Sci-Tech news

• Kuri: Startup's personal robot designed to touch your emotions

  09-02-2017 23:54
  
  If you've been dreaming for years about having your own R2-D2 or BB-8, get ready. Just don't expect your new robot companion to do too much, because you might be disappointed.
  
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• Microsoft lawsuit vs. secret government searches moves ahead

  09-02-2017 23:34
  
  A judge refused the U.S. government's request to throw out a lawsuit from Microsoft that claims a federal law is unconstitutional because it prohibits technology companies from telling customers when the government demands their electronic data.
  
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• Celebrity megaphone fails to lure ordinary users to Twitter

  09-02-2017 23:33
  
  Many people have heard of Twitter. Not enough of them are signing up to use it.
  
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• Turning Headlines Into Cash, the White Whale for Twitter

  09-02-2017 22:53 via abcnews.go.com
  Twitter may be the megaphone for the leader of the free world, but the company's headline omnipresence has yet to turn into a long sought after pot of gold for the company
  
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• In an Age of Alternative Facts, Bill Nye’s New Show Brings Real Ones

  09-02-2017 22:33 via nytimes.com
  The Science Guy is optimistic about his new talk show, “Bill Nye Saves the World,” which will premiere April 21 on Netflix.
  
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• Nation's tallest dam, Lake Oroville, damaged amid storms

  09-02-2017 22:24
  
  State engineers have discovered new damage to the Oroville Dam spillway in Northern California, the tallest in the United States.
  
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• Gaping hole in spillway for tallest US dam keeps growing (Update)

  09-02-2017 22:24
  
  A gaping hole in the spillway for the tallest dam in the United States has grown and California authorities said they expect it will continue eroding as water washes over it but the Oroville Dam and the public are safe.
  
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• Virtual assistant Cortana holds people to promises

  09-02-2017 22:23
  
  Microsoft virtual assistant Cortana began holding people to their promises on Thursday.
  
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• UCI, NASA reveal new details of Greenland ice loss

  09-02-2017 22:22
  
  Less than a year after the first research flight kicked off NASA's Oceans Melting Greenland campaign, data from the new program are providing a dramatic increase in knowledge of how Greenland's ice sheet is melting from below. Two new research papers in the journal Oceanography, including one by UCI Earth system scientist Mathieu Morlighem, use OMG observations to document how meltwater and ocean currents are interacting along Greenland's west coast and to improve seafloor maps used to predict f
  
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• Packy, Oregon's beloved elephant, dies at 54

  09-02-2017 22:22
  
  Packy, the Asian elephant who drew international attention when he was born, including an 11-page spread in Life magazine, died Thursday at the Oregon Zoo. He was 54.
  
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• Gas hydrate breakdown unlikely to cause massive greenhouse gas release

  09-02-2017 22:20
  
  The breakdown of methane hydrates due to warming climate is unlikely to lead to massive amounts of methane being released to the atmosphere, according to a recent interpretive review of scientific literature performed by the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Rochester.
  
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• UTIA project named Project of the Year for DoD Environmental Security Technology

  09-02-2017 22:15
  
  A project to identify and track threatened, endangered and at-risk avian species on U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) facilities has been named the DoD's Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) project of the year for 2016 for resource conservation and resiliency. The effort by a team of University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture researchers was led by David Buehler, professor in the Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries. Richard A. Fischer, of the U.S. Army
  
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• New method of genetic engineering indispensable tool in biotechnological applications

  09-02-2017 22:13
  
  Research by Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Huimin Zhao and graduate student Behnam Enghiad at the University of Illinois is pioneering a new method of genetic engineering for basic and applied biological research and medicine. Their work, reported in ACS Synthetic Biology on February 6, has the potential to open new doors in genomic research by improving the precision and adherence of sliced DNA.
  
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• Older adults embracing 'living apart together'

  09-02-2017 22:12
  
  Since 1990, the divorce rate among adults 50 years and older has doubled. This trend, along with longer life expectancy, has resulted in many adults forming new partnerships later in life. A new phenomenon called 'Living Apart Together' (LAT)—an intimate relationship without a shared residence—is gaining popularity as an alternative form of commitment. Researchers at the University of Missouri say that while the trend is well understood in Europe, it is lesser known in the U.S. This
  
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• Methane levels have increased in Marcellus Shale region despite dip in well installation

  09-02-2017 22:10
  
  Despite a slow down in the number of new natural gas wells in the Marcellus Shale region of Northeast Pennsylvania, new research led by Drexel University finds that atmospheric methane levels in the area are still increasing. Measurements of methane and other air pollutants taken three years apart in the rural areas of Pennsylvania that have been the target of natural gas development over the last decade, revealed a substantial increase from 2012 to 2015.
  
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• New Color Enhanced Image Shows Jupiter From Below

  09-02-2017 21:54 via scitechdaily.com
  
  This newly released image shows a color enhanced view of Jupiter. This enhanced-color image of Jupiter’s south pole and its swirling atmosphere was created by...
  The post New Color Enhanced Image Shows Jupiter From Below appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Apple Boss Tim Cook Optimistic About UK's Future Outside EU

  09-02-2017 21:15 via abcnews.go.com
  Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company the technology giant is committed to Britain's future outside the European Union
  
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• Why malaria mosquitoes like people with malaria

  09-02-2017 20:00
  
  Malaria mosquitoes prefer to feed—and feed more—on blood from people infected with malaria. Researchers from Stockholm University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and KTH Royal Institute of Technology have discovered why. The findings can lead to new ways to fight malaria without using poisonous chemicals. The results will be published in the next issue of the journal Science.
  
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• Scientists estimate solar nebula's lifetime

  09-02-2017 20:00
  
  About 4.6 billion years ago, an enormous cloud of hydrogen gas and dust collapsed under its own weight, eventually flattening into a disk called the solar nebula. Most of this interstellar material contracted at the disk's center to form the sun, and part of the solar nebula's remaining gas and dust condensed to form the planets and the rest of our solar system.
  
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• Researchers discuss the future of conservation

  09-02-2017 20:00
  
  Conservationists need to adopt a critical shift in thinking to keep the Earth's ecosystems diverse and useful in an increasingly "unnatural" world.
  
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• Researchers cast into doubt a tenet of the dominant evolutionary biology model

  09-02-2017 20:00
  
  A team of Université Laval researchers has cast into doubt a tenet of evolutionary biology according to which organisms with more than one copy of the same gene in their genome are more resilient to genetic perturbations. In an article to be published tomorrow in Science, the researchers show that this genetic redundancy can also make the genome more fragile, leaving organisms more vulnerable to the effects of harmful mutations.
  
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• Malaria parasite may trigger human odor to lure mosquitoes

  09-02-2017 20:00
  
  Scientists may have figured out part of the reason why mosquitoes are drawn to people infected with malaria.
  
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• Dual-function nanorod LEDs could make multifunctional displays

  09-02-2017 20:00
  
  Cellphones and other devices could soon be controlled with touchless gestures and charge themselves using ambient light, thanks to new LED arrays that can both emit and detect light.
  
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• Climate change responsible for rapid expansion of horse species over last 20 million years

  09-02-2017 20:00
  
  Changing environments and ecosystems were driving the evolution of horses over the past 20 million years. This is the main conclusion of a new study published in Science by a team of palaeontologists from Spain and Argentina. The team analysed 140 species of horses, most of them extinct, synthesising decades of research on the fossil history of this popular group of mammals.
  
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• Chemicals hitch a ride onto new protein for better compounds

  09-02-2017 20:00
  
  Chemists have developed a powerful new method of selectively linking chemicals to proteins, a major advance in the manipulation of biomolecules that could transform the way drugs are developed, proteins are probed, and molecules are tracked and imaged.
  
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• Bacteria sleep, then rapidly evolve, to survive antibiotic treatments

  09-02-2017 20:00
  
  Antibiotic resistance is a major and growing problem worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic resistance is rising to dangerously high levels in all parts of the world, and new resistance mechanisms are emerging and spreading globally, threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases. But how these bacterial resistance mechanisms occur, and whether we can predict their evolution, is far from understood.
  
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• A new sensitive and stable self-powered photodetector

  09-02-2017 19:50
  
  Researchers in Singapore and China have collaborated to develop a self-powered photodetector that can be used in a wide range of applications such as chemical analysis, communications, astronomical investigations and much more.
  
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• Even Donald Trump Can't Help Twitter. Sad!

  09-02-2017 19:25 via nbcnews.com
  
  With a single tweet, President Donald Trump can make headlines, move markets, and ignite new feuds.
  
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• Team takes deeper look at unconventional oil and gas

  09-02-2017 19:10
  
  Understanding how oil and gas molecules, water and rocks interact at the nanoscale will help make extraction of hydrocarbons through hydraulic fracturing more efficient, according to Rice University researchers.
  
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• The Internet and your brain are more alike than you think

  09-02-2017 19:07
  
  Although we spend a lot of our time online nowadays—streaming music and video, checking email and social media, or obsessively reading the news—few of us know about the mathematical algorithms that manage how our content is delivered. But deciding how to route information fairly and efficiently through a distributed system with no central authority was a priority for the Internet's founders. Now, a Salk Institute discovery shows that an algorithm used for the Internet is also at work
  
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• Peter Mansfield, Nobel winner for work on MRI, dies at 83

  09-02-2017 19:04
  
  Physicist Peter Mansfield, who won the Nobel Prize for helping to invent MRI scanners, has died at the age of 83.
  
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• Hubble Reveals the Massive Remains of a Comet-Like Object Scattered Around a White Dwarf

  09-02-2017 18:57 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, a team astronomers has found the first evidence of the remains of a comet-like object scattered around a burned-out star....
  The post Hubble Reveals the Massive Remains of a Comet-Like Object Scattered Around a White Dwarf appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Stem Cell Researchers Use iPS Cells to Find Drugs For Rare Blood Disorder

  09-02-2017 18:54 via scitechdaily.com
  
  For the first time, a team of researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Stem Cell Research Program were able to use patients’ own cells to create...
  The post Stem Cell Researchers Use iPS Cells to Find Drugs For Rare Blood Disorder appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Researchers develop device that emulates human kidney function

  09-02-2017 18:44
  
  Instead of running tests on live kidneys, researchers at Binghamton, University State University of New York have developed a model kidney for working out the kinks in medicines and treatments.
  
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• Technique to measure oxidative stress in blood samples offers potential aid in schizophrenia diagnosis

  09-02-2017 18:42
  
  Researchers from the University of Maryland College Park (UMD) and Baltimore (UMB) campuses have developed a blood test that could help doctors more quickly diagnose schizophrenia and other disorders. Their study, "Redox Probing for Chemical Information of Oxidative Stress," was recently published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
  
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• Sorting machine for atoms

  09-02-2017 18:41
  
  Physicists at the University of Bonn have cleared a further hurdle on the path to creating quantum computers: in a recent study, they present a method with which they can very quickly and precisely sort large numbers of atoms. The work has now been published in Physical Review Letters.
  
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• Full-go for NC wind farm that politicians claimed is threat

  09-02-2017 18:26
  
  North Carolina's first large-scale wind farm is fully operational despite efforts by some of the state's most powerful politicians to shut down the $400 million project as a possible national security threat.
  
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• Monarch butterfly numbers drop by 27 percent in Mexico

  09-02-2017 18:25
  
  The number of monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico dropped by 27 percent this year, reversing last year's recovery from historically low numbers, according to a study by government and independent experts released Thursday.
  
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• NASA spacecraft prepares to fly to new heights

  09-02-2017 18:21
  
  On Feb. 9, 2017, NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, known as MMS, began a three-month long journey into a new orbit. MMS flies in a highly elliptical orbit around Earth and the new orbit will take MMS twice as far out as it has previously flown. In the new orbit, which begins the second phase of its mission, MMS will continue to map out the fundamental characteristics of space around Earth, helping us understand this key region through which our satellites and astronauts travel. MMS will
  
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• Researchers studying mouse proteins uncover part of 'choreography of immunity'

  09-02-2017 18:16
  
  Rearranging the genome is a risky endeavor, and human cells reserve it for special occasions, like making egg and sperm cells. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine announce they've learned how an enzyme that reshuffles DNA on one of those rare occasions—during the birth of new white blood cells—helps ensure the process doesn't go haywire. Their results are described online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
  
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• Sticky gels turn insect-sized drones into artificial pollinators

  09-02-2017 18:00
  
  As bees slip onto the endangered species list in the United States, researchers in Japan are pollinating lilies with insect-sized drones. The undersides of these artificial pollinators are coated with horse hairs and an ionic gel just sticky enough to pick up pollen from one flower and deposit it onto another. Far from replacing bees, the drones' designers are hopeful that their invention could someday help carry the burden that modern agricultural demand has put on colonies and in turn benefit
  
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• New research to help preserve the benefits people receive from nature

  09-02-2017 18:00
  
  Humans rely on things that come from nature—including clean air, water, food, and timber. But how can we tell if these natural services that people rely on, are at risk of being lost, potentially permanently?
  
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• Deeper origin of gill evolution suggests 'active lifestyle' link in early vertebrates

  09-02-2017 18:00
  
  A new study has revealed that gills originated much deeper in evolutionary history than previously believed. The findings support the idea that gills evolved before the last common ancestor of all vertebrates, helping facilitate a "lifestyle transition" from immobile filter-feeder to actively swimming predator.
  
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• Climate change and fishing create 'trap' for penguins

  09-02-2017 18:00
  
  Endangered penguins are foraging for food in the wrong places due to fishing and climate change, research led by the University of Exeter and the University of Cape Town has revealed.
  
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• Bacteria fed synthetic iron-containing molecules turn into electrical generators

  09-02-2017 18:00
  
  The bacterial world is rife with unusual talents, among them a knack for producing electricity. In the wild, "electrogenic" bacteria generate current as part of their metabolism, and now researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), have found a way to confer that ability upon non-electrogenic bacteria. This technique could have applications for sustainable electricity generation and wastewater treatment, the researchers report February 9 in the journal Chem.
  
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• 'Dieselgate' fallout leads to score-settling at Volkswagen

  09-02-2017 17:55
  
  Volkswagen's "dieselgate" crisis turned personal this week, as the German auto giant's patriarch and ex-boss Ferdinand Piech implicated his successors in the cheating scandal.
  
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• Cleaner robot pulled from Fukushima reactor due to radiation

  09-02-2017 17:55
  
  A remote-controlled cleaning robot sent into a damaged reactor at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant had to be removed Thursday before it completed its work because of camera problems most likely caused by high radiation levels.
  
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• Astronomers Discover an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole

  09-02-2017 17:54 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reveal new evidence that an intermediate-mass black hole weighing 2,200 Suns is hiding at the center of the...
  The post Astronomers Discover an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Directly radiolabeled nanographene materials without chelators are suitable for bioimaging applications

  09-02-2017 17:10
  
  Positron emission tomography plays a pivotal role for monitoring the distribution and accumulation of radiolabeled nanomaterials in living subjects. The radioactive metals are usually connected to the nanomaterial through an anchor, a so-called chelator, but this chemical binding can be omitted if nanographene is used, as American scientists report in the journal Angewandte Chemie. The replacement of chelator-based labeling by intrinsic labeling significantly enhances the bioimaging accuracy and
  
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• NASA spots Tropical Cyclone Carlos south of La Reunion Island

  09-02-2017 17:09
  
  NASA's Terra satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Carlos as it moved south of La Reunion Island in the Southern Indian Ocean.
  
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