Sci-Tech news

• A better and more affordable smartwatch?

  26-07-2016 23:59 via rss.cnn.com
  
  The problem with smartwatches is that they're just not smart enough to justify the price or upkeep.
  
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• Twitter shares dive after update disappoints

  26-07-2016 23:47
  
  Twitter's shares fell hard Tuesday after its quarterly update showed more losses for the struggling social media platform, which has seen sluggish growth in revenues and active users.
  
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• Twitter dives after update disappoints

  26-07-2016 23:47
  
  Twitter shares took a fresh hit Tuesday after its quarter update showing more losses, and sluggish growth in revenues and the user base of the social media platform.
  
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• As iPhone sale sag, Apple touts apps and services instead

  26-07-2016 23:46
  
  You can expect to hear a lot more from Apple about the virtues of mobile apps and online services in coming months. And for good reason: They're just about the only part of Apple's business that's growing right now.
  
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• Astronomers uncover hidden stellar birthplace

  26-07-2016 23:42
  
  A team of astronomers from the University of Manchester, the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and the University of Bonn have uncovered a hidden stellar birthplace in a nearby spiral galaxy, using a telescope in Chile. The results show that the speed of star formation in the centre of the galaxy - and other galaxies like it - may be much higher than previously thought.
  
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• Tesla's autopilot remains in the spotlight

  26-07-2016 23:12 via rss.cnn.com
  
  The federal government released preliminary findings Tuesday from an investigation into the fatal Tesla crash that killed a driver using autopilot in May.
  
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• Fire seasons are becoming hotter, drier and longer

  26-07-2016 23:10
  
  The fast-moving brush fire tearing through the Santa Clarita Valley this weekend is part of a larger trend: Wildfire seasons in the western United States are lasting longer and burning more land, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
  
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• Twitter still struggling to grow as rivals race ahead (Update)

  26-07-2016 23:00
  
  Twitter is in danger of becoming the next internet company forced into a desperation sale if it cannot find a way to start luring people and advertisers back to its sometimes-befuddling messaging service.
  
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• Twitter still struggling to grow as rivals race ahead

  26-07-2016 23:00
  
  Twitter's growth remains at a crawl as CEO Jack Dorsey struggles to come up with a strategy to attract people to the sometimes-befuddling messaging service.
  
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• Every grain of rice: Ancient rice DNA data provides new view of domestication history

  26-07-2016 23:00
  
  Rice, or Oryza sativa as its scientifically known, feeds more than a third of the globe. Yet the majority of rice crops that supply 90 percent of the world come from just two domesticated varieties, japonica and indica.
  
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• Lead levels near California battery plant were far beyond health limits

  26-07-2016 22:50
  
  Homes, schools and a day care center near a closed battery recycler in nearby Vernon are contaminated with higher levels of brain-damaging lead than previously disclosed, with soil samples at one property as much as 100 times above California's health standard, state and county records show.
  
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• How many suns can a planet have?

  26-07-2016 22:43
  
  A strange alien world with three suns in its sky has just
  
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• Body Talk: A new crowdshaping technology uses words to create accurate 3-D body models

  26-07-2016 22:42
  
  Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the University of Texas at Dallas, revealed new crowdshaping technology at SIGGRAPH 2016 that creates accurate 3-D body models from 2D photos using crowdsourced linguistic descriptions of body shape. The Body Talk system takes a single photo and produces 3-D body shapes that look like the person and are accurate enough to size clothing. It does this using the help of 15 volunteers who rate the body shape in the photo using 30
  
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• Protect wolves or hunt them? Western states are in the crosshairs

  26-07-2016 22:40
  
  Sheep rancher Dave Dashiell got to his feet and wiped the blood from his hands. A newborn lamb he had just delivered from a struggling ewe took one breath, then another. He laid the lamb down gently in front of its mother. "I hope he lives," Dashiell said.
  
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• Cybersecurity experts see merit in claims of Russian hacking

  26-07-2016 22:30
  
  Experts who've followed the leak of Democratic National Committee documents say they believe the party's claim that Moscow had a hand in the hack, lending weight to the extraordinary allegation that the Kremlin is trying to tamper with the U.S. presidential contest.
  
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• Spain calls in army as wildfire reaches nature reserve

  26-07-2016 22:26
  
  Spanish troops intervened Tuesday as a wildfire near the eastern city of Valencia spread to a nature reserve after laying waste to some 1,400 hectares (3,500 acres) of land, regional authorities said.
  
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• Big electronics makers to merge in $15 bn deal

  26-07-2016 22:24
  
  Electronic component maker Analog Devices announced a deal Tuesday to buy rival Linear Technology for $15 billion.
  
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• Tesla on Autopilot was speeding before fatal crash: probe

  26-07-2016 22:22
  
  The Tesla electric car driving in semi-autonomous mode when it crashed and killed its driver was speeding just ahead of impact with a tractor-trailer, a preliminary probe showed Tuesday.
  
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• Qualcomm to pay $19.5M to settle gender discrimination suit

  26-07-2016 22:21
  
  Qualcomm agreed Tuesday to pay $19.5 million to settle a gender discrimination class-action lawsuit alleging women were denied equal pay and job opportunities to their male counterparts at the tech giant.
  
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• Chinese tech firm LeEco agrees to buy Vizio TV maker for $2B

  26-07-2016 22:21
  
  Chinese video streaming company LeEco is breaking into the U.S. TV market by buying Vizio, a manufacturer of budget-priced sets. The combination promises a marriage of hardware and content as tightly linked as your smartphone is to your monthly voice and data plan.
  
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• Businesses can't afford to ignore the human element of IT, study says

  26-07-2016 22:20
  
  Mood and personality play an important role in how companies should manage their IT systems, according to a new study co-authored by a researcher at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
  
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• Researchers find Chilean salt flat drains a surprisingly vast area

  26-07-2016 22:18
  
  A recent research report about one of the largest lithium brine and salt deposits in the world in Chile's Atacama Desert by geoscientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst is the first to show that water and solutes flowing into the basin originate from a much larger than expected portion of the Andean Plateau.
  
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• Engineers discover highly conductive materials for more efficient electronics

  26-07-2016 22:17
  
  Engineers from the University of Utah and the University of Minnesota have discovered that interfacing two particular oxide-based materials makes them highly conductive, a boon for future electronics that could result in much more power-efficient laptops, electric cars and home appliances that also don't need cumbersome power supplies.
  
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• Research tracks interplay of genes and environment on physical, educational outcomes

  26-07-2016 22:16
  
  Over the course of the 20th century, genes began to play a greater role in the height and body mass index (BMI) of Americans, while their significance decreased in educational attainment and occurrence of heart disease.
  
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• Cleaner air may be driving water quality in Chesapeake Bay

  26-07-2016 22:12
  
  A new study suggests that improvements in air quality over the Potomac watershed, including the Washington, D.C., metro area, may be responsible for recent progress on water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. Scientists from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science have linked improving water quality in streams and rivers of the Upper Potomac River Basin to reductions in nitrogen pollution onto the land and streams due to enforcement of the Clean Air Act.
  
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• Cataclysm at Meteor Crater: Crystal sheds light on Earth, moon, Mars (Update)

  26-07-2016 22:10
  
  In molten sandstone extracted by prospectors a century ago, an international team of scientists has discovered microscopic crystals telling of unimaginable pressures and temperatures when a 50-meter asteroid (traveling 12 kilometers per second) formed Meteor Crater in northern Arizona some 49,000 years ago.
  
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• Cataclysm at Meteor Crater: Crystal sheds light on Earth, moon, Mars

  26-07-2016 22:10
  
  In molten sandstone extracted by prospectors a century ago, an international team of scientists has discovered microscopic crystals telling of unimaginable pressures and temperatures when a 12-kilometer asteroid formed Meteor Crater in northern Arizona some 49,000 years ago.
  
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• Real-time imaging of fish gut ties bacterial competition to gut movements

  26-07-2016 20:00
  
  In recent years, numerous diseases have been tied to variations in gut microbiota. The rapidly growing probiotics industry targets gut and intestinal health by developing products built mostly around enzyme cultures and bacteria. But a new study now suggests that the underlying health and physical forces of the gut are as important as the bacteria inside in shaping communities of intestinal microbiota, and offers insights into the problems experienced by humans with a birth defect called Hirschs
  
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• New model is first to predict tree growth in earliest stages of tree life

  26-07-2016 19:54
  
  Land managers, forestry professionals and conservationists seek to predict how trees will grow so they can better manage existing forests and regrow forests after logging operations. Previous tree growth models can reasonably predict how trees grow once they are about 20 years old and achieve "crown closure" with the trees in the forest around them. Crown closure occurs when trees in a specific area grow wide and tall enough that their canopies connect. Now, University of Missouri researchers ha
  
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• Archaeologists make 'exciting' discovery in Alamo dig

  26-07-2016 19:46
  
  Archaeologists digging at the Alamo have discovered an adobe wall that may provide clues to the famous site’s Spanish Colonial history.
  
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• Eastern Pacific storms Georgette and Frank see-saw in strength

  26-07-2016 19:31
  
  Two tropical cyclones in the Eastern Pacific Ocean have see-sawed in strength today, July 26, 2016.
  
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• Biological wizardry ferments carbon monoxide into biofuel

  26-07-2016 19:31
  
  Cornell University biological engineers have deciphered the cellular strategy to make the biofuel ethanol, using an anaerobic microbe feeding on carbon monoxide - a common industrial waste gas.
  
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• As Windows 10 Deadline Looms, Should You Upgrade?

  26-07-2016 19:26 via nbcnews.com
  
  If those pushy pop-ups didn't succeed in getting you to take advantage of the free upgrade to Windows 10, perhaps the looming deadline will.
  
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• NASA data show Hurricane Frank's fluctuation in strength

  26-07-2016 19:25
  
  Infrared data from NASA's Aqua satellite showed a transition within Tropical Storm Frank over three days, and now Frank has become the Eastern Pacific's fifth hurricane.
  
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• Your nose might know if you'll get Alzheimer's

  26-07-2016 19:14 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Alzheimer's researchers are looking to our noses and our eyes for early signs of disease.
  
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• New Battery Could Overcome Key Drawbacks of Lithium-Air Batteries

  26-07-2016 19:06 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Engineers from MIT propose that a new lithium-oxygen battery material could be packaged in batteries that are very similar to conventional sealed batteries yet provide much more energy for their weight. Lithium-air batteries are considered highly promising technologies for electric cars and portable electronic devices because of their potential for delivering a high energy output […]
  The post New Battery Could Overcome Key Drawbacks of Lithium-Air Batteries appeared first on SciTech Daily
  
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• Astronomers Reveal ‘Orphaned Protostars’

  26-07-2016 18:53 via scitechdaily.com
  
  New research from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics concludes that ten protostellar candidates are indeed protostars even though they are not presently embedded in a cloud. Stars form as gravity contracts the gas and dust in an interstellar cloud until clumps develop that are dense enough to coalesce into stars. Precisely how this happens, however, […]
  The post Astronomers Reveal ‘Orphaned Protostars’ appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Rainforest greener during 'dry' season

  26-07-2016 18:45
  
  Although the Amazon Jungle may appear to be perpetually green, a University of Illinois researcher believes there are actually seasonal differences of photosynthesis, with more occurring during the dry season and less during the wet season. Understanding how a rainforest that occupies 2.7 million square miles of South America functions is crucial to the future health of the entire planet.
  
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• Dirty to drinkable: Engineers develop novel hybrid nanomaterials to transform water

  26-07-2016 18:44
  
  Graphene oxide has been hailed as a veritable wonder material; when incorporated into nanocellulose foam, the lab-created substance is light, strong and flexible, conducting heat and electricity quickly and efficiently.
  
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• Count seals in Antarctica from the comfort of your couch

  26-07-2016 18:43
  
  Scientists are asking the public to look through thousands of satellite images of Antarctica to assist in the first-ever, comprehensive count of Weddell seals. Counting seals will help scientists better protect and conserve the pristine Ross Sea and wildlife in the area.
  
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• Researcher discovers unique anatomical characteristic in barnacle study

  26-07-2016 18:41
  
  When it comes to long distance relationships, it seems the barnacle has it all figured out. That's because if they fancy a mate who is far away, the male can simply make his penis longer to meet the need.
  
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• Vineyard cover crops reduce expense, save environment

  26-07-2016 18:40
  
  Cornell researchers have advice for vineyard managers in cool and humid climates like the Northeast: cover up.
  
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• Spitzer Provides Astronomers with a New Way to See the Milky Way’s Giant Black Hole

  26-07-2016 18:40 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Astronomers are using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to further explore Sagittarius A*. At the center of our Milky Way galaxy lies a cosmic beast called Sagittarius A*. This supermassive black hole packs about four million sun-masses into a volume roughly the size of our solar system. Recently, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope began exploring this exotic […]
  The post Spitzer Provides Astronomers with a New Way to See the Milky Way’s Giant Black Hole appeared first on SciTe
  
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• Historic solar flight marks first round-the-world journey

  26-07-2016 18:38
  
  The world's first round-the-world flight to be powered solely by the sun's energy made history on Tuesday as it landed in Abu Dhabi, where it first took off on an epic 25,000-mile (40,000-kilometer) journey that began more than a year ago.
  
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• Google's competition to go to the moon

  26-07-2016 18:38 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Nearly 50 years after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, effectively ending the Cold War space race, the next generation of space discovery is nearing its own conclusion.
  
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• Luc Hoffman, Swiss ornithologist and naturalist, dead at 93

  26-07-2016 18:37
  
  A wildlife groups says Dr. Luc Hoffmann, a Swiss ornithologist and naturalist with a passion for wetlands who helped create the World Wildlife Fund for Nature and many other conservation groups, has died at 93.
  
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• NASA spots Tropical Storm Mirinae approaching China's Hainan Island

  26-07-2016 18:36
  
  Tropical Depression 05W strengthened into a tropical storm and was renamed Mirinae as NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the South China Sea and captured a visible image of the storm.
  
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• NASA gets last looks at former Tropical Storm Darby

  26-07-2016 18:36
  
  Tropical Storm Darby weakened to a remnant low pressure system in the Central Pacific Ocean today, July 26. NASA's Aqua satellite and RapidScat instrument provided a "last look" at Darby when it was still a tropical storm the previous day.
  
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• Improving Internet with mid-wavelength infrared

  26-07-2016 18:34
  
  With a growing number of people connecting to the Internet everyday, Internet cables are under the threat of a "bandwidth explosion."
  
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• Better defining the signals left by as-yet-undefined dark matter at the LHC

  26-07-2016 18:34
  
  In the quest for dark matter, physicists rely on particle colliders such as the LHC in CERN, located near Geneva, Switzerland. The trouble is: physicists still don't exactly know what dark matter is. Indeed, they can only see its effect in the form of gravity. Until now, theoretical physicists have used models based on a simple, abstract description of the interaction between dark matter and ordinary particles, such as the Effective Field Theories (EFTs). However, until we observe dark matter, i
  
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