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) -- Bacteria dance the electric slide, officially named electrokinesis by the USC geobiologists who discovered the phenomenon. http://www.physorg.com/news180112213.html Biology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:00:01 EST news180112213 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's MESSENGER mission team and cartographic experts from the U. S. Geological Survey have created a critical tool for planning the first orbital observations of the planet Mercury - a global mosaic of the planet that will help scientists pinpoint craters, faults and other features for observation. The map was created from images taken during the MESSENGER spacecraft's three flybys of the planet and those of Mariner 10 in the 1970s. A presentation on the new global mosaic is being given today at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. http://www.physorg.com/news180114935.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:56:12 EST news180114935 New climate research reveals how wind shear -- the same atmospheric conditions that cause bumpy airplane rides -- affects how pollution contributes to isolated thunderstorm clouds. Under strong wind shear conditions, pollution hampers thunderhead formation. But with weak wind shear, pollution does the opposite and makes storms stronger. http://www.physorg.com/news180111002.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:51:08 EST news180111002 Experts on prehistoric man are rethinking their dates after a find in a southern French valley that suggests our ancestors may have reached Europe 1.57 million years ago: 200,000 earlier than we thought. http://www.physorg.com/news180110953.html Other Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:50:41 EST news180110953 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Early Cretaceous sauropod Paluxysaurus jonesi weighed 20 tons, was 60 feet long and had a neck 26 feet long, according to scientists who prepared the world's first full skeletal mount of the dinosaur. http://www.physorg.com/news180109544.html Other Sciences Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:28:01 EST news180109544 (PhysOrg.com) -- Always on the cutting edge of new computing technologies, Google has recently announced that it is investigating the use of quantum computing schemes to achieve faster image recognition rates. Last week, at the Neural Information Processing Systems conference (NIPS 2009) in Vancouver, Canada, the company demonstrated that their new search technology outperforms the algorithms used on the computers running in its data centers today. http://www.physorg.com/news180107947.html Physics Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:00:29 EST news180107947 (PhysOrg.com) -- With its flamboyantly decorated plumage, the peacock is a classic example of how males among many bird species are more visually eye-catching than their female partners. But new research, led by Columbia biologist Dustin Rubenstein, shows that, in some cases, females living in family groups are just as showy as males. The findings, which appear in the Dec. 10 issue of the journal Nature, shed new light on Darwin`s theory of sexual selection. http://www.physorg.com/news180104802.html Biology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:17:51 EST news180104802 (PhysOrg.com) -- For most of a decade, scientists have documented unfelt and slow-moving seismic events, called episodic tremor and slip, showing up in regular cycles under the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state and Vancouver Island in British Columbia. They last three weeks on average and release as much energy as a magnitude 6.5 earthquake. http://www.physorg.com/news180103695.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:48:55 EST news180103695 The analysis of microfossils found in ocean sediment cores is illuminating the environmental conditions that prevailed at high latitudes during a critical period of Earth history. http://www.physorg.com/news180096839.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:30:01 EST news180096839 About 550 light-years from Earth, a star like our Sun is writhing in its death throes. Chi Cygni has swollen in size to become a red giant star so large that it would swallow every planet out to Mars in our solar system. Moreover, it has begun to pulse dramatically in and out, beating like a giant heart. New close-up photos of the surface of this distant star show its throbbing motions in unprecedented detail. http://www.physorg.com/news180098305.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:10:01 EST news180098305 Scientists seeking to understand how to make an AIDS vaccine have found the cause of a major roadblock. It turns out that the immune system can indeed produce cells with the potential to manufacture powerful HIV-blocking antibodies - but at the same time, the immune system works equally hard to make sure these cells are eliminated before they have a chance to mature. http://www.physorg.com/news180095962.html Medicine & Health Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:30:02 EST news180095962 Extinct woolly mammoths and ancient American horses may have been grazing the North American steppe for several thousand years longer than previously thought. After plucking ancient DNA from frozen soil in central Alaska, a team of researchers used cutting-edge techniques to uncover "genetic fossils" of both species locked in permafrost samples dated to between 7,600 and 10,500 calendar years. This new evidence suggests that at least one population of these now-extinct mammals endured longer in the continental interior, challenging the conventional view that these and other large species, or megafauna, disappeared from the Americas about 12,000 years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news180095166.html Biology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:20:01 EST news180095166 (PhysOrg.com) -- Adding cerium oxide to phosphate glass rather than the commonly used silicate glass may make glasses that block ultraviolet light and have increased radiation damage resistance while remaining colorless, according to Penn State researchers. These cerium-containing phosphate glasses have many commercial applications for use in windows, sunglasses and solar cells. http://www.physorg.com/news180098054.html Physics Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:15:06 EST news180098054 (AP) -- Imagine not being able to use a mouse to open a Web browser or a keyboard to type an e-mail. What if you couldn't distinguish colors on a computer screen or type the distorted letters in order to buy concert tickets or enroll in a class? http://www.physorg.com/news180095002.html Electronics Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:10:06 EST news180095002 A new study of Pacific Ocean sediments off the coast of Chile has found that offshore waters experienced systematic oxygen depletion during the rapid warming of the Antarctic following the last "glacial maximum" period 20,000 years ago. http://www.physorg.com/news180096546.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:49:40 EST news180096546 (PhysOrg.com) -- The first paper on proton collisions in the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - designed to provide the highest energy ever explored with particle accelerators - is published online this week in the European Physical Journal C. http://www.physorg.com/news180094677.html Physics Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:18:22 EST news180094677 (PhysOrg.com) -- Sports fans may be interested in a new system that ranks NFL and college football teams in a simple, straightforward way, similar to how Google PageRank ranks webpages. The new sports algorithm, called the Power Rank, is being developed by Ed Feng, a researcher in statistical mechanics at Sandia National Laboratory, although this project is independent of his work at Sandia. http://www.physorg.com/news180094320.html Technology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:12:40 EST news180094320 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have known for 40 years that even though it takes longer to use sign language to sign individual words, sentences can be signed, on average, in the same time it takes to say them, but until now they have never understood how this could be possible. http://www.physorg.com/news180085938.html Technology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:00:01 EST news180085938 (PhysOrg.com) -- In more than 30 locations around the world, the phenomenon of singing sand dunes has intrigued explorers, tourists, and scientists. When an avalanche occurs or even when the sand is pushed by hand, it emits a powerful, monotonous sound that can last up to several minutes and be heard more than a mile away. Sometimes observers mistake the noise for a loud, low-flying aircraft. Although scientists have spent many years investigating the sound, the cause remains a mystery. Studies have suggested that the singing dunes phenomenon is a completely new way of generating sound. http://www.physorg.com/news180086325.html Physics Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:30:01 EST news180086325 (PhysOrg.com) -- For thousands of years, humans have bred pigs for desirable traits, such as more muscle and less fat in the meat. Domestication makes animals ideal models for studying how genes control physical traits because when humans selectively breed animals for the best physical features, they are also selecting for the genes controlling those traits. http://www.physorg.com/news180087491.html Biology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:40:02 EST news180087491 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new research project has shown that people who perceive numbers visually, and who see sequences of numbers as visual patterns, have better memories for dates and events in the past than people who do not. http://www.physorg.com/news180085439.html Medicine & Health Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:45:01 EST news180085439 (AP) -- Australia plans to introduce an Internet filtering system to block obscene and crime-linked Web sites despite concerns it will curtail freedoms and won't completely work. http://www.physorg.com/news180082489.html Technology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:55:25 EST news180082489 Reproductive researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have succeeded in isolating and transplanting pure populations of the immature cells that enable male reproduction in two species -human spermatogonia and mouse gonocytes. These germline stem cells, taken from testis biopsies, demonstrated viability following transplantation to mouse testes within a controlled laboratory setting. http://www.physorg.com/news180082346.html Biology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:53:40 EST news180082346 The chemical Bisphenol A used in plastic containers and drinks cans has been shown for the first time to affect the functioning of the intestines, according to a French study published Monday. http://www.physorg.com/news180040630.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:10:01 EST news180040630 (AP) -- Google Inc. is determined to gain more influence over how the Web is used on mobile phones, even if the next step in the quest tramples some of the relationships forged during its two-year expansion into the wireless industry. http://www.physorg.com/news180040455.html Electronics Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:50:03 EST news180040455 (PhysOrg.com) -- Yale University researchers have devised a computer model to explain how the brain makes decisions based on statistical probabilities-as, for instance, when a doctor makes a diagnosis based on several conflicting test results. http://www.physorg.com/news180039239.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:40:02 EST news180039239 (PhysOrg.com) -- Marijuana use among American adolescents has increased gradually over the past two years (three years among 12th-graders) following years of declining use, according to the latest Monitoring the Future study, which has tracked drug use among U.S. teens since 1975. http://www.physorg.com/news180038399.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:10:03 EST news180038399 University of Toronto quantum optics researchers Sajeev John and Xun Ma have discovered new behaviours of light within photonic crystals that could lead to faster optical information processing and compact computers that don't overheat. http://www.physorg.com/news180039909.html Physics Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:05:46 EST news180039909 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new paper from MIT biology professor Leonard Guarente strengthens the link between longevity proteins called sirtuins and the lifespan-extending effects of calorie restriction. http://www.physorg.com/news180036887.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:00:02 EST news180036887 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have discovered the microscopic mechanism behind the phenomenon of superinsulation, the ability of certain materials to completely block the flow of electric current at low temperatures. The essence of the mechanism is what the authors termed "multi-stage energy relaxation." http://www.physorg.com/news180035393.html Physics Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:40:02 EST news180035393