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. (PhysOrg.com) -- Ancient artifacts are almost always concerned with rich and powerful religious and political leaders, but new excavations of an ancient Maya site have unearthed a pyramid decorated with murals depicting the marketing and trading of goods by ordinary people around 1,350 years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news177582245.html Other Sciences Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:30:01 EST news177582245 (PhysOrg.com) -- One of the drawbacks associated with using semiconductor lasers is that many of them can only produce a beam of a single wavelength, and can only send that beam in one direction at a time. There have been efforts to tune lasers so that different wavelengths can be achieved, but these lasers still emit light only in one direction, and one wavelength at a given time. All that could change, though. Harvard University scientists Federico Capasso and Nanfang Yu , in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have been working with an international team to develop a laser that offers multibeam emission. http://www.physorg.com/news177582639.html Physics Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:50:01 EST news177582639 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study pitting academic expertise against a computer in recreating a 425 million-year old jigsaw puzzle has discovered that there is no substitute for wisdom born out of experience. http://www.physorg.com/news177583145.html Other Sciences Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:40:22 EST news177583145 (PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, it has been possible to measure electron density in individual molecular states using what is known as the photoelectric effect. Now published in Science, this method represents a key building block in the development of organic semiconductor elements. Supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, the success of this project rested on the mathematical transformation of the measured data. This made it possible to interpret the distribution of the electrons and draw conclusions about the potential properties of organic semiconductor elements. http://www.physorg.com/news177582885.html Physics Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:35:28 EST news177582885 (PhysOrg.com) -- As part of its effort to speed up the Web, Google is experimenting with SPDY, a new application layer protocol, that it hopes will speed up the conversation between browsers and Web servers and enable Web pages to download up to twice as fast. http://www.physorg.com/news177581905.html Technology Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:19:06 EST news177581905 Researchers at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed microscopic polymer beads that can deliver an antioxidant enzyme made naturally by the body into the heart. http://www.physorg.com/news177581687.html Chemistry Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:15:10 EST news177581687 A study of 145 preschool children reports, for the first time, that when the concentrations of two common phthalates in mothers' prenatal urine are elevated their sons are less likely to play with male-typical toys and games, such as trucks and play fighting. http://www.physorg.com/news177573699.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:02:35 EST news177573699 Small amounts of oil leave a fluorescent sheen on polluted water. Oil sheen is hard to remove, even when the water is aerated with ozone or filtered through sand. Now, a University of Utah engineer has developed an inexpensive new method to remove oil sheen by repeatedly pressurizing and depressurizing ozone gas, creating microscopic bubbles that attack the oil so it can be removed by sand filters. http://www.physorg.com/news177572736.html Chemistry Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:46:54 EST news177572736 (AP) -- A blood-orange blob the size of a small refrigerator emerged from the dark waters, its venomous tentacles trapped in a fishing net. Within minutes, hundreds more were being hauled up, a pulsating mass crowding out the catch of mackerel and sea bass. http://www.physorg.com/news177516168.html Biology Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:40:01 EST news177516168 In the largest, most comprehensive genetic analysis of childhood-onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), an international research team has identified five new gene regions, including one involved in a biological pathway that helps drive the painful inflammation of the digestive tract that characterizes the disease. http://www.physorg.com/news177515874.html Medicine & Health Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:59:14 EST news177515874 Rising water temperatures are kicking up more powerful winds on Lake Superior, with consequences for currents, biological cycles, pollution and more on the world's largest lake and its smaller brethren. http://www.physorg.com/news177515344.html Space & Earth Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:53:30 EST news177515344 Researchers in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering believe they have pinpointed a pathway by which arsenic may be contaminating the drinking water in Bangladesh, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists, world health agencies and the Bangladeshi government for nearly 30 years. The research suggests that human alteration to the landscape, the construction of villages with ponds, and the adoption of irrigated agriculture are responsible for the current pattern of arsenic concentration underground. http://www.physorg.com/news177515521.html Space & Earth Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:52:45 EST news177515521 Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research, the University of British Columbia's Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics and the University of California, San Diego have found that normal synaptic activity in nerve cells (the electrical activity in the brain that allows nerve cells to communicate with one another) protects the brain from the misfolded proteins associated with Huntington's disease. http://www.physorg.com/news177515236.html Medicine & Health Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:48:15 EST news177515236 Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have demonstrated the first "universal" programmable quantum informationprocessor able to run any program allowed by quantum mechanics -- the rules governing the submicroscopic world -- using two quantum bits (qubits) of information. The processor could be a module in a future quantum computer, which theoretically could solve some important problems that are intractable today. http://www.physorg.com/news177515046.html Physics Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:45:25 EST news177515046 A state-of-the-art underwater robot called BOB may hold the key to protecting millions of people around Turkey's biggest city against a massive earthquake scientists say is all but inevitable. http://www.physorg.com/news177394319.html Space & Earth Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:40:01 EST news177394319 (PhysOrg.com) -- Australian researchers have made two important advances in the development of unmanned aircraft capable of seeing for themselves as they fly fast and low over dangerous terrain. http://www.physorg.com/news173621893.html Technology Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:30:04 EST news173621893 (AP) -- Google Inc. will loosen its control over millions of copyright-protected books that will be added to its digital library if a federal judge approves a revised legal settlement addressing the earlier objections of antitrust regulators. http://www.physorg.com/news177333573.html Technology Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:06:47 EST news177333573 Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health have identified a molecular mechanism that allows two powerful signaling pathways to interact and begin a process leading to colorectal tumors. http://www.physorg.com/news177359577.html Medicine & Health Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:50:02 EST news177359577 Combination drug therapy has become a staple for treating many infections. For instance, doctors treat extensively drug resistant forms of tuberculosis with one drug that breaks down the pathogen's protective barriers and opens the door for another to deliver the deathblow. http://www.physorg.com/news177359451.html Chemistry Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:31:58 EST news177359451 The Dutch government said Friday it wants to introduce a "green" road tax by the kilometre from 2012 aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent and halving congestion. http://www.physorg.com/news177358842.html Technology Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:21:41 EST news177358842 Despite minimal exposure to the regular geometric objects found in developed countries, African tribal people perceive shapes as well as westerners, according to a new study. http://www.physorg.com/news177358579.html Medicine & Health Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:17:07 EST news177358579 Curiosity plays a big part in preschoolers' lives. A new study that explored why young children ask so many "why" questions concludes that children are motivated by a desire for explanation. http://www.physorg.com/news177318529.html Medicine & Health Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:40:01 EST news177318529 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggests that people can train their minds to stay focused. http://www.physorg.com/news177347438.html Medicine & Health Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:12:26 EST news177347438 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists and curiosity seekers who want to know what a partially or completely cloaked object would look like in real life can now get their wish -- virtually. A team of researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany has created a new visualization tool that can render a room containing such an object, showing the visual effects of such a cloaking mechanism and its imperfections. http://www.physorg.com/news177268469.html Physics Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:00:19 EST news177268469 (PhysOrg.com) -- "The very thought of you ... the mere idea of you" -- from the song "The Very Thought of You" by Ray Noble. Can the mere thought of your loved one reduce your pain? http://www.physorg.com/news177344980.html Medicine & Health Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:30:34 EST news177344980 (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration is challenging makers of alcohol-infused energy drinks to prove their beverages are safe, citing complaints that the products can cause risky behavior and injury. http://www.physorg.com/news177342237.html Medicine & Health Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:00:02 EST news177342237 (AP) -- The nonprofit group that runs online encyclopedia Wikipedia said Friday that it named Craig Newmark, the founder of Web classifieds site Craigslist, to its advisory board. http://www.physorg.com/news177341914.html Technology Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:50:03 EST news177341914 Almost 24 centuries after the Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote his book, "On the Movement of Animals," modern scientists are still struggling to understand how, why, when and where living creatures move. http://www.physorg.com/news177342087.html Biology Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:42:17 EST news177342087 Poor Texas. First it was killer bees, then fire ants. Now, it's the Rasberry ants. http://www.physorg.com/news177341639.html Biology Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:34:36 EST news177341639 There is good news for the global effort to reduce the amount of lead in the environment and for the growing array of technologies that rely upon the piezoelectric effect. A lead-free alternative to the current crop of piezoelectric materials has been identified by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley. http://www.physorg.com/news177340310.html Physics Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:18:46 EST news177340310