Science & Technology News

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – Scientists have been puzzling for years over why some people survive Ebola while many others perish. Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle reported their findings on Thursday in the journal Science. Mice used in the study were generated from eight different strains of the animal and were bred to represent human genetic diversity. Symptoms in these genetically diverse mice ranged from mild weight loss to full, hemorrhagic fever, including internal bleeding, swollen spleens and changes in liver color and texture.

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) – As the global health community ramps up its efforts to treat Ebola patients and curb its spread in West Africa, a new analysis finds that the greatest impact would come from insuring safe burials for victims, scientists reported on Thursday. The body should not be washed or handled in any way, something that has been a common practice in much of West Africa. The new findings, published in the journal Science, are based on a mathematical model being developed by Ebola researchers at Yale School of Public Health. The Yale model calculates the spread of Ebola in the community, in hospitals and at funerals, including how many secondary cases are caused by the average case in each setting.

By Jibran Ahmad PESHAWAR Pakistan (Reuters) – A Pakistani province is rewriting school books to make them more Islamic, inserting verses on jihad, removing pictures of unveiled women and changing material on recent history, officials said on Thursday. The public tussle over the changes mirrors a struggle for power at the heart of Pakistan’s young democracy. School books commissioned by provincial governments have been frequently rewritten. Education official Bashir Hussain Shah told Reuters that the changes include reintroducing religious verses on jihad, a word that means holy struggle but is also often used by insurgents.

By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) – From viral videos to selfies, listicles and “throwback Thursday” photos, candidates in the Nov. 4 midterm elections are leaving no social media stone unturned. Where a 2010 gubernatorial or congressional campaign could proudly claim an active presence on Twitter as something almost fashion-forward, in 2014 a multifaceted digital strategy is seen as a prerequisite, even if little research exists to show how much online politicking translates into votes. Virtually all candidates are on Twitter and Facebook. So politicians and their backers try to stand out.

“If the restrictions placed on me by the state of Maine are not lifted by Thursday morning, I will go to court to fight for my freedom,” she said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” program. Speaking from her home in Fort Kent, Maine, she said she had been monitoring her condition and taking her temperature twice a day. “I don’t plan on sticking to the guidelines,” she told NBC.

“If the restrictions placed on me by the state of Maine are not lifted by Thursday morning, I will go to court to fight for my freedom,” she said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” program. Speaking from her home in Fort Kent, Maine, she said she had been monitoring her condition and taking her temperature twice a day. “I don’t plan on sticking to the guidelines,” she told NBC.

By Tami Chappell and Roberta Rampton ATLANTA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As the second of two nurses infected while treating an Ebola patient left an Atlanta hospital, President Barack Obama on Tuesday said policies adopted in the United States should not discourage Americans willing to fight West Africa’s outbreak. Obama weighed in for the first time since states including New York and New Jersey imposed automatic 21-day quarantines on doctors and nurses returning from the three countries at the heart of the outbreak – rules that go beyond federal guidelines. “We don’t want to discourage our healthcare workers from going to the front lines and dealing with this in an effective way,” Obama told reporters at the White House South Lawn. Some states have imposed their own safeguards, including mandatory quarantines for doctors and nurses returning from the three countries at the center of the epidemic, saying federal policies do not adequately protect the public.

An unmanned Antares rocket exploded seconds after liftoff from a commercial launch pad in Virginia on Tuesday, marking the first accident since NASA turned to private operators to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, but officials said no one was hurt. The 14-story rocket, built and launched by Orbital Sciences Corp, blasted off its seaside launch pad at the Wallops Flight Facility at 6:22 p.m. EDT/2222 GMT carrying a Cygnus cargo ship bound for the space station.

An unmanned Antares rocket exploded seconds after lift off from a commercial launch pad in Virginia on Tuesday, a NASA TV broadcast showed. The 14-story rocket, built and launched by Orbital Sciences Corp, bolted off its seaside launch pad at the Wallops Flight Facility at 6:22 p.m. EDT/2222 GMT carrying a Cygnus cargo ship for the International Space Station. The cause of the accident was not immediately known, said NASA mission commentator Dan Huot. NASA said there were no injuries.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that health workers volunteering to help treat Ebola patients in West Africa should be applauded and he warned that government quarantine policies should not discourage their work needed to help contain the disease. Obama spoke for the first time since governors in New York and New Jersey ordered the quarantining of health workers returning from West Africa, rules that goes beyond federal guidelines. He said U.S. officials need to be guided by science rather than fears. …