Sci-Tech news

• Using 'Scotch tape' and laser beams, researchers craft new material that could improve LED screens

  15-02-2017 23:19
  
  A cover story appearing in the peer-reviewed journal Nanoscale Horizons reports a new bilayer material, with each layer measuring less than one nanometer in thickness, that someday could lead to more efficient and versatile light emission.
  
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• EU parliament backs draft carbon trading reforms

  15-02-2017 23:00
  
  The European Parliament on Wednesday adopted draft reforms of Europe's carbon market after 2021, a key step in reaching the bloc's climate change goals.
  
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• Colorado's 834 million dead trees threaten to worsen fires (Update)

  15-02-2017 22:52
  
  Colorado's beetle-infested forests are peppered with an estimated 834 million standing dead trees that threaten to worsen wildfires and degrade vital water supplies that flow from mountains, officials said Wednesday.
  
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• Colorado has 834 million dead trees; fires could get worse

  15-02-2017 22:52
  
  Officials say Colorado has about 834 million standing dead trees, threatening to worsen wildfires and degrade vital water supplies that flow from forested mountains.
  
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• Spotify expands with World Trade Center move

  15-02-2017 22:51
  
  Spotify on Wednesday announced an expansion amid the rapid growth of streaming, with the company moving its US headquarters to New York's rebuilt World Trade Center complex.
  
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• Corps to accelerate cleanup at oil pipeline protest camp

  15-02-2017 22:48
  
  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to hire a contractor to accelerate cleanup efforts at a camp in southern North Dakota that has housed hundreds and sometimes thousands of Dakota Access pipeline opponents.
  
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• Yahoo issues another warning in fallout from hacking attacks

  15-02-2017 22:47
  
  Yahoo is warning users of potentially malicious activity on their accounts between 2015 and 2016, the latest development in the internet company's investigation of a mega-breach that exposed 1 billion users' data several years ago.
  
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• UN addresses issue of whale-ship collisions

  15-02-2017 22:44
  
  Scientists and government officials met at the United Nations today to consider possible solutions to a global problem: how to protect whale species in their most important marine habitats that overlap with shipping lanes vital to the economies of many of the world's nations.
  
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• In the developing ears of opossums, echoes of evolutionary history

  15-02-2017 22:37
  
  When we are confronted with the remarkable diversity and complexity of forms among living things—the lightweight and leathery wings of a bat, the dense networks of genes that work together to produce a functional cell—it can be hard to imagine how chance mutations and selective processes produced them. If we could rewind evolutionary time, what would we see?
  
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• Physicists harness neglected properties of light

  15-02-2017 22:26
  
  University of Toronto (U of T) researchers have demonstrated a way to increase the resolution of microscopes and telescopes beyond long-accepted limitations by tapping into previously neglected properties of light. The method allows observers to distinguish very small or distant objects that are so close together they normally meld into a single blur.
  
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• 90 percent of fish used for fishmeal are prime fish

  15-02-2017 22:11
  
  Every year for the past 60 years, an average of 20 million tonnes of fish caught in the global ocean have not been used to nourish people.
  
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• New, ultra-flexible probes form reliable, scar-free integration with the brain

  15-02-2017 22:10
  
  Engineering researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have designed ultra-flexible, nanoelectronic thread (NET) brain probes that can achieve more reliable long-term neural recording than existing probes and don't elicit scar formation when implanted. The researchers described their findings in a research article published on Feb. 15 in Science Advances.
  
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• Fin24.com | Treasury dismayed by Gordhan vs Dlamini Sassa war story

  15-02-2017 21:38
  
  National Treasury says it is dismayed by a report that suggested there was a “war looming” between ministers Pravin Gordhan and Bathabile Dlamini over Sassa.
  
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• Ransomware Negotiator: The Human Weapon in a Digital Kidnapping

  15-02-2017 20:44 via nbcnews.com
  
  Holding something for ransom is an ancient tactic that is now exploding in cyber space. So how can we deal with the bad guys?
  
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• NASA sees Tropical Cyclone Dineo at Mozambique coast

  15-02-2017 20:42
  
  When NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone Dineo in the Mozambique Channel on Feb. 15, the storm was centered just off the coast of Mozambique and moving toward landfall.
  
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• Team examines the evolution of wooden halibut hooks carved by native people of the Northwest Coast

  15-02-2017 20:39
  
  The Tlingit and Haida, indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast (NWC), have used carved wooden hooks to catch halibut for centuries. As modern fishing technology crept into use, however, the old hooks practically disappeared from the sea. But they thrived on land—as decorative art.
  
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• NASA-funded website lets public search for new nearby worlds

  15-02-2017 20:36
  
  NASA is inviting the public to help search for possible undiscovered worlds in the outer reaches of our solar system and in neighboring interstellar space. A new website, called Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, lets everyone participate in the search by viewing brief movies made from images captured by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. The movies highlight objects that have gradually moved across the sky.
  
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• How temperature guides where species live and where they'll go

  15-02-2017 20:34
  
  For decades, among the most enduring questions for ecologists have been: "Why do species live where they do? And what are the factors that keep them there?" A Princeton University-based study featured on the February cover of the journal Ecology could prove significant in answering that question, particularly for animals in the world's temperate mountain areas.
  
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• Engineers shrink microscope to dime-sized device

  15-02-2017 20:07
  
  Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas have created an atomic force microscope on a chip, dramatically shrinking the size—and, hopefully, the price tag—of a high-tech device commonly used to characterize material properties.
  
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• When does a man say 'I'm the father'?

  15-02-2017 20:05
  
  American men much more readily acknowledge that they are the legal father of a child born out of wedlock when the woman involved is more affluent, educated, and healthy. It also helps (slightly) if the baby is a boy, says Kermyt Anderson of the University of Oklahoma in the US, after scrutinizing data from 5.4 million births in a study published in Springer's journal Human Nature.
  
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• Old rocks, biased data: Overcoming challenges studying the geodynamo

  15-02-2017 20:00
  
  Gleaning data from old rocks may result in bias. Now, geophysicists have a way to improve their methods to overcome challenges in studying the history of the Earth's core and magnetic field that make up the geodynamo.
  
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• Deep reefs unlikely to save shallow coral reefs

  15-02-2017 20:00
  
  Dr Pim Bongaerts, a Research Fellow at The University of Queensland's Global Change Institute (GCI) and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and lead author of the study, said deep reefs share coral species with the shallow reef, which has led to the idea that deep reefs could be an important source of larvae and help to 'reseed' shallow reefs.
  
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• 3-D reconstruction of skull suggests a small crocodile is a new species

  15-02-2017 20:00
  
  A small crocodile discovered in Germany's Langenberg Quarry may be a new species, according to a study published February 15, 2017 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Daniela Schwarz from Leibniz Institute for Evolutionary and Biodiversity Research, Germany, and colleagues.
  
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• Churchill's search for ET

  15-02-2017 19:54
  
  War correspondent, statesman, astronomer. Stargazing may not be what Winston Churchill is best remembered for, but a treatise he wrote on extraterrestrial life has revealed his scientific acumen six decades later.
  
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• How to roll a nanotube: Demystifying carbon nanotubes' structure control

  15-02-2017 19:00
  
  Pioneering research published in Nature by Professor Feng Ding's team from the Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials, within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), in collaboration with Professor Jin Zhang's team, at Peking University and colleagues, has demonstrated how to control the synthesis of special tiny carbon cylinders known as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), in order to synthesize horizontal arrays of CNTs with the same structure.
  
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• How an Ice Age paradox could inform sea level rise predictions

  15-02-2017 19:00
  
  New findings from the University of Michigan explain an Ice Age paradox and add to the mounting evidence that climate change could bring higher seas than most models predict.
  
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• Global ocean de-oxygenation quantified

  15-02-2017 19:00
  
  Oxygen is an essential necessity of life on land. The same applies for almost all organisms in the ocean. However, the oxygen supply in the oceans is threatened by global warming in two ways: Warmer surface waters take up less oxygen than colder waters. In addition, warmer water stabilizes the stratification of the ocean. This weakens the circulation connecting the surface with the deep ocean and less oxygen is transported into the deep sea. Therefore, many models predict a decrease in global oc
  
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• New NASA Research Identifies Pathway for Greenland Meltwater to Reach Ocean

  15-02-2017 18:42 via scitechdaily.com
  
  New NASA research found that large crevasses provide aquifer water upstream of Greenland’s Helheim Glacier with a clear escape to the ocean. This discovery helps...
  The post New NASA Research Identifies Pathway for Greenland Meltwater to Reach Ocean appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• CfA Astronomers Propose a Cell Phone Search for Galactic Fast Radio Bursts

  15-02-2017 18:42 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A newly published study from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics details how radio frequencies used by cell phones, Wi-Fi, and similar devices could be used...
  The post CfA Astronomers Propose a Cell Phone Search for Galactic Fast Radio Bursts appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Verizon Slashes Price of Yahoo Deal by at Least $250M: Bloomberg

  15-02-2017 18:33 via nbcnews.com
  
  Verizon has slashed its $4.83B offer for Yahoo by around $250 million, following the internet company's massive data breaches reported earlier this year.
  
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• Daily Report: The Fate of Science Fairs

  15-02-2017 18:27 via nytimes.com
  Intel’s plans to stop sponsoring the International Science and Engineering Fair raise questions on what role companies should play in promoting science fairs and education.
  
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• Deadly spider's unique spinning technique could inspire tougher materials

  15-02-2017 18:10
  
  Brown recluse spiders use a unique micro looping technique to make their threads stronger than that of any other spider, a newly published UK-US collaboration has discovered.
  
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• 2017 Kia Niro is most affordable hybrid SUV

  15-02-2017 17:57
  
  Kia's newest vehicle, the 2017 Niro, is the lowest-priced, gasoline-electric hybrid SUV on the market and is rated as high as 50 miles per gallon in combined city/highway travel.
  
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• NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Views Jupiter

  15-02-2017 17:56 via scitechdaily.com
  
  NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured a new image of Jupiter this past week. During Earth-Trojan asteroid search operations, the PolyCam imager aboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured...
  The post NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Views Jupiter appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Experts say European proposal limits ability to protect public from endocrine disruptors

  15-02-2017 17:56
  
  University of Massachusetts Amherst biologist Thomas Zoeller, an internationally recognized expert in the health effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, with the Washington, D.C.-based Endocrine Society, this week expressed disappointment in the European Commission's revised proposal on defining and identifying endocrine-disrupting chemicals, citing unnecessarily narrow criteria for identifying them.
  
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• New synchrotron powder diffraction facility for long running experiments

  15-02-2017 17:55
  
  Synchrotron beamlines and their instruments are built to harness the photon beam power of synchrotron radiation (SR), which has special properties - ideally suited to providing detailed and accurate structural information that is difficult to obtain from conventional sources. The common modus operandi for such facilities is that users are allocated a short duration of beamtime, typically a few hours to a few days, in which to perform their experiments.
  
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• New report examines role of engineering technology, calls for increased awareness

  15-02-2017 17:55
  
  While workers in the engineering technology (ET) field play an important role in supporting U.S. technical infrastructure and the country's capacity for innovation, there is little awareness of ET as a field of study or category of employment in the U.S., says a new report from the National Academy of Engineering.
  
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• Study identifies new pathway for Greenland meltwater to reach ocean

  15-02-2017 17:54
  
  Cracks in the Greenland Ice Sheet let one of its aquifers drain to the ocean, new NASA research finds. The aquifers, discovered only recently, are unusual in that they trap large amounts of liquid water within the ice sheet. Until now, scientists did not know what happened to the water stored away in this reservoir—the discovery will help fine tune computer models of Greenland's contribution to sea level rise.
  
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• Scientists report ocean data from under Greenland's Petermann Glacier

  15-02-2017 17:52
  
  In August 2015, University of Delaware oceanographer Andreas Muenchow and colleagues deployed the first UD ocean sensors underneath Petermann Glacier in North Greenland, which connects the great Greenland ice sheet directly with the ocean.
  
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• Yale Study Probes the Link Between Common Blood Clotting Conditions

  15-02-2017 17:51 via scitechdaily.com
  
  New research from Yale University probes the link between common clotting conditions – atrial fibrillation and pulmonary embolism. Medical disorders related to blood clots are...
  The post Yale Study Probes the Link Between Common Blood Clotting Conditions appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• OSIRIS-REx takes closer image of Jupiter

  15-02-2017 17:49
  
  During Earth-Trojan asteroid search operations, the PolyCam imager aboard NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured this image of Jupiter (center) and three of its moons, Callisto (left), Io, and Ganymede.
  
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• Interface between insulators enables information transport by spin

  15-02-2017 17:49
  
  Modern computer technology is based on the transport of electric charge in semiconductors. But this technology's potential will be reaching its limits in the near future, since the components deployed cannot be miniaturized further. But, there is another option: using an electron's spin, instead of its charge, to transmit information. A team of scientists from Munich and Kyoto is now demonstrating how this works.
  
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• New Cassini Image of Saturn’s Ring-Embedded Moon Daphnis

  15-02-2017 17:41 via scitechdaily.com
  
  This newly released Cassini image shows Saturn’s ring-embedded moon Daphnis. Daphnis, one of Saturn’s ring-embedded moons, is featured in this view, kicking up waves as...
  The post New Cassini Image of Saturn’s Ring-Embedded Moon Daphnis appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• EU issues 'final warning' to Britain, France on air pollution

  15-02-2017 16:54
  
  The EU ordered five member countries including Britain, France and Germany to tighten controls on smog-causing car pollution or risk being sent to the top European court.
  
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• Swedish supermarket tests lasers to label organic produce

  15-02-2017 16:53
  
  Something high-tech is happening in the produce aisle at some Swedish supermarkets, where laser marks have replaced labels on the organic avocados and sweet potatoes.
  
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• Laissez-faire is not good enough for reforestation

  15-02-2017 16:51
  
  If degraded and logged areas of tropical forests are left to nature, the populations of certain endangered tree species are not able to recover. This applies in particular to trees with large fruit where the seeds are distributed by birds, as ETH Zurich scientists have shown in a rainforest in India.
  
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• Scientists combine disciplines to pinpoint small structures in unlabeled molecules

  15-02-2017 16:50
  
  Five years of hard work and a little "cosmic luck" led Rice University researchers to a new method to obtain structural details on molecules in biomembranes.
  
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• Nanotechnology based gene editing to eradicate HIV brain reservoir in drug abusers

  15-02-2017 16:45
  
  Opiate abuse is a significant risk factor for HIV infection, and in combination they can have a devastating effect on the brain. Scientists at FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine (HWCOM) are studying new therapies that can short-circuit HIV infection and mitigate the damaging effects that opiate addiction has on the central nervous system.
  
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• Species new to science named after a 'Dungeons & Dragons' character

  15-02-2017 16:42
  
  Focused on terrestrial gastropods, more commonly known as land snails, a joint team of biologists from the Natural History Museum of Stuttgart, Germany and the Zoology Museum of São Paulo, Brazil, have been researching the Brazilian caves. In their latest paper, published in the journal Zoosystematics and Evolution, the scientists describe the fauna from several caves in central Brazil, including a new tiny species named after a character from the popular fantasy tabletop role-playing gam
  
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• 'The blob' of abnormal conditions boosted Western US ozone levels

  15-02-2017 16:31
  
  An unusually warm patch of seawater off the West Coast in late 2014 and 2015, nicknamed "the blob," had cascading effects up and down the coast. Its sphere of influence was centered on the marine environment but extended to weather on land.
  
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