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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for week 51:
Not just the Koch brothers: New study reveals funders behind the climate change denial effort
A new study conducted by Drexel University's environmental sociologist Robert J. Brulle, PhD, exposes the organizational underpinnings and funding behind the powerful climate change countermovement. This study marks the first peer-reviewed, comprehensive analysis ever conducted of the sources of funding that maintain the denial effort.
Breakthrough: One step closer to nuclear fusion power station
The superconductivity research group of the University of Twente (UT) has made a technological breakthrough crucial to the success of nuclear fusion reactors, allowing for clean, inexhaustible energy generation based on the workings of the stars in our galaxy.
Researchers find a cause of aging that can be reversed
Researchers have discovered a cause of aging in mammals that may be reversible.
Discovery of 1.4 million-year-old fossil human hand bone closes human evolution gap
Humans have a distinctive hand anatomy that allows them to make and use tools. Apes and other nonhuman primates do not have these distinctive anatomical features in their hands, and the point in time at which these features first appeared in human evolution is unknown. Now, a University of Missouri researcher and her international team of colleagues have found a new hand bone from a human ancestor who roamed the earth in East Africa approximately 1.42 million years ago. They suspect the bone belonged to the early human species, Homo erectus. The discovery of this bone is the earliest evidence of a modern human-like hand, indicating that this anatomical feature existed more than half a million years earlier than previously known.
Algae to crude oil: Million-year natural process takes minutes in the lab
Engineers have created a continuous chemical process that produces useful crude oil minutes after they pour in harvested algae � a verdant green paste with the consistency of pea soup.
Electron's shapeliness throws a curve at supersymmetry
A small band of particle-seeking scientists at Yale and Harvard has established a new benchmark for the electron's almost perfect roundness, raising doubts about certain theories that predict what lies beyond physics' reigning model of fundamental forces and particles, the Standard Model.
It's a negative on negative absolute temperatures
The concept of a perpetual motion machine is an enticing one: Imagine a machine that runs continuously without requiring any external energy�a feat that could make refueling vehicles a thing of the past.
Research trio crack RSA encryption keys by listening to computer noise
(Phys.org) �A trio of researchers in Israel has discovered that it is possible to crack 4096-bit RSA encryption keys using a microphone to listen to high-pitch noises generated by internal computer components. Adi Shamir (co-inventor of RSA), Daniel Genkin and Eran Tromer have published a research paper describing the technique on a Tel Aviv University server.
Study: Yellowstone magma much bigger than thought (Update)
The hot molten rock beneath Yellowstone National Park is 2 � times larger than previously estimated, meaning the park's supervolcano has the potential to erupt with a force about 2,000 times the size of Mount St. Helens, according to a new study.
Philips LED bulb with rad design set for January arrival
(Phys.org) �Netherlands-based Philips' SlimStyle LED bulbs will be arriving on January 2 at Home Depot stores, and the SlimStyle appears to be a promising newcomer in lightbulbs, with a flat design, energy-saving benefits. and ease of use for consumers. Intended as a replacement for 60- watt incandescents, SlimStyle is highly efficient; it uses only 10.5 watts, yet still puts out 800 lumens.
Salty surprise: Ordinary table salt turns into 'forbidden' forms
High-pressure experiments with ordinary table salt have produced new chemical compounds that should not exist according to the textbook rules of chemistry. The study at DESY's X-ray source PETRA III and at other research centres could pave the way to a more universal understanding of chemistry and to novel applications, as the international research team, led by Prof. Artem Oganov of Stony Brook University (State University of New York) and Prof. Alexander Goncharov of Carnegie Institution, report in the scientific journal Science.
Maxwell's demon can use quantum information to generate work
(Phys.org) �In theory, Maxwell's demon can decrease the entropy of a system by opening and closing a door at appropriate times to separate hot and cold gas molecules. But as physicist Le� Szil�rd pointed out in 1929, entropy does not decrease in such a situation because the demon's measurement process requires information, which is a form of entropy. Szil�rd's so-called information heat engine, now called the Szil�rd engine (SZE), demonstrates how work can be generated by using information.
Billion-dollar 'discovery machine' set for launch
Europe on Thursday will place a billion-dollar bet on a space telescope designed to provide the biggest and most detailed 3-D map of the Milky Way.
World experiences hottest November in 134 years
The month of November was the hottest since record-keeping began in 1880, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday.
Researchers peek at the forgotten component of light
(Phys.org) �Physicists from FOM institute AMOLF have for the first time simultaneously measured the electrical and magnetic fields of light. With such a measurement scientists can better understand the behaviour of light in nanostructured metamaterials � for example the material from which invisibility cloaks can be made. The AMOLF researchers published their findings on 15 December 2013 in Nature Photonics.
Valve releases both Steam Machine and SteamOS
(Phys.org) �Video game maker Valve Corporation has officially made SteamOS available for download for anyone who wishes to do so. At the same time, the company announced that it has also shipped Steam Machines to 300 preselected beta testers.
Scientists solve a decades-old mystery in the Earth's upper atmosphere
New research published in the journal Nature resolves decades of scientific controversy over the origin of the extremely energetic particles known as ultra-relativistic electrons in the Earth's near-space environment and is likely to influence our understanding of planetary magnetospheres throughout the universe.
Massive stars mark out Milky Way's 'missing' arms
A 12-year study of massive stars has reaffirmed that our Galaxy has four spiral arms, following years of debate sparked by images taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope that only showed two arms.
Some Polynesian islanders combined binary and decimal math
(Phys.org) �When we think of binary math, we think of computers. A number system with only two digits makes calculations quick and easy. However, binary numbers can be very long and, therefore, unwieldy. While binary numbers might be great for machines, decimal numbers are shorter and more comfortable for people to use. A system that combines the benefits of base 2 and base 10 could be ideal. Andrea Bender and Sieghard Beller of the University of Bergen in Norway have discovered that the Mangarevans of French Polynesia used such a hybrid system at least 500 years ago. Their research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Neanderthal genome shows early human interbreeding, inbreeding
The most complete sequence to date of the Neanderthal genome, using DNA extracted from a woman's toe bone that dates back 50,000 years, reveals a long history of interbreeding among at least four different types of early humans living in Europe and Asia at that time, according to University of California, Berkeley, scientists.
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