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by Mariette le Roux and Laurence Coustal Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — African Matabele ants dress the wounds of comrades injured during hunting raids and nurse them back to health, according to an “astonishing” discovery reported Wednesday. After collecting their wounded from the battlefield and carrying them back home, nestmates become medics, massing around patients for “intense licking” of open wounds, according to a study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society […]
by Etienne Lamy-Smith with Kerry Sheridan in Miami Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — Scientists in China have created the first monkeys cloned by the same process that produced Dolly the sheep more than 20 years ago, a breakthrough that could boost medical research into human diseases. The two long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) named Hua Hua and Zhong Zhong were born at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Neuroscience in Shanghai, and are […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — A new blood test for cancer has shown promise toward detecting eight different kinds of tumors before they have spread elsewhere in the body, offering hope of early detection, researchers said Thursday. Further study is needed before the test — called CancerSEEK — can be made widely available for its projected cost of about $500, said the report in the journal Science. The study, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A new project harnessing data from a Japanese satellite could improve weather forecasting and allow officials to issue life-saving warnings before natural disasters, researchers say. The project is the first time that “infrared radiation luminance data” has been used to model weather patterns in areas under heavy cloud cover that would usually stymie such modelling. The breakthrough is the result of pairing data collected by Japan’s Himawari-8 weather satellite with a […]
by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Earth’s surface will almost certainly not warm up four or five degrees Celsius by 2100, according to a study released Wednesday which, if correct, voids worst-case UN climate change predictions. A revised calculation of how greenhouse gases drive up the planet’s temperature reduces the range of possible end-of-century outcomes by more than half, researchers said in the report, published in the journal Nature. “Our study […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — A thin, waning moon should allow for uninterrupted views Wednesday night of the annual Geminid shooting star show, set to be “spectacular” this year, astronomers say. At its height, the meteor shower should yield a shooting star every minute, offering plenty of opportunity for wish-making, they said. Peaking on Wednesday night, it will be “particularly rich in bright meteors, or fireballs,” the Irish Astronomical Association (IAA) said. “There will be no […]
by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Extreme heat sometimes forces hummingbirds to seek shade instead of foraging for food, researchers said Wednesday, warning that global warming could test the tiny birds’ capacity to adapt. With hearts beating more than 1,000 times a minute, hummingbirds need to feed constantly, which means they can ill afford to spend time dodging sunshine, according to a report in the journal Royal Society Open Science. “They […]
by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The UN’s forecast for global warming is about 15 percent too low, which means end-of-century temperatures could be 0.5 degrees Celsius higher than currently predicted, said a study released Wednesday. The prediction makes the already daunting challenge of capping global warming at “well under” 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) — the cornerstone goal of the 196-nation Paris Agreement — all the more difficult, the […]
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Scallops may look like simple creatures, but the seafood delicacy has 200 eyes that function remarkably like a telescope, using living mirrors to focus light, researchers said Thursday. Most creatures’ eyes have lenses that focus light. But scallops have concave mirrors at the back of their eyes. Scientists have known since the 1960s that Pecten scallops see by reflecting light off these concave mirrors onto the retina above, said the […]
LA JOLLA, California (Reuters) — All hands are on deck at this lab at the University of California San Diego, where researcher Michael Tolley’s team are working on a human-like robotic gripper. Its three fingers are made of three flexible pneumatic chambers that move when air pressure is applied, allowing each digit to manipulate the object it’s holding. “These fingers are unique in that they can bend in any direction so we have enough degrees […]
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Santa Barbara County, California (AFP) — NASA on Saturday launched a next-generation satellite into space designed to monitor weather around the world and help improve forecasts. The satellite, called the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1), is a joint venture between the US space agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which provides weather reports and forecasts. The satellite was launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket as scheduled at 1:47 […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — A new extrasolar system planet can be added to a handful of fellow exoplanets which could theoretically support life, the European Southern Observatory said Wednesday. The ESO said it had discovered the planet, Ross 128b, orbiting a star within the constellation of Virgo and it is comparatively ‘close’ at just 11 light years outside the Solar System. One light year is equivalent to 9.46 trillion kilometers (5.85 trillion miles). But in […]
