Weblog & Reports: News From the Web
British team builds model showing metamaterials could be used to create gecko toe like adhesion
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have long been enamored by the gecko’s gravity defying ability to cling to walls and to let go at will, allowing it to walk around sideways, as have Spiderman enthusiasts. ...
Bitdefender researchers find evidence of viruses infecting worms creating new form of malware
(PhysOrg.com) -- Romania based antivirus software company Softwin, makers of Bitdefender, have announced that they have found multiple instances of computers being infected with worms that have been infected ...
New study shows prions able to jump between species more easily than thought
(PhysOrg.com) -- A group of French researchers has found that prions are more easily able to jump between species than has been previously thought. In their paper published in Science, they show that prions ...
Jumping spider uses fuzzy eyesight to judge distance
(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the ways in which humans determine distance is by estimating the sharpness of an imagecloser objects produce a sharp image, while those further away are out of focus. For us, ...
Researchers observe speed of propagation in non-relativistic lattice
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers have devised a means for observing the speed with which quasiparticles can travel through an optical lattice. The experiment performed at the Max-Planck-Institut für ...
Professors argue flattening oil production should trump environment as reason to move to alternative sources
(PhysOrg.com) -- Two university professors, one from the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle, the other from Oxford, have published an opinion piece in the journal Nature, where ...
Virtual Projection team puts iPhone writing on the wall (w/ video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- A collaborative team from the University of Calgary, University of Munich, and Columbia, have figured out a way to use a smartphone to project the phones display on to external displays ...
Optical Illusion experiment shows higher brain functions involved in pupil size control
(Medical Xpress) -- We all know that our pupils contract when our eyes are exposed to increases in the brightness of light. The reason is to both protect the delicate inner workings of our eyes and to help ...
Foldit gamers improve protein design through crowdsourcing
(PhysOrg.com) -- Gamers on Foldit have succeeded in improving the catalyst abilities of an enzyme, making it 18-fold more active than the original version. The idea is the brainchild of University of Washington ...
Research team applies mathematical modeling and algorithms to learning process
(PhysOrg.com) -- Most people inherently understand that they have a unique way of studying material for a test that suits their unique personality. Unfortunately, such differences between people tend to create problems for ...
Research team finds evidence of red ochre use by Neanderthals 200,000 years ago
(PhysOrg.com) -- Until recently, archeologists have thought of Neanderthals, an early relative of humans, as thick, slow thinking and likely uncreative. Now, new evidence dispels part of that image. Archeologists ...
Researchers find negative social interactions can lead to increased amounts of internal inflammation
(Medical Xpress) -- Researchers from the University of California have found that negative social interactions can cause internal inflammation that may over time lead to possible health consequences. In the study, the results ...
BMW shows hands-free driving on Autobahn (w/ video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Move over, Google, or better still, stay off the Autobahn, best not to interfere with the main show, which now stars BMW and its technology feats with self-driving cars. BMW has been drawing ...
Three new genetic links to breast cancer identified
(Medical Xpress) -- An international team of researchers has identified three new genetic loci associated with an increased susceptibility to breast cancer. As described in their paper published in Nature Ge ...
Neural network learns to identify group sizes without knowledge of numbers
(PhysOrg.com) -- A cognitive sciences research duo out of Università di Padova, in Italy, have succeeded in building an artificial intelligence network that has through repetition, learned to identify relative group ...