Science X Newsletter Friday, Jan 22

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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for January 22, 2016:

Spotlight Stories Headlines

- Magnesium-based orthopedic implant that safely biodegrades and promotes bone growth
- Botanist discovers new ground-flowering plant in Panama
- Fertility experts identify genetic pattern in womb linked to IVF failure
- Research team identifies rare dinosaur from Appalachia
- The hideout of the Black Death: Historical pathogens survived for more than 4 centuries in Europe
- Scientists use household oven to help decontaminate carbon nanotubes
- Polymer nanowires that assemble in perpendicular layers could offer route to tinier chip components
- Melting Greenland ice sheet may affect global ocean circulation, future climate
- The neurons in our gut help the immune system keep inflammation in check
- Call of the wild: Male geladas captivate females with moans, yawns
- On the road with a 3-D printer to help meet demand for repairs
- Zebra stripes not for camouflage, new study finds
- Scientists overcome missing data to demonstrate ART effectiveness in HIV-infected infants
- Biologists develop method for antibiotic susceptibility testing
- Tumor-suppressing gene restrains mobile elements that can lead to genomic instability

Astronomy & Space news

	Mars rover Curiosity tastes scooped, sieved sand At its current location for inspecting an active sand dune, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is adding some sample-processing moves not previously used on Mars.
	A planetary quintet is dancing across the skies "When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars, then peace will guide the planets, and love will steer the stars."
	Newly discovered star offers opportunity to explore origins of first stars sprung to life in early universe A team of researchers has observed the brightest ultra metal-poor star ever discovered.
	LISA pathfinder thrusters operated successfully While some technologies were created to make spacecraft move billions of miles, the Disturbance Reduction System has the opposite goal: To keep a spacecraft as still as possible.
	Video: SDO sees tangled connections These images from NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory, or SDO, show magnetically active regions on the sun on Jan. 8-9, 2016. When such regions are close-set, magnetic field lines create a tangle of arches snaking through the solar atmosphere.

Technology news

	Google sidelined 780 million suspect ads in 2015 Google revealed on Thursday that it sidelined more than 780 million ads deemed rude, dishonest or dangerous in 2015 in a leap from the 524 million targeted a year earlier.
	Brains vs. blizzards: Harvard students take on snow removal Winter is bearing down anew, and Harvard University students have been engineering new ways to deal with it.
	De-icing concrete could improve roadway safety, guard against corporate espionage A 200-square-foot slab of seemingly ordinary concrete sits just outside the Peter Kiewit Institute as snowflakes begin parachuting toward Omaha on a frigid afternoon in late December.
	Going off grid: Researchers tackle rural electrification More than 300 million people in India have no access to grid electricity, and the problem is especially acute in rural communities, which can be difficult and expensive to reach with grid power.
	On the road with a 3-D printer to help meet demand for repairs Season after season, residents complain about the same ruts in pavements and potholes on the road, wishing they were repaired quickly. A startup engineer with a vision looks to 3D printing robots to save the day. Robert Flitsch is the inventor of the Addibot.
	Google paid $1 bn for search spot on iPhones: report US Internet giant Google paid Apple a billion dollars in 2014 to be the go-to search tool on iPhones, Bloomberg reported, citing court documents.
	IAEA: Japan nuclear regulation should improve skills, law Japan has improved its nuclear safety regulation since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, but it still needs to strengthen inspections and staff competency, a team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday.
	Anonymous messaging app stirs controversy in Israel A new Israeli app launched by a company with investors including Will.I.Am and Nicki Minaj has been accused of encouraging teen bullying and Internet trolls.
	Adele's 'Hello' fastest to reach 1 billion views on YouTube Sorry, Psy. Adele has outpaced the South Korean pop star on the race to 1 billion views on YouTube.
	Hack attack on a hospital IT system highlights the risk of still running Windows XP A virus attack on the computer system of one of Melbourne's largest hospital networks is cause for concern because it affected machines running Microsoft's Windows XP, an operating system no longer supported by the software giant.
	Mumbai travelers log on as Google starts train station Wi-Fi Google Inc. has begun offering free Wi-Fi to Mumbai train passengers in hopes of boosting its role in the Indian market.
	Stop killer robots before it is too late, scientists tell Davos forum The world must act quickly to avert a future in which autonomous robots with artificial intelligence roam the battlefields killing humans, scientists and arms experts warned at an elite gathering in the Swiss Alps.
	Wind energy costs approach nonrenewable levels Wind energy and other renewables can now supply electricity at highly cost effective levels—and it's happened so rapidly that public perception is yet to catch up
US toughens background check process after major hack The US government said Friday it was revamping its background check process for federal employees and contractors with a more secure database, following a major hack disclosed last year.
	Google to pay £130 mln to Britain in back taxes: report Technology giant Google is to pay £130 million (172 million euros, $185.4 million) in back taxes to Britain after an "open audit" of its accounts, the BBC reported Friday.
	Virtual reality experience highlight of new Dali Museum show Visitors to a new exhibition at The Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, won't just be looking at art. Thanks to virtual reality, they'll be exploring a Dali painting in a dreamy, three-dimensional world that turns art appreciation into an unforgettable, immersive experience.

Medicine & Health news

	Magnesium-based orthopedic implant that safely biodegrades and promotes bone growth (Medical Xpress)—Researchers from South Korea have shown, in preliminary clinical trials of 53 patients, that after a year their magnesium-calcium-zinc orthopedic implant spurns new bone growth by mimicking the body's calcification matrix while the implant safely degrades. Their work appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
	Texting at night affects teens' sleep, academic performance Can't stop texting? If you're a teenager, it may be to blame for falling grades and increased yawning in school, according to a new Rutgers study.
	Myelin cells swing along blood vessels to traverse the brain The cells that create myelin, a fatty material that insulates nerve fibers in the brain's white matter, migrate into the developing brain by climbing and swinging on blood vessels, according to new research led by UC San Francisco scientists. The researchers also discovered a mechanism that coordinates when these immature cells – called oligodendrocyte precursors – hop off the vessels and differentiate into mature oligodendrocytes, wrapping themselves around nerve fibers to speed nerve transmission.
	A new platform for brain-wide imaging and reconstruction of neurons The fine, branching tendrils that extend from a neuron often traverse great distances to form connections with their target cells. Tracing those connections is a major goal for scientists who want to understand exactly how the brain processes information, but technical obstacles have hindered the effort. Now, scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus have traced the complete paths of several neurons through the entire brain of a mouse, using technology they say can be scaled up to enable a larger mapping effort.
	Fertility experts identify genetic pattern in womb linked to IVF failure Fertility experts in Southampton and the Netherlands have identified a specific genetic pattern in the womb that could predict whether or not IVF treatment is likely to be successful.
	The neurons in our gut help the immune system keep inflammation in check The immune system exercises constant vigilance to protect the body from external threats—including what we eat and drink. A careful balancing act plays out as digested food travels through the intestine. Immune cells must remain alert to protect against harmful pathogens like Salmonella, but their activity also needs to be tempered since an overreaction can lead to too much inflammation and permanent tissue damage.
	Scientists overcome missing data to demonstrate ART effectiveness in HIV-infected infants Recent clinical trials conducted in South Africa have established that babies born with HIV should be treated with antiretroviral therapy (ART) as early as possible, since earlier treatment significantly decreases their mortality and morbidity rates. However, scientists were unsure whether infants treated with ART eventually develop a "normal" immune system. Knowing how an infant reacts to ART could help determine how to design curative strategies, but studying these infants can prove challenging due to inconsistent adherence to the study's schedule and the difficulty of collecting sufficient specimens in infants.
	Biologists develop method for antibiotic susceptibility testing A team of biologists and biomedical researchers at UC San Diego has developed a new method to determine if bacteria are susceptible to antibiotics within a few hours, an advance that could slow the appearance of drug resistance and allow doctors to more rapidly identify the appropriate treatment for patients with life threatening bacterial infections.
	Tumor-suppressing gene restrains mobile elements that can lead to genomic instability The most commonly mutated gene in cancer, p53, works to prevent tumor formation by keeping mobile elements in check that otherwise lead to genomic instability, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.
	Screening gets top marks for picking up bowel cancer early BOWEL cancer is more likely to be diagnosed at the earliest stage if it is picked up by screening, according to new figures released by Cancer Research UK and Public Health England's National Cancer Intelligence Network today (Friday).
	Medical society details Syrian health crisis and efforts to help Leaders of the Syrian-American Medical Society describe their efforts in bolstering what remains of the Syrian healthcare system and the health care context in which those efforts take place in their article, "War is the Enemy of Health: Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine in War-torn Syria." The article is published online ahead of print in the American Thoracic Society journal Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
Birth defects in Latin America spark Zika virus panic (Update) With the sting of a mosquito bite and a fever, many pregnant women may not know that they caught the Zika virus—until it strikes their unborn child.
	Two proteins control the growth of the heart and its adaptation to high blood pressure Researchers at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) have identified how two proteins control the growth of the heart and its adaptation to high blood pressure (hypertension). Lead investigator Dr. Guadalupe Sabio explains that the results, described in Nature Communications, not only increase our understanding of the mechanisms used by cardiac cells to grow and adapt, but could also help in the design of new strategies to treat heart failure caused by excessive growth of the heart. The study, carried out by Dr. Sabio and CNIC investigator Bárbara Gonzalez-Terán, shows for the first time that two proteins, p38 gamma and p38 delta, control heart growth.
	Starting healthy heart habits in childhood Most people know that high blood pressure and cholesterol are risk factors for heart disease. But what they often don't think about is starting prevention in childhood.
Clinical trials treat epilepsy patients in WNY with medical marijuana For patients with severe forms of epilepsy that don't respond to other medications, hopes are high for marijuana as a treatment. But clinical data showing how well the drug works—and how safe it is—are sparse, experts say.
	Sparing ovaries and removing fallopian tubes may cut cancer risk, but few have procedure During hysterectomies for non-cancerous conditions, removing both fallopian tubes while keeping the ovaries may help protect against ovarian cancer while preserving hormonal levels, but few women receive this surgical option, according to a new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers.
	Explainer: what does the 'male gaze' mean, and what about a female gaze? The "gaze" is a term that describes how viewers engage with visual media. Originating in film theory and criticism in the 1970s, the gaze refers to how we look at visual representations. These include advertisements, television programs and cinema.
	Weight gain in rural women—what to do and how to prevent it On average, Australian women gain about one kilo in weight every year, so a 20 year old woman has a high risk of becoming obese before she reaches 50. This weight gain can be even greater in women in rural areas, who may not have access to gyms, personal trainers or even support groups.
At least 39 deadly swine flu cases recorded in Russia At least 39 people have died of swine flu in Russia since last month, according to AFP calculations based on official data, with more than half the cases announced in the last week.
Study shows inferior outcomes for African-American pediatric lymphoma patients Researchers from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine (Sylvester) today published a study showing that African-American pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma patients have inferior overall survival to their white and Hispanic peers. The findings, published in the journal Pediatric Blood & Cancer, are the largest study yet on racial and ethnic disparity in the pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma population.
60 genetic disorders affect skin and nervous system One of the most common genetic disorders is a condition called neurofibromatosis, which causes brown spots on the skin and benign tumors on the brain, spinal cord and other parts of the nervous system.
	Researchers find protein that improves mobility after spinal cord injuries An international team of scientists coordinated by UAB and CIBERNED researcher Rubén López Vales has established that interleukin-37 (IL-37), a cytokine belonging to the interleukin-1 family, promotes locomotor recovery in acute spinal cord injuries.
	A defense protein that causes cancer Cancer is caused by the growth of an abnormal cell which harbours DNA mutations, "copy errors" occurring during the DNA replication process. If these errors do take place quite regularly without having any damaging effect on the organism, some of them affect a specific part of the genome and cause the proliferation of the mutant cell, which then invades the organism. A few years ago, scientists have identified an important mutagen which lies in our own cells: APOBEC, a protein that usually functions as protecting agent against viral infection. Today, a team of Swiss and Russian scientists led by Sergey Nikolaev, geneticist at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, has deciphered how APOBEC takes advantage of a weakness in our DNA replication process to induce mutations in our genome. To be read in Genome Research.
	'Standing desks' in classrooms may kickstart kids' activity (HealthDay)—Parents who worry that too much sitting might harm their children's health may have a new ally: "standing desks" in the classroom.
	As winter storm targets eastern U.S., tips for stepping out safely (HealthDay)—With much of the eastern United States bracing for a major winter storm this weekend, one expert is offering advice on how to lower your risk of slipping or falling on ice or snow once you head outside.
	More patients satisfied with doctor visits: survey (HealthDay)—More Americans than ever are satisfied with their visits to the doctor, a new survey shows.
	Review shows lasting weight loss for very-low-energy diets (HealthDay)—Very-low-energy diets (VLEDs) seem to be beneficial for long-term weight loss, according to a review published online Jan. 18 in Obesity Reviews.
	Eluxadoline eases pain and diarrhea for some with IBS (HealthDay)—Eluxadoline (Viberzi) for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) with diarrhea seems to reduce symptoms for some patients for at least six months, according to research published in the Jan. 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Based on these findings, eluxadoline was approved recently by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Societies release recommendations for diagnosing chest pain in the emergency department New recommendations from the American College of Cardiology and American College of Radiology have established appropriate use of diagnostic imaging for patients with chest pain, one of the most common reasons for emergency department visits.
Israeli Holocaust survivor could be world's oldest man: Guinness An Israeli Holocaust survivor may be the world's oldest man at 112, Guinness World Records said Thursday, providing he can find the documents to prove it.
The effects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on pharmaceutical innovation The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a multi-national trade agreement now being considered by 12 countries. In an insightful commentary in Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (RSAP), the ramifications of major components of the agreement are discussed, especially those potentially impacting the worldwide pharmaceutical industry.
Study: Are football players too obese? In the world of American football, there is a stigma that players need to increase their overall body size to make an impact on the field. But, new research from a Grand Valley State University movement science professor and one of his students suggests that being bigger doesn't mean being better—or healthier.
	Most cases of brain-damaged newborns not due to mismanaged deliveries A study by researchers at Loyola University Medical Center and Loyola University Chicago is providing new evidence that the vast majority of babies who are born with severe brain damage are not the result of mismanaged deliveries.
	Patients who are not prescribed opioids find more improvements in physical function, study Opioids such as morphine, codeine and Tylenol 3 can be effective for treating pain, however, a new University of Alberta study finds that patients with neuropathic pain taking opioids report no improvements in physical functioning compared to those who were not prescribed opioids.
	Study: Paramedics' risk of being assaulted exceeds firefighting colleagues Research out of Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health determined that emergency medical technicians and paramedics are 14 times more likely to be violently injured on the job than the firefighters they work alongside.
	CDC expands tropical virus alert; 22 destinations on list Health authorities have added eight tropical destinations to a travel alert about an illness linked with a severe birth defect and spread by mosquitoes.
	US Virgin Islands reports its first Zika virus case The U.S. Virgin Islands is reporting its first case of the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
My Cancer Days helps children cope with emotional cancer experience A cancer diagnosis can be an overwhelming experience for a child, with resulting emotions that are difficult to process. A new picture book published by the American Cancer Society, My Cancer Days, offers reassurance to children facing this daunting illness.
	Health officials probe tie between Zika, paralyzing syndrome Health officials say they're trying to determine if an unusual jump in cases of a rare nerve condition sometimes severe enough to cause paralysis is related to the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in at least two Latin American countries.
El Salvador advises women to delay pregnancies due to virus Public health officials in El Salvador are advising women to put off pregnancies for the next two years to avoid passing on complications from the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
	Engineering foe into friend What if a centuries-old foe could become a workhorse for drug delivery in the future? Jacquin Niles, an associate professor of biological engineering at MIT, sees potential for such a transformation in what others might consider an unlikely subject: the malaria parasite.
	How to follow through on learning a new skill in the new year "Mindfulness, motivation, mindset." Susan Ambrose, senior vice provost for undergraduate education and experiential learning, uses those words to describe the three "cognitive pillars" of co-op.
As HIV patients live longer, updated guide helps patients navigate new territory In the 35 years since the emergence of HIV, treatments of the disease—and patient lifespans—have dramatically improved.
DMP 'chronic heart failure': Guidelines do not cover all health-care aspects On 15 January 2016 the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) published the results of a search for evidence-based guidelines on the treatment of people with chronic heart failure. The aim of the report is to identify those recommendations from current guidelines of high methodological quality that may be relevant for the potential new disease management programme (DMP) "Chronic heart failure".
DMP chronic back pain: Guideline recommendations cover all important health-care aspects On 14 January 2016 the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) published the results of a search for evidence-based guidelines on the treatment of people with chronic back pain. The aim of the report is to identify those recommendations from current guidelines of high methodological quality that may be relevant for the potential new disease management programme (DMP) "Chronic back pain". According to the results of the report the recommendations cover all important health care aspects and are largely consistent.
	Will blocking IL-17A help treat kidney disease? Many different diseases and insults can injure kidneys, resulting in kidney failure. Some autoimmune diseases damage glomeruli (the 'filtering units' of the kidney), while problems with the tubules (for example, impaired blood flow to the kidney at the time of renal transplantation, radio-contrast dye or drugs) can cause acute kidney injury (AKI). A common outcome in either type of injury is that immune cells infiltrate the kidney and this inflammation can result in permanent scarring.

Biology news

	Botanist discovers new ground-flowering plant in Panama Rattlesnake, zebra and peacock plants have a new wild relative, discovered by Rodolfo Flores, Panamanian botanist and intern at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). Helen Kennedy, herbarium research associate at the University of California at Riverside, and Flores named the species Calathea galdamesiana in honor of STRI's herbarium assistant, Carmen Galdames.
	Evolutionary clock ticks for snowshoe hares facing climate change Snowshoe hares that camouflage themselves by changing their coats from brown in summer to white in winter face serious threats from climate change, and it's uncertain whether hare populations will be able to adapt in time, according to a North Carolina State University study.
	Neighborhood watch and more: How reed warblers watch out when there's a cuckoo about It's a risky business being a reed warbler. Not only do these tiny birds embark on an annual migration of some 5,000 km from their West African winter quarters to breeding grounds in the north, but they are also 'hosts' to the cuckoo, a species that lays its eggs in other birds' nests and takes no further part in raising its offspring. When the cuckoo chick hatches, it pushes the reed warbler eggs and young out of the nest. As sole occupant, it tricks its warbler 'parents' into supplying its voracious appetite until it fledges.
	New method for making biofuels is cheaper and better for the environment Chemical and Biomolecular Engineers from the Melbourne School of Engineering have discovered a new way to deliver carbon dioxide to microalgae, which in turn, can be harvested to make renewable fuels such as biodiesel.
	Increasing pollinator numbers and diversity a possible way to increase crop yields (Phys.org)—A large team of researchers with members from across the globe has found that small farms with higher densities of pollinators produce more food than those with lower densities—for larger farms, the difference in yield was more closely related to pollinator diversity. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes their study and analysis of multiple farms in Asia, South America and Africa over a five year period and what they learned about ways to increase crop yields in the years ahead.
	Zebra stripes not for camouflage, new study finds If you've always thought of a zebra's stripes as offering some type of camouflaging protection against predators, it's time to think again, suggest scientists at the University of Calgary and UC Davis.
	The hideout of the Black Death: Historical pathogens survived for more than 4 centuries in Europe Black Death, mid-fourteenth century plague, is undoubtedly the most famous historical pandemic. Within only five years it killed 30-50% of the European population. Unfortunately it didn't stop there. Plague resurged throughout Europe leading to continued high mortality and social unrest over the next three centuries.
Call of the wild: Male geladas captivate females with moans, yawns For female gelada monkeys, a grunt from a male primate won't suffice to get her attention. The call of the wild must involve moans, wobbles or yawns to entice these females, according to a new University of Michigan study involving the Ethiopian mammals.
	To find energy-rich food, like tropical ripe fruit, is a challenge for chimpanzees In our supermarkets we buy raspberries in winter and chestnuts in summer. But how challenging would life become, if we needed to consume large amounts of fruit for our daily meal and had to collect them ourselves? With a largely plant-based diet, simple stomachs, and the additional cost of maintaining relatively large brains, chimpanzees face a serious challenge in their daily search for energy and nutrients. Using data on the monthly availability of young leaves, unripe and ripe fruits in three tropical rain forests in East, Central and West Africa, a consortium of researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, Harvard University, McGill University, the University of St. Andrews and the Université Félix Houphouët Boigny, estimated how difficult it is for chimpanzees to find food and to predict its availability in individual trees. This study reports which cognitive strategies chimpan! zees can use to gain privileged access to the most energy-rich but ephemeral food.
	Humpback highway to hell: whales unfazed by scientists' mix tape alarm tunes An international team lead by Macquarie researchers has found that humpback whales are not only unfazed by complex alarm sounds designed to alert them to hazards like fishing gear, they have no response to these warning sounds at all.
	Intense trophy hunting leads to artificial evolution in horn size in bighorn sheep It's not just the size of your horns, but having the experience to know how to use them. Scientists have studied the effects of trophy hunting on bighorn sheep with alarming results: human selection is leading to artificial evolution, resulting in smaller horn size.
	The five bird species that Darwin couldn't discover in Madeira and the Azores When Charles Darwin visited the Azores islands in the 19th Century, the birds he observed were familiar to him. However, if he had travelled there 500 years before, he would have found an ornithofauna as particular as that of the Galápagos. The recent discovery in these Portuguese islands and in Madeira of five extinct species of rail, which lost the ability to fly due to having evolved on islands, confirms how fragile they are in the face of changes to their habitat like the ones that must have occurred after the first visits by humans over 500 years ago.
	Can a quirky chromosome create a second human species? In this age of genome sequencing, we can lose sight of the importance of how our genomes are distributed over 23 pairs of chromosomes. Rearrangements of the pairs are invisible to sequencing if the correct amount of genetic material is present.
How to detect and preserve human stem cells in the lab Human stem cells that are capable of becoming any other kind of cell in the body have previously only been acquired and cultivated with difficulty. Scientists at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in the Helmholtz Association have now presented details of a method to detect such pluripotent cells in a cell culture and preserve them in the laboratory.
	Where wood is chopped, splinters must fall Bacteria and other prokaryotes have been around for billions of years because they managed to develop successful evolutionary strategies for survival. For instance, they possess defense mechanisms that allow them to discriminate between self and non-self DNA in the event of a virus infection. These defense mechanisms are called restriction-modification systems and are based on the balance between the two enzymes M (methyltransferase) and R (restriction endonuclease). M tags endogenous DNA as self by methylating short specific DNA sequences—called restriction sites, and R recognizes unmethylated restriction sites as non-self and cleaves the DNA to render it harmless.
	Gorilla gives birth to baby at Amsterdam's Artis zoo Amsterdam zoo Artis is celebrating a new arrival after its western lowland gorilla Sindy gave birth to a healthy baby.

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