Sci-Tech news

• Review: Is LG V20 the next big thing in smartphones?

  08-12-2016 23:50
  
  What goes into choosing a new smartphone?
  
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• All 'Original Seven' American astronauts now dead

  08-12-2016 23:30
  
  John Glenn's passing on Thursday means that the first seven American astronauts chosen to lead the fledging US space program in 1959 are now dead, ending a groundbreaking chapter in American history.
  
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• NBC to shutter 'Breaking News' service

  08-12-2016 23:27
  
  NBC News said Thursday it was shutting down its popular Breaking News services for alerts on developing stories at the end of December, citing a lack of revenue.
  
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• Facebook's year in review: Chewbacca Mom laughs at your sadness - CNET

  08-12-2016 23:25 via cnet.com
  
  CNET
  Facebook's year in review: Chewbacca Mom laughs at your sadness
  CNET
  Chewbacca Mom's laughter took over live videos on Facebook in 2016. Photo by Alfred Ng/CNET. Clocking in at more than 162 million views, Candace Payne, better known as the Chewbacca Mom, could be the happiest person on Facebook in 2016.
  'Chewbacca Mom' was the most popular Facebook Live video this year by a mileRecode
  Facebook's Year in Review for 2016 isn't just fun and gamesPCWorld
  Chewbacca mom, Dallas officers hugging
  
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• Under construction: Distant galaxy churning out stars at remarkable rate

  08-12-2016 23:23
  
  Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes to show that a recently-discovered galaxy is undergoing an extraordinary boom of stellar construction. The galaxy is 12.7 billion light years from Earth, seen at a critical stage in the evolution of galaxies about a billion years after the Big Bang.
  
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• Meadow restoration studied for potential to build carbon credits in California

  08-12-2016 23:19
  
  Turning meadow restoration into cleaner air is the goal of researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno. The Soil Science Laboratory at the University recently partnered with the Earthwatch Institute, an international citizen science research organization, to better understand how restoration and plant communities relate to the soil carbon in Sierra Nevada mountain meadows.
  
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• Magnetic reconnection research sheds light on explosive phenomena in astrophysics and fusion experiments

  08-12-2016 23:12
  
  Scientists are closer than ever to unraveling a process called magnetic reconnection that triggers explosive phenomena throughout the universe. Solar flares, northern lights and geomagnetic storms that can disrupt cell phone service and black out power grids are all set off by magnetic field lines that converge, break apart and violently reconnect in ways that are not fully understood.
  
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• Scientists produce a new roadmap for guiding development and conservation in the Amazon

  08-12-2016 23:09
  
  Scientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), The Nature Conservancy, and several partners in Brazil and Peru have produced a geographic information system (GIS) "roadmap" to help guide conservation efforts at large scale in the Amazon River basin, a region roughly the size of the United States.
  
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• Honeywell app gives workers more control over office environments

  08-12-2016 23:00
  
  The office too cold? Too hot? Forgot your office ID badge?
  
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• Review: Sony's PlayStation VR shows virtual reality's promise and problems

  08-12-2016 22:40
  
  In these early days of virtual reality, Sony's new PlayStation VR seems like the ideal product.
  
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• Shark's 8,500-mile odyssey ends on a NC fisherman's hook

  08-12-2016 22:36
  
  A mako shark caught by commercial fishermen off North Carolina traveled more than 8,500 miles after a tracking device was attached 18 months earlier, an ocean research group says.
  
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• John Glenn, the 1st American to orbit Earth, has died at 95

  08-12-2016 22:25
  
  John Glenn, whose 1962 flight as the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth made him an all-American hero and propelled him to a long career in the U.S. Senate, died Thursday. The last survivor of the original Mercury 7 astronauts was 95.
  
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• US election was most 'talked about' in 2016: Facebook

  08-12-2016 22:24
  
  The US presidential election was the most "talked about" topic on Facebook in 2016, in a year filled with discussion and debate on issues that were both serious and light-hearted.
  
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• All-American John Glenn: Astronaut, fighter pilot, senator

  08-12-2016 22:22
  
  John Glenn was the ultimate all-American hero.
  
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• Satellites, airport visibility readings shed light on troops' exposure to air pollution

  08-12-2016 22:16
  
  Using data from NASA satellites and airport visibility sensors, Veterans Affairs (VA) researchers and colleagues are extending an approach used to study air pollution in the U.S. They are developing methods to estimate exposures—from dust and sand storms and other sources—for U.S. troops who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  
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• Protein disrupts infectious biofilms

  08-12-2016 22:09
  
  Many infectious pathogens are difficult to treat because they develop into biofilms, layers of metabolically active but slowly growing bacteria embedded in a protective layer of slime, which are inherently more resistant to antibiotics. Now, a group of researchers at Caltech and the University of Oxford have made progress in the fight against biofilms. Led by Dianne Newman, the Gordon M. Binder/Amgen Professor of Biology and Geobiology, the group identified a protein that degrades and inhibits b
  
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• Scientists determine how much damage memory devices can take in mass transit accidents

  08-12-2016 22:08
  
  While investigating mass transit accidents, especially in air travel, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials often rely on digital clues left behind in flash memories of any and all electronic devices—both personal and professional—at a crash site. With the physical forces and high-temperature fires associated with many crashes, memory units are often damaged and sometimes unreadable.
  
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• Study finds less fragmentation in muzzleloading and black powder cartridge rifles

  08-12-2016 22:07
  
  A new study found that traditional bullets for muzzleloading rifles and black powder rifle cartridges fragment less upon impact and may leave far fewer lead fragments in game than a modern high-velocity rifle bullet.
  
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• Mobile money access lifted two percent of Kenyan households out of poverty: study

  08-12-2016 22:02
  
  Since 2008, MIT economist Tavneet Suri has studied the financial and social impacts of Kenyan mobile-money services, which allow users to store and exchange monetary values via mobile phone. Her work has shown that these services have helped Kenyans save more money and weather financial storms, among other benefits.
  
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• Researchers map neural circuitry of songbird learning

  08-12-2016 21:59
  
  How do juvenile songbirds learn to sing in a way that preserves both the unique features of local song culture and their specifics-specific song "signature"? Researchers have begun to map the brain circuitry responsible for cultural transmission and species specificity in birdsong.
  
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• LinkedIn notifications in Windows will be a special kind of hell - The Verge

  08-12-2016 21:08 via theverge.com
  
  The Verge
  LinkedIn notifications in Windows will be a special kind of hell
  The Verge
  As part of Microsoft's finalized acquisition of LinkedIn, the Windows maker this morning outlined a series of goals it has for its new social network. One of those goals includes the implementation of LinkedIn notifications in the Windows 10 Action ...
  ​Microsoft is officially the proud owner of LinkedInCNET
  Microsoft's vision for LinkedIn is about tying its business data into Office and other servicesPCW
  
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• Silly Putty makes for super-sensitive sensors - Popular Science

  08-12-2016 20:45 via popsci.com
  Popular Science
  Silly Putty makes for super-sensitive sensors
  Popular Science
  It's easy to dismiss Silly Putty as a kid's toy. But the stretchy material actually exhibits some surprising properties: It's one of the softest plastics around, and it can behave like both a liquid and a solid, oozing when gently stretched but ...
  Toying with putty leads to physics breakthrough for Irish physicistIrish Examiner
  Supercharged silly putty can detect spider footstepsScience Magazine
  State of the art sens
  
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• Who's Following You Around via Your Smartphone?

  08-12-2016 20:42 via nbcnews.com
  
  Why some apps follow you even when you're not using them — and how to stop them.
  
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• Distant Galaxy SPT 0346-52 Churning Out Stars at Remarkable Rate

  08-12-2016 20:16 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using several telescopes including Chandra, astronomers have shown that a galaxy in the early Universe called SPT0346-52 is undergoing an extraordinary burst of star formation. The absence of X-rays from Chandra shows that there is no actively growing, supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy. This means that the rate amount of infrared […]
  The post Distant Galaxy SPT 0346-52 Churning Out Stars at Remarkable Rate appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• The song of silence

  08-12-2016 20:00
  
  Like humans learning to speak, juvenile birds learn to sing by mimicking vocalizations of adults of the same species during development. Juvenile birds preferentially learn the song of their own species, even in noisy environments with a variety of different birdsongs. But how they can recognize their species' song has, until now, remained a mystery. In a collaborative study, neuroscientists and a physicist at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have uncove
  
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• State of the art sensors made from graphene and children's toy silly putty

  08-12-2016 20:00
  
  Researchers in AMBER, the Science Foundation Ireland-funded materials science research centre, hosted in Trinity College Dublin, have used the wonder material graphene to make the novelty children's material silly putty (polysilicone) conduct electricity, creating extremely sensitive sensors. This world first research, led by Professor Jonathan Coleman from TCD and in collaboration with Prof Robert Young of the University of Manchester, potentially offers exciting possibilities for applications
  
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• Researchers improve qubit lifetime for quantum computers

  08-12-2016 20:00
  
  An international team of scientists has succeeded in making further improvements to the lifetime of superconducting quantum circuits. An important prerequisite for the realization of high-performance quantum computers is that the stored data should remain intact for as long as possible. The researchers, including Jülich physicist Dr. Gianluigi Catelani, have developed and tested a technique that removes unpaired electrons from the circuits. These are known to shorten the qubit lifetime. The
  
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• Report proposes standards for sharing data and code used in computational studies

  08-12-2016 20:00
  
  Reporting new research results involves detailed descriptions of methods and materials used in an experiment. But when a study uses computers to analyze data, create models or simulate things that can't be tested in a lab, how can other researchers see what steps were taken or potentially reproduce results?
  
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• Evolution in action: A fish adapts quickly to lethal levels of pollution

  08-12-2016 20:00
  
  Evolution is working hard to rescue some urban fish from a lethal, human-altered environment, according to a study led by the University of California, Davis, and published Dec. 9 in the journal Science.
  
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• Electron highway inside crystal

  08-12-2016 20:00
  
  Physicists of the University of Würzburg have made an astonishing discovery in a specific type of topological insulators. The effect is due to the structure of the materials used. The researchers have now published their work in the journal Science.
  
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• Climate change is already causing widespread local extinction in plant and animal species

  08-12-2016 20:00
  
  Extinctions related to climate change have already happened in hundreds of plant and animal species around the world. New research, publishing on December 8th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, shows that local extinctions have already occurred in 47% of the 976 plant and animal species studied.
  
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• A nano-roundabout for light

  08-12-2016 20:00
  
  Just like in normal road traffic, crossings are indispensable in optical signal processing. In order to avoid collisions, a clear traffic rule is required. A new method has now been developed at TU Wien to provide such a rule for light signals. For this purpose, the two glass fibers were coupled at their intersection point to an optical resonator, in which the light circulates and behaves as in a roundabout. The direction of circulation is defined by a single atom coupled to the resonator. The a
  
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• Harvard reaches goal of cutting gas emissions by 30 percent

  08-12-2016 19:54
  
  Harvard University says it has achieved a 2008 goal to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent.
  
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• Researchers show viability of 5G communication with record-setting data rates

  08-12-2016 19:46
  
  Keysight Technologies, with the University of California San Diego today announced the world's longest bidirectional phased-array link in the 60 GHz band. At a link distance of 300 m, the 32-element array achieved a data rate of greater than 2 Gbps over all scan angles up to ±45 degrees. Data rates were 4 Gbps at 100 m and 500 Mbps at 800 m over most scan angles. Initial tests by a leading wireless provider suggest the system can deliver content to eight homes at a time at up to 300 m.
  
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• Pebble discontinuing smartwatches after its sale to Fitbit

  08-12-2016 19:39
  
  Pioneering smartwatch maker Pebble is no longer manufacturing or selling any of its devices after the bulk of the company was bought by Fitbit.
  
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• Researchers create global map of soil pH and illuminate how it changes between wet and dry climates

  08-12-2016 19:35
  
  For some time now, scientists have known that climate influences soil chemistry—and, in particular, soil pH, a measure of acidity or alkalinity. In dry climates, soil is alkaline; in wet climates, it's acidic.
  
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• Fishery bycatch rapidly driving Mexico's vaquita to extinction, new studies find

  08-12-2016 19:33
  
  One of the most sophisticated networks of acoustic detectors ever developed for wildlife science has documented a devastating 34 percent per year decline of Mexico's critically endangered vaquita porpoise, according to a new study published this week in the journal Conservation Biology.
  
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• Researchers peer into atom-sized tunnels in hunt for better battery

  08-12-2016 19:30
  
  Battery researchers seeking improved electrode materials have focused on "tunneled" structures that make it easier for charge-carrying ions to move in and out of the electrode. Now a team led by a researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago has used a special electron microscope with atomic-level resolution to show that certain large ions can hold the tunnels open so that the charge-carrying ions can enter and exit the electrode easily and quickly.
  
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• An anti-CRISPR for gene editing

  08-12-2016 19:29
  
  Researchers have discovered a way to program cells to inhibit CRISPR-Cas9 activity. "Anti-CRISPR" proteins had previously been isolated from viruses that infect bacteria, but now University of Toronto and University of Massachusetts Medical School scientists report three families of proteins that turn off CRISPR systems specifically used for gene editing. The work, which appears December 15 in Cell, offers a new strategy to prevent CRISPR-Cas9 technology from making unwanted changes.
  
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• Research explains why some presents are great to give but not to receive

  08-12-2016 19:28
  
  Several years ago, Elanor Williams' parents gave her a large Himalayan salt block for Christmas, knowing how much she loved cooking and entertaining. Although she appreciated the gesture, she promptly returned it to the store and bought an "extremely boring" tea kettle that she uses every day.
  
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• This Year's Scariest Movie: Your Facebook 'Year in Review' Video

  08-12-2016 18:54 via nbcnews.com
  
  This year's scariest film may be your Facebook "Year in Review" video.
  
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• Navy's futuristic-looking USS Zumwalt arriving in homeport

  08-12-2016 18:40
  
  The Navy's most technologically advanced destroyer is arriving at its homeport after dealing with some glitches along the way.
  
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• Common Mechanism May Be Responsible for the Spread of Alzheimer’s and CTE

  08-12-2016 18:40 via scitechdaily.com
  A newly published study from UC San Francisco reveals that a shared biological mechanism may drive the progression of both Alzheimer’s disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Both Alzheimer’s and CTE are classified as “tauopathies,” a category of diseases characterized by the improper folding and clumping together of a protein called tau (rhymes with “how”) inside […]
  The post Common Mechanism May Be Responsible for the Spread of Alzheimer’s
  
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• Parisians grapple with worst winter pollution in a decade

  08-12-2016 18:32
  
  Under deceptively blue skies, the marvels of Paris beckoned. But art dealer Sophie Vigourous wore a face mask to appreciate them because of the pollution.
  
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• Drought, the South's unwelcome guest, stays despite rains

  08-12-2016 18:31
  
  Recent showers and storms have slightly eased the South's severe drought, but experts say it wasn't enough to make up for months of dry conditions before the rain finally fell.
  
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• Germany's ThyssenKrupp hit by sustained hacking attack

  08-12-2016 18:30
  
  German conglomerate ThyssenKrupp says it suffered a "massive" and sustained cyberattack aimed at stealing industrial secrets.
  
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• Banking on change: Tech startups target financial services

  08-12-2016 18:30
  
  It may not be much longer before bank branches join video-rental stores and record shops as relics of a bygone era.
  
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• Scheduling leisure activities makes them less fun: study

  08-12-2016 18:29
  
  Nothing ruins a potentially fun event like putting it on your calendar. In a series of studies, researchers found that scheduling a leisure activity like seeing a movie or taking a coffee break led people to anticipate less enjoyment and actually enjoy the event less than if the same activities were unplanned.
  
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• Chemical trickery corrals 'hyperactive' metal-oxide cluster

  08-12-2016 18:28
  
  After decades of eluding researchers because of chemical instability, key metal-oxide clusters have been isolated in water, a significant advance for growing the clusters with the impeccable control over atoms that's required to manufacture small features in electronic circuits.
  
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• NASA sees Tropical Cyclone Vardah spinning near Andaman Islands

  08-12-2016 18:26
  
  As NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Bay of Bengal, Tropical Cyclone 05B was renamed Vardah and continued moving away from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
  
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