Sci-Tech news

• Aura uses artificial intelligence to deliver personalized meditations

  26-06-2017 23:00
  
  Sponsored PostGet lifetime coaching via your smartphone for under $60.
  Aura uses artificial intelligence to deliver personalized meditations. Get lifetime coaching via your smartphone for under $60. Read on.
  
  Read more

• Nintendo Is Producing 'Significantly More' SNES Classic Edition Consoles, But Not For Long - Forbes

  26-06-2017 22:53
  
  Forbes
  Nintendo Is Producing 'Significantly More' SNES Classic Edition Consoles, But Not For Long
  Forbes
  The big video game news of the day is the announcement of Nintendo's new retro console: The SNES Classic Edition. The big worry among gaming enthusiasts of the day is whether there will be enough of these to go around. After all, many gamers were left ...
  The 9 games we wish were coming to SNES Classic EditionPolygon
  SNES Classic: Will Nintendo Learn From its Past Launch Mistakes?IGN
  Ni
  
  Read more

• Septic systems are a major source of emerging contaminants in drinking water

  26-06-2017 22:39
  
  A new analysis shows that septic systems in the United States routinely discharge pharmaceuticals, consumer product chemicals, and other potentially hazardous chemicals into the environment. The study, published June 15 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, is the most comprehensive assessment to date of septic systems as important sources of emerging contaminants, raising health concerns since many of these chemicals, once discharged, end up in groundwater and drinking water su
  
  Read more

• Arp 299: Galactic Goulash

  26-06-2017 22:32
  
  What would happen if you took two galaxies and mixed them together over millions of years? A new image including data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals the cosmic culinary outcome.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• California's giant water tunnels win first crucial approval

  26-06-2017 22:30
  
  U.S. wildlife officials gave crucial first approval Monday to California Gov. Jerry Brown's decades-old ambitions to build two massive tunnels that would re-engineer the water system in the nation's most populous state.
  
  Read more

• French PM says ban on 'bee-killer' pesticide will go ahead

  26-06-2017 22:22
  
  French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe weighed in on a row between his environment and agriculture ministers on Monday to rule that a pesticide found harmful to bees would be banned in 2018 as scheduled.
  
  Read more

• US mayors back plan for cities to use only renewable energy

  26-06-2017 22:21
  
  A bipartisan group of mayors from across the country unanimously backed an ambitious commitment for U.S. cities to run entirely on renewable sources such as wind and solar in two decades.
  
  Read more

• Greenland now a major driver of rising seas: study

  26-06-2017 22:21
  
  Ocean levels rose 50 percent faster in 2014 than in 1993, with meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet now supplying 25 percent of total sea level increase compared with just five percent 20 years earlier, researchers reported Monday.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Alaska Air offers charter flight for solar eclipse viewing

  26-06-2017 22:19
  
  Alaska Airlines said Monday it will charter a flight over the Pacific Ocean this Aug. 21 so select passengers can view the astronomical event from the sky.
  
  Read more

• Facebook to produce own TV series, games

  26-06-2017 22:18
  
  Facebook is starting production on high-quality television series and gaming shows to be broadcast on its platform, one of the social media giant's executives said on Monday.
  
  Read more

• Belief in free will predicts criminal punishment support, disapproval of unethical actions

  26-06-2017 22:15
  
  In countries with transparent governments and low levels of corruption, the belief in free will—that is, believing that people's outcomes are tied to choices and personal responsibility—predicts someone's intolerance of unethical behavior along with a greater desire to see criminals harshly punished for their actions.
  
  Read more

• Chimpanzee 'super strength' and what it might mean in human muscle evolution

  26-06-2017 22:14
  
  Since at least the 1920s, anecdotes and some studies have suggested that chimpanzees are "super strong" compared to humans, implying that their muscle fibers, the cells that make up muscles, are superior to humans.
  
  Read more

• Team creates better 'fingerprints' to detect elusive, valuable chemical compounds

  26-06-2017 22:07
  
  Imagine being able to see the entire Statue of Liberty and a small ant on its nose simultaneously. The drastic difference in size between the two objects would seem to render this task impossible.
  
  Read more

• Scientists create a cellular guillotine for studying single-cell wound repair

  26-06-2017 22:05
  
  While doing research at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts, Sindy Tang learned of a remarkable organism: Stentor coeruleus. It's a single-celled, free-living freshwater organism, shaped like a trumpet and big enough to see with the naked eye. And, to Tang's amazement, if cut in half it can heal itself into two healthy cells.
  
  Read more

• Mobile Payments Companies Try Going Plastic

  26-06-2017 22:03 via nbcnews.com
  
  The latest innovation from cutting edge digital payment app Venmo is... a debit card?
  
  Read more

• iOS 11 preview: keep it simple, smarty - The Verge

  26-06-2017 22:00
  
  The Verge
  iOS 11 preview: keep it simple, smarty
  The Verge
  iOS 11 is the most ambitious software update from Apple in a very, very long time. It's ambitious because it's packed with so many new features and technologies that it will be impossible for me to cover them all here. It's ambitious because those new ...
  iOS 11 turns your iPad into a completely different machineTechCrunch
  iOS 11 public beta: What it does for the iPhoneCNET
  How To Install The Newly Released Apple iOS 11 BetaForbes
  Engad
  
  Read more

• A little place for my stuff: How big bacteria can grow depends on how much fat they can make

  26-06-2017 21:57
  
  In his classic comedy routine, "A Place for your Stuff," George Carlin argues that the whole point of life is to find an appropriately sized space for the things you own. What holds for people is also true for bacteria.
  
  Read more

• Novel platform uses nanoparticles to detect peanut allergies

  26-06-2017 21:56
  
  Researchers have developed a novel platform to more accurately detect and identify the presence and severity of peanut allergies, without directly exposing patients to the allergen, according to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
  
  Read more

• Glycans as biomarkers for cancer?

  26-06-2017 21:55
  
  Glycosylated proteins are often overexpressed in tumor cells and thus could serve as tumor markers, especially those with the interesting molecule sialic acid as their sugar moiety. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, American scientists now report on a bioorthogonal labeling test for sialylated glycoproteins based on a glycoproteomics approach. This assay not only assesses the level of sialylated glycans in the tumor cell membranes, but also identifies up- or downregulated proteins directly in th
  
  Read more

• Thoughts on Essays

  26-06-2017 21:39 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  I've recently been doing some of every academic's favorite activity - marking student essays (papers).Here's a few observations on essays and on marking them.1. Marking Essays is SubjectiveThis is a bit of a truism: it's fairly obvious that not everyone will agree on how to grade an essay down to the exact mark. Unlike with, say, a multiple-choice exam, marking an essay is not a mechanical process. But it's easy to forget this when the marks are there in black and white (or r
  
  Read more

• Faulty Airbag Maker Takata Files for Bankruptcy

  26-06-2017 21:04 via nbcnews.com
  
  In a joint statement, the Michigan-based company buying Takata's assets said no layoffs or plant closings were planned.
  
  Read more

• Water exists as two different liquids

  26-06-2017 21:00
  
  We normally consider liquid water as disordered with the molecules rearranging on a short time scale around some average structure. Now, however, scientists at Stockholm University have discovered two phases of the liquid with large differences in structure and density. The results are based on experimental studies using X-rays, which are now published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (US).
  
  Read more

• Study finds way to pack more data in single acoustic beam for underwater communications

  26-06-2017 21:00
  
  A new strategy for sending acoustic waves through water could potentially open up the world of high-speed communications activities underwater, including scuba diving, remote ocean monitoring, and deep-sea exploration.
  
  Read more

• Researchers demonstrate how some genes evolved from an immune function to an olfactory role in some mammals

  26-06-2017 21:00
  
  Mammals possess several lines of defense against microbes. One of them is activated when receptors called Fprs, which are present on immune cells, bind to specific molecules that are linked to pathogens. Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, showed in 2009 that these same receptors were also present in the nose of mice, probably to detect contaminated food or to avoid sick conspecifics. The biologists now describe in the journal PNAS how Fprs have acquired this olfactory
  
  Read more

• New class of 'soft' semiconductors could transform HD displays

  26-06-2017 21:00
  
  A new type of semiconductor may be coming to a high-definition display near you. Scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shown that a class of semiconductor called halide perovskites is capable of emitting multiple, bright colors from a single nanowire at resolutions as small as 500 nanometers.
  
  Read more

• Microbe mystery solved: What happened to the Deepwater Horizon oil plume

  26-06-2017 21:00
  
  The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 is one of the most studied spills in history, yet scientists haven't agreed on the role of microbes in eating up the oil. Now a research team at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has identified all of the principal oil-degrading bacteria as well as their mechanisms for chewing up the many different components that make up the released crude oil.
  
  Read more

• Messages with moral-emotional words are more likely to go viral on social media

  26-06-2017 21:00
  
  Tweets about political topics that include moral and emotional language are more likely to spread within the ideological networks of the sender, a team of researchers has found. Its study, which examined Twitter messages related to gun control, climate change, and same-sex marriage, points to both the potential and limits of communicating on social media.
  
  Read more

• How AI helped auction off $19 billion worth of radio spectrum

  26-06-2017 21:00
  
  Mobile phone carriers scooped up airwaves no longer needed by television broadcasters last March in a $19-billion auction designed by UBC and Stanford University researchers.
  
  Read more

• Formation of artificial cells with a skeletal support reinforcement to withstand application realized

  26-06-2017 21:00
  
  A research group of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Keio University and Tohoku University have successfully developed an artificial cytoskeletal structure for cell models (liposomes or artificial cells) using DNA nanotechnology, and demonstrated that liposomes with the cytoskeletal structure were almost as strong as living cells.
  
  Read more

• Curtain system creates soundproofed office spaces in open floor plans

  26-06-2017 21:00
  
  Anyone who has worked in an office with an open floor plan becomes aware of a major downside of these otherwise collaborative spaces: It is impossible to hold confidential meetings with colleagues—or even make a personal phone call to schedule a dentist appointment in your office.
  
  Read more

• Could humans ever regenerate a heart? A new study suggests the answer is 'yes'

  26-06-2017 21:00
  
  When Mark Martindale decided to trace the evolutionary origin of muscle cells, like the ones that form our hearts, he looked in an unlikely place: the genes of animals without hearts or muscles.
  
  Read more

• Animals, not drought, shaped our ancestors' environment

  26-06-2017 21:00
  
  The shores of Lake Turkana, in Kenya, are dry and inhospitable, with grasses as the dominant plant type. It hasn't always been that way. Over the last four million years, the Omo-Turkana basin has seen a range of climates and ecosystems, and has also seen significant steps in human evolution.
  
  Read more

• A third of marine megafauna died in a mass extinction that we didn’t even know about

  26-06-2017 20:24
  
  AnimalsAncient climate change was to blame.
  Almost all of the species that have ever existed are now extinct—why should swimming sloths be any more important than the rest? Here's why.
  
  Read more

• Unveiling of third-generation X3 promises 'emotional' driving experience - Greenville News

  26-06-2017 19:51
  Greenville News
  Unveiling of third-generation X3 promises 'emotional' driving experience
  Greenville News
  BMW Manufacturing unveiled the latest iteration of its globally successful X3 sport activity vehicle during a ceremony Monday morning in the very assembly hall outside Greer where the vehicles will go into full production later this summer. With the ...and more »
  
  Read more

• Bacteria in the sky may help to make it rain

  26-06-2017 19:43
  
  ScienceHere's how they do it.
  Certain bacteria can cause water to freeze into ice, in turn making it rain. But just how much do these tiny organisms contribute to our annual rainfall?
  
  Read more

• US official announces cyber pact with Israel

  26-06-2017 19:12
  President Donald Trump's homeland security adviser has announced a new cybersecurity partnership with Israel
  
  Read more

• Music: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

  26-06-2017 19:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Our lives are awash in tunes. Songs are blasted through the radio, piped into supermarkets, they waft through the air at public gatherings and soundtracks can make or break a blockbuster movie.Humans seem obsessed with melody and rhythm. But when did it begin in hominin history? What purpose does it fulfill? And does music have a dark side?The first bands started gigging at least tens of thousands of years. Archaeologists have found 40,000-year-old flutes carved from bird bones. The
  
  Read more

• Google to Stop Scanning Your Emails to Sell Ads

  26-06-2017 19:12 via nbcnews.com
  
  Google will no longer scan your Gmail messages to sell targeted advertisements.
  
  Read more

• Ten million tonnes of fish wasted every year despite declining fish stocks

  26-06-2017 19:01
  
  Industrial fishing fleets dump nearly 10 million tonnes of good fish back into the ocean every year, according to new research.
  
  Read more

• Spain firefighters gain upper hand over blaze near nature reserve

  26-06-2017 19:00
  
  Spanish firefighters on Monday beat back a wildfire which threatensa renowned national park that is home to endangered species and has forced the evacuation of over 2,000 people from homes, campsites and hotels.
  
  Read more

• Subway digging uncovers 'Pompeii-like scene' in Rome

  26-06-2017 18:59
  
  Digging for Rome's new subway has unearthed the charred ruins of a 3rd century building and the 1,800-year-old skeleton of a dog that apparently perished in a fire.
  
  Read more

• Report reveals improvements and persistent inequities in college access and success in NYC

  26-06-2017 18:58
  
  A new report from the Research Alliance for New York City Schools provides an in-depth look at high school students' pathways into and through college, revealing large improvements in college access, but also highlighting persistent differences in outcomes for historically underrepresented groups of students.
  
  Read more

• Artificial algae could help save our oceans

  26-06-2017 18:49
  
  From Our Blogs: Nexus Media News Using mimicry to fight climate change.
  Scientists are using faux-coralline algae to seed aquatic ecosystems. It's a novel tool for dealing with climate change and ocean acidification.
  
  Read more

• New method to rapidly map the 'social networks' of proteins

  26-06-2017 18:48
  
  Salk scientists have developed a new high-throughput technique to determine which proteins in a cell interact with each other. Mapping this network of interactions, or "interactome," has been slow going in the past because the number of interactions that could be tested at once was limited. The new approach, published June 26 in Nature Methods, lets researchers test millions of relationships between thousands of proteins in a single experiment.
  
  Read more

• Predicting future outcomes in the natural world

  26-06-2017 18:47
  
  When pesticides and intentional fires fail to eradicate an invasive plant species, declaring biological war may be the best option.
  
  Read more

• Scientists study changes in the biodiversity of California's sandy beaches

  26-06-2017 18:46
  
  And to think it was all right there in her garage. A load of boxes pulled from biologist Dale Straughan's home yielded a veritable treasure trove for UC Santa Barbara researchers studying the impact of climate change on coastal biodiversity in California.
  
  Read more

• Young American Latinos report the most discrimination

  26-06-2017 18:43
  
  Although the United States has seen a dramatic increase in Mexican and Latin American immigrants since 1970, a recent study by Penn State researchers is one of the few where perceived discrimination is examined in this population. The study found that undocumented Latino immigrants are not the most likely group to report discrimination.
  
  Read more

• Hydraulic fracturing rarely linked to felt seismic tremors: study

  26-06-2017 18:43
  
  New research suggests hydraulic fracturing and saltwater disposal has limited impact on seismic events.
  
  Read more

• Sorry, but Anonymous has no evidence that NASA has found alien life

  26-06-2017 18:12
  
  SpaceWe wish.
  Before you freak out, let’s talk.
  
  Read more

• Correction: Interior Secretary Homecoming story

  26-06-2017 18:12
  Correction: Interior Secretary Homecoming story
  
  Read more

Follow @NewslockSciTech on Twitter!