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) -- Anjan Thakor, finance professor at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis, will present a new theory on the causes of the financial crisis to a meeting of the New York Federal Reserve Bank on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009. http://www.physorg.com/news179430234.html Other Sciences Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:44:43 EST news179430234 A scientist from the University of Salamanca and another from Yale University have shown that the presence of predators affects the behaviour of Acanthodactylus beershebensis, a lizard species from the Negev Desert in the Near East. According to the study, these reptiles move less and catch less mobile and different prey if they are under pressure from predators. http://www.physorg.com/news178978395.html Biology Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:30:01 EST news178978395 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two earth sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres - however there is a bit of a disappointing snag for anyone looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves, as they are not planets but are actually two unusual white dwarf stars. http://www.physorg.com/news177258394.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:27:33 EST news177258394 (PhysOrg.com) -- Evidence for a thin veil of carbon has been found on the neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. This discovery, made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, resolves a ten-year mystery surrounding this object. http://www.physorg.com/news176567767.html Space & Earth Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:37:05 EST news176567767 Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a theoretical model that informs the understanding of evolution and determines how quickly an organism will evolve using a catalogue of "evolutionary speed limits." The model provides quantitative predictions for the speed of evolution on various "fitness landscapes," the dynamic and varied conditions under which bacteria, viruses and even humans adapt. http://www.physorg.com/news176390372.html Biology Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:50:04 EST news176390372 (PhysOrg.com) -- Why did Barack Obama win the US election and did the fact he is over six feet tall influence the voters? The authors of a paper published in Current Biology this month argue that due to 'a hangover from our evolutionary past' factors like age, sex, height and weight play a major part in the determining our choice of leaders. http://www.physorg.com/news175360092.html Other Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:08:50 EST news175360092 (PhysOrg.com) -- New, three-dimensional imaging of Martian north-polar ice layers by a radar instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is consistent with theoretical models of Martian climate swings during the past few million years. http://www.physorg.com/news172858451.html Space & Earth Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:30:03 EST news172858451 Research at Virginia Tech has shown that the oldest complex life forms -- living in nutrient-rich oceans more than 540 million years ago - likely fed by osmosis. http://www.physorg.com/news169899333.html Space & Earth Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:16:15 EST news169899333 (PhysOrg.com) -- In 1953, Stanley Miller filled two flasks with chemicals assumed to be present on the primitive Earth, connected the flasks with rubber tubes and introduced some electrical sparks as a stand-in for lightning. The now famous experiment showed what amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, could easily be generated from this primordial stew. But despite that seminal experiment, neither he nor others were able to take the next step: that of showing how life`s code could come from such humble beginnings. http://www.physorg.com/news168875229.html Biology Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:47:47 EST news168875229 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) -- Chip manufacturers beware: There's a newfound flaw in our understanding of transistor noise, a phenomenon affecting the electronic on-off switch that makes computer circuits possible. According to the engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology who discovered the problem, it will soon stand in the way of creating more efficient, lower-powered devices like cell phones and pacemakers unless we solve it. http://www.physorg.com/news162132202.html Physics Thu, 21 May 2009 13:44:00 EST news162132202 As modern cosmologists rely more and more on the ominous `dark matter` to explain otherwise inexplicable observations, much effort has gone into the detection of this mysterious substance in the last two decades, yet no direct proof could be found that it actually exists. Even if it does exist, dark matter would be unable to reconcile all the current discrepancies between actual measurements and predictions based on theoretical models. Hence the number of physicists questioning the existence of dark matter has been increasing for some time now. http://www.physorg.com/news160726282.html Physics Tue, 05 May 2009 07:11:48 EST news160726282 Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have proposed theoretical models to explain the normal magnetic properties in iron-based superconductors. This research was published in the December 21, 2008 issue of Nature Physics. Their research builds on earlier research they conducted proposing a theoretical model for superconductivity in newly discovered iron-based superconductors. That earlier research was published in Physical Review Letters. http://www.physorg.com/news156435623.html Physics Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:20:49 EST news156435623 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Uppsala University and Harvard University have collaboratively developed a new theoretical model to explain how proteins can rapidly find specific DNA sequences, even though there are many obstacles in the way on the chromosomes. The findings are being published today in the scientific journal Nature Physics. http://www.physorg.com/news156426603.html Physics Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:50:34 EST news156426603 Intensive harvesting of the largest fish over many decades, while leaving the small fish behind, may have unintentionally genetically reprogrammed many species to grow smaller, said lead author Dr. David O. Conover, Professor and Dean of the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences in Long Island, New York. Although Charles Darwin showed 150 years ago that evolution equips life forms to be better adapted to prosper in their environment, unnatural evolution caused by man's size-selective fishing is causing fish to be smaller, less fertile, and competitively disadvantaged. This has also been a loss for commercial fishers who seek big fish for their livelihoods, recreational anglers in pursuit of trophy fish, and seafood consumers who desire large portions on their plates. http://www.physorg.com/news155334141.html Biology Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:22:44 EST news155334141 (PhysOrg.com) -- Most animals, like humans, have separate sexes - they are born, live out their lives and reproduce as one sex or the other. However, some animals live as one sex in part of their lifetime and then switch to the other sex, a phenomenon called sequential hermaphroditism. What remains a puzzle, according to Yale scientists, is why the phenomenon is so rare, since their analysis shows the biological `costs` of changing sexes rarely outweigh the advantages. http://www.physorg.com/news152813667.html Biology Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:14:49 EST news152813667 Most computers today store memory electronically, by maintaining a certain voltage. In contrast, a new kind of memory that stores data thermally, by maintaining temperature, is being investigated by researchers Lei Wang of the National University of Singapore and the Renmin University of China, and Baowen Li of the National University of Singapore and the NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering. http://www.physorg.com/news150556658.html Physics Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:17:38 EST news150556658