Programming smart molecules: Machine-learning algorithms could make chemical...
Computer scientists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have joined forces to put...
View ArticleCassini spacecraft reveals clues about Saturn moon
(Phys.org) —NASA's Cassini spacecraft is providing scientists with key clues about Saturn's moon Titan, and in particular, its hydrocarbon lakes and seas.
View ArticleCan we turn unwanted carbon dioxide into electricity?
Researchers are developing a new kind of geothermal power plant that will lock away unwanted carbon dioxide (CO2) underground—and use it as a tool to boost electric power generation by at least 10...
View ArticleJournals and researchers must respond to Schekman's move
Having climbed all the way to the Nobel Prize on a ladder made of papers published in Nature, Science and Cell, biologist Randy Schekman has declared that he is now going to boycott these luxury...
View ArticleUp in the sky: It's a nuclear explosion
If you live in the southern hemisphere, you now can safely view the aftermath of a nuclear explosion from the comfort of your own backyard.
View ArticleProbing the inner secrets of nanowires
(Phys.org) —Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) are vanishingly small: NWs from a recent batch made by scientists in PML's Quantum Electronics and Photonics Division measure about 200 nanometers in diameter...
View ArticleNew method for studying the interaction between light and matter
Pulses of light are very useful for probing the inner workings of atoms, molecules and solids. Eiji Takahashi and co‐workers from the RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, in collaboration with the...
View ArticleMyths debunked in mission to explain science validation
Sugar is not the cause of hyperactivity in children, nor does classical music make babies smarter but some scientific evidence does exist supporting the popular notions that mobile phones, tight...
View ArticleMassive galaxy cluster verifies predictions of cosmological theory
(Phys.org) —By observing a high-speed component of a massive galaxy cluster, Caltech/JPL scientists and collaborators have detected for the first time in an individual object the kinetic...
View ArticleThe "magic hour" for Geminid meteors
As arctic air and record cold sweeps across the USA, amateur astronomers are looking at their calendars with a degree of trepidation. A date is circled: Dec. 14th. And below it says: "Wake up at 4 AM...
View ArticleChimpanzees flexibly adjust their behavior to maximize payoffs, not to...
Chimpanzees are sensitive to social influences but they maintain their own strategy to solve a problem rather than conform to what the majority of group members are doing. However, chimpanzees do...
View ArticleThe fate of bioavailable iron in Antarctic coastal seas
Science is exploring many options for carbon dioxide sequestration in order to mitigate the climatological impact of CO2. One of these is geoengineering: deliberate, large-scale intervention in the...
View ArticleNew work gives credence to theory of universe as a hologram
(Phys.org) —In publishing a story regarding work reported by Japanese physicists last month, Nature News has set off a bit of a tabloid firestorm by describing an obscure bit of physics theory as "the...
View ArticleAstronaut may get Christmas wish for spacewalk (Update)
Space station astronaut Rick Mastracchio may get his Christmas wish for a spacewalk or two because of a broken cooling system.
View ArticleIncapsula reports that web bots now account for 61% of web traffic
(Phys.org) —Cloud based application delivery platform provider Incapsula is reporting via blog post that web bots now account for 61 percent of all web traffic, an increase of 21 percent over last year.
View ArticleCan smartphones snap out of technological stupor?
This may be remembered as the year smartphones became boring. Although high-definition displays on smartphones have gotten bigger and their cameras have gotten better, the pace of gee-whiz innovation...
View ArticleMechanical forces in development
(Phys.org) —Early embryonic development is a marvel of mechanics. Its signature step is the production of three tissue layers—mesoderm, ectoderm, and endoderm—through a topological maneuver known as...
View ArticleDuke engineers make strides toward artificial cartilage
A Duke research team has developed a better recipe for synthetic replacement cartilage in joints.
View ArticleHigh-speed photography provides first direct evidence of how microbubbles...
Ultrasound-stimulated microbubbles have been showing promise in recent years as a non-invasive way to break up dangerous blood clots. But though many researchers have studied the effectiveness of this...
View ArticleUS to keep NSA and cyber command chief's job unified (Update)
A White House review will conclude that a sweeping US spy agency program to collect data on telephone calls and Internet use should continue but with new privacy safeguards, a report said Friday.
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