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. Stars in globular clusters are generally extremely old, with ages of 12-13 billion years. However, a small fraction of them appear to be significantly younger than the average population and, because they seem to have been left behind by the stars that followed the normal path of stellar evolution and became red giants, have been dubbed blue stragglers. http://www.physorg.com/news180783454.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:00:01 EST news180783454 Museum Victoria palaeobiologist Dr Erich Fitzgerald has made new groundbreaking discoveries into the origin of baleen whales, based on a 25 million year old fossil found near Torquay in Victoria. http://www.physorg.com/news180716646.html Other Sciences Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:20:04 EST news180716646 A team of researchers from the Astrobiology Centre (INTA-CSIC) has shown that hydrogen cyanide, urea and other substances considered essential to the formation of the most basic biological molecules can be obtained from the salt Prussian blue. In order to carry out this study, published in the journal Chemistry & Biodiversity, the scientists recreated the chemical conditions of the early Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news180017348.html Chemistry Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:30:01 EST news180017348 (PhysOrg.com) -- Blue whales, the largest animals on earth, are singing with deeper voices every year, but scientists are unsure of the reason. http://www.physorg.com/news179478332.html Biology Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:40:03 EST news179478332 (PhysOrg.com) -- The annual Geminid meteor shower, which will reach its maximum on the night of Dec. 13-14, usually offers the best show of the year, outperforming even the Perseid shower of August. This year the Geminids will peak three days after new moon, so viewing conditions should be favorable. In a clear sky, observers may see more than 100 meteors per hour. http://www.physorg.com/news179085646.html Space & Earth Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:00:01 EST news179085646 The energy generated in places where fresh water and salt water meet is known as blue energy. This is a relatively new but highly promising renewable energy source. Piotr Długołęcki of the University of Twente and the Wetsus centre of excellence for sustainable water technology has further refined the method that is most commonly used to generate blue energy in the Netherlands. This method produces three to four times as much energy as previous processes. http://www.physorg.com/news177786214.html Technology Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:20:02 EST news177786214 (PhysOrg.com) -- Today at SC 09, the supercomputing conference, IBM announced significant progress toward creating a computer system that simulates and emulates the brain's abilities for sensation, perception, action, interaction and cognition, while rivaling the brain's low power and energy consumption and compact size. http://www.physorg.com/news177744958.html Technology Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:37:37 EST news177744958 An accidental discovery in a laboratory at Oregon State University has apparently solved a quest that over thousands of years has absorbed the energies of ancient Egyptians, the Han dynasty in China, Mayan cultures and more - the creation of a near-perfect blue pigment. http://www.physorg.com/news177606699.html Chemistry Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:12:25 EST news177606699 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists hope to improve the survival odds of the endangered snow leopard in Nepal by venturing into the remote Himalayas to study its main prey, the Bharal or blue sheep. http://www.physorg.com/news176720093.html Biology Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:55:25 EST news176720093 Generating energy on a large scale by mixing salt and fresh water is both technically possible and practical. The worldwide potential for this clean form of energy - 'blue energy' or 'blue electricity' - is enormous. However, it will be necessary to work actively on several essential technological developments and to invest heavily in large-scale trials. On 3 November, Jan Post hopes to obtain his doctorate on this subject from Wageningen University, The Netherlands. http://www.physorg.com/news176125611.html Technology Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:00:02 EST news176125611 University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers are close to unraveling intricate cellular pathways that control molting in blue crabs. The discoveries could revolutionize the soft-shell crab industry, generating new jobs and additional profits for the U.S. fishing industry along the coastal Southeast. http://www.physorg.com/news175885053.html Biology Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:20:02 EST news175885053 (PhysOrg.com) -- A clever structure in the ear of a tropical butterfly that potentially makes it able to distinguish between high and low pitch sounds has been discovered by scientists from the University of Bristol, UK. http://www.physorg.com/news175353553.html Biology Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:29:05 EST news175353553 Which colour would you like your roses? Red, white, yellow... or perhaps blue? http://www.physorg.com/news175244442.html Biology Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:01:16 EST news175244442 (PhysOrg.com) -- "Blue haze," a common occurrence that appears over heavily forested areas around the world, is formed by natural emissions of chemicals, but human activities can worsen it to the point of affecting the world's weather and even cause potential climate problems, according to a study led by a Texas A&M University researcher. http://www.physorg.com/news174048123.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:42:29 EST news174048123 (AP) -- ViaSat Inc. is acquiring WildBlue Communications Inc., a provider of high-speed Internet access via satellite, for $568 million in cash and stock, the companies said Thursday. http://www.physorg.com/news173591516.html Technology Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:15:27 EST news173591516 (PhysOrg.com) -- The 500-teraFLOPS Advanced Simulation and Computing program's Sequoia Initial Delivery System (Dawn), an IBM machine of the same lineage as BlueGene/L, has immediately proved itself useful as several initial science results demonstrated ground-breaking science, enhanced code performance, and some of the highest resolution, largest simulations ever run in their respective scientific field. http://www.physorg.com/news173548668.html Electronics Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:10:01 EST news173548668 Seismic surveys used for oil and gas prospecting on the sea floor are a disturbance for blue whales, the world's biggest animal and one of its rarest species, biologists reported on Wednesday. http://www.physorg.com/news172909374.html Biology Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:50:04 EST news172909374 Predicting harmful algal blooms, or HABs, in the Great Lakes is now a reality as NOAA announces an experimental HAB forecast system in Lake Erie. HABs produce toxins that may pose a significant risk to human and animal health through water recreation and may form scum that are unsightly and odorous to beach visitors, impacting the coastal economy. Forecasts depicting current and future locations of blooms, as well as intensity, will alert scientists and managers to possible threats to the Great Lakes beaches and assist in mitigation efforts. http://www.physorg.com/news172424327.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:40:01 EST news172424327 Novel bacterial strains capable of neutralizing toxins produced by blue-green algae have been identified by researchers at Robert Gordon's University, Aberdeen. Aakash Welgama presented the group's findings during the Society for General Microbiology's meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. http://www.physorg.com/news171538866.html Biology Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:30:02 EST news171538866 (PhysOrg.com) -- Telecoms, healthcare and display technology will be the major beneficiaries of a new generation of semiconductor lasers developed in a massive European research effort. Better cancer treatment, wider bandwidth and smaller, better displays could be on their way. http://www.physorg.com/news169305609.html Technology Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:30:01 EST news169305609 Intelligent countryside management could improve the survival chances of animal and plant species threatened by climate change. The creation of small heat-shielded habitats and better links between habitats would counteract a moderate temperature increase and give threatened species more time to adapt better and/or to migrate to cooler regions. http://www.physorg.com/news165771682.html Biology Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:41:47 EST news165771682 On the 25th anniversary of the project that brought the large blue butterfly back from extinction in the United Kingdom, ecologists are for the first time publishing the decades of research that helped them rescue this spectacular butterfly. http://www.physorg.com/news164337908.html Biology Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:10:01 EST news164337908 Sleep disturbances increase as we age. Some studies report more than half of seniors 65 years of age or older suffer from chronic sleep disturbances. Researchers have long believed that the sleep disturbances common among the elderly often result from a disruption of the body's circadian rhythms -- biological cycles that repeat approximately every 24 hours. http://www.physorg.com/news162813350.html Medicine & Health Fri, 29 May 2009 10:56:21 EST news162813350 (AP) -- There's a monster lurking off the coast of New York. Experts in a Cornell University acoustics program said Thursday that blue whales have been positively identified in the area for the first time. http://www.physorg.com/news162744038.html Biology Thu, 28 May 2009 15:41:30 EST news162744038 (AP) -- The carcass of a rare blue whale washed ashore in southern New Zealand after it apparently died of old age, a marine expert said Thursday. http://www.physorg.com/news162707606.html Biology Thu, 28 May 2009 05:34:09 EST news162707606 (AP) -- Blue whales are returning to Alaska in search of food and could be re-establishing an old migration route several decades after they were nearly wiped out by commercial whalers, scientists say. http://www.physorg.com/news161845979.html Biology Mon, 18 May 2009 06:13:35 EST news161845979 Scientists have documented the first known migration of blue whales from the coast of California to areas off British Columbia and the Gulf of Alaska since the end of commercial whaling in 1965. http://www.physorg.com/news161269538.html Biology Mon, 11 May 2009 14:06:09 EST news161269538 Over the past 19 years Hubble has taken dozens of exotic pictures of galaxies going "bump in the night" as they collide with each other and have a variety of close encounters of the galactic kind. Just when you thought these interactions couldn't look any stranger, this image of a trio of galaxies, called Arp 194, looks as if of the galaxies has sprung a leak. The bright blue streamer is really a stretched spiral arm full of newborn blue stars. This typically happens when two galaxies interact and gravitationally tug at each other gravitationally. http://www.physorg.com/news159546382.html Space & Earth Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:26:52 EST news159546382 (PhysOrg.com) -- A University of Colorado at Boulder team has developed a new method of shrinking the size of circuitry used in nanotechnology devices like computer chips and solar cells by using two separate colors of light. http://www.physorg.com/news159100452.html Nanotechnology Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:34:39 EST news159100452 Cooling a supercomputer consumes more electricity than is required to run the machine, even machines as powerful as the IBM Blue Gene/P -called Intrepid -at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory. Though Intrepid is one of the fastest and most energy-efficient computers in the world, researchers at Argonne's Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) are continually looking for ways to further reduce the power needed to operate the machine. http://www.physorg.com/news158943764.html Technology Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:03:07 EST news158943764