technical updates

Scientists have discovered previously unrecognized structural lines 100 miles or more down in the earth that appear to signal the locations of giant deposits of copper, lead, zinc and other vital metals lying close enough to the surface to be mined, but too far down to be found using current exploration methods. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3dN3NuC

A new study shows that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus), can infect heart cells in a lab dish, indicating it may be possible for heart cells in COVID-19 patients to be directly infected by the virus. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3ghxGVA

New Zealand's monster penguins, which lived 62 million years ago, had doppelgangers in Japan, the U.S. and Canada, a study published today in the Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research has found. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2Zp39y7

Spider silk is useful for a variety of biomedical applications: It exhibits mechanical properties superior to synthetic fibers for tissue engineering, and it is not toxic or harmful to living cells. One unexpected application for spider silk is its use in the creation of biocompatible lenses for biological imaging applications. Researchers now describe the feasibility of creating lenses capitalizing on the properties of natural spider silk material. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2Agvf62

New insight on how four species of seabirds have developed the ability to cruise through both air and water has just been published. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3dL5sAz

Scientists have gained new insight into a common type of plasma hiccup that interferes with fusion reactions. These findings could help bring fusion energy closer to reality. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2BpxlRL

Infant marsupials and monotremes use a connection between their ear and jaw bones shortly after birth to enable them to drink their mothers' milk, new findings reveal. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2NF9fFc

NASA has delayed the launch of its Mars rover Perseverance again, this time to no earlier than July 30, due to rocket preparation delays. from Space.com https://ift.tt/3igcAsn

New measurements from the ocean under the center of the Ross Ice Shelf have significantly improved our understanding of the complex processes that drive melting in Antarctica. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2NDiNR4

Scientists from Skoltech and their colleagues from Russia and Finland have figured out a non-invasive way to measure the thickness of single-walled carbon nanotube films, which may find applications in a wide variety of fields from solar energy to smart textiles. The paper was published in the journal Applied Physics Letters. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2VxWYXs

Cavitation usually refers to the generation and subsequent dynamic behaviors of cavities when liquid is exposed to a sufficient pressure drop. It has been widely used in sonochemistry, biomedicine, environmental science, and other areas. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3eNOraf

Conventional wide-field microscopy (WFM) cannot provide optical sectioning (OS) images that are required for 3-D volumetric reconstruction. The reason lies in the fact that the out-of-focus signals are always coupled within the in-focus plane. By introducing structured illumination microscopy (SIM), researchers have achieved removing the out-of-focus components from the in-focus plane in full color (FC). from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/38g4RpK

Researchers used a smartphone app to 'eavesdrop' on older adult conversations. They found that the older a person is, the less likely they are to share memories of past experiences. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3eObPVb

Raw or unpasteurized cows' milk from U.S. retail stores can hold a huge amount of antimicrobial-resistant genes if left at room temperature, according to a new study. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3dJfLoL

A recent study on pre-supernova neutrinos—tiny cosmic particles that are extremely hard to detect—has brought scientists one step closer to understanding what happens to stars before they explode and die. The study, co-authored by postdoctoral researcher Ryosuke Hirai from the ARC Center of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) at Monash University investigated stellar evolution models to test uncertain predictions. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2NJmFA4

Alaska's beavers are profiting from climate change, and spreading rapidly. In just a few years' time, they have not only expanded into many tundra regions where they'd never been seen before; they're also building more and more dams in their new homes, creating a host of new water bodies. This could accelerate the thawing of the permafrost soils, and therefore intensify climate change, as an International American-German research team reports in the journal Environmental Research Letters. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/38ekuh4

Where various ethnic groups live together, cities grow at a slower rate. That is the conclusion reached by a researcher from the University of Basel and his colleagues based on worldwide data that shows how the diversity of language groups in 1975 has influenced urban growth 40 years later. The scientists have reported their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/31uDNBr

Icy moon explorers may someday hunt for life using an old-fashioned method: steam power. from Space.com https://ift.tt/3dJd9aI

An unstable massive star has suddenly vanished from view, and astronomers aren't sure if it collapsed into a black hole or is playing peek-a-boo behind galactic dust. from Space.com https://ift.tt/2BrgldI

Starliner's chutes performed well during a drop test over New Mexico's White Sands Space Harbor on June 21 that was designed to simulate an abort shortly after launch. from Space.com https://ift.tt/2YIKE8L

Over the past 150 years, global warming has more than undone the global cooling that occurred over the past six millennia, according to a major study published June 30 in Nature Research's Scientific Data, "Holocene global mean surface temperature, a multi-method reconstruction approach." The findings show that the millennial-scale global cooling began approximately 6,500 years ago when the long-term average global temperature topped out at around 0.7°C warmer than the mid-19th century. Since then, accelerating greenhouse gas emissions have contributed to global average temperatures that are now surpassing 1°C above the mid-19th century. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2BUCWPH

Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have discovered the absence of an unstable massive star in a dwarf galaxy. Scientists think this could indicate that the star became less bright and partially obscured by dust. An alternative explanation is that the star collapsed into a black hole without producing a supernova. "If true," says team leader and Ph.D. student Andrew Allan of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, "this would be the first direct detection of such a monster star ending its life in this manner." from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/31w8kiC

More than a million people have been affected by flooding in northeastern India, where the death toll over the past week rose to 13, authorities said on Monday. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3dLyFeL

The coronavirus pandemic has led a growing number of Westerners to see China as a top power, with the lead of the United States slipping, a study said Tuesday. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2VyjrU6

As the political climate in the United States becomes increasingly charged, some businesses are looking to have their voices heard on controversial issues. The impact of corporate sociopolitical activism on a company's bottom line depends on how the activism aligns with the firm's stakeholders, according to new research published in the Journal of Marketing. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3eMs84W

Increasing gender diversity has been a long-sought goal across many of the sciences, and interventions and programs to attract more women into fields like physics and math often happen at the undergraduate level. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3idEdST

How do you feel about your neighborhood now that you've been confined during a pandemic? A Michigan State University researcher conducted a study to quantify what makes people happy with their neighborhoods and discovered that it has almost nothing to do with the neighborhood itself. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2CNQpcE

A University of Wyoming researcher and her Ph.D. student have spent the last three years studying the decline of the Western bumblebee. The two have been working with a group of bumblebee experts to fill in gaps of missing information from previous data collected in the western United States. Their goal is to provide information on the Western bumblebee to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service while it considers listing this species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3eOzrcc

New research has shown that Drax power station in North Yorkshire is the optimal site for the carbon capture and storage facilities that will be needed reduce carbon emissions and achieve the targets of 2016 Paris Climate Agreement. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3eM4YM5

Stress wave propagation through grainy, or granular, materials is important for detecting the magnitude of earthquakes, locating oil and gas reservoirs, designing acoustic insulation and designing materials for compacting powders. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3ibQib8

All per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) should be treated as one class and avoided for nonessential uses, according to a peer-reviewed article published today in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3eGDyXQ

Astronomers have made the first measurement of spin-orbit alignment for a distant 'super-Jupiter' planet, demonstrating a technique that could enable breakthroughs in the quest to understand how exoplanetary systems form and evolved. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2BbvIqT

Environmental destruction may make pandemics more likely and less manageable, new research suggests. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3i9f4IW

Researchers are using high-resolution printing technology and the unique properties of graphene to make low-cost biosensors to monitor food safety and livestock health. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3icR0VK

A study of pregnant women in physically demanding jobs found that their fears of confirming stereotypes about pregnant workers as incompetent, weak or less committed to their job could drive them to work extra hard, risking injury. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3gax2sQ

The link between hot weather and aggressive crime is well established. But can the same be said for online aggression, such as angry tweets? And is online anger a predictor of assaults? from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3g6vS1o

Can racial prejudice be reduced or is it a constant of the human condition? And can interventions unfold effects that persist? Especially in light of recent events such as the Syrian refugee crisis, and more recently, the Black Lives Matter protests in the US, answers to these questions are desperately needed. In the long run, integration appears to have a positive effect on racial attitudes, which are passed on from generation to generation. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2BOVv8d

In a new article in the Australian Journal of Management, researchers warn employers not to make hasty decisions in either dismissing or discounting the input of older workers. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/31pNuB8

Education minister Dan Tehan will be meeting with university vice-chancellors to devise a new way of funding university research. They will have plenty to talk about. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3eJGIu1

Melbourne is once again grappling with increasing COVID-19 rates. Ten suburbs in Melbourne have been designated COVID-19 outbreak hotspots: Broadmeadows, Keilor Downs, Maidstone, Albanvale, Sunshine West, Hallam, Brunswick West, Fawkner, Reservoir and Pakenham. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2BQDh60

Rainfall after fire brings immediate relief but the environmental effects can sometimes be as significant as the fire itself. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2BkoReE

Griffith University scientists have revealed the devastating effects a trophy hunting ban will have on wildlife conservation and livelihoods in Africa. Although controversial, the practice of trophy hunting conserves land that wouldn't otherwise be protected. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2Bo39Gu

There's a tendency in modern America to think of flooding as nothing but dangerous, a threat to homes, farms, roads, and bridges. But flooding—when the waters of a river rise above the banks and inundate the nearby land—is a natural phenomenon that benefits wildlife habitat and has been crucial for human civilizations ever since the first ones relied on the flooding of the Tigris, Euphrates, and Nile rivers to irrigate their crops. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/31tk5Gm

Graphene's unique 2-D structure means that electrons travel through it differently than in most other materials. One consequence of this unique transport is that applying a voltage doesn't stop the electrons like it does in most other materials. This is a problem, because to make useful applications out of graphene and its unique electrons, such as quantum computers, it is necessary to be able to stop and control graphene electrons. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2BMbaFa

Lubricating oils deteriorate and oxidize with use as well as accumulating particles from the engines and other machinery in which they are used. Ultimately, their effectiveness worsens and they begin to damage the components they were designed to protect they have to be replaced. Disposing of waste engine oil thus becomes a significant environmental concern. Waste lubricant cannot be simply disposed of as it is highly toxic to ecosystems and harmful to the environment and human health. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/31uwE4a

The galaxy known as NGC 5907 stretches wide across this image. Appearing as an elongated line of stars and dark dust, the galaxy is categorized as a spiral galaxy just like our own Milky Way. In this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, we don't see the beautiful spiral arms because we are viewing it edge-on, like looking at the rim of a plate. It is for this reason that NGC 5907 is also known as the Knife Edge galaxy. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2ZmMsmK

One is blinding white and the other a dull, dusty red. But both are cold, barren worlds, difficult to reach and full of tantalizing scientific mysteries. from Space.com https://ift.tt/38abkSV

In a new contest, NASA is calling on innovators from around the world to develop a new space toilet that would work not just in microgravity such as aboard the International Space Station, but also in lunar gravity aboard a future lunar lander. from Space.com https://ift.tt/2ZhJ9NL

Astronomers have made the first measurement of spin-orbit alignment for a distant 'super-Jupiter' planet, demonstrating a technique that could enable breakthroughs in the quest to understand how exoplanetary systems form and evolved. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3gaQXHQ

A giant panda gifted by China to Taiwan has given birth to a second female cub after being artificially inseminated, Taipei Zoo announced Monday. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3g91bbT

Fears of confirming stereotypes about pregnant workers as incompetent, weak or less committed to their job can drive pregnant employees to work extra hard, risking injury. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2Bad3M8

A deep-sea soft coral garden habitat has been discovered in Greenlandic waters by scientists from UCL, ZSL and Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, using an innovative and low-cost deep-sea video camera built and deployed by the team. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/31tC0N4

Environmental destruction may make pandemics more likely and less manageable, new research suggests. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2Vu8BP3

Gold mining significantly limits the regrowth of Amazon forests, greatly reducing their ability to accumulate carbon, according to a new study. The researchers warn that the impacts of mining on tropical forests are long-lasting and that active land management and restoration will be necessary to recover tropical forests on previously mined lands. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2YJBbOC

A Russian mining giant behind an enormous Arctic fuel spill last month said Sunday it had suspended workers at a metals plant who were responsible for pumping wastewater into nearby tundra. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2CPXn0U

Scientists working remotely with Schmidt Ocean Institute, one of the only at-sea science expeditions to continue operating during the global pandemic, have completed a first look at deep waters in the Coral Sea never before seen. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2Zd5WKG

Only 30 such individuals have been reported worldwide, says paper published in Journal of Threatened Taxa from The Hindu - Science https://ift.tt/3dENG1Z

 A huge plume of Sahara Desert dust that drifted across the Atlantic Ocean has reached the southeastern United States. from Space.com https://ift.tt/2NxSlbw

NASA combined 10 years of solar observations into a single, gorgeous time-lapse video. from Space.com https://ift.tt/389iff3

An Arianespace Vega rocket is ready for an epic return to flight, as the European booster prepares to carry 53 satellites into orbit tonight (June 28). from Space.com https://ift.tt/2BPn2pL

Study contradicts claim that they were domesticated in northern China, Indus Valley from The Hindu - Science https://ift.tt/3eDHEjC

A team used a simple process to implant atoms precisely into the top layers of ultra-thin crystals, yielding two-sided structures with different chemical compositions. The resulting materials, known as Janus structures after the two-faced Roman god, may prove useful in developing energy and information technologies. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3g1dKpJ

Traffic density is the most important factor for much the air pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NO2). However, weather also has an influence, according to a new study, which evaluated the influence of weather conditions on nitrogen dioxide concentrations in Saxony 2015 to 2018. It was shown that wind speed and the height of the lowest air layer are the most important factors that determine how much pollutants can accumulate locally. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2YF59TL

Scientists have been looking into the rational design of new types of OER electrocatalysts and addressing fundamental questions about the key reactions in energy conversion. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2NCyact

As high school students see in experiments with water waves, and we observe and use with light waves in many optical devices, interference is a fundamental property associated with wave-like behavior. Indeed, Davisson and Germer's famous observation of interference in experiments with dilute beams of electrons, nearly a century ago, gave key experimental support to the correctness of the then-new quantum theory. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2Z9sEDu

A new study identifies psychological measures that may predict who is more likely to complete - or quit - a demanding marine training course. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2NzaRjR

Scientists have achieved the most extensive high-throughput analysis of CRISPR-Cas9 activities. The team developed deep-learning-based computational models that predict the activities of SpCas9 variants for different DNA sequences. This study represents a useful guide for selecting the most appropriate SpCas9 variant. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/31u1sBY

Researchers found the drugs were prescribed disproportionately to older adults, often concurrently with opioids, despite warnings against this dangerous combination. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3eFjntr

Researchers have figured out a way to calculate surface viscosity just by looking at a stretched droplet as it starts to break. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2BfNetW

Over the past year, researchers have been refining their unconventional desalination approach for hypersaline brines -- temperature swing solvent extraction (TSSE) -- that shows great promise for widespread use. The team now reports that their method has enabled them to attain energy-efficient zero-liquid discharge of ultrahigh salinity brines -- the first demonstration of TSSE for ZLD desalination of hypersaline brines. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2YCRHj4

Researchers have identified the sequence of molecular events by which tiny, tick-like creatures called house dust mites trigger asthma and allergic rhinitis. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3867LNz

Could the cure for melanoma - the most dangerous type of skin cancer -- be a compound derived from a marine invertebrate that lives at the bottom of the ocean? A group of scientists think so, and are looking to the microbiome of an Antarctic ascidian called Synoicum adareanum to better understand the possibilities for development of a melanoma-specific drug. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3eRo03P

A discovery could pave the way for future studies aimed at developing solutions to ALS and other vexing neuromuscular diseases. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2B6utt2

Using recent satellite observations, ground monitoring and computational modeling, researchers have released a survey of global pollution rates. There are a couple of surprises, for worse, but also, for better. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2VqGBMb

This could be the lightest black hole or heaviest neutron star from The Hindu - Science https://ift.tt/3dBIqfp

Public TB services must be resumed to find missed patients from The Hindu - Science https://ift.tt/3dF5A4w

In type-1 diabetes, the body’s immune system destroys the beta cells that produce insulin from The Hindu - Science https://ift.tt/2YDC7UH

A paper projects the advantages of wearing face-masks, yet a group of scientists find the study methodology doubtful from The Hindu - Science https://ift.tt/3g10NMw

Formations like the El Niño of the Pacific Ocean could emerge from The Hindu - Science https://ift.tt/2YAzD9s

A lucky Buddha figurine, a flight suit, several 3-cent stamps, a crumpled 1952 Mass schedule for St. Patrick's Church in Washington, D.C., and 480 bags containing individual human remains. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2ZhoZ6y

A slice of the Australian outback almost the size of greater London will be turned into a national park to help protect threatened species, authorities said Saturday, in a move welcomed by green groups. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2NBRoiu

It's right there in the name: black holes aren't supposed to produce flashes of light. But scientists think that last year, they spotted black holes doing just that. from Space.com https://ift.tt/2VkdKZW

The constellations shown on modern star atlases are all officially approved by the International Astronomical Union, but while constellations are official, asterisms are not. An asterism is often defined as a noteworthy or striking pattern of stars within a constellation, but that is not always the case. The larger asterisms — ones like the Big Dipper in Ursa Major and the Great Square of Pegasus — are often better known than their host constellations. from Space.com https://ift.tt/2BLLt7y

A U.S. space tourism company has booked two passenger seats on a Russian Soyuz capsule headed to the International Space Station in 2023, and one of those tourists will take part in a spacewalk. from Space.com https://ift.tt/3g7gCBx

Modern physics knows a great deal about how the universe works, from the grand scale of galaxies down to the infinitesimally small size of quarks and gluons. Still, the answers to some major mysteries, such as the nature of dark matter and origin of gravity, have remained out of reach. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3dzItZh

CRISPR-Cas9 has become one of the most convenient and effective biotechnology tools used to cut specific DNA sequences. Starting from Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9), a multitude of variants have been engineered and employed for experiments worldwide. Although all these systems are targeting and cleaving a specific DNA sequence, they also exhibit relatively high off-target activities with potentially harmful effects. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2Zb9vB8

For half a millennium, people have tried to enhance human vision by technical means. While the human eye is capable of recognizing features over a wide range of size, it reaches its limits when peering at objects over giant distances or in the micro- and nanoworld. Researchers of the EU funded project ChipScope are now developing a completely new strategy towards optical microscopy. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2BM9Ulh

With the investigation into former High Court judge Dyson Heydon, we are once again talking about the devastating impact of sexual harassment. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2NyUR1e

The future of jobs has been used to justify the major changes to university education announced last week. Fees for courses that, according to the government, lead to jobs with a great future will fall, while those with a poor future will rise. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/31jW3xy

This month, the Victorian government announced on-the-spot fines for trespassers on farms following an upper house inquiry into how animal activism affects agriculture. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3i52L0h

Among the most easily recognizable features of any nervous system is the synapse. While the question of how synapses evolved has been a longstanding mystery, it can now largely be solved. In a nutshell, it appears that the synapses between neurons evolved directly from the original cell-to-cell contacts, namely, the adherence junctions and other bonds that linked the primitive epithelial sheets of early multicellular organisms. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/31jr18N

As the world wrestles with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which arose after the virus jumped from an animal species to the human species, University of Delaware researchers are learning about new ways other pathogens are jumping from plants to people. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2VmnByj

The private spaceflight company SpaceX will launch 57 new Starlink satellites and two BlackSky Global satellites into orbit today (June. 26). Here's how to watch. from Space.com https://ift.tt/2VCaj15

Two veteran astronauts will step out of the International Space Station today (June 26) on the first four complicated spacewalks to swap out outdated batteries on the orbiting lab. from Space.com https://ift.tt/2NvHLlp

In our neighborhood, three quarters of planets have at least one moon, but no such object has been confidently discovered so far in distant star systems — such worlds are just too small and far away. from Space.com https://ift.tt/2YzudeF

The Hubble Space Telescope spotted a bat signal out in the cosmos, 1,300 light-years from home. And the bat? It's flapping its wings. from Space.com https://ift.tt/2NtIEed

Researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology have developed a new method to improve the detection ability of nanoscale chemical imaging using atomic force microscopy. These improvements reduce the noise that is associated with the microscope, increasing the precision and range of samples that can be studied. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3830Swi

Everyone poops. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2VkV2Bm

Virgin Galactic on Thursday celebrated the second successful glide flight of its spaceship over Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2Yy4zHi

For the endangered Atlantic sturgeon and the commercially and recreationally important striped bass, the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia coastal shelf serves as an important spring and fall "flyway." Typically thought of as an established aerial route used by migratory birds to travel between feeding and breeding grounds, a recent study by scientists at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science applies the term to fish species of concern. Authors suggest that the development of wind farms on the Delmarva coastal shelf, 17-26 miles from Ocean City's shoreline, may alter the migratory behavior of these fish as new wind turbines in this otherwise featureless region could create habitat around which fish linger. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2YybWhR

A common food additive, recently banned in France but allowed in the U.S. and many other countries, was found to significantly alter gut microbiota in mice, causing inflammation in the colon and changes in protein expression in the liver, according to research led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst food scientist. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2VkPwig

Drones and other aircraft effectively spray pesticides over miles of crops, but the method also can pollute the environment if wind carries the mist off-target. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3827bAp

Water security is becoming an urgent global challenge. Hundreds of millions of people already live in water-scarce regions, and the UN projects that by 2030 about half the world's population will be living in highly water-stressed areas. This will be a crisis even for developed countries like the U.S., where water managers in 40 states expect freshwater shortages within the next 10 years. As the global population and GDP grow, so will the demand for freshwater. And, with the continuing rise of global temperatures, water shortages will only get worse. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2BBk2gN

Exotic Bee ID, a website created through a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and Utah State University (USU) to help identify non-native bees in the United States, has been expanded to include more information and species. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2YzyO0A

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instrument identified the 4000th comet discovered by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA on June 15. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2VBgMJF

Researchers found an unexpected spectrum of mental illnesses in patients with a rare gene mutation. These patients had a ''double hit'' condition that combined features and symptoms of fragile X syndrome and premutation disorder, in addition to a range of psychiatric symptoms. The findings revealed the need for clinicians to consider the complexities of the co-existing conditions of patients with both psychological and fragile X associated disorders. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2A2aYB4

In a critical step toward creating a global quantum communications network, researchers have generated and detected quantum entanglement onboard a CubeSat nanosatellite weighing less than 2.6 kilograms and orbiting the Earth. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3i5OuAg

SpaceX's first Crew Dragon to carry astronauts is passing all tests and could return to Earth as soon as August 2nd. from Space.com https://ift.tt/3fXT5mp

The Ik, a small ethnic group in Uganda, are not incredibly selfish and mean as portrayed in a 1972 book by a prominent anthropologist, according to a Rutgers-led study. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2CwSyt5

In a recent experiment, researchers have developed gold nanoparticles in the laboratory in order to reduce the cell death of neurons exposed to overexcitement. The study is the result of an international collaboration coordinated by Roberto Fiammengo, researcher at the Center of Biomolecular Nanotechnologies of the IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology) in Lecce (Italy). The international team also involves colleagues at the University of Genoa, Imperial College London, King's College London, the Center for Synaptic Neuroscience and Technology of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genoa and the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/31m3nc5

NASA said Wednesday that it will rename its Washington headquarters after its first black female engineer, Mary Jackson, whose story was told in the hit film "Hidden Figures." from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3i1YdYo

A massive cloud of Saharan dust darkened much of Cuba on Wednesday and began to affect air quality in Florida, sparking warnings to people with respiratory illnesses to stay home. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2CGiGlt

One way that scientists seek to bring to Earth the fusion process that powers the sun and stars is trapping hot, charged plasma gas within a twisting magnetic coil device shaped like a breakfast cruller. But the device, called a stellarator, must be precisely engineered to prevent heat from escaping the plasma core where it stokes the fusion reactions. Now, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have demonstrated that an advanced computer code could help design stellarators that confine the essential heat more effectively. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2B7YZT9

Conservation efforts that open up the canopy of overgrown habitat for threatened timber rattlesnakes—whose venom is used in anticoagulants and other medical treatments—are beneficial to snakes but could come at a cost, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State and the University of Scranton. The researchers confirmed that breeding areas with more open canopies do provide more opportunities for these snakes to reach required body temperatures, but also have riskier predators like hawks and bobcats. The study, which appears in the June issue of the Journal of Herpetology, has important implications for how forest managers might open up snake habitat in the future. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2VgvEg1

Although most beer consumers can distinguish between different bitter tastes in beer, this does not appear to influence which beer they like. It seems they just like beer, regardless of the source of the bitterness. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/3i7bpvp

Under changing, increasingly dynamic climatic conditions, temperate soils are forecast to experience a high degree of variability in moisture conditions due to periods of drought and/or flood. These periodic shifts between well-drained and waterlogged conditions have the potential to enhance carbon cycling by microbes and influence soil quality and land-derived greenhouse gas emissions. from Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories https://ift.tt/2NpaqbA

IN-SPACe to drive satellites, rockets, launch services through private players from The Hindu - Science https://ift.tt/2BG1kV7

A new study analyzes and describes U.S. police-involved fatalities across racial/ethnic groups at the level of individual metropolitan statistical areas. from Latest Science News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2YwZajM