Science X Newsletter Friday, Mar 2

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Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for March 2, 2018:

Spotlight Stories Headlines

New insight into nanopatterning diamond

Ancient rootless plants linked to increase in production of mud rock

Egyptian mummies found to have oldest figurative tattoos

A stellar system with three super-Earths

Focus on a reinforcement learning algorithm that can learn from failure

Noninvasive skull optical clearing window for cortical imaging

Assessing quantum dot photoemissions

A neuron can cause a domino effect

CRISPR-Cas9 can cut RNA, too

Discovery shows wine grapes gasping for breath

Graphene material strengthens nerve signaling in the brain

Unprecedentedly wide and sharp dark matter map

Controlling skyrmions with lasers

Plasma bubbles help trigger massive magnetic events in outer space

Fossilised plant leaf wax provides new tool for understanding ancient climates

Astronomy & Space news

	A stellar system with three super-Earths Over 3500 extra-solar planets have been confirmed to date. Most of them were discovered using the transit method, and astronomers can combine the transit light curves with velocity wobble observations to determine the planet's mass and radius, and thereby constrain its interior structure. The atmosphere can also be studied in a transit by using the fact that the chemical composition of the atmosphere means its opacity varies with wavelength. By measuring the depth of the transit at different wavelengths, it is possible to infer the composition and temperature of the planet's atmosphere.
	Unprecedentedly wide and sharp dark matter map A research team of multiple institutes, including the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and University of Tokyo, released an unprecedentedly wide and sharp dark matter map based on the newly obtained imaging data by Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope. The dark matter distribution is estimated by the weak gravitational lensing technique (Figure 1, Movie). The team located the positions and lensing signals of the dark matter halos and found indications that the number of halos could be inconsistent with what the simplest cosmological model suggests. This could be a new clue to understanding why the expansion of the Universe is accelerating.
	How we discovered the strange physics of jets from supermassive black holes Supermassive black holes, which lurk at the heart of most galaxies, are often described as "beasts" or "monsters". But despite this, they are pretty much invisible. To show that they are there at all, astronomers typically have to measure the speed of the clouds of gas orbiting those regions.
	Desert-dwelling bacteria offer clues to habitability on mars The survival tricks adopted by microbes known as hypolithic cyanobacteria, which are found underneath quartz rocks in Earth's deserts, could point to how microbial life on Mars may live, say researchers.
	NASA launches advanced weather satellite for western US NASA launched another of the world's most advanced weather satellites on Thursday, this time to safeguard the western U.S.

Technology news

	Focus on a reinforcement learning algorithm that can learn from failure Recent news from the OpenAI people is all about a bonus trio. They are releasing new Gym environments—a set of simulated robotics environments based on real robot platforms—including a Shadow hand and a Fetch research robot, said IEEE Spectrum.
	Twitter CEO asks for help on 'civility'; YouTube stumbles Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is asking for help improving the openness and civility of conversation on Twitter, saying the company failed to prevent misinformation, echo chambers and abuse of its global messaging service.
Crowdlending: Anatomy of a successful strategy Crowdlending is participation in peer-to-peer financing that allows individuals to directly finance projects or companies by means of interest-bearing loans. Crowdfunding appeared at the start of the 2010s, and developed quickly via internet platforms. In 2017, it represented more than 190 million Euros of loans to companies in France. However, developing a crowdlending platform has not always been easy; this is why researchers have asked which strategies an entrepreneur could implement to develop an innovative business model for the existing parties, banks, and for their future competitors: other platforms in the sector.
	When the Internet goes down "A third of the Internet is under attack. Millions of network addresses were subjected to distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks over two-year period," reports Warren Froelich on the UC San Diego News Center website. A DDoS is a type of denial-of-service (DoS) attack in which the attacker carries out an attack using many sources distributed throughout the network.
	Bank of England chief slams cryptocurrencies; urges action Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has launched a withering attack on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin Friday and urged regulators around the world to monitor them in the same way as other financial assets.
	Reducing a building's carbon output can also lower costs Researchers from Concordia University's Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering have found a way to significantly reduce carbon emissions produced by residential and non-residential buildings, while also cutting costs.
	Re-think on energy charging could reduce bills for 70% of households Researchers have found that 70 percent of U.K. households would be better off if costs of government energy policy were removed from gas and electricity bills and applied according to household income.
	Vero: Hot Instagram alternative - but will it stick around? Instagram users fed up the service becoming more and more like Facebook are flocking to a hot new app called Vero.
	Bitcoin heist: 600 powerful computers stolen in Iceland Some 600 computers used to "mine" bitcoin and other virtual currencies have been stolen from data centers in Iceland in what police say is the biggest series of thefts ever in the North Atlantic island nation.
Proposal advances to store nuclear waste in New Mexico A new proposal to store nuclear waste underground in southern New Mexico—this time from nuclear reactors across the country—has cleared an initial regulatory hurdle and can now be vetted for detailed safety, security and environmental concerns, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Thursday.

Medicine & Health news

	A neuron can cause a domino effect Loss of the sense of smell can indicate a neural disease like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. However, contrary to previous belief, degenerations in the nervous system do not play a leading role in the loss of the sense of smell with increasing age. Rather, individual nerve cells or classes of nerves are responsible.
	Blocking a protein could improve the effectiveness of intravascular cellular 'policing' Researchers at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC), led by Dr. Alicia G. Arroyo, have identified a function of a protease that could be targeted for the treatment of some infections and even tumor metastasis. The study, published today in Nature Communications shows that blockade of the protease MT4-MMP increases the surveillance activity of a type of white blood cell in the circulation, the blood-patrolling monocytes. These cells act like 'police patrols' to detect foreign or undesired material in the blood. The findings, according to Dr. Alicia G Arroyo, "have possible clinical implications and could contribute to strategies to eliminate foreign or undesired materials from the blood, such as infectious agents or tumor cells." The study thus suggests new strategies to combat infection or prevent metastasis, which are currently being evaluated for patent protection.
	Nervous system puts the brakes on inflammation Cells in the nervous system can "put the brakes" on the immune response to infections in the gut and lungs to prevent excessive inflammation, according to research by Weill Cornell Medicine scientists. This insight may one day lead to new ways to treat diseases caused by unchecked inflammation, such as asthma and inflammatory bowel disease.
	New method identifies splicing biomarkers for liver cancer Because liver cancer is particularly diverse, genetically, and prone to relapse, identifying biomarkers that can predict disease progression is a critical goal in the fight against it.
Focusing on cholera hotspots could cut Africa's cholera burden in half Better targeting at the district and neighborhood level could make anti-cholera efforts much more effective and dramatically reduce the burden of this disease, according to two new studies led by scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Paradigm shift in the diagnosis of diabetes A completely new classification of diabetes which also predicts the risk of serious complications and provides treatment suggestions. We are now seeing the first results of ANDIS - a study covering all newly diagnosed diabetics in southern Sweden—published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
Moms-to-be can exercise in warm weather and use saunas without getting too hot Pregnant women can safely exercise in warm weather and take short hot baths or saunas without risking critical elevations in body temperature that could harm their unborn child, finds a review of the available evidence published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Calcium supplements may boost risk of abnormal bowel growths Calcium supplements, taken with or without vitamin D, may increase the risk of small growths in the large bowel (colon) called polyps, suggest results from a large US trial published online in the journal Gut.
Two-year study of gun policy research finds gaps, proposes fixes One of the largest-ever studies of U.S. gun policy finds there is a shortage of evidence about the effects of most gun laws, although researchers from the RAND Corporation found there is some persuasive evidence about the effects of several common gun policies.
	TGen-led study finds potent anti-cancer drug effect in rare ovarian cancer An anti-cancer drug used to fight leukemia shows promise against a rare and aggressive type of ovarian cancer—small cell carcinoma of the ovary hypercalcemic type (SCCOHT)—which strikes young women and girls, according to a study led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).
	Sedative may prevent delirium in the ICU A low dose of the sedative dexmedetomidine given at night may prevent delirium in critically ill patients, according to new research published online in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
	Researchers develop model to determine quantity of bisphenol A that reaches the fetus through the mother Various studies have shown that when pregnant women come into contact with bisphenol, it can go pass through the placenta and reach the fetus. Exposure to bisphenol can have negative effects on fertility, the development of the brain, and behavioural changes in adulthood. So far, however, no method has been available for quantifying the amount of the compound that can reach the fetus through the mother. Now, researchers from the Centre for Environmental, Food and Toxicological Technology (Tecnatox) have created a mathematical model that can calculate the amount of bisphenol and tested it with a sample of 100 pregnant women to determine the consequences it can have on the future health of their children.
	Researchers study a nanoscaffold for heart cells Biophysicists from MIPT have studied the structure of a nanofibrous scaffold, as well as its interaction with rat cardiac cells. The study, which is part of the research into heart tissue regeneration, revealed that cardiomyocytes, the heart muscle cells, envelop nanofibers as they grow, while fibroblasts, which are connective tissue cells, tend to spread out on fibers forming several focal adhesion sites.
	Nerve damage in type 2 diabetes can be detected in the eye By examining the cornea for nerve damage with a special microscope, it may be possible to diagnose type 2 diabetes. This according to a study among diabetics in Skelleftea, north Sweden.
How reliable is diagnostic testing for Zika? Globally, Brazil has been the hardest hit by the current Zika outbreak, and the country reports almost all cases of Zika-associated malformations in newborns. DZIF scientists from the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin have shown that molecular diagnostic tests for the Zika virus in Brazil are not always reliable. Almost two-thirds of all laboratories showed false-positive or false-negative results.
Yellow fever virus is detected in urine and semen almost a month after infection The presence of yellow fever virus in urine and semen samples from an infected patient who survived was detected almost a month after infection, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo's Biomedical Science Institute (ICB-USP) in Brazil in collaboration with colleagues at Butantan Institute, Emílio Ribas Infectology Institute, and Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP). The discovery is described in an article published in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
	Omega fish oils don't improve children's reading skills or memory, study finds New research has found no evidence Omega-3 fish oil supplements help aid or improve the reading ability or memory function of underperforming school-children.
	Workaround erases side effects of promising cell-based cancer therapy Stanford scientists created an odd couple: a modified version of an immune-signaling protein and a coordinately modified receptor for this protein. The two bind only to each other, easing an advanced anti-cancer therapy's side effects.
	Childhood heart disease—parents need more support from genetic services Parents of babies born with heart disease should be offered specialised cardiac genetic counselling to reduce risk, prevent disease and improve treatment, according to world-first research led by UNSW, UTS and the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network.
	Researchers pinpoint where smallpox outbreak would hit hardest The ease of creating a smallpox-like virus, and the growing number of vulnerable people with weakened immune systems, present challenges for emergency response planners, researchers have warned.
Older adults less likely to receive flu tests, according to study An influenza diagnosis for people 65 and older is serious. Up to 85 percent of influenza-related deaths occur in older adults, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention reports.
	Study reveals safety signal from genes that mimic drugs Prospective mothers taking a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs might incur higher risk of spina bifida in their future children, according to a study published in the journal Drug Safety by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Study sheds light on how childhood RSV can lead to asthma Infants who have higher amounts of the bacterium Lactobacillus present in their nose or upper part of the throat during an acute respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection are less likely to develop childhood wheezing later in life, a new Vanderbilt-led Center for Asthma Research study found.
Extra sunlight in late summer, early fall could help stave off flu, study finds People getting more rays of sunlight—and therefore vitamin D—in August and September could help reduce the severity of flu season, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper co-authored by a University of Kansas economist.
	Female sex hormones and mechanics of memory Dr. Karyn Frick was puzzled. Her two-year study, begun with funding from Women's Health Research at Yale in 2005, found that long-term treatment with the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone did not improve memory as anticipated.
	HIV begins to yield secrets of how it hides in cells UC San Francisco scientists have uncovered new mechanisms by which HIV hides in infected cells, resting in a latent state that evades the body's immune system and prevents antiviral drugs from flushing it out.
	Idle, uncleaned milk trucks don't compromise the quality of raw milk, study shows Raw milk quality isn't compromised when tanker trucks sit empty and uncleaned for hours between loads, according to new research at Oregon State University.
	Yes the 'cheerleader effect' is real – and you can make it work in your favour When it comes to presenting yourself online – such as your profile pic for Facebook or even Tinder – which type of photo do you chose? The selfie you've taken after careful consideration of lighting, hair and maybe makeup? (No doubt, you look great!) Or the group photo with friends, possibly less styled, but that captures a moment among peers?
Tapeworms could prevent, treat inflammatory bowel disease in children New research suggests that parasitic worms could someday help prevent or treat pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The study, published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology—Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, was chosen as an APS select article for March.
	Human ancestors had the same dental problems as us – even without fizzy drinks and sweets Dental erosion is one of the most common tooth problems in the world today. Fizzy drinks, fruit juice, wine, and other acidic food and drink are usually to blame, although perhaps surprisingly the way we clean our teeth also plays a role. This all makes it sound like a rather modern issue. But research suggests actually humans have been suffering dental erosion for millions of years.
	Four ways alcohol is bad for your health In Australia, almost 6,000 deaths a year can be attributed to alcohol, as well as around 400 hospitalisations a day. While drinking has declined in some segments of the population, with related stabilising of rates of death and illness, these numbers are far too high. Similar reports are emerging in other countries.
	Earlier palliative care at home linked to fewer hospital admissions Offering palliative care earlier to dying patients at home is linked to fewer hospital admissions at the end of their lives, raising questions about the time restrictions placed on accessing community-based palliative care in some parts of the world, new research led by Curtin University has found.
	Survival protein clue to immune cell recovery following chemotherapy One well-known side effect of conventional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, is the severe damage that it causes to the immune system.
	Researchers move one step closer towards functioning kidney tissue from stem cells Researchers from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), University of Melbourne and Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) in The Netherlands have made an important step towards making human kidneys from stem cells that they one day hope can be used to treat kidney disease.
	New procedure brings chemo to melanoma The choice between saving one's limb or one's life may seem obvious. However, surgical oncologist Cristina O'Donoghue, MD, MPH, knows the decision is emotionally wrenching for patients with advanced melanoma or sarcoma in a limb that likely would be fatal if allowed to metastasize.
Silence around stillbirth a major issue for bereaved parents What's the biggest obstacle facing bereaved parents after losing a child at birth? Society's unwillingness to discuss it openly, says UniSA Ph.D. candidate Danielle Pollock, whose first child, Sofia, was stillborn four years ago. Danielle is calling on health providers to take the lead and provide more information about stillbirth during antenatal classes.
	School peer-to-peer awareness program for adolescent depression effective, study shows A high school peer-to-peer program to develop depression awareness campaigns can lead to improved knowledge and attitudes toward depression, greater likelihood to seek help if needed and reduced stigma, according to a new study published online today in Psychiatric Services in Advance.
	Why the daunting economics of elder care are about to get much worse My sister Carol loves movies, but she hasn't been out to see one in years. When she tries to watch one at home, she's frequently interrupted. She shrugs this off, saying "Who needs to see movies when you're living one?"
Rethinking childbirth education could save AU $97 million p.a. Research led by The University of Notre Dame Australia, NICM and Western Sydney University, shows antenatal education not only reduces the rates of medical interventions during childbirth, but can save the healthcare system up to AU$97 million per year.
Deeper look at biopsy exposes mutation ready to ambush drug combination A powerful resistance mutation that appeared to emerge in melanoma after a patient received a targeted therapy combination, instead was lurking in the tumor all along, primed to thwart treatment before it began, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report online at Cancer Discovery.
	Teeth hold the key to early diagnosis of eating disorders Dentists can play a key role in the detection of health conditions including anorexia nervosa, bulimia and Gastro-Oesophageal Reflux Disease (GORD), according to research from King's College London.
	What do we know about the impact of pollution on health? In a report on the impact of pollution on health, Chief Medical Officer of England, Dame Sally Davies, has called on the NHS—as one of the world's largest employers—to cut its pollutant footprint and blaze a trail for the rest of the country to follow.
	Helping your child navigate the high school years (HealthDay)—High school is a major milestone in a teen's life.
	Study in six countries identifies groups that are vulnerable to severe mental illness Young males, ethnic minorities and people living in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas are more likely to experience first-episode psychosis, defined as the first manifestation of one or more severe mental disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, and depression with psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions and cognitive disorganization.
Quinn on Nutrition: Sodium: How low can we go? As with much of this science of nutrition, experts don't always agree on what's best for us. Not that they don't have good information. Sometimes we have lots of valid data. But Mr. Jones' response to a dietary change may be entirely different from Mrs. Smith's. Case in point, several respected organizations have come up with different recommendations on how low we should go with our intake of sodium. Depending on which experts you listen to, we should be consuming somewhere between 1500 to 2300 milligrams of sodium a day, according to an article on this topic by registered dietitian Karen Collins. That's quite a bit less than the estimated 3500 milligrams we Americans currently consume.
Researchers find transferable antibiotic resistance gene in pathogen of developing nations A team of investigators has found that the mcr-1 drug resistance gene, which encodes resistance to a drug that is used as a last resort, has been found for the first time in Shigella flexneri. Shigella are one of the leading causes of diarrhea worldwide. The research is published March 2nd in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
	Early psychosis programs significantly reduce patient mortality, study finds In a new study, researchers at Lawson Health Research Institute (Lawson), Western University and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) have found that specialized programs for early psychosis can substantially reduce patient mortality.
	Team publishes report of implanting Pascal system in patient with tricuspid regurgitation Interventional cardiologist Dr. Neil Fam of St. Michael's Hospital has performed a world-first procedure, which he described in the Feb, 26 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions.
New lab addresses pediatric feeding disorders Bryant Silbaugh, assistant professor of special education in The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching, leads innovative behavioral research on pediatric feeding disorders in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
	Children with marginally low birth weight needs treatment Children with a birth weight under 2.5 kilos stand at risk of becoming underweight and can experience cognitive difficulties as well as diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life. However, early iron supplementation seems to provide some protection. This according to a new doctoral dissertation at Umea University in Sweden.
	Student-led depression awareness program boosts teens' understanding and help-seeking High school students can make a major impact on their schoolmates' understanding of depression, and their attitudes about seeking help for themselves or others, according to a new study from the University of Michigan Depression Center.
Scientists discover how extremophiles flourish in stressful environments Thousands of molecules of ribonucleic acid make salt-loving microbes known as "extremophiles" highly resistant to the phenomenon oxidative stress - the uncontrollable production of unstable forms of oxygen called "free radicals," which can negatively affect DNA, proteins, and lipids in cells.
	Virus-like particle could lead to new cancer vaccine Michigan State University scientists are engineering a virus-like particle, known as Qβ, that will generate anti-cancer immune responses in the body and potentially be used as a new vaccine for the treatment of cancer.
Study shows improving pediatric asthma care is possible Pediatric asthma is the most common chronic childhood condition and a leading cause of pediatric hospital admissions.
	Science Says: Why Europe still has so many measles outbreaks While parts of the world have all but banished measles, Europe is still getting hit with large outbreaks where some people don't get vaccinated.
	Worst of bad US flu season finally over as illnesses decline The worst of the nation's nasty flu season is finally over.
	Antibiotics may impact cancer treatment efficacy Antibiotic use is known to have a near-immediate impact on our gut microbiota and long-term use may leave us drug resistant and vulnerable to infection.
	New wearable tech from Western may hold big benefits for people with Parkinson's A new prototype for wearable tremor suppression gloves has a team of Western University researchers believing real change is on the way for the more than 6 million people in the world afflicted by Parkinson's disease.
	Gastric bypass surgery can give better control for diabetes and obesity than lifestyle modification Gastric bypass surgery can give better control for diabetes and obesity than lifestyle modificationIn a randomized clinical trial comparing two treatments, both groups of participants report significant weight loss, better diabetes management and improved quality of life
	US makes Cuba embassy cuts permanent after 'health attacks' Citing mysterious "health attacks" in Havana, the United States said Friday it is making permanent its withdrawal of 60 percent of its diplomats from Cuba, extending an action that has hurt the island nation's economy and cramped Cubans' ability to visit the U.S.

Biology news

	CRISPR-Cas9 can cut RNA, too The ability to edit genes at will, whether to reverse genetic diseases or improve food and energy crops, is undergoing a revolution. It is being driven by CRISPR-Cas9, a technology modeled on a cellular mechanism found in bacteria. CRISPR-Cas9 recognizes and cuts foreign genomic material from invading viruses and thus protects the bacteria from being infected.
	Discovery shows wine grapes gasping for breath University of Adelaide researchers have discovered how grapes "breathe," and report that shortage of oxygen leads to cell death in the grape.
	Spring is springing earlier in polar regions than across the rest of earth Spring is arriving earlier, but how much earlier? The answer depends where on Earth you find yourself, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis.
	Two species of ravens nevermore? New research finds evidence of 'speciation reversal' For over a century, speciation—where one species splits into two—has been a central focus of evolutionary research. But a new study almost 20 years in the making suggests "speciation reversal"—where two distinct lineages hybridize and eventually merge into one—can also be extremely important. The paper, appearing March 2 in Nature Communications, provides some of the strongest evidence yet of the phenomenon, in two lineages of Common Ravens.
	Evolving a more versatile CRISPR-Cas9 For all of Cas9's potential in research and therapeutics, it—as well as other enzymes in the CRISPR-associated family—has limitations. In order to recognize and bind to a DNA sequence, Cas9 needs a particular stretch of base letters to accompany the target. This requirement makes much of the genome inaccessible to the enzyme, significantly reducing its range of applications.
	Bovine embryos as a model for early human development The mechanisms that underlie early embryonic development in humans and cattle are very similar. Therefore, LMU researchers argue that bovine embryos might well be a better model for early human development than the mouse system.
	Capturing the balance of nature In a study spanning 12 years, researchers from Kyoto University and Ryukoku University have developed a method to calculate the fluctuating stability of a natural ecological community in Maizuru Bay.Their findings, published in Nature, provide insight into and new methodologies for ecological and population research.
Samoa creates huge shark sanctuary The island nation of Samoa has declared its waters a shark sanctuary, joining a string of other Pacific countries in protecting the marine predators.
Plants fix DNA differently from animals In mammalian cells, the transcription factor p53 most responsible for healthy growth of the organism. The equivalent in plants is Suppressor Of Gamma Response 1 (SOG1), a factor that does not share a common evolutionary ancestor with p53. While p53 has been exhaustively studied, much less is known about SOG1. A new study led by researchers at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST) reports in The Plant Journal concerning the target genes of SOG1 and the key DNA sequence responsible for its binding to promoters. In addition, it shows SOG1 has an immune function, unlike p53.
	3000 years of evolution with dingoes matters to bilbies Wild bilbies are more reluctant to leave their burrows when dog faeces has been placed nearby than when they are presented with the faeces of feral cats, which are major introduced predators of these small native Australian marsupials.
	Researchers find the ancestral function of the retinoic acid, an essential molecule in the evolution of vertebrates In molecular biology, retinoic acid plays a key role in signalling pathways in the embryonic development of vertebrates. However, not much is known about its origins in the metazoan evolution. An international team has described for the first time the ancestral function of retinoic acid in the lineage of animals with bilateral symmetry, according to an article published in the journal Science Advances.
Like us, animals look up at the stars Humans are not the only species longing for the light of the stars. Animals, too, use the stars as guides to find their way.
	Industrial fisheries in Southeast Asia divert millions of tonnes of fish to fishmeal Four countries in Southeast Asia have diverted almost 40 million tonnes of fish towards fishmeal production in the past six decades, as opposed to making it available for direct human consumption.
	Previously unknown 'supercolony' of Adélie penguins discovered in Antarctica For the past 40 years, the total number of Adélie Penguins, one of the most common on the Antarctic Peninsula, has been steadily declining—or so biologists have thought. A new study led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), however, is providing new insights on of this species of penguin. In a paper released on March 2nd in the journal Scientific Reports, the scientists announced the discovery of a previously unknown "supercolony" of more than 1,500,000 Adélie Penguins in the Danger Islands, a chain of remote, rocky islands off of the Antarctic Peninsula's northern tip.
	Here's how viruses inactivate the immune system, causing cancer It's no new news that viruses cause cancer. For example, human papillomavirus (HPV) causes almost all of the more than 500,000 annual worldwide cases of cervical cancer. This makes sense: By driving the proliferation of infected cells, viruses speed manufacture of more viruses, but excessive cellular proliferation is also a hallmark of cancer. Now a University of Colorado Cancer Center review published in the journal Viruses explores another strategy that viruses use to ensure their own survival, also with the unfortunate byproduct of promoting cancer, namely the viral ability to manipulate the human immune system. This new understanding may help to increase the effectiveness of immune-based therapies against cancer.
	Backyard chickens need more regulation Historically, keeping backyard chickens was a response to economic hardship—whether it was in the Depression or during wartime food rationing.
Groups, US reach settlement on predator-killing poisons U.S. officials have agreed to complete a study on how two predator-killing poisons could be affecting federally protected species as part of the settlement of a lawsuit filed by environmental and animal-welfare groups.

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