UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Team plans unmanned mission to Neptune

ATLANTA, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- A NASA-funded team hopes to extend human knowledge into the outer reaches of the solar system by designing an unmanned nuclear-powered probe of Neptune.

Because of Neptune's distance from earth, the effort will not produce results for at least 30 years. Experts organized by Boeing Satellite Systems are now engaged in a 12-month planning study.

Neptune and Uranus are the two "ice giants" of the solar system, farther from the sun than the two "gas giants" Jupiter and Saturn.

Paul Steffes of the Georgia Institute of Technology said Neptune's remoteness will give scientists new information about how planets formed.

"Neptune is a rawer planet," Steffes said. "It is less influenced by near-sun materials, and it's had fewer collisions with comets and asteroids. It's more representative of the primordial solar system than Jupiter or Saturn."

The team hopes to launch the probe in about 2018, with data coming back to earth by 2035. In addition to Saturn, the team hopes for information on Triton, a moon that scientists believe was captured by the planet's gravity after forming in deep space.

Monkeys observed using tools to dig food

LONDON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- British researchers have the first solid evidence of monkeys using tools, Science magazine says.

Cambridge researchers observed wild capuchin monkeys in the Brazilian forest using stones to help them forage for food on an almost daily basis, first proof that such activity was a matter of routine, the BBC said Friday.

The monkeys used tools for cracking seeds and hollow branches, for digging up nutritious plants often found below the ground and for probing tree holes or rock crevices.

Writing in Science, Antonio Moura and Phyllis Lee said the results suggest wild capuchin monkeys are far more skilled at understanding cause and effect than previously thought.

Yet to be determined is whether the monkeys only use tools under certain ecological conditions, such as the long dry seasons of the Caatinga.

Tremors under San Andreas studied

BERKELEY, Calif., Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Seismologists at the University of California are studying mysterious tremors deep under the San Andreas Fault that may signal future earthquakes.

The continuous tremors are "a kind of chatter" emanating from a depth far below the surface, generally five times deeper than the average quake on this segment of the fault, says study leader Robert M. Nadeau, an assistant research seismologist at the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory.

The faint tremors, which were detected beneath the town of Cholame, 15 miles southeast of Parkfield, are similar to those discovered in the past two years in Japan and the Pacific Northwest.

This is the first time, however, that such tremors have been recorded under a transform fault.

"This is new information from an area deep down under the fault we have not been able to look at before," Nadeau said. "If these tremors are precursory to earthquakes, there is potential here for earthquake forecasting and prediction."

New study has folic acid warning

LONDON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- New British research suggests taking high doses of folic acid during pregnancy could double the risk of breast cancer.

Other studies, however, have suggested folic acid could actually reduce the risk of breast cancer, Sky News said.

The latest findings, published in the British Medical Journal, emphasized the need for more study, the researchers said.

Officials meanwhile say women should continue to take the 0.4 mg supplements as recommended by the Department of Health.

Women trying for become pregnant are advised to take a daily folic acid supplement before conception and during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. This is to reduce the risk of neural tube defects like spina bifida.

The latest study looked only at women given 0.2 mg or 5 mg doses. In addition, the majority started to take the supplements after 12 weeks and until the end of pregnancy.