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Science/Technology

  • Scientists find universe is 80 million years older

    PARIS (AP) — A new examination of what is essentially the universe's birth certificate allows astronomers to tweak the age, girth and speed of the cosmos, more secure in their knowledge of how it evolved, what it's made of and its ultimate fate.

    Sure, the universe suddenly seems to be showing its age, now calculated at 13.8 billion years — 80 million years older than scientists had thought. It's got about 3 percent more girth — technically it's more matter than mysterious dark energy — and it is expanding about 3 percent more slowly.

    But with all that comes the wisdom for humanity. Scientists seem to have gotten a good handle on the Big Bang and what happened just afterward, and may actually understand a bit more about the cosmic question of how we are where we are.

    All from a baby picture of fossilized light and sound.

    The snapshot from a European satellite had scientists from Paris to Washington celebrating a cosmic victory of knowledge Thursday — basic precepts that go back all the way to Einstein and relativity.

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  • Apple revamps look of iPhone, iPad software

    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple is throwing out most of the real-world graphical cues from its iPhone and iPad software, like the casino-green "felt" of its Game Center app, in what it calls the biggest update since the iPhone's launch in 2007.

    The new operating system, called iOS 7, strives for a clean, simple, translucent look. Apple is redesigning all its applications and icons to conform to the new look, driven by long-time hardware design head Jony Ive.

    Apple demonstrated the new software at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday. The new design direction was widely expected.

    The software strives for a multi-layered look, with translucent panels. On the main screen, the background image moves with the movement of the phone, creating an illusion of depth.

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  • California Teen Invents Quick-charging Device

    A California high school student has created a new type of "supercapacitor." The San Jose teen's invention could help pave the way for cell phones that can be charged in 30 seconds.

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  • Russians Find Mammoth Carcass With Liquid Blood

    Russian researchers say they have discovered a perfectly preserved woolly mammoth carcass with liquid blood on a remote Arctic island, fueling hopes of cloning the Ice Age animal.

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  • Robot Action Connected to Human Thought

    An international team of scientists is working to connect human thought patterns to robotic actions. Controlled humanoids present a new world of mobility for some and a disaster clean-up tool for others.

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  • Could Tobacco Be the Next Biofuel?
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  • Need an Annual Physical? There Are Apps for That

    Find more apps that you can use in the new technology column starting Thursday in the Los Alamos Monitor.

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  • Flying Disc-throwing Robots Teach Kids Tech

    Thousands of high school students from around the world have put their engineering skills to the test at an international robotics contest. "FIRST" is compared to a "Superbowl of the Mind" mixing math, science and technology with competition.

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  • Virgin Galactic Spaceship Passes Big Test

    A spaceship bankrolled by British tycoon Sir Richard Branson made its first engine-powered flight Monday. The test flight moves Virgin Galactic toward its goal of flying into space later this year.

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  • UNM grad student lands in science journal

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Scott Jasechko used his road trip from Canada to Albuquerque, where he was about to start a graduate program at UNM, to gather water samples.

    Less than two years later, his study of those water samples has landed him in Nature, the prestigious science journal. Jasechko is the lead author of "Terrestrial Water Fluxes Dominated by Transpiration," a study that found plants use a vast amount of fresh water in their life cycles, which can help predict future climate change effects on water resources.

    That Jasechko, a doctoral candidate in Earth and Planetary Sciences, was published in Nature is "absolutely huge" and "quite remarkable," study co-author Peter Fawcett said. Fawcett, a UNM associate professor, helped supervise Jasechko, along with second co-author Zach Sharp, also a UNM professor. They worked with three scientists from Alberta Innovates, a Canadian research institution.

    Fawcett said he can't recall any other graduate student in his 16 years or so at UNM who was lead author on a study in Nature.

    The study is "really significant because it tells us that if we actually change vegetation in a significant way, we can really alter the flux of water from the surface to the atmosphere," Fawcett said.

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