SciTech Daily

March 9, 2012

Amino Acids Found in Meteorites that Experienced High Temperatures

meteorite analyzed in the study at its collection site in Antarctica

While analyzing samples from carbon-rich meteorites with minerals that indicated they had experienced high temperatures, scientists found amino acids, which gives support to the theory that meteorites and comets assisted the origin of life. Creating some of life’s building blocks in space may be a bit like making a sandwich – you can make them [...]

March 9, 2012

0 Comments

DnaK Identified as Key Player of Protein Folding

A new published report from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry shows how different chaperones cooperate during the folding process. The scientists found that the Hsp70 protein DnaK binds to about 700 different protein chains as they are synthesized and mediates the folding of most of these protein chains. Proteins are the molecular building blocks [...]

March 9, 2012

0 Comments

New Metamaterial Design Extremely Efficient at Capturing Light

metamaterial that is tuned to a range of specific frequencies of light

Based on computer simulations, new research shows that a new metamaterial design is able to absorb a wide range of light with extremely high efficiency. The scientists involved in this project believe this material would be both a very efficient emitter and absorber of photons and could be used in new kinds of solar cells, [...]

March 9, 2012

0 Comments

Carbon Nanotubes Increase the Speed of Biological Sensors

By using the power of carbon nanotubes, scientists have almost tripled the speed of prototype nano-biosensors. The researchers believe that this nanotechnology will make it possible to do many medical lab tests in minutes and will drastically reduce the cost of those tests. CORVALLIS, Oregon – Researchers at Oregon State University have tapped into the [...]

March 9, 2012

1 Comment

NASA Continues to Monitor Solar Flares

events on the sun changing the conditions in Near-Earth space

As NASA continues to give updates on the solar flares this week, they also put together a nice summary of space weather and the effects of those eruptions on Earth. UPDATE: On March 8, 2012 at 10:53 PM EST the sun erupted with an M6.3 class flare and released a CME about an hour later. [...]

March 9, 2012

0 Comments

Microraptor Feathers Were Black with Iridescent Sheen

Microraptor, a pigeon-sized, four-winged dinosaur that lived about 130 million years ago had plumage that had hues of black and blue like a crow and is the earliest record of iridescent feather color. Although Microraptor anatomy is very similar to birds, it is considered a non-avian dinosaur and is placed in the group of dinosaurs [...]

March 9, 2012

0 Comments

Brightest Gravitationally Magnified Galaxy Discovered

zoom lens in space gives close-up look at the brightest distant magnified galaxy

Using computational tools that reversed the effect of gravitational lensing, scientists were able see what a galaxy looked like 10 billion years ago. Gravity from the galaxy cluster RCS2 032727-132623 bent and amplified the light coming from this distant galaxy and the team of scientists used the images from this “gravitational telescope” to reconstruct what [...]

March 9, 2012

0 Comments

Software Simulator can Provide “Cycle-Accurate” Simulation of a Chip with 1,000 Cores

software simulator, dubbed Hornet, that models the performance of multicore chips

As manufacturers continue to increase their chip performance by increasing the number of cores they contain, the risk of failure and faulty design issues also increases. A group of researchers that specialize in computer architecture at MIT believe they have a helpful solution. They developed a software simulator, dubbed Hornet, which models the performance of [...]

March 8, 2012

0 Comments

Transplants Without the Need for Lifelong Immunosupression

As a result of organ transplantation, patients need to take a lifelong regimen of immunosuppressors to fight off graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), which is common and often deadly. Now, researchers have been able to completely replace people’s bone-marrow-derived stem cells with those from unrelated donors without causing GvHD. This means that the recipients could also accept [...]

March 8, 2012

0 Comments

Image of Twister in Action on the Surface of Mars

towering dust devil casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface

A recent image captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a twisting column of dust more than half a mile high on the surface of Mars. An afternoon whirlwind on Mars lofts a twisting column of dust more than half a mile (800 meters) high in an [...]

March 8, 2012

1 Comment

Floods in Wagga Wagga Australia Provoke Extremely Wide Spiderwebs

Escaping spiders are fleeing the floods in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia, by moving to higher ground and building massive networks of interconnected spiderwebs, raised over sticks and bushes. The spiders have covered entire fields with their webs and the floodwaters show no signs of subsiding. The town has been declared a disaster area. [...]

March 8, 2012

0 Comments

New Shark Species Bythaelurus Giddingsi Discovered in Galapagos Islands

Deep-sea dives around the Galapagos Islands have uncovered a new species of catshark, about 1.3 feet long. Bythaelurus giddingsi was discovered by scientists and specimens were taken back to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco for comparison purposes. Seven catsharks were found, and the comparison showed that the chocolate-brown skinned, with leopard-like spots randomly [...]