Computerized emotion detector
Mathura, India (SPX) Sep 22, 2014 -
Face recognition software measures various parameters in a mug shot, such as the distance between the person's eyes, the height from lip to top of their nose and various other metrics and then compares it with photos of people in the database that have been tagged with a given name.
Now, research published in the International Journal of Computational Vision and Robotics looks to take that ...
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Human faces are so variable because we evolved to look unique
Berkeley CA (SPX) Sep 22, 2014 -
The amazing variety of human faces - far greater than that of most other animals - is the result of evolutionary pressure to make each of us unique and easily recognizable, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, scientists.
Our highly visual social interactions are almost certainly the driver of this evolutionary trend, said behavioral ecologist Michael J. Sheehan, ...
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NJIT researchers working to safeguard the shoreline
Newark NJ (SPX) Sep 22, 2014 -
An NJIT research team has estimated the total mass of oil that reached the Gulf of Mexico shore in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout. It's the first time such an estimate was reported, and the study is published in the August issue of Environmental Science and Technology.
The researchers found that 22,000 tons of oil reached the Gulf shoreline in 2010. This finding will help off ...
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Pulse of a Dead Star Powers Intense Gamma Rays
Pasadena CA (SPX) Sep 17, 2014 -
Our Milky Way galaxy is littered with the still-sizzling remains of exploded stars. When the most massive stars explode as supernovas, they don't fade into the night, but sometimes glow ferociously with high-energy gamma rays. What powers these energetic stellar remains?
NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, is helping to untangle the mystery. The observatory's high-ener ...
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Dawn Operating Normally After Safe Mode Triggered
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 17, 2014 -
The Dawn spacecraft has resumed normal ion thrusting after the thrusting unexpectedly stopped and the spacecraft entered safe mode on September 11. That anomaly occurred shortly before a planned communication with NASA's Deep Space Network that morning. The spacecraft was not performing any special activities at the time.
Engineers immediately began working to restore the spacecraft to its ...
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Chandra Finds Planet That Makes Star Act Deceptively Old
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 17, 2014 -
A planet may be causing the star it orbits to act much older than it actually is, according to new data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This discovery shows how a massive planet can affect the behavior of its parent star.
The star, WASP-18, and its planet, WASP-18b, are located about 330 light-years from Earth. WASP-18b has a mass about 10 times that of Jupiter and completes one orb ...
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MAVEN on course for Mars Arrival Sept 21
Boulder CO (SPX) Sep 17, 2014 -
Everything continues to go well with MAVEN as it is readied for arrival at Mars on Sunday, September 21st. All spacecraft systems are operating nominally. We had scheduled a final Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM-4) for September 12th.
However, the maneuver was cancelled because the flight path did not warrant a correction. MAVEN is right on track.
In the next few days the Mars Or ...
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Boeing, SpaceX to send astronauts to space station
Washington (AFP) Sept 16, 2014 -
Boeing and SpaceX will build the next generation of spacecraft that will carry US astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), NASA said Tuesday, hailing a new chapter in space flight.
The $6.8-billion contract announced by NASA administrator Charles Bolden at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida will enable the United States to develop its own crew transport vehicles that could carry ...
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Elon Musk gets fresh challenge with space contract
Washington (AFP) Sept 17, 2014 -
With a $2.6 billion contract for his firm SpaceX to build a spacecraft for carrying astronauts to the International Space Station, Elon Musk's star is on the rise again.
South Africa-born Musk has become one of America's best-known innovators, having launched a payments company, electric carmaker Tesla Motors, SpaceX and SolarCity, which makes solar panels for homes and businesses.
He al ...
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NASA spacecraft to begin orbiting Mars within days
Washington (AFP) Sept 17, 2014 -
An unmanned NASA spacecraft launched last year to study the history of climate change on Mars is to begin orbiting the Red Planet on Sunday after a 10-month journey.
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) probe is different from past NASA missions because it focuses on the mysteries of the never-before-studied upper atmosphere.
It is designed to investigate what happened to t ...
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Sam Houston State study examines use of GIS in policing
Huntsville TX (SPX) Sep 18, 2014 -
Police agencies are using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for mapping crime, identifying crime "hot spots," assigning officers, and profiling offenders, but little research has been done about the effectiveness of the technology in curbing crime, according to a study at Sam Houston State University (SHSU).
"This review provides a reality check on the current status of GIS assessment i ...
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Three's a charm: NIST detectors reveal entangled photon triplets
Boulder CO (SPX) Sep 18, 2014 -
Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada have directly entangled three photons in the most technologically useful state for the first time, thanks in part to superfast, super-efficient single-photon detectors developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Entanglement is a special feature of the quantum world in which certain properties of individual par ...
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Founding Day of Air and Missile Defense Command of Aerospace Defense Forces
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Sep 18, 2014 -
A number of events are scheduled in Moscow on Friday, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Moscow Air Defense District, established on August 20, 1954, which had evolved by now into the Order of Lenin Air and Missile Defense Command of the Aerospace Defense Forces (ADF).
The history of Moscow's air defense began much earlier, though. It is believed to have been born on April 25, 1918, when ...
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Elusive quantum transformations found near absolute zero
Upton NY (SPX) Sep 18, 2014 -
Heat drives classical phase transitions-think solid, liquid, and gas-but much stranger things can happen when the temperature drops. If phase transitions occur at the coldest temperatures imaginable, where quantum mechanics reigns, subtle fluctuations can dramatically transform a material.
Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stony Brook Univer ...
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Boeing, SpaceX to send astronauts to space station
Washington (AFP) Sept 16, 2014 -
NASA awarded multi-billion-dollar contracts to Boeing and SpaceX on Tuesday to build America's next spacecraft for carrying astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017.
The US space agency hailed the decision as another step toward ending America's reliance on Russian vehicles for access to low-Earth orbit.
NASA, which has been unable to send astronauts to space since the retir ...
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Space control Airmen ensure constant communication
Peterson AFB CO (SPX) Sep 18, 2014 -
Air Force Space Command's 16th Space Control Squadron in partnership with the Air Force Reserve Command's 380th SPCS is responsible for ensuring the Defense Department has uninterrupted global satellite communications.
Located at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., two squadrons are responsible for operating space control capabilities to rapidly achieve flexible and versatile space superiority ...
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UCI team is first to capture motion of single molecule in real time
Irvine CA (SPX) Sep 18, 2014 -
UC Irvine chemists have scored a scientific first: capturing moving images of a single molecule as it vibrates, or "breathes," and shifts from one quantum state to another. The groundbreaking achievement, led by Ara Apkarian, professor of chemistry, and Eric Potma, associate professor of chemistry, opens a window into the strange realm of quantum mechanics - where nanoscopic bits of matter seemi ...
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Dry Conditions and Lightning Strikes Make for a Long California Fire Season
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 18, 2014 -
The fire season in California has been anything but cooperative this year. Hot conditions combined with a state-wide drought and dry lightning makes for unpleasant conditions and leads to an abundance of forest fires.
On August 12, lightning struck and started the fire that grew into the Happy Camp Complex.
Currently over 113,000 acres have been affected and the fire is only 55% cont ...
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Russian Aerospace Defense Forces Again Dismiss Satellite Explosion Rumors
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Sep 18, 2014 -
The Russian Aerospace Defense Forces again dismissed US media rumors of a Russian military satellite allegedly exploding above the United States.
"These statements are yet another attempt to find out the location of the space object after the United States has lost track of it," Aerospace Defense Forces spokesman Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said.
He reiterated that all Russian spacecraft ...
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NASA Airborne Campaigns Focus on Climate Impacts in the Arctic
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 18, 2014 -
Over the past few decades, average global temperatures have been on the rise, and this warming is happening two to three times faster in the Arctic. As the region's summer comes to a close, NASA is hard at work studying how rising temperatures are affecting the Arctic.
NASA researchers this summer and fall are carrying out three Alaska-based airborne research campaigns aimed at measuring g ...
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Making quantum dots glow brighter
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 18, 2014 -
Researchers from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the University of Oklahoma have found a new way to control the properties of quantum dots, those tiny chunks of semiconductor material that glow different colors depending on their size.
Quantum dots, which are so small they start to exhibit atom-like quantum properties, have a wide range of potential applications, from sensors, ...
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Meteorite that doomed dinosaurs remade forests
Tempe AZ (SPX) Sep 18, 2014 -
The meteorite impact that spelled doom for the dinosaurs 66 million years ago decimated the evergreens among the flowering plants to a much greater extent than their deciduous peers, according to a study led by UA researchers. The results are published in the journal PLOS Biology.
Applying biomechanical formulas to a treasure trove of thousands of fossilized leaves of angiosperms - floweri ...
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NASA Chooses American Companies to Transport US Astronauts to ISS
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 18, 2014 -
U.S. astronauts once again will travel to and from the International Space Station from the United States on American spacecraft under groundbreaking contracts NASA announced Tuesday.
The agency unveiled its selection of Boeing and SpaceX to transport U.S. crews to and from the space station using their CST-100 and Crew Dragon spacecraft, respectively, with a goal of ending the nation's so ...
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