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. Evolutionary biologists at the University of Toronto have found that individuals with low-quality genes may produce offspring with even more inferior chromosomes, possibly leading to the extinction of certain species over generations. http://phys.org/news253798227.html Biology Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:30:35 EST news253798227 Could computers ever beat the best go players? Although unthinkable at this stage, this could soon become possible, thanks to CNRS theorists. For the first time, two scientists from the Theoretical Physics Laboratory and the Laboratory of Theoretical Physics and Statistical Models, have applied network theory to a game of strategy. Their findings, published in the journal Europhysics Letters, should help to improve future simulation programs. http://phys.org/news253785912.html Other Sciences Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:20:01 EST news253785912 Researchers at Carlos III University of Madrid and the University of Zaragoza theoretically predict, in a scientific study, that contact networks have no influence on cooperation among individuals. http://phys.org/news252587309.html Other Sciences Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:08:39 EST news252587309 The two-and-a-half-year TARA OCEANS expedition finishes on 31 March when the ship and crew reach Lorient, France. The arrival completes a journey of 60 000 miles across all the world's major oceans to sample and investigate microorganisms in the largest ecosystem on the planet, reports Eric Karsenti in an editorial published today in Molecular Systems Biology. http://phys.org/news252073063.html Space & Earth Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:28:12 EST news252073063 At the Hikurangi fault, off the eastern coast of New Zealand's North Island, the Pacific tectonic plate sinks beneath the Australian plate. Farther south, in the Marlborough Fault System, which cuts through the country's larger South Island, the interaction between the two slabs turns such that the plates grind edge-on. http://phys.org/news251398505.html Space & Earth Mon, 19 Mar 2012 18:30:01 EST news251398505 The speed at which the calcium concentration in the cell changes controls the swimming behavior of sperm. They can calculate the calcium dynamics and react accordingly. http://phys.org/news250338750.html Biology Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:32:44 EST news250338750 Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are sharing computational resources and expertise to improve the detail and performance of a scientific application code that is the product of one of the world's largest collaborations of climate researchers. The Community Earth System Model (CESM) is a mega-model that couples components of atmosphere, land, ocean, and ice to reflect their complex interactions. By continuing to improve science representations and numerical methods in simulations, and exploiting modern computer architectures, researchers expect to further improve the CESM's accuracy in predicting climate changes. Achieving that goal requires teamwork and coordination rarely seen outside a symphony orchestra. http://phys.org/news249650692.html Technology Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:25:02 EST news249650692 A German computer scientist has developed a reliable wireless bicycle brake. http://phys.org/news249299639.html Technology Fri, 24 Feb 2012 09:54:12 EST news249299639 (PhysOrg.com) -- Tectonic, climate and the topography of the mountain ranges interact through a complex system of interactions and feedbacks. The nature and strength of these links are examined on the basis of data collection of 69 mountain ranges over the five continents. http://phys.org/news248428570.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:40:01 EST news248428570 The world can deliver sudden and nasty shocks. Economies can crash, fisheries can collapse, and climates can pass tipping points. Providing early warning of such changes currently requires the collection of enormous and often prohibitive amounts of data. A new method developed by Steven Lade from the Max-Planck-Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Germany and Thilo Gross from the University of Bristol in the UK could change this. In a paper published in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology on February 2, the researchers present a mathematical methodology that uses easily obtainable information to greater effect and can therefore reduce the amount of additional data that needs to be collected. http://phys.org/news247414259.html Biology Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:00:01 EST news247414259 Expanding on previous work with engines traveling on straight tracks, a team of researchers at Kyoto University and the University of Oxford have successfully used DNA building blocks to construct a motor capable of navigating a programmable network of tracks with multiple switches. The findings, published in the January 22 online edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, are expected to lead to further developments in the field of nanoengineering. http://phys.org/news246459452.html Nanotechnology Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:00:12 EST news246459452 Fundamentally people behave in a social and rather compassionate and "good" way rather than aggressively, even without specified rules. That is the result of a study from the Institute for Science of Complex Systems at the MedUni Vienna under the leadership of Stefan Thurner and Michael Szell. They analysed the behaviour of more than 400,000 participants of the “Virtual Life” game “Pardus” on the Internet. The findings are that only two percent of all actions are aggressive, even though the game would make it easy for war-like attacks with spaceships, for example. http://phys.org/news245953675.html Other Sciences Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:30:04 EST news245953675 Do all cuisines thrive on kindred flavors? New research suggests that some cuisines may be based on combinations of dissimilar ingredients, but critics say the work is not filtering out flavors that may be unimportant to understanding why dishes are enjoyable. http://phys.org/news244105719.html Chemistry Mon, 26 Dec 2011 07:09:23 EST news244105719 (PhysOrg.com) -- After six years of design and testing, MBARI scientists have a sophisticated new tool for studying the effects of ocean acidification on deep-sea animals. This complex system, the Free-Ocean Carbon Enrichment (FOCE) experiment, is the only experiment in the world that allows researchers to study ocean-acidification impacts on deep-sea animals in their native habitat, using free-flowing seawater. http://phys.org/news240580381.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:30:06 EST news240580381 Around the turn of the century, scientists began to understand that atoms have discrete energy levels. Within the field of quantum physics, this sparked the development of quantum optics in which light is used to drive atoms between these energy levels. The resulting ability to control the behavior of solid-state systems with free-space light -- the former has discrete energy levels and the latter has continuously tunable energy -- yielded new fundamental science as well as new technology. Some of the applications that emerged include lasers, atomic clocks and quantum information processing. http://phys.org/news239879921.html Physics Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:18:52 EST news239879921 Federal regulators have unveiled a plan for overhauling the $8 billion fund that subsidizes phone service in rural areas and for the poor. It redirects the money toward broadband expansion. http://phys.org/news238945068.html Technology Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:37:58 EST news238945068 What if you could trace the history of everything you buy back to its origins? Using your smart phone camera, you could learn what factory made the ingredients in your heart medication, what country grew the corn in your breakfast cereal, or even how to recycle the phone. You could follow the whole life cycle of a product and everyone who handled it along the way to ensure that the medicine you're taking isn't counterfeit and the food you're eating is safe. http://phys.org/news237734629.html Technology Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:23:56 EST news237734629 Spontaneous ordering of DNA fragments in a special matrix holds the key to creating non-toxic gene therapy delivery vectors, according to a study recently published in the European Physical Journal E. http://phys.org/news234696491.html Biology Thu, 08 Sep 2011 10:28:27 EST news234696491 Every cell in the human body contains a complex system to transport essential cargoes such as proteins and membrane vesicles from one point to another. These tiny molecular motor proteins move at high speeds on miniature railways carrying components of the cell to their proper destinations. It is critical that these railways are neither too long nor too short, as that would cause a misdirection of the proteins being transported. But just how cells construct these transport railways to fit precisely inside the confines of individual cells is a complex question. http://phys.org/news234173387.html Biology Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:10:15 EST news234173387 (PhysOrg.com) -- Imagine a battery that truly does keep on going and going -- and not for just a few years, but close to decades. http://phys.org/news229844989.html Physics Thu, 14 Jul 2011 06:50:05 EST news229844989 Two new papers in the Journal of General Physiology demonstrate the successes of using bifurcation theory and dynamical systems approaches to solve biological puzzles. http://phys.org/news228397078.html Biology Mon, 27 Jun 2011 12:38:06 EST news228397078 Accurately calculating the amount of carbon dioxide emitted in the process of producing and bringing products to our doorsteps is nearly impossible, but still a worthwhile effort, two Carnegie researchers claim in a commentary published online this week by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Global Ecology department's Ken Caldeira and Steven Davis commend the work of industrial ecologist Glen Peters and colleagues, published in the same journal late last month, and use that team's data to do additional analysis on the disparity between emissions and consumption in different parts of the world. http://phys.org/news224179839.html Space & Earth Mon, 09 May 2011 17:11:29 EST news224179839 (PhysOrg.com) -- The combination of simple codes and Captchas, which are even more encrypted using a chaotic process, produces effective password protection. http://phys.org/news222418410.html Technology Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:53:46 EST news222418410 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study into the exclusion tactics adopted by urban foxes suggests that the transient nature of animal territory is a result of a complex system of individual-level interactions. http://phys.org/news219047287.html Biology Fri, 11 Mar 2011 06:28:27 EST news219047287 New research shows that genetically modified cells can be made to communicate with each other as if they were electronic circuits. The study is a groundbreaking step toward building complex systems where the body's own cells can help to keep us healthy. http://phys.org/news218718070.html Biology Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:01:33 EST news218718070 Want to build a really tough robot? Forget about Terminator. Instead, watch a tadpole turn into a frog. http://phys.org/news214754620.html Electronics Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:04:18 EST news214754620 Norbert Wiener, the mathematician and former child prodigy who won the National Medal of Science in 1963, figures prominently in MIT lore. After entering Tufts University at 11 and getting his PhD from Harvard at 18, he joined the MIT faculty at 23 and spent much of the next 40 years rambling the Institute’s halls, depositing the ashes of his signature cigar in the chalk trays of his colleagues’ blackboards, volubly holding forth on a bewildering range of topics, and, along the way, helping create the pop-culture archetype of the absent-minded professor. http://phys.org/news214665102.html Other Sciences Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:12:18 EST news214665102 A new center called the National Resource for Network Biology (NRNB), based at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, will help clinicians analyze an ever-growing wealth of complex biological data and apply that knowledge to real problems and diseases. http://phys.org/news207590675.html Biology Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:04:47 EST news207590675 Last March, the U.S. Congress heard testimony about a scientific study in the journal Safety Science. A military analyst worried that the paper presented a model of how an attack on a small, unimportant part of the U.S. power grid might, like dominoes, bring the whole grid down. http://phys.org/news206097331.html Physics Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:15:52 EST news206097331 Educational policy is controversial: positions on achievement gaps, troubled schools and class size are emotionally charged, and research studies often come to very different conclusions. http://phys.org/news205764375.html Other Sciences Fri, 08 Oct 2010 13:46:31 EST news205764375