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) -- What started out as 'blue-sky' thinking by a group of European researchers could ultimately lead to the commercial mass production of a new generation of optoelectronic components for devices ranging from mobile laboratories to mobile phones. http://www.physorg.com/news179765431.html Physics Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:51:12 EST news179765431 (PhysOrg.com) -- If you've ever been to Hawaii, you probably spent your time enjoying the scenery of the beautiful islands, rather than wondering how they got to be there in the first place. But that's just what scientists have been trying to figure out for nearly 40 years, since a theory about their formation was first proposed that suggests volcanic hotspots like Hawaii are the result of plumes of hot rock, which rise from deep down in the Earth's mantle. http://www.physorg.com/news179765116.html Space & Earth Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:46:11 EST news179765116 (PhysOrg.com) -- For the very first time, the martian moons Phobos and Deimos have been caught on camera together. ESA's Mars Express orbiter took these pioneering images last month. Apart from their ‘wow` factor, these unique images will help the HRSC team validate and refine existing orbit models of the two moons. http://www.physorg.com/news179763963.html Space & Earth Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:26:50 EST news179763963 It emerged today that more drivers are using hand-held mobile phones than two years ago, despite the introduction of tougher penalties. The Transport Research Laboratory is worried because phone-using drivers are four times more likely to crash and their reaction times are likely to be slower. http://www.physorg.com/news179759980.html Medicine & Health Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:50:03 EST news179759980 (PhysOrg.com) -- The iPhone`s familiar touch screen display uses capacitive sensing, where the proximity of a finger disrupts the electrical connection between sensors in the screen. A competing approach, which uses embedded optical sensors to track the movement of the user`s fingers, is just now coming to market. But researchers at MIT`s Media Lab have already figured out how to use such sensors to turn displays into giant lensless cameras. On Dec. 19 at Siggraph Asia -- a recent spinoff of Siggraph, the premier graphics research conference -- the MIT team is presenting the first application of its work, a display that lets users manipulate on-screen images using hand gestures. http://www.physorg.com/news179760349.html Technology Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:27:31 EST news179760349 (PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria use all sorts of cunning to trick hosts into doing their bidding. One con in their bag of tricks: the molecular mimic. In this ruse, bacteria or their agents look for all purposes like some native molecule in a cell, but then do not behave accordingly. Working with H. pylori, the bacterium responsible for gastric ulcers and cancer, researchers have revealed one way bacteria pull this off, deciphering the structure of a piece of CagA, a bacterial protein that impersonates a human protein in order to disable a key enzyme. http://www.physorg.com/news179759608.html Biology Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:14:12 EST news179759608 (PhysOrg.com) -- Forget roasting a textbook turkey or perfect present-wrapping this month. The real test of Britons` mettle will come as we try to park in tight spots on busy roads, with 35 million of us heading to the shops over the next few weeks. Help, however, is at hand, as Professor Simon Blackburn, from Royal Holloway, University of London, has collaborated with Vauxhall Motors to create a mathematical formula to show motorists how to park perfectly. http://www.physorg.com/news179759143.html Other Sciences Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:06:26 EST news179759143 With increasing species richness, due to more plant introductions than extinctions, plant communities of many European regions are becoming more homogeneous. The same species are occurring more frequently, whereas rare species are becoming extinct. It is not only the biological communities that are becoming increasingly similar, but also the phylogenetic relations between regions. These processes have led to a loss of uniqueness among European floras, scientists from the DAISIE research project have published their findings in the current online edition of the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). http://www.physorg.com/news179757376.html Biology Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:36:46 EST news179757376 Canadian researchers have discovered a novel molecular mechanism that prevents cancer. In the December 11 edition of the prestigious journal Molecular Cell, scientists from the Université de Montréal and the Université de Sherbrooke explain how they found that the SOCS1 molecule prevents the cancer-causing activity of cytokines, hormones that are culprits in cancer-prone chronic inflammation diseases such as Crohns, in smokers and people exposed to asbestos. http://www.physorg.com/news179756794.html Medicine & Health Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:27:13 EST news179756794 (AP) -- Apple Inc. is suing cell phone maker Nokia Corp. for patent infringement, a countermove to Nokia's earlier suit against technologies used in Apple's iPhone. http://www.physorg.com/news179756128.html Technology Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:18:41 EST news179756128 Not so long ago our computers had a single core which had to be boosted for performance - making each machine into a great central heating system. Beyond 85° C, however, electronic components become unstable. To overcome this physical limit, a solution was found with the multicore technology, where the same chip includes several processors which share tasks. Most of today's consumer electronics proudly boast a "dual core" or "quad core". However, in time the technology will come up against the same physical limits. http://www.physorg.com/news179755670.html Technology Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:10:05 EST news179755670 University of Iowa researchers have found the existence of a new, rare inherited retinal disease. Now the search is on to find the genetic cause, which investigators hope will increase understanding of more common retinal diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news179752590.html Medicine & Health Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:18:19 EST news179752590 A new study may explain why the England soccer team keeps losing in penalty shootouts - and could help the team address the problem in time for the World Cup 2010. Research by the University of Exeter shows for the first time the effect of anxiety on a footballer's eye movements while taking a penalty. http://www.physorg.com/news179749980.html Medicine & Health Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:34:43 EST news179749980 Using atoms at temperatures colder than deep space, Rice University physicists have delivered overwhelming proof for a once-scoffed-at theory that's become a hotbed for research some 40 years after it first appeared. In a paper available online in Science Express, Rice's team offers experimental evidence for a universal quantum mechanism that allows trios of particles to appear and reappear at higher energy levels in an infinite progression. The triplets, often called trimers, form in special cases where pairs cannot. http://www.physorg.com/news179749630.html Physics Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:27:59 EST news179749630 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study of thousands of species of plants and animals suggests new species may arise from rare events instead of through an accumulation of small changes made in response to changes in the environment. http://www.physorg.com/news179737267.html Biology Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:40:02 EST news179737267 Fed up with foreign companies patenting traditional medicine from India, the country's top scientific body is compiling a giant database of everything from yoga positions to medicinal fruit juice. http://www.physorg.com/news179740391.html Technology Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:30:01 EST news179740391 VISTA is the latest telescope to be added to ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It is housed on the peak adjacent to the one hosting the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) and shares the same exceptional observing conditions. VISTA's main mirror is 4.1 metres across and is the most highly curved mirror of this size and quality ever made -- its deviations from a perfect surface are less than a few thousandths of the thickness of a human hair -- and its construction and polishing presented formidable challenges. http://www.physorg.com/news179739402.html Space & Earth Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:10:02 EST news179739402 Boston College researchers have observed the "hot electron" effect in a solar cell for the first time and successfully harvested the elusive charges using ultra-thin solar cells, opening a potential avenue to improved solar power efficiency, the authors report in the current online edition of Applied Physics Letters. http://www.physorg.com/news179739056.html Physics Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:31:22 EST news179739056 Five-year-olds can reason about the world from multiple perspectives simultaneously, according to a new theory by researchers in Japan and Australia. Using an established branch of mathematics called Category Theory, the researchers explain why specific reasoning skills develop in children at certain ages, particularly at age five. The new theory, published December 11 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, shows that these reasoning skills have similar profiles of development because they involve related sorts of processes. http://www.physorg.com/news179737665.html Biology Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:10:28 EST news179737665 Chemotherapy generally improves survival in postmenopausal breast cancer patients, according to a landmark study led by Dr. Kathy Albain of Loyola University Health System. http://www.physorg.com/news179737360.html Medicine & Health Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:04:22 EST news179737360 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Glasgow Science Centre in Scotland is exhibiting a computer that makes up jokes using its database of simple language rules and a large vocabulary. http://www.physorg.com/news179736700.html Technology Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:52:14 EST news179736700 (AP) -- On a mountaintop clearing in the Sierra Nevada stands a tall metal platform holding a crude furnace and a box of silver iodide solution that some scientists believe could help offer relief from searing droughts. http://www.physorg.com/news179691518.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:19:33 EST news179691518 The slogan is "one laptop per child." But it will be a long time before that is true everywhere in the world. Meanwhile, a new device aims to make a situation that is common in poor areas - one computer shared among many children - work better in school settings. http://www.physorg.com/news179690698.html Electronics Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:05:32 EST news179690698 (PhysOrg.com) -- Results of diagnostic tests on Spirit's right-rear wheel on Sol 2109 (Dec. 8, 2009) continue to indicate a troubled wheel, which may leave the rover with only four operable wheels. http://www.physorg.com/news179689932.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:52:47 EST news179689932 Thursday's Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing featured testimony from experts about the power industry's need to develop systems capable of storing large amounts of electricity if the nation's power grid intends to utilize the expected increase of energy produced by renewable resources. http://www.physorg.com/news179688592.html Technology Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:30:20 EST news179688592 (PhysOrg.com) -- Name all the venomous animals you can think of and you probably come up with snakes, spiders, bees, wasps and perhaps poisonous frogs. But catfish? http://www.physorg.com/news179688441.html Biology Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:27:50 EST news179688441 Shrink a human being down to the size of an insect, and you would no longer be able to sip lemonade from a straw. The forces that hold liquid together would simply be too great to overcome at that tiny scale. http://www.physorg.com/news179688348.html Biology Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:26:33 EST news179688348 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Stanford researchers has developed a new generation of retinal implants that aims to provide higher resolution and make artificial vision more natural. http://www.physorg.com/news179686378.html Medicine & Health Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:54:18 EST news179686378 (PhysOrg.com) -- The genetically modified cyanobacterium consumes carbon dioxide and produces the liquid fuel isobutanol by using energy from sunlight. http://www.physorg.com/news179683624.html Biology Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:07:55 EST news179683624 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Princeton University scientists has produced a systematic listing of the ways a particular cancerous cell has "gone wrong," giving researchers a powerful tool that eventually could make possible new, more targeted therapies for patients. http://www.physorg.com/news179683447.html Medicine & Health Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:04:58 EST news179683447