Sci-Tech news

• Students experience 'NASA Satellites 101'

  03-06-2016 23:03
  
  Astronauts aren't the only ones who get to use NASA technology. Computer scientists and engineers at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, work to make flight software and satellite technology more accessible in an effort to engage the public and educate students.
  
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• Canada fires spew dust all the way to Switzerland

  03-06-2016 22:10
  
  Ash and dust particles from the massive forest fires ravaging western Canada for the past month have been found in Switzerland, according to Swiss meteorologists.
  
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• Airbnb vows to root out home-sharing discrimination

  03-06-2016 22:00
  
  Airbnb on Friday said it is cracking down on racism after booting one home-sharing host for blatantly discriminating against a woman of color who had made a reservation.
  
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• Scientists unveil plan to create synthetic human genomes

  03-06-2016 21:50
  
  A group of American-led scientists and entrepreneurs has announced the start of a 10-year project aimed at creating synthetic human genomes in a move that could revolutionize the field of biotechnology but raises troubling ethical concerns.
  
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• A lesson in backups

  03-06-2016 21:40
  
  Michael Friedman learned the hard way how important it is to back up computers.
  
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• A security camera with no strings attached

  03-06-2016 21:30
  
  We'd all sleep better knowing our homes were covered by video cameras. A video camera would also be handy so you could know whether your dog is sleeping on the couch when you're training her to stay off the furniture.
  
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• Uber pilots 'upfront pricing,' masks surge rate

  03-06-2016 21:20
  
  In an effort to push more of its customers to carpool, Uber is experimenting with a version of its ride-hailing application that displays the maximum cost riders will pay to get to their destination.
  
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• Namibia offers endangered rhino for trophy hunt

  03-06-2016 21:18
  
  The Namibian government on Friday called for bids from trophy hunters to kill three endangered black rhinos, despite fierce global criticism over previous auctions.
  
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• Luxembourg takes first steps to 'asteroid mining' law

  03-06-2016 21:18
  
  One of Europe's smallest states, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, cast its eyes to the cosmos on Friday, announcing it would draw up a law to facilitate mining on asteroids.
  
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• New space savers: Small satellites

  03-06-2016 21:10
  
  Suddenly, everyone from the U.S. government, commercial satellite companies, universities and even high school students needs to have a small satellite.
  
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• Education and health care are ripe for startups, AOL co-founder says

  03-06-2016 21:00
  
  Entrepreneurs who show up at AOL co-founder Steve Case's door begging for money better have more to show than an idea for a killer app.
  
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• Pioneering scientists behind gravitational wave discovery among Kavli Prize winners

  03-06-2016 20:53
  
  Nine scientists have won the 2016 Kavli Prize for their groundbreaking work on gravitational waves, brain plasticity and atomic force microscopy.
  
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• New alloy promises to boost rare earth production while improving energy efficiency of engines

  03-06-2016 20:53
  
  Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and partners Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Wisconsin-based Eck Industries have developed aluminum alloys that are both easier to work with and more heat tolerant than existing products.
  
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• Finding connections to nature in cities is key to healthy urban living

  03-06-2016 20:36
  
  The modern city is a place where a vibrant array of ideas, sights, sounds and smells intermingle to spawn creativity, expression and innovation. We are drawn to the noise, the constant connectivity and the delicious food.
  
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• Team makes breakthrough toward fish-free aquaculture feed

  03-06-2016 20:00
  
  Dartmouth College scientists have discovered that marine microalgae can completely replace the wild fish oil currently used to feed tilapia, the second most farmed fish in the world and the most widely farmed in the United States.
  
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• Seine up to highest level in 35 years, Paris landmarks shut

  03-06-2016 19:42
  
  The swollen Seine River kept rising Friday, spilling into Paris streets and forcing one landmark after another to shut down as it surged to its highest levels in nearly 35 years. Across the city, museums, parks and cemeteries were being closed as the city braced for possible evacuations.
  
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• Congress Launches Probe Into Fed's Cyber Breaches

  03-06-2016 19:40 via nbcnews.com
  
  A U.S. congressional committee has launched an investigation into the Federal Reserve's cyber security practices.
  
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• Study Shows MRI Detects Early Signs of Schizophrenia

  03-06-2016 19:27 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A new study from Yale University shows that an MRI can detect early signs of schizophrenia in a rodent model. Patients with schizophrenia often exhibit early signs of behavioral abnormalities. However, changes in the brain underlying these behavioral signs have not been identified. Applying magnetic resonance scanning techniques that are used in humans, Yale researchers […]
  The post Study Shows MRI Detects Early Signs of Schizophrenia appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• The Canarias Einstein Ring – A Newly Discovered Einstein Ring

  03-06-2016 19:17 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A newly published study details the discovery of a new Einstein Ring, a rare image of a distant galaxy lensed by gravity. In his seminal general theory of relativity published a century ago, Albert Einstein predicted that gravity would distort the fabric of spacetime, and that light would follow curved paths as a result. Astronomers […]
  The post The Canarias Einstein Ring – A Newly Discovered Einstein Ring appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Crowds of crows spread C. jejuni: Are humans vulnerable?

  03-06-2016 19:00
  
  Crows are smart, highly social animals that congregate in flocks of tens of thousands. Such large, highly concentrated populations can easily spread disease—not only amongst their own species, but quite possibly to humans, either via livestock, or directly. On the campus of the University of California, Davis, during winter, approximately half of the 6,000 American crows that congregated at the study site carried Campylobacter jejuni, which is the leading cause of gastroenteritis in humans
  
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• Technique could help climate models sweat the small stuff

  03-06-2016 18:25
  
  A team of physicists and mathematicians has come up with a statistical technique that puts the fine details back into computer simulations of large-scale phenomena like air circulation in the atmosphere and currents in the ocean.
  
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• Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Kent State and Cleveland Metroparks launch learning app

  03-06-2016 18:22
  
  Educators, scientists, and technologists from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Kent State University and Cleveland Metroparks have partnered to develop a new learning app that is now live and freely available on iTunes. The app, called ParkApps, features a number of different resources aimed at educating park visitors as they run, hike and bike through the parks.
  
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• Elk charges at Yellowstone visitor after she gets too close

  03-06-2016 18:17 via rss.cnn.com
  
  There's a rule at Yellowstone National Park: You see wildlife, you admire wildlife, you stay 25 yards away from wildlife.
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• Geosciences team to place GPS sensors around Tanzanian volcano in effort to predict eruptions

  03-06-2016 18:15
  
  Tanzania's Ol Doinyo Lengai is unique for two reasons: It's the only active volcano that erupts natroncarbonatite lava, and it's within a region where the Earth's surface is just beginning to rift apart.
  
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• Rebranding move backfires on troubled media group

  03-06-2016 18:08
  
  Troubled newspaper group Tribune Publishing was trying for a new image as it seeks to fend off a takeover bid and adapt to the digital era.
  
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• Nepal seeks to drain giant glacial lake near Everest

  03-06-2016 18:08
  
  Nepali soldiers have kicked off efforts to partially drain a giant glacial lake near Mount Everest, fearing possible flooding that could threaten the lives of thousands, an army official said Friday.
  
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• NASA satellite sees heavy rain in tropical depression Bonnie

  03-06-2016 18:05
  
  The Global Precipitation Measurement mission known as GPM passed over Tropical Depression Bonnie and found heavy rainfall from a few thunderstorms within.
  
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• What impact might Brexit have on UK agriculture?

  03-06-2016 18:01
  
  With the United Kingdom's referendum on continued membership in the European Union (EU) approaching, experts are considering the impact of a vote to leave ('Brexit') on numerous aspects of UK society, including agriculture.
  
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• Skyrmions—magnetic vortices for IT of the future

  03-06-2016 18:00
  
  Magnetic vortices - so-called skyrmions - were predicted theoretically more than 25 years ago, but it has only been possible to observe them experimentally in magnetic materials in recent years. Skyrmions are stable, can have a diameter of just a few nanometres, and can be moved efficiently by electrical currents. Therefore, they are presently being discussed as candidates for high density, energy-saving data storage and processing. However, until very recently, the only materials known to exhib
  
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• Constructing shale gas sites: Algorithm reduces environmental impact at reasonable expense

  03-06-2016 17:52
  
  Extracting gas from shale rock not only causes environmental disturbances below ground, the surface infrastructure required to drill the wells can cause a variety of problems above ground, from fragmenting fragile habitats, eroding soil, degrading freshwater systems and displacing rare species.
  
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• Graphene-based transparent electrodes for highly efficient flexible OLEDS

  03-06-2016 17:45
  
  The arrival of a thin and lightweight computer that even rolls up like a piece of paper will not be in the far distant future. Flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), built upon a plastic substrate, have received greater attention lately for their use in next-generation displays that can be bent or rolled while still operating.
  
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• Gene circuits in live cells can perform complex computations

  03-06-2016 17:38
  
  Living cells are capable of performing complex computations on the environmental signals they encounter.
  
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• Personality changes can affect fish body shape, locomotion

  03-06-2016 16:47
  
  Fish that are bred to be bolder or more shy show corresponding changes to their body shape and locomotion, suggesting that personality changes affect other seemingly unrelated traits. The findings could be useful in animal breeding, pest management and studies of complex human behaviors.
  
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• Unraveling the web ... the other web

  03-06-2016 16:42 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Popular: Radical Islam in America | Graham Opposes Republican Leader | Guns in America
  
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• Rare flight for world's biggest plane

  03-06-2016 16:36 via rss.cnn.com
  
  The undisputed superstar of the skies -- the biggest airplane in the world -- is taking flight on a rare delivery mission across three continents.
  
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• Sun may have stolen mysterious 'planet 9'

  03-06-2016 16:21 via rss.cnn.com
  
  We may be a step closer to figuring out the origins of Planet Nine, a mysterious world lurking at the edge of our solar system.Popular: Radical Islam in America | Graham Opposes Republican Leader | Guns in America
  
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• Meteor streaks across Arizona sky

  03-06-2016 16:12 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Yes, Phoenix, that was a meteor.
  
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• Walmart to partner with Uber, Lyft on delivery

  03-06-2016 15:55
  
  Walmart announced plans Friday to team up with Uber and Lyft on a pilot grocery delivery program, in a fresh challenge by the US retail giant to Amazon.
  
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• Physicists discover an infinite number of quantum speed limits

  03-06-2016 15:30
  
  (Phys.org)—In order to determine how fast quantum technologies can ultimately operate, physicists have established the concept of "quantum speed limits." Quantum speed limits impose limitations on how fast a quantum system can transition from one state to another, so that such a transition requires a minimum amount of time (typically on the order of nanoseconds). This means, for example, that a future quantum computer will not be able to perform computations faster than a certain time dete
  
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• Using lasers to make data storage faster than ever

  03-06-2016 15:20
  
  As we use more and more data every year, where will we have room to store it all? Our rapidly increasing demand for web apps, file sharing and social networking, among other services, relies on information storage in the "cloud" – always-on Internet-connected remote servers that store, manage and process data. This in turn has led to a pressing need for faster, smaller and more energy-efficient devices to perform those cloud tasks.
  
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• Scientists discover that coral can record history

  03-06-2016 15:20
  
  A Canadian study has discovered that coral is able to effectively record events in human history due to its ability to absorb the toxic metals released into the environment as a result of naval battles fought in their vicinity.
  
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• New biomarker for heart disease using atomic force microscopy

  03-06-2016 15:10
  
  (Phys.org)—Researchers from the University of Lisbon and the North Lisbon Hospital Center (Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte) conducted a pilot study that demonstrated how atomic force microscopy (AFM) could be used as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for chronic heart disease. Their work appears in the recent issue of Nature Nanotechnology.
  
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• Data mining of Twitter posts can help identify when people become sympathetic to groups like ISIS

  03-06-2016 15:10
  
  Researchers have shown that data mining techniques can be used to understand when Twitter users start displaying supportive behaviour to radical terror groups such as ISIS.
  
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• Accurately assessing global river-floodplain forest strategies

  03-06-2016 15:10
  
  A Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship (IOF) grant enabled a young European researcher to develop a global perspective on river-floodplain forest restoration strategies and to put forward universal criteria to accurately assess project success.
  
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• Liquid by-products from wood and forest industry find use in wood-plastic composites

  03-06-2016 15:00
  
  A novel method for adding liquid by-products from the wood industry into wood-plastic composites (WPCs) prior to manufacturing was developed in a new study from the University of Eastern Finland. The study also discovered that proton-transfer-reaction mass-spectrometry (PTR-MS) is a suitable method for measuring the amounts of volatile organic compounds, VOCs, released from WPCs.
  
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• Genetically modified Golden Rice falls short on lifesaving promises

  03-06-2016 15:00
  
  Heralded on the cover of Time magazine in 2000 as a genetically modified (GMO) crop with the potential to save millions of lives in the Third World, Golden Rice is still years away from field introduction and even then, may fall short of lofty health benefits still cited regularly by GMO advocates, suggests a new study from Washington University in St. Louis.
  
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• Highly tuned catalytic controls: Researchers sharpen time, spatial control of reactions

  03-06-2016 14:55
  
  You could think of bioorthogonal chemistry as a discreet valet or concierge that steers two world leaders to a private meeting without making noise or trouble along the way.
  
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• Shy wild boars are sometimes better mothers

  03-06-2016 14:50
  
  It has been known for years that personality traits of animals, such as aggressiveness, risk-taking, curiosity or sociality, may have far-reaching consequences for reproduction and survival. However, separating the effect of personality from other factors, such as environmental conditions, is not easy. If the natural environment of the animals is subjected to strong fluctuations, the different personalities may have different consequences depending on the prevailing situation.
  
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• Sea ice loss likely no factor in cold Northern Hemisphere winters

  03-06-2016 14:50
  
  The rapid loss of Arctic sea ice is a major driver of the warming trend sweeping across the Arctic  in recent years, but melting sea ice is probably not behind recent cold winters in parts of  Europe, Asia and the United States, according to a new NOAA study.
  
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• Meaningful work not created – only destroyed – by bosses, study finds

  03-06-2016 14:40
  
  Bosses play no role in fostering a sense of meaningfulness at work - but they do have the capacity to destroy it and should stay out of the way, new research shows.
  
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