Sci-Tech news

• University of California System to Review Harassment Policy

  16-10-2015 23:58
  Napolitano: University of California system will review sexual harassment policy after scandal
  
  Read more

• Daily fantasy sports deemed gambling in Nevada

  16-10-2015 23:30
  
  Daily fantasy sports companies suffered another blow this week as authorities in Nevada deemed them gambling enterprises and ordered them to suspend operations in the state until they have proper licenses.
  
  Read more

• US appeals court backs Google's book-scanning project

  16-10-2015 23:20
  
  Google's colossal project to digitize the world's books does not violate copyright law, a US appeals court ruled Friday, affirming a 2013 decision seen as a landmark for the digital era.
  
  Read more

• FTC reviewing VW's 'Clean Diesel' ads for fraudulent claims

  16-10-2015 23:20
  
  "Aren't diesels dirty?" asks the grandmother in the passenger seat of the gleaming new VW Golf SportWagen.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• No Batteries, No Problem: Flashlight Runs on Body Heat

  16-10-2015 23:19 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Batteries are so 20th century. The Lumen is a new flashlight that skips the AAs, producing light by harvesting your body heat.
  
  Read more

• Treasure trove of late Triassic fossils discovered in Utah

  16-10-2015 23:10
  
  Paleontologists have discovered a cliff-side in Utah brimming with fossils that offers a rare glimpse of desert life in western North America early in the age of dinosaurs.
  
  Read more

• NASA's Scott Kelly breaks US record for most days in space

  16-10-2015 23:10
  
  Waking up hundreds of miles above the Himalayas, astronaut Scott Kelly broke the U.S. record Friday for the most time spent in space with 383 days.
  
  Read more

• French president in Iceland to see global warming's damage

  16-10-2015 23:00
  
  The French president took a few steps on an Icelandic glacier Friday to experience firsthand the damage caused by global warming, ahead of major U.N. talks on climate change in Paris this year.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Russian Hackers Breached Dow Jones for Stock Tips: Report

  16-10-2015 22:57 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Dow Jones & Co. says it is looking into the validity of a report that Russian hackers stole info from its servers and used it for trading.
  
  Read more

• Jury Awards Oracle $50M in Copyright Dispute With Vegas Firm

  16-10-2015 22:52
  US jury awards $50M to Oracle in copyright fight with Las Vegas firm; tech giant sought $246M
  
  Read more

• Nanodiamonds might prevent tooth loss after root canals

  16-10-2015 22:50
  
  People undergoing root canals may have gained a powerful, if tiny, new ally. Researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry have found that using nanodiamonds to fortify a material used in the procedure could significantly improve outcomes for patients.
  
  Read more

• New ways to better manage urban stormwater runoff

  16-10-2015 22:40
  
  As meteorologists monitor the El Nino condition currently gaining strength in the Pacific Ocean, Californians look with hope to the much-needed rain and snow it could yield. But if we're going to make the most of the precipitation, we need to put a LID on it.
  
  Read more

• Novel algorithm simulates water evaporation at the nanoscale

  16-10-2015 22:30
  
  We are all familiar with boiling a pot of water—flame from a stove heats the base of a metal pot, the metal transfers the heat to the water, and the temperature goes up and up until the water boils. Professor Shalabh Maroo and graduate student Sumith YD are looking closer—much closer. They are looking at heat transfer in water at the nanoscale, where the heat from the pot's atoms transfers to the atoms that make up water.
  
  Read more

• Former Microsoft CEO Ballmer discloses Twitter stake

  16-10-2015 22:26
  
  Former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer disclosed Friday that he has taken a four percent stake in Twitter, expressing confidence in the messaging platform's new management team.
  
  Read more

• Wyoming Stock Growers challenges sage grouse plans

  16-10-2015 22:23
  
  The Wyoming Stock Growers Association has filed a legal challenge to a series of federal sage grouse plans, saying they overstep the government's authority.
  
  Read more

• Study questions dates for cataclysms on early moon, Earth

  16-10-2015 22:20
  
  Phenomenally durable crystals called zircons are used to date some of the earliest and most dramatic cataclysms of the solar system. One is the super-duty collision that ejected material from Earth to form the moon roughly 50 million years after Earth formed. Another is the late heavy bombardment, a wave of impacts that may have created hellish surface conditions on the young Earth, about 4 billion years ago.
  
  Read more

• Is black phosphorous the next big thing in materials?

  16-10-2015 22:17
  
  A new experimental revelation about black phosphorus nanoribbons should facilitate the future application of this highly promising material to electronic, optoelectronic and thermoelectric devices. A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has experimentally confirmed strong in-plane anisotropy in thermal conductivity, up to a factor of two, along the zigzag and armchair directions of single-crystal black phosphorous nanor
  
  Read more

• Research boosts optical fiber data speeds

  16-10-2015 22:13
  
  In the latest advance to boost the speed of the Internet, a research team including, the City College of New York, University of Southern California, University of Glasgow, and Corning Incorporated, has demonstrated a way to increase the data speeds of optical fibers - considered the Internet's backbone.
  
  Read more

• Subtropical expedition will help forecast UK weather

  16-10-2015 22:11
  
  To improve long-term understanding of weather and global environmental change, the Royal Research Ship Discovery is leaving Southampton tomorrow for a six week expedition to the Bahamas.
  
  Read more

• Scott Kelly Sets American Record for Time in Space

  16-10-2015 21:05 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Scott Kelly can now boast that he's spent more time away from Earth than any other American.
  
  Read more

• More People Are Coming Out on Facebook

  16-10-2015 20:54
  
  More so than ever, Americans are coming out on Facebook.
  
  Read more

• Amazon's growing clout in cloud computing stirs questions

  16-10-2015 20:40
  
  Retailers have long feared Amazon.com and the ease with which it has undermined the business of shopping on Main Street.
  
  Read more

• Discovery about protein structure opens window on basic life process

  16-10-2015 20:00
  
  Biochemists at Oregon State University have made a fundamental discovery about protein structure that sheds new light on how proteins fold, which is one of the most basic processes of life.
  
  Read more

• Camels test positive for respiratory virus in Kenya

  16-10-2015 20:00
  
  A new study has found that nearly half of camels in parts of Kenya have been infected by the virus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and calls for further research into the role they might play in the transmission of this emerging disease to humans.
  
  Read more

• Animated characters help patients discuss ailments, levels of pain

  16-10-2015 19:50
  
  The company's vision initially seems fanciful: Create applications for health care featuring animated characters that can understand language in all its complexity, from context to regional idioms, detect emotion and recognize facial expressions, perceive differences in personalities, and on top of all that, constantly learn.
  
  Read more

• Vintage Apple Computer Could Fetch $800K at Auction

  16-10-2015 19:37 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The first product ever made by the tech behemoth Apple went up for auction on Thursday and is expected to fetch bids between $463,000 and $772,000.
  
  Read more

• What Exxon knew about global warming's impact on the Arctic

  16-10-2015 19:30
  
  Back in 1990, as the debate over climate change was heating up, a dissident shareholder petitioned the board of Exxon, one of the world's largest oil companies, imploring it to develop a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its production plants and facilities.
  
  Read more

• Whatever your game, EverSport wants to stream it to you

  16-10-2015 19:10
  
  USC football fans in London, Japanese soccer followers in Los Angeles and kickboxing enthusiasts around the globe: Despair no more!
  
  Read more

• Meet the Top Earning Millionaires on YouTube

  16-10-2015 18:56
  
  Chances are these YouTube stars are already familiar faces, but did you know how much money they're making from their videos?
  
  Read more

• Chris Young, Intel Security exec, on fighting cybercrime

  16-10-2015 18:50
  
  When Intel bought McAfee five years ago, it was a surprising move by a giant chip company with a core computer hardware mission into the complex software business of protecting computers from hackers and crooks.
  
  Read more

• Review: New version of Mac OS X offers welcome tweaks

  16-10-2015 18:27
  
  When it comes to updating the software that underlies its Mac computers, Apple has generally opted for a conservative approach.
  
  Read more

• Scientists Reveal Previously Unknown Subunits of Telomerase

  16-10-2015 18:22 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Scientists from UCLA have produced the clearest-ever images of telomerase. This new research could lead to new strategies for treating disease, aging, and cancer. An enzyme called telomerase plays a significant role in aging and most cancers, but until recently many aspects of the enzyme’s structure could not be clearly seen. Now, scientists from UCLA […]
  The post Scientists Reveal Previously Unknown Subunits of Telomerase appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• Nuclear Science Advisory Committee issues plan for US nuclear physics research

  16-10-2015 18:22
  
  Today, the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee, or NSAC, publicly released "Reaching for the Horizon, The 2015 Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science." The new plan was unanimously accepted by NSAC, a committee composed of eminent scientists who have been tasked by DOE and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to provide recommendations on future research in the field. A new plan, which serves as advice to both DOE and NSF, is generally prepared every five-seven years to assure that priorities refle
  
  Read more

• Scientists solve structure of virus linked to diabetes, infant death, and neurological conditions

  16-10-2015 18:19
  
  An international group of scientists have solved the atomic structure of the Ljungan virus, an infection of rodents that is also associated with a variety of dangerous diseases in humans, including diabetes, neurological disease, and sudden infant death. The identification of the structure could be an important step towards better understanding and treating the virus and augmenting our understanding of virus evolution as a whole.
  
  Read more

• “Data Science Machine” Replaces Human Intuition with Algorithms

  16-10-2015 18:00 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Engineers from MIT have developed a new system that replaces human intuition with algorithms. The “Data Science Machine” outperformed 615 of 906 human teams in three recent data science competitions. Big-data analysis consists of searching for buried patterns that have some kind of predictive power. But choosing which “features” of the data to analyze usually […]
  The post “Data Science Machine” Replaces Human Intuition with Algorithms appeared first on
  
  Read more

• Have We Discovered an Alien Civilization? Not So Fast

  16-10-2015 17:53 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Could a recently discovered star be home an alien civilization? Some scientists are seriously considering the possibility.
  
  Read more

• Surface of Ceres Consists of Billions of Years Worth of Meteorite Material

  16-10-2015 17:43 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A new set of high-velocity impact experiments from Brown University reveal that the dwarf planet Ceres may be something of a cosmic dartboard: Projectiles that slam into it tend to stick. The experiments, performed using the Vertical Gun Range at NASA’s Ames Research Center, suggest that when asteroids and other impactors hit Ceres, much of […]
  The post Surface of Ceres Consists of Billions of Years Worth of Meteorite Material appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• Fin24.com | Awarding of social grant tender postponed

  16-10-2015 17:33
  
  Electronic payments company Net1 UEPS Technologies faces the prospect of hanging onto South Africa’s R10bn social grants tender until 2017.
  
  Read more

• New Data from New Horizons Flyby of Pluto is Published

  16-10-2015 17:29 via scitechdaily.com
  
  The first research paper based on data from NASA’s New Horizons recent flyby of Pluto was published today, revealing a degree of diversity and complexity in the Pluto system that few expected in the frigid outer reaches of the solar system. The New Horizons team describes a wide range of findings about the Pluto system […]
  The post New Data from New Horizons Flyby of Pluto is Published appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• Netflix Outage Disrupts Chill Sessions Across the U.S.

  16-10-2015 17:21 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Netflix's online streaming service went down for 90 minutes and people flipped out.
  
  Read more

• Suomi NPP satellite spots formation of second Southern Pacific tropical cyclone

  16-10-2015 17:11
  
  Tropical Storm 02P developed about 300 miles away from Fiji as NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured a visible image of the storm.
  
  Read more

• NASA's GPM sees Koppu menacing the Philippines

  16-10-2015 17:11
  
  Tropical storm Koppu was approaching the Philippines when the GPM core observatory satellite passed above on October 15, 2015 at 1436 UTC (10:36 a.m. EDT) and analyzed the intensifying storm's rainfall. By October 16, the storm intensified into a typhoon as it neared Luzon.
  
  Read more

• Wal-Mart, others speed up deliveries to shoppers

  16-10-2015 17:00
  
  Christmas won't come early this year, but the gifts might.
  
  Read more

• Satellite sees Tropical Depression 19E still disorganized

  16-10-2015 16:55
  
  Tropical Depression 19E remained disorganized on infrared NOAA's GOES-West satellite imagery on October 16 as it continued moving through the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
  
  Read more

• 100 photos that can help prevent sickness, save lives

  16-10-2015 16:55
  
  A series of 100 photos may reduce the risk of Native Americans and Alaska Natives being exposed to or consuming water or food containing harmful cyanobacteria.
  
  Read more

• Suomi NPP satellite sees Tropical Storm Champi affecting Guam

  16-10-2015 16:51
  
  Tropical Storm Champi was over Guam and the Marianas Islands when NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured a visible image of the storm. On October 16, Champi was moving farther away from Saipan and Tinian in a westerly direction.
  
  Read more

• Appeals court rules in favor of Google's online library

  16-10-2015 16:49
  
  Google is not violating copyright laws by digitizing books for a massive online library, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in a decadelong dispute.
  
  Read more

• Google's Book-Scanning Project Legal: Appeals Court

  16-10-2015 16:18 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  A U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday that Google's massive effort to scan millions of books for an online library does not violate copyright law.
  
  Read more

• Anti-clumping strategy for nanoparticles

  16-10-2015 16:04
  
  Nanoparticles are ubiquitous in industrial applications ranging from drug delivery and biomedical diagnostics to developing hydrophobic surfaces, lubricant additives and enhanced oil recovery solutions in petroleum fields. For such nanoparticles to be effective, they need to remain well dispersed into the fluid surrounding them. In a study published in EPJ B, Brazilian physicists identified the conditions that lead to instability of nanoparticles and producing aggregates. This happens when the e
  
  Read more

• Scientists demonstrate how to improve ultrathin CIGSe solar cells by nanoparticles

  16-10-2015 16:03
  
  CIGSe solar cells are made of a thin chalcopyrite layer consisting of copper, indium, gallium and selenium and can reach high efficiencies. Since indium is becoming scarce and expensive, it is interesting to reduce the active CIGSe layer, which however decreases the efficiency quite strongly.Now, scientists at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin have produced high quality ultrathin CIGSe layers and increased their efficiency by an array of tiny nanoparticles between the back contact and the active layer.
  
  Read more

Follow @NewslockSciTech on Twitter!