Spotlight Science News. 03 December 2018.
Accessed on 03 December 2018, 0548 UTC.
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Comment: Here are today’s top science news stories from https://phys.org. Views expressed in this science news summary are those of the reporters and correspondents.
Thanks for joining us today.
Until next time,
Russ Roberts
https://hawaiisciencedigest.blogspot.com
Mars new home ‘a large sandbox’
With InSight safely on the surface of Mars, the mission team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is busy learning more about the spacecraft’s landing site. They knew when InSight landed on Nov. 26 …
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How engineers are straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa
“It’s still straightening,” said engineer Roberto Cela, gazing at the Leaning Tower of Pisa gleaming in the autumn sunshine of northern Italy. “And many years will have to pass before it stops.”
As I move, it moves: Toyota’s humanoid robot will rock in action mode
Sickle cell anemia treatment safely lowers disease burden in African children
A daily hydroxyurea pill may finally bring some relief for young children living with the painful and deadly blood disease sickle cell anemia (SCA) in resource-challenged sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease is prevalent …
CAR-T cell update: Therapy improves outcomes for patients with B-cell lymphoma
An international phase-2 trial of a CAR-T cell therapy—to be published on-line Dec. 1 in the New England Journal of Medicine (and presented at the ASH annual meeting in San Diego)—found that 52 percent of patients responded …
Planet Earth working on 3 Mars landers to follow InSight
As Mars’ newest resident settles in, Planet Earth is working on three more landers and at least two orbiters to join the scientific Martian brigade.
NASA’s Martian quake sensor InSight lands at slight angle
NASA’s unmanned Martian quake sensor, InSight, has landed at a slight angle on the Red Planet, and experts are hopeful the spacecraft will work as planned, the US space agency said Friday.
This new atomic clock is so exact, it could be used to detect dark matter
Scientists have invented a new clock that keeps time more precisely than any that have come before.
Immunotherapy keeps some advanced head and neck cancer patients alive for over three years
A new immunotherapy can greatly extend the lives of a proportion of people with advanced head and neck cancer, with some living for three years or more, a major new clinical trial reports.
A sensor called Structure Core will serve the spatial-awareness needy
Good news for those wanting to work with a depth-sensing camera. Occipital is announcing Structure Core sensor—a 3-D perception system that goes on sale next year. Target users would be roboticists, developers, hardware …
A cancer drug may help treat human papillomavirus infections
Preclinical experiments by University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers suggest the cancer drugs vorinostat, belinostat and panobinostat might be repurposed to treat infections caused by human papillomaviruses, or HPVs.
In vitro cell culture findings could lead to novel interventions for schizophrenia
A study recently published in Translational Psychiatry, a Nature journal, has shown how using cultured cells from patients with psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, to investigate abnormalities in nerve connections …
Newly discovered supernova may rewrite exploding star origin theories
A supernova discovered by an international group of astronomers has provided an unprecedented look at the first moments of a violent stellar explosion. The team, led by the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) Institute for Astronomy’s …
Study witnesses first moments of star dying in finest detail
An international research team including The Australian National University (ANU) has used the Kepler space telescope in coordination with ground-based telescopes to witness the first moments of a star dying in unprecedented …
Black hole ‘donuts’ are actually ‘fountains’
Based on computer simulations and new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers have found that the rings of gas surrounding active supermassive black holes are not simple donut …
Light triggers gold in unexpected way
Rice University researchers have discovered a fundamentally different form of light-matter interaction in their experiments with gold nanoparticles.
A new light on significantly faster computer memory devices
A team of scientists from Arizona State University’s School of Molecular Sciences and Germany have published in Science Advances online today an explanation of how a particular phase-change memory (PCM) material can work …
Bigger brains are smarter, but not by much
The English idiom “highbrow,” derived from a physical description of a skull barely able to contain the brain inside of it, comes from a long-held belief in the existence of a link between brain size and intelligence.
Greenhouse gas ‘detergent’ recycles itself in atmosphere
A simple molecule in the atmosphere that acts as a “detergent” to breakdown methane and other greenhouse gases has been found to recycle itself to maintain a steady global presence in the face of rising emissions, according …
Scientists reveal substantial water loss in global landlocked regions
Along with a warming climate and intensified human activities, recent water storage in global landlocked basins has undergone a widespread decline. A new study reveals this decline has aggravated local water stress and caused …
Probing quantum physics on a macroscopic scale
Why does quantum mechanics work so well for microscopic objects, yet macroscopic objects are described by classical physics? This question has bothered physicists since the development of quantum theory more than 100 years …
Mammal-like milk provisioning and parental care discovered in jumping spider
Lactation is the production and secretion of milk for the young and is a mammalian attribute. However, there have been several examples of milk provisioning in non-mammals. In a study published in the journal Science on November …
Vaporized pot means a higher high
(HealthDay)—A smokeless method of vaporizing and then inhaling pot packs a much more powerful punch than simply smoking weed, researchers say.
Bringing MOFs into the industrial light
Researchers from Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, are part of an international collaboration which has made a major breakthrough that could change the way gases, liquids and chemicals are collected and filtered …
Fog robotics: A new approach to achieve efficient and fluent human-robot interaction
The whole of Africa was the cradle of humankind
A team of scientists led by Mohamed Sahnouni, archaeologist at the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), has just published a paper in the journal Science that breaks with the paradigm that …
Cracking open a cold one with the flies
Crack open a beer outside and it is a safe bet that you will soon be defending it from a few unwelcome drinking buddies. Fruit flies have a knack for appearing whenever someone opens up a can of beer or a bottle of wine, …
Brilliant iron molecule could provide cheaper solar energy
For the first time, researchers have succeeded in creating an iron molecule that can function both as a photocatalyst to produce fuel and in solar cells to produce electricity. The results indicate that the iron molecule …
How microscopic machines can fail in the blink of an eye
How long can tiny gears and other microscopic moving parts last before they wear out? What are the warning signs that these components are about to fail, which can happen in just a few tenths of a second? Striving to provide …
Study suggests physical changes to the brain due to learning happen differently than thought
A team of researchers from the University of Tübingen and the Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, both in Germany, has found evidence that suggests new-learning plasticity of the brain occurs faster than has …