Sci-Tech news

• Gene Study Shows Zika Showed up Early — and Lurked

  24-03-2016 22:46 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The Zika virus has probably been circulating quietly and undetected in Brazil since 2013, a new genetic study shows. Officials first noticed in 2015.
  
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• Shadowy hacking industry may be helping FBI crack an iPhone

  24-03-2016 22:40
  
  Turns out there's a shadowy global industry devoted to breaking into smartphones and extracting their information. But you've probably never heard of it unless you're a worried parent, a betrayed spouse—or a federal law enforcement agency.
  
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• New Facebook Feature Alerts Users to Phony Profiles

  24-03-2016 22:35 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Internet trolls will be quite unhappy to hear that Facebook is getting one step closer to stopping them.
  
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• Microsoft grounds foul-mouthed teen-speak bot

  24-03-2016 22:24
  
  A Microsoft "chatbot" designed to converse like a teenage girl was grounded on Thursday after its artificial intelligence software was coaxed into firing off hateful, racist comments online.
  
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• ExxonMobil, Chevron told to allow investor climate votes

  24-03-2016 22:22
  
  US regulators have told ExxonMobil and Chevron to permit shareholders to vote on resolutions requiring assessments of how climate change policies might affect them, according to documents released Thursday.
  
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• GOES-R satellite could provide better data for hurricane prediction

  24-03-2016 22:16
  
  The launch of the GOES-R geostationary satellite in October 2016 could herald a new era for predicting hurricanes, according to Penn State researchers. The wealth of information from this new satellite, at time and space scales not previously possible, combined with advanced statistical hurricane prediction models, could enable more accurate predictions in the future.
  
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• Watch: Automakers Reveal Their Concept Cars at the New York International Auto Show

  24-03-2016 21:43
  Check out a few of our favorite futuristic cars from the show.
  
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• Cassini spies Titan's tallest peaks

  24-03-2016 20:32
  
  In a nod to extraterrestrial mountaineers of the future, scientists working on NASA's Cassini mission have identified the highest point on Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
  
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• Moons of Saturn may be younger than the dinosaurs

  24-03-2016 20:30
  
  New research suggests that some of Saturn's icy moons, as well as itsfamous rings, might be modern adornments.Their dramatic birth may have taken place a merehundred million years ago, more recent than the reign of many dinosaurs.
  
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• As Yahoo Turns: Shareholder mutiny begins another soap opera

  24-03-2016 20:23
  
  Shareholder rebellions at Yahoo are becoming like presidential elections—they are happening every four years.
  
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• French body fines Google over 'right to be forgotten'

  24-03-2016 20:08
  
  France's data protection agency on Thursday fined Google 100,000 euros ($112,000) for only partially honouring requests by individuals to have information about them removed from its search engines.
  
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• Microbe with stripped-down DNA may hint at secrets of life

  24-03-2016 20:05
  
  Scientists have deleted nearly half the genes of a microbe, creating a stripped-down version that still functions, an achievement that might reveal secrets of how life works.
  
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• Toad-eating spider named for famed physicist

  24-03-2016 20:00
  
  A spindly toad-eating spider that creates vibrational waves on the water's surface in order to navigate and capture prey has been discovered in Brisbane, Australia, scientists announced at the World Science Festival last week.
  
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• Ecological collapse circumscribes traditional women's work in Iraq's Mesopotamian Marshes

  24-03-2016 19:53
  
  For thousands of years, the marshes at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern day Iraq were an oasis of green in a dry landscape, hosting a wealth of wildlife. The culture of the Marsh Arab, or Ma'dan, people who live there is tightly interwoven with the ecosystem of the marshes. The once dense and ubiquitous common reed (Phragmites australis) served as raw material for homes, handicrafts, tools, and animal fodder for thousands of years. Distinctive mudhif communal houses, b
  
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• Researcher improves crop performance with new biotechnology

  24-03-2016 19:46
  
  With the world's population exploding to well over 7 billion, feeding the human race is getting even more challenging. Increasing the yield from crops such as wheat, maize, rice and barley, is paramount to growing enough food.
  
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• Saving sunshine for a rainy day: New catalyst offers efficient storage of green energy

  24-03-2016 19:45
  
  We can't control when the wind blows and when the sun shines, so finding efficient ways to store energy from alternative sources remains an urgent research problem. Now, a group of researchers led by Professor Ted Sargent at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering may have a solution inspired by nature.
  
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• President has constitutional power to appoint, not just nominate, successor to Scalia

  24-03-2016 19:28
  
  After the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Republican senators, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, announced that they would neither consider nor vote on any nominee to the court picked by President Barack Obama. According to a new paper co-written by two University of Illinois legal experts, that position may be more problematic - both pragmatically and constitutionally - than those senators realize.
  
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• Team documents some of the first steps in the process by which a stem cell transforms into different cell types

  24-03-2016 19:26
  
  How do neurons become neurons? They all begin as stem cells, undifferentiated and with the potential to become any cell in the body.
  
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• 300-year-old cannon unearthed in North Carolina

  24-03-2016 19:24
  
  A 300-year-old cannon has been unearthed during construction work in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina.
  
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• Land bridges linking ancient India and Eurasia were 'freeways' for biodiversity exchange

  24-03-2016 19:13
  
  For about 60 million years during the Eocene epoch, the Indian subcontinent was a huge island. Having broken off from the ancient continent of Gondwanaland, the Indian Tectonic Plate drifted toward Eurasia.
  
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• Study provides new knowledge for managing tree-killing bark beetles

  24-03-2016 19:11
  
  Outbreaks of the southern pine beetle can't be stopped by its main predator, but risks to forests from this tree-killing insect can be predicted with a simple, inexpensive monitoring program, according to a study by Dartmouth College and other institutions.
  
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• Study finds vast diversity among viruses that infect bacteria

  24-03-2016 19:00
  
  Viruses that infect bacteria are among the most abundant life forms on Earth. Our oceans and soils, and potentially even our own bodies, would be overrun with bacteria were it not for bacteria-eating viruses—called bacteriophages—that keep the microbial balance in check.
  
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• Researchers find new mechanism to explain the birth of cloud droplets

  24-03-2016 19:00
  
  There is enough known about cloud formation that replicating its mechanism has become a staple of the school science project scene. But a new study by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) reveals that much more is going on at the microscopic level of cloud formation than previously thought.
  
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• Human ancestors explored 'out of Africa' despite impaired nasal faculties

  24-03-2016 19:00
  
  In humans inhaled air is conditioned poorly in the nasal cavity in comparison with primates, such as chimpanzees and macaques, according a recent study published in PLOS Computational Biology. Unlike our protruding external nose, which has little effect on improving air conditioning performance, other hominins (including australopithecines) were endowed with flat nasal features and faculties to improve air conditioning.
  
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• Efficient methane C-H bond activation achieved for the first time

  24-03-2016 19:00
  As organic chemistry evolved, techniques for catalyzing hydrocarbons advanced and one by one a method was created for their manipulation. Ethane, propane, butane, pentane—all the alkanes followed a similar pattern and their reactions had predictable results. Only one alkane-methane- refused to follow suit and this confounded chemists for decades. Methane had been just too difficult to work with; its C-H bond could not be manipulated.
  
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• Chemists lay groundwork for countless new, cleaner uses of methane

  24-03-2016 19:00
  
  Methane is the world's most abundant hydrocarbon. It's the major component of natural gas and shale gas and, when burned, is an effective fuel. But it's also a major contributor to climate change, with 24 times greater potency as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
  
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• The moon once looked different from Earth

  24-03-2016 18:57
  
  "We tend to think that objects in the sky have always been the way we view them," says planetary scientist Matt Siegler.
  
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• Damage-signalling protein shows parallels between plant and human immune systems

  24-03-2016 18:39
  
  A protein that signals tissue damage to the human immune system has a counterpart that plays a similar role in plants, report researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI).
  
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• Microneedle patch delivers localized cancer immunotherapy to melanoma

  24-03-2016 18:37
  
  Biomedical engineering researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a technique that uses a patch embedded with microneedles to deliver cancer immunotherapy treatment directly to the site of melanoma skin cancer. In animal studies, the technique more effectively targeted melanoma than other immunotherapy treatments.
  
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• Researchers examine ways to break down, track synthetic compound in herbicides

  24-03-2016 18:35
  
  To examine the fate and persistence of glyphosate, one of the most common commercial herbicides used for agricultural and urban applications, and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), a major byproduct of glyphosate, in soils and other environments, researchers at the University of Delaware have used isotopic signatures as a method of source tracking.
  
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• Developing nations became top investors in renewables in 2015: UN

  24-03-2016 18:34
  
  Investment in renewable energy hit a record $286 billion (256 billion euros) in 2015, more than half of which came from developing countries for the first time, according to a UN report released Thursday.
  
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• Review: Beyond size, what you get and give up with iPhone SE

  24-03-2016 18:33
  
  Unless you take a lot of selfies or need a bigger phone, Apple's new 4-inch iPhone SE is a good choice at a good price.
  
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• Streaming Wars Are On as Roku Goes Ultra HD

  24-03-2016 18:08 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Apple, Google and Amazon.com are adding over-the-top content to their streaming devices at a stepped-up pace.
  
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• How technology could change moviegoing

  24-03-2016 17:59 via cnn.com
  
  Podcast favorites: Blindsided: How ISIS Shook The World | Bernie gets the Axe | Guns in America
  
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• NASA finds highest peak on Saturn's largest moon Titan

  24-03-2016 17:52
  
  For mountaineers looking for a fresh challenge, may I suggest Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
  
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• You can thank diverse yeasts for that coffee and chocolate

  24-03-2016 17:00
  
  Humans have put yeast to work for thousands of years to make bread, beer, and wine. Wild strains of yeast are also found in the natural fermentations that are essential for chocolate and coffee production. But, as new genetic evidence reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on March 24 shows, the yeasts associated with coffee and cacao beans have had a rather unique history.
  
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• For the perfect eggs, roundworms use small RNAs

  24-03-2016 17:00
  
  All multicellular organisms that reproduce sexually rely on eggs to support early life. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Ludwig Cancer Research used the tiny roundworm C. elegans as a model to better understand how eggs enable embryonic development, using only the materials already present in them. Their study, published March 24 in Cell, uncovers the role small RNAs—a type of genetic material—and helper proteins play in fine-tuning egg develo
  
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• Fighting high anxiety with fly anxiety

  24-03-2016 17:00
  
  Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent of all brain disorders, and yet there's been little progress in drug treatments for anxiety in more than 50 years. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on March 24 suggest that studies in flies might help to elucidate fundamental mechanisms underlying anxiety and point the way to new anti-anxiety treatments.
  
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• Embryo development: Some cells are more equal than others even at four-cell stage

  24-03-2016 17:00
  
  Genetic 'signatures' of early-stage embryos confirm that our development begins to take shape as early as the second day after conception, when we are a mere four cells in size, according to new research led by the University of Cambridge and EMBL-EBI. Although they seem to be identical, the cells of the two day-old embryo are already beginning to display subtle differences.
  
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• Yale Researchers Show Parents Underestimate Their Children’s Weight

  24-03-2016 16:58 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A new study form Yale University details how some parents underestimate their children’s weight, a misperception with important implications for clinical prevention and treatment of childhood obesity. Janet A. Lydecker, PhD, postdoctoral associate in psychiatry, and Carlos M. Grilo, PhD, professor of psychiatry and of psychology, and director of the Yale Program for Obesity Weight […]
  The post Yale Researchers Show Parents Underestimate Their Children’s Weight appeared first o
  
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• Scientists Discover a Binary Companion for a Type Ia Supernova

  24-03-2016 16:46 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A newly published study details evidence for the interaction between a normal Type Ia supernova and a non-degenerate binary companion. A team of astronomers including Harvard’s Robert Kirshner and Peter Challis has detected a flash of light from the companion to an exploding star. This is the first time astronomers have witnessed the impact of […]
  The post Scientists Discover a Binary Companion for a Type Ia Supernova appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• VLT Survey Telescope Views Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte Galaxy

  24-03-2016 16:33 via scitechdaily.com
  
  This newly released image shows the Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte galaxy. This scene, captured by ESO’s OmegaCAM on the VLT Survey Telescope, shows a lonely galaxy known as Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte, or WLM for short. Although considered part of our Local Group of dozens of galaxies, WLM stands alone at the group’s outer edges as one of its most remote […]
  The post VLT Survey Telescope Views Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte Galaxy appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Watch: Twitter Now Allows Users to Add Stickers to Photos

  24-03-2016 16:27
  
  Twitter users can now spruce up their photos with colorful, customizable additions.
  
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• US indicts seven Iranians with hacking American banks

  24-03-2016 16:10
  
  The United States on Thursday unsealed an indictment against seven Iranians working for firms linked to the Iranian government on charges of hacking American banks, causing losses of tens of millions of dollars.
  
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• US indicts seven Iranians over hacking banks, dam (Update)

  24-03-2016 16:10
  
  The United States on Thursday unsealed computer hacking charges against seven Iranians working for firms linked to the Iranian government, accusing them of hacking dozens of American banks and the controls of a major New York dam.
  
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• FBI defends handling of Apple case after retreat

  24-03-2016 16:10
  
  The FBI Thursday defended the handling of its legal battle with Apple over encryption following an abrupt retreat from its bid to force the tech giant to help unlock an attacker's iPhone.
  
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• Birmingham water science leads ecological survival battle

  24-03-2016 16:09
  
  Scientists at the University of Birmingham have developed tools to help restore vital eco-systems found in tropical mangrove forests around the world.
  
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• New open source software for high resolution microscopy

  24-03-2016 16:08
  
  With their special microscopes, experimental physicists can already observe single molecules. However, unlike conventional light microscopes, the raw image data from some ultra-high resolution instruments first have to be processed for an image to appear. For the ultra-high resolution fluorescence microscopy that is also employed in biophysical research at Bielefeld University, members of the Biomolecular Photonics Group have developed a new open source software solution that can process such ra
  
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• Researchers make a major cavefish discovery in Thailand

  24-03-2016 16:04
  
  Researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have identified unique anatomical features in a species of blind, walking cavefish in Thailand that enable the fish to walk and climb waterfalls in a manner comparable to tetrapods, or four-footed mammals and amphibians. The discovery of this capability, not seen in any other living fishes, also has implications for understanding how the anatomy that all species need to walk on land evolved after the transition from finned to limbed appe
  
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• Apple iPhone SE: Small Size, Big Updates

  24-03-2016 15:47
  
  The demand for bigger phones may be strong but Apple hasn't forgotten about people who prefer to stick with a smaller device.
  
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