tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64150131713170852162022-05-16T17:26:47.504-07:00Science and technology newsManel Monteshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14295189457275367851noreply@blogger.comBlogger2634125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-57297709138267585372011-03-01T05:04:00.002-08:002011-03-01T05:05:53.198-08:00

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Northeast Georgia Medical Center are one step closer to their goal of automating the management of sedation in hospital intensive care units (ICUs). They have developed control algorithms that use clinical data to accurately determine a patient's level of sedation and can notify medical staff if there is a change in the level."ICU nurses

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-1791762712743590912011-03-01T05:04:00.001-08:002011-03-01T05:04:37.434-08:00

Up to two-thirds of Earth's permafrost likely will disappear by 2200 as a result of warming temperatures, unleashing vast quantities of carbon into the atmosphere, says a new study by the University of Colorado Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.The carbon resides in permanently frozen ground that is beginning to thaw in high latitudes from warming temperatures

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-4458946529723400992011-03-01T05:01:00.000-08:002011-03-01T05:06:53.553-08:00

“Too simple” and “not so fast” suggest biological anthropologists from the George Washington University and New York University about the origins of human ancestry. In the upcoming issue of the journal Nature, the anthropologists question the claims that several prominent fossil discoveries made in the last decade are our human ancestors. Instead, the authors offer a more nuanced explanation of

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-44972666374317838312011-03-01T04:57:00.000-08:002011-03-01T04:59:21.209-08:00

Mapping the Earth’s magnetic field – to find oil, track storms or probe the planet’s interior – typically requires expensive satellites.University of California, Berkeley, physicists have now come up with a much cheaper way to measure the Earth’s magnetic field using only a ground-based laser.The method involves exciting sodium atoms in a layer 90 kilometers (60 miles) above the surface and

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-42129135552021156482011-03-01T04:56:00.000-08:002011-03-01T04:57:40.039-08:00

Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have found that excessive formation of calcium crystal deposits in the amniotic fluid may be a reason why some pregnant women suffer preterm premature rupture of the membranes (PPROM) leading to preterm delivery.This is a key breakthrough in solving the mystery of preterm birth, a leading cause of death and permanent disability in newborns.Researchers know

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-60080078240277903312011-03-01T04:46:00.000-08:002011-03-01T04:56:42.014-08:00

Unlike Pinocchio, liars do not usually give telltale signs that they are being dishonest. In lieu of a growing nose, is there a way to distinguish people who are telling the truth from those who aren’t? A new report in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, discusses some of the common misconceptions about those proficient in the art

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-86584182453347801482011-02-28T11:24:00.002-08:002011-02-28T11:25:10.344-08:00

Great works and praiseworthy behavior may bring respect and admiration, but these won't help us to escape blame when we do something wrong, says a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland and Harvard University. To do that, the researchers say, one needs to be a victim not a hero!In the study, participants responded to a number of scenarios that mirrored real-life moral

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-9072673306650409072011-02-28T11:24:00.001-08:002011-02-28T11:24:36.441-08:00

Geologists drilling an exploratory geothermal well in 2009 in the Krafla volcano in Iceland encountered a problem they were simply unprepared for: magma (molten rock or lava underground) which flowed unexpectedly into the well at 2.1 kilometers (6,900 ft) depth, forcing the researchers to terminate the drilling."To the best of our knowledge, only one previous instance of magma flowing into a

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-3336087442163714582011-02-28T11:22:00.000-08:002011-02-28T11:23:58.102-08:00

It has been long known that stress plays a part not just in the graying of hair but in hair loss as well. Over the years, numerous hair-restoration remedies have emerged, ranging from hucksters' "miracle solvents" to legitimate medications such as minoxidil. But even the best of these have shown limited effectiveness.Now, a team led by researchers from UCLA and the Veterans Administration that

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-62799218222138689842011-02-26T07:25:00.002-08:002011-02-26T07:26:52.898-08:00

Almost 600 million years ago, before the rampant evolution of diverse life forms known as the Cambrian explosion, a community of seaweeds and worm-like animals lived in a quiet deep-water niche under the sea near what is now Lantian, a small village in Anhui Province of South China. Then they simply died, leaving some 3,000 nearly pristine fossils preserved between beds of black shale deposited

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-19533775632065005282011-02-26T07:25:00.001-08:002011-02-26T07:25:31.873-08:00

Zinc supplements reduce the severity and duration of illness caused by the common cold, according to a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. The findings could help reduce the amount of time lost from work and school due to colds.The common cold places a heavy burden on society, accounting for approximately 40% of time taken off work and millions of days of school missed by

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-30083512799541738362011-02-26T07:24:00.000-08:002011-02-26T07:25:10.148-08:00

That human evolution follows a progressive trajectory is one of the most deeply-entrenched assumptions about our species. This assumption is often expressed in popular media by showing cavemen speaking in grunts and monosyllables (the GEICO Cavemen being a notable exception). But is this assumption correct? Were the earliest humans significantly different from us?In a paper published in the

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-1678389867226175952011-02-25T04:50:00.001-08:002011-02-25T04:51:03.879-08:00

With one arm raised and a determined scowl, the figure looks ready to march right off his carved tablet and into the history books. If only we knew who he was - corn god? Tribal chief? Sacred priest?"It's beautiful and was obviously very important," says University of Wisconsin-Madison archaeologist John Hodgson of the newly discovered stone monument. "But we will probably never know who he was

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-74750308654036536572011-02-25T04:47:00.000-08:002011-02-25T04:50:19.778-08:00

Think you're overloaded with information? Not even close. A study appearing on Feb. 10 in Science Express, an electronic journal that provides select Science articles ahead of print, calculates the world's total technological capacity — how much information humankind is able to store, communicate and compute."We live in a world where economies, political freedom and cultural growth increasingly

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-16057496172602785532011-02-25T04:46:00.000-08:002011-02-25T04:47:29.716-08:00

According to Dr Annette Baudisch of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany, current methods of comparing patterns of ageing are limited because they confound two different elements of ageing – pace and shape."Some organisms live a short time, others live a long time. This is the pace of ageing. Short-lived species have a fast pace of ageing, and long-lived species

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-73398392078161732422011-02-24T16:05:00.001-08:002011-02-24T16:05:50.125-08:00

Everybody who has been aboard a ship has heard the advice: if you feel unsteady, look at the horizon. For a study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers measured how much people sway on land and at sea and found there’s truth in that advice; people aboard a ship are steadier if they fix their eyes on the horizon.Thomas A. Stoffregen

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-89345043279006465632011-02-24T16:04:00.000-08:002011-02-24T16:05:20.307-08:00

For the first time, scientists have mapped the genome--the genetic code--of orangutans. This new tool may be used to support efforts to maintain the genetic diversity of captive and wild orangutans. The new map of the orangutan genome may also be used to help improve our understanding of the evolution of primates, including humans.Partially funded by the National Science Foundation, the orangutan

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-8615262149074114252011-02-24T16:00:00.000-08:002011-02-24T16:04:05.482-08:00

Scientists have discovered that the animal with the most genes--about 31,000--is the near-microscopic freshwater crustacean Daphnia pulex, or water flea.By comparison, humans have about 23,000 genes. Daphnia is the first crustacean to have its genome sequenced.The water flea's genome is described in a Science paper published by members of the Daphnia Genomics Consortium, an international network

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-34554475958074123282011-02-24T04:48:00.002-08:002011-02-24T04:49:36.507-08:00

Pigeons rely mainly on their olfactory sense when they navigate. Young pigeons learn to recognize environmental odours carried by the winds into the loft and to use these odours to find their way home from unfamiliar territory. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, Anna Gagliardo from the University of Pisa, and their colleagues at the University of Trient

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-78865780483771479112011-02-24T04:48:00.001-08:002011-02-24T04:48:57.077-08:00

After a decade of experimental development, data-taking, and analysis, an international research team led by scientists from Boston University and the University of Illinois has announced a new value for the muon lifetime.The new lifetime measurement—the most precise ever made of any subatomic particle—makes possible a new determination of the strength of the weak nuclear force. Experiments for

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-6675853568088924652011-02-24T04:47:00.000-08:002011-02-24T04:48:31.719-08:00

Synchrotron X-ray investigation of a fossilised snake with legs is helping scientists to better understand how in the course of evolution snakes have lost their legs, and whether they evolved from terrestrial lizards or from reptiles living in the oceans. New 3-D X-ray images reveal that the internal architecture of the ancient snake’s leg bones resemble those of modern terrestrial lizard legs.

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-25494794915055446642011-02-23T13:23:00.001-08:002011-02-23T13:24:08.285-08:00

Researchers have discovered the 100 million-year-old ancestor of a group of large, carnivorous, cricket-like insects that still live today in southern Asia, northern Indochina and Africa. The new find, in a limestone fossil bed in northeastern Brazil, corrects the mistaken classification of another fossil of this type and reveals that the genus has undergone very little evolutionary change since

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-76819908163774388762011-02-23T13:22:00.001-08:002011-02-23T13:23:00.356-08:00

Researchers from Northwestern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have studied individual water droplets and discovered a miniature version of the “water hammer,” an effect that produces the familiar radiator pipe clanging in older buildings.In piping systems, the water hammer occurs when fluid is forced to stop abruptly, causing huge pressure spikes that can rupture

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-28162796382454957012011-02-23T13:19:00.000-08:002011-02-23T13:22:09.922-08:00

Air passengers one day may be able to carry their soaps, shampoo and bottled water onto the plane again, thanks to technology originally developed at UC Davis to check the quality of wine.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate recently awarded a contract to a Denver-based defense firm to develop a magnetic resonance scanner that could be placed in airports

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6415013171317085216.post-61646557177990859262011-02-23T01:45:00.000-08:002011-02-23T01:46:16.398-08:00

Despite decades of research and billions of dollars, cancer remains a major killer, with an uncanny ability to evade both the body’s defenses and medical intervention. Now an Arizona State University scientist believes he has an explanation.“Cancer is not a random bunch of selfish rogue cells behaving badly, but a highly-efficient pre-programmed response to stress, honed by a long period of

Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0