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. Large-scale electronic patient record (EPR) programmes promise much but sometimes deliver little, according to a new study by UCL researchers that reviewed findings from hundreds of previous studies from all over the world. http://www.physorg.com/news180010544.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:58:27 EST news180010544 (PhysOrg.com) -- When it comes to the workings of the Web, the brain, or a social network, physics finds universal truths. http://www.physorg.com/news179766565.html Physics Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:10:09 EST news179766565 Mammals have evolved a complex system for controlling bone remodeling. Babies require calcium for healthy bones and they obtain it from their mother's milk. Nursing mothers release calcium from their bones. Surprisingly, however, the same system also plays a key part in the control of fever and of female body temperature. This finding is reported in a paper in this week's issue of Nature from Josef Penninger's group at the IMBA in Vienna, Austria. http://www.physorg.com/news178377435.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:18:13 EST news178377435 (PhysOrg.com) -- Life's ability to replicate itself is essential for evolution, yet even the simplest kind of replication requires a relatively complex system. So what kind of non-replicating system might have served as the predecessor of evolution, paving the way for life as we know it? The answer, according to a recent study, is a kind of "prelife" -- a chemical system that can lead to information and diversity, and that is capable of selection and mutation, but does not yet have the ability to self-replicate. http://www.physorg.com/news173351870.html Chemistry Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:18:22 EST news173351870 The findings, published in this week's issue of Science, conclude that food-web stability is enhanced when many diverse predator-prey links connect high and intermediate trophic levels. The computations also reveal that small ecosystems follow other rules than large ecosystems: differences in the strength of predator-prey links increase the stability of small webs, but destabilize larger webs. http://www.physorg.com/news168787660.html Biology Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:20:01 EST news168787660 The often-used one-size-fits-all approach to policies aimed at achieving sustainable social-ecological systems needs to be updated with a diagnostic tool to help scholars from multiple disciplines better frame the question and think through the variables, asserts social scientist and political economist Elinor Ostrom. http://www.physorg.com/news167578673.html Other Sciences Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:38:14 EST news167578673 (PhysOrg.com) -- The tremendous diversity of life continues to puzzle scientists, long after the 200 years since Charles Darwin's birth. However, in recent years, consistent patterns of biodiversity have been identified over space, time organism type and geographical region. http://www.physorg.com/news167057268.html Biology Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:48:38 EST news167057268 (PhysOrg.com) -- In the past 50 years it has become commonplace to think of Earth as a nurturing place, straining mightily to maintain equilibrium so that life might continue and flourish. http://www.physorg.com/news162045215.html Other Sciences Wed, 20 May 2009 13:34:10 EST news162045215 (PhysOrg.com) -- In the world of small things, shape, order and orientation are surprisingly important, according to findings from a new study by chemists at Washington University in St. Louis. http://www.physorg.com/news160669215.html Chemistry Mon, 04 May 2009 15:21:18 EST news160669215 (PhysOrg.com) -- Tough economic times call for tough measures to remain competitive. That goes for software modernisation as well. A European project has just released a prototype of a software engineering platform that could help companies save time, money and energy as they scramble to upgrade complex IT systems. The timing could not be better. http://www.physorg.com/news160664977.html Technology Mon, 04 May 2009 14:15:55 EST news160664977 Charles Darwin was fascinated by the colours of animals - he once wrote to his colleague Alfred Russell Wallace asking why certain animals were "sobeautifully and artistically coloured". http://www.physorg.com/news159108734.html Biology Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:53:14 EST news159108734 If Isaac Newton had access to a supercomputer, he'd have had it watch apples fall - and let it figure out the physical matters. But the computer would have needed to run an algorithm, just developed by Cornell researchers, which can derive natural laws from observed data. http://www.physorg.com/news157901184.html Technology Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:27:00 EST news157901184 Researchers in the field of synthetic biology are still a long way from being able to assemble living cells from scratch in the laboratory. But according to biochemist David Deamer of the University of California, Santa Cruz, their efforts are yielding clues to the mystery of how life began on Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news153932836.html Biology Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:28:09 EST news153932836 Scientists have already hooked brains directly to computers by means of metal electrodes, in the hope of both measuring what goes on inside the brain and eventually healing conditions such as blindness or epilepsy. In the future, the interface between brain and artificial system might be based on nerve cells grown for that purpose. In research that was recently featured on the cover of Nature Physics, Prof. Elisha Moses of the Physics of Complex Systems Department and his former research students Drs. Ofer Feinerman and Assaf Rotem have taken the first step in this direction by creating circuits and logic gates made of live nerves grown in the lab. http://www.physorg.com/news152364147.html Physics Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:22:49 EST news152364147 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study by researchers at the New England Complex Systems Institute found that interpretations of data from an SEC pilot program used to justify the repeal of the "uptick rule" in the summer of 2007 are unsound. The uptick rule was designed to limit the rapid selling of borrowed shares and was implemented after the crash of 1929 to prevent future crashes. http://www.physorg.com/news146228135.html Other Sciences Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:55:35 EST news146228135 (PhysOrg.com) -- Understanding how life started remains a major challenge for science. At a European Science Foundation (ESF) and COST ‘Frontiers of Science` conference in Sicily in October, scientists discussed two new approaches to the problem. The first applies complex systems theory to the chemistry that preceded early life. The second involves studying Mars, which may yield ample evidence about what Earth was like when life evolved. http://www.physorg.com/news145790809.html Space & Earth Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:26:49 EST news145790809