Combined Arctic ice observations show decades of loss
Seattle WA (SPX) Mar 04, 2015 -
It's no surprise that Arctic sea ice is thinning. What is new is just how long, how steadily, and how much it has declined. University of Washington researchers compiled modern and historic measurements to get a full picture of how Arctic sea ice thickness has changed.
The results, published in The Cryosphere, show a thinning in the central Arctic Ocean of 65 percent between 1975 and 2012. ...
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Parasite provides clues to evolution of plant diseases
Norwich, UK (SPX) Mar 04, 2015 -
A new study into the generalist parasite Albugo candida (A. candida), cause of white rust(1) of brassicas(2), has revealed key insights into the evolution of plant diseases to aid agriculture and global food security.
How generalist parasites with wide host ranges evolve is a central question in parasite evolution. Parasites adapt in response to their host organisms' defences and in many c ...
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Predicting human crowds with statistical physics
Washington DC (SPX) Mar 02, 2015 -
For the first time researchers have directly measured a general law of how pedestrians interact in a crowd. This law can be used to create realistic crowds in virtual reality games and to make public spaces safer.
People intuitively know how to navigate through crowds in a way that both minimizes distance travelled and avoids collisions. But the 'force' that governs human interactions has ...
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Origins of AIDS virus strains traced to gorillas
Washington (AFP) March 3, 2015 -
Two of four strains of the virus that can cause AIDS come from gorillas in southwestern Cameroon, an international team of scientists reported in studies published Monday in the United States.
The new information means that researchers now know the origins of all strains of the HIV virus that occur in people.
HIV (HIV-1) has at least four strains. Known as Groups M, N, O and P, each one ...
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The hidden burden of dengue fever in West Africa
Coral Gables FL (SPX) Mar 04, 2015 -
Misdiagnosis of febrile illnesses as malaria is a continuing problem in Africa. A new study shows that in Ghana, dengue fever is circulating in urban areas and going undiagnosed. The authors of the study hope to use the findings to launch a widespread initiative to better understand acute undifferentiated febrile illnesses in West Africa.
"We believe dengue to be one of many diseases with ...
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Munching bugs thwart eager trees, reducing the carbon sink
Madison WI (SPX) Mar 04, 2015 -
In a high carbon dioxide world, the trees would come out ahead. Except for the munching bugs. A new study published in Nature Plants shows that hungry, plant-eating insects may limit the ability of forests to take up elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, reducing their capacity to slow human-driven climate change.
The finding is significant because climate change models typi ...
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Lockheed demos new high-power laser weapon
Bethesda, Md. (UPI) Mar 4, 2015 -
A 30-kilowatt fiber laser weapon system from Lockheed Martin successfully disabled a vehicle engine from a distance of more than one mile.
In the test - said to represent the highest power ever documented by a laser weapon of its type - the beam from the Advanced Test High Energy Asset, or ATHENA, quickly burned through the engine manifold of a truck mounted and running on a test plat ...
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Exorings on the Horizon
Medellin, Colombia (SPX) Mar 05, 2015 -
Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the University of Antioquia (Medellin-Colombia), have devised a novel method for identifying rings around extrasolar planets (exorings). The method is relatively simple and can be used to rapidly analyze large photometric database and to find a list of exoring candidates deserving further analysis.
Exoplanetary science is ...
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Why isn't the universe as bright as it should be?
Boston MA (SPX) Mar 05, 2015 -
A handful of new stars are born each year in the Milky Way, while many more blink on across the universe. But astronomers have observed that galaxies should be churning out millions more stars, based on the amount of interstellar gas available.
Now researchers from MIT and Michigan State University have pieced together a theory describing how clusters of galaxies may regulate star formatio ...
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UGR scientists provide new data on the nature of dark matter
Granada, Spain (SPX) Mar 05, 2015 -
Recent research conducted by scientists from the University of Granada can contribute to determine the nature of dark matter, one of the most important mysteries in physics. As indirect evidence provided by its gravitational effects, dark matter amounts to more than 80% of the universe.
In an article published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters, Adrian Ayala and her PhD the ...
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Far from home: Wayward cluster is both tiny and distant
Hilo HI (SPX) Mar 05, 2015 -
Like the lost little puppy that wanders too far from home, astronomers have found an unusually small and distant group of stars that seems oddly out of place. The cluster, made of only a handful of stars, is located far away, in the Milky Way's "suburbs." It is located where astronomers have never spotted such a small cluster of stars before.
The new star cluster was discovered by Dongwon ...
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Comet flyby: OSIRIS catches glimpse of Rosetta's shadow
Paris (ESA) Mar 05, 2015 -
Images from the OSIRIS scientific imaging camera taken during the close flyby on 14 February have now been downlinked to Earth, revealing the surface of Comet 67P/C-G in unprecedented detail, and including the shadow of the spacecraft encircled in a wreath of light.
The image released shows an area near the edge of the comet's "belly" close to the Imhotep-Ash regional boundary, where a mes ...
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Galactic 'rain' could be key to star formation
East Lansing, MI (SPX) Mar 05, 2015 -
Some of the galaxies in our universe are veritable star nurseries. For example, our own Milky Way produces, on average, at least one new star every year. Others went barren years ago, now producing few if any new stars.
Why that happens is a question that has dogged astronomers for years. But now, more than 20 years of research by a team led by Michigan State University has culminated in w ...
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Single Site on Mars Advanced for 2016 NASA Lander
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 05, 2015 -
NASA's next mission to Mars, scheduled to launch one year from today to examine the Red Planet's deep interior and investigate how rocky planets like Earth evolved, now has one specific site under evaluation as the best place to land and deploy its science instruments.
The mission called InSight - an acronym for "Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport ...
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Testing to Diagnose Power Event in Mars Rover
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 05, 2015 -
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is expected to remain stationary for several days of engineering analysis following an onboard fault-protection action on Feb. 27 that halted a process of transferring sample material between devices on the rover's robotic arm.
Telemetry received from the rover indicated that a transient short circuit occurred and the vehicle followed its programmed response, st ...
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Shaking test for for Space Launch System at Redstone Test Center
Huntsville AL (SPX) Mar 05, 2015 -
There's a whole lot of shaking going on at the Redstone Test Center in Alabama for NASA's new mega rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS).
SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built for deep space missions, including to an asteroid and eventually Mars.
NASA and The Boeing Co., prime contractor for the SLS core stage, have teamed up for thrust vector control actuator vibration tes ...
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ESA experts assess risk from exploded satellite
Paris (ESA) Mar 05, 2015 -
After studying the recent explosive break-up of a US satellite, ESA space debris experts have concluded this event does not increase the collision risk to nearby ESA missions in any meaningful way.
The US Air Force's Defense Meteorological Satellite Programme Flight 13 (DMSP-13) broke up into some 40 pieces on 3 February. The military weather satellite was in a low-Earth orbit - commonly u ...
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Thousands evacuated in Argentina flooding
Buenos Aires (AFP) March 5, 2015 -
More heavy rain triggered thousands of evacuations and flooding across five Argentine provinces on Wednesday, with at least one person dead and another missing.
A 78-year-old man was crushed to death by his falling house roof in the northern province of Santiago del Estero, where 1,000 people were evacuated, the local civil defense office told AFP.
In central Cordoba province, where inte ...
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Despite US rift, experts see poll boost for Netanyahu
Jerusalem (AFP) March 4, 2015 -
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's blistering attack on a US push for a nuclear accord with Iran soured ties with Washington but could boost his prospects in elections this month, experts say.
Netanyahu, seeking re-election on March 17, infuriated the White House with his address Tuesday to US Congress, where he laid out Israeli concerns at an emerging world deal with Iran on its nu ...
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US cracks down on Chinese 'maternity tourism' in LA
Los Angeles (AFP) March 4, 2015 -
US investigators launched dawn raids Tuesday on dozens of locations dotted around Los Angeles suspected of offering "maternity tourism" services for Chinese mothers wanting to give birth to gain citizenship for their children.
Mothers pay over $50,000 for packages allowing them to give birth in the United States, which confers US citizenship on their offspring, the Immigration and Customs En ...
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New fossil pushes back Homo genus 400,000 years
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (UPI) Mar 4, 2015 -
The genus Homo, the lineage that spawned modern man, may be 400,000 years older than previously thought. That's the conclusion scientists have made after pulling a 2.8-million-year-old jawbone from the dirt of a hilltop in Ethiopia.
The team of U.S. researchers who discovered the jawbone, which boasts five teeth, says it is evidence of the first human from the Homo genus - showcasing t ...
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MH370 families trapped in 'black hole' one year later
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) March 4, 2015 -
Chinese businessman Li Hua suffered a stroke, has considered suicide, and his wife has been hospitalised with heart trouble, all since their daughter went missing on flight MH370.
A. Amirtham, a retired Malaysian clinic worker, suffers fainting spells and a lack of sleep and appetite over the disappearance of her only son Puspanathan.
Li Jiuying is tormented by the loss of her big broth ...
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As Delhi chokes, pressure grows for Indian climate action
New Delhi (AFP) March 4, 2015 -
Torrents of thick black smoke billow up toward the smoggy skies as Kunti Desai feeds a coal-fired furnace to make tar for a Delhi road.
Desai, whose hands and face are blackened by the soot, realises her job adds to the already noxious air in the city, which often outdoes Beijing as the most polluted in the world. But, she says, "this smoke brings me money".
"It is more important to fee ...
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Israel says doubling water supplies to Gaza
Jerusalem (AFP) March 4, 2015 -
Israel is to double the amount of water it channels annually to Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip, a defence ministry body said Wednesday.
A humanitarian crisis has gripped Gaza since a July-August war with Israel, which controls most of the territory's resources, its imports and exports as well as the movement of people.
The body responsible for coordinating Israeli government ac ...
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World Bank admits flaws in resettlement practices
Washington (AFP) March 4, 2015 -
The World Bank said Wednesday it would reform the way it handles the resettlement of people moved to make way for development projects, saying internal reviews have revealed significant flaws.
"We took a hard look at ourselves on resettlement and what we found caused me deep concern," said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim in a statement.
The global development lender has been sharply c ...
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