Proteins' passing phases revealed
A new method to identify previously hidden details about the structures of proteins may speed the process of novel drug design, according to scientists at Rice University.
View ArticleAncient 'fig wasp' lived tens of millions of years before figs
A 115-million-year-old fossilized wasp from northeast Brazil presents a baffling puzzle to researchers. The wasp's ovipositor, the organ through which it lays its eggs, looks a lot like those of...
View ArticleTeam creates brand associations by mining millions of images from social media
The images people share on social media—photos of favorite products and places, or of themselves at bars, sporting events and weddings—could be valuable to marketers assessing their customers'...
View ArticleHacker modifies toy drone to hack and take over other toy drones
(Phys.org) —Well known hacker Samy Kamkar has figured out a way to program a store-bought drone to take away control of other store-bought drones from their owners, and then to give the enslaved drones...
View ArticleJILA team develops 'spinning trap' to measure electron roundness
JILA researchers have developed a method of spinning electric and magnetic fields around trapped molecular ions to measure whether the ions' tiny electrons are truly round—research with major...
View ArticleSlippery fault unleashed destructive Tohoku-Oki earthquake and tsunami
For the first time, scientists have measured the frictional heat produced by the fault slip during an earthquake. Their results, published December 5 in Science, show that friction on the fault was...
View ArticleMalignant cells adopt a different pathway for genome duplication
Genomes must be replicated in two copies during cell division. This process occurs at structures called 'replication forks', which are equipped with enzymes and move along the separated DNA strands. In...
View ArticleNonlinear light-generating zero-index metamaterial created
(Phys.org) —The Information Age will get a major upgrade with the arrival of quantum processors many times faster and more powerful than today's supercomputers. For the benefits of this new Information...
View ArticleLove connection: Researchers develop algorithm for recommending online dating...
University of Iowa researchers may have come up with the right matchmaking formula for online dating sites: Pair people according to their past interests and online mating success, rather than who they...
View ArticleDiscovery of partial skeleton suggests ruggedly built, tree-climbing human...
A human ancestor characterized by "robust" jaw and skull bones was a muscular creature with a gorilla-like upper body and more adaptive to its environment than previously thought, scientists have...
View ArticleStudy shows how water dissolves stone, molecule by molecule
Scientists from Rice University and the University of Bremen's Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) in Germany have combined cutting-edge experimental techniques and computer simulations to...
View ArticleWelcome guests: Added molecules allow metal-organic frameworks to conduct...
Scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Sandia National Laboratories have added something new to a family of engineered, high-tech materials called metal-organic...
View ArticleUSB sticks may beat Internet hurdles globally
(Phys.org) —One may think that free software would be of enormous benefit to people in the towns and villages of the globe where the price of proprietary software is restrictively high. Such is not the...
View ArticleA more natural sense of touch is brought to prosthetic hand (w/ Video)
(Phys.org) —The challenge in medicine to improve the lives of those in need of prosthetic limbs continues to motivate scientists, engineers and doctors. One newsworthy sign of progress is from a team...
View ArticleSquabbling meerkats make better decisions
Conflicting interests within a group can lead to better collective decisions – if you're a social animal such as a meerkat – according to new research by a team of biologists and political scientists...
View ArticleBrine linked to glacial health
(Phys.org) —A new NASA-led study has discovered an intriguing link between sea ice conditions and the melting rate of Totten Glacier, the glacier in East Antarctica that discharges the most ice into...
View ArticleNew superconductor theory may revolutionize electrical engineering
(Phys.org) —High-temperature superconductors exhibit a frustratingly varied catalog of odd behavior, such as electrons that arrange themselves into stripes or refuse to arrange themselves symmetrically...
View ArticleSandcastle-building fish offer evolution clue
(Phys.org) —In Lake Malawi, East Africa, there are around 200 different species of cichlid fish that once or twice a year build large sand structures (known as bowers) on which the fish mate. Each...
View ArticleApple guides shoppers inside stores with iBeacon (Update)
GPS will tell people how to get to the nearest Apple store. With iBeacon, Apple hopes to guide visitors around once they're inside, whether it's to pick up an order, upgrade to a new iPhone or shop for...
View ArticleQuantum dots with confined light holes could have applications in quantum...
(Phys.org) —Semiconductor quantum dots are being widely studied for their potential use in future quantum technologies. One of the reasons for their appeal is that they can confine quantum bits such as...
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