Spotted | Common News Update

May272018 by adminNo Comments

Breast screen error 'could have been spotted earlier'

Tens of thousands more women in England may have missed out on breast screening invitations dating back further than previously thought, according to a leading cancer expert.Earlier this month, the health secretary said a 2009 computer failure may have shortened up to 270 lives.But Prof Peter Sasieni said the problems go back to 2005, and could have been spotted earlier. Public Health England said his analysis was "flawed".And it said an independent review would look at all aspects of the breast screening service.PHE discovered in January that some women aged 68-71 had not received their final invitation for breast screening.Jeremy Hunt told the Commons that 450,000 women were affected between 2009 and the start of 2018.Prof Sasi...

Mar32018 by adminNo Comments

Penguin super-colony spotted from space

Science

Media playback is unsupported on your deviceScientists have stumbled across a huge group of previously unknown Adélie penguins on the most northerly point of the Antarctic Peninsula.Numbering more than 1.5 million birds, they were first noticed when great patches of their poo, or guano, showed up in pictures taken from space.The animals are crammed on to a rocky archipelago called the Danger Islands.The researchers, who detail the discovery in the journal Scientific Reports, say it is a total surprise. "It's a classic case of finding something where no-one really looked! The Danger Islands are hard to reach, so people didn't really try that hard," team-member Dr Tom Hart from Oxford University, UK, told BBC News.The scientists used an algorithm to search images from the American Landsat sp

Feb192018 by adminNo Comments

2 bears burned in California wildfire spotted in the wild

Technology

Officials tracking two bears that were badly burned in the largest wildfire in California history say the animals are settling back into their home in the wild after receiving unusual treatment for their injured paws. Recent photos and GPS tracking data show the female bears appear to be in good health as they move through Los Padres National Forest northwest of Los Angeles, news station KABC-TV reported Friday. The adult bears were released into the forest last month after getting care for third-degree burns they suffered in December's Thomas fire. A mountain lion cub also was treated for singed paws. One bear was pregnant, but officials said last week that they weren't sure if the baby was born yet. Veterinarians treating the animals had stitched fish skins to their burned paws, then wr...

Nov142017 by adminNo Comments

1st alligator snapping turtle in decades spotted in Illinois

Technology

A scientist searching for a young male alligator snapping turtle that was put in a Southern Illinois creek at least a year ago instead grabbed a 22-pound adult female, raising hopes for those trying to protect a creature that hadn't been spotted in the area for three decades. Illinois Natural History Survey herpetologist Chris Phillips called his finding of the turtle, at least 18 years old, a "move in the right direction" in the effort to save the state-endangered species. The discovery was chronicled in an article in this month's Southeastern Naturalist co-authored by Ethan Kessler, a graduate student of natural resources and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois. "It gives us hope that reproduction is happening," Kessler said. Still, both Kessler and Phillips aren't quit...

Sep152017 by adminNo Comments

'Shape-shifting' bacteria spotted in space

Technology

Bacterial cells treated with a common antibiotic have been spotted changing shape to survive while aboard the International Space Station (ISS).The way bacteria act in near-zero gravity environments could pose a serious problem for treating astronauts with infections.The "clever shape-shifting" was detected in bacteria being experimented on in the near-weightlessness of space, and is believed to help the bacteria survive.An experiment on the common E coli bacteria subjected it to different concentrations of the antibiotic gentamicin sulfate, a drug which kills the bug on Earth.However, in comparison to a control group on Earth, the space bacteria showed a 13-fold increase in cell numbers and a 73% reduction in cell column size."We knew bacteria behave differently in space and that it takes...