Sci-Tech news

• U.S. Safety Commission: Stop Using Samsung Phones Linked to Fires

  09-09-2016 22:27 via nbcnews.com
  
  The government product safety watchdog urged the public to power off and stop using the Galaxy Note 7 after reports of explosions and fires.
  
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• The big iPhone continues to be dumb - Yahoo News

  09-09-2016 22:04
  
  Yahoo News
  The big iPhone continues to be dumb
  Yahoo News
  With the launch of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus this week, Apple cemented the Plus's status as the best, most feature-rich iPhone in the lineup. Unfortunately, Tim Cook and Friends didn't address the glaring issue that the Plus-sized iPhone is still bad. It ...and more »
  
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• Facebook backs off censoring 'napalm girl' photo

  09-09-2016 21:42
  
  Facebook backtracked Friday on a decision to censor an iconic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl escaping a napalm bombing, after its block on the historic image triggered a wave of outrage.
  
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• Ford buys shuttle service as part of new mobility push

  09-09-2016 21:40
  
  Ford Motor Co. is buying an app-based shuttle service and partnering with a bike-share company as part of its ongoing effort to expand its traditional business.
  
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• Tropical Depression 16W slowly intensifying and heading away from Guam

  09-09-2016 21:38
  
  Tropical Depression 16W in the northwestern Pacific Ocean was spotted by the Terra satellite on September 08, 2016. The storm is currently moving northwest toward the island of Guam at 8 mph. It is slowly intensifying as it establishes a steady west-northwest track. Its speed is also expected to intensify in the next few days. Currently TD16W is located 220 miles west-northwest of Guam. There are no threatened landmasses at this time.
  
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• No, Apple's new AirPods won't give you cancer, experts say

  09-09-2016 20:40
  
  Consumer technology analysts have been calling Apple's decision to leave the earphone jack off its new iPhone 7 a risky business move. But some potential users of the iPhone 7 wonder whether Apple is asking them to take on some added risk as well.
  
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• What's nature worth? Count the selfies

  09-09-2016 20:00
  
  A University of Vermont-led team has successfully used social media images to measure the use and value of outdoor recreation on public lands.
  
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• How a hot LA startup went bankrupt: Inside the 'stress cage' that was Fuhu

  09-09-2016 20:00
  
  When graphic designers at children's tablet and app maker Fuhu Inc. put up a Christmas tree with wacky ornaments for the holidays, an executive ripped them off and trashed them.
  
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• SpaceX asks public for help in probe of rocket blast (Update)

  09-09-2016 19:54
  
  SpaceX appealed for help from the public and US government agencies on Friday in the investigation of what made a Falcon 9 rocket explode last week during a launch test.
  
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• SpaceX accident 'most difficult and complex' in its history (Update)

  09-09-2016 19:54
  
  SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk is calling last week's launch pad accident the "most difficult and complex failure" in the company's 14-year history.
  
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• SpaceX accident 'most difficult and complex' in its history

  09-09-2016 19:54
  
  SpaceX's chief executive says last week's launch pad accident is the "most difficult and complex failure" in the company's 14-year history.
  
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• Scientists find DNA of bacterium behind London's Great Plague

  09-09-2016 19:47
  
  Scientists have recovered DNA from the bacterium that caused London’s 1665 Great Plague by studying the teeth of five skeletons.
  
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• Dutch police closes probe into fatal Tesla crash

  09-09-2016 19:28
  
  Dutch police closed a probe Friday into a fatal crash involving a Tesla, accepting the US electric car firm's findings that the Model S sedan was not on auto-pilot when it smashed into a tree.
  
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• Chinese investigators characterize the world of resistance gene exchange among bacteria

  09-09-2016 19:26
  
  Certain antibiotic resistance genes are easily transferred from one bacterial species to another, and can move between farm animals and the human gut. A team led by Chinese researchers has characterized this "mobile resistome," which they say is largely to blame for the spread of antibiotic resistance. They found that many antibiotic resistance genes that are shared between the human and animal gut microbiome are also present in multiple human pathogens. These findings are published September 9
  
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• New computer chip manufacturing method squeezes more onto limited wafer space

  09-09-2016 19:25
  
  Computer chip makers continuously strive to pack more transistors in less space, yet as the size of those transistors approaches the atomic scale, there are physical limits on how small they are able to make the patterns for the circuitry.
  
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• Review: Cutting the cord gets easier with Sling TV, DirecTV Now, other alternatives to cable

  09-09-2016 19:00
  
  As tired as I am of paying my pay TV bill, I haven't yet been convinced to cut the cord.
  
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• Want to Trade in Your iPhone? How to Make the Most Money

  09-09-2016 18:50 via nbcnews.com
  
  If the latest iPhone caught your eye, why not trade in your old phone -- you could earn up to $400 or even get a straight swap.
  
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• Air travelers on Samsung phone honor system after fires (Update)

  09-09-2016 18:50
  
  If you travel with a Samsung Note 7, you're likely on the honor system when deciding whether to use or charge the device during a flight.
  
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• Air travelers on Samsung phone honor system after fires

  09-09-2016 18:50
  
  If you travel with a Samsung Note 7, you're likely on the honor system when deciding whether to use or charge the device during a flight.
  
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• GM recalls 4M vehicles for air bag defect linked to 1 death

  09-09-2016 18:46
  
  General Motors Co. is recalling about 4 million vehicles worldwide to fix an air bag software defect that has been linked to one death.
  
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• What's the best way to remove perfluoroalkyls that threaten the water supply?

  09-09-2016 18:43
  
  Elevated levels of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in drinking water can persist in water supplies for long periods and present an important health risk for millions of Americans, from hormone suppression to potentially cancer. A comprehensive review of the latest research on innovative and cost-effective ways to remove or destroy PFAS from drinking water, groundwater, and wastewater is published in Environmental Engineering Science, the official journal of The Association of Environmental Eng
  
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• Fin24.com | EXCLUSIVE: SAA bans charging of 'exploding' Samsung Note 7

  09-09-2016 18:24
  
  South African Airways has banned the charging of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones on board all its aircraft effective from Saturday, amid battery explosion reports.
  
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• Startups in Target's Techstars accelerator race to finish line

  09-09-2016 18:20
  
  Some of Target Corp.'s first class of Techstar startups are already running tests within the company. Others are in active talks about potential partnerships.
  
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• Stowaway species treaty to come into force in 2017

  09-09-2016 17:36
  
  Ships around the world will have to carry ballast water treatment facilities on board from next year to prevent the spread of potentially invasive aquatic species, under a new international treaty.
  
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• Review: Recall aside, the Samsung Note 7 will impress you

  09-09-2016 17:29
  
  I like it when things are in order. Samsung has two Galaxy S models - the S7 and S7 edge. It also has a larger model with a stylus called the Note, which has always been one number behind. The last Note model was the Note 5, so this year was due for a Note 6. But wouldn't you know it? Samsung skipped a number and named it the Note 7.
  
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• Facebook co-founder gives $20mn to Clinton, Democrats

  09-09-2016 17:25
  
  Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz is committing $20 million to help Hillary Clinton and her Democratic Party in the upcoming US election.
  
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• Drones for butterfly conservation

  09-09-2016 17:16
  
  High-resolution aerial Photographs provides information that is both up-to-date and tailored for the task at hand—information that could previously only be obtained by observations in the field and only for a limited spatial area. For the very first time, a team of scientists led by Jan C. Habel at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has used drones to predict suitable microhabitats for the larvae of endangered butterfly species (larval habitats), recently published in Landscape Ecolo
  
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• Facebook Slammed for Censoring Iconic War Photo

  09-09-2016 16:59 via nbcnews.com
  
  Facebook stands accused of censorship after it deleted posts by a world leader that showed an iconic image of a girl fleeing a napalm attack.
  
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• Scientists name new species of flatworm after President Obama

  09-09-2016 16:57
  
  A flatworm that infects freshwater turtles in Malaysia has been given a presidential name: Baracktrema obamai.
  
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• River turns bright red in Russia, freaks everyone out

  09-09-2016 16:52
  
  Russian officials are looking into a phenomenon that's been documented by a flurry of pictures on social media: one of the country's northernmost rivers turning a bloodlike bright red.
  
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• Time crystals might exist after all

  09-09-2016 16:10
  
  (Phys.org)—Are time crystals just a mathematical curiosity, or could they actually physically exist? Physicists have been debating this question since 2012, when Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek first proposed the idea of time crystals. He argued that these hypothetical objects can exhibit periodic motion, such as moving in a circular orbit, in their state of lowest energy, or their "ground state." Theoretically, objects in their ground states don't have enough energy to move at all.
  
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• Will worsening 'smoke waves' threaten western U.S.?

  09-09-2016 16:00
  
  Climate change, and the warmer summers it will bring, could blanket much of the western United States with persistent "smoke waves"—consecutive days of air pollution from wildfires, a new study warns.
  
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• How did the modern biological cell acquire its transport system?

  09-09-2016 15:50
  
  The inside of a present day plant or animal cell quite closely resembles a busy city. Like an urban metropolis with different districts interlinked by a traffic network, a cell has distinct compartments connected to each other by a dynamic transport system.
  
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• That stings: Insecticide hurts queen bees' egg-laying abilities

  09-09-2016 15:32
  
  The world's best-selling insecticide may impair the ability of a queen honey bee and her subjects to maintain a healthy colony, says new research led by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln entomologist.
  
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• Initiating DNA repair

  09-09-2016 15:25
  
  To find out what activates SIRT6, the researchers alternately applied chemical inhibitors to human skin cells to determine which proteins were essential in getting the gene to repair the broken DNA strands. They discovered that one protein was involved in activating the gene in response to oxidative stress—c-Jun N-terminal kinase, which goes by the simpler term JNK. When JNK was inhibited, SIRT6 was not activated and the broken strands of DNA were not repaired efficiently.
  
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• In the global race for rare metals, Team China wins gold

  09-09-2016 15:00
  
  Just as oil and gas has raised the stature of countries like Saudi Arabia in the age of oil, countries that dominate the production of metals are set to benefit similarly in the rare metal age.
  
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• No evidence of long-term welfare problems with electronic containment of cats

  09-09-2016 14:53
  
  A study by animal welfare specialists has provided new evidence that using electronic containment systems to restrict where pet cats venture does not result in long-term wellbeing problems.
  
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• Electron beam microscope directly writes nanoscale features in liquid with metal ink

  09-09-2016 14:53
  
  Scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are the first to harness a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) to directly write tiny patterns in metallic "ink," forming features in liquid that are finer than half the width of a human hair.
  
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• Researchers synthesize record-breaking, atomically precise diamond-shaped nanoclusters of silver

  09-09-2016 14:50
  
  A wide international collaboration involving researchers from four countries – China, Australia, Germany and Finland – have managed to synthesize and characterize two previously unknown, record-large silver nanoclusters of 136 and 374 silver atoms. These diamond-shaped nanoclusters (see Figure), consisting of a silver core of 2 to 3 nanometers and a protecting layer of silver atoms and organic thiol molecules, are the largest ones whose structure is now known to atomic precision. The
  
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• Are fitness trackers fit for security?

  09-09-2016 14:42
  
  They may look like a normal watch but are capable to do much more than just showing the time: So called fitness trackers are collecting data on their users' lifestyle and health status on a large scale helping them with training or losing weight. Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi, system security professor at the cybersecurity profile area (CYSEC) of TU Darmstadt and his team investigated fraud opportunities with fitness trackers and detected serious security flaws.
  
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• X-ray telescope scheduled to launch

  09-09-2016 14:41
  
  X-Calibur, a novel telescope that sees polarized X-rays rather than visible or infrared light, is next in line for launch at the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, N.M., a tiny town best known as the site of Billy the Kid's (alleged) grave.
  
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• Measuring air quality in West Africa promises better weather and climate models

  09-09-2016 14:41
  
  First results from the EU-funded DACCIWA project have revealed that air quality in the West Africa region has been seriously affected by the burning of charcoal, rubbish and agricultural waste.
  
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• Training wild goannas not to eat cane toads

  09-09-2016 14:40
  
  Within minutes of starting her fascinating science presentation in Broome, Ecologist Georgia Ward-Fear transported her audience to a remote floodplain of the Forrest River in the East Kimberley.
  
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• Ninth annual river report shows mixed results for St. Johns River's health

  09-09-2016 14:39
  
  With nitrogen levels down and grass beds coming back, but salinity up and algae blooms a vexing problem, the ninth annual State of the River Report on the lower St. Johns River Basin offers mixed results that suggest continued monitoring and research are needed.
  
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• Researcher strives for on-demand evolution enabling cells to conduct specific beneficial functions

  09-09-2016 14:38
  
  In the right hands, the 88 keys on a piano offer unlimited creative possibilities. To a talented bioengineer, the molecules of the human genome likewise enable compositions of enormous complexity and inventiveness. A University of California, Irvine scientist who has shown brilliance in both music and genetic engineering thinks he has found his muse in the cells of living organisms.
  
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• Desert ants found to have dual navigation systems

  09-09-2016 14:30
  
  (Phys.org)—A pair of researchers with Ulm University has found that a type of African desert ant has two navigational systems for helping it find its way back to the nest. In their paper published in the journal Science, Sarah Pfeffer and Matthias Wittlinger describe experiments they conducted with the ants and what they learned in doing so.
  
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• Season's first dolphins killed in annual Japan hunt

  09-09-2016 14:26
  
  Japanese fishermen on Friday killed the first dolphins of the season in a controversial annual hunt that attracted global attention after it was featured in the Oscar-winning 2009 documentary "The Cove".
  
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• Three-wheeled electric vehicle set to go on sale this year

  09-09-2016 14:25
  
  A three-wheeled electric vehicle could be on the road later this year in the U.S. and Canada.
  
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• Elon Musk Takes to Twitter in Hunt for SpaceX Explosion Clues

  09-09-2016 14:24 via nbcnews.com
  
  Elon Musk says the SpaceX rocket that blew up into a fireball is proving to be the most complex failure the firm has faced in 14 years.
  
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• Increasing stocking rate may not lead to greater nitrogen leaching on dairy farms

  09-09-2016 14:10
  
  It has been commonly accepted that more cows per pasture would lead to increased nitrogen leaching because of increased nitrogen excretion via urine; but, a new study discovered circumstances where a decline in leaching occurred with increased stocking rate, challenging assumptions about how best to reduce the environmental footprint of grazing systems.
  
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