http://phys.org/ en-us PhysOrg Team Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Roughly 100,000 years ago, human evolution reached a mysterious bottleneck: Our ancestors had been reduced to perhaps five to ten thousand individuals living in Africa. In time, "behaviorally modern" humans would emerge from this population, expanding dramatically in both number and range, and replacing all other co-existing evolutionary cousins, such as the Neanderthals. http://phys.org/news258035713.html Biology 2012-06-04T15:00:16-07:00 Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified key elements in the biochemical mechanism plants use to limit the production of fatty acids. The results suggest ways scientists might target those biochemical pathways to increase the production of plant oils as a renewable resource for biofuels and industrial processes. http://phys.org/news258035799.html Biology 2012-06-04T15:00:13-07:00 Scientists have developed an X-ray imaging method that could drastically improve the contrast of computed tomography (CT) scans whilst reducing the radiation dose deposited during the scan. The new method is based on the combination of the high contrast obtained by an X-ray technique known as grating interferometry with the three-dimensional capabilities of CT. It is also compatible with clinical CT apparatus, where an X-ray source and detector rotate continuously around the patient during the scan. The results are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) dated June 4-8, 2012. http://phys.org/news258036502.html Physics 2012-06-04T15:00:10-07:00 Giant insects ruled the prehistoric skies during periods when Earth's atmosphere was rich in oxygen. Then came the birds. After the evolution of birds about 150 million years ago, insects got smaller despite rising oxygen levels, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz. http://phys.org/news258035891.html Biology 2012-06-04T15:00:06-07:00 An international team of researchers has announced the discovery of Afrasia djijidae, a new fossil primate from Myanmar that illuminates a critical step in the evolution of early anthropoids—the group that includes humans, apes, and monkeys. The 37-million-year-old Afrasia closely resembles another early anthropoid, Afrotarsius libycus, recently discovered at a site of similar age in the Sahara Desert of Libya. The close similarity between Afrasia and Afrotarsius indicates that early anthropoids colonized Africa only shortly before the time when these animals lived. The colonization of Africa by early anthropoids was a pivotal step in primate and human evolution, because it set the stage for the later evolution of more advanced apes and humans there. The scientific paper describing the discovery appears today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://phys.org/news258035946.html Other Sciences 2012-06-04T15:00:01-07:00 In the biggest result of its kind in more than ten years, physicists have made the most sensitive measurements yet in a decades-long hunt for a hypothetical and rare process involving the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. http://phys.org/news258036635.html Physics 2012-06-04T14:00:01-07:00 The rate of Australian aircraft hitting birds increased sharply in the last decade, with data Monday showing that even kangaroos, wombats and turtles are occasionally involved in accidents. http://phys.org/news258035468.html Technology 2012-06-04T13:31:20-07:00 (Phys.org) -- Astronomers have found strong evidence that a massive black hole is being ejected from its host galaxy at a speed of several million miles per hour. New observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggest that the black hole collided and merged with another black hole and received a powerful recoil kick from gravitational wave radiation. http://phys.org/news258035163.html Space & Earth 2012-06-04T13:26:18-07:00 The University of Nevada, Reno's Sudeep Chandra, a leading Lake Tahoe scientist who has studied invasive species and limnology at the lake for 20 years, said issuing permits for commercial harvesting of crayfish at Lake Tahoe will help improve clarity at the pristine lake, as well as take away a food source for other invasive species that threaten lake clarity and ecosystems. http://phys.org/news258034474.html Space & Earth 2012-06-04T13:18:14-07:00 Police and security teams guarding airports, docks and border crossings from terrorist attack or illegal entry need to know immediately when someone enters a prohibited area, and who they are. A network of surveillance cameras is typically used to monitor these at-risk locations 24 hours a day, but these can generate too many images for human eyes to analyze. http://phys.org/news258033568.html Technology 2012-06-04T12:59:38-07:00 For millions of Facebook users, choosing which photo to use for an online profile is an important decision. Should it be lighthearted or professional, personal or more abstract? According to a study by researchers at the UT Dallas Center for Vital Longevity and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the photos we select may reflect individual preferences, but they also appear to reflect more deeply rooted, unconscious cultural differences. http://phys.org/news258033445.html Other Sciences 2012-06-04T12:58:54-07:00 US Internet giant Google said on Monday it has lodged a complaint with European Union competition authorities against Finland's Nokia and its US software peer Microsoft. http://phys.org/news258030016.html Technology 2012-06-04T12:00:24-07:00 Archaeologists in the eastern Mediterranean region have been unearthing spherical jugs, used by the ancients for storing and trading oil, wine, and other valuable commodities. Because we're used to the metric system, which defines units of volume based on the cube, modern archaeologists believed that the merchants of antiquity could only approximately assess the capacity of these round jugs, says Prof. Itzhak Benenson of Tel Aviv University's Department of Geography. http://phys.org/news258029856.html Other Sciences 2012-06-04T11:58:02-07:00 A small, exploratory study suggests that many first-time parents - particularly mothers - actually increase the amount of time they spend on Facebook after the birth of their child. http://phys.org/news258029639.html Other Sciences 2012-06-04T11:54:06-07:00 It's nearly impossible to write objectively about the science of human kindness, cooperation and altruism if you are, in fact a human being. That's especially true now that there's a rift going on in the evolution community over two competing theories to explain why we're nice or, in technical terms, eusocial. http://phys.org/news258028174.html Other Sciences 2012-06-04T11:50:01-07:00 SpaceX, the upstart company that shot a capsule to the International Space Station and back last week, won't have much time to savor its first major success. http://phys.org/news258027943.html Space & Earth 2012-06-04T11:40:01-07:00 Facebook is working on technology that would permit children under the age of 13 to use the social network site with parental supervision, people familiar with the effort said Monday. http://phys.org/news258028016.html Technology 2012-06-04T11:27:01-07:00 Facebook already unleashed millions of shares to wary investors. Now the technology giant's early investors are about to see if they can force-feed millions more. http://phys.org/news258027988.html Technology 2012-06-04T11:26:36-07:00 Salesforce.com, a major customer relations management software firm, said Monday it was buying the social media marketing firm Buddy Media for $689 million in cash and stock. http://phys.org/news258026142.html Technology 2012-06-04T11:20:01-07:00 (AP) — Samsung's new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III, will be launched by all of the Big 4 national U.S. wireless carriers this month, starting at $199, the phone maker said Monday. http://phys.org/news258026054.html Electronics 2012-06-04T11:10:01-07:00 A pair of new studies by computer scientists, biologists, and cognitive psychologists at Harvard, Northwestern, Wellesley, and Tufts suggest that collaborative touch-screen games have value beyond just play. http://phys.org/news258025922.html Technology 2012-06-04T10:52:15-07:00 Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a technique to efficiently divide the bandwidth of the wireless spectrum in multi-hop wireless networks to improve operation and provide all users in the network with the best possible performance. http://phys.org/news258025756.html Technology 2012-06-04T10:49:30-07:00 Research at Carlos III University in Madrid is developing an algorithm, based on ants' behavior when they are searching for food, which accelerates the search for relationships among elements that are present in social networks. http://phys.org/news258025702.html Technology 2012-06-04T10:48:36-07:00 An international research team involving 17 institutions including Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has published the most comprehensive analysis to date of the maize genome. It is an achievement that substantially increases scientists' understanding of differences across related but different species of the plant, which most North Americans call corn, as well as the nature of differences found within individual maize species. http://phys.org/news258025600.html Biology 2012-06-04T10:46:57-07:00 Guido David, associated with VIB and KU Leuven, and Pascale Zimmermann have discovered a new mechanism for the formation of exosomes, small vesicles with a role in tumor development. This research has been published in the authoritative journal Nature Cell Biology. http://phys.org/news258025484.html Biology 2012-06-04T10:44:49-07:00 It would make life a lot easier if the surfaces of window panes, corrosion coatings or microfluidic systems in medical labs could keep themselves free of water and other liquids. A new simulation program can now work out just how such surfaces have to look for a variety of applications. http://phys.org/news258025427.html Technology 2012-06-04T10:43:56-07:00 The yeast Dekkera bruxellensis plays an important role in the production of wine, as it can have either a positive or a negative impact on the taste. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden, among others, have analyzed the yeast's genome sequenced by the US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, giving wine producers the possibility to take control of the flavour development of the wine. http://phys.org/news258025244.html Biology 2012-06-04T10:43:08-07:00 Engineers are working on intelligent materials that can diminish vibrations and extract power from the environment. These electro-active elastomers could dampen annoying vibrations in a car, for example, or supply wireless power to sensors in otherwise inaccessible places. http://phys.org/news258024942.html Technology 2012-06-04T10:35:52-07:00 New microscope enabled scientists at EMBL Heidelberg to film a fruit fly embryo, in 3D, from when it was about two-and-a-half hours old until it walked away from the microscope as a larva. http://phys.org/news258024774.html Biology 2012-06-04T10:33:39-07:00 Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have for the first time uncovered the detailed structure of the shell that surrounds the genetic material of retroviruses, such as HIV, at a crucial and potentially vulnerable stage in their life cycle: when they are still being formed. The study, published online today in Nature, provides information on a part of the virus that may be a potential future drug target. http://phys.org/news258024717.html Biology 2012-06-04T10:32:13-07:00