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) -- 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) -- 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 (PhysOrg.com) -- The discovery of a Middle Eocene (48.6-37.2 million years ago) sea cow fossil by McGill University professor Karen Samonds has culminated in the naming of a new species. This primitive "dugong" is among the world's first fully-aquatic sea cows, having evolved from terrestrial herbivores that began exploiting coastal waters. Within this ancient genus, the newly discovered species is unusual as it is the first species known from the southern hemisphere (its closest relatives are from Egypt and India), and is extremely primitive in its skull morphology and dental adaptations. http://www.physorg.com/news180033607.html Other Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:10:02 EST news180033607 (PhysOrg.com) -- Hotel guests come and go. But in the first decade of the 1900s, a pair of frequent Russian visitors to the Hotel Parisiana, near the Sorbonne on Paris' Left Bank, stood out vividly. The children of the hotel's proprietors, the Chamont family, remembered them into the 1970s as 'hardworking' and 'pious' men. The guests, Dimitri Egorov and Nikolai Luzin, were mathematicians, studying in Paris; they often prayed and went to church. http://www.physorg.com/news180030744.html Other Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:10:01 EST news180030744 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have achieved a nanoscale laser structure they anticipate will produce semiconductor lasers in the next two years that are more than twice as efficient as current continuous-wave lasers emitting in the mid-infrared. http://www.physorg.com/news180032976.html Physics Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:00:20 EST news180032976 Waking and walking to the bathroom in the pitch black of night requires brain activity that is both conscious and unconscious and requires a single master gene known as Math1 or Atoh1, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in a report that appears online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news180028344.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:30:02 EST news180028344 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at McGill University have identified a protein that plays a key role in cell proliferation and is likely to promote cancer development. The work may lead to the development of new diagnostic tools adjusted for personalized treatments, the researchers said. Their results are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). http://www.physorg.com/news180033486.html Chemistry Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:20:27 EST news180033486 A team of scientists from the UC San Diego School of Medicine and Osaka University in Japan have identified a protein switch that helps prevent liver damage, including inflammation, fibrosis and cancer. The findings suggest that a better understanding of how the protein, TAK1, works could lead to new insights into the development of liver disease and cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news180027750.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:20:03 EST news180027750 (PhysOrg.com) -- A University of Manchester scientist, working as part of an international team, has uncovered an unexpectedly rich trove of relicts from the ancient cosmos. http://www.physorg.com/news180032250.html Space & Earth Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:00:16 EST news180032250 (PhysOrg.com) -- 'What does the world look like' and 'where am I' are two questions robots must solve if they are to act autonomously in an unknown environment. Work by European researchers will help future robot generations provide smarter answers. http://www.physorg.com/news180031696.html Electronics Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:49:45 EST news180031696 A discovery by scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) could contribute to the development of systems that use domestic or agricultural waste to generate clean electricity. http://www.physorg.com/news180028197.html Biology Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:40:01 EST news180028197 As the national discussion of health care focuses on costs, a new study from North Carolina State University shows that it might be more accurate to think of health care spending as an investment that can spur economic growth. The study also shows that government projections of health care costs and financing may be unduly pessimistic. http://www.physorg.com/news180027478.html Other Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:30:03 EST news180027478 (PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny nanoprobes have shown to be effective in delivering cancer drugs more directly to tumor cells - mitigating the damage to nearby healthy cells - and Purdue University research has shown that the nanoprobes are getting the drugs to right cellular compartments. http://www.physorg.com/news180027243.html Nanotechnology Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:10:05 EST news180027243 A new microscopic system devised by researchers in MIT's department of materials science and engineering could provide a novel method for moving tiny objects inside a microchip, and could also provide new insights into how cells and other objects are propelled around within the body. http://www.physorg.com/news180029015.html Physics Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:08:06 EST news180029015 (PhysOrg.com) -- U.S. households consumed approximately 3.6 zettabytes of information in 2008, according to the "How Much Information? 2009 Report on American Consumers," released today by the University of California, San Diego. One zettabyte is 1,000,000,000 trillion bytes, and total bytes consumed last year were the equivalent of the information in thick paperback novels stacked seven feet high over the entire United States, including Alaska. http://www.physorg.com/news180028010.html Other Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:48:16 EST news180028010 Genes that don't themselves directly affect the inherited characteristics of an organism but leave them increasingly open to variation may be a significant driving force of evolution, say two Johns Hopkins scientists. http://www.physorg.com/news180027625.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:41:51 EST news180027625 (PhysOrg.com) -- In real estate, it's location, location, location. And when it comes to why girls and women shy away from careers in computer science, a key reason is environment, environment, environment. http://www.physorg.com/news180024084.html Other Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:20:01 EST news180024084 This is shown by samples of ancient DNA, analysed by an international team of research scientists under the leadership of Professor Eske Willerslev from Copenhagen University. Analyses of ancient DNA thereby once again revoke results of more common methods of dating, such as carbon 14 analysis of bone and tooth remains from extinct animals. These methods which had previously dated the extinction of mammoths and prehistoric horses in Central Asia to within 13-15,000 years ago. But with the DNA-test methods of Eske Willerslev and his colleagues, this boundary has now moved between 2,600 and 5,600 years closer to our time and has thus revised our previous opinion of when the last mammoths and prehistoric horses grazed on the North American Plains. http://www.physorg.com/news180026128.html Other Sciences Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:17:25 EST news180026128