Science News w/ Video

Supermarket robot to help the elderly

Supermarket robot to help the elderly (w/ Video)

Electronics / Robotics

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Robovie-II, a retail-assistant robot designed to help elderly and disabled people shop in supermarkets, is being tested in Kyoto, in Japan.


MIT's big wheel in Copenhagen

Biking 2.0: MIT's big wheel in Copenhagen (w/ Video)

Technology / Engineering

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (13) | comments 6

Yesterday, Dec. 15, at the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change, MIT researchers debuted the Copenhagen Wheel -- a revolutionary new bicycle wheel that not only boosts power, but can keep track of friends, ...


Among Apes, Teeth Are Made for the Toughest Times (w/ Video)

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The teeth of some apes are formed primarily to handle the most stressful times when food is scarce, according to new research performed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The findings ...


Researchers find cells move in mysterious ways

Researchers find cells move in mysterious ways (w/ Video)

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Our cells are more like us than we may think. They're sensitive to their environment, poking and prodding deliberately at their surroundings with hand-like feelers and chemical signals as they decide whether ...


Astronomers find super-Earth using amateur, off-the-shelf technology

Astronomers Find Super-Earth Using Amateur, Off-the-Shelf Technology (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (26) | comments 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a "super-Earth" orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. They found the distant planet with a small fleet of ground-based ...


World's rarest gorilla ready for its close-up

World's rarest gorilla ready for its close-up (w/ Video)

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

The world's rarest -- and most camera shy -- great ape has finally been captured on professional video on a forested mountain in Cameroon, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and Germany's NDR Naturfilm.


Argonne scientists use bacteria to power simple machines (w/ Video)

Argonne scientists use bacteria to power simple machines (w/ Video)

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University, Evanston, have discovered that common bacteria can turn microgears when suspended in ...


Nissan Leaf

Electric cars rolling out

Technology / Energy

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (16) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- Electric vehicles are far from new, but we are still a long way from electric cars being the norm. Now two new electric cars may bring that goal a step closer.


Black Holes in Star Clusters stir up Time and Space

Black Holes in Star Clusters stir up Time and Space (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (16) | comments 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- Within a decade scientists could be able to detect the merger of tens of pairs of black holes every year, according to a team of astronomers at the University of Bonn’s Argelander-Institut ...


Watching Proteins Direct Crystal Growth One Step at a Time (w/ Video)

Watching Proteins Direct Crystal Growth One Step at a Time (w/ Video)

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry imaged the growth of protein-studded mineral surfaces with unprecedented resolution and provided a glimpse into how living systems engineer key ...


NASA Outlines Recent Breakthroughs in Greenhouse Gas Research

NASA Outlines Recent Breakthroughs in Greenhouse Gas Research (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (6) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers studying carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas and a key driver of global climate change, now have a new tool at their disposal: daily global measurements of carbon dioxide ...


NASA's AIM Satellite and Models are Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious 'Night-Shining' Clouds (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite has captured five complete polar seasons of noctilucent (NLC) or "night-shining" clouds with an unprecedented horizontal resolution ...


Hubble's Festive View of a Grand Star-Forming Region (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Just in time for the holidays: a Hubble Space Telescope picture postcard of hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds. The festive portrait is the most detailed view of the largest ...


Time for a new view of late-life dementia

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Two new studies published in the December 16, 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association point to the need for a broader scientific perspective on late-life dementia, according to an editorial in the sa ...


Cold war - Fighting the threat of latent TB

Cold war - Fighting the threat of latent TB (w/ Podcast)

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists are making breakthroughs in studying the latent form of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This work could revolutionise the treatment of TB.