Science X Newsletter Sunday, Dec 14

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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for December 14, 2014:

Spotlight Stories Headlines

- Cancer patients testing drugs on mouse 'avatars'
- Facebook doesn't love the idea of a 'dislike' button
- Oculus boosts virtual reality development with acquisitions
- Fun cryptography app pleases students and teachers
- Low-fat diet may help some women beat breast cancer, study suggests
- Is an understanding of dark matter around the corner? Experimentalists unsure
- Enviro-tracker is wearable for citizen monitoring
- New Bond script stolen in Sony hack

Astronomy & Space news

Defense satellite launches from California coast A U.S. defense satellite launched from California's central coast after weather delays caused by a major storm that drenched the state.

Technology news

	Facebook doesn't love the idea of a 'dislike' button Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg wants people to be able to quickly express broader ranges of feelings at the leading online social network, but a "dislike" button doesn't make the cut.
	Oculus boosts virtual reality development with acquisitions Facebook-owned Oculus VR moved closer to launching its virtual reality gear on Friday with fresh acquisitions of startups and talent.
	Fun cryptography app pleases students and teachers Up on Google Play this week is Cryptoy...something that you might want to check out if you or someone you know wishes entry into the world of cryptography via an educational and fun app. You learn more about ciphers and keys; you learn techniques, including their history, of Shift, Substitution, Vigenère and Enigma. You learn to create encrypted messages to share with friends.
	Enviro-tracker is wearable for citizen monitoring Mobile hardware and software allow us to count our steps, and to count our calories, but a Vancouver, Canada, startup group asked, what about tracking our environment? TZOA was founded in 2013. Laura Moe, the company's co-founder, said, "We felt there was a missing puzzle piece, that is, and that is, the story of what is happening on the outside of our body—things like sunshine and air quality, intangibles but things that impact our health and well being." What they had in mind was a wearable that could create citizen scientists, out to monitor air quality and UV exposure. The result: A Kickstarter campaign which is going on now for their TZOA enviro-tracker; the device was designed to measure air pollution and UV exposure in the immediate environment. For a smartphone app, TZOA uses Bluetooth Smart to send and share data to the smartphone so that the iOS and Android apps visualize the environment, as to how air pollution and U! V impact the user.
	New Bond script stolen in Sony hack An "early version" of the screenplay for the new James Bond film was the latest victim of a massive hacking attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, its producers said in a statement on their website Sunday.
	Brussels to file complaint against taxi firm Uber Web-based taxi company Uber risks being banned in the Belgian capital Brussels in just the latest legal challenge to its services.
Company plans to build sideways-moving elevators ThyssenKrupp wants to turn elevators sideways, move people around faster and fix products before they break.
In Curiosity Hacked, children learn to make, not buy With her right hand, my 8-year-old daughter, Kalian, presses the red-hot soldering iron against the circuit board. With her left hand, she guides a thin, tin wire until it's pressing against both the circuit board and the tip of the iron.
Drone helps conservation group with the threatened sandhill crane Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! Actually, it's tens of thousands of birds and a single drone, an unmanned flying machine with a wingspan the size of an extra-large pizza. And on a recent afternoon, while the birds land, flit and flutter in the plowed cornfields and watering holes of the California Delta, it's not Superman we see but a drone hovering 125 feet overhead, whirring like a weed-whacker, its attached camera recording the avian lovefest down on the ground.
Tech review: Excellent choices to fill out your gadget gift list Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone. I hope you're at least partially finished with your shopping. (I'm certainly not.)
Ag-tech could change how the world eats Investors and entrepreneurs behind some of the world's newest industries have started to put their money and tech talents into farming - the world's oldest industry - with an audacious agenda: to make sure there is enough food for the 10 billion people expected to inhabit the planet by 2100, do it without destroying the world and make a pretty penny along the way.
	Your info has been hacked. Now what do you do? Criminals stole personal information from tens of millions of Americans in data breaches this past year. Of those affected, one in three may become victims of identity theft, according to research firm Javelin. Whether shopping, banking or going to the hospital, Americans are mostly at the mercy of companies to keep their sensitive details safe. But there are steps you can take to protect yourself against the financial, legal and emotional impact of identity theft—and most of them are free:
	Identity theft victims face months of hassle As soon as Mark Kim found out his personal information was compromised in a data breach at Target last year, the 36-year-old tech worker signed up for the retailer's free credit monitoring offer so he would be notified if someone used his identity to commit fraud.
People finding their 'waze' to once-hidden streets When the people whose houses hug the narrow warren of streets paralleling the busiest urban freeway in America began to see bumper-to-bumper traffic crawling by their homes a year or so ago, they were baffled.

Medicine & Health news

	Cancer patients testing drugs on mouse 'avatars' Scientists often test drugs in mice. Now some cancer patients are doing the same—with the hope of curing their own disease.
	Low-fat diet may help some women beat breast cancer, study suggests Almost anyone would benefit by reducing the amount of fat in their diet. But the upside could be especially big for women with breast cancer.
	Fat cells reprogrammed to increase fat burning White adipose tissue stores excess calories as fat that can be released for use in other organs during fasting. Mammals also have small amounts of brown adipose tissue, which primarily acts as an effective fat burner for the production of heat. Now researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have uncovered the mechanism by which white fat cells from humans gets reprogrammed to become browner.
India court blocks Bayer generic drug appeal An Indian court has rejected German drug giant Bayer's bid to block a generic version of its blockbuster cancer treatment Nexavar by a local drugmaker, a move hailed by activists on Saturday.
EU food labels to help allergy sufferers New EU labelling rules taking effect Saturday require restaurants and other businesses to tell customers if their food could trigger allergies or raise other health concerns.
	Ebola in 2015 - end of the line for a killer? After decades making brief, murderous forays from central Africa's forests, Ebola erupted into a global emergency in 2014, yet its success could spell its downfall as scientists scramble to relegate it to a footnote of medical history.
	After infant dies, health officials urge caution in children's use of probiotic supplement Federal health officials are cautioning consumers about a probiotic dietary supplement for children that has caused the death of a premature Connecticut baby and may be dangerous to others.
	Mortality not up with pregnancy-associated malignant melanoma (HealthDay)—Cause-specific mortality does not differ significantly for women and girls with malignant melanoma (MM) diagnosed during pregnancy and up to two years postpartum (pregnancy-associated MM [PAMM]) and with non-PAMM, according to a study published in the December issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
	Multidose eye drop approach approved by joint commission (HealthDay)—A policy and procedural approach to the use of multidose eye drops has been approved by The Joint Commission and can reduce costs for patients and facilities, according to an article published in the December issue of JAMA Ophthalmology.
	Thyroidectomy, statins may cut risk of graves ophthalmopathy (HealthDay)—Both thyroidectomy and statin use are associated with lower risk of developing thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) in individuals with Graves disease (GD), according to research published online Dec. 11 in JAMA Ophthalmology.
	CDC: PCPs to inform families of sickle cell trait in newborns (HealthDay)—Primary care providers should offer educational materials and provide genetic counseling to families when they receive positive results for sickle cell trait (SCT) at the time of newborn screening, according to a report published in the Dec. 12 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
	SABCS: Genetic test may help predict DCIS recurrence (HealthDay)—For women who have ductal carcinoma in situ surgically removed, a genetic test may help predict the odds of a recurrence, according to research presented at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held from Dec. 9 to 13 in San Antonio.
	Tips offered for docs to manage their online reputation (HealthDay)—Physicians can manage their online reputation, according to a report from the American Medical Association (AMA).
	FDA: Cyramza approval now includes non-small-cell lung CA (HealthDay)—U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the anti-cancer drug Cyramza (ramucirumab) has been expanded to include aggressive non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the agency said Friday.
	FDA: Ziprasidone can cause rare, serious adverse drug reaction (HealthDay)—The antipsychotic medicine ziprasidone (Geodon) and generic versions of the drug can cause a rare, serious skin reaction that can progress to affect other parts of the body, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.
	Microbial flora ID'd in patients undergoing rhinoplasty (HealthDay)—For patients undergoing rhinoplasty, preoperative nasal culture can identify microbial flora that indicate risk of postoperative infection, according to research published online Dec. 11 in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.
	Post-bariatric surgery weight loss may ease knee pain (HealthDay)—Current evidence, though limited, suggests that bariatric surgery with subsequent marked weight loss may reduce knee complaints in morbidly obese adults, according to research published online Dec. 8 in Obesity Reviews.
	Cervical discectomy without fusion cost-effective strategy (HealthDay)—Anterior cervical discectomy without fusion (ACD) may be the most effective and cost-effective alternative for the treatment of one-level cervical disc disease, according to research published in the Dec. 1 issue of Spine.
Deplaning in Va. delayed while Ebola scare checked Passengers disembarking from a commercial flight in Richmond, Virginia, on Friday were delayed by about an hour while authorities ruled out Ebola as a cause of a fellow passenger's symptoms.

Biology news

Panthers attack record number of farm animals in Florida A record number of Florida panther attacks on farm animals and pets took place this year, in what the state wildlife commission says is a consequence of the endangered cat's increased population.
World's rarest cetacean threatened by illegal gillnets The world's rarest cetacean could disappear in less than four years unless immediate action is taken by the Mexican government to protect it from entanglement in gillnets deployed illegally in its Gulf of California refuge, federal officials said Tuesday.
South African rangers kill three poachers Some South African rangers grimly call it the "Christmas shopping" season for rhino poachers.
	Kenya's 'Maasai Olympics' fights dwindling lion numbers Leaping high into the air and hurling spears instead of javelins, traditional lion hunters in Kenya tested their skills Saturday in a special "Maasai Olympics" organised to save the endangered animals.

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