Facebook Likes Reveal Personality Traits
A new Anglo-American study has provided evidence that the ‘digital footprints’ you leave behind on your visits to social media websites such as Facebook can reveal more about your personality than your family or best friends. Researchers at California’s Stanford University and the UK’s University of Cambridge constructed a computer model that mined the Facebook […]
Science Images of the Month – December, 2014
Science Scanner: Venus Mission Ends, Organic Chemistry on Mars, Hormone Changes in Expectant Dads, New High in CO2 Output
ESA’s Venus Express Mission Ends The European Space Agency (ESA) announced this week that the space probe it sent to orbit Venus back in 2006 has reached the end of its life. Called the Venus Express, the spacecraft ran out of its propellant after executing a number of thruster burns that returned the probe to […]
Tweets Offer Insight into Mental Health Issues
Computer scientists are analyzing Twitter tweets to gather key information on the prevalence of common mental illnesses. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore say their new computer program can sift through volumes of publicly available postings on the social media website, and detect certain ‘language cues’ associated with particular disorders, such as depression, post-traumatic […]
Science Scanner – Big Asteroid Won’t Hit Us, Artificial Skin Detects Pressure, Link Found: ER Visits and Internet Searches
Huge Asteroid Won’t Hit Us After All The NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office says that we can all breathe easier now: Reports indicating that a gigantic asteroid is heading our way and would possibly impact the Earth are not true. The 400-meter wide ‘2014 UR116’ asteroid, found on October 27 at the MASTER-II observatory in […]
Science Scanner: All Systems ‘Go’ for Comet Touchdown, Cigarette Ash Removes Arsenic from Water, Is Earth’s Magnetic Field Ready to Flip?, Building the World’s Biggest Cosmic Ray Detector
Rosetta’s Philae Lander Given Green Light for Comet Touchdown in November The European Space Agency announced that all systems are ‘go’ for the Rosetta Mission to send its Philae lander to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12, 2014. This will the first-ever attempt of a soft touchdown landing on a comet. A month […]
Science Scanner: Voters Say Pluto is a Planet, Sense of Touch Explored, Promising New Way to Stop Spread of Cancer, High-Tech Bracelet Secures Computers
People Vote to Make Pluto a Planet Again Until 2006, school children were taught – and most people considered the matter settled – that Pluto is one of the nine planets of the solar system. But that year members of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) – which is responsible for naming and classifying celestial objects […]
Science Scanner: Ultra-Fast Data Transmission, Why Humans Look Different, Exoplanet Makes Young Sun Act Old, Scientists Find New Branch of European Family Tree
California Scientists Develop Radio Based Ultra-Fast Data Transmission System Back in 2012, an international team of scientists led by electrical engineering professor Alan Willner, of the University of Southern California, made news when they announced that they were able to transmit data at incredibly high speeds with a system that used eight twisted light beams. […]
3D Printer in Space, Antibiotic Laced Pesticides May Trigger Allergies, Milky Way a Member of the Laniakea Supercluster, Drink Responsibly Messages, Reducing E-Waste
NASA Hopes 3D Printer Technology Will Prove Useful in Space Voyages NASA is taking its first step to see if it could someday create the first machine shop in outer space. On its resupply mission that should launch sometime after September 19th, the SpaceX-4 will be delivering the first 3D printer to fly in space […]
Cornell’s ‘Robo Brain’ Helps Robots Learn
Researchers at Cornell University are developing “Robo Brain”, a knowledgebase/database that could be an invaluable resource for those who build and program robots. To get them to operate and carry out their assigned tasks – which could range from simple household chores to bomb detection or even performing surgery – robots are programmed with specific […]