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A visit from a furry companion can give comfort to patients in the hospital, but new guidelines recommend that only dogs — and not cats — be allowed in hospitals for pet therapy programs. The guidelines, from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), are aimed at reducing the potential risks from having animals in hospital facilities. In recent years, it has become more common for hospitals to allow the presence of animals, such as service animals, trained therapy animals, personal pets and research animals....

In a fitting irony, the static that once bothered scientists trying to tune in to the universe has turned out to be an incredibly rich source of information about it. Probing these signals over the past 40 years—known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation—scientists have dug out cosmological secrets that have revolutionized the field. Next, European scientists will spy on the relic photons with instruments of unprecedented detail, when they launch the Planck satellite in early 2009....

The Earth will benefit from burning more fossil fuels and regulations on greenhouse gases must be challenged, one of EPA’s newest science advisers said yesterday. John Christy, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama, Hunstville, was one of the first to push the federal government to conduct a “red team, blue team” debate on climate science. That was a decade ago. Now he wants to use his new perch on the agency’s Science Advisory Board to challenge climate science consensus....

In the film The Wizard of Oz, the scarecrow famously pines for a brain but eventually comes to realize that he already possesses all the smarts he needs. Similarly, acellular slime molds—strange, gelatinous organisms that consist of a single cell with billions of nuclei—lack a brain yet sometimes act like far more sophisticated creatures. “We can’t say that slime molds have personalities, because people would be very upset,” says Audrey Dussutour, a behavioral biologist at Toulouse University III–Paul Sabatier in France....

In a landmark study, NASA scientists conducted exhaustive tests on Scott Kelly during his grueling 342-day tour aboard the International Space Station in 2015–2016. And they simultaneously monitored his identical twin brother Mark (a retired astronaut who was on Earth at the time), hoping the comparison would reveal new information about the effects of long-term spaceflight on the human body. The results of the NASA Twins Study, reported Thursday in Science, show Scott Kelly underwent a number of physiological changes—most of which returned to pre-flight status after he returned to Earth....

BOSTON—A cosmic train wreck is piling up, and astronomers have a new and improved view. Four massive clusters of galaxies are plowing into one another at a crash site about five billion light-years from Earth. The conglomeration is creating one giant concentration of thousands of galaxies. “This is really one of the most massive clusters we know of and one of the most complex mergers we know of,” said Reinout van Weeren of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), who presented the latest observations Tuesday here at the 224th meeting of the American Astronomical Society....

After a magnitude 7.0 earthquake rocked Haiti in January, many experts worried that devastating outbreaks of infectious diseases would soon invade the region. In a nation where a large part of the population already lived without access to reliable sanitation and clean water, a disaster that further disrupted infrastructure seemed likely to lead to widespread infections, such as cholera, which spreads through feces-contaminated water. Although more than a million people are still living in tent encampments following the disaster, it was not until late last week that news of a potential cholera outbreak first emerged....

By Ed Yong of Nature magazineIn the deep ocean off the coast of Costa Rica, scientists have found a species of crab that cultivates gardens of bacteria on its claws, then eats them.The yeti crab–so-called because of the hair-like bristles that cover its arms–is only the second of its family to be discovered. The first–an even hairier species called Kiwa hirsuta–was found in 2005 near Easter Island.Andrew Thurber, a marine ecologist now at Oregon State University in Corvallis, identified the second species a year later....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. In ancient India from the 6th century BCE onwards, the kingdom of Magadha (6th century BCE to 4th century BCE) made a mark for itself. Located in the eastern part of India in what is today the state of Bihar, it outshone other kingdoms and republics when it came to territorial expansion and control, which was the main reason and context for its incessant wars....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The provinces Noricum, Raetia, and Dacia served as a buffer protecting Roman Empire against any possible outside threat. However, the region posed several internal problems for Rome: Pannonia and its ally Dalmatia rebelled against Roman occupancy, causing a three-year war, and Moesia was invaded by the Dacians during the reigns of both Domitian (r....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The rock drawings of Valcamonica are prehistoric petroglyphs carved in the glacier-polished, grey-purple Permian sandstone of the Camonica valley that extends for 90 km in the Italian provinces of Brescia and Bergamo in Lombardy. The name of the valley comes from “Cammunni”, the name its inhabitants carried during the Iron Age....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Hippodrome of Constantinople was an arena used for chariot racing throughout the Byzantine period. First built during the reign of Roman emperor Septimius Severus in the early 3rd century CE, the structure was made more grandiose by emperor Constantine I in the 4th century CE. The Hippodrome was also used for other public events such as parades, public executions and the public shaming of enemies of the emperor....

Did you like this article? Editorial Review This article has been reviewed for accuracy, reliability and adherence to academic standards prior to publication. The Report of Wenamun (also known as The Tale of Wenamun or The Report of Wenamon) is an Egyptian literary work dated to c. 1090-1075 BCE toward the end of the New Kingdom (c.1570 - c. 1069 BCE). The piece was originally interpreted as an actual official report, but the use of certain stylistic devices (dialogue and symbolism among them) has led scholars to conclude that the work is more along the lines of historical fiction than reportage....

Humanity should be thankful “The Beast” doesn’t have Earth in its crosshairs. This Sunday (June 8), the near-Earth asteroid 2014 HQ124—which some observers have nicknamed “The Beast”—will give the planet a relatively close shave, coming within 777,000 miles (1.25 million kilometers) at its closest approach, or about 3.25 times the distance from Earth to the moon. There is no chance of an impact on this pass, researchers stress. But at 1,100 feet (335 meters) wide, 2014 HQ124 could do some serious damage if it slammed into us....

How do you think the dark matter problem is solved?” Vera C. Rubin urgently asked me, within minutes of being introduced at a 2009 Women in Astronomy conference. To this day, I can’t remember what I said in response. I was awestruck: the famed astronomer who had won the National Medal of Science for her work finding the first conclusive evidence for dark matter’s existence was asking me, a twentysomething Ph....

By Gayatri Suroyo and Adriana Nina Kusuma SURABAYA, Indonesia/JAKARTA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Indonesian rescuers searching for an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people pulled bodies and wreckage from the sea off the coast of Borneo on Tuesday, prompting relatives of those on board watching TV footage to break down in tears. Indonesia AirAsia’s Flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact with air traffic control early on Sunday during bad weather on a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore....

University of Stuttgart researchers have created what some say is the first permanent building to be significantly designed and built using robotics. The team employed a robotic arm and custom software to build the 250-square-meter geodesic structure—a curvy shell composed of self-bracing panels—faster and with greater precision than could be accomplished with human hands alone. And they did so while minimizing the project’s environmental impact. The result is a sinuous building called Landesgartenschau, or LaGa, Exhibition Hall in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany....

In September 2012, at the Annual Meeting of New Champions, or “Summer Davos,” in Tianjin, China, I talked to the World Economic Forum (WEF) organizers. At last, they told me, policy leaders and others have come to appreciate that basic research underpins the innovations that nations seek to live sustainably in a finite world. What they don’t yet know is how to speak the language. That is why Scientific American, along with our sister title, Nature, has been helping identify scientific speakers and topics for the WEF meetings—and why I am particularly excited about a new initiative, the Global Agenda for Science, Technology and Innovation....

Dear EarthTalk: Why don’t cleaning products have to list their ingredients? Are these products tested for what they might do to your health?—Patricia Greenville, Bethel, Conn. Since cleaning products aren’t food, beverages or drugs meant to be ingested, they aren’t regulated, per se, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. However, makers are required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to list ingredients that are active disinfectants or potentially harmful....

NEW ORLEANS—Scientists are getting faster and faster at linking climate change to extreme weather events. If an extreme heat wave, storm or flood occurs tomorrow, scientists could determine in a few days whether it was made worse by climate change. That has some scientists thinking: Why not do it for every disaster as soon as it happens? It could be an important way to inform the public about the ways climate is influencing weather around the world....