Sci-Tech news

• Herschel Space Telescope Helps Unlocked the Secrets of Star Formation

  18-09-2017 23:41 via scitechdaily.com
  Using the Herschel Space Telescope, astronomers have made giant strides in our understanding of the physical processes that lead to the birth of stars and...
  The post Herschel Space Telescope Helps Unlocked the Secrets of Star Formation appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• What the Pop Sci folks are reading right now

  18-09-2017 23:30
  
  GadgetsThe books on our end-of-summer reading list.
  "It's one of the best classical fantasy series ever." From sci-fi to biographies, these are the books we're reading now.
  
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• Why some hurricanes linger while other storms die quickly

  18-09-2017 22:58
  This hurricane season is showing how wild and varied storms' life cycles can be.
  
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• V745 Sco: Two stars, three dimensions, and oodles of energy

  18-09-2017 22:57
  For decades, astronomers have known about irregular outbursts from the double star system V745 Sco, which is located about 25,000 light years from Earth. Astronomers were caught by surprise when previous outbursts from this system were seen in 1937 and 1989. When the system erupted on February 6, 2014, however, scientists were ready to observe the event with a suite of telescopes including NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
  
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• Cassini Spacecraft Bids Farewell to Saturn’s Moon Iapetus

  18-09-2017 22:55 via scitechdaily.com
  NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft continues its farewell tour as it views Saturn’s yin-and-yang moon, Iapetus for the last time. The above image is from the last...
  The post Cassini Spacecraft Bids Farewell to Saturn’s Moon Iapetus appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Wisconsin governor signs $3 billion Foxconn bill into law

  18-09-2017 22:45
  Gov. Scott Walker signed a $3 billion incentive package Monday for Foxconn Technology Group to build a flat-screen plant in southeastern Wisconsin, a deal he says will provide thousands of jobs for generations.
  
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• Lawsuit aims to block oil drilling on US land in Nevada

  18-09-2017 22:31
  Environmentalists have sued a U.S. agency to try to stop it from allowing oil and gas drilling on a vast stretch of federal land in Nevada, where the government is reversing protections put in place nine months ago under the Obama administration.
  
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• New research indicates the importance of early season control of herbicide-resistant kochia

  18-09-2017 22:27
  Researchers writing in the latest edition of the journal Weed Science are providing new insights into the control of herbicide-resistant kochia, a weed that competes with both dryland and irrigated crops across the Great Plains states.
  
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• New self-powered paper patch could help diabetics measure glucose during exercise

  18-09-2017 22:26
  A new paper-based sensor patch developed by researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York could allow diabetics to effectively measure glucose levels during exercise.
  
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• Cassini is gone. What comes next?

  18-09-2017 22:25
  
  SpaceEuropa, the outer solar system, and a lot of questions.
  Cassini is no more, but that doesn’t mean that we’ll stop exploring.
  
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• Fake news more likely to thrive online due to lowered fact-checking

  18-09-2017 22:24
  The power and proliferation of fake online news stems not only from its apparent ubiquity but also from a sense of the presence of others that social media sites create, according to new research conducted by Gita Johar, the Meyer Feldberg Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, along with doctoral students Rachel Meng and Youjung Jun. The researchers found that when people are presented with claims whose veracity is ambiguous they are less likely to fact-check the claims when the inf
  
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• Reliance on 'gut feelings' linked to belief in fake news

  18-09-2017 22:22
  People who tend to trust their intuition or to believe that the facts they hear are politically biased are more likely to stand behind inaccurate beliefs, a new study suggests.
  
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• NASA sees Hurricane Jose off the US east coast

  18-09-2017 22:22
  Hurricane Jose producing dangerous surf and rip currents along the east Coast of the United States. Satellite imagery shows Jose is now close enough to the coast to also trigger a tropical storm warnings and watches.
  
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• Researchers unlock potential pathway to treat flesh-eating bacteria

  18-09-2017 22:21
  Researchers at Houston Methodist have solved a 100-year-old mystery, providing them a possible key to unlock a pathway for treating diseases caused by flesh-eating bacteria. This is timely news, given the current dangers lurking in the debris and destruction left behind by Hurricane Harvey's floodwaters that destroyed tens of thousands of homes in Texas.
  
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• Horses working in therapeutic riding programs do not experience additional stress

  18-09-2017 22:18
  In the United States, therapeutic horseback riding offers equine-assisted therapy to diverse populations, including children and adults who have anxiety disorders. Veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder often are prescribed this type of therapy in order to cope with anxiety, but little is known about how these programs affect the stress levels in horses. Now, a University of Missouri study has revealed that horses ridden by veterans with PTSD did not have undue physiological stre
  
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• Solar-to-fuel system recycles CO2 to make ethanol and ethylene

  18-09-2017 22:16
  Scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have harnessed the power of photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide into fuels and alcohols at efficiencies far greater than plants. The achievement marks a significant milestone in the effort to move toward sustainable sources of fuel.
  
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• Intel chips loaded in Waymo self-driving minivans

  18-09-2017 22:16
  Intel on Monday announced its computing tech is being loaded into Waymo self-driving minivans as the chip giant seeks a leading position on the road to autonomous vehicles.
  
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• Enzyme's worth to biofuels shown in latest research

  18-09-2017 22:15
  An enzyme discovered at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) proves adept at breaking down cellulose fibers regardless of whether their crystalline structure is simple or highly complex. No other enzyme has shown that ability.
  
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• VLA begins huge project of cosmic discovery

  18-09-2017 22:07
  Astronomers have embarked on the largest observing project in the more than four-decade history of the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA)—a huge survey of the sky that promises a rich scientific payoff over many years.
  
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• Optical and electrical bistability study sheds light on next-gen high speed data transfer

  18-09-2017 22:07
  Today, electrical bistable devices are the foundation of digital electronics, serving as building blocks of switches, logic gates and memories in computer systems. However, the bandwidth of these electronic computers is limited by the signal delay of time constants important to electronic logic operations. In an attempt to mitigate these problems, scientists have considered the development of an optical digital computer, and one team has gone so far as to demonstrate the optical and electrical b
  
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• Copper catalyst yields high efficiency CO2-to-fuels conversion

  18-09-2017 22:04
  Scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a new electrocatalyst that can directly convert carbon dioxide into multicarbon fuels and alcohols using record-low inputs of energy. The work is the latest in a round of studies coming out of Berkeley Lab tackling the challenge of creating a clean chemical manufacturing system that can put carbon dioxide to good use.
  
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• NREL investigates coatings needed for concentrating solar power

  18-09-2017 21:59
  Next-generation concentrating solar power (CSP) plants require high-temperature fluids, like molten salts, in the range of 550-750 degrees Celsius to store heat and generate electricity. At those high temperatures, however, the molten salts eat away at common alloys used in the heat exchangers, piping, and storage vessels of CSP systems. New research at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is aimed at mitigating corrosion levels in CSP plants with nickel-ba
  
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• New approach boosts performance in thermoelectric materials

  18-09-2017 21:57
  Thermoelectric materials are considered a key resource for the future - able to produce electricity from sources of heat that would otherwise go to waste, from power plants, vehicle tailpipes and elsewhere, without generating additional greenhouse gases. Although a number of materials with thermoelectric properties have been discovered, most produce too little power for practical applications.
  
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• NASA identifies wind shear affecting Tropical Storm Lee

  18-09-2017 21:53
  Visible imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite showed Tropical Storm Lee as a weak swirl of clouds around its center with most of its clouds and thunderstorms pushed east of its center.
  
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• 62 percent off iPhone 8 cases and other good deals happening today

  18-09-2017 21:45
  
  GadgetsA quick guide to getting the goods for cheaper.
  PopSci is always on the lookout for today's best deals. Our lists will be updated throughout the day, so check back to see if stumbled upon any awesome new discounts.
  
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• World Wildlife Fund sues over Greece oil spill from tanker

  18-09-2017 21:41 via abcnews.go.com
  The World Wildlife Fund has filed a lawsuit over extensive pollution to the coastline outside Athens following the sinking of a tanker near Greece's largest port
  
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• This Exoplanet Is Burning Hot and Pitch Black

  18-09-2017 21:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  An exoplanet twice the size of Jupiter is hot, egg-shaped and coal-black.Wasp-12b is a gas giant orbiting around a Sun-like star some 1,400 light-years away. It makes a complete orbit around its sun in just 24 hours because it lies so close to its star, and the proximity pushes the temperature to around 4,700 degrees Fahrenheit. It's so hot that molecules there are broken down into atomic hydrogen and helium, and the extreme conditions give it an albedo of just .064, making the planet'
  
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• The Moon Blocks 3 Planets, Star Today - Space.com

  18-09-2017 21:01
  Space.com
  The Moon Blocks 3 Planets, Star Today
  Space.com
  In the pre-dawn sky on Sept. 18, 2017, the old crescent moon joined a chain of naked-eye objects low in the eastern sky. The moon will block all four of these objects — Venus, the star Regulus, Mars and Mercury — over the course of the day, in ...
  There's something just as cool as the solar eclipse going on right now that's harder to seeQuartz
  Look up! The moon is in very rare formation right nowCNET
  Rare Celestial 'Occultati
  
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• When it comes to the threat of extinction, size matters

  18-09-2017 21:00
  Animals in the Goldilocks zone—neither too big, nor too small, but just the right size—face a lower risk of extinction than do those on both ends of the scale, according to an extensive global analysis.
  
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• Scientists edit butterfly wing spots and stripes

  18-09-2017 21:00
  An international research team working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama knocked-out a single control gene in the DNA of seven different butterfly species. In the Sept. 18 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences early online edition, they reveal the surprising results of rewiring the WntA gene: a single gene influences the exuberant diversity of butterfly wing patterns in nature.
  
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• Deep roots in plants driven by soil hydrology

  18-09-2017 21:00
  Searching for water, some tree roots probe hundreds of feet deep and many trees send roots through cracks in rocks, according to a new study led by a Rutgers University-New Brunswick professor.
  
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• Catching diversity of fish species means more stable income for fishers

  18-09-2017 21:00
  Catching a diversity of fish species—instead of specializing—means more stable income for fishers
  
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• Blood testing via sound waves may replace some tissue biopsies

  18-09-2017 21:00
  Cells secrete nanoscale packets called exosomes that carry important messages from one part of the body to another. Scientists from MIT and other institutions have now devised a way to intercept these messages, which could be used to diagnose problems such as cancer or fetal abnormalities.
  
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• Engineers Develop a New Approach to Ultrafast Light Pulses

  18-09-2017 20:57 via scitechdaily.com
  A team of engineers has developed a new approach to ultrafast light pulses that could be used for rapid light-based communications systems. Two-dimensional materials called...
  The post Engineers Develop a New Approach to Ultrafast Light Pulses appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• All the ways hurricanes can harm—and help—the ecosystems they hit

  18-09-2017 20:56
  
  EnvironmentWhat Harvey and Irma left behind.
  Hurricanes alter every ecosystem they pass through on both land and sea.
  
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• Animal Hoarding Is a Unique Mental Disorder, Researchers Say

  18-09-2017 20:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  The "cat lady" may be more than just a stereotype. After investigating roughly 30 people who collected nearly 1,400 animals total in southern Brazil, researchers now suggest that such men and women are afflicted with what they called animal hoarding disorder—not to be lumped in with object hoarding.The first scientific reports of people living with an excessive number of animals first appeared in 1981. Animal hoarding is currently thought of a variant of hoarding disorder, in which peopl
  
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• Intravaginal Tunes and Didgeridoos: Your 2017 Ig Nobel Winners

  18-09-2017 19:23 via feedproxy.google.com
  Not all science needs to be so serious. Since 1991, the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony has proven that the best scientific research can sometimes be a mix of impactful and irreverent.Let’s check out this year’s winners, broken down by scientific category.Physics: "On the Rheology of Cats"Cat owners are familiar with the peculiar quality of felines to fill whatever vessel they occupy, much like a liquid. So it’s only appropriate that the field of rheology, or the branch of physics that
  
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• Last week in tech: The iPhone X is real and Polaroid is back from the dead

  18-09-2017 19:07
  
  TechnologyCatch up on the stuff you missed while Apple rolled out its new products.
  Polaroid has a new camera and film, Kickstarter has a tea robot, oh, and Apple announced a bunch of new iPhones.
  
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• Lighter weights, lower costs in additive manufacturing

  18-09-2017 19:01
  It's never long before the most advanced technology needs its own innovations. Additive manufacturing, the gold standard for innovative industry production, has reached that point. With its use steadily increasing, there arises the need to fine-tune this production method; to develop a process that makes additive manufacturing a responsible, cost-effective business decision. Mechanical Engineering professor Levent Burak Kara, his Ph.D. student Erva Ulu, and Robotics Institute assistant professor
  
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• Is there a single food that you can survive on forever?

  18-09-2017 19:00
  
  Ask Us Anything Potatoes are close, but not close enough.
  A combination of sweet and white potatoes hypothetically has all the major nutrients you need to survive for awhile, though you may have to eat a lot of spuds.
  
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• Earth sweltered to 3rd hottest August, summer on record

  18-09-2017 18:59
  Earth just sweated through the third hottest August and summer on record.
  
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• Study compares PhD programs in different countries

  18-09-2017 18:58
  The PhD degree was established in Berlin 200 years ago and has spread across the world. Today there is a global tendency to follow the programs currently used either in the United States or in Continental Europe. A new study in FEBS Open Bio examines how US and European PhD programs are both similar and different.
  
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• When radio galaxies collide, supermassive black holes form tightly bound pairs

  18-09-2017 18:55
  A study using multiple radio telescopes confirms that supermassive black holes found in the centers of galaxies can form gravitationally bound pairs when galaxies merge.
  
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• Putting smart weapons to the test

  18-09-2017 18:55
  In the old days, a slingshot, BB gun, rifle or cannon was only as smart as the marksman taking aim.
  
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• NASA sees Maria intensify into a major hurricane

  18-09-2017 18:53
  NASA and NOAA satellites have provided data on Maria as it strengthened into a major Hurricane headed toward the Leeward Islands. NASA's Aqua satellite provided an infrared look at Maria that showed cooling cloud top temperatures and NOAA's GOES satellite provided an animation of imagery that showed the storm developing and strengthening. The GPM satellite found "Hot" towering clouds that indicated strengthening was occurring before Maria became a major hurricane.
  
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• Shonda Rhimes Launches New Lifestyle Website

  18-09-2017 18:33 via nbcnews.com
  Shonda Rhimes and her team at Shondaland have partnered with Hearst and launched a new website, shondaland.com, to expand their brand in the digital space.
  
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• Wait-and-see strategy pays off, incentives needed for risk takers

  18-09-2017 18:27
  Some people are quick to purchase the latest technology or sign up for a new service. Others adopt a wait-and-see strategy. A recent study by University of Illinois economist Hope Michelson, finds this is true for farmers in Nicaragua who enter into contracts with Walmart.
  
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• A new approach to ultrafast light pulses

  18-09-2017 18:26
  Two-dimensional materials called molecular aggregates are very effective light emitters that work on a different principle than typical organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) or quantum dots. But their potential as components for new kinds of optoelectronic devices has been limited by their relatively slow response time. Now, researchers at MIT, the University of California at Berkeley, and Northeastern University have found a way to overcome that limitation, potentially opening up a variety of a
  
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• NASA’s Cassini Completes Its Historic Exploration of Saturn

  18-09-2017 18:24 via scitechdaily.com
  NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft made a fateful plunge into the atmosphere of Saturn, ending its 13-year tour of the ringed planet and closing a thrilling chapter...
  The post NASA’s Cassini Completes Its Historic Exploration of Saturn appeared first on SciTech Daily.
  
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• Physicists discover a tri-anion particle with colossal stability

  18-09-2017 18:23
  Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have achieved a feat that is a first in the fields of physics and chemistry—one that could have wide-ranging applications.
  
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