Sci-Tech news

• Exploring phosphorene, a promising new material

  28-04-2016 23:11
  
  Two-dimensional phosphane, a material known as phosphorene, has potential application as a material for semiconducting transistors in ever faster and more powerful computers. But there's a hitch. Many of the useful properties of this material, like its ability to conduct electrons, are anisotropic, meaning they vary depending on the orientation of the crystal. Now, a team including researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has developed a new method to quickly and accurately determin
  
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• Carl Icahn sells Apple stake, citing China worries

  28-04-2016 23:11
  
  Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has sold his stake in Apple, citing concerns about the giant tech company's prospects in China.
  
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• Amazon delivers profit, stock surges

  28-04-2016 23:11
  
  Amazon on Thursday reported a fourth consecutive quarterly profit, sending shares surging for the online giant known better for its customer connections than its profit margins.
  
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• Probing dark energy with clusters: "Russian doll" galaxy clusters reveal information about dark energy

  28-04-2016 23:04
  
  These four galaxy clusters were part of a large survey of over 300 clusters used to investigate dark energy, the mysterious energy that is currently driving the accelerating expansion of the Universe, as described in our latest press release. In these composite images, X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) have been combined with optical light from the Hubble Space Telescope and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (red, green, and blue).
  
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• Fermi telescope helps link cosmic neutrino to blazar blast

  28-04-2016 22:55
  
  Nearly 10 billion years ago, the black hole at the center of a galaxy known as PKS B1424-418 produced a powerful outburst. Light from this blast began arriving at Earth in 2012. Now astronomers using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and other space- and ground-based observatories have shown that a record-breaking neutrino seen around the same time likely was born in the same event.
  
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• A cell senses its own curves

  28-04-2016 22:44
  
  Can a cell sense its own shape? Working in the Marine Biological Laboratory's Whitman Center, scientists from Dartmouth College developed an ingenious experiment to ask this question. Their conclusion - Yes - is detailed in a recent paper in the Journal of Cell Biology.
  
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• Amazon Profit Crushes Estimates as Cloud Rains Money

  28-04-2016 22:28 via nbcnews.com
  
  Amazon's revenue topped analysts' expectations by a wide margin as the Prime loyalty program helped the online retail giant attract more customers.
  
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• Personal cooling units on the horizon

  28-04-2016 22:20
  
  Firefighters entering burning buildings, athletes competing in the broiling sun and workers in foundries may eventually be able to carry their own, lightweight cooling units with them, thanks to a nanowire array that cools, according to Penn State materials researchers.
  
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• A long-noncoding RNA regulates repair of DNA breaks in triple-negative breast cancer cells

  28-04-2016 22:19
  
  The discovery of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) has dramatically changed the understanding of the biology of diseases such as cancer. The human genome contains about 20,000 protein-coding genes - less than 2 percent of the total - but 70 percent of the genome is made into non-gene-encoding RNA.
  
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• This Is Your Brain on Podcasts - New York Times

  28-04-2016 21:54 via nytimes.com
  New York Times
  This Is Your Brain on Podcasts
  New York Times
  A research team had volunteers listen to stories told on “The Moth Radio Hour,' and used an M.R.I. machine to track the brain's activity. Credit Travis Chambers/EyeEm, via Getty Images. Listening to music may make the daily commute tolerable, but ...
  'Semantic Atlas' Shows Where in the Brain Words Are ProcessedU.S. News & World Report
  A brand new 'atlas' shows where different ideas live in our brainsWashington Post
  UC Berkel
  
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• Samsung angles for spot at heart of connected life

  28-04-2016 21:52
  
  South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung on Thursday wooed app makers as it pursued a vision of being at the heart of life in a hyper-connected world.
  
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• Building on shells: Interdisciplinary study starts unraveling mysteries of Calusa kingdom

  28-04-2016 21:51
  
  Centuries before modern countries such as Dubai and China started building islands, native peoples in southwest Florida known as the Calusa were piling shells into massive heaps to construct their own water-bound towns.
  
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• Fiat Chrysler, Google in partnership talks

  28-04-2016 21:36
  
  Fiat Chrysler and Google's self-driving car project are in advanced talks to form a technical partnership.
  
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• Comcast buying DreamWorks Animation for about $3.55B

  28-04-2016 21:34
  
  Comcast is buying DreamWorks Animation, the film company behind the "Shrek," ''Madagascar" and "Kung Fu Panda" franchises, for approximately $3.55 billion, strengthening its presence in the important and growing business of children's entertainment.
  
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• Facebook says government data queries up 13 percent

  28-04-2016 21:11
  
  Facebook said Thursday it had received 13 percent more government requests for user data in the second half of 2015, with more than 46,000 requests worldwide.
  
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• EU court overturns carbon market free quotas

  28-04-2016 21:11
  
  The EU's top court on Thursday overturned free quotas for the bloc's carbon market up to 2030, a key part of strategies to curb global warming emissions.
  
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• eBay uncorks online wine shop

  28-04-2016 21:11
  
  Online commerce colossuseBay on Thursday opened a virtual wine shop.
  
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• Workers feeling the heat as climate change slashes productivity

  28-04-2016 21:10
  
  Climate change is exposing millions of workers to excessive heat, risking their health and income and threatening to erase more than $2.0 trillion in annual productivity by 2030, a UN report warned Thursday.
  
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• Scientists reveal origin of Earth's oldest crystals

  28-04-2016 21:00
  
  New research suggests that the very oldest pieces of rock on Earth—zircon crystals—are likely to have formed in the craters left by violent asteroid impacts that peppered our nascent planet, rather than via plate tectonics as was previously believed.
  
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• Machines can learn to respond to new situations like human beings would

  28-04-2016 20:51
  
  How does the image-recognition technology in a self-driving car respond to a blurred shape suddenly appearing on the road? Researchers from KU Leuven, Belgium, have shown that machines can learn to respond to unfamiliar objects like human beings would.
  
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• Geochemical detectives use lab mimicry to look back in time

  28-04-2016 20:36
  
  New work from a research team led by Carnegie's Anat Shahar contains some unexpected findings about iron chemistry under high-pressure conditions, such as those likely found in the Earth's core, where iron predominates and creates our planet's life-shielding magnetic field. Their results, published in Science, could shed light on Earth's early days when the core was formed through a process called differentiation—when the denser materials, like iron, sunk inward toward the center, creating
  
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• 'Game-changer' for photonics applications: Researchers demonstrate record optical nonlinearity

  28-04-2016 20:24
  
  Work by an internationally renowned University of Rochester professor may offer an alternative to the way in which researchers have approached some photonics applications.
  
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• Facebook, Messenger and Instagram apps hit Windows 10

  28-04-2016 20:19
  
  Fresh from reporting stellar earnings, Facebook on Thursday rolled out applications tailored to Microsoft's latest operating system for the social network as well as its Messenger and Instagram services.
  
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• Not just climate change: Study finds human activity is a major factor driving wildfires

  28-04-2016 20:14
  
  A new study examining wildfires in California found that human activity explains as much about their frequency and location as climate influences. The researchers systematically looked at human behaviors and climate change together, which is unique and rarely attempted on an area of land this large.
  
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• Why Companies and the Feds Hack Each Other All the Time

  28-04-2016 20:13 via nbcnews.com
  
  For no cost, the Department of Homeland Security will test the digital defenses of local, state and federal bodies, as well as private businesses.
  
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• Carl Icahn Says He's Dumped His Shares of Apple

  28-04-2016 20:13 via nbcnews.com
  
  Billionaire investor Carl Icahn no longer has a position in Apple, he told CNBC's "Power Lunch" on Thursday.
  
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• Study shows reptiles share REM and slow-wave sleep patterns with mammals, birds

  28-04-2016 20:00
  
  Behavioural sleep is ubiquitous among animals, from insects to man. In humans, sleep is also characterized by brain activity: periods of slow-wave activity are each followed by short phases of Rapid-Eye-Movement sleep (REM sleep). These electrical features of brain sleep, whose functions are not well understood, have so far been described only in mammals and birds, but not in reptiles, amphibians or fish. Yet, birds are reptiles—they are the feathered descendants of the now extinct dinosau
  
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• RNA splicing mutations play major role in genetic variation and disease

  28-04-2016 20:00
  
  RNA splicing is a major underlying factor that links mutations to complex traits and diseases, according to an exhaustive analysis of gene expression in whole genome and cell line data. Reporting in Science on April 29, 2016 researchers from the University of Chicago and Stanford University studied how thousands of mutations affect gene regulation in traits such as height, and diseases such as multiple sclerosis. The findings highlight the need for a better understanding of the role of RNA splic
  
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• New study exposes growing problem of patent aggregators and negative impact on innovation

  28-04-2016 20:00
  
  Research to be published in Science on April 29, 2016 shows how cash-hungry patent trolls are squelching innovation when the American economy depends on it more than ever. What should be done?
  
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• Hunting wolves near Denali, Yellowstone cuts wolf sightings in half

  28-04-2016 20:00
  
  Visitors to national parks are half as likely to see wolves in their natural habitat when wolf hunting is permitted just outside park boundaries.
  
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• New data analysis technique distinguishes active from passive fluctuations inside cells

  28-04-2016 19:59
  
  Inside every living cell, internal structures are continuously moving about. Under a microscope, organelles such as the nucleus, mitochondria, transport vesicles, or even external flagella wobble and twitch. This may happen spontaneously as these tiny structures are passively jostled inside a cell. But that's not necessarily all there is to it. Often a cell invests extra energy into these motions to enhance cell functions in ways we don't yet understand.
  
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• France shows off humanoid underwater exploration robot

  28-04-2016 19:44
  
  French officials have unveiled a humanoid diving robot that they hope will give a big artificial hand to the practice of underwater archaeology.
  
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• Uber Testing New 2-Minute Wait Rule Before Charging Passengers

  28-04-2016 19:41
  
  Customers will be charged a fee if they keep drivers waiting.
  
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• Consumers' trust in online user ratings misplaced, study says

  28-04-2016 19:40
  
  The belief that online user ratings are good indicators of product quality is largely an illusion, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study.
  
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• ESA releases statement on the dangers of invasive species

  28-04-2016 19:36
  
  The Entomological Society of America (ESA) has issued a statement about the dangers of invasive species and the potential threats they pose to U.S. national interests by undermining food security, trade agreements, forest health, ecosystem services, environmental quality, and public health and recreation.
  
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• Volkswagen CEO apologized in person to Obama over scandal

  28-04-2016 19:20
  
  Volkswagen's CEO says he apologized in person to U.S. President Barack Obama for the carmaker's emissions scandal, in which it rigged its cars to cheat on diesel engine pollution tests.
  
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• Fermi Helps Link Cosmic Neutrino to Blazar Blast

  28-04-2016 19:07 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Nearly 10 billion years ago, the black hole at the center of a galaxy known as PKS B1424-418 produced a powerful outburst. Light from this blast began arriving at Earth in 2012. Now astronomers using data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have shown that a record-breaking neutrino seen around the same time likely was […]
  The post Fermi Helps Link Cosmic Neutrino to Blazar Blast appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Review: Kindle Oasis aims at avid readers, pricey for others

  28-04-2016 19:01
  
  The Kindle Oasis is Amazon's sleekest, lightest e-book reader yet—and at $290, unnecessary unless you're a die-hard reader.
  
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• Influence of religion and predestination on evolution and scientific thinking

  28-04-2016 19:01
  
  Generally seen as antithetical to one another, evolution and religion can hardly fit in a scientific discourse simultaneously. However, biologist Dr Aldemaro Romero Jr., Baruch College, USA, devotes his latest research article, now published in the open access Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO), to observing the influences a few major religions have had on evolutionists and their scientific thinking over the centuries.
  
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• Flightless survivors: Incredible invertebrate diversity in Los Angeles metropolitan area

  28-04-2016 19:00
  
  Urban wildlife is surprisingly understudied. We tend to know more about animals in exotic places than about those that live in our cities.
  
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• Ice loss accelerating in Greenland's coastal glaciers, study finds

  28-04-2016 18:58
  
  Surface meltwater draining through and underneath Greenland's tidewater glaciers is accelerating their loss of ice mass, according to a Dartmouth study that sheds light on the relationship between meltwater and subglacial discharge.
  
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• Amazon rainforest responds quickly to extreme climate events

  28-04-2016 18:57
  
  A new study examining carbon exchange in the Amazon rainforest following extremely hot and dry spells reveals tropical ecosystems might be more sensitive to climate change than previously thought.
  
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• Stem cells know how to open up and unwind

  28-04-2016 18:56
  
  Research led by the Babraham Institute with collaborators in the UK, Canada and Japan has revealed a new understanding of how an open genome structure supports the long-term and unrestricted developmental potential in embryonic stem cells. This insight provides new avenues for improving the quality and stability of embryonic stem cells - an essential requirement to fulfil their promise in regenerative medicine.
  
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• Why China Is Key to the Future of Virtual Reality

  28-04-2016 18:50 via time.com
  
  Chinese manufacturers are hard at work on better VR headsets.
  
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• Galaxy Clusters Reveal Information About Dark Energy

  28-04-2016 18:48 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Researchers are using a large sample of galaxy cluster to investigate dark energy, showing that dark energy has not changed over billions of years. Astronomers have used data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA’s Planck and a large list of optical telescopes to develop a powerful new method for investigating dark energy, the mysterious energy […]
  The post Galaxy Clusters Reveal Information About Dark Energy appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Water storage made prehistoric settlement expansion possible in Amazonia

  28-04-2016 18:47
  
  The pre-Columbian settlements in Amazonia were not limited to the vicinities of rivers and lakes. One example of this can be found in the Santarém region in Brazilian Amazonia, where most archaeological sites are situated in an upland area and are the result of an expansion of settlements in the last few centuries before the arrival of Europeans. This is concluded by a research team consisting of archaeologists from the University of Gothenburg and Brazilian colleagues.
  
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• Underwater archaeology looks at atomic relic of the Cold War

  28-04-2016 18:44
  
  The April issue of Springer's Journal of Maritime Archaeology (JMA) focuses on a single shipwreck as the lens through which maritime archaeology assesses the advent of the Atomic Age and the Cold War. The wreck is the World War II veteran aircraft carrier USS Independence, which was one of nearly a hundred ships used as targets in the first tests of the atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in the summer of 1946. In addition to three original papers and two commentaries, the issue¹ also includes the
  
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• 'Seeing' around corners: DARPA research into holographic imaging of hidden objects

  28-04-2016 18:43
  
  Researchers from SMU's Lyle School of Engineering will lead a multi-university team funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to build a theoretical framework for creating a computer-generated image of an object hidden from sight around a corner or behind a wall.
  
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• Fiber optic biosensor-integrated microfluidic chip to detect glucose levels

  28-04-2016 18:39
  
  Insulin deficiency and hyperglycemia are two well-known culprits behind diabetes, both of which are reflected in blood glucose concentrations. Now, researchers are working to create ultrasensitive lab-on-a-chip devices to quickly measure glucose concentrations with the goal of developing device for early diagnosis and prevent of diabetes
  
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• Watch: Uber Testing Higher Fees for Passengers

  28-04-2016 18:35
  
  The ride-sharing service is also reducing the window of time that a passenger can cancel a car without penalty.
  
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