Wendy Science

The Conversation Scientists analysing the latest data from   have discovered molecules that can form sugars and amino acids, which are the building blocks of life as we know it. While this is a long, long way from  , the data shows that the organic compounds that eventually translated into organisms here on Earth existed in the early solar system. The results are   as two independent   in the journal , based on data from two different instruments on  . One comes from the German-led   (COSAC) team and one from the UK-led  . The data finally sheds light on questions that the European Space Agency posed 22 years ago. One of the declared goals of the   when it was approved in 1993 was to determine the composition of   in the cometary nucleus. And now we have the answer, or at least, an answer: the compounds are a mixture of many different molecules. Water, carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) – this is no...

A brain circuit has been found that allows us to forget fear and anxiety By | | A new study confirms that a working connection between the two brain regions is necessary to do away with fear. The brain is extraordinarily good at alerting us to threats. Loud noises, noxious smells, approaching predators: they all send electrical impulses buzzing down our sensory neurons, pinging our brain’s fear circuitry and, in some cases, causing us to fight or flee. The brain is also adept at knowing when an initially threatening or startling stimulus turns out to be harmless or resolved. But sometimes this system fails and unpleasant associations stick around, a malfunction thought to be at the root of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). New research has identified a neuronal circuit responsible for the brain’s ability to purge bad memories, findings that could have implications for treating PTSD and other anxiety disorders. Like most emotions, fear is neurologically complicated. But previou...

Are touch screens rotting the brains of our youth? New research is finding some answers By | | In my I noted that it’s typically older people who seem to disapprove of the younger ones' immersion in electronics. Of course that's a typical generational reaction; it used to be the radio that would rot young people’s brains…then TV…and now phones and tablets. But what does say about the effect of touch-screen devices on children? Not much; the touch-screen era is still very young. But a handful of studies investigating intensive device use have emerged, including the ones summarized here. Most seem to suggest that moderation in screen time is a good idea, although some point out benefits. Here are more details about what they found—and how: : Cognitive control in media multitaskersSubjects: 262 college students : Adolescents' use of instant messaging as a means of emotional reliefSubjects: 150 adolescents : Do television and electronic games predict children's psych...

An engineered ribosome with a permanent connection between its subunits (red) can operate side-by-side with a cell's own protein production machinery. By hijacking the cellular machinery that makes proteins, bioengineers have developed a tool that could allow them to better understand protein synthesis, explore how antibiotics work and convert cells into custom chemical factories. All life owes its existence to the ribosome, a huge, hardworking molecular machine that reads RNA templates transcribed from DNA, and uses the information to string together amino acids into proteins. A cell requires functioning ribosomes to survive — but they are difficult to engineer. If the engineered molecules deviate too far from the standard design, the cell will die. “An engineered ribosome learns to do better what you want, but it starts to forget how to do its normal job,” says biochemist Alexander Mankin of the University of Illinois in Chicago. Mankin teamed up with biochemical engineer Mi...

The amount of rain that California has missed out on since the beginning of its record-setting drought in 2012 is about the same amount it would see, on average, in a single year, a new study has concluded. The study’s researchers pin the reason for the lack of rains, as others have, on the absence of the intense rainstorms ushered in by so-called  , the ribbons of very moist air that can funnel water vapor from the tropics to California during its winter rainy season. Overall, the study, accepted for publication in the  , found that California experiences multi-year dry periods, like the current one, and then periods where rains can vary by 30 percent from year to year. Those wet and dry years typically cancel each other out. The  , one phase of which has ushered in some of the state’s wettest years, only accounts for about 6 percent of overall precipitation variability, the researchers found. Drought began creeping across the California landscape in 2012 and has con...

The amount of rain that California has missed out on since the beginning of its record-setting drought in 2012 is about the same amount it would see, on average, in a single year, a new study has concluded. The study’s researchers pin the reason for the lack of rains, as others have, on the absence of the intense rainstorms ushered in by so-called  , the ribbons of very moist air that can funnel water vapor from the tropics to California during its winter rainy season. Overall, the study, accepted for publication in the  , found that California experiences multi-year dry periods, like the current one, and then periods where rains can vary by 30 percent from year to year. Those wet and dry years typically cancel each other out. The  , one phase of which has ushered in some of the state’s wettest years, only accounts for about 6 percent of overall precipitation variability, the researchers found. Drought began creeping across the California landscape in 2012 and has con...

Tree growth lags below normal for several years following droughts, a detail about carbon sequestration that climate models currently overlook. Christopher Intagliata reports. By | | Climate scientists forecast to rise by the end of the century. That's a pretty big range. And there's a good reason for that: there's a lot of uncertainty baked into .  Take, for example, the way climate models predict how trees respond to drought. "Drought in these models is treated as a light switch"—either on or off—“but in the real world we know that drought damages trees, and it can take a while for trees to repair this damage and recover."  William Anderegg, an ecologist at Princeton University. He and his colleagues examined tree ring data from more than 1,300 sites around the world. And by comparing the rings with known drought records they found that trees don't simply kick back into gear as soon as rains return. Drought actually puts the trees' water tran...

One idea to repel gas attacks: fans to blow the gas away. A dubious invention, but perhaps a reasonable idea in the days before gas masks (the flannel pads over nose and mouth were an early—and for a while the only—defense against gas). Reported in , This Week in World War I: July 31, 1915  The world’s first full-scale attack by poison gas took place on April 22, 1915, near the town of Ypres in Belgium. It was a stunning success for the Germans who deployed it, and a catastrophe for the French territorial troops who were unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of this new form of chemical warfare. When an armed force must suddenly fight against an effective new weapon, the people tasked with winning wars scramble to find some kind of workable protection for their troops. The Allies did not know the exact nature of the gas but were pretty sure it was chlorine. The first attempts at gas defense came from industrial safety equipment used in factories that had to deal with ch...

Recommendations from By | | Genius at Play: The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway Bloomsbury, 2015 (($30)) Mathematician John H. Conway's name pops up all over the mathematics world—group theory, game theory, knot theory, abstract algebra, geometry—and in the pages of this magazine, where he was frequently featured in Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games column. It was there that his most famous creation, Conway's Game of Life—a set of rules for propagating a pattern that generates incredible complexity—made its world debut. Science journalist Roberts's new biography of Conway demonstrates how the man's playfulness and originality has fed into the creativity and intelligence of his ideas. The tome resonates with Conway's voice—which gets its own special font—and his discussions with the author dictate the story's structure and provide the narrative's best glimpses into how his mind darts and weaves. see also:

Detroit's Big Three automakers posted supercharged performances in the second quarter, sales fueled significantly by strong sport utility vehicle and truck sales in North America. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' net profit jumped 69 percent from the same time last year. Ford Motor Co. notched record income for North America and its Asia-Pacific market, totaling a 44 percent jump in income year over year. And General Motors Co. netted $1.1 billion in income, five times more than its $190 million profit from the March-June period in 2014. "We just wrapped up the U.S. auto industry's best six months in a decade, driven by strong demand for pickups and crossovers," said Kurt McNeil, vice president of sales operations at GM, in a statement earlier this month. "People feel good about their jobs and the direction the economy as a whole is taking, so the second half of the year should be strong too," he said, noting the depth of truck and crossover vehicle options...

Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension: A Mathematician's Journey through Narcissistic Numbers, Optimal Dating Algorithms, at Least Two Kinds of Infinity, and More Mathematics popularizer Matt Parker, an Australian based in England is a self-proclaimed “ ” perhaps best known for his numerous contributions to the . He is also the Public Engagement in Mathematics Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London, and his new book is an ambitious and delightful addition to the current age’s plethora of high-quality volumes on recreational mathematics—even if most of the material he covers is focused on 2-D and 3-D. Like the extensive writings of legendary columnist this book seeks to make mathematics come alive for an intelligent and curious audience by engaging the reader in a lively informal style, and with irresistible invocations to roll up one’s sleeve and experiment. Parker also enlivens his chapters with numerous surprises. The display resolution on a domino computer displ...

I am an avid reader. But proclaiming as much in the past few years has made me feel a little dishonest—I can so rarely find time to read for pleasure. What kind of “avid reader” finishes only two books a year? A few months ago, however, I discovered a delightful way to fit books back into my busy life: a technology from Amazon called Whispersync for Voice, which is automatically included with the free Kindle and Audible apps. This ingenious bit of cross-platform magic, originally released in 2012 and recently updated, allows a reader to switch between reading an e-book purchased through Amazon and listening to the book's audio narration seamlessly in these apps on any device. My typical reading schedule now starts in the morning, as I listen to an audiobook on my smartphone while I hike with my dog. Whenever I find myself waiting in a line, I switch to reading the book in the Kindle app on my phone. When I'm doing chores around the house, I listen to the narration on our home...

The results suggest the shot could help bring an end to West Africa's epidemic, World Health Organization director general Margaret Chan said on Friday July 31, 2015 | GENEVA, July 31 (Reuters) - Initial results from an Ebola vaccine trial in Guinea are "exciting" and "promising" and suggest the shot could help bring an end to West Africa's epidemic, World Health Organization director general Margaret Chan said on Friday. "If proven effective, this is going to be a game changer, and it will change the management of the current Ebola outbreak and future outbreaks," Chan told reporters at a news conference. Data from a trial of an Ebola vaccine known as VSV-EBOV developed by Merck and NewLink Genetics are expected to be published later on Friday. (Reporting by Tom Miles, writing by Kate Kelland, editing by Dominic Evans) see also:

Experimental technology aims to bring the doctor's office to the sidelines. Editor's Note: Models are used for illustrative purposes only; their presence is not meant to imply that they have... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Nature Video finds out how the Japanese art of paper-cutting can give 'supermaterial' graphene even more incredible properties. This article was reproduced with permission and was on... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Hank Green poses for a selfie with fans at VidCon 2015. YouTube has exploded in the decade since it first launched in 2005, to the point where the . Alongside the young celebrity musicians, beauty gurus and pranksters, is an impressive lineup of science rock stars—scientists and communicators who have risen to Internet fame through their educational and personality-driven original content. Last week at the world’s largest online video conference, (where YouTube celebrities are swamped with 20,000 screaming fans), these new faces on the frontlines of science communication were among the most famous and flocked to of all YouTube stars at the convention in Anaheim, California. With tens of millions of views per video and hundreds of millions of views overall, these science YouTubers have reached more young people than Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson combined. By blending humor with their personal lives and irreverent style, these online identities are popularizing science in new ...

Summer may mean it’s time for outdoor fun in the sun, but it’s also prime time for a number of pests. All that extra time outdoors can bring everything from poison ivy rashes to exposure to Lyme disease from tick bites. And of course there’s that ubiquitous summer menace, the mosquito. With the rising temperatures brought about by global warming, the risks posed by these pernicious pests could also be increasing. A warmer climate can mean expanded habitats for many pest species, as well as increases in their numbers. Here’s what research suggests will happen with four key summertime pests as the world warms: Mosquitoes risk of spreading diseases like malaria, West Nile virus and dengue fever, including the invasive  , which first appeared in the U.S. in 1985. Predicted change in the range of the Asian Tiger mosquito with warming from high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Rochlin et al./PLOS ONE As temperatures around the country rise, the areas that are conducive to su...

The megadrought in the Amazon rainforest during the summer of 2005 caused widespread damage and die-offs to trees, as depicted in this photo taken in Western Amazonia in Brazil. Forests are sometimes called the lungs of the earth—they breathe in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and store it in tree trunks until the forest dies or burns. A  , however, shows that forests devastated by drought may lose their ability to store carbon over a much longer period than previously thought, reducing their role as a buffer between humans’ carbon emissions and a changing climate. The study, published Thursday in the journal Science by a team of by researchers at the University of Utah and Princeton University, shows that the world’s forests take an average of between two and four years to return to their normal growth and carbon dioxide absorption rate following a severe drought—a finding that has significant climate implications. “This means that these forests take up less carbon both durin...

A pressurized science project from Science Buddies By | | Why aren't there more super-long straws? Learn how your mouth "vacuums" up beverages when you sip through a straw--and build your own mega straw to learn about the physics behind this impressive everyday feat! How long can you go? Key concepts Atmospheric pressureGravity Introduction Background Does that sound bizarre? Here is a little more explanation: The atmosphere is a massive layer of air. The weight of all that air is constantly pressing on us and on the things around us. At sea level, this invisible pressure is approximately 14.7 pounds per square inch. That is like having the weight of a bowling ball sitting on each square inch or five bowling balls pressing on the liquid filling a two-and-a-half-inch-diameter glass. Put a straw into liquid and the liquid will enter the straw until it reaches the same level as the liquid outside the straw. The liquid in the straw and around it is being pushed down by...

Five years ago Medford, Oregon, had a problem common for most cities—treating sewage without hurting fish. The city’s wastewater treatment plant was discharging warm water into the Rogue River. Fish weren’t dying, but salmon in the Rogue rely on cold water. And the Environmental Protection Agency has rules to make sure they get it. So, instead of spending millions on expensive machinery to cool the water to federal standards, the city of Medford tried something much simpler: planting trees. It bought credits that paid others to handle the tree planting, countering the utility's continued warm-water discharges. Shady trees cool rivers, and the end goal is 10 to 15 miles of new native vegetation along the Rogue. Pollution-trading programs are common in other industries, such as caps on sulfur dioxide from U.S. power plants. A regulator, say the EPA, issues or sells to polluters permits allowing a set amount of emissions. Firms must own permits to match their emissions, but the to...

The San Francisco Bay Area will soon see Google Street View vehicles that not only take snapshots of its streets but also capture snapshots of the air quality in neighborhoods they pass. Google and Aclima, a San Francisco-based air sensor technology developer, announced Tuesday that they are partnering to introduce air quality sensor-enabled Street View cars in the Bay Area, and in the future in other cities. “We want to understand how cities live and breathe in an entirely new way,” said Davida Herzl, co-founder and CEO of Aclima. This endeavor to bring air quality monitoring closer to the people using a mobile platform has generated interest among both scientists and regulators. “Environmental air quality is an issue that affects everyone, especially those living in big cities,” Karin Tuxen-Bettman, who manages the Google Earth Outreach program, said in a statement. In 2014, a majority of the world’s population was living in urban areas. It has long been recognized that cities are ...

Certain vaccines prevent sickness and death, but don't block transmission--meaning they may actually give some viral strains an extra shot at survival. Christopher Intagliata reports. By | | In the 1960s, was ravaging the . The virus caused what's called Marek's disease--and killed one to two percent of the birds. "Given that there are billions of birds in the industry, that's a lot of birds." Andrew Read, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State University. He says the virus was easy to catch. "The dander of chickens if full of the virus. If you shake a chicken, the virus drops out." Then, in 1970, a new vaccine put an end to most of the deaths. But the poultry vaccine, unlike most, was a so-called 'leaky' or 'imperfect' vaccine. "The vaccine is life-saving, but it allows the infection to persist and transmit from the host." Meaning you could still shake a vaccinated chicken--and make it rain viruses. Now, Read and his...

Leaping through the air with ease and spinning in place like tops, ballet dancers are visions of the human body in action at its most spectacular and controlled. Their brains, too, appear to be special, able to evade the dizziness that normally would result from rapid pirouettes. When compared with ordinary people's brains, researchers found in a study published early this year, parts of dancers' brains involved in the perception of spinning seem less sensitive, which may help them resist vertigo. For millions of other people, it is their whole world, not themselves, that suddenly starts to whirl. Even the simplest task, like walking across the room, may become impossible when vertigo strikes, and the condition can last for months or years. Thirty-five percent of adults older than 39 in the U.S.—69 million people—experience vertigo at one time or another, often because of damage to parts of the inner ear that sense the body's position or to the nerve that transmits that in...