The Herschels were the First Family of astronomy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, dominating the field for nearly 100 years.

Android is getting a superstore, and may be getting a peace treaty. On Tuesday, Android Market, Google Music, and the Google eBookstore were combined into a new Google Play superstore. And a new report indicates that Apple may be willing to settle for license fees in its worldwide patent war against Android. With all its Android-based apps, video, e-books and music now under one virtual roof,...

Scientists say they are getting close to proving the existence of the 'god participle.'

A 268-megapixel camera is showing astronomers some of faintest objects at the widest angles ever.

Exmobaby body suit will let you keep tabs on your little one's every heart beat.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Physicists investigating the make-up of the universe said on Wednesday they were closing in on the long-sought but elusive Higgs boson they believe was key to turning debris from the Big Bang into stars, planets and finally life. The researchers spoke after the U.S. Fermilab laboratory reported that it had spotted likely signs of the particle. The European CERN research centre...

Sheets of LEDs create an impressive illusion.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Anti-business rhetoric, recently slammed as ‘dangerous’ and ’snobbish’ by the Prime Minister is more likely a reflection of the behavior of large corporations than a distrust of small firms.

Students, professionals, public sought to create algorithm enabling capture of objects in space.

When the Earth’s carbon dioxide level increased at a rapid rate during the Triassic-Jurassic period 200 million years ago, nearly half the ocean’s marine life became extinct. USC Dornsife geologists contributed to a recent paper that examines materials embedded in ancient rocks to provide clues about the possibility of similar future global events.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Edmodo, the leading education centric social networking site has announced that it is opening its Application Programming Interface (API) to third party developers in a bid to entice more teachers to use the site. Edmodo is a Facebook-like site that is restricted to teachers, parents, students and school districts and is used primarily as an online tool between teachers and their...

(PhysOrg.com) -- The research findings, published this week in two papers in the journal Science provide new insights into the behavior of bacteria.

Imec today announces that it has released an early-version PDK (process development kit) for 14nm logic chips. This PDK is the industry’s first to address the 14nm technology node. It targets the introduction of a number of new key technologies, such as FinFET technology and EUV lithography. The PDK is made available to imec’s partners, and will be followed by incremental updates. Imec...

The arrests of five members of the hacker group LulzSec are unlikely to land a lasting blow for authorities in the “constantly moving battle” with politically motivated online collectives, experts say.

(PhysOrg.com) -- A mobile phone that could detect whether leftovers in your fridge are safe to eat could be heading to an app store near you. A device has been developed that attaches to mobiles and can detect small amounts of E. coli in liquid samples.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Organic solar cells may be a step closer to market because of measurements taken at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), where a team of scientists has developed a better fundamental understanding of how to optimize the cells’ performance.

What happens when a drop of water falls on a lotus leaf? It’s not a philosophical question, but a natural phenomenon scientists have been studying, and trying to make sense of, for hundreds of years. 

Active Region 1429 unleashed an X5.4-class solar flare early this morning at 00:28 UT, as seen in this image by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (AIA 304). The eruption belched out a large coronal mass ejection (CME) into space but it’s not yet known exactly how it will impact Earth — it may just be a glancing blow.

(PhysOrg.com) -- In recent years, scientists have begun to harness DNA’s powerful molecular machinery to build artificial structures at the nanoscale using the natural ability of pairs of DNA molecules to assemble into complex structures. Such “DNA origami,” first developed at the California Institute of Technology, could provide a means of assembling complex nanostructures such as...

Women shopping for new bras should throw away the tape-measure and focus on how the garment fits, according to new research.

(PhysOrg.com) -- If there is life on other planets, a laser frequency comb developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may help find it.

In the cell nucleus, DNA wraps around what are called histone proteins, forming regularly spaced spherical bodies called nucleosomes. Thus, large portions of the genetic material are inaccessible to the gene reading machinery. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center have now simulated at high time resolution how short DNA segments repeatedly detach spontaneously from the nucleosome. The...

Apple, which relies on Asian contractors to manufacture its iPhones and iPads, said in a report released Friday that it has directly or indirectly created 514,000 jobs in the United States though its gadget ecosystem.

Researchers at the RIKEN SPring-8 Center in Harima, Japan, have clarified for the first time how chromatin in archaea, one of the three evolutionary branches of organisms in nature, binds to DNA. The results offer valuable clues into the evolution of chromatin structure in multi-cellular organisms and promise insights into how abnormalities in such structure can contribute to cancers and gene...