Apple wins appeal of $234 million patent dispute with university

A federal appeals court has ruled in Apple’s favor in a patent dispute with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The court ruling, initially spotted by Reuters, said that that Apple didn’t infringe on one of the university’s patents, overturning a prior ruling in the university’s favor that had fined Apple $234 million. Another $272 million was later added to that fine to account for Apple’s continued use of the patent, but that will presumably be thrown out now that the underlying judgment has been reversed.

The patent suit started back in 2014 when the university’s licensing arm — the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) — filed a lawsuit saying that several iPhone and iPad processors used technology it had developed. The…

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Improved In vivo imaging of atherosclerotic plaque development

Researchers have developed a method for quantitatively assessing atherosclerotic plaque buildup in mice. They transplanted X-ray-irradiated low-density-lipoprotein-knockout mice with bone marrow cells expressing near-infrared fluorescent protein, which subsequently developed into fluorescent macrophages. These macrophages congregated specifically in atherosclerotic plaques that arose after feeding on a high-cholesterol diet. In vivo imaging detected the amount of aortic plaque formed and its change over time, which could help in assessing the efficacy of anti-atherosclerotic drugs.

Observing the development of a deep-sea greenhouse gas filter

In a long-term study, marine scientists for the first time observed the colonization of a deep-sea mud volcano after its eruption. Only slowly, rich life develops around the crater. The first settlers are tiny organisms that eat methane escaping from the volcano. Thereby, they keep this greenhouse gas from reaching the atmosphere. The present study describes how the colonization of the mud volcano proceeds and when the tiny methane-munchers get going.

Neglected baby beetles evolve greater self-reliance

Zoologists exposed hundreds of burying beetles to two levels of parental care, for 13 generations. The researchers found that when parents fed meat to their babies’ mouth-to-mouth, the larvae evolved relatively smaller mandibles. By contrast, when the parents were removed from their young and larvae were forced to self-feed, the larvae evolved significantly larger jaws to compensate for the lack of help.

How some algae may survive climate change

Green algae that evolved to tolerate hostile and fluctuating conditions in salt marshes and inland salt flats are expected to survive climate change, thanks to hardy genes they stole from bacteria.