Sci-Tech news

• Interest in science classes is contagious, study shows

  09-08-2017 23:42
  Excitement is contagious in a science classroom and could lead to greater interest in science careers, a new study has found.
  
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• Federal regulators investigating Range Rover doors

  09-08-2017 23:35
  Federal regulators are investigating whether a 2015 recall of Range Rovers fixed the problem of their doors opening while driving.
  
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• Walmart tests app that lets shoppers skip checkout lines

  09-08-2017 23:34
  Walmart is bringing back an app that lets shoppers skip the checkout line and pay for items themselves on their smartphones.
  
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• Research to advance disease therapies, understand cosmic rays among cargo headed to space station

  09-08-2017 23:34
  The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is targeted for launch August 14 from Kennedy Space Center for its twelfth commercial resupply (CRS-12) mission to the International Space Station.
  
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• Too near, or too far? What fruit flies teach us about personal space

  09-08-2017 23:31
  Most of us have had the experience of backing away when someone has stepped inside the bounds of our personal space. But, until now, little has been understood about the mechanisms that allow us to determine when someone is "too near" or "too far".
  
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• HR startups helping companies engage workers, avoid workplace issues

  09-08-2017 23:30
  Amy Errett wanted to gauge employee happiness at her e-commerce startup, but surveys weren't working. Responses were often vague, unhelpful or, worse, deceitful. And even if she promised anonymity, some workers didn't trust the process.
  
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• Intel set to roll out 100 self-driving cars

  09-08-2017 23:29
  Silicon Valley giant Intel on Wednesday announced plans for a fleet of self-driving cars following its completion of the purchase of Israeli autonomous technology firm Mobileye.
  
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• Oldest Gliding Mammals Shed Light on the History of Flight

  09-08-2017 22:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  The oldest gliding mammals ever discovered are strengthening the case for taking to the skies.Well, they couldn't exactly soar like the eagles, but the two new species, discovered in China, at least sampled the aerial life. Both date to around 160 million years ago during the Jurassic Period, when mammals as a lineage were first getting off the ground — both metaphorically and literally. They're not directly related to the gliders of today, however. Gliding instead seems to be advantageo
  
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• Does drinking hot liquids on a hot day actually cool you off?

  09-08-2017 22:30
  
  Ask Us Anything Yes, technically, but not nearly enough.
  When it's boiling out, should you reach for an iced tea, or a nice hot cuppa? It turns out, the old wives' tale might have some support, but not quite enough.
  
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• Kentucky man, transgender wife sue Amazon for workplace bias

  09-08-2017 22:25 via abcnews.go.com
  A Kentucky man and his transgender wife file federal lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that they endured sustained discrimination and harassment during a year as co-workers at an Amazon warehouse in Kentucky
  
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• Scientists shine new light on the 'other high temperature superconductor'

  09-08-2017 21:51
  A study led by scientists of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science in Hamburg presents evidence of the coexistence of superconductivity and "charge-density-waves" in compounds of the poorly-studied family of bismuthates. This observation opens up new perspectives for a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity, a topic which is at the core of condensed matter research since more th
  
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• Google gender debacle speaks to tech culture wars, politics

  09-08-2017 21:48
  The Google engineer who blamed biological differences for the paucity of women in tech had every right to express his views. And Google likely had every right to fire him, workplace experts and lawyers say.
  
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• The benefits—and potential pitfalls—of urban green spaces

  09-08-2017 21:47
  With the rapid expansion of the urban landscape, successfully managing ecosystems in built areas has never been more important. However, our understanding of urban ecology is far from complete, and the data at hand are often patchy, leaving stakeholders without the tools they need to successfully manage human-affected ecosystems.
  
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• Disney empire strikes back, sort of, with new streaming plan

  09-08-2017 21:39
  Walt Disney Co. has the potential to shake up the television sector with its plan to offer direct-to-consumer streaming services and take on Netflix on its own turf.
  
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• Scientists show growing atom-thin sheets on cones allows control of defects

  09-08-2017 21:37
  Rice University researchers have learned to manipulate two-dimensional materials to design in defects that enhance the materials' properties.
  
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• Understanding salamander breeding patterns may lead to better forest management, conservation strategies

  09-08-2017 21:36
  With changing environments, pond-breeding salamanders face increasingly hazardous treks as the space between breeding ponds and their non-breeding habitat widens or is degraded. A study from the University of Missouri suggests that a salamander's success may depend more on when it breeds than on the landscape obstacles it might face. Scientists believe that knowing the patterns in which salamanders move back and forth could lead to better forest management and conservation strategies.
  
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• This smart window uses electricity to quickly change from clear to dark

  09-08-2017 21:32
  
  TechnologyBright news.
  New technology for smart windows, described today in the journal Joule, might actually be an intelligent idea. Read on.
  
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• Google Plans Snapchat Rival, How Can Your Business Benefit? - Small Business Trends

  09-08-2017 21:31
  Washington Post
  Google Plans Snapchat Rival, How Can Your Business Benefit?
  Small Business Trends
  Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is reportedly working on creating a Snapchat rival. And it could be something worth watching for small businesses. The company is in talks to transform its Instant News Articles into something similar to Snapchat's Discover feature.
  Snap is happy for now to let Facebook copy its featuresIrish Examiner
  Is Facebook Inc (FB) Copying Snap Maps Now?StockNews.com (blog)
  Snap Second-
  
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• Gigantic dinosaur finally has a name of its own

  09-08-2017 21:15
  
  ScienceHe who must be named.
  This morning, the Titanosaur that has been on display in the American Museum of Natural History received an official scientific name alongside a study done by…
  
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• World’s Leading Physicist Says Quantum Computers Are ‘Tools of Destruction, Not Creation’

  09-08-2017 21:04 via technocracy.news
  Proponents of Technocracy are counting on the coming-of-age of quantum computers to enable their science of social engineering and world control. However, this leading physicist says that quantum computers will be ‘tools of destruction, not creation’ and I think we should be asking some hard questions. ⁃ TN EditorWeapon of Mass Disruption
  Quantum Computers are heralded as the next step in the evolution of data processing. The future of this technology promises us a tool th
  
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• Intolerance At Google Exposes A Massive Culture of Technocrats

  09-08-2017 20:28 via technocracy.news
  Technocrats at Google have finally exposed themselves as the cultural frauds that they are. Tolerance is un-tolerance. Diversity is un-diversity. You believe their way, or it’s the highway for you. Conservative values and opinions will get you fired. Incidentally, last year Google quietly dropped its original motto, “Don’t be evil”.
  This is a MUST-read article and MUST-see video interview ⁃ TN EditorFor those who have managed to avoid this storyline, James Damo
  
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• Atlantic hurricane season could be 'extremely active': NOAA

  09-08-2017 20:23
  The Atlantic Ocean now faces a higher likelihood of an "extremely active" hurricane season with more storms than previously predicted, US forecasters warned Wednesday, updating the previous outlook issued in May.
  
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• GE closing Rochester plant, work being moved to China

  09-08-2017 20:18
  General Electric says it will close its manufacturing facility in Rochester next year and the work will be moved to China.
  
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• Spray can stunt prompts Twitter to act on hateful tweets

  09-08-2017 20:17
  An artist tired of seeing hateful tweets ignored by Twitter has managed to get the social network to remove or hide some of them—by spray-painting the offending posts in front of the company's German headquarters.
  
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• Researchers are undertaking two projects that will inform the oil platform decommissioning process in California

  09-08-2017 20:16
  When the Colorado-based oil company Venoco, Inc.—founded in Carpinteria, California, more than two decades ago—declared bankruptcy last spring and ceded its offshore lease, the state of California "inherited" 50-year-old Platform Holly off the coast of Santa Barbara.
  
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• Chaotic magnetic field lines may answer the coronal heating problem

  09-08-2017 20:16
  It is known that the sun's corona—the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere—is roughly 100 times hotter than its photosphere—the sun's visible layer. The reason for this mysterious heating of the solar coronal plasma, however, is not yet entirely understood. A research team in India has developed a set of numerical computations to shed light on this phenomenon, and present this week in Physics of Plasmas, analysis examining the role of chaotic magnetic fields in potential hea
  
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• Suomi NPP satellite takes a double look at Tropical Storm Franklin

  09-08-2017 20:14
  When NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite passed over Tropical Storm Franklin instruments aboard provided a night-time view of the storm's clouds and measured their temperatures, revealing a strengthening storm.
  
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• NASA's Webb Telescope summertime deep-freeze continues

  09-08-2017 20:14
  NASA's James Webb Space Telescope began a nearly 100-day cryogenic test in a giant chamber in Texas in mid-July. Components of the Webb have previously endured similar tests to ensure they would function in the cold environment of space. Now all of those components are being tested together in the giant thermal vacuum known as Chamber A at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
  
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• Defining standards for genomes from uncultivated microorganisms

  09-08-2017 20:11
  During the Industrial Revolution, factories began relying on machines rather than people for mass production. Amidst the societal changes, standardization crept in, from ensuring nuts and bolts were made identically to maintain production quality, to a standard railroad gauge used on both sides of the Atlantic. The importance of standards is dramatically illustrated when they don't exist or are not commonly accepted, e.g., Macs, vs. PCs, or even pounds vs. kilograms.
  
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• Researchers 'count cars'—literally—to find a better way to control heavy traffic

  09-08-2017 20:05
  There's "Counting Crows," counting sheep, counting blessings and now researchers at Florida Atlantic University have their own version of "counting cars"—literally—in an attempt to improve traffic flow on South Florida's and our nation's overcrowded roads. And with more than 263 million registered passenger vehicles in the United States and more than 14 million registered vehicles in Florida alone, this is no small feat.
  
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• RAVAN CubeSat measures Earth's outgoing energy

  09-08-2017 20:02
  An experimental small satellite has successfully collected and delivered data on a key measurement for predicting changes in Earth's climate.
  
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• The color of people's clothing affects lizard escape behavior

  09-08-2017 20:00
  The color of T-shirts people wear affects escape behavior in western fence lizards, according to a study published August 9, 2017 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Breanna Putman from University of California, Los Angeles and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, U.S.A., and colleagues.
  
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• Study estimates oxygen loss in ancient global ocean

  09-08-2017 20:00
  A loss of oxygen in global ocean seawater 94 million years ago led to a mass extinction of marine life that lasted for roughly half a million years.
  
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• Researchers detail one of the biggest proteins ever found

  09-08-2017 20:00
  A bacterium living in the icy-cold waters of Antarctica manages to survive by gripping on to the ice surface. The protein used by the bacterium to do this—a kind of extendable anchor—has been detailed by a group of researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Queen's University (Canada) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). Quite special, because at 600 nanometers, it is one of the biggest proteins for which the structure has ever been identified. Useful too
  
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• New analysis casts doubt on predicted decrease in Oklahoma earthquakes

  09-08-2017 20:00
  The disposal of wastewater from oil and gas production by injecting it deep into the ground has been linked to a dramatic increase in earthquake activity in Oklahoma since 2009. Injection rates have declined recently because of regulatory actions and market forces, but seismologists say that has not yet significantly reduced the risk of potentially damaging earthquakes.
  
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• Lunar dynamo's lifetime extended by at least 1 billion years

  09-08-2017 20:00
  New evidence from ancient lunar rocks suggests that an active dynamo once churned within the molten metallic core of the moon, generating a magnetic field that lasted at least 1 billion years longer than previously thought. Dynamos are natural generators of magnetic fields around terrestrial bodies, and are powered by the churning of conducting fluids within many stars and planets. In a paper published today in Science Advances, researchers from MIT and Rutgers University report that a lunar roc
  
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• Human bones may have been engraved as part of a cannibalistic ritual

  09-08-2017 20:00
  Human bones may have been engraved as part of a cannibalistic ritual during the Paleolithic period, according to a study published August 9, 2017 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Silvia Bello from The Natural History Museum, UK and colleagues.
  
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• Environmental policy, pollution and economic growth

  09-08-2017 20:00
  As the global population continues to urbanize in pursuit of a higher quality of life, the need to investigate the trade-off between the economic benefits and environmental costs of urbanization has never been greater. More than half of the world's population currently lives in urban areas, and the United Nations projects another 2.5 billion people will move to cities by 2050. While firms cluster in cities to recruit talent and realize higher productivity gains, how pollution scales with populat
  
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• Ancient pottery reveals insights on Iroquoian population's power in 16th century

  09-08-2017 20:00
  An innovative study published today in the journal Science Advances demonstrates how decorations on ancient pottery can be used to discover new evidence for how groups interacted across large regions. The research, conducted by John P. Hart, Director of Research and Collections at the New York State Museum; Jennifer Birch, Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia; and Christian Gates St-Pierre, Assistant Professor at the University of Montreal, sheds new light on the importance of a litt
  
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• New optical method pinpoints weak spots in jet engine thermal coatings

  09-08-2017 19:55
  Researchers have demonstrated, for the first time, that an optical analysis method can reveal weak areas in ceramic thermal barrier coatings that protect jet engine turbines from high temperatures and wear. The technique could be used to predict how long coatings would last on an airplane and might eventually lead to new thermal barrier coatings, making engines more efficient and cutting both the cost and pollution of air travel.
  
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• Updated computer code improves prediction of particle motion in plasma experiments

  09-08-2017 19:54
  A computer code used by physicists around the world to analyze and predict tokamak experiments can now approximate the behavior of highly energetic atomic nuclei, or ions, in fusion plasmas more accurately than ever. The new capability, developed by physicist Mario Podestà at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), outfits the code known as TRANSP with a subprogram that simulates the motion that leads to the loss of energetic ions caused by instab
  
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• Researchers create biomaterial that delivers both a powerful drug and gene silencers

  09-08-2017 19:53
  Clinicians today have an arsenal of more than 200 drugs at their disposal for treating a range of cancers—68 drugs were approved between 2011 and 2016 alone. But many chemotherapeutic agents pose stubborn challenges: they cause serious side effects because they kill healthy cells in addition to cancer cells; some forms of cancer develop resistance to drugs; and many such chemotherapies, being poorly water-soluble, demonstrate low bio-availability resulting in sub-optimal drug delivery to c
  
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• Fin24.com | Women make strides in maritime industry

  09-08-2017 19:30
  
  Women have been instrumental in driving initiatives nationally in the maritime industry, with several females leading pivotal roles and serving as harbor masters at major ports around South Africa.
  
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• What it takes to recover from drought

  09-08-2017 19:00
  Drought-stricken areas anxiously await the arrival of rain. Full recovery of the ecosystem, however, can extend long past the first rain drops on thirsty ground.
  
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• Were Modern Humans in Indonesia 73,000 Years Ago?

  09-08-2017 19:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  The conventional timeline of human evolution and migration continues to crumble in the face of new research. The latest finding puts anatomically modern humans deep in Indonesia up to 73,000 years ago — tens of thousands of years before once thought possible.The old school timeline, still widely taught, went something like this: Homo sapiens evolved into a distinct species from earlier hominins about 200,000 years ago in Africa and became anatomically modern humans (AMHs) ab
  
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• Researchers discover first winged mammals from the Jurassic period

  09-08-2017 19:00
  Two 160 million-year-old mammal fossils discovered in China show that the forerunners of mammals in the Jurassic Period evolved to glide and live in trees. With long limbs, long hand and foot fingers, and wing-like membranes for tree-to-tree gliding, Maiopatagium furculiferum and Vilevolodon diplomylos are the oldest known gliders in the long history of early mammals.
  
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• New 13-million-year-old infant skull sheds light on ape ancestry

  09-08-2017 19:00
  The discovery in Kenya of a remarkably complete fossil ape skull reveals what the common ancestor of all living apes and humans may have looked like. The find, announced in the scientific journal Nature on August 10th, belongs to an infant that lived about 13 million years ago. The research was done by an international team led by Isaiah Nengo of Stony Brook University-affiliated Turkana Basin Institute and De Anza College. 
  
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• Fruit fly mutation foretells 40 million years of evolution

  09-08-2017 19:00
  Small, seemingly insignificant mutations in fruit flies may actually hold clues as to how a species will evolve tens of millions of years in the future.
  
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• A battery-inspired strategy for carbon fixation

  09-08-2017 18:00
  Scientists working toward the elusive lithium-air battery discovered an unexpected approach to capturing and storing carbon dioxide away from the atmosphere. Using a design intended for a lithium-CO2 battery, researchers in Japan and China have developed a way to isolate solid carbon dust from gaseous carbon dioxide, with the potential to also separate out oxygen gas through the same method. Their work appears August 9 in Joule, a new interdisciplinary energy journal from Cell Press.
  
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• How art could help encourage kids to study science

  09-08-2017 17:58
  
  Science"You gotta Crash and Learn."
  STEAM is a growing movement in education to teach art and science together. Learn why it makes the former Mythbuster's host so excited, and how it can help kids learn to…
  
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