science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Παρασκευή 12 Ιουλίου 2013

Science News SciGuru.com

Insect discovery sheds light on climate change
Cry analyzer seeks clues to babies’ health
How to Make a Compact Frequency Comb in Minutes
Researchers Perform DNA Computation in Living Cells

Insect discovery sheds light on climate change

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 12:55 PM PDT

Simon Fraser University biologists have discovered a new, extinct family of insects that will help scientists better understand how some animals responded to global climate change and the evolution of communities.

The Eocene Apex of Panorpoid Family Diversity, a paper by SFU’s Bruce Archibald and Rolf Mathewes, plus David Greenwood from Brandon University, was recently published in the Journal of Paleontology.

Cry analyzer seeks clues to babies’ health

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 11:38 AM PDT

Researchers at Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital have developed a new tool that analyzes the cries of babies, searching for clues to potential health or developmental problems. Slight variations in cries, mostly imperceptible to the human ear, can be a “window into the brain” that could allow for early intervention.

How to Make a Compact Frequency Comb in Minutes

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 09:50 AM PDT

Laser frequency combs—high-precision tools for measuring different colors of light in an ever-growing range of applications such as advanced atomic clocks, medical diagnostics and astronomy—are not only getting smaller but also much easier to make.

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can now make the core of a miniature frequency comb in one minute.* Conventional microfabrication techniques, by contrast, may require hours, days or even weeks.

Researchers Perform DNA Computation in Living Cells

Posted: 11 Jul 2013 07:21 AM PDT

Chemists from North Carolina State University have performed a DNA-based logic-gate operation within a human cell. The research may pave the way to more complicated computations in live cells, as well as new methods of disease detection and treatment.