Sci-Tech news

• Honduran army goes to war against invading bugs

  03-12-2015 23:50
  
  For Honduran soldiers fanning out in the pine forest the enemy is like no other: numbering in the thousands, invading a sizeable chunk of their country and causing incalculable environmental damage.
  
  Read more

• No designer babies, but summit calls for cautious research

  03-12-2015 23:36
  
  A tool to edit human genes is nowhere near ready to use for pregnancy—but altering early embryos as part of careful laboratory research should be allowed as scientists and society continue to grapple with the ethical questions surrounding this revolutionary technology, organizers of an international summit concluded Thursday.
  
  Read more

• New study raises the global human freshwater footprint

  03-12-2015 23:35
  
  The new study shows that dams and irrigation considerably raise the global human consumption of freshwater by increasing evapotranspiration. This effect increases the loss of freshwater to the atmosphere and thereby reduces the water available for humans, societies and ecosystems on land.
  
  Read more

• Lyft allies with Asia peers in Uber challenge

  03-12-2015 23:30
  
  US ridesharing service Lyft on Thursday announced an expansion of its alliances with Asian partners in a move that ramps its challenge to Uber.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• VW lawyer: Consolidate lawsuits against carmaker in Michigan

  03-12-2015 23:20
  
  A Volkswagen lawyer on Thursday said the company would like hundreds of federal civil lawsuits filed against the carmaker over its emissions cheating scandal to be consolidated in Michigan.
  
  Read more

• Why is the San Bernardino shooting rare among mass shootings?

  03-12-2015 23:13
  
  The shooting in San Bernardino, CA yesterday marked the 355th mass shooting in the United States in less than as many days in 2015. As details emerge regarding yesterday's events, it is clear that these types of crimes are morphing and not abating.
  
  Read more

• Nuclear power crucial for UN climate goal: top scientist

  03-12-2015 23:10
  
  Capping global warming at two degrees Celsius, the UN goal, would require a massive scaling up of nuclear power, a top climate scientist said Thursday.
  
  Read more

• EU, Internet giants join forces to fight online extremism

  03-12-2015 22:56
  
  The European Union on Thursday launched a forum bringing together Internet firms like Google, Facebook and Twitter as well as law enforcement agencies to combat online extremism.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Facebook expands sharing options to include live video

  03-12-2015 22:52
  
  Get ready to start watching live video of your friends and family doing something fun, boring or even dumb on Facebook.
  
  Read more

• Researchers make thinnest plates that can be picked up by hand

  03-12-2015 22:49
  
  Scientists and engineers are engaged in a global race to make new materials that are as thin, light and strong as possible. These properties can be achieved by designing materials at the atomic level, but they are only useful if they can leave the carefully controlled conditions of a lab.
  
  Read more

• Effective policing depends on public trust, science shows

  03-12-2015 22:48
  
  Public trust and confidence in the police have remained flat for several decades despite a declining crime rate in the U.S., a problem that has become especially salient in the wake of recent police shootings of unarmed black men. A new report brings psychological science to bear on policing, providing an in-depth analysis of the factors that drive public trust and law-related behavior. The report shows that policing practices focused on respectful treatment and transparent decision making are l
  
  Read more

• New sand fly species discovered in Brazil

  03-12-2015 22:46
  
  In an attempt to better understand the taxonomy of a group of sand flies, researchers in Brazil examined specimens in museum collections. After detailed morphometric and morphological analyses of three different flies in the genus Psathyromyia, they found that the specimens were originally misidentified and that they were actually an undescribed species.
  
  Read more

• More efficient way of converting ethanol to a better alternative fuel

  03-12-2015 22:44
  
  Ethanol, which is produced from corn, is commonly-used as an additive in engine fuel as a way to reduce harmful emissions and scale back U.S. reliance on foreign oil. But since ethanol is an oxygenated fuel, its use results in a lower energy output, as well as increased damage to engines via corrosion.
  
  Read more

• Measuring nanoscale features with fractions of light

  03-12-2015 22:40
  
  National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers are seeing the light, but in an altogether different way. And how they are doing it just might be the semiconductor industry's ticket for extending its use of optical microscopes to measure computer chip features that are approaching 10 nanometers, tiny fractions of the wavelength of light.
  
  Read more

• Hubble and Spitzer telescopes see magnified image of the faintest galaxy from the early universe

  03-12-2015 22:30
  
  Astronomers harnessing the combined power of NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have found the faintest object ever seen in the early universe. It existed about 400 million years after the big bang, 13.8 billion years ago.
  
  Read more

• DXL-2: Studying X-ray emissions in space

  03-12-2015 22:29
  
  The blackness of space. There isn't much visible light in space - but there are numerous other wavelengths of light and scientists want to know what's out there and where it comes from.
  
  Read more

• Study suggests color affects ethical judgments of brands

  03-12-2015 22:27
  
  University of Oregon and University of Cincinnati researchers have found that everyday shoppers make assumptions about brands that use green colors. The findings, published in the Journal of Business Ethics, hold ethical implications for environmentally friendly branding.
  
  Read more

• Not mere trickery: Effects of behavioral nudges persist despite disclosure

  03-12-2015 22:26
  
  Nudging people toward particular decisions by presenting one option as the default can influence important life choices. However, many policymakers and some critics of behavioral interventions have raised serious ethical concerns, arguing that nudging people toward an option without their awareness is unethical, and that defaults only work because people are not aware that they are being manipulated by them. If people knew they were being nudged, the argument goes, they would resist the influenc
  
  Read more

• Live together or get married? Study finds similar emotional benefits

  03-12-2015 22:20
  
  When it comes to emotional health, young couples—especially women—do just as well moving in together as they do getting married, according to a new national study.
  
  Read more

• Dicamba drift affects non-target plants and pollinators

  03-12-2015 22:17
  
  Dicamba herbicide drift onto plants growing adjacent to farm fields causes significant delays in flowering, as well as reduced flowering, of those plants, and results in decreased visitation by honey bees, according to researchers at Penn State and the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture.
  
  Read more

• Review of the landscape conservation cooperatives

  03-12-2015 22:16
  
  Because fish, wildlife, habitats, and cultural resources extend beyond political boundaries, there is a national need to develop resource management strategies across jurisdictions and sectors, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs), initiated by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2009 and coordinated by the department's Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), were created to addre
  
  Read more

• New snake species with pitch black eyes from the Andes highlights hidden diversity

  03-12-2015 22:16
  
  Extremely rare and hidden in the forests of the Andes, there are still new snake species left to find. This has recently been evidenced by the colubrid serpent, described for the first time in the present article. Moreover, there is the vicious circle enwrapping its relatives: the harder it is to find more specimens, the tougher it is to describe and thus, start to identify them, which does not help in mapping their distribution and habitats. To address this issue, Dr. R. Alexander Pyron, The Ge
  
  Read more

• Shared genetics in humans and roundworms shed light on infertility, study finds

  03-12-2015 22:14
  
  A discovery by Rutgers scientists links a protein in sperm to the same molecule needed for reproduction in tiny roundworms and provides clues to human infertility.
  
  Read more

• Study shows popular apps interact with risky websites

  03-12-2015 22:12
  
  Almost 9 percent of popular apps downloaded from Google Play interact with websites that could compromise users' security and privacy, according to a study released in December by researchers at the University of California, Riverside. The team is now developing a tool that allows users to evaluate the riskiness of individual apps before downloading them.
  
  Read more

• Researchers use 3-D printing to build human physiology outside the body

  03-12-2015 22:08
  
  The cardiovascular system is a complex web of tens of thousands of miles of arteries, capillaries and veins, branching throughout the body like tributaries of a great river. And now, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are recapitulating this intricate network using an emerging technology: 3D bioprinting.
  
  Read more

• Video: Toward a universal flu shot

  03-12-2015 22:04
  
  It's time to fend off the flu, and millions are getting their shot to defend against this year's predicted strains. The latest Speaking of Chemistry episode highlights recent research that might make this annual tradition more effective and less frequent.
  
  Read more

• What kinds of stars form rocky planets?

  03-12-2015 22:01
  
  As astronomers continue to find more and more planets around stars beyond our own Sun, they are trying to discover patterns and features that indicate what types of planets are likely to form around different kinds of stars. This will hopefully inform and make more efficient the ongoing planet hunting process, and also help us better understand our own Solar System's formation.
  
  Read more

• Photos: Baby Porcupines Nibble on a Bite

  03-12-2015 21:01 via abcnews.go.com
  
  Absolutely adorable baby animals!
  
  Read more

• Goldman Sachs seeks patent on virtual currency

  03-12-2015 21:00
  
  Goldman Sachs is developing a virtual currency system that aims to revolutionize securities transactions, according to a US patent application filed by the Wall Street investment bank.
  
  Read more

• Smartphone market seen as cooling

  03-12-2015 20:59
  
  Global smartphone sales growth will cool to single digits for the first time ever amid a slowdown in China, a new market forecast said Thursday.
  
  Read more

• New insights on solar flares support proposed explanation for particle-acceleration mechanism

  03-12-2015 20:00
  
  For scientists studying the impacts of space weather, one of the central mysteries of solar flares - the colossal release of magnetic energy in the Sun's atmosphere that erupts with the force of millions of hydrogen bombs - is the means by which these explosions produce radiation and accelerate particles to nearly the speed of light within seconds.
  
  Read more

• Global effort 'needed to save migratory birds'

  03-12-2015 20:00
  
  Scientists have called for a greater international collaborative effort to save the world's migratory birds, many of which are at risk of extinction due to loss of habitat along their flight paths.
  
  Read more

• Event Horizon Telescope reveals magnetic fields at Milky Way's central black hole

  03-12-2015 20:00
  
  Most people think of black holes as giant vacuum cleaners sucking in everything that gets too close. But the supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies are more like cosmic engines, converting energy from infalling matter into intense radiation that can outshine the combined light from all surrounding stars. If the black hole is spinning, it can generate strong jets that blast across thousands of light-years and shape entire galaxies. These black hole engines are thought to be powered b
  
  Read more

• Facebook Live Video Will Let Users Share Experiences in Real-Time

  03-12-2015 19:56 via abcnews.go.com
  
  Soon, you'll be able to make your friends and family jealous of your vacation in real-time with a live video feature being tested for Facebook users in the U.S.
  
  Read more

• Inside Dyson's innovation machine

  03-12-2015 18:50
  
  When Homer Simpson, America's beloved cartoon idiot, was given free rein to design the car of his dreams, he created an abomination, complete with a megaphone attached to the roof and huge bubble-shaped windows. It tanked his brother's fictional car company.
  
  Read more

• Watch: Target to Pay More Than $39 Million in Massive Data Breach

  03-12-2015 18:30 via abcnews.go.com
  
  The retailer owes money to banks and credit unions after hackers stole credit card info from 40 million customers.
  
  Read more

• New Research Reveals the Mystery of Missing Ordinary Matter

  03-12-2015 18:15 via scitechdaily.com
  
  New research shows that the majority of missing ordinary matter is found in the form of a very hot gas associated with intergalactic filaments. Matter known as ordinary, which makes up everything we know, corresponds to only 5% of the Universe. Approximately half of this percentage still eluded detection. Numerical simulations made it possible to […]
  The post New Research Reveals the Mystery of Missing Ordinary Matter appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• Insta-gas, for the ultimate couch potato

  03-12-2015 18:10
  
  Even in an era where no errand is too small to outsource to a smartphone application, startup Purple, which dispatches a stranger to fill up customers' gas tanks, might smack as on-demand capitalism gone too far.
  
  Read more

• The slow crawl to designer babies

  03-12-2015 18:01 via rss.cnn.com
  
  With a few mouse clicks and a credit card, you can order the beginnings of a specific type of baby. And as genetic technology improves, there will be many more ways for us to choose the kind of child we have.
  
  Read more

• Killifish project explores the genetic foundation of longevity

  03-12-2015 18:00
  
  Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have mapped the genome of an unusually short-lived fish, paving the way for scientists to use the organism to study how genes influence longevity.
  
  Read more

• First look at gut microbes in an American Indian community

  03-12-2015 18:00
  
  There's growing recognition that the trillions of microbes living in and on the human body—collectively known as the microbiome—play a critical role in health and disease. However, very little is known about how the diversity of those microbes might vary among different groups of people, and whether and how those variations might play into well-recognized health disparities. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on December 3 have taken a step toward filling those
  
  Read more

• Higher levels of Fukushima cesium detected offshore

  03-12-2015 17:51
  
  Scientists monitoring the spread of radiation in the ocean from the Fukushima nuclear accident report finding an increased number of sites off the US West Coast showing signs of contamination from Fukushima. This includes the highest detected level to date from a sample collected about 1,600 miles west of San Francisco. The level of radioactive cesium isotopes in the sample, 11 Becquerel's per cubic meter of seawater (about 264 gallons), is 50 percent higher than other samples collected along th
  
  Read more

• Nigeria slashes telecoms company fine by a third to $3.4 bln

  03-12-2015 17:41
  
  Nigeria is slashing its fine on MTN, Africa's largest telecommunications operator, by more than a third to $3.4 billion, and the CEO of the embattled Nigerian subsidiary has resigned, the company said Thursday.
  
  Read more

• Amazon launches Fire tablet in China

  03-12-2015 17:40
  
  Amazon said Thursday it was launching its Fire tablet in China, and had agreed to a partnership with Internet firm Baidu to provide search and applications for the device.
  
  Read more

• 6-month 'degree' could put you ahead of competition

  03-12-2015 17:40 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Google is backing a scheme to get people a "nanodegree" in just six months.
  
  Read more

• Study: 17K marine species unprotected

  03-12-2015 17:38
  
  A new study says that more than 17,000 marine species worldwide remain largely unprotected, with the U.S. among the bottom in supporting formal marine protected areas (MPAs) that could safeguard marine biodiversity.
  
  Read more

• It takes a village—and much more—to quench megacity water demands

  03-12-2015 17:38
  
  Municipal water problems of yesteryear: The well's going dry. Dig deeper.
  
  Read more

• HyPer-Tau provides spatially-resolved hydrogen peroxide sensing in cells

  03-12-2015 17:37
  
  By attaching a hydrogen peroxide reporter protein to cellular microtubule structures, researchers have developed the first sensor able to show the location of the key cellular signaling chemical inside living cells with high resolution over time.
  
  Read more

• Nanobombs might deliver agents that alter gene activity in cancer stem cells

  03-12-2015 17:30
  
  Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center—Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC—James) have developed nanoparticles that swell and burst when exposed to near-infrared laser light.
  
  Read more

• Yale Researchers Find a Soft Spot in the Nazca Plate

  03-12-2015 17:29 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using land-based seismic stations, researchers from Yale University found that part of the Nazca Plate weakened and deformed as it bent and slid under the adjoining South American Plate. The Earth’s tectonic plates may be more flexible than previously thought as they slide underneath each other and dive deep below the surface, according to new […]
  The post Yale Researchers Find a Soft Spot in the Nazca Plate appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

Follow @NewslockSciTech on Twitter!