THE NEWS AND INFO

Buckyballs found in space in a solid form

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:23:00 +0000

In the latest discovery, scientists using Spitzer detected tiny specks of matter, or particles, consisting of stacked buckyballs. They found the particles around a pair of stars called "XX Ophiuchi," 6,500 light-years from Earth, and detected enough to fill the equivalent in volume to 10,000 Mount Everests... [more]

Source : Nasa

Solar system on a lab inside a single atom of potassium

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:43:00 +0000

Physicists have gone to extremes to prove that Isaac Newton's classical laws of motion can apply in the atomic world: They've built an accurate model of part of the solar system inside a single atom of potassium... [more]

Source : Rice University

Is there life on Venus ? Russian scientist Leonid Ksanfomaliti claims scorpion in Venus photos

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:58:00 +0000

A Russian scientist claims to have discovered life on Venus after analysing photographs taken by a Soviet probe that landed on the planet's surface 30 years ago... [more] or maybe not [more] & [more]

Source : Daily Mail & Space.com

Jukusui kun robotic bear as a cure for snoring

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 05:16:00 +0000

A research group from Waseda University has come up a robotic bear that flips over people's heads in their sleep to open their airways. The bear is used as a pillow, but has a built-in microphone. As soon as Jukusui-kun detects a loud snore, his paw reaches up and pushes the sleeper's head to one side... [more]

Source : Daily Mail

Virtual monkeys typed entire works of Shakespeare

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:17:00 +0000

The virtual monkeys, created by an American programmer, have already typed up the whole of the poem A Lover's Complaint and are 99.99 per cent of the way through the Bard's complete works. The experiment attempts to prove the theory that an infinite number of monkeys sitting at an infinite number of typewriters would eventually reproduce the works of Shakespeare by chance... [more]

Source : Telegraph

Spigelia genuflexa sows its own seeds

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:45:00 +0000

The researchers found only a few minuscule plants in Popovkin’s field during the first year. The plants died in the dry season, only to reappear in the same spots at the beginning of the rain season. When the plant’s fruits form, the plant slowly bends its small, fruiting branches down, depositing the seed capsules carefully onto the ground — and sometimes burying them in the soft cover of moss... [more]
Source : Discoveryon

Water evaporating from trees and lakes cools atmosphere

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 04:33:00 +0000

Evaporative cooling is the process by which a local area is cooled by the energy used in the evaporation process, energy that would have otherwise heated the area’s surface. It is well known that the paving over of urban areas and the clearing of forests can contribute to local warming by decreasing local evaporative cooling... [more]
Source : Carnegie Institution

Thin band of antimatter particles called antiprotons around Earth discovered

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 15:15:00 +0000

The antiprotons were spotted by the Pamela satellite launched in 2006 to study the nature of high-energy particles from the Sun and from beyond our Solar System - so-called cosmic rays. The band is "the most abundant source of antiprotons near the Earth... [more] & [more]

Source : BBC & Astrophysical Journal Letters

Binge eating fatty foods trigger in the brain marijuana munchies

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:33:00 +0000

It turns out that, biologically, the effect of marijuana on the gut mirrors that of eating fatty foods.The taste of fatty food hitting the tongue sets off a cascade of cellular effects. Initially, it sends a message to the brain. The brain then sends a message to the gut, where intestinal receptors are stimulated to produce endocannabinoids. In turn, these chemicals affect hunger and satiety and ramp up your appetite for even more fat-laden foods... [more]
Source : Time

Hyperclusters of galaxies too big for theories

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:13:00 +0000

Space is festooned with vast "hyperclusters" of galaxies, a new cosmic map suggests. It could mean that gravity or dark energy – or perhaps something completely unknown – is behaving very strangely indeed. On even larger scales, though, cosmological models say that the expansion of the universe should trump the clumping effect of gravity. That means there should be very little structure on scales larger than a few hundred million light years across... [more]

Source : New Scientist

Lytro plenoptic camera to shoot now and focus later

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 22:57:00 +0000

What if you could take a picture, and then adjust the focus later, that’s the story behind Ng’s startup Lytro and its revolutionary plenoptic camera, which lets users adjust the focus of a photograph after the fact thanks to an array of micro-lenses over the camera’s sensor. The result is a remarkable living picture... [more]

Source : Wired

Rate of sea level rise fastest in the past 2000 years

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 23:49:00 +0000

The rate of sea level rise along the U.S. Atlantic coast is greater now than at any time in the past 2,000 years--and has shown a consistent link between changes in global mean surface temperature and sea level... [more]

Source : National Science Foundation

Existence of Magnetic Ropes that Cause Solar Storms Proven

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:09:00 +0000

Scientists discovered recently that a phenomenon called a giant magnetic rope is the cause of solar storms. Confirming the existence of this formation is a key first step in helping to mitigate the adverse effects that solar storm eruptions can have on satellite communications on Earth... [more]

Source : George Mason University

White bread banned as bait because it makes fish fat

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:50:00 +0000

Experts say white bread lacks the protein that brown slices contain and too much of it leaves fish bloated, lethargic and with bad guts. Instead, fishermen have been urged to cast out pieces of wholemeal and granary bread into lakes... [more]

Source : Telegraph

Female Atlantic Croaker Change Sex Develop Testes in Gulf Dead Zone

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 08:08:00 +0000

A low-oxygen "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico is causing sexual deformities in fish. It's unclear how long the fish were living in hypoxic—or low oxygen—waters before they began developing such sexual defects. But lab experiments showed that ten weeks of exposure is all that's needed... [more]
Source : National Geographic

Vowel sounds in voice give away sexual orientation

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Sun, 22 May 2011 05:00:00 +0000

For the average listener, the vowel sounds in an unfamiliar voice quickly give away the speaker's sexual orientation, a new study finds. When hearing an unfamiliar voice at the other end of the phone line, most people instantly judge the stranger's characteristics based on how they speak, and the new study suggests listeners are usually pretty accurate in their determination... [more]

Source : MSN

Heart attack cure nanopatch for the heart

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Thu, 19 May 2011 08:24:00 +0000

The researchers created a nanopatch with carbon nanofibers and a polymer. Tests showed the synthetic nanopatch regenerated natural heart tissue cells – called cardiomyocytes – as well as neurons. In short, the tests showed that a dead region of the heart can be brought back to life... [more]

Source : Brown University

Gut bacteria influence brain chemistry and behaviour linked to anxiety

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Wed, 18 May 2011 15:38:00 +0000

Researchers have conclusive evidence that bacteria residing in the gut influence brain chemistry and behaviour. The findings are important because several common types of gastrointestinal disease, including irritable bowel syndrome, are frequently associated with anxiety or depression. In addition there has been speculation that some psychiatric disorders, such as late onset autism, may be associated with an abnormal bacterial content in the gut... [more]
Source : McMaster University

Skin cells oil squalene helps clean air

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Tue, 17 May 2011 10:40:00 +0000

Chemist Charles Weschler and colleagues collected dust from non-floor surfaces in 500 bedrooms and 151 day care centers in Denmark and analyzed it for squalene and cholesterol, another oil associated with skin. Their analysis indicated that cholesterol from skin made a less significant contribution to the removal of ozone than squalene... [more]

Source : Live Science

Genetic link to stammering

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:21:00 +0000

Proof that stuttering is physical came in 2009, when Chinese scientists determined that the brains of people who stutter have elevated levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter known as the “feel-good chemical” because it creates sensations of well-being. “Irregular dopamine levels were linked to genetic mutations in stutterers,” said Gerald Maguire, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry and the Kirkup chair of stuttering treatment at the University of California at Irvine School of Medicine. “Indeed, dopamine may play a role in up to 70 percent of stuttering cases...[more]
Source : Pbs

With graphene optical modulators high definition 3D movies download in a matter of seconds

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:16:00 +0000

Switching ability is the fundamental characteristic of a network modulator, which controls the speed at which data packets are transmitted. The faster the data pulses are sent out, the greater the volume of information that can be sent. Graphene-based modulators could soon allow consumers to stream full-length, high-definition, 3-D movies onto a smartphone in a matter of seconds... [more]

Source : University of California, Berkeley

Chimpanzees use at least 66 distinct gestures to communicate

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Fri, 06 May 2011 18:21:00 +0000

Wild chimpanzees use at least 66 distinct gestures to communicate with each other, according to scientists... [more]

Source : BBC

47 percent of Detroiters are illiterate

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:30:00 +0000

According to a new report, 47 percent of Detroiters are functionally illiterate. The alarming new statistics were released by the Detroit Regional Workforce Fund... [more]

Source : CBS

Global sea levels could rise as much as five feet this century

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Thu, 05 May 2011 01:34:00 +0000

Arctic ice is melting faster than expected and could raise the average global sea level by as much as five feet this century, an authoritative new report suggests. Rising sea levels are expected to cause some of global warming's worst damage — from inundated small islands to possible flooding of New York City's subways. Oceans will not rise uniformly worldwide, because of currents, winds and other factors, but such low-lying areas as Bangladesh and Florida will likely be hard-hit... [more] & [more]
Source : Philly & The Detroit News

Matchbook sized world’s smallest atomic clock available for $1,500

noreply@blogger.com (news reporter) — Tue, 03 May 2011 04:47:00 +0000

A matchbook-sized atomic clock 100 times smaller than its commercial predecessors has been created by a team of researchers at Symmetricom Inc. Draper Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. The portable Chip Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC) — only about 1.5 inches on a side and less than a half-inch in depth — also requires 100 times less power than its predecessors. Instead of 10 watts, it uses only 100 milliwatts... [more]
Source : Sandia National Laboratories