Sci-Tech news

• DARPA Wants to Develop Brain-Translating Device

  19-01-2016 23:42 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The federal government really does want to read your mind.
  
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• NASA-funded balloon launches to study Sun

  19-01-2016 23:26
  
  On Jan. 18, 2016, the GRIPS balloon team sent their instrument soaring towards the stratosphere above Antarctica, suspended underneath a helium-filled, football-field sized scientific balloon. GRIPS, short for Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar flares, is studying extremely high-energy radiation released by solar flares.
  
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• Van Allen probes revolutionize view of radiation belts

  19-01-2016 23:23
  
  About 600 miles from Earth's surface is the first of two donut-shaped electron swarms, known as the Van Allen Belts, or the radiation belts. Understanding the shape and size of the belts, which can shrink and swell in response to incoming radiation from the sun, is crucial for protecting our technology in space. The harsh radiation isn't good for satellites' health, so scientists wish to know just which orbits could be jeopardized in different situations.
  
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• Microsoft Announces 'Minecraft' Edition for the Classroom

  19-01-2016 23:15 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Microsoft has announced a classroom-focused version of "Minecraft," the phenomenally popular open-world building game the company purchased in 2014
  
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• Netflix impresses Wall St. with robust 4Q overseas growth (Update)

  19-01-2016 22:44
  
  As its U.S. subscriber growth tapers off, Netflix's Internet video service is setting out to conquer the rest of the world in an audacious expansion likely to sway the company's stock and the prices it pays for TV shows and movies.
  
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• Stolen Uber Accounts Worth More Than Credit Cards

  19-01-2016 22:27 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Stolen Uber account information on underground marketplaces sells for an average of $3.78 per account.
  
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• Penthouse halts magazine after 50 years, goes digital

  19-01-2016 22:06
  
  Adult magazine Penthouse will end its print edition after 50 years, becoming the latest publication to go exclusively digital.
  
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• Watch: New Microsoft Keyboard May Become Available on iPhone, Android

  19-01-2016 21:36
  
  The swipe-to-text keyboard won the Guinness World Record as the fasted software keyboard in 2014.
  
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• Apple wins US ban on older model Samsung smartphones

  19-01-2016 21:35
  
  Apple on Tuesday had a new victory in a long-running patent lawsuit—a court-ordered ban on older-model Samsung smartphones.
  
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• Disrupting cell's supply chain freezes cancer virus

  19-01-2016 21:31
  
  When the cancer-causing Epstein-Barr virus moves into a B-cell of the human immune system, it tricks the cell into rapidly making more copies of itself, each of which will carry the virus.
  
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• Grafted plants' genomes can communicate with each other

  19-01-2016 21:29
  
  Agricultural grafting dates back nearly 3,000 years. By trial and error, people from ancient China to ancient Greece realized that joining a cut branch from one plant onto the stalk of another could improve the quality of crops.
  
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• Worst Passwords of 2015: 'Star Wars' Terms Make the Cut

  19-01-2016 21:28 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Apparently a lot of folks don't realize that The Force won't be able to protect your data.
  
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• New experiments determine effective treatments for box jelly stings

  19-01-2016 21:28
  
  Mānoa (UHM) developed an array of highly innovative experiments to allow scientists to safely test first-aid measures used for box jellyfish stings - from folk tales, like urine, to state-of-the-art technologies developed for the military. The power of this new array approach, published this week in the journal Toxins, is in its ability to rigorously assess the effectiveness of various treatments on inhibiting tentacle firing and venom toxicity - two aspects of a sting that affect the sever
  
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• Group learning makes children better decision-makers, study finds

  19-01-2016 21:27
  
  Children who participate in collaborative group work to learn about significant social issues become better decision-makers than their peers who learn the same curriculum through teacher-led discussions, a new study finds.
  
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• East Coast, Ohio Valley brace for possible big snowstorm

  19-01-2016 21:00
  
  Tens of millions of Americans from Washington to Boston and the Ohio Valley could be walloped by an end-of-the-week snowstorm, meteorologists say.
  
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• US official heads to Africa on anti-poaching campaign

  19-01-2016 20:50
  
  US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell heads to Africa on Wednesday to denounce the trafficking of wild animals, on the rise over the past five years.
  
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• Not a hoax: Univision buys stake in 'Onion'

  19-01-2016 20:50
  
  Aiming to use humor to boost its audience, US broadcasting group Univision said Tuesday it was acquiring a stake in the satirical news group The Onion.
  
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• Plastic to outweigh fish in oceans by 2050, study warns

  19-01-2016 20:38
  
  Plastic rubbish will outweigh fish in the oceans by 2050 unless the world takes drastic action to recycle the material, a report warned Tuesday on the opening day of the annual gathering of the rich and powerful in the snow-clad Swiss ski resort of Davos.
  
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• Devices start ordering refills from Amazon online shop

  19-01-2016 20:36
  
  Amazon on Tuesday announced the arrival of devices that order their own refills from the online retail titan.
  
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• Chinese soldiers linked to US military hacking case: media

  19-01-2016 20:36
  
  Two Chinese soldiers were "co-conspirators" in a plot to steal US military secrets, including designs for the F-35 stealth fighter and other warplanes, a Canadian newspaper reported Tuesday.
  
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• 156K chickens added to list of poultry being euthanized

  19-01-2016 20:34
  
  Animal health officials investigating a bird flu outbreak in southwest Indiana have ordered 156,000 chickens at one of 10 affected commercial poultry farms to be euthanized, raising the total number of birds to be killed above 400,000.
  
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• Greenhouse gas can escape the deep ocean in surprising way, new study says

  19-01-2016 20:33
  
  A new scientific journal article reports that carbon dioxide can emerge from the deep ocean in a surprising way—a new piece of the global carbon "puzzle" that researchers must solve to fully understand major issues like climate change.
  
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• Ancient genomes reveal that the English are one-third Anglo-Saxon

  19-01-2016 20:29
  
  For the first time, researchers have been able to directly estimate the Anglo-Saxon ancestry of the British population from ancient skeletons, showing how Anglo-Saxon immigrants mixed with the native population.
  
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• Bismuth-based nanoribbons show 'topological' transport, potential for new technologies

  19-01-2016 20:27
  
  Researchers have created nanoribbons of an emerging class of materials called topological insulators and used a magnetic field to control their semiconductor properties, a step toward harnessing the technology to study exotic physics and building new spintronic devices or quantum computers.
  
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• Togetherness relieves stress in Prairie voles

  19-01-2016 20:01
  
  Many people feel anxious in crowds. But not so for prairie voles.
  
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• Camera traps reveal that tropical forest protected areas can protect biodiversity

  19-01-2016 20:00
  
  Biodiversity in tropical forest protected areas may be faring better than previously thought, according to a study publishing in the Open Access journal PLOS Biology on January 19th. The study, "Standardized Assessment of Biodiversity Trends in Tropical Forest Protected Areas: The End is Not in Sight," was based on data gathered by researchers with the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network (TEAM). Started in 2002 by Conservation International (CI), TEAM grew to a coalition in 2009 t
  
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• Video: Why is chocolate so bad for dogs?

  19-01-2016 19:55
  
  Dark, milk, semi-sweet or white, chocolate is a favorite treat for many —many humans that is. As much as we like it, chocolate can be lethal to our canine friends. Why can we humans eat chocolate without any negative effects (besides cavities), but dogs can't?
  
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• US science and technology leadership increasingly challenged by advances in Asia

  19-01-2016 19:51
  
  According to the latest federal data, the U.S. science and engineering (S&E) enterprise still leads the world. The United States invests the most in research and development (R&D), produces the most advanced degrees in science and engineering and high-impact scientific publications, and remains the largest provider of information, financial, and business services. However, Southeast, South, and East Asia continue to rapidly ascend in many aspects of S&E. The region now accounts for 4
  
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• NASA sees wide-eyed Tropical Cyclone Victor

  19-01-2016 19:49
  
  NASA satellites and instruments have been monitoring Tropical Cyclone Victor, a hurricane in the South Pacific Ocean with a large eye. NASA's Aqua satellite, NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite and the RapidScat instrument aboard the International Space Station have all gathered data on the storm.
  
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• Photos show elusive bush dog to be widespread in Panama

  19-01-2016 19:47
  
  New camera trap photos capture the elusive bush dog in Panama on its way North as it expands out of South America.
  
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• New framework sheds light on how, not if, climate change affects cold-blooded animals

  19-01-2016 19:44
  
  Cold-blooded animals like lizards, insects and fish have a preferred body temperature range at which they hunt, eat, move quickly and reproduce. Fear that a warming climate will constrict this temperature range underlies recent studies that warn of the detrimental effects of climate change on the activity and survival of cold-blooded animals. While not contradicting these warnings, a new paper published in the latest issue of Ecology Letters offers a revised framework that may better answer how
  
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• Watching electrons cool in 30 quadrillionths of a second

  19-01-2016 19:24
  
  Two University of California, Riverside assistant professors of physics are among a team of researchers that have developed a new way of seeing electrons cool off in an extremely short time period.
  
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• Researchers pinpoint the drivers for low-priced PV systems in the United States

  19-01-2016 19:22
  
  The price of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems installed on homes and small businesses spans a wide range, and researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have published a new study that reveals the key market and system drivers for low-priced PV systems.
  
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• Team theorizes defects could improve solar cells

  19-01-2016 19:20
  
  Scientists at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are studying what may seem paradoxical - certain defects in silicon solar cells may actually improve their performance.
  
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• Researcher studying potential invasive species in S. Gulf of Mexico

  19-01-2016 19:17
  
  In fairytales, it's usually the damsel who is in distress. When it comes to the marine world, however, it seems it's the damsel that can cause some distress.
  
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• Shipwreck from 1800s turns up in MH370 search

  19-01-2016 19:16 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Boats dragging high-tech detection devices across the Indian Ocean have failed to solve the mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. But searchers have discovered a shipwreck some 200 years old at the bottom of the sea.
  
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• Global analysis reveals why many bat populations are in decline

  19-01-2016 19:15
  
  Many of the 1,300 species of bat are considered to be threatened and declining. A new analysis reveals trends and causes of death in bats around the world, shedding new light on the possible factors underlying population declines.
  
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• New research on inflammation and cancer: A prehistoric code regulates cell motility

  19-01-2016 19:09
  
  Recent research demonstrates that an evolutionarily conserved molecular code, present on cell surface adhesion molecules, is a critical regulator of cell motility. The prehistorical code identified by the researchers finally explains on the molecular level how cells can fine-tune their migration in response to different tissue determinants. This code which predates dinosaurs and life moving to dry land remains functional in our bodies even today.
  
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• Using LEGO blocks to develop stretchable electronics

  19-01-2016 19:05
  
  A new article shows how toy bricks, such as LEGO blocks, are not only for children—in the hands of engineers, they can become a powerful laboratory tool for conducting sophisticated tasks.
  
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• Nanoparticles combine photodynamic and molecular therapies against pancreatic cancer

  19-01-2016 19:05
  
  A nanoparticle drug-delivery system that combines two complementary types of anticancer treatment could improve outcomes for patients with pancreatic cancer and other highly treatment-resistant tumors while decreasing toxicity. In their report that has received advance online publication in Nature Nanotechnology, a research team based at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) describes how a nanomedicine that combines photodynamic therapy - the use of light
  
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• Innovative tool to revolutionize building airtightness test

  19-01-2016 19:04
  
  The University of Nottingham has developed a novel and easy-to-use test for measuring the airtightness of buildings in order to help eliminate draughts, improve energy efficiency and reduce heating bills.
  
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• UTA civil engineers shaping sustainable solutions, increasing energy output at landfill

  19-01-2016 19:00
  
  Cities, counties and countries have spent decades covering trash with intricate layers of liners and soil in landfills as the best way to protect groundwater and eventually reclaim usable green space.
  
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• Study provides insights on sources of environmental contamination following Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

  19-01-2016 19:00
  
  Four years after Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster that led to major releases of radioactivity to environment, questions still remain regarding the original sources of radioactive contamination. Investigators have now used rice, soil, mushroom, and soybean samples taken 100 to 250 km from the plant and tested them with a method called cesium isotopic analysis to help discriminate between environmental contamination from different nuclear reactor cores at the plant.
  
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• Open-source GPU could push computing power to the next level

  19-01-2016 18:59
  
  Researchers at Binghamton University have become the first to use an open-source graphics processor unit (GPU) for research.
  
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• Nearing the limits of life on Earth

  19-01-2016 18:59
  
  It took Jackie Goordial over 1000 Petri dishes before she was ready to accept what she was seeing. Or not seeing. Goordial, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill University has spent the past four years looking for signs of active microbial life in permafrost soil taken from one of the coldest, oldest and driest places on Earth: in University Valley, located in the high elevation McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, where extremely cold and dry conditions
  
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• Airlines aren't learning enough from near misses, research says

  19-01-2016 18:57
  
  When it comes to flight safety, U.S. airlines are pretty good at learning from accidents. But new research shows airlines should be learning more from accidents that never happen.
  
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• Hawking: Threats to human survival likely from new science

  19-01-2016 18:54
  
  Physicist Stephen Hawking has warned that new technologies will likely bring about "new ways things can go wrong" for human survival.
  
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• Warmer oceans could produce more powerful superstorms

  19-01-2016 18:53
  
  Hurricane Sandy became the second costliest hurricane to hit the United States when it blew ashore in October 2012, killing 159 people and inflicting $71 billion in damage. Informally known as a "superstorm" after it made landfall, Sandy was so destructive largely because of its unusual size and track. After moving north from the tropical waters where it spawned, Sandy turned out to sea before hooking back west, growing in size and crashing head-on into the East Coast, gaining strength when it m
  
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• Promiscuity could reduce benefits of successful mating, research shows

  19-01-2016 18:46
  
  Promiscuity could reduce benefits of successful mating, research shows.
  
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• Living fossils and rare corals revealed

  19-01-2016 18:45
  
  An investigation of previously unexplored depths of Australia's Coral Sea has revealed living fossils, rare corals and sponges, and ecosystems that have remained largely unchanged for millions of years.
  
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