Extraterrestrial oceans – beneath the surface
Icy objects in our solar system have large oceans under their surfaces and here life could evolve and flourish. So says a new thesis by Jesper Lindkvist, PhD student at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics and Umeå University. The thesis will be defended on Tuesday 31 May at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics in Kiruna, Sweden.
Using Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, astronomers will search for exploding stars, comets and potentially hazardous
Astronomers at Queen’s University Belfast will lead the UK’s efforts to search for exploding stars, comets and potentially hazardous asteroids using the world’s largest digital camera.
NASA’s Valkyrie robots set the table for human life on Mars
Four sister robots built by NASA could be pioneers in the colonization of Mars, part of an advance construction team that sets up a habitat for more fragile human explorers. But first they’re finding new homes on Earth and engineers to hone their skills.
Germany’s Bayer confirms takeover talks with US’s Monsanto
German drug and chemicals company Bayer AG confirmed Thursday it has entered talks with the Monsanto Company about the possible acquisition of the U.S.-based specialist in genetically modified crop seeds.
Apple to open office in India to make maps for its products
Apple says it will set up an office in southern India to develop maps for its products, the second such announcement since CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country on his first visit.
Opportunities and hurdles with Google’s Daydream VR vision
Upcoming virtual-reality headsets based on Google’s new Daydream VR system won’t be as sophisticated as Facebook’s Oculus Rift.
Technip, FMC to merge into $13 bln oil services firm
Oil and gas services companies Technip of France and American peer FMC Technologies said Thursday they have agreed to merge, creating one of the world’s top companies in the sector.
Burial sites show how Nubians, Egyptians integrated communities thousands of years ago in Nile River Valley area
New bioarchaeological evidence shows that Nubians and Egyptians integrated into a community, and even married, in ancient Sudan, according to new research from a Purdue University anthropologist.
Google virtual home assistant to challenge Amazon Echo (Update)
Google on Wednesday unveiled a virtual home assistant device that will challenge Amazon Echo as the Internet giant laid out a future rich with artificial intelligence.
Your friends have more friends than you do
No matter how smart and funny you think you are, those you follow on Twitter really do have a larger following than you. And the same holds true for Facebook. But there is no reason to feel badly about any of this, according to Naghmeh Momeni Taramsari, who is currently working on her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering at McGill University. According to her research, which was published earlier this spring in the journal PLOS ONE, it is all due to the inherently hierarchical nature of social media networks, where, in the social hierarchy of connections, people mostly either follow up or across; they rarely follow down.
To catch a poacher: GIS, drones can improve elephant conservation
Applying a suite of geographical information system (GIS) tools can improve monitoring for elephant poaching, according to Penn State researchers. Investigating Tsavo, a region in southwest Kenya that is home to that country’s largest elephant population, the researchers tried to identify methods that local conservation groups could use to reduce poaching.
LinkedIn confirms 2012 hack exposed 117M user passwords
LinkedIn said Wednesday that a 2012 breach resulted in more than 100 million of its users’ passwords being compromised—vastly more than previously thought.
Tesla raising cash to fund accelerated production
Luxury electric carmaker Tesla Motors announced Wednesday it planned to raise $1.4 billion in new capital to help fund stepped-up production of its new Model 3 car.
Giant prehistoric bird fossils found in Antarctica
Scientists on Wednesday said they have found the remains of a giant prehistoric bird that lived 50 million years ago in Antarctica and had the largest wingspan ever recorded.
Pondering the store’s future in an age of web buying
What’s the future of the physical store?
Google putting machine smarts into new messaging app
Google on Wednesday unveiled a smartphone messaging application infused with artificial intelligence as it moves to stay in tune with busy mobile Internet lifestyles.
At a Glance: Google’s newest tools, gadgets and services
A new virtual-reality system from Google and a way to use Android apps without downloading Android apps are among the highlights at the company’s annual developer showcase in Mountain View, California.
Pregnant mothers may shield unborn young from damage and risk their own mortality
Mammals can protect their unborn young from harmful chemicals in their blood even at the expense of their own survival odds, a study into mongooses conducted by researchers at the University of Exeter suggests.
First evidence of icy comets orbiting a sun-like star
An international team of astronomers have found evidence of ice and comets orbiting a nearby sun-like star, which could give a glimpse into how our own solar system developed.
New data on the variability of the Earth’s reflectance over the last 16 years
The Earth’s albedo, or reflectance, is a fundamental atmospheric parameter having deep implications for temperature and climate change. For that reason, experiments have been performed to monitor it over the past two decades to reveal how it evolves. One of these, in which the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias is a participant, has brought up to date the observations made since 2007 and adds to, and gives a new systematic record of the Earth’s albedo covering the period between 1998 and 2014 from California. This study, whose first author is IAC researcher Enric Pallé, has been published in Geophysical Research Letters, and shows that although the albedo fluctuates both monthly and annually, but there is no trend over those years.
Jupiter blasted by 6.5 fireball impacts per year on average
Jupiter is hit by an average of 6.5 objects per year that create impacts large enough to be visible from Earth, according to preliminary results from a worldwide campaign by amateur astronomers to observe the giant planet. The estimate was presented at an international workshop on Jupiter for professional and amateur astronomers organized by Europlanet 2020 Research Infrastructure at the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France.
Chinese panda in Belgium ‘probably’ pregnant
A female panda on loan to Belgium from China is showing telling signs of pregnancy, the Pairi Daiza zoo said on Wednesday.
Panda poop study provides insights into microbiome, reproductive troubles
A stomachache can put a real damper on your love life—especially if you’re a giant panda.
No evidence that grit improves performance, analysis finds
There are many paths to success, but the significance of grit in helping you reach that goal has been greatly overstated, says an Iowa State University psychologist.
New horned dinosaur species with ‘spiked shield’ identified
A chance fossil discovery in Montana a decade ago has led to the identification of an audacious new species of horned dinosaur. The international research team that described the plant-eating dinosaur was led by a scientist at the Canadian Museum of Nature. The results are published today in the online science journal PLOS ONE.
Researchers develop new way to decode large amounts of biological data
In recent years, the amount of genomic data available to scientists has exploded. With faster and cheaper techniques increasingly available, hundreds of plants, animals and microbes have been sequenced in recent years. However, this ever-expanding trove of genetic information has created a problem: how can scientists quickly analyze all of this data, which could hold the key to better understanding many diseases, and solving other health and environmental issues.
Ocelot density in the Brazilian Amazon may be lower than expected
The population density of ocelots in the Brazilian Amazon may be stable but lower than expected, according to a study published May 18, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Daniel Gomes da Rocha from the University of Oxford, UK, and colleagues.
Paleontologists discover new species of horned dinosaur in southern Utah
An international team of scientists, including a graduate student lead author from Ohio University, have identified a new species of centrosaurine, a member of the large-bodied ceratopsians (horned dinosaurs) that diversified in North America and Asia during the final stages of the age of dinosaurs.
Scientists discover the evolutionary link between protein structure and function
Proteins are more than a dietary requirement. This diverse set of molecules powers nearly all of the cellular operations in a living organism. Scientists may know the structure of a protein or its function, but haven’t always been able to link the two.
Most local government budgets gain from oil, gas development
The recent surge in oil and natural gas development has been beneficial for most local governments in the United States, according to new findings by two Duke University researchers.
Hornbills in the Kalahari desert may keep cool by losing heat through their beaks
When temperatures are scorching, southern yellow-billed hornbills in the Kalahari Desert of southern Africa dilate blood vessels in their beaks to thermoregulate and cool off, according to a study published May 18, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Tanja van de Ven from the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town, South Africa, and colleagues.
Bell Museum launches the midwest’s first comprehensive online ‘Biodiversity Atlas’
The Bell Museum at the University of Minnesota has launched the first web portal providing access to all of its biodiversity collections. The Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas is an online digital resource offering public access to hundreds of thousands of plant and animal specimens, from algae to zebras. The Atlas—the midwest’s first portal to integrate such disparate collections—houses over 5 terabytes of data from the museum’s botanical and zoological collections. More than 16,000 species from Minnesota and around the world are represented such as the calypso orchid and the emerald shiner.
Climate change, runaway development worsen Houston floods
With clay soil and tabletop-flat terrain, Houston has endured flooding for generations. Its 1,700 miles of man-made channels struggle to dispatch storm runoff to the Gulf of Mexico.
Say goodbye to Time Warner Cable: sale leads to name change
Soon you’ll have a new cable company to hate. It’ll take some practice, but in time you’ll get used to swearing at Spectrum.
Fish can adapt some to warmer ocean waters, but not necessarily to extreme heat
Fish can adjust to warmer ocean temperatures, but heat waves can still kill them, a team of researchers from Sweden, Norway and Australia reports in an article published this week in Nature Communications.
New study tallies environmental and public health benefits of solar power
Solar power could deliver $400 billion in environmental and public health benefits throughout the United States by 2050, according to a study from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Ocean acidification puts NW Dungeness crab at risk
Ocean acidification expected to accompany climate change may slow development and reduce survival of the larval stages of Dungeness crab, a key component of the Northwest marine ecosystem and the largest fishery by revenue on the West Coast, a new study has found.
Stellar mystery deepens
Using recent advancements in Australian telescope technology, a Monash University-led research team has made an unexpected discovery that a large group of stars are dying prematurely, challenging our accepted view of stellar evolution.
New Google products, services take aim at its biggest rivals (Update)
From virtual reality to a new smart-home speaker, Google is showing off just how pervasive it has become even as it’s squeezed by its biggest competitors—Facebook, Apple and Amazon.
Luminous proteins offer new method to discover viral infections
Researchers at Umeå University have developed a new method to directly follow viral infections in living organisms. This method can make infected cells produce fluorescent proteins, which means that they light up and become easier to identify. The method, which is described in the journal Scientific Reports, also makes it possible to activate other functions in infected cells, for instance to enhance the immune system.
Supernova reserve fuel tank clue to big parents
Some supernovae have a reserve tank of radioactive fuel that cuts in and powers their explosions for three times longer than astronomers had previously thought.
No junk-food diet: Even in cities, bees find flowers and avoid processed sugars
New research from North Carolina State University finds that bees in urban areas stick to a flower-nectar diet, steering clear of processed sugars found in soda and other junk food.
Chemists add color to chemical reactions
Chemists at Syracuse University have come up with an innovative new way to visualize and monitor chemical reactions in real time.
Innovations are needed if Big Data is to boost jobs, says new research
Phenomenal quantities of valuable data are now being collected and created by UK businesses but much of its commercial potential remains untapped.
Mars is within reach, says German tapped for space command
Humans could set foot on Mars within decades if they wanted to, according to the German astronaut who has been tapped to become his country’s first commander of the International Space Station.
Uber launches carpooling service in traffic-choked Jakarta
Uber launched Wednesday a carpooling service in Jakarta allowing commuters to share journeys, as competition between ride-hailing apps intensifies in the traffic-choked Indonesian capital.
Robots get creative to cut through clutter
Clutter is a special challenge for robots, but new Carnegie Mellon University software is helping robots cope, whether they’re beating a path across the Moon or grabbing a milk jug from the back of the refrigerator.
NASA super pressure balloon begins globetrotting journey
NASA successfully launched a super pressure balloon (SPB) from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, at 11:35 a.m. Tuesday, May 17, 2016 (7:35 p.m. EDT Monday, May 16, 2016) on a potentially record-breaking, around-the-world test flight.
3-D-bioprinted placenta could lead to new treatments for preeclampsia
Preeclampsia is a pregnancy complication involving the placenta that can be serious—even fatal—for the mother or fetus. The only effective treatment option is premature delivery. Now for the first time, scientists have bioprinted a 3-D model of placenta tissue that mimics the organ’s complex structure. The model, reported in the journal ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, could lead to a better understanding of preeclampsia and the development of new treatments.
Hot tubs and swimming pools are not as clean as you may think
Whether water is hot in a tub or cold in a pool, it can bring immediate relief from stress or summer heat. But hot tubs and swimming pools are not always as clean as you might think, even when disinfected. In a new study in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, scientists have found that the more these facilities are used, the more potentially harmful compounds they contain.
How repeated spot microdischarges damage microdevices
In microelectronics, devices made up of two electrodes separated by an insulating barrier are subject to multiple of microdischarges – referred to as microfilaments – at the same spot. These stem from residual excited atoms and ions from within the material, the surface charge deposited on the insulating part of the device, and local temperature build-up. These reoccurences can lead to the creation of pin-holes in the material of the microelectronic devices where they occur, and are due to local reductions in the electric field. Now, Jozef Ráhel and colleagues from Masaryk University in the Czech Republic have elucidated the mechanism of microdischarge reoccurrence, by attributing it to the temperature increase in a single microdischarge.
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