particle beam Static electricity is known to play an important role on Earth's airless, dusty moon, but evidence of static charge building up on other objects in the solar system has been elusive until now. A new analysis of data from NASA's Cassini mission has revealed that, during a 2005 flyby of Saturn's moon Hyperion, the spacecraft was briefly bathed in a beam of electrons coming from the moon's electrostatically charged surface.
	NASA's Hubble telescope finds potential Kuiper belt targets for New Horizons Pluto mission Peering out to the dim, outer reaches of our solar system, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered three Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) the agency's New Horizons spacecraft could potentially visit after it flies by Pluto in July 2015.
	Who owns the moon? Whether you're into mining, energy or tourism, there are lots of reasons to explore space. Some "pioneers" even believe humanity's survival depends on colonising celestial bodies such as the moon and Mars, both becoming central hubs for our further journey into the cosmos. Lunar land peddlers have started doing deals already – a one-acre plot can be yours for just £16.75.
	A newborn supernova every night Thanks to a $9 million grant from the National Science Foundation and matching funds from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) collaboration, a new camera is being built at Caltech's Palomar Observatory that will be able to survey the entire Northern Hemisphere sky in a single night, searching for supernovas, black holes, near-Earth asteroids, and other objects. The digital camera will be mounted on the Samuel Oschin Telescope, a wide-field Schmidt telescope that began its first all-sky survey in 1949. That survey, done on glass plates, took nearly a decade to complete.
	Top-secret space plane lands on California coast (AP)—A top-secret space plane landed Friday at an Air Force base on the Southern California coast.
	Argentina launches its first home-built satellite (AP)—Argentina launched its first domestically built communications satellite Thursday.
	Opportunity rover gets panorama image at 'Wdowiak Ridge' The latest fieldwork site for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, which has been examining a series of Martian craters since 2004, is on the slope of a prominent hill jutting out of the rim of a large crater and bearing its own much smaller crater. It's called "Wdowiak Ridge."
	Fifth launch for Ariane 5 this year (w/ Video) An Ariane 5 has lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana and delivered two telecom satellites, Intelsat-30/DLA-1 and Arsat-1, into their planned orbits.
	See one of the year's best meteor showers, thanks to Halley's comet As Earth orbits the sun, it continually ploughs through dust and debris left behind by passing comets and asteroids. On any night of the year, a keen-eyed observer might see five, or even ten, meteors (shooting stars) per hour.
	NASA investigating deep-space hibernation technology Manned missions to deep space present numerous challenges. In addition to the sheer amount of food, water and air necessary to keep a crew alive for months (or years) at a time, there's also the question of keeping them busy for the entirety of a long-duration flight. Exercise is certainly an option, but the necessary equipment will take up space and be a drain on power.

Technology news

	Kickstarter project – KEECKER – rolling robot entertainment center A new project on Kickstarter has gotten a lot of attention, it's the KEECKER, billed as The World's First HomePod, a rolling egg-looking robot that moves from room to room in a person's house, bringing personal entertainment functionality with it. The idea is that instead of having music players, television sets, etc. in multiple rooms, have just one that can be summoned to wherever you want.
	Whisper raises volume on objections to Guardian report The Guardian said on Thursday that Whisper, a social media app that aims to serve as an anonymous social network, is tracking the location of some of its users.
	Is sending shoppers ads by Bluetooth just a bit creepy? Using Bluetooth wireless networking to send information to nearby smartphones, beacon technology could transform how retailers engage with their customers. But customers will notice how their information is used to personalise these unsolicited adverts, and companies that fail to respect their privacy may get burned.
	Twitter tweets start to sing Twitter began letting people instantly listen to music and other audio by clicking on tweets from the popular messaging service.
Arguments made in ex-dictator's suit against game (AP)—A judge has heard arguments from lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani calling for the dismissal of a lawsuit filed against video game giant Activision by former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.
Engineers build, test earthquake-resistant house (w/ Video) Stanford engineers have built and tested an earthquake-resistant house that stayed staunchly upright even as it shook at three times the intensity of the destructive 1989 Loma Prieta temblor 25 years ago.
	If learners live online, teachers and textbooks must follow them Ten years after the launch of Facebook and eight years after the launch of Twitter, social media has become more pervasive and our use of it more sophisticated. It's no longer a place where we report what we're doing, it's where millions of us live out a part of our lives.
	Drive system saves space and weight in electric cars Siemens has developed a solution for integrating an electric car's motor and inverter in a single housing. Until now, the motor and the inverter, which converts the battery's direct current into alternating current for the motor, were two separate components. The new integrated drive unit saves space, reduces weight, and cuts costs. The solution's key feature is the use of a common cooling system for both components. This ensures that the inverter's power electronics don't get too hot despite their proximity to the electric motor, and so prevents any reduction in output or service life.
	Tailored 'activity coaching' by smartphone Today's smartphone user can obtain a lot of data about his or her health, thanks to built-in or separate sensors. Researcher Harm op den Akker of the University of Twente (CTIT Institute) now takes this health monitoring to a higher level. Using the system he developed, the smartphone also acts as an 'activity coach': it advices the user to walk or take a rest. In what way the user wants to be addressed, is typically something the system learns by itself. Op den Akker conducted his research at Roessingh Research and Development in Enschede. October 17, he defends his PhD-thesis.
	Lawmakers probing NSA face German secrecy hurdles (AP)—German lawmakers probing the NSA following Edward Snowden's revelations have hit a hurdle: their own government.
Twitpic to shutter service after all Twitpic on Friday put out word that the service is shutting down after all, apologizing for a "false alarm" that a merger would be its salvation.
Obama unveils new measures to stem identity theft US President Barack Obama on Friday ordered "pin and chip" security measures for government payment systems, aiming to stem the proliferation of credit card fraud and identity theft.
iPhone glass maker to cut 727 jobs in Arizona (AP)—A manufacturer of sapphire glass that Apple Inc. uses in iPhones plans to eliminate 727 jobs at an Arizona plant.
Microsoft CEO launches diversity training effort (AP)—Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has again apologized to employees and announced in a company-wide memo that all workers will receive expanded training on how to foster an inclusive culture as he works to repair damage caused by his gaffe about women seeking pay raises.

Medicine & Health news

	Young adults found displaying symptoms of net addiction In 2012, Allen Frances, MD, professor emeritus and former chair of the department of psychiatry at Duke University, cautioned that "Internet Addiction" could be the next new fad diagnosis, complete with "an exuberant trumpeting by newly minted 'thought leading' researchers and clinicians." So far, he said, the research on Internet "addiction" is "remarkably thin and not very informative." He cautioned that pictures showing the same parts of the brain lighting up during Internet use and drug use should not get viewers too excited, as they "light up non-specifically for any highly valued activity and are not indicative of pathology."
	How pairs of proteins collaborate to splice RNAs into cell-specific products A team of scientists led by RIKEN researcher Yutaka Muto, in collaboration with Hidehito Kuroyanagi of Tokyo Medical and Dental University and Masatoshi Hagiwara of Kyoto University, has revealed some of the mechanisms that regulate the mysterious RNA splicing process that produces specific protein variants.
	How the brain leads us to believe we have sharp vision Its central finding is that our nervous system uses past visual experiences to predict how blurred objects would look in sharp detail.
Study finds that action video games bolster sensorimotor skills A study led by University of Toronto psychology researchers has found that people who play action video games such as Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed seem to learn a new sensorimotor skill more quickly than non-gamers do.
Physicists sound warning to 'nail beauty fanatics' The daily trimming of fingernails and toenails to make them more aesthetically pleasing could be detrimental and potentially lead to serious nail conditions.
New research could help improve bladder function among people with spinal cord injuries People who have suffered spinal cord injuries are often susceptible to bladder infections, and those infections can cause kidney damage and even death.
	Scientific breakthrough will help design the antibiotics of the future Researchers at the University of Bristol focused on the role of enzymes in the bacteria, which split the structure of the antibiotic and stop it working, making the bacteria resistant.
	Babies' hearts could beat path to new heart attack treatments The seemingly-miraculous power of babies' hearts to repair themselves after being injured has spurred a University of Queensland research team to investigate if this ability can be harnessed for new heart attack treatments.
Criminologists seek method to predict future killers Predicting which people will commit murder is extremely difficult, according to a new study by criminologists at The University of Texas at Dallas.
School and job failure may increase drug users' risks of suffering a fatal overdose For the first time, researchers have found that problem drug users with less successful educational and employment careers are more likely to die of an overdose. Moreover, there is no link between parents' professional status and the likelihood that their problem drug-using child will die from an overdose.
Presence of enzyme may worsen effects of spinal cord injury and impair long-term recovery Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition with few treatment options. Studies show that damage to the barrier separating blood from the spinal cord can contribute to the neurologic deficits that arise secondary to the initial trauma. Through a series of sophisticated experiments, researchers reporting in The American Journal of Pathology suggest that matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) plays a pivotal role in disruption of the brain/spinal cord barrier (BSCB), cell death, and functional deficits after SCI. This link also presents new therapeutic possibilities.
	Improving the view through tissues and organs This summer, several undergraduate students at Caltech had the opportunity to help optimize a promising technique that can make tissues and organs—even entire organisms—transparent for study. As part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, these students worked in the lab of Assistant Professor of Biology Viviana Gradinaru, where researchers are developing such so-called clearing techniques that make it possible to peer straight through normally opaque tissues rather than seeing them only as thinly sectioned slices that have been pieced back together.
	Scientists prove link between viral infection and autoimmune disease Common viral infections can pave the way to autoimmune disease, Australian scientists have revealed in breakthrough research published internationally today.
	Experimental white blood cell treatment shows 'remarkable' promise in leukaemia An experimental treatment that trains a patient's immune system to attack their cancer caused remission in 90 per cent of leukaemia patients on a small-scale trial, though experts warn questions remain.
	Children with chronic health conditions less likely to graduate from high school Approximately 32 million U.S. children have at least one chronic health condition, which can negatively affect their chances of receiving a high school diploma or its equivalent by age 21, finds a new study in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Novel trick helps rare pathogen infect healthy people New research into a rare pathogen has shown how a unique evolutionary trait allows it to infect even the healthiest of hosts through a smart solution to the body's immune response against it.
Emergency aid for overdoses Every minute counts in the event of an overdose. ETH professor Jean-Christophe Leroux and his team have developed an agent to filter out toxins from the body more quickly and efficiently. It can also be used for dialysis in patients suffering from hepatic failure.
New pill-only regimens cure patients with hardest-to-treat hepatitis C infection Two new pill-only regimens that rapidly cure most patients with genotype 1 hepatitis C (HCV) infection could soon be widely prescribed across Europe. Two recently-published studies1,2 confirmed the efficacy and safety of combination therapy with two oral direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs), with around 90% of patients cured after just 12-weeks of treatment.
Bono reveals glaucoma forces him to wear sunglasses U2 frontman Bono revealed Friday that the real reason he wears sunglasses is because he suffers from glaucoma.
	Family acceptance key to curbing teen suicides, study shows (HealthDay)—Family rejection could be potentially deadly for teens already at risk for suicide, a new study has found.
	Surgery may not fix long-term palsy of spine disease (HealthDay)—Duration of palsy should be considered when selecting candidates for surgical management of painless foot drop in patients with degenerative lumbar disorders, according to research published in the October issue of the Journal of Spinal Disorders & Techniques.
	CDC: most kindergartners are getting their vaccinations (HealthDay)—Most American children entering kindergarten are getting their required vaccinations, according to research published in the Oct. 17 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Biological clock disruptions increase breast cancer risk, study finds The disruption of a person's circadian rhythm—their 24-hour biological clock—has been linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, according to new University of Georgia research. The culprit, in this study in particular, is artificial light.
YouTube as peer support for severe mental illness People with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or bipolar disorder use a popular social media website like YouTube to provide and receive naturally occurring peer support, Dartmouth researchers report in the journal PLOS ONE.
Ebola vaccine not before late 2016: GSK researcher An Ebola vaccine by British pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline may not be ready for commercial use until late 2016 and should therefore not be seen as the "primary answer" to the current outbreak, a company researcher said.
	Big data analysis shows health care professionals at risk treating Ebola The Ebola crisis is disturbing and alarming in many ways. Among them: The fact that the U.S. response to date hasn't fully utilized the statistical and big data tools that could play a vital role in both protecting health workers from exposure and stemming broader spread of the virus in the United States and elsewhere.
Women face higher stroke rates than men Supermodel and Actress Claudia Mason is helping the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association raise awareness for the world's second-leading cause of death on World Stroke Day, Oct. 29.
Chimerix gets FDA OK to test drug for Ebola (AP)—A North Carolina drugmaker plans to test its experimental antiviral drug in patients who have Ebola, after getting authorization from regulators at the Food and Drug Administration.
Ebola checks stepped up as UN appeal ignored Western countries scrambled to put airport security measures in place Friday amid mounting fear of the spread of Ebola worldwide.
	The messaging on Ebola The World Health Organization said on Thursday the number of deaths in Africa due to the Ebola outbreak could reach 4,500 by the end of the week, adding that while the outbreak could take months to contain, an outbreak in the West is unlikely. In the U.S., one Liberian man has died and two nurses who treated him at a Texas hospital have been diagnosed with the virus. Here, Susan Mello, an assistant professor of communication studies in the College of Arts, Media and Design who studies the intersection of health communication and risk perception, discusses media coverage of the Ebola outbreak, public perception, and whether relentless coverage could spawn an "infodemic."
Senegal declared Ebola-free: WHO Senegal is officially free of Ebola with the benchmark of 42 days passing without any new cases, the World Health Organization said Friday.
	CMS announces two new initiatives to improve care (HealthDay)—Two initiatives have been announced to help improve the quality of post-acute care in nursing homes and ensure safe delivery of quality care to home health patients, according to a report published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Study finds inconsistent achievement of guidelines for acute asthma care in hospital EDs A study comparing the care delivered to patients coming to hospital emergency departments (EDs) for acute asthma attacks in recent years with data gathered more than 15 years earlier finds inconsistencies in how well hospitals are meeting nationally established treatment guidelines. A team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators found that, while the achievement of most guidelines defining appropriate pharmacologic treatments for particular patients improved over the study period, hospitals did less well in meeting several other guidelines. The study that will appear in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology has been published online.
Image guided radiation therapy is commonly used to ensure accuracy in treating pediatric tumors Image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) is a commonly used modality to ensure treatment accuracy in the management of pediatric tumors; however, consensus recommendations are needed in order to guide clinical decisions on the use of IGRT in treating pediatric patients, according to a study published in the September-October 2014 issue of Practical Radiation Oncology (PRO), the official clinical practice journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
Ebola special issue includes clinician primer Accurate knowledge regarding Ebola is critical and pertinent for practicing physicians and clinicians given the current risk of hazardous global outbreak and epidemic. The Journal, Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness has launched a special issue, Ebola Virus and Public Health, to surround the public, medical professionals and media with necessary knowledge in this critical societal moment.

Biology news

	All in a flap: Seychelles fears foreign bird invader It was just a feather: but in the tropical paradise of the Seychelles, the discovery of parakeet plumage has put environmentalists in a flutter, with a foreign invading bird threatening the national parrot.
	Genetic engineering may undercut human diseases, but also could help restore extinct species, researcher says Mammoth DNA in recovered cells frozen for thousands of years is likely too fragmented to clone an animal, according to Harvard geneticist George Church. So he's working instead to engineer one genetically from a close relative, the Asian elephant.
	New populations of endangered fresh water fish found Murdoch University researchers have discovered new populations of an endangered fresh water fish, the Little Pygmy Perch, near Denmark in Western Australia's south.
	To save the birds, look to the fish Birds that dive for fish while wintering in the Salish Sea, located between British Columbia and Washington, are more likely to be in decline than nondiving birds with less specialized diets, according to a study led by the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis.
	A new approach to biodiversity resurrects old questions A new look at one of ecology's unsolved puzzles—why biodiversity is higher in the tropics compared with colder regions—brought some unexpected revelations.
	High-speed evolution in the lab – Geneticists evaluate cost-effective genome analysis Life implies change. And this holds true for genes as well. Organisms require a flexible genome in order to adapt to changes in the local environment. Christian Schlötterer and his team from the Institute for Population Genetics at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna study the genomes of entire populations. The scientists want to know why individuals differ from each other and how these differences are encoded in the DNA. In two review papers published in the journals Nature Reviews Genetics and Heredity, they discuss why DNA sequencing of entire groups can be an efficient and cost-effective way to answer these questions.
	Sperm wars: Evolutionary biologist compiles international special issue on sperm competition Why do male animals need millions of sperms every day in order to reproduce? And why are there two sexes anyway? These and related questions are the topic of the latest issue of the research journal Molecular Human Reproduction published today (Oct. 16th, 2014). The evolutionary biologist Steven Ramm from Bielefeld University Bielefeld has compiled this special issue on sperm competition. In nature, it is not unusual for a female to copulate with several males in quick succession – chimpanzees are one good example. 'The sperm of the different males then compete within the female to fertilize the eggs,' says Ramm. 'Generally speaking, the best sperm wins. This may involve its speed or also be due to the amount of sperm transferred. It can also be useful for the seminal fluid to be viscous, meaning it sticks inside the female reproductive tract to try to keep other sperm at bay.'
	'Red effect' sparks interest in female monkeys Recent studies showed that the color red tends increase our attraction toward others, feelings of jealousy, and even reaction times. Now, new research shows that female monkeys also respond to the color red, suggesting that biology, rather than our culture, may play the fundamental role in our "red" reactions.
	Roads negatively affect frogs and toads, study finds The development of roads has a significant negative and pervasive effect on frog and toad populations, according to a new study conducted by a team of researchers that included undergraduate students and faculty from Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Biology.
	New data about marsh harrier distribution in Europe The use of ringing recoveries —a conventional method used to study bird migration— in combination with more modern techniques such as species distribution modelling and stable isotope analysis helps to understand bird distribution patterns and origin considering place and time of the year. This is the main conclusion of the papers published in the Journal of Ornithology and Diversity and Distributions by a research group led by Dr Santi Mañosa and Dr Laura Cardador.
	Emergency appeal to combat militant elephant poaching in DRC As poaching in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) escalates, Fauna & Flora International seeks urgent public support to help ranger teams.

---

This email is a free service of Phys.org
You received this email because you subscribed to our list.
If you no longer want to receive this email use the link below to unsubscribe.
https://sciencex.com/profile/nwletter/
You are subscribed as jmabs1@gmail.com