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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for week 30:
Gorillas filmed performing amazing feat of intellectual ability
(Phys.org) -- Researchers working in Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda have filmed gorillas dismantling snares set by poachers to catch smaller game. Previously, anecdotal evidence had suggested that silverback gorillas had been seen dismantling snares. In this instance it was two young blackback, mountain gorillas that were involved. The team, part of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's Karisoke Research Center, filmed first a silverback motioning towards the snare. Next, two young male blackbacks arrived on the scene, surveyed the situation, then proceeded to take apart the snare, avoiding being caught in it in the process.
Wheel hub motor concept drives hybrid progress at MTSU
(Phys.org) -- When news broke in 2009 that a former IBM engineer had devised a kit that turns any car into a plug-in hybrid for between $3,000 and $5,000, those interested in going-green technologies took notice and hoped it was more than just a concept. This month, Dr. Charles Perry and his team at Middle Tennessee State University, where he is now a professor, have something to show for the work that has been under way since 2008. Earlier this week, a school news release announced that Perry and team saw gas mileage increase anywhere from 50 to 100 percent on a 1994 Honda station wagon retrofitted with their laboratory prototype plug-in hybrid capability. This is a wheel-hub motor, plug in hybrid kit.
Researchers find a clue to how life turned left
Researchers analyzing meteorite fragments that fell on a frozen lake in Canada have developed an explanation for the origin of life's handedness – why living things only use molecules with specific orientations. The work also gave the strongest evidence to date that liquid water inside an asteroid leads to a strong preference of left-handed over right-handed forms of some common protein amino acids in meteorites. The result makes the search for extraterrestrial life more challenging.
Can quantum theory be improved?
(Phys.org) -- Being correct 50% of the time when calling heads or tails on a coin toss won’t impress anyone. So when quantum theory predicts that an entangled particle will reach one of two detectors with just a 50% probability, many physicists have naturally sought better predictions. The predictive power of quantum theory is, in this case, equal to a random guess. Building on nearly a century of investigative work on this topic, a team of physicists has recently performed an experiment whose results show that, despite its imperfections, quantum theory still seems to be the optimal way to predict measurement outcomes.
Researchers measure orientation of multiplanet system, find it very similar to our own solar system
Our solar system exhibits a remarkably orderly configuration: The eight planets orbit the sun much like runners on a track, circling in their respective lanes and always keeping within the same sprawling plane. In contrast, most exoplanets discovered in recent years — particularly the giants known as “hot Jupiters” — inhabit far more eccentric orbits.
Photovoltaics from any semiconductor
A technology that would enable low-cost, high efficiency solar cells to be made from virtually any semiconductor material has been developed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley. This technology opens the door to the use of plentiful, relatively inexpensive semiconductors, such as the promising metal oxides, sulfides and phosphides, that have been considered unsuitable for solar cells because it is so difficult to taylor their properties by chemical means.
Alpharetta graduate seeking 'Holy Grail' of rocket propulsion system
(Phys.org) -- Can a device formerly used to test nuclear weapons effects find a new life in rocket propulsion research? That is the question in which researchers at The University of Alabama in Huntsville seek an answer.
Aging worker termites explode themselves in suicide missions
(Phys.org) -- A new study of termites has revealed that older workers are equipped with suicide packs of chemicals on their backs to fight off intruders.
Higgs excitations near absolute zero
(Phys.org) -- A collaboration of physicists from Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, LMU, Harvard and Caltech detect Higgs-type excitations in a low-dimensional system of ultracold atoms at the transition between different phases of matter.
Satellites see unprecedented Greenland ice sheet surface melt
For several days this month, Greenland's surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its 2-mile-thick center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university scientists.
How Apple's phantom taxes hide billions in profit
On Tuesday, Apple is set to report financial results for the second quarter. Analysts are expecting net income of $9.8 billion. But whatever figure Apple reports won't reflect its true profit, because the company hides some of it with an unusual tax maneuver.
Skydiver Fearless Felix jumps from 18 miles up
Skydiver "Fearless Felix" Baumgartner has done it again.
Pop music has become louder, less original: study finds
Your mother was right: Pop music has become louder and less original over the years.
Early universe may have been dominated by bobbing waves
(Phys.org) -- Localized waves that bob up and down without dissipating their energy, called “oscillons,” may have dominated the early universe shortly after inflation. A collaboration of physicists from MIT, Yale University, and Stanford University has discovered that copious amounts of oscillons arise in simulations based on several realistic inflationary models and could have caused novel gravitational effects in the early universe, although it is unclear whether the effects could be directly observed today.
Hoard of Crusader gold found in ruins: Researchers uncovers trove of gold coins in 13th century castle
A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University has uncovered a hoard of real-life buried treasure at the Crusader castle of Arsur (also known as Apollonia), a stronghold located between the ancient ports of Jaffa and Caesarea, in use from 1241 to its destruction in 1265. The hoard, comprised of 108 gold coins, mostly dinars dated to the Fatimid Period (ca. 900 to 1100 AD), was discovered in a pot by a university student. The coins bear the names of sultans and blessings, and usually include a date and a mint name that indicates where a coin was struck.
NASA researchers looking to take additive manufacturing into space
(Phys.org) -- Over the past several years, additive manufacturing has become the golden child of process engineering. This is because it allows parts to be made faster, more cheaply and in some cases to be made at all. Now space engineers are looking at additive processing technology as a means for allowing astronauts on extended missions to build their own replacement parts during their trek, rather than relying on carrying tons of spare parts with them.
Predictions by climate models are flawed, says invited speaker at Sandia
(Phys.org) -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Richard Lindzen, a global warming skeptic, told about 70 Sandia researchers in June that too much is being made of climate change by researchers seeking government funding. He said their data and their methods did not support their claims.
NASA X-ray concept inspired from a roll of Scotch tape
The inspiration behind NASA scientist Maxim Markevitch's quest to build a highly specialized X-ray mirror using a never-before-tried technique comes from an unusual source: a roll of Scotch tape.
Author of US fracking study had gas industry ties: watchdog
A university study that claimed fracking for gas deep beneath the Earth's surface did not cause water contamination was led by a US professor with financial ties to the gas industry, a watchdog group said Friday.
Mars Odyssey orbiter repositioned to phone home Mars landing
(Phys.org) -- NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has successfully adjusted its orbital location to be in a better position to provide prompt confirmation of the August landing of the Curiosity rover.
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