http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Current methods of detecting microRNA (miRNA)—gene-regulating molecules implicated in the onset of various diseases—can be time-consuming and costly: The custom equipment used in such tests costs more than $100,000, and the limited throughput of these systems further hinders progress. http://phys.org/news283758342.html Chemistry Fri, 29 Mar 2013 06:45:51 EST news283758342 Want to know what you are eating? DNA barcodes can be used to identify even very closely related species, finds an article published in BioMed Central's open access journal Investigative Genetics. Results from the study show that the labelling of game meat in South Africa is very poor with different species being substituted almost 80% of the time. http://phys.org/news281289985.html Other Sciences Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:00:08 EST news281289985 The North American Oak Skeletonizer, a very small moth, has invaded North West Europe since 1989, and feeds commonly on planted Northern Red Oaks in the Netherlands, Belgium and adjacent Germany. This is only the second North American insect ever found in Europe on the American Red Oaks. http://phys.org/news272540793.html Biology Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:46:49 EST news272540793 (Phys.org)—Boarding passes for travel on airlines in the US (and many other countries) now include barcodes, but an aviation security researcher has now learned that these barcodes can be read by readily available tools and are unencrypted. The barcodes include information on the level of security check the passenger will be required to satisfy when they pass through pre-boarding checks. http://phys.org/news270440765.html Technology Fri, 26 Oct 2012 05:00:01 EST news270440765 Much like the checkout clerk uses a machine that scans the barcodes on packages to identify what customers bought at the store, scientists use powerful microscopes and their own kinds of barcodes to help them identify various parts of a cell, or types of molecules at a disease site. But their barcodes only come in a handful of "styles," limiting the number of objects scientists can study in a cell sample at any one time. http://phys.org/news267698578.html Chemistry Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:43:09 EST news267698578 An invisible quick response (QR) code has been created by researchers in an attempt to increase security on printed documents and reduce the possibility of counterfeiting, a problem which costs governments and private industries billions of pounds each year. http://phys.org/news266598622.html Nanotechnology Tue, 11 Sep 2012 19:00:07 EST news266598622 The storage of light-encoded messages on film and compact disks and as holograms is ubiquitous---grocery scanners, Netflix disks, credit-card images are just a few examples. And now light signals can be stored as patterns in a room-temperature vapor of atoms. Scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute have stored not one but two letters of the alphabet in a tiny cell filled with rubidium (Rb) atoms which are tailored to absorb and later re-emit messages on demand. This is the first time two images have simultaneously been reliably stored in a non-solid medium and then played back. http://phys.org/news257521254.html Physics Tue, 29 May 2012 14:42:03 EST news257521254 Researchers at the University of Leeds are developing a way to 'barcode' viral diseases to rapidly test new outbreaks for potentially lethal mutations. http://phys.org/news256045636.html Biology Sun, 13 May 2012 19:00:01 EST news256045636 Since it first appeared in Texas in 1986, the Russian wheat aphid has cost U.S. wheat growers an estimated $200 million each year. But U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have developed a new tool to keep track of this nasty worldwide threat to wheat and barley and to provide guidance to researchers and plant breeders on control strategies. http://phys.org/news255771775.html Biology Wed, 09 May 2012 08:43:12 EST news255771775 At the supermarket checkout, hardly anybody enters prices manually anymore. Using scanners that can read the barcodes is much faster. Biologists now want to use a similar procedure for identifying domestic animal and plant species more efficiently. German Barcode of Life is the name of an initiative on which zoologists and botanists are collaborating in Germany. Botanists from the University of Bonn have taken the lead for the flora. http://phys.org/news254568904.html Biology Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:35:31 EST news254568904 Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are an essential component of modern shopping, logistics, warehouse, and stock control for toll roads, casino chips and much more. They provide a simple way to track the item to which the tag is attached. Now, researchers in France have developed a way to deposit a thin aluminum RFID tag on to paper that not only reduces the amount of metal needed for the tag, and so the cost, but could open up RFID tagging to many more systems, even allowing a single printed sheet or flyer to be tagged. http://phys.org/news247745029.html Technology Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:03:56 EST news247745029 PayPal, eBay's online payment service, announced a new service Wednesday that aims to make it easier to shop online by cutting down on the number of accounts consumers have to create with various Web retailers. http://phys.org/news237658902.html Technology Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:21:54 EST news237658902 (AP) -- PayPal, eBay's online payment service, plans to announce a new service Wednesday that aims to make it easier to shop online by cutting down on the number of accounts consumers have to create with various Web retailers. http://phys.org/news237614232.html Technology Wed, 12 Oct 2011 04:57:57 EST news237614232 A major South Korean retailer owned by British giant Tesco has opened a virtual store in a busy Seoul subway station, for increasingly sophisticated smartphone users to order groceries and more. http://phys.org/news233985322.html Technology Wed, 31 Aug 2011 04:55:42 EST news233985322 Lasers can do many things for us, from scanning barcodes at the grocery checkout to searching for life on the surface of Mars. And, according to chemists at Idaho National Laboratory, lasers might be able to help the nation respond in the case of a possible chemical or radiological attack. http://phys.org/news191078533.html Physics Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:23:32 EST news191078533 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from several institutions including the University of Colorado at Boulder have sequenced DNA "barcodes" for as many as 25 hunted wildlife species, providing information that can be used to better monitor the elusive trade of wildlife products, or bushmeat. http://phys.org/news172234787.html Biology Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:10:01 EST news172234787 Medicine packages barrage consumers with information, some required to be "prominent" and "conspicuous." But marketing claims and brand names still overshadow critical fine print on nonprescription medications, Michigan State University researchers found. http://phys.org/news157721768.html Medicine & Health Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:37:03 EST news157721768