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. (AP)—The Pentagon for the first time used its annual report on China to directly assert that Beijing's government and military have conducted computer-based attacks against the U.S., including efforts to steal information from federal agencies. http://phys.org/news287071913.html Technology Mon, 06 May 2013 15:11:59 EST news287071913 One of the leading U.S. civil-rights organizations is taking on an unusual cause: spotty smartphone updates. The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to investigate what it considers a failure by U.S. wireless carriers to properly update the Google-built operating system used on Android phones. The ACLU says that sluggish fixes have been saddling many smartphone users with software that is out of date and therefore dangerous. http://phys.org/news285428019.html Technology Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:33:46 EST news285428019 The results of a new national UMass Poll released today show strong public support for an assault weapons ban and a broad consensus in favor of a higher federal minimum wage. Additionally, President Barack Obama enjoys high personal favorability, while Speaker John Boehner is viewed as equally unfavorable. http://phys.org/news282901009.html Other Sciences Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:36:59 EST news282901009 (AP)—Los Angeles police say they are investigating the online posting of private financial records of several celebrities and the department's police chief. http://phys.org/news282249701.html Technology Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:00:01 EST news282249701 In 2009, a massive earthquake struck L'Aquila, Italy, a town two hours north of Rome where generations of families have lived for thousands of years. The quake devastated the community so much that its citizens have not been able to return; anyone crossing into the city must wear protective gear and be accompanied by emergency personnel. http://phys.org/news282209554.html Technology Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:32:41 EST news282209554 Mobile technology has provided the Chinese with an opportunity to voice individual and collective popular protests. And with over 1 billion mobile subscribers in China, the voices are heard. A new PhD thesis from the University of Copenhagen presents several case studies on the use of the mobile phone for political participation in Chinese society and points to the concept of guanxi – an individual's network of social relations and obligations– as central to understanding the success of alternative mobile communication in China. http://phys.org/news281971250.html Other Sciences Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:20:56 EST news281971250 Google says the FBI is monitoring the Web for potential terrorist activity. But it can't confirm the extent of the surveillance. http://phys.org/news281797194.html Technology Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:00:06 EST news281797194 The lushly forested nation of Guyana on Thursday joined a regional pact to protect jaguars, the elusive spotted cat that is the biggest land predator in the Americas but is vulnerable due to expanded agriculture and mining that carves away at their fragmented habitat. http://phys.org/news278255115.html Biology Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:05:28 EST news278255115 A deadly disease threatening swathes of ash trees in Britain cannot be eradicated, the environment secretary admitted on Friday as he announced plans to stem the growing problem. http://phys.org/news271689874.html Biology Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:24:45 EST news271689874 (AP)—Barry Commoner, a scientist and a pioneer of the environmental movement, has died in New York at age 95. http://phys.org/news268369937.html Space & Earth Tue, 02 Oct 2012 04:12:39 EST news268369937 (AP)—The White House is acknowledging an attempt to infiltrate its computer system, but says it thwarted the effort and that no classified networks were threatened. http://phys.org/news268303516.html Technology Mon, 01 Oct 2012 09:45:24 EST news268303516 (AP)—The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding that a Taiwanese company pay a $1 billion fine and two former top executives each serve 10 years in prison for their central roles in what prosecutors called the most serious price-fixing cartel ever prosecuted by the U.S. http://phys.org/news267333283.html Technology Thu, 20 Sep 2012 04:14:57 EST news267333283 Bangladesh has blocked YouTube after the video-sharing website failed to take down an anti-Islam film that has sparked furious protests across the Muslim world, government officials said Tuesday. http://phys.org/news267161266.html Technology Tue, 18 Sep 2012 04:27:52 EST news267161266 The hacker group known as Anonymous on Thursday posted credit card numbers in retaliation for what it claimed was an FBI raid arresting one of its members. http://phys.org/news266778741.html Technology Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:12:30 EST news266778741 In a few weeks, about 2,800 cars, trucks and buses will start talking to each other on the streets of Ann Arbor, Michigan, in a giant experiment that government officials are hoping will lead to safer roads. http://phys.org/news264781610.html Technology Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:26:58 EST news264781610 To speed up the process of identifying threatened and endangered plant species, a team of New York Botanical Garden scientists has developed a streamlined method for evaluating the conservation status of large numbers of plant species, using information from plant research collections and Geographic Information Systems technology. http://phys.org/news264356225.html Biology Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:17:15 EST news264356225 Allegations of torture by government officials are emerging daily from countries caught up in the struggle for democracy. Derek Elliott, a researcher in Cambridge's Faculty of History, is looking at governmental torture and violence in colonial India and has uncovered surprising links with modern states. http://phys.org/news260782045.html Other Sciences Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:27:34 EST news260782045 Civic leaders, arts organizations, donors and government officials can better plan new or expanded arts facilities by first focusing on the arts organizations' missions and assessing demand for the projects, according to a new study from the Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago. http://phys.org/news260109203.html Other Sciences Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:33:34 EST news260109203 Conventional wisdom, backed by years of research, suggests that healthy marriages equals a healthy society. And politicians and government officials have taken note, investing hundreds of millions of dollars each year in education programs designed to promote healthy marriages, focusing specifically on poor couples and couples of color. Is it working? No, says a Binghamton University researcher in a new study published in the current issue of American Psychologist, the flagship journal of the American Psychological Association. And it's because many of these programs were based on research data gathered from White and middle-class marriages, and when applied to poor couples or couples of color, just don't work. http://phys.org/news256899933.html Other Sciences Tue, 22 May 2012 10:06:12 EST news256899933 (AP) -- China was struggling Thursday to restore several government websites that international hacking group Anonymous says it attacked in an apparent protest against Chinese Internet restrictions. http://phys.org/news252817494.html Technology Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:05:11 EST news252817494 While government officials have argued that "enhanced interrogation techniques" are necessary to protect American citizens, the effectiveness of such techniques has been debated. According to a recent study, when torture is used to elicit information, it is likely to be unexpectedly harsh yet ineffective. This study was published in a new article in Political Research Quarterly (PRQ) published by SAGE on behalf of the Western Political Science Association. http://phys.org/news252147714.html Other Sciences Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:02:17 EST news252147714 Apple's new chief executive Tim Cook has held talks with officials in China, the US tech giant said Tuesday, the workshop of its products but where its operations have faced difficulties. http://phys.org/news252061299.html Technology Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:10:01 EST news252061299 A government ruling on whether Australian miner Lynas would be given the go-ahead for a controversial rare earths processing plant was expected within days, Malaysia's trade minister said Tuesday. http://phys.org/news247243475.html Technology Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:44:43 EST news247243475 For the communist cadre who has everything, a shadowy Chinese company is offering a $1,590 tablet computer called the "Red Pad" reserved for the nation's top officials. http://phys.org/news246267388.html Electronics Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:36:52 EST news246267388 Research In Motion vowed Tuesday to defend the legal privacy rights of BlackBerry users after a judicial commission in Pakistan ordered copies of smartphone communications in a scandal probe. http://phys.org/news244835978.html Technology Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:04:35 EST news244835978 (PhysOrg.com) -- China tested a 500 kilometers per hour (311 mph) train over the weekend. Government officials call the record-breaking speedster a “useful reference” for China’s current high speed railway operations. The test train’s speed, according to a Monday report in China Daily, exceeds the world speed record of 300 kilometers per hour held by the Beijing Shanghai High Speed Railway. China’s latest high-speed train has a maximum tractive power of 22,800 kilowatts, compared with the 9,600 kilowatts for China Railways High-Speed (CRH) trains in service on the Beijing-Shanghai High Speed line. http://phys.org/news244188703.html Technology Tue, 27 Dec 2011 06:11:58 EST news244188703 Top US scientists on Wednesday defended their bid to stop details of a mutant bird flu virus from being published and called for global cooperation to ward off an uncontrollable pandemic. http://phys.org/news243750388.html Biology Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:26:38 EST news243750388 Officials from the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), BP Solar International, Inc. (BP Solar), Brookhaven National Laboratory and a host of government officials and environmental leaders today celebrated the completion and commissioning of the Long Island Solar Farm (LISF) Project. Owned by BP Solar and Met Life, the LISF installation is part of the largest solar energy project in the state of New York, the largest photovoltaic array in the eastern U.S., and among the largest in the nation constructed on federal property. The 32-megawatt (MW) LISF, which is made up of 164,312 solar panels hosted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, also boasts the smallest footprint for a solar array of its output, further solidifying Long Island as a national leader in clean, renewable energy. http://phys.org/news241086005.html Technology Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:20:36 EST news241086005 (AP) -- The only company in Britain using hydraulic fracturing to release natural gas from shale rock said Wednesday that the controversial technique probably did trigger earth tremors in April and May. http://phys.org/news239449047.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:37:33 EST news239449047 Bolivian President Evo Morales announced Friday he was cancelling a controversial plan to build a highway through an Amazon ecological reserve that has triggered widespread protests. http://phys.org/news238421055.html Space & Earth Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:04:42 EST news238421055