Science & Technology News Digest

Why do fundamental particles have flavors? … [more]


Shipwreck hunters stumble across 60 meter diameter object that resembles the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars … [more]


Was there a Stonehenge before Stonehenge? … [more]


Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Paypal and others created DMARC to make email more secure and curtail phishing … [more]


NEOShield to investigate gravity tractors, kinetic impactors, and the explosive blast-deflection methods for reducing the threats of asteroids to Earth … [more]


More northern lights sky shows expected once-a-month for the next year or two … [more]


Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) scientists collect hundreds of meteorites in Antarctica … [more]


Flu researchers agree to pause studies on H5N1 avian flu for 60 days and evaluate public safety concerns … [more]


Researchers baffled by huge number of dolphins stranded in Cape Cod the past two weeks … [more]


Stranded whales off of New Zealand finally refloated and headed for deeper water … [more]


Mitt Romney’s and Newt Gingrich’s views on space exploration … [more]


Just lens caps? Russian scientist’s claim of life on Venus debunked … [more]


Russian scientist claims to have discovered life on Venus in pictures taken by the Venus-13 probe in 1982 … [more]


99 long-finned pilot whales stranded on at Golden Bay in New Zealand. 22 have died already, but efforts to refloat the remaining 77 are ongoing … [more]


Growing bulge of freshwater in the Arctic Ocean (Beaufort Gyre) could cool Europe if it reaches North Atlantic … [more]


Moon Colony being planned by NASA, European Space Agency, and Russian Space Agency … [more]


Highest resolution 3D map of the fruitfly genome developed with data from sequencing of 360 million DNA pairs … [more]


When it comes to climate change is natural gas from shale better or worse than coal? Two studies from Cornell University have opposing conclusions. … [more]


Debate on possible elimination of leap seconds is postponed for at least three years … [more]


University of Queensland’s Pitch Drop – The world’s longest running lab experiment … [more]


NASA breaks ground on Space Shuttle Atlantis’ permanent home, a $100 million exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex due to be completed in summer 2013 … [more]


What was life like for a Neanderthal? How did they think, live, and interact? … [more]


Can you see the “forbidden colors” of reddish green and yellowish blue? … [more]


Boa constrictors conserve energy by adjusting their squeezing according to their prey’s heartbeat, or lack thereof … [more]


Rocks collected in Morocco in December have been chemically confirmed by experts to be Martian Meteorites … [more]


Scores of long “lost” Charles Darwin fossils found in an old cabinet in the British Geological Survey … [more]


Multicellular life evolved quickly from single yeast cells in simple laboratory experiment, putting theories on the evolutions of complex life to the test … [more]


U.S. joins international efforts to develop a code of conduct for outer space … [more]


Russian paper Kommersant Daily claims that electromagnetic emissions from a powerful U.S. radar in the Marshall Islands may have accidentally disabled Phobos-Grunt … [more]


At least 20 dolphins have died after being stranded close to shore in Cape Cod, but 19 saved so far … [more]


SpaceX delays the planned rocket launch of the unmanned Dragon space capsule to the International Space Station … [more]


Scientists hope to find new life forms when they drill through 2 miles of ice to a buried Antarctic lake thought to be segregated from outside influence for the last several hundred thousand years … [more]


192 scholars answer the question “What is your favorite beautiful or elegant explanation?” … [more]


Russian Phobos-Grunt Mars probe fragments in atmosphere and crashes to Earth, most likely in the Pacific Ocean … [more]


Is carbon dioxide that important in global warming, or can reducing methane and soot make a big impact with cost and effort … [more]


Dipak Das, a University of Connecticut researcher who studied the cardiovascular health benefits of red wine and resveratrol, faked or manipulated data 145 times … [more]


Maryland man has cancerous windpipe replaced by one grown in a lab using plastic fibers and stem cells from the man’s bone marrow in operation performed by surgeons in Sweden … [more]


Rare White Chinstrap Penguin spotted in Antarctica … [more]


1,300-year-old Mayan flask contains traces of nicotine, providing the oldest chemical evidence that Maya used tobacco … [more]


IBM magnetic data storage breakthrough: Reliable storage of 1 bit of data in just 12 atoms … [more]


Intel Science Competition semifinalist is homeless teenager from Long Island … [more]


India and China join as partners in $1 Billion Hawaii Thirty Meter Telescope project … [more]


Second annual Google Science Fair will accept submissions in 13 languages with prizes including a scientific trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Explorer … [more]


Paedophryne amauensis, a tiny species of frog, is named world’s smallest vertebrate … [more]


Colorful new species of bush viper snake found in Tanzania – called Matilda’s Horned Viper … [more]


Stephen Hawking’s custom-built PC hand delivered by Intel engineer Travis Bonifield … [more]


Russian Phobos-Grunt satellite expected to fall into the Indian Ocean this weekend … [more]


Discovered by NASA last fall, Kepler-16b, a planet that may be orbiting two stars, could in theory host an Earthlike moon according to new computer simulations … [more]


Twin studies using gene analysis and brain scans reveal the importance of iron in white matter/myelin integrity … [more]


Data storage device created using Salmon DNA … [more]


New printer sized machine can sequence an entire genome in a single day, opening the door to inexpensive genetics at medical clinics … [more]


Middle aged surgeons are safest according to study at England’s Royal College of Surgeons … [more]


Vast one billion light-year cosmic map created by astronomers reveals intricate web of dark matter and galaxies … [more]


Carnivorous plants discovered that use adhesive leaves to trap and digest worms underground … [more]


Can global warming save us from the next Ice Age? … [more]


Traditional lectures are very poor at advancing students fundamental understanding of physics concepts … [more]


In Depth: Manufacturing complex parts using 3D printing technology … [more]


I once was blind, but now I can see — Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System to help bring eyesight to those that have retina photoreceptor cell degenera­tion … [more]


Stephen Hawking too ill to attend 70th birthday celebration at University of Cambridge, but recorded speech pushed interplanetary travel … [more]


Ancestral supersoldier ants produced in lab by applying hormones to larvae … [more]


First chimera monkeys produced by merging cells from up to six different rhesus monkey embryos … [more]


Tranquillityite, a mineral thought to only exist in meteorites and lunar rocks, discovered in Western Australia … [more]


NASA’s Intelligent Robotics Group (IRG) at Ames creates 3D Lunar Maps using images from Apollo missions … [more]


DARPA researchers successfully treat previously lethal doses of radiation using bactericidal/permeability-increasing protein (BPI) and antibiotics … [more]


The Russian Phobos-Grunt spacecraft expected to fall to Earth on January 15, 2012 … [more]


Cornell scientists work on invisibility cloak using a “hole in time” instead of bending light around an object … [more]


The Unconscious Mind helps us identify our genuinely creative ideas … [more]


Political Science: How to be a dictator … [more]


4.5 billion year old meteorite the source for the only known natural quasicrystal specimen … [more]


Avoidable errors in Freakonomics, the wildly popular statistics book series … [more]


Unipolar and Bipolar Depression treated effectively and safely using deep brain stimulation (DBS) … [more]


World’s first hybrid shark found in Australian waters … [more]


Scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center developing comet harpoon to quickly collect samples from comets it space … [more]


Winning the Brazilian war on deforestation of the Amazon rainforest … [more]


Silkworms genetically engineered to make artificial spider silk, a breakthrough that could lead to incredibly strong fabric … [more]


Researchers grow sperm in laboratory by using germ cells in breakthrough that could revolutionize fertility treatment for men … [more]


Top 10 Weird Doomsday Predictions … [more]


NASA debunks 2012 doomsday predictions … [more]


Slower response times in the elderly due to conscious focus on accuracy, not slowing of brain processing speed … [more]


Recycling old Christmas lights into slippers in China … [more]


Theories on the evolution of complex life upended by discovery of 600 million year old microscopic fossils of amoeba-like micro-organisms … [more]


Researchers explain how shearing causes granular materials to transform from a loose state to a solid state … [more]


Killer Whales Vs. Sharks on New Zealand Beach … [more]


Using DNA analysis, Scientists at New Mexico State University make progress on drought-tolerant alfalfa … [more]


More than ever, organic produce doesn’t mean small farms, sustainability, or environmentally friendly … [more]


Chimpanzees communications influenced by what their audience knows … [more]


According to new study, moss spreading throughout the Hawaiian Islands has cloned itself for 50,000 years … [more]


First computer model created that incorporates the influence of glia, brain cells that regulate synapses and control learning, memory, and adaptation … [more] [related]


Must-see science videos of 2011 … [more]


China’s National Space Administration plans to put a man on the moon … [more]


Farmers failure to rotate crops may have caused rootworms to develop resistance to genetically modified Bt corn … [more]


According to new skeletal evidence, Columbus’s crew brought back Syphilis from New World … [more]


VeriChip, an implantable computer chip, has been approved for humans by the FDA … [more]


Two charred planets recently found by NASA’s Kepler space telescope likely sped the transformation of the star they orbit from red giant to subdwarf … [more]


Mystery behind avian suicides of 1961, the inspiration for Hitchcock’s The Birds, solved at last … [more]


Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2011 according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science … [more]


U.S. based security think tank Stratfor hacked by “Anonymous” … [more]


Forgetting is key to sharp intellect and a sound state of mind … [more]


Little exciting new technology expected in 2012. Is American innovation dying? … [more]


Weirdest Stories of 2011 on Discovery News … [more]


Capture of Borneo Sumatran rhino in Malaysia raises hope that this highly endangered species can be saved from extinction … [more]


Prosopagnosia, aka Face Blindness, and the inability to recognize voices … [more]


Concerns that giant Asian tiger prawn may dominate Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystem … [more]


Understanding consciousness by studying the brain during general anesthesia and mapping how neural circuits change … [more]


Twin Grail probes to enter orbit around the moon over New Year’s weekend and begin study of the lunar gravity field … [more]


Observing RNA editing in real time by tracking a green glow … [more]


New technology, called the RootChip, could revolutionize root research with ability to monitor roots in real time with high precision … [more]


Best Science Pictures of 2011 … [more]


MIT neuroscientists found Npas4 gene to be master controller of new memories in the human brain … [more]


Chi_b (3P): The first new particle discovered at the Large Hadron Collider … [more]


Hollow metallic ball with a circumference of 1.1m fell out of the sky and landed in Namibia … [more]


Extremely powerful quantum computers and new states of matter may be possible by supercooling objects at the atomic level … [more]


“Sun-Believeable” – Inexpensive paint that can generate electricity from sunlight … [more]


First complex cell may have been an accidental byproduct of an attempted parasitic invasion of an archaeon by a bacterium … [more]


Evidence of complex hydrocarbon molecules spotted on the surface of Pluto by the Hubble Space Telescope … [more]


Ingredient pairing is what makes Asian food taste so different from Western food … [more]


Intense heat and pressure deep in the Earth causes iron oxide to transition into a highly conducting metal without a change to its structure … [more]


Mean Drunks: People that don’t consider future consequences when sober get very aggressive after consuming alcohol … [more]


Mean Drunks: People that don’t consider future consequences when sober get very aggressive after consuming alcohol … [more]


FDA approval granted for human trials of HIV vaccine developed by researchers at the University of Western Ontario … [more]


IBM predicts 5 innovations that will change our lives in the next 5 years … [more]


In southwest Wales, researchers have located the exact source of the rocks used to build part of the 5,000 year old Stonehenge monument … [more]


Quantum Entanglement of macroscopic diamonds at room temperature … [more]


According to a study using fish, Uninformed Voters may provide value in producing democratic outcomes … [more]


U.S. DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory creates solar cell with 114% external quantum efficiency (more electrons in photocurrent than photons entering cell) … [more]


Fermilab breaks ground on Illinois Accelerator Research Center … [more]


Soldierdroids, Robot Chefs, Dragons, and other Robots of the Week … [more]


Rebel Angel, Sloshed Galaxies, Red Dragonfish, Survival Story, and other Space Pictures of the Week … [more]


British study shows that loud music and noise make Alcoholic drinks taste sweeter (and I thought it was nightclubs watering down the drinks) … [more]


Astronomers may have found the smallest known black hole using NASA’s Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer … [more]


Fluorescent molecules with a metal-organic framework developed at MIT could provide easy visual identification of pathogens, explosives, or toxins … [more]


Comet Lovejoy survives fiery plunge through sun’s corona to the surprise and delight of NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory scientists … [more]


New MRI study comparing activation of various brain regions finds roots to dehumanization that may facilitate atrocities, torture, and genocide … [more]


Russian icebreaker on mission to save more than 100 Beluga whales trapped off the Bering Sea before they die from suffocation or starvation … [more]


New suite of statistical tools called MINE provides new way to mine vast data sets and analyze a broad spectrum of patterns … [more]


Four Eras of Astrobiology from the Big Bang to intelligent life: Physical, Chemical, Biological, Cognitive … [more]


Google is working around the clock to release its Apple Siri competitor, codenamed Majel—a Star Trek reference, for the Android platform … [more]


NASA considers using 3D printing on the International Space Station to build spare parts and tools on demand … [more]


High-energy physicists from Caltech set record with sustained network data transfer rate of 186 gigabits per second … [more]


New chemical process developed that can create a range of complex metallic nanoparticles with potential uses in the medical industry … [more]


MIT researchers create extremely high speed camera: One Trillion Frames Per Second … [more]


Paul Allen’s new company, Stratolaunch Systems, plans to build giant airplane with a 385 foot wingspan to launch rockets into space … [more]


Longevity researchers believe that the secret to immortality, or at least extending human life spans to thousands of years, may be just around the corner … [more]


NASA’s Mars-Bound Curiosity Rover begins research in space with its Radiation Assessment Detector … [more]


CERN Scientists close in on “God Particle,” but cannot make any conclusive statement on the existence of Higgs boson … [more]


400 billion particles modeled in largest-ever simulation of the universe … [more]


Study of African lungfish offers clues on the evolution of walking … [more]


15 Comments on "Science & Technology News Digest"

  1. This looks awfully like paid-for product placement. Not quite the science news I’m accustomed to on this site.

    • There is no paid product placement on the site. At this time the only advertising is the ad box on the left side below the “Subscribe” box.

  2. Hey, I like it! I gives you a quick overview of what there is to read, just like on the former layout. Keep it up.

  3. Jimmy The Exploder | November 28, 2011 at 6:53 pm | Reply

    I like the digest area, which is similar to the old site and allows me to quickly scan a large number of stories and focus on the ones that most interest me. Thanks for keeping this feature!

  4. Thanks for this digest! It has the feel for the old summary style of layout. Nice.

  5. Annette Nielsen | November 29, 2011 at 9:59 am | Reply

    Getting better and better 🙂 I like the digest.

  6. This site was much better when it had three columns of articles instead of two columns of articles and one column of ads.

    • There is no column of ads. There is only one ad per page, and it appears on the upper part of the left column. The rest of the left column is mainly links to the newest and most popular SciTechDaily articles.

  7. Can you explain the layout? What’s special about the items in the left hand column?

    • While the News Digest contains headlines that link to articles on other sites, the left hand column has links to articles published on SciTechDaily. You can browse the latest or most popular articles, check out recent comments, or browse by keyword/tag.

  8. Edwin Strickland | December 10, 2011 at 11:55 pm | Reply

    SciTechDaily used to be a web aite that provided a “stack” (newest on top) of links (newest at the top) to articles on the web about science, technology, nature and related topics. In that regard, it was very like the Arts & Letters Daily site. I browsed both sites approximately once a week to see what had appeared at the top of the stack and regularly found items I would not have found on other sites.

    Following it’s reorganization, SciTechDaily has almost entirely become a stack of links to press releases and mass-media science/technology news. Browsing the site tonight, I saw essentially zero links to articles that I had not already seen on the PhysOrg.com news and press release aggregator
    site.

    The essential distinction and value of SciTechDaily has been lost and with it, any real reason to visit a site that is now largely redundant.

    • Although we still work to include coverage of unique stories, our main goal is to cover the most important and interesting science and technology news each day. Naturally these big stories tend to get covered at other places. However, we would rather become the site people check each day to find the biggest stories in science and technology, rather than the site that is only checked on occasion to see what else is out there.

      It would be great if we could please everyone, but we realize some of our changes to appeal to a broader audience won’t be favored by everybody.

    • I should also point out that when a topic is being covered by many sources, we compare multiple sources and only link to the one providing the best coverage. This can save you time and connect you with either the source publication or the most in-depth article.

  9. Call Center Software | January 1, 2020 at 9:02 pm | Reply

    Enjoyed reading the article above , really explains everything in detail,the article is very interesting and effective.Thank you and good luck for the upcoming articles Thanks & Regards,
    From Call Center Software.

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