By Heidi Ledford of Nature magazineIt would not be the first psychiatric drug to run aground in a large study after sailing through early trials. But even though TC-5214 has failed to significantly relieve major depression in a phase III trial and investors are fleeing, some analysts and scientists argue that the setback need not spell the end for the drug, nor for other compounds that act on nicotinic receptors in nerve cells....
Some people seem to continually have their heads in the clouds. Perhaps they are pondering during their drive to work the next pickle 24 protagonist Jack Bauer will find himself in. Or maybe they are assessing while buttering toast the Indianapolis Colts’ chances of finally making it to the Super Bowl. Or considering where they will dine that evening as they tap out an e-mail. The question is: What makes their minds veer from the task at hand?...
In the dead of night, just how did the British Air Force manage to gun down German aircraft during World War II? Eating carrots was the key to the pilots’ success, according to the U.K. Ministry of Food. The now-defunct agency rolled out a propaganda campaign detailing the pilots’ superb carrot-enriched night vision and encouraging civilians to devour more of the locally grown vegetable to help them function during blackouts. The root vegetable is rich in beta-carotene, a naturally occurring pigment that nourishes the eye....
The U.S. government has attempted to obtain the master encryption keys that Internet companies use to shield millions of users’ private Web communications from eavesdropping. These demands for master encryption keys, which have not been disclosed previously, represent a technological escalation in the clandestine methods that the FBI and the National Security Agency employ when conducting electronic surveillance against Internet users. If the government obtains a company’s master encryption key, agents could decrypt the contents of communications intercepted through a wiretap or by invoking the potent surveillance authorities of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act....
Aruna Miller entered June’s Democratic primary for a highly prized Maryland seat in the U.S. Congress with several advantages. She had seven opponents, but Miller had pulled in the most money from outside donors, was already a state lawmaker and had locked down endorsements from more than two-dozen of her colleagues, and had gender on her side—women in 2018 are outperforming expectations in U.S. federal election primaries across the country. But Miller, a civil engineer running to represent Maryland’s sprawling 6th District, ran into a daunting obstacle: a business magnate who spent more than $10 million of his own money on the campaign, dwarfing the roughly $1....
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union has agreed a new law to strengthen safety standards and improve supervision of nuclear facilities in response to lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, the European Commission said on Wednesday. In March 2011, an earthquake and tsunami caused the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years, spewing radiation over a swathe of Fukushima and forcing 160,000 people from their homes. The European Union, in response, carried out a series of stress tests to examine the resilience of nuclear power stations and used the results to draft a response plan based on the latest international standards....
The astronomical discoveries made by Galileo Galilei in the 17th century have secured his place in scientific lore, but a lesser known aspect of the Italian astronomer’s life is his role as a father. Galileo had three children out of wedlock with Marina Gamba—two daughters and a son. The two young girls, whether by their illegitimate birth or Galileo’s inability to provide a suitable dowry, were deemed unfit for marriage and placed in a convent together for life....
Aedes aegypti is the mosquito that is the scourge behind outbreaks of the deadly yellow, dengue and even chikungunya fevers that kill thousands of people in Africa, South America and Asia every year. At least 2.5 billion people—more than one third of the human population—are at risk of infection from dengue fever alone. Now an international consortium of researchers has sequenced the majority of the Aedes genome, offering hope that specific genes can be identified that would allow scientists to combat these tropical diseases in their carrier....
Mario Queiroz, vice president of product management for Chromecast, demonstrates switching Chromecast media controls in Netflix from one device to another at Google HQ. Google hopes developers will flock to the new Chromecast SDK. (Credit: Seth Rosenblatt/CNET) A key part of Google’s plans to build the future of its Chromecast dongle has slipped into place as the company unlocked its Chromecast software development kit on Monday morning. The Google Cast Software Development Kit (SDK), available now, will allow app developers to give their users the option to stream their apps or Web sites to the Chromecast, which acts like a receiver that you plug into your TV’s HDMI port....
With Judge Amy Coney Barrett poised to become the sixth Republican-nominated justice on the nation’s highest bench, environmental law experts see her influence tipping the scales on energy and climate rules. President Trump tapped Barrett on Saturday, and Trump—with the help of a Republican-led Senate—is intent on swiftly filling the position left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was nominated in 1993 by President Clinton, a Democrat (Greenwire, Sept....
ASHEVILLE, N.C.—On a sunny afternoon in this rapidly growing mountain city, craft-beer drinkers line up for a “pubcycle tour” on a 13-person pedal-powered trolley on wheels. They depart just a few blocks from one of Asheville’s certified green restaurants that uses solar panels, buys wind-power credits and composts its waste. Within walking distance is an organic furniture store and a vegan restaurant that makes its own kombucha and feeds the homeless for free....
Researchers have recovered a nearly two-mile-long cylinder of ice from eastern Antarctica that contains a record of atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane–two potent and ubiquitous greenhouse gases–spanning the last two glacial periods. Analysis of this core shows that current atmospheric concentrations of CO2–380 parts per million (ppm)–are 27 percent higher than the highest levels found in the last 650,000 years. The ice core data also shows that CO2 and methane levels have been remarkably stable in Antarctica–varying between 300 ppm and 180 ppm–over that entire period and that shifts in levels of these gases took at least 800 years, compared to the roughly 100 years in which humans have increased atmospheric CO2 levels to their present high....
It is one of the most famous photos ever taken — the Earth rising over the moon’s horizon as seen firsthand by the 1968 Apollo 8 crew. And yet, more than four decades later, details about how the photo was captured are still being uncovered. Four days shy of the photo’s 45th anniversary, NASA on Friday (Dec. 20) released a new simulation of the events that led to the creation of the image known as “Earthrise....
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has had a tough couple of years. Republicans in the US Congress have put the agency under the microscope, questioning its decisions on individual grants and the purpose of entire fields of study. The agency was without a permanent director for a year, and it is now planning an expensive, and controversial, move to new headquarters. As she prepares to mark one year at the agency’s helm, astrophysicist France Córdova is carefully navigating these challenges....
A car’s engine can rev wildly, but the vehicle will not move until the driver puts it in gear. For a century, a box of gears called the transmission has transferred engine power to the wheels. In manual designs, the driver shifts the gears to deliver different torques. In automatics, hydraulics or servomotors do the work. A radically different scheme known as continuously variable transmission (CVT) has lurked in the background for 50 years, however, and has recently made inroads in small and midsize cars and in hybrid vehicles....
Officials involved with United Nations climate talks have been warning that the next pact, which will be negotiated in December in Paris, won’t alone hold global warming to less than 2°C, or 3.6°F. Those warnings have triggered renewed concern for the future of the planet as negotiators meet this week in Geneva, Switzerland, for a round of lower-profile talks. Slate described the cautionary words—made separately by EU climate negotiator Miguel Arias Canete and U....
In what could be a breakthrough in cancer therapy, researchers report in The New England Journal of Medicine today that they succeeded in bolstering a patient’s immune system enough to wipe out late-stage malignant tumors on its own. The scientists say the successful experiment could pave the way for new treatments of advanced cancer that spare patients the side effects of chemotherapy, which kills healthy as well as malignant cells....
By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Years of schooling and training are needed to teach pathologists and radiologists to spot cancer on medical images, but a new study finds that pigeons can be about as accurate as these professionals, with the help of a few food pellets. People don’t have to worry about bird brains diagnosing their cancers any time soon, but the study’s lead researcher says pigeons may have a future standing in for pathologists and radiologists in the kinds of mind-numbing studies of new technologies that involve examining thousands of images....
For many, pollen is a nuisance, responsible only for sniffles and sneezes. For forensic ecologist Wiltshire, pollen is a portal, transporting her to the scene of a crime. Microscopic pollen particles that cling to a suspect’s jacket or a victim’s hair can reveal critical clues about a crime scene’s ecosystem. Using this evidence, Wiltshire can often re-create, in brilliant detail, where a victim spent his or her final moments—often to the surprise of the detectives working with her....
It’s well known that pre-diction is fraught with peril, especially when it’s about the future. But if the future is past, then analyzing predictions about that past future is like an unwrapped present. (Tense yet?) A friend recently sent me an article from the December 1900 issue of the Ladies’ Home Journal, in which one John Elfreth Watkins, Jr., listed a series of predictions for the year 2000. (See www.tinyurl.com/3yuaxx for the complete list....
