Sci-Tech news

• Ready for launch: CU Boulder instrument suite to assess space weather

  10-11-2016 23:27
  
  A multimillion dollar University of Colorado Boulder instrument package expected to help scientists better understand potentially damaging space weather is now slated to launch aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite on Saturday, Nov. 19.
  
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• Disney embraces streaming as ratings sag

  10-11-2016 23:27
  
  As more and more people get their favorite TV shows and movies online, Disney is also learning to embrace the stream.
  
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• Supermoon? Meh. It may be closer, but it won't be super duper

  10-11-2016 23:02
  
  NASA, Space.com, Sky & Telescope magazine, observatories everywhere—just about any entity with a stake in the night sky—have been busy telling us how great the full moon will be Nov. 14 because the satellite will be closer to Earth than it's been for almost 70 years.
  
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• Rotting away: Getting at the evolutionary roots of wood decay

  10-11-2016 23:00
  
  Decay is a complex process in which organisms use a repertoire of enzymes to slowly exploit and ultimately digest their hosts. Fungi are master decayers of dead plant matter, including wood. So-called white rot fungi have the special ability to decompose the tough, recalcitrant plant polymer lignin, using enzymes that turn solid wood into a stringy, bleached pulp.
  
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• FCC concerned about AT&T exempting DirecTV from data caps

  10-11-2016 22:49
  
  Federal regulators say that they are concerned that AT&T's exempting its DirecTV unit from cellphone data caps could hurt competition.
  
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• Big Ten to broadcast Minnesota-Nebraska in virtual reality

  10-11-2016 22:47
  
  The Big Ten network is making Saturday's football game between Minnesota and No. 21 Nebraska available in virtual reality.
  
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• New Israeli machine to standardize diamond grading

  10-11-2016 22:45
  
  An Israeli high-tech company has invented a machine that it says can instantly grade the clarity of polished diamonds—a development the company said Thursday will bring new standards to a painstaking process that has long been susceptible to the subjectivity of appraisers.
  
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• Judge: Amazon to reimburse customers for in-app buys by kids

  10-11-2016 22:45
  
  A federal judge has laid out rules for how Amazon must reimburse customers whose kids made in-app purchases without permission.
  
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• Divest from fossil fuels, plead faith leaders

  10-11-2016 22:40
  
  Faith group leaders, supported by Nobel Peace Prize laureates Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama, called Thursday on sovereign wealth and pension funds to pull out from fossil fuel investments.
  
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• Va-va-hum: Vespa goes electric

  10-11-2016 22:36
  
  The Vespa, an iconic 70-year-old design classic and Italy's most famous scooter, will be available in an electric version by the end of next year, according to its manufacturer, Piaggio.
  
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• Algal blooms lead to 'impaired' designation for Lake Erie

  10-11-2016 22:36
  
  The state of Michigan is designating its section of Lake Erie as an impaired waterway because of damage to fish and other wildlife caused by harmful algal blooms, officials said Thursday.
  
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• Predators can drive increase in virus populations, new study shows

  10-11-2016 22:31
  
  The transparent belly of a tiny beast has revealed how algae-infecting chloroviruses bloom in freshwater around the world, says a new study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
  
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• NASA sees heavy rain in Tropical Depression Ma-on

  10-11-2016 22:24
  
  Tropical cyclones have been forming frequently in the Western Pacific Ocean since July 2016. Thirty-six named tropical cyclones have formed in the Western Pacific in less than five months with 14 of them becoming typhoons.
  
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• Mirroring a drop in emissions, mercury in tuna also declines

  10-11-2016 22:23
  
  For years, public health experts have warned against eating certain kinds of fish, including tuna, that tend to accumulate mercury. Still, tuna consumption provides more mercury to U.S. consumers than any other source. But recently, as industry cuts down on its mercury emissions, research has found mercury concentrations in some fish are dropping. The latest study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, reports that this is the case for prized Atlantic bluefin tuna.
  
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• Researchers discover new method to dissipate heat in electronic devices

  10-11-2016 22:08
  
  Controlling the flow of heat through semiconductor materials is an important challenge in developing smaller and faster computer chips, high-performance solar panels, and better lasers and biomedical devices.
  
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• Australian continent shifts with the seasons, study finds

  10-11-2016 22:07
  
  Australia shifts and tilts back and forth by several millimeters each year because of changes to the Earth's center of mass, according to a new study. The findings could help scientists better track the precise location of Earth's center of mass, which is important for GPS and other satellite measurements, according to the study's author.
  
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• Researchers document ancient and methane-derived carbon in stoneflies

  10-11-2016 21:58
  
  New research by scientists at the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station has documented the first example of freshwater consumers using ancient methane-derived carbon and the most extensive example of a methane-derived carbon contribution to a river ecosystem.
  
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• RIT professor images David Livingstone diaries

  10-11-2016 21:56
  
  Multispectral imaging technology continues to recover new insights from the field diaries of 19th-century explorer David Livingstone. A team of scholars and scientists who worked on the Livingstone Spectral Imaging project will present their research in public talks in the United Kingdom in November.
  
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• Yahoo Warns Verizon Could Pull Out of $4.8B Deal

  10-11-2016 21:35 via nbcnews.com
  
  A gigantic security breach of half a billion Yahoo accounts could be the company's death knell.
  
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• Wall Street Starts to Dump Tech Stocks

  10-11-2016 21:23 via nbcnews.com
  
  Shares of Amazon, Alphabet, and other tech companies sank on Thursday as Wall Street began to invest in infrastructure favored by Trump's policies.
  
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• World's smallest magnifying glass makes it possible to see chemical bonds between atoms

  10-11-2016 20:00
  
  For centuries, scientists believed that light, like all waves, couldn't be focused down smaller than its wavelength, just under a millionth of a metre. Now, researchers led by the University of Cambridge have created the world's smallest magnifying glass, which focuses light a billion times more tightly, down to the scale of single atoms.
  
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• When fish come to school, kids get hooked on science

  10-11-2016 20:00
  
  A program that brings live fish into classrooms to teach the fundamentals of biology not only helps students learn, but improves their attitudes about science, a new study finds.
  
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• Smartphones offer promise in better gauging rural life, researchers find

  10-11-2016 20:00
  
  The use of smartphones enhances self-reporting of weather incidents, school attendance, illness, and other aspects of daily life in rural areas, a team of researchers has found. Its pilot study indicates that such technologies have the potential to transform data collection in these regions, providing near-real-time windows into the development of markets, the spread of diseases, and the diffusion of ideas and innovations.
  
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• Scientists observe how quantum superpositions build up in a helium atom within femtoseconds

  10-11-2016 20:00
  
  In the double slit experiment, a particle travels on two different paths at the same time. Something similar can be observed when a helium atom is ionized with a laser beam. The ionization of helium can happen via two different processes, and this leads to characteristic interference effects. A team of scientists has now managed to observe the buildup up of these effects—even though this effect takes place on a time scale of femtoseconds.
  
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• Red squirrels in the British Isles are infected with leprosy bacteria

  10-11-2016 20:00
  
  Microbiologists at EPFL and the University of Edinburgh have discovered that red squirrels in Britain and Ireland carry the two bacterial species that cause leprosy in humans.
  
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• Precaution and governance of emerging technologies

  10-11-2016 20:00
  
  Precautionary approaches to governance of emerging technology, which call for constraints on the use of technology whose potential harms and other outcomes are highly uncertain, are often criticized for reflecting "risk panics," but precaution can be consistent with support for science, concludes an article in the journal Science. Gregory Kaebnick, a research scholar at The Hastings Center, is the lead author.
  
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• Insect vector feeding recognized by machine learning

  10-11-2016 20:00
  
  Scientists have used machine learning algorithms to teach computers to recognize the insect feeding patterns involved in pathogen transmission. The study, published in PLOS Computational Biology, also uncovers plant traits that might lead to the disruption of pathogen transmission and enable advances in agriculture, livestock and human health.
  
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• Criteria for funding and promotion lead to bad science

  10-11-2016 20:00
  
  Scientists are trained to carefully assess theories by designing good experiments and building on existing knowledge. But there is growing concern that too many research findings may in fact be false. New research publishing 10 November in open-access journal PLOS Biology by psychologists at the universities of Bristol and Exeter suggests that this may happen because of the criteria used in funding science and promoting scientists which, they say, place too much weight on novel, eye-catching fin
  
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• Climate change ripples through life on Earth

  10-11-2016 20:00
  
  Climate change is affecting most life on Earth, despite an average global temperature increase of just 1C, say leading international scientists in a study published today in Science.
  
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• Animal study registries: Understanding the pros and cons

  10-11-2016 20:00
  
  Improvements in our understanding of disease and new treatment options are often rooted in findings from research conducted on animals. However, in recent years, several scientific reports have questioned the way animal research is conducted and reported. Too often results of animal studies are not published. Furthermore, those results that are published are often not reproducible in other labs.
  
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• Monday's supermoon extra super; closest in nearly 69 years

  10-11-2016 19:30
  
  The moon doesn't get much bigger and brighter than this.
  
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• Earth-bound instrument analyzes light from planets circling distant stars

  10-11-2016 19:08
  
  A team of scientists and engineers led by Princeton researchers recently reported the successful operation of a new instrument for the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii that will allow astronomers to make direct observations of planets orbiting nearby stars.
  
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• Astronomers Explain Mysterious Dimming of Markarian 1018

  10-11-2016 19:06 via scitechdaily.com
  
  By combining data from Chandra, VLT and several other telescopes, astronomers reveal that the dimming of Markarian 1018 arises from the black hole at the center being deprived of enough fuel to illuminate its surroundings. Astronomers may have solved the mystery of the peculiar volatile behavior of a supermassive black hole at the center of […]
  The post Astronomers Explain Mysterious Dimming of Markarian 1018 appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Space telescopes pinpoint elusive brown dwarf

  10-11-2016 19:05
  
  In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, NASA's Spitzer and Swift space telescopes joined forces to observe a microlensing event, when a distant star brightens due to the gravitational field of at least one foreground cosmic object. This technique is useful for finding low-mass bodies orbiting stars, such as planets. In this case, the observations revealed a brown dwarf.
  
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• Anti-Trumpers Stage #TwitterBlackout, Turn Photos Black

  10-11-2016 18:46 via nbcnews.com
  
  As anti-Trump protesters gathered around the country, some opted to make their voices heard virtually by participating in a Twitter blackout.
  
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• Spitzer and Swift Observe Microlensing Event, Pinpoint Brown Dwarf

  10-11-2016 18:44 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using NASA’s Spitzer and Swift Space Telescopes, astronomers discovered a brown dwarf when it and its star passed between Earth and a much more distant star in our galaxy. This passing created a microlensing event, where the gravity of the system amplified the light of the background star over the course of several weeks. In […]
  The post Spitzer and Swift Observe Microlensing Event, Pinpoint Brown Dwarf appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Simulations show swirling rings, whirlpool-like structure in subatomic 'soup'

  10-11-2016 18:27
  
  At its start, the universe was a superhot melting pot that very briefly served up a particle soup resembling a "perfect," frictionless fluid. Scientists have recreated this "soup," known as quark-gluon plasma, in high-energy nuclear collisions to better understand our universe's origins and the nature of matter itself. The physics can also be relevant to neutron stars, which are the extraordinarily dense cores of collapsed stars.
  
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• The kids are alright: Youth are civically engaged, despite income inequality

  10-11-2016 18:26
  
  Income inequality is linked with greater civic engagement among youth, particularly among youth of color and those of lower socioeconomic status, finds a study by NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
  
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• Progress, but uphill slog for women in tech

  10-11-2016 18:25
  
  They are under-represented in the industry and sometimes made to feel unwelcome in geek-infested workspaces, but women are making their voices heard at Europe's largest technology marketplace.
  
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• Weather forecast: La Nina is here, may last through winter

  10-11-2016 18:20
  
  Government weather forecasters say La Nina is here.
  
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• USU Center for Colorado River Studies weighs in on 'Fill Mead First' plan

  10-11-2016 18:17
  
  Glen Canyon Dam has greatly altered the Colorado River, inundating more than 150 miles of the Colorado River in Glen Canyon and transforming the ecosystem of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. But Utah State University scientists urge caution in implementing the widely publicized Fill Mead First plan aimed at restoring the canyon. The massive plan calls for partially or completely draining Lake Powell, the reservoir formed by the dam, and collecting the water downstream in Lake Mead, the re
  
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• Video: How bacteria make it rain

  10-11-2016 18:14
  
  The oceans are covered with a thin film of organic matter and bacteria, many of which launch out of the water and go airborne. But these little particles do more than just take flight—these microbes can actually make it rain.
  
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• Artificial-intelligence system surfs web to improve its performance

  10-11-2016 18:13
  
  Of the vast wealth of information unlocked by the Internet, most is plain text. The data necessary to answer myriad questions—about, say, the correlations between the industrial use of certain chemicals and incidents of disease, or between patterns of news coverage and voter-poll results—may all be online. But extracting it from plain text and organizing it for quantitative analysis may be prohibitively time consuming.
  
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• Water, water—the two types of liquid water

  10-11-2016 18:11
  
  There are two types of liquid water, according to research carried out by an international scientific collaboration. This new peculiarity adds to the growing list of strange phenomena in what we imagine is a simple substance. The discovery could have implications for making and using nanoparticles as well as in understanding how proteins fold into their working shape in the body or misfold to cause diseases such as Alzheimer's or CJD.
  
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• A funnel on Mars could be a place to look for life

  10-11-2016 18:10
  
  A strangely shaped depression on Mars could be a new place to look for signs of life on the Red Planet, according to a University of Texas at Austin-led study. The depression was probably formed by a volcano beneath a glacier and could have been a warm, chemical-rich environment well suited for microbial life.
  
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• Stable quantum bits can be made from complex molecules

  10-11-2016 18:00
  
  Quantum computing is about to get more complex. Researchers have evidence that large molecules made of nickel and chromium can store and process information in the same way bytes do for digital computers. The researchers present algorithms proving it's possible to use supramolecular chemistry to connect "qubits," the basic units for quantum information processing, in Chem on November 10. This approach would generate several kinds of stable qubits that could be connected together into structures
  
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• Self-healing materials for semi-dry conditions

  10-11-2016 18:00
  
  Before we have self-healing cars or buildings, we need strong materials that can fully self-repair in water-free environments. Self-healing materials work very well if they are soft and wet, but research groups have found that the ability to self-repair diminishes as materials dry out. Scientists at Osaka University are beginning to bridge this gap with rigid materials that can repair 99% of a cut on the surface in semi-dry conditions. They present their prototypes, which are the first to combin
  
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• Plant-species hotspot maps identify priority conservation areas of tropical Africa

  10-11-2016 18:00
  
  Identifying critical areas for global biodiversity is an important step when prioritising areas for conservation, and generating biodiversity hotspot maps based on global species ranges - at a scale usable by local management - has been a long-term ambition in the field.
  
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• Neanderthal inheritance helped humans adapt to life outside of Africa

  10-11-2016 18:00
  
  As the ancestors of modern humans made their way out of Africa to other parts of the world many thousands of years ago, they met up and in some cases had children with other forms of humans, including the Neanderthals and Denisovans. Scientists know this because traces of those meetings remain in the human genome. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on November 10 find more evidence that those encounters have benefited humans over the years.
  
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• Dinosaurs' rise was 'more gradual,' new fossil evidence suggests

  10-11-2016 18:00
  
  Researchers have discovered two small dinosaurs together with a lagerpetid, a group of animals that are recognized as precursors of dinosaurs. The discovery made in Brazil and reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on November 10 represents the first time that a dinosaur and a dinosaur precursor have ever been found together.
  
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