Sci-Tech news

• Spanish woman gives birth to healthy twins at age 64

  16-02-2017 23:33
  A doctor in northern Spain says a 64-year-old woman has given birth to healthy twins following her second successful pregnancy at an advanced age
  
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• Some excerpts from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's missive

  16-02-2017 23:33
  In Mark Zuckerberg's vision, Facebook can help build communities, encourage civic engagement, and keep us safer and more informed
  
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• AP FACT CHECK: Gates didn't say Trump would be like Reagan

  16-02-2017 23:33
  A story shared widely on social media falsely attributes to Bill Gates a tweet saying Donald Trump would be compared to great presidents like Ronald Reagan
  
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• How 'Forged Cookies' Let Hackers Access Your Accounts Without a Password

  16-02-2017 23:19 via nbcnews.com
  
  What exactly is a forged cookie? And how did hackers use them to access Yahoo accounts?
  
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• Surprise, surprise. AT&T trumpets its own new unlimited plan

  16-02-2017 23:05
  
  AT&T says any cellphone customer can sign up for unlimited data plans starting Friday. That option had been limited to customers of AT&T-owned DirecTV.
  
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• New mosquito trap smart enough to keep just the bad bugs

  16-02-2017 23:05
  
  A smart trap for mosquitoes? A new high-tech version is promising to catch the bloodsuckers while letting friendlier insects escape—and even record the exact weather conditions when different species emerge to bite.
  
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• Zuckerberg's goal: Remake a world Facebook helped create (Update)

  16-02-2017 22:40
  
  Mark Zuckerberg helped create the modern world by connecting nearly a quarter of its citizens to Facebook and giving them a platform to share, well, everything—baby pictures and Pepe memes, social updates and abusive bullying, helpful how-to videos and live-streamed violence.
  
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• The Zuckerberg manifesto: How he plans to debug the world (Update)

  16-02-2017 22:40
  
  Mark Zuckerberg's long-term vision for Facebook, laid out in a sweeping manifesto , sometimes sounds more like a utopian social guide than a business plan. Are we, he asks, "building the world we all want?"
  
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• The Zuckerberg manifesto: How he plans to debug the world

  16-02-2017 22:40
  
  Mark Zuckerberg's long-term vision for Facebook, laid out in a sweeping manifesto , sometimes sounds more like a utopian social guide than a business plan. Are we, he asks, "building the world we all want?"
  
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• Innovation in brain imaging

  16-02-2017 22:36
  
  Writers and scientists throughout history have searched for an apt technological analogy for the human brain, often comparing it to a computer. For Pulkit Grover, Carnegie Mellon University assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and the Center for Neural Basis of Cognition, this analogy couldn't be more fitting. Although Grover and his research team spend much of their time exploring how information flows through computer networks (such as coding systems, cyberphysical system
  
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• Can internet-beaming balloons outmaneuver shifting winds?

  16-02-2017 22:31
  
  For its next trick, an internet-beaming balloon factory spun out of Google believes it can outmaneuver the wind.
  
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• Food additive found in candy, gum could alter digestive cell structure and function

  16-02-2017 22:06
  
  The ability of small intestine cells to absorb nutrients and act as a barrier to pathogens is "significantly decreased" after chronic exposure to nanoparticles of titanium dioxide, a common food additive found in everything from chewing gum to bread, according to research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.
  
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• Ukrainian hacker gets prison for leading online theft ring

  16-02-2017 21:54
  
  A Ukrainian hacker who admitted using thousands of infected computers to steal user names and passwords for bank accounts and other online services has been sentenced to 41 months in prison.
  
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• Study examines life history of imperiled rattlesnake

  16-02-2017 21:53
  
  A new study is bringing attention to a little known and imperiled rattlesnake that slithers among the wetlands in regions surrounding the Great Lakes.
  
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• Honey bee genetics sheds light on bee origins

  16-02-2017 21:47
  
  Where do honey bees come from? A new study from researchers at the University of California, Davis and UC Berkeley clears some of the fog around honey bee origins. The work could be useful in breeding bees resistant to disease or pesticides.
  
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• Roads are driving rapid evolutionary change in our environment

  16-02-2017 21:44
  
  Roads are causing rapid evolutionary change in wild populations of plants and animals according to a Concepts and Questions paper published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. The paper is available now online in 'early view' ahead of being featured on the cover in the print edition on March 1.
  
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• Tiny Camera Could Give Micro-Drones Amazing Abilities

  16-02-2017 21:31 via nbcnews.com
  The new camera could be used for medical procedures, such as endoscopies, or to build micro-robots specially designed to measure, explore or survey, the researchers said.
  
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• What we know so far about problems at the tallest US dam

  16-02-2017 21:18
  
  It's been more than a week since engineers at the nation's tallest dam noticed damage to an emergency spillway, starting a series of events that culminated with the two-day evacuation of nearly 200,000 California residents downstream from Oroville Dam.
  
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• Google adds voice-activated shopping, taking on Amazon

  16-02-2017 21:18
  
  Google announced Thursday it was launching voice-activated shopping from its artificial intelligence-powered Home speaker, in a direct challenge to Amazon's Alexa devices.
  
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• Research team finds radial acceleration relation in all common types of galaxies

  16-02-2017 21:11
  
  The distribution of normal matter precisely determines gravitational acceleration in all common types of galaxies, a team led by Case Western Reserve University researchers reports.
  
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• By Investing in Science, Trump Can Strengthen the Economy

  16-02-2017 21:11 via nytimes.com
  Federal support for science has been getting leaner as countries in Europe and Asia have been ramping up research spending.
  
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• A case where smoking helped: Scientists help understand mechanics of rare hemoglobin mutation

  16-02-2017 21:00
  
  There's at least one person in the world for whom smoking has a beneficial effect, and it took an international collaboration of scientists led by a Rice University professor to figure out why.
  
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• 'Resurrecting' tiny lake-dwelling animals to study evolutionary responses to pollution

  16-02-2017 20:41
  
  A University of Michigan biologist combined the techniques of "resurrection ecology" with the study of dated lake sediments to examine evolutionary responses to heavy-metal contamination over the past 75 years.
  
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• In a possible step forward for gene therapy, researchers made mice glow like fireflies

  16-02-2017 20:40
  
  Timothy Blake, a postdoctoral fellow in the Waymouth lab, was hard at work on a fantastical interdisciplinary experiment. He and his fellow researchers were refining compounds that would carry instructions for assembling the protein that makes fireflies light up and deliver them into the cells of an anesthetized mouse. If their technique worked, the mouse would glow in the dark.
  
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• Zero tolerance policies unfairly punish black girls

  16-02-2017 20:39
  
  Black girls are disproportionately punished in American schools - an "overlooked crisis" that is populating the school-to-prison pipeline at rising rates, two education scholars argue in a new paper.
  
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• Professors build AI to help autonomous vehicles locate themselves on maps

  16-02-2017 20:33
  
  Self-driving cars could account for 21 million new vehicles sold every year by 2035. Over the next decade alone such vehicles—and vehicles with assisted-driving technology —could deliver $1 trillion in societal and consumer benefits due to their improved safety.
  
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• Is your big data messy? We're making an app for that

  16-02-2017 20:32
  
  Like a teenager's bedroom, big data is often messy.
  
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• Apple sets WWDC for June 5-9, leaves San Francisco - Computerworld

  16-02-2017 20:26 via computerworld.com
  
  Computerworld
  Apple sets WWDC for June 5-9, leaves San Francisco
  Computerworld
  Apple today set June 5-9 as the dates for its 2017 annual developers conference, but said it would move the confab to San Jose, Calif. after 13 years in San Francisco. The announcement was weeks earlier than usual; Apple has typically trumpeted the ...
  Apple's WWDC 2017 knows the way to San JoseCNET
  Apple's WWDC 2017 art borrows design concept from 2010 Spanish film festival [u]AppleInsider (press release) (blog
  
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• Astronomers Discover a Dwarf Star That Contains Life’s Building Blocks

  16-02-2017 20:15 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using the Keck Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers reveal the existence of a white dwarf star whose atmosphere is rich in carbon and...
  The post Astronomers Discover a Dwarf Star That Contains Life’s Building Blocks appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Alphabet names Gregory McCray new Google Fiber boss, moves hundreds of staff - ZDNet

  16-02-2017 20:04 via zdnet.com
  
  ZDNet
  Alphabet names Gregory McCray new Google Fiber boss, moves hundreds of staff
  ZDNet
  slcvan.jpg Image: Google. Alphabet has hired Gregory McCray as its new broadband executive for Google Access, Bloomberg reported, following the Google Fiber parent division losing its CEO and cutting jobs in October 2016. Along with McCray's hire, ...
  Google Fiber is restructuring and taking a new directionEngadget
  Google Fiber Sheds Workers As It Looks to a Wireless FutureWIRED
  Google Fiber has a new
  
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• Underwater seagrass beds dial back polluted seawater

  16-02-2017 20:00
  
  Seagrass meadows - bountiful underwater gardens that nestle close to shore and are the most common coastal ecosystem on Earth - can reduce bacterial exposure for corals, other sea creatures and humans, according to new research published in Science Feb. 16.
  
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• Scientists study geology of Ceres to understand origin of organics

  16-02-2017 20:00
  
  NASA's Dawn spacecraft recently detected organic-rich areas on Ceres. Scientists evaluated the geology of the regions to conclude that the organics are most likely native to the dwarf planet. Data from the spacecraft suggest that the interior of Ceres is the source of these organic materials, as opposed to arriving via impacting asteroids or comets, according to a paper published in the Feb. 17, 2017, issue of Science.
  
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• Rainbow dyes add greater precision to fight against 'superbugs'

  16-02-2017 20:00
  
  A study reported Feb. 17 in the journal Science led by researchers at Indiana University and Harvard University is the first to reveal in extreme detail the operation of the biochemical clockwork that drives cellular division in bacteria.
  
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• Preferential trade agreements enhance global trade at the expense of its resilience

  16-02-2017 20:00
  
  Bi- and multilateral trade agreements can make commodity trade networks more efficient and lead to more rapid growth of the volume of trade, but these gains come at the expense of resilience to economic shocks, such as the 2009 global financial crisis which decimated economies around the world. A new study published in the journal PLOS ONE makes use of the similarities between ecosystems and commodity trade networks to explore these phenomena.
  
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• Mega asteroid Ceres the latest spot in space that may have life - CNET

  16-02-2017 20:00 via cnet.com
  
  CNET
  Mega asteroid Ceres the latest spot in space that may have life
  CNET
  We already know Ceres, the salt-spotted dwarf planet that rules the asteroid belt, could be filled with massive amounts of water, perhaps in the form of a chilled, muddy slurry below the surface. But new research suggests that what looks like a big ...
  Life's Building Blocks Found on Dwarf Planet CeresSpace.com
  The dwarf planet Ceres may be capable of supporting lifePopular Science
  Scientists study geology of Ceres to und
  
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• Dawn discovers evidence for organic material on Ceres (Update)

  16-02-2017 20:00
  
  NASA's Dawn mission has found evidence for organic material on Ceres, a dwarf planet and the largest body in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists using the spacecraft's visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR) detected the material in and around a northern-hemisphere crater called Ernutet. Organic molecules are interesting to scientists because they are necessary, though not sufficient, components of life on Earth.
  
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• Cells divide by 'bricklaying on moving scaffolding'

  16-02-2017 20:00
  
  It is the most crucial mechanism in life - the division of cells. For 25 years, it has been known that bacteria split into two by forming a Z ring at their centre. They use this to cut themselves into two daughter cells. Using advanced microscopes, researchers from the universities of Harvard, Indiana, Newcastle, and Delft have succeeded in finding out how bacteria do this. The bacteria appear to build a new cell wall working from the outside in with the help of multiple molecular 'bricklayers',
  
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• Max Planck Scientists Discover a New Genetic Disease Mechanism

  16-02-2017 19:37 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen reveal that aberrant synapse protein can lead to neurological and psychiatric disorders. ‘Timing is...
  The post Max Planck Scientists Discover a New Genetic Disease Mechanism appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• The Chromebook you've been waiting for – Samsung Chromebook Pro & Plus review roundup - KnowTechie

  16-02-2017 19:33 via knowtechie.com
  
  KnowTechie
  The Chromebook you've been waiting for – Samsung Chromebook Pro & Plus review roundup
  KnowTechie
  Samsung just released its newest line of Chromebook's and we got some of the best takeaways from some of the best critics. Google's Chromebook has come a long way. Starting off as a pseudo-novelty piece of hardware, Chromebooks are now some of, ...
  Chromebooks beyond the cloud: Everything Chromebooks can do offlinePC World
  Ear on the goThe Hinduall 37 news articles &ra
  
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• China carfentanil ban a 'game-changer' for opioid epidemic

  16-02-2017 19:30
  China is adding the deadly drug carfentanil and three similar opioids to its controlled substances list effective March 1
  
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• Researchers Discover a New Mechanism for Guiding Light in Photonic Crystal Fiber

  16-02-2017 19:15 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen has discovered a new mechanism for guiding light in...
  The post Researchers Discover a New Mechanism for Guiding Light in Photonic Crystal Fiber appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Google Home now lets you shop for everyday items with your voice - CNET

  16-02-2017 19:14 via cnet.com
  
  CNET
  Google Home now lets you shop for everyday items with your voice
  CNET
  One of the biggest critiques of Google Home at its launch was how much ground it would have to make up to truly compete with Amazon's Alexa speakers. But Google has been moving forward with large strides, first rolling out support for sending Netflix ...
  Huawei is building a Chinese virtual assistantBusiness Insider
  Google Home taps Google Express delivery network for home shoppingZDNet
  Google Home now lets you shop
  
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• Linguist's 'big data' research supports waves of migration into the Americas

  16-02-2017 19:00
  
  University of Virginia linguistic anthropologist Mark A. Sicoli and colleagues are applying the latest technology to an ancient mystery: how and when early humans inhabited the New World. Their new research analyzing more than 100 linguistic features suggest more complex patterns of contact and migration among the early peoples who first settled the Americas.
  
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• Italian taxi drivers stage wildcat strike over pro-Uber bill

  16-02-2017 18:52
  
  Taxi drivers in Rome, Milan and Turin are staging wildcat strikes to protest proposed Italian legislation they say will favor Uber and other car-sharing services.
  
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• Sea ice at poles hit record low for January

  16-02-2017 18:51
  
  The amount of sea ice at the Earth's poles fell to a record low for January, while the planet's temperatures last month were the third highest in modern times, US government scientists said Thursday.
  
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• Snap beans hard to grow in cover crop residue

  16-02-2017 18:50
  
  More no-till farmers are using cover crops to conserve soil and suppress weeds, but many vegetable producers are reluctant to get on board. That's because many small-seeded vegetable crops struggle to emerge through thick cover crop residues. However, the potential benefits of no-till cover crop systems compelled researchers to give it a try with snap bean.
  
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• 2017 American Samoa deep-sea expedition to reveal wonders of unexplored ecosystem

  16-02-2017 18:50
  
  There is a species of coral—called bubblegum coral for its pinkish appearance—that has provided a peak into ancient migration paths for marine species as far back as 10 million years.
  
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• Snow science supporting our nation's water supply

  16-02-2017 18:49
  
  Researchers have completed the first flights of a NASA-led field campaign that is targeting one of the biggest gaps in scientists' understanding of Earth's water resources: snow.
  
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• Real-time MRI analysis powered by supercomputers

  16-02-2017 18:48
  
  One of the main tools doctors use to detect diseases and injuries in cases ranging from multiple sclerosis to broken bones is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, the results of an MRI scan take hours or days to interpret and analyze. This means that if a more detailed investigation is needed, or there is a problem with the scan, the patient needs to return for a follow-up.
  
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• Earth science on the Space Station continues to grow

  16-02-2017 18:47
  
  The number of instruments on the International Space Station dedicated to observing Earth to increase our understanding of our home planet continues to grow.
  
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