Tag Archives: science

CBS News reports: Eleven billion miles from Earth, NASA’s long-lived Voyager 2 probe, still beaming back data 41 years after its launch in 1977, has finally moved into interstellar space, scientists revealed Monday, joining its sister ship Voyager 1 in the vast, uncharted realm between the stars. Voyager 2 moved past the boundary of the heliosphere, the protective bubble defined …

The Daily Beast reports: Scientists studying LGBT youth may have a big problem on their hands: meddling kids. More specifically, meddling kids who think it’s funny to identify as gay or lesbian on surveys—and who then give exaggerated responses to other questions about, say, substance use or eating habits. NYU economics professor Joseph R. Cimpian, whose new study in the …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration has shut down at least one government-run study that uses fetal tissue implanted into mice even before federal health officials reach a decision on whether to continue such research, which is opposed by antiabortion groups. A senior scientist at a National Institutes of Health laboratory in Montana told colleagues that the Health and …

Some of the headlines today are saying “Nonstick Frying Pans Are Shrinking Your Penis.” Not exactly, as you’ll see below. Men’s Health reports: According to new research published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, the common class of chemicals Perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs), typically used in coating of nonstick cookware, can affect the size of your penis and the …

TechCrunch reports: The mysteries lying beyond our planet have puzzled and inspired scientists throughout the centuries. But today, the scientific community (and many others) have their eyes on Mars, where NASA’s InSight lander is set to touch down on the Red Planet. The whole thing is going down at 3pm ET today, and you can follow along with the exhilarating …

The Asheville Citizen Times reports: A chickenpox outbreak at a private school now ranks as North Carolina’s largest since a vaccine for the virus became available more than 20 years ago, health officials say. As of Friday, 36 students at Asheville Waldorf School had contracted the varicella virus, known to most as chickenpox. The school has one of the highest …

Agence France-Presse reports: Life expectancy in 2040 is set to rise at least a little in all nations but the rankings will change dramatically, with Spain taking the top spot while China and the United States trade places, researchers said Wednesday. With a projected average lifespan of nearly 85.8 years, Spain — formerly in 4th place — will dethrone Japan, …

The Associated Press reports: Leon Lederman, an experimental physicist who won a Nobel Prize in physics for his work on subatomic particles and coined the phrase “God particle,” died Wednesday at 96. Lederman directed the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago from 1978 to 1989. He’s described as a giant in his field who also had a passion for sharing …

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration is quietly moving to weaken U.S. radiation regulations, turning to scientific outliers who argue that a bit of radiation damage is actually good for you — like a little bit of sunlight. The government’s current, decades-old guidance says that any exposure to harmful radiation is a cancer risk. And critics say the proposed …

The Associated Press reports: Curiosity and awe have greeted a complete lunar eclipse, the longest one of this century and visible in much of the world. The so-called “blood moon,” when it turns a deep red, was visible at different times in Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe and South America when the sun, Earth and moon lined up perfectly, casting Earth’s …

Wired reports: The Italian Space Agency announced Wednesday that researchers have detected signs of a large, stable body of liquid water locked away beneath a mile of ice near Mars’ south pole. The observations were recorded by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument—Marsis for short. “Marsis was born to make this kind of discovery, and now …

NBC News reports: A mind-controlling parasite found in cat feces may give people the courage they need to become entrepreneurs, researchers reported Tuesday. They found that people who have been infected with the Toxoplasma gondii parasite are more likely to major in business and to have started their own businesses than non-infected people. The parasite, which makes rodents unafraid of …

The Associated Press reports: Kraftwerk fans are used to hearing otherworldly tunes, but the German electronic music pioneers took it to another level at a gig in Stuttgart. Video posted Saturday by the European Space Agency shows German astronaut Alexander Gerst “dropping in” for a live performance from the International Space Station. Using a tablet computer with a virtual synthesizer, …

Politico reports: The Trump administration is suppressing an Environmental Protection Agency report that warns that most Americans inhale enough formaldehyde vapor in the course of daily life to put them at risk of developing leukemia and other ailments, a current and a former agency official told POLITICO. The warnings are contained in a draft health assessment EPA scientists completed just …

The Washington Post reports: NASA is talking to several international companies about forming a consortium that would take over operation of the International Space Station and run it as a commercial space lab, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in an interview. “We’re in a position now where there are people out there that can do commercial management of the International …

Via press release from the National Institutes for Health: An experimental vaccine regimen based on the structure of a vulnerable site on HIV elicited antibodies in mice, guinea pigs and monkeys that neutralize dozens of HIV strains from around the world. The findings were reported today in the journal Nature Medicine by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and …

The Arizona Republic reports: The Arizona Department of Education hopes to make changes to science standards, which will affect K-12 districts and charter schools. The changes include removing the word “evolution” in some areas and describing it as a “theory” in others. Some educators and scientists are outraged by the change. In the draft, the word “evolution” is crossed out …

CNBC reports: A jolt of electricity is delivered to a body with bolts attaching its head to its neck. It’s a scene straight out of a horror movie, but it is eerily close to Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero [photo] and Chinese surgeon Xiaoping Ren’s plan to transplant a human head — down to the neck bolts and electricity. Canavero and …

The Weather Channel reports: Asteroid 2010 WC9 will pass relatively close to Earth at 6:05 p.m. EST Tuesday, passing within 126,419 miles of the planet, or about half the distance from Earth to the moon, according to NASA. “Asteroids this size approach about this close about once every decade or so, on average,” Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for …

USA Today reports: With the orange flames of its engine lighting up the foggy sky for miles around, a car-sized Mars lander rocketed into space early Saturday in a first-of-its-kind launch from California on a mission to probe beneath the surface of the Red Planet. The nearly $1 billion Mars InSight probe blasted off shortly after 4 a.m. local time, …