Sci-Tech news

• Bill would bar discrimination toward climate change doubters

  22-03-2017 23:51
  A Republican lawmaker says Maine should outlaw discrimination based on a person's climate change beliefs
  
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• Expert: Bird flu outbreak nation's worst since 2015

  22-03-2017 22:40
  
  A bird flu outbreak that has led officials to euthanize more than 200,000 animals in three Southern states already is the nation's worst since 2015 and new cases are still popping up, an expert said Wednesday.
  
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• AT&T, Verizon join Google ad boycott

  22-03-2017 22:36
  
  AT&T and Verizon on Wednesday joined global firms pulling ads from Google, saying they did not want their brands associated with inappropriate content on the internet giant.
  
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• 'Pay to publish' schemes rampant in science journals

  22-03-2017 22:32
  
  Dozens of scientific journals appointed a fictive scholar to their editorial boards on the strength of a bogus resume, researchers determined to expose "pay to publish" schemes reported Wednesday.
  
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• Study maps space dust in 3-D, raises new questions about its properties in local and distant reaches of Milky Way

  22-03-2017 22:29
  
  Consider that the Earth is just a giant cosmic dust bunny—a big bundle of debris amassed from exploded stars. We Earthlings are essentially just little clumps of stardust, too, albeit with very complex chemistry.
  
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• What Does It Mean That Trump May Have Been 'Incidentally' Surveilled?

  22-03-2017 22:27 via nbcnews.com
  
  Rep. Devin Nunes, House Intel Committee chair, said the conversations of Trump team members may've been captured "incidentally." An explainer.
  
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• Too much structured knowledge hurts creativity, study shows

  22-03-2017 22:26
  
  Structure organizes human activities and help us understand the world with less effort, but it can be the killer of creativity, concludes a study from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.
  
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• Biopesticide could defeat insecticide resistance in bedbugs

  22-03-2017 22:25
  
  A fungal biopesticide that shows promise for the control of bed bugs is highly effective even against bed-bug populations that are insecticide resistant, according to research conducted by scientists at Penn State and North Carolina State universities.
  
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• Biologists say wolf spiders have a wider range of personality than once believed

  22-03-2017 22:22
  
  Charming might not be the best way to describe a spider, but researchers at the University of Cincinnati are finding a wide spectrum of personality in a creature whose behavior was thought to be inflexible and hardwired in its genes.
  
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• Yellow fever killing thousands of monkeys in Brazil

  22-03-2017 22:21
  
  In a vulnerable forest in southeastern Brazil, where the air was once thick with the guttural chatter of brown howler monkeys, there now exists silence.
  
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• New low-cost method to produce light-based lab-on-a-chip devices for fast medical tests

  22-03-2017 22:20
  
  A new fabrication process could make it easier and less expensive to incorporate optical sensing onto lab-on-a-chip devices. These devices integrate laboratory functions onto a plastic or glass "chip" typically no more than a few square centimeters in size, allowing automated testing in the doctor's office or various types of chemical or biological analysis with portable instruments.
  
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• Tracing aromatic molecules in the early universe

  22-03-2017 22:16
  
  A molecule found in car engine exhaust fumes that is thought to have contributed to the origin of life on Earth has made astronomers heavily underestimate the amount of stars that were forming in the early Universe, a University of California, Riverside-led study has found.
  
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• Secretive billionaire reveals how he toppled Apple in China

  22-03-2017 21:50
  
  Duan Yongping is convinced Tim Cook didn't have a clue who he was when they first met a couple years ago. The Apple boss probably does now.
  
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• Arctic sea ice dips to record low for winter

  22-03-2017 21:42
  The Arctic has set yet another record for low levels of sea ice
  
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• New idea shakes up dinosaur family tree for T. Rex and pals

  22-03-2017 20:03
  
  A new study dramatically rearranges the family tree of dinosaurs
  
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• Arctic sea ice dips to record low for winter (Update)

  22-03-2017 19:45
  
  The frigid top of the Earth just set yet another record for low levels of sea ice in what scientists say is a signal of an overheating world.
  
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• T-Mobile moves the needle in its research lab to compete with larger rivals

  22-03-2017 19:40
  
  For a couple of minutes in a small, nondescript T-Mobile US conference room, the future of wireless is here.
  
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• Under the dead sea, warnings of dire drought

  22-03-2017 19:08
  
  Nearly 1,000 feet below the bed of the Dead Sea, scientists have found evidence that during past warm periods, the Mideast has suffered drought on scales never recorded by humans—a possible warning for current times. Thick layers of crystalline salt show that rainfall plummeted to as little as a fifth of modern levels some 120,000 years ago, and again about 10,000 years ago. Today, the region is drying again as climate warms, and scientists say it will get worse. The new findings may cause
  
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• Sea ice extent sinks to record lows at both poles

  22-03-2017 19:06
  
  Arctic sea ice appears to have reached on March 7 a record low wintertime maximum extent, according to scientists at NASA and the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado. And on the opposite side of the planet, on March 3 sea ice around Antarctica hit its lowest extent ever recorded by satellites at the end of summer in the Southern Hemisphere, a surprising turn of events after decades of moderate sea ice expansion.
  
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• Researchers use light to remotely control curvature of plastics

  22-03-2017 19:04
  
  Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a technique that uses light to get two-dimensional (2-D) plastic sheets to curve into three-dimensional (3-D) structures, such as spheres, tubes or bowls.
  
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• Charitable giving: How do power and beliefs about equality impact donations?

  22-03-2017 19:03
  
  Are powerful, well-to-do people more charitable? It depends. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, wealthier people are more likely to donate to charity if they endorse social inequality while less wealthy people are more likely to make donations if they endorse greater equality.
  
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• Tiller the Hun? Farmers in Roman Empire converted to Hun lifestyle—and vice versa

  22-03-2017 19:00
  
  Marauding hordes of barbarian Huns, under their ferocious leader Attila, are often credited with triggering the fall of one of history's greatest empires: Rome.
  
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• Study of non-rainfall water in Namib Desert reveals unexpected origins

  22-03-2017 19:00
  
  In a study conducted in one of the world's oldest and most biologically diverse deserts, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis scientists explore the origins of water other than rainfall and are identifying multiple origins. The study, supported by the National Science Foundation, is the first to report that the ocean is not the sole source of life-sustaining fog and dew for numerous plants and animals living in the Namib Desert.
  
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• 'Spectacular-looking' endangered frog species discovered in Ecuador's cloud forests

  22-03-2017 19:00
  
  It's not every day someone gets to say, "I've discovered a new species."
  
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• Scientists identify a new way gut bacteria break down complex sugars

  22-03-2017 19:00
  
  New light has been shed on the functioning of human gut bacteria which could help to develop medicines in the future to improve health and wellbeing.
  
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• Scientists evade the Heisenberg uncertainty principle

  22-03-2017 19:00
  
  ICFO Researchers report the discovery of a new technique that could drastically improve the sensitivity of instruments such as magnetic resonance imagers (MRIs) and atomic clocks. The study, published in Nature, reports a technique to bypass the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. This technique hides quantum uncertainty in atomic features not seen by the instrument, allowing the scientists to make very high precision measurements.
  
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• New study shakes the roots of the dinosaur family tree

  22-03-2017 19:00
  
  More than a century of theory about the evolutionary history of dinosaurs has been turned on its head following the publication of new research from scientists at the University of Cambridge and Natural History Museum in London. Their work suggests that the family groupings need to be rearranged, re-defined and re-named and also that dinosaurs may have originated in the northern hemisphere rather than the southern, as current thinking goes.
  
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• Molecular 'treasure maps' to help discover new materials

  22-03-2017 19:00
  
  Scientists at the University of Southampton working with colleagues at the University of Liverpool have developed a new method which has the potential to revolutionise the way we search for, design and produce new materials.
  
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• Lack of staffing, funds prevent marine protected areas from realizing full potential

  22-03-2017 19:00
  
  Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an increasingly popular strategy for protecting marine biodiversity, but a new global study demonstrates that widespread lack of personnel and funds are preventing MPAs from reaching their full potential. Only 9 percent of MPAs reported having adequate staff. The findings are published in the journal Nature on March 22.
  
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• It's a fish eat tree world: Study finds widespread support that lakes are fed by their watersheds

  22-03-2017 19:00
  
  Most of the planet's freshwater stores are found in the northern hemisphere, a region that is changing rapidly in response to human activity and shifting climatic trends. An international team of scientists analyzed 147 northern lakes and found that many rely on nutrients from tree leaves, pine needles, and other land-grown plants to feed aquatic life.
  
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• Machine learning lets scientists reverse-engineer cellular control networks

  22-03-2017 18:31
  
  The flow of information between cells in our bodies is exceedingly complex: sensing, signaling, and influencing each other in a constant flow of microscopic engagements. These interactions are critical for life, and when they go awry can lead to the illness and injury.
  
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• Feeling out of control: Do consumers make practical purchases or luxury buys?

  22-03-2017 18:31
  
  The common assumption about retail therapy is that it's all about indulging in things like pricey designer duds or the latest gadgets. But according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers are actually more likely to make practical purchases than splurge on luxury items when they feel less in control.
  
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• Ice in Ceres' shadowed craters linked to tilt history

  22-03-2017 18:16
  
  Dwarf planet Ceres may be hundreds of millions of miles from Jupiter, and even farther from Saturn, but the tremendous influence of gravity from these gas giants has an appreciable effect on Ceres' orientation. In a new study, researchers from NASA's Dawn mission calculate that the axial tilt of Ceres—the angle at which it spins as it journeys around the sun—varies widely over the course of about 24,500 years. Astronomers consider this to be a surprisingly short period of time for su
  
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• Paying for pain: What motivates tough mudders and other weekend warriors?

  22-03-2017 18:12
  
  Why do people pay for experiences deliberately marketed as painful? According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, consumers will pay big money for extraordinary—even painful—experiences to offset the physical malaise resulting from today's sedentary lifestyles.
  
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• Lack of leisure: Is busyness the new status symbol?

  22-03-2017 18:12
  
  Long gone are the days when a life of material excess and endless leisure time signified prestige. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, Americans increasingly perceive busy and overworked people as having high status.
  
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• Costly curves? Overweight consumers spend more when reminded of thinness

  22-03-2017 18:11
  
  Popular media mirror Western culture's fixation with being thin. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, even subtle reminders of idealized bodies can encourage overweight consumers to overspend.
  
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• Tethered Nanoparticles Improve the Performance of Immune-Based Drugs

  22-03-2017 18:07 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A team of researchers from MIT has developed a way to make tumor cells more susceptible to certain types of cancer treatment by coating the...
  The post Tethered Nanoparticles Improve the Performance of Immune-Based Drugs appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• CEO of Silicon Valley networking firm looks to future

  22-03-2017 18:00
  
  At least on the surface, networking products aren't the most exciting tech gadgets. But they're what make the internet - and all the devices, apps and services that communicate through it - work.
  
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• Software Company Donates Proceeds From Latest Game to Syrian Refugees

  22-03-2017 17:57 via nbcnews.com
  
  To date, Ayotree has raised more than $1,100 for Oxfam America. The company hopes to raise $10,000 for the fund by World Refugee Day on June 20.
  
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• MIT Neuroscientists Identify Brain Circuit That Drives Pleasure-Inducing Behavior

  22-03-2017 17:54 via scitechdaily.com
  
  MIT neuroscientists identify the brain circuit that drives pleasure-inducing behavior in a brain region thought to be linked with fear. Scientists have long believed that...
  The post MIT Neuroscientists Identify Brain Circuit That Drives Pleasure-Inducing Behavior appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• New Research Shows Ice in Ceres’ Shadowed Craters Linked to Tilt History

  22-03-2017 17:37 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Scientists examine the axial tilt of Ceres, finding a correlation between craters that stay in shadow at maximum obliquity and bright deposits that are likely...
  The post New Research Shows Ice in Ceres’ Shadowed Craters Linked to Tilt History appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Fin24.com | Tencent profits jump 43% on mobile gaming success

  22-03-2017 17:33
  
  Chinese technology giant Tencent reported a profit boost, helped by the growing popularity of its mobile games.
  
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• How Many iOS 10 Tricks Do You Know?

  22-03-2017 17:31 via nbcnews.com
  
  Apple's jam-packed iOS 10 is full of shiny features, but there are some hidden tricks that will help you make the most of the operating system.
  
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• Faster cellular signals could mean slower Wi-Fi

  22-03-2017 17:20
  
  You may soon see faster connections on your cellular service. But your Wi-Fi connection may pay the price.
  
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• Astronomers Document Remarkable Changes on Comet 67P

  22-03-2017 17:19 via scitechdaily.com
  
  The Rosetta mission has documented remarkable changes on the surface of Comet 67P, revealing growing fractures, collapsing cliffs, rolling boulders and moving material. Images returned...
  The post Astronomers Document Remarkable Changes on Comet 67P appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• The 'time machine' that replicates three years of weather in three days

  22-03-2017 17:18
  
  Climate change is wreaking havoc on the environment. While the main culprit is carbon emissions, urban heat islands—exacerbated by dark roofs and pavements—make the effect of global warming even worse on the urban dwellers.
  
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• Making 'mulch' ado of ant hills: Ant hill mulch improves soil moisture

  22-03-2017 17:15
  
  Ants can be annoying little insects. In your home, they make army-like lines to any crumbs on your floor. In your home's frame, carpenter ants can do a job of eating away your walls. But what about outside? Do ants play a positive role in your yard? Your garden? What about in a farm field?
  
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• Bird flu confirmed in 3 Southern states; poultry not at risk

  22-03-2017 17:04
  
  Bird flu has now been confirmed in three Southern states, but officials say the nation's poultry supply isn't at risk.
  
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• Insights pave way for solar cells and photodetectors based on tunable nanoparticles

  22-03-2017 17:03
  
  Solar cells and photodetectors could soon be made from new types of materials based on semiconductor quantum dots, thanks to new insights based on ultrafast measurements capturing real-time photoconversion processes.
  
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• Nature conservation as a bridge to peace in the Middle East

  22-03-2017 17:00
  
  Loss of biodiversity is a major challenge in today's world as is the quest for peace in regions engaged in conflict. But scientists writing in a Review published March 22 in Trends in Ecology & Evolution say that efforts to conserve natural resources present an opportunity to find common ground between communities at odds, building trust and renewed hope for peace.
  
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