Sci-Tech news

• Close views show Saturn's rings in unprecedented detail

  30-01-2017 22:55
  
  Newly released images showcase the incredible closeness with which NASA's Cassini spacecraft, now in its "Ring-Grazing" orbits phase, is observing Saturn's dazzling rings of icy debris.
  
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• Viral protein transforms as it measures out DNA

  30-01-2017 22:45
  
  To generate swarms of new viral particles, a virus hijacks a cell into producing masses of self-assembling cages that are then loaded with the genetic blueprint for the next infection. But the picture of how that DNA is loaded into those viral cages, or capsids, was blurry, especially for two of the most common types of DNA virus on earth, bacterial viruses and human herpesvirus. Jefferson researchers pieced together the three-dimensional atomic structure of a doughnut-shaped protein that acts l
  
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• Claims coal-fired plant polluted river: Utility on trial

  30-01-2017 22:35
  
  Environmental groups said in court Monday that the Tennessee Valley Authority is essentially storing toxic ash from an aging Tennessee coal-fired power plant in a colander, letting pollutants seep into a major river in violation of the Clean Water Act.
  
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• NIST partners 'cutting the cord' (and wires) from factory communication networks

  30-01-2017 22:34
  
  Providing wireless communications in a factory, plant or other industrial environment these days means more than just helping employees talk with each other while they work. By eliminating physical connections such as wires and cables from a facility's communication network, wireless technology offers many manufacturing, chemical processing and municipal (such as water treatment) organizations a means to run their entire operation more efficiently, more productively and at less cost. However, a
  
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• Snapchat parent to offer shares on NYSE: reports

  30-01-2017 22:20
  
  The parent company of hit mobile-messaging service Snapchat is expected to make its debut as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange, according to reports.
  
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• New York Times launches daily podcast show

  30-01-2017 22:18
  
  Best known for its print coverage, The New York Times is this week broadening into the realm of daily audio news by launching a brand new podcast.
  
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• 'Trump & Dump' program aims to profit off Trump tweets

  30-01-2017 22:17
  
  Techies have devised a program to execute quickfire stock trades to take advantage of President Donald Trump's Twitter habit of blackballing individual companies.
  
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• Blocking critical enzyme helps to mitigate diseases associated with protein folding and lipid stress

  30-01-2017 22:16
  
  In the ancient Japanese art of origami, paper must be folded precisely and following a specific order to create the desired result—say, a crane or lotus flower. It's a complex pursuit that requires keen attention to detail and utmost accuracy.
  
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• Plant regulatory proteins 'tagged' with sugar

  30-01-2017 22:13
  
  New work from Carnegie's Shouling Xu and Zhiyong Wang reveals that the process of synthesizing many important master proteins in plants involves extensive modification, or "tagging" by sugars after the protein is assembled. Their work uncovers both similarity and distinction between plants and animals in their use of this protein modification. It is published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
  
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• New ocean observations improve understanding of motion

  30-01-2017 22:08
  
  Oceanographers commonly calculate large scale surface ocean circulation from satellite sea level information using a concept called "geostrophy", which describes the relationship between oceanic surface flows and sea level gradient. Conversely, researchers rely on data from in-water current meters to measure smaller scale motion. New research led by University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (UHM) oceanographer Bo Qiu has determined from observational data the length scale at which using sea level heig
  
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• Too many Bambi are bad for the forest

  30-01-2017 22:04
  
  Overabundant deer can spell trouble for people, including frequent car collisions and the spread of zoonotic diseases. But deer can also disrupt wildlife communities—such as forest songbirds—by eating away their habitat. In a new study published in Landscape and Urban Planning, researchers show that areas in the eastern U.S. with high deer numbers tend to have fewer birds that need forest shrubs. These species use low-lying foliage to hide their nests from predators and to hunt for i
  
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• Biologists study how songbirds in remote areas of Costa Rica learn new duets when paired with a new mate

  30-01-2017 21:58
  
  Karla Rivera-Cáceres, a University of Miami biology graduate student, plays a harmonious duet of singing wrens from a recording she captured out in the field during a recent trip to Costa Rica.
  
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• Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope discovers the most extreme blazars yet

  30-01-2017 21:56
  
  NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has identified the farthest gamma-ray blazars, a type of galaxy whose intense emissions are powered by supersized black holes. Light from the most distant object began its journey to us when the universe was 1.4 billion years old, or nearly 10 percent of its present age.
  
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• Fermi sees gamma rays from 'hidden' solar flares

  30-01-2017 21:55
  
  An international science team says NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has observed high-energy light from solar eruptions located on the far side of the sun, which should block direct light from these events. This apparent paradox is providing solar scientists with a unique tool for exploring how charged particles are accelerated to nearly the speed of light and move across the sun during solar flares.
  
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• Vitamin B12: Power broker to the microbes

  30-01-2017 21:00
  
  Constant jostling for precious commodities—money, oil, high-speed Internet access, our morning coffee—shapes the world we live in.
  
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• Super-sizing world's nature havens would add people to valued species list

  30-01-2017 21:00
  
  A group of scientists are recommending giving the world's nature reserves a makeover to defend not only flora and fauna, but people, too.
  
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• New study shows how plants fight off disease

  30-01-2017 21:00
  
  A University of Queensland-led study has highlighted the minute details of how the plant¹s immune system leads to its ability to resist disease.
  
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• Gulf shrimp prices reveal hidden economic impact of dead zones

  30-01-2017 21:00
  
  Hypoxic dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico drive up the price of large shrimp relative to smaller sizes, causing economic ripples that can affect consumers, fishermen and seafood markets alike, a new Duke-led analysis reveals.
  
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• Genomic tools for species discovery inflate estimates of species numbers, biologists contend

  30-01-2017 21:00
  
  Increasingly popular techniques that infer species boundaries in animals and plants solely by analyzing genetic differences are flawed and can lead to inflated diversity estimates, according to a new study from two University of Michigan evolutionary biologists.
  
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• Silicon Valley Has Visceral Reaction to Trump's Immigration Ban

  30-01-2017 19:47 via nbcnews.com
  
  A look at how tech companies are fighting back, pledging funds and advocacy in response to Trump's new refugee restrictions.
  
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• WATCH: First Images of Google LG Smart Watches Released

  30-01-2017 19:30
  
  The fitness watch has a rounded face and will start at around $250.
  
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• Yale Research Provides New Clues to How Cancer Cells Spread

  30-01-2017 18:41 via scitechdaily.com
  New research from Yale University shows how a melanoma cell and a white blood cell can fuse to form a hybrid with the ability to metastasize, providing further insight into how melanoma and other cancers spread from solid tumors with implications for future treatment. Cancer turns deadly when malignant cells spread from a primary tumor […]
  The post Yale Research Provides New Clues to How Cancer Cells Spread appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• GM, Honda team up to develop advanced hydrogen fuel cells

  30-01-2017 18:34
  
  General Motors Co. and Honda Motor Co. took a big step toward putting out vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells by forming a joint venture to produce the systems for both companies' vehicles.
  
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• Storing solar power increases energy consumption and emissions, study finds

  30-01-2017 18:31
  
  Homes with solar panels do not require on-site storage to reap the biggest economic and environmental benefits of solar energy, according to research from the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. In fact, storing solar energy for nighttime use actually increases both energy consumption and emissions compared with sending excess solar energy directly to the utility grid.
  
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• The bovine heritage of the yak

  30-01-2017 18:29
  
  Though placid enough to be managed by humans, yaks are robust enough to survive at 4000 meters altitude. Genomic analyses by researchers of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich show that yak domestication began several millennia ago and was promoted by repeated crosses with cattle.
  
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• World Heritage Sites getting hammered by human activities

  30-01-2017 18:26
  
  A new study warns that more than 100 natural World Heritage sites are being severely damaged by encroaching human activities. The study, led by an international team of researchers from the University of Queensland, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), University of Northern British Columbia and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) appears in the journal Biological Conservation.
  
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• Radio Weak Blazars Challenge the Basic Explanation of Blazars

  30-01-2017 18:25 via scitechdaily.com
  Using the Fermi catalog of very high energy sources and the WISE infrared sky catalog, astronomers have found two BL Lac blazars with no apparent radio emission: “radio weak” BL Lacs. A blazar is a galaxy whose central nucleus is bright at wavelengths from the low energy radio band to high energy gamma rays (each […]
  The post Radio Weak Blazars Challenge the Basic Explanation of Blazars appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• NASA sees Ex-Tropical Cyclone 03S resemble a frontal system

  30-01-2017 18:23
  
  Satellite data from NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite showed that former Tropical Cyclone 03S resembled a frontal system in the Southern Indian Ocean as it continued moving in a northwesterly direction over cooler sea surface temperatures.
  
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• New model describing the deformation and breakup of droplets could help improve nanoscale printing and spraying

  30-01-2017 18:20
  
  As interest and demand for nanotechnology continues to rise, so will the need for nanoscale printing and spraying, which relies on depositing tiny drops of liquid onto a surface. Now researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing have developed a new theory that describes how such a nanosized droplet deforms and breaks up when it strikes a surface.
  
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• New smartwatch software may now verify your signatures

  30-01-2017 18:19
  
  The handwritten signature is still the most widely accepted biometric used to verify a person's identity. Banks, corporations, and government bodies rely on the human eye and digital devices such as tablets or smart pens to capture, analyse, and verify people's autographs.
  
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• New Research Supports Faster Than Expected Expansion of the Universe

  30-01-2017 18:15 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A team of astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope and galaxies as giant gravitational lenses to make an independent measurement of how fast the Universe is expanding. The newly measured expansion rate for the local Universe is consistent with earlier findings. The Hubble constant — the rate at which the Universe is expanding — is […]
  The post New Research Supports Faster Than Expected Expansion of the Universe appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Academics build ultimate solar-powered water purifier

  30-01-2017 18:11
  
  You've seen Bear Grylls turn foul water into drinking water with little more than sunlight and plastic.
  
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• Hubble Image of the Week – The Calabash Nebula

  30-01-2017 17:33 via scitechdaily.com
  This newly released Hubble image shows the Calabash Nebula, which is located 5,000 light-years away. The Calabash Nebula, pictured here — which has the technical name OH 231.8+04.2 — is a spectacular example of the death of a low-mass star like the Sun. This image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the star […]
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• Starbucks launches voice ordering via app, Amazon's Alexa

  30-01-2017 17:12
  
  Amazon's Alexa is now able to order up a latte.
  
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• Model shows female beauty isn't just sex appeal

  30-01-2017 17:11
  
  Female beauty may have less to do with attracting the opposite sex than previously thought, at least in the animal world, researchers say.
  
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• Radio devices to save rare species from poachers

  30-01-2017 17:10
  
  A joint project between conservationists and electronics experts at the University of Kent has developed miniature radio devices in tamper-proof casings to protect rare species from poachers.
  
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• First-ever GPS data release to boost space-weather science

  30-01-2017 17:08
  
  Today, more than 16 years of space-weather data is publicly available for the first time in history. The data comes from space-weather sensors developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory on board the nation's Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. The newly available data gives researchers a treasure trove of measurements they can use to better understand how space weather works and how best to protect critical infrastructure, such as the nation's satellites, aircraft, communications networ
  
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• A new path to fixing genes in living organisms

  30-01-2017 17:04
  
  A unique gene-editing method that efficiently inserts DNA into genes located in dividing and non-dividing cells of living rats has been developed by a team of international researchers, including scientists from KAUST.
  
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• Shootings in US schools are linked to increased unemployment

  30-01-2017 17:00
  
  A rigorous Northwestern University study of a quarter-century of data has found that economic insecurity is related to the rate of gun violence at K-12 and postsecondary schools in the United States. When it becomes more difficult for people coming out of school to find jobs, the rate of gun violence at schools increases.
  
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• Scientists unravel the process of meltwater in ocean depths

  30-01-2017 17:00
  
  An international team of researchers has discovered why fresh water, melted from Antarctic ice sheets, is often detected below the surface of the ocean, rather than rising to the top above denser seawater.
  
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• Role of terrestrial biosphere in counteracting climate change may have been underestimated

  30-01-2017 17:00
  
  New research suggests that the capacity of the terrestrial biosphere to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) may have been underestimated in past calculations due to certain land-use changes not being fully taken into account.
  
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• Milestone for the analysis of human proteomes

  30-01-2017 17:00
  
  Researchers led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) report on the synthesis of a library of more than 330,000 reference peptides representing essentially all canonical proteins of the human proteome. It is a major milestone in the ProteomeTools project which aims at translating human proteome information into new molecular and digital tools with the potential for use in drug discovery, personalized medicine and life science research.
  
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• Discovery of new fossil from half billion years ago sheds light on life on Earth

  30-01-2017 17:00
  
  Dr Tom Harvey from the Department of Geology, University of Leicester, together with Professor Nicholas Butterfield, University of Cambridge, discovered the new species while conducting a survey of microfossils in mudstones from western Canada.
  
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• Cosmic dust that formed our planets traced to giant stars

  30-01-2017 17:00
  
  Scientists have identified the origin of key stardust grains present in the dust cloud from which the planets in our Solar System formed, a study suggests.
  
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• Both push and pull drive our galaxy's race through space

  30-01-2017 17:00
  
  Although we can't feel it, we're in constant motion: the earth spins on its axis at about 1,600 km/h; it orbits around the sun at about 100,000 km/h; the sun orbits our Milky Way galaxy at about 850,000 km/h; and the Milky Way galaxy and its companion galaxy Andromeda are moving with respect to the expanding universe at roughly 2 million km/h (630 km per second). But what is propelling the Milky Way's race through space?
  
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• Bag-like sea creature was humans' oldest known ancestor

  30-01-2017 17:00
  
  Researchers have identified traces of what they believe is the earliest known prehistoric ancestor of humans—a microscopic, bag-like sea creature, which lived about 540 million years ago.
  
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• Antibiotics can boost bacterial reproduction

  30-01-2017 17:00
  
  The growth of bacteria can be stimulated by antibiotics, scientists at the University of Exeter have discovered.
  
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• Action is needed to make stagnant CO2 emissions fall: research

  30-01-2017 17:00
  
  Without a significant effort to reduce greenhouse gases, including an accelerated deployment of technologies for capturing atmospheric carbon and storing it underground, and sustained growth in renewables such as wind and solar, the world could miss a key global temperature target set by the Paris Agreement and the long-term goal of net-zero climate pollution.
  
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• How Speedy Delivery Robots May Shift Our Buying Habits

  30-01-2017 16:24 via nbcnews.com
  
  Having our desires delivered in minutes is a convenient game changer for those who have trouble making shopping trips, but the instant gratification economy faces serious challenges — and possible unintended psychological effects.
  
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• Keeping antennas at peak performance

  30-01-2017 16:11
  
  Advanced statistical techniques developed by KAUST researchers have enabled an efficient method for detecting the partial antenna failures that can inconspicuously degrade mobile communications1.
  
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