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Mother bats expert at saving energy: Study shows wild female bats’ temperature regulation strategy is flexibleIn order to regulate their body temperature as efficiently as possible, wild female bats switch between two strategies depending on both the ambient temperature and their reproductive status.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am Quantum entanglement used to stack light particlesPhysicists are now able to mount up to two photons on top of one another to construct a variety of quantum states of light.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am First brain recordings from flying fruit fliesResearchers have obtained the first recordings of brain-cell activity in an actively flying fruit fly. The work suggests that at least part of the brain of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) "is in a different and more sensitive state during flight than when the fly is quiescent," says a study author.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am Defective signaling pathway sheds light on cystic fibrosisIn a study that could lead to new therapeutic targets for patients with the cystic fibrosis, scientists have identified a defective signaling pathway that contributes to disease severity.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am Shifting cellular energy metabolism may help treat cardiovascular diseaseDrugs that target the way cells convert nutrients into energy could offer new approaches to treating a range of conditions including heart attack and stroke. Using a new way to screen for potential drugs, researchers have identified several FDA-approved agents, including an over-the-counter anti-nausea drug, that can shift cellular energy metabolism processes in animals.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am Drama or reality TV: Do medical shows depict proper first aid for seizures?Watching TV medical shows might not be the best way to learn what to do when someone has a seizure. Researchers screened the most popular medical dramas and found that doctors and nurses on the shows responded inappropriately to seizures almost half the time, according to a new study.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am Bacteria-killing proteins cover blood type blind spotGalectin-4 and galectin-8, carbohydrate-binding proteins found in our intestines, can recognize and kill bacteria that have human blood type sugar molecules on their surfaces. This discovery explains why bacteria can't sneak past our immune systems by camouflaging themselves with blood type molecules. It may also explain why the human population has a diversity of blood types; galectin-4 and -8 create a "protected space" for the diversity.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am A new 3-D map of the interstellar gas within 300 parsecs from the sunAstronomy & Astrophysics is publishing new 3-D maps of the interstellar gas in the local area around our sun. A French-American team of astronomers presents new absorption measurements towards more than 1800 stars. They were able to characterize the properties of the interstellar gas within each sight line.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am Master gene SRC-3 enables breast cancer growth, invasionThe master gene SRC-3 not only enhances estrogen-dependent growth of cancer cells, it also sends a signal to the cell membrane to promote cell movement -- a key element of cancer metastasis, said researchers. The finding not only uncovers a new activity for SRC-3, it also clears up a mystery about how the message that tells a cell to invade gets from the epidermal growth factor receptor to the activating enzyme.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am 'Primitive' cancer gene discovered in ancestral metazoanTo find the causes for cancer, biochemists and developmental biologists retraced the function of an important human cancer gene 600 million years back in time. For the first time, they have identified the oncogene myc in a fresh water polyp and they have shown that this oncogene has similar biochemical functions in ancestral metazoan and in humans.Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am Greenpeace two plead not guilty in whale meat trial (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 3:30 am The nation's weather (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 2:45 am Israel discovers large ancient wine press (AP)AP - Israeli archaeologists said Monday that they've discovered an unusually shaped 1,400-year-old wine press that was exceptionally large and advanced for its time.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 2:38 am Space station's new lookout in final resting spot (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 2:32 am Fossils 'record past sea changes'Fossilised coral in the Great Barrier Reef could help scientists understand how sea levels have changed since the last Ice Age.Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 15 Feb 2010 | 2:25 am Astronauts Battle Glitches to Move Space Station's Observation Deck (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - Astronauts moved a brand-new observation deck to its final destination on the International Space Station late Sunday despite jammed bolts and other glitches that threatened their work.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 2:00 am Whaling protester secretly boards Japanese boat (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 1:39 am Space station gets a room with a viewCAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Monday added an observation deck that will give residents of the orbital outpost a panoramic view of the station and Earth below.Source: Reuters: Science News | 15 Feb 2010 | 12:02 am Smart Grid Comes Home WirelesslyWith so many smart meters being installed and smart appliances in development, how are they going to talk? A handy new wireless controller could help them speak the same language, and tell you what they're thinking. BuLogics, a Philadelphia-based company ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Feb 2010 | 9:59 pm The Planet Formerly Known as PlutoWhat astronomy needs is a good road trip movie, and NOVA is happy to oblige with a new series, "The Pluto Files," which makes its debut this Tuesday, March 2, at 8 PM (ET/PT) on PBS. It's based on Neil ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Feb 2010 | 5:55 pm Science Weekly podcast: Why humans make music; plus, what is time?Science writer and former editor at Nature Philip Ball tells us why humans make and listen to music. He's giving a lecture on the subject at the Royal Institution this week. Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, discusses his new book From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time. A longer version of that interview is available in our latest Science Weekly Extra podcast. In the newsjam, we look at Britain's plans for space and how scientists have reconstructed an ancient man's physical features from his hair. The Observer's science and technology editor Robin McKie and Guardian science correspondent Ian Sample are in the studio to share their wisdom. Post your comments below. Join our Facebook group. Listen back through our archive. Follow the podcast on our Science Weekly Twitter feed and receive updates on all breaking science news stories from Guardian Science. Subscribe free via iTunes to ensure every episode gets delivered. (Here is the non-iTunes URL feed). Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Feb 2010 | 5:12 pm China: Internet censorship and cyber heistsWhen Google threatened to quit China, most of the focus was on human rights and the country's extensive system of internet censorship, the Great Firewall. China rebuffed such criticism. Countries that censor political speech on the internet are quick to point out that western nations also have laws governing content online, some of it political. Germany bans neo-Nazi symbols on German internet sites. The state of South Australia recently attempted to ban anonymous political speech online in the lead-up to elections. China said it was its sovereign right to set limits on internet activities. However, less attention was paid to Google's claims that hackers had also stolen corporate secrets in addition to targeting human rights activists. This highlighted a little discussed problem. While China calls on other countries to respect its laws, it must do more to curtail internet attacks focused on foreign companies that do business there. The Chinese government denied involvement in the attempts to gain access to the Gmail accounts of human rights activists or attempts to steal Google's corporate secrets. It is almost impossible to link attacks online to a single player, much less link the shadowy hackers to a government. Attempts to find a technical link to China in the latest round of attacks failed to uncover a smoking gun. However, security researchers have found that companies doing business in China find their networks hacked and documents relating to business there stolen. A report by US defence company Northrop Grumman last year found that attacks against the US and "many countries around the world" were "extremely focused", not only on scientific and defence secrets but also on "China-related policy information". The report determined that such attacks were "beyond the capabilities or profile of virtually all organised cyber-criminal enterprises" and were "difficult at best without some type of state sponsorship". The US is not alone in its concerns. MI5 warned businesses that Chinese government officials had given British businessmen digital cameras and memory sticks loaded with Trojan horses, viruses that would give the Chinese access to their computers. Companies doing business in China have long faced brazen attempts to steal corporate secrets. The lure of the riches that China promises has bought silence in the corporate world. That silence made Google's announcement stand out. If China claims its extensive censorship of the internet in its borders is its sovereign right, it cannot lecture the rest of the world on respecting its laws while evidence mounts that foreign companies face sophisticated attempts to steal their secrets. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Feb 2010 | 5:05 pm In praise of Pluto, identified 80 years ago"Inhospitable" doesn't do it justice: the temperature on Pluto, even during its summer (which comes around only every 248 years) is -230°C. Sheathed in layers of frozen nitrogen and methane, its average distance from the sun is 3.6 billion miles. A contrarian among the spheres, it rotates in the opposite direction to the earth. Yet it's hard not to feel some affection for this unluckiest of heavenly bodies, identified 80 years ago this week at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. The first planetary discovery of the mass-media age excited worldwide interest, much of it focused on the search for a name. Venetia Burnley was the lucky Oxford schoolgirl whose grandfather passed her breakfast-table suggestion on to astronomers. She later claimed to have chosen the Roman god of the underworld because it had not already been used, though the bleak associations could hardly have been more apt. Despite having been demoted to a "dwarf planet" at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union in 2006, Pluto continues to generate attention out of proportion to its size (just one-fifth that of the Earth). Pictures from the Hubble telescope, released earlier this month, showed a quickly-changing, mottled surface, like the coat of a dapple-grey horse. Scientists look forward to seeing it in much greater detail when the New Horizons probe, launched in 2006, reaches its destination in five years. In the meantime, Pluto remains mysterious, serene and frigid, secure in its status as celestial underdog. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 14 Feb 2010 | 5:05 pm Silicon whiskers catch rays wellNew device could make solar cells cheaper.<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/news/rss/today/~4/V5PL509AFrg" height="1" width="1"/>Source: NatureNews - All articles published today - nature.com science feeds | 14 Feb 2010 | 4:00 pm UN panel admits new error in key climate report (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Feb 2010 | 2:19 pm Mobile Phone Use Soars (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - Separate reports out last week show that mobile phone use is soaring in the United States and globally, and data moving across mobile networks is expected to grow dramatically over the next four years.Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Feb 2010 | 2:16 pm Childhood Obesity Takes Psychological Toll, TooChildhood obesity is linked with all sorts of health problems, but the psychological ones can be just as debilitating.Source: Livescience.com | 14 Feb 2010 | 2:05 pm ConocoPhillips exec dies in Alaska avalanche: report (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Feb 2010 | 12:41 pm From Space, With Love: Astronauts Send Earth Cosmic Valentine (SPACE.com)SPACE.com - It may be the ultimate long-distance relationship, but the gulf between Earth and space hasn't kept astronauts in orbit from sending a valentine to their favorite planet. Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi beamed the cosmic love note to Earth from 220 miles (354 km) up aboard the International Space Station just in time for Valentine's Day. "Happy Valentines Day from Space to all of my followers on this beautiful planet!" Noguchi posted on his Twitter page late Saturday. He writes as @Astro_Soichi and has more than 75,400 followers as of this morning. ...Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 14 Feb 2010 | 11:32 am Big switchVisitors ask when the Northern Lights are "turned on"Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 14 Feb 2010 | 11:22 am Shortage of Rare Earth Elements Could Thwart InnovationRare earth elements hold the key to hybrid cars, wind turbines and crystal-clear TV displays.Source: Livescience.com | 14 Feb 2010 | 8:59 am 'Techstrology': What's Your Sign?Tracy Staedter chats with cosmic consultants Starsky and Cox to discovery which star signs use technology to find or get rid of love.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 14 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am
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