http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. After more than two decades of drilling in Antarctica, Russian scientists have reached a gigantic freshwater lake hidden under miles of ice for some 20 million years - a pristine body of water that may hold life from the distant past and clues to the search for life on other planets. http://www.physorg.com/news247937551.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:32:40 EST news247937551 New images of a nearby dwarf galaxy have revealed a dense stream of stars in its outer regions, the remains of an even smaller companion galaxy in the process of merging with its host. The host galaxy, known as NGC 4449, is the smallest primary galaxy in which a stellar stream from an ongoing merger has been identified and studied in detail. http://www.physorg.com/news247936879.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:30:01 EST news247936879 (PhysOrg.com) -- The giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way may be vaporizing and devouring asteroids, which could explain the frequent flares observed, according to astronomers using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. http://www.physorg.com/news247937031.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:23:59 EST news247937031 Man may not live by bread alone, but cancer in animals appears less resilient, judging by a study that found chemotherapy drugs work better when combined with cycles of short, severe fasting. http://www.physorg.com/news247920060.html Medicine & Health Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:00:03 EST news247920060 At the high-brilliance synchrotron light source PETRA III, a team of DESY scientists headed by Dr. Ralf Röhlsberger has succeeded in making atomic nuclei transparent with the help of X-ray light. At the same time they have also discovered a new way to realize an optically controlled light switch that can be used to manipulate light with light, an important ingredient for efficient future quantum computers. http://www.physorg.com/news247919520.html Physics Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:00:18 EST news247919520 DNA sequences from tumor cells can be used to direct the immune system to attack cancer, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. http://www.physorg.com/news247919631.html Medicine & Health Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:00:15 EST news247919631 A team of University of California, San Diego researchers has built the smallest room-temperature nanolaser to date, as well as an even more startling device: a highly efficient, "thresholdless" laser that funnels all its photons into lasing, without any waste. http://www.physorg.com/news247918827.html Physics Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:00:12 EST news247918827 It's been more than 50 years since James Watson and Francis Crick showed that DNA is a double helix of two strands that complement each other. But how does a short piece of DNA find its match, out of the millions of 'letters' in even a small genome? New work by researchers at the University of California, Davis, handling and observing single molecules of DNA, shows how it's done. The results are published online Feb. 8 by the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news247918963.html Biology Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:00:10 EST news247918963 Scientists searching for the genomics version of the holy grail – more insight into predicting how an animal's genes affect physical or behavioral traits – now have a reference manual that should speed gene discoveries in everything from pest control to personalized medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news247919820.html Biology Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:00:05 EST news247919820 Earth's glaciers and ice caps outside of the regions of Greenland and Antarctica are shedding roughly 150 billion tons of ice annually, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. http://www.physorg.com/news247919049.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:00:01 EST news247919049 Scientists are reporting development of a new form of buckypaper, which eliminates a major drawback of these sheets of carbon nanotubes -- 50,000 times thinner than a human hair, 10 times lighter than steel, but up to 250 times stronger -- with potential uses ranging from body armor to next-generation batteries. Their report appears in the journal ACS Nano. http://www.physorg.com/news247926497.html Nanotechnology Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:28:39 EST news247926497 Synaptic plasticity – the ability of the synaptic connections between the brain's neurons to change and modify over time -- has been shown to be a key to memory formation and the acquisition of new learning behaviors. Now research led by a scientific team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) reveals that the neural circuits controlling hunger and eating behaviors are also controlled by plasticity. http://www.physorg.com/news247918370.html Medicine & Health Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:00:11 EST news247918370 Life shrouds most choices in mystery. Some people inch toward a comfortable enough spot and stick close to that rewarding status quo. Out to dinner, they order the usual. Others consider their options systematically or randomly. But many choose to grapple with the uncertainty head on. "Explorers" order the special because they aren't sure they'll like it. It's a strategy of maximizing rewards by discovering whether as yet unexplored options might yield better returns. In a new study, Brown University researchers show that such explorers use a specific part of their brain to calculate the relative uncertainty of their choices, while non-explorers do not. http://www.physorg.com/news247918484.html Medicine & Health Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:00:05 EST news247918484 By harnessing quantum dots—tiny light-emitting semiconductor particles a few billionths of a meter across—researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have developed a new and vastly more targeted way to stimulate neurons in the brain. Being able to switch neurons on and off and monitor how they communicate with one another is crucial for understanding—and, ultimately, treating—a host of brain disorders, including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, and even psychiatric disorders such as severe depression. The research was published today in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Biomedical Optics Express. http://www.physorg.com/news247921692.html Physics Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:08:38 EST news247921692 Obstacles in an organism's path can help it to move faster, not slower, researchers from New York University's Applied Math Lab at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences have found through a series of experiments and computer simulations. Their findings, which appear in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, have implications for a better understanding of basic locomotion strategies found in biology, and the survival and propagation of the parasite that causes malaria. http://www.physorg.com/news247921219.html Biology Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:01:08 EST news247921219 Some unusual alliances are necessary for you to wiggle your fingers, researchers report. http://www.physorg.com/news247920331.html Medicine & Health Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:45:58 EST news247920331 New solar cells could increase the maximum efficiency of solar panels by over 25%, according to scientists from the University of Cambridge. http://www.physorg.com/news247918091.html Nanotechnology Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:08:23 EST news247918091 Satellite telephony was thought to be secure against eavesdropping. German researchers at the Horst Gortz Institute for IT-Security (HGI) at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) have cracked the encryption algorithms of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which is used globally for satellite telephones, and revealed significant weaknesses. In less than an hour, and with simple equipment, they found the crypto key which is needed to intercept telephone conversations. Using open-source software and building on their previous research results, they were able to exploit the security weaknesses. http://www.physorg.com/news247917956.html Technology Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:06:13 EST news247917956 (PhysOrg.com) -- 9to5Google is reporting that they have received a tip from someone they believe to be a reliable source saying that Google is working on a Heads-Up-Display (HUD) pair of eye-glasses. The person offering the tip has apparently seen a prototype and says the glasses resemble a pair of Oakley Thumps, except for the HUD side attachment. Oakley Thumps are sunglasses with earbuds attached. http://www.physorg.com/news247916077.html Electronics Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:35:01 EST news247916077 For coffee lovers, the first cup of the morning is one of life's best aromas. But did you know that the leftover grounds could eliminate one of the worst smells around – sewer gas? http://www.physorg.com/news247915839.html Chemistry Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:31:05 EST news247915839 (PhysOrg.com) -- Filtering carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from factory smokestacks is a necessary, but expensive part of many manufacturing processes. However, a collaborative research team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Delaware has gathered new insight into the performance of a material called a zeolite that may stop carbon dioxide in its tracks far more efficiently than current scrubbers do. http://www.physorg.com/news247913242.html Chemistry Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:47:36 EST news247913242 (PhysOrg.com) -- Individual cells modified to act as sensors using fluorescence are already useful tools in biochemistry, but now they can add good timing to their resumé, thanks in part to expertise from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). http://www.physorg.com/news247913123.html Chemistry Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:46:07 EST news247913123 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland has found an iron-based superconductor that operates at the highest known temperature for a material in its class. The discovery inches iron-based superconductors—valued for their ease of manufacturability and other properties—closer to being useful in many practical applications. http://www.physorg.com/news247912967.html Physics Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:42:58 EST news247912967 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists are preparing to launch a 10-year project to study water resources, gas exchange and carbon cycling in three man-made landscapes built in a half-acre laboratory at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2. http://www.physorg.com/news247912036.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:27:37 EST news247912036 (PhysOrg.com) -- MIT researcher Scott Aaronson has certainly riled the physics community with his offer this past Friday, of $100,000 to anyone who can prove that scaled-up quantum computing is impossible. His original reason for doing so was, as he describes in his blog, due to adding his two cents to an argument between skeptic Gil Kalai and researcher Aram Harrow about assumptions regarding the Quantum Fault-Tolerance Theorem, on another blog, where he argued that refuting the idea of scalable quantum computing would amount to more than just taking apart the QFT Theorem; it would he suggested, mean coming up with a new version of physical reality. Then, because of the response he got from the blog owner, he felt compelled to defend his assertions in a rather bold and some might say, foolhardy way. Thus was born the $100,000 bet, or prize. http://www.physorg.com/news247910634.html Physics Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:04:18 EST news247910634 (PhysOrg.com) -- ESO's Very Large Telescope has delivered the most detailed infrared image of the Carina Nebula stellar nursery taken so far. Many previously hidden features, scattered across a spectacular celestial landscape of gas, dust and young stars, have emerged. This is one of the most dramatic images ever created by the VLT. http://www.physorg.com/news247909799.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:50:11 EST news247909799 Different brain states produce different waves of electrical activity, with the alert brain, relaxed brain and sleeping brain producing easily distinguishable electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns. These patterns change even more dramatically when the brain goes into certain deeply quiescent states during general anesthesia or a coma.  http://www.physorg.com/news247901866.html Medicine & Health Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:00:01 EST news247901866 Since its discovery 15 years ago, lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) has become one of the most promising materials for rechargeable batteries because of its stability, durability, safety and ability to deliver a lot of power at once. It has been the focus of major research projects around the world, and a leading technology used in everything from power tools to electric vehicles. But despite this widespread interest, the reasons for lithium iron phosphate’s unusual charging and discharging characteristics have remained unclear. http://www.physorg.com/news247901749.html Nanotechnology Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:36:27 EST news247901749 (PhysOrg.com) -- Although Alta Devices and Semprius make different types of solar panels, both start-ups have been breaking records in the past few days. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Alta Devices announced that its solar panels have achieved an efficiency of 23.5%, which has been verified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as the highest solar panel efficiency to date. And Semprius, based in Durham, North Carolina, has announced that its concentrated solar panels have achieved an efficiency of 33.9%. Unlike traditional solar panels, concentrated solar panels use lenses to concentrate sunlight at intensities of up to 1,000 suns. http://www.physorg.com/news247896060.html Technology Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:01:13 EST news247896060 (Medical Xpress) -- New research from the University of Abertay Dundee has found evidence that left-handed people may be better decision makers than their right-handed counterparts. http://www.physorg.com/news247899647.html Medicine & Health Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:00:53 EST news247899647