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. An icy interloper was in the sights of a NASA spacecraft this past weekend. Comet 2012 F6 Lemmon passed through the field of view of NASA's HI2A camera as seen from its solar observing STEREO Ahead spacecraft. As seen in the animation above put together by Robert Kaufman, Comet Lemmon is now displaying a fine ion and dust tail as it sweeps back out of the inner solar system on its 10,750 year plus orbit. http://phys.org/news286096394.html Space & Earth Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:00:01 EST news286096394 (Phys.org)—Comet Pan-STARRS C/2011 L4, discovered by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope on Haleakala in June 2011, is expected to become visible to the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere in March. http://phys.org/news280687000.html Space & Earth Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:37:28 EST news280687000 In a paper published in Nature Communications on January 22, 2013, a team of paleontologists including Dr. Luis Chiappe, Director of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's (NHM) Dinosaur Institute, has discovered a way to determine the sex of an avian dinosaur species. http://phys.org/news278064572.html Other Sciences Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:00:06 EST news278064572 (Phys.org)—A University of Alberta researcher's examination of fossilized dinosaur tail bones has led to a breakthrough finding: some feathered dinosaurs used tail plumage to attract mates, much like modern-day peacocks and turkeys. http://phys.org/news277550204.html Other Sciences Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:16:57 EST news277550204 NASA has selected eight large-scale integrated technology demonstrations to advance aircraft concepts and technologies that will reduce the impact of aviation on the environment over the next 30 years, research efforts that promise future travelers will fly in quieter, greener and more fuel-efficient airliners. http://phys.org/news276943214.html Space & Earth Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:00:01 EST news276943214 A University of Alberta researcher's examination of fossilized dinosaur tail bones has led to a breakthrough finding: some feathered dinosaurs used tail plumage to attract mates, much like modern-day peacocks and turkeys. http://phys.org/news276434157.html Other Sciences Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:00:01 EST news276434157 Like sheets of paper marked with perforated lines, gecko tails have unique structural marks that help them sever their tails to make a quick getaway. Though voluntarily shedding a body part in this manner is a well-known phenomenon, research published December 19 in the open access journal PLOS ONE reveals aspects of the process that may have applications for structural engineers making similar, quickly detachable structures. http://phys.org/news275157982.html Biology Wed, 19 Dec 2012 17:00:02 EST news275157982 A prototype of a European combat drone, the Neuron, made its maiden flight Saturday from a base in the south of France, project leader Dassault Aviation announced. http://phys.org/news273638706.html Technology Sun, 02 Dec 2012 03:20:01 EST news273638706 Returning briefly to the surface for great lungfuls of air, the underwater lifestyles of whales had been a complete mystery until a small group of pioneers from various global institutions – including Malene Simon, Mark Johnson and Peter Madsen – began attaching data-logging tags to these enigmatic creatures. Knowing that Jeremy Goldbogen and colleagues had successful tagged blue, fin and humpback whales to reveal how they lunge through giant shoals of krill, Simon and her colleagues headed off to Greenland where they tagged five humpback whales to discover how the animals capture and consume their prey: krill and agile capelin. Attaching individual tags behind the dorsal fin on three of the whales – to record their stroke patterns – and nearer the head in the remaining whales – to better measure head movements – the team successfully recorded high resolution depth, acceleration and magnetic orientation data from 479 dives to find out more about the animals' lunge tactics. Simon, from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Madsen, from Aarhus University, Denmark and Johnsen from the University of St. Andrews, UK, report how whales choreograph their foraging lunges at depth in The Journal of Experimental Biology. http://phys.org/news269106865.html Biology Thu, 11 Oct 2012 00:20:01 EST news269106865 Just because a lizard can grow back its tail, doesn't mean it will be exactly the same. A multidisciplinary team of scientists from Arizona State University and the University of Arizona examined the anatomical and microscopic makeup of regenerated lizard tails and discovered that the new tails are quite different from the original ones. http://phys.org/news268987451.html Biology Tue, 09 Oct 2012 07:44:22 EST news268987451 Dutch astronomers have found clear evidence that a faraway exoplanet is falling apart. New analysis of data from NASA's Kepler satellite shows that this exoplanet, which orbits its host star every 16 hours, has a massive dust tail originating from its surface, similar to a comet's tail. The study will be published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. http://phys.org/news265386430.html Space & Earth Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:27:22 EST news265386430 (Phys.org) -- What a difference a tail makes. Robots with tails can fly through the air while maintaining their orientation, evidence that appendages for robots can enhance performance and effectiveness. Past research from UC Berkeley explored what happens when you give a wheeled robot a controllable tail, as that used by the lizard. Now an extremely adept X-RHex Lite, or XRL for short, robot shows it can stay upright no matter how challenging the attempt is to make it do otherwise. The XRL is the result of a collaboration between UC Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania. http://phys.org/news263015366.html Electronics Wed, 01 Aug 2012 05:40:01 EST news263015366 In the animal kingdom, huge weapons such as elk antlers or ornaments like peacock feathers are sexy. Their extreme size attracts potential mates and warns away lesser rivals. http://phys.org/news262520153.html Biology Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:00:20 EST news262520153 Lizards, just like cats, have a knack for turning right side up and landing on their feet when they fall. But how do they do it? Unlike cats, which twist and bend their torsos to turn upright, lizards swing their large tails one way to rotate their body the other, according to a recent study presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting on 29th June in Salzburg, Austria. A lizard-inspired robot, called 'RightingBot', replicates the feat. http://phys.org/news260281431.html Biology Sat, 30 Jun 2012 13:29:52 EST news260281431 Timothy Higham, an assistant professor of biology at the University of California, Riverside, will be featured in the program “Animal Superpowers: Extreme Survivors” on the National Geographic Wild Channel, 8 p.m., ET and PT, Sunday, June 3. http://phys.org/news256461996.html Biology Thu, 17 May 2012 08:26:48 EST news256461996 Stone Age cave paintings evoke reverent silence in most people. But David Lubman, Miriam Kolar, and Steve Waller prefer to shout and clap instead. http://phys.org/news249556038.html Other Sciences Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:40:02 EST news249556038 Based on a well-preserved specimen from the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation in Jianchang, western Liaoning, China, Paleontologists of Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences reported a new species of basal ornithurine bird, Schizooura lii gen. et sp. nov., in the latest issue of Vertebrata PalAsiatic 2012(1), helping better understand the early diversification of ornithurines and revealing new information regarding the complex pattern of character evolution among early birds. http://phys.org/news248342438.html Other Sciences Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:00:58 EST news248342438 Paleontologists from Chinese Academy of Sciences reported two Jurassic salamanders with stomach contents from Daohugou, Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia, China, as reported in Chinese Science Bulletin online January 2012 (Vol.57, No.1). This is the first report of well-established fossil caudates with food in their stomachs, and these specimens provide important evidence supporting hypotheses about ecological interactions in the Jurassic ecosystem of Daohugou. http://phys.org/news247745244.html Other Sciences Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:07:46 EST news247745244 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of California, Berkeley, biologists and engineers including undergraduate and graduate students studied how lizards manage to leap successfully even when they slip and stumble, and found that swinging the tail upward is the key to preventing a forward pitch that could send them head-over-heels into a tree. http://phys.org/news244897675.html Electronics Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:00:07 EST news244897675 A mystery that puzzled Chicago-area birders was solved when Field Museum scientists identified the unusual hummingbird living in an Oak Park, Ill., yard as a member of the rufous species rarely seen in the Midwest. http://phys.org/news244145613.html Biology Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:30:01 EST news244145613 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study presented at the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology shows that the Oviraptor dinosaur had a tail structure that allowed it to shake its tail feathers, possibly to attract potential mates. http://phys.org/news240059848.html Other Sciences Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:17:48 EST news240059848 (PhysOrg.com) -- A meat-eating dinosaur that terrorized its plant-eating neighbours in South America was a lot deadlier than first thought, a University of Alberta researcher has found. http://phys.org/news237878138.html Other Sciences Sat, 15 Oct 2011 06:15:47 EST news237878138 Though famous for their mid-air hovering during hunting, tiny hummingbirds have another trait that is literally telltale: males of some hummingbird species generate loud sounds with their tail feathers while courting females. Now, for the first time, the cause of these sounds has been identified: a paper published in the Sept. 9, 2011 issue of Science by Christopher Clark of Yale University reveals that air flowing past the tail feathers of a male hummingbird makes his tail feathers flutter and thereby generate fluttering sounds. http://phys.org/news234708735.html Biology Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:00:41 EST news234708735 (PhysOrg.com) -- A spinning neutron star is tied to a mysterious tail -- or so it seems. Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have found that this pulsar, known as PSR J0357+3205 (or PSR J0357 for short), apparently has a long, X-ray bright tail streaming away from it. http://phys.org/news229844335.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Jul 2011 06:39:14 EST news229844335 (PhysOrg.com) -- By morphing and repositioning a small aircraft's vertical tail to resemble the cranial crest of a pterosaur, researchers have shown that the aircraft's turn radius can be reduced by 14%. The ability to make sharper turns is especially important for small aircraft that operate in urban environments and in the presence of obstacles. http://phys.org/news227268828.html Technology Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:10:01 EST news227268828 Tail hair can show if cattle have been grass-fed or not, according to scientists. By chemically analysing the tail hair, it is also possible for scientists to tell if, and when, a grass diet has been substituted for other types of feed over the past 12 months. http://phys.org/news223208821.html Chemistry Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:40:01 EST news223208821 There are fish tales and then there are fish tails. And a report from Harvard researchers in the current issue of the journal Biology Letters seems to demonstrate that previous theories about how bony fish move through the water were, well, just fish tales. http://phys.org/news222690721.html Biology Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:32:23 EST news222690721 Close to the globe, Earth's magnetic field wraps around the planet like a gigantic spherical web, curving in to touch Earth at the poles. But this isn't true as you get further from the planet. As you move to the high altitudes where satellites fly, nothing about that field is so simple. Instead, the large region enclosed by Earth's magnetic field, known as the magnetosphere, looks like a long, sideways jellyfish with its round bulb facing the sun and a long tail extending away from the sun. http://phys.org/news217187955.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:59:34 EST news217187955 Did you know that the Earth has a dust tail? The Spitzer Space Telescope sailed right through it a few months ago, giving researchers a clear idea of what it looks like. That could be a big help to planet hunters trying to track down alien worlds. http://phys.org/news209041054.html Space & Earth Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:58:10 EST news209041054 (PhysOrg.com) -- Tail docking is a very emotive subject the world over. A new study will explain the scientific understanding of tail injuries and tail docking in dogs. http://phys.org/news196678631.html Biology Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:10:01 EST news196678631