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- Long-necked 'dragon' discovered in China: Dinosaur's lightweight neck spanned half the length of its body
- Some potentially habitable planets began as gaseous, Neptune-like worlds
- Gully patterns document Martian climate cycles
- Quantum computer as detector shows space is not squeezed
- Chimps with higher-ranking moms do better in fights
- Beer compound could help fend off Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases
- Researchers use sound to slow down, speed up, and block light
- Ballooning offers platform for performing research in a space-like environment
- Blind beetles show extraordinary signs of sight
- Game theory explains social interactions of cancer cells
- Nanoscale mirrored cavities amplify, connect quantum memories
| Posted: 28 Jan 2015 01:05 PM PST Paleontologists have discovered a new species of a long-necked dinosaur from a skeleton found in China. The new species belongs to a group of dinosaurs called mamenchisaurids, known for their extremely long necks sometimes measuring up to half the length of their bodies. Most sauropods, or long-necked dinosaurs, have necks only about one third the length of their bodies. |
| Some potentially habitable planets began as gaseous, Neptune-like worlds Posted: 28 Jan 2015 01:05 PM PST Two phenomena known to inhibit the potential habitability of planets -- tidal forces and vigorous stellar activity -- might instead help chances for life on certain planets orbiting low-mass stars, astronomers have found. |
| Gully patterns document Martian climate cycles Posted: 28 Jan 2015 12:22 PM PST Gullies carved into impact craters on Mars provide a window into climate change on the Red Planet. A new analysis suggests Mars has undergone several ice ages in the last several million years. The driver of these climate swings is likely the Red Planet's wobbly axis tilt. |
| Quantum computer as detector shows space is not squeezed Posted: 28 Jan 2015 11:16 AM PST Ever since Einstein proposed his special theory of relativity in 1905, physics and cosmology have been based on the assumption that space looks the same in all directions -- that it's not squeezed in one direction relative to another. A new experiment by physicists used partially entangled atoms -- identical to the qubits in a quantum computer -- to demonstrate more precisely than ever before that this is true: to one part in a billion billion. |
| Chimps with higher-ranking moms do better in fights Posted: 28 Jan 2015 10:13 AM PST For chimpanzees, just like humans, teasing, taunting and bullying are familiar parts of playground politics. An analysis of twelve years of observations of playground fights between young chimpanzees in East Africa finds that chimps with higher-ranked moms are more likely to win. |
| Beer compound could help fend off Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases Posted: 28 Jan 2015 08:39 AM PST The health-promoting perks of wine have attracted the spotlight recently, leaving beer in the shadows. But scientists are discovering new ways in which the latter could be a more healthful beverage than once thought. It turns out that a compound from hops could protect brain cells from damage -- and potentially slow the development of disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. |
| Researchers use sound to slow down, speed up, and block light Posted: 28 Jan 2015 06:35 AM PST How do you make an optical fiber transmit light only one way? Researchers have experimentally demonstrated, for the first time, the phenomenon of Brillouin Scattering Induced Transparency (BSIT), which can be used to slow down, speed up, and block light in an optical waveguide. The BSIT phenomenon permits light to travel in the forward direction while light traveling in the backward direction is strongly absorbed. This non-reciprocal behavior is essential for building isolators and circulators. |
| Ballooning offers platform for performing research in a space-like environment Posted: 28 Jan 2015 06:35 AM PST A high-altitude (>20 km) balloon platform is nearly ideal for carrying out scientific observations in a space-like environment, flight qualifying instrumentation, and transporting humans to the edge of space. This platform is regularly utilized by a wide range of disciplines, including astrophysics, heliophysics, planetary and Earth science. The increasing interest has driven the development of improved capabilities for payloads to fly at high altitudes for longer durations (> 100 days). |
| Blind beetles show extraordinary signs of sight Posted: 28 Jan 2015 06:34 AM PST Researchers have made a surprising discovery in the aquifers beneath the Western Australian desert, which challenges the traditional Darwinian view of evolution. They have discovered that a species of blind predatory water beetles -- living underground for millions of years -- express vision genes (opsin) which are usually only found in species with eyes. |
| Game theory explains social interactions of cancer cells Posted: 28 Jan 2015 05:20 AM PST The interactions of cancer cells may be explained by using game theory. The Public Goods Game is part of game theory and is used in economics as a model to analyze the provision of common goods. There is an imbalance in the consumption of these goods between those that provide them and pay the production costs and those that do not pay but consume anyway -- a situation that is known in economics as the free rider problem. The researchers now applied this model to the cooperation between producing and non-producing members of a cancer cell population, in order to examine if the model is also applicable to biological processes, such as carcinogenesis. |
| Nanoscale mirrored cavities amplify, connect quantum memories Posted: 28 Jan 2015 05:18 AM PST Constructing tiny "mirrors" to trap light increases the efficiency with which photons can pick up and transmit information about electronic spin states -- which is essential for scaling up quantum memories for functional quantum computing systems and networks. |
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