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. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has won a 40,000-dollar prize for using social networking tools to identify the locations of 10 large weather balloons in a contest sponsored by the Pentagon's research agency. http://www.physorg.com/news179430944.html Technology Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:56:21 EST news179430944 University of Georgia scientists looking to understand the genetic mechanisms of plant defense and growth have found for the first time in plants an inverse relationship between gene duplication and alternative splicing. The finding has implications for diversity not only in plants, but in animals and humans. http://www.physorg.com/news179424298.html Biology Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:40:04 EST news179424298 Very often in science, the unexpected discovery turns out to be the most significant. Rice University Professor Junichiro Kono and his team weren't looking for a breakthrough in the transmission of terahertz signals, but there it was: a plasmonic material that would, with adjustments to its temperature and/or magnetic field, either stop a terahertz beam cold or let it pass completely. http://www.physorg.com/news179426778.html Physics Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:40:01 EST news179426778 The ubiquitous coin toss is not so random after all, and can easily be manipulated to turn up heads, or tails, a Canadian study has found. http://www.physorg.com/news179429795.html Other Sciences Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:37:52 EST news179429795 Humans share at least 97 percent of their genes with chimpanzees, but, as a new study of transcription factors makes clear, what you have in your genome may be less important than how you use it. http://www.physorg.com/news179423972.html Biology Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:30:05 EST news179423972 A gut-level connection with workers may be the key to encouraging whistle-blowing that could chip away at an estimated $652 billion lost to fraud annually by U.S. businesses, an ongoing University of Illinois study suggests. http://www.physorg.com/news179426399.html Other Sciences Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:30:04 EST news179426399 (PhysOrg.com) -- Stanford scientists are harnessing nanotechnology to quickly produce ultra-lightweight, bendable batteries and supercapacitors in the form of everyday paper. http://www.physorg.com/news179427849.html Nanotechnology Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:04:51 EST news179427849 (PhysOrg.com) -- With a small card reader that attaches to a cell phone, a new company is making it easier for small businesses and even individuals to accept credit card payments. The San Francisco start-up, called Square, which opened just last week, is headed by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey. http://www.physorg.com/news179427538.html Technology Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:00:32 EST news179427538 Neurology researchers have shown that feeding amino acids to brain-injured animals restores their cognitive abilities and may set the stage for the first effective treatment for cognitive impairments suffered by people with traumatic brain injuries. http://www.physorg.com/news179423402.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:40:05 EST news179423402 New information about lightning-emitted X-rays, gamma rays and high-energy electrons during thunderstorms is prompting scientists to raise concerns about the potential for airline passengers and crews to be exposed to harmful levels of radiation. http://www.physorg.com/news179426300.html Space & Earth Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:39:14 EST news179426300 An ultra-high-resolution imaging technique using X-ray diffraction is a step closer to fulfilling its promise as a window on nanometer-scale structures in biological samples. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report progress in applying an approach to "lensless" X-ray microscopy that they introduced one year ago. http://www.physorg.com/news179423148.html Physics Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:30:02 EST news179423148 We have all had the embarrassing experience of seeing an acquaintance in an unfamiliar setting. We know we know them but can't recall who they are. But with the correct cues from conversation or context, something seems to click and we can readily access very rich and vivid memories about the individual. http://www.physorg.com/news179422949.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:20:01 EST news179422949 (PhysOrg.com) -- The nation is still debating the effects of antidepressant medications on brain chemistry almost 20 years after publication of the best-seller "Listening to Prozac." Though selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are widely used to treat depression today, understanding of their mechanisms remains limited. http://www.physorg.com/news179424614.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:10:44 EST news179424614 (PhysOrg.com) -- Facebook figures out that you know Holly, although you haven't seen her in 10 years, because you have four mutual friends -- a good predictor of direct friendship. But sometimes Facebook gets it wrong. "Hey, I don't know Harry!" http://www.physorg.com/news179424418.html Technology Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:07:44 EST news179424418 A team led by Yale University scientists has developed a way to rapidly manipulate and sort different cells in the blood using magnetizable liquids. The findings, which will be published the week of December 7 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could dramatically improve the speed and sensitivity of tests used to detect cancer biomarkers, blood disorders, viruses and other diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news179423243.html Nanotechnology Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:48:29 EST news179423243 Two new studies show that the thalamus--the small central brain structure often characterized as a mere pit-stop for sensory information on its way to the cortex--is heavily involved in sensory processing, and is an important conductor of the brain's complex orchestra. http://www.physorg.com/news179422808.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:41:31 EST news179422808 Socially isolated female rats develop more tumors -- and tumors of a more deadly type -- than rats living in a social group, according to researchers at Yale University and the University of Chicago. http://www.physorg.com/news179422755.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:40:30 EST news179422755 (PhysOrg.com) -- New high-energy particle research by a team working with data from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory further heightens the uncertainty about the exact nature of a key theoretical component of modern physics -- the massive fundamental particle called the Higgs boson. http://www.physorg.com/news179421292.html Physics Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:15:45 EST news179421292 (PhysOrg.com) -- Nanoscale machines expected to have wide application in industry, energy, medicine and other fields may someday operate far more efficiently thanks to important theoretical discoveries concerning the manipulation of famous Casimir forces that took place at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory. http://www.physorg.com/news179421062.html Nanotechnology Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:11:42 EST news179421062 There is more to the snowflake than its ability to delight schoolchildren and snarl traffic. http://www.physorg.com/news179416713.html Chemistry Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:26:57 EST news179416713 People who drink may want to know that coffee won't sober them up, according to new laboratory research. Instead, a cup of coffee may make it harder for people to realize they're drunk. http://www.physorg.com/news179416153.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:50:48 EST news179416153 (PhysOrg.com) -- Middle-aged parents are more involved in their grown children's lives than ever, according to new research from Purdue University. http://www.physorg.com/news179415794.html Other Sciences Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:44:48 EST news179415794 In the first study to demonstrate a clear positive association between adolescent fitness and adult cognitive performance, Nancy Pedersen of the University of Southern California and colleagues in Sweden find that better cardiovascular health among teenage boys correlates to higher scores on a range of intelligence tests - and more education and income later in life. http://www.physorg.com/news179415275.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:36:53 EST news179415275 (PhysOrg.com) -- Due to their violent nature and long distance from Earth, black holes and their surroundings are very difficult to study. Currently, the main method to observe a black hole is to use an X-ray satellite to detect the X-ray fluorescence emitted by a black hole`s companion star as the star`s material falls into the black hole. But now, scientists have developed a laser-driven method to generate a flash of brilliant Planckian X-rays in the lab that can be used to simulate the X-rays that exist near black holes. The new results contrast with the generally accepted explanation for the origins of these astronomical features, and may also help scientists test the complex computer codes used in X-ray astronomy. http://www.physorg.com/news179398351.html Physics Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:30:02 EST news179398351 (AP) -- A spacecraft designed to rocket wealthy tourists into space as early as 2011 was unveiled Monday in what backers of the venture hope will signal a new era in aviation history. http://www.physorg.com/news179407567.html Space & Earth Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:27:15 EST news179407567 (PhysOrg.com) -- An extensive study made with ESO's Very Large Telescope deepens a long-standing mystery in the study of stars similar to the Sun. Unusual year-long variations in the brightness of about one third of all Sun-like stars during the latter stages of their lives still remain unexplained. Over the past few decades, astronomers have offered many possible explanations, but the new, painstaking observations contradict them all and only deepen the mystery. The search for a suitable interpretation is on. http://www.physorg.com/news179403810.html Space & Earth Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:26:07 EST news179403810 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new program, Eureqa, takes raw data and formulates scientific laws to suit, and it is available by free download to all scientists. http://www.physorg.com/news179394947.html Technology Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:30:01 EST news179394947 The field of artificial-intelligence research (AI), founded more than 50 years ago, seems to many researchers to have spent much of that time wandering in the wilderness, swapping hugely ambitious goals for a relatively modest set of actual accomplishments. Now, some of the pioneers of the field, joined by later generations of thinkers, are gearing up for a massive 'do-over' of the whole idea. http://www.physorg.com/news179400180.html Technology Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:23:41 EST news179400180 (PhysOrg.com) -- The skin is known for its ability to regenerate because the cells in the skin are constantly turning over. This "healing property" has attracted much attention from scientists wanting to know what makes the skin repair itself. Researchers at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) are now a step closer to understanding its regenerative power. The scientists are the first to identify a stem cell for the dermis or the second layer of the skin. http://www.physorg.com/news179399989.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:20:29 EST news179399989 (PhysOrg.com) -- "For years, we have been using laser cooling to trap and manipulate atoms," David DeMille tells PhysOrg.com. "This has been very useful for both basic science and many applications. Recently there has been great interest in cooling and trapping molecules as well. Their rich internal structure makes molecules useful for a wide range of new experiments and possible applications." http://www.physorg.com/news179397985.html Physics Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:47:03 EST news179397985