Sci-Tech news

• Is Alaska's first new butterfly species in decades an ancient hybrid?

  18-03-2016 23:56
  
  Some might say it takes a rare breed to survive the Alaska wilderness. The discovery of a possible new species of hybrid butterfly from the state's interior is proving that theory correct.
  
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• World Bank climate policy officer describes keys to success of the Paris agreement

  18-03-2016 22:13
  
  The historic climate agreement reached by more than 190 nations in December 2015 will require more than just the individual efforts of participating countries to meet their commitments to mitigate climate change. Too often overlooked is the crucial role the private sector, cities, states, regions, and societal groups are playing, and the major investments they are making to help ensure success of the Paris Agreement, as discussed in a Commentary published in Sustainability: The Journal of Record
  
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• Google glass meets organs-on-chips

  18-03-2016 22:12
  
  Investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have developed hardware and software to remotely monitor and control devices that mimic the human physiological system. Devices known as organs-on-chips allow researchers to test drug compounds and predict physiological responses with high accuracy in a laboratory setting. But monitoring the results of such experiments from a conventional desktop computer has several limitations, especially when results must be monitored over the course of ho
  
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• Watch: ARCHIVAL VIDEO: Mir Space Station Returns to Earth

  18-03-2016 22:08 via abcnews.go.com
  
  On March 23, 2001, the Russian station ended its 15-year orbit and plunged back into Earth's atmosphere.
  
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• A 'tail' of two comets

  18-03-2016 21:07
  
  Two comets that will safely fly past Earth later this month may have more in common than their intriguingly similar orbits. They may be twins of a sort.
  
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• Why marketing and HR executives need to coordinate their activities

  18-03-2016 20:47
  
  Chief marketing officers and chief human resource officers need to better coordinate their activities to maximize company value, according to a new paper by strategic management and marketing experts at Rice University and Kent State University.
  
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• Watch: Facebook Users Warn Mark Zuckerberg of Running in Beijing Without Face Mask

  18-03-2016 19:46 via abcnews.go.com
  
  Mark Zuckerberg's morning run was on the rebellious side today in Beijing, when he ran through smog-filled Tiananmen Square without a face mask.
  
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• For virtual reality creators, motion sickness a real issue

  18-03-2016 19:40
  
  If the controls and movement in a traditional video game aren't natural, it's merely annoying to players. For designers of virtual reality experiences, the same mistake could make users sick.
  
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• Most eccentric planet ever known flashes astronomers with reflected light

  18-03-2016 19:22
  
  Led by San Francisco State University astronomer Stephen Kane, a team of researchers has spotted an extrasolar planet about 117 light-years from earth that boasts the most eccentric orbit yet seen.
  
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• Best Way to Beat the Traffic? Take a Longer Route

  18-03-2016 19:13 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  New research shows that the best way to cut through rush hour traffic is to take the high road — literally.
  
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• Small birds' vision: Not so sharp but superfast

  18-03-2016 19:00
  
  One may expect a creature that darts around its habitat to be capable of perceiving rapid changes as well. Yet birds are famed more for their good visual acuity. Joint research by Uppsala University, Stockholm University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) now shows that, in small passerines (perching birds) in the wild, vision is considerably faster than in any other vertebrates—and more than twice as fast as ours.
  
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• China's forest recovery shows hope for mitigating global climate change

  18-03-2016 19:00
  
  China's sweeping program to restore forests across the country is working.
  
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• After worst smog in 11 years, Mexico City braces for more

  18-03-2016 18:55
  
  Choking smog returned to the skies of Mexico City this week at levels not seen in more than a decade, prompting fears of more eye-watering days to come as efforts to curb pollution run afoul of the courts and the realities of life.
  
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• Using chemical oscillation to better understand patterns in brain and heart systems

  18-03-2016 18:53
  
  An electrical and systems engineer at Washington University in St. Louis has designed a method that, figuratively, forces a leopard to change its spots.
  
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• Dissecting the animal diet, past and present

  18-03-2016 18:50
  
  Researchers at Yale and the Smithsonian Institution say it's time to settle a very old food fight.
  
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• New online version of the Chinese intolerance of uncertainty scale—is it valid?

  18-03-2016 18:48
  
  A new study examines how well the Internet-based Chinese language version of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS)—which evaluates a person's reactions to ambiguous situations and attempts to control the future—compares to the traditional paper-and-pencil test. The validity of the online test and its usefulness in assessing psychological factors that may be predictive of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and a range of other negative coping strategies are described in the s
  
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• Building owners 'face risks' from chlorine-resistant bacteria

  18-03-2016 18:47
  
  Buildings with storage tanks can face increased risks from chlorine-resistant bacteria in water, according to researchers at the University of Strathclyde.
  
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• Scientists develop new technique for imaging cells and tissues under the skin

  18-03-2016 18:46
  
  Scientists have many tools at their disposal for looking at preserved tissue under a microscope in incredible detail, or peering into the living body at lower resolution. What they haven't had is a way to do both: create a three-dimensional real-time image of individual cells or even molecules in a living animal.
  
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• Watch: Inside London's Wearable Technology Show

  18-03-2016 17:28 via abcnews.go.com
  
  ABC News' Louise Dewast shows us the latest wearable technology showcased at the London Tech Show.
  
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• NASA sees heavy rain in Tropical Cyclone Emeraude

  18-03-2016 16:47
  
  Heavy rainfall was occurring Tropical Cyclone Emeraude when the Global Precipitation Measurement or GPM passed over the Southern Indian Ocean and measured the rainfall rate.
  
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• The science of watching paint dry

  18-03-2016 16:24
  
  New research published today in the journal Physical Review Letters has described a new physical mechanism that separates particles according to their size during the drying of wet coatings. The discovery could help improve the performance of a wide variety of everyday goods, from paint to sunscreen.
  
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• Sperm found to swim in groups when in viscoelastic fluids

  18-03-2016 16:10
  
  (Phys.org)—A team of researchers led by Chih-Kuan Tung of North Carolina A&T State University has found evidence that bull sperm tend to move closer together forming groups when swimming in viscoelastic fluids. Tung gave a presentation of the group's findings at a recent meeting of the American Physical Society.
  
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• FBI Warns Automakers, Owners About Vehicle Hacking Risks

  18-03-2016 15:53 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  "The FBI and NHTSA are warning the general public and manufacturers- of vehicles, vehicle components, and aftermarket devices.
  
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• Storied Czech glass blowing industry embraces reinvention

  18-03-2016 15:50
  
  The Czech glass making industry, with a history dating to the 12th century, is embracing new technologies and marketing strategies to help it rebound from the recent years' global economic downturn.
  
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• Picture of Pluto further refined by months of New Horizons data

  18-03-2016 15:50
  
  When the New Horizons spacecraft made its flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015, there was worldwide celebration that we'd finally gotten our first detailed look at this completely new type of planet in the outer reaches of our solar system.
  
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• Uncovering the mystery of very early humans in New Mexico

  18-03-2016 15:40
  
  Shaggy, heavy-shouldered bison have grazed the wide open spaces of the American Southwest for thousands of years. They made a tempting target for the hunters who walked the empty landscape between 9,000 and 13,000 years ago. The bison were attracted to a lush landscape west of Socorro, New Mexico where wetlands created by mountain runoff stretched across hundreds of acres. The hunters were attracted to the bison.
  
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• Team develops integrated iWheelchair system

  18-03-2016 15:35
  
  The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has developed an intelligent system called "iWheelchair", integrating a series of advanced PolyU technologies from its Interdisciplinary Division of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC). With a tablet computer as the centralized operation platform, the system integrates a variety of functions such as environment control, as well as safety, health and hygiene monitoring with automated alert, which better caters for
  
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• Spelling mutations and evolutionary advantages

  18-03-2016 15:24
  
  DNA codes carrying instructions for creating a protein can sometimes be 'spelt' differently, although they specify the exact same sequence information to create that protein. Scientists from the National Centre for Biological Sciences have now shown that such mutations, called 'synonymous' mutations can have large effects on the evolution of organisms.
  
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• Researchers study potential mercury methylation in two California rivers

  18-03-2016 15:23
  
  Gold mining in California in the 19th century was a boon for the state's economy but not so much for the environment. Mining left a protracted legacy that impacts the natural landscape even today. Mercury, used in the gold extraction process, has been detected throughout the Lower Yuba/Feather River system in the state's Central Valley, and its presence could prove dangerous to local wildlife.
  
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• Super-powerful light beams and the butterfly effect

  18-03-2016 15:20
  
  Researchers at UPM have revealed the underlying order of chaos by observing very long and intense laser light beams and ionized matter in so-called "light filaments".
  
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• Capturing the acid-base reactions in alcohol

  18-03-2016 15:19
  
  A new research, affiliated with UNIST has been featured as a 'Hot Article' on the front cover of the March issue of Chemistry: A European Journal. This study has been regarded as "very important" because it offers a new framework for understanding reactions in organic chemistry.
  
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• 'Wild-ID' tracking technology highlights vulnerability of wildebeest migration

  18-03-2016 15:18
  
  Recent efforts to combat habitat fragmentation and poaching have temporarily stabilized wildebeest populations in northern Tanzania, but this iconic migrating species of the African savannah remains vulnerable, a Dartmouth College-led team has found using an unusual wildlife photo-identification tracking technology developed at Dartmouth.
  
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• Chemists develop an ultra-sensitive test for cancers, HIV

  18-03-2016 15:18
  
  A common theme in medicine is that detecting a disease early on can lead to more effective treatments. This relies partly on luck that the patient gets screened at the right time, but more important is that the testing techniques are sensitive enough to register the minuscule hints that diseases leave in the blood stream.
  
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• Image: ExoMars spotted in space en route to the Red Planet

  18-03-2016 15:13
  
  On 14 March, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli lander were lofted into orbit by a Proton rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, starting a seven-month journey to the Red Planet.
  
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• 'Artificial empathy' could help stores improve recommendations for customers

  18-03-2016 15:13
  
  Visual data will revolutionise the way companies talk to their customers, according to researchers at the Cambridge Judge Business School.
  
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• Stone Age hunters contributed adaptive variants to present-day Europeans

  18-03-2016 15:12
  
  Modern humans have adapted to their local environments over many thousands of years, but how genetic variation contributed to this adaptation remains debated. Using genomes from humans that lived between 45,000 and 7,000 years ago, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig have shown that adaptation to local environments has resulted in genetic variants reaching high frequencies in European groups. Interestingly, most of the adaptive variants were present
  
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• Water flow in Mediterranean rivers will fall by 34 percent by the end of the century

  18-03-2016 15:10
  
  The rising global average temperature induced by climate change will cause regions such as the Mediterranean Basin to become drier and more arid, in turn directly affecting the availability of water. A study has revealed that river flows in this zone will decrease in headwaters, on average, by as much as 34 percent by the year 2100—a figure that will reach 50 percent during the autumn months.
  
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• Flexible, cost-effective and efficient LED lighting panels and solar cells

  18-03-2016 15:10
  
  The EU TREASORES project has created flexible lighting foils produced in a roll-to-roll method that could hold the potential for the large scale production of low-cost LED lighting panels and solar cells.
  
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• Maths could help search and rescue ships sail more safely in heavy seas

  18-03-2016 15:06
  
  A unique new computer model built on highly complex mathematics could make it possible to design safer versions of the 'fast ships' widely used in search & rescue, anti-drugs, anti-piracy and many other vital offshore operations.
  
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• Nano plates as catalysts for solar fuels

  18-03-2016 15:05
  
  Solar fuels, clean fuels from sunlight, water and CO2, form an attractive way for storing solar energy in hydrogen or hydrocarbons, for example. The efficiency of this technology still needs a 'boost'. Researcher Kasper Wenderich of the MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology of the University of Twente (NL), investigated special nanoplaatjes with platinum particles on them, accelerating the chemical conversion. During his research, he discovered why the effect of these particles is less than commonl
  
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• New technology for land mine detection

  18-03-2016 15:04
  
  In Colombia, large areas are teeming with mines that are almost impossible to detect with traditional methods. In collaboration with partners from South America, engineers at the German Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Technical University Ilmenau are developing a new mine clearance technology, based on ground penetrating radar. In the long run, they are aiming at creating a handheld device that will detect different mine types on rough terrain without fail and which can be used in the same way
  
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• Fujitsu technology uses a single camera to enable a panoramic understanding of remote field sites

  18-03-2016 15:03
  
  Fujitsu Laboratories today announced that it has developed a technology that generates synthesized 3D panoramic screens to fully understand conditions throughout a worksite for on-site maintenance, inspection and other work. Using time series images taken from a worker-side camera, when combined with augmented reality (AR) technology, remotely supporting operators can use that image to provide precise, omnidirectional instructions to field workers. In recent years, a shortage of skilled workers
  
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• Is fishing truly sustainable?

  18-03-2016 15:00
  
  Many studies have shown that raising cattle and pigs for food is hard on the environment, and fish has long been considered a better alternative.
  
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• From Denisovan DNA to future humanity

  18-03-2016 15:00
  
  The idea that the genomes of those of us without African ancestry harbor some DNA from Neanderthals has inspired cartoons and jokes, and I got a lot of flak when DNA Science covered the discovery of diabetes risk genes from Neanderthals in Mexicans. Apparently Neanderthals admixed themselves into European and East Asian populations at least three times.
  
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• Crash study aims to make roads safer

  18-03-2016 14:45
  
  It was an early-August evening in rural Wisconsin. An SUV traveling north along a two-lane road veered over the center line. Before landing in a ditch, the car hit a light pole, speed-limit sign and a 13-year-old pedestrian, who died at the scene.
  
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• 'Kasita' Is a High-Tech Tiny Home for the Minimalist Crowd

  18-03-2016 14:40 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Kasita is a 270-square foot high-tech homes designed so people can afford to live in otherwise expensive city centers. These small sleek box-shape units are also stackable and can move between cities.
  
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• How serious is inbreeding in show dogs?

  18-03-2016 14:40
  
  A German shepherd with a sloping back that was awarded best of breed brought the dog show Crufts in for this year's annual bout of criticism. Viewers took to social media to accuse the owner of animal cruelty by suggesting that its unusual shape meant the dog must suffer health problems brought on by inbreeding – something the owner denied. This is a common criticism levelled at dog breeders, but how accurate is it and how widespread is the issue?
  
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• 252P LINEAR brightens, and a close pass for BA14 PANSTARRS

  18-03-2016 14:39
  
  Ready for the next big 'Comet of the Century?' Yeah, us too. Cometary apparitions are the big unknown in backyard astronomy, an eternal uncertainty in the clockwork goings-on of the universe.
  
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• Teaching computers to be more creative than humans

  18-03-2016 14:38
  
  Associate Professor Julian Togelius works at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and games—a largely unexplored juncture that he has shown can be the site of visionary and mind-expanding research. Could games provide a better AI test bed than robots, which—despite the way they excite public imagination—can be slow, unwieldy and expensive? According to him, the answer is resoundingly yes.Could an artificially intelligent operating system exhibit more originality tha
  
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• Bunbury dolphins shown to be skilled seafood chefs

  18-03-2016 14:37
  
  New findings by Murdoch University researchers have shown that local dolphins are the hottest seafood chefs in the south-west.
  
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