Sci-Tech news

• New Roku streaming TV device has 4K resolution

  06-10-2015 23:55
  
  Streaming TV device maker Roku on Tuesday unveiled a new model that offers video in Ultra HD, or 4K, resolution, matching what's available with Amazon's new Fire TV device.
  
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• Knee-deep in spider leg evolution

  06-10-2015 23:55
  
  Authors Nikola-Michael Prpic et al., in a new study appearing in the advanced online edition of Molecular Biology and Evolution, have identified the driving force behind the evolution of a leg novelty first found in spiders: knees.
  
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• Illegal, industrial fishing threaten oceans: experts

  06-10-2015 23:21
  
  The world's oceans are under threat from both illegal and mass industrial fishing, in which millions of fish are caught and discarded, experts warned Tuesday.
  
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• Competition for Microsoft lineup, which targets high end

  06-10-2015 23:10
  
  The success of Microsoft's fall lineup of devices will ride on the company's ability to convince people who got free Windows 10 software upgrades this summer to spring for new devices—specifically, Windows devices.
  
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• New tools help provide vital demographics, population statistics to policymakers

  06-10-2015 23:05
  
  Every year, $400 billion in federal and state funds are distributed to state, county and local communities for infrastructure, public safety, community development and social services. When it comes to determining how the money is distributed, accurate data are paramount. Those looking for data and analytical reports often turn to the American Community Survey (ACS) from the U.S. Census, which provides data such as unemployment, median household income, and housing prices for multi-year periods.
  
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• Korean energy economist to head UN climate science panel

  06-10-2015 23:02
  
  A South Korean professor of climate change economics will lead the Nobel Prize-winning group of climate scientists who keep track of global warming.
  
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• Neutrino research: Tracking a shapeshifter

  06-10-2015 22:50
  
  For over eight decades, the neutrino—one of the most abundant yet elusive particles in the Universe, has been giving physicists the runaround, forever shape-shifting just out of reach.
  
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• Ancient rocks record first evidence for photosynthesis that made oxygen

  06-10-2015 22:36
  
  A new study shows that iron-bearing rocks that formed at the ocean floor 3.2 billion years ago carry unmistakable evidence of oxygen. The only logical source for that oxygen is the earliest known example of photosynthesis by living organisms, say University of Wisconsin-Madison geoscientists.
  
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• New report shows more Texas workers getting health insurance from employers

  06-10-2015 22:33
  
  A larger percentage of Texas workers are getting health insurance through their employers now than before the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to a new report released today by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Episcopal Health Foundation.
  
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• As biodiversity dwindles, a shift in thought on conservation - Christian Science Monitor

  06-10-2015 21:45 via
  Christian Science Monitor
  As biodiversity dwindles, a shift in thought on conservation
  Christian Science Monitor
  Following an unprecedented collaborative effort to save the sage grouse, some conservationists are calling for environmental protections that take humans into account. By Kelsey Warner, Staff October 6, 2015. Save for later Saved. close. An undated ...
  Homebuilders, Game and Fish praise decision not to protect tortoiseArizona Daily Star (blog)
  Study Reveals Secret Benefactors of the
  

• South Korea's Lee to lead UN panel of climate scientists - Reuters

  06-10-2015 21:34 via
  BBC News
  South Korea's Lee to lead UN panel of climate scientists
  Reuters
  OSLO Governments picked South Korea's Hoesung Lee on Tuesday to head the U.N. panel of climate scientists, which guides policies for combating global warming and won a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Lee, a professor of the economics of ...
  Korean leader for UN climate panelBBC News
  Korean energy economist to head UN climate science panelU.S. News & World Report
  Dot Earth | A Top Task for the New Chair of th
  

• Windows 10 device roundup features Lumia smartphones with Display Dock - Computerworld

  06-10-2015 21:33 via
  Computerworld
  Windows 10 device roundup features Lumia smartphones with Display Dock
  Computerworld
  Microsoft on Tuesday jammed a range of new Windows 10 devices into a two-hour announcement -- everything from three new Lumia smartphones, a Microsoft Band 2 smart wrist wearable, a new Surface Pro 4 and its first-ever laptop, the Surface Book.
  Hands On With the Lumia 950, 950 XL: Beautiful But DoomedPC Magazine
  Microsoft Surface Book, Surface Pro 4 configurations and pricing revealedPCWorld
  Lumia
  

• Facebook Speeds Up News Feed for Slow Internet

  06-10-2015 21:26 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Many of Facebook's users are in emerging markets with weak 2G connections, such as India, Brazil and Mexico.
  
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• Edible love gifts may influence female behavior, suggests cricket study

  06-10-2015 21:22
  
  Edible gifts given by male crickets to their female partners during mating contain unique proteins which could affect the females' behaviour according to research from the University of Exeter and Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, published today in the journal PLOS ONE.
  
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• Discovery about new battery overturns decades of false assumptions

  06-10-2015 21:20
  
  New findings at Oregon State University have overturned a scientific dogma that stood for decades, by showing that potassium can work with graphite in a potassium-ion battery - a discovery that could pose a challenge and sustainable alternative to the widely-used lithium-ion battery.
  
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• Correct: Fitbit slides as Microsoft unveils wearable fitness device - MarketWatch

  06-10-2015 21:18 via
  MarketWatch
  Correct: Fitbit slides as Microsoft unveils wearable fitness device
  MarketWatch
  Shares of Fitbit Inc. declined on Tuesday after Microsoft Corp. unveiled Microsoft Band 2, its own wearable fitness device. Microsoft Band comes with an optical heart rate monitor, a GPS, and a calorie counter. It also checks sleep quality and keeps ...
  Curved new Microsoft Band blends sensor-laden hardware with cloud-based smartsPCWorld
  Microsoft unveils redesigned Band 2 fitness tracker, available Oct
  

• Microsoft Windows 10 Devices Event Highlights

  06-10-2015 21:15
  
  Microsoft's jam-packed event in New York City today focused on new hardware that can be used with Windows 10.
  
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• Study proposes first nationwide wildlife conservation network

  06-10-2015 21:11
  
  Wolves, elk and grizzly bears - some of the largest wild animals in America - are literally dying for more room to roam. But Alexander Fremier, associate professor in the School of the Environment at Washington State University, proposes a viable solution.
  
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• Chile to create Patagonia Marine Protected Area network

  06-10-2015 21:11
  
  The Government of Chile announced today at the Our Oceans Summit in Valparaiso its plan to design a network of Marine Protected Areas for the purpose of safeguarding Patagonia's whales, dolphins, sea lions, sea birds and other coastal biodiversity, an initiative that would expand the country's protected waters by 100,000 square kilometers (more than 38,000 square miles).
  
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• US proposes nearly $2 million fine against drone operator

  06-10-2015 21:10
  
  The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday proposed a record $1.9 million fine against an aerial photography company for flying drones in crowded New York and Chicago airspace without permission.
  
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• Tiny ancient fossil from Spain shows birds flew over the heads of dinosaurs

  06-10-2015 21:10
  
  Birds have an enormously long evolutionary history: The earliest of them, the famed Archaeopteryx, lived 150 million years ago in what is today southern Germany. However, whether these early birds were capable of flying—and if so, how well—has remained shrouded in scientific controversy. A new discovery published in the journal Scientific Reports documents the intricate arrangement of the muscles and ligaments that controlled the main feathers of the wing of an ancient bird, supporti
  
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• NASA sees Typhoon Choi-wan moving north in Western Pacific

  06-10-2015 21:04
  
  Typhoon Choi-wan continued to move north in the western Pacific Ocean as NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead in space on October 6 and took an infrared look at the storm. Earlier, the RapidScat instrument aboard the International Space Station measured the storm's strongest winds.
  
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• Nobel laureate hopes work could pave way to fusion power

  06-10-2015 20:59
  
  Canadian Arthur McDonald, who shared the Nobel Physics Prize with Takaaki Kajita of Japan, said Tuesday he hoped their work on neutrinos could pave the way to nuclear fusion power.
  
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• Microsoft unveils Windows 10 smartphones, new laptop (Update)

  06-10-2015 20:58
  
  Microsoft unveiled its first Windows 10 smartphones Tuesday as it launched a series of new gadgets in a bid to win a bigger share of the competitive mobile market.
  
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• Microsoft unveils new Surface laptop, other updates

  06-10-2015 20:58
  
  Microsoft is doubling down on its Surface devices business, unveiling a new laptop Tuesday alongside an updated tablet.
  
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• More livable than Ea

  06-10-2015 20:57 via pinterest.com
  
  More livable than Earth? New index sizes up the habitability of alien exoplanets
  
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• Satellites see Hurricane Joaquin moving through Northern Atlantic

  06-10-2015 20:56
  
  NASA and NOAA satellites have been watching Hurricane Joaquin move to the northeast through the northern Atlantic Ocean. Although Joaquin is moving away from the U.S. and Canada it is still generating dangerous surf conditions.
  
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• The Next Generation

  06-10-2015 20:55 via pinterest.com
  
  The Next Generation of Exploration: The DAVINCI Spacecraft
  
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• NRL rocket experiment tests effects of dusty plasma on the ionosphere

  06-10-2015 20:53
  
  The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), in collaboration with numerous universities and government laboratories studying the effects of dusty plasmas—charged dust particles that can occur naturally in the mesosphere—generated an artificial plasma cloud in the upper-atmosphere to validate the theory of 'dressed particle scattering' caused by this phenomenon.
  
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• Residents of Copenhagen less welcoming to immigrants than Houstonians are

  06-10-2015 20:46
  
  Residents of Copenhagen, Denmark, are more likely than Houstonians to believe immigration threatens their country's culture. That's one of several findings in a new survey from Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research.
  
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• Novel cybercatalog of flower-loving flies suggests the digital future of taxonomy

  06-10-2015 20:44
  
  Charting Earth's biodiversity is the goal of taxonomy and to do so the scientists need to create an extensive citation network based on several hundred million pages of scientific literature. By providing a novel taxonomic 'cybercatalog' of southern African flower-loving (apiocerid) flies, Drs. Torsten Dikow and Donat Agosti demonstrate how the network of taxonomic knowledge can be made available through links provided to online data providers. Their work is available in the open-access Biodiver
  
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• Math researches find way to make something go viral on Facebook

  06-10-2015 20:42
  
  Researchers at Chapman University have proposed a strategic approach for information spreading via Facebook using cancer screenings as a health intervention. In a study called, Information diffusion, Facebook clusters, and the simplicial model of social aggregation: a computation simulation of simplicial diffusers for community health interventions, they use Facebook to identify social clusters and opinion leaders and mathematically determine the best way to spread information, using health info
  
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• EU Court Says Data-Transfer Pact With US Violates Privacy - Wall Street Journal

  06-10-2015 20:42 via
  Wall Street Journal
  EU Court Says Data-Transfer Pact With US Violates Privacy
  Wall Street Journal
  The European Union's highest court on Tuesday struck down a trans-Atlantic pact used by thousands of companies to transfer Europeans' personal information to the U.S., throwing into jeopardy data traffic that underpins the world's largest trading ...
  European Data Sharing Pact With US Ruled InvalidNew York Times
  This privacy activist has just won an enormous victory against US surveillance ...Washi
  

• Newly identified human ancestor was handy with tools - Reuters

  06-10-2015 20:36 via
  Mirror.co.uk
  Newly identified human ancestor was handy with tools
  Reuters
  WASHINGTON Oct 6 Homo naledi, the ancient human ancestor whose fossils have been retrieved from a South African cave, may have been handy with tools and walked much like a person, according to scientists who examined its well-preserved foot and ...
  Ancient Human Ancestor Homo Naledi Could Use Tools, Was a Versatile TravelerUniversity Herald
  Homo naledi: Hands, feet suggest 'jack of all trades'BBC News
  Extinct Tree-Cl
  

• Researchers uncover new genetic markers for wheat improvement

  06-10-2015 20:28
  
  Kansas State University wheat scientists have completed the first study of a chromosome in a tertiary gene pool and have called it a breakthrough in exploring wheat wild relatives for future crop improvement.
  
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• FAA Proposes $1.9M Fine Against Drone Company

  06-10-2015 20:20 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The FAA may be approving many uses of drones, but that doesn't mean you can go flying in restricted airspace — which is what SkyPan allegedly did.
  
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• Stream Wars: New Roku 4 Can Handle 4K Video

  06-10-2015 19:50 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  After Amazon and Apple launched new streaming devices, Roku revealed its new set-top box capable of streaming 4K video.
  
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• Cell's waste disposal system regulates body clock proteins

  06-10-2015 19:49
  
  Rhythmic expression of key genes is essential for maintaining proper timekeeping of the body's clock. In addition, rhythmic degradation of clockwork proteins is also crucial. However, surprisingly, researchers know little about these specific processes.
  
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• Scientists Produce Photoreceptors from Embryonic Stem Cells

  06-10-2015 19:31 via scitechdaily.com
  
  By producing photoreceptors from human embryonic stem cells, researchers from the University of Montreal have taken a major step forward in the fight against age-related macular degeneration. Age-related macular degeneration (AMRD) could be treated by transplanting photoreceptors produced by the directed differentiation of stem cells, thanks to findings published today by Professor Gilbert Bernier of […]
  The post Scientists Produce Photoreceptors from Embryonic Stem Cells appeared first o
  
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• From trees to power: Engineers build better energy storage device

  06-10-2015 19:27
  
  McMaster Engineering researchers Emily Cranston and Igor Zhitomirsky are turning trees into energy storage devices capable of powering everything from a smart watch to a hybrid car.
  
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• Data integration or die: The importance of biologist input in efficiently sharing data

  06-10-2015 19:25
  
  Vicky Schneider, 361° Division at The Genome Analysis Centre, along with UK and European partners, has reviewed key aspects of standards and formats of biological data to highlight the importance of data integration and management tools for biologists.
  
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• Missing Peeple: Traces of Controversial App Disappear

  06-10-2015 19:16 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The controversial 'Yelp for people' app has gone dark.
  
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• Researchers present new prototype of 3D display which can be used without 3D glasses

  06-10-2015 19:14
  
  Flying cars, hoverboards and video chat - a very futuristic vision for the year 2015 was presented in the movie "Back to the Future Part II", released in 1989. Now, shortly before "Back to the Future Day" on October 21st, 2015, it is time to check whether reality has indeed kept up with the daring predictions of the 80s.
  
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• NASA gets Hurricane Oho by the tail

  06-10-2015 19:13
  
  Tropical Storm Oho intensified into a hurricane on October 6 and appeared to have a "tail" in Infrared NASA satellite imagery. Oho is the seventh hurricane of the 2015 season in the North Central Pacific Ocean.
  
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• New auto safety technologies leave some drivers bewildered

  06-10-2015 19:10
  
  Many Americans buying new cars these days are baffled by the rush of new safety features.
  
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• Machine-Learning Systems That Can Help Predict the Effects of Neurodegenerative Disease

  06-10-2015 19:08 via scitechdaily.com
  By combining MRI and other data, engineers from MIT are developing a computer system that uses genetic, demographic, and clinical data to help predict the effects of disease on brain anatomy. In experiments, they trained a machine-learning system on MRI data from patients with neurodegenerative diseases and found that supplementing that training with other patient […]
  The post Machine-Learning Systems That Can Help Predict the Effects of Neurodegenerative Disease appeared first on SciTech
  
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• Cassini Views Pandora Appearing to Hover Over Titan

  06-10-2015 18:51 via scitechdaily.com
  
  This Cassini image makes Pandora appear to be hovering over Titan, but a coincidence of viewing angle is responsible for this image. Little Pandora is much closer to Cassini than hazy Titan in this view. (Titan is nearly three times farther away.) Even so, Titan (3,200 miles or 5,150 kilometers across) dwarfs Pandora (50 miles […]
  The post Cassini Views Pandora Appearing to Hover Over Titan appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Twitter UK staff benefit from £14 million shares windfall as profits double - Business Insider

  06-10-2015 18:44 via
  Twitter UK staff benefit from £14 million shares windfall as profits double
  Business Insider
  Twitter UK employees saw their fortunes rise last year following a £14 million shares windfall that coincided with a doubling in the social media site's profits and revenues in the region. The San Francisco tech giant made a pre-tax profit of £3.2 ...and more »
  

• NASA Engineers Successfully Test Heat Shield for Future Mars Exploration Vehicles

  06-10-2015 18:39 via scitechdaily.com
  
  NASA engineers have successfully completed heat shield testing of an Adaptive Deployable Entry and Placement Technology (ADEPT) model under conditions akin to entering the Martian atmosphere. As NASA missions to Mars progress with science and complex human exploration missions, spacecraft will require larger heat shields to protect against the extreme heat of entering a planet’s […]
  The post NASA Engineers Successfully Test Heat Shield for Future Mars Exploration Vehicles appeared f
  
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• The Latest: Research Changed the Course of Particle Physics - New York Times

  06-10-2015 18:33 via
  Washington Post
  The Latest: Research Changed the Course of Particle Physics
  New York Times
  STOCKHOLM — Latest developments in the announcements of the Nobel Prizes (all times local): ___. 5 p.m.. Discoveries by the Nobel physics laureates have bolstered the notion that neutrinos may have protected us all from complete annihilation by ...
  Shape-Shifting Neutrinos Grab the Nobel Prize in PhysicsWIRED
  Four things to know about today's Nobel Prize in physicsWashington Post (blog)
  Nobel Laurea
  

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