When the Renaissance physician and expert dissector Andreas Vesalius first published "De humani corporis fabrica" in 1543, he provided the most detailed look inside the human body of his time. A previously unknown copy of the impressive anatomy textbook resurfaced a few years ago, and it apparently contains more than a thousand hand-written notes and corrections by the author himself. The annotations reveal that Vesalius was meticulously planning a third edition of the book that never made it to print, researchers say. "This book is his work bench ...
Sunday, 31 March 2013
How ancient life could possibly have return concerning
Loved ones tree unites a diverse group of people that each one carry genetic vestiges issued from a only common ancestor along at the base of one's tree. however this organizational structure falls apart if genetic data could be a communal resource as opposed to actually loved ones possession. Some evidence suggests that early evolution may have been based on a collective sharing of genes. A group of researchers are now searching for clear genetic vestiges from this communal ancestry. But it's hard to shake our fascination with family trees. My father used to travel for work, ...
Friday, 29 March 2013
Seasons on 'Game of Thrones' Planet: How They Work
Winter is coming on the HBO series "Game of Thrones," but no one seems to be able to predict when. The planet's last summer persisted for seven years, while winter has been known to last a generation on the show. Understanding when the seasons will change is just one of the many issues plaguing the characters of the fantasy series based on the books by George R.R. Martin. Although science doesn't play much of a role in the fictional world — which comes complete with dragons, magic and a red comet that serves as an omen — planetary science could help ...
Why You Are Paying for Everyone's Flood Insurance
There are many, many compelling and urgent reasons to take decisive action to combat climate change. Here's one that's measurable by dollars added to our budget deficit. Actually by tens of billions of dollars. The soaring cost of private flood insurance is pricing so many coastal homeowners out of the market that the rest of the American taxpayers are having to bail them out – to the tune of $30 billion under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). With over $139 billion in storm, wildfire, drought, tornado and flood damages taking nearly 1 percent ...
It Pays to Shop Around for Prescription Drugs, Study Finds
The next time your doctor writes you a prescription for a new generic drug, channel your inner bargain hunter and shop around, as it could save you a lot of money, a new survey from Consumer Reports has found. When secret shoppers called more than 200 pharmacies around the United States to check the total price for a month's supply of five top-selling prescription drugs that recently went generic, they discovered an overall 447 percent difference — or $749 — between the highest- and lowest-priced stores. "When blockbuster drugs go generic, a lot ...
No Link Between 'Too Many Vaccines' and Autism Risk
Despite concerns by some parents that their children receive "too many vaccines too soon," a new study finds that many shots, even on the same day, do not increase the risk of autism. In the first six months of life, children receive as many as 19 vaccine doses of six different vaccines, and by the time they are 6 years old, a total of 25 doses from 10 vaccines. In a 2011 survey, about a third of parents expressed concerns that their child received too many vaccines before age 2, and too many vaccines on a single day. Previous studies have found ...
Wednesday, 27 March 2013
Mysterious Pond Circles in NY Spur Talk of Aliens
In the small town of Eden, N.Y., the recent appearance of mysterious circles in a frozen pond has residents baffled. Last Friday, during an early spring snowstorm, Eden resident Peggy Gervase was looking at the pond near her home when she noticed an unusual pattern in the snow covering the water's surface: large circles that resembled giant polka dots. "I've never seen this before in our pond," Gervase told local TV station WGRZ. "It's eerie in a way, but cool in a way." After Gervase posted a photograph of the pond circles to the station's ...
Massive Extinction Fueled Rise of Crocodiles
A massive extinction between the Triassic and Jurassic eras paved the way for the rise of the crocodiles, new research suggests. The researchers, who detail their work today (March 26) in the journal Biology Letters, found that although nearly all the crocodilelike archosaurs, known as pseudosuchia, died off about 201 million years ago, the one lineage that survived soon diversified to occupy land and sea. The lineage included the ancestors of all modern crocodiles and alligators. "Even though almost all the lineages except for one was extinct, the ...
Monday, 25 March 2013
Private SpaceX Cargo Capsule's Return to Earth Delayed One Day
A private cargo capsule's trip home to Earth from the International Space Station has been delayed by one day to Tuesday because of weather concerns near its targeted splashdown site. SpaceX's unmanned Dragon spacecraft is now scheduled to splash down at 12:36 p.m. EDT (1636 GMT) on Tuesday (March 26) in the Pacific Ocean, 246 miles (396 kilometers) off the coast of Baja California, NASA officials announced Friday (March 22). Dragon will be carrying about 2,670 pounds (1,210 kilograms) of equipment, hardware and scientific experiments, none of which should ...
Friday, 22 March 2013
Weird Way Lyme Disease Bugs Avoid Immune System
The bacterium that causes Lyme Disease substitutes manganese for iron in its diet, a new study finds. The pathogen is the first known organism to live without iron. This talent helps the pathogen evade the immune system, which often acts against foreign invaders by starving them of iron. Lyme disease is transmitted by tick bites and can cause fever, fatigue, headaches and rashes. If not treated promptly with antibiotics, the disease can start to attack the circulatory and central nervous systems, causing shooting pains and numbness as well ...
Camo Bugs & Gorgeous Genitalia Dominate Ecology Photo Contest
Fighting elephant seals, camouflaged bugs and "riotously colored flower genitalia" are among the subjects of the winners of the 2013 BMC Ecology image competition. The contest, run by the journal BMC Ecology and open to anyone affiliated with a research institution, focused on entries depicting ecological interactions. Those interactions ranged from the stress penguins feel when watched by humans to the death of a caterpillar destroyed by wasp larvae. Of course, there were less-destructive interactions as well: insects and hummingbirds pollinating ...
Thursday, 21 March 2013
Weather Channel Explores Rogue Planet Doomsday Scenario
What if a rogue planet swept through the solar system, altering Earth's orbit? Potentially, the death of all life on the planet, according to a new Weather Channel special. "Forecasting the End," a new Weather Channel series, premieres March 21, exploring the possible results of a rogue planet fly-by. Rogue planets, or planets not linked to stars, may outnumber actual stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Myths about "Planet X" or "Nibiru" hold that a stealth rogue planet is headed this way (actually, it was supposed to hit on the Mayan apocalypse on Dec. 21, ...
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
Bezos expedition retrieves Apollo rocket engines from ocean floor
A recovery team funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has plucked two rocket engines from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean that were used to send astronauts to the moon more than 40 years ago, he wrote on the project's website on Wednesday. Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, last year announced plans to search the sea floor for rocket motors shed during Saturn 5 launches to the moon during the 1969-1972 Apollo program. Bezos Expeditions found and retrieved two Saturn 5 first-stage engines from three miles beneath the Atlantic Ocean. "We've ...
Mystery of Vanishing Dwarf Galaxies Explained?
Some dwarf galaxies in the early universe travelled so fast that their gas was stripped from them, according to a new computer simulation. This cosmic vanishing act could help explain a long-standing mystery: astronomers observe fewer dwarf galaxies in the "Local Group" — the collection of galaxies near the Milky Way — than what models of the universe's formation predict. But if these galaxies are losing gas, that could explain why they don't appear as plentiful as they should. Because these dwarf galaxies were so small when they formed, they ...
Wednesday, 13 March 2013
First Canadian takes command of International Space Station
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield took the helm of the International Space Station on Wednesday, only the second time in the outpost's 12-year history that command has been turned over to someone who is not American or Russian. "It's a huge honor and a privilege for me, but also for all the people at the Canadian Space Agency and for my entire country," Hadfield, 53, said during a change of command ceremony aboard the station broadcast on NASA Television. "Thank you very much for giving me the keys to the family car," Hadfield told outgoing station ...
Best Baby Name for a Future Pope?
When Jorge Mario Bergoglio won the papal conclave's vote for new pope today (March 13), he also announced his new name: Francis I, or Francesco I in Latin. The name is a reference to Saint Francis of Assisi, a venerated Catholic friar who lived in the 13th century. Saint Francis is patron saint of animals and the environment. He was known for his dedication to poverty and reform, which may send a signal about the new pope's concerns. But popes didn't always pick a papal moniker, also known as a regnal name. And today, they rarely get overly ...
Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Carlyle Group cuts minimum investment to $50,000 in new buyout fund
Carlyle Group LP will now allow people to invest as little as $50,000 in its new buyout fund, a regulatory filing showed, as private equity firms look to widen their customer base in search of new sources of funding. The lowered entry point is down from Carlyle's earlier minimum investment of between $5 million and $20 million, according to a filing made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January. The opportunity to invest in the new Carlyle buyout fund will be available to "accredited investors," who are defined as having ...
Monday, 11 March 2013
Icahn signs confidentiality agreement with Dell
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who is fighting Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell's plan to take the struggling company private, has entered a confidentiality agreement that would give him access to the computer maker's financial records. Michael Dell, who is also Dell's CEO, is planning a $24.4 billion buyout that would make the Round Rock, Texas, company a privately owned business. But Icahn and other investors say the price of $13.65 per share is too low. Icahn's company, Icahn Enterprises, has said it holds a substantial stake in the company. Icahn ...
Edwards heart valve system good as surgery at three years: trial
Patients who received the original version of Edwards Lifesciences Corp's non-invasive heart valve replacement system had a nearly identical death rate after three years as those who had open-heart surgery, with no increased risk of stroke, according to results from a clinical trial. The data, presented on Monday at the American College of Cardiology scientific meeting in San Francisco, should provide doctors with some reassurance about the durability of the Edwards transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), known as Sapien. Three years after ...
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