Yahoo! News: Science News

New map pinpoints Lyme disease risk areas (AP)

This map released by the Yale School of Public Health on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012 shows a map which indicates areas of the eastern United States where people have the highest risk of contracting Lyme disease based on data from 2004-2007. Researchers dragged sheets of fabric through the woods to snag ticks for the survey. The map shows a clear risk across much of the Northeast, from Maine to northern Virginia. Researchers at Yale University also identified a high-risk region across most of Wisconsin, northern Minnesota and a sliver of northern Illinois. Areas highlighted as 'emerging risk' regions include the Illinois-Indiana border, the New York-Vermont border, southwestern Michigan and eastern North Dakota. (AP Graphic/Yale School of Public Health, Maria Diuk-Wasser)AP - Researchers who spent three years dragging sheets of fabric through the woods to snag ticks have created a detailed map they claim could improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease.


NASA says Russian space woes no worry (AP) AP - NASA says it still has confidence in the quality of Russia's manned rockets, despite an embarrassing series of glitches and failures in the Russian space program.

Where's the snow? Not in Lower 48, but elsewhere (AP)

In this photo combination, hundreds of cars are stranded on Lake Shore Drive on Feb. 2, 2011, in Chicago, left, while traffic moves along smoothly on the same stretch of Lake Shore Drive on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012, right. A winter blizzard of historic proportions wobbled an otherwise snow-tough Chicago on Feb. 1, 2011, stranding hundreds of drivers for up to 12 hours overnight on the city's showcase thoroughfare and giving many city schoolchildren their first ever snow day. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File)AP - Snow has been missing in action for much of the U.S. the last couple months. But it's not just snow. It's practically the season that's gone AWOL.


Sandia Labs engineers create 'self-guided' bullet (AP)

In this undated photo provided by Sandia National Laboratories, a time exposure, a light-emitting diode, or LED, attached to a self-guided bullet at Sandia National Laboratories shows a bright path during a nighttime field test. The New Mexico-based Sandia National Laboratories announced Tuesday Jan. 31, 2012 that its engineers have invented a bullet that directs itself to a target like a tiny guided missile and can hit a target more than a mile away. According to Sandia Labs engineers, the bullet twists and turns to guide itself toward a laser-directed point. Officials say it can make up to thirty corrections per second while in the air. (AP Photo/Sandia National Laboratories)AP - A bullet that directs itself like a tiny guided missile and can hit a target more than a mile away has the potential to change the battlefield for soldiers without costing too much, engineers at Sandia National Laboratories said Wednesday.


Mammogram Readers Could Take a Cue from Film-Making (LiveScience.com) LiveScience.com - The accuracy of a person reading a mammogram is improved when their gaze is subtly shifted toward suspicious areas, and nudged around to ensure that they look at every part of the scan, according to new research.

Organization Warns of EPA 'Regulatory Avalanche' (ContributorNetwork) ContributorNetwork - The Texas Public Policy Foundation is warning of an "approaching regulatory avalanche" in a report. The foundation says new rules in the works by the Environmental Protection Agency could cost billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs. Here are the details of the report.

Sierra Club Received Millions from Natural Gas Industry (ContributorNetwork) ContributorNetwork - According to a blog post from Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune, the environmentalist organization accepted millions of donated dollars from the natural gas industry to fight against coal-fired plants nationwide. Here are the details.

Ship that hit Ky. bridge has precious space cargo (AP) AP - The hulking cargo ship that tore through a western Kentucky bridge last month is carrying millions of dollars of rocket components that will be used to blast satellites into space for NASA and Department of Defense missions.

Same Genes Key to Early & Late-Onset Alzheimer's: Study (HealthDay) HealthDay - THURSDAY, Feb. 2 (HealthDay News) -- People who develop Alzheimer's disease late in life may have the same gene mutations linked to the inherited, early onset form of the condition, according to a new study.

AP Enterprise: Monkey owners flee La. crackdown (AP)

In this Jan. 24, 2012 photo, Jim and Donita Clark play with two of their four Capuchin monkeys in the bedroom inside their RV at an undisclosed location near the Louisiana Border in Texas. Even in their Texas hideout, the Clarks are terrified that wildlife agents from their home state of Louisiana will descend on their motorhome and seize the four Capuchin monkeys they've reared for 10 years. Exotic animal owners like them say wildlife agents have been cracking down in Louisiana and around the country after high-profile cases of exotic animals getting loose or attacking people. At least six states have also banned the ownership of wild animals since 2005, and Congress is also mulling tighter restrictions. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)AP - Even in their Texas hideout, Jim and Donita Clark are terrified that wildlife agents from their home state of Louisiana will descend on their motorhome and seize the four Capuchin monkeys they've reared for 10 years.