Sci-Tech news

• Fermi finds record-breaking binary in galaxy next door

  29-09-2016 23:19
  
  Using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and other facilities, an international team of scientists has found the first gamma-ray binary in another galaxy and the most luminous one ever seen. The dual-star system, dubbed LMC P3, contains a massive star and a crushed stellar core that interact to produce a cyclic flood of gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light.
  
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• Global warming set to pass 2C threshold in 2050: report

  29-09-2016 23:17
  
  Earth is on track to sail past the two degree Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) threshold for dangerous global warming by 2050, seven of the world's top climate scientists warned Thursday.
  
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• Team studies calcium requirements for weanling pigs

  29-09-2016 23:16
  
  Two recent studies from the University of Illinois have helped determine how much calcium growing pigs require, and illuminate the mechanisms by which they absorb it.
  
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• New echolocation app on Google Play

  29-09-2016 22:51
  
  A new app developed by Clarkson University faculty and students allows users to use echolocation to better understand their surroundings.
  
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• Scientists bid farewell to Rosetta space probe before crash

  29-09-2016 22:30
  
  Scientists began saying their final farewells to the Rosetta space probe Thursday, hours before its planned crash-landing on a comet, but said that data collected during the mission would provide discoveries for many years to come.
  
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• Game theory research reveals fragility of common resources

  29-09-2016 22:18
  
  New research in game theory shows that people are naturally predisposed to over-use "common-pool resources" such as transportation systems and fisheries even if it risks failure of the system, to the detriment of society as a whole.
  
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• Lawsuit: ExxonMobil polluted river, ignored climate change

  29-09-2016 22:16
  
  ExxonMobil has polluted the Mystic River while failing to plan for the potentially severe impacts of climate change at its Boston-area fuel storage terminal, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by an environmental advocacy group.
  
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• Ancient reptile fossils claw for more attention

  29-09-2016 22:15
  
  Newly recovered fossils confirm that Drepanosaurus, a prehistoric cross between a chameleon and an anteater, was a small reptile with a fearsome finger. The second digit of its forelimb sported a massive claw.
  
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• Creating new devices that emulate human biological synapses

  29-09-2016 22:13
  
  Engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are leading a research team that is developing a new type of nanodevice for computer microprocessors that can mimic the functioning of a biological synapse—the place where a signal passes from one nerve cell to another in the body. The work is featured in the advance online publication of Nature Materials.
  
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• Sugar gives bees a happy buzz, study finds

  29-09-2016 22:06
  
  An unexpected sugary snack can give bees a little buzz and appears to lift their mood, even making them optimistic, according to research Thursday that suggests pollinators have feelings, too.
  
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• Balloons!: iOS 10 Lets You Take Over Friend's Screen

  29-09-2016 22:05 via nbcnews.com
  
  Apple's new commercial for the iPhone 7, which is set to make its primetime debut Thursday night, is spotlighting the new expressive messaging feature in iOS 10.
  
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• FCC beefs up emergency cellphone alerts

  29-09-2016 22:04
  
  The federal government is beefing up emergency cellphone alerts like the one used in New York to advertise a search for a bombing suspect earlier in September.
  
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• Tech titans join to study artificial intelligence

  29-09-2016 22:02
  
  Major technology firms have joined forces in a partnership on artificial intelligence, aiming to cooperate on "best practices" on using the technology "to benefit people and society."
  
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• Scientists: World likely won't avoid dangerous warming mark

  29-09-2016 22:02
  
  A team of top scientists is telling world leaders to stop congratulating themselves on the Paris agreement to fight climate change because if more isn't done, global temperatures will likely hit dangerous warming levels in about 35 years.
  
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• Ocean conditions contributed to unprecedented 2015 toxic algal bloom

  29-09-2016 21:56
  
  A study led by researchers at the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration connects the unprecedented West Coast toxic algal bloom of 2015 that closed fisheries from southern California to northern British Columbia to the unusually warm ocean conditions—nicknamed "the blob"—in winter and spring of that year.
  
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• Spiral arms: Protoplanetary disk around a young star exhibits spiral structure

  29-09-2016 21:51
  
  Astronomers have found a distinct structure involving spiral arms in the reservoir of gas and dust disk surrounding the young star Elias 2-27. While spiral features have been observed on the surfaces of protoplanetary disks, these new observations, from the ALMA observatory in Chile, are the first to reveal that such spirals occur at the disk midplane, the region where planet formation takes place. This is of importance for planet formation: structures such as these could either indicate the pre
  
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• Researchers describe mechanism central to maintaining healthy protein levels, avoiding disease states

  29-09-2016 21:44
  
  A new scientific study conducted by a team of leading geneticists has characterized how cells know when to stop translating DNA into proteins, a critical step in maintaining healthy protein levels and cell function. In the study published in Cell, researchers studied short pieces of genetic material called messenger RNA, or mRNA, that serve as a go-between a person's DNA and the proteins it encodes. Researchers were searching for insight into a cellular mechanism that has been a mystery –
  
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• Yahoo hacked by 'professional' criminals: researchers

  29-09-2016 21:43
  
  The massive theft of Yahoo user data disclosed last week came from "professional" hackers seeking to profit from the breach, according to an analysis by security researchers.
  
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• FCC Votes to Improve Emergency Cellphone Alerts

  29-09-2016 20:47 via abcnews.go.com
  
  The federal government is beefing up emergency cellphone alerts like the one used in New York to advertise a search for a bombing suspect earlier in September
  
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• Electrics Touted at Paris Car Show, but Await Their Moment

  29-09-2016 20:46 via abcnews.go.com
  When will electric-powered cars become a practical choice for ordinary people?
  
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• Fin24.com | Independent Newspapers ordered to apologise over ‘dirty tricks exposé’

  29-09-2016 20:06
  
  The press ombudsman has directed Independent Newspapers to apologise to journalist Gill Moodie over a controversial article carried in several dailies earlier this year.
  
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• Fermi Discovers A Luminous Gamma-Ray Binary

  29-09-2016 20:05 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Dive into the Large Magellanic Cloud and see a visualization of LMC P3, an extraordinary gamma-ray binary system discovered by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Using data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first gamma-ray binary in another galaxy. The dual-star system, dubbed LMC P3, contains a massive star and a […]
  The post Fermi Discovers A Luminous Gamma-Ray Binary appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Scientists identify the signals plants use to survive in salty soils

  29-09-2016 20:00
  
  Plants survive in high-salt soils through a signaling pathway using salt-responsive calmodulin proteins, which trigger cells to change their internal ion balance. A group led by Liqun Zhao of Hebei Normal University in Shijiazhuang, China, report the findings in a study published September 29, 2016 in PLOS Genetics.
  
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• New technique for finding weakness in Earth's crust

  29-09-2016 20:00
  
  Scientists have developed a method to estimate weakness in the Earth's outer layers which will help explain and predict volcanic activity and earthquakes.
  
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• Spitzer Finishes Its Frontier Fields Observations

  29-09-2016 19:50 via scitechdaily.com
  
  NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has finished its Frontier Fields observations and astronomers are working to get the data out to the astronomical community. In the ongoing hunt for the universe’s earliest galaxies, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has wrapped up its observations for the Frontier Fields project. This ambitious project has combined the power of all […]
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• This app is giving away $1 million to young voters

  29-09-2016 19:49 via rss.cnn.com
  
  VotePlz is trying to make it easier for millennials to register to vote and spread the word to their friends. CNNMoney's Laurie Segall sits down with the app's co-creator Erika Reinhardt.
  
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• Fin24.com | Cabinet finally approves SA ICT policy

  29-09-2016 19:36
  
  Cabinet has finally approved the white paper on an information and communications technology policy, a plan that intends to help boost the country's economic prospects.
  
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• Marine snow fuels life on the sea-floor

  29-09-2016 19:09
  
  City-sized maps of terrain and life on the sea-floor have revealed that drifts of 'marine snow' on submarine hillsides act as a source of food to fuel a higher biomass of marine life on the hills than on the flatter plains surrounding hills.
  
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• Research into fly development provides insights into blood vessel formation

  29-09-2016 19:06
  
  Researchers working with flies at IRB Barcelona describe that the concentration of some small intracellular organelles determines the branching capacity of tracheal cells.
  
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• MIT Develops Nanosensors That Can Profile Tumors

  29-09-2016 19:01 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Engineers at MIT have developed new nanosensors that can profile tumors and may yield insight into how they will respond to certain therapies. MIT researchers have designed nanosensors that can profile tumors and may yield insight into how they will respond to certain therapies. The system is based on levels of enzymes called proteases, which […]
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• ALMA Reveals the First Hot Core Found Outside the Milky Way

  29-09-2016 18:50 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, a team of astronomers reveal the first hot core to be found outside the Milky Way. A hot and dense mass of complex molecules, cocooning a newborn star, has been discovered by a Japanese team of astronomers using ALMA. This unique hot molecular core is the first of its […]
  The post ALMA Reveals the First Hot Core Found Outside the Milky Way appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Emergency smartphone alerts get an upgrade

  29-09-2016 18:46 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Your smartphone's emergency alerts are getting an upgrade.
  
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• Food additive key to environmentally friendly, efficient, plastic solar cells

  29-09-2016 18:40
  
  Researchers from North Carolina State University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have created an efficient, semi-printed plastic solar cell without the use of environmentally hazardous halogen solvents. These solar cells can be manufactured at room temperature, which has implications for large-scale commercial production.
  
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• Contrary to popular belief, coca not the driving force of deforestation

  29-09-2016 18:36
  
  Most of the world's coca—the plant source of cocaine—grows in the Amazon forests of the Andean countries of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, where many think this illicit crop causes deforestation. However, a team led by Stony Brook University Professor of Ecology and Evolution Liliana M. Dávalos, shows most deforestation isn't caused by coca cultivation. In fact, the study, published in Bioscience, found that deforestation and coca both share a common origin in the implementation
  
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• Fin24.com | Future financial pain awaits SABC over 90% local content - expert

  29-09-2016 18:30
  
  Broadcasting between 80-90% local content could cost the SABC further financial losses in future, says an expert at a media lobby group.
  
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• Volvo plans to sell self-driving car in five years

  29-09-2016 18:29
  
  Volvo Car Corp. plans to sell a self-driving vehicle to consumers in five years.
  
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• FCC delays decision on much-disputed rules on cable boxes

  29-09-2016 18:29
  
  Federal regulators have delayed a decision on requiring cable and satellite TV companies to make free apps to bypass the need for cable boxes.
  
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• Q&A: The data your car collects and who can use it

  29-09-2016 18:28
  
  Your car knows more about you than you think.
  
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• Hi-tech trucks make pizza en route to delivery

  29-09-2016 18:27 via rss.cnn.com
  
  Zume Pizza, a startup in Mountain View, California, is known for using a fleet of robots in the kitchen to speed up the pizza making process. But now, the company is outfitting its pizza delivery truck with 56 ovens programmed to make pies en route to customers.
  
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• Here's Where Facebook Stores Your Info: Its Arctic Data Center

  29-09-2016 18:27 via nbcnews.com
  
  Mark Zuckerberg offered a look inside Facebook's futuristic - and frozen - data center.
  
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• EU's Vestager to scrutinise data in merger decisions

  29-09-2016 18:23
  
  EU competition chief Margarethe Vestager on Thursday said that the relevance of user data to major corporate mergers will come under closer scrutiny as her teams get set to consider Microsoft's mega buyout of LinkedIn.
  
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• Three states sue to block US ceding control of Internet group

  29-09-2016 18:22
  
  Three conservative states are suing the Obama administration in an attempt to block the U.S. government from ceding oversight of some of the internet's core systems.
  
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• Electric cars purr at post-'dieselgate' Paris car show

  29-09-2016 18:22
  
  Automakers at the Paris Motor Show on Thursday unveiled several electric cars with a range of up to 400 km, a technological leap designed to turn the page on the "dieselgate" scandal that sullied the industry's image.
  
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• Developing rapid DNA analysis technology

  29-09-2016 17:36
  
  Jim Schneider, professor of chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, recently received a 3-year, $295,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop new strategies to rapidly separate and analyze long (kilobase) DNA strands, using surfactants rather than polymeric gels. These faster analysis techniques can impact a wide range of genomic DNA analyses, such as genome mapping, where rapid processing of kilobase-length DNA is required. While conventional pulsed-field elec
  
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• Sandy's surge topped by 'rogue' 1950 storm in some areas

  29-09-2016 17:17
  
  In November 1950, a freak storm spawned a record storm surge in Atlantic City and a near-record surge at Sandy Hook.
  
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• New research could help build better hearing AIDS

  29-09-2016 17:17
  
  Scientists at Binghamton University, State University of New York want to improve sensor technology critical to billions of devices made every year. With a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation, they will start by making a high-performance sensor and applying it to hearing aids.
  
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• A swift, economical technique for imaging multicore fibers in real time

  29-09-2016 17:11
  
  Multicore fibers (MCF) have attracted much attention in the fields of telecommunications, fiber lasers and medical endoscopes. MCF-based optical imaging techniques, which use a fiber bundle (each fiber acting like a discrete pixel to form the final pixelated image), are useful for investigating inside the human body in a minimally invasive way. Recently, there has been a growing interest in applying MCFs for high-power laser amplifiers and next-generation lensless endoscopes for in-vivo cancer d
  
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• BlackBerry lesson: adapt or die in the internet Age

  29-09-2016 16:56
  
  BlackBerry has joined Yahoo, Nokia and other technology industry stars felled by an internet age in which companies are forced to evolve quickly or perish.
  
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• Fossil bee nest imaging provides clues about the environment in which human ancestor Australopithecus africanus lived

  29-09-2016 16:46
  
  Analysis of the first fossil bee nest from the Plio-Pleistocene of South Africa suggests that the human ancestor Australopithecus africanus lived in a dry savannah environment, according a study published September 28, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jennifer Parker from University College London, United Kingdom, and colleagues.
  
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• Humans may have occupied Southern Cone 14,000 years ago

  29-09-2016 16:37
  
  Humans may have occupied the Southern Cone 14,000 years ago, according to a study published September 28, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Gustavo Politis from CONICET and the Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina and colleagues.
  
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