72399937
submission
sciencehabit writes:
A peer reviewer’s suggestion that two female researchers find “one or two male biologists” to co-author and help them strengthen a manuscript they had written and submitted to a journal has unleashed an avalanche of disbelief and disgust on Twitter today. Evolutionary geneticist Fiona Ingleby was shocked when she read the review accompanying the rejection for her latest manuscript, which investigates gender differences in the Ph.D.-to-postdoc transition, so she took the issue to Twitter: “It would probably be beneficial to find one or two male biologists to work with (or at least obtain internal peer review from, but better yet as active co-authors)” to prevent the manuscript from “drifting too far away from empirical evidence into ideologically biased assumptions,” the reviewer wrote in one portion.
72399551
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Three-dimensional printed throat implants recently saved three newborn boys in the United States from near certain death. All suffered from tracheobronchomalacia, which causes the windpipe in infants to periodically collapse and prevents normal breathing. Researchers performed CT scans on each boy to determine the precise size and shape of their trachea. The images were integrated with a computer model to design hollow, tube-shaped plastic splints. These were then manufactured by a 3D printing technique called laser sintering, in which a laser melts powdered plastic particles together layer by layer to build a 3D structure from the bottom up. The splints were designed not only to be flexible, to allow the airway to move, but also to stretch slowly over time to match the growth of each boy’s windpipe. The splints worked so well that each boy was able to come off a mechanical ventilator, leave intensive care, and even return home.
72373839
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Nine hundred kilometers off the east coast of Madagascar lies the tiny island paradise of Mauritius. The waters are pristine, the beaches bright white, and the average temperature hovers between 22C and 28C (72F to 82F) year-round. But conditions there may not have always been so idyllic. A new study suggests that about 4000 years ago, a prolonged drought on the island left many of the native species, such as dodo birds and giant tortoises, dead in a soup of poisonous algae and their own feces.
72365639
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys are one of the coldest, most inhospitable places on Earth—and are the closest terrestrial analog to the harsh martian desert. For decades, scientists have thought that beneath a thin permafrost layer, the valleys were ice-cemented earth. But new data suggest that there are zones of liquid water hundreds of meters below the surface. A deep, briny “subpermafrost” groundwater network could harbor a hidden ecosystem, offering tantalizing clues to a possible martian habitat.
72331249
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Mice and rats communicate in the ultrasonic frequency range, and it’s thought that cats evolved the ability to hear those high-pitched squeaks to better hunt their prey. Now, a new study suggests that sensitivity to higher pitched sounds may cause seizures in some older cats. After receiving reports of the problem, nicknamed the “Tom and Jerry syndrome” because of how the cartoon cat is often startled by sounds, researchers surveyed cat owners and examined their pets’ medical records, looking for insight into the types and durations of seizures and the sounds that provoked them. In 96 cats, they found evidence of the syndrome they call feline audiogenic reflex seizures. The most common types of seizure-eliciting sounds included crinkling tinfoil, clanking a metal spoon on a ceramic feeding bowl, and clinking glass. The severity of the seizure ranged from brief muscle jerks to more serious episodes where the cat lost consciousness and stiffened and jerked for several minutes.
72324435
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Researchers have found a way to deliver gene-activating molecules called transcription factors into specific tissues of a living animal for the first time. The approach, which many have written off as too technically challenging, prevented a form of liver damage in mice—though it has many more technical hurdles to clear before it can be used in other tissues, or in people.
72208873
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Underneath the bubbling geysers and hot springs of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming sits a volcanic hot spot that has driven some of the largest eruptions on Earth. Geoscientists have now completely imaged the subterranean plumbing system and have found not just one, but two magma chambers underneath the giant volcano.
72204673
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Despite Benjamin Franklin's best efforts with a kite and a key, the phenomenon of lightning remains a scientific enigma. Now, researchers have developed a new tool that could help them solve some of lightning’s mysteries. By using cosmic rays, space-traveling particles that constantly rain down on our atmosphere, scientists report they can peek inside thunderstorms and measure their electric fields, helping them pinpoint the conditions that cause storms' electrical outbursts. The advance could help researchers predict more precisely when and where lightning is most likely to strike and get people out of harm's way in time.
72200099
submission
sciencehabit writes:
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has taken its first stab at quantifying the hazard from earthquakes associated with oil and gas development. The assessment, released in a preliminary report today, identifies 17 areas in eight states with elevated seismic hazard. And geologists now say that such induced earthquakes could potentially be large, up to magnitude 7, which is big enough to cause buildings to collapse and widespread damage.
72176123
submission
sciencehabit writes:
A British graduate student says he’s found a way to tell the difference between male and female stegosaurs, and perhaps dinosaurs in general. But critics are already attacking the study’s methodology and ethics. “I would have rejected this paper on a number of grounds,” says Kevin Padian, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley.
72162051
submission
sciencehabit writes:
For the first time, astronomers have detected visible starlight reflecting off a planet orbiting a distant star. The telescope used in the discovery was too small to tell scientists much new about the previously discovered planet. But astronomers say the new technique used promises to reveal much more when combined with better spectrographs and bigger telescopes now in the works. “The ultimate goal is to characterize a planet like Earth,” says team leader Jorge Martins of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Porto, Portugal.
72162037
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Physicists have long known that charged particles like electrons will spiral in a magnetic field and give off radiation. But nobody had ever detected the radio waves emanating from a single whirling electron—until now. The striking new technique researchers used to do it might someday help particle physicists answer a question that has vexed them for decades: How much does a ghostly particle called the neutrino weigh?
72134783
submission
sciencehabit writes:
If you see vultures circling overhead, it doesn’t mean you’re about to die—in fact, you could just be near a power plant. The large, bald-headed birds float on rising currents of warm air known as thermals, which they use to soar high into the sky without beating their wings, thereby saving energy. Now, scientists have shown that vultures also use air currents from power plants to get a lift. Thermal power plants, which produce power through steam, generate stronger and hotter thermals than those that occur naturally, making for an extra speedy vulture elevator. The authors suggest that new thermal power plants should be built more than 20 kilometers from airports, and air traffic controllers should alter flight paths to avoid existing ones.
72134589
submission
sciencehabit writes:
Science has just learned that a New York court has backtracked on a judicial order that received worldwide attention today. The order--a writ of habeas corpus for two research chimps--would have recognized the animals as legal persons for the first time in U.S. history. Late this afternoon, however, the court released an amended order with the words "habeas corpus" struck out. It looks like chimp personhood is off the table for now.
72106023
submission
sciencehabit writes:
In a decision that effectively recognizes chimpanzees as legal persons for the first time, a New York judge today granted a pair of Stony Brook University lab animals the right to have their day in court. The ruling marks the first time in U.S. history that an animal has been covered by a writ of habeus corpus, which typically allows human prisoners to challenge their detention. The judicial action could force the university, which is believed to be holding the chimps, to release the primates, and could sway additional judges to do the same with other research animals.
