72465597
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sciencehabit writes:
The zombie apocalypse may be more than just a horror story for some bacteria. New research shows that when exposed to a microbe-slaying silver solution, the germs can “go zombie,” wiping out their living compatriots even after death. The results may explain silver's long-lasting antibacterial power and could improve the performance of medical products that keep us safe from harmful pathogens.
72464871
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sciencehabit writes:
Over the past decade, research groups around the globe have created a variety of tiny particles that move on their own, powering themselves forward. Eventually, researchers hope to use such particles to deliver drugs inside the body and whisk up chemical spills. Now, two teams of researchers have given these microparticles a couple of new skills. One enables them to swim upstream, mimicking the way certain bacterial pathogens find their targets; the other churns out hydrogen gas for fuel cells at an unprecedented rate.
72464257
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sciencehabit writes:
NASA hopes to send the first round-trip, manned spaceflight to Mars by the 2030s. If the mission succeeds, astronauts could spend several years potentially being bombarded with cosmic rays—high-energy particles launched across space by supernovae and other galactic explosions. Now, a study in mice suggests that these particles could alter the shape of neurons, impairing astronauts’ memories and other cognitive abilities.
72455845
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sciencehabit writes:
Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) – a state agency established to advocate for native Hawaiins — voted Thursday to withdraw their support for construction of the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) on the summit of the Mauna Kea volcano. The vote follows weeks of protests by Native Hawaiians who say the massive structure would desecrate one of their most holy places. The protests have shut down construction of the telescope, which would be the world’s largest optical telescope if completed.
The vote, which reverses a 2009 decision to endorse the project, strikes a powerful if symbolic blow against a project that, for many native Hawaiians, has come to symbolize more than a century of assaults against their land, culture and sovereignty.
72434343
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sciencehabit writes:
Did the American Psychological Association (APA) collude with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to enable the torture of detainees in the War on Terror? The answer won't be known until June, when an independent investigation is due to conclude. But at least one thing was made clear today in a report from an independent group of psychologists based on e-mail exchanges between APA and CIA officials from 2003 to 2006: The world's largest professional organization for psychologists has maintained a surprisingly cozy relationship with the defense and intelligence community.
72432501
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sciencehabit writes:
The broken glass and burned wreckage are still being cleared in the wake of the riots that convulsed Baltimore's streets on 27 April. The final trigger of the unrest was the funeral of a 25-year-old African-American man who had died in police custody, but observers point to many other root causes, from income inequality to racial discrimination. But for a few researchers who are studying Baltimore's unrest, the question is not the ultimate causes of the riot but its mechanism: How do such riots self-organize and spread? One of those researchers, Dan Braha, a social scientist at the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been collecting data from Twitter that spans the riot from buildup to aftermath, part of a larger study of social media and social unrest around the world. He spoke to Science about how researchers are helping to predict the riots of the future.
72431217
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sciencehabit writes:
Up to one-sixth of the species on Earth could disappear if climate change remains on its current course, according to a new analysis of more than 100 smaller studies. “All the studies are in pretty good agreement: The more warming we have, the more species we’ll lose,” says Dov Sax, a conservation biologist at Brown University who was not involved in the work. “This is really important to know, from a policy viewpoint.”
72402295
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sciencehabit writes:
Republicans in Congress appear to be headed for a showdown with the White House over controversial “secret science” legislation aimed at changing how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses scientific studies. A deeply divided Senate panel yesterday advanced a bill that would require EPA to craft its policies based only on public data available to outside experts. The House of Representatives has already passed a similar measure. But Democrats and science groups have harshly criticized the approach, and the White House has threatened a veto.
72399937
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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.