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) -- 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) -- Hawaii may be paradise for vacationers, but for geologists it has long been a puzzle. Plate tectonic theory readily explains the existence of volcanoes at boundaries where plates split apart or collide, but mid-plate volcanoes such as those that built the Hawaiian island chain have been harder to fit into the theory. A classic explanation, proposed nearly 40 years ago, has been that magma is supplied to the volcanoes from upwellings of hot rock, called mantle "plumes," that originate deep in the Earth's mantle. Evidence for these deep structures has been sketchy, however. http://www.physorg.com/news179074389.html Space & Earth Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:53:40 EST news179074389 Noted for harbouring Eta Carinae -- one of the wildest and most massive stars in our galaxy -- the impressive Carina Nebula also houses a handful of massive clusters of young stars. The youngest of these stellar families is the Trumpler 14 star cluster, which is less than one million years old -- a blink of an eye in the Universe's history. This large open cluster is located some 8000 light-years away towards the constellation of Carina (the Keel). http://www.physorg.com/news179068963.html Space & Earth Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:23:15 EST news179068963 (PhysOrg.com) -- iPhones are being used as musical instruments in a new course at the University of Michigan. http://www.physorg.com/news178915531.html Technology Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:46:06 EST news178915531 NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer has been wrapped in the outer nose cone, or "fairing," that will protect it during its scheduled Dec. 9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. http://www.physorg.com/news178912011.html Space & Earth Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:30:01 EST news178912011 (PhysOrg.com) -- Engineers are busy cooling the science instrument on NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The spacecraft is scheduled to blast into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Dec. 7, 2009. It will map the entire sky in infrared light, uncovering all sorts of hidden treasures -- everything from the coolest stars to dark asteroids and the most luminous galaxies. http://www.physorg.com/news177183557.html Space & Earth Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:50:01 EST news177183557 Campaigners are stepping up efforts to curb online tracking of Internet use by firms that deliver adverts tailored to the specific interests of consumers, as polls reveal widespread unease with the practice. http://www.physorg.com/news176879023.html Technology Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:20:01 EST news176879023 Hundreds of privacy experts from around the world met in Madrid on Wednesday for a three-day conference which aims to arrive at a global standard for the protection of personal data. http://www.physorg.com/news176545106.html Technology Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:50:01 EST news176545106 (PhysOrg.com) -- Star clusters are among the most visually alluring and astrophysically fascinating objects in the sky. One of the most spectacular nestles deep in the southern skies near the Southern Cross in the constellation of Crux. http://www.physorg.com/news176014385.html Space & Earth Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:54:01 EST news176014385 Regularly playing a musical instrument changes the anatomy and function of the brain and may be used in therapy to improve cognitive skills. http://www.physorg.com/news175778208.html Medicine & Health Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:17:47 EST news175778208 (PhysOrg.com) -- While not the smallest lettering ever created, the tiny initials "LCLS" have been written with what may be the world's most potent pen. Etched into boron carbide, a super-hard substance used in accelerator shielding and body armor, the lettering has helped researchers at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory explore the capabilities of the world's first hard X-ray laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source. http://www.physorg.com/news175283137.html Physics Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:10:03 EST news175283137 (PhysOrg.com) -- It takes a lot of energy to strip all ten electrons from an atom of neon. Doing it from the inside out, knocking away the most-closely-held, innermost electrons first, is an even rarer feat. But the brilliant X-ray pulses of the Linac Coherent Light Source have done just that, in the successful first test of the unprecedented X-ray laser with its first scientific instrument. The result demonstrates the machine's unique capabilities -with the world's brightest and shortest X-ray laser pulses -and marks the first of two milestones in readiness for the launch of LCLS scientific user experiments this October. http://www.physorg.com/news172503425.html Physics Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:00:04 EST news172503425 Wind speeds and directions were measured for the first time in the Mars polar region using the Phoenix lander`s Telltale instrument. Astronomers recorded Easterly winds of approximately 15-20 kilometres per hour during the martian mid-summer. When autumn approached, the winds increased and switched round to come predominantly from the West. While these winds appeared to be dominated by turbulence, the highest wind speeds recorded of up to nearly 60 kilometres per hour coincided with the passing of weather systems, when also the number of dust devils increased by an order of magnitude. The results are being today at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam by Dr Haraldur Gunnlaugsson. http://www.physorg.com/news172305133.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:32:51 EST news172305133 (PhysOrg.com) -- It's every violinmaker's dream to produce an instrument to rival the sound of a Stradivarius but now researchers at The University of Nottingham are trying to do just that… using acoustic physics and carbon fibre engineering. http://www.physorg.com/news171897397.html Chemistry Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:17:57 EST news171897397 (AP) -- Danaher Corp. said Wednesday it will shed about twice as many existing jobs and plants as previously announced and also buy a global provider of medical instruments to analyze molecules. http://www.physorg.com/news171121852.html Technology Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:51:16 EST news171121852 Salpinx, barbiton, aulos, syrinx. Never heard them? Never heard of them? Neither had anyone else, for centuries. Until now. http://www.physorg.com/news170963147.html Other Sciences Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:46:22 EST news170963147 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter put itself into a safe mode Wednesday morning, Aug. 26, for the fourth time this year, while maintaining spacecraft health and communications. While in safe mode, the spacecraft has limited activities pending further instructions from ground controllers. http://www.physorg.com/news170618089.html Space & Earth Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:55:50 EST news170618089 The dense star cluster RCW 38 glistens about 5500 light years away in the direction of the constellation Vela (the Sails). Like the Orion Nebula Cluster, RCW 38 is an "embedded cluster", in that the nascent cloud of dust and gas still envelops its stars. Astronomers have determined that most stars, including the low mass, reddish ones that outnumber all others in the Universe, originate in these matter-rich locations. Accordingly, embedded clusters provide scientists with a living laboratory in which to explore the mechanisms of star and planetary formation. http://www.physorg.com/news169894333.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:52:41 EST news169894333 GOES-14, formerly GOES-O, has achieved another significant milestone with the release of the first formal Solar Image from the Solar X-Ray Imager (SXI). http://www.physorg.com/news169819906.html Space & Earth Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:50:01 EST news169819906 (PhysOrg.com) -- The new image, showing a very rich field of stars towards the Carina arm of the Milky Way, is centred on the star HD 87643, a member of the exotic class of B[e] stars [1]. It is part of a set of observations that provide astronomers with the best ever picture of a B[e] star. http://www.physorg.com/news168689716.html Space & Earth Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:15:44 EST news168689716 From the motion sensor to the computer chip - in many products of daily life components are used whose functioning is based on smallest structures of the size of thousandths - or even millionths - of millimetres. These micro and nano structures must be manufactured and assembled with the highest precision so that in the end, the overall system will function smoothly. http://www.physorg.com/news166093649.html Nanotechnology Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:08:07 EST news166093649 Diviner, an instrument that will make the first maps of the temperature on the surface of the lunar polar regions, entered the moon's orbit this morning (June 23) aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. http://www.physorg.com/news165080293.html Space & Earth Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:40:02 EST news165080293 Excavations in the summer of 2008 at the sites of Hohle Fels and Vogelherd produced new evidence for Paleolithic music in the form of the remains of one nearly complete bone flute and isolated small fragments of three ivory flutes. http://www.physorg.com/news165069257.html Other Sciences Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:40:02 EST news165069257 The massive Arches Cluster is a rather peculiar star cluster. It is located 25 000 light-years away towards the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer), and contains about a thousand young, massive stars, less than 2.5 million years old [1]. It is an ideal laboratory to study how massive stars are born in extreme conditions as it is close to the centre of our Milky Way, where it experiences huge opposing forces from the stars, gas and the supermassive black hole that reside there. The Arches Cluster is ten times heavier than typical young star clusters scattered throughout our Milky Way and is enriched with chemical elements heavier than helium. http://www.physorg.com/news163329933.html Space & Earth Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:27:01 EST news163329933 (PhysOrg.com) -- Cutting-edge computer modelling software has enabled a long-lost, trumpet-like instrument to be recreated - allowing a work by Bach to be performed as the composer may have intended for the first time in nearly 300 years. http://www.physorg.com/news163077115.html Technology Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:12:27 EST news163077115 ESO's Very Large Telescope, Europe's flagship facility for ground-based astronomy, has been equipped with the first of its second generation instruments: X-shooter. It can record the entire spectrum of a celestial object in one shot -- from the ultraviolet to the near-infrared -- with high sensitivity. This unique new instrument will be particularly useful for the study of distant exploding objects called gamma-ray bursts. http://www.physorg.com/news162550823.html Space & Earth Tue, 26 May 2009 10:00:56 EST news162550823 (PhysOrg.com) -- The science instrument for NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer has been shipped to Boulder, Colo., for a planned launch in November. http://www.physorg.com/news162058334.html Space & Earth Wed, 20 May 2009 17:12:52 EST news162058334 (AP) -- Sometimes all the high-tech training is nothing compared to what Uncle Frank and a big screwdriver can teach an astronaut about removing stubborn parts, even 350 miles above Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news162054205.html Space & Earth Wed, 20 May 2009 16:04:01 EST news162054205 (AP) -- Atlantis' astronauts tenderly dropped the Hubble Space Telescope overboard Tuesday, sending the restored observatory off on a new voyage of discovery and bidding it farewell on behalf of the planet. http://www.physorg.com/news161937231.html Space & Earth Tue, 19 May 2009 09:52:22 EST news161937231 (AP) -- Spacewalking astronauts completed repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope on Monday, leaving it more powerful than ever and able to peer even deeper into the cosmos - almost to the brink of creation. The last humans to lay hands on Hubble outfitted the observatory with another set of fresh batteries, a new sensor for precise pointing and protective covers. That equipment, along with other improvements made over the last five days, should allow the telescope to provide dazzling views of the universe for another five to 10 years. http://www.physorg.com/news161869745.html Space & Earth Mon, 18 May 2009 16:16:19 EST news161869745