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Saturday, June 16, 2012

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

ScienceDaily: Top Technology News


No Earth impact in 2040: NASA releases workshop data and findings on asteroid 2011 AG5

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 11:32 AM PDT

Researchers anticipate that asteroid 2011 AG5, discovered in January 2011, will fly safely past and not impact Earth in 2040. Observations to date indicate there is a slight chance that AG5 could impact Earth in 2040. Experts are now confident that in the next four years, analysis of space and ground-based observations will show the likelihood of 2011 AG5 missing Earth to be greater than 99 percent.

Data from NASA's Voyager 1 point to interstellar future

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 08:48 AM PDT

Data from NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft indicate that the venerable deep-space explorer has encountered a region in space where the intensity of charged particles from beyond our solar system has markedly increased. Voyager scientists looking at this rapid rise draw closer to an inevitable but historic conclusion -- that humanity's first emissary to interstellar space is on the edge of our solar system.

Knowledge of fractions and long division predicts long-term math success

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 08:40 AM PDT

From factory workers to Wall Street bankers, a reasonable proficiency in math is a crucial requirement for most well-paying jobs in a modern economy. Yet, over the past 30 years, mathematics achievement of US high school students has remained stagnant -- and significantly behind many other countries, including China, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands and Canada. A research team led by Carnegie Mellon University's Robert Siegler has identified a major source of the gap -- US students' inadequate knowledge of fractions and division.

Neutrons escaping to a parallel world?

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 07:43 AM PDT

In a new paper, researchers hypothesize the existence of mirror particles to explain the anomalous loss of neutrons observed experimentally. The existence of such mirror matter had been suggested in various scientific contexts some time ago, including the search for suitable dark matter candidates.

Physicists predict success of movies at the box office based solely on advertising costs

Posted: 15 Jun 2012 07:37 AM PDT

A group of Japanese scientists have surprised themselves by being able to predict the success or failure of blockbuster movies at the box office using a set of mathematical models. The researchers used the effects of advertising and word-of-mouth communication to create a model that turned out to be successful in predicting how each movie fared once it hit the silver screen. The only data the researchers needed to put into the model were the daily advertisement costs of 25 movies that appeared in Japanese cinemas.

New solar active region spitting out flares

Posted: 14 Jun 2012 04:37 PM PDT

An active region on the sun, numbered AR 1504, rotated into view over the left side of the sun on June 10, 2012. The region fired off two M-class flares and two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on June 13 and June 14, 2012.

Improving high-tech medical scanners

Posted: 13 Jun 2012 12:33 PM PDT

A powerful color-based imaging technique is making the jump from remote sensing to the operating room. Scientists are working to ensure it performs as well when spotting cancer cells in the body as it does with oil spills in the ocean.

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