Sci-Tech news

• BMW wins LAPD electric car contract, beating Tesla - Los Angeles Times

  08-06-2016 23:22
  
  Los Angeles Times
  BMW wins LAPD electric car contract, beating Tesla
  Los Angeles Times
  German automaker BMW has beaten California-based Tesla Motors Inc. by winning a contract to supply the Los Angeles Police Department with 100 electric cars. BMW is leasing 100 of its i3 all-electric plug-in vehicles, which the LAPD plans to use for ...
  LAPD unveils 100 electric car fleet, making it largest in country for police departmentKABC-TV
  CBSLA.com Afternoon Newsbrief (June 8)CBS Local
  LAPD select
  
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• Tunable lasers to improve infrared spectroscopy

  08-06-2016 23:19
  
  A new development from Northwestern University's Manijeh Razeghi could be another tool for protecting our borders.
  
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• Fishing prohibitions produce more sharks along with problems for fishing communities

  08-06-2016 23:19
  
  Scientists working for Murdoch University, the Wildlife Conservation Society, The Nature Conservancy, and other groups have good news about fishing closures established in Indonesia's shark sanctuary: It's good for sharks and other fish, all of which are more abundant within zones with fishing restrictions.
  
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• Study of police officers finds fatigue impacts tactical social interaction

  08-06-2016 23:18
  
  A new study found that fatigue associated with shift work influences how officers interact day-to-day during encounters with the public, which can either build or erode trust in the police.
  
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• New elements on the periodic table are named - CNN

  08-06-2016 23:12
  
  CNN
  New elements on the periodic table are named
  CNN
  (CNN) Meet nihonium (Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts) and oganesson (Og), the newest elements on the periodic table to receive names. But don't get too attached to the nomenclature for these elements, formerly known by their respective atomic ...
  Periodic table elements named for Moscow, Japan, TennesseeAtlanta Journal Constitution
  New element in periodic table to honor Tennessee9NEWS.com
  Names proposed for new chemical elementsBBC N
  
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• Cloudy days on exoplanets may hide atmospheric water

  08-06-2016 23:08
  
  Water is a hot topic in the study of exoplanets, including "hot Jupiters," whose masses are similar to that of Jupiter, but which are much closer to their parent star than Jupiter is to the sun. They can reach a scorching 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,100 degrees Celsius), meaning any water they host would take the form of water vapor.
  
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• Apple to start showing ads in App Store

  08-06-2016 22:35
  
  Apple says it will start showing paid ads when people search for apps in its popular mobile store.
  
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• Shell surrenders Canada Arctic rights to marine park plan

  08-06-2016 22:32
  
  Shell Canada said Wednesday it has surrendered its offshore oil exploration licenses in the Canadian Arctic, paving the way for the creation of a protected marine park for whales, walruses and seals.
  
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• Tropical Depression 1E dissipates

  08-06-2016 22:30
  
  Tropical Depression 1E or TD1E didn't get far from the time it was born to the time it weakened to a remnant low pressure area along the southwestern coast of Mexico. NOAA's GOES-West satellite captured an image of it remnant clouds.
  
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• Where Yahoo's media play went wrong

  08-06-2016 22:21
  
  When Yahoo announced last year that it had lost $42 million reviving NBC's TV series "Community" and launching two other original shows, the company framed it as a failed experiment. It didn't work, so Yahoo was cutting its losses.
  
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• Will Uber's cash path spur others?

  08-06-2016 22:20
  
  Startups have long been the domain of venture capitalists. But with last week's staggering $3.5 billion investment in Uber from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the tech world has been put on notice - sovereign wealth funds are loaded with cash and ready to do business directly.
  
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• Purple screen of death: Bogus traffic data bricks Lexus infotainment systems - CNET

  08-06-2016 22:01
  
  CNET
  Purple screen of death: Bogus traffic data bricks Lexus infotainment systems
  CNET
  Update, 3:42 p.m. Eastern: Added manufacturer comment, tweaked text to reflect. In some modern vehicles, software updates can be beamed to owners without requiring a trip to the dealer. Cars can also receive weather and traffic data without specific ...
  Why everyone should worry about this scary glitch that affected rich driversWashington Post
  Toyota says Lexus vehicles need computer reboot at dealerAuto
  
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• Math. Science. Recess. Minecraft? Twitch club brings gaming to school

  08-06-2016 21:50
  
  Seventh-grader Brayden Foxhoven hurries to finish his chicken fingers. He has bases to capture. Gems to collect. Viewers to entertain.
  
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• Is this booming Northwest land a paradise or disaster waiting to happen?

  08-06-2016 21:40
  
  It was here before anyone made a map and called this corner of it the Pacific Northwest.
  
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• FCC offers hope for consumers seeking online privacy protections

  08-06-2016 21:31
  
  I think most of us can agree that the internet poses some unique and wide-scale risks to our privacy.
  
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• Your phone may soon sense everything around you

  08-06-2016 21:28
  
  Suppose your smartphone is clever enough to grasp your physical surroundings—the room's size, the location of doors and windows and the presence of other people. What could it do with that info?
  
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• Snapchat seen surging past Twitter, Pinterest in US

  08-06-2016 21:05
  
  Ephemeral messaging app Snapchat by year's end will have more US users than either Twitter or Pinterest, a market tracker said Wednesday.
  
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• An eco-friendly approach to reducing toxic arsenic in rice

  08-06-2016 21:05
  
  A team of researchers at the University of Delaware has found that incorporating rice husk to soil can decrease toxic inorganic arsenic levels in rice grain by 25 to 50 percent without negatively affecting yield.
  
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• Drug candidate shrinks tumor when delivered by plant virus nanoparticle

  08-06-2016 21:04
  
  In a pair of firsts, researchers at Case Western Reserve University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have shown that the drug candidate phenanthriplatin can be more effective than an approved drug in vivo, and that a plant-virus-based carrier successfully delivers a drug in vivo.
  
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• Centuries-old database reveals clues on human reproductive habits, trends

  08-06-2016 21:04
  
  When predicting future global population growth, sometimes scientists look to the past. Using a database with historical records that began in 871 A.D., an anthropologist at the University of Missouri was able to show reproductive patterns and shed new light on the "quantity-quality" trade-off, a biological concept used to describe a parent's unconscious decisions to balance between producing and the time and investing in offspring. Results from this study could help to predict future population
  
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• NASA's NICER mission arrives at Kennedy Space Center

  08-06-2016 21:02
  
  An upcoming NASA astrophysics mission will uncover the physics governing the ultra-dense interiors of neutron stars. Using the same platform, the mission will demonstrate trailblazing space navigation technology.
  
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• Switched-on Salmonella: Fluid forces guide disease traits of multidrug-resistant bacteria

  08-06-2016 21:00
  
  Once inside the human body, infectious microbes like Salmonella face a fluid situation. They live in a watery world, surrounded by liquid continually flowing over and abrading their cell surfaces—a property known as fluid shear.
  
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• No long-term 'star effect' for baseball teams on Twitter

  08-06-2016 20:57
  
  In previous generations, when professional sports franchises had athletes who were considered to be all-star caliber on their teams, those teams would experience a "star effect," which would result in long-term increases in publicity, fan interest, and merchandise and ticket sales. Now, University of Missouri researchers have analyzed the Twitter usage of Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, athletes and fans and discovered that the "star effect" had no long-term impacts on MLB teams' Twitter foll
  
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• Massive trove of battery and molecule data released to public

  08-06-2016 20:55
  
  The Materials Project, a Google-like database of material properties aimed at accelerating innovation, has released an enormous trove of data to the public, giving scientists working on fuel cells, photovoltaics, thermoelectrics, and a host of other advanced materials a powerful tool to explore new research avenues. But it has become a particularly important resource for researchers working on batteries.
  
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• Chemistry lessons from bacteria may improve biofuel production

  08-06-2016 20:55
  
  If you're made of carbon, precious few things are as important to life as death.
  
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• Rust under pressure could explain deep Earth anomalies

  08-06-2016 20:53
  
  Using laboratory techniques to mimic the conditions found deep inside the Earth, a team of Carnegie scientists led by Ho-Kwang "Dave" Mao has identified a form of iron oxide that they believe could explain seismic and geothermal signatures in the deep mantle. Their work is published in Nature.
  
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• New research shines light on surprising numbers and evolutionary variety of bioluminescent ocean fish

  08-06-2016 20:00
  
  A study appearing in the journal PLOS ONE this week shows that bioluminescence—the production of light from a living organism—is more widespread among marine fishes than previously understood.
  
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• New research counters claim that the 'Hobbit' had Down syndrome

  08-06-2016 20:00
  
  Analysis of a wealth of new data contradicts an earlier claim that LB1, an ~80,000 year old fossil skeleton from the Indonesian island of Flores, had Down syndrome, and further confirms its status as a fossil human species, Homo floresiensis.
  
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• Fossil teeth suggest prehistoric red deer in the Adriatic migrated seasonally

  08-06-2016 20:00
  Analysis of oxygen isotopes in fossil teeth from red deer near the Adriatic Sea suggest that they migrated seasonally, which may have driven the movements of the Paleolithic hunter-gatherers that ate them, according a study published June 8, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Suzanne Pilaar Birch from University of Georgia, USA, and colleagues.
  
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• Google adds US Cellular to Project Fi - The Verge

  08-06-2016 19:59
  
  The Verge
  Google adds US Cellular to Project Fi
  The Verge
  Google has added a third cellular network to Project Fi. US Cellular, the fifth-largest carrier in the country, will be available to Project Fi customers in the coming weeks, according to Google. Project Fi was announced in April of last year, and it ...
  Google's Project Fi cell service adds US Cellular to the mixArs Technica
  Google expands Project Fi coverage with US CellularCNET
  Project Fi Adds US Cellular to Gain More Coverage and Spe
  
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• Astronomers Observe Supermassive Black Hole Feeding on Cold Gas

  08-06-2016 19:58 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A newly published study details the first direct evidence to support the hypothesis that black holes feed on clouds of cold gas. At the center of a galaxy cluster, 1 billion light years from Earth, a voracious, supermassive black hole is preparing for a chilly feast. For the first time, astronomers have detected billowy clouds […]
  The post Astronomers Observe Supermassive Black Hole Feeding on Cold Gas appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Helping satellites be right as rain

  08-06-2016 19:56
  As you read this paragraph, a NASA satellite orbits around planet Earth, gathering data on—of all things—soil moisture. Moisture in the soil acts like a thermostat for the planet. Along with affecting agricultural production, it has a large influence on the weather and climate. Its impact on the planet is so important, NASA has sent a satellite into space to measure it.
  
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• 'Way Up There': Above the Earth and onward to Mars

  08-06-2016 19:48 via rss.cnn.com
  
  We've been hearing about it for years: NASA is going to send people to Mars. But is it really going to happen?
  
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• Likely ancestor of mystery 'hobbit' found

  08-06-2016 19:40
  
  Half-sized humans who lived 700,000 years ago were almost certainly the ancestors of enigmatic "hobbits" whose fossils were found on the same Indonesian isle in 2013, scientists stunned by their own discovery reported Wednesday.
  
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• France seizes 350 kg of ivory

  08-06-2016 19:36
  
  French customs said Wednesday that officers had seized over 350 kilogrammes (770 pounds) of elephant tusks in recent weeks, the biggest haul of ivory in the country in ten years.
  
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• Drone videos endangered whale feeding in research first

  08-06-2016 19:32 via rss.cnn.com
  
  A rare moment of an endangered Bryde's whale feeding her calf off north New Zealand's coast has been caught on camera thanks to a specially built drone.
  Sponsored:
  Drivers With No Tickets In 3 Years Read ThisDo NOT pay your next car insurance bill until you try this.
  
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• Researchers Identify the Molecular Pathways Involved in the Aging of Human Eggs

  08-06-2016 19:31 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine have identified the molecular pathways involved in the aging of human eggs; which could eventually lead to treatments to correct age-related damage and improve fertility in women age 40 and older. Published in the June 6 issue of the journal Molecular Human Reproduction, the study examined the sharp […]
  The post Researchers Identify the Molecular Pathways Involved in the Aging of Human Eggs appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• New Reseach Shows Cloudy Days on Hot Jupiters May Hide Atmospheric Water

  08-06-2016 19:19 via scitechdaily.com
  
  New research suggests that as much as half of the water in the atmospheres of exoplanets may be blocked by clouds or hazes. Water is a hot topic in the study of exoplanets, including “hot Jupiters,” whose masses are similar to that of Jupiter, but which are much closer to their parent star than Jupiter […]
  The post New Reseach Shows Cloudy Days on Hot Jupiters May Hide Atmospheric Water appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• The futuristic e-bikes with traffic-stopping looks

  08-06-2016 19:15 via rss.cnn.com
  
  If you're looking for a clean getaway this summer then an e-bike could be right up your street.
  
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• Singapore to cut internet access for government workers

  08-06-2016 19:15 via rss.cnn.com
  
  So that's the end of Googling from the office.
  
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• Scientists observe supermassive black hole feeding on cold gas - Phys.Org

  08-06-2016 19:00
  
  Phys.Org
  Scientists observe supermassive black hole feeding on cold gas
  Phys.Org
  The cosmic weather report, as illustrated in this artist concept, calls for condensing clouds of cold molecular gas around the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy. The clouds condense out of the hot, ionized gas that suffuses the space …more. At the ...
  Supermassive black holes gorge themselves on a different diet than we thoughtBusiness Insider
  Black Hole Feeds Off Space WeatherU.S. News & World Report
  
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• Scientists observe supermassive black hole feeding on cold gas

  08-06-2016 19:00
  
  At the center of a galaxy cluster, 1 billion light years from Earth, a voracious, supermassive black hole is preparing for a chilly feast.
  
  Read more

• New chromosome origin element identified

  08-06-2016 19:00
  
  Newcastle University scientists have discovered a new essential sequence within bacterial genomes required for DNA replication - the second ever to be discovered and the first for 30 years.
  
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• New Genetic Engineering Method Called Promising — And Perilous - NPR

  08-06-2016 18:52
  
  NPR
  New Genetic Engineering Method Called Promising — And Perilous
  NPR
  A powerful new technique for changing genes in insects, animals and plants holds great promise, according to a report from an influential panel of scientists released Wednesday. But the group also says it's potentially very dangerous. As such, the ...
  Genetically engineered bugs to fight malaria and Zika? Not so fast, experts sayWashington Post
  Gene Editing to Alter Whole Species Gets Limited BackingNew York Times
  'Gen
  
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• Netflix Looks at Which Shows Are Most Binge-Watched

  08-06-2016 18:52 via nbcnews.com
  
  Netflix popularized binge viewing. Netflix measured the amount of time that users spent watching more than 100 different titles.
  
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• Few insurers cut rates for new electronic safety devices

  08-06-2016 18:40
  
  After hearing good things about the latest in crash-prevention technologies, you decided to add automatic emergency braking to your new car.
  
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• Yahoo puts more than 3,000 patents on auction block

  08-06-2016 18:38
  
  Yahoo is hoping to sell most of its technology patents as part of a purge that also could culminate in the sale of its Internet operations.
  
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• NASA sees post-Tropical Storm Colin headed into history

  08-06-2016 18:27
  
  The National Hurricane Center issued the last advisory on Post-Tropical Cyclone Colin at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 UTC). At that time the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Colin was located near 36.5 degrees north latitude and 72.2 degrees west longitude. That put the center of Colin about 205 miles (330 km) east-northeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The post-tropical cyclone was moving toward the northeast near 40 mph (65 kph) and that general motion is expected to continue through Wednesday night,
  
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• Team makes hobby drones crash to expose design flaws

  08-06-2016 18:26
  
  Sales of drones—small flying machines equipped with cameras—are soaring. But new research by a Johns Hopkins computer security team has raised concerns about how easily hackers could cause these robotic devices to ignore their human controllers and land or, more drastically, crash.
  
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• Ars takes on new Deus Ex's “mechanical apartheid,” plus two side games - Ars Technica

  08-06-2016 18:09
  
  Ars Technica
  Ars takes on new Deus Ex's “mechanical apartheid,” plus two side games
  Ars Technica
  SANTA MONICA, Calif.—At a recent press event, Square Enix reps tried to set the tone for the future of the stealthy Deus Ex games with a flashy, live-action video. The next game's story was foreshadowed in a film called “The Mechanical Apartheid ...
  Deus Ex: Mankind Divided takes a new directionPolygon
  Breach Mode Is Deus Ex's Quasi-Multiplayer Solution, and It's WonderfulGam
  
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