Sci-Tech news

• ESO’s VLT Views Stars Born in Winds from Supermassive Black Holes

  28-03-2017 23:54 via scitechdaily.com
  
  Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have revealed stars forming within powerful outflows of material blasted out from supermassive black holes at the cores of...
  The post ESO’s VLT Views Stars Born in Winds from Supermassive Black Holes appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• HiRISE Views Splitting Dunes on Mars

  28-03-2017 23:40 via scitechdaily.com
  
  This new HiRISE image shows a group of dunes on the surface of Mars. The mound in the center of this image appears to have...
  The post HiRISE Views Splitting Dunes on Mars appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Herpes STDs: From chimps to humans to cold sore cousin mixing before worldwide spread

  28-03-2017 23:00
  
  It's an axiom of the infectious disease research community that wherever humans go, germs are likely to follow. Such is the case with the herpes virus family.
  
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• Key research priorities for agricultural microbiomes identified

  28-03-2017 22:44
  
  A coordinated effort to understand plant microbiomes could boost plant health and agricultural productivity, according to a new Perspective publishing March 28 in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Posy Busby of Oregon State University in Corvallis and colleagues at eight other research institutions.
  
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• Jefferson Lab accomplishes critical milestones toward completion of 12 GeV upgrade

  28-03-2017 22:44
  
  The Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility has achieved two major commissioning milestones and is now entering the final stretch of work to conclude its first major upgrade.
  
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• Trump tosses Obama's 'clean' energy plan, embraces coal

  28-03-2017 22:13
  
  Declaring "the start of a new era" in energy production, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday that he said would revive the coal industry and create jobs.
  
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• Stop eating! You are full

  28-03-2017 22:12
  
  Researchers have identified a molecule sent by fat cells to the fly brain that senses when they have had enough food and inhibits feeding, according to a study publishing March 28 in the open access journal PLOS Biology by Walton Jones of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, and colleagues.
  
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• Electronics ban on flights not a longterm solution: IATA boss

  28-03-2017 22:12
  
  British and US bans on laptops and tablet computers in the cabin of flights are not sustainable in the long term, the head of the association representing airlines said Tuesday.
  
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• As sea level rises, much of Honolulu and Waikiki vulnerable to groundwater inundation

  28-03-2017 22:06
  
  New research from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa (UHM) reveals a large part of the heavily urbanized area of Honolulu and Waikiki, Hawai'i is at risk of groundwater inundation—flooding that occurs as groundwater is lifted above the ground surface due to sea level rise. Shellie Habel, lead author of the study and doctoral student in the UHM Department of Geology and Geophysics, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), and colleagues developed a computer model that
  
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• Firm Floats Plan to Hang Colossal Skyscraper From an Asteroid

  28-03-2017 21:40 via nbcnews.com
  
  Dubbed Analemma, the fanciful tower wouldn't be built on the ground, but suspended in air by cables from an asteroid repositioned into geosynchronous Earth orbit just for the purpose.
  
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• Researchers shoot for success with simulations of laser pulse-material interactions

  28-03-2017 21:00
  
  With the advent of laser technology in the 1960s, materials scientists gained a new tool to both study and modify materials. Today, lasers allow researchers to manipulate materials on atomic and subatomic levels, leading to new materials and a host of other applications.
  
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• Uber diversity report says 36 percent of employees are women

  28-03-2017 20:58
  
  Uber's first report on employee diversity shows low numbers for women, especially in technical positions. In that regard, the company is similar to other Silicon Valley giants such as Google, Facebook and Apple.
  
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• Chinese tech company Tencent acquires 5 percent Tesla stake

  28-03-2017 20:58
  
  Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings has acquired a 5 percent stake in electric car maker Tesla Inc.
  
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• Igniting a solar flare in the corona with lower-atmosphere kindling

  28-03-2017 20:56
  
  Scientists from NJIT's Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research are providing some of the first detailed views of the mechanisms that may trigger solar flares, colossal releases of magnetic energy in the Sun's corona that dispatch energized particles capable of penetrating Earth's atmosphere within an hour and disrupting orbiting satellites and electronic communications on the ground.
  
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• How a young-looking lunar volcano hides its true age

  28-03-2017 20:56
  
  While orbiting the Moon in 1971, the crew of Apollo 15 photographed a strange geological feature—a bumpy, D-shaped depression about two miles long and a mile wide—that has fascinated planetary scientists ever since. Some have suggested that the feature, known as Ina, is evidence of a volcanic eruption Moon within the past 100 million years—a billion years or so after most volcanic activity on the Moon is thought to have ceased.
  
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• Researcher weighs in on fairy circles of Namibia

  28-03-2017 20:55
  
  A study conducted by researchers at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis adds new insights into one of nature's great mysteries: the fairy circles of Namibia.
  
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• Fighting world hunger: Robotics aid in the study of corn and drought tolerance

  28-03-2017 20:54
  
  Developing drought tolerant corn that makes efficient use of available water will be vital to sustain the estimated 9 billion global population by 2050. In March 2014, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded the University of Missouri a $20 million grant as part of a multi-institutional consortium to study how corn maintains root growth during drought conditions. Using funding from the NSF, Mizzou engineers on a multidisciplinary team have developed a robotic system that is changing the wa
  
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• Highway to health: Findings point way to more nutritious crops

  28-03-2017 20:53
  
  Almost every calorie that we eat at one time went through the veins of a plant. If a plant's circulatory system could be rejiggered to make more nutrients available - through bigger seeds or sweeter tomatoes - the world's farmers could feed more people.
  
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• Study finds that elevating women's status lowers dependence on solid fuels

  28-03-2017 20:51
  
  Globally, more people die each year of indoor air pollution than HIV, TB and malaria combined. So why is household air pollution such a neglected health issue and what needs to change in order to stop this "silent killer of women"?
  
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• A seismic mapping milestone

  28-03-2017 20:51
  
  Because of Earth's layered composition, scientists have often compared the basic arrangement of its interior to that of an onion. There's the familiar thin crust of continents and ocean floors; the thick mantle of hot, semisolid rock; the molten metal outer core; and the solid iron inner core.
  
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• Can intergenerational cooperation defeat climate change?

  28-03-2017 20:47
  
  Older adults are powerful allies in addressing climate change, according to "Gray and Green Together: Climate Change in an Aging World," the latest edition of Public Policy & Aging Report (PP&AR) from The Gerontological Society of America (GSA).
  
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• Night lights, big data: Tool shows relationship between night-time lights and socio-economic factors

  28-03-2017 20:46
  
  When the Earth is dark, human activity sparkles across the globe. As seen from space, night-time lights tell a story about how we live, correlating to everything from electricity consumption and CO2 emissions, to gross domestic product, population and poverty.
  
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• New method heats up ultrasonic approach to treating tumors

  28-03-2017 20:46
  
  High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a breakthrough therapeutic technique used to treat tumors. The principle of this noninvasive, targeted treatment is much like that of focusing sunlight through a lens, using an ultrasonic transducer like a convex lens to concentrate ultrasound into a small focal region. In an article appearing this week in the Journal of Applied Physics, a multi-institutional team of researchers in China have now designed a semi-enclosed, spherical cavity transducer fo
  
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• Uber Releases Its First Diversity Report, and It Looks Like Pretty Much Every Other Tech Company

  28-03-2017 20:11 via nbcnews.com
  
  CEO Travis Kalanick admits the company has been 'too slow in publishing our numbers.'
  
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• HD 106906b Reveals Insights Into How Planets Evolve

  28-03-2017 19:21 via scitechdaily.com
  
  New research suggests that HD 106906b formed outside the debris disk, where it’s visible it today, as opposed to having been formed inside the debris...
  The post HD 106906b Reveals Insights Into How Planets Evolve appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Trump takes aim at Obama's efforts to curb global warming

  28-03-2017 19:15
  
  President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Tuesday that will suspend, rescind, or flag for review more than half-a-dozen measures that were part of former President Barack Obama's sweeping plan to curb global warming
  
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• Samsung's fire-prone Note 7 phone may return after recalls

  28-03-2017 19:06
  
  Samsung's fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 phone might come back as refurbished or rental phones.
  
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• Desktop scanners can be hijacked to perpetrate cyberattacks

  28-03-2017 19:06
  
  A typical office scanner can be infiltrated and a company's network compromised using different light sources, according to a new paper by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Weizmann Institute of Science.
  
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• Meet the 13-Year-Old Who Bosses Google Around

  28-03-2017 19:03 via nbcnews.com
  
  Ahsan Tahir is only 13 years old and is a recognized Microsoft security researcher with "Hall of Fame" status.
  
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• Google Home welcomes 12 new partners in big smart home update - CNET

  28-03-2017 19:03
  
  CNET
  Google Home welcomes 12 new partners in big smart home update
  CNET
  The Google Home is at last starting to fulfill its potential in the smart home. With a dozen new companies announcing integrations with its platform, the search giant has dramatically increased what its smart speaker can do. Starting today, for most of ...
  Google Home is getting a bunch of new smart home integrationsThe Verge
  Google Home adds support for Logitech Harmony, August locks and moreTechCrunch
  New Google Home part
  
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• Elon Musk's latest target: Brain-computer interfaces

  28-03-2017 19:03
  
  Tech billionaire Elon Musk is announcing a new venture called Neuralink focused on linking brains to computers
  
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• It's not too late to conserve water resources in rapidly urbanizing areas

  28-03-2017 19:02
  
  As climate change and population pressure both intensify in suburban areas northwest of Boston in the coming decades, a new study by watershed scientist Timothy Randhir of the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggests that threats to the area's watershed such as water shortages and poor quality can be met if managers begin to act now.
  
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• NASA’s NuSTAR Probes Puzzling Galaxy Merger of the Was 49 System

  28-03-2017 18:57 via scitechdaily.com
  
  A supermassive black hole inside the tiny galaxy Was 49b is challenging astronomers’ ideas about what happens when two galaxies become one. Was 49 is...
  The post NASA’s NuSTAR Probes Puzzling Galaxy Merger of the Was 49 System appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Fluorescent probe could light up cancer

  28-03-2017 18:50
  
  A fluorescent probe developed by Michigan Tech chemist Haiying Liu illuminates the enzyme beta-galactosidase in a cell culture, which could help cancer surgeons.
  
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• European scientists, officials warn against US climate plan

  28-03-2017 18:47
  
  Scientists, officials and environmental campaigners in Europe said Tuesday that the United States would be damaging its own interests if it rolls back the previous administration's efforts to curb climate change.
  
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• A molecular on/off switch for CRISPR

  28-03-2017 18:47
  
  Picture bacteria and viruses locked in an arms race. For many bacteria, one line of defense against viral infection is a sophisticated RNA-guided "immune system" called CRISPR-Cas. At the center of this system is a surveillance complex that recognizes viral DNA and triggers its destruction. However, viruses can strike back and disable this surveillance complex using "anti-CRISPR" proteins, though no one has figured out exactly how these anti-CRISPRs work—until now.
  
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• Cornering endangered species

  28-03-2017 18:46
  
  As certain species decline in number, the geographic areas they inhabit also shrink. Still, even with less space to occupy, these decreasing populations manage to remain locally abundant.
  
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• European officials urge rethink of Trump climate plan

  28-03-2017 18:42
  
  Scientists and officials in Europe say the United States will be damaging its own interests if it rolls back the previous U.S. administration's efforts to curb climate change
  
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• US Infrastructure At 'Red Alert' for Hacking

  28-03-2017 18:20 via today.com
  
  NBC's Tom Costello warns that America's digital infrastructure is at an increased risk as the pace of computer hacking picks up dramatically.
  
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• Hair spacing keeps honeybees clean during pollination: Researchers quantify the cleaning process

  28-03-2017 18:15
  
  With honeybee colony health wavering and researchers trying to find technological ways of pollinating plants in the future, a new Georgia Tech study has looked at how the insects do their job and manage to stay clean.
  
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• Discovery of a new regulatory protein provides new tool for stem cell engineering

  28-03-2017 18:13
  
  Bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have discovered a protein that regulates the switch of embryonic stem cells from the least developed "naïve" state to the more developed "primed" state. This discovery sheds light on stem cell development at a molecular level.
  
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• Forests fight global warming in ways more important than previously understood

  28-03-2017 18:07
  
  Forests play a complex role in keeping the planet cool, one that goes far beyond the absorption of carbon dioxide, new research has found.
  
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• Parents who play Pokemon GO with kids: 'It wasn't really about the Pokemon'

  28-03-2017 18:06
  
  Parents who regularly play "Pokémon GO" with their children report a number of side benefits from playing the mobile device-based game, including increased exercise, more time spent outdoors and opportunities for family bonding, according to new University of Washington research.
  
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• What makes a cyberattack? Experts lobby to restrict the term

  28-03-2017 18:05
  
  Policymakers have sometimes struggled to distinguish this-means-war cyberattacks from more mundane forms of electronic subterfuge
  
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• Malaria parasites 'walk through walls' to infect humans

  28-03-2017 18:00
  
  Researchers have identified proteins that enable deadly malaria parasites to 'walk through cell walls' - a superpower that was revealed using the Institute's first insectary to grow human malaria parasites.
  
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• How bacteria hunt other bacteria

  28-03-2017 18:00
  
  A bacterial species that hunts other bacteria has attracted great interest as a potential living antibiotic, but exactly how this predator tracks down its prey has not been clear. A study published March 28 in Biophysical Journal sheds light on this question, revealing that the bacterial predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus (BV) homes in on its target by taking advantage of fluid forces generated by its own swimming movements and those of its prey. These hydrodynamic flow fields bring the bacteri
  
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• Got camera? Facebook adds more Snapchat-like features

  28-03-2017 17:52
  
  Facebook is adding Snapchat-like features to its app
  
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• Trump puts anti-global warming projects on chopping block

  28-03-2017 17:46
  
  President Donald Trump is making good on his campaign pledge to unravel former President Barack Obama's plan to curb global warming
  
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• Are You Safe From Hackers at 30,000 Feet?

  28-03-2017 17:21 via nbcnews.com
  
  Are you as vulnerable to hacks in the air as you are on the ground?
  
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• How Hackers Steal Your Credit Card Info

  28-03-2017 17:11 via today.com
  
  Just how easy is it for hackers to steal your credit card information, and what they can do with it after they get it?
  
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