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NASA's Hubble Spots Rare Gravitational Arc from Distant, Hefty Galaxy Cluster
Curry spice, omega-3 fatty acid preserve walking ability following spinal-cord injury
Seeing fattening-food pictures triggers hunger, appetite; the proof is in the brain
A new toilet system that will turn human waste into electricity and fertilizers
Nanodiamonds cut through dirt to bring back ‘bling’ to low temperature laundry
Better surfaces could help dissipate heat
Facebook makes us feel good about ourselves
Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience

NASA's Hubble Spots Rare Gravitational Arc from Distant, Hefty Galaxy Cluster

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 03:30 PM PDT

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found a puzzling arc of light behind an extremely massive cluster of galaxies residing 10 billion light-years away. The galactic grouping, discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, was observed when the universe was roughly a quarter of its current age of 13.7 billion years. The giant arc is the stretched shape of a more distant galaxy whose light is distorted by the monster cluster's powerful gravity, an effect called gravitational lensing.

The trouble is, the arc shouldn't exist.

Curry spice, omega-3 fatty acid preserve walking ability following spinal-cord injury

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 10:04 AM PDT

UCLA researchers have discovered that a diet enriched with a popular omega-3 fatty acid and an ingredient in curry spice helps to preserve walking ability in rats that have experienced damage to their spinal cords.

The findings, published June 26 in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, suggest that these dietary supplements help repair nerve cells and maintain neurological function after degenerative damage to the neck.

Seeing fattening-food pictures triggers hunger, appetite; the proof is in the brain

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 09:45 AM PDT

A picture may be worth a thousand calories, a new study suggests. Looking at images of high-calorie foods stimulates the brain's appetite control center and results in an increased desire for food, according to the study, which will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.

"This stimulation of the brain's reward areas may contribute to overeating and obesity," said the study's senior author, Kathleen Page, MD, assistant professor at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

A new toilet system that will turn human waste into electricity and fertilizers

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 09:37 AM PDT

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have invented a new toilet system that will turn human waste into electricity and fertilizers and also reduce the amount of water needed for flushing by up to 90 per cent compared to current toilet systems in Singapore.

Dubbed the No-Mix Vacuum Toilet, it has two chambers that separate the liquid and solid wastes. Using vacuum suction technology, such as those used in aircraft lavatories, flushing liquids would now take only 0.2 litres of water while flushing solids require just one litre.

Nanodiamonds cut through dirt to bring back ‘bling’ to low temperature laundry

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 09:29 AM PDT

Nanodiamonds, pieces of carbon less than ten-thousandths the diameter of a human hair, have been found to help loosen crystallized fat from surfaces in a project led by research chemists at the University of Warwick that transforms the ability of washing powders to shift dirt in eco friendly low temperature laundry cycles.

These new findings tackle a problem that forces consumers to wash some of their laundry at between 60 and 90 degrees centigrade more than 80 times a year.

Better surfaces could help dissipate heat

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 08:48 AM PDT

Cooling systems that use a liquid that changes phase — such as water boiling on a surface — can play an important part in many developing technologies, including advanced microchips and concentrated solar-power systems. But understanding exactly how such systems work, and what kinds of surfaces maximize the transfer of heat, has remained a challenging problem.

Facebook makes us feel good about ourselves

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 08:35 AM PDT

People love social networks. That's the obvious conclusion from Facebook's 900 million active users and its current standing as one of the most visited sites on the web, second only to Google. New research from the University of Georgia finds what people may really "like" about social networking are themselves.

"Despite the name ‘social networks,' much user activity on networking sites is self-focused," said Brittany Gentile, a UGA doctoral candidate who looked at the effects of social networks on self-esteem and narcissism.

Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 08:30 AM PDT

Wedding DJs everywhere should be worried about job security now that a new robot is on the scene. Shimi, a musical companion developed by Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, recommends songs, dances to the beat and keeps the music pumping based on listener feedback. The smartphone-enabled, one-foot-tall robot is billed as an interactive “musical buddy.”