Sci-Tech news

• Tesla Fans Get Psyched, Model 3 Ordering Opens Early

  31-03-2016 22:50 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Tesla will open online ordering for its new Model 3 electric car ahead of schedule amid signs of heavy demand, CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday.
  
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• Encyption debate isn't going away

  31-03-2016 22:50
  
  The fight over encryption isn't going away just because the FBI has figured out a way to glean the data off the iPhone used by a San Bernardino attacker.
  
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• Bat-killing disease found in Washington state, first in West

  31-03-2016 22:45
  
  A fungal disease that has killed millions of bats nationwide has spread to Washington state, the first time white-nose syndrome has turned up in the western United States, federal wildlife officials said Thursday.
  
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• Our Americans Roads Are Too Shoddy for Our Smart Cars

  31-03-2016 22:40 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently called the mundane issue of faded lane markings "crazy," complaining they confused his semi-autonomous cars. An estimated 65 percent of U.S. roads are in poor condition, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, with the transportation infrastructure system rated 12th in the World Economic Forum's 2014-2015 global...
  
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• Amazon Dash Adds 70 New Insta-Ordering Buttons

  31-03-2016 22:12 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Amazon Dash takes insta-ordering to the next level by adding 70 new buttons
  
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• Netclearance seeks foothold in mobile payments

  31-03-2016 22:00
  
  Does a small San Diego startup stand a chance in the mobile payment market competing against the likes of Apple Pay and Samsung Pay?
  
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• Size matters: NASA measures raindrop sizes from space to understand storms

  31-03-2016 21:49
  
  Not all raindrops are created equal. The size of falling raindrops depends on several factors, including where the cloud producing the drops is located on the globe and where the drops originate in the cloud. For the first time, scientists have three-dimensional snapshots of raindrops and snowflakes around the world from space, thanks to the joint NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. With the new global data on raindrop and snowflake sizes t
  
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• 'Conspicuous conservation' a factor in socially responsible product innovation, study shows

  31-03-2016 21:48
  
  Companies may a bigger incentive to invest in developing socially responsible products if it means those who eventually buy them can stand a little taller than those who don't, says new research.
  
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• Fantasy sports sites to halt college contests

  31-03-2016 21:40
  
  Two major fantasy sports operators said Thursday they would suspend contests involving teams and athletes from universities as part of an agreement with the governing body for college athletics.
  
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• Review: Samsung monitor features wireless charging for your smartphone

  31-03-2016 21:20
  
  I'm all in favor of eliminating clutter on my desk.
  
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• Why the FBI Might Not Share Their Secret iPhone Method

  31-03-2016 21:10 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  FBI investigators have a method to get data off iPhones, but do not seem in a rush to tell anyone how it's doing it.
  
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• New use for X-rays: A radar gun for unruly atoms

  31-03-2016 21:08
  
  X-rays have long been used to make pictures of tiny objects, even single atoms. Now a team of scientists has discovered a new use for X-rays at the atomic scale: using them like a radar gun to measure the motion and velocity of complex and messy groups of atoms.
  
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• MedStar Hospitals Recovering After 'Ransomware' Hack

  31-03-2016 20:53 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  A chain of hospitals serving hundreds of thousands of patients in the Washington, D.C. area is struggling to get back to normal, after it was hit with what's known as a "ransomware" attack.
  
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• Can smartphones answer your call for help?

  31-03-2016 20:50
  
  If you're depressed and suicidal, a victim of rape or domestic violence, can your smartphone's personal assistant answer your call for help?
  
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• Mashable raises $15 million to expand video

  31-03-2016 20:34
  
  The online news site Mashable said Thursday it raised $15 million in a funding round led by Time Warner's television operations, as part of its efforts to expand video offerings.
  
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• Laser cloaking device could help us hide from aliens

  31-03-2016 20:33
  
  Two astronomers at Columbia University in New York suggest humanity could use lasers to conceal the Earth from searches by advanced extraterrestrial civilisations. Professor David Kipping and graduate student Alex Teachey make the proposal in a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
  
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• Pharmacy on demand: New, portable system can be configured to produce different drugs

  31-03-2016 20:30
  
  MIT researchers have developed a compact, portable pharmaceutical manufacturing system that can be reconfigured to produce a variety of drugs on demand.
  
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• An oasis in the brown dwarf desert—astronomers surprised, relieved

  31-03-2016 20:24
  
  A new paper published this month in The Astronomical Journal by astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) reports a wellspring of new brown dwarf stellar companions, throwing cold water on the entire idea of the "brown dwarf desert," the previously mystifying lack of these sub-stellar objects around stars.
  
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• Andromeda's first spinning neutron star found

  31-03-2016 20:20
  
  Decades of searching in the Milky Way's nearby 'twin' galaxy Andromeda have finally paid off, with the discovery of an elusive breed of stellar corpse, a neutron star, by ESA's XMM-Newton space telescope.
  
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• FBI's Help in Arkansas iPhone Case Spotlights Local Law Enforcement Frustration

  31-03-2016 20:19 via abcnews.go.com
  
  The FBI has agreed to help unlock an iPhone and iPod in an Arkansas murder case.
  
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• Broadening the bilayer

  31-03-2016 20:17
  
  Lipid molecules have split personalities—one part loves water, whereas the other avoids it at all costs. Lipids make up cell membranes, the frontline defense in preventing cellular access to bacterial and viral invaders.
  
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• Want to know where threatened species live? Look to the clouds

  31-03-2016 20:00
  
  Much of our planet's biodiversity is concentrated in hotspots, such as tropical mountains, where knowledge about the habitats and distributions of species remains too uncertain to guide management and conservation.
  
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• Technical advances in reading long DNA sequences have ramifications in understanding primate evolution, human disease

  31-03-2016 20:00
  
  Technical advances in reading long DNA sequences have ramifications in understanding primate evolution and human disease.
  
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• Strong effects of climate change on common bird populations in both Europe and US

  31-03-2016 20:00
  
  Scientists have shown for the first time that common bird populations are responding to climate change in a similar pronounced way in both Europe and the USA.
  
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• Serious ecological consequences of coral reef dredging

  31-03-2016 20:00
  
  Scientists have used satellite imaging of coral reefs in the South China Sea to highlight the dire ecological consequences of reef dredging to increase land area. While much has been made of the political significance of reef dredging and land creation activities in this area, the scientists conclude that the impact on these precious environments must also be considered and the international community must cooperate to prevent the destruction of these critical ecosystems.
  
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• FBI iPhone Technique Unlikely to Help Nation's Police

  31-03-2016 20:00 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The method used by the FBI to open the iPhone of terrorist Syed Farook is unlikely to help police open hundreds of iPhones that may contain evidence.
  
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• A programming language for living cells

  31-03-2016 20:00
  
  MIT biological engineers have created a programming language that allows them to rapidly design complex, DNA-encoded circuits that give new functions to living cells.
  
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• US, China to be among climate deal signatories

  31-03-2016 19:50
  
  The United States and China will be among the nations signing the Paris climate agreement in New York next month, the White House announced Wednesday, ahead of a meeting between President Barack Obama and Xi Jinping.
  
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• Agriculture expansion could reduce rainfall in Brazil's Cerrado

  31-03-2016 19:46
  
  Agricultural expansion is quickly chewing up native vegetation in the vast wooded savannas of Brazil's Cerrado biome, and a new study shows that those changes in land use are altering the region's water cycle.
  
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• Russia launches cargo ship to space station

  31-03-2016 19:38
  
  Russia on Thursday launched a cargo ship to the International Space Station on an unmanned mission to resupply crew currently in space.
  
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• France's Bouygues, Orange delay decision on possible tie-up

  31-03-2016 19:36
  
  France's telecom giants Orange and Bouygues said Thursday they had pushed back a decision on whether to go ahead with the sale of Bouygues Telecom to Orange, sending Bouygues shares sharply lower.
  
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• Red Cross brings solar panels to Gaza clinics

  31-03-2016 19:35
  
  A project sponsored by the international Red Cross on Thursday installed solar panels at 32 health-care clinics in the Gaza Strip to ensure that vaccines remain refrigerated in the power-starved territory.
  
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• Landscape evolution and hazards

  31-03-2016 19:28
  
  Landscapes are formed by a combination of uplift and erosion. Uplift from plate tectonics raises the land surface; erosion by rivers and landslides wears the land surface back down. In this study, Georgina L. Bennett and colleagues examine the interplay of uplift and erosion along the coast range of Northern California to understand how the modern topography is built.
  
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• Apple updates Siri's response to 'I was raped'

  31-03-2016 19:08 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Apple has updated Siri's response to statements such as "I was raped" after research found the digital assistant's responses were "insufficient."
  
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• The next big thing? The desktop (yes, really)

  31-03-2016 19:06 via cnn.com
  
  Recent podcasts: Sanders Demands Clinton Apologize | Guns in America | Radical Islam in America
  
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• Stunning, otherworldly visions of beauty

  31-03-2016 19:05 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Technology offers designers opportunities for innovation, ushering in a whole new era for the fashion world.
  
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• Augmented reality mapping out tech's next mind-bending trip

  31-03-2016 18:45
  
  Virtual reality is a trip, but an even wilder ride could be around the corner as mind-bending startups and technology trendsetters try to emblazon the world with interactive holograms that enlighten, entertain and empower us.
  
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• Researchers continue to pave way for improved battery performance testing

  31-03-2016 18:44
  
  Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have demonstrated that the design and placement of a tiny measurement device called a reference electrode enhances the quantity and quality of information that can be extracted from lithium-ion battery cells during cycling.
  
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• Team tackles mystery of protein folding

  31-03-2016 18:43
  
  Proteins are the workhorses of life, mediating almost all biological events in every life form. Scientists know how proteins are structured, but folding - how they are built - still holds many mysteries.
  
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• Proving the genetic code's flexibility

  31-03-2016 18:41
  
  A, C, G and T - stand in for the four chemical bases that store information in DNA. A sequence of these same four letters, repeating in a particular order, genetically defines an organism. Within the genome sequence are shorter, three-letter codons that represent one of the 20 regularly used amino acids, with three of the possible 64 three-letter codons reserved for stop signals. These amino acids are the building blocks of proteins that carry out a myriad of functions. For example, the amino ac
  
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• Heat and light get larger at the nanoscale

  31-03-2016 18:41
  
  In a new study recently published in Nature Nanotechnology, researchers from Columbia Engineering, Cornell, and Stanford have demonstrated heat transfer can be made 100 times stronger than has been predicted, simply by bringing two objects extremely close—at nanoscale distances—without touching. Led by Columbia Engineering's Michal Lipson and Stanford Engineering's Shanhui Fan, the team used custom-made ultra-high precision micro-mechanical displacement controllers to achieve heat tr
  
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• Researchers Discover 305 Million-Year-Old “Early Spider” Fossil

  31-03-2016 18:24 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A team of scientists has discovered the fossil of a 305 million-year-old arachnid, revealing more about the early origins of modern-day spiders. The new species, named Idmonarachne brasieri in honor of Professor Martin Brasier, University of Oxford, who passed away in December 2014, was found in Montceau-les-Mines, France, and researchers from The University of Manchester, […]
  The post Researchers Discover 305 Million-Year-Old “Early Spider” Fossil appeared first on SciTech Da
  
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• Astronomers Reveal a Planet Forming in an Earth-Like Orbit Around Young Star TW Hydrae

  31-03-2016 18:09 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, astronomers reveal a planet-forming disk in unprecedented detail, revealing a series of concentric dusty bright rings and dark gaps, including intriguing features that suggest a planet with an Earth-like orbit is forming there. Disks of dust and gas that surround young stars are the formation sites of […]
  The post Astronomers Reveal a Planet Forming in an Earth-Like Orbit Around Young Star TW Hydrae appeared first on SciTec
  
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• Study: Straits oil spill could affect vast shoreline areas

  31-03-2016 18:03
  
  A newly released study says hundreds of miles of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron shoreline are at risk of contamination if oil pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac rupture.
  
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• Virus evolution differs by species of mosquito carrier

  31-03-2016 18:00
  
  A new study on how the West Nile virus evolves in four species of mosquitos shows that viruses accumulate mutations in their insect carriers that reduce how well they reproduce when passed on to a bird host. Viruses carried by one of the tropical species were best able to maintain their reproductive fitness and thus spread. The study, published March 31, 2016 in Cell Host & Microbe, could lead to new strategies for predicting and preparing for future viral outbreaks.
  
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• Underappreciated protein plays critical role in RNA regulation and male fertility

  31-03-2016 18:00
  
  A protein once thought to be of little consequence has been found to be a central player in processes ranging from male fertility to early embryonic development, according to a study published in the March 31 online issue of Cell by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
  
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• Sweet tooth? Flies have it too: New study shows how they know what to eat and when to stop

  31-03-2016 18:00
  
  All animals, including humans, love sweet food, particularly when we are hungry. But if you're someone who never turns down dessert under normal circumstances, try wolfing down six donuts as a scientific experiment. Even the moistest, most velvety piece of chocolate cake will seem a lot less appetizing—and you will likely eat less of it.
  
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• New tools allow rapid ID of CRISPR-Cas system PAMs

  31-03-2016 18:00
  
  CRISPR-Cas systems are widely heralded as a new generation of genetic tools. But development of these tools requires researchers to identify the protospacer-adjacent motifs (PAMs) that unlock each system's functionality. A new set of techniques expedites PAM identification—and early testing finds that many CRISPR-Cas systems actually have multiple PAMs of varying strength.
  
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• A fossilized snake shows its true colors

  31-03-2016 18:00
  
  Ten million years ago, a green and black snake lay coiled in the Spanish undergrowth. Once, paleontologists would have been limited to the knowledge they could glean from its colorless fossil remains, but now they know what the snake looked like and can guess how it acted. Researchers reporting on March 31 in Current Biology have discovered that some fossils can retain evidence of skin color from multiple pigments and structural colors, aiding research into the evolution and function of color.
  
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• Study shows best way to reduce energy consumption

  31-03-2016 17:59
  
  We know adjusting the thermostat, using blinds, opening windows or using electronics such as a heater or air conditioning unit has an impact on the amount of energy consumed in homes. But a new study looks at which of these is the most efficient when it comes to saving power.
  
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