Science X Newsletter Friday, May 8

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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for May 8, 2015:

Spotlight Stories Headlines

- Quantum shortcut could speed up many quantum technologies
- New study of Iceman reveals oldest known example of red blood cells
- A new way to measure friction between highly ordered pyrolytic graphite materials
- Startup turns old shipping containers into farms
- Sustainability of the built environment
- Towards the ultimate model of water
- Sunflower protein 'scissors' provide sunny news for medicine
- Gene required for plant growth at warmer temperatures discovered
- More sex doesn't lead to increased happiness, researchers find
- Master orchestrator of the genome is discovered, stem cell scientists report
- Encouraging minerals to capture troubling radionuclides
- System designed to label visual scenes according to type learns to detect specific objects
- Post-traumatic stress disorder linked to accelerated aging
- Unmanned supply ship burns up on re-entry: Russian space agency
- Environmental exposure to hormones used in animal agriculture greater than expected

Astronomy & Space news

	Unmanned supply ship burns up on re-entry: Russian space agency An unmanned Russian supply ship disintegrated as it plummeted to Earth on Friday after suffering a communications failure on its way to the International Space Station, in a fiery end to a mission to deliver oxygen, water and supplies.
	An improved model for star formation Star formation, once thought to consist essentially of just the simple coalescence of material by gravity, actually occurs in a complex series of stages. As the gas and dust in giant molecular clouds come together into stars, circumstellar disks develop (possibly pre-planetary in nature), and later on dramatic outflowing jets appear. Key to initiating the process is the behavior of the gas. Although it has a finite temperature and hence a finite outward pressure, the pressure must be insufficient to support the gas against gravitational collapse. The subsequent cloud evolution also depends on the detailed density structure of the gas with a variety of different outcomes being possible, for example, fragmentation into smaller clouds. A key relationship is that between the temperature and density within the medium, and, as a result, the way the cloud radiates as the initial cooling dominance of molecular gas is overtaken by cooling ! from its dust grains.
	Some see telescope as an opportunity for science education Before going up to Mauna Kea's summit on Hawaii's Big Island, Heather Kaluna makes an offering to Poliahu, the snow goddess of the mountain. She holds it sacred, as do other Native Hawaiians.
	Proba-V maps world air traffic from space As ESA's Proba-V works quietly on its main task of monitoring vegetation growth across Earth, the minisatellite is also picking up something from a little higher: signals from thousands of aircraft.
	"Living outside the Earth is a huge challenge" Susana Zanello is an expert of human adaptation to life in space. Invited as an academic guest at EPFL, this renowned scientist agreed to share her views on her research, exploration, future trips to Mars and much more.
	Prospects for Q1 PanSTARRS & G2 MASTER comets Did you catch the performance of Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy earlier this year? Every year provides a few sure bets and surprises when it comes to binocular comets, and while we may still be long overdue for the next truly 'Great Comet,' 2015 has been no exception.

Technology news

	Startup turns old shipping containers into farms The food tech startup Freight Farms is giving new life to old shipping containers, and at the same time giving impetus to locally grown food.
	Zurich team shows high-speed tethered quadrocopters (w/ Video) A video has emerged which shows quadrocopters tied to a pole with rope, and they perform something called "cooperative acrobatics." IEEE Spectrum's Evan Ackerman said Thursday that watching the quadrocopters go around in circles as they do is not boring. Dizzying but not boring.
	System designed to label visual scenes according to type learns to detect specific objects Object recognition—determining what objects are where in a digital image—is a central research topic in computer vision.
	Sustainability of the built environment In times of limited resources and continued evidence of significant climate change, sustainability is increasingly regarded as a topic of global importance. Consider areas such as design, energy, and materials: These core concepts associated with sustainability are part of an integrative spectrum of widespread innovation.
	S. Korea grabs Google's first Asian 'campus' Google formally opened its first Asian start-up "campus" in Seoul on Friday—a marquee-name nod to South Korea's aspirations as a regional hub for a new generation of tech entrepreneurs.
	Startup Pigeonly helps digitally deprived behind bars Frederick Hutson was serving time in prison for moving a mountain of marijuana when he came up with a million-dollar idea for Internet startup Pigeonly.
Five things to know about the NSA court ruling A federal appeals court has declared illegal the National Security Agency program that collects data on the landline calling records of nearly every American. The ruling Thursday, the first of its kind by an appeals court, comes as Congress considers whether to continue, end or overhaul the program before June 1, when the legal provisions authorizing it expire.
	Chinese banks a haven for web counterfeits Kim Sbarcea knew exactly what she wanted. She typed "Tiffany Elsa Peretti mesh earrings" into Google and scrolled through impeccable photos of the delicate $450 diamond-shaped earrings until she chanced upon a pair for—deal of deals!—$32.
	In Tech: Mobile app, mobile phone, online TV The iconic designer behind the simulation video games "Sim City" and "The Sims" wants people to tell stories visually on their mobile phones.
	ACT to expand computer-based testing ACT test takers take note: The No. 2 pencil is losing its cachet. Greater numbers of high school students will be able to take the college entrance exam on a computer next year.
	Always-on inactive devices may devour $19 billion worth of electricity annually Approximately $19 billion worth of electricity, equal to the output of 50 large power plants, is devoured annually by U.S. household electronics, appliances, and other equipment when consumers are not actively using them, according to a groundbreaking study released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
	Big Data is useful, but we need to protect your privacy too These days, massive volumes of data about us are collected from censuses and surveys, computers and mobile devices, as well as scanning machines and sensors of many kinds. But this data can also reveal personal and sensitive information about us, raising some serious privacy concerns.
	A pioneering facial recognition cane for the blind A revolutionary 'smart' cane enabling the visually impaired to instantly identify friends and family could be available soon, thanks to students at Birmingham City University.
	Spotify triples losses, reportedly to launch video streaming Spotify, the world leader in music streaming, said Friday it had tripled its losses in 2014 owing to heavy investments, as media reported the group would soon begin streaming videos.
	Google adds food-ordering feature to mobile search Google on Friday added a feature that lets people in the US order food directly from mobile searches for local restaurants.
	Solar power storage units reduce costs of the Energiewende The increasing share of electricity based on solar and wind power results in an increasing load of distribution and transmission grids. At the 'Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) for Electrochemical Energy Storage', the KIT demonstrates how modern high-performance batteries and smart controls make renewable energy compatible with the grid. Expensive and controversial grid extension measures can be reduced in this way. The solar power storage system with a 76 kWh battery unit started operation at HIU today and supplies the building with electricity.

Medicine & Health news

	Post-traumatic stress disorder linked to accelerated aging In recent years, public health concerns about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have risen significantly, driven in part by affected military veterans returning from conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere. PTSD is associated with number of psychological maladies, among them chronic depression, anger, insomnia, eating disorders and substance abuse.
	Smarter, cheaper technologies offer improved point-of-care medicine Scientists have developed and combined new paper and flexible polymer substrates with special sensing devices for rapid and accurate detection of pathogens such as HIV, as well as other biotargets. These novel technologies offer the type of robust, simple, and inexpensive biosensing systems required to provide point-of-care health care in remote areas, where there is minimal diagnostic infrastructure or equipment and a lack of trained medical technicians.
	Changes in placenta's protective ability during pregnancy linked to transporter proteins An important function of the human placenta is to protect the fetus from detrimental substances in maternal blood, such as glucocorticoids or toxins. Placental membrane-bound transporter proteins, known as multidrug resistance proteins, protect the fetus by returning unwanted materials to the maternal circulation. A study in The American Journal of Pathology reports that bacterial and viral infections differentially influence these transporter proteins in early and late pregnancy, suggesting potential mechanisms underlying infection-related pregnancy complications such as preterm birth and fetal brain damage.
Food industry achieved only baby steps to improve nutritional quality of foods advertised to kids Children are exposed to a considerable amount of televised food advertising: more than six ads accounting for about 2:21 minutes per hour during typical programming. Concerns about the role of televised food advertising as a contributor to childhood obesity led to the food industry adopting of a program of self-regulation. A new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine evaluated the effectiveness of industry self-regulation and found that this program has achieved little improvement in the nutritional quality of foods advertised to children. The study found that four of every five foods advertised to children (80.5%) are classified in the poorest nutritional category, according to US Department of Health and Human Services guidelines.
Moving to a depressed neighborhood linked to weight gain Certain regions in the United States are characterized by a higher prevalence of obesity, which suggests that a person's socioeconomic, physical, and social environments can affect opportunities for healthy behaviors that might prevent excess weight gain. But what happens when people move from one neighborhood to another? A new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that people who moved to more socioeconomically deprived neighborhoods gained additional weight.
	Enhanced dating site photos have mixed results for men and women Dating apps like Tinder offer a quick look at a potential connection, with a simple swipe to either decline or accept the potential match. The stakes are high for putting the right picture in your profile. But does putting an enhanced picture of yourself increase the chance you'll make that match? Being cat-fished is a real risk and users have to take into consideration whether the picture of the person is "too hot to trust." A new study by researchers at the University of Connecticut found that enhanced photos of women viewed by men increased attractiveness but lowered trustworthiness. Women found enhanced photos of men both increased attractiveness and increased trustworthiness.
	Viagra to prevent transmission of the malaria parasite? By increasing the stiffness of erythrocytes infected by the causal agent of malaria, Viagra favors their elimination from the blood circulation and may therefore reduce transmission of the parasite from humans to mosquitoes. This astonishing discovery, made by scientists from the CNRS, INSERM, Université Paris Descartes – at the Institut Cochin – and the Institut Pasteur, working in collaboration with a team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, could lead to a treatment to reduce the spread of malaria within a population. Their work is published in PLOS Pathogens on 7 May 2015.
	French lab claims breakthrough with first in vitro spermatozoa French scientists say they have succeeded in creating the world's first lab-grown human sperm cells in what experts said Friday could be a leap forward in tackling male sterility.
Researchers organize to decipher possible role of gut bacteria in autism Autism: for a condition that continues to confound researchers and physicians alike, Dr. Richard E. Frye, Director of Arkansas Children's Hospital (ACH) autism research program, believes that research into the role of the microbiome could hold a key to new treatments and understanding of autism.
	Research shows children often have closer relationships with their pets than their siblings Matt Cassels had at least 10 pets when he was growing up and yet it had never occurred to him to think about how important his relationships with them were. Until he came to Cambridge and started working on a rich data set from the Toddlers Up Project led by Professor Claire Hughes at the Centre for Family Research.
	Embracing stress is more important than reducing stress, psychologist says If people actually embrace the concept of stress, it can make them stronger, smarter and happier, a Stanford expert says.
	Side effects of steroid use detailed in research A lot of hard work, practice and dedication can help you sculpt a well-muscled body, but anabolic steroids will get you there a lot faster. What will it cost you, though?
	Familiarity breeds empathy The more time we spend with people from another nationality the more empathy we have for them, University of Queensland research has found.
	Research points to omega-3 as a nutritional intervention for childhood behavioral problems At the forefront of a field known as "neurocriminology," Adrian Raine of the University of Pennsylvania has long studied the interplay between biology and environment when it comes to antisocial and criminal behavior. With strong physiological evidence that disruption to the emotion-regulating parts of the brain can manifest in violent outbursts, impulsive decision-making and other behavioral traits associated with crime, much of Raine's research involves looking at biological interventions that can potentially ward off these behavioral outcomes.
	'Parts list' for inner-ear hair cells advances understanding of deafness and hearing loss Tiny hair cells in the inner ear play an outsized role.
	Vitamin A receptor may help protect lungs from smoking, viral infections It's no surprise that smoking is bad for the lungs. But only 10%-20% of long-term smokers will develop serious conditions that affect breathing, such as emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To understand why, a Yale-led team studied the mechanisms that cause lung health to decline.
	Scientists find hyped new recreational drug 'Flakka' is as addictive as bath salts Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found using animal models that the new recreational drug alpha-PVP ("flakka") seems equivalently potent as a stimulant, and therefore as addictive, as its chemical cousin MDPV ("bath salts").
	Eat dark chocolate to beat the midday slump, study says Larry Stevens eats a piece of high-cacao content chocolate every afternoon, which is in part because he has developed a taste for the unsweetened dark chocolate. It's also because research shows that it lowers blood pressure and his new study reveals that it improves attention, which is especially important when hitting that midday slump.
Team develops novel gene therapy for achromatopsia Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan State University presented new preclinical data this week that evaluates the efficacy of a gene therapy treatment for achromatopsia, a rare inherited retinal disease that involves cone cells. The disease affects humans as well as dogs.
Scientists look at links between HAP and lung infections including pneumonia Scientists at LSTM have come a step closer to understanding why people exposed to household air pollution (HAP) are at higher risk of lung infections such as pneumonia and tuberculosis.
	New study finds two ears attuned to high frequencies help us find objects using echoes The ability that some people have to use echoes to determine the position of an otherwise silent object, in a similar way to bats and dolphins, requires good high-pitch hearing in both ears, according to new research from the University of Southampton.
	How World War II spurred vaccine innovation War and disease have marched arm in arm for centuries. Wars magnify the spread and severity of disease by disrupting populations. As large groups of people move across borders, they introduce and encounter disease in new places. Often, they move into crowded, resource-poor environments that allow diseases to thrive.
	Self-harm, suicide ideation tightly linked in Iraq, Afghanistan veterans Non-suicidal self-injury—that is, purposefully hurting oneself without conscious suicidal intent—is relatively common among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, according to a study published online April 1, 2015, in Psychiatry Research. The research, conducted by Dr. Nathan Kimbrel, a research psychologist at the Durham VA Medical Center, included 151 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Of those, 14 percent reported a history of non-suicidal self-injury, or NSSI.
	It doesn't take a brain injury to have headache, dizziness and cognitive impairment A team of researchers based at McMaster University has developed a new understanding of post-concussion syndrome, answering questions that have been plaguing researchers in the field.
	Synthetic pot leads to nationwide spike in hospitalizations A huge nationwide spike in hospitalizations last month caused by a class of drugs often called "synthetic marijuana" illustrates the potency and dangers of the chemicals used to make them and the shifty tactics authorities believe manufacturers are using to evade regulation.
Beijing raises cigarette tax to deter smoking China will more than double the tax on tobacco to 11 percent, the government announced Friday, as authorities try to deter smoking in the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco.
	Team works to determine why some prostate cancer patients experience more hot flashes Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is a common treatment option for patients with advanced stage prostate cancer. But nearly 80 percent of patients who receive ADT report experiencing hot flashes during and after treatment. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are working to determine what genetic factors and other characteristics might make prostate cancer patients more likely to experience hot flashes during and after therapy.
FDA questions benefit of cystic fibrosis drug from Vertex (Update) Federal health regulators have questions about the benefits of an experimental combination drug for cystic fibrosis developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, including whether the addition of a second drug ingredient adds to the pill's effectiveness.
	Higher altitude may lead to lower weight, study contends (HealthDay)—People who live at higher altitudes are less likely to become overweight or obese, a new study suggests.
	Medical students want to focus learning on preparing for future (HealthDay)—Medical students report wanting to learn more about topics that are not currently being taught, including leadership training, health policy, health economics, and experiential learning, according to a report from the American Medical Association (AMA).
Property inhibiting growth of bird flu virus discovered in eggs Eggs are one of the most versatile foods because of their rich nutrient content, and their functional properties can be widely leveraged in the food industry.
UN health agency: Don't name diseases after regions, animals The World Health Organization is issuing new advice on the best way to name new diseases—guidelines the U.N. health agency itself has previously broken.
	Will Mexico's aging population see cancer care as a priority? Mexico is undergoing a transformation: ranked as the second largest economy in Latin America, it's an increasingly dynamic middle-income country—and its population is ageing rapidly. How will this relate to the burden of cancer?
Regenerative Medicine highlights the immunological challenges that lie ahead for RegenMed The journal Regenerative Medicine has published a special focus issue on methods to avoid immune rejection in regenerative medicine.
	High-value research of 2014 presented for hematology (HealthDay)—Articles relating to malignant hematology, transfusion medicine, and bleeding and clotting disorders are included in a special update summary published online April 30 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Biology news

	Protein aggregates save cells during aging As an organism ages, a gradual loss of cellular protein quality control occurs. This results in the increased production of toxic protein clumps, so-called aggregates. Using a comprehensive approach, researchers in the teams of F.-Ulrich Hartl and Matthias Mann at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich now analysed the changes in protein composition during aging. The results published in the journal Cell show that the quantities of proteins undergo a severe shift. This also sheds new light on the origin and function of protein aggregates. The study also involves the groups of Michele Vendruscolo and Chris Dobson in Cambridge and of Richard Morimoto in Chicago.
	Master orchestrator of the genome is discovered, stem cell scientists report One of developmental biology's most perplexing questions concerns what signals transform masses of undifferentiated cells into tremendously complex organisms, a process called ontogeny.
	Gene required for plant growth at warmer temperatures discovered Researchers have discovered a new gene that enables plants to regulate their growth in different temperatures.
	New species of marine worm discovered on Antarctica's Deception Island Parougia diapason is the name of a new marine invertebrate species discovered on Deception Island (South Shetland Islands), in the Southern Ocean. An article published in the journal Polar Biology describes the finding.
	Test cricket Brad Haddin helps bat researchers Scientists from the ANU have sought the advice of Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin for their high-technology research into cricket bats.
	Citizen science and technology team up to wipe out Kimberley weed Citizen science and technology have combined to eradicate the ornamental rubber vine (Cryptostegia grandiflora) from the area surrounding the Fitzroy River, in the Kimberley.
	Populated Puget Sound sees stark shifts in marine fish species The most populated areas of Puget Sound have experienced striking shifts in marine species, with declines in herring and smelt that have long provided food for other marine life and big increases in the catch of jellyfish, which contribute far less to the food chain, according to new research that tracks species over the last 40 years.
Kenya gets forensic lab to help fight wildlife crime Kenya opened a new forensic lab on Friday, supported by foreign donors, in a bid to improve the country's woeful record in prosecuting wildlife crimes.

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