Thursday 23 May 2019

Aftershocks of 1959 earthquake rocked Yellowstone in 2017-18

On Aug. 17, 1959, back when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, the U.S. had yet to send a human to space and the nation's flag sported 49 stars, Yellowstone National Park shook violently for about 30 seconds. The shock was strong enough to drop the ground a full 20 feet in some places. It toppled the dining room fireplace in the Old Faithful Inn. Groundwater swelled up and down in wells as far away as Hawaii. Twenty-eight people died. It went down in Yellowstone history as the Hebgen Lake earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.2.

* This article was originally published here

AlterEgo opens silent spring of computer connections via wearable

OK, we get it. Artificial intelligence experts are on a fast clip from year to year, month to month, showing off what their research can promise. But could it be that we have reached that stage in human-computer interaction, where you can think of a question —— without saying a word— and the machine will respond with the answer?

* This article was originally published here

Hot spots in rivers that nurture salmon 'flicker on and off' in Bristol Bay region

Chemical signatures imprinted on tiny stones that form inside the ears of fish show that two of Alaska's most productive salmon populations, and the fisheries they support, depend on the entire watershed.

* This article was originally published here

Live fast, die young: Study shows tiny fishes fuel coral reefs

Scientists have long sought to understand how coral reefs support such an abundance of fish life despite their location in nutrient-poor waters. According to a new study published May 23 in the journal Science, an unlikely group fuels these communities: tiny, mostly bottom-dwelling creatures called "cryptobenthic" reef fishes.

* This article was originally published here

Video: Could there be life without carbon?

One element is the backbone of all forms of life we've ever discovered on Earth: carbon.

* This article was originally published here

MobiKa: A low-cost mobile robot that can assist people in a variety of settings

Researchers at Fraunhofer IPA, in Stuttgart, Germany, have recently developed MobiKa, a low-cost, mobile robot capable of two-modal (voice and text) interactions with humans. Their robot, presented in a paper pre-published on arXiv, could be particularly useful for assisting elderly people.

* This article was originally published here

Threat or promise? E-auto boom could cost industry jobs

Over 115 years the auto industry in the east German town of Zwickau has lived through wrenching upheavals including World War II and the collapse of communism. Now the city's 90,000 people are plunging headlong into another era of change: top employer Volkswagen's total shift into electric cars at the local plant.

* This article was originally published here

Do physicians properly advise women with dense breasts on cancer risk?

A new study has shown that more than half of physicians—primary care doctors and specialists—may be unaware that dense breasts are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, and nearly half reported not being aware of laws requiring physicians to inform women about mammography-related breast density risks and supplemental screening options. This timely and newsworthy study, which also compared the knowledge and practices of primary care physicians to specialists regarding breast density, is published in Journal of Women's Health.

* This article was originally published here

New Flatland material: Physicists obtain quasi-2D gold

Researchers from the MIPT Center for Photonics and 2-D Materials have synthesized a quasi-2-D gold film, revealing how materials not usually classified as two-dimensional can form atomically thin layers. Published in Advanced Materials Interfaces, the study shows that by using monolayer molybdenum disulfide as an adhesion layer, quasi-2-D gold can be deposited on an arbitrary surface. The team says the resulting ultrathin gold films, which are only several nanometers thick, conduct electricity very well and are useful for flexible and transparent electronics. The finding might contribute to a new class of optical metamaterials with the unique potential to control light.

* This article was originally published here

CDC: cancer death rates decreased, heart disease deaths rose

(HealthDay)—Cancer death rates declined for adults aged 45 to 64 years from 1999 to 2017, while heart disease death rates decreased to 2011 and then increased, according to the May 22 National Vital Statistics Reports, a publication from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

* This article was originally published here