Sci-Tech news

• Apple Adds Gender Diverse Emojis in New Update

  01-08-2016 23:24 via nbcnews.com
  
  The newest software update for iPhones and iPads will feature more gender diverse emojis, Apple announced Monday.
  
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• Video: These tiny satellites could take on NASA's riskiest missions

  01-08-2016 23:01
  
  At the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, NASA is preparing tiny satellites the size of briefcases for a mission to Mars.
  
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• Instagram's New Feature Takes on Trolls

  01-08-2016 22:55 via nbcnews.com
  
  Instagram is letting some of its power users filter out comments from internet trolls.
  
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• States show they can sometimes stop earthquakes

  01-08-2016 22:49
  
  Kansas and Oklahoma, which acknowledge that humans are causing earthquakes, have shown they can stop them.
  
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• Replacing ill workers with healthy ones accelerates some epidemics, study finds

  01-08-2016 22:20
  
  When disease outbreaks occur, people with essential roles - healthcare workers, first responders, and teachers, for example - are typically up close and personal with infected people. As these front-line workers become infected, healthy individuals take their places.
  
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• Restoring prairie and fighting wildfire with (drone launched) fire(balls)

  01-08-2016 22:17
  
  Ecologist Dirac Twidwell wants to change the way we think about prescribed burns.
  
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• WATCH: NASA Spacecraft Set to Explore Giant Asteroid That Could Destroy Earth

  01-08-2016 22:09
  
  The OSIRIS-REx Mission, headed by NASA and the University of Arizona, plan to launch an unmanned spacecraft on September 8 in the efforts to reach Bennu, a large near-Earth asteroid in August 2018, according to a website devoted to the mission.
  
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• WATCH: Apple Expected to Announce IPhone 7 Release in September

  01-08-2016 22:09
  
  Despite no official word from the tech giant, pre-orders should begin shortly following official announcement.
  
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• Gawker's Nick Denton Files for Personal Bankruptcy

  01-08-2016 21:27 via nbcnews.com
  
  Gawker Chief Executive Nick Denton filed for personal bankruptcy, according to court documents that named his largest creditor as Hulk Hogan.
  
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• Bioenergy decisions involve wildlife habitat and land use trade-offs

  01-08-2016 21:02
  
  New research from North Carolina State University and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) finds that choosing how to meet bioenergy goals means making trade-offs about which wildlife species and ecosystems will be most impacted. The work focuses on the southeastern United States, but yields general insights that could inform bioenergy policy globally.
  
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• Scientists determine how birds soar to great heights

  01-08-2016 21:00
  
  Migratory birds often use warm, rising atmospheric currents to gain height with little energy expenditure when flying over long distances.
  
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• Opposing mountain ranges

  01-08-2016 21:00
  
  In the future, people in the Himalayas will have to contend with flooding, while those in the Andes will have longer dry spells and less water. These are the conclusions drawn by ETH researchers, who have used measurement data and climate models to closely examine water balance in both of these mountain ranges.
  
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• Lack of water likely caused extinction of isolated Alaska mammoths

  01-08-2016 21:00
  
  A remnant population of woolly mammoths on a remote Alaska island was likely pushed to extinction by rising sea levels and a lack of access to fresh water, according to a newly published study.
  
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• NASA Spacecraft Set to Explore Giant Asteroid That Could Destroy Earth

  01-08-2016 20:48
  
  The mission could tell us about the very beginnings of our solar system.
  
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• Uber sells its China business to big local rival

  01-08-2016 20:16 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Uber has a new strategy in China: If you can't beat them, join them.
  
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• Disney World exploring foot tracking technology

  01-08-2016 20:08
  
  Disney World may one day be able to keep track of its theme-park visitors by their feet.
  
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• Judge tosses patent verdict against Apple, orders new trials

  01-08-2016 20:06
  
  A federal judge has tossed out a jury's decision calling for Apple to pay $625.6 million in damages to a Nevada company that claims Apple infringed on its patents for technology used in Apple services like FaceTime and iMessage.
  
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• Research shows how cells handle big trash pickup

  01-08-2016 20:05
  
  Everyone would rather cook than take out the garbage. Perhaps that's why biochemists learned how cells make proteins 70 years ago, but are just now learning how they get rid of proteins that are no longer needed or no longer work.
  
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• Amazon to Develop Headphones That Respond to a Keyword

  01-08-2016 20:05 via nbcnews.com
  
  Amazon has been awarded a patent for noise-canceling headphones that automatically turn off when they hear a predetermined keyword.
  
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• 'Abzu' game creator finds endless inspiration in the sea

  01-08-2016 19:52
  
  After designing grassy knolls and desert vistas for the landmark artsy video games "Flower" and "Journey," there was only one place video game designer Matt Nava wanted to go next: underwater.
  
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• Real and artificially generated 3-D films are nearly impossible to distinguish

  01-08-2016 19:40
  
  For viewers it seems to be very difficult to tell the difference between real and artificially rendered 3-D films. Psychologists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have studied the effects of various technologies and found that it plays virtually no role in the viewer's experience whether a 3-D film was originally produced as such or whether it was later converted from 2-D to 3-D using algorithms as, for example, is the case with new 3-D televisions.
  
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• Iron catalysts can modify amino acids, peptides to create new drug candidates

  01-08-2016 19:39
  
  For medicinal chemists, making tweaks to peptide structures is key to developing new drug candidates. Now, researchers have demonstrated that two iron-containing small-molecule catalysts can help turn certain types of amino acids—the building blocks of peptides and proteins—into an array of potential new forms, even when part of a larger peptide, while preserving a crucial aspect of their chemistry: chirality, or "handedness."
  
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• NASA Spots Typhoon Nida's rainfall, approach to China

  01-08-2016 19:32
  
  NASA satellites provided a look at Typhoon Nida's size, clouds, rainfall and cloud heights as it approached southeastern China.
  
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• New high-temperature device captures a broader solar wavelength spectrum, improves solar cell efficiency

  01-08-2016 19:31
  The photovoltaic (PV) cells in traditional solar cells convert sunlight efficiently within a narrow range of wavelengths determined by the material used in the PV cells. This limits their efficiency, as long wavelengths of sunlight are not converted at all and the energy of short wavelength light is largely wasted. Scientists have sought to increase the efficiency of photovoltaics by creating "multi-junction" solar cells, made from several different semiconductor materials that absorb at varying
  
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• Tesla's deal for SolarCity could speed sustainable energy

  01-08-2016 19:10
  
  Tesla wants to put its car and energy storage businesses under one solar-powered roof.
  
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• Tesla reaches $2.6 bn deal to buy SolarCity

  01-08-2016 19:10
  
  Electric car maker Tesla said Monday it won agreement from SolarCity to acquire the solar power company for $2.6 billion, confirming a deal that has been criticized on Wall Street.
  
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• Examining embryo-like fossils from the Ediacaran Doushantuo formation, South China

  01-08-2016 19:07
  
  The origin and early evolution of animals have been a fascinating topic since Charles Darwin. Definite early animal fossils largely appear from early Cambrian, so the fossil records are often interpreted as documenting a "Cambrian explosion" of animals. The phosphatized embryo-like fossils displaying cellular and subcellular structures from Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation, South China, provide an unparalleled snapshot of life before the Cambrian.
  
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• NASA spots Tropical Storm Howard developing in Eastern Pacific

  01-08-2016 19:06
  
  Infrared data from NASA's Aqua satellite showed strong thunderstorms within the ninth tropical depression of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, as the storm was strengthening. Early on Aug. 1 Tropical Depression 9E intensified into a tropical storm and was renamed Howard.
  
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• Adhesive Patch Delivers Therapy to Tumor Sites

  01-08-2016 18:54 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A newly published study from MIT describes an adhesive patch that can stick to the tumor site, either before or after surgery, to deliver a triple-combination of drug, gene, and photo (light-based) therapy. Approximately one in 20 people will develop colorectal cancer in their lifetime, making it the third-most prevalent form of the disease in […]
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• Zika and Team USA Top Rio Social Buzz

  01-08-2016 18:51 via nbcnews.com
  
  If social media is an indicator, Team USA athletes will have plenty of fans cheering them on in the upcoming Rio Olympic games.
  
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• Theranos' Hail Mary Pass: A table-top laboratory

  01-08-2016 18:38 via rss.cnn.com
  
  CEO Elizabeth Homes unveils a new product that promises to miniaturize lab analysis.
  
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• Hubble Image of the Week – Globular Cluster NGC 4833

  01-08-2016 18:32 via scitechdaily.com
  
  This newly released Hubble image shows globular cluster NGC 4833. Located approximately 22,000 light-years away in the constellation of Musca (The Fly), this tightly packed collection of stars — known as a globular cluster — goes by the name of NGC 4833. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the dazzling stellar group in all […]
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• Astronomers Discover a Radio Pulsing White Dwarf Binary Star

  01-08-2016 18:25 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using telescopes on the ground and in space, a team of astronomers has discovered a new type of exotic binary star in the system AR Scorpii. The rapidly spinning white dwarf star is powering electrons up to almost the speed of light. These high energy particles release blasts of radiation that lash the companion red […]
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• New Fund From Technology Crossover Ventures Draws $2.5 Billion

  01-08-2016 18:07 via nytimes.com
  Though some worry about a cooling tech boom, the venture capital money keeps pouring in.
  
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• Verizon wants to run every part of your life

  01-08-2016 17:53 via rss.cnn.com
  
  The ink is barely dry on Verizon's $4.8 billion purchase of Yahoo's core operating assets. But Verizon announced another notable acquisition on Monday, the purchase of Ireland-based vehicle tracking firm Fleetmatics for $2.4 billion.
  
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• Are calcareous sediments weak points in seismogenic zones?

  01-08-2016 17:39
  
  Where a tectonic plate dives under another, in the so-called subduction zones at ocean margins, many strong earthquakes occur. Especially the earthquakes at shallow depths often cause tsunamis. How exactly are such earthquakes initiated? Which rock composition favours a break in the earth's interior that can lead to such natural disasters? Scientists at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the University of Utrecht (NL) published a study in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience
  
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• Does Our Future Look Like a Scene From 'Iron Man'?

  01-08-2016 17:32
  
  After losing both of his legs in a mountain climbing accident, Dr. Hugh Herr has dedicated his life to creating the next generation of bionics.
  
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• Is Earthly life premature from a cosmic perspective?

  01-08-2016 17:29
  
  The universe is 13.8 billion years old, while our planet formed just 4.5 billion years ago. Some scientists think this time gap means that life on other planets could be billions of years older than ours. However, new theoretical work suggests that present-day life is actually premature from a cosmic perspective.
  
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• Antigen-specific targeting of immune system offers treatment approach to improve efficacy of biologic drugs

  01-08-2016 17:27
  
  Selecta Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing targeted antigen-specific immune therapies for rare and serious diseases, announced today that Nature Nanotechnology has published an article that presents preclinical results from Selecta's research which demonstrate the broad potential applicability of Selecta's novel immune tolerance platform. Details that elucidate the mechanism of action of the company's immune tolerance therapy, SVP-Rapamycin (SEL-110), were a
  
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• New studies explore 3-D structure of DNA

  01-08-2016 17:23
  
  In a set of papers published last week in Cell Systems, Dr. Erez Lieberman Aiden, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics and McNair Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and director of the Center for Genome Architecture (TC4GA), and his colleagues introduce Juicer, an open-source tool used in three-dimensional (3-D) genome sequencing (Hi-C) processes.
  
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• Apple now owns a piece of Uber?

  01-08-2016 17:19 via rss.cnn.com
  
  The sale of Uber's China operations to rival Didi Chuxing could wind up being a big win for ... Apple.
  
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• Fin24.com | Tesla agrees to pay $2.6bn for SolarCity

  01-08-2016 17:09
  
  Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors has reached an agreement to buy SolarCity for $2.6bn, about $300m less than an initial proposal.
  
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• Swapping substrates improves edges of graphene nanoribbons

  01-08-2016 17:00
  
  It is now feasible to make a prized material for spintronic devices and semiconductors—monolayer graphene nanoribbons with zigzag edges.
  
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• Evolutionary alterations to circadian rhythm genes help reef fish adapt to the higher levels of carbon dioxide

  01-08-2016 17:00
  
  Much of the excess carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere, released from burning fossil fuels, is taken up by the oceans. Yet the dissolved CO2 increases the acidity of the water, with inevitable impacts on fragile marine ecosystems such as coral reefs. Researchers at KAUST are conducting genomic experiments on generations of reef fish to determine how they might adapt to rapidly changing conditions.
  
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• DNA's dynamic nature makes it well-suited to serve as the blueprint of life

  01-08-2016 17:00
  
  A new study could explain why DNA and not RNA, its older chemical cousin, is the main repository of genetic information. The DNA double helix is a more forgiving molecule that can contort itself into different shapes to absorb chemical damage to the basic building blocks—A, G, C and T—of genetic code. In contrast, when RNA is in the form of a double helix it is so rigid and unyielding that rather than accommodating damaged bases, it falls apart completely.
  
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• Antarctic sea ice may be a source of mercury in southern ocean fish and birds

  01-08-2016 17:00
  
  New research has found methylmercury—a potent neurotoxin—in sea ice in the Southern Ocean.
  
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• Handheld device takes high-resolution images of children's retinas

  01-08-2016 16:59
  
  Engineers and physicians at Duke University have developed a handheld device capable of capturing images of a retina with cellular resolution. The new probe will allow researchers to gather detailed structural information about the eyes of infants and toddlers for the first time.
  
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• Google wants to cure you with electricity

  01-08-2016 16:39 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Google's parent company is partnering with GlaxoSmithKline, the leading British pharmaceutical firm, to launch a new company to develop "bioelectronic medicines," according to a joint announcement Monday.
  
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• Cheaper, faster, more accurate method to quantify water in solid pharmaceutical drugs

  01-08-2016 16:21
  
  Chemists at The University of Texas at Arlington have invented a method to quantify water content in solid pharmaceutical drugs that is faster, cheaper, more accurate and more precise than Karl Fischer titration, the method currently recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and widely used worldwide.
  
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• More is better when it comes to online product selection

  01-08-2016 16:18
  
  Before online shopping, if a store didn't carry the item you wanted it could take days or weeks to get it, if the store would even make a special order. That was then. Now, there's no reason for retailers not to take advantage of the unlimited retail space online and offer everything they sell. Recent research supports this approach: the more products offered online, the greater the revenue for the retailer.
  
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