NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has photographed several dust devils dancing across the arctic plain this week and sensed a dip in air pressure as one passed near the lander. These dust-lofting whirlwinds had been expected in the area, but none had been detected in earlier Phoenix images.
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Scientists have shown for the first time that our brains automatically consider many possible words and their meanings before we’ve even heard the final sound of the word.
Continue reading about Scientists Watch As Listener’s Brain Predicts Speaker’s Words
Some 7.5 billion years ago, a supernova heralding the birth of a black hole went off halfway across the universe, sending a pencil-beam flash of light toward Earth that was briefly visible to the naked eye on March 19. UC Berkeley’s Joshua Bloom and colleagues, who analyzed data from PAIRITEL and Gemini South to characterize [...]
Continue reading about Brightest Stellar Explosion Heralds New Type Of Long-distance Astronomy
Australian researchers and a pathology company have joined forces to develop a world-first computerized system which may reveal a way to predict premature birth with greater accuracy.
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Combining ordinary electronics with light has been a potential way to create minimal computer circuits with super fast information transfer. Researchers are now showing that there is a limit. When the size of the components approaches the nanometer level, all information will disappear before it has time to be transferred.
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Our brains contain their own navigation system much like satellite navigation, with in-built maps, grids and compasses, according to new research by neuroscientists.
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When an electrical current passes through a wire it emanates heat — a principle that’s found in toasters and incandescent light bulbs. Some materials, at low temperatures, violate this law and carry current without any heat loss. But this seemingly trivial property, superconductivity, is now at the forefront of our understanding of physics. Scientists now [...]
Continue reading about Superconductivity Can Induce Magnetism
Demonstrating that despite the large number of cancer-causing genes already identified, many more remain to be found, scientists have linked a previously unsuspected gene, CDK8, to colon cancer. CDK8 influences transcription factors, making it an attractive target for drug therapies, as affecting the gene may potentially disrupt the cancer process and disable tumor cells.
Continue reading about New Cancer-causing Gene In Many Colon Cancers Identified
The thought of a bus moving along city streets while its driver has both hands off the wheel is alarming. But a special bus steers not by a driver, but by a magnetic guidance system developed by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, with remarkable precision.
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Rheumatoid arthritis is often a more painful experience for women than it is for men, even though the visible symptoms are the same. Scientists are now saying that doctors should take more account of these subjective differences when assessing the need for medication.
Continue reading about Rheumatoid Arthritis: Women Experience More Pain Than Men Do, Study Suggests