Curated News: Scientific Meetings

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27-Jan-2016 9:30 AM EST
Scientist Creates AI Algorithm to Monitor Machinery Health
University of Alabama Huntsville

An artificial intelligence algorithm created by University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) principal research scientist Dr. Rodrigo Teixeira greatly increases accuracy in diagnosing the health of complex mechanical systems.

Released: 19-Jan-2016 7:05 PM EST
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Sensing From Mobile Devices May Help Improve Bus Service
University of Washington

Transportation engineers from the University of Washington developed an inexpensive system to sense Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals from bus passengers' mobile devices and collect data to build better transit systems.

Released: 14-Jan-2016 3:00 PM EST
Press Passes Available for Experimental Biology 2016 in San Diego
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)

Six scientific societies will hold their joint scientific sessions and annual meetings, known as Experimental Biology (EB), from April 2-6, in San Diego.

Released: 8-Jan-2016 2:05 PM EST
Spread of Algal Toxin Through Marine Food Web Broke Records in 2015
University of California, Santa Cruz

While Dungeness crab captured headlines, record levels of the neurotoxin domoic acid were found in a range of species, and the toxin showed up in new places.

30-Dec-2015 6:05 PM EST
Trinidadian Guppies Help 7th Graders Understand Evolution
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)

7th graders conducted classroom experiments using live Trinidadian guppies to test questions related to evolution, increasing both knowledge about and acceptance of evolutionary concepts.

Released: 6-Jan-2016 4:05 PM EST
What Motivates People to Walk and Bike? It Varies by Income
University of Washington

Built environment factors that motivate people to walk and bike vary by income, University of Washington researchers have found. Neighborhood density, accessible destinations and fewer vehicles were associated with more walking and biking in lower-income groups, while neighborhood attractiveness mattered for higher-income groups.

30-Dec-2015 6:05 PM EST
Dogfighting Bees Perform Aerial Combat Right at Researcher’s Front Door
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)

Simple consumer-grade equipment was used to study the combat flight behaviors of carpenter bees right at the researcher’s home.

30-Dec-2015 6:05 PM EST
How Three Genes You’Ve Never Heard of May Influence Human Fertility
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)

Variation in egg-coat and sperm expressed genes influences fertility in diverse organisms, from sea stars to mice to humans.

Released: 5-Jan-2016 4:05 PM EST
UTSA-Led Team Finds Black Hole Affecting Galactic Climate
University of Texas at San Antonio

Researchers used NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, launched and deployed in 1999 by Space Shuttle Columbia.

30-Dec-2015 12:05 PM EST
Snakes Show That Eating Can Be Bad for Your Health
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)

New research on snakes shows that eating increases the amount of damaging reactive molecules in the body, potentially shaping and constraining life history evolution across animal groups.

30-Dec-2015 6:05 PM EST
Zombified Caterpillars Forced to Carb-Load by Parasitoid Wasps
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)

Parasitoid wasps manipulate their caterpillar hosts into eating a more wasp-friendly diet.

Released: 4-Jan-2016 2:05 PM EST
Masdar Institute Research Successfully Proves UAE Desert Sand Can Store Solar Energy up to 1000°C
Masdar Institute of Science and Technology

The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an independent, research-driven graduate-level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, today announced that its researchers have successfully demonstrated that desert sand from the UAE could be used in concentrated solar power (CSP) facilities to store thermal energy up to 1000°C.

Released: 21-Dec-2015 12:05 PM EST
Teaching Machines to See
University of Cambridge

New smartphone-based system could accelerate development of driverless cars.

Released: 21-Dec-2015 11:05 AM EST
Auroral Mystery Solved: Sudden Bursts Caused by Swirling Charged Particles
Kyoto University

Japanese supercomputer model overthrows existing theory of auroral breakup.

Released: 18-Dec-2015 4:05 PM EST
10,000-Year Record Shows Dramatic Uplift at Andean Volcano
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Ongoing studies of a massive volcanic field in the Andes mountains show that the rapid uplift which has raised the surface more than six feet in eight years has occurred many times during the past 10,000 years.

Released: 17-Dec-2015 10:05 AM EST
URI Undergrad’s Research Questions Scientific ‘Discoveries’ of Human-Associated Fungi in Seafloor Sediments
University of Rhode Island

A URI undergraduate has investigated six research papers claiming discoveries of human-associated fungi living in seafloor sediments and concluded that they were likely the result of contaminated samples.

Released: 15-Dec-2015 2:05 PM EST
Plunging Into the Ionosphere: Satellite's Last Days Improve Orbital Decay Predictions
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Scientists are learning more about how the upper atmosphere and ionosphere affect space satellites as well as communications and navigation here on Earth, thanks to new data from a U.S. Air Force satellite that recently completed a more than seven-year mission.

Released: 15-Dec-2015 12:00 AM EST
Three Miles High: Using Drones to Study High-Altitude Glaciers
Ohio State University

While some dream of the day that aerial drones deliver their online purchases, scientists are using the technology today to deliver data that was never available before. About 5,000 meters high in the Peruvian Andes, the scientists are mapping glaciers and wetlands in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range with 10-centimeter precision to gauge how climate change will affect the half-million local residents who rely in part on those glaciers for their water supply.

Released: 14-Dec-2015 3:05 PM EST
Some Gas Produced by Hydraulic Fracturing Comes From Surprise Source
Ohio State University

Some of the natural gas harvested by hydraulic fracturing operations may be of biological origin—made by microorganisms inadvertently injected into shale by oil and gas companies during the hydraulic fracturing process, a new study has found.

Released: 14-Dec-2015 12:05 PM EST
Millet: The Missing Link in Prehistoric Humans' Transition From Hunter-Gatherer to Farmer
University of Cambridge

New research shows a cereal familiar today as birdseed was carried across Eurasia by ancient shepherds and herders laying the foundation, in combination with the new crops they encountered, of 'multi-crop' agriculture and the rise of settled societies. Archaeologists say 'forgotten' millet has a role to play in modern crop diversity and today's food security debate.

Released: 14-Dec-2015 9:00 AM EST
Brain Cancer Self-Organizes into Streams, Swirls, and Spheres
American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)

Brain cancer is not cellular anarchy, says Pedro Lowenstein and colleagues at the University of Michigan and University of Arizona, but highly organized—self-organized. At ASCB 2015, the researchers report that glioma cells build tumors by self-organizing into streams,10-20 cells wide, that obey a mathematically predicted pattern for autonomous agents flowing together. These streams drag along slower gliomas, may block entry of immune cells, and swirl around a central axis containing glioma stem cells that feed the tumor’s growth.

Released: 14-Dec-2015 9:00 AM EST
Amoebas Reveals How Human Airway Cells Rally Against Cigarette Smoke Damage
American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD )is the third leading cause of death in the US and cigarette smoking is the leading cause of COPD. Currently there is no cure, current treatments are largely palliative, and new treatment targets are scarce. Now Corrine Kliment and colleagues in Doug Robinson’s lab at Johns Hopkins University have found two new targets for blocking cigarette smoke-induced COPD in a surprising place—amoebas. Kliment presents the work at ASCB 2015.

Released: 7-Dec-2015 12:05 PM EST
What Makes Tom Hanks Look Like Tom Hanks?
University of Washington

University of Washington researchers have reconstructed 3-D models of celebrities such as Tom Hanks from large Internet photo collections. The models can deliver speeches that the real actor never performed - one step toward developing fully interactive digital models of people from family or historic photo collections.

Released: 2-Dec-2015 1:05 PM EST
Global Food System Faces Multiple Threats From Climate Change
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)

A new international report warns that climate change will likely have far-reaching impacts on food security worldwide, especially for the poor and those in tropical regions. The report, issued today at the Paris climate talks, finds that warmer temperatures and altered precipitation patterns can affect food production, transportation, and safety.

Released: 27-Nov-2015 10:05 AM EST
At 2015 SRA Meeting: Automaker Liability, World Refugee Crises, Risk and Resilience
Society for Risk Analysis (SRA)

Journalists are invited as guests to find great news leads and meet experts at the Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting in Arlington, VA, December 6-10, 2015.

13-Nov-2015 9:05 AM EST
Surf's Up: How to Catch a Perfect Wave
American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics

Along coastlines from California to Australia, you'll see surfers trying to catch that perfect wave. How they find and ride that wave relies on feel and intuition, developed through skill and experience. Now researchers from the LadHyX Hydrodynamics Laboratory of École Polytechnique in France are trying to quantify this ability, studying the conditions necessary for a surfer to catch a wave. They'll present their findings at APS's DFD 2015 Meeting.

13-Nov-2015 11:05 AM EST
A Flounder's Disappearing Act Explained by Physics
American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics

Simply oscillating its fins is all a flounder, a flat fish, needs to do to resuspend sand and quickly disappear beneath it to hide. By discovering the physics at play, researchers in France are hoping to provide a new flounder-inspired solution to a common technological challenge: the resuspension of granular material within a fluid. They'll discuss their findings at the American Physical Society's 2015 DFD Meeting.

16-Nov-2015 8:05 AM EST
And When the Bubbles Burst, Thunder in Neurons
American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics

In the fleeting moments after a liquid is subjected to a sudden change in pressure, microscopic bubbles rapidly form and collapse in a process known as cavitation. In the human brain, this is believed to be a mechanistic cause of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, but the phenomenon has yet to be directly observed in brain tissue because the bubbles appear and disappear within microseconds. To address this, researchers are seeking to understand how cavitation might injure neurons by using a 3-D imaging system coupled with a diffraction grating to examine their post-exposure morphology. They will present their recent findings APS’s DFD 2015 Meeting.

13-Nov-2015 10:05 AM EST
Make Mine a Double-Shot, Zero-G Espresso
American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics

Last year Italy sent an espresso machine up to the ISS, and this inspired a team of researchers to study the related strange fluids phenomena in low gravity, such as espresso crema formation and containment of potentially hazardous drinks within a spacecraft. To do this, the researchers designed a cup that exploits surface tension as opposed to gravity and during APS’s DFD Meeting they'll present their findings about how it's working aboard the Space Station.

19-Nov-2015 9:05 AM EST
How Do Fruit Flies Maintain Flight Stability?
American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics

Have you ever wondered why insects move in the funky ways they do? Or how physical laws shape the design of animals' sensors and neural computation for locomotion? These are a just a few of the questions Cornell University researchers are exploring within this realm, and during APS’s DFD 2015 Meeting, Z. Jane Wang, a Professor of Physics and of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and one of her students, James Melfi Jr., will share their findings.

20-Nov-2015 8:05 AM EST
ONLINE PRESS CONFERENCE: Surfing, Sneezing, Flounders and Fur
American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics

Monday, Nov. 23: A Live Streamed Event on the Physics of Surfing, the Complex Secrets of the Sneeze, a Flounder’s Disappearing Act, and How Fur Keeps Animals Warm in Cold Water -- News from the 68th Annual Meeting of APS Division of Fluid Dynamics in Boston

19-Nov-2015 8:05 AM EST
The Complex Sneeze, Caught on Tape
American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics

However commonplace it may be in human life, the sneeze remains somewhat of an enigma to science, and we are still a long way from understanding the simple sneeze in all its phlegm-flam glory. This month during APS’s DFD 2015 Meeting, researchers will present new work that shows how droplets are formed within a high-propulsion sneeze cloud -- a critical piece of the puzzle that has so far been missing.

13-Nov-2015 9:05 AM EST
How Does Fur Keep Animals Warm in Cold Water?
American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics

Rather than relying on a thick layer of body fat for insulation as many aquatic mammals do, some seabirds and semiaquatic mammals such as fur seals and otters trap a layer of air in their feathers and furs for thermal insulation against the ice cold drink. Now a team of researchers from MIT has experimentally studied the trapping of air in hairy surfaces and the water-repellent properties of undeformable hairy textures, which is key for animals’ thermal regulation. The researchers will present the study at APS’s DFD Fall 2015 Meeting.

13-Nov-2015 9:05 AM EST
The Anti-Icing Tricks of Penguins
American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics

Antarctic penguins live in a bitterly cold place, where the air temperature can drop to -40 degrees Celsius and the winds can hurtle at speeds of 40 meters per second. Although these birds routinely hop in and out of the water in sub-freezing temperatures, they manage to keep ice from coating their feathers. Now researchers have examined penguin feathers in extreme detail and think they know the penguins' anti-icing trick: a combination of nanostructures and a special oil make Antarctic penguin feathers ultra-water-repelling, or superhydrophobic. The researchers will present their findings at APS's DFD Fall 2015 Meeting.

16-Nov-2015 8:05 AM EST
Wind Tunnel Reveals Mysteries of Drifting Snow
American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics

Drifting snow is a complicated and poorly understood process that is important to fathom because it accounts for a major fraction of wind-blown snow redistribution within polar and mountainous regions of the world. To understand it better, a group researchers is exploring mass and momentum fluxes during drifting snow events, pursuing an improved understanding of the link between snow cover erosion and deposition. They will present their findings at APS’s DFD 2015 Meeting.

17-Nov-2015 7:05 AM EST
Tiny Robots Inspired by Pine Cones
American Physical Society's Division of Fluid Dynamics

The future of bio-inspired engineering or robotics will greatly benefit from lessons learned from plants, according to a group of Seoul National University researchers. During the American Physical Society's 68th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics, Nov. 22-24, 2015, in Boston, they will share details about how studying plants enabled them to create tiny robots powered exclusively by changes in humidity.

Released: 18-Nov-2015 2:05 PM EST
Powering the Next Billion Devices with Wi-Fi
University of Washington

University of Washington engineers have developed a novel technology that uses a Wi-Fi router — a source of ubiquitous but untapped energy in indoor environments — to power devices without sacrificing network performance.

Released: 11-Nov-2015 2:05 PM EST
Mars' Moon Phobos Is Slowly Falling Apart
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

The long, shallow grooves lining the surface of Phobos are likely early signs of the structural failure that will ultimately destroy this moon of Mars.

Released: 11-Nov-2015 9:05 AM EST
Grow Kids’ Brains Through Sport!
Universite de Montreal

Organized extracurricular sport activities for children help them develop and improve cognitive skills, such as greater concentration capacity, that can in term greatly help them in the classroom, says Université de Montréal professor Linda Pagani.

   
29-Oct-2015 1:05 PM EDT
Korea’s ‘Hanoks’ Display Acoustic Excellence
Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

Concerts held within Hanoks are popular tourist attractions in Korea, and when a team of researchers from Soongsil University in Seoul discovered this, they set out to explore whether the homes’ excellent acoustics stem from their architectural structure as well as materials. During ASA’s Fall 2015 Meeting, being held Nov. 2-6, in Jacksonville, Fla., the team will describe their findings analyzing the harmony that results from playing traditional instruments within Hanoks.

29-Oct-2015 1:05 PM EDT
Vibrating Bees Tell the State of the Hive
Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

While scientists are still investigating the causes of colony collapse disorder, beekeepers could benefit from technologies that help them track the health of their hives, and researchers have developed a device that can monitor hive activity without disturbing the bees. It picks up and analyzes vibrations from special types of bee vocalizations and has successfully tracked changes in bee activity from day to night, and seasonally, by monitoring the occurrences of this specific signal. The team will present their results at ASA’s Fall 2015 Meeting.

29-Oct-2015 9:05 AM EDT
Why’s There Chatter in My Himalayan Singing Bowl?
Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

A Himalayan singing bowl operates like a wine glass -- slide your fingertip, or a wooden stick called a puja, around its rim to hear its soothing tones. The bowls have been used for meditation and worship for centuries, but have found new audiences in contemporary music. Researchers have studied the motion of the bowl and revealed the origin of “chatter,” which occurs when the puja is played against the bowl. The study will be presented at ASA’s Fall 2015 Meeting.

Released: 5-Nov-2015 10:05 AM EST
Hydrogen Bond Research at Indiana State University Adds to Scientific Community’s Knowledge
Indiana State University

Anti-electrostatic hydrogen bonding systems have the same charge, yet nevertheless stick together because of the hydrogen bonds, students discover.

29-Oct-2015 3:05 PM EDT
Researchers Reveal Acoustic Complexity of Chickadee Songs
Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

Researchers have found an alternative choice for songbird study: a small non-migratory songbird commonly found in North America known as the black-capped chickadee. Female black-capped chickadees sing and their songs are acoustically distinct from the songs of their male counterparts. What’s more, the researchers say, both male and female birds can tell apart the songs of the two sexes. Sturdy will describe the new findings in a talk at ASA’s Fall 2015 Meeting.

29-Oct-2015 1:05 PM EDT
Sound Waves Levitate Cells to Detect Stiffness Changes That Could Signal Disease
Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

Utah Valley University physicists are literally applying rocket science to the field of medical diagnostics. With a few key changes, the researchers used a noninvasive ultrasonic technique originally developed to detect microscopic flaws in solid fuel rockets to successfully detect cell stiffness changes associated with certain cancers and other diseases. Brian Patchett will describe the group’s method, which uses sound waves to manipulate and probe cells, during ASA’s Fall 2015 Meeting.

Released: 4-Nov-2015 10:05 AM EST
New Findings Rock Long-Held Assumptions About Ancient Mass Extinction
University of Texas at Dallas

New evidence gathered from the Karoo Basin in South Africa sheds light on a catastrophic extinction event that occurred more than 250 million years ago and wiped out more than 90 percent of life in Earth’s oceans and about 70 percent of animal species on land.

29-Oct-2015 8:05 AM EDT
Environment and Climate Helped Shape Varied Evolution of Human Languages
Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

Researchers have examined the relationship between the sound structures of a worldwide sample of human languages and climatic and ecological factors including temperature, precipitation, vegetation and geomorphology. The results, to be presented at ASA’s 2015 Fall Meeting, Nov. 2-6, show a correlation between ecological factors and the ratio of sonorant segments to obstruent segments in the examined languages. This supports the hypothesis that acoustic adaptation to the environment plays a role in the evolution of human languages.

29-Oct-2015 7:05 AM EDT
Fighting Citrus Greening with Vibrating Orange Groves
Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

The Asian Citrus Psyllid is loathed by orange farmers because they spread an even more pernicious foe: the bacteria Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, which cause a disease called citrus greening that turns the trees' leaves a sickly yellow and makes the fruit bitter and stunted. There is no cure, and the infected trees usually die within a few years. To halt the spread of the disease, researchers are developing vibration traps that hijack psyllid mating calls to locally bring their populations under control.

29-Oct-2015 2:05 PM EDT
Does Cheering Affect the Outcome of College Hockey Games?
Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

We all love belting our lungs out at sporting event, hurling insults and encouragements in turn, but does it actually have an effect on either team’s performance? A study conducted by a student at the University of Nebraska seeks to answer this question. The study was performed by Brenna Boyd, an undergraduate research assistant at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s. Boyd will present her findings at ASA’s Fall 2015 Meeting.



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