Sci-Tech news

• Utah essential oil company announces third-party data breach

  27-04-2016 23:30
  
  Utah-based essential oil company doTERRA is warning customers and distributors that their personal information may have been compromised in a data breach in March.
  
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• US House passes email privacy bill

  27-04-2016 23:30
  
  US lawmakers Wednesday approved a bill to boost privacy protection for email and other electronic communication, closing key loopholes in digital data protection.
  
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• Zuckerberg tightens grip as Facebook profit soars (Update)

  27-04-2016 23:29
  
  Facebook on Wednesday fielded a plan to tighten Mark Zuckerberg's grip on the helm as the booming social network reported stellar profit.
  
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• Scientists establish first map of the sea lion brain

  27-04-2016 23:29
  Rio is a California sea lion who can solve IQ tests that many people have trouble passing. In fact, she is so smart that scientists at the Long Marine Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz designed a series of tests that prove she is the first animal besides humans that can use basic logic (If A=B and B=C then A=C).
  
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• Facebook quarterly profit triples as use climbs

  27-04-2016 23:29
  
  Facebook on Wednesday reported that its quarterly profit tripled to $1.5 billion as the ranks of people using the leading social network continued to climb.
  
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• Facebook profits surge as user base expands

  27-04-2016 23:29
  
  Facebook on Wednesday reported a powerful surge in profits as the user base of leading social network continued to climb.
  
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• Crop advances grow with protection

  27-04-2016 23:26
  Most people are aware of open-source computer programs. These free programs, accessible by anyone, spread technology to distant corners of the world. Cutting-edge innovations, however, come at a price. As a result, many software companies license their work.
  
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• Bacteria beneficial to plants have spread across California

  27-04-2016 23:03
  
  Scientists at the University of California, Riverside have discovered that a strain of beneficial nitrogen-fixing bacteria has spread across California, demonstrating that beneficial bacteria can share some of the same features that are characteristic of pathogens.
  
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• Facebook Earnings Shatter Wall Street Expectations

  27-04-2016 22:36 via nbcnews.com
  
  Tech giant Facebook crushed analyst estimates when it reported first-quarter results on Wednesday.
  
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• Snapchat 'Speed Filter' Led to Georgia Car Crash: Lawsuit

  27-04-2016 22:12 via nbcnews.com
  
  Lawyers say the speed tracker led to a car crash that resulted in a man suffering permanent brain damage.
  
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• Protecting diversity on coral reefs: DNA may hold the key

  27-04-2016 22:01
  
  Coral reefs are widely known for their stunning array of color, shape and forms of life, making them a model for extreme biodiversity. Hidden within the multitude of reef inhabitants, but no less important, is their genetic diversity— variability in DNA that gives species the capacity for adaptation, speciation and resilience in the face of stress. Research published today by a team of scientists from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (UHM) School of Ocean and Earth Science and Techn
  
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• Scientists use skin cells to create human sperm

  27-04-2016 21:56
  
  Scientists in Spain on Wednesday they had created human sperm from skin cells, a medical feat which could eventually lead to a treatment for infertility.
  
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• James Webb Space Telescope's golden mirror unveiled

  27-04-2016 21:53
  
  NASA engineers recently unveiled the giant golden mirror of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope as part of the integration and testing of the infrared telescope.
  
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• Researchers create one-step graphene patterning method

  27-04-2016 21:52
  
  Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a one-step, facile method to pattern graphene by using stencil mask and oxygen plasma reactive-ion etching, and subsequent polymer-free direct transfer to flexible substrates.
  
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• Dyson Launches New $399 'Supersonic' Hair Dryer

  27-04-2016 21:35 via nbcnews.com
  
  Dyson just launched a dryer so powerful that it comes with a special rubber mat to prevent it from flying off the counter.
  
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• Intel Says Reports of the Death of Moore's Law Greatly Exaggerated

  27-04-2016 20:34
  
  Is the standard for advancing computing power coming to an end?
  
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• Samsung holds lead in flat global smartphone market

  27-04-2016 20:20
  
  Samsung kept the top spot in a global smartphone market which showed signs of flattening in the first quarter of 2016, a survey showed Wednesday.
  
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• Peacocks shake feathers to mesmerize mates

  27-04-2016 20:09
  
  Call it a shimmy meant to hypnotize. When courting a female, peacocks fan their colorful rear feathers and shake them, but somehow keep their plumes' iridescent circles, or eyespots, nearly still, like a fixed stare.
  
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• Corps determines Kennewick Man is Native American

  27-04-2016 20:06
  
  The ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man is related to modern Native American tribes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday, opening the process for returning to a tribe for burial one of the oldest and most complete set of bones ever found in North America.
  
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• Tiny fossil horses put their back into it

  27-04-2016 20:03
  
  Modern horses are expert runners. They reach top speeds using a special running gait in which they hold their back stiff as they move. A new study published today reveals that tiny fossil ancestors of modern horses may have moved quite differently to their living counterparts.
  
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• Neandertals and Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens had different dietary strategies

  27-04-2016 20:00
  
  When fluctuating climates in the Ice Age altered habitats, modern humans may have adapted their diets in a different way than Neandertals, according to a study published April 27, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Sireen El Zaatari of the University of Tübingen, Germany, and colleagues.
  
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• Hominins may have been food for carnivores 500,000 years ago

  27-04-2016 20:00
  
  Tooth-marks on a 500,000-year-old hominin femur bone found in a Moroccan cave indicate that it was consumed by large carnivores, likely hyenas, according to a study published April 27, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Camille Daujeard from the Muséum National D'Histoire Naturelle, France, and colleagues.
  
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• Home movers more likely to be green commuters, study finds

  27-04-2016 20:00
  
  A study of 18,000 UK residents has found that people who have just moved house are significantly less likely to travel to work by car, opting for a greener mode of transport instead.
  
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• Analysis of dog genome will provide insight into human disease

  27-04-2016 20:00
  
  An important model in studying human disease, the non-coding RNA of the canine genome is an essential starting point for evolutionary and biomedical studies—according to a new study led by The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC).
  
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• SpaceX aims to send 'Red Dragon' capsule to Mars in 2018 (Update)

  27-04-2016 19:57
  
  SpaceX is shooting for Mars.
  
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• SpaceX aims to send 'Red Dragon' capsule to Mars in 2018

  27-04-2016 19:57
  
  SpaceX is shooting for Mars.
  
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• Putin slams Russian space failures after delayed launch

  27-04-2016 19:51
  
  President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday criticised Russia's large number of space failures after the first rocket launch from the country's new Vostochny cosmodrome was delayed minutes before blast-off.
  
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• Transforming teaching with Twitter

  27-04-2016 19:37
  
  Imagine a teaching tool so effective that students look forward to using it in class and continue to seek out new information with it after the school day ends. New research offers powerful evidence that Twitter, if used properly, can produce these outcomes among middle school students and enhance the way children learn in the 21st century.
  
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• Coal-tar based sealcoats on driveways, parking lots far more toxic than suspected

  27-04-2016 19:14
  
  The pavement sealcoat products used widely around the nation on thousands of asphalt driveways and parking lots are significantly more toxic and mutagenic than previously suspected, according to a new paper published this week by researchers from Oregon State University.
  
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• Deep-sea biodiversity impacted by climate change's triple threat

  27-04-2016 19:13
  
  A new study found that vulnerability of deep-sea biodiversity to climate change's triple threat - rising water temperatures, and decreased oxygen, and pH levels - is not uniform across the world's oceans.
  
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• FBI says it won't disclose how it accessed locked iPhone (Update)

  27-04-2016 19:04
  
  The FBI said Wednesday that it will not publicly disclose the method that allowed it to break into a locked iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers, noting the agency lacks enough "technical information" about the software vulnerability that was exploited.
  
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• FBI says it won't disclose how it accessed locked iPhone

  27-04-2016 19:04
  
  The FBI said Wednesday that it will not publicly disclose the method that allowed it to access a locked iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers, saying it lacks enough "technical information" about the software vulnerability that was exploited.
  
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• Team creates a mathematical tool that helps resolve imprecise time estimates

  27-04-2016 19:00
  
  Let's say you're trying to pinpoint when a particular past event occurred, but your best possible estimate puts it only within a span of 10,000 years. Now imagine if something could shrink that window of "when" to just 30 years.
  
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• Scientists uncover new way to grow rare life-saving blood stem cells

  27-04-2016 19:00
  
  Researchers at McMaster University's Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute have made significant steps forward in understanding the stem cells of the human blood system after discovering how a key protein allows for better control and regeneration of these cells.
  
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• Bacterial virulence is stimulated by burns

  27-04-2016 19:00
  
  Sepsis constitutes the main cause of disease and death in people suffering from severe burns. This results from the dissemination of pathogens in the body, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, one of the three bacteria most frequently responsible for this complication. This microorganism is all the more fearsome as its virulence and its resistance to antibiotics can be modulated by various factors present in its host.
  
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• Widespread loss of ocean oxygen to become noticeable in 2030s

  27-04-2016 18:26
  
  A reduction in the amount of oxygen dissolved in the oceans due to climate change is already discernible in some parts of the world and should be evident across large regions of the oceans between 2030 and 2040, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
  
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• A molecular switch to better understand signaling

  27-04-2016 18:25
  
  In the alphabets of our genomes, a single typo can mean the difference between health and disease. The "words" are molecules, like enzymes, and one group of these called kinases are particularly important. However, it's difficult to pick apart the exact roles of misspellings in various kinases in a disease process. This week in ACS Central Science, researchers report development of a new way to determine this, both in a lab dish and in mice.
  
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• Social media interaction tools might make MOOCs stickier

  27-04-2016 18:23
  
  Developers of massive open online courses—or MOOCs—may want to take a page from Facebook to keep more students engaged and enrolled, according to researchers.
  
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• Bosses should maintain goodwill when saying goodbye to ex-employees

  27-04-2016 18:23
  
  Even though saying farewell to departing employees is a more frequent occurrence in today's high-turnover industries, researchers suggest that leaders should maintain good relationships with these workers as they exit.
  
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• High product, labor costs lead to decline in Boeing's profit

  27-04-2016 18:21
  
  Aerospace giant Boeing Co. saw its quarterly earnings plunge 9 percent compared to last year, with the Chicago-based company posting $1.2 billion in profits.
  
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• Comcast beats Street 1Q forecasts, adds subscribers

  27-04-2016 18:20
  
  Comcast Corp. on Wednesday reported first-quarter earnings of $2.13 billion, surpassing Wall Street's expectations with help from an increase in subscriber numbers.
  
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• New tool puts a consistent value on experts' uncertainty on climate change models

  27-04-2016 18:19
  
  Science can flourish when experts disagree, but in the governmental realm uncertainty can lead to inadequate policy and preparedness. When it comes to climate change, it can be OK for computational models to differ on what future sea levels will be. The same flexibility does not exist for determining the height of a seawall needed to protect people from devastating floods.
  
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• Landscape ecology must play a role in policymaking

  27-04-2016 18:19
  
  The world faces unprecedented environmental transformation. Successfully managing and adapting to a rapidly changing Earth requires the swift action of well-informed policymakers. In a State of the Science report for BioScience, Audrey L. Mayer of Michigan Technological University and her colleagues argue for a major role for landscape ecology in tackling the urgent global issues of climate change, land use-land cover change, and urbanization.
  
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• Spotify acquires CrowdAlbum image platform

  27-04-2016 18:16
  
  Swedish music streaming giant Spotify on Wednesday announced the acquisition of CrowdAlbum, a US-based company that created a platform for sharing online photos and videos.
  
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• Researchers create a first frequency comb of time-bin entangled qubits

  27-04-2016 18:15
  
  Quantum mechanics, with its counter-intuitive rules for describing the behavior of tiny particles like photons and atoms, holds great promise for profound advances in the security and speed of how we communicate and compute.
  
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• Cute alert: Florida manatee gives birth to twins

  27-04-2016 18:15
  
  Scientists say a manatee that swims in waters near Sarasota has given birth to rare twins.
  
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• Contamination in North Dakota linked to fracking spills

  27-04-2016 18:14
  
  Accidental wastewater spills from unconventional oil production in North Dakota have caused widespread water and soil contamination, a new Duke University study finds.
  
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• Polarization may cause climate communication to backfire

  27-04-2016 18:05
  
  Political advocates who support action on climate change have long sought "the perfect message" for swaying skeptics. If the issue can be framed correctly, they believe, the battle can be won.
  
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• Twitter May Have to Get Over Not Being Another Facebook

  27-04-2016 17:22 via nbcnews.com
  
  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.
  
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• Rainwater may play an important role in the process that triggers earthquakes

  27-04-2016 16:25
  
  Rainwater may play an important role in the process that triggers earthquakes, according to new research.
  
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