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) -- Scientists in Cambridge have discovered that a lowly grape variety grown by peasants - but despised by noblemen - during the Middle Ages was the mother of many of today`s greatest grape varieties, including the Chardonnay used in Champagne. http://www.physorg.com/news180366830.html Biology Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:54:21 EST news180366830 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have spent decades searching for the elusive material known as dark matter, which is believed to make up 25 percent of the universe. On Thursday, Dec. 17, a team of physicists including some at MIT reported possible evidence of two dark matter particles in a detector located in a former iron mine in Minnesota. http://www.physorg.com/news180365061.html Physics Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:25:02 EST news180365061 Autism and related development disorders are becoming more common, with a prevalence rate approaching 1 percent among American 8-year-olds, according to new data from researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). http://www.physorg.com/news180363847.html Medicine & Health Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:05:56 EST news180363847 Nanotechnology has already made it to the shelves of your local pharmacy and grocery: nanoparticles are found in anti-odor socks, makeup, makeup remover, sunscreen, anti-graffiti paint, home pregnancy tests, plastic beer bottles, anti-bacterial doorknobs, plastic bags for storing vegetables, and more than 800 other products. http://www.physorg.com/news180363327.html Physics Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:56:24 EST news180363327 Famous mugs do more than prompt us into buying magazines, according to new Université de Montréal research. In the December issue of the Canadian Journal on Aging, a team of scientists explain how the ability to name famous faces or access biographical knowledge about celebrities holds clues that could help in early Alzheimer's detection. http://www.physorg.com/news180361587.html Medicine & Health Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:27:21 EST news180361587 (AP) -- The world's largest atom smasher, which exceeded expectations after its comeback from heavy damage, will be ready to begin a groundbreaking research program in February, the operator said Friday. http://www.physorg.com/news180358963.html Physics Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:48:05 EST news180358963 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a recent study, researchers have examined the possibility of rolling a nanorod on the surface of water. On the macroscale, perhaps the closest analogy might be the sport of logrolling, in which two competitors try to balance on a log the longest while the log rolls on water. However, while the macro log rolls due to the competitors walking on it, the nanorod would roll by becoming electrically polarized by a beam of light. http://www.physorg.com/news180352909.html Nanotechnology Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:40:01 EST news180352909 "T-rays" may make X-rays obsolete as a means of detecting bombs on terrorists or illegal drugs on traffickers, among other uses, contends a Texas A&M physicist who is helping lay the theoretical groundwork to make the concept a reality. In addition to being more revealing than X-rays in some situations, T-rays do not have the cumulative possible harmful effects. http://www.physorg.com/news180352656.html Physics Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:30:01 EST news180352656 Using a microscope the size of a football field, researchers from The University of Western Ontario are studying why some insects can survive freezing, while others cannot. http://www.physorg.com/news180350816.html Biology Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:27:47 EST news180350816 Saturn's largest moon, Titan, looks to be the only place in the solar system -aside from our home planet, Earth -with copious quantities of liquid (largely, liquid methane and ethane) sitting on its surface. According to planetary astronomer Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Earth and Titan share yet another feature, which is inextricably linked with that surface liquid: common fog. http://www.physorg.com/news180350535.html Space & Earth Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:23:11 EST news180350535 the delivery of healthy proteins directly into human cells to replace malfunctioning proteins - is considered one of the most direct and safe approaches for treating diseases. But its effectiveness has been limited by low delivery efficiency and the poor stability of proteins, which are frequently broken down and digested by cells' protease enzymes before they reach their intended target. http://www.physorg.com/news180350481.html Nanotechnology Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:22:44 EST news180350481 A French court on Friday told Google that it cannot digitise French books without publishers' approval and ordered the online giant to pay 300,000 euros (430,000 dollars) in damages. http://www.physorg.com/news180350260.html Technology Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:18:22 EST news180350260 (PhysOrg.com) -- Intel has announced it will launch over two dozen new products next month, including new processors, chipsets, and a number of wireless components. http://www.physorg.com/news180341627.html Electronics Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:30:01 EST news180341627 (AP) -- A California company developing a rocket plane for space tourism announced Thursday that it has an agreement with a nonprofit group in South Korea to conduct launches in that nation. http://www.physorg.com/news180346190.html Space & Earth Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:20:01 EST news180346190 (PhysOrg.com) -- The first steps of an infant is a real milestone in the development of all mammals including humans, but little is known about why some animals can walk soon after birth, while others need months, or in the case of humans, a year or so, to take those first steps. Now a new study by scientists in Sweden has shed light on the mystery, finding that the time it takes for all mammals to start walking closely correlates with the size of their adult brains. http://www.physorg.com/news180340234.html Medicine & Health Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:41:29 EST news180340234 You are what you eat. You're also how you feel, how you exercise, how you sleep, how you handle money, how you relate to people, and what you value. http://www.physorg.com/news180300326.html Medicine & Health Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:00:01 EST news180300326 I may have caught a glimpse of the future last week. In San Francisco, a startup company called Fusion Garage showed off the JooJoo, a touch-screen device that looks like the iPhone's big brother. The JooJoo is one of the first of a new generation of tablet computers expected to hit store shelves in the coming year. http://www.physorg.com/news180298455.html Electronics Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:30:01 EST news180298455 (AP) -- France's efforts to digitize its culture, from Marcel Proust's manuscripts to the first films of the legendary Lumiere brothers, long have been bogged down by the country's reluctance to rely on help from American Internet giant Google Inc. A new startup launched Thursday says it may be the answer. http://www.physorg.com/news180297842.html Technology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:20:03 EST news180297842 Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have discovered that restricting consumption of glucose, the most common dietary sugar, can extend the life of healthy human-lung cells and speed the death of precancerous human-lung cells, reducing cancer's spread and growth rate. http://www.physorg.com/news180298600.html Medicine & Health Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:57:20 EST news180298600 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a study that helps to explain the origins of water on Earth, University of Michigan astronomers have found that water vapor can form spontaneously in habitable zones of solar systems, and that it develops into a protective layer that shields other water and organic molecules from harmful stellar radiation. http://www.physorg.com/news180297449.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:38:05 EST news180297449 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has captured the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturn's moon Titan, confirming the presence of liquid on the part of the moon dotted with many large, lake-shaped basins. http://www.physorg.com/news180296862.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:28:54 EST news180296862 Today, IBM unveiled a list of innovations that have the potential to change how people live, work and play in cities around the globe over the next five to ten years. http://www.physorg.com/news180296667.html Technology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:25:31 EST news180296667 (PhysOrg.com) -- The interplay of human mobility patterns like those between local metropolitan commuters and long-range airline travelers during a global epidemic can be modeled in such detail so as to offer refined views of epidemics that could aid in public health emergency decision making, according to new research published by a team led by informaticists at Indiana University. http://www.physorg.com/news180292371.html Technology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:00:01 EST news180292371 (AP) -- Archaeologists on Thursday hoisted a 9-ton temple pylon from the waters of the Mediterranean that was part of the palace complex of the fabled Cleopatra before it became submerged for centuries in the harbor of Alexandria. http://www.physorg.com/news180291107.html Other Sciences Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:40:06 EST news180291107 A new study reveals the reason why orchids use sexual trickery to lure insect pollinators. The study, published in the January issue of The American Naturalist, finds that sexual deception in orchids leads to a more efficient pollinating system. http://www.physorg.com/news180289024.html Biology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:10:03 EST news180289024 Human activity is increasing the supply of nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, to stream systems all over the world. The conventional wisdom -- bolstered by earlier research -- has held that these additional nutrients cause an increase in production all along the food chain, from the tiniest organisms up to the largest predators. A long-term, ecosystem-scale study by a team of University of Georgia researchers, however, has thrown this assumption into question. http://www.physorg.com/news180289199.html Biology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:10:02 EST news180289199 In some ways a cell in your body or an organelle in that cell is like an ancient walled town. Life inside either depends critically on the intelligence of the gatekeepers. http://www.physorg.com/news180288888.html Biology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:00:17 EST news180288888 In the new blockbuster Avatar, humans visit the habitable - and inhabited - alien moon called Pandora. Life-bearing moons like Pandora or the Star Wars forest moon of Endor are a staple of science fiction. With NASA's Kepler mission showing the potential to detect Earth-sized objects, habitable moons may soon become science fact. If we find them nearby, a new paper by Smithsonian astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger shows that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be able to study their atmospheres and detect key gases like carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water vapor. http://www.physorg.com/news180288713.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:50:03 EST news180288713 When bombs and bullets left 37 dead during Friday prayers at a mosque in Pakistan, earlier this month, the insurgency was using the element of surprise. Unpredictability is the hallmark of modern insurgent attacks such as this one. However, the likelihood of such events, their timing and strength can now be estimated and managed before occurring, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Miami. The study entitled "Common Ecology Quantifies Human Insurgency" is featured as the cover of the December 17, 2009 issue of the scientific journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news180284932.html Other Sciences Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:30:11 EST news180284932 (PhysOrg.com) -- Those seeking to understand and predict climate change can now use an additional tool to calculate carbon dioxide exchanges on land, according to a scientific journal article co-authored by a University of Alabama researcher and publishing this week. http://www.physorg.com/news180285034.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:30:02 EST news180285034