Sci-Tech news

• ESO Image of the Week – The Center of the Milky Way Crossed by Zodiacal Light

  14-02-2017 22:43 via scitechdaily.com
  This newly released ESO image shows the center of the Milky Way crossed by the eerie glow of zodiacal light. The sky is full of...
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• Level up and learn: Team teaches science through video game

  14-02-2017 22:25
  
  A University of Texas at Dallas team is exploring whether teaching real-world science through a popular computer game may offer a more engaging and effective educational approach than traditional concepts of instruction.
  
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• Tumor-targeting system uses cancer's own mechanisms to betray its location

  14-02-2017 22:23
  
  By hijacking a cancer cell's own metabolism, researchers have found a way to tag and target elusive cancers with small-molecule sugars. This opens treatment pathways for cancers that are not responsive to conventional targeted antibodies, such as triple-negative breast cancer.
  
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• Showing some love: Penguins get Valentine's hearts for nests

  14-02-2017 22:23
  Penguins at a California aquarium got more than their daily helping of fish to celebrate Valentine's Day
  
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• New iron oxide nanoparticles could help avoid a rare side effect caused by current contrast agents for MRI

  14-02-2017 22:21
  
  A new, specially coated iron oxide nanoparticle developed by a team at MIT and elsewhere could provide an alternative to conventional gadolinium-based contrast agents used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedures. In rare cases, the currently used gadolinium agents have been found to produce adverse effects in patients with impaired kidney function.
  
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• No designer babies, but gene editing to avoid disease? Maybe

  14-02-2017 20:58
  
  Don't expect designer babies any time soon—but a major new ethics report leaves open the possibility of one day altering human heredity to fight genetic diseases, with stringent oversight, using new tools that precisely edit genes inside living cells.
  
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• Ethicists open to one day altering heredity to fight disease

  14-02-2017 20:58
  
  Don't expect designer babies any time soon—but a major new ethics report leaves open the possibility of one day altering human heredity to fight genetic diseases, with stringent oversight, using new tools that precisely edit genes inside living cells.
  
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• Fractal edges shown to be key to imagery seen in Rorschach inkblots

  14-02-2017 20:56
  
  Researchers have unlocked the mystery of why people have seen so many different images in Rorschach inkblots.
  
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• Extending VCSEL wavelength coverage to the mid-infrared

  14-02-2017 20:53
  
  Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are small, semiconductor-based lasers that emit optical beams from their top surface, and one of their main applications is in gas sensing. Gases each have a unique set of energies they can absorb, derived from their molecular structure. These sets of absorption lines are akin to fingerprints, which enables unambiguous and sensitive detection with a suitable tunable laser like a tunable VCSEL.
  
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• Chemists seek 'game-changer' in electrochemical water catalysis

  14-02-2017 20:53
  
  The world's current reliance on fossil fuel energy, which is finite and a major source of pollution, begs for new, greener energy solutions. Electrochemical water catalysis or "water splitting," the chemical reaction by which water is separated into oxygen and hydrogen, is one means of tapping energy from such renewable energy sources as solar and wind. But development of efficient and cost-effective methods to achieve commercial-scale water splitting remains a holy grail of science, says Utah S
  
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• NASA eyes the heart of Tropical Cyclone Dineo on Valentine's Day

  14-02-2017 20:49
  
  NASA's Terra satellite saw strong thunderstorms spiraling into the heart of Tropical Cyclone Dineo on Valentine's Day as it continued to strengthen in the Mozambique Channel.
  
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• Birmingham's early warning system flags global financial crises

  14-02-2017 20:46
  
  Researchers at the University of Birmingham have developed a new 'early warning system' that could help policymakers around the world take action to avert or lessen the impact of financial crisis.
  
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• Researchers develop 'living diode' using cardiac muscle cells

  14-02-2017 20:45
  
  Scientists are one step closer to mimicking the way biological systems interact and process information in the body - a vital step toward developing new forms of biorobotics and novel treatment approaches for several muscle-related health problems such as muscular degenerative disorders, arrhythmia and limb loss.
  
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• OSIRIS-REx takes its first image of Jupiter

  14-02-2017 20:38
  
  This magnified, cropped image showing Jupiter and three of its moons was taken by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's MapCam instrument during optical navigation testing for the mission's Earth-Trojan Asteroid Search. The image shows Jupiter in the center, the moon Callisto to the left and the moons Io and Europa to the right. Ganymede, Jupiter's fourth moon, is also present in the image, but is not visible as it is crossing in front of the planet.
  
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• Turning up the heat for perfect (nano)diamonds

  14-02-2017 20:37
  
  Quantum mechanics, the physics that governs nature at the atomic and subatomic scale, contains a host of new physical phenomena to explore quantum states at the nanoscale. Though tricky, there are ways to exploit these inherently fragile and sensitive systems for quantum sensing. One nascent technology in particular makes use of point defects, or single-atom misplacements, in nanoscale materials, such as diamond nanoparticles, to measure electromagnetic fields, temperature, pressure, frequency a
  
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• Gut feeling essential for migrating fish

  14-02-2017 20:27
  
  Why do trout spend so much time in potentially dangerous estuaries before migrating to sea? In a new thesis published at University Gothenburg, Jeroen Brijs reveals that the answer may lie in the gut.
  
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• Optimizing data center placement and network design to strengthen cloud computing

  14-02-2017 20:25
  
  Telecommunication experts estimate the amount of data stored "in the cloud" or in remote data centers around the world, will quintuple in the next five years. Whether it's streaming video or business' database content drawn from distant servers, all of this data is—and will continue in the foreseeable future to be - accessed and transmitted by lasers sending pulses of light along long bundles of flexible optical fibers.
  
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• Astronomers propose a cell phone search for galactic fast radio bursts

  14-02-2017 20:21
  
  Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief spurts of radio emission, lasting just one-thousandth of a second, whose origins are mysterious. Fewer than two dozen have been identified in the past decade using giant radio telescopes such as the 1,000-foot dish in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Of those, only one has been pinpointed to originate from a galaxy about 3 billion light-years away.
  
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• NASA to launch Raven to develop autonomous rendezvous capability

  14-02-2017 20:10
  
  Launching soon, aboard the 10th SpaceX commercial resupply mission, will be a technology module called Raven, which will bring NASA one step closer to having a relative navigation capability. When affixed outside the International Space Station, Raven will test foundational technologies that will enable autonomous rendezvous in space, meaning they will not necessitate any human involvement—even from the ground.
  
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• Is Anti-Semitic Stunt the End for YouTube Star PewDiePie?

  14-02-2017 19:53 via nbcnews.com
  
  YouTube just pulled the plug on the pranky vlogger's second season show after he posted a series of videos showing anti-Semitic imagery.
  
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• Disney drops YouTube's PewDiePie over offensive videos

  14-02-2017 18:56
  Online star PewDiePie has been dropped from Disney's Maker Studios and YouTube
  
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• Armyworm invasion threatening southern Africa's crops

  14-02-2017 18:33
  Armyworm invasion threatening southern Africa's crops and could spread elsewhere, experts say
  
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• Chemical Engineers Boost Bacteria’s Production of Useful Chemicals

  14-02-2017 18:27 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A team of chemical engineers from MIT has designed a new technique that allows them to dramatically boost bacteria’s production of useful chemicals by shutting...
  The post Chemical Engineers Boost Bacteria’s Production of Useful Chemicals appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• ALMA Observes a Black Hole Producing Star-Making Fuel

  14-02-2017 18:18 via scitechdaily.com
  
  In a newly published study, a team of astronomers reports observing jets of hot gas blasting out from the black hole in the center of...
  The post ALMA Observes a Black Hole Producing Star-Making Fuel appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Spitzer Space Telescope Detects Planet Induced Stellar Pulsations

  14-02-2017 17:58 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has detected unusual pulsations in the outer shell of a star called HAT-P-2. The scientists believe...
  The post Spitzer Space Telescope Detects Planet Induced Stellar Pulsations appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Study rewrites the history of corn in corn country

  14-02-2017 17:28
  
  A new study contradicts decades of thought, research and teaching on the history of corn cultivation in the American Bottom, a floodplain of the Mississippi River in Illinois. The study refutes the notion that Indian corn, or maize, was cultivated in this region hundreds of years before its widespread adoption at about 1000 A.D.
  
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• Last year's El Nino resulted in unprecedented erosion of the Pacific coastline: study

  14-02-2017 17:27
  
  Last winter's El Niño might have felt weak to residents of Southern California, but it was in fact one of the most powerful climate events of the past 145 years.
  
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• El Nino gobbled up California's beaches: study

  14-02-2017 17:27
  
  Last year's unusually potent El Nino produced monster waves that carved away record-breaking swathes of the US West Coast's beaches, said a study Tuesday, warning that recovery may take years.
  
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• NASA and MIT Collaborate to develop space-based quantum-dot spectrometer

  14-02-2017 17:22
  
  A NASA technologist has teamed with the inventor of a new nanotechnology that could transform the way space scientists build spectrometers, the all-important device used by virtually all scientific disciplines to measure the properties of light emanating from astronomical objects, including Earth itself.
  
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• Long-dead reptile gave live birth, study says

  14-02-2017 17:20
  
  An unusually long-necked marine reptile gave birth to live young 245 million years ago—the only known member of the dinosaur, bird and croc family to not lay eggs, researchers said Tuesday.
  
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• Fossil discovery rewrites understanding of reproductive evolution (Update)

  14-02-2017 17:20
  
  A remarkable 250 million-year-old "terrible-headed lizard" fossil found in China shows an embryo inside the mother—clear evidence for live birth.
  
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• Amazon launches videoconferencing for cloud customers

  14-02-2017 17:14
  
  US online giant Amazon on Tuesday announced the launch of a "unified communications service" which offers video and audio conferencing through its cloud computing service.
  
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• Cultivated scallops populations develop distinct genetic structure

  14-02-2017 17:10
  
  The scallop is one of the largest edible molluscs, and gourmets consider it to be a great delicacy. To meet this demand, the fishing industry cultivates these shellfish in coastal aquafarms. In a new analysis, behavioural ecologists at Bielefeld University have confirmed that cultivated scallops developed their own genetic structure that differs from that of natural scallops. The biologists studied a total of nine populations of scallops (Pecten maximus) along the coast of Northern Ireland. They
  
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• A nanofiber matrix for healing

  14-02-2017 17:03
  
  A new nanofiber-on-microfiber matrix could help produce more and better quality stem cells for disease treatment and regenerative therapies.
  
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• Learning how to fine-tune nanofabrication

  14-02-2017 17:02
  
  Daniel Packwood, Junior Associate Professor at Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), is improving methods for constructing tiny "nanomaterials" using a "bottom-up" approach called "molecular self-assembly". Using this method, molecules are chosen according to their ability to spontaneously interact and combine to form shapes with specific functions. In the future, this method may be used to produce tiny wires with diameters 1/100,000th that of a piece of hai
  
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• Optical fibre with Einstein effect

  14-02-2017 17:01
  
  Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen have discovered a new mechanism for guiding light in photonic crystal fibre (PCF). PCF is a hair-thin glass fibre with a regular array of hollow channels running along its length. When helically twisted, this spiralling array of hollow channels acts on light rays in an analogous manner to the bending of light rays when they travel through the gravitationally curved space around a star, as described by the general theory
  
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• Frequency combs—on-chip integration on track

  14-02-2017 16:57
  
  EPFL scientists have found a way to miniaturize frequency combs, realizing a new step toward miniaturization of such tools. Their device can measure light oscillations with a precision of 12 digits.
  
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• Building a home that helps residents stay healthy

  14-02-2017 16:57
  
  What if your house could help keep you healthy?
  
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• Molecules do not have colour

  14-02-2017 16:53
  
  The 2017 Pantone Color of the Year is Greenery.
  
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• Elon Musk Sees Critical Role for Cyborgs

  14-02-2017 16:30 via nbcnews.com
  
  How can humans stay relevant in an age of artificial intelligence? Elon Musk thinks cyborgs are the answer.
  
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• Daily Report: Tech Spreads Further Into Hospitality and Banking

  14-02-2017 16:29 via nytimes.com
  For one industry, technology has allowed it to better serve customers. For the other, it has exposed some of the digital world’s perils.
  
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• Researchers warn scientists of costly impure chemicals

  14-02-2017 16:16
  
  Keele University researchers have published a paper recently warning fellow scientists of impure reagents that could skew results.
  
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• The importance of maintaining a diversity of habitats in the sea

  14-02-2017 16:10
  
  Researchers from University of Gothenburg and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) show that both species diversity and habitat diversity are critical to understand the functioning of ecosystems.
  
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• Developing knowledge of blowfly life cycles to improve accuracy of estimating post-mortem interval

  14-02-2017 16:05
  
  Post-mortems are an essential part of the investigative process after someone has died in suspicious circumstances, usually performed to establish cause of death. Definitively proving time of death later is extremely difficult. By using blowflies and sometimes other insects, forensic entomologists can provide an estimated window of time in which someone is likely to have died. This is calculated by estimating the amount of time since eggs were first laid, which approximates (sometimes quite clos
  
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• Lipid nanoparticles for gene therapy

  14-02-2017 16:03
  
  Lipid nanoparticles (SLNs and NLCs) are regarded as highly promising systems for delivering nucleic acids in gene therapy. Until now, viral systems have been the most effective method for delivering genetic matter but they pose significant safety problems. "Non-viral vectors, including SLNs and NLCs, are less effective but much safer even though their effectiveness has increased significantly in recent years," pointed out Alicia Rodríguez, María Ángeles Solinís and An
  
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• Biological experiments become transparent – anywhere, any time

  14-02-2017 16:03
  
  Biological experiments are generating increasingly large and complex sets of data. This has made it difficult to reproduce experiments at other research laboratories in order to confirm – or refute – the results. The difficulty lies not only in the complexity of the data, but also in the elaborate computer programmes and systems needed to analyse them. Scientists from the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) of the University of Luxembourg have now developed a new bioinfo
  
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• Scientists investigate what breaks down permafrost carbon

  14-02-2017 16:01
  
  A Florida State University researcher is delving into the complexities of exactly how permafrost thawing in the Earth's most northern regions is cycling back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and further fueling climate change.
  
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• NIST to launch a dramatically improved system for measuring the intensity and spectrum of light

  14-02-2017 16:01
  
  We see the world in reflection: Nearly all the light that enters our eyes has bounced off something first, bringing with it information about the nature of the objects it encountered on the way. But that information is strongly affected by the angle at which the light strikes the object, and also the angle at which the reflected light reaches the eye of the beholder.
  
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• Onsala Twin Telescopes ready for the world

  14-02-2017 16:00
  
  Two new radio telescopes have been built at Onsala Space Observatory on Sweden's west coast, and on 18 May 2017 they will be inaugurated. The Onsala Twin Telescopes are part of an international network of radio telescopes that use astronomical techniques - and distant black holes - to make high-precision measurements of the Earth and how it moves.
  
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• Ethiopia dam causes Kenya water shortage: rights group

  14-02-2017 15:59
  
  A huge newly-built Ethiopian dam is cutting off the supply of water to Lake Turkana in northern Kenya, rights group Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
  
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