Posts

By Tiffany O’Callaghan Invasive biopsy is currently the only sure way to diagnose the degenerative neurological condition Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). But a highly sensitive assay could change that, providing a fast, accurate alternative for early diagnosis of this rare but deadly condition. In its most common form, known as sporadic CJD, the disease affects roughly one in a million people. Beginning in the 1990s, several cases of a variation of CJD known as vCJD were reported among people who had consumed beef from cows infected with another disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)....

Dear EarthTalk: I’ve heard that hybrid engine technology is now being used to power boats. What’s happening with that? —D. Smith, Portland, ME With concerns about climate change and the fate of the world’s imperiled oceans and waterways at an all time high, it makes sense that the boating industry would be looking into greener ways to try to do their part and to attract some of those increasing numbers of environmentally conscious customers....

Scientists in China have developed a fluorescent probe to detect both heparin and its major contaminant. The sensor could make it easier to monitor the quality of heparin supplies. Heparin is widely used as an anticoagulant in cardiovascular surgery as well as in post-operative and long-term therapy. Millions of patients are treated with it each year; in 2013 sales of low molecular weight heparin reached $6.5 billion (£4.2 billion). Heparin doses must be maintained within a strict range because overdoses can have numerous side-effects, such as unusual bleeding and blood in the urine....

Zika is more pernicious than public health officials anticipated. At present, it is circulating in more than 50 countries. And as of mid-May, seven countries or territories have reported cases of microcephaly or other serious birth defects linked to the virus, which is trans­mitted by mosquito bite, blood transfusion or sexual contact with an infected human. It can also be passed from mother to fetus during pregnancy. Despite Zika’s vast range over almost 70 years, there is little genetic difference among the various strains, according to an analysis by re­­searchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston....

For the first century of its existence, Scientific American was primarily a listing of the latest inventions and patents. But in 1948, the magazine was sold and the new owners wanted to reimagine the publication’s mission, hoping to make it more timely and authoritative. As part of this rebranding, they hired freelance artist Stanley Meltzoff to illustrate their covers. A graduate of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, Meltzoff had worked as an art director and journalist for an army newspaper during World War II....

Cities are home to more than half the world’s population, and they exert increasing stress on the earth. They produce up to 70 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, use up vast quantities of water, degrade water quality and produce mountains of waste. As cities go, so goes the planet. And cities are growing—fast. By 2030, according to the latest United Nations estimates, five billion people will live in cities, nearly half of them conducting their lives in homes, schools, workplaces and parks that do not yet exist....

In a classic scene in the science-fiction blockbuster The Matrix, life starts to run in slow motion. Guns are fired at the main character Neo, but the bullets fly as if through molasses—and our hero’s quickened reflexes allow him to jump out of harm’s way. Many of us have experienced a similar deceleration of events during accidents or other life-and-death situations. You see the tree branch on the road, hit the brakes, and it seems like an eternity before you know if you avoided the collision or were too late....

Newly released court documents in the second-degree-murder case against neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman reveal that, in the month following his fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, four key witnesses significantly changed their accounts of what they saw and heard that night. The more recent versions of their memories tend to be more damning of Zimmerman than their initial statements. Which raises the question: How reliable are eyewitnesses?...

Cities will save us, experts argue. Higher densities of people mean less energy consumption and lower carbon emissions per capita—a boon for the environment. People supposedly switch from driving cars to using public transportation, for instance. But “density in and of itself isn’t changing behavior,” says Conor Gately, a graduate student in Boston University’s department of Earth and environment. Gately and his colleagues analyzed 33 years’ worth of annual carbon dioxide emissions by on-road vehicles across the U....

It is an inevitability that cryptographers dread: the arrival of powerful quantum computers that can break the security of the Internet. Although these devices are thought to be a decade or more away, researchers are adamant that preparations must begin now. Computer-security specialists are meeting in Germany this week to discuss quantum-resistant replacements for today’s cryptographic systems—the protocols used to scramble and protect private information as it traverses the web and other digital networks....

Discovering the “on-and-off switch” for good parenting in both male and female mouse brains has earned Catherine Dulac, a molecular biologist at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of this year’s US$3-million Breakthrough prizes — the most lucrative awards in science and mathematics. Three other major prizes in biology, plus two in physics and one in mathematics, were also announced on 10 September, together with a number of smaller prizes. “Catherine Dulac has done amazing work that has really transformed the field,” says biologist Lauren O’Connell, at Stanford University, California....

When do human beings start to dream? —William Keith, Houston, Tex. Paul Li, lecturer of cognitive science at the University of California, Berkeley, replies: PINPOINTING WHEN humans begin to dream remains an elusive challenge, although scientists have some ideas. There are researchers who argue that dreams originate as early as in the mother’s womb, whereas others posit that they first occur when a child’s brain becomes more developed, around five to seven years old....

An academic debate over a key metric for greenhouse gases is heating up, just as a high-profile courtroom battle is scheduled to begin. Prominent economists are clashing over the Biden administration’s approach to the social cost of carbon, which assigns a dollar value to the harm caused by 1 metric ton of greenhouse gas emissions. The feud comes as a federal court is slated to hear oral arguments tomorrow in a lawsuit brought by Republican state attorneys general over President Biden’s plans to increase the social cost of carbon....

WE TAKE THE MAGICAL GIFT of consciousness for granted. From the time I awaken until I fall into a deep, dreamless sleep, I am flooded with conscious sensations. And contrary to assertions made by philosophers, novelists and other literati, by and large this stream of consciousness does not relate to quiet self-reflection and introspective thoughts. No, most of it is filled with raw sensations. Two weeks ago a friend and I climbed a sea cliff above the Pacific surf at Malibu, Calif....

The area planted with genetically modified crops globally declined for the first time in 2015. The 1% decline — the first in the technology’s 20-year global commercial history — was primarily due to an overall decrease in both GM and non-GM crops caused by low commodity prices, says the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), a non-profit biotech industry group that tracks GM crops. Credit: Nature News, April 19, 2016 doi:10....

While on a spacewalk, if you plucked a guitar’s strings, you would, of course, hear nothing—sound waves cannot travel through space’s near-vacuum. Although soundless to our ears, however, the cosmic “void” is actually a cacophony of zipping particles and light waves. As atomic nuclei and radiation strike scientific instruments, they can be construed, in effect, as the “sounds” of space. We can listen in on the universe’s hidden melodies. That is because the sequence or intensity of detected particles can be converted into vibrations that fall within our human hearing range....

Skydiver Luke Aikins became the first person to jump from a plane without a parachute or wingsuit this past weekend, carrying out the daring stunt on live television . Aikins jumped from a height of 25,000 feet (7,600 meters) and, after a two-minute fall, flipped onto his back to land in a 100-foot-by-100-foot (30 m by 30 m) net, according to news reports. How did the daredevil pull off such a heart-stopping stunt?...

Germany A wave of pesticide contamination of eggs across Europe has prompted German health officials to study how much of the involved chemical, fipronil, can safely be consumed. VIETNAM British and Thai researchers are searching for Vietnam’s native Edwards’s Pheasant, which has not been spotted for years and is designated as critically endangered. They hope to make the point that rare, understudied species are worth saving. JAPAN The nation recently launched its third of seven planned GPS satellites, intended to form a network independent of the U....

In a major departure from industry practice, GlaxoSmithKline, the sixth-largest global drug maker, announced Tuesday that it will no longer hire doctors to promote its drugs. The company also will stop tying compensation for sales representatives to the number of prescriptions written for drugs they market. The changes will be made worldwide over the next two years. The New York Times broke the news late Monday. But the company said it will continue to pay doctors for research, consulting and “market research....

Hands and feet—and the digits that extend from them—emerged about 400 million years ago, endowing the first land animals with fine-motor control, a major turning point in evolution. A study published last week in Neuron looks at the genes that are switched on and off in an embryo to wire up fingers and toes to the central nervous system. Front and center in this process is the motor neuron, the nerve cell that controls movement....