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. Small-scale gold mining in French Guiana is having long-term effects on diatoms, small single-celled algae, by eliminating the species that are most vulnerable to water turbidity. The findings come from research carried out by scientists from the Evolution and Biological Diversity Laboratory at current or former gold-mining sites located in the Nouragues Nature Reserve. The work, published in the journal Ecological Indicators dated March 2012, aims to help create new biological indices that could be used to assess the state of rivers in the Amazon basin. http://phys.org/news249725304.html Space & Earth Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:10:03 EST news249725304 (PhysOrg.com) -- Pompeii-like, a 300-million-year-old tropical forest was preserved in ash when a volcano erupted in what is today northern China. A new study by University of Pennsylvania paleobotanist Hermann Pfefferkorn and colleagues presents a reconstruction of this fossilized forest, lending insight into the ecology and climate of its time. http://phys.org/news248956071.html Space & Earth Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:00:01 EST news248956071 Latin America is experiencing a mining boom as prices rise fuelled by a hike in global demand, but the region is also being hit by a wave of violent protests, strikes and rallies by environmentalists. http://phys.org/news248246114.html Space & Earth Sun, 12 Feb 2012 05:15:23 EST news248246114 (PhysOrg.com) -- The stock price of a company continuously changes, going up or down depending on the collective activity of a large number of investors. Although this process seems fairly straightforward, no one fully understands how this collective trading activity finds the "correct" price of a stock. Some theoretical models have been proposed to describe how different investment strategies affect price dynamics, but challenges such as investor confidentiality and complicated data mining make it difficult to gather empirical support for these models. http://phys.org/news246883311.html Physics Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:30:01 EST news246883311 At several U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites, uranium mining, milling, and processing have led to groundwater contamination that persists above drinking water standards—in spite of natural flushing and the removal of contaminated sediments.  A multi-institutional research team, including researchers at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), is investigating the use of bioremediation to treat the subsurface uranium plumes and remove pollutants. Research conducted by the team at the Integrated Field Research Challenge (IFRC) site in Rifle, Colorado has shown that indigenous bacteria can be stimulated to immobilize the uranium, resulting in groundwater concentrations below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard. http://phys.org/news246616697.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:40:04 EST news246616697 The US administration scheduled an announcement Monday widely expected to implement a long-term ban on mining around the Grand Canyon, a move praised by environmental activists. http://phys.org/news245330197.html Space & Earth Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:40:02 EST news245330197 As mining is resurging in North America, debates across the continent over mines are simplified: “Do we prioritize jobs or the environment?  Companies or communities?”  These are worthy debates. Yet should the issue of mining really be reduced to “pro-con” statements?  http://phys.org/news244966504.html Space & Earth Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:15:10 EST news244966504 A number of health and environmental issues and related risks need to be addressed when considering whether to lift the almost 30-year moratorium on uranium mining in Virginia, says a new report from the National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. http://phys.org/news243533121.html Space & Earth Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:05:37 EST news243533121 Increased salinity and concentrations of trace elements in one West Virginia watershed have been tied directly to multiple surface coal mines upstream by a detailed new survey of stream chemistry. The Duke University team that conducted the study said it provides new evidence of the cumulative effects multiple mountaintop mining permits can have in a river network. http://phys.org/news242905588.html Space & Earth Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:00:11 EST news242905588 Internet auction giant eBay said Monday it has bought Hunch, an online service which provides users with personalized recommendations for products and services. http://phys.org/news241098383.html Technology Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:46:28 EST news241098383 Data mining Twitter "tweets" may produce a gold mine for two University of Cincinnati computer science students. http://phys.org/news239990061.html Technology Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:54:28 EST news239990061 The revival of Scotland's long-dormant gold-mining industry is underway, after officials gave the go-ahead to start work at a Highland mine. http://phys.org/news239011810.html Space & Earth Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:30:04 EST news239011810 Australian mining tycoon Clive Palmer on Saturday hit out at the country's growing coal seam gas industry, saying there were concerns it could lead to environmental contamination. http://phys.org/news233725850.html Space & Earth Sun, 28 Aug 2011 04:51:23 EST news233725850 The first ever study of the impact of habitat loss on the health and condition of birds in South-West Ghana will be conducted by a PhD student from The University of Queensland's (UQ) School of Geography Planning and Environmental Management. http://phys.org/news231061718.html Biology Thu, 28 Jul 2011 08:50:01 EST news231061718 In Dr. Hongfei Wang's spectroscopy laboratory at the end of EMSL's main hallway, the lights are always off. Because the instrumental capability his team has built uses lasers as its main weapon, light interference would hinder scientific results. So Wang, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Luis Velarde, and visiting scientist Dr. Xianyi Zhang constantly wear headlamps in the lab, giving them the appearance of old-time coal miners. But instead of coal, they are using the new surface nonlinear spectroscopy capability to dig up never-before-seen data on molecular interactions at interfaces. Early in 2011, they struck a vein that could lead scientists in many fields to research gold. http://phys.org/news228664474.html Chemistry Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:54:52 EST news228664474 Since the World Wide Web emerged in the mid 1990s scientists have dreamed of having the whole body of scientific peer reviewed literature freely available on the web, openly available without any hindrance. In the "Open Access" scenario each published article is just one mouse-click away from any reader worldwide, a model which is in sharp contrast to the established subscription system (whereby access is only provided to those people who are able to pay for an annual subscription), 'Open Access' removes any barriers to what many believe should be publicly available material and in addition, provides for full use and re-use of the published output (hence facilitating developments such as data mining of knowledge discovery). http://phys.org/news227199305.html Other Sciences Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:00:01 EST news227199305 (PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time, a computer scientist has developed a method of making smart phones able to show a disaster unfolding in real-time on phone screens. http://phys.org/news226745975.html Technology Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:00:26 EST news226745975 Archaeologists have discovered a 12,000-year-old iron oxide mine in Chile that marks the oldest evidence of organized mining ever found in the Americas, according to a report in the June issue of Current Anthropology. http://phys.org/news225016651.html Other Sciences Thu, 19 May 2011 09:37:42 EST news225016651 Mining industry explorers, earthquake and climate change scientists and members of the public can now access a 'stack' of information about Australia's geology at the click of a button. http://phys.org/news223537472.html Space & Earth Mon, 02 May 2011 06:44:59 EST news223537472 In what is starting to become a familiar theme, researchers have speculated on what types of observational data from distant planetary systems might indicate the presence of an alien civilization, in this case asteroid mining – but end up concluding that most of the effects of such activity would be difficult to distinguish from natural phenomena. http://phys.org/news222946493.html Space & Earth Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:35:07 EST news222946493 (PhysOrg.com) -- A better understanding of corrosion resistance may be possible using a data-mining tool, according to Penn State material scientists. This tool may also aid research in other areas where massive amounts of information exist. http://phys.org/news222496176.html Technology Wed, 20 Apr 2011 05:29:59 EST news222496176 An ambitious switch from fossil fuels to green energy could generate up to 350,000 new jobs by 2020 in the Poland, the European Union's most coal-dependent member, Greenpeace said Friday in Warsaw. http://phys.org/news219070009.html Technology Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:47:00 EST news219070009 (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Interior has outlined four proposals to address mining around the Grand Canyon, one of which would set aside 1 million acres from any new claims. http://phys.org/news217173021.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:50:28 EST news217173021 CSIRO research has shown that some mining by-products can be effective in preventing nutrients from entering river systems, thereby reducing the potential for algal blooms. http://phys.org/news215696811.html Space & Earth Mon, 31 Jan 2011 11:47:13 EST news215696811 The withdrawal of a permit for a controversial "mountaintop removal" coal mining operation has sparked outrage in the US industry, but was hailed as a victory for environmental protection and the health of nearby communities. http://phys.org/news214237466.html Space & Earth Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:24:34 EST news214237466 How do ecosystems develop? No one really knows, yet. There is however one project, unique in the world, seeking to answer this question. In a former open-pit coal mining area in Brandenburg, Germany, a surface of six hectares was partitioned off and then left to its own resources. Scientists from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM), in collaboration with researchers from other institutions, are studying the development of soil, flora, and fauna there. With this research they aim to establish the factors that have a particularly strong influence on developing ecosystems. http://phys.org/news210858777.html Space & Earth Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:53:11 EST news210858777 In recent years, the tragic story of mine accidents has been retold many times in international headlines. But thanks to the work of Ryerson University researcher Xavier Fernando, countless miners' lives could be saved in the future with state-of-the-art technology that makes wireless communication possible deep within the Earth’s crust. http://phys.org/news210253463.html Technology Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:30:01 EST news210253463 At the Supercomputing 2010 conference, IBM today unveiled details of a new storage architecture design, created by IBM scientists, that will convert terabytes of pure information into actionable insights twice as fast as previously possible. http://phys.org/news209398017.html Technology Fri, 19 Nov 2010 14:30:02 EST news209398017 While lunar mining might some day be economically feasible for countries and companies, a Missouri University of Science and Technology researcher believes strongly that mining in space is essential to the very survival of our species. http://phys.org/news209120005.html Space & Earth Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:20:01 EST news209120005 Technologies for rapid detection of bacterial pathogens are crucial to maintaining a secure food supply. http://phys.org/news206358441.html Other Sciences Fri, 15 Oct 2010 11:00:01 EST news206358441