science wire

Rankings based on research citation impact MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (06/02/2011) —The University of Minnesota is ranked fourth overall among the world's most influential research universit

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Using a high-resolution single-molecule study technique, University of Illinois researchers have seen the very subtle differences between two branches of an important family of neurotransmitter-gated ion channels. Professor Claudio Grosman and research scientist Gisela Cymes published their work .

Voting districts are redrawn every 10 years — after each U.S. census — to reflect changes in population.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Imagine a robot able to retrieve a pile of laundry from the back of a cluttered closet, deliver it to a washing machine, start the cycle and then zip off to the kitchen to start preparing dinner.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Next time you go on vacation, you may want to think twice before shooting hundreds of photos of that scenic mountain or lake. A new study from MIT neuroscientists shows that the most memorable photos are those that contain people, followed by static indoor scenes and human-scale objects.

Top Stories People Press Clips @Work What's Happening Faculty Authors Missed the Clinton Global Initiative University live at UC San Diego?

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Getting two fluids to mix in small or confined spaces is a big problem in many industries where, for instance, the introduction of one fluid can help extract another - like water pumped underground can release oil trapped in porous rock - or where the mixing of liquids is the essential point of the process.

A fundamentally new approach to glasses-free 3-D displays could save power, widen the viewing angle and make 3-D illusions more realistic.

In 2009 some 1,770 children died from maltreatment by parents or caregivers and 702,000 were victims of abuse or neglect, according to the latest statistics.

By Simon Levey Monday 18 April 2011 Scientists studying the fossils of tiny ocean-dwelling plankton, called foraminifera, have uncovered another piece in the puzzle of why species evolve or become extinct.

A study from The Australian National University has revealed for the first time how an animal sees and responds to predatory attacks in its natural environment.

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin today will dedicate Lonestar 4, its newest supercomputer, as part of the advanced computing arsenal for the state of Texas and the nation. The National Science Foundation (NSF), The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas System, the UT Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences , Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University and multiple technology partners committed $12 million to deploy this new supercomputer.

A major evaluation of Every Child Counts (ECC), a numeracy programme introduced into English primary schools in 2008, has shown a positive short term effect on children's numeracy skills.

A significant gap between the best and worst maths trainee teachers in England has been revealed in new research published today (22nd March 2011).

The University of Bristol has received £1.6million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council UK (EPSRC) to establish a new centre for research into how decisions are made. This work will ultimately lead to better artificial decision making systems such as computer-based traffic flow systems, automatic stock market trading systems and early warning systems for disasters.

Setting the aeronautics field aflutter, advanced mathematics outduels supercomputers to quell a deadly aeronautical vibration phenomenon.

— Coral Gables — Marine biologists have solved a conundrum that has stumped them for years'how to count reef fish.

Applications on modern wireless devices make demands on data rate and connectivity far beyond anything experienced in the past.

— Coral Gables — Physicist Guannan Zhao, Ph.D. student at the University of Miami, and his collaborators have developed a mathematical model to describe the timing of price changes of currencies and the overall dynamics of the Foreign Exchange (FX) market.

New research provides the first evidence that sensory recalibration — the brain's automatic correcting of errors in our sensory or perceptual systems — can occur instantly. "Until recently, neuroscientists thought of sensory recalibration as a mechanism that is primarily used for coping with long-term changes, such as growth during development, brain injury or stroke," said Ladan Shams, a UCLA assistant professor of psychology and an expert on perception and cognitive neuroscience.

Until now, seats in the European Parliament have been allocated by political bargaining. A fairer way has been devised by an international panel of mathematicians, as described in a report released by the University of Cambridge this week.

There is an old chestnut about a pedestrian who once asked a virtuoso violinist near Carnegie Hall how to get to the famed concert venue.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Think picking all the top-seeded teams as the Final Four in your March Madness bracket is your best bet for winning the office pool? Think again.

In the 1970s, Stanford engineering Professor Martin Hellman followed his muse and it led him and two Stanford colleagues to invent modern data encryption.

Six Columbia faculty members have been named research fellows by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which awards two-year, $50,000 grants to support the work of exceptional young researchers early in their academic careers.

Periodic table of shapes to give a new dimension to maths Project will provide a vast directory of all the possible shapes in the universe across three, four and five dimensions Mathematicians are creating their own version of the periodic table that will provide a vast directory of all the possible shapes in the universe across three, four and five dimensions, linking shapes together in the same way as the periodic table links groups of chemical elements.

Ants are able to connect multiple sites in the shortest possible way, and in doing so, create efficient transport networks, according to a University of Sydney study published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface . The research also revealed the process by which the ants solve network design problems without the help of a leader.

New research from the University of Cambridge sheds light on how fleas jump, reaching speeds as fast as 1.9 meters per second. In 1967, a scientist by the name of Henry Bennet-Clark discovered that fleas store the energy needed to catapult themselves into the air in a pad made of the unique 'elastic' protein resilin.

Using a single Xbox Kinect and standard graphics chips, MIT researchers demonstrate the highest frame rate yet for streaming holographic video.

The Institute of Physics is a scientific charity devoted to increasing the practice, understanding, and application of physics.

University Park, Pa. A computer program that automatically analyzes mounds of satellite images and other data could help climate scientists keep track of complex, constantly changing environmental conditions, according to an international team of researchers.