Sci-Tech news

• Lyft gets into China in tie-up with Didi

  16-09-2015 23:20
  
  Ride-sharing startup Lyft announced a partnership Wednesday with China's Didi Kuaidi which includes a $100 million investment in the US service to help ramp up its challenge to Uber.
  
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• Montreal's La Presse pulls plug on daily print edition

  16-09-2015 23:04
  
  One of Canada's largest newspapers, Montreal's La Presse, will pull the plug on its daily print edition next year, its publisher said Wednesday.
  
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• Ban on microbeads offers best chance to protect oceans, aquatic species

  16-09-2015 22:56
  
  An outright ban on the common use of plastic "microbeads" from products that enter wastewater is the best way to protect water quality, wildlife, and resources used by people, a group of conservation scientists suggest in a new analysis.
  
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• MOVER technology: Improving therapy for brain injury patients

  16-09-2015 22:54
  
  For warfighters recovering from traumatic brain injuries (TBI), the benefits of home-based, outpatient physical rehabilitation programs are numerous—they can exercise at home on their own schedules, be among family and friends and spend less time in treatment facilities. Regular physical therapy can keep tendons and joints flexible, maintain bodily strength and improve balance and walking ability.
  
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• First Manned Flight of Orion Spacecraft Delayed

  16-09-2015 22:34 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Orion's first crewed sojourn is officially targeted for launch in August 2021 but NASA says that could be pushed back by two years.
  
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• New York mayor's education plan focuses on early reading

  16-09-2015 22:20
  
  Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled the next phase of his education agenda Wednesday, touting his massive prekindergarten expansion as the foundation for a series of new policy initiatives aimed at improving standards and leveling the playing field for students in the nation's largest school system.
  
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• Apple Users Report Problems Downloading iOS 9

  16-09-2015 22:17 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  When some iPhone and iPad users tried to download Apple's iOS 9 update on Wednesday, they got an error message instead of a new operating system.
  
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• Russian pleads guilty in US to selling hacked credit cards

  16-09-2015 21:30
  
  A Russian man has pleaded guilty in New Jersey to selling some of the 160 million credit and debit card numbers obtained in a computer hacking scheme.
  
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• Smarter Siri, better battery life in Apple software update (Update)

  16-09-2015 21:20
  
  Apple's iPhones and iPads are getting free software updates Wednesday, including battery improvements and a smarter virtual assistant.
  
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• Guide to software refinements in iPhones, iPads, Apple Watch

  16-09-2015 21:20
  
  Apple's mobile devices are getting free software updates Wednesday, as iPhones and iPads receive battery improvements and a smarter virtual assistant, while the Apple Watch gets more types of apps.
  
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• Apple delays Watch software update due to 'bug'

  16-09-2015 21:12
  
  Apple is delaying a big software update for the Apple Watch because it found a bug that is taking longer than expected to fix.
  
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• Apple touts environmental upgrade in latest iPhones

  16-09-2015 21:11
  
  Apple has given its latest iPhones an environmental upgrade to go along with a better camera and a few new features.
  
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• News Corp buys social video firm Unruly

  16-09-2015 21:06
  
  News Corp, the publishing group created by magnate Rupert Murdoch, announced plans Wednesday to buy social video ad firm Unruly for up to $176 million.
  
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• NASA pushes first flight of Orion spacecraft with crew to 2023

  16-09-2015 21:02
  
  NASA's newest spacecraft, the Orion, won't be flying astronauts as soon as anticipated.
  
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• RapidScat and Aqua satellite see Tropical Depression 9 developing

  16-09-2015 20:59
  
  The ninth tropical depression of the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season developed in the central Atlantic on September 16, 2015. The day before, NASA's RapidScat instrument analyzed the surface winds of the developing low pressure area and found tropical-storm-force winds in one quadrant of the system. NASA's Aqua satellite looked at the depression and saw that it was already being affected by wind shear.
  
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• Kylie Jenner and Kardashians Rule Apple's App Store

  16-09-2015 20:57 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Forget Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram. The number one app on iTunes belongs to Kylie Jenner. Her sisters aren't too far behind.
  
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• How Your Tweets Show if You're Conservative or Liberal

  16-09-2015 20:44 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Researchers dissected the words used in tweets of conservatives and liberals and found some dead giveaways about a person's political leanings.
  
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• Study finds people's conservative and liberal traits show up in their Twitter vocabulary

  16-09-2015 20:00
  
  Researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) studied tweets sent between 15 and 30 June 2014 by followers of either Republican (conservatives) or Democrat (liberals) party Twitter accounts, and found that you can tell a lot about someone's political leanings just from the words they use.
  
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• Saving the last groups of wild Sumatran rhinoceros

  16-09-2015 20:00
  
  Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Indonesia Program carried out an island-wide survey of the last wild population of Sumatran rhinoceros, and now recommend that wildlife conservation managers consolidate the small population, provide strong protection for the animals, determine the percent of breeding females remaining and "recognize the cost of doing nothing."
  
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• Panda preserves providing habitat for other endangered, threatened species

  16-09-2015 20:00
  
  Chinese conservation measures to protect the charismatic giant panda in the wild have also benefitted other threatened species, including birds, mammals and amphibians, according to new Duke University-led study.
  
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• Counting underwater vital for marine conservation

  16-09-2015 20:00
  
  Understanding how genetic diversity occurs within species is paramount for conservation, according to University of Queensland scientists.
  
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• Citizen scientists contribute to dog research: At-home tests produce findings similar to laboratories

  16-09-2015 20:00
  
  Five hundred citizen scientists around the world have contributed data to a study of what goes on inside the minds of their dogs.
  
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• Air pollution kills 3.3 million worldwide, may double: study

  16-09-2015 19:22
  
  Air pollution is killing 3.3 million people a year worldwide, according to a new study that includes this surprise: Farming plays a large role in smog and soot deaths in industrial nations.
  
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• Criminals acquire guns through social connections

  16-09-2015 19:20
  
  Criminals are far more likely to acquire guns from family and acquaintances than by theft, according to new studies by researchers at Duke University and the University of Chicago.
  
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• Team publishes research on attractiveness and mating

  16-09-2015 19:19
  
  Chapman University has published research on what people find "desirable" and "essential" in a long-term partner based on two of the largest national studies of mate preferences ever conducted. This research supports the long-held belief that people with desirable traits have a stronger "bargaining hand" and can be more selective when choosing romantic partners, but it also challenges other commonly held mating beliefs. The studies examined how heterosexual mate preferences differed according to
  
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• Restoring ocean health

  16-09-2015 19:15
  
  More than a decade ago, California established marine protected areas (MPAs) in state waters around the northern Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara. Several years later, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) extended these MPAs into the federal waters of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.
  
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• Invasive brood parasites a threat to native bird species

  16-09-2015 19:10
  
  North Americans might be seeing new species of birds in certain areas of the continent in the near future. According to research conducted by a psychology professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and his co-authors, Eurasian birds are beginning to develop a presence on our continent, which could end up having a negative effect on native species.
  
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• Auto industry shows off car cockpit of future at IAA

  16-09-2015 19:10
  
  Imagine climbing into your car seat exhausted but knowing you have to keep awake for the long drive home.
  
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• Targeted drug delivery with these nanoparticles can make medicines more effective

  16-09-2015 19:00
  
  Nanoparticles disguised as human platelets could greatly enhance the healing power of drug treatments for cardiovascular disease and systemic bacterial infections. These platelet-mimicking nanoparticles, developed by engineers at the University of California, San Diego, are capable of delivering drugs to targeted sites in the body—particularly injured blood vessels, as well as organs infected by harmful bacteria. Engineers demonstrated that by delivering the drugs just to the areas where t
  
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• Plant species' responses to climate change altered by novel competitors

  16-09-2015 19:00
  
  With climate change and rising average temperatures, many wild animals and plants are being forced into new habitats, their distributions shifting in elevation and latitude with differing velocities. For alpine plants, this could mean facing competition from species unknown to them, such as plants found at lower elevations today that migrate to higher elevations due to climate change.
  
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• New support for converging black holes in Virgo constellation

  16-09-2015 19:00
  
  Earlier this year, astronomers discovered what appeared to be a pair of supermassive black holes circling toward a collision so powerful it would send a burst of gravitational waves surging through the fabric of space-time itself.
  
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• A 'home run' approach: Team finds new ways to synthesize HIV inhibitor

  16-09-2015 19:00
  
  Yale University chemists have created a new process for synthesizing an organic, nitrogen-based compound that inhibits HIV.
  
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• Earthquake jolts Big Bear area of Southern California

  16-09-2015 18:59
  
  An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.5 has jolted the Big Bear Lake area of the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California.
  
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• Apple Releases iOS 9: What You Need to Know

  16-09-2015 18:22 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Apple released its latest mobile operating system, iOS 9, on Wednesday to iPhone and iPad users.
  
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• Review: Nest's new products offer pricey protection

  16-09-2015 18:20
  
  As I've noted before, I have a decidedly dumb home. But lately I've been testing out some products from Nest that promise to make it a bit smarter - and safer.
  
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• Review: Microsoft Surface 3 LTE tablet acts as laptop

  16-09-2015 17:50
  
  Tablets like the Apple iPad are fun, but they're not exactly a replacement for a full-blown computer.
  
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• Microsoft teaching, learning in Africa

  16-09-2015 17:40
  
  Anand Mariappan spends his days at Microsoft building data-analysis tools largely designed for people like him. That is, office workers accustomed to high-resolution computer monitors, lightning-quick Internet and the creature comforts of a modern office park.
  
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• California court makes it tougher for music, movie industries to take down Web postings

  16-09-2015 17:30
  
  For a Pennsylvania mom who has waged a closely watched Silicon Valley legal battle for nearly 10 years with the music industry, it appears, perhaps, her baby should have simply been allowed to dance to a Prince song on YouTube after all.
  
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• To be fragrant or not: Why do some male hairstreak butterflies lack scent organs?

  16-09-2015 17:29
  
  Female butterflies generally choose among male suitors, but in the tropics with hundreds of close relatives living in close proximity, how can they decide which males are the right ones? After all, if she mates with a male of another species, she is unlikely to have surviving offspring. One solution is that males of some species have scent producing organs on their wings, so if a male has the right smell, the female will presumably be receptive to his advances. Strangely, males of some species l
  
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• Startup's software allows diners to text servers

  16-09-2015 17:20
  
  Where's our waiter? Patrons won't ever have to ask that again if a South Florida tech startup has its way.
  
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• New catalyst yields more accurate PSA test

  16-09-2015 17:20
  
  Say you've been diagnosed with prostate cancer, the second-leading cause of cancer death in men. You opt for surgery to remove your prostate. Three months later, a prostate surface antigen (PSA) test shows no prostate cells in your body. Everyone rejoices.
  
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• Apple CEO Tim Cook Talks Steve Jobs With Colbert

  16-09-2015 17:13 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Apple CEO Tim Cook isn't the biggest fan of movies about his old boss, Steve Jobs.
  
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• Banks testing tech to speed up transactions

  16-09-2015 17:11
  
  Banks are experimenting with a tool that could shorten your wait times in the teller line or at the ATM: your smartphone.
  
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• US bolsters link to Europe's centre against cybercrime

  16-09-2015 17:05
  
  Washington is boosting its cooperation with Europol to fight cybercrime by posting an American official full time to its headquarters in The Hague, the US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Wednesday.
  
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• Target, developing healthier habits, hands workers Fitbits

  16-09-2015 17:04
  
  Target is going on a health kick, aimed at both customers and its employees.
  
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• No such thing as ghosts?

  16-09-2015 17:02
  
  Crystallographers are always pushing boundaries when it comes to determining complex structures with less than optimal experimental data.
  
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• NASA sees a comma-shaped Tropical Storm Krovanh over Marianas

  16-09-2015 17:02
  
  The Marianas Islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean were in the tail of Tropical Storm Krovanh's "comma shape" when NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead early on September 16.
  
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• Robots help to map England's only deep-water Marine Conservation Zone

  16-09-2015 17:00
  
  The first true three-dimensional picture of submarine canyon habitats has been produced using a unique combination of marine robotics and ship-based measurements. The information captured in this new set of maps ranges in scale from the 200km canyon down to the size of an individual cold-water coral polyp, and will be used to inform the management of the only English Marine Conservation Zone in deep water.
  
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• Choice of college major influences lifetime earnings more than simply getting a degree

  16-09-2015 16:59
  
  A new study based on longitudinal data confirms a college degree provides an advantage in lifetimes earnings, but a related decision once students make it to college could prove to be even more crucial.
  
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• Synthetic biology needs robust safety mechanisms before real world application

  16-09-2015 16:52
  
  Targeted cancer treatments, toxicity sensors and living factories: synthetic biology has the potential to revolutionize science and medicine. But before the technology is ready for real-world applications, more attention needs to be paid to its safety and stability, say experts in a review article published in Current Opinion in Chemical Biology.
  
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