Sci-Tech news

• Optimizing lighting for better learning

  26-04-2016 23:52
  
  The intensity of artificial lighting has been shown to have a range of effects on our mood and our ability to concentrate. New research explores the color of lighting and its effect on our cognitive performance. The study, published in in the journal Optics Express, from The Optical Society (OSA), was conducted by Kyungah Choi and Hyeon-Jeong Suk, associate professor of industrial design at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea and head of the Institute's
  
  Read more

• Twitter's destiny: staying small? Not so fast, say investors

  26-04-2016 23:30
  
  Twitter gets lots of grief from investors because it hasn't taken over the world the way Facebook did, at least in terms of amassing users.
  
  Read more

• US urges Illinois city to give customers bottled water

  26-04-2016 23:20
  
  Federal regulators are recommending that an Illinois city provide bottled water or filters to residents affected by high levels of lead in their drinking water.
  
  Read more

• Twitter stung by stall in user growth (Update)

  26-04-2016 23:03
  
  Twitter shares slid Tuesday after a quarterly update worsened investor fears that the one-to-many messaging service can win enough users to be a lucrative, mainstream hit.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Twitter stung by stall in user growth

  26-04-2016 23:03
  
  Twitter shares nosedived Tuesday after reporting its user base showed little change in the past quarter as the messaging platform delivered fresh losses and weaker-than-expected revenue growth.
  
  Read more

• Culture, crowding and social influence all tied to aggressive driving behavior

  26-04-2016 23:03
  
  A study of angry, competitive and aggressive driving suggests that these dangerous behaviors are becoming a worldwide phenomenon of almost epidemic proportions, and are a reflection of a person's surrounding culture, both on the road and on a broader social level.
  
  Read more

• Apple reports iPhone sales down, 1st revenue drop since 2003 (Update)

  26-04-2016 23:02
  
  Apple sold more than 51 million iPhones in the first three months of this year—and that's the problem.
  
  Read more

• Apple reports iPhone sales down, 1st revenue drop since 2003

  26-04-2016 23:02
  
  Apple says quarterly revenue fell for the first time in more than a decade, as iPhone sales fell compared with a year ago. That's putting more pressure on the world's most valuable public company to come up with its next big product.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• How the World Looked Last Time Apple Saw a Dip

  26-04-2016 22:53 via nbcnews.com
  
  With analysts predicting an earnings decline, the first in 51 straight quarters, we look at the world in 2003, the last time Apple saw a dip.
  
  Read more

• SDO captures stunning view of April 17 solar flare

  26-04-2016 22:44
  
  On April 17, 2016, an active region on the sun's right side released a mid-level solar flare, which can be seen in this movie as a bright flash of light.
  
  Read more

• Cassini explores a methane sea on Titan

  26-04-2016 22:41
  
  Of the hundreds of moons in our solar system, Titan is the only one with a dense atmosphere and large liquid reservoirs on its surface, making it in some ways more like a terrestrial planet.
  
  Read more

• NASA scientists scrutinize arctic gas flaring pollution

  26-04-2016 22:39
  
  Flaring of waste natural gas from industrial oil fields in the Northern Hemisphere is a potential source of significant amounts of nitrogen dioxide and black carbon to the Arctic, according to a new NASA study.
  
  Read more

• Apple Ends 13 Years of Continuous Quarterly Growth

  26-04-2016 22:35 via nbcnews.com
  
  Apple reported quarterly earnings and revenue that missed analysts' expectations on Tuesday.The tech giant said it saw second-quarter earnings of $1.9
  
  Read more

• Tech industry titans urge US to better fund science ed

  26-04-2016 22:24
  
  Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg were among tech titans who joined school officials, non-profits and state leaders to urge the US government to better back teaching computer science.
  
  Read more

• First multi-year study of honey bee parasites and disease reveals troubling trends

  26-04-2016 22:19
  
  Honey bee colonies in the United States are in decline, due in part to the ill effects of voracious mites, fungal gut parasites and a wide variety of debilitating viruses. Researchers from the University of Maryland and the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently completed the first comprehensive, multi-year study of honey bee parasites and disease as part of the National Honey Bee Disease Survey. The findings reveal some alarming patterns, but provide at least a few pieces of good news as well.
  
  Read more

• Chile quake at epicenter of expanding disaster and failure data repository

  26-04-2016 22:09
  
  Feb. 27, 2010, is a date that most Chileans will probably never forget. On that day, the sixth strongest earthquake in recorded history—packing a force greater than the most powerful thermonuclear device ever tested—occurred off the country's central coast. Now, thanks to a newly available set of data collected in the aftermath of the disaster, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is providing Chile and other quake-prone areas worldwide with a powerful tool towar
  
  Read more

• Race and gender may not affect employer interest in resumes

  26-04-2016 22:06
  
  In 2004, research found that resumes submitted by people with distinctly sounding African-American names were less likely to get callbacks regarding the job. Now, new research from the University of Missouri finds no evidence of employer preferences for applicants from a particular race or gender at the initial stage of the hiring process. In re-visiting the question of how job applicants' race and gender affect employer interest in their resumes, Cory Koedel, an associate professor of economics
  
  Read more

• 1 minus 1 does not always equal 0 in chemistry

  26-04-2016 22:03
  
  In the world of chemistry, one minus one almost always equals zero.
  
  Read more

• Study finds nanotube semiconductors well-suited for PV systems

  26-04-2016 21:11
  
  Researchers at the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) discovered single-walled carbon nanotube semiconductors could be favorable for photovoltaic systems because they can potentially convert sunlight to electricity or fuels without losing much energy.
  
  Read more

• Model predicts how forests will respond to climate change

  26-04-2016 21:10
  
  Drought could render the U.S. Northeast's mixed forests unsustainable after 2050 while Washington's Cascade Mountains may require tropical and subtropical forest species, according to researchers using a new type of mathematical model at Washington State University.
  
  Read more

• Google, Uber in coalition to promote self-driving cars

  26-04-2016 20:55
  
  Google and Uber are part of a coalition unveiled on Tuesday to push for a unified US legal code on self-driving cars as part of a broader lobbying drive to promote that technology.
  
  Read more

• NASA team set to fly balloon mission seeking evidence of cosmological inflation

  26-04-2016 20:54
  
  Now that scientists have confirmed the existence of gravitational waves, a NASA team is set to search for a predicted signature of primordial gravitational waves that would prove the infant universe expanded far faster than the speed of light and began growing exponentially almost instantaneously after the Big Bang.
  
  Read more

• EuPRAXIA to design world-first plasma accelerator research facility with strong industrial applications

  26-04-2016 20:52
  
  Accelerator scientists from across Europe are collaborating to design the world's first high energy plasma-based accelerator, which will be stronger and more compact than the current accelerators used by industry today, opening up the opportunity to use the beams for entirely new types of application.The consortium, called EuPRAXIA, brings together 16 institutions and 18 associated partners from more than eight countries, it has just had its kick-off meeting.
  
  Read more

• 60 mn people worldwide hit by El Nino: UN

  26-04-2016 20:50
  
  Some 60 million people worldwide need assistance due to havoc wreaked by the El Nino climate phenomenon, but a shortage of funding could threaten the delivery of life-saving aid, the UN warned Tuesday.
  
  Read more

• One oil field a key culprit in global ethane gas increase

  26-04-2016 20:48
  
  A single U.S. shale oil field is responsible for much of the past decade's increase in global atmospheric levels of ethane, a gas that can damage air quality and impact climate, according to new study led by the University of Michigan.
  
  Read more

• Hubble discovers moon orbiting the dwarf planet Makemake

  26-04-2016 20:47
  
  Peering to the outskirts of our solar system, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a small, dark moon orbiting Makemake, the second brightest icy dwarf planet—after Pluto—in the Kuiper Belt.
  
  Read more

• FBI chief warns of 'costs' to strong encryption

  26-04-2016 20:10
  
  FBI Director James Comey called Tuesday for a discussion of the "costs" of strong encryption now that a legal battle over access to the iPhone used by a California attacker has ended.
  
  Read more

• Study shows vivid language used to assure whistleblowers of protection instead evokes fear

  26-04-2016 20:06
  
  A new study by researchers at Florida Atlantic University and Providence College has found that vivid language intended to assure potential whistleblowers they will be protected from retaliation is instead likely to evoke fear and make them less likely to report misconduct.
  
  Read more

• Retroviral DNA needs time to find its home, but insertion happens in a blink

  26-04-2016 20:06
  
  When retroviruses such as HIV infect a cell, they first make a copy of their RNA genome in the form of DNA. The relatively short viral DNA strand then moves to the cell nucleus, where it inserts itself into the host cell's DNA.
  
  Read more

• Newly discovered titanosaurian dinosaur from Argentina, Sarmientosaurus

  26-04-2016 20:03
  
  Scientists have discovered Sarmientosaurus musacchioi, a new species of titanosaurian dinosaur, based on an complete skull and partial neck fossil unearthed in Patagonia, Argentina, according to a study published April 26, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Rubén Martínez from the Laboratorio de Paleovertebrados of the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco (UNPSJB), Argentina, and colleagues.
  
  Read more

• Fossils may reveal 20-million-year history of penguins in Australia

  26-04-2016 20:02
  
  Multiple dispersals of penguins reached Australia after the continent split from Antarctica, including 'giant penguins' that may have lived there after they went extinct elsewhere, according to a study published April 26, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Travis Park from Monash University, Australia, and colleagues.
  
  Read more

• FBI chief sees better cyber cooperation from China

  26-04-2016 19:53
  
  FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday he has seen some improvement in cooperation from China in fighting cybercrime following last year's bilateral agreement on the issue.
  
  Read more

• Nearby massive star explosion 30 million years ago equaled detonation of 100 million suns

  26-04-2016 19:52
  
  A giant star that exploded 30 million years ago in a galaxy near Earth had a radius prior to going supernova that was 200 times larger than our sun, according to astrophysicists at Southern Methodist University, Dallas.
  
  Read more

• This Company Will Freeze Your Dead Body for $200,000

  26-04-2016 19:49 via nbcnews.com
  
  In the desert climate of Scottsdale, Arizona rest 147 brains and bodies, all frozen in liquid nitrogen with the goal of being revived one day.
  
  Read more

• Proteomics method measures carbon uptake of marine microbes

  26-04-2016 19:49
  
  In a paper published April 26th in mSystems, a team of researchers led by microbiologists at Oregon State University, in Corvallis, describe a successful trial of a new method of identifying the carbon uptake of specific marine bacterioplankton taxa. The technique uses proteomics - the large-scale study of proteins - to observe directly the metabolic processes of communities of microorganisms.
  
  Read more

• Astronomers Discover Moon Orbiting the Dwarf Planet Makemake

  26-04-2016 19:46 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using the Hubble Space Telescope a team of astronomers just discovered a moon orbiting dwarf planet Makemake — the third largest known object past the orbit of Neptune, about two thirds the size of Pluto. Peering to the outskirts of our solar system, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a small, dark moon orbiting Makemake, […]
  The post Astronomers Discover Moon Orbiting the Dwarf Planet Makemake appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• Reducing waste while improving snack nutrition

  26-04-2016 19:45
  
  Your favorite puffed snack food may soon contain more fiber and nutrition, thanks to research from Washington State University food scientists.
  
  Read more

• Fermentation festival leads to rapid response system at Center for Microbiome Innovation

  26-04-2016 19:42
  
  The personalized collections of microorganisms and molecules found in, on and around us—known as our microbiome and metabolome, respectively—are increasingly recognized for their influences on everything from allergies to obesity. While advances in genetic sequencing and computing power have made it easier to map the minutiae of our bodies and environments, these types of studies typically take months or years—too long for that data to be medically useful. Researchers at the Un
  
  Read more

• Scientists reveal secrets of a deadly virus family

  26-04-2016 19:37
  
  For the first time, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have solved the structure of the biological machinery used by a common virus to recognize and attack human host cells.
  
  Read more

• Ancient glass-glued walls studied for nuke waste solutions

  26-04-2016 19:35
  
  The modern challenge of nuclear waste storage and disposal has researchers at Washington State University looking back at ancient materials from around the world.
  
  Read more

• Seeing atoms and molecules in action with an electron 'eye'

  26-04-2016 19:34
  
  A unique rapid-fire electron source—originally built as a prototype for driving next-generation X-ray lasers—is helping scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) study ultrafast chemical processes and changes in materials at the atomic scale. This could provide new insight in how to make materials with custom, controllable properties and improve the efficiency and output of chemical reactions.
  
  Read more

• Light echoes give clues to planet nursery around star

  26-04-2016 19:33
  
  Imagine you want to measure the size of a room, but it's completely dark. If you shout, you can tell if the space you're in is relatively big or small, depending on how long it takes to hear the echo after it bounces off the wall.
  
  Read more

• Can technology help teach literacy in poor communities?

  26-04-2016 19:32
  
  For the past four years, researchers at MIT, Tufts University, and Georgia State University have been conducting a study to determine whether tablet computers loaded with literacy applications could improve the reading preparedness of young children living in economically disadvantaged communities.
  
  Read more

• Astronomers Use Light Echoes to Measure Protoplanetary Disk

  26-04-2016 19:27 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and four ground-based telescopes, astronomers determine the distance from a star to the inner rim of its surrounding protoplanetary disk. Imagine you want to measure the size of a room, but it’s completely dark. If you shout, you can tell if the space you’re in is relatively big […]
  The post Astronomers Use Light Echoes to Measure Protoplanetary Disk appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• Astronomers Gain a Better Understanding Spica

  26-04-2016 19:11 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A newly published study details Spica, an eccentric double-lined spectroscopic binary system with a β Cep type variable primary component. The familiar star Spica (Alpha Virginis) is the fifteenth brightest star in the night sky, in part because it is relatively nearby, only about 250 light-years away. It is easy to find by following the […]
  The post Astronomers Gain a Better Understanding Spica appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• Astronomers Gain a Better Understanding of Spica

  26-04-2016 19:11 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A newly published study details Spica, an eccentric double-lined spectroscopic binary system with a β Cep type variable primary component. The familiar star Spica (Alpha Virginis) is the fifteenth brightest star in the night sky, in part because it is relatively nearby, only about 250 light-years away. It is easy to find by following the […]
  The post Astronomers Gain a Better Understanding of Spica appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
  Read more

• Bioreactors ready for the big time

  26-04-2016 18:02
  
  Last summer, the Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone" spanned more than 6,400 square miles, more than three times the size it should have been, according to the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force. Nitrogen runoff from farms along the Mississippi River winds up in the Gulf, feeding algae but depriving other marine life of oxygen when the algae decomposes. The 12 states that border the Mississippi have been mandated to develop nutrient reduction strategies, but one especially effective strategy has not been adopted
  
  Read more

• Groundwater quality changes alongside expansion of hydraulic fracturing

  26-04-2016 18:01
  
  New research from The University of Texas at Arlington demonstrates that groundwater quality changes alongside the expansion of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing but also suggests that some potentially hazardous effects may dissipate over time.
  
  Read more

• Women who are cheated on 'win' in the long run; new women 'lose'

  26-04-2016 17:53
  
  Women who lose their unfaithful mate to another woman actually win in the long run, according to new research.
  
  Read more

• Study finds shifting gaps in educational attainment among students of different incomes

  26-04-2016 17:53
  
  A new NYU Steinhardt study published in the journal AERA Open looks at income-based gaps in educational attainment. While the difference in high school graduation rates between high- and low-income students shrunk, inequality may have shifted to higher education, with gaps growing in college attendance and completion.
  
  Read more

Follow @NewslockSciTech on Twitter!