Here First - Science and Technology Blog

Processing power of today's smart phones and their ability to perform multiple functions are truly amazing. However, a general problem of these devices is the battery life that feeds them. They don't even come close to the performance these smartphones. This is why many of us need to carry around an additional MP3 player, or, as we go by car, a GPS, although the smartphone meets with success of these functions and more. Now, a new technology created by researchers at Northwestern University, USA , is about to change that. Engineers have made ​​an electrode for lithium-ion batteries - the rechargeable batteries used for most electronic devices - which could provide gadgets an operating range of ten times longer and duration of recharge from outlet ten times faster than normal. According to statements of Harold H. Kung, coordinator of the project, even after 150 charges, the new type of battery will still be five times more effective than lithium-ion batteries on the market...

A fresh study by the University of Glasgow, brought out today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, evokes that our life expectancy is probably influenced by how much tension we were exposed to early in our lives. The research also depicts that early life stress underwent by our partners may affect our lifespan. “Other research led us to expect that increased stress exposure in early life would reduce adult lifespan’, said Professor Pat Monaghan, “but we were not expecting such a big effect on breeding partners. Unstressed birds had mortality rates that were four times higher than normal if they were simply given partners that had experienced stress earlier in their lives.” The group of researchers considers that contribution to the reason for the partner effect could be that these tense souls are not very comforting to be with. Agreeing to Professor Monaghan, “The take home message is that the wrong kind of partner can be very bad for your health.” It...

Harvard Starts Heart Outside Body, Preserves Organs for 10 Days Prof. Hemant Thatte from Harvard Univ. has highly-developed a cocktail of 21 compounds that he calls Somah, deduced from the Sanskritic language for “ambrosia of rejuvenation”. Applying Somah, Thattle and his squad of scientists have achieved some astonishing exploits with pig hearts. They can preserve the heart alive for organ transplant up to 10 days after harvesting – that is unbelievably longer than the 4 hr limitation seen in hospitals nowadays. Using coldnesses and Somah, they were capable to acquire a pig heart that was harvested postmortal and make it beat 24 hours afterward in the lab. [source: Technology Review , Tech Transfer (Harvard) , Circulation ]

Just over a month since the Smithsonian Institution announced the discovery of new bird species in Africa, little is still known about the olive-backed forest robin named for its distinctive olive back and rump. Scientists are trying to unravel the little bird’s specific diet, mating and nesting habits, and the species’ complete habitat range, but the dense undergrowth of tropical forest where it was sighted may still offer further surprises. Adult members of the robins - both male and female - measure just about 4.5 inches in length and average 18 grams in weight. Males exhibit a fiery orange throat and breast, yellow belly, olive back and black feathers on the head. Females are similar, but less vibrant. Both sexes have a distinctive white dot on their face in front of each eye. The bird was first observed by Smithsonian scientists in 2001 during a field expedition in southwest Gabon but it was initially thought, however, to be an immature individual of an already-recognized species....