Sci-Tech news

• PC sales slump for sixth consecutive quarter

  11-04-2016 23:17
  
  Sales of personal computers slid for the sixth consecutive quarter at the start of 2016, falling to levels not seen since 2007, a market tracker said Monday.
  
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• New report calls for ban on 'killer robots' amid UN meeting

  11-04-2016 22:50
  
  Technology allowing a pre-programmed robot to shoot to kill, or a tank to fire at a target with no human involvement, is only years away, experts say. A new report called Monday for a ban on such "killer robots."
  
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• 'Ransomware' Hackers Have a Savvy Business Plan

  11-04-2016 22:49 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The hackers behind recent high-profile ransomware attacks on U.S. hospitals are using business methods that might be familiar to some start-ups.
  
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• Combined effects of copper, climate change can be deadly for amphibians, research finds

  11-04-2016 22:31
  
  Researchers at the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory warn that the extinction to two amphibian species—the southern toad and the southern leopard frog—may be hastened by the combined effects of climate change and copper-contaminated wetlands.
  
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• Researchers define links within two supercontinents

  11-04-2016 22:22
  
  A University of Wyoming researcher contributed to a paper that has apparently solved an age-old riddle of how constituent continents were arranged in two Precambrian supercontinents—then known as Nuna-Columbia and Rodinia. It's a finding that may have future economic implications for mining companies.
  
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• This City is Offering Subsidies For Uber Rides

  11-04-2016 22:19 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The residents of Altamonte Springs, Florida, are the first in the country to receive an automatic 20 percent subsidy on any Uber in city limits.
  
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• Luxembourg offers cash to help close ageing French nuke plant

  11-04-2016 22:19
  
  Luxembourg offered on Monday to chip in financing to close an ageing French nuclear power plant near its border, saying the tiny nation could be obliterated if the station malfunctioned.
  
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• Virginia continues to lead in clam and oyster aquaculture

  11-04-2016 22:18
  
  Virginia shellfish farmers sold $48.3 million in clams and oysters in 2015, with hard clam sales of $32.3 million once again leading the nation and $16 million in oyster sales tops among U.S. East Coast states.
  
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• Handwriting analysis provides clues for dating of old testament texts

  11-04-2016 22:17
  
  Scholars have long debated how much of the Hebrew bible was composed before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah in 586 BCE. While scholars agree that key biblical texts were written starting in the 7th century BCE, the exact date of the compilation of these books remains in question.
  
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• Copper sulfate found to be toxic to stingless bees

  11-04-2016 22:15
  
  Copper sulfate has been used in agriculture since the 1800s, at least. In the U.S. it is widely used as a fungicide on organic and conventional crops, and it is also found in some fertilizer products.
  
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• Researchers generate clean energy using bacteria-powered solar panel

  11-04-2016 22:13
  
  Researchers have taken the next step in the evolution of bacteria-powered energy.
  
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• Building Immunity: Team recreates a T-cell receptor signaling pathway

  11-04-2016 22:07
  
  The front line of the human immune system is made up of T-cells: white blood cells that circulate in the body and scan for foreign invaders and infections. If a T-cell surface receptor detects a threat during its surveillance, it relays a signal to the interior of the cell and activates it to attack.
  
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• Research finds massive phosphorus buildup

  11-04-2016 22:06
  
  The world's total human population has jumped to over 7.4 billion just this year. Feeding the human species takes a tremendous toll on our natural resources including water, soil and phosphorus—a chemical element in fertilizer essential for food production.
  
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• Mothers say middle-class status little protection against gendered racism for black boys

  11-04-2016 22:04
  
  Middle-class African American mothers must parent differently than their white counterparts. African American middle-class mothers bear the added weight of preparing their children—particularly their sons—to navigate "gendered racism," or discrimination based on both race and gender, from a very young age. This is according to a new research study published in the April 2016 issue of Gender & Society, a top-ranked journal in Gender Studies and Sociology. While there has been anec
  
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• Buying high in the stock market caused by overconfidence

  11-04-2016 22:04
  
  The golden rule for investing has always been "buy low, sell high." Past research has shown that many people make the common investing mistake of selling stocks at a low price after the stock market has experienced a decline. However, little is known about what causes people to make mistakes on the other end of the spectrum: buying stocks at a high price.
  
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• Fathers plays a critical role in family values for Mexican-origin youth

  11-04-2016 21:58
  
  Past research has indicated that Latino families, particularly Mexican-origin families, tend to be more family oriented and place a significant emphasis on family time. New research from the University of Missouri found that a father's family values can predict family values held by Mexican-origin youth as well as family time for late adolescents. Research also indicated that the link between family time and young adults' depressive symptoms depended on parental acceptance and warmth.
  
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• New study shows rich, poor have huge mortality gap in US

  11-04-2016 21:50
  
  Poverty in the U.S. is often associated with deprivation, in areas including housing, employment, and education. Now a study co-authored by two MIT researchers has shown, in unprecedented geographic detail, another stark reality: Poor people live shorter lives, too.
  
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• 3-D printing creates knee model for evaluating patellar disorders and surgical approaches

  11-04-2016 21:29
  
  A new, low-cost approach to building a knee model for studying knee pain and impaired mobility caused by abnormal movement of the patella uses a 3D printer to create a femur, tibia, patella, and the navigation system to guide knee reconstruction. The reconstructed knee model closely simulates the movement of the patella observed in cadaver knee models, as reported in the study published in 3-D Printing and Additive Manufacturing.
  
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• Researchers find key to zinc rich plants to combat malnutrition

  11-04-2016 21:26
  
  A milestone has been reached in the research of zinc loading in crop seeds with large potential benefits to people in the developing world. A team of scientists, led by Professor Michael Broberg Palmgren from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at University of Copenhagen, has just published an article about their findings in Nature Plants, which might well lead the way to growing crops with more zinc accumulated in the seeds.
  
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• Tesla recalls 2,700 Model X SUVs for seat problem

  11-04-2016 21:22
  
  Tesla Motors is recalling 2,700 Model X sport utility vehicles to fix a locking hinge that could allow third-row seat backs to fold forward, the automaker said Monday.
  
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• Why Tesla's Model 3 Could Be the New Model T - Greentech Media

  11-04-2016 21:15
  
  Greentech Media
  Why Tesla's Model 3 Could Be the New Model T
  Greentech Media
  Elon Musk, Tesla Motors' CEO and pitchman, planned to call Tesla's first affordable electric vehicle the Model E. You know, alongside the Model S and Model X. And the Model Y was to come later. But Ford ruined this adolescent fun by suing Tesla over ...
  Tesla to recall 2700 Model X SUVs over seat issueReuters
  Tesla Issues Model X Recall Over Faulty Third-Row SeatsPC Magazine
  Relentless Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA) Won't Lea
  
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• What's next for SpaceX and the Falcon 9 rocket that landed on a barge - Los Angeles Times

  11-04-2016 21:10
  
  Los Angeles Times
  What's next for SpaceX and the Falcon 9 rocket that landed on a barge
  Los Angeles Times
  SpaceX finally stuck a sea landing Friday, when the company's first-stage booster glided smoothly to a hover before landing on a floating barge. Now the aerospace company will prepare the booster for a second flight -- a move that could be key to the ...
  SpaceX's Dragon Soars As Its Rocket Lands: An Epic Spaceflight in PhotosSpace.com
  Who You Meet At A SpaceX LaunchPopular Science
  Elon
  
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• NASA's Kepler spacecraft stable after cosmic scare

  11-04-2016 21:03 via cnn.com
  
  After three days in emergency mode, NASA's Kepler spacecraft is stable again -- prompting sighs of relief 75 million miles away.
  
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• Spinning cells could attract each other across surprisingly long distances, study shows

  11-04-2016 21:00
  
  Moving bodies can be attracted to each other, even when they're quite far apart and separated by many other objects: That, in a nutshell, is the somewhat unexpected finding by a team of researchers at MIT.
  
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• Employment status affects our morals around money

  11-04-2016 21:00
  
  In the study 'Moral consequences of becoming unemployed', endorsed by the prestigious scientific journal PNAS, researchers at the UPV/EHU's Faculty of Economics and Business and at the University of Nottingham (UK) have analysed a moral consequence of unemployment that together with the effects it has on people's mental health, could explain why these people become disengaged from the labor market. 151 young adults in Córdoba and Bilbao were involved in the study.
  
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• Wild Tiger Numbers Are Rising, Wildlife Groups Say - New York Times

  11-04-2016 20:52
  New York Times
  Wild Tiger Numbers Are Rising, Wildlife Groups Say
  New York Times
  A Royal Bengal Tiger at Kaziranga National Park in India in 2014. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. The estimated number of tigers living in the wild rose this year for the first time in more than a century, conservation organizations said.
  Number Of Wild Tigers Increases For First Time In 100 YearsNPR
  Wild tigers count increases for first time in more than 100 yearsWashington Post
  Wild Tiger Popula
  
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• Fin24.com | Israel to levy new taxes on Google, Facebook

  11-04-2016 20:25
  
  Israel has expanded its definition of who must pay taxes on commerce, targeting digital multinationals such as Facebook and Google that critics say get a free ride.
  
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• Kepler Space Telescope Revived From Emergency Shutdown - Discovery News

  11-04-2016 20:17
  
  Discovery News
  Kepler Space Telescope Revived From Emergency Shutdown
  Discovery News
  After a short period of uncertainty as to the fate of NASA's premier exoplanet hunter, communications with the Kepler space telescope have been resumed and hopes are high that the embattled mission will soon get back to the business of finding alien ...
  [ April 11, 2016 ] Kepler telescope recovered from spacecraft emergency NewsSpaceflight Now
  NASA: Kepler emergency over, spacecraft now stableFox News
  Kepler Sp
  
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• Official HTC 10 Promo Video Leaks Ahead Of Announcement - Android Police

  11-04-2016 19:57
  
  Android Police
  Official HTC 10 Promo Video Leaks Ahead Of Announcement
  Android Police
  HTC is going to get up on stage tomorrow to announce the HTC 10 knowing that we've all see it from every possible angle. It must be weird to have a phone so thoroughly leaked before announcement, but it's not over yet. There's another leak, this time ...
  Video: HTC 10 Unveiling Clip Hits the Web EarlyDroid Life (press release) (blog)
  HTC 10 inbound: here's what we know so farSlashGear
  HTC 10 Leaked Promo Trail
  
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• Electric rain? Solar panel turns raindrops into power - Fox News

  11-04-2016 19:57
  
  Fox News
  Electric rain? Solar panel turns raindrops into power
  Fox News
  Scientists in China have developed an innovative solar panel technology that could turn raindrops into electric power. The new solar cell design, which can be “triggered” by both rain and sun, is described in a paper published in the Angewandte Chemie ...
  New solar panels can generate energy from sunlight and raindropsGeek
  New Graphene Solar Cell Makes Rain-Powered ElectricityCleanTechnica
  Graphene Solar Ce
  
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• Tesla Recalls 2,700 Model X SUVs

  11-04-2016 19:51 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Tesla warned owners of its Model X SUV not to have anyone in the back of the vehicle until it can replace the third-row seat backs, which could fail.
  
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• Searching for another Earth

  11-04-2016 19:46 via cnn.com
  
  Recent podcasts: Sanders Demands Clinton Apologize | Guns in America | Radical Islam in America
  
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• Neanderthals May Have Been Doomed By Humans With Infectious African Diseases - Headlines & Global News

  11-04-2016 19:10
  
  Headlines & Global News
  Neanderthals May Have Been Doomed By Humans With Infectious African Diseases
  Headlines & Global News
  Scientists found that humans may have actually spread infectious diseases out of Africa to the Neanderthals, which may have contributed to their extinction. By Catherine Griffin | Apr 11, 2016 01:10 PM EDT. Neanderthal Skull. Scientists found that ...
  Humans helped kill off Neanderthals with STDs and other diseases, study showsRedOrbit
  Diseases carried by humans l
  
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• [ April 11, 2016 ] Kepler telescope recovered from spacecraft emergency News - Spaceflight Now

  11-04-2016 19:09
  Spaceflight Now
  [ April 11, 2016 ] Kepler telescope recovered from spacecraft emergency News
  Spaceflight Now
  Artist's concept of the Kepler observatory with survey regions highlighted in the sky. Credit: NASA. NASA's Kepler planet-searching spacecraft is stable and out of emergency mode, officials said Monday, and the observatory is downlinking data to help ...
  Kepler Spacecraft Stabilized After Unexplained Emergency, NASA SaysNBCNews.com
  NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Recovered from Emergency M
  
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• Tesla issues safety recall for Model X: Back seats could fold forward in a sudden stop - Los Angeles Times

  11-04-2016 19:02
  
  Los Angeles Times
  Tesla issues safety recall for Model X: Back seats could fold forward in a sudden stop
  Los Angeles Times
  Only months after delivering the first units of its Model X, Tesla Motors has issued a voluntary safety recall for its heralded "falcon wing" SUV. The third-row seats in the seven-seat vehicle, Tesla said, were built with latches that failed under ...
  If Model X Is The Bridge To Model 3, Tesla Investors Should Get Ready To SwimSeeking Alpha
  Tesla Model X recalled for third-
  
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• Astronomers in South Africa discover mysterious alignment of black holes

  11-04-2016 18:59
  
  Deep radio imaging by researchers in the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape, in South Africa, has revealed that supermassive black holes in a region of the distant universe are all spinning out radio jets in the same direction – most likely a result of primordial mass fluctuations in the early universe. The astronomers publish their results in a new paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
  
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• Kepler Spacecraft Stabilized After Unexplained Emergency

  11-04-2016 18:57 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  The Kepler spacecraft, which declared a state of emergency on Friday, has resumed normal deep space operations according to a Monday NASA press release.
  
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• Reprieve for NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft

  11-04-2016 18:47
  
  To astronomers' relief, NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has won another reprieve.
  
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• Humanoid robotics and computer avatars could help treat social disorders

  11-04-2016 18:40
  
  A collaborative research team has found humanoid robotics and computer avatars could help rehabilitate people suffering from social disorders such as schizophrenia or social phobia. It is thanks to the theory of similarity, which suggests that it is easier to interact socially with someone who looks, behaves or moves like us.
  
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• 'Titanfall 2' Teaser Trailer Brings A Sword To A Mech Fight - Tech Times

  11-04-2016 18:34
  
  Tech Times
  'Titanfall 2' Teaser Trailer Brings A Sword To A Mech Fight
  Tech Times
  The fact that Titanfall 2 exists has been one of the worst kept secrets in gaming, but now it looks like EA and developer Respawn Entertainment are ready to officially start talking about what's next for their mech focused FPS franchise. A new teaser ...
  Titanfall 2's first trailer teases 'worldwide reveal' this June (and swords)Polygon
  Titanfall 2's First Teaser Released; PS4, Xbox One, PC Versions ConfirmedGameS
  
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• Ford tests Lidar-equipped car in pitch darkness - TechCrunch

  11-04-2016 18:26
  
  TechCrunch
  Ford tests Lidar-equipped car in pitch darkness
  TechCrunch
  The initial goal of self-driving cars is to make them as good as human drivers — but Ford has another trick up its sleeve to nudge things to the next level. By using Lidar, Ford recently showed that its autonomous vehicles can drive in complete ...
  How Ford's autonomous cars can see in the dark, even without headlightsTechRepublic
  Ford Fusion Autonomous Research Vehicles Start Testing At NightTop Speed
  How this Ford Fus
  
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• Titanfall 2 brings mech fights to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC - VentureBeat

  11-04-2016 18:16
  
  VentureBeat
  Titanfall 2 brings mech fights to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC
  VentureBeat
  It's time to start gassing up your giant war mech because one of the best shooters of this generation is getting a sequel. Titanfall 2 is coming soon, and publisher Electronic Arts is promising to show off more about the futuristic mech shooter as part ...
  Titanfall 2 Release: What We Know NowGotta Be Mobile
  EA teases mech FPS sequel Titanfall 2Digital Trends
  Titanfall 2 Gets a Teaser Trailer, Promises Mor
  
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• The next Apple Watch won't change that much, even though it should - Mashable

  11-04-2016 18:02
  
  Mashable
  The next Apple Watch won't change that much, even though it should
  Mashable
  If you were looking forward to the Apple Watch 2.0 in 2016, a well-known analyst has just thrown a nice bucket of ice-cold water on the idea. According to Apple Insider, KGI Securities analyst and Apple oracle Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple is working on an ...
  US shoppers increasingly buying iPhones from carriers instead of AppleApple Insider
  Apple Watch fail: It's no iPhone, but Tim keeps trying [updated]Computerwor
  
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• Why you might soon text robots as often as your friends

  11-04-2016 18:01
  
  The robots are coming ... to help run your life, or sell you stuff, at an online texting service near you.
  
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• New imaging technology could help save UK/EU steel industry

  11-04-2016 18:00
  
  A researcher from the University of Bath has been awarded a new grant to develop an innovative way of assessing a key stage of the production of steel, greatly benefitting the competitiveness of the UK and EU steel industry.
  
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• New way to smell a rat means end for rodents

  11-04-2016 17:56
  
  Simon Fraser University scientists have developed a new way to exterminate rats by identifying and synthetically replicating the male brown rat's sex pheromone. The chemical is a powerful attractant for luring female brown rats into traps.
  
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• Watch: Apple Expected to Unveil the Apple Watch 2

  11-04-2016 17:46 via abcnews.go.com
  
  The second iteration of the tech gadget is reported to be thinner and has a FaceTime camera.
  
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• New tool refines exoplanet search

  11-04-2016 17:46
  
  Planet-hunting is an ongoing process that's resulting in the discovery of more and more planets orbiting distant stars. But as the hunters learn more about the variety among the tremendous number of predicted planets out there, it's important to refine their techniques.New work led by Carnegie's Jonathan Gagné, Caltech's Peter Gao, and Peter Plavchan from Missouri State University reports on a technological upgrade for one method of finding planets or confirming other planetary detections
  
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• Messenger Chatbots Likely To Top The Agenda At Facebook's F8 This Week - Fast Company

  11-04-2016 17:45
  
  Fast Company
  Messenger Chatbots Likely To Top The Agenda At Facebook's F8 This Week
  Fast Company
  When more than 2,000 people descend on San Francisco this week for Facebook's annual two-day F8 developers conference, their discussions and decisions will have a huge impact on how you and 1.59 billion other people around the world use the social ...and more »
  
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• Kerosene subsidies slow transition to clean energy

  11-04-2016 17:43
  
  Billions of people around the world rely on polluting and inefficient kerosene lamps for household lighting. Yet transitioning away from kerosene and reducing the associated impacts is more complicated than simply supplying an electricity connection, since many families supplement unreliable or inadequate electric lights with kerosene lamps, according to the study, which was published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
  
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