RX J1532.9+3021: Extreme power of black hole revealed
(Phys.org) —Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and a suite of other telescopes to reveal one of the most powerful black holes known. The black hole has created enormous structures...
View ArticleHappy 10th anniversary Opportunity
Ten years ago, on Jan. 24, 2004, the Opportunity rover landed on a flat plain in the southern highlands of the planet Mars and rolled into an impact crater scientists didn't even know existed. The...
View ArticleUS earthquake fault zone alive and active, study finds
The New Madrid fault zone in the United States' midsection is active and could spawn future large earthquakes, scientists reported Thursday.
View ArticleCan walkies tell who's the leader of the pack?
Dogs' paths during group walks could be used to determine leadership roles and through that their social ranks and personality traits, say researchers from Oxford University, Eötvös University,...
View ArticleA scientific first: Team engineers photograph radiation beams in human body...
A scientific breakthrough may give the field of radiation oncology new tools to increase the precision and safety of radiation treatment in cancer patients by helping doctors "see" the powerful beams...
View ArticleHacking feat spots ghosts in Snapchat's new verification tool
(Phys.org) —Chat service company Snapchat this week announced it was further nailing down its security with a new identification verification system, beyond fancy font-annoying CAPTCHAS, that could...
View ArticleFundamental marine ecosystem change during rapid climate change events
(Phys.org) —Marine ecosystems – especially in nutrient-starved areas of the ocean – are very sensitive to abrupt climate change, according to new research from the University of Bristol.
View ArticleResearchers discover bees are picky pollinators
(Phys.org) —Huge swaths of the agricultural industry depend on the humble honeybee. According to the USDA, "about one mouthful in three in our diet directly or indirectly benefits from honey bee...
View ArticleEvidence that land animals evolved the ability to breathe air as ancient fish
(Phys.org) —In a major evolutionary discovery, Flinders University palaeontologist Professor John Long (pictured) has found evidence to show that four-legged animals first developed the ability to...
View ArticleBringing the world reboot-less updates
It's an annoyance for the individual computer user: You've updated your operating system, and now you need to reboot. This is so the computer can switch to the modified source code.
View ArticleSnow falls differently on the nanoscale
This time of year it's not hard to imagine the world buried under a smooth blanket of snow. A picnic table on a flat lawn eventually vanishes as trillions of snowflakes collect around it, a crystalline...
View ArticleThe ties that bind: Recreating Darwinian ligand evolution in vitro
(Phys.org) —A key feature of certain chemicals is their ability to bind to other molecules – a property that emerged through evolution – but current chemical theory lacks the ability to design binders...
View ArticleOrigami techniques lead to newly engineered compact antennas and electronics
Florida International University researchers are using technology and principles derived from the traditional Japanese art of origami to create remarkably compact and incredibly efficient antennas and...
View ArticleSeven new Web domains to be released
On the Internet, .com is about to get some more company. Seven new Web domains including .bike, .guru and .clothing are scheduled to be released Wednesday, the first of hundreds of online address...
View ArticleResearchers develop new method to control nanoscale diamond sensors
Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but they could also one day help us understand how the brain processes information, thanks to a new sensing technique developed at MIT.
View ArticleApple set to release bigger-screen iPhones, report says
Apple is planning to release two new versions of its iPhones with larger screens this year to meet competition from rival handset makers, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
View ArticleAn Opportunity for life: Finding Mars' most liveable mud
Coinciding with ten years of the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Project, research published today in Science has found some of the oldest evidence of past water on Mars – and confirmed it was ideal to...
View ArticleNew material could speed up underwater communications by orders of magnitude
(Phys.org) —University of California, San Diego electrical engineering professor Zhaowei Liu and colleagues have taken the first steps in a project to develop fast-blinking LED systems for underwater...
View ArticleNew solar cell technology captures high-energy photons more efficiently
(Phys.org) —Getting the blues is rarely a desirable experience—unless you're a solar cell, that is.
View ArticleIn the eye of the beholder
Astrobiologists are developing 'intelligent' instruments that could help future robotic explorers make their own decisions about where and how to collect data. Although focused on Mars exploration for...
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