Sci-Tech news

• Scientists Discover Prehistoric Giant Otter Species In China - NPR

  23-01-2017 23:47 via npr.org
  
  NPR
  Scientists Discover Prehistoric Giant Otter Species In China
  NPR
  Six million years ago, giant otters weighing more than 100 pounds lived among birds and water lilies in the wooded wetlands of China's Yunnan province. That's according to new research from a team of scientists who discovered a well-preserved cranium ...
  Remains of wolf-like ancient otter discovered in ChinaCNN
  Ancient Otter Species Discovered In ChinaYahoo News
  Adorable Terror: Wolf-Size Otter Hunted Ancient ChinaLive Science
  
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• iPhone assembler Foxconn may invest $7B in US display plant

  23-01-2017 23:10
  
  Foxconn, a major assembler of iPhones and other electronics, may invest $7 billion in a plant for manufacturing display panels that would create as many as 50,000 jobs in the U.S.
  
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• New metamaterial can switch from hard to soft—and back again

  23-01-2017 23:07
  
  When a material is made, you typically cannot change whether that material is hard or soft. But a group of University of Michigan researchers have developed a new way to design a "metamaterial" that allows the material to switch between being hard and soft without damaging or altering the material itself.
  
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• Microsoft's first Creators Update features for Xbox One Insiders focus on Home, Guide, Copilot - PCWorld

  23-01-2017 23:06 via pcworld.com
  
  PCWorld
  Microsoft's first Creators Update features for Xbox One Insiders focus on Home, Guide, Copilot
  PCWorld
  More Insider feature enhancements for the Xbox One are due before the Creators Update drops this spring. Mark Hachman By Mark Hachman. | Follow. Senior Editor, PCWorld | Jan 23, 2017 2:05 PM PT ...
  Microsoft revives free Windows 10 upgrade for SMBsComputerworld
  Clever “copilot” controller mode launches in latest Xbox guide updateArs Technica
  Windows 10 Creators Update
  
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• 'Net neutrality' foe Ajit Pai is new FCC head

  23-01-2017 23:04
  
  President Donald Trump has picked a fierce critic of the Obama-era "net neutrality" rules to be chief regulator of the nation's airwaves and internet connections.
  
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• Judge Dismisses Suit Alleging Snapchat Caused Crash

  23-01-2017 23:03 via nbcnews.com
  
  In a ruling Friday, Spaulding County judge Josh Thacker said the social media platform was granted broad immunity under the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
  
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• Scientists create first stable semisynthetic organism

  23-01-2017 23:02
  
  Life's genetic code has only ever contained four natural bases. These bases pair up to form two "base pairs"—the rungs of the DNA ladder—and they have simply been rearranged to create bacteria and butterflies, penguins and people. Four bases make up all life as we know it.
  
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• Sharks gather off Israel in pilgrimage to warm waters

  23-01-2017 23:00
  
  Sharks have gathered off a coastal electricity plant in northern Israel where the Mediterranean waters are warmer, prompting authorities on Monday to warn people to keep away.
  
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• Dwarf galaxies shed light on dark matter

  23-01-2017 22:56
  
  The first sighting of clustered dwarf galaxies bolsters a leading theory about how big galaxies such as our Milky Way are formed, and how dark matter binds them, researchers said Monday.
  
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• Yahoo delays sale of core business to Verizon (Update)

  23-01-2017 22:54
  
  Yahoo said Monday its $4.8 billion deal to sell its core internet assets to US telecom titan Verizon has been delayed several months.
  
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• Sale of core Yahoo assets to Verizon delayed

  23-01-2017 22:54
  
  Yahoo said Monday that the closing of a $4.8 billion deal to sell its core internet assets to US telecom titan Verizon has been delayed several months.
  
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• US fights Microsoft's bid to tell users when feds take data

  23-01-2017 22:53
  
  The U.S. Justice Department wants a judge to throw out a lawsuit from Microsoft and keep a law that prohibits technology companies from telling customers when the government demands their electronic data.
  
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• From tiny phytoplankton to massive tuna: How climate change will affect energy flows in ocean ecosystems

  23-01-2017 22:53
  
  Phytoplankton are the foundation of ocean life, providing the energy that supports nearly all marine species. Levels of phytoplankton in an ocean area may seem like a good predictor for the amount of fish that can be caught there, but a new study by Nereus Program researchers finds that this relationship is not so straightforward.
  
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• Wildlife-snaring crisis in Asian forests

  23-01-2017 22:52
  
  A very important article co-authored by WCS scientist Tony Lynam has been published in this week's Science about a crisis emerging in Asia from snaring, which is wiping out wildlife in unprecedented numbers.
  
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• Physicists uncover clues to mechanism behind magnetic reconnection

  23-01-2017 22:49
  
  Physicist Fatima Ebrahimi at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has published a paper showing that magnetic reconnection—the process in which magnetic field lines snap together and release energy—can be triggered by motion in nearby magnetic fields. By running computer simulations, Ebrahimi gathered evidence indicating that the wiggling of atomic particles and magnetic fields within electrically charged gas known as plasma can spark the o
  
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• Scientists find advanced geometry no secret to prehistoric architects in US Southwest

  23-01-2017 22:46
  
  Imagine you are about to plan and construct a building that involves several complicated geometrical shapes, but you aren't allowed to write down any numbers or notes as you do it. For most of us, this would be impossible.
  
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• Not just funny: Satirical news has serious political effects

  23-01-2017 22:45
  
  Satirical news programs, often dismissed as mere entertainment, have real political effects on the people who watch them, new research suggests.
  
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• New technique IDs micropollutants in New York waterways

  23-01-2017 22:44
  
  Cornell University engineers have developed a new technique to test for a wide range of micropollutants in lakes, rivers and other potable water sources that vastly outperforms conventional methods.
  
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• Arctic melt ponds form when meltwater clogs ice pores

  23-01-2017 22:44
  
  When spring comes to the Arctic, the breakup of the cold winter ice sheets starts at the surface with the formation of melt ponds. These pools of melted snow and ice darken the surface of the ice, increasing the amount of solar energy the ice sheet absorbs and accelerating melt. A team including University of Utah mathematician Kenneth Golden has determined how these melt ponds form, solving a paradoxical mystery of how a pool of water actually sits atop highly porous ice. Their results are publ
  
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• Archaeologists uncover new clues to Maya collapse

  23-01-2017 22:40
  
  Using the largest set of radiocarbon dates ever obtained from a single Maya site, archaeologists have developed a high-precision chronology that sheds new light on patterns leading up to the two major collapses of the ancient civilization.
  
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• New steps in the meiosis chromosome dance

  23-01-2017 22:39
  
  Where would we be without meiosis and recombination? For a start, none of us sexually reproducing organisms would be here, because that's how sperm and eggs are made. And when meiosis doesn't work properly, it can lead to infertility, miscarriage, birth defects and developmental disorders.
  
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• Using simulation tools to optimize soft robotic systems

  23-01-2017 22:34
  
  Simulation is a valuable tool to improve the energy efficiency of machines and it is now being used to analyze and optimize soft robotic systems to increase their utility, as described in an article published in Soft Robotics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Soft Robotics website until February 20, 2017.
  
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• Catalyst adds fluorine-containing groups to make new compounds

  23-01-2017 22:31
  
  Drugs that contain one or more fluorine atoms tend to be more stable, more powerful, and easier for the body to absorb. For those reasons, drug developers would like to be able to incorporate fluorine or a fluorine-containing unit known as trifluoromethyl into new experimental drugs, but this has been very difficult to do.
  
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• Trees supplement income for rural farmers in Africa

  23-01-2017 22:30
  
  Trees may be easy to spot on the plains of Africa but they are often overlooked as a source of income for farmers. A University of Illinois study shows trees on farms may help reduce rural poverty and maintain biodiversity.
  
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• Research describes missing step in how cells move their cargo

  23-01-2017 22:25
  
  Every time a hormone is released from a cell, every time a neurotransmitter leaps across a synapse to relay a message from one neuron to another, the cell must undergo exocytosis. This is the process responsible for transporting cellular contents via lipid-encapsulated vesicles to the cell surface membrane and then incorporating or secreting them through membrane fusion. Insights into this cellular cargo transport system won three Americans the Nobel Prize in 2013.
  
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• New findings on carbon cycle feed climate research

  23-01-2017 22:22
  
  A Florida State University researcher is taking a deep dive into the carbon cycle and investigating how carbon moves from the ocean surface to greater depths and then remains there for hundreds of years.
  
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• Researchers identify receptor that has key role in umami or amino acid taste in insects

  23-01-2017 22:20
  
  Insects, like mammals including humans, sort chemicals by taste into a few categories and use this information to decide whether to ingest or reject food.
  
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• Wasps, ants, and Ani DiFranco

  23-01-2017 22:19
  
  A University of California, Riverside graduate student has discovered several news species of wasps, including one that she named after musician Ani DiFranco.
  
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• 80-million-year-old dinosaur collagen confirmed

  23-01-2017 22:17
  
  Utilizing the most rigorous testing methods to date, researchers from North Carolina State University have isolated additional collagen peptides from an 80-million-year-old Brachylophosaurus. The work lends further support to the idea that organic molecules can persist in specimens tens of millions of years longer than originally believed and has implications for our ability to study the fossil record on the molecular level.
  
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• Synthetic nanoparticles achieve the complexity of protein molecules

  23-01-2017 22:16
  
  Chemists at Carnegie Mellon University have demonstrated that synthetic nanoparticles can achieve the same level of structural complexity, hierarchy and accuracy as their natural counterparts - biomolecules. The study, published in Science, also reveals the atomic-level mechanisms behind nanoparticle self-assembly.
  
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• Lab charts the anatomy of three molecular channels

  23-01-2017 22:11
  
  Using a state-of-the-art imaging technology in which molecules are deep frozen, scientists in Roderick MacKinnon's lab at Rockefeller University have reconstructed in unprecedented detail the three-dimensional architecture of three channels that provide a path for specific types of ions to travel across a cell's protective membrane. Because such ions are central to biochemical messaging that allows cells to communicate with one another, the findings have implications for understanding how muscle
  
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• Scientists spin artificial silk from whey protein

  23-01-2017 22:08
  
  A Swedish-German team of researchers has cleared up a key process for the artificial production of silk. With the help of the intense X-rays from DESY's research light source PETRA III, the scientists could watch just how small protein pieces, called nanofibrils, lock together to form a fibre. Surprisingly, the best fibres are not formed by the longest protein pieces. Instead, the strongest "silk" is won from protein nanofibrils with seemingly less quality, as the team around Dr. Christofer Lend
  
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• It's Make or Break for Samsung, Amid Bribery Charges and the Note 7 Fiasco

  23-01-2017 21:04 via nbcnews.com
  
  It's make or break time for Samsung as the company seeks to rebound after a number of high-profile embarrassments.
  
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• Research targets cookstove pollution using supercomputers and NASA satellites

  23-01-2017 21:00
  
  New air quality research is investigating a major, but often overlooked contributor to outdoor pollution and climate: burning of solid fuel for cooking and heating.
  
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• Blacks experience more family member deaths than whites, on average: study

  23-01-2017 21:00
  
  African-Americans are more likely than whites to experience the loss of a parent during childhood and more likely to be exposed to multiple family member deaths by mid-life, according to a study by the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
  
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• Engineers Develop Soft Robotic Sleeve to Help the Heart Beat

  23-01-2017 19:08 via scitechdaily.com
  A team of researchers from Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital has developed a customizable soft robot that fits around the heart and helps it beat, potentially opening new treatment options for people suffering from heart failure. The soft robotic sleeve twists and compresses in synch with a beating heart, augmenting cardiovascular functions weakened by […]
  The post Engineers Develop Soft Robotic Sleeve to Help the Heart Beat appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• New research on wine fermentation could lead to better bouquet

  23-01-2017 19:00
  
  The taste of wine arises from a symphony of compounds that are assembled as yeast ferment the must from grapes. But much of what happens in this process remains obscure. Now a team of researchers from France, a country that is synonymous with good wine, has begun to unveil the outlines of how yeast manage nitrogen, an essential element that comprises about 16 percent of proteins, and four percent of all organic matter. The research is published January 23rd in Applied and Environmental Microbiol
  
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• Crop achilles' heel costs farmers 10 percent of potential yield

  23-01-2017 18:44
  
  Scientists assumed leaves at the top of a plant would be the best at turning higher levels of light into carbohydrates—through the process of photosynthesis—while the lower shaded leaves would be better at processing the low light levels that penetrate the plant's canopy of leaves. Turns out that in two of our most productive crops, these shaded leaves are less efficient than the top leaves, limiting yield.
  
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• How do people choose what plants to use?

  23-01-2017 18:40
  
  There are about 400,000 species of plants in the world. Humans use approximately 10-15% of them to cover our basic needs, such as food, medicine and shelter, as well as other needs, such as recreation, art, and craft. But why and how have humans selected only a small fraction of all plants to utilize? A new study published in today's Nature Plants sheds new light on these questions by investigating how people use palms in South America. The overall conclusion is that people are very selective wh
  
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• Designing a chatbot: male, female or gender neutral?

  23-01-2017 18:30
  
  Picture a virtual assistant that helps find directions, schedules appointments or plays music, and the soothing yet robotic sound of a female voice likely comes to mind.
  
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• New HiRISE View of the Changing Dunes of Wirtz Crater

  23-01-2017 18:28 via scitechdaily.com
  This High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) image reveals the changing dunes of Wirtz Crater on Mars. The large dark feature is a classic Martian sand dune. Most sand on Earth is made from the mineral quartz, which is white and bright. On Mars, most sand is composed of dark basalt, a volcanic rock. For […]
  The post New HiRISE View of the Changing Dunes of Wirtz Crater appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• WATCH: Samsung Reveals Cause of Exploding Galaxy Note7 Smartphones

  23-01-2017 18:23 via abcnews.go.com
  
  The company blames battery manufacturing and design flaws, which resulted in recalls and stopped production.
  
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• Cassini Views Saturn’s Icy Moon Tethys

  23-01-2017 18:15 via scitechdaily.com
  NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft gets a closer look at one of Saturn’s icy moons (Tethys). Tethys, one of Saturn’s larger icy moons, vaguely resembles an eyeball staring off into space in this view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The resemblance is due to the enormous crater, Odysseus, and its complex of central peaks. Like any solar system […]
  The post Cassini Views Saturn’s Icy Moon Tethys appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Spanish scientists create a 3-D bioprinter to print human skin

  23-01-2017 18:14
  
  Scientists from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), CIEMAT (Center for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research), Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, in collaboration with the firm BioDan Group, have presented a prototype for a 3-D bioprinter that can create totally functional human skin. This skin is adequate for transplanting to patients or for use in research or the testing of cosmetic, chemical, and pharmaceutical products.
  
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• Bioinvasion is Jeopardizing Mediterranean Marine Communities

  23-01-2017 18:13
  
  Non-indigenous species (NIS) are harming indigenous species and habitats in the Mediterranean Sea, impairing potentially exploitable marine resources and raising concern about human health issues, according to a new Tel Aviv University study.
  
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• Hubble Image of the Week – NGC 4861

  23-01-2017 18:05 via scitechdaily.com
  This newly released Hubble image shows galaxy NGC 4861, which is located 30 million light-years away. The lesser-known constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs), is home to a variety of deep-sky objects — including this beautiful galaxy, known as NGC 4861. Astronomers are still debating on how to classify it: While its physical properties […]
  The post Hubble Image of the Week – NGC 4861 appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Forests 'held their breath' during global warming hiatus, research shows

  23-01-2017 18:03
  
  Global forest ecosystems, widely considered to act as the lungs of the planet, 'held their breath' during the most recent occurrence of a warming hiatus, new research has shown.
  
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• Paris tests electric driverless minibus to fight pollution

  23-01-2017 17:59
  
  In a city hit by chronic pollution and traffic problems, Paris officials are experimenting with a self-driving shuttle linking two train stations in the French capital.
  
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• UNIST researchers get green light to commercialize metal-air batteries

  23-01-2017 17:58
  
  A team of researchers, affiliated with UNIST has recently announced that they have successfully developed a new way to increase energy efficiency of metal-air batteries which are next-generation energy devices by using a conducting polymer.
  
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• New crab species shares name with two 'Harry Potter' characters and a hero researcher

  23-01-2017 17:50
  
  While not much is known about the animals living around coral reefs, ex-Marine turned researcher Harry Conley would often take to the island of Guam, western Pacific Ocean, and dig deep into the rubble to find fascinating critters as if by magic learnt at Hogwarts. Almost 20 years after his discoveries and his death, a secret is revealed on the pages of the open access journal ZooKeys—a new species and genus of crab, Harryplax severus.
  
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