Sci-Tech news

• Corn turning French hamsters into deranged cannibals: research

  27-01-2017 23:29
  
  A diet of corn is turning wild hamsters in northeastern France into deranged cannibals that devour their offspring, alarmed researchers have reported.
  
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• Alaska volcano erupts for 2nd day in a row; planes warned

  27-01-2017 23:26
  
  The Alaska Volcano Observatory has raised the aviation warning level after a volcano in the Aleutian Islands erupted again.
  
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• Mark Zuckerberg dropping lawsuits seeking to buy Hawaii land

  27-01-2017 23:23
  
  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Friday that he was dropping lawsuits seeking to buy out Native Hawaiians who own small pieces of land within his sprawling estate on the island of Kauai, promising to work with the community on "a new approach."
  
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• NASA sees development of Tropical Cyclone 3S along Western Australia's coast

  27-01-2017 23:17
  
  A NASA satellite provided a look at heavy rainfall occurring in a tropical low pressure system as it was consolidating and strengthening into what became Tropical Storm 3S in Southwest Indian Ocean.
  
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• Apple has filed a patent for some sort of vaporizer - The Verge

  27-01-2017 21:50 via theverge.com
  
  The Verge
  Apple has filed a patent for some sort of vaporizer
  The Verge
  The US Patent and Trademark Office this week published a patent application by Apple that details a peculiar vaporizer technology. The document, filed last year, outlines plans for an apparatus that can regulate temperature to release heat from a ...
  Apple patents a vaporizerCNNMoney
  Is Apple Going to sell a Vaporizer for Dope Heads like CNN Thinks? No, not in this LifetimePatently Apple
  Apple Has A Patent For A Vaporizer:
  
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• How the New White House Keeps Bungling Social Media

  27-01-2017 21:06 via nbcnews.com
  
  It's been an unpresidented — errr, unprecedented first week for the Trump administration on Twitter.
  
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• Amazon Has 45,000 Robots — With More on the Way

  27-01-2017 20:01 via nbcnews.com
  
  In the future, your Amazon box of goodies may be lovingly packed by a robot.
  
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• Toxic mercury in aquatic life could spike with greater land runoff

  27-01-2017 20:00
  
  A highly toxic form of mercury could jump by 300 to 600 percent in zooplankton—tiny animals at the base of the marine food chain—if land runoff increases by 15 to 30 percent, according to a new study.
  
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• Climate models may underestimate future warming on tropical mountains

  27-01-2017 20:00
  
  In few places are the effects of climate change more pronounced than on tropical peaks like Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, where centuries-old glaciers have all but melted completely away. Now, new research suggests that future warming on these peaks could be even greater than climate models currently predict.
  
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• Cincinnati Zoo says premature hippo gets some mother's milk

  27-01-2017 19:10
  
  The Cincinnati Zoo says a prematurely born baby hippo is getting some of her mother's milk.
  
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• EU wants Trump reassurances on data protection: commissioner

  27-01-2017 19:07
  
  The EU is hoping for reassurances from new US President Donald Trump that he will stick by a hard-won personal data protection accord with Europe, a top official said Friday.
  
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• Apple joins group devoted to keeping AI nice

  27-01-2017 19:06
  
  A technology industry alliance devoted to making sure smart machines don't turn against humanity said Friday that Apple has signed on and will have a seat on the board.
  
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• Ride-hailing service for women launches next week

  27-01-2017 19:05
  
  An Uber-like service connecting female riders and drivers is launching in Boston following a rebranding and leadership change.
  
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• Absorbing electromagnetic energy while avoiding the heat

  27-01-2017 19:03
  
  Electrical engineers at Duke University have created the world's first electromagnetic metamaterial made without any metal. The device's ability to absorb electromagnetic energy without heating up has direct applications in imaging, sensing and lighting.
  
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• The ancient Indus civilization's adaptation to climate change

  27-01-2017 19:02
  
  With climate change in our own era becoming increasingly evident, it's natural to wonder how our ancestors may have dealt with similar environmental circumstances. New research methods and technologies are able to shed light on climate patterns that took place thousands of years ago, giving us a new perspective on how cultures of the time coped with variable and changing environments.
  
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• Researchers develop label-free technique to image microtubules

  27-01-2017 19:02
  
  Imaging very small materials takes not only great skill on the part of the microscopist, but also great instruments and techniques. For a refined microscopic look at biological materials, the challenges include getting an image that is free from "noise," the interference that can be caused by a number of items, including the area surrounding an item. Labels, dyes, or stains that are added in order to see the item more clearly can also present issues as they can affect the item that is to be scan
  
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• Subtweet (v.): What a Dictionary Is Doing to the President

  27-01-2017 18:06 via nbcnews.com
  
  Donald Trump likes to brag that he has 'the best words.' Merriam-Webster disagrees.
  
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• Paw-fect rescue: Bulgarian stray cats get bionic legs

  27-01-2017 17:20
  
  Two stray Bulgarian cats who lost their hind legs in accidents have been given bionic paws, in what vets say is the first such operation in Europe outside groundbreaking Britain.
  
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• Anthropologists uncover art by (really) old masters—38,000 year-old engravings

  27-01-2017 17:16
  
  An international team of anthropologists has uncovered a 38,000-year-old engraved image in a southwestern French rockshelter—a finding that marks some of the earliest known graphic imagery found in Western Eurasia and offers insights into the nature of modern humans during this period.
  
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• A new approach to 3-D holographic displays greatly improves the image quality

  27-01-2017 17:12
  
  The potential applications of three-dimensional (3D) digital holograms are enormous. In addition to arts and entertainment, various fields including biomedical imaging, scientific visualization, engineering design, and displays could benefit from this technology. For example, creating full-sized organs for 3D analysis by doctors could be helpful, but it remained a challenge owing to the limitation of hologram-generation techniques.
  
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• Star birth with a chance of winds?

  27-01-2017 17:11
  
  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—such as mass, size and rotational velocity—indicate it to be a spiral galaxy, its appearance looks more like a comet with its dense, luminous "head" and dimmer "tail" trailing off. Features more fitting with a dwarf irregular galaxy.
  
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• New 'needle-pulse' beam pattern packs a punch

  27-01-2017 17:10
  
  A new beam pattern devised by University of Rochester researchers could bring unprecedented sharpness to ultrasound and radar images, burn precise holes in manufactured materials at a nano scale—even etch new properties onto their surfaces.
  
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• NASA studies cosmic radiation to protect high-altitude travelers

  27-01-2017 17:07
  
  NASA scientists studying high-altitude radiation recently published new results on the effects of cosmic radiation in our atmosphere. Their research will help improve real-time radiation monitoring for aviation industry crew and passengers working in potentially higher radiation environments.
  
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• Scientist uncovers physics behind plasma-etching process

  27-01-2017 17:05
  
  Physicist Igor Kaganovich at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and collaborators have uncovered some of the physics that make possible the etching of silicon computer chips, which power cell phones, computers, and a huge range of electronic devices. Specifically, the team found how electrically charged gas known as plasma makes the etching process more effective than it would otherwise be. The research, published in two papers appearing in the September
  
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• Real-life 'Q' is a woman, British spy chief reveals

  27-01-2017 16:54
  
  The inventor behind James Bond's ingenious gadgets, codenamed "Q" in the spy films, exists in reality and is actually a woman, the head of Britain's MI6 espionage agency has said.
  
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• NASA opens exhibit on 50th anniversary of Apollo 1 fire

  27-01-2017 16:54
  
  NASA is opening an exhibit honoring the astronauts in the Apollo 1 fire—50 years to the day they died.
  
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• Conway Probably Won't Want to Visit 'Alternativefacts.com'

  27-01-2017 16:49 via nbcnews.com
  
  Alternativefacts.com now links to a Psychology Today article on gaslighting.
  
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• Sciences for art: Preservation and protection of cultural heritage objects

  27-01-2017 16:04
  
  Conservation and preservation of historical monuments as well as of single artworks of our cultural heritage are receiving increasing attention. In the online magazine ChemViews, Austrian scientists take a view on the current technologies used for scientific analysis and documentation. Portable instruments, a combination of noninvasive spectroscopic techniques, and especially designed weathering cells will provide the data needed to develop strategies for better artwork preservation, they propos
  
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• Ocean acidification can promote shell formation

  27-01-2017 16:04
  
  Fact: More carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air also acidifies the oceans. It seemed to be the logical conclusion that shellfish and corals will suffer, because chalk formation becomes more difficult in more acidic seawater. But now a group of Dutch and Japanese scientists discovered to their own surprise that some tiny unicellular shellfish make better shells in an acidic environment. This is a completely new insight.
  
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• German prosecutors widen Volkswagen emissions probe

  27-01-2017 16:02
  
  Prosecutors in Germany said Friday they are expanding their probe into Volkswagen's scandal over diesel cars that cheated on emissions tests, increasing the number of suspects and saying they have evidence former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn may have known of the cheating earlier than he has claimed.
  
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• Craigslist founder donates $500K to curb Wikipedia trolls

  27-01-2017 16:02
  
  Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is donating $500,000 to help curb harassment on Wikipedia.
  
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• Nordic countries are bringing about an energy transition worth copying

  27-01-2017 16:01
  
  What can we learn from the Nordic low-carbon energy transition given the new US leadership vacuum on climate change? A new study by Professor Benjamin Sovacool at the University of Sussex offers some important lessons.
  
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• WATCH: Facebook USB Security Keys

  27-01-2017 15:58 via abcnews.go.com
  
  Physical security keys are designed to keep out intruders and offer an extra layer of security towards account protection.
  
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• Image: Sentinel-2A over western Texas

  27-01-2017 15:50
  
  An area over the western end of the US state of Texas is pictured in this image from the Sentinel-2A satellite from 13 March 2016.
  
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• Diverse natural fatty acids follow 'Golden Mean'

  27-01-2017 15:40
  
  Bioinformatics scientists at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena (Germany) have discovered that the number of theoretically possible fatty acids with the same chain length but different structures can be determined with the aid of the famous Fibonacci sequence. As they explain in Scientific Reports, the number of possible fatty acids with increasing chain length rises at each step by a factor of approximately 1.618, and therefore agrees with what is called the 'Golden Mean.' The ability to cal
  
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• New app facilitates mobility and parking for people with disabilities and avoids fraud

  27-01-2017 15:30
  
  Although treaties of the European Union guarantee the fundamental right of any European citizen to move freely between its member states, people with reduced mobility cannot yet fully enjoy it.
  
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• Researchers list reasons not to lick a toad

  27-01-2017 15:26
  
  As human diseases become alarmingly antibiotic resistant, identification of new pharmaceuticals is critical. The cane toad and other members of the Bufonidae family produce substances widely used in traditional folk medicine, but endangered family members, like Panama's golden frog, Atelopus zeteki, may disappear before revealing their secrets. Smithsonian scientists and colleagues at the University of Panama; Panama's government research center, INDICASAT AIP; Vanderbilt University in Tennessee
  
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• Nanoparticles hitchhiking their way along strands of hair

  27-01-2017 15:25
  
  In shampoo ads, hair always looks like a shiny, smooth surface. But for physicists peering into microscopes, the hair surface looks much more rugged, as it is made of saw-tooth, ratchet-like scales. In a new theoretical study published in EPJ E, Matthias Radtke and Roland Netz have demonstrated that massaging hair can help to apply drug treatment - encapsulated in nanoparticles trapped in the channels formed around individual hairs - to the hair roots. This is because the oscillatory movement of
  
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• Sunken logs serve as habitats in the deep sea

  27-01-2017 15:24
  
  The deep sea is a vast and seemingly uninhabitable place, except for some small oases of life. Sunken wood logs, so-called wood falls, can form such oases and provide for rich life for limited periods. A new study by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen takes a close look at the deep sea organisms inhabiting wood falls and how they affect their surroundings. They show that sunken logs are highly dynamic ecosystems and play an important role for the diversit
  
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• Evolution contributes to invasive beetles' speed, range of dispersion

  27-01-2017 15:23
  
  Just a little bit of help from evolution allows invasive species to disperse farther and faster, according to Rice University scientists.
  
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• Single-molecule technique to explain thermodynamic behavior of complex biomolecular systems

  27-01-2017 15:21
  
  Most thermodynamic measurements of binding reactions rely on the validity of the law of mass action and the assumption of a dilute solution. Yet, important biological systems such as allosteric ligand-receptor binding, macromolecular crowding, or misfolded molecules may not fulfill these assumptions and may require a particular reaction model. Today in an article published in Science by a team of the University of Barcelona, researchers have determined thermodynamic properties in biomolecular co
  
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• European nanotechnology project to design less toxic photovoltaic materials

  27-01-2017 15:21
  
  The University Institute for Advanced Materials Research at the Universitat Jaume I (UJI) has participated in the European Project Sunflower to develop less toxic organic photovoltaic materials viable for industrial production. A consortium of 17 research and business institutions carried out this nanotechnology research over four years.
  
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• Managing organic waste in agricultural regions

  27-01-2017 15:17
  
  Wisconsin is known as America's dairyland—more than one third of all the cows in America live on some-3,000 farms in the state. Those bovine residents contribute to a thriving dairy industry, but milk is not the only thing that they produce in prodigious quantities. That many cows inevitably leads to a significant amount of manure, and managing that organic waste is an important problem for everyone living in the state.
  
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• Reaching global warming targets under ice-free Arctic summers requires zero emissions by 2045

  27-01-2017 15:16
  
  Ice-albedo feedback as a result of sea-ice melting, notably in the Arctic, is known to reinforce global warming. What is less known, however, is the impact of a no-summer ice scenario on the world's ambition to maintain global warming below 2°C by 2100. A study conducted under the TRANSRISK project paints a rather dark picture, highlighting the need to better understand the impact of rapid climate change in the region.
  
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• A farewell to Plutoshine

  27-01-2017 15:15
  
  Sometimes, its not the eye candy aspect of the image, but what it represents. A recent image of Pluto's large moon Charon courtesy of New Horizons depicting what could only be termed 'Plutoshine' caught our eye. Looking like something from the grainy era of the early Space Age, we see a crescent Charon, hanging against a starry background…
  
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• Fossils of giant pterosaurs found in Transylvania

  27-01-2017 15:14
  
  (Phys.org)—A pair of researchers in the U.K. has identified fossils found in the Transylvania area in Romania as those of a pterosaur they have named Hatzegopteryx—a giant, muscle-bound flying reptile that could eat prey as large as a small horse. In their paper published in the journal Peer, Mark Witton with Portsmouth University and Darren Naish, with the University of Southampton describe the fossils and what they believe the creature looked like when it was alive.
  
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• Fin24.com | Vodacom, Please Call Me creator in legal deadlock

  27-01-2017 14:04
  
  Vodacom says it is committed to negotiations with ‘Please Call Me’ inventor, Kenneth Makate, after the company filed court papers this week.
  
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• Connection control technology for LTE and wi-fi to improve communication speed in wi-fi areas

  27-01-2017 14:01
  
  Fujitsu Laboratories today announced the development of connection control technology for LTE and Wi-Fi to boost communication speed in areas with Wi-Fi. When devices doing high-load communications tasks, such as streaming videos, are concentrated on a single Wi-Fi access point, deterioration in communications speed for each of these devices is a problem. Up to this point, devices have been equipped with technology to enable them to choose a communications route to mitigate communication speed d
  
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• Tiny satellites poised to make big contributions to essential science

  27-01-2017 13:30
  
  Tiny satellites, some smaller than a shoe box, are currently orbiting around 200 miles above Earth, collecting data about our planet and the universe. It's not just their small stature but also their accompanying smaller cost that sets them apart from the bigger commercial satellites that beam phone calls and GPS signals around the world, for instance. These SmallSats are poised to change the way we do science from space. Their cheaper price tag means we can launch more of them, allowing for con
  
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• Dogs share food with other dogs even in complex situations

  27-01-2017 13:20
  
  Humans aren't the only species to exhibit behaviour benefiting others of their kind, such as helping or sharing. Dogs also share their food, albeit mainly with four-legged friends rather than strangers. A new study conducted by behavioural biologists from the Messerli Research Institute at Vetmeduni Vienna has now confirmed this prosocial behaviour among canines. The more complex methodology of the study, however, showed that the experimental set-up has an impact on the dogs' behaviour and that
  
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