Sci-Tech news

• Colombia resumes anti-coca spray dropped over cancer fears

  18-04-2016 23:10
  
  Colombia will resume using weed killer to destroy illegal coca crops less than a year after suspending its use due to cancer concerns.
  
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• Manhattan DA, law officials push for encryption legislation

  18-04-2016 23:00
  
  Calling it an issue of victims' rights, the Manhattan district attorney urged Congress to pass legislation that would require tech companies to give law enforcement a way to access information on encrypted phones and other devices.
  
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• Is my brand image green or healthy? No need for costly surveys, just ask Twitter

  18-04-2016 22:51
  
  What do Toyota, Aveda, and Clif Bar have in common? A forthcoming article in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science finds that Twitter fans of these brands are all more likely to follow accounts that tweet about the environment. This in turn creates a greener image than other brands in their sectors.
  
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• Twitter's new China head wants to 'work together' with state media

  18-04-2016 22:50
  
  The new head of Twitter in China has called for "closer partnership" with Communist Party-backed state media, leading many of the social network's users to question her appointment.
  
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• First computer program developed to detect DNA mutations in single cancer cells

  18-04-2016 22:47
  
  Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a new method for detecting DNA mutations in a single cancer cell versus current technology that analyzes millions of cells which they believe could have important applications for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The results are published in the April 18 online issue of Nature Methods.
  
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• 3D printer used to create new feet for duck

  18-04-2016 22:33
  
  A duck that lost its feet to frostbite is waddling again thanks to a Wisconsin middle school teacher and a 3D printer.
  
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• US grant of $20 million will study Lake Champlain resiliency

  18-04-2016 22:32
  
  Scientists from a number of Vermont colleges and universities will be using a $20 million federal grant to study what makes some sections of the Lake Champlain watershed bounce back faster than others after extreme weather, officials announced Monday.
  
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• Euologies pour in for Silicon Valley tech world 'coach'

  18-04-2016 22:31
  
  Silicon Valley on Monday mourned the death of Bill Campbell, nicknamed "The Coach" for precious advice he dispensed to top figures at companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon
  
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• 30 years after Chernobyl, camera study reveals wildlife abundance in CEZ

  18-04-2016 22:23
  
  Thirty years ago, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, became the site of the world's largest nuclear accident. While humans are now scarce in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, continued studies—including a just-published camera study conducted by researchers from the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory—validate findings that wildlife populations are abundant at the site.
  
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• Exfoliating thinner flakes of phosphorene at higher yield

  18-04-2016 22:22
  
  In the past two years, phosphorene has attracted increased attention due to its potential in thin, flexible electronics. And because it is naturally a semi-conductor, phosphorene holds promise where miracle material graphene falls short.
  
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• Pentagon Will Reward Hackers Who Find Security Problems on Its Websites

  18-04-2016 22:01 via abcnews.go.com
  
  Hackers participating in the program had to undergo background checks.
  
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• Post-wildfire erosion can be major sculptor of forested western mountains

  18-04-2016 22:00
  
  Erosion after severe wildfires can be the dominant force shaping forested mountainous landscapes of the U.S. Intermountain West, suggests a new research paper by two University of Arizona geoscientists.
  
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• New computer program can help uncover hidden genomic alterations that drive cancers

  18-04-2016 21:45
  
  Cancer is rarely the result of a single mutation in a single gene. Rather, tumors arise from the complex interplay between any number of mutually exclusive abnormal changes in the genome, the combinations of which can be unique to each individual patient. To better characterize the functional context of genomic variations in cancer, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the Broad Institute developed a new computer algorithm they call REVEALER.
  
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• Raft-building ants exhibit memory and repeatedly occupy the same position when forming rafts

  18-04-2016 21:44
  
  A team of scientists has found that a species of ant that clusters together to form rafts to survive floods exhibits memory and repeatedly occupies the same position during raft formation, according to a just published paper.
  
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• What screens are made of: New twists (and bends) in LCD research

  18-04-2016 21:41
  
  Liquid crystals, discovered more than 125 years ago, are at work behind the screens of TV and computer monitors, clocks, watches and most other electronics displays, and scientists are still discovering new twists—and bends—in their molecular makeup.
  
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• Alexis Rockman Bridges the Gulf Between Art and Science

  18-04-2016 21:18 via nytimes.com
  The New York artist who has made a career of portraying scientific themes discusses his work.
  
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• Study identifies tree traits that may contribute to drought vulnerability

  18-04-2016 21:00
  
  Two hundred-twenty-five million trees dead in the southwest in a 2002 drought. Three hundred million trees in Texas in 2011. Twelve million this past year in California. Throughout the world, large numbers of trees are dying in extreme heat and drought events. Because mass die-offs can have critical consequences for the future of forests and the future of Earth's climate, scientists are trying to understand how a warming climate could affect how often tree mortality events occur - and how severe
  
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• Nanoparticle acts like Trojan horse to halt asthma

  18-04-2016 21:00
  
  In an entirely new approach to treating asthma and allergies, a biodegradable nanoparticle acts like a Trojan horse, hiding an allergen in a friendly shell, to convince the immune system not to attack it, according to new Northwestern Medicine research. As a result, the allergic reaction in the airways is shut down long- term and an asthma attack prevented.
  
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• Dinosaurs 'already in decline' before asteroid apocalypse

  18-04-2016 21:00
  
  Dinosaurs were already in an evolutionary decline tens of millions of years before the meteorite impact that finally finished them off, new research has found.
  
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• Copper gives an answer to the rise of oxygen

  18-04-2016 21:00
  
  A new study presents evidence that the rise of atmospheric oxygenation did indeed occur 2.4-2.1 billion years ago. It also shows that biological usage of copper became prominent after the so called 'Great Oxidation Event.' An international team of researchers has recently published the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
  
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• Drone Collision with Jet Highlights Growing Danger

  18-04-2016 20:58 via nbcnews.com
  
  A collision between a British Airways passenger jet and a drone over London has left the plane undamaged but the aviation industry deeply shaken.
  
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• Fermi telescope poised to pin down gravitational wave sources

  18-04-2016 18:57
  
  On Sept. 14, waves of energy traveling for more than a billion years gently rattled space-time in the vicinity of Earth. The disturbance, produced by a pair of merging black holes, was captured by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) facilities in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana. This event marked the first-ever detection of gravitational waves and opens a new scientific window on how the universe works.
  
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• American teacher panel surveys teachers' knowledge and perceptions of state standards

  18-04-2016 18:32
  
  A new RAND Corporation survey of American teachers provides several key areas where states and school districts can do more to help teachers engage in instruction that will most help students meet state standards.
  
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• Bigger brains led to bigger bodies in our ancestors

  18-04-2016 18:30
  
  New research suggests that humans became the large-brained, large-bodied animals we are today because of natural selection to increase brain size. The work, published in the journal Current Anthropology, contradicts previous models that treat brain size and body size as independent traits responding to separate evolutionary pressures. Instead, the study shows that brain size and body size are genetically linked and that selection to increase brain size will "pull along" body size. This phenomeno
  
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• Scientists discover C4 photosynthesis boosts growth by altering size and structure of plant leaves and roots

  18-04-2016 18:28
  
  Plants using C4 photosynthesis grow 20-100 per cent quicker than more common C3 plants by altering the shape, size and structure of their leaves and roots, according to a new study.
  
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• Team devises new technique to probe 'noise' in quantum computing

  18-04-2016 18:26
  
  Dartmouth College and Griffith University researchers have devised a new way to "sense" and control external noise in quantum computing.
  
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• Asynchronous cell cycle phase key to critical stage of animal embryonic development

  18-04-2016 18:25
  
  Cell division of a mother cell to produce two identical daughter cells is known as mitosis. This underlies the early embryonic development of sea squirts, when it changes from being highly synchronized to displaying a distinct spatial pattern that accompanies neural tube formation. However, researchers did not understand what controlled this switch in mitotic timing. A recent study from the University of Tsukuba reveals that the change represents the beginning of a mitotic wave that passes from
  
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• Gun hunting could lead to extinction of threatened primates on African island

  18-04-2016 18:24
  
  Gun hunting may be driving some of the most threatened primates toward extinction on Bioko Island off the coast of Africa, according to a new study by a team led by Drexel University researchers.
  
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• How the Boston Marathon is Using Security Technology

  18-04-2016 18:08 via nbcnews.com
  
  Three years after a deadly bombing at the Boston Marathon, technology has changed the way law enforcement and first responders monitor the event.
  
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• New Debugging Method Finds 23 Undetected Security Flaws in Popular Web Applications

  18-04-2016 17:47 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A new debugging system found 23 previously undiagnosed security flaws in 50 popular Web applications, and it took no more than 64 seconds to analyze any given program. By exploiting some peculiarities of the popular Web programming framework Ruby on Rails, MIT researchers have developed a system that can quickly comb through tens of thousands […]
  The post New Debugging Method Finds 23 Undetected Security Flaws in Popular Web Applications appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Study says smartphones are eroding personal privacy

  18-04-2016 17:42
  
  Private v. public, virtual v. real have converged in a world saturated by information technology. It seems impossible to divide the public from the personal. But when and where do we choose to share information about ourselves? How do we perceive public space and virtual space? And how do these perceptions influence our practices of seeing and being seen?
  
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• New Horizons Shows Pluto’s Haze Varies in Brightness

  18-04-2016 17:35 via scitechdaily.com
  
  New images from NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft reveal that Pluto’s haze varies in brightness. Scientists on NASA’s New Horizons mission team are learning more about the structure and behavior of Pluto’s complex atmosphere by discovering new attributes of its extensive haze layers. The hazes were first discovered by New Horizons in July, as the spacecraft […]
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• NASA examines Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Fantala near Madagascar

  18-04-2016 17:29
  
  Tropical Cyclone Fantala has become a major tropical cyclone in the Southern Indian Ocean reaching Category 5 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. NASA's RapidScat instrument observed powerful winds wrapped tightly around the eye, and NASA's Aqua satellite saw the well-structured storm with a wide eye as it was due north of Madagascar early on April 18.
  
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• Cassini Y-Shaped Discontinuity on Enceladus

  18-04-2016 17:28 via scitechdaily.com
  
  NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft views a Y-shaped discontinuity on Enceladus’ south pole. A sinuous feature snakes northward from Enceladus’ south pole like a giant tentacle. This feature, which stretches from the terminator near center, toward upper left, is actually tectonic in nature, created by stresses in Enceladus’ icy shell. Geologists call features like these on Enceladus […]
  The post Cassini Y-Shaped Discontinuity on Enceladus appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• HAWC Gamma-ray Observatory reveals new look at the very-high-energy sky

  18-04-2016 17:27
  
  The United States and Mexico constructed the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-ray Observatory to observe some of the most energetic phenomena in the known universe—the aftermath when massive stars die, glowing clouds of electrons around rapidly spinning neutron stars, and supermassive black holes devouring matter and spitting out powerful jets of particles. These violent explosions produce high-energy gamma rays and cosmic rays, which can travel large distances—making it po
  
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• Researchers transmit data through animal tissues at HD video rates via ultrasound

  18-04-2016 17:26
  
  Using animal tissue samples—store-bought pork loin and beef liver—researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated the possibility of real-time video-rate data transmission through tissue for in-body ultrasonic communications with implanted medical devices.
  
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• New optogenetic tool moves proteins within cells to study biological changes

  18-04-2016 17:24
  
  Scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have developed a way to embed light-responsive switches into proteins so that researchers can use lasers to manipulate protein movement and activity within living cells and animals.
  
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• Amazon Takes Aim at Netflix With Monthly Prime Option

  18-04-2016 17:21 via nbcnews.com
  
  In its most direct challenge to Netflix yet, Amazon on Sunday debuted a new Prime subscription option for monthly video streaming.
  
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• Zipf’s Law from Scale-free Geometry – Like Galaxies, Like Cities

  18-04-2016 17:18 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Abstract: The spatial distribution of people exhibits clustering across a wide range of scales, from household (∼10−2 km) to continental (∼104 km) scales. Empirical data indicates simple power-law scalings for the size distribution of cities (known as Zipf’s law) and the population density fluctuations as a function of scale. Using techniques from random field theory […]
  The post Zipf’s Law from Scale-free Geometry – Like Galaxies, Like Cities appeared firs
  
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• Drone collision with jet highlights growing aviation danger

  18-04-2016 17:10
  
  A collision between a British Airways passenger jet and a drone over London has left the plane undamaged but the aviation industry deeply shaken.
  
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• Supreme Court Declines to Hear Google Book-Scanning Case

  18-04-2016 17:08 via nbcnews.com
  
  The Authors Guild and several individual writers have argued that the project, known as Google Books, illegally deprives them of revenue.
  
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• Combating climate change from the trenches

  18-04-2016 17:06
  
  Land degradation is a serious cause for concern in sub-Saharan Africa where it affects more than two-thirds of its territory. The heavy reliance on an agriculture that is highly vulnerable to climate change, and the ever-increasing pressure on soil and water resources from growing population are posing severe constraints on food security to those already at high risk of poverty and chronic food shortages. In view of the widespread degradation caused by agricultural activities in semi-arid enviro
  
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• Study provides structural basis for development of new antibiotics

  18-04-2016 17:00
  
  Antibiotic-resistant infections are a growing threat to public health, striking about 2 million Americans each year and killing at least 23,000 of them. Microbes are rapidly evolving resistance to existing drugs, making the need for newer, more potent antibiotics greater than ever.
  
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• Reader of epigenetic marks could be 'game changer' for certain cancers

  18-04-2016 17:00
  
  If genes form the body's blueprint, then the layer of epigenetics decides which parts of the plan get built. Unfortunately, many cancers hijack epigenetics to modulate the expression of genes, thus promoting cancer growth and survival. A team of researchers led by Tatiana Kutateladze, PhD, University of Colorado Cancer Center investigator and professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and Brian Strahl, PhD, professor in the Department of Biochem
  
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• New nanodevice shifts light's color at single-photon level

  18-04-2016 17:00
  
  Converting a single photon from one color, or frequency, to another is an essential tool in quantum communication, which harnesses the subtle correlations between the subatomic properties of photons (particles of light) to securely store and transmit information. Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have now developed a miniaturized version of a frequency converter, using technology similar to that used to make computer chips.
  
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• Inverse spin Hall effect: A new way to get electricity from magnetism

  18-04-2016 17:00
  
  By showing that a phenomenon dubbed the "inverse spin Hall effect" works in several organic semiconductors - including carbon-60 buckyballs - University of Utah physicists changed magnetic "spin current" into electric current. The efficiency of this new power conversion method isn't yet known, but it might find use in future electronic devices including batteries, solar cells and computers.
  
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• Intensive farming in the tropics could require huge phosphorus 'tax'

  18-04-2016 17:00
  
  From the Amazon to Africa, tropical regions are widely expected to play a growing role in supplying food to the world. With global population on the rise, many policy experts and conservationists see agricultural intensification as a winning strategy to produce more food per acre while sparing tropical forests from being converted to farmland. Just pour on the fertilizer.
  
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• Could global warming's top culprit help crops?

  18-04-2016 17:00
  
  Many scientists fear that global warming will hit staple food crops hard, with heat stress, extreme weather events and water shortages. On the other hand, higher levels of carbon dioxide—the main cause of ongoing warming—is known to boost many plants' productivity, and reduce their use of water. So, if we keep pouring more CO2 into the air, will crops fail, or benefit? A new study tries to disentangle this complex question. It suggests that while greater warmth will reduce yields of
  
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• Comparative analysis highlights impacts of previous breeding programs on cassava genome

  18-04-2016 17:00
  
  For nearly a billion people around the world, cassava is a staple crop and a primary source of calories. The plant is easy to cultivate—cuttings grow well on marginal land—and it is very tolerant of drought. For the U.S. Department of Energy, these traits and its starchy qualities make cassava of interest as a potential feedstock for biofuel production.
  
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• 'Mobilization fatigue' leads to diminishing returns for labor-backed voter turnout drives

  18-04-2016 16:58
  
  Between now and the presidential election in November, political pundits of all stripes will be trumpeting the importance of voter turnout for both political parties. But according to a new paper from a University of Illinois labor expert who studies unions and politics, repeated voter contact across multiple election cycles can yield diminishing returns and eventually lead to "mobilization fatigue" if voters are contacted too often.
  
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