Dear Reader ,
Here is your customized Science X Newsletter for October 12, 2018:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
Astronomy & Space news
 | Japan delays spacecraft landing on very rocky asteroidJapan's space agency is delaying a spacecraft touchdown on an asteroid because scientists need more time to find a safe landing site on the extremely rocky surface. |
 | Another NASA space telescope shuts down in orbitAnother NASA space telescope has shut down and halted science observations. |
 | Russia probes ISS rocket failureRussian investigators have launched a probe into why a Soyuz rocket failed shortly after blast-off, in a major setback for Russia's beleaguered space industry. |
 | Russia may bring forward manned launch after rocket failureRussia said Friday it was likely to bring forward the flight of a new manned space mission to the International Space Station but postpone the launch of a cargo ship after a rocket failure that forced two crew members to make an emergency landing. |
 | Five in a row—the planets align in the night skyFor the second time this year, the five brightest planets can be seen at the same time. You can catch them by looking towards the western sky after sunset. The planets will form a line rising up from the horizon. |
 | US, Russian crew in Russian space center after failed launchA U.S. astronaut and his Russian crewmate arrived Friday at the Russian space center for medical checks following a failed launch that led to an emergency landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan. |
 | Numerous boulders, many rocks, no dust: MASCOT's zigzag course across the asteroid RyuguSix minutes of free fall, a gentle impact on the asteroid and then 11 minutes of rebounding until coming to rest. That is how, in the early hours of 3 October 2018, the journey of the MASCOT asteroid lander began on Asteroid Ryugu – a land full of wonder, mystery and challenges. Some 17 hours of scientific exploration followed this first 'stroll' on the almost 900-metre diameter asteroid. The lander was commanded and controlled from the MASCOT Control Centre at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) site in Cologne in the presence of scientific teams from Germany, France and Japan. MASCOT surpassed all expectations and performed its four experiments at several locations on the asteroid. Never before in the history of spaceflight has a Solar System body been explored in this way. It has now been possible to precisely trace MASCOT's path on Ryugu's surface on the basis of image data from the Japanese Hayabusa2 space probe and the lander's images and data. |
 | US astronaut thanks Russian rescuers for their quick workU.S. astronaut Nick Hague thanked Russian rescue teams Friday for quickly reaching him and his Russian crewmate after an aborted launch that led to their emergency landing in the barren steppes of Kazakhstan. |
 | NASA official: Tense moments but calm crew in aborted launchNASA's chief heard one reassuring sound over the radio link after the aborted launch of a Soyuz capsule with an American and a Russian aboard. |
 | NASA says will use Russia's Soyuz despite rocket failureNASA chief Jim Bridenstine on Friday praised the Russian space programme and said he expected a new crew to go to the International Space Station in December despite a rocket failure. |
Technology news
 | Microsoft joins Open Invention Network, brings deep patent portfolioThe non-aggression patent community can put a new feather in its cap, calling out that Microsoft has joined OIN. Shawn Knight in TechSpot: "On Wednesday, it was announced that the Redmond-based technology giant had joined the Open Invention Network (OIN), the largest patent non-aggression community in the world with more than 2,650 members." |
 | Jetliner lands in US after world's longest flightAn Airbus jetliner arrived in Newark on Friday after a nearly 18-hour trip from Singapore, completing the world's longest commercial flight. |
 | Your smartphone could soon be making your commute much less stressfulApps that can detect what mode of transport phone users are travelling on and automatically offer relevant advice are set to become a reality after extensive data-gathering research led by the University of Sussex. |
 | Facebook says it purged more than 800 spam accounts, pagesFacebook said it has purged more than 800 U.S. pages and accounts for spamming users with politically-tinged garbage links and clickbait just weeks ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. |
 | Pioneering turbine sets new benchmark for tidal renewable energyIn its first year of testing, the world's most powerful floating tidal turbine has generated 3 GWh of electricity. |
 | Bioethanol in diesel engines: A contribution to sustainabilityEthanol can make an important contribution to climate protection: at TU Wien, a diesel engine has been developed that can run on over 70 percent bioethanol. |
 | 'Fortnite' teaches the wrong lessonsIn recognition of the fact that "Fortnite" has quickly become one of the most popular video games in the world – one played by more than 125 million players – I decided to play the game myself in an attempt to understand its widespread appeal. |
iOS 12 has cool new feature—a tape measure for your cellphoneThe latest Apple operating system comes with a handy new app: a virtual tape measure. | |
Snapchat launches original TV shows tailored to mobile audiencesFall is here and the curtain is going up on new TV shows, ranging from mystery stories with young female tech-savvy crime-solvers, to reality shows following the lives of emerging drag queens and social media stars. | |
Google Home Hub vs. Amazon vs. Facebook: How the video devices compareIn the coming battle of the talking video speakers, Google is selling YouTube, Amazon looks to Prime Video and with Facebook, it's about the social network. | |
 | Betting with a smartphone? The casinos know who you are, and where you are locatedWhen online gaming launches soon in Pennsylvania, bettors with a smartphone will be able to gamble from just about anywhere in the state. |
 | Purging long-forgotten online accounts: Worth the trouble?The internet is riddled with long-forgotten accounts on social media, dating apps and various shopping sites used once or twice. Sure, you should delete all those unused logins and passwords. And eat your vegetables. And go to the gym. |
 | Facebook says hackers accessed data of 29 mn usersFacebook said Friday that hackers accessed personal data of 29 million users in a breach at the world's leading social network disclosed late last month. |
 | Plastic surgeon buys top S. Korea Bitcoin exchangeA consortium led by a prominent Seoul plastic surgeon purchased a controlling stake in South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange, reports said Friday. |
 | Pilots sue Ryanair over Dutch airport pulloutPilots are suing Ryanair over the closure of its base in the Dutch city of Eindhoven, unions said Friday, accusing the carrier of trying to break strikes with the move. |
Medicine & Health news
 | Widespread errors in 'proofreading' cause inherited blindnessMistakes in "proofreading" the genetic code of retinal cells is the cause of a form of inherited blindness, retinitis pigmentosa (RP) caused by mutations in splicing factors. |
 | Why don't we understand statistics? Fixed mindsets may be to blameUnfavorable methods of teaching statistics in schools and universities may be to blame for people ignoring simple solutions to statistical problems, making them hard to solve. This can have serious consequences when applied to professional settings like court cases. Published in Frontiers in Psychology, the study shows for the first time that fixed mindsets—potentially triggered by suboptimal education curricula—lead to difficulties finding the simple solution to statistical problems. |
 | Obesity linked to increased risk of early-onset colorectal cancerWomen who are overweight or obese have up to twice the risk of developing colorectal cancer before age 50 as women who have what is considered a normal body mass index (BMI), according to new research led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. |
 | Team's study reveals hidden lives of medical biomarkersWhat do medical biomarkers do on evenings and weekends, when they might be considered off the clock? |
 | Two seemingly opposing forces in the brain actually cooperate to enhance memory formationThe brain allows organisms to learn and adapt to their surroundings. It does this by literally changing the connections, or synapses, between neurons, strengthening meaningful patterns of neural activity in order to store information. The existence of this process—brain plasticity—has been known for some time. |
 | Oscillations provide insights into the brain's navigation systemThe brain creates a map of our environment, which enables reliable spatial navigation. The Nobel Prize was awarded in 2014 for research into how this navigation system works at the cellular level. Researchers at the Medical Center – University of Freiburg, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have now shown that the characteristics of this navigation system are also present in brain oscillations that can be measured using depth electrodes in the human brain. The possibility of testing the neuronal navigation system in this way may open up new approaches for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. A worsening sense of orientation is one of the first signs of the disease. The researchers published the results in the journal Current Biology on 11 October 2018. |
 | Clues that suggest people are lying may be deceptive, study showsThe verbal and physical signs of lying are harder to detect than people believe, a study suggests. |
 | Study: Ketogenic diet appears to prevent cognitive decline in miceWe've all experienced a "gut feeling"—when we know deep down inside that something is true. That phenomenon and others (like "butterflies in the stomach") aptly describe what scientists have now demonstrated: that the gut and the brain are more closely connected than we once thought, and in fact the health of one can affect the other. |
 | Fat tissue may play a crucial role in the progression of diabetes, challenging long established notionsA new study by Australian researchers, out today, is challenging what we know about the causes of diabetes. The new research points to fat tissue as a source of disease, and widens our understanding beyond the traditional focus on liver and pancreas as the main culprits. |
 | How the grid cell system of the brain maps mental spacesIt has long been known that so-called place cells in the human hippocampus are responsible for coding one's position in space. A related type of brain cell, called grid cells, encodes a variety of positions that are evenly distributed across space. This results in a kind of honeycomb pattern tiling the space. The cells exhibiting this pattern were discovered in the entorhinal cortex. How exactly the grid cell system works in the human brain, and in particular with which temporal dynamics, has until now been speculation. A much-discussed possibility is that the signals from these cells create maps of "cognitive spaces" in which humans mentally organize and store the complexities of their internal and external environments. |
 | Cancer stem cells use 'normal' genes in abnormal waysCDK1 is a "normal" protein—its presence drives cells through the cycle of replication. And MHC Class I molecules are "normal" as well—they present bits of proteins on the surfaces of cells for examination by the immune system. But a University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the journal Cancer Research shows that a population of cancer cells marked by MHC Class I molecules and high CDK1 is anything but normal. In fact, these MHC Class I-high, CDK1 high molecules may be at the heart of conditions including melanoma, pancreatic and colon cancers. These cells may, in fact, be the long-sought cancer stem cells that often resist treatments like chemotherapy to reseed these cancers once treatment ends. |
 | Effects of epilepsy on neural activity in mice fluctuate with reproductive cycleMice with epilepsy have altered patterns of neuron activity in the portion of the brain that controls the reproductive endocrine system, University of Illinois researchers report in a new study. Furthermore, the differences in neuron activity in female mice fluctuate across the reproductive cycle, the team found. |
Poor, elderly Puerto Ricans faced a persistent risk of dying after Hurricane MariaA paper published today by researchers at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health (GW Milken Institute SPH) provides the data and methodology underlying an independent report that estimated there were 2,975 excess deaths in Puerto Rico during the six-month period after Hurricane Maria. The new study, which appears in The Lancet Planetary Health, also tracks the trends for mortality during that period. The study found that people living in all areas of Puerto Rico faced an elevated risk of mortality during the first two months after the storm, but this risk elevation was most prominent, and prolonged, for people living in the poorest parts of the island. | |
 | Dramatic drop in public confidence after Philippines dengue vaccine controversyThe Philippines' highly politicised response to newly-reported risks of a dengue vaccine led to a dramatic drop in public trust in vaccines overall, according to new research published in Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics. |
 | Caesarean section use has almost doubled globally since 2000Globally, the number of babies born through caesarean section (C-section) almost doubled between 2000 and 2015—from 12% to 21% of all births—according to a Series of three papers published in The Lancet and launched at the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) World Congress in Brazil. While the life-saving surgery is still unavailable for many women and children in low-income countries and regions, the procedure is overused in many middle- and high-income settings. |
 | Age at which women experience their first period is linked to their sons' age at pubertyThe age at which young women experience their first menstrual bleeding is linked to the age at which their sons start puberty, according to the largest study to investigate this association in both sons and daughters. |
 | Benzodiazepines in patients with COPD and PTSD may increase suicide riskLong-term use of benzodiazepine medications in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, as well as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may lead to increased suicide risk, according to a study published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society. |
 | From 'problem child' to 'prodigy'? LSD turns 75Lysergic acid diethylamide was labelled a "problem child" by the man who discovered its hallucinogenic properties in 1943: as it turns 75, the drug known as LSD may now be changing its image. |
 | Canada makes final preparations before cannabis becomes legalCanada will soon become the second country in the world to legalize cannabis—with the provinces left to work out the details of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's landmark measure. |
 | Surfing on calcium waves: A larva's journey to becoming a flyEric Carl, in his much-loved children's book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, documents the transformation of a gluttonous caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. For a scientist, metamorphosis poses many unaddressed questions. How does the caterpillar know when to stop eating? Had he not eaten so much, would he ever have moved on to the cocoon stage? |
 | Physical activity has health benefits for smokers, regardless of air pollution levelsRegular physical activity is associated with better lung function among current smokers in European cities, regardless of air pollution levels. This is the main conclusion of a new study comprising over 4,500 people from nine European countries, led by the Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal). |
 | There are many types of obesity – which one matters to your health?Our society seems to have accepted that gaining weight is an inevitable consequence of growing up in a place with easy access to calories and where physical activity plays a declining role in our professional and private lives. Aging just makes weight loss even more difficult. |
 | The long-term effects of maternal high-fat dietsIf a mother eats a high-fat diet, this can have a negative effect on the health of her offspring—right down to her great-grandchildren. This is the conclusion drawn by researchers at ETH Zurich from a study with mice. |
 | Novel genetic study sheds new light on risk of heart attackLoss of a protein that regulates mitochondrial function can greatly increase the risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack), Vanderbilt scientists reported Oct. 3 in the journal eLife. |
 | Previous motherhood could affect hormone therapy's ability to prevent memory lossResearchers have established that the foggy feeling and forgetfulness that many new mothers report during and after pregnancy—known as "mom brain"— is real. But new findings from the University of British Columbia suggest that the effect of motherhood on the brain appears to last much longer after childbirth than previously believed. |
 | First ever meta-analysis on Indian lead exposure reveals link to devastating intellectual disability in childrenNew Macquarie University research has revealed the devastating disease burden associated with elevated blood lead levels in India. The results of the first ever meta-analysis of Indian blood lead levels found the burden of disease to be significantly larger than previously calculated, with negative outcomes on intellectual disability measures in children. |
 | How to avoid raising a materialistic childIf you're a parent, you may be concerned that materialism among children has been on the rise. According to research, materialism has been linked to a variety of mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, as well as selfish attitudes and behaviors. |
 | Stop measuring obesity with a ruler—we've discovered a far better predictor of healthFor over a century, we have relied on a simplistic measure to determine if someone is a "healthy" weight or not. This is the body mass index (BMI) – the ratio of a person's weight to the square of their height. The limits of this ratio are clearly demonstrated by professional rugby players; most of whom would be classified as "overweight", despite having less than 10% body fat. |
 | Focusing on people at 'high risk' of suicide has failed as a suicide prevention strategyMany current suicide prevention interventions focus on raising awareness of suicide or on preventing it only at the point just prior to it occurring. But despite decades of government investment in suicide awareness programs, the rate of deaths by suicide in Australia is the second highest it's been in ten years. |
 | Researcher uses smartphone to detect breast cancer geneWith increasing demand and pressure on healthcare budgets, progressive initiatives are being taken to make healthcare more patient-centered, reliable, accessible and affordable. Point-of-care devices have become a cost-efficient and feasible way for people to monitor their own health, as opposed to waiting weeks for expensive test results. |
 | Basophils: Underestimated players in lung developmentThe adult lung consists of highly specialized cell types that are protected by a variety of immune cells. How these immune cells migrate to the lungs during development and after birth, and how these cells influence each other, are poorly understood. Using advanced single cell sequencing methods, researchers of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, the CeMM and the Medical University in Vienna discovered a hitherto unknown, fundamental mechanism: So-called basophils, immune cells mainly known in the context of allergy, play a crucial role in the development of macrophages in the lung. The study, published in Cell, could open new clinical strategies to fight lung diseases. |
 | Paying attention to food labelsA majority of Americans say food labels influence their purchasing behavior, according to the latest Michigan State University Food Literacy and Engagement Poll. |
Religious freedom laws linked to poor health in LGBT peopleStates' religious freedom laws may be linked to poorer self-reported health among people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or are unsure of their sexual orientation—a group known as sexual minorities—according to a national analysis led by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health's Center for LGBT Health Research. | |
 | Interpreters are key for stroke patients struggling to understandBefore he stood in rooms at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas interpreting between Spanish-speaking patients and English-speaking health care providers, Cruz Ramirez did so informally as a child. |
 | Spending often persists in high-cost Medicare-Medicaid eligible(HealthDay)—More than half of patients who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid and are designated as high-cost in one year remain persistently high-cost over three years, according to a study published online Oct. 2 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. |
 | CDC: Many children with heart conditions have special needs(HealthDay)—Children with past and current heart conditions have more special health care needs compared with children without heart conditions, according to research published in the Sept. 29 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. |
 | Researchers find a 'critical need' for whole genome sequencing of young cancer patientsSt. Jude Children's Research Hospital has re-defined the gold standard for diagnostic testing of childhood cancer patients in the precision-medicine era and has implemented the testing for new cancer patients. The findings appeared online recently in the scientific journal Nature Communications. |
 | Why is it fun to be frightened?John Carpenter's iconic horror film "Halloween" celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Few horror movies have achieved similar notoriety, and it's credited with kicking off the steady stream of slasher flicks that followed. |
 | Calm the immune system, halt premature birthPremature birth is the leading cause of infant death and disability in the U.S., and costs billions in dollars and heartache every year. Now, University of Connecticut researchers report in Reproductive Sciences a potential treatment that could stop many cases of premature labor and birth in their tracks. |
 | Hidden hunger affects nearly 2 billion worldwide – are solutions in plain sight?Incredible strides have been made to eradicate hunger around the world since World War II. New technology, foreign aid, and a world economy that has grown more than 30-fold have combined to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty and hunger. |
 | C-section rates have nearly doubled since 2000: study(HealthDay)—The number of women delivering babies via cesarean section has nearly doubled worldwide since 2000, to about 21 percent, new research shows. |
 | Medicine balls: Exercise tools that add fun to fitness(HealthDay)—Want to add a new type of challenge to your exercise routine? |
 | Does breastfeeding hormone protect against type 2 diabetes?(HealthDay)—The hormone prolactin—most commonly associated with breastfeeding—may play a role in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests. |
 | Study: No surge in illicit cigarettes after menthol banContrary to the tobacco industry's assertions, there was no surge in illicit cigarettes after a 2015 ban on menthol cigarette sales in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The finding is included in a brief report appearing in Tobacco Control. |
NIH programs shed light on gene variants and their connections to health and diseasePrograms supported by the National Institutes of Health are establishing which genes and genomic variants play a role in human disease, enabling their use in genomic medicine and research. NIH's Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) and ClinVar programs address a major barrier to incorporating genomic medicine into healthcare, which is a lack of evidence about the relationship between gene variants and diseases. A special issue of Human Mutation, published on Oct. 12, highlights the broad array of advances made through these programs, which work in concert to advance knowledge connecting human genomic variation to human health. | |
Does open heart surgery affect cognitive abilities?Most people who need open heart surgery to repair damaged heart valves are aged 65 or older. The American Heart Association (AHA) estimates that nearly 8 million people have had heart surgeries. However, we don't fully understand the effects of heart surgery on an older adult's cognition (the ability to remember, think, and make decisions). | |
Five things to know about the poliolike condition that has hospitalized two Chicago-area childrenAt least two children who have been diagnosed with a rare but serious condition that weakens muscles and limits mobility are being treated in Chicago, according to Lurie Children's Hospital. | |
 | Pot enhances sexual desire, according to scienceLong before molly (MDMA) came on the scene, pot was considered the drug of choice to get in the mood for love. Now science is confirming what children of the '60s have long known. Marijuana can make you more amorous more often. |
Cell therapy, now artisanal and costly, heads for mass productionNot so long ago, manipulating living cells to serve as therapies was a difficult and mysterious art. Only a few biomedical companies and academic labs could claim proficiency. | |
 | Is the next big step in cancer therapy personalized vaccines?Tamara Strauss has been living with high-grade, stage IV pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer for more than three years. Current treatments, although effective for her, are highly toxic. Tamara enrolled in a first-of-its-kind, pilot study at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health to test a personalized vaccine using her unique cancer mutations to boost an anti-tumor immune response. |
Potential therapy for treatment-resistant hypothyroidism proves effective in lab studyA new "metal-coordinated" drug-delivery technology potentially could be used to supplement the standard therapy for hypothyroidism, which affects nearly 10 million Americans, and many more patients worldwide, according to results of a study published in the journal Thyroid this month. | |
Simple, cost effective treatment following failed back surgery shows promiseFailed back surgery (continued low back and leg pain after surgery) is relatively common. With each reoperation, success, as defined by pain reduction, becomes less likely and most patients do not improve. However, preliminary studies using a simple procedure to remove scar tissue or adhesions suggests a new treatment could help those with post-surgical, chronic low back pain. | |
 | Scientists work to improve recovery of your sense of tasteWhen it's a significant injury, not just a hot pizza, that damages your tongue and taste buds, you appear to need a cell type best known for its inflammation-promoting skills to help restore your sense of taste. |
 | Breast cancer patients use Twitter as a non-medical forum to share their experiencesTwitter is a place where many cancer patients go to share and discuss their experiences of the disease. This is the main finding of a recent exploratory study, to be presented at the ESMO 2018 Congress in Munich, which analysed the contents of over 6,000 tweets and retweets about breast cancer. |
NY doctors charged over opioid prescriptions amid epidemicProsecutors unveiled charges on Thursday against five New York doctors, a pharmacist and associates for allegedly illegally distributing millions of oxycodone pills and fueling the nation's opioid addiction crisis. | |
 | Nine cases of polio-like illness suspected in children in illinois(HealthDay)—Nine recent cases of a rare, polio-like disorder in children are being investigated in Illinois, health officials said yesterday. |
 | Community fears grow as DR Congo Ebola death toll climbsHumanitarian workers are struggling to calm community fears in strife-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where 125 people have died of Ebola, and cases of the virus are spreading fast. |
 | Promising new therapeutic approach against Ebola virus identifiedIn a new study researchers have developed a two-pronged approach for targeting Ebola virus infection using linked nucleic acid (LNA) antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs)designed to interfere both genes essential for translation of Ebola virus genes and to block production of an intracellular human protein needed for the virus to enter cells. The results of using LNA ASOs to interfere with critical Ebola genes and host proteins are published in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics. |
German MPs voice concern about prenatal genetic testsMore than 100 German lawmakers voiced concern on Friday about prenatal tests for genetic disorders such as Down Syndrome that they say lead to more abortions. | |
 | Study provides insights on the effects of exercise on cognitive performanceA new British Journal of Psychology study has looked at the details behind how cognitive performance may improve during aerobic exercise. |
 | Is there a benefit to switching from flash monitoring to RT-CGM for hypoglycemia?In follow-up to the I HART CGM study, which showed the benefit of real-time continuous glucose monitoring (RT-CGM) compared to flash monitoring for time spent in hypoglycemia among adults with type 1 diabetes at high hypoglycemia risk, researchers conducted an extension trial that assessed the effects of continuing RT-CGM or switching from flash to RT-CGM of the subsequent 8 weeks. The study design and results are published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics . |
LA typhus outbreak adds fuel to debates over homelessness, housingA man hospitalized for dehydration a few months ago at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center started suffering a severe fever, and doctors weren't sure why. | |
NAM special publication outlines steps toward making health care systems fully interoperableWhile health care has made great strides in recent years with the proliferation of electronic health records (EHRs), establishment of regional health information exchanges, and development of data exchange standards and interfaces, interoperability among health care technologies remains very limited, says a new National Academy of Medicine (NAM) special publication. The lack of interoperability results in waste, inefficiency, and clinician burnout, which can contribute to patient safety risk. | |
Missouri voters must decide on 3 medical marijuana plansMissouri supporters of medical marijuana will have their say in the November election. The only question: Do they cast a yes vote once, twice or three times? | |
Slight increase in Medicare's outpatient 'Part B' premiumMedicare says its "Part B" premium for outpatient care will rise by just $1.50 a month next year. That means retirees should be able to keep more of their recently-announced Social Security cost-of-living increase. | |
Congo reports five new Ebola deaths; UN worker is infectedCongo is reporting five new confirmed Ebola deaths in its latest outbreak, while a worker with the United Nations peacekeeping mission is among several new cases under treatment. | |
Biology news
 | Understanding the neurological code behind how flies flyA common flesh fly takes off and maneuvers effortlessly, its head and body steadied by a hidden, miniscule gyroscope-like structure that gives it an unparalleled balance. |
 | A novel biosensor to advance diverse high-level production of microbial cell factoriesA research group at KAIST presented a novel biosensor that can produce diverse, high-level microbial cell factories. The biosensor monitors the concentration of products and even intermediates when new strains are being developed. This strategy provides a new platform for manufacturing diverse natural products from renewable resources. The team created four natural products of high-level pharmaceutical importance with this strategy. |
 | Scientists shine light on protein linked to fat storageIn new research that may have implications for strategies fighting obesity and diabetes, UNSW scientists have uncovered the structure of a protein believed to regulate the formation of fat in cells, as well as the formation of fat tissue in animals including humans. |
 | Molecular and cellular biologist wins Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology for work on mouse brainsJohannes Kohl, a molecular and cellular biologist at Harvard University, has been awarded the grand prize in the Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology competition. He describes his work in an Essay on Science and Society piece for the journal Science. Kohl won for his work studying the mechanics of brain activity in mice as they care for their young. |
 | Health and balance of the gut microbiota is important in the progression of bacterial infectionThe health and balance of the gut microbiota is important in the progression of a bacterial infection, according to new research. |
 | Quantifying evolutionary impacts of humans on the biosphere is harder than it seemsAre human disturbances to the environment driving evolutionary changes in animals and plants? A new study conducted by McGill researchers finds that, on average, human disturbances don't appear to accelerate the process of natural selection. While the finding may seem reassuring, this unexpected pattern could reflect the limited number of species for which data were available. |
 | A new mechanism for how animal cells stay intactAlmost eight years ago, Stanford University bioengineer Manu Prakash was looking for a way to watch every cell in an adult living, behaving animal in elaborate detail. He searched the catalog of life and happened upon the simple marine animal Trichoplax adhaerens—or Tplax, as Prakash has come to call it. |
 | Can most Americans be identified by a relative's DNA? Maybe soonThe remarkable technique used to identify the suspected "Golden State Killer" four decades after his crimes—genetic genealogy—could be used to identify half of all Americans from relatives' DNA samples, a new study says. |
 | Leek orchids are beautiful, endangered and we have no idea how to grow themLeek orchids don't have many friends. Maybe it's because they lack the drop-dead gorgeous looks of many of their fellow family members. Or perhaps it's because they're always the first to leave the party: as soon as sheep or weeds encroach on their territory, they're out of there. Whatever the reason, you don't see leek orchids around very often. |
 | New study links common herbicides and antibiotic resistanceA new study finds that bacteria develop antibiotic resistance up to 100,000 times faster when exposed to the world's most widely used herbicides, Roundup (glyphosate) and Kamba (dicamba) and antibiotics compared to without the herbicide. |
 | Are electric fences really the best way to solve human-elephant land conflicts?Conflict between humans and elephants has reached a crisis point in Kenya. As the elephants have begun to regularly raid farms in search of food, it has become not uncommon for local people to attack and kill them in retaliation. Between 2013 and 2016, 1,700 crop raiding incidents, 40 human deaths and 300 injuries caused by wildlife were reported in the Kajiado district alone. |
 | Should vegans avoid avocados and almonds?A video recently doing the rounds on Facebook included a segment from the BBC comedy quiz show QI. The video asks which of avocados, almonds, melon, kiwi or butternut squash are suitable for vegans. The answer, at least according to QI, is none of them. |
This email is a free service of Science X Network
You received this email because you subscribed to our list.
If you do not wish to receive such emails in the future, please unsubscribe here.
You are subscribed as jmabs1@gmail.com. You may manage your subscription options from your Science X profile
No comments:
Post a Comment