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) -- With its complete lack of atoms, a vacuum is often considered to be the best known insulator. For this reason, vacuums are regularly used to reduce heat transfer, such as in the lining of a thermos to keep beverages hot or cold. However, in a recent study scientists have found a material even less able to conduct heat: a stack of photonic crystals layered within a vacuum can create a material with a thermal conductance just half that of empty space alone. http://www.physorg.com/news179672831.html Physics Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:07:50 EST news179672831 Russia's new nuclear-capable missile suffered another failed test launch, the defence ministry said Thursday, solving the mystery of a spectacular plume of white light that appeared over Norway. http://www.physorg.com/news179671318.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:43:24 EST news179671318 Aging is the single greatest risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. In their latest study, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found that simply slowing the aging process in mice prone to develop Alzheimer's disease prevented their brains from turning into a neuronal wasteland. http://www.physorg.com/news179670676.html Medicine & Health Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:34:18 EST news179670676 (PhysOrg.com) -- Paleontologists have unearthed a previously unknown meat-eating dinosaur in New Mexico, settling a debate about early dinosaur evolution, revealing a period of explosive diversification and hinting at how dinosaurs spread across the supercontinent Pangaea. http://www.physorg.com/news179656826.html Other Sciences Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:20:02 EST news179656826 The H1N1 influenza virus has been keeping a secret that may be the key to defeating it and other flu viruses as well. http://www.physorg.com/news179668960.html Medicine & Health Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:03:55 EST news179668960 Scientists have designed a synthetic protein that is both a structural model and a functional model of a native protein, nitric-oxide reductase. http://www.physorg.com/news179667132.html Chemistry Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:34:48 EST news179667132 (PhysOrg.com) -- Studies of one of the galaxy's most active black-hole binaries reveal a dramatic change that will help scientists better understand how these systems expel fast-moving particle jets. http://www.physorg.com/news179665092.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:59:29 EST news179665092 The sequences of nonsense DNA that interrupt genes could be far more important to the evolution of genomes than previously thought, according to a recent Science report by Indiana University Bloomington and University of New Hampshire biologists. http://www.physorg.com/news179664799.html Biology Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:54:30 EST news179664799 Environmental scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and Durham University have employed a novel combination of geological and model reconstructions of wetland environments during a 10,000-year period to address spatial variations in sea-level history and provide quantitative estimates of subsidence along the east coast of England. http://www.physorg.com/news179664698.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:52:28 EST news179664698 (PhysOrg.com) -- Two scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a method to control the buildup of hydrogen fluoride gas during the growth of precision crystals needed for applications such as superconductors, optical devices, and microelectronics. The invention -- by Vyacheslav Solovyov and Harold Wiesmann and recently awarded U.S. Patent number 7,622,426 -- could lead to more efficient production and improved performance of these materials. http://www.physorg.com/news179664593.html Physics Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:50:30 EST news179664593 (PhysOrg.com) -- New research appears to have ended a scientific debate that has vexed palaeontologists for almost 100 years. http://www.physorg.com/news179660768.html Other Sciences Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:58:10 EST news179660768 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) scientists is looking for clues about life on Mars in an earthy clay mineral found only in Aberdeenshire in Scotland. http://www.physorg.com/news179652861.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:10:01 EST news179652861 (PhysOrg.com) -- Ancient DNA retrieved from extinct horse species from around the world has challenged one of the textbook examples of evolution - the fossil record of the horse family Equidae over the past 55 million years. http://www.physorg.com/news179653662.html Biology Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:40:01 EST news179653662 Japanese researchers said Thursday they had found a way to make plant leaves absorb more carbon dioxide in an innovation that may one day help ease global warming and boost food production. http://www.physorg.com/news179653708.html Biology Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:30:13 EST news179653708 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new species of bird from the Cretaceous period in China has been identified. It had toothless upper and lower jaws, and provides significant information on the diversification in the evolution of birds during the Early Cretaceous. http://www.physorg.com/news179652422.html Other Sciences Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:27:41 EST news179652422 Using literature written by Thomas Hardy, DH Lawrence and Herman Melville, physicists in Sweden have developed a formula to detect different authors' literary 'fingerprints'. http://www.physorg.com/news179651371.html Physics Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:10:32 EST news179651371 Next time you spy the Big Dipper, keep in mind that there is another star, invisible to the unaided eye, contributing to this constellation. http://www.physorg.com/news179651081.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:07:05 EST news179651081 (AP) -- Solar technology is going where it has never gone before: onto the shelves at retail stores where do-it-yourselfers can now plunk a panel into a shopping cart and bring it home to install. http://www.physorg.com/news179647607.html Technology Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:34:36 EST news179647607 (PhysOrg.com) -- Thanks to the Internet and online social networks (OSNs) news and gossip now spread literally like wildfire -- uncontrollably and seemingly without any order. But according to one Ryerson researcher, there is method to the madness. With the right mathematical model, you could spot when and where a story starts, then watch as it skips across the Internet. One day, similar models could even detect and track terrorist cells within OSNs. http://www.physorg.com/news179607879.html Other Sciences Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:20:01 EST news179607879 Apple Inc. is on track to launch a much-anticipated, tablet-sized computing device early next year, according to brokerage reports Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news179608527.html Electronics Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:15:57 EST news179608527 If the data devoured in the United States last year were converted to text there would be enough books to bury the country under a pile seven feet (two meters) deep, according to a study released Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news179607429.html Technology Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:10:02 EST news179607429 (PhysOrg.com) -- The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Now, the first year-by-year accounting of this mechanism during the industrial era suggests the oceans are struggling to keep up with rising emissions -a finding with potentially wide implications for future climate. http://www.physorg.com/news179602661.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:10:07 EST news179602661 The declining use of hormone therapy among women has led to 6,000 fewer invasive breast cancer cases a year, according to an analysis by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The research quantifies and advances what doctors had suspected: that the dramatic decline in hormone use beginning in 2002 was the cause of a reduction in the breast cancer rate that began the following year. http://www.physorg.com/news179603529.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:52:35 EST news179603529 (PhysOrg.com) -- After waiting years for the sun to illuminate Saturn's north pole again, cameras aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft have captured the most detailed images yet of the intriguing hexagon shape crowning the planet. http://www.physorg.com/news179601566.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:50:03 EST news179601566 Results of a preliminary study by scientists at the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins show that "mini" stem cell transplantation may safely reverse severe sickle cell disease in adults. http://www.physorg.com/news179602876.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:42:02 EST news179602876 (PhysOrg.com) -- Philips Research has developed a novel color e-paper technology that opens up new design opportunities for personalizing electronic devices. This means that the color and appearance, of the device`s surface, for example an MP3 player or mobile phone can easily be changed to match your outfit, mood or environment simply at the touch of a button. http://www.physorg.com/news179602254.html Technology Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:31:31 EST news179602254 December 9, 2009 -Even small errors made by cells during protein production can have profound disease effects, and nature has developed ways to uncover these mistakes and correct them. Though in the case of one essential protein building block -the amino acid alanine -nature has been extra careful, developing not one, but two checkpoints in her effort to make sure that this component is used correctly. http://www.physorg.com/news179598698.html Biology Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:10:01 EST news179598698 The Mediterranean Sea was mostly filled in less than two years in a dramatic flood around 5.33 million years ago in which water poured in from the Atlantic, according to a study published Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news179598629.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:00:02 EST news179598629 (PhysOrg.com) -- A galaxy located billions of light-years away is commanding the attention of NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and astronomers around the globe. Thanks to a series of flares that began September 15, the galaxy is now the brightest source in the gamma-ray sky -- more than ten times brighter than it was in the summer. http://www.physorg.com/news179593672.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:40:01 EST news179593672 (AP) -- The world's largest atom smasher has recorded its first high-energy collisions of protons, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news179598457.html Physics Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:28:44 EST news179598457