Science and Technology Updates

Why Alcohol Is Addicting: Endorphins in Brain

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:21:00 +0000

Drinking alcohol leads to the release of endorphins in areas of the brain that produce feelings of pleasure and reward, according to a study led by researchers at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Leaping Lizards and Dinosaurs Inspire Robot Design

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:18:00 +0000

Leaping lizards have a message for robots: Get a tail! University of California, Berkeley, biologists and engineers -- including undergraduate and graduate students -- studied how lizards manage to...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

The Law of Online Sharing

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 04:51:00 +0000

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg will eventually have to deal with the fact that all growth has limits. Credit: Technology Review The idea of limitless growth gives sleepless nights to environmentalists,...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Crucial Advances in 'Brain Reading' Demonstrated

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 03:31:00 +0000

At UCLA's Laboratory of Integrative Neuroimaging Technology, researchers use functional MRI brain scans to observe brain signal changes that take place during mental activity. They then employ...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

More Powerful Supercomputers? New Device Could Bring Optical Information Processing

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:05:00 +0000

Researchers have created a new type of optical device small enough to fit millions on a computer chip that could lead to faster, more powerful information processing and supercomputers. This...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Chemists Solve an 84-Year-Old Theory On How Molecules Move Energy After Light Absorption

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 04:52:00 +0000

The same principle that causes figure skaters to spin faster as they draw their arms into their bodies has now been used by Michigan State University researchers to understand how molecules move...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Eating less keeps the brain young

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 04:43:00 +0000

Overeating may cause brain aging while eating less turns on a molecule that helps the brain stay young.A team of Italian researchers at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Rome have discovered...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Big Ecosystem Shifts from Climate Change

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:17:00 +0000

By 2100, global climate change will modify plant communities covering almost half of Earth's land surface and will drive the conversion of nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems from one major...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Novel Device Removes Heavy Metals from Water

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:03:00 +0000

Engineers at Brown University have developed a system that cleanly and efficiently removes trace heavy metals from water. In experiments, the researchers showed the system reduced cadmium, copper,...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Close Family Ties Keep Cheaters in Check: Why Almost All Multicellular Organisms Begin Life as a Single Cell

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 03:13:00 +0000

Any multicellular animal, from a blue whale to a human being, poses a special difficulty for the theory of evolution. Most of the cells in its body will die without reproducing, and only a privileged...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Biofuel Research Boosted by Discovery of How Cyanobacteria Make Energy

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 04:44:00 +0000

A generally accepted, 44-year-old assumption about how certain kinds of bacteria make energy and synthesize cell materials has been shown to be incorrect by a team of scientists led by Donald Bryant,...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

One of the World's Smallest Electronic Circuits Created

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:18:00 +0000

A team of scientists, led by Guillaume Gervais from McGill's Physics Department and Mike Lilly from Sandia National Laboratories, has engineered one of the world's smallest electronic circuits. It is...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

New Switch Could Improve Electronics

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:45:00 +0000

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have invented a new type of electronic switch that performs electronic logic functions within a single molecule. The incorporation of such single-molecule...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Some People Can Hallucinate Colors at Will

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:27:00 +0000

Scientists at the University of Hull have found that some people have the ability to hallucinate colours at will -- even without the help of hypnosis. Scientists at the University of Hull have found...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Qualcomm challenges LCDs through new e-reader

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:30:00 +0000

A new electronic display is poised to challenge power-hungry LCDs after U.S. mobile chip maker Qualcomm Inc. teamed up with a South Korean bookseller to introduce a new e-reader. The "Kyobo...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

How brains benefit from meditation

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:35:00 +0000

Experienced meditators seem to be able switch off areas of the brain associated with daydreaming as well as psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, according to a new brain imaging...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Better Batteries: New Technology Improves Both Energy Capacity and Charge Rate in Rechargeable Batteries

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:07:00 +0000

Imagine a cellphone battery that stayed charged for more than a week and recharged in just 15 minutes. That dream battery could be closer to reality thanks to Northwestern University research. New...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Mimicking the Brain -- In Silicon: New Computer Chip Models How Neurons Communicate With Each Other at Synapses

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:09:00 +0000

For decades, scientists have dreamed of building computer systems that could replicate the human BRAIN's talent for learning new tasks. Researchers have taken a major step toward that goal by...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

GPS-Enabled Shoes to Help Track Down Grandpa

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 04:36:00 +0000

The next frontier for GPS? Footwear for those suffering from Alzheimer's. New GPS-enabled shoes are meant to provide safety and security for all walks of life. Shoes with built-in GPS could be...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

A revolution in knot theory

noreply@blogger.com (Luv4all) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:44:00 +0000

In the 19th century, Lord Kelvin made the inspired guess that elements are knots in the "ether". Hydrogen would be one kind of knot, oxygen a different kind of knot---and so forth throughout the...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Diseased hearts to heal themselves in future

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 04:38:00 +0000

Cellular reversion processes arise in diseases of the heart muscle, for example myocardial infarction and cardiomyopathy, which limit the fatal consequences for the organ. Scientists from the Max...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

City Lights Could Reveal E.T. Civilization

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:21:00 +0000

In the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, astronomers have hunted for radio signals and ultra-short laser pulses. In a new paper, Avi Loeb (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Brain Cells Responsible for Keeping Us Awake

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:16:00 +0000

Bright light arouses us. Bright light makes it easier to stay awake. Very bright light not only arouses us but is known to have antidepressant effects. Conversely, dark rooms can make us sleepy. It's...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Scientists Measure Dream Content for the First Time: Dreams Activate the Brain in a Similar Way to Real Actions

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 16:21:00 +0000

The ability to dream is a fascinating aspect of the human mind. However, how the images and emotions that we experience so intensively when we dream form in our heads remains a mystery. Up to now it...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Design Rules Will Enable Scientists to Use DNA to Build Nanomaterials With Desired Properties

noreply@blogger.com (nimisha mistry) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:05:00 +0000

Nature is a master builder. Using a bottom-up approach, nature takes tiny atoms and, through chemical bonding, makes crystalline materials, like diamonds, silicon and even table salt. In all of them,...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]