Karla Lant

Plans from DC Seek to Help Disappearing Bee Species

The Obama administration is hoping to reverse the rapidly declining populations of honeybees and monarch butterflies in the US by providing them with better nourishment. The federal plan will preserve seven million acres of habitat for bees, monarch butterflies and other insects, making the federal land more bee-friendly. The move is intended to bolster the population of pollinators that are essential to America's food crops, support research, and investigate the widespread cutback of pesticide use as part of a wide-ranging strategy.

Are You Only As Risky As Your Friends?

Scientists have found that neurological evidence in the form of brain scans that show birds of a feather do flock together. The team says that neural and social signals in the mind align in terms of how we perceive both safety and risk. This means that trends happen for a reason, and now scientists have a better understanding of why-no matter how awful, embarrassing, or just plain weird the trend is.

Transmitting Information At The Speed Of Light, Almost

University of Utah engineers have taken a big step toward computing at the speed of light. Their research will help create the next generation of computers and mobile devices-devices that will be capable of speeds millions of times faster than machines are now.

Port of Los Angeles Reveals a New Resident of the City—A Roly Poly Pillbug Species

On the mother of all class field trips, a new species of marine roly poly pillbug was discovered, Los Angeles researchers from the county Natural History Museum confirm. The discovery was made as an invertebrate zoology lab course from Loyola Marymount University taught by researcher Dean Pentcheff of the museum explored a small, dirty, rocky beach at the southernmost tip of the city-less than a mile from the busiest port in America.

Are You a Whiz At Cad? NASA Offers $2.25 Million Prize for Best Space Habitat Design

NASA and the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, known as America Makes, are hoping that additive construction innovators will design a deep space exploration habitat and then fabricate it in a new competition worth US $1.1 million for each of two winners. Phase One registration opened at the Bay Area Maker Faire on Saturday, and the second stage begins September 27.

Ocean Microbes and How They Affect Our Atmosphere in the Age of Climate Change

That restorative sea breeze you enjoy on your vacation is more complex than most of us realize. Now, researchers from the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment (CAICE) have demonstrated that microbes in seawater influence our climate, shaping the ways that sunlight enters the ocean as clouds form. The study recently presented to the American Chemical Society shows that it is the microbes in the seawater that control the way sea spray enters into the atmosphere, and everything that follows that.

The Future of Home-Brewed Medicines and How Researchers Are Pushing Past Original Elixirs

Humans have always sought ways to alter their consciousness. Throughout our history as a species we have created and improved techniques for growing, brewing, processing, and, now, synthesizing mind-altering substances. Now, researchers from Concordia University in Quebec and University of California, Berkeley have detailed the steps needed to morphine from scratch from a simple yeast fungus.

How the ISS Plans on Getting Rid of Space Debris—Plans to Vaporize Comets in Space

Fans of shoot-em-up sci fi everywhere will be thrilled with the latest proposal for freeing the International Space Station (ISS) from the need to repeatedly alter its trajectory to avoid crashing into space junk. Researchers from the Riken Computational Astrophysics Laboratory of Japan want to use a laser system to zap dangerous space debris on a collision course with the ISS.

The Importance of Knowing Your Genetic Code—BRCA and Your Link to Breast Cancer

Staci Mishkin was tested for the BRCA breast cancer gene mutation eighteen years ago; at that time she was one of the first women in the US to do so. She had her breasts and ovaries removed to protect herself. Today she is 50 years old-the first woman in her family to live that long, and testing for the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 gene mutations that cause breast cancer are the subject of intense debate.

Can Ebola Stay Hidden in the Orbits of the Eye?

Dr. Ian Crozier fought Ebola for his life for an extended period of time at Emory University Hospital until, in October, the lengthy, bloody battle seemed to have ended with him the victor. But not even two months later searing pressure and pain in his left eye and failing sight landed him back in the hospital. His terrifying discovery? The Ebola virus was thriving inside his eye.

How the Opah Managed To Hide Its Warm Blood In Ocean Depths

This week scientists discovered the first known warm-blooded fish; except that this fish was already well-known to humans. The comically appointed opah, a large silver and red fish that is large, circular, and flat, has been making appearances in fishing nets off the coast of west Africa and Hawaii for years.

Rare Quasar Quartet is the First of Its Kind

Imagine winning the Powerball jackpot-more than once. You may have a sense of how a team of astronomers feels after their discovery of a set of four quasars at the visible universe's edge. These brilliant beacons of light are typically spread far apart, but this quartet exists shoved together in only 650,000 light-years of space-equivalent to around a quarter of the distance between our closest big neighbor galaxy Andromeda and the Milky Way.

Mayo Clinic Breakthrough With ALS Treatment In Mice

Researchers at the Jacksonville, Florida Mayo Clinic have gained a mouse model for testing potential amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) treatments. ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease is associated with various behavioral features and neuropathological symptoms as is frontotemporal dementia (FTD); both are caused by a mutation in the C9ORF72 gene. Both result in the death of neurons in the spinal cord and brain, which leads to inability to control muscles, paralysis, and death.

#DressGate Continues-What Researchers Are Saying About the Social Media Phenom

We know, you thought the whole The Dress thing was over-and you were glad. But rather than being a simple Internet meme on the scale of dancing babies and funny cats, The Dress is helping neuroscientists understand the way that the human brain perceives and thinks. Three research papers discussion cognition and perception in light of The Dress have just been published in Current Biology.

Universities Are Arguing Over Genome Editing Technology, But What Does The Law Have to Say About It?

Three major universities are now engaged in a patent lawsuit to protect their rights to use genome editing technology called CRISPR-Cas9. The fallout will have far more impact than the simple settling of ownership and intellectual property rights, however; experts believe that CRISPR-Cas9 may be the most efficient route toward a ticking off items on a laundry list of amazing biotechnological discoveries.

Octopus Arm Inspires Future Surgical Tool

A group of scientists in Italy have taken their inspiration from the octopus, creating a robotic arm that can bend, squeeze, and stretch through even cluttered environments. The device was created specifically for surgeons who need to access confined or remote areas of the body more easily.

The Selfie That Goes Beyond Skin Deep

In our increasingly more narcissistic selfie culture, sometimes the right selfie can deliver a powerful message in an unparalleled way. One woman with skin cancer is trying to use social media to change this part of our American tanning habit by sharing a selfie of her face, blistered and scabbed from skin cancer treatments.

All In The Family: Arranged Marriages And Genetic Diversity

A Massey University research team has discovered some interesting new truths about the ways arranged marriages affect genetic diversity and the ways that humans follow even important cultural rules selectively-and they may surprise you. The results show that the isolated Indonesian Rindi tribe produces genetic diversity similar to random mating by loosely complying with their rules which mandate arranged, inbred marriages.

Cause of Galactic Death: Strangulation

It's the ultimate whodunnit: what kills galaxies? A new study, published today in the journal Nature, names strangulation as the primary cause of galactic death.

From the Surface of Jupiter's Moon—Europa Reveals Icy Glass

The European Space Agency (ESA) has just published a striking picture of Europa, Jupiter's icy moon. In the image the surface looks like shattered glass; it reveals many interlocking cracks in the moon's icy crust which were formed by an ocean below the moon's surface. Now a team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) led by planetary scientist Kevin Hand has identified the cracks as sea salt.

Embryological Manipulation Reveals Chicks Can Have Prehistoric Looks

One of the latest breakthroughs from Yale scientists: the mighty dino-chicken. The Yale team used molecular manipulation to grow chicken embryos with Velociraptor snouts and published their results yesterday in the journal Evolution. The embryos did not hatch.

Viral Research Leads The Way in Fight Against AIDs and HIV

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and GlaxoSmithKline are homing in on a breakthrough in the fight against AIDS-one that has remained out of reach: finding a cure. This partnership between the private company and the public university will marry the longstanding work of each entity to hopefully arrive at more than has seemed possible in even the recent past.

How Nerve Damage And "Gluten Free" Collide—Problems With Celiac Disease

Swedish researchers headed by Jonas Ludvigsson, MD, PhD, of Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, revealed that patients with celiac disease were 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with neuropathy. The study, published this week in the journal JAMA Neurology, was conducted among a large group of patients with celiac disease which had been confirmed by biopsy.

Disease-Free and Rid of Ebola—Liberia Reveals Effective Health Practices Against Virus

Ten months ago the perfect storm of weak public health policy, poverty, and the Ebola virus transformed Liberia into a bloody battleground. The epicenter of the disaster was the Logan Town clinic, where workers without gloves or running water tried by candlelight to try to save their first patient in the crisis. Now, less than a year later, the Logan Town Clinic and its employees—like the rest of Liberia—is equipped to handle Ebola and any similar disease epidemic.

Man Versus Machine: Who Won Supreme In Record-Breaking Poker Match?

In the ultimate poker match between man and machine, man won-at least for this round. In a two-week competition that just ended, four top ten players of Heads-up No-limit Texas Hold'em took on Claudico, an artificial intelligence program created by a Carnegie Mellon University team and won more chips than they lost.
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