Tech Scrape

Approach could help software learn how to identify fake accounts with less honorable intentions. It’s not unusual to have user profiles on multiple social networks, or even separate accounts on sites like Twitter–one for work and one for play. But Kyumin Lee at Texas A&M University has 60 Twitter accounts, and not because he’s popular.

Nighttime flight is an important milestone–but solar power is unlikely to transform aviation. Swiss researchers yesterday marked a major milestone in the development of a solar-powered, single-pilot aircraft that they hope will eventually circumnavigate the globe. They kept their craft aloft through an entire night on stored solar energy.

RainDance Technologies says its method of amplifying DNA in drops of water will expand clinical genetic testing. As the cost of DNA sequencing continues to fall and scientists discover a growing number of genes linked to different diseases, the field of genetic diagnostics is preparing for a boom. Rather than the single-gene tests common today, clinical genetics laboratories are developing tests that simultaneously detect tens or even hundreds of genetic mutations linked to cancer and other diseases, as well as conditions such as mental retardation.

A soft, flexible fibre with a 1000 times more capacitance than a co-axial cable could lead to smarter textiles, say its inventors A long-standing dream of a certain cadre of computer specialists is to create smart textiles that can sense their environment, store, transmit and process information as well as harvest and store the energy necessary to do all this. A particular driver of this technology is the military which would very much like to remotely monitor the health and status of troops on the battlefield.

A new theoretical model suggests that quantum entanglement helps prevent the molecules of life from breaking apart There was a time, not so long ago, when biologists swore black and blue that quantum mechanics could play no role in the hot, wet systems of life.

Levitate a flake of graphene and set it spinning; then this wonder material begins to reveal its truly extraordinary properties Graphene is one of the more extraordinary materials discovered in the last few years. This carbon chicken wire has properties that make it a superhero in the materials world. It is a superb thermal and electrical conductor, it has a high melting point and it is stronger than almost any other known substance.

The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week: On The Chemical Composition Of cosmic Rays Of Highest Energy

The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week: Improved Method for Individualization of Head-Related Transfer Functions on Horizontal Plane Using Reduced Number of Anthropometric Measurements

Physicists can’t make up their minds how heavy a kilogram should be. Perhaps they should allow a new generation of scientists to help In 1983, physicists at the 17th General Conference on Weights and Measures decided to redefine the metre. For a century until then, the metre had been the distance between two points on a bar of platinum and iridium measured at the melting point of ice.

The best of the rest from the Physics arXiv this week: The Magnetic Field Of Betelgeuse: A Local Dynamo From Giant Convection Cells?