around_the_web
An international team of researchers studying the characteristics of the protoplanetary disk of the star UX Tauri A, have determined that its dust particles are large in size and non-spherical in shape. This exciting result shows that these dust grains are colliding with and adhering to each other, a process that will lead to their…
As food allergies become increasingly common, a new study offers the first proof that they may be linked to pesticides found in tap water. Researchers at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology used existing government data to see whether people with more dichlorophenols in their urine were more likely to have food allergies….
Caltech physicist Sean Carroll makes the search for the Higgs boson a scientific detective story. At heart is the mystery of the universe.
The robotic equivalent of a Swiss army knife
Reconfigurable robot a step toward something that can become almost anything.
The reluctance of industrialized countries to accept binding emission targets will dry up demand for carbon credits and reduce their prices further, experts said at the climate talks in Doha, where 200 countries are trying to negotiate an agreement on climate issues. Russia, Japan, New Zealand have made it clear that they will not accept…
Two major organizations released climate change reports this month warning of doom and gloom if we stick to our current course and fail to take more aggressive measures. A World Bank report imagines a world 4 degrees warmer, the temperature predicted by century’s end barring changes, and says it aims to shock people into action…
This is not good news. A new international study—done by 47 experts using data from multiple satellites and aircraft—shows that the Earth is losing ice at an ever-increasing rate from both poles. We’ve known for years that the Arctic has been suffering massive ice loss, with the record low broken more than once in recent…
A group of neuroscientists and software engineers at the University of Waterloo in Canada are claiming to have built the world’s most complex, large-scale model simulation of the human brain. The simulated brain, which runs on a supercomputer, has a digital eye which it uses for visual input, a robotic arm that it uses to…
Researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have coaxed single strands of DNA to fit together like Lego bricks and form scores of complex three-dimensional shapes, including a teeny-tiny space shuttle. The technique, described in the journal Science, adds a new dimension to molecular construction and should help open the way for nanoscale medical and electronic devices.
The awe-inspiring Grand Canyon was probably carved about 70 million years ago, much earlier than thought, a provocative new study suggests — so early that dinosaurs might have roamed near this natural wonder. Using a new dating tool, a team of scientists came up with a different age for the gorge’s western section, challenging conventional…