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Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for December 31, 2019:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
Astronomy & Space news
 | Giant magnetic ropes seen in Whale Galaxy's haloUsing the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array radio telescope, a team of astronomers has captured for the first time an image of large-scale, coherent, magnetic fields in the halo of a faraway spiral galaxy, confirming theoretical modeling of how galaxies generate magnetic fields and potentially increasing knowledge of how galaxies form and evolve. |
 | Blazar variabilityActive galactic nuclei (AGN) are supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies that are accreting material. These AGN emit jets of charged particles that move at speeds close to that of light, transporting huge amounts of energy away from the central black hole region and radiating across the electromagnetic spectrum. Blazars are extreme examples of AGN in which the collimated jets are coincidentally aligned towards us. Blazar jets have two peak emission wavelengths, one that spans the range from the radio to the X-ray, the result of charged particle acceleration, and one at extremely short wavelength, high energy gamma ray bands usually (and somewhat controversially) attributed to the charged particles scattering infrared "seed" photons from a variety of other sources. All these bands manifest strong and unpredictable variability. Simultaneous, long-term observations across multiple bands therefore, by modeling the relative timing of flares and other variable emission, offer a valuable way to investigate the numerous possible physical mechanisms at work. |
 | Image: Hubble views a galaxy with an active centerThis swirling mass of celestial gas, dust and stars is a moderately luminous spiral galaxy named ESO 021-G004, located just under 130 million light-years away. |
Technology news
 | Samsung C-Lab's gee-whiz results to draw looks in VegasSkunkworks is the tag given to big companies that let creative thinkers have their freedom to work on projects, away from the others who put their heads down to satisfy product launch dates. |
 | Microsoft seizes web domains used by North Korean hackersMicrosoft said Monday it obtained a court order allowing it to seize web domains used by North Korean hacking groups to launch cyberattacks on human rights activists, researchers and others. |
Feds: No evidence hackers disrupted North Carolina votingA federal investigation didn't turn up any evidence that cyber attacks were responsible for computer errors that disrupted voting in a North Carolina county in 2016, according to a report issued Monday. | |
 | Trump signs law to reduce robocalls, though they won't endAn anti-robocalls measure signed into law Monday by President Donald Trump should help reduce the torrent of unwanted calls promising lower interest rates or pretending to be the IRS, though it won't make all such calls disappear. |
 | Physicists create highly efficient rocket fuelScientists at the Faculty of Physics and Engineering, working with the Tomsk company Scientific and Production Center Chemical Technologies, have created and tested an improved model of a hybrid rocket engine. The team synthesized new fuel components that increased its calorie content, and therefore its efficiency. |
 | Engineers create drones based on digital twinsThe TSU Supercomputer Center staff has developed a method for the automated design of drones based on mathematical modeling using the computing power of the SKIF Cyberia supercomputer. The new approach includes the creation of a digital twin and its prototyping—the production of a functioning UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) model. This method can be used to construct aircraft models and to optimize the performance of existing aircraft. |
 | India to let Huawei take part in 5G trialsNew Delhi has said it will let Chinese telecoms giant Huawei take part in trials for the rollout of 5G services in the huge Indian market, giving the firm a major boost as it battles US sanctions. |
Scientists improve signal and image processing algorithmsTSU mathematicians have completed a project on mathematical methods for analyzing signals and images in complex telecommunication and navigation systems that are affected by random noise. The methods they created make evaluating information 10 times more accurate and help to restore the image or signal with high quality. The next step will be the application of the algorithm to "big data" analysis. | |
 | If you think the millennium bug was a hoax, here comes a history lessonIt's not hard to find echoes of the late 1990s in the zeitgeist. Now as then, impeachment is on many peoples' minds, and films such as The Matrix and The Sixth Sense continue to influence culture. Another feature of the same era that perhaps has a more important, if subtler, influence is the infamous Y2K bug. |
 | Ring, Amazon sued by man who says hacker bothered his kidsA man is suing doorbell maker Ring and its parent company, Amazon, after he says a hacker communicated with his children over the internet-connected camera he had bought as "additional security" for his family. |
 | Beware of the smart device: Ways to stay private and safeDid someone invite a spy into your home over the holidays? Maybe so, if a friend or family member gave you a voice-controlled speaker or some other smart device. |
 | Uber, Postmates sue to challenge California's new labor lawRide-share company Uber and on-demand meal delivery service Postmates sued Monday to block a broad new California law aimed at giving wage and benefit protections to people who work as independent contractors. |
 | Huawei says sales rose 18% in 2019 despite US pressureChinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies said Tuesday that its sales rose about 18% in 2019 despite U.S. moves to restrict its business. |
 | Facebook fined $1.65 mn by BrazilBrazil on Monday fined Facebook $1.65 million for improperly sharing users' data in a case linked to the global Cambridge Analytica scandal. |
 | Ghosn: A tycoon full of surprisesFormer auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn, once-revered boss of three huge car companies, has masterminded an exit from Japan as stunning as his arrest that shocked the world more than a year ago. |
 | Bot or not? Mystery over anonymous user retweeted by TrumpThe Twitter user goes by Gigi, though sometimes Sophia, Emma or Leona. The occupation is listed at various times as teacher, historian, documentary writer and model. There's been speculation about whether this person is really a woman—or even human. But bot or not, the account has gotten the attention of the president and his Twitter followers. |
Medicine & Health news
 | Buzzing through the blood-brain barrierUConn engineers have designed a non-toxic, biodegradable device that can help medication move from blood vessels into brain tissues —a route traditionally blocked by the body's defense mechanisms. They describe their invention in the 23 December issue of PNAS. |
 | Betrayed by bile: bile acids help norovirus sneak into cellsA new study led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that human noroviruses, the leading viral cause of foodborne illness and acute diarrhea around the world, infect cells of the small intestine by piggybacking on a normal cellular process called endocytosis that cells use to acquire materials from their environment. |
 | Direct-to-consumer fertility tests confuse and mislead consumers, study showsDirect-to-consumer hormone-based "fertility testing" for women is viewed by consumers as both an alternative, empowering tool for family planning, and a confusing and misleading one, according to the results of a new study from Penn Medicine. Findings from the small, first-of-its-kind ethnographic study reinforce the need for consumer education around the purpose and accuracy of the tests, which have seen increasing interest in recent years due to the low cost and widespread availability. The study was published in the journal of Social Science and Medicine. |
 | Possible dementia vaccine closer after mice studiesA preventive treatment for dementia may proceed to clinical trials after successful animal testing. |
 | Want OxyContin in China? Pain pill addicts get drugs onlineChina has some of the strictest regulation of opioids in the world, but OxyContin and other pain pills are sold illegally online by vendors that take advantage of China's major e-commerce and social media sites, including platforms run by tech giants Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu, the Associated Press found. |
 | Exposure to pyrethroid insecticides linked to mortality(HealthDay)—Environmental exposure to pyrethroid insecticides is associated with an increased risk for all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality, according to a study published online Dec. 30 in JAMA Internal Medicine. |
 | Bystander CPR less common in hispanic neighborhoods(American Heart Association News)—Receiving CPR from a bystander can double the chance of surviving a cardiac arrest. But you're less likely to get this help—and less likely to survive—if your heart stops in a Hispanic neighborhood, a new study shows. |
 | Big advances made against diabetes in 2019(HealthDay)—A new artificial pancreas system, drugs that help control blood sugar and protect the heart and the kidneys, a new medication that delays type 1 diabetes, and a new way to track blood sugar throughout the day—2019 was a pretty big year in diabetes care. |
 | Vitamin D increases protection against infection, new model suggestsOregon State University researchers have led the development of a new model for studying vitamin D's role in infection prevention, and tests using the model suggest that vitamin D treatment can dramatically reduce the number of disease-causing bacteria in skin wounds. |
 | What causes hangovers, blackouts and 'hangxiety'? Everything you need to know about alcohol these holidaysWith the holiday season well underway and New Year's Eve approaching, you might find yourself drinking more alcohol than usual. |
California law banning sale of cosmetics tested on animals goes into effect January 1stA groundbreaking law, the California Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act, which passed in 2018, will ban all sales of cosmetics that have been tested on animals after January 1, 2020. The new law, authored by Senator Cathleen Galgiani (Stockton) and co-sponsored by Social Compassion in Legislation and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, was applauded by conscientious consumers around the world. The law makes important gains for animal protection and scientific standards while keeping existing products on California's shelves. | |
 | Objective subtle cognitive difficulties predict amyloid accumulation and neurodegenerationWriting in the December 30, 2019 online issue of Neurology, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System report that accumulating amyloid—an abnormal protein linked to neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (AD)—occurred faster among persons deemed to have "objectively-defined subtle cognitive difficulties" (Obj-SCD) than among persons considered to be "cognitively normal." |
 | Pakistan starts heath cards for trans people to improve carePakistan began issuing special health ID cards for transgender people on Tuesday as way to lessen health care discrimination. |
 | Healthy Men: Why do girls live longer than boys?Dear Healthy Men: Recently, you wrote about why women live longer than women. When does the gender gap start? In other words, do girls live longer than boys? |
Sickle cell disease is complex on its own, but black men with the illness battle its stigmas and stereotypes tooDoctors didn't expect Marqus Valentine to live past age 5. The prognosis was so certain that the Valentine family was granted a free trip to Universal Studios to the set of "The Ghostbusters" from a foundation as a dying wish. | |
 | How the brain balances pleasure and painAs our brains take in information about the world and use it to steer our actions, two key principles guide our choices: seek pleasure and avoid pain. Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have zeroed in on an information-processing hub in the brains of mice to discover how neurons there divide the labor to handle these opposing behavioral motivations. |
 | Making blood on demand: How far have we come?The reconstitution of the blood system in humans holds great therapeutic potential to treat many disorders, like blood cancers, sickle-cell anemia and others. Successful reconstitution requires the transplantation and engraftment of hematopoietic (or blood) stem cells (HSCs), which after reaching their niche, start producing all types of blood cells, including platelets, white and red blood cells. |
 | Researchers test novel injection of gene therapy vectors into the kidneyBefore gene therapy can be used to treat renal diseases, delivery of therapeutic genes to the kidney must become much more efficient. A novel approach in which three different gene delivery vectors were injected intravenously and directly into the kidneys of mice was reported in an article published in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. |
 | Trial suggests babies in intensive care can be better protected from parental bacteriaFor sick or prematurely born babies spending their first days of life in a hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the soothing voice and gentle touch of a loving parent can have a tremendous impact toward a positive outcome—that is, unless mom or dad's visit leaves the infant with something extra: a dangerous bacterial infection. |
China probes pneumonia outbreak for SARS links: state mediaChina is investigating an outbreak of atypical pneumonia that is suspected of being linked to SARS, the flu-like virus that killed hundreds of people a decade ago, state media reported Tuesday. | |
 | 3 years in, no sign of Trump's replacement for ObamacareAs a candidate for the White House, Donald Trump repeatedly promised that he would "immediately" replace President Barack Obama's health care law with a plan of his own that would provide "insurance for everybody." |
US: Med student tried to smuggle cancer research to ChinaA medical student from China who U.S. authorities say tried to smuggle cancer research material taken from a Boston hospital out of the country has been held without bail by a judge who ruled he was a flight risk. | |
Fetal remains at abortion doc's properties can't be ID'dShoddy record-keeping and the degraded condition of more than 2,400 sets of fetal remains that were found in the Illinois garage and a car of a late Indiana abortion doctor mean those remains cannot be identified, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday by Indiana's attorney general. | |
Biology news
 | Let it breed: why desexing dogs isn't always the best thing to doIn pet-loving nations such as Australia, nobody likes the idea of dogs churning out litters in squalid conditions or sitting homeless in a shelter. |
 | eDNA expands species surveys to capture a more complete pictureTiny bits of DNA collected from waters off the West Coast allowed scientists to identify more species of marine vertebrates than traditional surveys with trawl nets. They also reflect environmental shifts such as unusual ocean temperatures that affect the organisms present, new research shows. |
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