Monthly Archives: March 2015

Discovering missing body parts of ancient fossils

Certain specimens of the fossil Dickinsonia are incomplete because ancient currents lifted them from the sea floor, a team of researchers led by paleontologists at the University of California, Riverside has found. Sand then got deposited beneath the lifted portion, the researchers report, strongly suggesting that Dickinsonia was mobile, easily ...read more

Source: phy.org

Category: Other Sciences

    

DealBook Special Section: Investing Early On for Insights, Not Profits

By MICHAEL CORKERY BBVA, the global Spanish bank, has established a venture capital fund in Silicon Valley that is more interested in fruitful partnerships than profits. ...read more

Source: The New York Times

Category: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, Silicon Valley (Calif), Banking and Financial Institutions, Venture Capital, Regulation and Deregulation of Industry, Computers and the Internet, Start-ups

    

The Fairy Bell Sisters #6: Christmas Fairy Magic

By editor By Margaret McNamara
HarperCollins Children's, $15.99, 144 pages, Format: Hard
(5 / 5)
This is the sixth book in the series of the Fairy Bell Sisters. Even if you haven't read the others, this is still a wonderful book. It is all about five of Tinker Bell's sisters who live on Sheepskerry ...read more

Source: San Fransico Book Review

Category: Book Reviews, Early Reader, Issue, March 2015, Age 6, Lily

    

Disquiet Time: Rants and Reflections on the Good Book by the Skeptical, the Faithful, and a Few Scoundrels

By editor Edited by Jennifer Grant and Cathleen Falsani
Jericho Books, $24.00, 384 pages, Format: Hard
(4 / 5)
I'll let you in on a little secret: I hate books full of warm, meaningless affirmations. The banal “inspirational” messages touted by many books with religious influence not only insult the reader's intelligence, but they ...read more

Source: San Fransico Book Review

Category: Book Reviews, Issue, March 2015, Spirituality & Inspiration, Glenn Dallas

    

The Yellowwood Tree

By editor By Rick Auterson
Solstice Publishing, $4.99, 320 pages, Format: eBook
(4 / 5)
The Yellowwood Tree follows the journey of a 12-year-old orphan, Emma Taylor, in some harsh times. Set in post-war 1918, the novel highlights the injustices against orphans after the war was over, and corruption within the KKK.
The novel opens ...read more

Source: San Fransico Book Review

Category: Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Issue, March 2015, Rabiya Jawed

    

Soft, energy-efficient robotic wings

Dielectric elastomers are novel materials for making actuators or motors with soft and lightweight properties that can undergo large active deformations with high-energy conversion efficiencies. This has made dielectric elastomers popular for creating devices such as robotic hands, soft robots, tunable lenses and pneumatic valves—and possibly flapping robotic wings. ...read more

Source: phy.org

Category: Physics

    

p53: The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code

By editor By Sue Armstrong
Bloomsbury USA, $27.00, 288 pages, Format: Hard
(5 / 5)
Although p53 The Gene That Cracked the Cancer Code by Sue Armstrong conveys the details that led up to a great discovery, the read is intense. This does not detract from Armstrong's powerful scientific message, nor does it diminish ...read more

Source: San Fransico Book Review

Category: Book Reviews, Issue, March 2015, Science & Nature, D. Wayne Dworsky

    

Ada’s Algorithm: How Lord Byron’s Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age

By editor By James Essinger
Melville House, $25.95, 272 pages, Format: Hard
(4 / 5)
Some consider her the mother of modern computing, and those who don't should get on board, because without Ada Lovelace's contributions to Charles Babbage's work on the Analytical Engine–essentially writing the first computer program–we'd be missing a crucial step ...read more

Source: San Fransico Book Review

Category: Biographies & Memoirs, Book Reviews, Issue, March 2015, Glenn Dallas

    

Lockdown lifted at Inova Fairfax; search continues for escaped prisoner

By Dana Hedgpeth, Justin Jouvenal Police in Fairfax County said Tuesday morning that a prisoner overpowered a private security guard at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, took the guard's gun and escaped. He was said to be driving a stolen 2002 silver Toyota Camry and was wearing a hospital gown and no shoes.Read full ...read more

Source: The Washington Post

Category: lockdown

    

Geckos found able to expel all manner of fluids and their skin can kill bacteria

(Phys.org)—A multinational team of researchers that recently published a paper describing how they had used a scanning electron microscope to discover that gecko skin actually ejects water into the air has now published another paper where they have advanced their research on gecko skin even further. In their new paper ...read more

Source: phy.org

Category: Chemistry

    

Discovery of two new species of primitive fishes

Working with an international team, paleontologists at the University of Zurich have discovered two new species of Saurichthys. The ~242 million year old predatory fishes were found in the fossil Lagerstätte Monte San Giorgio, in Ticino. They are distinct from previously known Saurichthys species in the shape of the head ...read more

Source: phy.org

Category: Other Sciences

    

Windows Insiders can try out Project Spartan browser

Microsoft has opened up the (literal) windows, called in creatives, and has been engineering a next-generation browser. Project Spartan is to reflect the general mood of fresh air at Redmond. Although "Project Spartan" carries the word "Project," it is not to be taken as a here-today-gone-tomorrow event; Project Spartan is ...read more

Source: Tech Xplore

Category: Software

    

Windows Insiders can try out Project Spartan browser

Microsoft has opened up the (literal) windows, called in creatives, and has been engineering a next-generation browser. Project Spartan is to reflect the general mood of fresh air at Redmond. Although "Project Spartan" carries the word "Project," it is not to be taken as a here-today-gone-tomorrow event; Project Spartan is ...read more

Source: phy.org

Category: Technology

    

Philips to Sell Controlling Stake in LED Business for Up to $2.9 Billion

By CHAD BRAY A consortium led by the investment fund GO Scale Capital will acquire an 80.1 percent stake in the LED and automotive lighting business. ...read more

Source: The New York Times

Category: Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestitures, Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV, Lighting, Light-Emitting Diodes, Automobiles, Stocks and Bonds, Amsterdam (Netherlands)

    

Mergers & Acquisitions: Yoox Group Agrees to Merge With Net-A-Porter in All-Share Deal

By CHAD BRAY The transaction will create an online luxury fashion retailer that would have posted a combined revenue of $1.4 billion in 2014. ...read more

Source: The New York Times

Category: Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestitures, Net-A-Porter, Yoox Group SpA, Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA, Massenet, Natalie, Porter (Magazine), E-Commerce, Luxury Goods and Services, Fashion and Apparel, Stocks and Bonds, Italy