Facebook adds trending topics to site (Update)
In a move that echoes Twitter, Facebook is adding a feature to its service that lets users know the topics of discussion that are trending among the site's 1.2 billion users, whether it's the death of...
View ArticleTeam finds receptors that help plants manage environmental change, pests and...
ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the main energy source inside a cell and is considered to be the high energy molecule that drives all life processes in animals and humans. Outside the cell, membrane...
View ArticleSoil production breaks geologic speed record
Geologic time is shorthand for slow-paced. But new measurements from steep mountaintops in New Zealand show that rock can transform into soil more than twice as fast as previously believed possible.
View ArticleRenewable chemical ready for biofuels scale-up
Using a plant-derived chemical, University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have developed a process for creating a concentrated stream of sugars that's ripe with possibility for biofuels.
View ArticleSingle class of queen pheromones stops worker reproduction in ants, bees and...
A new study by a team of KU Leuven and international researchers has found that the chemical structure of queen pheromones in wasps, ants and some bees is strikingly similar, even though these insects...
View ArticleNew form of quantum matter: Natural 3D counterpart to graphene discovered
The discovery of what is essentially a 3D version of graphene – the 2D sheets of carbon through which electrons race at many times the speed at which they move through silicon - promises exciting new...
View ArticleHuman arm sensors make robot smarter (w/ Video)
Using arm sensors that can "read" a person's muscle movements, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have created a control system that makes robots more intelligent. The sensors send information...
View ArticleGenomes of modern dogs and wolves provide new insights on domestication
Dogs and wolves evolved from a common ancestor between 9,000 and 34,000 years ago, before humans transitioned to agricultural societies, according to an analysis of modern dog and wolf genomes from...
View ArticleNSA scoops up millions of text messages a day, report says (Update)
The US National Security Agency has collected almost 200 million mobile phone text messages a day from around the world, a report said Thursday, in the latest revelations from the Edward Snowden files.
View ArticleCarbon nanotube sponge shows improved water clean-up
A carbon nanotube sponge capable of soaking up water contaminants, such as fertilisers, pesticides and pharmaceuticals, more than three times more efficiently than previous efforts has been presented...
View ArticleEurope launches RoboEarth: 'Wikipedia for Robots'
Let the robot race begin. Expectations are high for RoboEarth, a new European-funded system to speed the development of human-serving robots. Scientists from five major European technical universities...
View ArticleSperm-bots are made to move in desired direction (w/ Video)
Scientists have shown how controlled sperm cells inside tubes can be driven to target destinations using magnetic control. The significance of their investigation lies partly in what may be in store...
View ArticlePhysicists quantify temperature changes in metal nanowires
(Phys.org) —Using the interaction between light and charge fluctuations in metal nanostuctures called plasmons, a University of Arkansas physicist and his collaborators have demonstrated the capability...
View ArticleFacebook memes can evolve like genes
(Phys.org) —What started as a politically liberal Facebook meme in support of health care reform morphed as it spread across the social network into hundreds of thousands of variations—some just a few...
View ArticleHighly efficient broadband terahertz radiation from metamaterials
(Phys.org) —Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have demonstrated broadband terahertz (THz) wave generation using metamaterials. The discovery may help develop noninvasive...
View ArticleHubble and Galaxy Zoo find bars and baby galaxies don't mix
(Phys.org) —Harnessing the power of both the Hubble Space Telescope and the citizen science project Galaxy Zoo, scientists from the University of Portsmouth have found that bar-shaped features in...
View ArticleCambridge researchers learn lessons from recent storm surge
(Phys.org) —The wet and windy weather that has battered Britain's coasts this winter has brought misery to many, but for researchers at the University at Cambridge the storm damage is providing vital...
View ArticleStudy: Violence, infectious disease and climate change contributed to Indus...
A new study on the human skeletal remains from the ancient Indus city of Harappa provides evidence that inter-personal violence and infectious diseases played a role in the demise of the Indus, or...
View ArticleWelcome to the DarkSide: Project aims to find particles of dark matter
(Phys.org) —In a laboratory under a mountain 80 miles east of Rome this fall, a Princeton-led international team switched on a new experiment aimed at finding a mysterious substance that makes up a...
View ArticleA rhythm for development
Development of the nematode C. elegans is directed by rhythmic patterns of protein production. As Helge Grosshans and his team at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) have...
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