One planet, two stars: New research shows how circumbinary planets form
(Phys.org) —Luke Skywalker's home planet Tatooine would have formed far from its current location in the Star Wars universe, a new University of Bristol study into its real world counterparts, observed...
View ArticleQuantum dots provide complete control of photons
By emitting photons from a quantum dot at the top of a micropyramid, researchers at Linköping University are creating a polarized light source for such things as energy-saving computer screens and...
View ArticleBoomRoom's sound by design uses array of loudspeakers
(Phys.org) —Jörg Müller, a researcher at the Technical University of Berlin, thinks of ways to make effective use of sounds in human-computer interactions. He and his team explore how to direct sounds...
View ArticleWhat's behind a No. 1 ranking? Open-source LineUp software enables granular...
Behind every "Top 100" list is a generous sprinkling of personal bias and subjective decisions. Lacking the tools to calculate how factors like median home prices and crime rates actually affect the...
View ArticleOust that tune: Study details cures for earworms (Update)
It happens to nearly everyone: A song—let's say Abba's "Waterloo"—is stuck in your head and just won't go away.
View ArticleDolphins in 'bad shape' after BP oil spill
Bottlenose dolphins with missing teeth, lung disease, and abnormal hormone levels were found swimming in the Gulf of Mexico a year after the BP oil spill, US researchers say.
View ArticleMass sea star deaths off US west coast puzzle scientists
Starfish have been mysteriously dying by the millions in recent months along the US west coast, worrying biologists who say the sea creatures are key to the marine ecosystem.
View ArticleLenovo signals 'global ambitions' with Motorola deal
In 1984, with only $25,000 in Chinese government funding and a dusty 20-square-metre bungalow as their headquarters, a small group of scientists in Beijing founded a firm called New Technology...
View ArticleFacebook battles to stay young and cool
Sixteen-year-old Owen Fairchild doesn't hang out at Facebook as much as he did when he was just a kid.
View ArticleAds out to know us in mobile Internet Age
Ads are evolving from blaring TV spots to nudges from smartphones that know where we are, what we like and what we might be in the mood for.
View ArticleA breath of Beijing air gets metagenomics treatment
(Phys.org) —A Friday report in Nature News handles a well-publicized topic, the air quality in Beijing. That may seem like rather old news, but the Friday report has new information on the city's...
View ArticleA safer recipe for primordial soup
Researchers have published a simpler, safer method for conducting Miller-Urey origin of life experiments—which may still yield new insight about how life began on Earth.
View ArticleApplying lessons learned from one of the biggest blackouts in history
(Phys.org) —On a warm afternoon in August 2003, in rural Ohio, a high-voltage power line brushed against some untrimmed tree limbs. The action tripped a relay that immediately shut off the power it was...
View ArticleResearchers find temperature feedback magnifying climate warming in Arctic
(Phys.org) —A team of researchers with the Max Planck Institute in Germany, has found that temperature feedback in the Arctic is causing more warming in that region than sea ice albedo. In their paper...
View ArticleFermilab documenting construction of NOvA—next generation neutrino experiment...
(Phys.org) —Fermilab, run by the U.S. Department of Energy is going to great lengths to document and make known the work that is being done to build the country's next generation neutrino experiment—a...
View ArticleGreenhouse 'time machine' sheds light on corn domestication
A grass called teosinte is thought to be the ancestor of corn, but it doesn't look much like corn at all. Smithsonian scientists were surprised to find that teosinte planted in growth chambers under...
View ArticleCapturing ultrasharp images of multiple cell components at once
A new microscopy method could enable scientists to generate snapshots of dozens of different biomolecules at once in a single human cell, a team from the Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired...
View ArticleCar-to-car talk: Hey, look out for that collision! (Update 3)
A car might see a deadly crash coming even if its driver doesn't, the U.S. government says, indicating it will require automakers to equip new vehicles with technology that lets cars warn each other if...
View ArticleGreenland's fastest glacier reaches record speeds
Jakobshavn Isbræ (Jakobshavn Glacier) is moving ice from the Greenland ice sheet into the ocean at a speed that appears to be the fastest ever recorded. Researchers from the University of Washington...
View ArticleThe twain finally meet: Nanowires and nanotubes combined to form...
(Phys.org) —Miniaturized bioelectronic probes stand to transform biology and medicine by allowing measurement of intracellular components in vivo. Recently, scientists at Harvard University and Peking...
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