Scientists Found Out Cause Of Ebola To Be From Infected Birds

Scientists said yesterday that the cause of the deadly Ebola virus that hit West Africa this year was a 2 year old boy, known as patient zero, who played on a tree near a colony of virus-infested bats in his village in Meliandou, Guinea. He was the first person to die but before he died, he infected other family members, who then spread it to others and the virus eventually spread into other areas in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal, before moving to the US, UK and Spain. 

This Ebola outbreak is by far the largest ever-recorded outbreak and it has killed about 7,800 people by Dec. 17, 2014, according to WHO

Trial of Canadian Ebola vaccine suspended

This undated file image made available by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows the Ebola virus. AP

Helen BranswellThe Canadian Press
Swiss researchers have temporarily halted a clinical trial of a Canadian-made Ebola vaccine after seeing an unexpected side-effect in a few people who received the serum.

None of the other teams currently testing the vaccine has reported seeing the same side-effect, and the Swiss scientists acknowledge that the symptoms they have spotted are mild.

But they said Thursday that they want a little time to assess the situation before they resume vaccinating subjects in the clinical trial.

“We want to make sure that it doesn’t move into something more severe before we inject anybody else,” said Dr. Angela Huttner in an interview from Geneva.

“So far all signs are really positive.”

Joy Of Motherhood! World First Mother To Daughter Womb Tranplant

World first as mother's womb is transplanted to daughter so she can give birth, Greatest gift a mum can give to her daughter. Two women have given birth using wombs donated by their own mothers. The pair become the first ever to have children using the very womb that brought them into the world a generation earlier. The breakthrough brings hope to women who want children but were born without a womb or have had it removed.

 

 

The two mothers are among nine women to have been given womb transplants – seven of which have succeeded.

First Europe spacecraft lands on comet

Celebrating scientists in the main control room appear on a video screen at the European Space Agency after the first unmanned spacecraft Philae landed on a comet called 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, in Darmstadt, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014. Europe's Rosetta space probe was launched in 2004 with the aim of studying the comet and learning more about the origins of the universe. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

 | FRANK JORDANS

Landing with a bounce after traveling 4 billion miles, a European spacecraft made history Wednesday by successfully reaching the icy, dusty surface of a speeding comet - a cosmic first designed to answer big questions about the universe.

The landing by the washing machine-sized craft after a decade-long journey required immense precision, as even the slightest error could have resulted in stellar calamity.

Indications were that the spacecraft touched down almost perfectly, save for an unplanned bounce, said Stephan Ulamec, head of the lander operation.

"Today we didn't just land once. We maybe even landed twice," he said with a chuckle.

Ulamec said thrusters that were meant to push the lander, called Philae, onto the surface, and harpoons that would have anchored it to the comet failed to deploy properly. Initial data from the spacecraft indicated that it lifted off again, turned and then came to rest.

US Scientists discover virus that makes people more stupid

 

Have you ever wondered what is responsible for unspeakable stupidity? Well some US scientists might have the answer, having discovered an algae virus which some call “stupid virus” that infects human brains and makes people more stupid. The surprise virus discovery was made by a team at the Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Nebraska while undertaking a study into throat micro-organisms.

 

90 people participated in the study and 40 tested positive for the stupid virus. It was then proved that those who had tested positive performed worse on tests that were designed to measure visual processing and attention spans.

Innovation | World's First 3D Printed Car Constructed In Chicago

Innovation | Google is developing cancer and heart attack detector

 Leo Kelion & James Gallagher | BBC
Google is aiming to diagnose cancers, impending heart attacks or strokes and other diseases, at a much earlier stage than is currently possible.

The company is working on technology that combines disease-detecting nanoparticles, which would enter a patient's bloodstream via a swallowed pill, with a wrist-worn sensor.

The idea is to identify slight changes in the person's biochemistry that could act as an early warning system.

The work is still at an early stage.

Early diagnosis is the key to treating disease. Many cancers, such as pancreatic, are detected only after they have become untreatable and fatal.

There are marked differences between cancerous and healthy tissues.

Pope Francis: Theories of Evolution & the Big Bang are Right

According to the Holy Bible, God created heaven and earth. However, according to Pope Francis, this may not necessarily be the case.

 

 He has declared that the theories of Evolution and the Big Bang are real, The Independent reports.

 

The pope reportedly made these comments while speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Here are excerpts from his speech:

“When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so… 

He created human beings and let them develop according to the internal laws that he gave to each one so they would reach their fulfillment. 

The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it. 

Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”

Ebola News: Canadian Vaccine Sent WHO For Clinical Trials

The experimental Canadian Ebola vaccine that has been donated to the World Health Organization will be shipped to Geneva on Monday, the agency said today.

The final legal agreement was signed earlier this week and now the WHO will take possession of the 800 to 1,000 vials of the vaccine. However, Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, the WHO's assistant director general for health systems and innovation, says it is too difficult to ship it over the weekend.

"It is dangerous to ship it over the weekend because you don't know if the customs — not everybody is there. The pharmacy at the hospital who will store the vaccine for us is closed on Sunday," Kieny told CBC News.

"So what we have arranged is to send it immediately after the weekend on Monday."

The clinical trials on the vaccine will start late October or early November, to determine if it is safe to use in humans and if so, what the dosage should be.

Innovation | Breakthrough phone batteries last 20 years, recharge 70 per cent in 2 minutes

People use cellphones in downtown San Francisco on June 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

Jordan Chittley | CTV

Researchers at a university in Singapore have come up with a solution to the incredibly annoying problem of phone batteries dying too quickly.

The researchers at Nanyang Technological University have created a new battery that charges to 70 per cent within two minutes, according to a statement. The battery will also last for about 20 years, or 10,000 charging cycles. In contrast, the average phone, tablet or laptop lasts about 500 charging cycles and takes about two hours to fully charge.

Scientists made the breakthrough when they replaced graphite – which makes up the negative pole of the battery in lithium-ion batteries – with a new gel material made from titanium dioxide nanotubes. The scientists created the new material themselves.

The new nanotubes speed up charging by increasing the rate electrons and ions transfer in and out of the batteries.

Researchers see applications far beyond communication devices.

Science | Calgary university gets $10M for oilsands research

Metro file photo - The University of Calgary's main campus entrance.

Bill GravelandThe Canadian Press

Nanotechnology similar to that used to kill tumours in cancer patients could be adapted to improve in situ oil recovery in Alberta’s oilsands, says an international researcher.

Stanley Bryant, a world-leading nanotechnology expert from the University of Texas in Austin, was introduced Thursday as the latest Canada Excellence Research Chair at the University of Calgary.

A federal energy research program awards world-renowned scientists and their teams up to $10 million over seven years to establish research programs.

“I don’t need to remind this audience of the world-class petroleum resource here in Alberta. I don’t need to remind this audience either of the litany of challenges associated with that resource,” Bryant said at a University of Calgary ceremony.

“What we want to do is reduce the environmental impact of existing development strategies to come up with entirely new ways to extract energy involving little or even no environmental impact.”

Bryant will receive $10 million from the federal government and another $10 million from the university to create a chair for materials engineering for unconventional oil reservoirs at the Schulich School of Engineering and Faculty of Science.

History In Making | World's First Baby Delivered Via Transplanted Womb

For the world's first baby born to a woman with a transplanted womb -- a medical first -- only a victorious name would do.

Which is why his parents named him "Vincent," meaning "to conquer," according to his mother.

The 36-year-old Swedish mother learned she had no womb when she was 15 and was devastated, she said Saturday in an interview with The Associated Press.

"I was terribly sad when doctors told me I would never carry my own child," said the woman, who asked not to be identified.

More than a decade later, she heard about research led by Dr. Mats Brannstrom, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm IVF, on transplanting wombs into women who didn't have one. She immediately signed up.

"Mats told us there were no guarantees, but my partner and I, maybe we like to take risks, we thought this was the perfect idea," she said.

The woman's mother had wanted to be a donor but wasn't a match. Instead, she received her new womb from a 61-year-old family friend, who had previously had two sons.

Ebola Update: Canadian Made Vaccine Soon To Be Tested

Getty Images. A health worker stands behind the fencing of an Ebola quarantine and treatment centre in Monrovia, Liberia.

With talk turning to the idea that Ebola vaccines and drugs may be needed to quell the West African outbreak, the tiny U.S. company that holds the licence for a Canadian-made vaccine says it is working as fast as it can to get that option tested and ready for use.

NewLink Genetics says at least five clinical trials involving the vaccine, known as VSV-EBOV, will soon be under way in the United States, Germany, Switzerland and in an unnamed African country which is not battling Ebola. As well, the Canadian government has said it wants to conduct a trial in this country.

Vaccine for these studies will be provided by the Canadian government, said a spokesperson for NewLink, which is based in Ames, Iowa.

Brian Wiley, the company’s vice-president of business development, said both the vaccine Canada donated to the World Health Organization and the remaining vials Canada was keeping back for clinical studies will be used for human studies.

Canadian science departments graded C- for freedom of speech

Fred Chartrand/The Canadian press. A protestor wearing a Grim Reaper costume stands on Parliament Hill during a rally on Tuesday July 10, 2012 in Ottawa to protest the federal government's cuts to science policies.

Federal science departments received an average grade of C- for how well — or poorly, in most cases — their media policies give scientists the freedom to communicate their research, according to a new analysis released Wednesday.

All but one Canadian department received scores worse than those of American science agencies assessed under a comparable set of criteria in 2013.

“There has been a lot of concern in recent years about government scientists facing restrictions in how they can communicate to the public and media,” said Katie Gibbs, executive director of Evidence for Democracy, the non-partisan not-for-profit that produced the report.

“But there hadn’t been any kind of systematic assessment of the communications policies governing scientists in Canada. We thought this would be a useful addition to this discussion.”

Gibbs and Simon Fraser University’s Karen Magnuson-Ford, co-authors of the report and scientists themselves, assessed the media policies of 14 federal science-based departments against a rubric that included whether the policies safeguard against political interference, promote timely communication with reporters, and protect scientific free speech, among other criteria.

And The Winners For Nobel Prize 2014 For Chemistry Are..

Two Americans and a German won the Nobel Prize in chemistry this year for their work on optical microscopy that has opened up our understanding of molecules by allowing us to see how they work close up.

The winners are Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner, the Nobel committee in Sweden announced Wednesday.

Back in 1873, science believed it had reached a limit in how much more of a detailed picture a microscope could provide. At the time, microscopist Ernst Abbe said the maximum resolution had been attained.

Canada Leading Telescopic Discovery For Extraterrestrials

Canada is contributing to a new space telescope that one scientist says may help in the search for signs of extraterrestrial life.

The Canadian Space Agency is providing a number of devices for the $8-billion James Webb Space Telescope, which is expected to launch in 2018.

The contributions include two cameras and one of the four science instruments on board the telescope.

A keynote speaker at a public science symposium in Montreal this Monday and Tuesday is hoping the telescope and others in the future will help lead to finding signs of life beyond Earth.

"A lot is riding on that telescope — including possibly the discovery of life," said Sara Seager, a Toronto-born professor of planetary science and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hitchhiking robot 'HitchBOT' Surfs Across Canada

This undated photo made available by Ryerson University in Toronto on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014 shows hitchBOT in a car. The talking robot that's been hitchhiking rides from strangers to travel from Canada's east to west coast is nearing the end of its journey. Its final destination is Victoria, British Columbia, Canada which its creators expect it to reach by Aug. 17, 2014. (AP Photo/Ryerson University)

He has dipped his boots in Lake Superior, crashed a wedding and attended an Aboriginal powwow. A talking, bucket-bodied robot has enthralled Canadians since it departed from Halifax last month on a hitchhiking journey to the Pacific coast.

HitchBOT, created by team of Ontario-based communication researchers studying the relationship between people and technology, will reach its final destination Sunday in Victoria, British Columbia, where it will receive a traditional aboriginal canoe greeting at Victoria Harbor.

"What we wanted to do is situate robotics and artificial technologies into unlikely scenarios and push the limits of what it's capable of," said David Smith, the robot's co-creator, who teaches at Ontario's McMaster University. "It's challenging but it can also be highly engaging and entertaining as hitchBOT has proven."

The robot looks like it was made out of components scavenged from a yard sale - a bucket, pool noodles, cake saver, garden gloves and yellow Wellington boots - but it has a sense of direction and can even ask and answer questions. His conversation skills might be a bit stilted, but hitchBOT has managed to charm its way across 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) since it began its journey in Nova Scotia on July 26.

Smith said hitchBOT has a built-in GPS system and is programmed with mobile technology similar to a smartphone, with speech recognition software that works in conjunction with language modelling. The robot links questions with answers by looking for certain key words and is programmed to scour Wikipedia to spit out regionally relevant facts.

The team also programmed hitchBOT to track its adventures online and take pictures to post on Twitter and Instagram.

It didn't take long for HitchBOT to become a social media sensation and, truth be told, many of the people who have offered him a ride already knew about him before encountering the bizarre contraption. Smith said its Instagram following was approaching 11,000 people, its Facebook account had garnered more than 41,000 "likes" and it has nearly 32,000 Twitter followers.

"Social and traditional media have really ensured that HitchBOT is well-known," Smith said. "Some (drivers) have tried to search its location. And in most cases, hitchBOT has had multiple offers."

Along the way, hitchBOT was invited to a pow-wow with the Wikwemikong First Nation group, where the robot was dubbed Biiaabkookwe, according to its Twitter feed. It later hitched a ride with Belgian tourists.

Science: Why Scientists Can't Kill HIV

By Roxanne Palmer, World Science Festival 

Humanity's war against the HIV has been a constantly shifting battle, thanks to the wily nature of the virus. But humans, being quite wily themselves, have persevered in the search for a cure despite setback after setback. Recently, scientists found a way to snip HIV's genetic code out from the genomes of infected cells. The technique's only been tried in cultured cells so far, but it could represent a powerful new weapon in the arsenal against AIDS.

 

But just what makes HIV such a formidable foe?

 

In most viruses, the genetic transfer of information mimics a host's: DNA is transcribed to RNA, which is translated into a protein. But HIV is a retrovirus (in the family Retroviridae), meaning that it carries its genes around in the form of a single strand of RNA, rather than a DNA strand or double-helix. In infected persons, HIV hacks the cells of the body with the help of an enzyme called reverse transcriptase, which allows it to create a DNA version of the viral genome after it invades the cell. The viral DNA strand becomes integrated into a host's genome, and the cell copies out the instructions in those genes, creating new copies of the virus that can burst forth and infect other cells.

 

 

In normal DNA replication, a cell employs a variety of molecular proofreaders to help avoid changes to the genetic code. But in reverse transcription, there aren't those checks, meaning that a retrovirus' genome can mutate very quickly. This is one reason HIV is particularly good at ducking treatments — it mutates so quickly, it's hard to figure out what anchor a drug or vaccine can latch onto.

HIV is also a member of the Lentivirus genus within the retroviruses, giving it another nasty set of armaments. Other retroviruses can only infect cells in the midst of division; lentiviruses aren't bound by that restriction.

Footprints of Tyrannosaurs Discovered in British Columbia

The tyrannosaur footprints discovered by hunting guide Aaron Fredlund were each more than 60 centimetres long. (Aaron Fredlund)

It would have been terrifying to run into a tyrannosaur like Albertosaurus. The massive creature that roamed western North America about 70 million years ago was as long as a bus, with a wide smile of razor-sharp teeth and claws to match. But here's the worst part — it probably wasn't alone.

Tyrannosaurs, it seemed, travelled in packs.

Scientists came to that conclusion after carefully analyzing an extremely rare find — three sets of tyrannosaur tracks found in northeastern B.C.



Tyrannosaur tracks are so rare that this is the first time more than a single print has ever been found in one place.

That made the discovery exciting to begin with, since it allows paleontologists to see how the animal walked, said Richard McCrea, lead author of a new study in the journal PLOS ONE describing the tracks

The fossil tracks were discovered in the fall of 2011 by Aaron Fredlund, a hunting guide in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. He was guiding a group of moose hunters and looking for a place to cross a river when he spied a promising looking rock ledge.

Fredlund said he spends all day looking for animal tracks as part of his job. He had never seen dinosaur tracks himself, but knew others had been found in the region.

CBC

Selected Quotes from Albert Einstein

• "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
• "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
• "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
• "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
• "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
• "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
• "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
• "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
• "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
• "God is subtle but he is not malicious."
• "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
• "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
• "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
• "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
• "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
• "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
• "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
• "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
• "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
• "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
• "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
• "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
• "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
• "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
• "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
• "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
• "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."