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7,296 articles from APRIL 2012

• SUNDAY 1. APRIL, 2012
• 13:24 Australian WiFi inventors win US legal battle

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  Australian government science body CSIRO said Sunday it had won a multi-million-dollar legal settlement in the United States to license its patented technology that underpins the WiFi platform worldwide.  

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• 13:24 Britain planning new Internet snooping laws

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  The British government wants to expand its powers to monitor email exchanges and website visits, The Sunday Times newspaper reported.  

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• 13:24 Epson's 3-D glasses simulate 80-inch screen

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  (PhysOrg.com) -- Epson America is now shipping Android-powered projector glasses that place your favorite videos, or games, literally in your face, Epson’s Moverio BT-100 wearable display glasses can simulate an 80-inch screen and deliver 3-D viewing. The Moverio BT-100 wearable display launched in Japan last November and is now available in the U.S. The device is on sale through Epson, resellers, or via Amazon.  

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• 13:24 Interview: Budding Google social network sets itself apart

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  Like the strong-willed youth it is, Google's budding social network is confidently going its own way.  

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• 13:24 Japan experts warn of future risk of giant tsunami

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  (AP) -- Much of Japan's Pacific coast could be inundated by a tsunami more than 34 meters (112 feet) high if a powerful earthquake hits offshore, according to revised estimates by a government panel.  

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• 13:24 Lights go off around globe for Earth Hour

  Read the story at PhysOrg
  New York's Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and the Sydney Opera House were plunged into darkness for the annual Earth Hour campaign, leading a global effort to raise awareness about climate change.  

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• 13:00 Birdbooker Report 215 | @GrrlScientist

  Read the story at Guardian Unlimited Science
   

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• 10:00 Spring walk [video] | @GrrlScientist

  Read the story at Guardian Unlimited Science
   

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• 09:00 April Fools! 5 Hilarious Fake Scientific Breakthroughs

  Read the story at Discovery
  Scientists and science journals are at an advantage when it comes to fooling the rest of the world on April 1.  

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• 08:33 Japan experts warn of future risk of giant tsunami

  Read the story at Yahoo!
  Revised estimates of the potential impact from an earthquake off Japan's southern coast show much of the country's Pacific shore could be inundated by a tsunami more than 34 meters (112 feet) high.  

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• 08:00 First evidence for string theory at the Large Hadron Collider | Jon Butterworth | Life & Physics

  Read the story at Guardian Unlimited Science
  

  A bug in the software used to model the detectors at the Large Hadron Collider could have been covering up evidence for extra space time dimensions.

  Complex software models are used to understand the results from the Large Hadron Collider. These include simulations of the particle physics in the proton-proton collisions, as well as of the material and geometry of the detectors and the strength of the various magnetic fields. As more data are accumulated, the required precision of this software increases.

  A recent review recommended that the number of decimal places used to represent numbers in the software should be increased. This means all mathematical constants such as e and pi, as well as physical constants and the measured dimensions of the detectors. So far, so routine. But when adding more precision to pi, a strange effect was noticed. The alignment of charged particle tracks across detector boundaries actually got worse when a more precise value was used. In addition, the agreement between simulation and data also got slightly worse.

  This really should not happen - more precision should mean better alignment and better agreement.

  Boring scientists say this is probably evidence that some physicists don't know how to write proper code. However, string theorists have pointed out that a firm prediction of string theory is the existence of extra space-time dimensions. In a space which is curved into a higher dimension, the apparent value of pi can deviate from that seen in real life. And thus the LHC may have proved that they were right all along. More data are needed before we can be sure.

  Less welcome news for CERN is that since they have been near to the beams for two years, the values of pi used in those parts of the ATLAS which were built in the UK are now hot, and therefore as of today will attract VAT.

  Jon Butterworth

  
  

  guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

  
  

   

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• 06:00 Accentuating the positive memories for sleep

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  Sleep plays a powerful role in preserving our memories. But while recent research shows that wakefulness may cloud memories of negative or traumatic events, a new study has found that wakefulness also degrades positive memories. Sleep, it seems, protects positive memories just as it does negative ones, and that has important implications for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a study being presented this week at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting in Chicago.  

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• 06:00 Death anxiety increases atheists' unconscious belief in God

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  When non-religious people think about their own death they become more consciously skeptical about religion, but unconsciously grow more receptive to religious belief, new University of Otago research suggests.  

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• 06:00 DNA sequencing lays foundation for personalized cancer treatment

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are using powerful DNA sequencing technology not only to identify mutations at the root of a patient's tumor -- considered key to personalizing cancer treatment -- but to map the genetic evolution of disease and monitor response to treatment.  

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• 06:00 Epigenetic changes in twins of dieting mothers increases risk of obesity and diabetes

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  Expectant mothers might feel a little better about reaching for that pint of ice cream: New research in the FASEB Journal suggests that twins, and babies of mothers who diet around the time of conception and in early pregnancy, may have an increased risk of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. This study provides exciting insights into how behavior can lead to epigenetic changes in offspring related to obesity and disease.  

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• 06:00 Expert task force recommends halving global fishing for crucial prey species

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  Fishing for herring, anchovy, and other "forage fish" in general should be cut in half globally to account for their critical role as food for larger species, recommends an expert group of marine scientists in a report released today. The Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force conducted the most comprehensive worldwide analysis of the science and management of forage fish populations to date.  

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• 06:00 Fox Chase scientists identify key protein players in hard-to-treat breast cancers

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  At the time of diagnosis, the majority of breast cancers are categorized as estrogen-receptor positive, or hormone sensitive, which means their cancerous cells may need estrogen to grow. Patients with this type of cancer often respond favorably to treatments called aromatase inhibitors, like tamoxifen, which cause cell death by preventing estrogen from reaching the cancerous cells. Over time, however, the disease often becomes resistant to estrogen deprivation from the drugs -- making treatment options more limited.  

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• 06:00 Gene variations linked to intestinal blockage in newborns with cystic fibrosis

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  The discovery by an international team of researchers offers the possibility of developing therapies to intervene in utero. Some of these genes may influence disease in other cystic fibrosis-affected organs.  

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• 06:00 Heart failure's effects in cells can be reversed with a rest

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  Structural changes in heart muscle cells after heart failure can be reversed by allowing the heart to rest, according to a new study.  

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• 06:00 How black holes grow

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  A study led by a University of Utah astrophysicist found a new explanation for the growth of supermassive black holes in the center of most galaxies: They repeatedly capture and swallow single stars from pairs of stars that wander too close.  

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• 06:00 MDC-researchers elucidate molecular mechanism contributing to cardiomyopathy

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  Cardiomyopathy comprises a deterioration of the heart muscle that affects the organ's ability to efficiently pump blood through the body. Forms of the disease were tied to the alternative splicing of titin, a giant protein that determines the heart`s structure and biomechanical properties, but the molecular mechanism remained unknown. MDC-researchers have found that a gene tied to hereditary cardiomyopathy, regulates titin splicing. Their findings could lead to improve diagnosis and therapies.  

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• 06:00 Mechanism found connecting metastatic breast cancer and arthritis

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  Working with mouse models, researchers have found a strong connection between autoimmune arthritis and increased aggressiveness in metastatic breast cancer. The connection appears to involve the tendency of autoimmune arthritis to increase production of mast cells, an immune cell type that increases inflammation and that is prevalent in metastatic tumors. By blocking a key receptor, the researchers were able to affect the interaction between the cancer and mast cells and lessen metastasis.  

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• 06:00 New comparison of ocean temperatures reveals rise over the last century

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  A new study contrasting ocean temperature readings of the 1870s with temperatures of the modern seas reveals an upward trend of global ocean warming spanning at least 100 years. The research led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego physical oceanographer Dean Roemmich shows a .33-degree Celsius (.59-degree Fahrenheit) average increase in the upper portions of the ocean to 700 meters (2,300 feet) depth. Modern data is derived from the international Argo program.  

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• 06:00 New discovery may lead to effective prevention and treatment of graft-versus-host dsease

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  A new discovery in mice may lead to new treatments that could make bone marrow transplants more likely to succeed and to be significantly less dangerous. According to new research findings published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, Brazilian scientists may have found a way to prevent the immune system from attacking transplant grafts and damaging the host's own cells after a bone marrow transplant.  

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• 06:00 PI3K/mTOR pathway proteins tied to poor prognosis in breast cancer

  Read the story at EurekAlert
  Four proteins involved in translation, the final step of general protein production, are associated with poor prognosis in hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer when they are dysregulated, researchers reported at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012.  

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