Sci-Tech news

• NYC Subways Ban Hoverboards, Chicago Confiscates Them

  27-01-2016 23:50 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Sorry, New Yorkers. You can't take your hoverboards on the subways, trains or buses.
  
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• Drugs and other contaminants found in private drinking wells on Cape Cod

  27-01-2016 23:13
  
  Recent news about tainted water in Flint, Michigan, and other parts of the country have called into question the safety of the nation's drinking water supply. Adding to this, a new study finds that pollutants from household wastewater—pharmaceuticals and consumer product chemicals—can make their way into people's private wells, and that backyard septic systems are likely to blame. The findings reinforce growing concerns about the health risks posed by unregulated chemicals in drinkin
  
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• Apple loses luster on fears that 'wow' days over

  27-01-2016 22:40
  
  Apple's image took a bruising Wednesday amid signs of a shift from wowing the world with wonders to making steady money from lovers of its devices.
  
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• Cable-industry disruptor is back with new Internet service

  27-01-2016 22:30
  
  Cable's pricey Internet packages may get some competition from the founder of Aereo, whose first attempt to shake up the cable industry was quashed by the Supreme Court.
  
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• Facebook posts strong 4Q as company closes gap with Google (Update)

  27-01-2016 22:28
  
  Facebook is growing at an exceptional pace as it enters adolescence, propelling it into a better position to challenge Google as the Internet's most powerful company.
  
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• FCC wants more companies making cable boxes

  27-01-2016 22:19
  
  The government wants to make it easier for you to buy and use cable boxes from companies other than your cable provider.
  
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• Spotify gathering $500 mn growth investment: Swedish media

  27-01-2016 22:10
  
  Sweden's world number one music streaming provider Spotify is on the point of raising $500 million in investor notes in order to underpin projected future growth, the Svenska Dagbladet daily reported Wednesday.
  
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• NYC to Parents: Don't Let Your Baby Monitors Get Hacked

  27-01-2016 22:07 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The Department of Consumer Affairs has issued subpoenas to several manufacturers as part of an investigation into the devices' security.
  
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• Game over? Computer beats human champ in ancient Chinese game

  27-01-2016 22:05
  
  In a milestone for artificial intelligence, a computer has beaten a human champion at a strategy game that requires "intuition" rather than brute processing power to prevail, its makers said Wednesday.
  
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• Researchers examine the unintentional effects of different fishing hooks and bait on sharks and rays

  27-01-2016 22:02
  
  By examining relevant studies related to fishing in the open ocean, researchers have found that while using circle instead of J-shaped hooks and fish instead of squid for bait may avoid harm to sea turtles, dolphins, certain whales, and possibly seabirds, it may increase the catch and injury of some sharks and rays.
  
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• Coroporate philantrhopy can have a positive impact on employees

  27-01-2016 22:02
  
  Corporate philanthropy benefits organizations in many ways: Giving enhances a business's reputation and strengthens a business's efforts toward corporate social responsibility. But does corporate philanthropy do anything to benefit a business's employees?
  
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• Simplifying solar cells with a new mix of materials

  27-01-2016 22:01
  
  An international research team has simplified the steps to create highly efficient silicon solar cells by applying a new mix of materials to a standard design. Arrays of solar cells are used in solar panels to convert sunlight to electricity.
  
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• NASA Webb Telescope mirrors installed with robotic arm precision

  27-01-2016 22:01
  
  Inside a massive clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland the James Webb Space Telescope team is steadily installing the largest space telescope mirror ever. Unlike other space telescope mirrors, this one must be pieced together from segments using a high-precision robotic arm.
  
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• Experts offer new approach to prioritizing research on the environmental impacts of pharmaceuticals

  27-01-2016 21:59
  
  Researchers have developed a new way to prioritize investigations on the environmental impacts of the estimated 1500 active pharmaceutical ingredients currently in use.
  
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• CIA Posts 'X-Files' UFO Docs for Believers and Skeptics

  27-01-2016 21:52 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The truth is out there, as Fox Mulder often said on The X-Files — and the CIA invites you to read a little piece of it.
  
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• Long-term study shows impact of humans on land

  27-01-2016 21:50
  
  Computer simulations help researchers see what works and what doesn't work in the Mediterranean and helps explore future impact of humans
  
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• High corporate taxes incentivize corporate debt

  27-01-2016 21:36
  
  Multinational American companies with significant operations in countries with low corporate taxes take on less debt than companies that face higher taxes, according to a new study from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. The finding helps to solve an academic mystery: A link between higher corporate taxes and debt levels is predicted by economic theory, but some recent studies have either failed to find such a connection or found it to be weaker than expected.
  
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• Urban sprawl stunts upward mobility, study finds

  27-01-2016 21:26
  
  A recent study by University of Utah Department of City & Metropolitan Planning professor Reid Ewing and his colleagues in Utah, Texas and Louisiana, tested the relationship between urban sprawl and upward mobility for metropolitan areas in the United States. The study was recently published online in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning. The study examined potential pathways through which sprawl may have an effect on mobility and uses mathematical models to account for both direct and i
  
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• New material with built-in vitamin A may reduce scarring

  27-01-2016 21:23
  
  While scarring is a natural part of any healing process, scar formation within our blood vessels can be deadly.
  
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• Imaged 'jets' reveal cerium's post-shock inner strength

  27-01-2016 21:20
  
  Recent synchrotron advances and the development of dynamic compression platforms have created the ability to investigate extreme states of matter on short timescales at X-ray beamlines using shock waves generated by impact systems. That's how scientists learned that surface protrusions called "jets," formed after shock waves passed through cerium metal, could provide insight into the yield stress of cerium in its post-shock state. Yield stress is the stress level at which a metal or other materi
  
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• Researchers have discovered multiple botnets

  27-01-2016 21:19
  
  Ben-Gurion University of the Negev cyber security researchers have discovered and traced approximately six botnets by analyzing data collected from past cyber attacks. The research was conducted at Deutsche Telekom Innovation Labs@BGU and was announced at Cybertech 2016 in Tel Aviv today.
  
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• RIT faculty studies productivity and international computer tech transfer

  27-01-2016 21:15
  
  It's hard to imagine life today without computers, but computer technology was not warmly welcomed in Germany following World War II.
  
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• Uber Confirms Driver's Personal Information Was Leaked

  27-01-2016 20:18 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The company blames "a bug in our system."
  
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• Turn your heart blue this Valentine's, say ocean scientists

  27-01-2016 20:10
  
  For the first time, a global community of marine scientists is asking you to make space in your heart for the oceans this Valentine's week. On February 12, members of The Society for Conservation Biology Marine Section (SCB Marine Section) will share their love of the oceans with the public on the inaugural Heart the Oceans Day.By attending locally organized events like film-screenings and by following the hashtag #HeartTheOceans on social media, the Society's members hope you will join them in
  
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• What a moth's nose knows

  27-01-2016 20:00
  
  Moths sniff out others of their own species using specific pheromone blends. So if you transplant an antenna—the nose, essentially—from one species to another, which blend of pheromones does the moth respond to? The donor species', or the recipients'? The answer is neither.
  
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• Survey shows that voters see little difference between candidates on ideology

  27-01-2016 20:00
  
  Although much has been written about the differences between "establishment" and "outsider" candidates in the U.S. presidential election, voters don't see each party's candidates as very ideologically different, according to the new RAND Presidential Election Panel Survey (PEPS).
  
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• Pollinator competition may drive flower diversification

  27-01-2016 20:00
  
  Male hummingbirds drive female birds away from their preferred yellow-flowered plant, which may have implications for flower diversification, according a study published Jan. 27, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Ethan Temeles from Amherst College, and colleagues.
  
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• New detection method for Goby invasion

  27-01-2016 20:00
  
  Conventional methods of stock monitoring are unsuitable for certain fish species. For example, the infestation of an area with invasive Ponto-Caspian gobies cannot be identified in time by standard methods. Researchers at the University of Basel have developed a simple, effective and cost-efficient test for these introduced non-native fish, they report in the magazine PLOS ONE.
  
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• Head shape and genetics augment understanding of rattlesnake species

  27-01-2016 20:00
  
  Using head shape and genetic analyses, new research challenges the formerly designated subspecies within the western rattlesnake species. These findings have important implications for ecological conservation efforts across the United States and could provide the basis for new species designations.
  
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• With climate, fertilizing oceans could be zero-sum game

  27-01-2016 19:00
  
  Scientists plumbing the depths of the central equatorial Pacific Ocean have found ancient sediments suggesting that one proposed way to mitigate climate warming—fertilizing the oceans with iron to produce more carbon-eating algae—may not necessarily work as envisioned.
  
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• Stellar parenting: Making new stars by 'adopting' stray cosmic gases

  27-01-2016 19:00
  
  Among the most striking objects in the universe are glittering, dense swarms of stars known as globular clusters. Astronomers had long thought globular clusters formed their millions of stars in bulk at around the same time, with each cluster's stars having very similar ages, much like twin brothers and sisters. Yet recent discoveries of young stars in old globular clusters have scrambled this tidy picture.
  
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• Seagrass genome sequence lends insights to salt tolerance

  27-01-2016 19:00
  
  To mitigate carbon emissions in the atmosphere, researchers have turned to sinks—reservoirs that accumulate and store carbon such as tropical rainforests, but also including a variety of terrestrial plants as well as oceans. However, another lesser known but very large carbon sink is located along the earth's soft-sediment shorelines.
  
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• Let them see you sweat: What new wearable sensors can reveal from perspiration

  27-01-2016 19:00
  
  When engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, say they are going to make you sweat, it is all in the name of science.
  
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• Palmer amaranth could affect Illinois soybean yield

  27-01-2016 18:12
  
  Although agricultural weed Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri) primarily impacts southern U.S. states, new research shows it could soon spread further north and damage soybean yields in Illinois.
  
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• Soft robotic grippers non-destructively manipulate deep sea coral reef organisms

  27-01-2016 18:04
  
  The first use of soft robotics in the deep sea describes the non-destructive interaction and sampling of fragile organisms in their natural environments. The design and grasping capabilities of these innovative soft robotic grippers and their successful use at deep sea depths are described in an article in Soft Robotics.
  
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• Good boss? Bad boss? Study says workers leave both

  27-01-2016 18:04
  
  When fast-rising employees quit their jobs for better pay or more responsibility at another organization, the knee-jerk reaction may be to blame their leaving on a bad boss. Although the common perception is that workers join companies but leave managers, new research by a University of Illinois business professor shows that workers leave good bosses, too—and for companies, there may be a silver lining to their departure.
  
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• Scientists Develop Graphene Composite to Simplify Ice Removal

  27-01-2016 17:59 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Researchers at Rice University have developed a thin coating of graphene nanoribbons in epoxy that has proven effective at melting ice on a helicopter blade. The coating by the Rice lab of chemist James Tour may be an effective real-time de-icer for aircraft, wind turbines, transmission lines and other surfaces exposed to winter weather, according […]
  The post Scientists Develop Graphene Composite to Simplify Ice Removal appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Feds expand critical East Coast habitat for right whales

  27-01-2016 17:56
  
  Right whale calving grounds off the Southeast coast and feeding grounds off New England are being added to federally-designated critical habitat areas for the endangered animals, increasing those areas by thousands of square nautical miles.
  
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• Welcome to the world: New chameleon emerges from wilds of Tanzania

  27-01-2016 17:47
  
  WCS announced today that a team of scientists discovered a new species of chameleon in Tanzania.
  
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• Airbrushing out racism is attempting 'to re-edit the past'

  27-01-2016 17:47
  
  Racist words and stereotypes in old films, television programmes and books are a vital insight into our past, says film historian Kunle Olulode. In the latest issue of Index on Censorship Magazine, published by SAGE, Olulode argues that, however uncomfortable, they should not be edited out.
  
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• Ancient rodent's brain was big ... but not necessarily 'smart'

  27-01-2016 17:46
  
  If new U of T research on the brains of an ancient rodent tells us anything, it's that bigger does not necessarily mean better.
  
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• Single no more: First females of a Madagascan chameleon described with modern technologies

  27-01-2016 17:41
  
  The first females of a scarcely known chameleon species from Northeast Madagascar have been described. Because of lack of genetic data, X-ray micro-computed tomography scans of the chameleon's head were used for species assignment. Regrettably, the habitats of this and many other chameleon species are highly threatened by the ongoing deforestation in Madagascar. The study is published in the open-access journal Zoosystematics and Evolution.
  
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• Scientists Propose a New Method to Probe the Evolutionary History of the Universe

  27-01-2016 17:38 via scitechdaily.com
  
  New research from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics suggests that oscillating heavy particles generated “clocks” in the primordial universe that could be used to determine what produced the initial conditions that gave rise to the universe. How did the universe begin? And what came before the Big Bang? Cosmologists have asked these questions ever since […]
  The post Scientists Propose a New Method to Probe the Evolutionary History of the Universe appeared first on
  
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• New way to detect human-animal diseases tested in lemurs

  27-01-2016 17:36
  
  Advances in genetic sequencing are uncovering emerging diseases in wildlife that other diagnostic tests can't detect.
  
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• Watch: How Far Would You Go to Lower Your Cell Phone Bill?

  27-01-2016 17:06
  
  A new plan allows mobile device users to watch ads in exchange for lower rates.
  
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• Nano-coating makes coaxial cables lighter

  27-01-2016 16:56
  
  Common coaxial cables could be made 50 percent lighter with a new nanotube-based outer conductor developed by Rice University scientists.
  
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• An alternative to platinum: Iron-nitrogen compounds as catalysts in graphene

  27-01-2016 16:55
  
  Fuel cells convert the chemical energy stored in hydrogen (H2) into electrical energy by electrochemically "combusting" hydrogen gas with oxygen (O2) from the air into water (H2O), thereby generating electricity. As a result, future electric automobiles might be operated quite well with fuel cells instead of with heavy batteries. But for "cold" combustion of hydrogen and oxygen to function well, the anode and cathode of the fuel cell must be coated with extremely active catalysts. The problem is
  
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• Cellulose nanogenerators could one day power implanted biomedical devices

  27-01-2016 16:54
  
  Implantable electronics that can deliver drugs, monitor vital signs and perform other health-related roles are on the horizon. But finding a way to power them remains a challenge. Now scientists have built a flexible nanogenerator out of cellulose, an abundant natural material, that could potentially harvest energy from the body—its heartbeats, blood flow and other almost imperceptible but constant movements. Their report appears in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
  
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• What DuPont's deep R&D cuts mean for science

  27-01-2016 16:53
  
  During the last century, private companies, as well as illustrious universities, were known for great exploratory research. But those days may soon be a memory if DuPont's recent layoffs are any indication, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society. The chemical giant, which announced its merger with Dow in December, has dramatically reduced its basic research unit in response to business demands.
  
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• Apple Faces Its Biggest Challenge in a While

  27-01-2016 16:53
  
  Apple is used to being the overachieving popular kid in Silicon Valley, but the iPhone maker is about to face its most difficult quarter in a long time.
  
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