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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for March 31, 2013:
Spotlight Stories Headlines
- The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation- Researchers discover new clues about how amyotrophic lateral sclerosis develops
- Tokyo smelling-screen demo lets scents go virtual
- Congestion in the Earth's mantle: Why plate tectonics stagnates in some places
- New models predict drastically greener Arctic in coming decades
- Study finds immunity protein that ramps up inflammation, and agents that can block it
- Game group gets word on Intel's new extensions for rendering
- Radar advance: Acoustic time delay device could reduce size and cost of phased array systems
- Taiwan, Germany seek methane hydrate—potentially vast new energy source
- Time is ripe for smartwatches, analysts say
- US Patent Office denies 'iPad Mini' trademark
- End of the line for Roadrunner supercomputer
- Two in China first known deaths from H7N9 bird flu
- Stratospheric aerosols and their impact on Sahelian rainfall
Space & Earth news
US Navy ship removed from Philippine reef
Salvage teams on Saturday removed the last piece of a US Navy ship that was stuck on a UNESCO World Heritage-listed coral reef in the Philippines for more than 10 weeks, the coast guard said.
Philippines presses for payment over damaged reef
The Philippines on Sunday welcomed the removal of a US minesweeper that had been stuck on a protected coral reef for 10 weeks, but stressed that compensation must be paid for the environmental damage.
Swiss dam fault kills thousands of trout
Thousands of trout were killed in Switzerland after technical trouble at a hydroelectric dam stemmed the water flow in a national park, the Swiss news agency ATS reported.
Italian all-sky imager tracks auroral red arcs over Europe
During geomagnetic storms, stable auroral red (SAR) arcs reach down from polar latitudes, their faint glow stretching equatorward of the traditional auroral oval. Invisible to the naked eye, SAR arcs are an upper atmospheric occurrence produced by the emission of light from oxygen atoms in the thermosphere. The excitation of the ionospheric oxygen that produces SAR arcs is caused, in turn, by the conduction of heat from the magnetospheric ring current. Advances in camera optics, including more sensitive sensors and highly specific filters, have allowed researchers to track the occurrence of SAR arcs, opening a window into the dynamics of the inner magnetosphere.
Orbital's private launch may show whether NASA made right call
On the face of it, the planned mid-April launch of a new commercial rocket from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia won't be one for the record books.
Congestion in the Earth's mantle: Why plate tectonics stagnates in some places
The Earth is dynamic. What we perceive as solid ground beneath our feet, is in reality constantly changing. In the space of a year Africa and America are drifting apart at the back of the Middle Atlantic for some centimeters while the floor of the Pacific Ocean is subducted underneath the South American Continent.
New models predict drastically greener Arctic in coming decades
New research predicts that rising temperatures will lead to a massive "greening," or increase in plant cover, in the Arctic. In a paper published on March 31 in Nature Climate Change, scientists reveal new models projecting that wooded areas in the Arctic could increase by as much as 50 percent over the next few decades. The researchers also show that this dramatic greening will accelerate climate warming at a rate greater than previously expected.
Stratospheric aerosols and their impact on Sahelian rainfall
(Phys.org) —The Sahelian drought of the 1970s-1990s was one of the largest humanitarian disasters of the last fifty years, causing up to 250,000 deaths and creating 10 million refugees. This drought has been attributed to natural variability, over-grazing and the impact of industrial emissions of sulphur dioxide. Each of these mechanisms can influence the Atlantic sea surface temperature gradient which is strongly coupled to Sahelian precipitation.
Technology news
Crisis hotlines turning to text to reach teens
They stream in a couple of dozen times a week, cries for help in bursts of text to DoSomething.org, a nonprofit more used to texting out details to teens on good causes and campaigns than receiving them from young people in crisis.
Saudi says Internet apps break the rules
Saudi Arabia warned Sunday of "suitable measures" if providers of Internet messenger applications such as WhatsApp fail to comply with its rules, days after the industry said authorities wanted to control such traffic.
Mobile shines in exploding world of games
The booming popularity of play on smartphones or tablet computers in a realm once dominated by videogame consoles was a hot theme at the major Game Developers Conference that ended on Friday.
Silicon Valley to boost clout in Washington
For years, Silicon Valley companies wanted as little to do with Washington as possible. Hiring lobbyists to promote and protect their interests was about as far as they went. But a new generation of technology entrepreneurs believes it can no longer afford to ignore the Beltway, and is setting its sights on Capitol Hill.
Tech firms bumping up perks to recruit, retain
Apple's ring-shaped, gleaming "Spaceship Headquarters" will include a world class auditorium and an orchard for engineers to wander. Google's new Bay View campus will feature walkways angled to force accidental encounters. Facebook, while putting the final touches on a Disney-inspired campus including a Main Street with a B-B-Q shack, sushi house and bike shop, is already planning an even larger, more exciting new campus.
YouTube announces shutdown in April Fool's prank
In an elaborate April Fool's prank, YouTube announced Sunday it was going dark for a decade, and that the site was merely an eight-year contest to find the best video.
US Patent Office denies 'iPad Mini' trademark
The US Patent and Trademark Office has denied Apple's application for a trademark to safeguard its widely popular iPad mini tablet, saying the case to own the phrase was too weak.
Taiwan, Germany seek methane hydrate—potentially vast new energy source
A research vessel carrying German and Taiwanese scientists set sail for waters off the island's southwestern coast on Sunday in search of methane hydrate, a potentially vast new energy source.
Radar advance: Acoustic time delay device could reduce size and cost of phased array systems
(Phys.org) —Radar systems today depend increasingly on phased-array antennas, an advanced design in which extensive grids of solid state components direct signal beams electronically. Phased array technology is replacing traditional electro-mechanical radar antennas – the familiar rotating dish that goes back many decades – because stationary solid state electronics are faster, more precise and more reliable than moving mechanical parts.
Tokyo smelling-screen demo lets scents go virtual
(Phys.org) —"Scent-delivery" technologies continue to interest marketers, who are always looking for ideas on how to deliver an enhanced shopper experience. Scent stimulation related to targeted products is one way to go. Now, a "smelling screen" has been developed by researchers at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) and it makes smells appear to come from the exact spot on any LCD screen that is displaying the image of a food item. A peach or a steaming cup of coffee, for example, would lend the illusion that their respective smells were coming from the images on the screen direct to the viewer. The smelling screen was shown at the IEEE Virtual Reality conference in Orlando, Florida, which ran from March 16 to March 23.
Medicine & Health news
Rivals prepare for legal battle over abortion bans
Rival legal teams, well-financed and highly motivated, are preparing for court battles over the coming months on laws enacted in Arkansas and North Dakota that would impose the toughest bans on abortion in the U.S.
Multiple strategies are more efficient for cervical cancer
(HealthDay)—Multiple cervical cancer screening strategies that maximize early detection of high-grade disease without excessive increases in initial testing appear to be most effective, according to a study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Sex, age at presentation affect cirrhosis response to therapy
(HealthDay)—Among patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), sex and age at presentation affect the response to ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), according to a study published in the March issue of Gastroenterology.
India's top court to deliver Novartis judgment
India's Supreme Court is to rule Monday on a landmark patent case involving Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG that focuses on demands by major companies that their investments be protected, against Indian companies that say they should be allowed to continue producing cheaper generic versions of many lifesaving medicines.
Himalaya, India's booming herbal healthcare company
Its raw materials are plants and it bases its products on texts dating back millennia, but don't dare call India's biggest herbal healthcare group a maker of "alternative medicine".
Deaths tied to painkillers rising in the US
Despite efforts by law enforcement and public health officials to curb prescription drug abuse, drug-related deaths in the United States have continued to rise, the latest data show.
Two in China first known deaths from H7N9 bird flu
Two Shanghai men have died from a lesser-known type of bird flu in the first known human deaths from the strain, and Chinese authorities said Sunday that it wasn't clear how they were infected, but that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission.
Study finds immunity protein that ramps up inflammation, and agents that can block it
Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have discovered a new biological pathway of innate immunity that ramps up inflammation and then identified agents that can block it, leading to increased survival and improved lung function in animal models of pneumonia. They reported their findings today in Nature Immunology.
Researchers discover new clues about how amyotrophic lateral sclerosis develops
Johns Hopkins scientists say they have evidence from animal studies that a type of central nervous system cell other than motor neurons plays a fundamental role in the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a fatal degenerative disease. The discovery holds promise, they say, for identifying new targets for interrupting the disease's progress.
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
(Medical Xpress)—It has long been held that in a new environment, visual adaptation should improve visual performance. However, evidence has contradicted this expectation: Adaptation sometimes not only decreases sensitivity for the adapting stimuli, but can also change sensitivity for stimuli very different from the adapting ones. Recently, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Schepens Eye Research Institute formulated and tested the hypothesis that these results can be explained by a process that optimizes sensitivity for many stimuli, rather than changing sensitivity only for those stimuli whose statistics have changed. By manipulating stimulus statistics – that is, measuring visual sensitivity across a wide range of spatiotemporal luminance modulations while varying the distribution of stimulus speeds – the researchers demonstrated a large-scale reorganization of visual sensitivity. This reorganization formed an orderly pattern of sensit! ivity gains and losses predicted by a theory describing how visual systems can optimize the distribution of receptive field characteristics across stimuli.
Biology news
Rhino poachers target Kent wildlife parks
A leading British wildlife charity appealed for volunteers on Saturday to help guard its herds of black rhino which are being targeted by poachers.
Seeking to save Peter Cottontail from extinction
Conservationists want to make sure Peter Cottontail is around for many Easters to come.
National Zoo's giant panda Mei Xiang is artificially inseminated
They closely monitored her hormone levels, watched her behavior to make sure the time was right and set up a quiet night with a mate.
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