Sci-Tech news

• UNESCO experts call for ban on genetic 'editing'

  05-10-2015 23:40
  
  A UNESCO panel of scientists, philosophers, lawyers and government ministers called Monday for a halt to genetic "editing" of the human germline, warning of the danger of tampering with hereditary traits that could lead to eugenics.
  
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• Data hack at 7 Trump hotels confirmed

  05-10-2015 23:30
  
  Customer credit and debit card numbers may have been stolen at seven Trump hotels after its payment systems were hacked for over a year.
  
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• Moon Express, Rocket Lab set for 2017 mission plan

  05-10-2015 23:16
  
  In 2017 a private moon landing could make news. If the mission is successful, said GeekWire, Moon Express could become the first privately backed venture to achieve a soft lunar landing.
  
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• Bottom Line: 'Butt Dials' to 911 Are a Serious Problem

  05-10-2015 23:15 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  A study by Google researchers confirms that it's way too easy to accidentally dial for help from your rear end.
  
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• New TSRI metabolomic platform reveals fundamental flaw in common lab technology

  05-10-2015 23:14
  
  A new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) shows that a technology used in thousands of laboratories, called gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS), fundamentally alters the samples it analyzes.
  
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• Using—and sharing—new technologies is key for conservation

  05-10-2015 23:13
  
  Scientists estimate that we are losing species at 1,000-times the natural background rate.
  
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• When workplace relationships are good, both positive, negative humor by leaders can improve employees' job satisfaction

  05-10-2015 23:03
  
  Past research as well as conventional wisdom about the use of humor by leaders suggests that positive humor should result in happier subordinates who are satisfied with their jobs. Conventional wisdom also suggests that leaders should avoid negative humor, though actual support for that belief is scarce and ambiguous. Now, a recent study from the University of Missouri has found that the relationship between leader-humor and job satisfaction is dependent on the quality of the relationship betwee
  
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• Stress in adolescence prepares rats for future challenges

  05-10-2015 23:01
  
  Rats exposed to frequent physical, social, and predatory stress during adolescence solved problems and foraged more efficiently under high-threat conditions in adulthood compared with rats that developed without stress, according to Penn State researchers. The results may provide insights into how humans respond to adolescent stress.
  
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• Google parent Alphabet codifies doing the right thing

  05-10-2015 22:58
  
  Google's new parent company hit the stock market on Monday with an inked credo to "Do the right thing"—a spin on the founding principle "Don't be evil."
  
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• Nuclear power plants warned on cyber security

  05-10-2015 22:54
  
  Operators of nuclear power plants worldwide are "struggling" to adapt to the increasing and potentially dangerous threat of cyber attacks, a report warned Monday.
  
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• Civic participation can bridge social-class segregation

  05-10-2015 22:42
  
  Good news for the Leslie Knopes, Lisa Simpsons and other civic-minded strivers of the world: New research from a University of Illinois expert in social network analysis indicates that people who participate in voluntary civic organizations such as school PTAs, religious or leisure groups strengthen their ties to high-status people and accrue significantly better social cachet than their less-outgoing peers.
  
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• A simpler way to estimate the feedback between permafrost carbon and climate

  05-10-2015 22:35
  
  One of the big unknowns in predicting climate change is the billions of tons of carbon frozen in Arctic permafrost. As global warming causes soil temperatures to increase, some of this carbon will decompose and enter the atmosphere and accelerate climate change.
  
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• UK spies can hack smartphones: Snowden

  05-10-2015 22:28
  
  British spies can hack into phones remotely with a simple text message and make audio recordings or take photos without owners knowing, former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden said on Monday.
  
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• Cryptic invasions by ecological engineers conceal profound changes in nature

  05-10-2015 22:24
  
  A new study reveals that the salt marsh plant Spartina alterniflora, which grows on more than 9,000 km of the Atlantic coastline of South America, is not native to the area and was in fact introduced 200 years ago.
  
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• Peeking into our galaxy's stellar nursery

  05-10-2015 22:16
  
  Astronomers have long turned their telescopes, be they on satellites in space or observatories on Earth, to the wide swaths of interstellar medium to get a look at the formation and birth of stars. However, the images produced over the last 50 years look more like weather maps showing storm systems instead of glittering bursts of light that the untrained observer might expect of a "star map." That is, until now.
  
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• Graphene teams up with two-dimensional crystals for faster data communications

  05-10-2015 22:15
  
  Ultra-fast detection of light lies at the heart of optical communication systems nowadays. Driven by the internet of things and 5G, data communication bandwidth is growing exponentially, thus requiring even faster optical detectors that can be integrated into photonic circuits.
  
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• Researchers find 'greener' way to assemble materials for solar applications

  05-10-2015 22:14
  
  The efficiency of solar cells depends on precise engineering of polymers that assemble into films 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.
  
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• Laser-wielding physicists seize control of atoms' behavior

  05-10-2015 22:11
  
  Physicists have wondered in recent years if they could control how atoms interact using light. Now they know that they can, by demonstrating games of quantum billiards with unusual new rules.
  
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• Satellite sees the short life of Tropical Depression 8C

  05-10-2015 22:10
  
  Tropical Depression 8C formed southwest of Hawaii on October 3 and by October 4 it was a post-tropical cyclone. A day later NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an image of the storm as it tracked in a westerly direction through the Central Pacific Ocean.
  
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• Engineer and vision scientist nets Emmy for tool to predict perceived video quality

  05-10-2015 22:07
  
  Sometimes it's not so much what you see as what you don't see that matters.
  
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• Aqua and Terra satellites analyze Hurricane Joaquin near Bermuda

  05-10-2015 22:07
  
  Hurricane Joaquin maintained its comma shape as it brought heavy rains, strong winds and ocean swells to Bermuda on October 5 when NASA satellites passed overhead.
  
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• NASA sees Tropical Storm Choi-Wan strengthening over open ocean

  05-10-2015 22:06
  
  Tropical storm Choi-wan was spinning over open waters of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean when NASA's Aqua satellite saw the strengthening storm.
  
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• New study identifies factors that affect email response time

  05-10-2015 22:05
  
  What are the chances that a person will respond to your email in the next hour? And why is the reply so terse? New study by USC Viterbi School of Engineering researchers finds that email responses depend on a variety of factors including age, platform, volume and timing.
  
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• NASA tracking Tropical Storm Oho, south of Hawaii

  05-10-2015 22:05
  
  NASA's RapidScat instrument that flies aboard the International Space Station saw that newly formed Central Pacific Ocean Tropical Storm Oho's strongest side was east of its center. By October 5, NOAA's GOES satellite saw a more circular, more uniform circulation.
  
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• Research improves efficiency from larger perovskite solar cells

  05-10-2015 22:04
  
  Perovskite solar cells are cheaper to make than traditional silicon cells and their electricity conversion efficiency is improving rapidly. To be commercially viable, perovskite cells need to scale up from lab size. Researchers from Brown and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory report a method for making perovskite cells larger while maintaining efficiency.
  
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• Genetic differences among monkeys in Tanzania show troubling pattern

  05-10-2015 22:01
  
  An endangered monkey species in Tanzania is living in geographical pockets that are becoming isolated from one another. The situation, researchers say, is mostly driven by the monkeys' proximity to villages and the deliberate burning of forests to make way for crops and pastures.
  
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• Saucer-like shields protect two new 'door head' ant species from Africa and their nests

  05-10-2015 22:00
  
  Shaped like saucers, or concave shields, and covered with camouflaging layers of debris, the heads of two "door head" ant species are found to differentiate them as new taxa. They use their peculiar features to block the entrances of their nests against intruders like other predatory ants and invertebrates.
  
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• New on-chip optical sensing technique used to detect multiple flu strains

  05-10-2015 21:00
  
  New chip-based optical sensing technologies developed by researchers at UC Santa Cruz and Brigham Young University enable the rapid detection and identification of multiple biomarkers. In a paper published October 5 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers describe a novel method to perform diagnostic assays for multiple strains of flu virus on a small, dedicated chip.
  
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• New kind of plant movement discovered in a carnivorous pitcher plant

  05-10-2015 21:00
  
  The traps of Nepenthes gracilis use heavy rain as a power source to drive a fast prey capture motion, new research from the University of Bristol has found. The findings are published this week in the journal PNAS.
  
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• History shows more big wildfires likely as climate warms

  05-10-2015 21:00
  
  The history of wildfires over the past 2,000 years in a northern Colorado mountain range indicates that large fires will continue to increase as a result of a warming climate, according to new study led by a University of Wyoming doctoral student.
  
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• Bacteria in the world's oceans produce millions of tonnes of hydrocarbons each year

  05-10-2015 21:00
  
  An international team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, has estimated the amount of hydrocarbons - the primary ingredient in crude oil - that are produced by a massive population of photosynthetic marine microbes, called cyanobacteria. These organisms in turn support another population of bacteria that 'feed' on these compounds.
  
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• Ancestors of land plants were wired to make the leap to shore

  05-10-2015 21:00
  
  When the algal ancestor of modern land plants first succeeded in making the transition from aquatic environments to an inhospitable shore 450 million years ago, it changed the world by dramatically altering climate and setting the stage for the vast array of terrestrial life.
  
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• Are fish the greatest athletes on the planet?

  05-10-2015 20:00
  
  When you think of the world's greatest athletes, names like Usain Bolt generally spring to mind, but scientists have discovered the best athletes could well be found in the water, covered in scales.
  
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• The psychology behind religious belief

  05-10-2015 18:55
  
  Throughout history, scholars and researchers have tried to identify the one key reason that people are attracted to religion.
  
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• Dutch create world's largest man-made wave

  05-10-2015 18:53
  
  In a country where most people live below sea level, studying the oceans is a matter of survival. Now Dutch scientists have created the world's biggest man-made wave in a bid to prepare for the worst.
  
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• One new fly species, zero dead bodies: First insect description solely from photographs

  05-10-2015 18:49
  
  The importance of collecting dead specimens or not when verifying a new species has been a hot ongoing discussion for quite a while now. Amid voiced opinions ranging from specimen collection being "no longer required" to relying on anything but physical evidence being defined as mere "malpractice," science is now witnessing the first description of an insect species based solely on high-resolution photographs.
  
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• Flame retardant breakthrough is naturally derived and nontoxic

  05-10-2015 18:45
  
  Inspired by a naturally occurring material found in marine mussels, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have created a new flame retardant to replace commercial additives that are often toxic and can accumulate over time in the environment and living animals, including humans.
  
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• Like biological channels, graphene pores are selective for certain types of ions

  05-10-2015 18:43
  
  The surface of a single cell contains hundreds of tiny pores, or ion channels, each of which is a portal for specific ions. Ion channels are typically about 1 nanometer wide; by maintaining the right balance of ions, they keep cells healthy and stable.
  
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• Nanoscale photodetector shows promise to improve the capacity of photonic circuits

  05-10-2015 18:42
  
  Photonic circuits, which use light to transmit signals, are markedly faster than electronic circuits. Unfortunately, they're also bigger. It's difficult to localize visible light below its diffraction limit, about 200-300 nanometers, and as components in electronic semiconductors have shrunk to the nanometer scale, the photonic circuit size limitation has given electronic circuits a significant advantage, despite the speed discrepancy.
  
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• World's largest atom smashers produce world's smallest droplets

  05-10-2015 18:41
  
  How small can a droplet shrink and remain a liquid?
  
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• Video: How pee brought you the modern world

  05-10-2015 18:40
  
  You might not believe it, but there was a time when urine, yes urine, was prized by chemists. Pee played a part in some of the most significant discoveries in science, and it helped shape the modern world.
  
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• True colors: Using molecular analysis to clarify dino color claims

  05-10-2015 18:37
  
  The color of dinosaurs is a fascinating topic, and in recent years the discovery of melanosomes - small, pigment-filled sacs - associated with fossilized dinosaur feathers has given rise to all sorts of speculation about our prehistoric pals, from the hue of their plumage to color's impact on behavior.
  
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• Scientists Develop a New Method for Measuring the Mass of Pulsars

  05-10-2015 18:32 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Scientists at the University of Southampton have developed a new method for measuring the mass of pulsars. Until now, scientists have determined the mass of stars, planets and moons by studying their motion in relation to others nearby, using the gravitational pull between the two as the basis for their calculations. However, in the case […]
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• New Fabrication Method Improves Efficiency of Perovskite Solar Cells

  05-10-2015 18:12 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Scientists from Brown University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have developed a method for making perovskite cells larger while maintaining efficiency. Using a newly developed fabrication method, a research team has attained better than a 15-percent energy conversion efficiency from perovskite solar cells larger than one square centimeter area. The researchers, from Brown University […]
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• Spay, neuter, or shot? How an injection could be the future of animal control

  05-10-2015 18:00
  
  A single shot into the muscle is enough to stop egg and sperm production in mice, report California Institute of Technology scientists on October 5 in Current Biology. The injection delivers packaged DNA into muscle cells, causing them to produce neutralizing antibodies against male and female reproductive hormones. All mice that received the shot were unable to sire offspring after about two months, with no side effects. The researchers see this proof-of-concept study as the first step for deve
  
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• Magnetic contraption tricks migrating songbirds into changing direction

  05-10-2015 18:00
  
  When researchers captured Eurasian reed warblers along the Russian coast during their spring migrations and flew them 1,000 kilometers east to Zvenigorod, the birds weren't fazed; they simply re-oriented themselves toward their original destination. Now, the researchers who first demonstrated the birds' navigational skill in the Cell Press journal Current Biology several years ago are back with new evidence that reed warblers rely on a geomagnetic map to point them in the right direction.
  
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• At site of world's worst nuclear disaster, the animals have returned

  05-10-2015 18:00
  
  In 1986, after a fire and explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant released radioactive particles into the air, thousands of people left the area, never to return. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on October 5 have found that the Chernobyl site looks less like a disaster zone and more like a nature preserve, teeming with elk, roe deer, red deer, wild boar, and wolves.
  
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• New Evidence That the Brain’s Inferotemporal Cortex Can Identify Objects

  05-10-2015 17:54 via scitechdaily.com
  
  In a newly published study, neuroscientists from MIT reveal evidence that the brain’s inferotemporal cortex can identify objects. When the eyes are open, visual information flows from the retina through the optic nerve and into the brain, which assembles this raw information into objects and scenes. Scientists have previously hypothesized that objects are distinguished in […]
  The post New Evidence That the Brain’s Inferotemporal Cortex Can Identify Objects appeared first on Sc
  
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• Link Between Accretion Mode and Environment in Radio-Loud Active Galaxies Revealed

  05-10-2015 17:38 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A new study from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reveals evidence that the cluster environment plays an important role in determining the nature of accretion onto the black hole. The nucleus of an active galaxy contains a massive black hole that is vigorously accreting material. In the process, the nucleus typically ejects jets of rapidly […]
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• Hubble Image of the Week – Planetary Nebula PK 329-02.2

  05-10-2015 17:21 via scitechdaily.com
  
  This Hubble image of the week shows Planetary Nebula PK 329-02.2. This planetary nebula is called PK 329-02.2 and is located in the constellation of Norma in the southern sky. It is also sometimes referred to as Menzel 2, or Mz 2, named after the astronomer Donald Menzel who discovered the nebula in 1922. When […]
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