Science X Newsletter Wednesday, Feb 1

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We're offering instant access to Multiphysics Simulation: An IEEE Spectrum Supplement. Read stories on the modeling of particle accelerators, semiconductors, smart materials, and more:http://goo.gl/TggcVF

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Spotlight Stories Headlines

- Small-scale challenges to the cold dark matter model 
- New study identifies key design features that boost violins' acoustic power 
- Study shows example of a parasite using a bioweapon to control host 
- Largest ever genome-wide study strengthens genetic link to obesity 
- Astronomers catch multiple-star system in first stages of formation 
- Temperature dependence and the thermal limits of embryogenesis 
- Revolutionary new probe zooms in on cancer cells 
- Researchers find link in how cells start process necessary for life
- Open source virtual reality platform takes on 13 new partners 
- Oldest fur seal identified, ending five-million-year 'ghost lineage' 
- Buildings with 'rocking' technology would be more earthquake-resilient 
- Real-time brain feedback reduces attention lapses 
- What makes the feather soar 
- SpaceX launches observatory on third try, nixes landing test 
- Boston Dynamics unveils latest robot quadruped 'Spot' (w/ Video) 

Nanotechnology news

Bacterial armor holds clues for self-assembling nanostructures Imagine thousands of copies of a single protein organizing into a coat of chainmail armor that protects the wearer from harsh and ever-changing environmental conditions. That is the case for many microorganisms. In a new study, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have uncovered key details in this natural process that can be used for the self-assembly of nanomaterials into complex two- and three-dimensional structures.

Physics news

	New study identifies key design features that boost violins' acoustic power Some of the most prized violins in the world were crafted in the Italian workshops of Amati, Stradivari, and Guarneri—master violinmaking families from the 17th and 18th centuries who produced increasingly powerful instruments in the renaissance and baroque musical eras. These violins, worth millions of dollars today, represent the Cremonese period—what is now considered the golden age of violinmaking.
	Scientists take first X-ray portraits of living bacteria at the LCLS Researchers working at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have captured the first X-ray portraits of living bacteria.
	Physics of food shows secrets of popcorn To most people, it may be just a fun food to munch while watching a movie. But to a couple of French investigators, popcorn is a biomechanical enigma waiting to be explained.
	Experiment brings precision to a cornerstone of particle physics In a paper published yesterday in the journal Physical Review Letters, the COMPASS experiment at CERN reports a key measurement on the strong interaction. The strong interaction binds quarks into protons and neutrons, and protons and neutrons into the nuclei of all the elements from which matter is built. Inside those nuclei, particles called pions made up of a quark and an antiquark mediate the interaction. Strong interaction theory makes a precise prediction on the polarisability of pions – the degree to which their shape can be stretched. This polarisability has baffled scientists since the 1980s, when the first measurements appeared to be at odds with the theory. Today's result is in close agreement with theory.
	Michelson-Morley experiment for electrons: Quantum-information techniques used to explore fundamental physics A new experiment conducted at the University of California at Berkeley used quantum information techniques for a precision test of a cornerstone principle of physics, namely Lorentz invariance. This precept holds that the results of a physics experiment do not depend on its absolute spatial orientation. The work uses quantum-correlated electrons within a pair of calcium ions to look for shifts in quantum energy levels with unprecedented sensitivity. JQI Adjunct Fellow and University of Delaware professor Marianna Safronova, who contributed a theoretical analysis of the data, said that the experiment was able to probe Lorentz symmetry violation at the level comparable to the ratio of the electroweak and Planck energy scales. These correspond, respectively, to the energy scale of the universe at which the electromagnetic and weak forces become comparable in strength, and the scale where gravity becomes comparable in strength to ! the other physical forces.
	Novel high-power microwave generator High-power microwaves are frequently used in civil applications, such as radar and communication systems, heating and current drive of plasmas in fusion devices, and acceleration in high-energy linear colliders. They can also be used for military purpose in directed-energy weapons or missile guidance systems.
	Nonlinear resonance disaster in the light of ultrashort pulses Ultrashort light pulses from modern lasers enable temporal resolution of even the fastest processes in molecules or solid-state materials. For example, chemical reactions can, in principle, be traced down to the 10-fs time scale (1 femtosecond (fs) = 10-15  s). Ten femtoseconds correspond to a few oscillation cycles of the light field itself. Nevertheless, there is a class of optical processes that does not exhibit any measurable delay relative to the ultrafast light oscillation and which has been termed "instantaneous". This class of processes includes nonlinear optical harmonic generation at multiple frequencies of the input field. This process is commonly used to generate the green light of laser pointers from invisible infrared light. These processes are normally used far away from a resonance to avoid losses.
	Smashing polarized protons to uncover spin and other secrets If you want to unravel the secrets of proton spin, put a "twist" in your colliding proton beams. This technique, tried and perfected at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)—a particle collider and U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory—orients the colliding protons' spins in a particular direction, somewhat like tiny bar magnets with their North poles all pointing up.

Earth news

	Advances in medical imaging applied to airborne remote sensing of vegetation Recent advances in medical imaging are being applied to airborne remote sensing of vegetation, enabling conservation scientists to see the wood and the trees.
	Carbon release from ocean helped end the Ice Age A release of carbon dioxide from the deep ocean helped bring an end to the last Ice Age, according to new research led by the University of Southampton.
	Is climate change fuelling war? For years, scientists and security analysts have warned that global warming looms as a potential source of war and unrest.
	Analysis of recent earthquake sequence reveals geologic fault, epicenters in Irving and West Dallas Initial results from SMU's seismology team reveal that the recent series of earthquakes occurring near the site of the old Texas Stadium were relatively shallow and concentrated along a narrow two mile line that indicates a fault extending from Irving into West Dallas.
	How hot metal shards cast off by infrastructure ignite wildfires Hot metal fragments can be created from power lines, overheated brakes, railway tracks or any other manner of metal-on-metal action in our industrialized society.
Sanitation scores in India have room for improvement Sanitation scores, conferred on each of India's 421 largest cities by the national government, set a useful benchmark, say water-resources experts in Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Largest study on natural gas transmission and storage sectors finds variations in methane emissions A Colorado State University-led research team has completed the most comprehensive field study to date of the amount of methane being emitted at the nation's natural gas transmission and storage infrastructure, which includes roughly 2,000 compressor stations distributed along 300,000 miles of pipeline, underground storage facilities and other equipment.
Groundwater levels decline in western, central Kansas Average groundwater levels in western Kansas continued to decline in 2014 but at a slower rate than over the past four years. Levels in central Kansas declined in 2014 after increases in 2013. That's according to preliminary data compiled by the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS), based at the University of Kansas.
	Oil drilling banned in Arctic area that attracts walrus A plateau on the Arctic Ocean floor, where thousands of Pacific walrus gather to feed and raise pups, has received new protections from the Obama administration that recognize it as a biological hot spot and mark it off-limits to future oil drilling.
Unraveling the complex web of global food trade Growing global trade is critically important for providing food when and where it's needed—but it makes it harder to link the benefits of food and the environmental burden of its production. A study published this week in the journal BioScience by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment proposes to extend the way we characterize global food trade to include nutritional value and resource consumption alongside more conventional measures of trade's value.
	Methane emissions from natural gas industry higher than previously thought World leaders are working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it's unclear just how much we're emitting. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a new program to track these emissions, but scientists are reporting that it vastly underestimates methane emissions from the growing natural gas industry. Their findings, published in two papers in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, could help the industry clamp down on "superemitter" leaks.
	Low-oxygen zones in the shallows leave oysters more vulnerable to dermo In shallow waters around the world, where nutrient pollution runs high, oxygen levels can plummet to nearly zero at night. Oysters living in these zones are far more likely to pick up the lethal Dermo disease, a team of scientists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center discovered. Their findings were published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.
	Monster hurricanes hit northeast in past warm ocean periods like those in our future Scientists today released evidence of historically unprecedented hurricane activity along the northeast coast of what would become the United States between about 800 to 1700 years ago, which was associated with warmer ocean temperatures similar to levels we may expect in coming centuries with climate change and ocean warming.
	Long-term changes in dead wood reveal new forest dynamics Healthy forest ecosystems need dead wood to provide important habitat for birds and mammals, but there can be too much of a good thing when dead wood fuels severe wildfires. A scientist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) compared historic and recent data from a forest in California's central Sierra Nevada region to determine how logging and fire exclusion have changed the amounts and sizes of dead wood over time. Results were recently published in Forest Ecology and Management.
New global 'ratings agency' ranks the 500 institutions with power to end deforestation by 2020 On the heels of a year marked by bold zero deforestation commitments the first ever comprehensive ranking of the powerbrokers that control the global supply chains that drive over half of tropical deforestation finds that only a small minority are equipped to tackle this problem. Deforestation and land use change cause more than 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, undermine regional water security, and threaten the livelihoods of more than one billion people worldwide.
	Greece to scrap controversial gold mine project: minister Greece's new leftist government will scrap a controversial gold mine project that has sparked protests in northern Greece, the environment minister said Tuesday.
Enhancing microbial activity contributes to the remediation of soil and groundwater contaminated with pesticides The addition of carbon, which is required as a nutrient by the microorganisms in soil and groundwater, was found to be the most promising remediation method in the remediation of soil and groundwater contaminated with the pesticide atrazine. This conclusion is reached in Aura Nousiainen's doctoral dissertation, which will be presented for public examination at the University of Helsinki on Friday 13 February 2015. There is a demand for the remediation method, as atrazine is the most common pollutant found in groundwater in Finland.
	NASA-NOAA satellite sees Tropical Depression Higos sheared apart NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite flew over Tropical Depression Higos and saw wind shear is literally pushing the storm apart.
	US Congress approves Keystone XL pipeline, defies Obama The US Congress gave final approval Wednesday to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline that would transmit Canadian crude to US refineries, defying President Barack Obama's veto threat.

Astronomy & Space news

	Small-scale challenges to the cold dark matter model (Phys.org)—A collaborative of researchers from several U.S. universities has published a new paper that explains the major contradictions presented by the prevailing cold dark matter (CDM) cosmological model, and proposes approaches for reconciling cosmological observations with the CDM model's predictions. The paper, titled "Cold dark matter: Controversies on small scales," was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in December.
	Astronomers catch multiple-star system in first stages of formation For the first time, astronomers have caught a multiple-star system in the beginning stages of its formation, and their direct observations of this process give strong support to one of several suggested pathways to producing such systems.
	SpaceX unmanned spaceship splashes down near Southern California An unmanned Dragon spaceship splashed back to Earth on Tuesday after a successful supply run to the International Space Station but its owners were forced to scrub the launch of an important weather satellite on the other side of the continent.
	Europe set for launch of "space plane" prototype Engineers were preparing for the launch Wednesday of a "space plane" that Europe hopes will help it master a key phase in orbital flight—the ability to return to Earth.
	Image: Smile, and the universe smiles with you An upbeat-looking galaxy cluster appears to smile at us in a newly released image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The cluster - designated as SDSS J1038+4849 - appears to have two eyes and a nose as part of a happy face.
	Why comets are like deep fried ice cream Astronomers tinkering with ice and organics in the lab may have discovered why comets are encased in a hard, outer crust.
	Research pair suggests dark matter could create halos of light around galaxies (Phys.org)—A pair of researchers affiliated with Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris has suggested that dark matter may impact light in a way not thought of before. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters, Jonathan Davis and Joseph Silk suggest that dark matter could scatter light from stars creating halos of light around galaxies.
	Astronomers find unexpected 'storm' at galaxy's core Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) found surprisingly energetic activity in what they otherwise considered a "boring" galaxy, and their discovery provides important insight on how supermassive black holes can have a catastrophic effect on the galaxies in which they reside.
	Europe launches space plane with eye on strategic goal Europe said it had launched a prototype space plane Wednesday in a strategy to join an elite club able to both launch a spacecraft and return it safely to Earth.
	SpaceX launches observatory on third try, nixes landing test SpaceX launched an observatory inspired by former Vice President Al Gore toward a solar-storm lookout point a million miles away Wednesday.
	'Lopsided' supernova could be responsible for rogue hypervelocity stars Hypervelocity stars have been observed traversing the Galaxy at extreme velocities (700 km/s), but the mechanisms that give rise to such phenomena are still debated. Astronomer Thomas M. Tauris argues that lopsided supernova explosions can eject lower-mass Solar stars from the Galaxy at speeds up to 1280 km/s. "[This mechanism] can account for the majority (if not all) of the detected G/K-dwarf hypervelocity candidates," he said.
	NASA spacecraft completes 40,000 Mars orbits NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passed a mission milestone of 40,000 orbits on Feb. 7, 2015, in its ninth year of returning information about the atmosphere, surface and subsurface of Mars, from equatorial to polar latitudes.
	Anti-geyser testing completed for SLS liquid oxygen tank Goodbye, geysers! NASA engineers have successfully finished anti-geyser testing for the liquid oxygen tank that will help fuel the agency's new rocket, the Space Launch System, on the journey to Mars.
	ATV to bid farewell to space station for last time ESA's last Automated Transfer Vehicle will leave the International Space Station on Saturday for its final solo voyage, setting course for a fiery demise that will mark the end of its mission and the programme.
	Why does the Milky Way rotate? We live in a galaxy that is called the Milky Way. It's called a barred spiral galaxy, which means that it has a spiral shape with a bar of stars across its middle. The galaxy is rather huge—at least 100,000 light-years in diameter, making it the second-biggest in our Local Group of galaxies.
	Planck reveals the dynamic side of the Universe The Planck collaboration, which includes the CNRS, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the French National Space Agency (CNES) and several French universities and institutions, has today released data from four years of observation by the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Planck spacecraft. The aim of the Planck mission is to study the cosmic microwave background, the light left over from the Big Bang. The measurements, taken in nine frequency bands, were used to map not only the temperature of the radiation but also its polarization, which provides additional information about both the very early Universe (when it was 380,000 years old) and our galaxy's magnetic field.
	Extremely large telescopes will add more firepower to search the cosmos As an astronomer, I get a lot of requests for help. "I'd like to buy a telescope," the conversation usually goes. "Can you give me some tips on what to look for?"
	European space plane splashes down on schedule: ESA Europe's prototype space plane splashed down in the Pacific on schedule Wednesday after a 100-minute flight to test key re-entry technologies, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
	SpaceX tries again to launch observatory, nixes landing test SpaceX counted on better flying weather Wednesday as it geared up for the third time to launch a deep-space observatory, but canceled a radical rocket-landing test because of rough seas.
Team explores vision complications for astronauts An international partnership between Florida State University and a team from the Russian Academy of Sciences has found that space travel may severely impair the body's ability to regulate blood rushing to the brain, which could contribute to the temporary or permanent vision problems experienced by astronauts.
	Europe tests space plane in step to strategic goal Europe on Wednesday said it successfully launched and brought back to Earth a prototype space plane in a strategy to join an elite club of space powers.
	Canada shuttering key big-lens observatory Canada is shuttering a critical teaching observatory in eastern North America where the first dark skies reserve was created, its director told AFP on Wednesday.

Technology news

	Voltera team designs circuit board prototyping machine Circuit boards made easily... where have you heard that before? You probably saw the news back in July about a Kickstarter campaign for Squink, a personal electronic-circuit factory for making circuit prototyping as easy and seamless as possible. The team behind Squink, BotFactory, had turned to crowdfunding, and their website's home page said, instead of waiting days for a printed circuit board, their printer can print conductive traces in minutes from Gerber files you are already making and they can print from other image formats too. "Our goal is to reduce the cost and time associated with electronics prototyping by providing technologies that allow such optimizations in an in-house environment. Our technologies enable our customers to shorten their development cycles, making them more productive an efficient, while allowing us to create a market around Agile Electronics Development." Using inkjet technology, Squink prints cond! uctive ink on a surface to create the traces of the circuit. The site said, "Aimed at assembling SMD based circuits, Squink uses vacuum to pick components from a tray. Then it aligns them using computer vision, rotates them according to the "Centroid and Rotation" file created in your CAD tool and places them accurately."
	System recruits learners to annotate videos Educational researchers have long held that presenting students with clear outlines of the material covered in lectures improves their retention.
	Researchers create Soybots, mobile micro-garden, to be on the go Purdue University professors designed a robotic platform allowing indoor plants to search for light to sustain nourishment.
	Engineer pursues biological solar power A Binghamton University engineering researcher designed a biological solar cell that's a million times more effective than current technology. Preliminary data on Seokheun "Sean" Choi's next advancement is a thousand times better than that. His cell also works in the dark, and is self-sustaining.
	Britain starts public trial of driverless cars Driverless cars are hitting Britain's public roads for the first time, giving a glimpse of future travel that's billed as safer and more efficient.
	Boston Dynamics unveils latest robot quadruped 'Spot' (w/ Video) Well-known robot maker Boston Dynamics has done it again—they have released a YouTube video showing off their latest, smaller, waist-high, quadruped robot, this one named Spot. The company has made a name for itself by building and showing off increasingly sophisticated and capable four-legged robots, such as the infamous mule-looking Big Dog. Now owned by Google, the company has been a little more secretive about its robots—for Spot, there was no official announcement, just the video, which does a good job of showing off just how far the company has come with robotics technology.
	Buildings with 'rocking' technology would be more earthquake-resilient Buildings that rock during an earthquake and return to plumb would withstand seismic shaking better than structural designs commonly used in vulnerable zones of California and elsewhere, a Case Western Reserve University researcher has found.
	Open source virtual reality platform takes on 13 new partners An open source virtual reality platform reports 13 new partners. This is the Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) ecosystem, envisioned as the platform that can bring together companies doing work in a number of areas of virtual reality. OSVR aims to set an open standard for virtual reality input devices, games and output. Its framework offers the potential to unite developers and gamers under a single platform.
Judge sides with government in lawsuit over surveillance A federal judge on Tuesday sided with the government in a lawsuit alleging the National Security Agency is illegally engaging in the bulk collection of Internet and telephone records in the hunt for potential terrorists.
	Foreign companies feel China targets them in investigations Nearly half of foreign companies in China feel singled out in a wave of anti-monopoly and other investigations, and a growing number are deciding not to expand their investments, the American Chamber of Commerce in China said Wednesday.
	Big US defense blimp stirs privacy jitters On a crisp winter's day, a tethered blimp almost as big as a football field slowly rises into the blue Maryland sky, casting its radar eye over greater Washington and well beyond.
	Fear of missing out drives net addiction in Japan For Japanese teenager Sumire, chatting with friends while she sits in the bath or even on the toilet is nothing out of the ordinary. An ever-present smartphone means she, like much of her generation, is plugged in 24-7—to the growing concern of health professionals.
IBM sues Priceline over patents IBM is suing Priceline over a set of patents that the century-old technology firm says have been vital to the relative newcomer's success.
Generation Z: Born in the digital age Facebook? Of course. Books? Definitely not. Video games? For sure. Sport? No way. Speed? Yes. Patience? Not so much.
	Engineer produces free Braille-writer app Three years ago, Sohan Dharmaraja was a Stanford engineering doctoral candidate in search of his next project when he visited the Stanford Office of Accessible Education, which helps blind and visually challenged students successfully navigate the world of higher education.
Energy-efficient rental housing can save residents more than $600 per year, study says Residents of energy efficient apartments save an average of $54 a month, or $648 annually, on their electricity bills, according a Housing Virginia study that demonstrates the impacts of energy efficient construction requirements in affordable rental housing.
3-D model could help manage US bridge maintenance crisis Nearly one out of every nine bridges in the United States is deemed structurally deficient and potentially dangerous, according to the Federal Highway Administration. It would cost an estimated $70 billion to catch up with the nation's backlog of nearly 70,000 bridges in need of repair.
	Drones are more than killing machines, but what happens when they become intelligent? You will be forgiven if you missed the Drones for Good competition held recently in Dubai, Despite drone technology really taking off commercially in the last year or so (the potential puns are endless) they remain a relatively niche interest.
	No evidence wind farms directly impact health There is no direct evidence that wind turbines affect physical or mental health, according to a review of the evidence by the National Health and Medicine Research Council (NHMRC).
	Facebook, partners unveil alliance on cybersecurity Facebook, Yahoo and other technology firms announced the creation of a "ThreatExchange" to share information to help thwart cyberattacks.
	Smartphone kill switches credited with stifling theft Kill switches that render stolen smartphones useless were credited on Wednesday with stifling robberies and thefts in London, New York City, and San Francisco.
	BitTorrent teams with studio for original online video Peer-to-peer file sharing star BitTorrent on Wednesday announced a studio partnership to make original online video, ramping up a challenge to Netflix and Amazon Prime and trying to further legitimize its image.
	3-D printing aims to rewrite the script on cooking and tech Printed pastries with individually tailored nutrient levels. Ravioli that assemble themselves. Wedding cake toppers that are exact, tiny, renditions of the happy couple. It's all possible thanks to a fresh meeting of taste and technology that has chefs exploring what 3-D printing might mean for the future of food.
	Review: Why subscribe to Office when so much is free? Just as I was warming up to choosing a Microsoft Office 365 subscription over making a one-time software purchase, Microsoft started giving away a lot of subscription benefits for free. The company now offers Word, Excel and others at no cost on most mobile devices.
	Microsoft buys smartphone calendar app Sunrise Microsoft on Wednesday announced that it has acquired hit mobile calendar application Sunrise in a deal reported to be valued about $100 million.
Baidu quarterly profit rise of 16 percent misses mark Baidu on Wednesday reported that its quarterly profit climbed 16 percent to $520.4 million, driven by a surge in smartphone users connecting with the Chinese Internet powerhouse.
	US hopes EU will pool airline passenger data The United States wants the European Union to pool data on airline passengers to bolster security and prevent Islamist extremists from staging attacks on the West, US officials told lawmakers Wednesday.
	Putting the password problem in perspective Passwords are one of the banes of my life. I bet they are for you, too.
Tech firms back California bill to limit warrantless searches of phones, laptops Tech firms including Facebook, Google, Mozilla and Twitter are supporting new legislation to protect Californians against warrantless government searches of their smartphones and laptops for private emails, text messages and GPS data.
	Tesla's 4Q profit falls on strong dollar, delayed shipments Electric car maker Tesla Motors says its fourth-quarter net loss widened to $107.6 million because of the impact of the strong dollar and a delay in shipments of its new all-wheel-drive Model S sedan.
Hacking attack blocks Dutch government websites The Dutch government said Wednesday that an attack by hackers was responsible for the massive disruption that resulted when access to state websites was blocked Tuesday.
	Fujitsu develops technology for low-cost detection of potential sewer system overflows Fujitsu Laboratories today announced that it has developed technology that uses ICT for low-cost detection of early signs of sewer system overflows in order to mitigate damage in cities stemming from torrential downpours. To equip manholes with sensors that can measure water levels in order to accurately detect early signs of overflows, it is necessary to deploy sensors throughout the sewer line infrastructure. However, because of the need for dedicated circuits and power sources as well as sensors with wireless connections, batteries may need to be replaced, making the operating costs for each sensor expensive, and making it difficult to deploy sensors across a wide area.
A novel solar CPV/CSP hybrid system proposed In concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems only a small part of the incident solar energy can be converted into electricity and the majority of the incident energy is dissipated as waste heat. Although the waste heat could be utilized in conventional CPV/thermal systems, the applications are seriously limited due to the low temperature accompanying the waste heat.
Shares of cybersecurity firm FireEye up on 4Q beat FireEye Inc., the high-profile computer security company called in to investigate massive hacks at Sony Pictures and Anthem, reported fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday that show its business is growing but profit remains elusive.
	Social media lends hand to US-bound migrants A migrant shelter outside Mexico City collects donations of clothes thanks to a smartphone app. Online reviews warn migrants about abusive employers. A website pinpoints US police checkpoints.

Chemistry news

	Synthetic DNA gel points the way to printing artificial organs A two-part water-based gel made of synthetic DNA and peptide could bring the inventors of a 3D bioprinter closer to being able to print organs for transplant, or to replace animal testing. The teams led by Dongsheng Liu (Tsinghua University) and Will Shu (Heriot-Watt University) faced two main challenges: finding a matrix or scaffold to support the live cells in 3D, and being able to produce a consistent product which would not be rejected by transplant recipients.
	Researchers report better solar cells through chemistry In the quest for the perfect solar cell – efficient, thin, reliable and cheap – new Cornell research offers quantifiable insight into the complex chemistry of getting it just right.
Cracks in the surface coating of gas turbines provide longer lifespan and better thermal insulation Gas turbines are used for the production of electricity and in aircraft engines. To increase the life-span of the turbines, they are sprayed with a surface coating. The coating consists of two layers – one of metal to protect against oxidation and corrosion , and one of ceramic to give thermal insulation. The structure of the coating varies greatly, consisting of pores and cracks of different sizes. It is these cracks and pores that largely determine the efficiency of the thermal insulation and the length of the coating lifespan.
	Scientists develop novel technique for finding drugs to combat malaria Each year nearly 600,000 people—mostly children under age five and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa—die from malaria, caused by single-celled parasites that grow inside red blood cells. The most deadly malarial species—Plasmodium falciparum—has proven notoriously resistant to treatment efforts. But thanks to a novel approach developed by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and described in the January 20 online edition of ACS Chemical Biology, researchers can readily screen thousands of drugs to find those potentially able to kill P. falciparum.
	Live bacterium depicted using X-ray laser An international team led by Uppsala University scientists has succeeded, for the first time, in depicting intact live bacteria with an X-ray laser. This technique, now described in the journal Nature Communications, can give researchers a clearer understanding of the complex world of cells.
	Better batteries inspired by lowly snail shells Scientists are using biology to improve the properties of lithium ion batteries. Researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) have isolated a peptide, a type of biological molecule, which binds strongly to lithium manganese nickel oxide (LMNO), a material that can be used to make the cathode in high performance batteries. The peptide can latch onto nanosized particles of LMNO and connect them to conductive components of a battery electrode, improving the potential power and stability of the electrode.
	Fluorescing food dyes as probes to improve food quality Food dyes can give cakes, candy and sodas brilliant colors of the rainbow. Now a team of food scientists at Rutgers University in New Jersey has found that food coloring may be able to play more than its traditional esthetic role in food presentation.
	Making a better wound dressing—with fish skin With a low price tag and mild flavor, tilapia has become a staple dinnertime fish for many Americans. Now it could have another use: helping to heal our wounds. In the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, scientists have shown that a protein found in this fish can promote skin repair in rats without an immune reaction, suggesting possible future use for human patients.
	Team combats human parainfluenza virus Gold Coast research has made a giant leap forward in understanding one of the most common causes of respiratory infections worldwide.
	New insight into how rubber is made could improve tires, reduce air pollution People have been making rubber products from elastic bands to tires for centuries, but a key step in this process has remained a mystery. In a report in the ACS journal Macromolecules, scientists have described this elusive part of rubber production that could have major implications for improving the material and its uses. Their findings, if used to improve tire performance, for example, could mean higher gas mileage for consumers and less air pollution.
	Wanted: The faces of the chemical crowd Elements and their compounds will no longer be able to hide in mixtures, even if the latter are made up of many components. The end of chemical incognito is a result of the development at Warsaw's Polish Academy of Science's Institute of Physical Chemistry of a new, much more accurate method of identifying the "fingerprints" of chemical substances, imprinted in the light dispersed by the mixtures.
Turning plants into meat-like foods to save the planet Producing the savory, juicy steaks and pork chops that many people crave requires a lot of animals raised on huge, unsustainable amounts of plant protein. But what would happen if, instead of giving so much of it to animals as feed, we ate the plant protein ourselves? Food scientists are working to make this Earth-friendlier option a palatable reality, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.

Biology news

	Temperature dependence and the thermal limits of embryogenesis (Phys.org)—Raising the temperature is one easy way to get chemical reactions to speed up. This temperature dependence can be accurately described by a simple exponential relation known as the Arrhenius equation. A commonly accepted generalization of this equation is that the reaction rate tends to double for every 10 degree Celsius temperature increase. Many biological phenomena, like rates of firefly flashes or the speeds of working ants, have also been shown to follow similar kinetics. A recent paper in Cell Reports now shows that not only does the timing of cell division cycles in the early embryo follow the temperature prescription called for by Arrhenius, but that this developmental dependence is what ultimately constrains the thermal limits of the organism itself.
	Study shows example of a parasite using a bioweapon to control host (Phys.org)—Researchers affiliated with several institutions in France have found that a species of parasitic wasp uses a virus as a bioweapon to stun a host ladybug into serving as a guard for its offspring. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers describe several techniques they used to uncover the true nature of the relationship between the wasps and lady bugs.
	Weaker individuals in a population can strengthen its long-term stability, reduce likelihood of extinction Having weaker individuals in a population can strengthen its long-term stability and reduce likelihood of extinction, according to new research from Victoria University of Wellington.
	Study shows urban habitats provide haven for UK bees Urban environments might not seem the best habitat for pollinators at first glance but a new study, led by the University of Bristol, suggests that bees and other pollinating bugs actually thrive as well in towns and cities as they do in farms and nature reserves.
	What makes the feather soar Dinosaurs may have gone extinct some 66 million years ago, but that's hardly the end of their story. One group of their modern-day progeny, the class Avia—namely, birds—is a spectacular evolutionary success story. With more than 10,000 extant species, birds occupy every manner of ecological habitat worldwide.
Researchers find link in how cells start process necessary for life Researchers have found an RNA structure-based signal that spans billions of years of evolutionary divergence between different types of cells, according to a study led by researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine at the Anschutz Medical Campus and published in the journal Nature.
	A gene that shaped the evolution of Darwin's finches Researchers from Princeton University and Uppsala University in Sweden have identified a gene in the Galápagos finches studied by English naturalist Charles Darwin that influences beak shape and that played a role in the birds' evolution from a common ancestor more than 1 million years ago.
	Nearest primate relatives also susceptible to marketing spin Humans aren't the only species to be influenced by spin. Our closest primate relatives are susceptible, too.
	R2d2 beats Mendel: Scientists find selfish gene that breaks long-held law of inheritance The force is strong with this one. UNC School of Medicine researchers discovered a gene called R2d2 - Responder to meiotic drive 2 - that breaks Gregor Mendel's century-old "law of segregation," which states that you have an equal probability of inheriting each of two copies of every gene from both parents.
	Survival for some endangered species hinges on 'Frozen Zoo' Whenever an endangered animal dies at the San Diego Zoo, researchers race out, regardless of the hour, to remove its sperm or eggs, maybe a bit of ear or eyeball, and carefully freeze the cells in liquid nitrogen.
	Students assess commercial viability of larva meal With global meat consumption expected to climb 73 percent over current levels by 2050 and the appetite for seafood booming, Cornell graduate business students are looking further down the food chain to help meet the demand.
	The first kobuviruses described from Africa An international team of researchers led by scientists at the German Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) genetically describe the first kobuviruses to be reported from Africa. The results show that the viruses are less host-specific than previously assumed. The study has been published in the scientific journal Virology.
	Study finds lamprey decline continues with loss of habitat in Oregon A new study aimed at understanding habitat needs for Pacific lamprey in western Oregon found this once-abundant fish that is both ecologically and culturally significant prefers side channels and other lower water velocity habitats in streams.
	Bi-annual bat birthing helps Ebola persist A bat-filled tree has been touted as the source of the on-going Ebola epidemic in Western Africa – now research from Massey University suggests that the twice yearly birthing of bats may also be responsible for maintaining the disease.
	Stingrays found to reproduce differently depending on geographical location Researchers have found regional differences in the reproductive strategies of one of Australia's most abundant stingray species, the sparsely-spotted stingaree (Urolophus paucimaculatus), leading them to question whether they might in fact be separate species.
	Contaminant testing method considered via roo study A simple, cost-effective method of testing the activity of a certain enzyme in animals may help people working with limited resources in the third world or rural WA locations easily detect ecosystem contaminants which have affected certain animals.
	Feeling ducky: Extreme mechano-sensitive neurons of tactile-foraging ducks fit the bill for touch research When we reach out to touch something, our nervous system converts the mechanical input from our fingers contacting an object into an electrical signal in the brain. The process, known as mechanosensation, is one of our fundamental physiological processes, on par with sight and smell. But how it works on a cellular level remains poorly understood, holding back development of effective treatments for mechanosensory disorders like chronic pain.
	Research finds that malaria parasites are unlikely to jump to humans In recent years, public health experts have increasingly explored the idea of eliminating the most dangerous malaria-causing parasite. But they have questioned whether getting rid of this species, called Plasmodium falciparum, would allow other species of the parasite to simply jump into the gap and start infecting humans with malaria.
	Gator blood contains naturally strong germ fighters, new research finds Sophisticated germ fighters found in alligator blood may help future soldiers in the field fend off infection, according to new research by George Mason University.
	Elephant patrols seek to protect Indonesia's rainforests Elephants have joined the front line of the fight against poaching and illegal logging in the dense jungles of Sumatra.
	Turning tables, Chile zoo rescues animals, cages visitors As the enormous lion prowls atop the roof of the safari vehicle, his pale pink tongue licking out from his massive jaws, delighted passengers snap pictures and reach out to touch him.
	A new variant of the rabbit hemorrhagic disease endangers the Iberian lynx A study led by the Hunting Resources Research Institute demonstrates the effects that a new variant of the hemorrhagic disease virus RHDV has on wild rabbits on the Iberian Peninsula. The virus threatens the survival of its predator, the Iberian lynx.
Water limiting factor to corn silage quality Minimizing yield losses while reducing groundwater usage is a continual goal for Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists on the High Plains, where quantities of water from the Ogallala Aquifer are diminishing.
Wolf killed in Utah was animal from rare Arizona sighting A gray wolf that was shot by a hunter in Utah was the same one spotted in the Grand Canyon area last year, federal wildlife officials said Wednesday.
	Automatic Whale Detector, version 1.0 Every year, gray whales migrate from their summer feeding grounds in the Arctic to their wintering grounds off Baja California in Mexico. And roughly every other year, scientists with binoculars count them as they funnel past a point on the California coast a bit south of Monterey Bay. Scientists conduct this survey to keep track of how well the population is doing, and this year they have a new set of eyes to help with the job.

Medicine & Health news

	Largest ever genome-wide study strengthens genetic link to obesity There are many reasons why people gain different amounts of weight and why fat becomes stored in different parts of their bodies. Now researchers are homing in on genetic reasons. Their findings, part of the largest genome-wide study to date, were published in two companion papers today in the journal Nature.
	One-two punch catches cancer cells in vulnerable state Timing may be decisive when it comes to overcoming cancer's ability to evade treatment. By hitting breast cancer cells with a targeted therapeutic immediately after chemotherapy, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) were able to target cancer cells during a transitional stage when they were most vulnerable, killing cells and shrinking tumors in the lab and in pre-clinical models. The team reports its findings in Nature Communications on February 11.
	Researchers uncover signal that switches cells to cancerous metabolism Abnormal metabolism within the cells is a distinctive characteristic of cancer, but until now, the mechanism that causes cells to undergo this metabolic shift remained unknown.
	Real-time brain feedback reduces attention lapses Your attention, please. People make mistakes every day because they lose focus. Maybe your car drifts across the center line or an error slips into a report at work.
	Why the wheels come off in communication How can two people come up with two completely different Lego models while working from the same instructions?