3D printer makes bionic hand for 5-year-old girl
Inverness, Scotland (UPI) Oct 2, 2014 -
Hayley Fraser, a five-year-old girl from Scotland, recently became the first child in the United Kingdom to be outfitted with a prosthetic limb made using 3D printing technology.
Fraser was born without fingers on her left hand; ashamed, she'd often hide that hand when having her picture taken. But not anymore. Her new bright pink bionic hand, inspired by the movie Ironman, is quite a s ...
more
Flight ban to protect baby walruses beached in Alaska
Los Angeles (AFP) Oct 02, 2014 -
US wildlife authorities have ordered planes to avoid flying too close to a vast herd of exhausted walruses beached on a remote Alaskan beach.
The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has told pilots to avoid flying below 2,000 feet to protect the animals, which could stampede if alarmed by engine noise.
Baby seals would notably be at threat in a stampede in the huge herd, which experts say ha ...
more
Boycott threat over rare New Zealand dolphin
Wellington (AFP) Oct 03, 2014 -
Environmentalists are threatening to call a boycott of New Zealand's billion-dollar seafood export industry unless the government boosts efforts to save the world's rarest dolphin, which has dwindled to a population of 50.
The Maui's dolphin, the world's smallest and scarcest sub-species, is found only in shallow waters off the North Island of New Zealand.
It is listed as critically end ...
more
Curiosity helps the brain acquire new information
Davis, Calif. (UPI) Oct 2, 2014 -
Being curious about something actually changes the way the brain behaves, preparing it to learn something new. In fact, a piqued interest doesn't just ready the brain for the immediately relevant learning material, but also enable our brains to better absorb incidental information too.
In other words, curiosity is a magic elixir that greases our intellectual gears. That's the takeaway, ...
more
Dinosaur tracks in Bolivia threatened with extinction
Sucre, Bolivia (AFP) Oct 03, 2014 -
A hill in southeastern Bolivia is crisscrossed by fossilized dinosaur tracks - a total of more than 5,000 footprints, some more than a meter long, dating back 65 million years.
But preservationists say this paleontological treasure is at risk - thanks to human activity that threatens the ground they rest on.
Cal Orcko, which means "lime hill" in the local Quechua language, on the outs ...
more
'Vaccinated' mosquitos released in Rio to combat dengue
Rio De Janeiro (AFP) Oct 02, 2014 -
Ten thousand mosquitos immunized against dengue fever have been released in Brazil as part of an innovative attempt to curb the spread of the tropical viral sickness, biologists said Thursday.
Gabriel Sylvestre Ribeiro told AFP that the Aedes aegypti mosquitos were released in Tubiacanga neighborhood in northern Rio state.
"We inoculated them in the lab with the Wolbachia bacteria, which ...
more
Divers capture remarkable images of underwater mountains near the Canary Islands
La Graciosa, Canary Islands (UPI) Oct 2, 2014 -
Just as there are soaring peaks and deep, dramatic canyons and valleys atop dry land, there are also remarkable geological features hiding beneath the surface of the sea - many of them undocumented.
Recently, scientists with Oceana, an ocean conservation organization, captured the first images of the Dacia and Tritón seamounts off the coast of the Canary Islands. And the maiden photos ...
more
Some sharks are loners, others are gregarious
Exeter, England (UPI) Oct 2, 2014 -
Just as people exist on a sliding scale of sociability - some seeking out and thriving in the presence of others, some preferring personal space and solitude, others somewhere in between - sharks, too, have personalities.
That's the conclusion of a team of researchers from the University of Exeter and the Marine Biological Association who recently monitored several groups of juvenile ...
more
What next for HK? Promised talks bring scepticism over change
Hong Kong (AFP) Oct 03, 2014 -
Last-ditch talks agreed between the Hong Kong government and student protesters may have temporarily relieved tensions - but what can the authorities really offer pro-democracy campaigners? And would Beijing ever agree to significant concessions?
The city has seen nearly a week of mass demonstrations and although numbers have started to dwindle after a two-day public holiday, some are not r ...
more
Japan volcano dead found crushed between boulders: report
Tokyo (AFP) Oct 02, 2014 -
Rescuers searching the volcano that erupted without warning in Japan found dead hikers wedged between huge rocks and people half buried in ash, it emerged Thursday.
At least 47 people are now known to have died in Japan's worst volcanic disaster in nearly 90 years. But up to 24 are still missing, with fears some could be entombed in the thick, sticky ash that has coated the peak since Saturd ...
more
Modi wields broom in new 'Clean India' push
New Delhi (AFP) Oct 02, 2014 -
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wielded a broom in a New Delhi slum on Thursday as he pledged to sweep away India's reputation for poor public hygiene and rudimentary sanitation.
Hours after flying home from Washington, the energetic premier rolled up his sleeves and picked up a brush to launch a 'Clean India' campaign on a public holiday which celebrates independence icon Mahatma Gandhi's life ...
more
Stowaway species threaten biodiversity
Paris (AFP) Oct 03, 2014 -
In the early 1980s, the North American comb jellyfish quit its Atlantic home, hid away in the belly of a cargo ship and headed for the Black Sea.
By just over a decade later, its descendants had decimated the anchovy population in their new surroundings - a jellyfish heaven with unlimited food in the eggs and young of other fish... and not a natural predator in sight.
Invasive hitchhike ...
more
A Heartbeat Away? Hybrid "Patch" Could Replace Transplants
Tel Aviv, Israel (SPX) Oct 03, 2014 -
TAU researcher harnesses gold nanoparticles to engineer novel biocompatible cardiac patch. Because heart cells cannot multiply and cardiac muscles contain few stem cells, heart tissue is unable to repair itself after a heart attack. Now Tel Aviv University researchers are literally setting a new gold standard in cardiac tissue engineering.
Dr. Tal Dvir and his graduate student Michal Sheva ...
more
Plumbing system beneath Greenland slows ice sheet as summer progresses
Austin TX (SPX) Oct 03, 2014 -
A team led by scientists at the University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics has for the first time directly observed multiple parts of Greenland's subglacial plumbing system and how that system evolves each summer to slow down the ice sheet's movement toward the sea.
These new observations could be important in accurately modeling Greenland's future response to climate change. ...
more
New approach can predict impact of climate change on species
Frostburg MD (SPX) Oct 03, 2014 -
When scientists talk about the consequences of climate change, it can mean more than how we human beings will be impacted by higher temperatures, rising seas and serious storms. Plants and trees are also feeling the change, but they can't move out of the way.
Researchers at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and University of Vermont have developed a new tool to ov ...
more
Greenland Ice Sheet's meltwater channels studied
Los Alamos NM (SPX) Oct 03, 2014 -
An international research team's field work, drilling and measuring melt rates and ice sheet movement in Greenland is showing that things are, in fact, more complicated than we thought.
"Although the Greenland Ice Sheet initially speeds up each summer in its slow-motion race to the sea, the network of meltwater channels beneath the sheet is not necessarily forming the slushy racetrack that ...
more
Study shows sharks have personalities
Exeter, UK (SPX) Oct 03, 2014 -
Some sharks are 'gregarious' and have strong social connections, whilst others are more solitary and prefer to remain inconspicuous, according to a new study which is the first to show that the notorious predators have personality traits.
Personalities are known to exist in many animals, but are usually defined by individual characteristics such as how exploratory, bold or aggressive an in ...
more
'Smart' bandage emits phosphorescent glow for healing below
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 03, 2014 -
Inspired by a desire to help wounded soldiers, an international, multidisciplinary team of researchers led by Assistant Professor Conor L. Evans at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) has created a paint-on, see-through, "smart" bandage that glows to indicate a wound's tissue oxygenation concentration.
Because oxygen ...
more
Zooplankton migrations may affect global ocean currents
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 03, 2014 -
Sea monkeys have captured the popular attention of both children and aquarium hobbyists because of their easily observable life cycle - sold as dehydrated eggs, these tiny brine shrimp readily hatch, develop and mate given little more than a tank of salt water.
Physicists, though, are interested in a shorter-term pattern: Like other zooplankton, brine shrimp vertically migrate in large gr ...
more
Changing Antarctic waters could trigger steep rise in sea levels
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Oct 03, 2014 -
Current changes in the ocean around Antarctica are disturbingly close to conditions 14,000 years ago that new research shows may have led to the rapid melting of Antarctic ice and an abrupt 3-4 metre rise in global sea level.
The research published in Nature Communications found that in the past, when ocean temperatures around Antarctica became more layered - with a warm layer of water bel ...
more
DARPA Technology Identifies Counterfeit Microelectronics
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 01, 2014 -
Advanced software and equipment to aid in the fight against counterfeit microelectronics in U.S. weapons and cybersecurity systems has been transitioned to military partners under DARPA's Integrity and Reliability of Integrated Circuits (IRIS) program.
Researchers with SRI International, an IRIS performer, have announced they have provided Advanced Scanning Optical Microscope (ASOM) techno ...
more
Dalai Lama in 'informal' talks to return to Tibet
Dharamsala, India (AFP) Oct 02, 2014 -
The Dalai Lama indicated Thursday he was in informal talks with China to make a historic pilgrimage to his Tibetan homeland after more than half a century in exile.
In an interview with AFP at his base in northern India, the Tibetan spiritual leader also spoke of his optimism about the new leadership in Beijing and of his hopes for a peaceful end to the stand-off in Hong Kong.
But he als ...
more
Hungary hosts NATO exercise in 'show of strength'
Veszprem, Hungary (AFP) Oct 02, 2014 -
Hungarian and US soldiers took part in a joint military exercise Thursday, simulating "everyday" battle situations in Ukraine, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.
Around 350 Hungarian and 60 US soldiers took part in the exercise near Veszprem 110 kilometres west of Budapest, during which troops, tanks and planes used live ammunition.
The drill reinforced the US message of militar ...
more
Defiant H.K. protesters clash with police despite talks offer
Hong Kong (AFP) Oct 03, 2014 -
Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong scuffled with police outside government headquarters as tensions ran high Friday, despite an eleventh-hour agreement for talks, as China said the demonstrators were "doomed to fail".
Foreign attention is fixed on the crisis unfolding in one of the world's financial capitals, with the United States, Europe and Japan all expressing their concern, while Hong ...
more
Hong Kong protests 'doomed to fail': China party paper
Beijing (AFP) Oct 03, 2014 -
The official mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist party said Friday that authorities will not make concessions to pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong and that their cause is "doomed to fail".
Students whose peaceful protests have paralysed parts of the global financial hub have agreed to hold talks with the government while vowing to continue their occupation, as the city's under-fire le ...
more
