Sci-Tech news

• After Harvey, insurance drones take to the Texas skies

  04-09-2017 23:11
  Insurance adjusters bringing drones with them to Texas to assess damage from Harvey
  
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• Dramatic satellite video shows fire and smoke from roaring blazes across more than a million acres of the U.S. West

  04-09-2017 22:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  Smoke from the fires appears to have blown all the way across North America and more than half way across the Atlantic
  As of this afternoon, 77 large fires are burning across 1.4 million acres in eight western U.S. states. That's an area more than three times the size of Houston.The burning is part of a long-term trend of increasing wildfire in the West, brought on by human-caused climate change.Hardest hit by fire right now is Montana, with 26 large wildfires blazing today across 6
  
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• Relief comes slowly for coastal towns recovering from Harvey

  04-09-2017 22:04
  Some shoreline communities that bore the brunt of Hurricane Harvey still need clean water, electricity and health care more than a week after the winds and rain subsided.
  
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• Google proposals 'in right direction,' EU anti-trust chief says

  04-09-2017 22:04
  Europe's anti-trust chief Margrethe Vestager on Monday said Google's proposals to comply with an EU order to modify its shopping service pointed in the "right direction".
  
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• New Dates For Neanderthals Shakes Up Long-Held Theory

  04-09-2017 21:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  With every new find, our understanding of the twilight of the Neanderthals, our nearest hominin kin, advances. Or not.New research on some of the most famous Neanderthal fossils, from Croatia's Vindija Cave, suggest earlier analysis about their age and significance may be all wrong. Oops.
  More than 40 years ago, researchers in Vindija Cave unearthed hominin bones and a curious assemblage of stone and bone tools that seemed to be a mixed bag of technology styles: Some were of the typ
  
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• Mobile women were key to cultural exchange in Stone Age and Bronze Age Europe

  04-09-2017 21:00
  At the end of the Stone Age and in the early Bronze Age, families were established in a surprising manner in the Lechtal, south of Augsburg, Germany. The majority of women came from outside the area, probably from Bohemia or Central Germany, while men usually remained in the region of their birth. This so-called patrilocal pattern combined with individual female mobility was not a temporary phenomenon, but persisted over a period of 800 years during the transition from the Neolithic to the Early
  
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• Massive Antarctic volcanic eruptions linked to abrupt Southern hemisphere climate changes

  04-09-2017 21:00
  New findings published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) by Desert Research Institute (DRI) Professor Joseph R. McConnell, Ph.D., and colleagues document a 192-year series of volcanic eruptions in Antarctica that coincided with accelerated deglaciation about 17,700 years ago.
  
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• Experts call for added focus on the impact of glacier mass loss on downstream systems

  04-09-2017 21:00
  Researchers have warned of an 'urgent worldwide need' to address a broad spectrum of cascading impacts of glacier mass loss on downstream systems.
  
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• Last Week in Tech: Oh man, look at all these sweet 'Star Wars' toys

  04-09-2017 18:53
  
  GadgetsPut that hot dog down and look at all this cool new stuff you missed
  Avoid awkward small talk at your Labor Day barbecue and catch up on the latest tech news with one handy article!
  
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• Scientists expose true extent of cuckoo's cunning

  04-09-2017 18:46
  The common cuckoo, notorious for evading parental duty by hiding her eggs in the nests of other brooding birds, is even more devious than previously thought, scientists revealed on Monday.
  
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• Battling to thwart diesel bans, Merkel throws in the cash

  04-09-2017 17:08
  Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday pledged a billion euros to help German cities fight air pollution caused by dirty diesel cars, as a scandal strangling the automobile industry threatened to engulf politicians at the height of an election campaign.
  
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• Team gathers unprecedented data on atmosphere's organic chemistry

  04-09-2017 17:00
  For a few weeks over the summer in 2011, teams of scientists from around the world converged on a small patch of ponderosa pine forest in Colorado to carry out one of the most detailed, extended survey of atmospheric chemistry ever attempted in one place, in many cases using new measurement devices created especially for this project. Now, after years of analysis, their comprehensive synthesis of the findings have been released this week.
  
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• New fluorescent dyes could advance biological imaging

  04-09-2017 17:00
  With a new technique to craft a spectrum of glowing dyes, chemists are no longer chasing rainbows.
  
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• More 'losers' than 'winners' predicted for Southern Ocean seafloor animals

  04-09-2017 17:00
  A new study of the marine invertebrates living in the seas around Antarctica reveals there will be more 'losers' than 'winners' over the next century as the Antarctic seafloor warms. The results are published in the journal Nature Climate Change this week.
  
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• Voice assistants promise a light-fingered future

  04-09-2017 16:15
  Tomorrow's digital interface may be even more revolutionary than the pinching, tapping and scrolling heralded by the smartphone: voice commands promise to unify and tame our digital lives.
  
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• This spacecraft is thinner than a human hair and can capture space debris

  04-09-2017 16:00
  
  SpaceEarth’s orbit is becoming dangerously crowded with space junk.
  Brane Craft is a super-thin spacecraft that will mop up small pieces of debris in Earth's orbit.
  
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• WATCH: Recent hack on Instagram is found to be worse than originally thought

  04-09-2017 15:48
  The company now believes as many as 6 million verified and non-verified accounts may have been affected.
  
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• Fin24.com | Apple sets launch event to debut revamped iPhone

  04-09-2017 15:35
  
  Apple has set the date for its most significant new product announcement in years.
  
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• What is the 'red glare' in the Star Spangled Banner?

  04-09-2017 15:30
  
  ScienceA history of rocket technology.
  Ever wondered what the rockets in “rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air” are? What were rockets in 1814—when the Star Spangled Banner was written?
  
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• Two distant hypervelocity stars discovered by Chinese astronomers

  04-09-2017 15:00
  (Phys.org)—A group of Chinese astronomers led by Yang Huang of the Yunnan University in Kunming, China, has detected two new unbound hypervelocity stars located over 70,000 light years away. The discovery, described in a paper published Aug. 29 on the arXiv pre-print server, could help scientists better understand the nature of these rare, peculiar stars.
  
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• Google tied search results position to promotion of its own social network, writer says

  04-09-2017 15:00
  After claims that Google got a think-tank research team fired for criticizing the company, a journalist is alleging other abuses by the company.
  
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• Gaia sky mapper image near the galactic center

  04-09-2017 14:53
  Gaia, ESA's billion-star surveyor, is detecting stars and measuring their properties in order to build up the most precise 3-D map of the Milky Way. By accurately measuring the motion of each star, astronomers will be able to peer back in time to understand the Milky Way's history, its evolution and its destiny.
  
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• Unmanned ships are coming – but they could cost the cargo industry dearly

  04-09-2017 14:49
  The Yara Birkeland isn't an ordinary cargo ship. If all goes well then the vessel, currently being built for a Norwegian agricultural fertiliser company, will become the world's first fully autonomous cargo ship when it launches in 2020.
  
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• How shuttling proteins operate nuclear pores

  04-09-2017 14:49
  Nuclear pore complexes are tiny channels where the exchange of substances between the cell nucleus and the cytoplasm takes place. Scientists at the University of Basel report on startling new research that might overturn established models of nuclear transport regulation. Their study published in the Journal of Cell Biology reveals how shuttling proteins known as importins control the function of nuclear pores – as opposed to the view that nuclear pores control the shuttling of importins.
  
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• Mattis: NKorea threat would bring massive military response

  04-09-2017 14:48
  U.S. defense secretary shoots back at North Korea's claimed test of a hydrogen bomb with a blunt threat while South Korea's military holds live-fire exercises simulating an attack on the North's testing site
  
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• Equation reveals the characteristics of quantum chaos

  04-09-2017 14:46
  Researchers have now succeeded in formulating a mathematical result that provides an exact answer to the question of how chaos actually behaves. The researchers have analysed chaotic states at the atomic level.
  
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• How to improve children's language awareness at primary school

  04-09-2017 14:44
  Young children have a lot to fit into each school day. So making the best use of the little time allocated to learning a foreign language is paramount. In England, state primary schools have been required to offer children aged seven to 11 a foreign language since 2014. This seems to chime with the common assumption, supported by research, that the earlier we start learning a foreign language, the better we will eventually be able to speak it.
  
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• Medical camera sees through the body

  04-09-2017 14:40
  Scientists have developed a camera that can see through the human body. The camera is designed to help doctors track medical tools known as endoscopes that are used to investigate a range of internal conditions.
  
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• New spectrometers increase efficiency of X-ray analyses substantially

  04-09-2017 14:39
  So-called Fresnel zone plate spectrometers offer new and more efficient ways of conducting experiments using soft X-rays. In a study published in the journal Optics Express, scientists have presented the design for a reflection zone plate which simplifies the extremely complicated measurements on chemically and biologically relevant systems that have hitherto been difficult to conduct. A second study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, presents a spectrometer that uses a transmission z
  
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• Analysis reveals dozens of unknown gamma-ray sources in the universe

  04-09-2017 14:38
  Researchers at DESY have compiled an extensive catalogue of variable sources of cosmic gamma radiation. For his doctoral thesis, Matteo Giomi, working at DESY in Zeuthen, analysed almost 7.5 years of observational data from NASA's "Fermi" space telescope. Over that period, the "Large Area Telescope" (LAT) on board the satellite registered a total of 4547 bursts of gamma radiation, known as flares. Thanks to improved analytical methods, Giomi was able to assign these flares to 518 variable source
  
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• NASA's Van Allen probes survive extreme radiation five years on

  04-09-2017 14:37
  Most satellites, not designed to withstand high levels of particle radiation, wouldn't last a day in the Van Allen Radiation belts. Trapped by Earth's magnetic field into two giant belts around the planet, high-energy particles in the region can batter the spacecraft and even interfere with onboard electronics. But NASA's Van Allen Probes have been traveling through this hazardous area since Aug. 30 2012 – they are now celebrating their fifth year in space studying this dynamic region.
  
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• Artificial enzyme functions as well as natural version

  04-09-2017 14:34
  Scientists from the University of Bristol have designed an artificial enzyme that functions as well as (and in some cases better than) a vital class of natural enzymes.
  
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• Fin24.com | Celebrities' info on dark web after Instagram hack

  04-09-2017 14:25
  
  Photo-sharing social network Instagram says it has resolved a hack which affected nearly 6 million users, exposing the personal information of celebrities on the dark web.
  
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• What Hurricane Harvey says about risk, climate and resilience

  04-09-2017 14:00
  Hurricane Harvey has taught us many lessons, but the most valuable may be the oldest lesson of all, one we humans have been learning – and forgetting – since the dawn of time: how much we all have to lose when climate and weather disasters strike.
  
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• Indigenous storytelling is a new asset for biocultural conservation

  04-09-2017 13:50
  Some of the areas hosting most of the world's biodiversity are those inhabited by indigenous peoples. In the same way that biodiversity is being eroded, so is the world's cultural diversity. As a result, there have been several calls to promote biocultural conservation approaches that sustain both biodiversity and indigenous cultures.
  
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• Birds choose mates with ornamental traits

  04-09-2017 13:50
  A recurring theme in nature documentaries is that of choosy females selecting brightly colored males. A new study shows that, in monogamous mating systems, male birds may select their lifelong mates in much the same way.
  
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• Thunderstorm asthma—counting pollen to save lives

  04-09-2017 13:40
  As Melbourne slowly moves from winter into spring, most locals look forward to putting away their winter coats and spending more time outdoors, enjoying the longer, warmer days.
  
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• This is why we cannot rely on cities alone to tackle climate change

  04-09-2017 13:35
  A lot of faith is vested in cities to tackle climate change, and with good reason. A day after the June 1 declaration that the US would exit the Paris Agreement, 82 American "climate mayors" committed to upholding the accord.
  
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• Long-range interactions leave a quantum reminder

  04-09-2017 13:34
  Given enough time, a forgotten cup of coffee will lose its appeal and cool to room temperature. One way of telling this tepid tale involves a stupendous number of coffee molecules colliding like billiard balls with themselves and colder molecules in the air above. Those constant collisions siphon energy away from the coffee, bit by bit, in a process that physicists call thermalization.
  
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• Determining whether climate change made Hurricane Harvey worse

  04-09-2017 13:34
  After rapidly scaling up in strength, Hurricane Harvey has dumped an 'unprecedented' amount of rainfall onto Houston, Texas. Lives have been lost, homes flooded, and officials estimate the damages may make this one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history.
  
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• Protein 'rebar' could help make error-free nanostructures

  04-09-2017 13:33
  DNA is the stuff of life, but it is also the stuff of nanotechnology. Because molecules of DNA with complementary chemical structures recognize and bind to one another, strands of DNA can fit together like Lego blocks to make nanoscale objects of complex shape and structure.
  
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• Africa's most notorious insects – the bugs that hit agriculture the hardest

  04-09-2017 13:32
  The dreaded crop-eating fall armyworm continues to spread across Africa like wildfire. This invasive insect pest, first reported in Africa in early 2016, is in more than 20 African countries including South Sudan and South Africa. It has destroyed many staple crops like maize. Damage to maize alone by this pest could total USD$3 billion in the next 12 months.
  
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• Puppy-farmed dogs show worse behaviour, suffer ill health and die young – so adopt, don't shop

  04-09-2017 13:30
  There are an estimated 8.5m dogs in Britain, and demand means that unscrupulous people are happy to breed and sell dogs at a profit with scant thought for their welfare. The RSPCA estimate that up to 1.9m puppies are sold each year in the UK, yet according to the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home report only 12% are from licensed breeders.
  
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• Social psychologist explains how authorities can regain survivors' trust after Grenfell Tower fire

  04-09-2017 13:20
  In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, survivors and their supporters were outraged about the perceived lack of care and compassion shown by government bodies, and the agencies which act on their behalf. Since then, UK authorities have started criminal investigations, intervened in the management of social housing in the area and launched several inquiries.
  
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• Recurring fires are threatening the iconic snow gum

  04-09-2017 13:19
  In the 11 years between 2003 and 2014, the same amount of forest was burned in Victorian bushfires as in the previous 50 years – around four million hectares.
  
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• What earthquake science can tell us about North Korea's nuclear test

  04-09-2017 13:11
  North Korea is believed to have conducted a hydrogen bomb test. Seismic shockwaves from the underground test were felt in China, and quickly detected by both South Korea and Japan – both independently confirmed it was a nuclear test. So what can seismic science tell us about such tests?
  
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• Three reasons why pacemakers are vulnerable to hacking

  04-09-2017 13:10
  The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently recalled approximately 465,000 pacemakers made by the company Abbott's (formerly St. Jude Medical) that were vulnerable to hacking, but the situation points to an ongoing security problem.
  
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• A look back at Cassini's incredible mission to Saturn before its final plunge into the planet

  04-09-2017 13:06
  The Cassini space probe mission is coming to an end this month when the probe makes its final destructive plunge in to Saturn. It's spent the past thirteen years studying the planet, its rings and moons in unprecedented detail.
  
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• Self-beliefs shape what luxury means to us

  04-09-2017 13:05
  New research suggests our unconscious self-beliefs influence what we value in luxury items, and that rather than targeting particular kinds of consumers, marketers should shape our self-beliefs to fit with their brand.
  
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• Restricting HIV-1 infection

  04-09-2017 13:03
  The HIV-1 capsid protein (CA) interacts with viral factors that support infection and host factors that restrict it. The host protein cyclophilin A (CypA) binds to CA and enhances the action of host restriction factors that block HIV-1 infection.
  
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