Science News
Researchers learn how to steer the heart--with light
Phys.org - 19 Oct 2015 17:00
We depend on electrical waves to regulate the rhythm of our heartbeat. When those signals go awry, the result is a potentially fatal arrhythmia. Now, a team of researchers from Oxford and Stony Brook universities has fou...
Solvents save steps in solar cell manufacturing
e! Science News - 19 Oct 2015 23:33
Advances in ultrathin films have made solar panels and semiconductor devices more efficient and less costly, and researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory say they've found a way to manufact...
Cyclic healing removes defects in metals while maintaining strength
Phys.org - 19 Oct 2015 23:11
When designing a new material, whether for an airplane, car, bridge, mobile device, or biological implant, engineers strive to make the material strong and defect-free. However, methods conventionally used to control the...
First domestication of dogs took place in Asia, not Europe
New Scientist - 19 Oct 2015 21:00
The largest ever genetic study points to dogs being domesticated in the vicinity of Nepal and Mongolia around 15,000 years ago
Life may have begun 300 million years earlier than we thought
New Scientist - 19 Oct 2015 21:00
Flecks of carbon of potentially organic origin seen in zircon crystals, hinting that life started 4.1 billion years ago in Earth's fiery Hadean period
Register Your Drones, Government Says
Live Science - 19 Oct 2015 20:49
Recreational drone users must register their unmanned aerial vehicles in order to prevent close calls and other dangerous invasions of airspace, the government says.
Earth: One Full Day From One Million Miles | Time-Lapse Video
Live Science - 19 Oct 2015 20:34
NASA's new website for its Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission will be updated daily with images captured 12 to 36 hours prior. 22 Images from Oct. 17th, 2015 have been compiled and looped here to show one fu...
Czechs open EU project with 'world's most powerful laser'
Phys.org - 19 Oct 2015 20:10
The Czech Republic is opening a new scientific center that will include what officials call the world's most powerful laser device.
Electronics get a power boost with the addition of a simple material
Phys.org - 19 Oct 2015 19:30
The tiny transistor is the heart of the electronics revolution, and Penn State materials scientists have just discovered a way to give this workhorse a big boost, using a new technique to incorporate vanadium oxide--a fu...
The Technologies 'Back to the Future' Got Right, Wrong, and Left Out Entirely
Singularity Hub - 19 Oct 2015 19:16
26 years ago, Marty McFly and Doc Brown climbed into their time-traveling flying DeLorean and set the controls to the distant future -- October 21, 2015 -- which happens to be this...
A Fungus Is the Founder of the Hair Club for Trees
Scientific American - 19 Oct 2015 18:50
At last, scientists have identified the stylist that gives hornbeam and elderberry salon-worthy hair. --
Scientists experimentally demonstrate 140-year-old prediction: A gas in perpetual non-equilibrium
Phys.org - 19 Oct 2015 18:30
(Phys.org)--In 1876, the Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann noticed something surprising about his equations that describe the flow of heat in a gas. Usually, the colliding gas particles eventually reach a state of ther...
Puzzling Reaction: Sudoku Brainteasers Trigger Man's Seizures
Live Science - 19 Oct 2015 18:18
A young man who went 15 minutes without oxygen after being buried in an avalanche started having seizures, but only when he was working on a sudoku puzzle.
Should babies be given solids earlier to prevent food allergies?
New Scientist - 19 Oct 2015 18:00
Many countries advise keeping babies off solid food until 6 months, but the latest evidence suggest that this could be making allergies more likely
Sudoku Causes Seizures For Avalanche Victim | Video
Live Science - 19 Oct 2015 17:47
A male physical education student who suffered hypoxia (oxygen deficiency) after being buried alive during a ski tour, developed "involuntary myoclonic jerking (brief, involuntary twitching of muscles)," according to the...
The missing 'recipe': Thermal conduction 'revealed' starting from the foundations
Phys.org - 19 Oct 2015 17:42
It's a bit like the difference between preparing a dish following a recipe detailing ingredients and procedure, or trying to do it just by looking at photos of the dish: in many cases good results can also be obtained wi...
How Babies' Gut Bacteria May Help Find Treatments for C. Diff
Live Science - 19 Oct 2015 17:30
Some infants carry the diarrhea-causing bacteria Clostridium difficile in their guts without any symptoms, but the bacteria rapidly disappear when the infants switch to drinking cow's milk.
To infinity and beyond: Light goes infinitely fast with new on-chip material
Phys.org - 19 Oct 2015 17:00
Electrons are so 20th century. In the 21st century, photonic devices, which use light to transport large amounts of information quickly, will enhance or even replace the electronic devices that are ubiquitous in our live...
'Molecular accordion' drives thermoelectric behavior in promising material
Phys.org - 19 Oct 2015 17:00
Engines, laptops and power plants generate waste heat. Thermoelectric materials, which convert temperature gradients to electricity and vice versa, can recover some of that heat and improve energy efficiency. A team of s...
Climate models may be wrong as fires cancel forest carbon sinks
New Scientist - 19 Oct 2015 17:00
Widely assumed to be huge carbon sinks, vast boreal forests are increasingly hit by fires so may be releasing carbon more quickly than they store it
Carbon emissions make Earth greener but are also drying it out
New Scientist - 19 Oct 2015 17:00
Extra CO2 in the atmosphere is boosting plant growth, which is sucking water from streams in semi-arid parts of Australia, cutting streamflow by a quarter
Super-dark chameleon material shifts colour to boost solar power
New Scientist - 19 Oct 2015 17:00
A material made from gold nano-hammers is vying for the world's blackest stuff. But add a dye to it, and it dazzles