Tech

If you name it, they will use it, according to a team of international researchers who investigated how people perceive the trustworthiness of online technology. In an experiment, participants said they trusted websites, recommendation-providing software and even computers labeled to perform specific functions more than the same Internet tools with general designations, according to S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications, Penn State.

Tomas strengthened to hurricane status and is currently lashing Hispaniola and eastern Cuba today and the GOES-13 satellite provided a visible image of its extensive cloud cover.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Estimating the long-term impact of agriculture on land is tricky when you don't have much information about what a field was like before it was farmed. Some fields in Missouri started producing crops more than a century ago—long before anyone kept detailed records about the physical and chemical properties of the soil in a field.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) today released the first in a series of video programs called Innovation Nation, hosted by veteran science and technology correspondent Miles O'Brien and currently airing nationally on the the Science Channel.

Innovation Nation is a quick look at what happens when genius meets possibility: stories about some of the NSF-funded inventions and research shaping our world.

Flexible smart materials that can manipulate light to shield objects from view have been much-theorised but now researchers in Scotland have made a practical breakthrough that brings the possibility of an invisibility cardigan – or any other item of invisibility clothing - one step closer.

A common roadside plant could have the right stuff to become a new source of biofuel, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) studies.

Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency, have found that field pennycress yields impressive quantities of seeds whose oil could be used in biodiesel production.

Chevy Chase, MD—Researchers may have identified a promising novel diagnostic biomarker for ectopic pregnancy, according to a study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). In the western world, deaths from ectopic pregnancy are not common but in the developing world one in ten women who are admitted with an ectopic pregnancy die.

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 3 – Medicare patients in regions that spend the most on prescription medications are not necessarily getting better quality care, according to a new study of spending practices from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH). The findings, published in the Nov. 3 Online First issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, reveal great variation across the country in both drug spending and the rate of inappropriate prescriptions for the elderly.

LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, NOVEMBER 3, 2010—Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory have fabricated transparent thin films capable of absorbing light and generating electric charge over a relatively large area. The material, described in the journal Chemistry of Materials, could be used in development of transparent solar panels.

New Haven, Conn. -- New applications of information and communication technology (ICT) that could save society significant amounts of energy and money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet are explored in a special issue of Yale's Journal of Industrial Ecology.

CINCINNATI—Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) and the Cincinnati Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center have found that about one-third of chronic kidney disease patients who are prescribed therapies for high blood pressure do not often adhere to treatments.

This report was published in the Nov. 2 online edition of the American Journal of Nephrology.

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that 98 percent of the U.S. population lives in communities within 60 minutes of a hospice provider, suggesting that disparities in use of hospice are not likely due to a lack of access to a hospice provider. The results are published in the current issue of the Journal of Palliative Medicine.

Remember the Star Wars scene in which R2D2 projects a three-dimensional image of a troubled Princess Leia delivering a call for help to Luke Skywalker and his allies? What used to be science fiction is now close to becoming reality thanks to a breakthrough in 3D holographic imaging technology developed at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences.

Researchers at the University of Arizona (UA), Tucson, have developed a holographic system that can transmit a series of 3D images in near-real-time, a precursor to holographic videoconferencing.

Washington, DC – Patients report decreased pain and improved breathing following treatment of their hilar tumors with robotic radiosurgery, but researchers say the therapy falls short of improving survival. Still, the study, conducted by researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and presented today at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Vancouver, BC, represents the first of its kind to document the use of radiosurgery for hilar tumors and presents a novel therapy option.