Science / Technology News Archives

The boundary of water and rock is not a thin wet line but the huge new field of nanoparticle science.

Even after more than a year of maintaining a normalized body weight, young women who recovered from anorexia nervosa show vastly different patterns of brain activity compared to similar women without the eating disorder.

BACTERIAL BONANZA: Bacterial cells outnumber human ones in the human body, and provide a host of benefits.

New Zealand police say they are questioning a man who goes by the handle "AKILL" and who may have helped lead a botnet of over 1 million PCs.

Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or ability—along with confidence in that ability—is a recipe for success. In fact, however, more than 30 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings.

Genetic tests to assess disease risk are proliferating but many are a waste of money and tell people little more than they would know from studying family history, medical experts said on Friday.

A complete list of things caused by global warming and all on 0.006 deg C per year!

It's been rumored that Google would bid in the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) upcoming wireless auction in the 700Mhz spectrum since earlier this year, particularly when the gPhone rumors first started to emerge. It seemed a little less likely when the Open Handset Alliance was formed, as Google was working with both manufacturers and carrier. However, in a press release released today, Google has confirmed its intention to bid in the auction, which begins Jan. 24, 2008.

Scientists at Duke University have created the first map of imprinted genes throughout the human genome, and they say a modern-day Rosetta stone – a form of artificial intelligence called machine learning – was the key to their success.

Right in time for the festive season, ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has discovered a huge cloud of high-temperature gas resting in a spectacular nearby star-forming region, shaped somewhat like the silhouette of Santa Claus.

A team of nine producers from Destination Truth, armed with infrared cameras, spent a week in the icy Khumbu region where Mount Everest is located and found the footprints on the bank of Manju river.

How many of you have suddenly felt the "call of nature" in a big city, with no way of knowing where the nearest public restroom is? Note the emphasis is on public, right, as "Restrooms are for customers only" signs are a downer.

Londoners have a cell phone-centric way of fixing what ails you.

Physicists have unveiled plans for a tiny machine that uses the random thermal motion of molecules in a gas to turn an axle.

Obviously the chipset is not a Lego but a huge chunk of this thing is. I like total wastes of time like this.

U.S. scientists have developed a new catalyst-free, self-healing material that is said to offer an inexpensive way to repair structural composites.

I'm sure this makes Steve Jobs just love AT&T even more, as AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson probably just stole some of his Macworld thunder. After all, we all know how Steve Jobs feels about wireless carriers.

The percentage of overweight adults has stayed the same recently, but it's still at an all-time high.

At the same time that it was making Arctic claims, Russia announced plans for manned lunar missions by 2025 and a permanent base there by 2032. Japan might beat them to the punch with a 2030 base. Both will be able to stop over and share a glass of Tang with US astronauts, who are supposed to start setting up shop in 2020. China also has lunar aspirations, though officials will say only that they plan to get to the moon sometime after 2020.

It could get crowded up there, and the rules for lunar landgrabs will likely be patterned on what is happening now in the far north.

Crossovers and double-strand DNA breaks do not occur randomly on yeast chromosomes during meiosis, but are greatly influenced by the proximity of the chromosome's telomere.

Scientists analysing data gathered by Cassini have confirmed the presence of heavy negative ions in the upper regions of Titan's atmosphere. These particles may act as building blocks for more complicated organic molecules.

We know about the report by the Associated Press that showed that Comcast is blocking P2P traffic through the use of packet forgery, sending reset packets to interfere with file transfer. Wednesday the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a technology rights group, released not just a comprehensive report on Comcast's activities, but a document that can be used to help you test for packet forgery or other forms of interference by your own ISP.

Interesting week for the mapping folks at Google. First they release Terrain View for Google Maps, and now they have released a location service for cell phone users, and you don't even need GPS on your phone.

Nearby Venus is looking a bit more Earth-like with frequent bursts of lightning confirmed by a new European space probe.

Genes that can be pinned to intelligence are proving frustratingly hard to find, the British weekly New Scientist reports in next Saturday's issue.

No, I don't mean a class about mobile phones. I mean a class on mobile phones. Cyber University is an all-online private university in Japan, meaning all the classes are offered via the Internet. This one is offered in a cell phone-only format.

In what can only be described as ironic, a Nigerian firm has sued the One Laptop Per Child Foundation over patent infringement (in case you don't "get it", check out this link).

Young galaxies, so faint that scientists struggled to prove they were there at all, have been discovered by aiming two of the world's most powerful telescopes at a single patch of sky for nearly 100 hours.

Nearly a decade ago, computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University embarked on a project with an astonishingly lofty goal: digitize the published works of humankind and make them freely available online.

The architects of the Universal Library project said Tuesday they have surpassed their latest target, having scanned more than 1.5 million books — many of them in Chinese — and are continuing to scan thousands more daily.

On Monday, doctors reported the results of a study which confirmed what those of us non-smokers who cough around smokers already know: second-hand smoke damages lungs.

New genetic evidence, however, backs up a chilly northwestern arrival to North America from Siberia about 12,000 years ago, via a temporary land bridge spanning the Bering Strait. The findings further challenge an alternative idea that humans sprinkled in to both North and South America on open sea voyages 30,000 years in the past.

This'll teach Al to post more often, I guess (his last blog post at the time of this writing was late 2006). As Al Gore was meeting with President Bush yesterday, in the tradition of American Nobel Prize winners getting a photo-op with the Prez, it was revealed that the blog on Gore's site, ClimateCrisis.net, has been hacked.

Unless the international community agrees to cut carbon emissions by half over the next generation, climate change is likely to cause large-scale human and economic setbacks and irreversible ecological catastrophes, a United Nations report says on Tuesday.

Some scientists have proposed compressing carbon dioxide and sticking it in underground caves as a way to cut down on greenhouse gases. Joe David Jones wants to make baking soda out of it.

Although T-Mobile has begun selling unlocked (albeit expensive) iPhones in response to the court ruling and injunction filed against it by Vodafone, it's always said it would appeal the court ruling. It had two weeks to appeal, but it's not waiting that long; a German court will hear arguments on Thursday.

A find of dioxin at the bottom of the Saginaw River could be the highest level of such contamination ever discovered in the nation's rivers and lakes, according to a federal scientist involved in cleanup efforts downstream from a Dow Chemical Co. plant.

You'll recall Vodafone's court case against T-Mobile's iPhone exclusivity in Germany ... and the subsequent response by T-Mobile (unlocked iPhones, for a mere $1478). You're probably also aware of how many hoops have to be jumped through for hackers to unlock or jailbreak their iPhones. Apparently, if you're connected to the right infrastructure, it's easy --- T-Mobile iPhones, after the IMEI number is recorded and "processed" by Apple, unlock in seconds via iTunes.

Picking a Christmas tree is typically a matter of taste. Is the shape right? Is it too tall? Too short? Now a handful of growers in the top Christmas tree producing state of Oregon want people to consider another factor—how "green'' a tree is. They've created a system to help consumers identify trees grown under certain environmental standards.

It's obviously not as sleek and cool as Iron Man (pictured), or even the powered suits worn in Starship Troopers (the animated series or the book, not the movie), but it's getting there. Sarcos, a Utah-based company, has been working for years on real-life exoskeletons for the military.

LLast week I wrote that testers reported that Windows Vista SP1, at least in Release Candidate (RC) form, is still somewhat of a slowpoke. Devil Mountain Software, the testers, have run their same tests on Windows XP SP3's RC, and in this case, they've seen a 10% speedup from XP SP2 to SP3.

Indoor plants and I don't mix. Basically, I kill them, no matter what I do. The Thirsty Light might help me keep at least a few of them alive, despite the fact that it looks more like a cotton swab than an electronic sensor.

he One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Foundation's "Give One, Get One" Program (G1G1), which enabled end users to get an XO-1 for themselves, while at the same time donating an XO-1, was originally scheduled to run from Nov. 12 - Nov. 26. The program has proven so popular, and the public has been asking for more time to participate, so it was been extended until the end of the year.

Remember the tricorder? Either the old-style one from Star Trek: TOS or the newer one from Star Trek: TNG? Do you even remember Star Trek at all or understand what those three letter abbreviations mean?

Nanobiotechnology firm Orla Protein Technologies Ltd. and Japanese electronics manufacturer Japan Radio Co., Ltd. are working together on what is a kinda-sorta tricorder, or at least has some tricorder-esque features.

Not a Windows XP SP3 beta tester, but can't wait for the official release? Or just like to stay on the bleeding edge? There's a way you can get access to it via Windows Update. It does involve editing the registry, but it's not that difficult.

If a company can fire a worker via text message , then why can't a worker "call in sick" via text message? Apparently he can, an Edinburgh employment tribunal has ruled.

OK, so I'm claiming there have been collective intellects since life began on this planet 3.85 billion years ago. This might easily make you wonder, if I'm so smart, and if all this is true, can we give group intellects an IQ test? The answer is yes.

A team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Milan has discovered some unexpected forms of liquid crystals of ultrashort DNA molecules immersed in water, providing a new scenario for a key step in the emergence of life on Earth.

A mounting number of studies are coming to some surprising conclusions about the dangers of nuclear radiation.

If the stem cell wars are indeed nearly over, no one will savor the peace more than James A. Thomson. Dr. Thomson’s laboratory at the University of Wisconsin was one of two that in 1998 plucked stem cells from human embryos for the first time, destroying the embryos in the process and touching off a divisive national debate.

By law even disconnected cell phones can make 911 calls, and cell phones are supposed to let the caller know when a 911 call is in progress, but this type of alert could be dangerous.

Amazon.com unveiled the Kindle on Monday, and despite understandable skepticism, it's already sold out.

The Kindle is Amazon's e-book reader, which uses cellular (specifically, EVDO) to download the books to the device.

In a challenge to the accuracy of a radar gun vs. a GPS unit, radar has won. The Sonoma County Superior Court has ruled that 17-year-old Shaun Malone was guilty of speeding, despite his GPS data.

This Thanksgiving millions of Americans will give thanks for... sodium phosphates? How about being grateful for modified food starch, monosodium glutamate, butylated hydroxyanisol and butylated hydroxytoluene?

Butterflies aren't free, despite what Leonard Gershe may think. Or at least, naming one isn't.

You'll recall that I earlier wrote that researchers were planning to auction the naming rights for a new species of Mexican butterfly, the first such auction in North American. The auction brought in a cool $40,800, and the proceeds will be used to fund further butterfly research.

Because I resent the intrusion of Christmas into Halloween much less Thanksgiving I am watching "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" as I write this. One of few Thanksgiving movies worth its film. And I have Thanksgiving music queued up for the drive to the family dinner tomorrow

Should you know of good Thanksgiving movies or music, please let me know, because I am reclaiming my holiday. It can be part of my archive for next year.

Don't eat too much turkey. Well, eat all you want, just don't drive afterward. That tryptophan will clobber you.

Go Dallas!

Lung transplantation, the therapy almost every cystic fibrosis patient (CF) considers at some point to prolong survival, rarely helps children with the disease live longer and, in fact, often increases their risk of dying.

Do the results of this week's papers mean that we no longer need to get stem cells from embryos? The answer, for now, is a resounding no - reprogrammed skin cells currently have some serious drawbacks that need to be overcome before they can become worth trying in disease treatments.

Global cooling caused wars and migration in the past and global warming could do the same in the future, according to a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

As temperatures decreased centuries ago during a period called the Little Ice Age, the number of wars increased, famine occurred and the population declined.

Newly launched nerve cells in a growing embryo must chart their course to distant destinations, and many of the means they use to navigate have yet to surface.

Canada will set aside 25.5 million acres of land in the north for use as two new conservation areas, a move aimed at staving off potential oil and other resource exploration in some regions.

Latino turkeys get no love. There are two species of turkey: the North American Wild Turkey, or Meleagris gallopavo , and the Central American Ocellated Turkey, or Meleagris ocellata .

Eight unusual examples of a burned-out celestial object known as a white dwarf detected in our Milky Way galaxy represent a previously unknown category of stars, astronomers said on Wednesday.

New research reveals that infants who have not yet learned language can still judge who is friend and who is foe.

Google has been accused of gathering --- and storing --- too much user data for many to be comfortable with. While the title of this article is, strictly speaking, a little overkill, who really knows?

Caye Drapcho works in her laboratory at Clemson University. What's brewing in Caye Drapcho's bioreactor may well be a fuel of the future.

Emerging technologies could take direct aim at global warming by sucking carbon dioxide from the air, U.S. scientists said.

Vase or face? When presented with the well known optical illusion in which we see either a vase or the faces of two people, what we observe depends on the patterns of neural activity going on in our brains.

Doctored photos of past public events can influence what people think they remember of the incident, as well as altering their attitudes and any subsequent responses, according to research published today in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology.

Pretty sad story. Tony (last name withheld) went to Iraq, along with his Nintendo Wii. When he started getting close to returning, he sent it back to the U.S. to his wife. More on this later, as it becomes evidence for any divorce proceedings.

Congo is setting aside more than 11,000 square miles of rain forest to help protect the endangered bonobo, a great ape that is the most closely related to humans and is found only in this Central African country.

The immense fossilised claw of a 2.5m-long sea scorpion has been described by European researchers.

One of the complaints about Windows Vista, besides lack of compatibility, lack of drivers --- should I continue? --- has been speed. Or rather, should I say, the lack thereof. There have been hints about Windows Vista SP1 being faster, but testing of the release candidate version didn't show great results.

In mathematical proofs, clear cut algorithms can usually be applied to prove unequivocally the falsehood of a theorem (notwithstanding Godel's incompleteness theorems :)

But in real research in the physical sciences, that is not exactly how scientists process reports of experimental results. And an important reason is the way results are reported.

Italian archaeologists believe they have found the cave where, according to legend, a wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of Rome.

Scientists have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.

Reports today indicate that Vodafone has obtained a court hearing which may force Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile subsidiary in Germany to change the way it sells the iPhone.

Two research groups have found different genetic recipes to give ordinary skin cells the power to turn into virtually any kind of human tissue, just as embryonic stem cells do.

Women's bodies and medical needs are vastly different than men's - way beyond their reproductive systems. Yet, there's a cavernous void in research based on sex and gender. Historically, most studies have been done on men and the findings applied to women.

After decades of decline, deaths due to heart disease appear to have leveled off among young men and may be trending upward in young women, according to research released Monday.

The United Nations ' AIDS -fighting agency plans to issue a report today acknowledging that it overestimated the size of the epidemic and that new infections with the deadly virus have been dropping each year.

Professor Ortwin Hess, his PhD student Kosmas Tsakmakidis of the Advanced Technology Institute and Department of Physics at the University of Surrey and Professor Alan Boardman from Salford University have revealed a technique which may be able to slow down, stop and capture light.

New research from Northwestern University finds that college students' choice of social networking sites -- including Facebook, MySpace and Xanga -- is related to their race, ethnicity and parents' education.

The near-human performance of a virtual teacher called Eve created by Massey researchers has drawn the attention of scientists across the computing world.

For people who deem needles too scary and surgery too drastic, the latest anti-aging fad may appeal: facial yoga.

One of the best elements of the Nintendo Wii is the unique set of controllers. Not only that, there have been aftermarket attachments that turn the controller into a more-realistic racket, for example. Today Nintendo released the Zapper, a controller shell for both the Nunchuk and Wii Remote that looks like, well, what do you think it looks like?

DIFFERENT PLACE, SAME TIME: Two mechanisms--vicariance and dispersal--explain why fish species can be found in bodies of water located hundreds of miles apart.

Because no chemical reaction is involved, ultracapacitors—also known as supercapacitors and double-layer capacitors—are much more effective at rapid, regenerative energy storage than chemical batteries are.

E-books have pretty much flopped until now, but this morning Amazon.com introduced the Kindle, a device they hope does for e-books what the iPod did for MP3 players. It has a lot going for it - but also a lot going against it. Read details after the jump.

Scientists have been working for years to use the immune system to eradicate cancers, a technique known as immunotherapy. The new findings prove an alternate to this approach exists.

Patients taking anti-obesity drugs will only see "modest" weight loss and many will remain significantly obese or overweight, according to a study published on bmj.com today.

Researchers in Australia have developed what they call a "smart closet." It has, as you can see above, a computer built-in, and it's designed to not just make suggestions on how to match your clothes, but also to keep track of which clothes you wore on specific appointments (dates?) to keep you from "repeating yourself."

Where did your ancestors come from? Do you have increased risk for a heart disease or Alzheimer? What can your DNA tell?

With their dark hair, strong noses and refined chins, it is immediately apparent that women of the Clark family are related. Each is a feature that has been passed through the generations, and will no doubt appear in their children and children's children for years to come.

But there is one part of their bodies that does not appear to have been handed down the family line: their breasts.

Hundreds of jailed defendants across the country may have been convicted by a faulty FBI forensic tool, according to a joint investigation by the Washington Post and "60 Minutes."

T-Mobile and Motorola have confirmed what users already know: some Sidekick Slides, when the display's slide mechanism is actuated, may reboot or even power off. They've suspended sales, and in fact, if you go to the T-Mobile website, you'll see the Slide is listed as "temporarily unavailable."

The air smells acrid from the squat gas burners that sit outside homes, melting wires to recover copper and cooking computer motherboards to release gold. Migrant workers in filthy clothes smash picture tubes by hand to recover glass and electronic parts, releasing as much as 6.5 pounds of lead dust.

Most Americans think they're helping the earth when they recycle their old computers, televisions and cell phones.

The 3-way catalysator of a car apparently works differently from the way chemists had expected.

Previous work has shown that, when a drug study was funded by the company that made that drug, the results might be biased in favour of that drug because the methods or analyses were manipulated.

An ancient flood some say could be the origin of the story of Noah's Ark may have helped the spread of agriculture in Europe 8,300 years ago by scattering the continent's earliest farmers, researchers said.

A 5.5m long minke whale has been spotted more than 1600km from the Atlantic Ocean, deep inside the Amazon rain forest.

Most astronomers say that world-famous images from the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite show structures of the early universe. But a lone radio astronomer is claiming that the pictures depict nearby hydrogen gas clouds in our own galaxy, calling a key theory into question.

Chicago researchers have identified the fossil of a 110- million-year-old dinosaur with a mouth like the business end of a Hoover vacuum cleaner to feed its voracious appetite for grass, ferns and other low-lying greenery.

Rumors about a Zune in citron (citrus yellow) have turned out to be true --- but you still can't get it. It is an employee-only perk, and was given to members of the launch team. So those of you wanting a yellow Zune --- you're SOL.

RDX is a common military explosive, and it's dangerous not just because it explodes - it's also toxic. Research has shown how it might be possible to clean up RDX with explosives-eating transgenic plants.

The Earth is hurtling toward a warmer climate at a quickening pace, a Nobel-winning U.N. scientific panel said in a landmark report released Saturday, warning of inevitable human suffering and the threat of extinction for some species.

The creator of Dolly the sheep is to abandon cloning in favour of a new technique that can create stem cells without an embryo, it was