July 31 2008 (Thursday)

• Phoenix
  Phoenix (spacecraft)
  Phoenix was a robotic spacecraft on a space exploration mission on Mars under the Mars Scout Program. The Phoenix lander descended on Mars on May 25, 2008...
  
   has confirmed water on Mars
  Mars
  Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
  
   when ice accidentally managed to get into an oven. At 32°C
  Celsius
  Celsius is a scale and unit of measurement for temperature. It is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius , who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death...
  
   water molecules were detected as the ice melted. Higher temperature tests can be done to look for carbon
  Carbon
  Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
  
   compounds and the signs of life. (AP)

July 29 2008 (Tuesday)

• A new way to create lithium iron phosphate
  Lithium iron phosphate
  Lithium iron phosphate , also known as LFP, is a compound used in lithium iron phosphate batteries . It is targeted for use in power tools and electric vehicles...
  
   may lead to lower cost and safer lithium-ion batteries which currently use more expensive lithium cobalt oxide
  Lithium cobalt oxide
  Lithium cobalt oxide is a chemical compound commonly used in the positive electrodes of lithium-ion batteries. The structure of LiCoO2 is known theoretically and has been confirmed with techniques like x-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, neutron powder diffraction, and EXAFS: it consists of...
  
  . Potential applications are laptops and hybrid vehicles. (TechReview)
• The first commercial tidal power
  Tidal power
  Tidal power, also called tidal energy, is a form of hydropower that converts the energy of tides into useful forms of power - mainly electricity....
  
   system was installed in Northern Ireland
  Northern Ireland
  Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
  
  , with two 16 meter turbines generating up to 1.2 megawatts. (TechReview)

July 28 2008 (Monday)

• Virgin Galactic
  Virgin Galactic
  Virgin Galactic is a company within Richard Branson's Virgin Group which plans to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public, along with suborbital space science missions and orbital launches of small satellites...
  
   unveils the first stage of its launch platform WhiteKnightTwo to take tourists to the edge of space
  Karman line
  The Kármán line lies at an altitude of above the Earth's sea level, and is commonly used to define the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space...
  
   for $200,000 a seat. (Wired)
• University of Sydney
  University of Sydney
  The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
  
   demonstrate a cheap optical chip that can route data 60 times faster than current electronic routers, with the promise of increasing it to 100 times faster soon, making it a possible solution to increasing internet
  Internet
  The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
  
   congestion. (POPSCI)

July 25 2008 (Friday)

• Code taking advantage of a weakness in the Domain Name System
  Domain name system
  The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
  
   is circulating online, permitting phishing
  Phishing
  Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT...
  
   gangs to redirect an infected computer to any website they wish without the users knowledge. (BBC)
• Microsoft
  Microsoft
  Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
  
   researchers have miniaturized telescopic optics for a new display that allows 36 percent of the backlight through liquid crystal display
  Liquid crystal display
  A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....
  
  s (LCD) are only 10 percent and is six times faster than LCD. (IEEE)
• China
  China
  Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
  
   surpasses the United States
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
   online citizens with 253 million by the end of June, an increase of 56 percent from last year. (AHN)
• Google
  Google
  Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
  
   has indexed over 1 trillion web pages on the internet
  Internet
  The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
  
   for the first time. (GoogleBlog)

July 24 2008 (Thursday)

• Google opens Knol
  Knol
  Knol is a Google project that aims to include user-written articles on a range of topics. The project was led by Udi Manber of Google, announced December 13, 2007, and was opened in beta to the public on July 23, 2008 with a few hundred articles mostly in the health and medical field.Knol has no...
  
   to the public after a 7-month trial. Articles are written by a known author and can earn money with more views. (ABC)
• Scientists reveal magnetic explosions approximately one-third of the way to the moon
  Moon
  The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
  
   are the likely cause of the northern lights
  Aurora (astronomy)
  An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere...
  
   movement. (AP)
• Advanced thermoelectrics may permit a 10 percent fuel savings for cars by removing the need for an alternator
  Alternator
  An alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current.Most alternators use a rotating magnetic field but linear alternators are occasionally used...
  
   and generating electricity from exhaust heat. (TechReview)

July 22 2008 (Tuesday)

• University of Michigan
  University of Michigan
  The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
  
   won the 3,862-kilometre solar car challenge from Texas
  Texas
  Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
  
   to Alberta
  Alberta
  Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
  
  . (CBC)

July 21 2008 (Monday)

• Scientists have created a way to make an antifreeze protein that Canadian snow flea
  Snow flea
  Snow fleas are a species of dark blue springtail, Hypogastrura nivicola. They are often seen jumping about on the surface of snow on a warm winter day....
  
  s use to survive winter temperatures. This could result in better organ
  Organ (anatomy)
  In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in structural unit to serve a common function. Usually there is a main tissue and sporadic tissues . The main tissue is the one that is unique for the specific organ. For example, main tissue in the heart is the myocardium, while sporadic are...
  
   preservation and smoother ice cream
  Ice cream
  Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
  
  . (Physorg)

July 17 2008 (Thursday)

• A study comparing a traditional low-fat diet
  Low-fat diet
  According to the USDA, a low-fat diet as the name implies is a diet that consists of little fat, especially saturated fat and cholesterol, which are thought to lead to increased blood cholesterol levels and heart attack...
  
  , Mediterranean diet
  Mediterranean diet
  The Mediterranean diet is a modern nutritional recommendation inspired by the traditional dietary patterns of southern Italy, Crete and much of the rest of Greece in the 1960s....
  
   and low-carb diets
  Low-carbohydrate diet
  Low-carbohydrate diets or low-carb diets are dietary programs that restrict carbohydrate consumption usually for weight control or for the treatment of obesity. Foods high in digestible carbohydrates are limited or replaced with foods containing a higher percentage of proteins and fats...
  
   found the low-carb was most effective for men and lowered cholesterol
  Cholesterol
  Cholesterol is a complex isoprenoid. Specifically, it is a waxy steroid of fat that is produced in the liver or intestines. It is used to produce hormones and cell membranes and is transported in the blood plasma of all mammals. It is an essential structural component of mammalian cell membranes...
  
   levels; contradicting conventional wisdom. (Physorg)
• Researchers control the position one electron in circuit and can make it be in two places at the same time. This could facilitate the creation of a practical quantum computer
  Quantum computer
  A quantum computer is a device for computation that makes direct use of quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. Quantum computers are different from traditional computers based on transistors...
  
  . (TechReview)
• Materials scientists have confirmed that graphene
  Graphene
  Graphene is an allotrope of carbon, whose structure is one-atom-thick planar sheets of sp2-bonded carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The term graphene was coined as a combination of graphite and the suffix -ene by Hanns-Peter Boehm, who described single-layer...
  
   is the strongest material ever tested and resistant to heat. Providing further evidence it is an ideal material for future computers. (TechReview)

July 16 2008 (Wednesday)

• New evidence from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a NASA multipurpose spacecraft designed to conduct reconnaissance and Exploration of Mars from orbit...
  
   indicate Mars
  Mars
  Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
  
   was awash in water. (Telegraph)

July 15 2008 (Tuesday)

• A HIV
  HIV
  Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
  
   vaccine
  Vaccine
  A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
  
   may be close with an abzyme
  Abzyme
  An abzyme , also called catmab , is a monoclonal antibody with catalytic activity. Molecules which are modified to gain new catalytic activity are called synzymes...
  
   that can destroy protein gp120
  Gp120
  Envelope glycoprotein GP120 is a glycoprotein exposed on the surface of the HIV envelope. The 120 in its name comes from its molecular weight of 120 kilodaltons...
  
  , which all HIV variants use to attach to host cells. The abzyme is derived from lupus
  Systemic lupus erythematosus
  Systemic lupus erythematosus , often abbreviated to SLE or lupus, is a systemic autoimmune disease that can affect any part of the body. As occurs in other autoimmune diseases, the immune system attacks the body's cells and tissue, resulting in inflammation and tissue damage...
  
   patients and people who naturally resist
  Long-term nonprogressors
  Long-term nonprogressors , less commonly called elite controllers, are rare individuals who are infected with HIV, but control the infection without antiretroviral therapy . Many of these patients have been HIV positive for 30 years without progressing to AIDS...
  
   HIV infection. (Physorg)
• HP and Sony
  Sony
  , commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
  
   develop the DAT 320 tape storage
  Magnetic tape data storage
  Magnetic tape data storage uses digital recording on to magnetic tape to store digital information. Modern magnetic tape is most commonly packaged in cartridges and cassettes. The device that performs actual writing or reading of data is a tape drive...
  
   format. Promising double the storage on cartridges and lower energy requirements. (TechNewsWorld)

July 14 2008 (Monday)

• Scientist
  Scientist
  A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
  
  s at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
  Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
  The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research is Australia's oldest medical research institute.In 2011, the institute is home to more than 650 researchers who are working to understand, prevent and treat diseases including blood, breast and ovarian cancers; inflammatory diseases such as...
  
  , Melbourne
  Melbourne
  Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
  
   make a potential breakthrough in curing Malaria
  Malaria
  Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
  
  . (BBC)
• The International Development Design Summit, a collaboration to find cost effective technology solutions for the third world, begins at MIT. (IDDS)

July 11 2008 (Friday)

• The iPhone 3G
  IPhone 3G
  The iPhone 3G is the second generation of iPhone designed and marketed by Apple Inc.. It was the successor to the original iPhone, and is succeeded by the iPhone 3GS. Introduced on June 9, 2008 at the WWDC 2008 at the Moscone Center, San Francisco...
  
   launches internationally, but many users become frustrated as full activation is not possible because of an iTunes
  ITunes
  iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
  
   server glitch. (AP)
• Cosmonauts successfully extract an explosive bolt
  Pyrotechnic fastener
  A pyrotechnic fastener is a fastener, usually a nut or bolt, that incorporates a pyrotechnic charge that can be initiated remotely. One or more explosive charges embedded within the bolt are typically activated by an electric current, and the charge breaks the bolt into two or more pieces...
  
   from the Soyuz capsule on the ISS
  International Space Station
  The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
  
   during a six hour spacewalk. This was done as part of the ballistic reentry investigation. (BBC)
• MIT researchers make colored glass efficiently redirect light to the edges of the pane where it can be converted into electricity. This reduces the cost of the solar panel and permits standard windows to be converted into solar arrays. (CNet)

July 10 2008 (Thursday)

• Wikipedia
  Wikipedia
  Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
  
   will host the Gene Wiki
  Gene Wiki
  The Gene Wiki is a project that facilitates transferring information on human genes to Wikipedia article stubs with the goal of promoting collaboration and expansion of the articles.-Number of gene articles:...
  
   which will create stubs of all human gene
  Gene
  A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
  
  s for future collaboration between scientists and online community. (ITNews)
• Evidence from volcanic glass
  Volcanic glass
  Volcanic glass is the amorphous product of rapidly cooling magma. Like all types of glass, it is a state of matter intermediate between the close-packed, highly ordered array of a crystal and the highly disordered array of gas...
  
   recovered from the moon
  Moon
  The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
  
   decades ago has revealed elements of water
  Water
  Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
  
  , challenging the dominant notion the moon is perfectly dry. (Reuters)

July 9 2008 (Wednesday)

• Fossil
  Fossil
  Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
  
  s found in several museums have filled the evolutionary gap on how flatfish
  Flatfish
  The flatfish are an order of ray-finned fish, also called the Heterosomata, sometimes classified as a suborder of Perciformes. In many species, both eyes lie on one side of the head, one or the other migrating through and around the head during development...
  
   developed to have both eyes on one side of its face in adulthood. (Reuters)

July 8 2008 (Tuesday)

• Researchers at University of California have developed a nanoparticles/anti-cancer-drug "smart bomb" to specifically target metastasis
  Metastasis
  Metastasis, or metastatic disease , is the spread of a disease from one organ or part to another non-adjacent organ or part. It was previously thought that only malignant tumor cells and infections have the capacity to metastasize; however, this is being reconsidered due to new research...
  
   in mouse pancreatic and kidney cancer. It permits using 15 times less chemotherapy drugs during treatment. (EurekAlert)

July 7 2008 (Monday)

• Pioneer
  Pioneer Corporation
  is a multinational corporation that specializes in digital entertainment products, based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. The company was founded in 1938 in Tokyo as a radio and speaker repair shop...
  
   creates a 16-Layer optical disc
  Optical disc
  In computing and optical disc recording technologies, an optical disc is a flat, usually circular disc which encodes binary data in the form of pits and lands on a special material on one of its flat surfaces...
  
   with a 400 GB capacity. (Physorg)

July 4 2008 (Friday)

• Stanford electrical engineers unveil techniques on how to manufacture computer chips using carbon nanotube
  Carbon nanotube
  Carbon nanotubes are allotropes of carbon with a cylindrical nanostructure. Nanotubes have been constructed with length-to-diameter ratio of up to 132,000,000:1, significantly larger than for any other material...
  
  s on a mass scale. (Nanowerk)

July 3 2008 (Thursday)

• NASA
  NASA
  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
  
  's MESSENGER
  MESSENGER
  The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging space probe is a robotic NASA spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mercury. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004 to study the chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field of Mercury...
  
   spacecraft has resolved some mysteries of Mercury
  Mercury (planet)
  Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
  
  , such as the existence of active volcano
  Volcano
  2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...
  
  s. (MSNBC)
• Sony
  Sony
  , commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
  
   removes firmware update 2.40 for the PlayStation 3
  PlayStation 3
  The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
  
   as it causes crashing and freezing for some systems. (BetaNews)
• Volkswagen
  Volkswagen
  Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
  
   has moved up limited production of its One-Litre
  Litre
  pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...
  
   Car concept vehicle (1 litre per 100 kilometers or 235 mpg) from 2012 to 2010. As it uses expensive advanced lightweight materials, such as carbon monocoque
  Monocoque
  Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...
  
  , Volkswagen has been waiting for prices to come down. (Wired)
• Nitrogen trifluoride
  Nitrogen trifluoride
  Nitrogen trifluoride is the inorganic compound with the formula NF3. This nitrogen-fluorine compound is a colorless, toxic, odourless, nonflammable gas. It finds increasing use as an etchant in microelectronics.-Applications:...
  
   a gas used in making flat screen TV's is 17,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide
  Carbon dioxide
  Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
  
   for global warming
  Global warming
  Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
  
   with a half life of 550 years. (NewScientist) (ABC)