Science News
Quantum tunnelling in water opens the way to improved biosensing
Phys.org - 8 Nov 2017 02:00
Researchers at the University of Sydney have applied quantum techniques to understanding the electrolysis of water, which is the application of an electric current to H2O to produce the constituent elements hydrogen and ...
How Big Is the 'Alien Megastructure'?
Live Science - 8 Nov 2017 13:36Spin out receives investment to develop energy-saving optical communications technology
EurekAlert! - 8 Nov 2017 07:00
(Queen Mary University of London) A Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) spin out company has received investment to commercialize a new material technology which would both drastically cut energy use and increase the ...
Sheep learn to recognise celebrity faces from different angles
New Scientist - 8 Nov 2017 02:01
The animals were as good as humans at recognising mugshots of the same celebs from different angles, showing sophisticated brain processing of imagery
A bird's alarm calls do not always come out of its beak
The Economist - 8 Nov 2017 23:48
Nice primaries, dahling CHARLES DARWIN was fascinated by bird communication. In "The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex" he devoted equal space to both the sorts of sounds that emerge from birds' beaks and t...
A randomised trial shows that the power of the press is real
The Economist - 8 Nov 2017 23:48
MALCOLM X, an American political activist, described the media as the most powerful entity on Earth, "because they control the minds of the masses". Some journalists may find this proposition flattering, but though those...
Daytime injuries heal twice as fast as wounds sustained at night
New Scientist - 8 Nov 2017 21:00
Burn injuries sustained during the day take an average of 11 days less to heal than night-time burns
Watch Live Today: Unveiling the Fabric of the Universe, One Fundamental Question at a Time
Scientific American - 8 Nov 2017 21:00
Particle physicist Pauline Gagnon will discuss the importance of fundamental research to society during a live Webcast tonight at 7 P.M. Eastern time --
A new nerve-cell monitor will help those studying brains
The Economist - 8 Nov 2017 20:05
SCIENCE is a mixture of the intellectual and the practical. And the practical requires tools. Until the invention of the telescope, astronomy had been stuck in a rut for millennia. Until the invention of the microscope, ...
How ice in clouds is born
Phys.org - 8 Nov 2017 20:00
Something almost magical happens when you put a tray full of sloshing, liquid water into a freezer and it comes out later as a rigid, solid crystal of ice. Chemists at the University of Utah have pulled back the curtain ...
Boy with a genetic disease has had almost all his skin replaced
New Scientist - 8 Nov 2017 20:00
Gene therapy has saved the life of a boy with a rare skin-peeling disease. The boy received grafts of sheets of genetically-altered skin grown in the lab
Letting robots kill without human supervision could save lives
New Scientist - 8 Nov 2017 20:00
Calls to ban killer robots ignore the fact that human soldiers can make lethal mistakes. If driverless cars will save lives, perhaps armed machines can as well
A bizarre supernova keeps exploding over and over again
New Scientist - 8 Nov 2017 20:00
The weirdest supernova ever seen is a zombie star that keeps collapsing and coming back to life. It's so strange, it may be a whole new kind of celestial object
When it comes to climate, Donald Trump is in a club by himself
New Scientist - 8 Nov 2017 19:22
With pariah state Syria now backing the UN pact to curb global warming, the US stands against the other 195 nations of the world. What a disgrace, says Owen Gaffney
How Can We Get Good Health Care to Everyone Who Needs It?
Singularity Hub - 8 Nov 2017 19:00
40 million people in the US lack the security of having a guaranteed meal each day. The US also wastes $40 billion dollars of food each year. It's a harsh contrast. It seems, however, that it's a condition we've come to ...
Wireless handheld spectrometer transmits data to smartphone
Phys.org - 8 Nov 2017 18:45
Spectral images, which contain more color information than is obtainable with a typical camera, reveal characteristics of tissue and other biological samples that can't be seen by the naked eye. A new smartphone-compatib...
Researchers discover a novel layered superconductor based on tin and arsenic
Phys.org - 8 Nov 2017 18:37
The layered superconducting material is characterized by a crystal structure in which a SnAs layer (wherein Sn and As are two-dimensionally bonded to develop superconductivity) and a Na layer (the spacer layer) are alter...
AI binges on CSI crime shows and learns to guess whodunnit
New Scientist - 8 Nov 2017 18:35
Predicting the twists and turns of a crime drama are hard enough for us - teaching computers to do it will make them better at understanding complex scenarios
Scientists narrow down the search for dark photons using decade-old particle collider data
Phys.org - 8 Nov 2017 18:33
In its final years of operation, a particle collider in Northern California was refocused to search for signs of new particles that might help fill in some big blanks in our understanding of the universe.
Dark-Matter Hunt Fails to Find the Elusive Particles
Scientific American - 8 Nov 2017 17:45
Physicists begin to embrace alternative explanations for the missing material --
IBM Just Simulated the Biggest Quantum Computer to Date--What That Means for the Field
Singularity Hub - 8 Nov 2017 17:38
Google was in poll position to win the race for quantum supremacy, the point at which a quantum computer can do things a conventional one can’t. But IBM seems to have pulled the rug from beneath their rivals by carryin...
Hard computing problem might be solvable only by quantum computers
Phys.org - 8 Nov 2017 16:30
(Phys.org)--Researchers have introduced a new computing problem and shown that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a classical computer to solve, but in theory it could be efficiently solved using qua...