Sci-Tech news

• New hypervelocity binary star challenges dark matter, stellar acceleration models

  12-04-2016 23:58
  
  A team of astronomers at the Friedrich Alexander University led by Péter Németh has discovered a binary star moving nearly at the escape velocity of our galaxy. There are about two dozen so-called hypervelocity stars known to be escaping the galaxy. While all of them are single stars, PB3877 is the first wide binary star found to travel at such a high speed. Additionally, the results of the new study challenge the commonly accepted scenario that hypervelocity stars are accelerated
  
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• Comey: FBI, Apple court clash created unproductive 'emotion'

  12-04-2016 23:56
  
  FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday he was glad a court fight in California over access to a locked iPhone had ended because it "was creating an emotion around the issue that was not productive," likening the emotion and passion around the discussion to the debate over gun control.
  
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• Demand for the new Tesla is wild, but limited to tech fans

  12-04-2016 23:32
  
  Demand for Tesla's new Model 3 has been eye-popping, with consumers pre-ordering about $13.7 billion worth of the electric sedans nearly two years before they go on sale.
  
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• Sociologist explores 'the hidden literature of shame'

  12-04-2016 23:31
  
  Shame shaming. Is that even possible?
  
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• Undergraduate team wins Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for gloves that translate sign language

  12-04-2016 23:02
  
  Two University of Washington undergraduates have won a $10,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for gloves that can translate sign language into text or speech.
  
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• Oxygen key to containing coal ash contamination

  12-04-2016 22:59
  
  As energy companies decide what to do with aging coal ash disposal facilities in North Carolina and across the nation, they may be overlooking a fundamental but potentially critical variable—oxygen.
  
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• New technology could improve insect control in cotton

  12-04-2016 22:57
  
  A new biotech trait currently in the development stage could provide improved control of thrips and plant bugs in cotton, according to researchers with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.
  
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• 'Textalyzer' Aims to Put the Brakes on Distracted Driving

  12-04-2016 22:02 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Police in New York may soon be equipped with a 'Textalyzer,' a device that can determine if a driver involved in a crash was driving while texting.
  
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• New hypothesis explains how human ancestors used fire to their advantage

  12-04-2016 21:21
  
  Fire, a tool broadly used for cooking, constructing, hunting and even communicating, was arguably one of the earliest discoveries in human history. But when, how and why it came to be used is hotly debated among scientists.
  
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• Porn Site Blocks N. Carolina Visitors Over LGBT Law

  12-04-2016 21:16 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  As major companies continue to pull out of North Carolina over its controversial LGBT law, porn enthusiasts are the latest to be put into a bind.
  
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• Environmental groups sue over pollution from airliners

  12-04-2016 20:40
  
  A coalition of environmental groups sued federal regulators Tuesday over long-sought pollution standards for airliners and cargo planes.
  
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• Greenpeace protests Polish logging of Europe's last primeval forest

  12-04-2016 20:20
  
  Greenpeace activists Tuesday called on Poland's environment ministry to "save" the Bialowieza forest, Europe's last primeval woodland, by safeguarding it against planned large-scale logging.
  
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• Facebook shows new ways to chat, stream video (Update)

  12-04-2016 20:16
  
  Facebook says people who use its Messenger chat service will soon be able to order flowers, shop for shoes and talk with a variety of businesses by sending them direct text messages.
  
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• Facebook shows new ways to chat, stream video

  12-04-2016 20:16
  
  Looking for new ways to engage with its audience, Facebook says people who use its Messenger chat service will soon be able to order flowers, shop for shoes and talk with a variety of businesses by sending them direct text messages.
  
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• Mark Zuckerberg Warns of 'Fearful Voices' in Speech

  12-04-2016 20:12 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Mark Zuckerberg's address got political as he kicked off Facebook's developer's conference, warning of 'fearful voices calling for building walls.'
  
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• SpaceX's recovered rocket back at port after sea landing

  12-04-2016 20:10
  
  The rocket that made a historic landing at sea last week is back at its home port.
  
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• Uber reveals US law enforcement data queries

  12-04-2016 20:08
  
  Uber said Tuesday it received more than 400 requests from US law enforcement agencies in the second half of 2015, and gave authorities some information in the vast majority of cases.
  
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• Research reveals trend in bird-shape evolution on islands

  12-04-2016 19:59
  
  In groundbreaking new work, Natalie Wright, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Montana, has discovered a predictable trend in the evolution of bird shape.
  
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• MIT Researchers Create Perfect Nanoscrolls from Graphene Oxide

  12-04-2016 19:52 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using both low- and high-frequency ultrasonic techniques, scientists have fabricated nanoscrolls made from graphene oxide flakes. Water filters of the future may be made from billions of tiny, graphene-based nanoscrolls. Each scroll, made by rolling up a single, atom-thick layer of graphene, could be tailored to trap specific molecules and pollutants in its tightly wound […]
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• Children of Older Mothers Are Healthier, Taller and Obtain More Education

  12-04-2016 19:36 via scitechdaily.com
  
  New research shows that the benefits associated with being born in a later year outweigh the biological risks associated with being born to an older mother. Children of older mothers are healthier, taller and obtain more education than the children of younger mothers. The reason is that in industrialized countries educational opportunities are increasing, and […]
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• APEX Explores the Onset of Pulsation-Driven Winds in Giant Stars

  12-04-2016 19:27 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics used the APEX submillimeter telescope to study the velocity of the CO gas in the wind of the giant star EU Del to help constrain the mechanism responsible for driving its wind. Nearly all stars have winds. The Sun’s wind, which originates from its hot outer layer (corona), […]
  The post APEX Explores the Onset of Pulsation-Driven Winds in Giant Stars appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• New Service Fixes Your Forgotten Subscriptions

  12-04-2016 18:39 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  A new service will track down your unwanted subscriptions and work with you to figure out what's worth keeping or ditching.
  
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• Stephen Hawking joins futuristic bid to explore outer space (Update)

  12-04-2016 18:37
  
  With famed physicist Stephen Hawking at his side, an Internet investor announced Tuesday that he's spending $100 million on a futuristic plan to explore far outside our solar system.
  
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• Stephen Hawking joins bid to seek life with tiny spacecraft

  12-04-2016 18:37
  
  An Internet investor has enlisted famed physicist Stephen Hawking and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to help him with a futuristic plan for seeking life in outer space.
  
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• Mapping software tracks threats to endangered species

  12-04-2016 18:32
  
  Habitat mapping software and satellite imagery can help conservationists predict the movements of endangered species in remote or inaccessible regions and pinpoint areas where conservation efforts should be prioritized, a new Duke University-led case study shows.
  
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• Billionaire, Stephen Hawking Announce Alpha Centauri Mission

  12-04-2016 18:32 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Billionaire Internet investor Yuri Milner announced another $100 million initiative on Tuesday to better understand the cosmos.
  
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• Antibiotic resistance genes increasing

  12-04-2016 18:29
  
  Around the world, antibiotic use and resistance is increasing while the discovery of new antibiotics has nearly halted.
  
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• Economic development does mean greater carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions

  12-04-2016 18:28
  
  Must greater prosperity necessarily lead to a greater carbon footprint and increased greenhouse gas emissions? "In theory, no, but in practice this seems to be the case", says researcher Max Koch from Lund University in Sweden. His study of 138 countries is the first ever to take a global approach to the connections between growth, prosperity and ecological sustainability. The study was recently published in the journal article Global Environmental Change.
  
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• NASA eyes powerful storms in newborn Tropical Cyclone Fantala

  12-04-2016 18:25
  
  Powerful thunderstorms circled the low-level center of newborn Tropical Cyclone Fantana in infrared imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite.
  
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• Video: Better coffee through chemistry

  12-04-2016 18:24
  
  It's one of the most popular beverages in the world, and many of us rely on it to stay awake every day. But not every cup of coffee is created equal.
  
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• Calcium isotope holds the secret to the mass of neutrinos

  12-04-2016 18:23
  
  Scientists around the world are being kept in suspense by the negligible mass of neutrinos, subatomic particles that could be matter and antimatter at the same time. Now, researchers from the University of Tokyo, in collaboration with a Spanish physicist, have used one of the world's most powerful computers to analyse a special decay of calcium-48, whose life, which lasts trillions of years, depends on the unknown mass of neutrinos. This advance will facilitate the detection of this rare decay i
  
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• New study on the grammar of subclauses in historical English

  12-04-2016 18:22
  
  When do English speakers say whether that will happen is unknown and when do they say it is unknown whether that will happen? Looking at, among other things, medieval homilies and early modern letter correspondence, a recently published dissertation at the University of Gothenburg shows how clausal arguments, and in particular clausal subjects, have been expressed at different points in time in the history of English.
  
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• Open-source collaborative platform to collect content from over 350 institutions' archives

  12-04-2016 18:21
  
  With the technical and financial capacity of any currently existing single institution failing to answer the needs for a platform efficiently archiving the web, a team of American researchers have come up with an innovative solution, submitted to the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and published in the open-access journal Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO).
  
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• Sorry kids, seniors want to connect and communicate on Facebook, too

  12-04-2016 18:19
  
  Older adults, who are Facebook's fastest growing demographic, are joining the social network to stay connected and make new connections, just like college kids who joined the site decades ago, according to Penn State researchers.
  
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• 1917 astronomical plate has first-ever evidence of exoplanetary system

  12-04-2016 18:17
  
  You can never predict what treasure might be hiding in your own basement. We didn't know it a year ago, but it turns out that a 1917 image on an astronomical glass plate from our Carnegie Observatories' collection shows the first-ever evidence of a planetary system beyond our own Sun. This unexpected find was recognized in the process of researching an article about planetary systems surrounding white dwarf stars in New Astronomy Reviews.
  
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• IRS Chief Warns Tax Thieves 'Increasingly Sophisticated'

  12-04-2016 18:01 via feeds.nbcnews.com
  
  Officials testified in Washington on Tuesday about the threats the federal tax system faces from online attackers.
  
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• Will raindrops stick to a spider web's threads?

  12-04-2016 17:00
  
  If you go out after a rain, you may notice spider webs glistening with water droplets. The soggy webs resemble human-made meshes for fog collection: They both have thin fibers that collect water from droplets in the air.
  
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• Sexually transmitted infections, peer pressure may have turned humans into monogamists

  12-04-2016 17:00
  
  Prehistoric humans may have developed social norms that favour monogamy and punish polygamy thanks to the presence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and peer pressure, according to new research from the University of Waterloo in Canada.
  
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• Bringing the landslide laboratory to remote regions

  12-04-2016 17:00
  
  It'd be hard to overstate how landslide-prone China's Loess Plateau is; thanks to millions of years' accumulation of the wind-deposited, highly-porous sediment from which the plateau takes its name, the region has been called the most erosion-prone on Earth.
  
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• Watch: White House Science Fair: Most Memorable Moments

  12-04-2016 16:58
  
  Remembering some of the most inspiring projects presented at the WH Science Fair.
  
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• Putin plays up Russia-US cooperation in space

  12-04-2016 16:33
  
  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday highlighted the ability of Russia and the United States to cooperate closely in space, despite all of the difficulties the two countries face on Earth.
  
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• Engineers develop solar cells with highest power conversion efficiency

  12-04-2016 16:32
  
  Perovskite solar cells first appeared in 2009 with an efficiency of just 3.8%. With the outstanding photovoltaic properties, perovskite solar cell has become a subject of vigorous research for sustainable power generation, with researchers around the world finding new ways to increase its energy conversion efficiency. It has currently established itself as one of the most promising solar cell materials.
  
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• Study links fetal and newborn dolphin deaths to Deepwater Horizon oil spill

  12-04-2016 15:49
  
  Scientists have finalized a four-year study of newborn and fetal dolphins found stranded on beaches in the northern Gulf of Mexico between 2010 and 2013. Their study, reported in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, identified substantial differences between fetal and newborn dolphins found stranded inside and outside the areas affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
  
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• Philippines probes hacking of poll agency ahead of election

  12-04-2016 15:49
  
  Philippine authorities are investigating a computer security breach at the state election agency, officials said Tuesday, less than a month before the nation goes to the polls.
  
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• The fourth dimension

  12-04-2016 15:39
  
  Remote sensing techniques facilitate observations and monitoring of ground displacements. In particular, space-borne Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) allows accurate measurements of ground deformation by properly analyzing multi-temporal satellite acquisitions over the region of interest.
  
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• Major advance in 'synthetic biochemistry' holds promise for industrial products, biofuels

  12-04-2016 15:36
  
  UCLA biochemists have devised a clever way to make a variety of useful chemical compounds, which could lead to the production of biofuels and new pharmaceuticals.
  
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• US companies may need to beef up data privacy – but only for Europeans

  12-04-2016 15:30
  
  Though the recent Apple versus FBI case garnered greater media attention, a privacy discussion with more economic significance – to the tune of US$260 billion – is moving toward fruition with less public attention: the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield.
  
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• Long-term study shows even protected tropical reserves are threatened by human encroachment

  12-04-2016 15:30
  
  (Phys.org)—A small team of researchers from Mexico and the U.S. has found that protecting the remaining parts of the rain forest will require more than simply outlawing intrusion by mining or tree-cutting on islands of land. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group outlines the problems isolated patches of protected rain forests encounter and why those problem needs to be fixed or we risk losing what we are trying to protect.
  
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• Researchers unite to address the problems that drones and other unmanned vehicles encounter in a harsh Arctic climate

  12-04-2016 15:20
  
  Drones and other remote-controlled and autonomous vehicles face a series of challenges when deployed in harsh and cold environment. Cool humid air ices down wings, propellers and crucial sensors on aircraft, and low temperatures drain batteries.  Satellite and mobile phone coverage is often inadequate in high and scarcely populated latitudes, making communication and data transfer difficult and/or highly expensive, and the magnetic pole is constantly moving, making several instruments less
  
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• New version of the Human Protein Atlas

  12-04-2016 15:20
  
  Today, the 15th version of the Human Protein Atlas is launched. The new version includes data from different sources, which makes comparisons between tissue profiles on both the RNA and protein level possible.
  
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