Are schizophrenia and autism close relations?

Are schizophrenia and autism close relations?: Medical researchers studied extensive genetic databases to discover that autism and schizophrenia had a genetic link, representing a heightened risk within families. People who have a schizophrenic sibling were 12 times more likely to have autism than those with no schizophrenia in the family.

Perfect pitch: Knowing the note may be in your genes

Perfect pitch: Knowing the note may be in your genes: People with perfect pitch seem to possess their own inner pitch pipe, allowing them to sing a specific note without first hearing a reference tone. This skill has long been associated with early and extensive musical training, but new research suggests that perfect pitch may have as much to do with genetics as it does with learning an instrument or studying voice.

Summer babies less likely to be CEOs

Summer babies less likely to be CEOs: A person's date of birth can affect their climb up the corporate ladder, new research suggests.

The Generation X report: How many Gen Xers know their cosmic address?

The Generation X report: How many Gen Xers know their cosmic address?: Less than half of Generation X adults can identify our home in the universe, a spiral galaxy, according to a new report.

New finding could pave way to faster, smaller electronics

New finding could pave way to faster, smaller electronics: Researchers for the first time have looked inside gallium manganese arsenide, a type of material known as a "dilute magnetic semiconductor" that could open up an entirely new class of faster, smaller devices based on an emerging field known as "spintronics."

How to Create Fuel out of Thin Air

How to Create Fuel out of Thin Air: A small British company has developed a process that uses air and electricity to create synthetic fuel. Yes, it's slightly more complicated than that, but the result is what Air Fuel Synthesis is calling "carbon-neutral" gasoline.

NASA Satellite Sees Black Hole Belching Out Hundred-Million-Degree X-rays

NASA Satellite Sees Black Hole Belching Out Hundred-Million-Degree X-rays:
The Bad Astronomer writes "NASA's NuSTAR satellite, designed to detect cosmic X-rays, detected a flare of high-energy emission coming from the Milky Way galaxy's central supermassive black hole. The X-rays were the dying gasp of a small gas cloud being torn apart, heated to a hundred million degrees, and then falling into the black hole itself. Events like this are relatively uncommon, so it's fortunate NuSTAR happened to be observing the black hole when it flared."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Grandmas made humans live longer: Chimp lifespan evolves into human longevity, computer simulation shows

Grandmas made humans live longer: Chimp lifespan evolves into human longevity, computer simulation shows: Computer simulations provide new mathematical support for the "grandmother hypothesis" -- a famous theory that humans evolved longer adult lifespans than apes because grandmothers helped feed their grandchildren.

Turbo switch of calcium pump in biological cells discovered

Turbo switch of calcium pump in biological cells discovered: Scientists have discovered a turbo switch in the vital calcium pump in our body's cells. Researchers discovered that the on-off switch of the pump has a previously unknown third position, which switches the pump into a turbo gear.

How Patent Trolls Harm the Economy

How Patent Trolls Harm the Economy:



WebMink writes "It used to just be speculation, but the numbers are now in — patent trolls are costing America jobs and economic growth. Newly-published research using data commissioned by Congress shows big rises in patent troll activity over the last five years — from 22% to 40% of all patent suits filed, with 4 out of five litigants being patent trolls. Other papers show that jobs are being lost and startups threatened, while VC money is just making things worse by making startups waste money filing more patents. Worst of all, it's clear this is just the tip of the iceberg; there's evidence that unseen pre-lawsuit settlements with patent trolls represent a much larger threat than anything the research can easily measure."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Brain scans predict children's reading ability

Brain scans predict children's reading ability: New research can identify the neural structures associated with poor reading skills in young children, and could lead to an early warning system for struggling students.

Air Force Lab Test Out "Aircraft Surfing" Technique To Save Fuel

Air Force Lab Test Out "Aircraft Surfing" Technique To Save Fuel:



coondoggie writes "It's not a totally new concept, but the Air Force is testing the idea of flying gas-guzzling cargo aircraft inline allowing the trailing aircraft to utilize the cyclonic energy coming off the lead plane — a concept known as vortex surfing — over long distances to save large amounts of fuel. According to an Air force release, a series of recent test flights involving two aircraft at a time, let the trailing aircraft surf the vortex of the lead aircraft, positioning itself in the updraft to get additional lift without burning extra fuel."

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Google Maps Gets Massive Street View Update

Google Maps Gets Massive Street View Update:
SternisheFan writes "Google Maps has been updated with what's described as the 'biggest ever" increase in Street View photography, with more than 250,000 miles of road around the world gaining street-level imagery. Street View coverage has been boosted in eleven countries, with new 'special collections' of photography, giving more insight into particular landmarks. Google has also sent its cameras inside some landmarks, so you can now step into Kronborg castle in Denmark, for instance. The search giant uses a combination of Street View photography cars, bikes, and even individually-work camera backpacks to gather its footage. Support for viewing Street View on mobile devices has been contentious in recent weeks, with Apple's decision to oust Google Maps from iOS 6 and replace it with its own Apple Maps app. Google re-added access by updating its webapp, however, and has promised a native version of Google Maps for iOS by the end of the year."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Roth Ceramic Subwoofer Drops That Bass

Roth Ceramic Subwoofer Drops That Bass: In an age of throw-away Ikea furniture, artist-branded headphones and smartphones with the shelf life of soft cheese, finding gadgets you'll cherish and pass down to your children is tough. Industrial designer Joey Roth is here to help.

Microsoft deliberately wasted energy at data center to avoid fine, says NY Times

Microsoft deliberately wasted energy at data center to avoid fine, says NY Times:

Microsoft's desire to avoid a fine combined with a power company's strict electricity usage rules resulted in the software giant deliberately wasting millions of watts of power, according to the New York Times. Redmond's Quincy data center, which houses Bing, Hotmail and other cloud-based servers, had an agreement in place with a Washington state utility containing clauses which imposed penalties for under-consumption of electricity. A $210,000 fine was levied last year, since the facility was well below its power-use target, which prompted Microsoft to deliberately burn $70,000 worth of electricity in three days "in a commercially unproductive manner" to avoid it, according to its own documents. The utility board capitulated and reduced the amend to $60k, but the messy situation seems a far cry from Redmond's pledge to become carbon neutral by this summer.
[Image credit: New York Times]
Filed under: Misc, Alt

Microsoft deliberately wasted energy at data center to avoid fine, says NY Times originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Sep 2012 10:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Climate is changing the Great Barrier Reef

Climate is changing the Great Barrier Reef: Satellite measurement of sea surface temperatures has yielded clear evidence of major changes taking place in the waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef over the past 25 years, marine scientists have found.

Milky Way Is Surrounded By Halo of Hot Gas

Milky Way Is Surrounded By Halo of Hot Gas:
New submitter kelk1 writes "If the size and mass of this gas halo is confirmed, it also could be an explanation for what is known as the 'missing baryon' problem for the galaxy [...] a census of the baryons present in stars and gas in our galaxy and nearby galaxies shows at least half the baryons are unaccounted for [...] Although there are uncertainties, the work by Gupta and colleagues provides the best evidence yet that the galaxy's missing baryons have been hiding in a halo of million-kelvin gas that envelopes the galaxy."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Food for thought: Do family meals really make a difference for child academics or behavior?

Food for thought: Do family meals really make a difference for child academics or behavior?: Despite popular wisdom and findings from much previous research that suggests the beneficial impact of family mealtime, a rigorous analysis of 21,400 children, ages five to 15, brings a new argument to the table: When researchers controlled for a host of confounding factors, they didn’t find any relationship between family meals and child academic outcomes or behavior.

Ants share decision-making, lessen vulnerability to 'information overload'

Ants share decision-making, lessen vulnerability to 'information overload': A research study with ants shows that collective decision-making proves more efficient than individual selection.

Robot Snakes To Fight Cancer Via Natural Orifice Surgery

Robot Snakes To Fight Cancer Via Natural Orifice Surgery:



Hugh Pickens writes writes "BBC reports that on a robot snake that, guided by a skilled surgeon and designed to get to places doctors are unable to reach without opening a patient up, could help spot and remove tumors more effectively. Robot snakes could be as minimally invasive using body orifices or local incisions as points of entry. 'Surgery is a cornerstone treatment for cancer so new technologies making it even more precise and effective are crucial,' says Safia Danovi from Cancer Research UK. 'Thanks to research, innovations such as keyhole surgery and robotics are transforming the treatment landscape for cancer patients and this trend needs to continue.' Robot snakes could complement a robotic surgical system that has been used for the past decade — the Da Vinci surgical system — that is controlled by a surgeon sitting in a nearby chair and looking at a screen displaying the area of the body where the surgery is taking place. The surgeon manipulates the robot by pressing pedals and moving levers. Natural orifice surgery (warning: pictures of the inside of a person) has the potential to revolutionize surgery in the same way that laparoscopic surgery replaced open surgery. The objective is to enter the abdomen through an internal organ rather than through the skin — e.g. access via the mouth, esophagus and stomach, and then through the stomach wall. 'We are at the earliest stage of establishing the problems and proposing solutions,' says Rob Buckingham of OC Robotics, developer of the robot snake (video). 'Our prototype signals a direction of travel and is a milestone towards exploring a new surgical paradigm.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Best and Worst of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Sci-Fi Optimism

The Best and Worst of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Sci-Fi Optimism: Win a Copy of Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season One

Two fans who post the geekiest Star Trek: The Next Generation comments below will score copies of the new bonus-packed Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season One Blu-ray collection. To enter, tell us your favorite (or least favorite) Next Generation episodes.

Deadline to enter is 12:01 ...

Odorant shape and vibration likely lead to olfaction satisfaction

Odorant shape and vibration likely lead to olfaction satisfaction: A new study lends support to a controversial theory of olfaction: Our noses can distinguish both the shape and the vibrational characteristics of odorant molecules. The study demonstrates the feasibility of the theory – first proposed decades ago – that the vibration of an odorant molecule's chemical bonds – the wagging, stretching and rocking of the links between atoms – contributes to our ability to distinguish one smelly thing from another.