Sci-Tech news

• Photos: Red Panda Cub Goes Nose-to-Nose

  23-09-2015 23:02
  
  Absolutely adorable baby animals!
  
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• Page-turner: After sizzling growth, e-book sales cool

  23-09-2015 22:40
  
  Sales of electronic books have turned lower in 2015 in a stark reversal following several years of spectacular growth, an industry group said Wednesday.
  
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• Quantum entanglement: New study predicts a quantum Goldilocks effect

  23-09-2015 22:38
  
  Just as in the well-known children's story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, something good happens when things are done in moderation, rather than in extremes.
  
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• Nearly half of US seafood supply is wasted

  23-09-2015 22:36
  
  As much as 47 percent of the edible U.S. seafood supply is lost each year, mainly from consumer waste, new research from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) suggests.
  
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• 'Demarketing': What makes consumers more or less materialistic?

  23-09-2015 22:02
  
  If you read a report whose message was that people consume too much, would you then be likely to curb your own consumption? In some cases yes, says a new study in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. According to the study, people who place a high value on materialism are likely to reduce their consumption after reading such a report.
  
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• Marketing: How does business debt affect firm value and consumer satisfaction?

  23-09-2015 22:01
  
  Feeling less satisfied with the businesses you patronize? It might be because those businesses are in a lot of debt. According to a new study in the Journal of Marketing, a company that has a lot of financial leverage—that is, a company that has a lot of debt in relation to its value—spends a lot less on advertising, which in turn decreases customer satisfaction.
  
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• Understanding self-control: Eating and spending are different public policy issues

  23-09-2015 21:57
  
  You can resist buying a candy bar while you're waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store—but you'll buy any pair of shoes that are on sale. Your best friend, in contrast, wouldn't dream of buying a pair of shoes he thinks he doesn't need, no matter how low the price—but he can't resist buying that same candy bar you so easily ignore. According to a new study in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, it is precisely those differences in self-control that researchers nee
  
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• Message to Starbucks: Consumer idea generation is not one-size-fits-all

  23-09-2015 21:56
  
  Listen up, Dell and Starbucks and all the other companies that turn to consumers for new ideas about products and services. There's a better way to pry good ideas out of your customers than through the same old standard online platforms—you know, the ones that provide all users with access to other users' ideas and that group ideas into categories such as "Products" and "Experience." As a new study in the Journal of Marketing suggests, that one-size-fits-all approach may be counterproducti
  
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• Marketing partnerships: Stock prices don't always run with the bulls

  23-09-2015 21:56
  
  When two companies form a marketing alliance, investors always herald that as good news and send the companies' stock prices sky high, right? Well, maybe not. As a new study in the Journal of Marketing shows, marketing alliances can reduce equity risk, but only as long as the alliance is a new one and if the two companies' existing network of partners is not too interconnected.
  
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• NASA, NOAA satellites show wind shear affecting Tropical Storm Ida

  23-09-2015 21:55
  
  On Sept. 22 at 12:17 p.m. EDT the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, or AIRS, instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite provided an infrared look at Ida. AIRS data showed that southwesterly vertical wind shear was pushing clouds and strongest storms with coldest cloud tops to the east and northeast of the center. Cloud top temperatures were as cold as -63 degrees Fahrenheit/-53 degrees Celsius, indicative of strong storms with the potential for heavy rain. Fortunately, Ida remains over open ocean.
  
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• Milky Way's black hole shows signs of increased chatter

  23-09-2015 21:35
  
  Three orbiting X-ray space telescopes have detected an increased rate of X-ray flares from the usually quiet giant black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy after new long-term monitoring. Scientists are trying to learn whether this is normal behavior that was unnoticed due to limited monitoring, or these flares are triggered by the recent close passage of a mysterious, dusty object.
  
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• Facebook adds 360-degree video to News Feed

  23-09-2015 21:01
  
  Facebook on Wednesday began rolling out 360-degree viewing at the leading social network, letting people change their perspectives in specially created videos.
  
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• NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP peers into Tropical Storm Dujuan

  23-09-2015 21:00
  
  NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over Tropical Storm Dujuan on Sept. 23 and saw a large and elongated circulation.
  
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• Liquid crystals show potential for detection of neuro-degenerative disease

  23-09-2015 21:00
  
  Liquid crystals are familiar to most of us as the somewhat humdrum stuff used to make computer displays and TVs. Even for scientists, it has not been easy to find other ways of using them.
  
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• Global warming: Are trees going on strike?

  23-09-2015 20:37
  
  Trees, crucial absorbers of climate-harming carbon dioxide gas, may finally be balking at an ever-earlier spring season brought on by global warming, researchers said Wednesday.
  
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• Child's play shifts to mobile gadgets

  23-09-2015 20:35
  
  Children are going mobile with their video game play, shifting away from computers and consoles, according to a report released on Wednesday by NPD Group.
  
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• 9,000 year-old ritualized decapitation found in Brazil

  23-09-2015 20:00
  
  A 9,000 year-old case of human decapitation has been found in the rock shelter of Lapa do Santo in Brazil, according to a study published September 23, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by André Strauss from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany and colleagues.
  
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• Researchers develop a library of elastin-like proteins to help in creating synthetic designs

  23-09-2015 19:40
  
  (Phys.org)—A pair of researchers at Duke University has built a library of protein data that outlines the specific amino acid sequences that control changes of many elastin proteins. In their paper published in the journal Nature Materials, Felipe García Quiroz and Ashutosh Chilkoti describe their research, the making of their library, and their belief that what they have created will help in the development of new synthetic designs for possible use in medical applications.
  
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• Canadian River used for oilsands extraction may be at risk from drought

  23-09-2015 19:40
  
  (Phys.org)—A trio of researchers with the University of Regina and University of Western Ontario, both in Canada, has found that a history of drought in the areas that feed the Athabasca River indicates that droughts are likely in the future, perhaps putting oilsands mining in jeopardy. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, David Sauchyn, Jeannine-Marie St-Jacques, and Brian Luckman describe their study of tree rings in the area and what doing so reve
  
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• Meteorite bashing changed Earth's chemistry, study says

  23-09-2015 19:35
  
  In its early life, Earth suffered a meteorite pummelling that lasted 100 million years and may have changed its chemical makeup forever, researchers said Wednesday.
  
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• Indian telecoms ministry forced to back down

  23-09-2015 19:34 via rss.cnn.com
  
  India has withdrawn proposals that would have empowered security agencies to monitor private chats on social media and mobile messaging services, if enforced.
  
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• Everything you wanted to know about UN's new global goals

  23-09-2015 19:30
  
  World leaders are launching an ambitious drive to transform the planet by 2030 with the adoption on Friday of new UN goals to wipe out extreme poverty, promote health and education and combat climate change.
  
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• Ireland loses lucrative tech conference to Portugal

  23-09-2015 19:10
  
  The Web Summit, one of Europe's leading tech conferences will move to Lisbon from Dublin next year, organisers said Wednesday, in a multi-million-euro blow to the Irish economy.
  
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• Whales return to Long Island Sound after long hiatus

  23-09-2015 19:06
  
  It was the summer of the whale this year on Long Island Sound, where fishermen and other boaters reveled in the return of the marine mammals after what appears to have been a two-decade hiatus.
  
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• How the universe's brightest galaxies were born

  23-09-2015 19:06
  
  The brightest galaxies in our universe are fuelled by what their gravity sucks in, not through explosive mergers of star systems as scientists previously argued, researchers said Wednesday.
  
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• CERN and the JRC to scale up production of alpha-emitters against cancer

  23-09-2015 19:03
  
  A novel, accelerator-driven method could produce nuclides for targeted alpha therapy of cancer in practically unlimited amounts, overcoming current obstacles for its wider use due to a limited production of alpha-emitters. The JRC and the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) have embarked to explore the potential of the jointly proposed method.
  
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• Researchers fail to replicate STAP study; computational analysis reveals genomic inconsistency

  23-09-2015 19:01
  
  Tremendous controversy erupted in early 2014 when two papers published in Nature described how a technique called "stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency," or STAP, could quickly and efficiently turn ordinary cells into pluripotent stem cells, that is, stem cells capable of developing into all the tissues in the body.
  
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• Twisting neutrons: Orbital angular momentum of neutron waves can be controlled

  23-09-2015 19:00
  
  It's easy to contemplate the wave nature of light in common experience. White light passing through a prism spreads out into constituent colors; it diffracts from atmospheric moisture into a rainbow; light passing across a sharp edge or a diffraction grating creates an interference pattern. It's harder to fathom the wave behavior of things usually thought of as particles, such as electrons and atoms. And yet these matter waves play a role in physics and in technology. For example, electron beams
  
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• The world's nitrogen fixation, explained

  23-09-2015 19:00
  
  Yale University scientists may have cracked a part of the chemical code for one of the most basic, yet mysterious, processes in the natural world—nature's ability to transform nitrogen from the air into usable nitrogen compounds.
  
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• Enamel evolved in the skin and colonized the teeth much later

  23-09-2015 19:00
  
  When did the enamel that covers our teeth evolve? And where in the body did this tissue first appear? In the latest issue of the journal Nature, researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden and the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing, China, combine data from two very different research fields - palaeontology and genomics - to arrive at a clear but unexpected answer to this question: enamel originated in the skin and colonized the teeth much later.
  
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• Millions more government fingerprints deemed stolen (Update)

  23-09-2015 18:50
  
  The number of people applying for or receiving security clearances whose fingerprint images were stolen in one of the worst government data breaches is now believed to be 5.6 million, not 1.1 million as first thought, the Office of Personnel Management announced Wednesday.
  
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• Uber launches new commute sharing, starting in China

  23-09-2015 18:40
  
  Ride-sharing giant Uber has unveiled a new car-sharing service for commuters, which will be launched first in Chengdu, China.
  
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• Hungry brown bears terrorising Siberian villagers: official

  23-09-2015 18:40
  
  Famished brown bears are terrorising villagers in Siberia as drought and wildfires force the animals to search for food closer to built-up areas, an official told AFP Wednesday.
  
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• Giraffes 'hum' - but only at night

  23-09-2015 18:30
  
  Lions roar, wolves howl and elephants trumpet. But what do giraffes do to communicate? They "hum", new research suggested on Wednesday - and only at night.
  
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• Fin24.com | SABC records R395m loss in last financial year

  23-09-2015 18:30
  
  Not long after it was revealed that SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s salary increased to R3 784m, the public broadcaster announced that has recorded a R395m loss in the last financial year.
  
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• Study shows oceanic phytoplankton declines in northern hemisphere

  23-09-2015 18:28
  
  The world's oceans have seen significant declines in certain types of microscopic plant-life at the base of the marine food chain, according to a new NASA study. The research, published Sept. 23 in Global Biogeochemical Cycles, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, is the first to look at global, long-term phytoplankton community trends based on a model driven by NASA satellite data.
  
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• Physiologists uncover a new code at the heart of biology

  23-09-2015 18:26
  
  UT Southwestern physiologists trying to understand the genetic code have found a previously unknown code that helps explain which protein should be created to form a particular type of cell.
  
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• Mantis shrimp found to spar safely with deadly weapons

  23-09-2015 18:24
  
  (Phys.org)—A pair of biology researchers at Duke University has found that the mantis shrimp engages in an unusual form of sparring during territorial disputes—hammering each other on their tailplates. In their paper published in Royal Society Biology Letters, Patrick Green and Sheila Patek describe their initial expectations regarding behavior of the crustaceans and then what they actually observed.
  
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• ESO Captures New Image of Messier 17

  23-09-2015 18:21 via scitechdaily.com
  
  This newly released ESO image shows the rose-colored star forming region Messier 17. This new image of the star forming region Messier 17 was captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. It is one of the sharpest images showing the entire nebula and not […]
  The post ESO Captures New Image ofMessier 17 appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• NOx gases in diesel car fumes: Why are they so dangerous?

  23-09-2015 18:17
  
  Nitrogen oxides, poisonous gases that contribute to acid rain and suffocating smog, are found in the fumes of diesel cars like the ones Volkswagen has admitted to fitting with emissions-cheating software.
  
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• Largest genetic rice database now available free online

  23-09-2015 18:17
  
  The world's biggest genetic rice database is now available free online, a move scientists hope will contribute to a "green revolution", a leading rice research group said Wednesday.
  
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• Couple ordered to pay $10 million for stealing trade secrets

  23-09-2015 18:16
  
  A judge has ordered a former employee of a mid-Missouri tech firm and his wife to pay $10 million for stealing trade secrets and partnering with a Chinese firm to sell knockoff products to unsuspecting buyers, including the U.S. Navy.
  
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• Viruses join fight against harmful bacteria

  23-09-2015 18:15
  
  In the hunt for new ways to kill harmful bacteria, scientists have turned to a natural predator: viruses that infect bacteria. By tweaking the genomes of these viruses, known as bacteriophages, researchers hope to customize them to target any type of pathogenic bacteria.
  
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• Giant killer lizard fossil shines new light on early Australians

  23-09-2015 18:15
  
  As if life wasn't hard enough during the last Ice Age, research led by the University of Queensland has found Australia's first human inhabitants had to contend with giant killer lizards.
  
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• The hidden evolutionary relationship between pigs and primates revealed by genome-wide study of transposable elements

  23-09-2015 18:05
  
  (Phys.org)—In the past, geneticists focused primarily on the evolution of genes in order to trace the relationships between species. More recently, genetic elements called SINEs (short interspersed elements) have emerged as a much better way to trace mammalian phylogeny, at least in the time since its massive radiation some 60 million years ago. That's because the prolific SINE family evolved differently in every lineage to become widespread throughout the entire genome of each. But SINEs
  
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• Soldiers crossing with Soft Exosuit tech to lighten fatigue

  23-09-2015 18:02
  
  The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is testing exoskeletons on real soldiers. Deep in the woods in Maryland, reports IEEE Spectrum, the U.S Army Research Laboratory (ARL) at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland has been testing their performance.
  
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• How to find out about the human mind through stone

  23-09-2015 17:59
  
  According to Eder Domínguez-Ballesteros, co-author of the article 'Flint knapping and determination of human handedness. Methodological proposal with quantifiable results,' laterality is related to the way our brain is organized, and it assigns different roles to each of our limbs when a specific task is carried out. Studying laterality, its origin and development helps to understand the organization and asymmetries better, and to find out how these asymmetries have evolved throughout his
  
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• Study: Most states treat DUI ignition interlock laws as regulatory policies, not public safety tools

  23-09-2015 17:53
  
  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates intoxicated drivers involved in fatal crashes are six times more likely to have a prior DUI conviction than drivers with no alcohol in their system.
  
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• Scientists Achieve New Quantum Teleportation Record

  23-09-2015 17:53 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology have set a new record for quantum teleportation, sending quantum information in light particles over 100 kilometers of optical fiber. The experiment confirmed that quantum communication is feasible over long distances in fiber. Other research groups have teleported quantum information over longer distances in free space, […]
  The post Scientists Achieve New Quantum Teleportation Record appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• ORNL integrated energy demo connects 3-D printed building, vehicle

  23-09-2015 17:49
  
  A research demonstration unveiled today at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory combines clean energy technologies into a 3D-printed building and vehicle to showcase a new approach to energy use, storage and consumption.
  
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