Mark Hoffman : Science World Report

Feb 06, 2013 02:49 PM EST

Starbreeding Seagull Nebula Shows Youthful Strength of Our Galaxy

A new image of the Seagull Nebula from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) shows a small section of this complex cloud of dust and glowing gas. The name comes from the wispy red clouds that form part of the "wings" of the celestial bird and this picture reveals an intriguing mix of dark and glow...

Feb 06, 2013 11:27 AM EST

Americans Spend Up To 80 Percent of Internet at Work Time ‘Cyberloafing’

A gigantic amount of time at work, and thus productivity, is wasted by surfing the web - this is a fact few will doubt, and now there is another small study using surveys to put some numbers behind it. The prevalence found by the Kansas State University researchers are quite astonishing though, find...

Feb 06, 2013 10:28 AM EST

Silkmoth Drives a Robot to Track Sex Pheromones

A small robotic car with two wheels was "driven" by a male silkmoth, which used it to track down the sex pheromone usually given off by a female mate.

Feb 05, 2013 10:30 PM EST

Strong 8.0 Earthquake Causes Tsunami in South Pacific, Generates Data

A major earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter scale just happened in the night to February 6, with the epicenter quite shallow at a depth of 5.8km at Santa Cruz Islands, 347km east of Kira Kira in the Solomon Islands, according to the US Geological Survey.

Feb 05, 2013 08:22 PM EST

Mysterious Ribbon Around Our Solar System Explained

A mysterious phenomenon was discovered at the outer most border of our solar system when a special instrument was launched which could observe this region for the first time. This border is defined as the heliosphere, where material streaming out from the sun interacts with the galactic material. It...

Feb 05, 2013 03:07 PM EST

Switching Off Epilectic Seizures by Switching On Light in Brain

Neuroscientists at UC Irvine said that they "switched off" epileptic seizures by "switching on the lights" in the brain of mice. This was possible by implanting fiber optic strands in the brain, to then use light signals to stimulate a special kind of protein, called opsins, which can inhibit specif...

Feb 05, 2013 01:30 PM EST

Stellar Winds Form a Bow Shock in Orion Nebula

Another magnificent image made by the Hubble space telescope shows a small segment of the vast stellar nursery in Orion with its beautiful clouds. It is filled with a myriad of fluid shapes associated with star formation, formed by the radiation and winds emitted by stars in various directions and i...

Feb 05, 2013 12:33 PM EST

Graphene Sheet Manufacturing Breakthrough

Another step towards the production and use of graphene has been achieved by a team led by Oxford University scientists by finding a method to reduce defects when growing the promising material. This addresses a key problem of growing graphene by using chemical vapor deposition to form tiny flakes o...

Feb 04, 2013 08:44 PM EST

LHC to Increase Power Fivefold by 2020 With New Superconducting Technology

The largest scientific instrument ever built, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will be upgraded to become five times more powerful until 2020. Major advancements in the required cutting-edge superconducting technology, in particular for the new high-field magnets and the high-power links, made in 20...

Feb 04, 2013 05:00 PM EST

Full-color Vision Restoring Stem Cells Identified For First time

Stem cells could be used selectively to restore different functions of vision as needed, implies new research findings by University of Alberta scientists. The two most important photoreceptors are rods and cones, which in humans enable night vision, and full-color daytime vision, respectively. Whil...

Feb 04, 2013 03:34 PM EST

Biological Space Experiment at ISS Sheds Light on Immune System

A key part in the mechanism activating the human immune system has been identified by researchers thanks to an experiment conducted on board the International Space Station (ISS). The finding could help to pro-actively our immune system earlier and more specifically in order to quell diseases before...

Feb 04, 2013 02:13 PM EST

Mars Surface Now 90% Mapped in 3D

Mapping the surface of Mars in 3D is now 90% finished by the high-resolution stereo camera on the European Space Agency's Mars Express, about 9 years after the orbital insertion of the satellite.