News
For pundits, it's better to be confident than correct
May 30, 2013 9:53 am | by EurekAlert! | CommentsIt would be nice to think the pundits we see yelling on TV and squawking on Twitter are right all the time. It turns out they're wrong more often than they are right. Now two Washington State University economics students have demonstrated that it simply doesn't pay as much for a pundit to be accurate as it does to be confident. It's one thing to be a good pundit, but another to be popular.
Diamonds, nanotubes find common ground in graphene
May 30, 2013 9:46 am | by EurekAlert! | CommentsWhat may be the ultimate heat sink is only possible because of yet another astounding capability of graphene. The one-atom-thick form of carbon can act as a go-between that allows vertically aligned carbon nanotubes to grow on nearly anything. That includes diamonds. A diamond film/graphene/nanotube structure was one result of new research carried out by scientists at Rice University and the Honda Research Institute USA....
Stanford scientists develop high-efficiency zinc-air battery
May 30, 2013 9:32 am | by EurekAlert! | CommentsStanford University scientists have developed an advanced zinc-air battery with higher catalytic activity and durability than similar batteries made with costly platinum and iridium catalysts. The results, published in the May 7 online edition of the journal Nature Communications...
Organic polymers show sunny potential
May 30, 2013 9:25 am | by EurekAlert! | CommentsA new version of solar cells created by laboratories at Rice and Pennsylvania State universities could open the door to research on a new class of solar energy devices. The photovoltaic devices created in a project led by Rice chemical engineer Rafael Verduzco and Penn State chemical engineer Enrique Gomez are based on block copolymers....
Labor union decline, not computerization, main cause of rising corporate profits
May 30, 2013 9:23 am | by EurekAlert! | CommentsA new study suggests that the decline of labor unions, partly as an outcome of computerization, is the main reason why U.S. corporate profits have surged as a share of national income while workers' wages and other compensation have declined.
Helping advance computational capabilities, expand student research options
May 30, 2013 9:23 am | by Massachusetts Institute of Technology | CommentsMIT’s Computational Reactor Physics Group (CRPG) supports leading-edge research across the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, providing new simulation and modeling capabilities for development and refinement of nuclear reactors. So why does the group’s co-leader, Benoit Forget, counsel his researchers to study the early days of computing for clues on how to accomplish their goals?Forget’s answer speaks to CRPG’s critical r...
The formula for turning cement into metal
May 30, 2013 9:21 am | by EurekAlert! | CommentsIn a move that would make the Alchemists of King Arthur's time green with envy, scientists have unraveled the formula for turning liquid cement into liquid metal. This makes cement a semi-conductor and opens up its use in the profitable consumer electronics marketplace for thin films, protective coatings, and computer chips.
Microsoft aims to simplify with Windows 8.1
May 30, 2013 9:19 am | by MICHAEL LIEDTKE - AP Technology Writer - Associated Press | CommentsMicrosoft is trying to fix what it got wrong with its radical makeover of Windows. It's making the operating system easier to navigate and enabling users to set up the software so it starts in a more familiar format designed for personal computers. The revisions to Windows 8 will be released...
Americans talk, surf more than Europeans on cells
May 30, 2013 9:16 am | by PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer | CommentsAmericans pay more for their cell service than Europeans, but they're getting a lot more use out of their phones, a global wireless trade group said Wednesday. In releasing the report, GSM Association urged European regulators to take cues from the U.S.
Microsoft aims to simplify things with Windows 8.1
May 30, 2013 9:02 am | by The Associated Press | CommentsMicrosoft is trying to fix what it got wrong with its radical makeover of Windows by making the operating system easier to navigate and enabling users to set up the software so it starts in a more familiar format designed for personal computers. The revisions to Windows 8 will be released later...
Timberlake to headline iTunes festival
May 30, 2013 8:40 am | by The Associated Press | CommentsJustin Timberlake will be the headliner when the iTunes festival kicks off in September in London. The superstar is among the acts slated for the annual music series, which will be held each night that month and streamed on Apple Inc.-made devices like the iPad, iPhone and Apple TV. Fans can see...
Warhol-Velvet Underground lawsuit settled in NY
May 30, 2013 8:38 am | by The Associated Press | CommentsA legal fight between the legendary rock band The Velvet Underground and the Andy Warhol Foundation is over. Court papers made public on Wednesday said that a lawsuit brought by the band had been settled. The terms weren't disclosed. The Velvet Underground sued last year after the foundation...
Research in the News: Yale scientists peer into a cell in real time
May 30, 2013 8:01 am | by Yale UniversityYale University | CommentsA dream of scientists has been to visualize details of structures within our cells in real time, a breakthrough that would greatly aid in the study of their function. However, even the best of current microscopes can take minutes to recreate images of the internal machinery of cells at a usable resolution....
EMC boosts buyback, declares dividend
May 30, 2013 7:59 am | by The Associated Press | CommentsEMC Corp. will ramp up its stock buyback program sharply and begin paying a quarterly cash dividend. Shares rose more than 3 percent in premarket trading. EMC buyback authorization was expanded from $1 billion for 2013, to $6 billion over the three-year period ending Dec. 31, 2015. The data...
White Sands builds 'enemy tanks' on budget
May 30, 2013 12:00 am | by U.S. Army | CommentsA target system has gotten an upgrade at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., to become a more accurate, flexible threat representation for use in future training and testing missions in place of real vehicles....
