Sci-Tech news

• 3-year global coral bleaching event over, but still bad

  19-06-2017 23:12
  
  A mass bleaching of coral reefs worldwide has finally ended after three years, U.S. scientists announced Monday.
  
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• NASA finds 10 new potentially habitable 'Earth-like' worlds - Washington Post

  19-06-2017 23:03 via washingtonpost.com
  
  Washington Post
  NASA finds 10 new potentially habitable 'Earth-like' worlds
  Washington Post
  Astronomers using the Kepler space telescope have detected 219 possible new exoplanets in our galaxy, including 10 relatively small, rocky and possibly habitable planets similar to our own, NASA announced Monday. These are the last additions to the ...
  Earth-Size Planets Among Final Tally of NASA's Kepler TelescopeNew York Times
  NASA's Kepler space telescope points to 10 new planets in the habitable
  
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• Biologists discover the immune system can eliminate cells with too many or too few chromosomes

  19-06-2017 23:03
  
  Most living cells have a defined number of chromosomes: Human cells, for example, have 23 pairs. As cells divide, they can make errors that lead to a gain or loss of chromosomes, which is usually very harmful.
  
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• Discovery could lead to sustainable ethanol made from carbon dioxide

  19-06-2017 23:00
  
  Most cars and trucks in the United States run on a blend of 90 percent gasoline and 10 percent ethanol, a renewable fuel made primarily from fermented corn. But to produce the 14 billion gallons of ethanol consumed annually by American drivers requires millions of acres of farmland.
  
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• Potential Atlantic Ocean Tropical Cyclone 2 examined by NASA

  19-06-2017 22:57
  
  NASA provided rainfall data and cloud height information to the forecasters monitoring the developing tropical cyclone 2 in the western Atlantic Ocean. The Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite passed over the organizing storm on June 19. The storm has already generated a number of warnings and watches in the Caribbean and Venezuela.
  
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• NASA telescope finds 10 more planets that could have life

  19-06-2017 22:36
  
  NASA's planet-hunting Kepler telescope found 10 new planets that are not too hot or cold and just the right size to have life on them
  
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• Dad Wants a Ban on Smartphones for Young Kids

  19-06-2017 22:17 via nbcnews.com
  
  A new ballot initiative in Colorado seeks to preserve "Natural Childhood" by banning smartphones for kids under 13
  
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• Climate imperils Ethiopia's coffee output: study

  19-06-2017 22:13
  
  Climate change could wipe out more than half of Ethiopia's coffee production unless farmers move to higher ground, scientists warned Monday.
  
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• US regulators sue to block merger of fantasy sports sites

  19-06-2017 22:11
  
  US regulators announced Monday legal action to block the merger of fantasy sports websites DraftKings and FanDuel, which allow fans to create teams for virtual matchups in cyberspace.
  
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• Bacterial classification may be more elusive than previously thought

  19-06-2017 22:04
  
  New research from Dartmouth College raises questions over how scientists should interpret observed groupings of bacteria. The study advises caution with the assumption that bacterial clusters are always a result of ecological and genetic forces.
  
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• Wheat coproducts vary in protein digestibility when fed to pigs

  19-06-2017 22:00
  
  Research from the University of Illinois is helping to determine the quality of protein in wheat middlings and red dog, two coproducts of the wheat milling process that can be included in diets fed to pigs and other livestock.
  
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• Is Science Broken, Or Is It Self-Correcting?

  19-06-2017 21:59 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Media coverage of scientific retractions risks feeding a narrative that academic science is broken - a narrative which plays into the hands of those who want to cut science funding and ignore scientific advice.So say Joseph Hilgard and Kathleen Hall Jamieson in a book chapter called Science as “Broken” Versus Science as “Self-Correcting”: How Retractions and Peer-Review Problems Are Exploited to Attack ScienceHilgard and Jamieson discuss two retraction scandals that reade
  
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• Tech Titans Meet at the White House

  19-06-2017 21:51 via nbcnews.com
  
  President Trump summoned some of the biggest names in technology to the White House on Monday for a meeting to discuss how to modernize government IT.
  
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• The Human Project Aims to Track Every Aspect of Life

  19-06-2017 21:38 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  If you smoke cigarettes, you're putting yourself at a heightened risk for heart disease. That correlation is well-known and unchallenged today, but that wasn't always so. It took an ambitious, years-long project, the Framingham Heart Study to uncover the link, and it only happened because of the study's commitment to comprehensive data collection.The Framingham study is a near-canonical example of the power of longitudinal studies, those that follow participants for decades, and which ca
  
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• X-ray eyes in the sky: New method for 3-D through-wall imaging that utilizes drones and WiFi

  19-06-2017 21:30
  
  Researchers at UC Santa Barbara professor Yasamin Mostofi's lab have given the first demonstration of three-dimensional imaging of objects through walls using ordinary wireless signal. The technique, which involves two drones working in tandem, could have a variety of applications, such as emergency search-and-rescue, archaeological discovery and structural monitoring.
  
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• Keeping California's natural gas system safe

  19-06-2017 21:28
  
  The massive natural gas leak at Aliso Canyon shined a light on California's aging natural gas infrastructure. And five years of extreme drought also exacted its toll on transmission pipelines. Now the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has been awarded $4.6 million by the California Energy Commission for two projects aimed at improving the safety and reliability of the state's natural gas system.
  
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• The Latest: Technology CEOs urged to join Trump initiative

  19-06-2017 21:23
  
  Technology CEOs are being urged by White House officials to pitch in on President Donald Trump's effort to modernize government
  
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• Team discovers 3 chameleon species

  19-06-2017 21:23
  
  University of Texas at El Paso doctoral candidate Daniel Hughes has discovered three new species of chameleons. The reptile trio, historically thought to be a single species, was found in different parts of the Albertine Rift in Central Africa.
  
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• DNA from Egyptian mummies and Viking graves reveals how cats conquered the world

  19-06-2017 21:01
  
  AnimalsTheir trek from pest exterminator to pet.
  Felines took over the globe in two waves. Read on.
  
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• Wildebeest feast: Mass drownings fuel the Mara River ecosystem

  19-06-2017 21:00
  
  (Millbrook, NY) Each year, more than a million wildebeest migrate through Africa's Serengeti Mara Ecosystem. While crossing the Kenyan reach of the Mara River, thousands perish. A new study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to reveal how wildebeest drownings impact the ecology of the iconic river.
  
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• Volcanic eruptions triggered dawn of the dinosaurs

  19-06-2017 21:00
  
  Huge pulses of volcanic activity are likely to have played a key role in triggering the end Triassic mass extinction, which set the scene for the rise and age of the dinosaurs, new Oxford University research has found.
  
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• Tiny fossils reveal backstory of the most mysterious amphibian alive

  19-06-2017 21:00
  
  Researchers have determined that the fossils of an extinct species from the Triassic Period are the long-missing link that connects Kermit the Frog's amphibian brethren to wormlike creatures with a backbone and two rows of sharp teeth.
  
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• Scientists demonstrate adaptation of animal vision in extreme environments

  19-06-2017 21:00
  
  Cell biologists at the University of Toronto (U of T) have discovered animals can adapt their ability to see even with extreme changes in temperature.
  
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• Looking for trouble: Territorial aggressions and trespasses pay off among primates

  19-06-2017 21:00
  
  Territorial boundary patrolling by chimpanzees is a striking example of group-level cooperation displayed by our closest primate relatives.
  
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• Fighting global warming and climate change requires a broad energy portfolio

  19-06-2017 21:00
  
  Can the continental United States make a rapid, reliable and low-cost transition to an energy system that relies almost exclusively on wind, solar and hydroelectric power? While there is growing excitement for this vision, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by 21 of the nation's leading energy experts, including David G. Victor and George R. Tynan from the University of California San Diego, describes a more complicated reality. These researchers argue that
  
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• Chemistry of sea spray particles linked for first time to formation process

  19-06-2017 21:00
  
  A team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has identified for the first time what drives the observed differences in the chemical make-up of sea spray particles ejected from the ocean by breaking waves.
  
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• Too hot to handle: Study shows Earth's killer heat worsens

  19-06-2017 20:59
  
  A new study finds that deadly heat waves are getting worse and more frequent and have already been bigger killers than we thought
  
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• New Details Released in Investigation Into 2016 Tesla Autopilot Crash - Bloomberg

  19-06-2017 20:49 via bloomberg.com
  
  Bloomberg
  New Details Released in Investigation Into 2016 Tesla Autopilot Crash
  Bloomberg
  The Tesla Model S accident that last year sparked a debate about the car company's partially autonomous driving tools resulted in a cloud of white dust as the sedan plowed underneath a tractor trailer, a witness told investigators. "Just a white cloud ...
  The 3 biggest risks facing self-driving carsBusiness Insider
  NTSB Releases Details of Fatal Tesla Model S CrashCarComplaints.com
  Tesla News Includes Mode
  
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• Creating a Universe in the Lab? The Idea Is No Joke

  19-06-2017 20:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Physicists aren’t often reprimanded for using risqué humor in their academic writings, but in 1991 that is exactly what happened to the cosmologist Andrei Linde at Stanford University. He had submitted a draft article entitled ‘Hard Art of the Universe Creation’ to the journal Nuclear Physics B. In it, he outlined the possibility of creating a universe in a laboratory: a whole new cosmos that might one day evolve its own stars, planets and intelligent life. Near the end,
  
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• Conquer the app store with this Swift 3 learning bundle for $35

  19-06-2017 20:00
  
  Sponsored PostGet 64 hours of training and learn to build apps for iOS, macOS and Apple Watch.
  Conquer the app store with this Swift 3 learning bundle for $35. Get 64 hours of training and learn to build apps for iOS, macOS and Apple Watch. Read on.
  
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• The Australian Eastern Abyss is a treasure trove of strange, often penis-shaped animals

  19-06-2017 19:29
  
  AnimalsThere's so much goo.
  The abyss is back, and this time it spat up a penis (worm).
  
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• Grocers facing a united Amazon-Whole Foods must adapt

  19-06-2017 19:10
  
  Grocers trying to compete with the threat of a combined Amazon and Whole Foods will have to make their stores more appealing, leverage their locations to offer delivery and do a better job of collecting shopper data. They may also need to seek innovative partners of their own.
  
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• Report: Mexican journalists, activists targeted with spyware

  19-06-2017 19:08
  
  An internet watchdog has found that Mexican journalists, lawyers and activists were targeted by Israeli-produced spyware that is sold exclusively to governments.
  
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• Inexpensive organic material gives safe batteries a longer life

  19-06-2017 19:07
  
  Modern batteries power everything from cars to cell phones, but they are far from perfect - they catch fire, they perform poorly in cold weather and they have relatively short lifecycles, among other issues. Now researchers from the University of Houston have described a new class of material that addresses many of those concerns in Nature Materials.
  
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• Sugar-coated nanomaterial excels at promoting bone growth

  19-06-2017 19:06
  
  There hasn't been a gold standard for how orthopaedic spine surgeons promote new bone growth in patients, but now Northwestern University scientists have designed a bioactive nanomaterial that is so good at stimulating bone regeneration it could become the method surgeons prefer.
  
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• New branch in family tree of exoplanets discovered

  19-06-2017 19:05
  
  Since the mid-1990s, when the first planet around another sun-like star was discovered, astronomers have been amassing what is now a large collection of exoplanets—nearly 3,500 have been confirmed so far. In a new Caltech-led study, researchers have classified these planets in much the same way that biologists identify new animal species and have learned that the majority of exoplanets found to date fall into two distinct size groups: rocky Earth-like planets and larger mini-Neptunes. The
  
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• Figuring out the 3-D shape of molecules with a push of a button

  19-06-2017 19:03
  
  An international team of researchers led by Carnegie Mellon University chemist Roberto R. Gil and Universidade Federal de Pernambuco chemist Armando Navarro-Vázquez has developed a program that automates the process of figuring out a molecule's three-dimensional structure. The technique, described in a paper in Angewandte Chemie, compresses a process that usually takes days into minutes and could shorten the pipeline of drug discovery by reducing human error.
  
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• Energy chief: Carbon dioxide not prime driver of warming

  19-06-2017 19:02
  
  Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Monday he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming, a statement at odds with mainstream scientific consensus but in line with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
  
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• Data firm working for Trump exposed 198 mn voter files: researchers

  19-06-2017 19:01
  
  A data analytics firm that worked on the Republican campaign of Donald Trump exposed personal information belonging to some 198 million Americans, or nearly every eligible registered voter, security researchers said Monday.
  
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• Fin24.com | Blue Label's Cell C recapitalisation reaches finalisation

  19-06-2017 18:48
  
  The prolonged recapitalisation deal between airtime seller, Blue Label Telecoms to acquire a 45% share in Cell C is expected to be finalised and implemented by August 1.
  
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• Three-quarters of the planet could face deadly heatwaves by 2100

  19-06-2017 17:30
  
  EnvironmentAnd a third of us already do.
  The thermostat is rising, and more and more lives are at risk because of it. Read on.
  
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• Birds of all feathers work together to hunt when army ants march

  19-06-2017 17:29
  
  Army ants scare up a lot of food when they're on the move, which makes following them valuable for predator birds. But instead of competing and chasing each other off from the ant "raids," as scientists had thought, birds actually give each other a heads up when the ants are marching, according to a new Drexel University study.
  
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• Study: Most state pension plans paper over unfunded liabilities

  19-06-2017 17:28
  
  An analysis of state pension plans from across the country finds that the already troubling state of pension finances may be even worse than it first appears because many pension managers are making their plan's financial condition look better by perpetually putting off payments.
  
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