Science / Technology News Archives

A nationwide consortium has completed the first sequence-based map of structural variations in the human genome, giving scientists an overall picture of the large-scale differences in DNA between individuals.

The project gives researchers a guide for further research into these structural differences, which are believed to play an important role in human health and disease.

Jean Piaget, founder of genetic epistemology and key researcher in child development psychology, showed that kids attribute “life status” to all things that move on their own, like bikes or clouds, and even 10-year-olds have difficulty understanding the nature of a 'living' thing.

One of the first attempts to look ahead a decade, using computer simulations and measurements of ocean temperatures, predicts a slight cooling of Europe and North America, probably related to shifting currents and patterns in the oceans.

The surgeon working inside J.C. Bizzle's chest perched at an egg-shaped console a few yards from the operating table. Without laying hands on his patient, he bypassed two clogged arteries supplying Bizzle's heart.

A new firm says its SIM mod can unlock any cell phone - well, at least those on its list of compatible phones, anyway. According to their site, you use their "cutting press" to cut a hole in your SIM, align the SIMable chip to your SIM card, and voila (so they say anyway).

The U.K. wants to get the last 1/3 of its citizens online, and that's clear from the National Digital Inclusion Conference currently being held in London. As part of that movement, Microsoft U.K. is working on a so-called "Senior PC" which will feature a simplified user interface.

Bats emit exceptionally loud sounds exceeding 140 dB SPL (at 10 cm from the bat's mouth), which is the highest level reported so far for any animal in air.

The recording industry's music piracy fight was dealt a setback Tuesday when a federal judge rejected the RIAA's "making available" argument in a lawsuit against a husband and wife accused of copyright infringement.

A much-discussed idea to offset global warming by injecting sulfate particles into the stratosphere would have a drastic impact on Earth's protective ozone layer, new research concludes.

On Tuesday AT&T announced a new rate program for iPhone users with hearing and speech disabilities. The program, known as Text Accessibility Plan or TAP, is $40 / month and offers the following:

Digital real estate leased to one of the Internet's oldest landholders appears to have been quietly seized by e-mail marketers closely associated with an individual once tagged by anti-spam groups as one of the world's most notorious spammers.

Also posted on Slashdot as "Spammers Hijacking IP Space"
Here's a very detailed technical writeup of some of the connections between all the different companies and people involved.

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho - Federal researchers say they've developed a human identification test that's faster and possibly cheaper than DNA testing .

Believe it or not, scientists do not always take themselves too seriously.

Take, for example, this guide to translating the formal language of scientific articles into plain English.

By pioneering the science of seasonal hurricane forecasting, William Gray turned a university far from the stormy seas into a hurricane research mecca.

If you're thinking of asking your beloved to marry you, make sure that you utter your declaration of love into his or her left ear; it may increase your chances of hearing a heart-lifting "yes".

Ever wish you could get a view of possible landmarks when getting directions from a mapping site or program? I do. After all, I usually do better with "look for that Chevron station" hints. Well, Google's heard your plea, and has added Street View to directions in Google Maps.

A Silicon Valley start-up says it has developed technology that can deliver solar power in about a year at prices competitive with coal-fired electricity.

The researchers used data stored in the Epica ice core Scientists have found new evidence that the Earth's natural feedback mechanism regulated carbon dioxide levels for hundreds of thousands of years.

On Tuesday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced that it has sent a letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, saying that Microsoft's plans to shut down the licensing servers for their defunct MSN Music store has "lost the trust" of their customers and that Microsoft's suggestions for workarounds are "insufficient."

Hold your horses on that Windows XP SP3 download. Now we know why Microsoft's Download Center doesn't have XP SP3 on it yet, although you can find it if you know the links. Glitch, bug, whatever you want to call it, there's a problem.

India plans to launch at least six satellites a year as it expands its capabilities to claim a bigger chunk of the global space business, the head of its space agency said on Tuesday.

Late last month Amazon.com apologized for delays in Kindle delivery. Their apology said they would in a few weeks be able to offer an "order today, ship today" service on the Kindle.

Microsoft is under a lot of pressure to continue supporting Windows XP. While it continues to offer small tidbits of hope, for the most part the answer has been "No." At least, however, Windows XP SP3, RTM'ed last week, is now available for download.

The residual herbicides commonly used in the production of corn and soybean are frequently detected in rivers, streams, and reservoirs at concentrations that exceed drinking water standards in areas where these crops are extensively grown.

Parachutes have come a long way in the last few decades. They're easier to steer and a great deal less likely to go wrong.

So it takes a certain amount of nerve to plunge 2,000ft relying on a "chute designed more than 500 years ago.

Most mammals have a special area in the nose called the vomeronasal organ. This sensitive tissue, located in the nasal passages, sends molecules that the animal inhales directly to the brain, where they can influence behavior.

This organ reacts to pheromones, the chemical signaling substances put out by animals from insects to apes. It's the organ that draws a female elephant to the musth secreted by a bull in his prime.

Are climate change and carbon emissions inextricably linked? New research published in Carbon Balance and Management suggests that this may not be the case, although it may be some time before we reach this saturation point.

Is anyone besides me so annoyed with Office 2007's ribbon that they've considered add-ins like Classic Menu for Office 2007 and Toolbar Toggle? Perhaps you either didn't know about these tools or decided, like me, to suffer through the learning curve of the ribbon.

On Monday, Microsoft released an Office add-in of their own. It's called "Search Commands" (above, click to enlarge) and it allows users to type the function they are looking to do (kind of like I generally do with Google when I can't find an Office 2007 function in the place I expect it to be per Office 2003).

For the first time, researchers have used gene therapy to increase light sensitivity and improve vision in patients who were virtually blind, a finding that offers new hope to hundreds of thousands of patients with inherited forms of vision impairment.

Scientists have found a direct link between the frozen remains of a man found in a glacier in northern B.C. and 17 people living in B.C., Yukon and Alaska.

Let's do a little science experiment. If you have a can of whipped cream in the fridge, go get it out.

You know when climate change is biting hard when instead of a vast expanse of snow the North Pole is a vast expanse of water. This year, for the first time, Arctic scientists are preparing for that possibility.

Rumored since last week, and revealed by the typical Apple Store outage, updated iMacs are here. Same prices, better specs.

And what are those better specs?

Some vision was restored in four of the six young people who got the treatment, teams of researchers in the United States and Britain reported Sunday.

Don't worry, the Seiko SlimStick tracks everything you do, but it's not something developed by the CIA.

Those of us who try to make excuses for not jogging or working out at the gym because we "are always active during the day" will either be proved or disproved by the Seiko SlimStick. More than just a pedometer, it keeps track of your every movement and determines exactly how many calories are burned.

Evolutionary trees, or "phylogenies", are a major part of modern evolutionary science. They depict hypotheses regarding the relationships among taxa, and are therefore important in reconstructions of the historical path of evolution (Gregory 2008a,b).

Reconstructing the tree of life is a difficult and complicated process, and one should expect there to be significant refinements and revisions along the way. This is especially true of the deepest branches of the tree, which are often the most difficult to resolve.

What began as an informal presentation by a clinical linguist to a group of philosophers, has led to some surprising discoveries about the communicative language abilities of people with autism.

Dutch researchers at University Medical Center Utrecht and the Hubrecht Institute have succeeded in growing large numbers of stem cells from adult human hearts into new heart muscle cells.

A team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University has found that gravitational radiation—widely expected to provide “smoking gun” proof for a theory of the early universe known as “inflation”— can be produced by another mechanism.

A million dollars is being offered to the first person to develop and sell chicken without the chicken itself having to die - in other words, meat that has been grown in a laboratory.

Two distant relatives of Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth want a chance to prove the family legend that he was not killed in a Virginia tobacco barn.

Despite all the skepticism from the media, Psystar has produced a video that purports to show "the triplets," three Open Computers running Ubuntu Linux, Windows XP and Mac OS X Leopard.

“Our country burns 21 million gallons of oil every day”

The public should pressure President Bush and his Republican allies in Congress to change energy policies that have led to record gasoline prices and intense economic pressures on working people, veteran Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg said Saturday.

'It's long past time to change our national priorities,' the New Jersey senator said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. 'We know there's little hope that President Bush will suddenly wake up and see the light. But unfortunately, his Republican allies in Congress continue to stand by his side, with the oil and energy companies for the status quo and against the American people.' Read more

Do you feel out of touch with the world around you? Do you wish there were clear-cut answers to life's messy, everyday questions such as "How many beers should you have at the company picnic" or "Do you have a snowball's chance in hell with her?" Well now, harnessing the awesome power of algebra, there are...

While the recent Arctic summer was the warmest on record satellite images from the Antarctic summer have shown the largest sea-ice extent ever recorded, according to the Polarstern expedition.

Birds, unlike mammals, lack a tissue that is specialized to generate heat. A team of researchers at New York Medical College writes that the same lack of heat-generating tissue may have contributed to the extinction of ... dinosaurs.

On Thursday the Pew Internet and American Life Project released a study tracking the way teenagers feel about writing.

We go back a long way with herpesviruses. Our evolutionary line has been living with these genomic parasites for more than 100 million years.

But do we get anything out of this relationship?

Biologists call for making available more detailed maps of the locations of biotech crops.

It looks like chickens deserve more respect. Scientists are fleshing out the proof that today's broiler-fryer is descended from the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex .

A Canadian study says the commercialization of air traffic control operations can provide greatly improved performance in costs, safety and modernization.

Hopefully you read that title the way Steve Ballmer probably meant to say it on Thursday. You know, emphasis on the "HAVE" in a sarcastic way. Although I'm sure he didn't say it that way, he probably wanted to.

Speaking at a news conference in Belgium, where he was to announce the establishment of an "innovation centre" in the Belgian city of Mons, Ballmer gave XP fans a little hope.

More than half of the scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency who responded to a survey said they had experienced political interference in their work.

Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests.

No doubt concerned over defections by smaller businesses and end users to Google Apps, Microsoft is modifying its license for Office 2007 in such a way that Web hosting service providers will be able to stream Microsoft Office for delivery through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

Pine beetles that have already destroyed huge swathes of Canadian forest are on pace to release 270 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by 2020, says a study released Wednesday.

Wednesday, in a post on the Windows Vista Team Blog, Microsoft announced that they had begun automatic distribution of Windows Vista SP1.

Gondwana was a 'supercontinent' comprised of Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australia-New Guinea, and New Zealand, as well as Arabia and the Indian subcontinent of the Northern Hemisphere.

It existed between 500 and 180 million years ago but geologists have debated for decades over how it eventually broke up.

At the cores of many galaxies, supermassive black holes expel powerful jets of particles at nearly the speed of light.

Ionic air purifiers have undeniable appeal, but there's a problem: They don't really improve air quality, says Dr. James Sublett, a clinical professor at the University of Louisville

Good news for rational, level-headed Virgoans everywhere: just as you might have predicted, scientists have found astrology to be rubbish.

The $20 million prototype of the Department of Homeland Security's "virtual" border fence, built by Boeing, has been scrapped just two months after DHS chief Michael Chertoff approved it.

U.S. government researchers say they've learned gene therapy reduces cocaine use in laboratory rodents.

Major greenhouse gases in the air are accumulating faster than in the past, despite efforts to curtail their growth.

While I will admit that Windows Live OneCare has been improving of late, that doesn't mean I would recommend it to my friends.

High price and a strange color. No, we're not talking about a hairdo. Those are the two factors that have kept light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, from becoming a mainstream light source.

Remarkable new research into the way environmental factors affect the development of the brain has opened up the possibility that an infan's future mental abilities and susceptibility to mental illness can be permanently altered by dietary changes in early life.

Neanderthals living in southwestern France 55,000 to 40,000 years ago mostly ate red meat from extinct ancestors of modern bison, cattle and horses, according to a new study on a large, worn Neanderthal tooth.

Last night American philosopher Dan Dennett came together with Robert Winston to debate the motion that 'religion is the greatest threat to scientific progress and rationality today'.

As if we needed still another reason to hate DRM (copy-protection or digital rights management) - whether it be of video, software, or music - here's another one. You'd figure a company as large as Microsoft would be able to commit to supporting DRM'ed products for as long as necessary, but apparently you'd be wrong.

John Erdman, a University of Illinois professor of food science and human nutrition who also chairs the Mars, Inc. Scientific Advisory Council and has received millions in funding from Mars, Inc., recognizes that taking money from a candy bar company (Mars Inc.) to do a study of their (Mars Inc.) candy bar proving it is healthy will have skeptics.

New research by the Universities of Exeter and Oxford provides the first evidence that a child's sex is associated with the mother's diet.

Calorie restriction is a hot topic in discussions of aging but most studies use mice that were weaned with calorie restriction as test subjects whereas humans would have to adopt that lifestyle later in life if they were to grow normally.

A desire discrepancy, or a desire gap, is the most common problem brought to sex therapists. It's estimated that one out of every three couples experiences this difficulty. And that really doesn't count the kinds of hills and valleys that all couples go through, even when they have a really healthy sex life. It's really what becomes the main issue in their relationship.

Scientists are taking a new look at Egypt's pyramids to see if some of the blocks could have been made from concrete.

At first, many of the causes we championed, such as opposition to nuclear testing and protection of whales, stemmed from our scientific knowledge of nuclear physics and marine biology.

But after six years as one of five directors of Greenpeace International, I observed that none of my fellow directors had any formal science education. They were either political activists or environmental entrepreneurs.

Even breathing in a little ozone at levels found in many areas is likely to kill some people prematurely, the National Research Council reported on Tuesday.

How much water does it take to make a pair of leather shoes? Eight-thousand liters.

That's from Hans Enggrob, head of innovation at the DHI Water Group, a research and consulting firm, speaking at the Nordic Green conference taking place this week at SRI International's offices here.

The government of Cameroon has created the Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary, the world’s first sanctuary exclusively for the Cross River gorilla, the world’s rarest kind of great ape.

We outsource manufacturing. We outsource services. Farming and mining already follow a natural global-sourcing model. Now, research says that we should outsource science too; it's good for American innovation. I guess the outsourcing genie is well and truly out of the bottle…

Energy Magnetic confinement fusion could be a safe, environmentally friendly way to provide a substantial part of the world's energy needs in the 21st century.

Stereotypes can boost as well as hinder our chances of success, according to psychologists from the University of Exeter and St Andrews University.

THE Pentagon is joining with universities and hospitals in $US250 million ($267m) research to discover how to help wounded soldiers regenerate skin, muscle and even limbs from their own stem cells.

Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has been thinking a lot about the cosmic question, "Are we alone?" The answer is probably not, he says.

On the eve of the world championship of remote-control flight, an American financier, a three-star general, a jet engineer and the Air Force’s most powerful civilian have come together in Thailand to build the perfect fighting plane—at 1:5 scale

A new form of cloning has been developed that is easier to carry out than the technique used to create Dolly the sheep, raising fears that it may one day be used on human embryos to produce "designer" babies.

Increased carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is causing microscopic ocean plants to produce greater amounts of calcium carbonate (chalk) - with potentially wide ranging implications for predicting the cycling of carbon in the oceans and climate modelling.

The Australian state of New South Wales has banned laser pointers after a rash of "attacks" on airliners in which several pilots have been temporarily blinded. The new law requires jail terms of up to 14 years for anyone carrying them without a permit.

There's a rule of science we normally overlook. That rule? Challenge your assumptions. See what you can derive from a new point of view. Buck the normal. Today, it is normal to hate consumerism. It's normal to loathe what consumerism has done to us...and what it has done to the planet.

So as good scientists, let's go anti-conventional. Let's sing an ode in praise of consumerism. Let's see if reversing the normal point of view will produce any surprises.

Hearing repeated stories of suffering from trauma victims causes serious psychological stress in clinical social workers, a new Geisinger-led study suggests.

A new study shows that wetland regions emitted significantly less methane during glacial times while methane emissions by forest fire activity remained surprisingly constant from glacial to interglacial times.

"Lake Monsters I Have Known" sounds like the setup for a bad horror movie or an even worse children's book.

One thing it might not sound like is science. But without science, Ben Radford explained at a recent meeting of New Mexicans for Science and Reason, the stories of the Loch Ness monster and her kin spin out of control in a hurry.

Twice a day, 7-year-old Hannah Austin exhales all the air from her lungs. She then takes a puff of a low-dose steroid from a purple inhaler, holds her breath for a few seconds and exhales.

On Monday Skype, announced new subscription plans that allow flat-rate unlimited calling to 34 countries. It should be noted that for Skype defines unlimited as 10,000 minutes / month; after that standard fees apply.

As predicted, the 3rd service pack for Windows XP (SP3) was released to manufacturing (RTM) on Monday. Also as predicted, Microsoft indicated it will be available for download on April 29th.

Medieval physicians believed that they could diagnose disease by holding up a flask of the patient's urine to the light and squinting at it.

According to scientists at Imperial College London, they could have been on to something.

Does your older brother think he's cleverer than you? Well, he's probably right. According to new research due to be published this week in the journal Intelligence, the oldest children in families are likely to have the highest IQs, and the youngest the lowest.