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The idea that the ancient island of Hateg, Romania, dwarf dinosaurs existed, was proposed a century ago by Baron Franz Nopcsa, whose family owned property in the area. He realized that many dinosaurs had Hateg close evolutionary relatives in ancient rocks from England, Germany and North America, but specimens of Romania had only half the size.
Nopcsa The hypothesis has been validated for the first time in a new work by Professor Mike Benton of the University of Bristol, and six experts from Romania, Germany and the United States. They have found that dinosaurs were really Hateg island dwarfs.
A hotly debated topic among evolutionary ecologist is whether there is an “island rule” whereby the large animals isolated on an island tend to become smaller. There is no doubt that dinosaurs were found in Hateg small, the question was whether such individuals had reached adult size or not.
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In areas of the world where alternating hot and cold depending on the season, it is difficult to choose the best coating for roofs of buildings.
White paint around the roof of a building permit to better reflect sunlight, reducing air conditioning costs in summer, but increasing costs for heating in winter. Paint it black, the roof does absorb more sunlight, reducing heating costs in winter but increases the air conditioning in summer. Alternate between two colors for the convenience was not a viable option until now.
Recently, a team of scientists has developed an indoor “smart” for roofs, made, among other materials, oil, after having used it for cooking, discard the fast-food restaurants. This cover can be changed automatically function, reflecting or absorbing solar heat when the ambient temperature exceeds a predetermined point which can be adjusted to the local climate.
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In what is a long way to increase the availability of therapies using stem cells, a group of researchers in the Ansary Stem Cell Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC) has discovered that endothelial cells, the building blocks more basic vascular system, produce growth factors that can create large quantities of adult stem cells and their descendants in the course of weeks.
The finding probably will revolutionize the use of adult stem cells for bone marrow transplants, organ regeneration, and therapies for the heart, brain, skin and lungs.
So far, adult stem cells die in four or five days, even with the best growing techniques.
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Using high speed cameras and computer models, a team of researchers at Cornell University has revealed exactly how they maneuver around the air fruit flies, and how they maintain their flight stability even when a strong gust of wind suddenly diverted its trajectory.
The research team, who include Jane Wang, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, physicist Itai Cohen and mathematician John Guckenheimer, invented a method for measuring the subtle movements of wings that allow the flies do their abrupt turning maneuvers flight.
The team made their observations with three high-speed video cameras recorded every slight movement of insects when they reacted to the presence of patterns of light and dark stripes. This optical illusion deceived the flies, which made abrupt turns in flight.
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It has been confirmed that Sonic hedgehog, a gene that plays a crucial role in the location and growth of the limbs and fingers, is in an unexpected place in the developing mouse embryos: cell layer that creates the skin.
Named after a character in a video game, Sonic hedgehog gene refers to both the protein as it produced in the body. Studying the gene is important because it will know better how to produce birth defects in humans.
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A less invasive way to address cardiac arrhythmias may be available soon, thanks to a technology based on flexible electronics physically developed by a team of researchers from the University of Illinois in collaboration with the School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and the University of Northwest. These biocompatible silicon devices could mark the beginning of a new era in surgical electronics.
Several treatments are available for the suffering heart rhythm abnormalities, from pacing to cardiac ablation therapy, a method that acts selectively against arrhythmic clusters of cells and destroys them.
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Research shows the amazing ability of an octopus to adopt the appearance of certain fish with whom he lives in the sandy seabed of the Caribbean.
On the sandy plains of the Caribbean sea bed, where soft-bodied animals routinely are exposed to predators, camouflage is key to survival. Perhaps there is a group of animals that is so good at camouflage in their environment such as cephalopods, including cuttlefish and squid, and have developed a unique system of skin that can instantly change his appearance.
Roger Hanlon, a cephalopod expert at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and colleagues have studied the unique abilities of the octopus camouflage Macrotritopus DeFilippi, whose strategy to avoid predators includes skillfully disguised as a fluke.
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During its first half century, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI by its acronym in English) has focused on detection of unusual radio signals. However, Paul Davies, an expert on the subject and author of the new book “The Eerie Silence: Are We Alone?” explains why it needs to innovate if you ever want to listen to our cosmic neighbors.
Davies, director of the Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science (BEYOND for its acronym in English) at Arizona State University, specifically stated why the search for radio signals is limited and how progress could be made critical.
As Davies points out, speculation about SETI research is hampered by the trap of anthropocentrism, the tendency to use the XXI century human civilization as a model for what would be an alien civilization. After 50 years of traditional SETI, it was time to expand your search.
Although SETI activity has focused on radio astronomy, from the old radio telescope Frank Drake to the latest Allen Millimeter Array, astronomers have found only dead silence.
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The engineer Jon Mikel Rubina proposes an alternative economic telematics to support the existing railway operation by applications that allow monitoring and control between the elements of the railway infrastructure.
Currently, the safety of trains presents opportunities for improvement. The technology used has a high economic cost, both in its deployment and its maintenance, and must reach a compromise between the cost of security and profitability of the farm. Furthermore, when the system fails, there is no alternative but to operate the telephone, without the possibility of seeing what is happening. Jon Mikel Rubina, telecommunications engineer, has piloted innovative Euskotren trains that seeks to provide a cheap, efficient and versatile to the problem of railway safety.
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Light Laboratory Researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) have a new prototype that fuses literature with advanced multi-touch screen-based interactive. The technological invention is presented within the acts that the Library of the University organized to celebrate World Book Day.
This interactive piece is installed in the Library General Vera campus of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. In a 120-inch screen muctitactil, projecting different quotations about books written by Cervantes, Borges, Kafka, Susan Sontag, Freud, Groucho Marx, among others, with whom the audience can interact by using visual tracking systems based on .
For the realization of the project are free software tools used as processing, open Frameworks, CCV-NUI, GNU / Linux. According to the researchers of the Laboratory of Light, user interaction is adapted to the formal characteristics, behavior and symbolic connotations of the text. Thus, the sense of exchange between real and virtual total.
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