Tuesday's Top 100 Science News & Stories
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Breaking News,
SciBrief
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The Mars map, which was released Monday (July 14), was created using observations from four orbiting spacecraft over more than 16 years. It should significantly advance scientists' understanding of the Red Planet, researchers said.
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While NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will be capable of finding signs of life on nearby exoplanets after its 2018 launch, a bona fide hunt for aliens beyond Earth's neighborhood will require even bigger instruments, experts say.
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When the gorilla Willie B. had to move to a tiny cage at the Atlanta Zoo for six months, the vet staff decided to put Thorazine in the Coca-Cola he drank in the morning. Willie responded to the drug as many institutionalized humans do: H...
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You run into the grocery store to quickly pick up one ingredient. You grab what you need and head to the front of the store. After quickly sizing up the check-out lines, you choose the one that looks fastest. You chose wrong. People you ...
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Janne Hansen - DCA - Danish Centre For Food And Agriculture, Aarhus University Honey bees with roots in the local environment manage much better in the struggle for survival than imported honey bees from foreign environments. A world wit...
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John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Space missions generally fall into three different categories: small, medium, and large. Dull naming conventions aside, the various mission types really tell the story of the ...
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A new study has revealed that gardens in care homes could provide promising therapeutic benefits for patients suffering from dementia.The research is published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association and by criticall...
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European researchers have recovered a genome of the bacterium Brucella melitensis from a 700-year-old skeleton found in the ruins of a Medieval Italian village.
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Blood clots occur so rarely in children undergoing spine operations that most patients require nothing more than vigilant monitoring after surgery and should be spared risky and costly anti-clotting medications, according to a new Johns ...
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An after-action review of the Brigham and Women's Hospital emergency radiology response to the Boston Marathon bombings highlights the crucial role medical imaging plays in emergency situations and ways in which radiology departments can...
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Everyone knows that cholesterol, at least the bad kind, can cause heart disease and hardening of the arteries. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago describe a new role for cholesterol in the activation of a cellular ...
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The manipulation of atoms has reached a new level: Together with teams from Finland and Japan, physicists from the University of Basel were able to place 20 single atoms on a fully insulated surface at room temperature to form the smalle...
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Sudden infant death syndrome and other sleep-related causes of infant mortality have several known risk factors, but little is known if these factors change for different age groups.
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The phenomenon of 'boomerang employees' is not unique to professional athletes, says two recent studies. Organizations of all types are beginning to recognize and embrace the value of recruiting and welcoming back former employees. From ...
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A combination drug has been developed that controls both tumor growth and metastasis, a mouse study has shown. By combining a COX-2 inhibitor, similar to Celebrex, and an epoxide hydrolase inhibitor, the drug controls angiogenesis, limit...
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Aspergillus -- a common fungus that attacks the lungs and is found in soil and other organic matter -- has become resistant to life-saving drugs in parts of rural Yorkshire, researchers report. Although the link has been made before in t...
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Of nail biting descent calls and cockpit politics: An excerpt from Space.com's Google+ Hangout with Dr. Aldrin on 14 July 2014. - See it here: http://goo.gl/xJktMk
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Destin from Smarter Every Day travelled to Australia and got some amazing slow-mo footage of fish eating.
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Prof. Rivka Inzelberg of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of […]
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On July 12, the moon may have seemed slightly brighter to the casual observer. This is how the 'supermoon' appeared around the globe.
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Our planet's core powers a magnetic field that shields us from a hostile cosmos. But how does it really work?
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Girls and young women who post sexy or revealing photos on social media sites are viewed by their female peers as less attractive and less competent to perform tasks, a new study indicates. One researcher's advice for girls and young wom...
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An innovative technique for early disease detection, which researchers call immunosignaturing, has been described in a new article. Rather than using a reductionist biomarker paradigm, immunosignaturing relies on a multiplexed system in ...
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Researchers have found a universal descriptor of charge-transfer binding properties for carbon-based lithium-ion batteries. The model is based on intrinsic electronic characteristics of materials used as battery anodes. These include the...
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Older people are nearly twice as likely as their younger counterparts to have their memory and cognitive processes impaired by environmental distractions.
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People unsuspectingly choose friends who share parts of the same DNA, a new genetic analysis finds.
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More than 18 dinosaur skeletons illegally taken from Mongolia were formally returned to their homeland during a ceremony in New York last week, U.S. authorities announced.
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Americans' interest in low-sodium foods has declined slightly in recent years, and may continue to drop in the future, according to new research.
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The cold front sweeping across the United States is not technically a polar vortex, but it will bring significantly lower temperatures.
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How existing cities expand and new cities emerge will determine how humanity fares in the 21st century. David Biello reports. -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
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When the spectacular supermoon emerged on Saturday (July 12), so did shutterbugs around the world. Space.com readers from around the world sent in amazing photos of the amazing lunar display.
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Unhealthy foods like white bread and crackers cause the wing deformity, which inhibits the birds ability to fly, and can result in death. The Humane Society of the United States strongly advises not to feed wildlife.
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The National Hurricane Center’s new maps, released as the storm approached the U.S., predicted the location and severity of the surge -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
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The European spacecraft has completed a risky aerobreaking maneuver in Venus' atmosphere, allowing critical data of the planet's atmosphere to be taken. Continue reading →
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The Game Innovation Lab at NYU-Poly has developed playful digital interaction devices that they call the "Fidget Widgets".
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The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) office of Commercial Space Transportation has published a “Record of Decision” giving approval for a SpaceX Texas Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas.
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The return of LeBron James to the Cleveland Cavaliers may have riveted the sports world and social media, but the phenomenon of "going home," whether to a geographic location or a former job, is not unique to professional athletes.
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So-called gain-of-function pathogen research will likely receive closer scrutiny after three U.S. biolab incidents -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com
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The U.S. Geological Survey compiled data from four orbiting spacecraft watching over more than 16 years to reveal the materials, events, and processes that made the present day face of Mars.
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In this post, I'm going to attempt to tie together the recent rising of a "supermoon," the first Moon landing, the painter Mark Rothko, and photographic technique. I hope you'll bear with me, keep reading, and click on all the images... ...
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(Phys.org) —An international team of astronomers has discovered that gas around young galaxies is almost barren, devoid of the seeds from which new stars are thought to form – molecules of hydrogen.
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Eating a high-fat meal after a stressful day led to calories burning more slowly, reports a new study. Continue reading →
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Mild defects in embryonic cells could explain physical similarities along with tameness across domesticated species.
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Girls and young women who post sexy or revealing photos on social media sites such as Facebook are viewed by their female peers as less physically and socially attractive and less competent to perform tasks, a new study from Oregon State...
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Scientists have found the first evidence of wild gorillas communicating by scent.
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Lithium-ion batteries could benefit from a theoretical model created at Rice University and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that predicts how carbon components will perform.
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People unsuspectingly choose friends who share parts of the same DNA, a new genetic analysis finds.
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The annual charity event sponsored by Petco send several dozen dogs out in search of the perfect wave.
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An ancient ancestor of the elephant, once believed to have disappeared from North America before humans ever arrived there, might actually have roamed the continent longer than previously thought. Archaeologists have uncovered the first ...
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One of the riddles of mammal evolution is explained: the conservation of the number of trunk vertebrae. Dutch and American researchers have shown that this conservation is due to the role of speed in survival of fast running mammals. The...
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Marine biologists are witnessing oceans grow more acidic. There may be hope though as underwater vegetation along coastlines may buffer the acidity like a Tums does for acid indigestion.
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A study from US researchers suggests that friends are more genetically similar than strangers - to the same degree as fourth cousins.
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Moms who worked full time reported significantly better physical and mental health than moms who worked part time, research involving more than 2,500 mothers found.
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The BBC's Pallab Ghosh reports from a potential spaceport site in north Wales, one of eight aerodromes to be shortlisted in the UK as a base for spaceplane flights.
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Designing the inside of a 1,000mph car
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Most everyone who has ever selected their fruits and vegetables from the "organic" section while grocery shopping probably thought they were doing something good for their bodies and the environment.
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A Space Exploration Technologies' Falcon 9 rocket has blasted off from Florida, after a two month delay.
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If you believe there must be extraterrestrial life somewhere in the immensity of the universe, here's some good news: Top NASA scientists agree with you, and at a panel discussion on Monday, they said they were closer than ever to findin...
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In a decade, Americans have saved an estimated $1.2 trillion by taking generic drugs instead of the high-priced originals. But the booming market in copycat prescription pharmaceuticals - coupled with insurance companies' efforts to keep...
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Scores of giant African snails, still alive, have been seized by US customs agents at Los Angeles International Airport.
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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) released footage last week of a state-of-the-art guided bullet system. That’s right, guided bullets. The Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program is DARPA’s somewhat disturbi...
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Looking to capitalize on the anticipated burgeoning space tourism industry, U.K. officials have announced plans to build a commercial spaceport in the British Isles. Government officials will disclose the potential spaceport locations on...
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Brooks Hays BERLIN, July 14 (UPI) -- A new study, published this week in the journal Genetics, suggests traits like floppy ears and splotches of white hair or fur are byproducts of domestication.
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Letters to the editor and online comments.
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The recent discovery of vials of the smallpox virus points to the need for greater safety precautions.
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A new form of the contraceptive Depo-Provera is being introduced in four African countries this year, and its backers hope that its simplicity may eventually allow women to inject themselves.
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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Monday cleared the path for seismic testing off the coast of New Jersey that will blast the floor of the Atlantic Ocean with loud noises as part of a climate change research project.
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Given the placenta’s vital role, and all that can go wrong in pregnancy, relatively little is known about the organ, but that makes it fertile territory for potential medical breakthroughs.
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Officials have used bulldozers, chain saws and now beetles to get rid of the tamarisk, a tree that consumes a lot of water, but some scientists say it may not help.
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Upon approach, offshore oil and gas platforms appear industrial and lifeless -- devoid of any life, besides the humming of industry. Their potential to function as artificial reef systems seems impossible. Yet, the Rig2Reef Explorers of ...
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What if people still used typewriters in the year 4,000? Or wrote with a stone and chisel today? That's roughly the equivalent of what archaeologists discovered in Turkey, where a dig dating to 600 to 900 BC turned up clay tokens alongsi...
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Sister from another mister. Brother from another mother. The family you choose. When it comes to describing your friends, those turns of phrase may be a lot more accurate than you think. Genetics researchers at the University of Californ...
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A new review of research has restarted the argument over the relative importance of practice and native talent.
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Meet our new best buds. This gorgeous flowers-opening time-lapse by David de los Santos Gil took nine months and thousands of pictures to make, according to the Vimeo description. Sure, there are a lot of blooming sequences out there. Bu...
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CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (Reuters) - Overcoming two months of delays, a Space Exploration Technologies’ Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Florida on Monday to put six small commercial communications satellites into orbit for ORBCOMM Inc.
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"A mass in movement resists change of direction," inventor Nikola Tesla once said. "So does the world oppose a new idea." However, eventually good new ideas tend to win out over resistance. Tesla was a visionary of his time — thoug...
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A dweller on the Upper West Side of Manhattan complains about the noisy birds at night. Hey, maybe we’re the ones keeping them up.
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An astrobiologist who noticed globules that might have been water on a Mars lander in 2008 demonstrates that small amounts of water may be forming on the planet today.
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When we don't have enough of something — love, time or money — we spend extraordinary effort worrying about how to get by, research shows. The stress of poverty changes the way people think.
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A fossil, only two inches long, discovered in British Columbia is determined to be of a hedgehog that lived 52 million years ago, during the early Eocene epoch.
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In warming seas, they are on the move, and are threatening kelp forests and sea grass meadows in temperate waters.
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We may not realize it, but we’re applying mathematical notions to relationships, and a crush is just a statistically small sample.
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There's a new mega-mammal on the menu of America's first hunters. On a ranch in northwestern Sonora, Mexico, archaeologists have discovered 13,400-year-old weapons mingled with bones from an extinct elephant relative called the gomphothe...
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Brooks Hays CAPE TOWN, South Africa, July 14 (UPI) -- More than 500 rhinos have been killed in South Africa so far this year, putting the country on pace to break last year's record of more than 1,000 dead rhinos.
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Darn it, spatial awareness. Why do you have the ruin all the fun? Watch these pups in the video above struggle to solve their horizontal-stick-through-vertical-frame dilemma. Though most can't quite figure it out, persistence does prevai...
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LanzaTech New Zealand, which counts US billionaire clean-tech investor Vinod Khosla as its biggest shareholder, posted a wider full-year loss as the company scales up technology that uses microbes to convert industrial waste gases...
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You and your friends may have more than music and movies in common. Friends typically have more genetic similarities than strangers, researchers say. That may have evolutionary advantages.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The truism that friends are the family you choose may be more accurate than you might suppose.
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Genetic testing of 30 samples of hair supposedly from a humanoid creature determined they were from other known animals, though two were from an extinct species.
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You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family, or so says the adage. But scientists have found that by choosing friends we may also be unwittingly choosing the company of distant relatives.
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You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family, or so says the adage. But scientists have found that by choosing friends we may also be unwittingly choosing the company of distant relatives.
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Deceased dictator Mobutu Sese Seko wanted his hometown to shine brighter than the diamonds he ransacked from the Congo’s coffers—and he apparently isn’t the only world leader to shed some light (and money and resources) on his birthplace...
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A new British film aims to break fresh ground by putting a gay twist on the popular science fiction genre. Directed by Mike Buonaiuto, " Credence " follows two gay fathers' decision to "give up all their possessions to ensure the surviva...
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A veteran science writer jumps to Dad’s defense, drawing on several decades of research and his own experience as a five-time father.
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Apparently, big shoes on a guy really only mean one thing: big socks. Mental Floss recruited health researcher Dr. Aaron Carroll to debunk some misconceptions about sex and contraception, from the fairly plausible to the downright bizarr...
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Russian authorities have announced the deaths of two children after a freak hail storm hit Siberia this weekend. In the video above, recently uploaded to YouTube , the hail storm can be seen pummeling the beach in the Siberian city of No...
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Friends are as genetically similar as fourth cousins, a study by Yale and the University of California has found
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A promising industry has also been called a “graveyard of broken dreams,” in part because of a nagging problem of motion sickness associated with the viewing devices.
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In just a few short paragraphs, one mom has summed up the problem with gender stereotyping in kids' products. New Jersey mom Lisa Ryder was flipping through a Lands' End clothing catalog with her daughter when she noticed something wrong...
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Standing taller than Niagara Falls, a new waterslide — appropriately named Verrückt , which means "insane" in German — opened on Thursday (July 10) in Kansas City, Kansas. The slide stands 168 feet 7 inches (about 51 meters) tall, and is...
