What Really Motivates Sperm

From Live Science:

In high-school health class films, sperm cells are shown zooming around with quick flicks of their tails, but they only jump into action when they are in the right chemical conditions – usually that's in the female reproductive tract. Researchers have now figured out the precise chemical switch that turns on the sperm's motors, which could lead to the development of new treatments for infertility.

Scientists have long known that sperm's activity level depends on the internal pH of the sperm cell —a measure of how acidic or alkaline a substance is. They start out with acidic insides when in the male reproductive tract, but once they enter the female tract, their internal environment becomes alkaline and off they zoom toward the egg.

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Headache Pill Could Save Earthquake Crush Victims

Rescue carries its own dangers (Image: Roberto Schmidt/Getty)

From New Scientist:

JUST one tablet of paracetamol (acetaminophen) could help save earthquake survivors who otherwise risk dying from kidney failure after rescue. Experiments in rats have shown that the drug prevents "crush syndrome", or rhabdomyolysis, in which muscle debris from crushed limbs floods the kidneys soon after the limb is freed from rubble, causing them to fail.

"When you release the pressure on muscle through rescue, debris goes to the kidney. It's like a chain reaction, and acetaminophen blocks it," says Olivier Boutaud of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and head of the research team.

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Patients In 'Vegetative' State Can Think And Communicate

'Vegetative state' brain scan images:: the fMRI images which were
used as part of the study by Dr Adrian Owen

From The Telegraph:

Patients left in a “vegetative” state after suffering devastating brain damage are able to understand and communicate, groundbreaking research suggests.

Experts using brain scans have discovered for the first time that the victims, who show no outward signs of awareness, can not only comprehend what people are saying to them but also answer simple questions.

They were able to give yes or no responses to simple biographical questions.

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Do Not Adjust Your Sets: Solar Storms Could Cause Blackouts At Olympics

Solar flares erupting from the surface of the Sun fling billions of tonnes of electrically-charged matter towards the Earth in a solar storm. ESA/ASA

From The Independent:

With terrorist threats, dire transport links and overspent budgets you'd be forgiven for thinking that the 2012 London Olympics had enough problems to worry about. But another nightmare scenario has just been added to the Olympic dream – a communications blackout caused by solar storms.

After a period of unprecedented calm within the massive nuclear furnace that powers the Sun, scientists have detected the signs of a fresh cycle of sunspots that could peak in 2012, just in time for the arrival of the Olympic torch in London.

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New Amateur Video Reveals Sheer Devastation Of Challenger Explosion

From The Daily Mail:

An amateur video of the Challenger explosion has resurfaced, 24 years after the tragedy.

The four-minute film, shot by optometrist Jack Moss, brings an entirely new perspective to the terrible event which killed a team of seven, including science teacher Christa McAuliffe, who had been chosen by NASA to become the first civilian in space.

In the tape shot from his back garden in Winter Haven Florida in 1986, Moss watches the launch with his wife and neighbour before the group noticed something was wrong.

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3 Programs That Lose Out In Obama's Defense Budget

F-35

From Popular Mechanics:

The Obama administration released its budget and strategy documents this week, spelling trouble for some military programs. Not that many are at risk of cancellation, though: The $708 billion 2011 Pentagon budget is $18 billion higher than 2010's. (It calls for $33 billion in supplemental funding for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, something candidate Barack Obama railed against during his campaign.) Still, Gates and Obama took some programs to task, and killed one outright. Here's a rundown of some of the losers.

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My Comment:

Experts: 40% Of Cancers Are Preventable

Lung cancer cell
Visuals Unlimited / Corbis

From Time Magazine:

(LONDON) — About 40 percent of cancers could be prevented if people stopped smoking and overeating, limited their alcohol, exercised regularly and got vaccines targeting cancer-causing infections, experts say.

To mark World Cancer day on Thursday, officials at the International Union Against Cancer released a report focused on steps that governments and the public can take to avoid the disease.

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Say Hello To Robonaut2, NASA's Android Space Explorer Of The Future

From Popular Science:

With the news that the White House has canceled the Constellation Program, NASA seems to be moving out of the human space flight business. However, the unveiling of a next-generation robot astronaut shows the android space program to be alive and well.

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Behold ‘The Amazon Effect’: Now Murdoch’s Gunning For The $10 E-Book

From Wired Science:

Smelling blood in the water after Amazon caved to Macmillan’s demand to stop selling e-books of their titles for only $10, News Corp Chief Rupert Murdoch says he, too, wants that deal.

Murdoch’s media empire includes HarperCollins books, which has had 20 titles on New York Times best-seller lists in the past three months, including Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue ($29) and the hot political tome Game Change ($28). Reuters reports Murdoch told analysts Tuesday that Amazon appears “ready to sit down with us again” and renegotiate the deal under which Amazon prices new e-book titles at $9.99. That’s even though the publisher still gets a wholesale payment based on a higher price and Amazon eats the loss itself.

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Lord Moncton On Climate Change (Video)

Lord Monckton Vows Melbourne -- Watts Up With That?

Highlights of Lord Christopher Monckton’s Melbourne Presentation at the Sofitel Melbourne. Recorded 1st February 2010.

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Excessive Internet Use Is Linked To Depression

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 4, 2010) — People who spend a lot of time browsing the Internet are more likely to show depressive symptoms, according to the first large-scale study of its kind in the West by University of Leeds psychologists.

Researchers found striking evidence that some users have developed a compulsive internet habit, whereby they replace real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites. The results suggest that this type of addictive surfing can have a serious impact on mental health.

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45-Foot Ancient Snake Devoured Crocs

The extinct giant snake, called Titanoboa (shown in an artist's reconstruction), would have sent even Hollywood's anacondas slithering away. Credit: Jason Bourque.

From Live Science:

The largest snake the world has ever known likely had a diet that included crocodile, or at least an ancient relative of the reptile.

Scientists have discovered a 60-million-year-old ancient crocodile fossil, which has been named a new species, in northern Columbia, South America. The site, one of the world's largest open-pit coal mines, also yielded skeletons of the giant, boa constrictor-like Titanoboa, which measured up to 45 feet long (14 m).

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Excavation And Restoration On The Avenue Of Sphinxes

The Avenue of Sphinxes in front of the Luxor Temple. Photo by Jennifer Willoughby

From The Independent:

Egypt’s Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, and Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), along with the governor of Luxor, Samir Farag, will embark today on an inspection tour along the Avenue of Sphinxes that connects the Luxor and Karnak temples.

Built by the 30th Dynasty king Nectanebo I (380-362 BC), the avenue is 2,700 meters long and 76 meters wide, and lined with a number of statues in the shape of sphinxes. Queen Hatshepsut recorded on her red chapel in Karnak temple that she built six chapels dedicated to the god Amun-Re on the route of this avenue during her reign, emphasising that it was long a place of religious significance.

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Dying Stars Eat Comets For Their Last Supper

Snacking on comets (Image: HST/NASA)

From New Scientist:

WHEN the sun dies, it's not just Earth that will be doomed - the destruction will reach as far as the comets in the outer solar system. That's according to a new explanation of the behaviour of planetary nebulae - bubbles of gas sloughed off by dying stars (pictured).

There are two methods for calculating the abundance of elements in planetary nebulae: looking at light emitted when electrons and ionised atoms recombine, or looking at the energy emitted by atoms excited by collisions. Yet they yield very different results, a discrepancy that has baffled astronomers for decades.

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Britain Facing Food Crisis As World's Soil 'vanishes In 60 Years'V

From The Telegraph:

British farming soil could run out within 60 years, leading to a catastrophic food crisis and drastically higher prices for consumers, scientists warn.

Fertile soil is being lost faster than it can be replenished and will eventually lead to the “topsoil bank” becoming empty, an Australian conference heard.

Chronic soil mismanagement and over farming causing erosion, climate change and increasing populations were to blame for the dramatic global decline in suitable farming soil, scientists said.

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The Whale Whisperer: Astonishing Bond Between Diver And Scar The Giant Sperm Whale

Friends: Andrew Armour and Scar the sperm whale consider one another solemnly as they swim in the waters off Dominica last weekend

From The Daily Mail:

Peering solemnly nose-to-nose at each other, this is the Whale Whisperer and his friend - Scar the 10-year-old giant of the sea.

These spectacular images show Andrew Armour bonding with the colossal sperm whale in the warm Caribbean waters off the island of Dominica.

Taken on the weekend, the photographs offer stunning insight into the lives of other pod members travelling with Scar.

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Fringe's Killer Biological Weapon Is Rooted in Fact

From Popular Mechanics:

Last week, a lethal virus unleashed in an office building caused us to rethink what would happen in the midst of a real outbreak. In Jan. 29's episode, "The Bishop Revival," the cast of Fringe encounters its most plausible case yet. We talk to toxin expert professor Dale Johnson of UC Berkley's Nutritional Science and Toxicology program to determine if a chemical weapon can be designed to target those with specific genetic traits.

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Google Contributes Massive Amounts of Computing Power To Engineer Antibodies

Finding Antibodies Medical hide and seek could get a boost from Google Tolerx, Inc

From Popular Science:

Google has quietly put millions of dollars' worth of resources into a biotech startup that creates targeted antibody drugs that single out diseased targets among healthy cells. The Internet search giant ultimately hopes that computer models alone could identify the best antibody for particular targets for testing in human clinical trials. That would speed up or even replace the usual "wet lab" work and years spent on drug safety testing in animals and humans that costs hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Xconomy.

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Saturn Mission 'Extended Again'

Cassini completed its initial four year mission to explore Saturn in June 2008.

From The BBC:

The US space agency (Nasa) has extended the international Cassini-Huygens mission once again.

The unmanned Cassini-Huygens probe arrived at Saturn in 2004 on a mission that was meant to come to end in 2008.

The mission had already been extended by two years; potentially, the Cassini spacecraft could now explore the Saturn system until 2017.

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Genetic Test For 'Speed Gene' In Thoroughbred Horses

New research identifies the 'speed gene' contributing to a specific athletic trait in thoroughbred horses. (Credit: iStockphoto/Derek Dammann)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 3, 2010) — Groundbreaking research led by Dr Emmeline Hill, a leading horse genomics researcher at University College Dublin's (UCD) School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine has resulted in the identification of the 'speed gene' in thoroughbred horses.

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