Dear Reader ,
Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for November 2, 2014:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- Ultracold disappearing act: 'Matter waves' move through one another but never share space- Improving imaging of cancerous tissues by reversing time
- Two photons strongly coupled by glass fiber
- New technique efficiently turns antibodies into highly tuned 'nanobodies'
- 'Wimpy' antibody protects against kidney disease in mice
- Study of Chile earthquake finds new rock structure that affects earthquake rupture
- Mutant models: Physics, statistics and genetics come together to reveal cancer's strategies
- Sediment supply drives floodplain evolution in Amazon Basin
- Getting more out of nature: Genetic toolkit finds new maximum for crop yields
- Harman minimizes road noise for better driving experience
- Samsung wobbles but stays its ground
- Tracking a gigantic sunspot across the Sun
- Immune cells proposed as HIV hideout don't last in primate model
- Massive geographic change may have triggered explosion of animal life
- China completes first mission to moon and back
Astronomy & Space news
 | Tracking a gigantic sunspot across the SunAn active region on the sun – an area of intense and complex magnetic fields – rotated into view on Oct. 18, 2014. Labeled AR 12192, it soon grew into the largest such region in 24 years, and fired off 10 sizable solar flares as it traversed across the face of the sun. The region was so large it could be seen without a telescope for those looking at the sun with eclipse glasses, as many did during a partial eclipse of the sun on Oct. 23. |
 | China completes first mission to moon and backChina completed its first return mission to the moon early Saturday with the successful re-entry and landing of an unmanned probe, state media reported, in the latest step forward for Beijing's ambitious space programme. |
 | Virgin crash sets back space tourism by years: expertsThe deadly crash of Virgin Galactic's spacecraft has dealt a devastating setback to the cause of space tourism, delaying the first commercial flights to the stars by years, experts said Friday. |
 | Probe of US spaceship crash may take a 'year' (Update)Authorities who Saturday carried out their first full day of investigation into a US spacecraft crash that killed one pilot and seriously injured another said probing the incident could take a year. |
Branson shocked as Virgin spaceship crash kills pilotVirgin's pioneering tourist-carrying spacecraft crashed on a test flight in California on Friday, killing a pilot and scattering debris across the desert—and raising questions about the program's future. | |
Questions as Virgin spaceship crashes, killing pilotVirgin's pioneering tourist-carrying spacecraft crashed on a test flight in California on Friday, killing a pilot and scattering debris across the desert—and raising questions about space tourism's future. | |
 | Branson heads to spacecraft crash site as probe startsBritish tycoon Richard Branson was poised to rally his grieving Virgin Galactic staff in California on Saturday as investigators began probing the spacecraft crash that left one pilot dead and another seriously injured. |
A look at people killed during space missionsVirgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo accident proved what astronauts and their families know too well: Space can be deadly. | |
Branson says space dream lives on, vows safety paramount (Update)British tycoon Richard Branson insisted Saturday his dream of commercial space travel was still alive, despite a spacecraft crash that killed one pilot and seriously injured another. | |
Can private space survive two explosions in four days? (Update)Fiery failures are no stranger to the space game. It's what happens when you push the boundaries of what technology can do, where people can go. And it happened again to Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo. | |
Surviving spaceship pilot described as 'alert'The injured test pilot who survived the destruction of Virgin Galactic's prototype space tourism rocket is described as alert and talking with his family and doctors. | |
Shuttle monument dedicated in FloridaA 15-foot (4.4-meter)-tall shuttle monument of stainless steel and granite has been unveiled on Florida's Space Coast. | |
Branson's rocketry goal is long-distance travelThe Virgin Galactic spaceship destroyed in a fatal accident high over the Mojave Desert was only designed to take tourists on a fleeting thrill ride into the lower reaches of space. | |
 | Tech execs running the commercial space raceRichard Branson's Virgin Galactic company is reeling from the loss of SpaceShipTwo, which crashed in California's Mojave desert on Friday, killing one of its pilots and seriously injuring the other. Branson, a billionaire business mogul whose Virgin group of companies have ranged from music to airlines to mobile phones, founded Virgin Galactic ten years ago with the aim of offering flights to the edge of space for anyone who could pay the $250,000 price tag. The future of Virgin's commercial suborbital flight program is unclear in the wake of the tragic accident. |
Virgin 'ignored' space safety warnings: expert (Update 2)Virgin Galactic "ignored" repeated warnings in the years leading up to the deadly crash of its spacecraft in California, a rocket science safety expert said Sunday, as investigators hunted for clues to the accident. | |
Technology news
 | Apple Pay fails to unify fragmented marketApple Pay, meant to inject momentum into a fragmented market for the emerging mobile payments sector, has instead highlighted the squabbles between retailers and the banking and payments industry. |
 | Facebook has URL for users running Tor-enabled browsersA reassuring message on Friday from Facebook: "It's important to us at Facebook to provide methods for people to use our site securely." That is why Facebook implemented HTTPS across the service and Perfect Forward Secrecy, HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security), and other technologies. (In July 2013, Facebook announced they now use https by default for all Facebook users. This means that a person's browser is told to communicate with Facebook using a secure connection, as indicated by the "https" rather than "http." This uses Transport Layer Security [TLS] and makes the communication between browser and Facebook servers more secure.) All well and good—but then there is Tor, which has been a challenge for Facebook's security mechanisms. Alec Muffett, software engineer for security infrastructure at Facebook London, explained why it was a challenge for Facebook use and what Facebook has now done. He said, "from the perspective o! f our systems a person who appears to be connecting from Australia at one moment may the next appear to be in Sweden or Canada. In other contexts such behavior might suggest that a hacked account is being accessed through a 'botnet', but for Tor this is normal." The security infrastructure would make it difficult for some people connecting to Facebook using Tor, as the algorithms for detecting fraudulent users would get in their way. |
 | Samsung wobbles but stays its groundBuffeted by sliding profits and emboldened competitors, mighty Samsung Electronics is looking unusually vulnerable these days, but analysts say its financial muscle and product diversity make "crisis" talk more than a little premature. |
 | Harman minimizes road noise for better driving experienceHarman, an audio and infotainment company, has something called HALOsonic in its product line, for noise management, which it co-developed with Lotus Engineering. The company is expanding its noise management capabilities for eliminating road noise, as a way to improve the driving experience so that drivers and passengers can look forward to a quieter ride. |
 | Estonian man faces cyber scam charges in USAn Estonian man accused of being part of a ring that swindled advertisers out of millions of dollars by "hijacking" online traffic was hauled before a US judge. |
Microsoft promises new Office for Macs next yearAfter a long wait, Microsoft says it plans to release a new version of its popular Office software package for Mac computers - but not until next year. | |
'Call of Duty' soldiers battle villain Kevin SpaceyThe newest instalment to blockbuster video game "Call of Duty" hits the streets on Tuesday, pitting soldiers of the future against a Machiavellian villain played by actor Kevin Spacey. | |
Medicine & Health news
 | Immune cells proposed as HIV hideout don't last in primate modelWhere does HIV hide? Antiretroviral drugs can usually control the virus, but can't completely eliminate it. So any strategy to eradicate HIV from the body has to take into account not only the main group of immune cells the virus targets, called CD4 or helper T cells, but other infected cells as well. |
 | Mutant models: Physics, statistics and genetics come together to reveal cancer's strategiesNate Silver and Richard Feynman walk into a bar and bump into a biologist... While this may sound like the setup to some late-night nerd sketch, researchers have taken this premise and applied it to an increasingly cumbersome problem in modern biology, namely, finding meaning in the rising oceans of genomic data. |
'Wimpy' antibody protects against kidney disease in miceAn antibody abundant in mice and previously thought to offer poor assistance in fighting against infection may actually play a key role in keeping immune responses in check and preventing more serious self-inflicted forms of kidney disease, researchers say. | |
 | Resveratrol could reverse benefits of being activeContrary to popular belief, use of the supplement resveratrol (RSV) may not actually enhance the effects of high-intensity interval training (HIIT). |
 | Are my muscular dystrophy drugs working?People with muscular dystrophy could one day assess the effectiveness of their medication with the help of a smartphone-linked device, a new study in mice suggests. The study used a new method to process ultrasound imaging information that could lead to hand-held instruments that provide fast, convenient medical information. |
 | Cancer cell fingerprints in the blood may speed up childhood cancer diagnosisNewly-identified cancer cell fingerprints in the blood could one day help doctors diagnose a range of children's cancers faster and more accurately, according to research presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference next week. |
More penalties on the way for hospitals that treat the poor? New study suggests soLast week, the federal government revealed that it will fine more than 2,600 hospitals in the coming year, because too many Medicare patients treated at these hospitals are ending up back in the hospital within 30 days of going home. Two new conditions have been added in this round of penalties: elective hip and knee replacement and chronic lung disease. | |
Freezing eggs to halt the biological clockShe is 44 and single, but journalist Sarah still dreams of having a child, while TV producer Susanah, 38, is waiting for her younger boyfriend to be ready. | |
Lithuania enacts ban on energy drinks for minors, in global firstLithuania on Saturday enacted a ban on selling energy drinks to anyone under 18, in what officials in the Baltic country claimed was a global first. | |
 | Scientists try to predict number of US Ebola casesTop medical experts studying the spread of Ebola say Americans should expect more cases to emerge in the United States by year's end as infected people arrive here from West Africa, including American doctors and nurses returning from the hot zone and people fleeing from the deadly disease. |
'Invisible tattoos' could improve body confidence after breast cancer radiotherapyInvisible tattoos could replace the permanent dark ink tattoos used to ensure that breast cancer patients having radiotherapy are treated in exactly the same spot during each session, according to results from a pilot study to be presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference today (Sunday)*. | |
Step towards blood test for many cancer typesScientists have identified more than 800 markers in the blood of cancer patients that could help lead to a single blood test for early detection of many types of cancer in future, according to research presented at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference in Liverpool today (Sunday). | |
Legacy of SARS in Asia offers lessons for Ebola fightThe SARS outbreak of 2003 put Hong Kong on the frontline of a global health crisis—but the city's ultimately successful war on the virus offers lessons for those now battling Ebola. | |
Tests will track improved thinking in people with fragile X, down syndromesLeading researchers, funded through a new, five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are collaborating to develop and evaluate tests designed to measure and track changes in the cognitive functioning of people who typically are difficult to assess accurately: those with an intellectual disability, formerly termed mental retardation. | |
WHO revises Ebola tollThe World Health Organization Friday revised its figures showing more people killed by the deadly Ebola virus, but the number of cases of the disease was slightly lower. | |
 | JNS: Pediatrics publishes guidelines for the treatment of pediatric hydrocephalusThe Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group is pleased to announce today's publication of "Pediatric hydrocephalus: systematic literature review and evidence-based guidelines," a supplement to the November issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. Authored by a volunteer task force from the pediatric neurosurgery community, the supplement offers a thorough evaluation of the current treatments for pediatric hydrocephalus as well as up-to-date evidence-based recommendations for their use. |
Indian children asked to blow whistle on open defecationChildren armed with whistles will soon be patrolling villages in central India to try to shame those defecating in the open, a report said Sunday. | |
Sierra Leone doctor tests positive for EbolaAuthorities in Sierra Leone say another doctor there has tested positive for Ebola, marking a setback for efforts to keep desperately needed health care workers safe. | |
Bill Gates to give $500 million for malaria, other diseasesUS philanthropist Bill Gates on Sunday announced he will donate over $500 million to fight malaria and other infectious diseases in the developing world, saying the Ebola outbreak is a call to action. | |
US envoy cheers gains in Ebola battleThe US envoy to the UN, Samantha Power, on Sunday credited a reported drop in new Ebola infections in West Africa to US and other international aid efforts. | |
Ebola rapidly advancing in rural Sierra Leone: AGI reportEbola is spreading up to nine times faster in parts of Sierra Leone than two months ago, a report by the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI) said on Sunday. | |
Biology news
 | Getting more out of nature: Genetic toolkit finds new maximum for crop yieldsScientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) today announced a new way to dramatically increase crop yields by improving upon Mother Nature's offerings. A team led by Associate Professor Zachary Lippman, in collaboration with Israeli colleagues, has discovered a set of gene variations that can boost fruit production in the tomato plant by as much as 100%. |
 | Cute chick rover: A new way to spy on shy penguins (w/ Video)The newest tool for biologists is the baby penguin robotic spy. |
Breaking down DNA by genomeNew DNA sequencing technologies have greatly advanced genomic and metagenomic studies in plant biology. Scientists can readily obtain extensive genetic information for any plant species of interest, at a relatively low cost, rapidly accelerating the pace of genome sequencing. | |
 | Mussels on California Coast contaminated with giardia transmitted from land-based sourcesThe pathogen Giardia duodenalis is present in mussels from freshwater run-off sites and from areas where California Sea Lions lounge along the coast of California, according to a team of researchers from the University of California, Davis. One of the G. duodenalis strains found is known to infect humans; the two others occur mostly in dogs and other canids. "Thus, the detection of these assemblages implies a potential public health risk if consuming fecally contaminated water or uncooked shellfish," says coauthor Woutrina Smith. The research is published ahead of print in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. |
 | S.Africa arrests two Vietnamese with record 41kg of rhino hornsTwo Vietnamese men were arrested at Johannesburg airport with a record haul of 18 rhino horns, weighing 41 kilos (90 pounds), during a stopover on a flight from Mozambique to Vietnam, South African police said Saturday. |
This email is a free service of Phys.org
You received this email because you subscribed to our list.
If you no longer want to receive this email use the link below to unsubscribe.
https://sciencex.com/profile/nwletter/
You are subscribed as jmabs1@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment