Sci-Tech news

• Twitter Remembers Simpler Times With #BeforeFacebookI

  04-02-2016 23:59 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Twitter is having fun with the #BeforeFacebookI tag, where people are riffing on how we ever got by without the ubiquitous social network.
  
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• Data gaps hinder explanation for Alaska seabird die-off

  04-02-2016 23:40
  
  A preliminary investigation into the massive die-off of common murres, one of the Northern Hemisphere's most abundant seabirds, off Alaska's coast is revealing gaps in basic information on North Pacific waters and the wildlife that inhabit them.
  
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• Whale washes ashore on British beach

  04-02-2016 23:30
  
  A sperm whale washed up in shallow water off a beach in Britain on Thursday, the 29th such stranding in Europe in the last two weeks.
  
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• LinkedIn shares tumble on weak forecast for 2016

  04-02-2016 23:21
  
  LinkedIn finished last year with better-than-expected financial results, but a weak forecast for 2016 is sending the company's stock plunging more than 25 percent.
  
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• Stanford names New York university leader as next president

  04-02-2016 23:20
  
  A neuroscientist who leads a prestigious graduate school and biomedical research institute in New York City was named Thursday as Stanford University's next president, a position he said he would use to champion basic research and the value of a liberal arts education.
  
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• Team calls for integrated field research network in Midwest to address climate adaptation

  04-02-2016 23:18
  
  From a global trade and agriculture perspective, the world heavily depends on the Midwest. The United States is the biggest exporter in the world of primary foodstuffs, such as corn and soybean, with most of that predominantly produced by Midwest farmers.
  
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• NASA measures ten days of US extreme precipitation from space

  04-02-2016 23:17
  
  For more than a week the weather over the continental United States has been punctuated by extreme events. NASA analyzed satellite data that measured the heavy precipitation over ten days from late January to early February.
  
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• NASA team demonstrates loading of Swedish 'green' propellant

  04-02-2016 23:10
  
  A NASA team has successfully demonstrated the handling and loading of a new-fangled, Swedish-developed "green propellant" that smells like glass cleaner, looks like chardonnay, but has proven powerful enough to propel a satellite.
  
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• SI Superheroes return with another weighty adventure

  04-02-2016 23:01
  
  The nefarious Major Uncertainty has kidnapped Monsieur Kilogram, putting the world's measurements of mass in jeopardy. As the world spirals into "Mass Hysteria," the remaining SI Superheroes, champions of the metric system, leap into action to save the day, and hopefully Monsieur Kilogram as well.
  
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• Morocco launches first solar power plant

  04-02-2016 22:22
  
  King Mohammed VI on Thursday inaugurated Morocco's first solar power plant, a massive project that the country sees as part of its goal of boosting its clean energy output.
  
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• Molecular switch lets salmonella fight or evade immune system

  04-02-2016 22:20
  
  Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have discovered a molecular regulator that allows salmonella bacteria to switch from actively causing disease to lurking in a chronic but asymptomatic state called a biofilm.
  
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• Battery technology could charge up water desalination

  04-02-2016 22:19
  
  The technology that charges batteries for electronic devices could provide fresh water from salty seas, says a new study by University of Illinois engineers. Electricity running through a salt water-filled battery draws the salt ions out of the water.
  
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• Antibiotic's killer strategy revealed

  04-02-2016 22:17
  
  Using a special profiling technique, scientists at Princeton have determined the mechanism of action of a potent antibiotic, known as tropodithietic acid (TDA), leading them to uncover its hidden ability as a potential anticancer agent.
  
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• New tarantula named after Johnny Cash among 14 spider species found in the United States

  04-02-2016 22:16
  
  A new species of tarantula named after the famous singer-songwriter Johnny Cash is one of fourteen new spiders discovered in the southwestern United States. While these charismatic spiders have captured the attention of people around the world, and have been made famous by Hollywood, little was actually known about them. The new descriptions nearly double the number of species known from the region. Biologists at Auburn University and Millsaps College have described these hairy, large-bodied spi
  
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• Meaningful media may push altruism across bounds of race and age

  04-02-2016 22:16
  
  People who watch meaningful entertainment may be more willing to lend a hand to people they consider different, according to researchers.
  
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• Southwest sliding into a new normal: Drier conditions

  04-02-2016 22:15
  
  The weather patterns that typically bring moisture to the Southwest are becoming more rare, an indication that the region is sliding into the drier climate state predicted by global models, according to a new study.
  
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• Watch: Our Journey to Space

  04-02-2016 22:04
  
  A look at the moments when we left Earth's atmosphere.
  
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• 100-Foot Asteroid to Buzz Earth Next Month

  04-02-2016 21:32 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  An asteroid as long as a basketball court will give Earth a close shave next month — though scientists aren't sure just how close.
  
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• Time Wasted on Facebook Could Be Costing Us Trillions

  04-02-2016 21:07 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with a simple dream: to have everyone spending as much time as possible clicking around on his website.
  
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• New science helps put spotlight on unseen global impacts

  04-02-2016 20:58
  
  As the world grows more connected, "out of sight, out of mind" looms as a perilous consequence of globalization. A sustainability scholar presents an integrated way to track the many footprints that are made in global transactions in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment this month.
  
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• Plastic debris crossing the Pacific can transport more species with the help of barnacles

  04-02-2016 20:57
  
  The smooth surfaces of much of the plastic waste rapidly increasing in the ocean appear to provide poor habitat for animals—that is, until barnacles step in.
  
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• Graphene is strong, but is it tough?

  04-02-2016 20:57
  
  Graphene, a material consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms, has been touted as the strongest material known to exist, 200 times stronger than steel, lighter than paper, and with extraordinary mechanical and electrical properties. But can it live up to its promise?
  
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• 92 Percent of Students Prefer Paper Books to E-Books

  04-02-2016 20:49 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  E-books may be convenient and cheap, but they aren't displacing paper just yet, at least in the hearts and minds of college kids.
  
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• Amazon teams up with Spotify for wireless speaker

  04-02-2016 20:37
  
  Amazon said Thursday that its Echo wireless system will play songs from Spotify as the retail giant delves further into the booming sector of streaming.
  
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• Lithium battery catalyst found to harm key soil microorganism

  04-02-2016 20:31
  
  The material at the heart of the lithium ion batteries that power electric vehicles, laptop computers and smartphones has been shown to impair a key soil bacterium, according to new research published online in the journal Chemistry of Materials.
  
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• UCF Hack Exposes 63,000 SSNs of Students, Staff

  04-02-2016 20:23 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The stolen information includes Social Security numbers but not financial records, medical records or grades.
  
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• James Webb Space Telescope primary mirror fully assembled

  04-02-2016 20:20
  
  The 18th and final primary mirror segment is installed on what will be the biggest and most powerful space telescope ever launched. The final mirror installation Wednesday at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland marks an important milestone in the assembly of the agency's James Webb Space Telescope.
  
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• Pluto's mysterious, floating hills

  04-02-2016 20:01
  
  The nitrogen ice glaciers on Pluto appear to carry an intriguing cargo: numerous, isolated hills that may be fragments of water ice from Pluto's surrounding uplands. These hills individually measure one to several miles or kilometers across, according to images and data from NASA's New Horizons mission.
  
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• Scientists map movement of Greenland Ice during past 9,000 years

  04-02-2016 20:00
  
  Scientists have created the first map that shows how the Greenland Ice Sheet has moved over time, revealing that ice in the interior is moving more slowly toward the edges than it has, on average, during the past 9,000 years.
  
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• Scientists guide gold nanoparticles to form 'diamond' superlattices

  04-02-2016 20:00
  
  Using bundled strands of DNA to build Tinkertoy-like tetrahedral cages, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have devised a way to trap and arrange nanoparticles in a way that mimics the crystalline structure of diamond. The achievement of this complex yet elegant arrangement, as described in a paper published February 5, 2016, in Science, may open a path to new materials that take advantage of the optical and mechanical properties of this crystalline stru
  
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• Scientists disable infectious bacteria by removing key protein

  04-02-2016 20:00
  
  Scientists at the John Innes Centre and the University of East Anglia have made an exciting discovery that could provide a new way to prevent bacterial infections in both humans and plants without triggering multi-drug resistance in bacteria.
  
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• Physicists discover new properties of superconductivity

  04-02-2016 20:00
  
  New findings from an international collaboration led by Canadian scientists may eventually lead to a theory of how superconductivity initiates at the atomic level, a key step in understanding how to harness the potential of materials that could provide lossless energy storage, levitating trains and ultra-fast supercomputers.
  
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• Bee virus spread manmade and emanates from Europe

  04-02-2016 20:00
  
  The spread of a disease that is decimating global bee populations is manmade, and driven by European honeybee populations, new research has concluded.
  
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• In Boston area, the bald eagle population is soaring

  04-02-2016 19:38
  
  People spotting bald eagles in the skies over the Boston area aren't hallucinating—there really are more of the majestic birds of prey setting up shop in the urban eastern areas of the state, experts say.
  
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• One step closer to commercial edamame production in the US

  04-02-2016 19:33
  
  Edamame, touted as a healthy snack for its high protein content, is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. The soybean seeds are consumed at an immature stage, giving a sweet and slightly nutty flavor. Yet, despite the fact that grain soybean is grown on approximately 74 million acres in the U.S., the majority of edamame consumed here is imported from Asia. Part of the problem is that production practices, including weed control options, have not been well researched. A new Universi
  
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• Student in Hot Water for Offering Dorm Room on Airbnb

  04-02-2016 19:31 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  A student at Emerson College in Boston faces a disciplinary hearing over having rented out his dorm room to tourists through AirBnB.
  
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• Scientists take key step toward custom-made nanoscale chemical factories

  04-02-2016 19:29
  
  Scientists have for the first time reengineered a building block of a geometric nanocompartment that occurs naturally in bacteria. They introduced a metal binding site to its shell that will allow electrons to be transferred to and from the compartment. This provides an entirely new functionality, greatly expanding the potential of nanocompartments to serve as custom-made chemical factories.
  
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• 'On-ramping' paves the way for women scientists, engineers to return to academia

  04-02-2016 19:29
  
  Pursuing scientific or engineering careers in industry, government or private research after getting a Ph.D. used to be considered a one-way ticket out of academia.
  
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• Walking on water: Researchers unravel science of skipping spheres

  04-02-2016 19:28
  
  It takes a perfect flick of the wrist and just the right angle to get a disk-shaped stone to skip across the surface of the water multiple times. So why is it so easy to get such impressive water-skipping performance from an elastic ball with only a mediocre launch?
  
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• Leading bugs to the death chamber: A kinder face of cholesterol

  04-02-2016 19:18
  
  Cells of our immune system kill pathogens by enclosing them in a compartment called the phagosome. The phagosome undergoes programmed maturation, where the pathogen is degraded. Intimately linked to this degradation is active transport of the phagosome inside cells by nanoscale "Motor" proteins such as Dynein and Kinesin, which are force generators for many kinds of biological movements.
  
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• Bachelor's paradise: Researcher finds female turtles outnumbering males

  04-02-2016 19:17
  
  Rising global temperatures may skew gender imbalance among the marine turtle population, according to new Florida State University research.
  
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• Do venture capitalists matter? Yes, finds a study

  04-02-2016 19:16
  
  Okay, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, here are two words that can help your investment in a startup business succeed: direct flights.
  
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• The evolution of Dark-fly

  04-02-2016 19:07
  
  On November 11, 1954, Syuiti Mori turned out the lights on a small group of fruit flies. More than sixty years later, the descendents of those flies have adapted to life without light. These flies—a variety now known as "Dark-fly"—outcompete their light-loving cousins when they live together in constant darkness, according to research reported in the February issue of G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics. This competitive difference allowed the researchers to re-play the evolution of Dark-fly
  
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• Innovative alarm protects your bag

  04-02-2016 19:02
  
  Leave your bag unattended without running the risk of it being stolen. This may become a reality, as a unique concept - a small, high-tech alarm developed by Master's students at Lund University - could be on the market soon.
  
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• New material lights up when detecting explosives

  04-02-2016 18:59
  
  Scientists have created a material which turns fluorescent if there are molecules from explosives in the vicinity. The discovery could improve e.g. airport security - and also it gives us an insight into a rather chaotic micro-world where molecules and atoms constantly are responding to their surroundings.
  
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• New made-in-NTU satellite technologies pass space tests

  04-02-2016 18:57
  
  The two new satellites launched by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) two months ago have successfully completed their first space missions.
  
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• Video: Helium beer—prank or possible?

  04-02-2016 18:35
  
  Brewers usually fill their kegs with carbon dioxide or nitrogen. But every once in a while, some brewers will post a video announcing they have made beer with helium—and have the high voices to prove it. While these videos are eventually exposed as pranks, the scientific possibility of helium beer is real.
  
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• Metal oxide sandwiches: New option to manipulate properties of interfaces

  04-02-2016 18:33
  
  A Franco-German cooperation has investigated a sandwich system of transition metal oxides at BESSY II. The scientists discovered a new option to control properties of the interface between the two layers, for instance the amount of charge transferred from one layer to the other or the emergence of ferromagnetism.Their insights might help to create new properties at the interface, not present in the primary materials, maybe even novel forms of High Tc superconductivity.
  
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• Scientists bridge different materials by design

  04-02-2016 18:30
  
  Scientists at the University of Liverpool have shown that it is possible to design and construct interfaces between materials with different structures by making a bridge between them.
  
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• Astrophysicists use new methods to simulate the common-envelope phase of binary stars

  04-02-2016 18:28
  
  When we look at the night sky, we see stars as tiny points of light eking out a solitary existence at immense distances from Earth. But appearances are deceptive. More than half the stars we know of have a companion, a second nearby star that can have a major impact on their primary companions. The interplay within these so-called binary star systems is particularly intensive when the two stars involved are going through a phase in which they are surrounded by a common envelope consisting of hyd
  
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