Linux Evolution Reveals Origins of Curious Mathematical Phenomenon
Dec 01, 2008 |
4.2 / 5 (118) |
16
(PhysOrg.com) -- Zipf’s law is a testament to the order in our world, showing that the same patterns emerge in a wide variety of situations. The linguist George Kingsley Zipf first proposed the law in 1949, ...
Self-powered devices possible, researcher says
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Dec 01, 2008 |
4.5 / 5 (71) |
11
Imagine a self-powering cell phone that never needs to be charged because it converts sound waves produced by the user into the energy it needs to keep running. It's not as far-fetched as it may seem thanks to the recent ...
Fujitsu's 'Laptop4Life' program gives you a new laptop every 3 years
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
Dec 01, 2008 |
4.1 / 5 (54) |
13
(PhysOrg.com) -- Buy any LifeBook laptop from Fujitsu Siemens, and the company will provide you with a new laptop every three years until you die. The only requirements are that you need to buy a three-year ...
Discovery of virus in lemur could shed light on AIDS
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Dec 01, 2008 |
4.3 / 5 (10) |
0
The genome of a squirrel-sized, saucer-eyed lemur from Madagascar may help scientists understand how HIV-like viruses coevolved with primates, according to new research from the Stanford University School ...
Foretelling a major meltdown: Rare mineral might portend return to hothouse climate of old
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 01, 2008 |
3.3 / 5 (47) |
27
By discovering the meaning of a rare mineral that can be used to track ancient climates, Binghamton University geologist Tim Lowenstein is helping climatologists and others better understand what we're probably in for over ...
Disappearing Superconductivity Reappears -- in 2-D
Dec 01, 2008 |
4.6 / 5 (30) |
6
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists studying a material that appeared to lose its ability to carry current with no resistance say new measurements reveal that the material is indeed a superconductor — but only in ...
Brain's magnetic fields reveal language delays in autism
Dec 01, 2008 |
4.9 / 5 (14) |
0
Faint magnetic signals from brain activity in children with autism show that those children process sound and language differently from non-autistic children. Identifying and classifying these brain response ...
December: Ursid meteor shower out-performs the Geminids
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 01, 2008 |
4.6 / 5 (14) |
0
The annual Geminid meteor shower, which will reach its maximum on the night of Dec. 13-14, usually offers the best show of the year, outperforming even the Perseid shower of August.
A picture paints more than a petabyte of data
Dec 01, 2008 |
2.6 / 5 (15) |
2
In the age of the petabyte, we all need help digesting and understanding massive amounts of information. In this month's Physics World, a series of features celebrates the ascendance of visual methods that are being used t ...
Cleanliness can compromise moral judgment
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Dec 01, 2008 |
3.8 / 5 (16) |
5
New research in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science has found that the physical notion of cleanliness significantly reduces the severity of moral judgments, showing that intuition, rather ...
Researchers discover how mosquitoes avoid succumbing to viruses they transmit
Biology /
Dec 01, 2008 |
4.7 / 5 (18) |
0
Mosquitoes are like Typhoid Mary. They can spread viruses which cause West Nile fever, dengue fever, or yellow fever without themselves getting sick. Scientists long thought that the mosquito didn't care whether it had a ...
No place like home: New theory for how salmon, sea turtles find their birthplace
Biology /
Dec 01, 2008 |
4.2 / 5 (22) |
2
How marine animals find their way back to their birthplace to reproduce after migrating across thousands of miles of open ocean has mystified scientists for more than a century. But marine biologists at the University of ...
Unravelling the mystery of mechatronics
Technology / Computer Sciences
Dec 01, 2008 |
4.8 / 5 (13) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- Futuristic projects such as a glamorous desktop personal assistant called Nicole, who can help with tasks around the office, will come under the spotlight at a conference at the Massey University ...
Modern day scourge helped ancient Earth escape a deathly deep freeze
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 01, 2008 |
3.7 / 5 (23) |
9
(PhysOrg.com) -- The planet’s present day greenhouse scourge, carbon dioxide, may have played a vital role in helping ancient Earth to escape from complete glaciation, say scientists in a paper published online ...
Opening up the last part of the spectrum
Dec 01, 2008 |
4.7 / 5 (25) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- New European research on the last, hidden part of the electromagnetic spectrum is producing new, safe and non-destructive tests for medicine, security and industrial quality control.
