Sci-Tech news

• Adobe updates Flash amid renewed exploit fears

  28-12-2015 23:46
  
  US software maker Adobe on Monday released security updates for its Flash video player amid ongoing concerns about security holes that could let hackers in.
  
  Read more

• China's Smog Could Be Big Business for Microsoft, IBM

  28-12-2015 22:57 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The two tech giants are vying to tap the fast-growing market for forecasting air quality in the world's top carbon emitters.
  
  Read more

• How the Music Industry is Fighting Online Fraud

  28-12-2015 22:27 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Shifting trends in online habits mean the music industry has become exposed to the phenomenon of 'click fraud.'
  
  Read more

• Here's a Sneak Peek at New Version of Google Glass

  28-12-2015 22:01 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Google Glass may have caused a stir, but it never did really catch on — but Google isn't giving up on the wearable just yet.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Record El Nino, climate change drive extreme weather

  28-12-2015 21:22
  
  Deadly extreme weather on at least five continents is driven in large part by a record-breaking El Nino, but climate change is a likely booster too, experts said Monday.
  
  Read more

• Researchers link climate-induced disasters and food security across time and place

  28-12-2015 21:03
  
  Teams of researchers in the American Southwest and North Atlantic Islands have found that historic and prehistoric peoples in these regions who had created vulnerabilities to food shortfall were especially susceptible to impacts from climate challenges. Their "natural" disasters were human made in conjunction with climate challenges.
  
  Read more

• Tens of millions of trees in danger from California drought

  28-12-2015 21:00
  
  California's forests are home to the planet's oldest, tallest and most-massive trees. New research from Carnegie's Greg Asner and his team reveals that up to 58 million large trees in California experienced severe canopy water loss between 2011 and today due to the state's historic drought. Their results are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
  
  Read more

• Second contagious form of cancer found in Tasmanian devils

  28-12-2015 21:00
  
  Transmissible cancers—cancers which can spread between individuals by the transfer of living cancer cells—are believed to arise extremely rarely in nature. One of the few known transmissible cancers causes facial tumours in Tasmanian devils, and is threatening this species with extinction. Today, scientists report the discovery of a second transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils. The discovery, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, calls into quest
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• First ancient Irish human genomes sequenced

  28-12-2015 20:59
  
  A team of geneticists from Trinity College Dublin and archaeologists from Queen's University Belfast has sequenced the first genomes from ancient Irish humans, and the information buried within is already answering pivotal questions about the origins of Ireland's people and their culture.
  
  Read more

• Firefighters battle more than 130 wildfires in northern Spain

  28-12-2015 20:54
  
  Amid unseasonably warm weather, firefighters battled more than 130 wind-fuelled wildfires in northern Spain on Monday which officials suspect were deliberately set.
  
  Read more

• Swedish courts temporarily ban wolf hunting

  28-12-2015 20:53
  
  Swedish courts on Monday ordered a temporary ban on wolf hunting in parts of the country, favouring animal rights activists in one of Sweden's most hotly disputed environmental issues.
  
  Read more

• Satellite animation shows powerful storm in central US

  28-12-2015 20:53
  
  An animation of satellite imagery over the course of two days shows a massive low pressure system that generated severe weather in the southwestern and central U.S. bringing snow, heavy rainfall, flooding and tornadoes. The video, created by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, combined visible and infrared imagery from NOAA's GOES-East satellite.
  
  Read more

• Sorry, Zuckerberg Isn't Giving Millions to Facebook Users

  28-12-2015 20:13 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  A post making the rounds claims that the Facebook CEO is handing out $4.5 million to 1,000 users who copy and paste the message.
  
  Read more

• New acoustic technique reveals structural information in nanoscale materials

  28-12-2015 20:06
  
  Understanding where and how phase transitions occur is critical to developing new generations of the materials used in high-performance batteries, sensors, energy-harvesting devices, medical diagnostic equipment and other applications. But until now there was no good way to study and simultaneously map these phenomena at the relevant length scales.
  
  Read more

• James Webb Space Telescope mirror halfway complete

  28-12-2015 20:02
  
  Inside NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's massive clean room in Greenbelt, Maryland, the ninth flight mirror was installed onto the telescope structure with a robotic arm. This marks the halfway completion point for the James Webb Space Telescope's segmented primary mirror.
  
  Read more

• And 2015's Most Pirated TV Shows and Movies Are ...

  28-12-2015 19:47 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  It may have been a stellar year for the global box office and TV show performances, but the success hasn't kept online piracy thieves away.
  
  Read more

• Year in Space: 2015 Pushed Boundaries of Exploration

  28-12-2015 19:40 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  2015 was a big year for space - living in it, travelling through it, and unraveling its many mysteries. Here are a few of the year's biggest advances.
  
  Read more

• Chandra Observations Reveal Magnetic Fields in Powerful Radio Jets

  28-12-2015 19:05 via scitechdaily.com
  
  New observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory reveal that the X-ray emissions from Pictoris A are produced by rapidly moving charged particles in magnetic fields. Super-massive black holes at the centers of galaxies can spawn tremendous bipolar jets when matter in the vicinity forms a hot, accreting disk around the black hole. The rapidly moving […]
  The post Chandra Observations Reveal Magnetic Fields in Powerful Radio Jets appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Views Boulders on a Martian Landslide

  28-12-2015 18:52 via scitechdaily.com
  
  This highly detailed image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows boulders on the surface of Mars. The striking feature in this image, acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on March 19, 2014, is a boulder-covered landslide along a canyon wall. Landslides occur when steep slopes fail, […]
  The post Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Views Boulders on a Martian Landslide appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• Hubble Image of the Week: Galaxy NGC 6052

  28-12-2015 18:45 via scitechdaily.com
  
  This Hubble image of the week shows the galaxy NGC 6052, which is located around 230 million light-years away in the constellation of Hercules. It would be reasonable to think of this as a single abnormal galaxy, and it was originally classified as such. However, it is in fact a “new” galaxy in the process […]
  The post Hubble Image of the Week: Galaxy NGC 6052 appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• North Korea's Computer System Mirrors Its Political One

  28-12-2015 18:24 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  North Korea's homegrown computer operating system mirrors its political one, according to two German researchers who have delved into the code.
  
  Read more

• Cow Dung Selling Like Hot Cakes Online in India

  28-12-2015 17:07 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Like consumers around the globe, Indians are flocking to the online marketplace in droves these days.
  
  Read more

• Judge Delays Trial in Lottery Jackpot-Fixing Case Until July

  28-12-2015 17:06 via abcnews.go.com
  Judge delays trial in former lottery official's jackpot-fixing case until July
  
  Read more

• Amazon adds 3 million Prime subscribers

  28-12-2015 16:53
  
  US online giant Amazon says it added three million customers to its Prime subscription service worldwide in the third week of December as it capped a record holiday season.
  
  Read more

• Preferences for changing landscape color, complexity determined

  28-12-2015 16:45
  
  In temperate climates the colors and appearance of plants and trees change throughout the year. A study in the October 2015 issue of HortTechnology may help landscape professionals choose colors and designs that better meet consumers' needs. Rob Kuper, from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture at Temple University, used photographs of landscapes in various seasons to determine peoples' perceptions and preferences for the color complexity of changing natural scenes.
  
  Read more

• Seventy-four cuckoos in the nest: A new key to all North European cuckoo wasp species

  28-12-2015 16:44
  
  Captivating with their bright, vivid and brilliantly metallic bodies, the cuckoo wasps are also fascinating with their curious lifestyle, which has given them this common name. However, in terms of their taxonomic grouping, they have been quite problematic due to similarities between species and a wide range of variations within them.
  
  Read more

• Nanoworld 'snow blowers' carve straight channels in semiconductor surfaces

  28-12-2015 16:42
  
  In the nanoworld, tiny particles of gold can operate like snow blowers, churning through surface layers of an important class of semiconductors to dig unerringly straight paths. The surprising trenching capability, reported by scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and IBM, is an important addition to the toolkit of nature-supplied 'self-assembly' methods that researchers aim to harness for making useful devices.
  
  Read more

• Watch: Virtual Reality Headsets Could Be The Next Big Thing

  28-12-2015 16:40 via abcnews.go.com
  
  Tech experts say virtual reality headsets are the most highly anticipated tech item of 2016.
  
  Read more

• Carbon doped with nitrogen dramatically improves storage capacity of supercapacitors

  28-12-2015 16:40
  
  (Phys.org)—A team of researchers working in China has found a way to dramatically improve the energy storage capacity of supercapacitors—by doping carbon tubes with nitrogen. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes their process and how well the newly developed supercapacitors worked, and their goal of one day helping supercapacitors compete with batteries.
  
  Read more

• Why a famous technologist is being branded a Luddite

  28-12-2015 16:10
  
  On December 21, the company SpaceX made history by successfully launching a rocket and returning it to a safe landing on Earth. It's also the day that SpaceX founder Elon Musk was nominated for a Luddite Award.
  
  Read more

• Researchers find evidence of cavity-dwelling microbial life from 3 billion years ago

  28-12-2015 16:06
  
  (Phys.org)—A team of researchers from Germany and Switzerland has found examples of microbial life from over 3 billion years ago, that appeared to have evaded UV radiation by hiding in subsurface cavities. In their paper published in the journal Geology, the team describes where the fossilized cells were found, their testing techniques and why their finding is important.
  
  Read more

• Glove interface device powered by converting the user's biomechanical energy

  28-12-2015 16:00
  
  Controlling machines remotely by simple hand movements will be possible thanks to Goldfinger, an innovative prototype of human-machine interface designed and built in collaboration between the Politecnico di Torino and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston under the direction of Dr. Giorgio De Pasquale from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the Italian University.
  
  Read more

• Determining the solar energy potentials of private homes

  28-12-2015 16:00
  
  Recently, Google started the Sunroof project, a service that calculates potential energy savings of home owners due to solar facilities on their roofs. However, this project covers a few cities in the USA only. Scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and European partners have now finished the EAGLESolar research project. It covers the same activities in European cities and take into account local conditions. Among the test regions is Karlsruhe with its districts of Knielingen and
  
  Read more

• Resin film for stretchable electronics

  28-12-2015 15:50
  
  Panasonic Corporation announced today that the company has developed a soft, flexible, and stretchable polymer resin film using its proprietary stretchable resin technology. The Company will also provide a transparent electrode material and conductive paste along with this insulating film.
  
  Read more

• An ice core study to determine the timing and duration of historical climate stages

  28-12-2015 15:43
  
  Ice core records are rich archives of the climate history during glacial-interglacial cycles over timescales of up to ~800 kyr before the present. In ice core studies, the accurate and precise dating of the core samples is a central issue that must be investigated to better constrain the timing, sequence, and duration of past climatic events.
  
  Read more

• Understanding the mechanism for generating electric current without energy consumption at room temperature

  28-12-2015 15:40
  
  A group of researchers in Japan and China identified the requirements for the development of new types of extremely low power consumption electric devices by studying Cr-doped (Sb, Bi)2Te3 thin films. This study has been reported in Nature Communications.
  
  Read more

• Lifestyle switching – Bacillus cereus is able to resist certain antibiotic therapies

  28-12-2015 15:40
  
  The bacterium B. cereus had so far been considered to be exclusively endospore-forming. In response to harsh conditions, the bacteria form protective endospores enabling them to remain dormant for extended periods. When conditions are more favourable, the endospores reactivate to become fully functioning bacteria.
  
  Read more

• Fire threatens Christmas kisses

  28-12-2015 15:30
  
  Fire really is the Christmas grinch for WA mistletoe, with researchers discovering flames are the ultimate kiss of death for the festive plant.
  
  Read more

• Engineering students fix common glitch in digitization of books published before 1700

  28-12-2015 15:30
  
  Digitizing books published before 1700 has created an aesthetic as well as quite pragmatic "black-dot problem" in translated texts, with the word "love," for example, showing up as "lo•e."
  
  Read more

• Scientific spotlight identifies threat to unique shrubs

  28-12-2015 15:20
  
  The first comprehensive study of two shrub species from the Euphorbiaceae family, which only occur near Ravensthorpe, suggests the plant's limited range may one day lead to its extinction if land clearing in the region continues.
  
  Read more

• Magnetic fields in powerful radio jets

  28-12-2015 15:20
  
  Super-massive black holes at the centers of galaxies can spawn tremendous bipolar jets when matter in the vicinity forms a hot, accreting disk around the black hole. The rapidly moving charged particles in the jets radiate when they are deflected by magnetic fields; these jets were discovered at radio wavelengths several decades ago. In the most dramatic cases, the energetic particles move at speeds close to the speed of light and extend over hundreds of thousands of light-years, well beyond the
  
  Read more

• Frictional heat dehydrates magma

  28-12-2015 15:20
  
  In contrast to the conventional view, new findings demonstrate that frictional heat in rising magma can drive outgassing of water vapor, which contributes to the dehydration of molten magma – and reduces the pressure in the system.
  
  Read more

• Long-time white-tailed deer study a training ground for young researchers

  28-12-2015 15:10
  
  Winter in Indiana: if you're not in the woods trying to catch a deer, you're on the road trying to avoid them.
  
  Read more

• Simultaneous detection of the polarities of hundreds of semiconducting nanowires

  28-12-2015 15:06
  
  Researchers at the University of Valencia have developed a technique to determine the individual polarities of hundreds of semiconducting nanowires in a single, time-saving process. Led by Ana Cros, director of the Universitat de València's (UV) Materials Science Institute (ICMUV), the study constitutes a major step forward in both our understanding and application of these structures, since their polarity defines the properties of devices made from.
  
  Read more

• Radar images of a Christmas Eve asteroid—an early gift for astronomers

  28-12-2015 15:02
  
  Asteroid 2003 SD220 safely flew past Earth on Dec. 24 at a distance of 6.8 million miles (11 million kilometers). Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have generated the highest-resolution images to date of this asteroid using the Deep Space Network's 230-foot (70-meter) antenna at Goldstone, California. The radar images were acquired between Dec. 17 and Dec. 22, when the distance to this near-Earth object (NEO) was narrowing from 7.3 million miles (12 million
  
  Read more

• 'Bad' inequality on the rise, scholar says

  28-12-2015 15:00
  
  In the United States, income and wealth inequality is growing – especially "bad" inequality caused by injustice, according to a Stanford expert.
  
  Read more

• In 2015, chasing illegal downloaders backfired—Netflix and VPN were the winners

  28-12-2015 14:58
  
  For Voltage Pictures, producers of the movie Dallas Buyers Club, extracting substantial fines from a large number of Australians who downloaded their movie illegally should have been relatively straightforward. They had used the model in other countries successfully and Australia had politicians and a legal framework that supported the protection of intellectual property.
  
  Read more

• Water conservation policy effectiveness depends on farmer economics

  28-12-2015 14:57
  
  Farming is a business, and the actions of farmers will be based on economics – even when it comes to water conservation, according to a recent study by Texas A&M AgriLife Research.
  
  Read more

• Image: Christmas Pluto

  28-12-2015 14:56
  
  Pluto gets into the holiday spirit, decked out in red and green. This image was produced by the New Horizons composition team, using a pair of Ralph/LEISA instrument scans obtained at approximately 9:40 AM on July 14, from a mean range of 67,000 miles (108,000 kilometers).
  
  Read more

• Biotron puts any environment on Earth in researchers' reach

  28-12-2015 14:56
  
  One of the most flexible and unique research facilities in North America is sitting in plain sight, but near anonymity, on the west side of the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus.
  
  Read more

Follow @NewslockSciTech on Twitter!