My Favorite Newsletter: Science X Newsletter Sunday, Mar 15

Phys.org Newsletter for March 15, 2015:

Spotlight Stories Headlines

- Sugar-based, bio-inspired surfactants hold promises from cosmetics to oil spill cleanups
- At last, a theory about why Denver is a mile above sea level
- Hubble Source Catalog: One-stop shopping for astronomers
- BiVACOR bionic heart in development in Texas
- Yahoo sees 'end to end' email encryption by year-end
- Experimental anti-cholesterol drug shows promise
- Halifax testing ECG wearable for identity authentication

Earth news

	At last, a theory about why Denver is a mile above sea level Geologists may finally be able to explain why Denver, the Mile High City, is a mile high: water.
	Cyclone, hurricane, typhoon: different names for same violent phenomenon They may have different names according to the region they hit, but cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons are all violent tropical storms that can generate 10 times as much energy as the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
	UN disaster meeting opens in tsunami-hit Japan Policymakers gathered for a ten-yearly meeting on disaster risk reduction Saturday, with hopes high that the conference in tsunami-hit Japan might provide a springboard for efforts to tackle natural disasters and costly climate change.
	Vanuatu residents remain in shelters after massive cyclone Residents in cyclone-ravaged Vanuatu hunkered in emergency shelters for a second straight night Saturday after venturing out to find their homes damaged or blown away by the powerful storm, aid workers said.
	China 'falling short' on fighting pollution: premier China is falling short of its people's expectations in battling smog, Premier Li Keqiang said Sunday, one week after authorities blocked a scathing documentary on the country's air pollution problem.
	Revamped environmental law raises hope for cleanup in China People in China who want to take industries to task for fouling their surroundings have been rushing to file complaints and lawsuits this year in a test of legal reforms that toughen environmental penalties and make clear that many public-interest groups have the right to sue.
	Gorillas vs oil: DR Congo seeking way to explore at Virunga park In the Virunga national park, Africa's oldest natural reserve and home to the mountain gorilla, the endangered great ape and its habitat face a new threat: oil exploration.

Astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Johns Hopkins University, both in Baltimore, Maryland, have created a new master catalog of astronomical objects called the Hubble Source Catalog. The catalog provides one-stop shopping for measurements of objects observed with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Technology news

	Yahoo sees 'end to end' email encryption by year-end Yahoo said Sunday it plans to introduce "end to end encryption" for email this year to boost privacy protection for users concerned about snooping from governments or hackers.
	Halifax testing ECG wearable for identity authentication We have to think a lot about creating, losing, restoring, renaming and managing our passwords. Users and vendors are interested in finding better ways to deliver protection that will not be difficult to use. Technologists have been proposing fingerprint and iris recognition capabilities as next steps in the digital age but there is something else in the mix. The heart. What if you could seamlessly unlock devices using electrical signals emitted by the heart? The Nymi wristband was engineered to do just that.
Facebook buys shopping search engine TheFind Facebook on Friday waded further into e-commerce with the acquisition of shopping search engine TheFind.com.
Lawsuit says Lyft cheated new drivers out of $1,000 bonuses The Lyft ridesharing company took new drivers for a ride by cheating them out of promised $1,000 bonuses, according to a federal lawsuit announced Friday.
	Live stream app Meerkat a Twitter sensation Live streaming video from a smartphone may soon be known as "meerkatting" thanks to a new app that allows anyone with an iPhone to become a roving reporter.
IBM Argentina slapped with fines for graft A court in Argentina has slapped a $9.3 million fine on IBM's local subsidiary for allegedly seeking to win a contract to computerize the country's tax collection system, authorities said Saturday.
	Merkel urges closer tech ties with rising IT giant China (Update) German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday urged closer high-tech cooperation with China as she opened a major IT business fair where the Asian giant is the official partner country.
	Live-streaming apps dominate buzz at South by Southwest A live-streaming app called Meerkat, calls to online activism and pedicabs with a "Game of Thrones" Iron throne seat were the top topics of conversation at South by Southwest over the weekend, as 33,000-plus members of the technology, marketing and media industries poured into Austin, Texas.
	Google execs woo Cuba IT students Cuba may have one of the lowest rates of Internet access in the world, but that hasn't dissuaded Google from sending over some of its leading lights.
State Dept: Most official email not auto-archived until Feb. The State Department said Friday it was unable to automatically archive the emails of most of its senior officials until last month, which could mean potential problems for historical record-keeping amid criticism of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's use of a private email server while in office.
For a good cause, group offers real bird's eye view of Dubai Now that's a real bird's eye view.

Chemistry news

Sugar-based, bio-inspired surfactants hold promises from cosmetics to oil spill cleanups

University of Arizona startup company GlycoSurf has finalized an exclusive license agreement for a new chemical synthesis technology, which was created at the University of Arizona.

Biology news

Scientists cheered by birth of Galapagos tortoises in wild For the first time in a century, babies of the endangered Pinzon giant tortoise have been born in the wild in the Galapagos islands, scientists said.
	New bird flu strain has poultry farmers scrambling Animal health experts and poultry growers are scrambling to determine how a dangerous new strain of bird flu infected turkey flocks in three states—and to stop it from spreading.

Medicine & Health news

	BiVACOR bionic heart in development in Texas (Medical Xpress)—A bionic heart is under development in Houston, Texas, which has been steadily generating interest over the past several years. According to Dylan Baddour in the Houston Chronicle on Thursday, researchers said this could be the first feasible commercial replacement for the human heart (short lifespan of past attempted bionic hearts have limited their usefulness, said Baddour—the constant grind of moving parts will wear down a manufactured heart). The invention's roots are attributed to Daniel Timms, who is the founder of BiVACOR. Timms, a biomedical engineer from Australia, instigated the project in 2001 while studying at the Queensland University of Technology.
	Experimental anti-cholesterol drug shows promise People taking an experimental drug called Repatha (evolocumab) for high cholesterol were half as likely to die or suffer a heart attack or stroke as those taking conventional statins, researchers said Sunday.
Researchers uncover a mechanism linking inhaled diesel pollution and respiratory distress Researchers in the UK have, for the first time, shown how exhaust pollution from diesel engines is able to affect nerves within the lung. Air pollution is a significant threat to health, they say, and identifying potential mechanisms linking exposure to diesel exhaust and the exacerbation of respiratory diseases may lead to treatments for those affected.
	New antibody therapy dramatically improves psoriasis symptoms in clinical trial Many patients suffering from psoriasis showed significant recovery after just a single dose of an experimental treatment with a human antibody that blocks an immune signaling protein crucial to the disease, researchers report. By the end of the trial, conducted at Rockefeller University and seven other centers, nearly all of the 31 patients to receive treatment saw dramatic, if not complete, improvement in their symptoms.
FDA: Three people die from foodborne illness linked to ice cream The deaths of three people who developed a foodborne illness linked to some Blue Bell ice cream products has prompted the Texas icon's first product recall in its 108-year history.
The link between hair disorders and susceptibility to dental caries Today at the 93rd General Session and Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research, researcher Olivier Duverger, National Institutes of Health-National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Md., USA, will present a study titled "Hair Keratins as Structural Organic Components of Mature Enamel: The Link Between Hair Disorders and Susceptibility to Dental Caries." The IADR General Session is being held in conjunction with the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research and the 39th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research.
	Three Kansas hospital patients die of ice cream-related illness The deaths of three people who developed a foodborne illness linked to some Blue Bell ice cream products have prompted the Texas icon's first product recall in its 108-year history.
	Study calls heart imaging into question for mild chest pain People checked with a heart CT scan after seeing a doctor for chest pain have no less risk of heart attack, dying or being hospitalized months later than those who take a simple treadmill test or other older exam, finds a big federal study.
	Newer blood thinner may improve outcomes for heart attack survivors (HealthDay)—Long-term use of the newer anti-clotting drug Brilinta cut heart attack survivors' future risk of heart attack, stroke or heart-related death, a new study found.
	New model proposed for hypersensitivity/allergic disease (HealthDay)—A new model has been proposed for classification of hypersensitivity/allergic diseases ahead of the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), according to a position paper published online March 4 in Allergy.
	Patients say pain control is key to quality of care in hospitals (HealthDay)—Management of pain is an important component in improving the quality of care in hospitals from a patient's perspective, according to research published in the March issue of Pain Practice.
	Getting heard may be key to getting new job (HealthDay)—Your voice may be the key to landing a new job, researchers report in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science.
	HHS wants to help restore joy of medicine (HealthDay)—The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is listening to physicians and wants to address the regulatory burdens they face, according to a report published by the American Medical Association (AMA).
	Hospitalist continuity doesn't appear to greatly affect AEs (HealthDay)—Measures of hospitalist physician continuity do not show a consistent or significant association with the incidence of adverse events (AEs), according to research published in the March issue of the Journal of Hospital Medicine.
	The BMJ, CDC partner to report on cold-related deaths (HealthDay)—The rate of cold-related deaths in rural areas of the western United States is much higher than in other regions of the country, according to a new report published online March 12 in The BMJ.
Yale leads test of new device that protects the brain during heart-valve procedure In the first multicenter trial of its kind, Yale researchers tested a new device that lowers the risk of stroke and cognitive decline in patients undergoing heart-valve replacement.
	Folic acid supplementation among adults with hypertension reduces risk of stroke In a study that included more than 20,000 adults in China with high blood pressure but without a history of stroke or heart attack, the combined use of the hypertension medication enalapril and folic acid, compared with enalapril alone, significantly reduced the risk of first stroke, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being released to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session.
Aortic valve replacement beats no surgery at all A minimally invasive procedure to replace the aortic valve without doing open heart surgery has better outcomes after five years than patients who did not have surgery at all, researchers said Sunday.
NCCN publishes new guidelines for smoking cessation Tobacco-related diseases are the most preventable cause of death worldwide; smoking cessation leads to improvement in cancer treatment outcomes, as well as decreased recurrence. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2015, nearly 171,000 of the estimated 589,430 cancer deaths in the United States—more than 25 percent—will be caused by tobacco smoking.
	Officials: Listeriosis not cause of three deaths, may be factor A foodborne illness linked to some ice cream products might have been a contributing factor in the deaths of three hospital patients in Kansas, health officials said Saturday.
French doctors stage massive protest rally in Paris Angry French doctors and health workers staged a protest march across the capital Sunday, gathering more than 40,000 people according to organisers and 19,000 according to police.