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News From the Field
More NSF research news--links to what institutions, organizations and others are reporting about NSF-supported research and education.
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July 2, 2007
Mother-of-Pearl: Classic Beauty and Remarkable Strength
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Institute for the Physics of Complex Matter in Switzerland describe unexpected properties of one of nature's super-tough materials: mother-of-pearl. The researchers uncovered clues to how the material forms and why it is exceptionally strong.
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Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison |
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July 1, 2007
What Happened Before the Big Bang?
New discoveries about another universe whose collapse appears to have given birth to the one we have today are in a research paper to be published on July 1, 2007. The paper introduces a new mathematical model that gives new details about the beginning of our universe, which now appears to have been a Big Bounce, according to a new theory of quantum gravity, and not a Big Bang, as described by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.
Full story
Source: Penn State |
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June 28, 2007
Earliest-known Evidence of peanut, Cotton and Squash Farming Found
Anthropologists working on the slopes of the Andes in northern Peru have discovered the earliest-known evidence of peanut, cotton and squash farming, dating back 5,000 to 9,000 years. Their findings provide long-sought-after evidence that some of the earliest development of agriculture in the New World took place at farming settlements in the Andes.
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Source: Vanderbilt University |
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June 28, 2007
New, Invisible Nano-fibers Conduct Electricity, Repel Dirt
Tiny plastic fibers could be the key to some diverse technologies in the future--including self-cleaning surfaces, transparent electronics, and biomedical tools that manipulate strands of DNA. Researchers created surfaces that, when seen with the naked eye, look as flat and transparent as a sheet of glass, but seen up close, the surfaces are actually carpeted with tiny fibers.
Full story
Source: Ohio State University |
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June 28, 2007
New Undersea Images Challenge Prevailing Ideas About the Antarctic Ice Sheet
Using echo-sounding equipment to create images and maps of areas below the ocean floor, researchers have begun to unravel a new story about the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Images of areas below the Eastern Ross Sea, next to West Antarctica, provide evidence that the subcontinent was involved in the general growth of the Antarctic Ice Sheet as it formed many millions of years ago, according to scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The National Science Foundation provided funding for the project.
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Source: University of California, Santa Barbara |
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June 27, 2007
Carnegie Mellon University-led Team Conducts Most Detailed Cosmological Simulation to Date
Using a new computer model of galaxy formation, researchers have shown that growing black holes release a blast of energy that fundamentally regulates galaxy evolution and black hole growth itself. The model explains for the first time, observed phenomena and promises to deliver deeper insights into our understanding of galaxy formation, and the role of black holes throughout cosmic history. The results were generated by an international team of investigators.
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Source: Carnegie Mellon University |
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June 26, 2007
Carnegie Mellon University Chemists Advance Organic Semiconductor Processing
Any machinist will tell you that a little grease goes a long way toward making a tool work better. And that may soon hold true for plastic electronics as well. Carnegie Mellon University chemists have found that grease can make some innovative plastics vastly better electrical conductors. This discovery, published June 25 in Advanced Materials, outlines a process that could become widely adopted to produce the next generation of tiny transistor switches.
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Source: Carnegie Mellon University |
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June 25, 2007
March of the Giant Penguins
Two heretofore undiscovered penguin species--one of which was over 5 feet tall--reached equatorial regions tens of millions of years earlier than expected and during a period when the earth was much warmer than it is now.
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Source: North Carolina State University |
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June 22, 2007
Ice Age Extinction Claimed Highly Carnivorous Alaskan Wolves
The extinction of many large mammals at the end of the Ice Age may have packed an even bigger punch than scientists had realized. To the list of victims such as woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats, a Smithsonian-led team of scientists has added one more: a highly carnivorous form of wolf that lived in Alaska, north of the ice sheets.
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Source: Smithsonian |
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June 22, 2007
New Nano-Method May Help Compress Computer Memory
A team of chemists at Brown University has devised a simple way to control both the size and the composition of iron-platinum nanorods and nanowires. Nanorods with uniform shape and magnetic alignment are one key to the next generation of high-density information storage.
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Source: Brown University |
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June 21, 2007
Dead on Target
Researchers at the University of Michigan have devised dendrimer nanoparticle systems which are able to seek out and specifically bind to cancer cells.
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Source: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |
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June 21, 2007
Ancient Retrovirus Sheds Light on Modern Pandemic
Human resistance to a retrovirus that infected chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates four million years ago, ironically, may be at least partially responsible for the susceptibility of humans to HIV infection today.
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Source: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center |
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June 21, 2007
Catching Waves: Measuring Self-Assembly in Action
By making careful observations of the growth of a layer of molecules as they gradually cover the surface of a small silicon rectangle, researchers from NIST and North Carolina State University have produced the first experimental verification of recently improved theoretical models of self-assembled systems.
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Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) |
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June 20, 2007
UW-Madison Engineers Develop Higher-energy Liquid-Transportation Fuel from Sugar
Reporting in the June 21 issue of the journal Nature, University of Wisconsin-Madison chemical and biological engineering professor James Dumesic and his research team, describe a two-stage process for turning biomass-derived sugar into 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF), a liquid transportation fuel with 40 percent greater energy density than ethanol.
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Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison |
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June 20, 2007
Arctic Ocean History is Deciphered by Ocean-drilling Research Team
Sediment cores retrieved from the Arctic's deep-sea floor by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program's Arctic Coring Expedition, have provided long-absent data to scientists who report new findings in the June 21 issue of the journal Nature.
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Source: Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International |
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June 18, 2007
A New Technique for Building Nanodevices in the Lab
Physicists at the University of Pennsylvania are using transmission electron beam ablation lithography, or TEBAL, to craft some of the tiniest metal nanostructures ever created, none larger than 10 nanometers, or 10,000 times smaller than the width of a single human hair.
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Source: University of Pennsylvania |
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June 18, 2007
Reconstructing the Biology of Extinct Species: A New Approach
Scientists now have a new way to reconstruct how extinct species moved--that is completely independent of analyses of limb structure--as a result of the first large-scale study of the relationship between modes of locomotion and the dimensions of an important part of the organ of balance. The study used high-resolution CT scans plus field observations to study 91 primate species and 119 additional species ranging in size from a mouse to an elephant.
Full story
Source: Penn State |
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June 18, 2007
Nanotube Adhesive Sticks Better Than a Gecko's Foot
Mimicking the agile gecko, with its uncanny ability to run up walls and across ceilings, has long been a goal of materials scientists. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Akron have taken one sticky step in the right direction, creating synthetic "gecko tape" with four times the sticking power of the real thing.
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Source: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute |
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June 18, 2007
Research Could Help Advance 'Spintronics'
Qubits might very well be the vehicle for the next revolution in computing. Silicon technology has made our computers faster and faster, but now it seems that we are reaching the limits of what is possible with ones and zeros. One of the answers could be the transition from the "good-old" bit to the flashy qubit. The "qu" in qubit stands for quantum, and one way to realize such a qubit is to use the tiny magnetic fields (called spins) that are associated with the nucleus and the electrons of atoms. However, in order to build a quantum computer from these spin-qubits, scientists first need to learn how to effectively manipulate these spins.
Full story
Source: Florida State University, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
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June 14, 2007
Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions Required to Avoid Dangerous Increases in Heat Stress
A study projects a 200 percent to 500 percent increase in the number of dangerously hot days in the Mediterranean by the end of the 21st century if the current rate of greenhouse gas emissions continues. The study found France would be subjected to the largest projected increase of high-temperature extremes. A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions could reduce the dangerously hot days projected in the scenario by up to 50 percent.
Full story
Source: Purdue University
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June 12, 2007
Mother Mice More Attuned to Pup Sounds Than Others
Researchers have shown for the first time that the behavioral context in which communication sounds are heard affects the brain's ability to detect, discriminate, and ultimately respond to them. Specifically, researchers found that the auditory neurons of female mice that had given birth were better at detecting and discriminating vocalizations from mouse pups than the auditory neurons in virgin females.
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Source: Emory University
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June 12, 2007
UCR Biologists Unravel the Genetic Secrets of Black Widow Spider Silk
Biologists at the University of California, Riverside, have identified the genes and determined the DNA sequences for two key proteins in the "dragline silk" of the black widow spider--an advance that may lead to a variety of new materials for industrial, medical and military uses.
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Source: Penn State
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June 12, 2007
CT Scan Reveals Ancient Long-necked Gliding Reptile
The fossilized bones of a previously unknown, 220 million-year-old long-necked, gliding reptile may remain forever embedded in stone, but thanks to an industrial-size CT scanner at Penn State's Center for Quantitative Imaging, the bone structure and behavior of these small creatures are now known.
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Source: Penn State
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June 12, 2007
Study Shows Lizard Moms Dress Their Children for Success
Mothers know best when it comes to dressing their children, at least among side-blotched lizards, a common species in the Western United States. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have found that female side-blotched lizards are able to induce different color patterns in their offspring in response to social cues, "dressing" their progeny in patterns they will wear for the rest of their lives.
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Source: University of California, Santa Cruz
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June 11, 2007
UGA Study Finds That Weaker Nations Prevail in 39 Percent of Military Conflicts
Despite overwhelming military superiority, the world's most powerful nations failed to achieve their objectives in 39 percent of their military operations since World War II, according to a new University of Georgia (UGA) study. The study, by assistant professor Patricia L. Sullivan in the UGA School of Public and International Affairs, explains the circumstances under which more powerful nations are likely to fail, and creates a model that allows policymakers to calculate the probability of success in current and future conflicts.
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Source: University of Georgia
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June 8, 2007
Scientists Propose the Kind of Chemistry that Led to Life
Scientists have developed a model explaining how simple chemical and physical processes may have laid the foundation for life. Based on simple, well-known chemical and physical laws, this model can be tested and they have now described how this can be done. The basic idea is that simple principles of chemical interactions allow for a kind of natural selection on a micro scale: enzymes can cooperate and compete with each other in simple ways, leading to arrangements that can become stable, or "locked in."
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Source: University of California, San Francisco
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June 7, 2007
MIT Demonstrates Wireless Power Transfer
Imagine a future in which wireless power transfer is feasible: cell phones, household robots, mp3 players, laptop computers, and other portable electronics capable of charging themselves without ever being plugged in, freeing us from that final, ubiquitous power wire. Some of these devices might not even need their bulky batteries to operate. Now an MIT team has experimentally demonstrated an important step toward accomplishing this vision of the future.
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Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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June 7, 2007
Nanotube Flickering Reveals Single-Molecule Rendezvous
In this week's issue of the journal Science, French and U.S. researchers describe a new technique that allowed them to zoom in and observe quantum quasiparticles called excitons on individual carbon nanotubes. The team, which was led by Rice University chemist Bruce Weisman and University of Bordeaux physicist Laurent Cognet, found that each exciton travels about 90 nanometers and visits around 10,000 carbon atoms during its 100-trillionth-of-a-second lifespan.
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Source: Rice University
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June 7, 2007
Research Brightens Prospects for Using the World's Smallest Candles in Medical Applications
In a way, nanotubes are nature's smallest candles. These tiny tubes are constructed from carbon atoms and they are so small that it takes about 100,000 laid side-by-side to span the width of a single human hair. In the last five years, scientists have discovered that some individual nanotubes are fluorescent. That is, they glow when they are bathed in light. Some glow brightly, others glow dimly. Some glow in spots, others glow all over. Until now, this property has been largely academic, but researchers from the Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering have removed a major obstacle that has restricted fluorescent nanotubes from a variety of medical applications, including anti-cancer treatments.
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Source: Vanderbilt University
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June 6, 2007
Scientists Discover Unique, New T Cell Receptor in Marsupial Research
Opossums are soft and furry, cute and cuddly looking and they could open up a new way in which critical cell types in the immune system, called T cells, may be seeing pathogens based on new genome sequencing research involving scientists in the University of New Mexico's biology department. The research, which is funded largely by the National Science Foundation, is set to be released in the June issue of the magazine PNAS, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Source: University of New Mexico
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June 6, 2007
UCF Researchers Hope Virtual Reality Can Help to Prevent Wildfires
A University of Central Florida research team is developing an hour-long interactive simulation of a wildfire. Participants will decide whether or not to invest in prescribed burns and fire insurance over a 30-year span. Each decision leads to different consequences, and researchers hope seeing the impact of wildfires will encourage participants to support prescribed burning and other fire prevention methods. This technology could be used later for other topics, such as hurricanes.
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Source: University of Central Florida
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June 6, 2007
Dirty Snow May Warm Arctic as Much as Greenhouse Gases
The global warming debate has focused on carbon dioxide emissions, but scientists at the University of California, Irvine, have determined that a lesser-known mechanism--dirty snow--can explain one-third or more of the Arctic warming primarily attributed to greenhouse gases.
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Source: University of California, Irvine
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June 5, 2007
Scientists Help to Create "Trail of Time" at Grand Canyon National Park
An interpretive walking timeline trail that focuses on Grand Canyon vistas and rocks is being created with the help of scientists at the University of New Mexico, the National Park Service, and a $2.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation. This "Trail of Time" will help visitors explore, ponder and understand the magnitude of geologic time and its stories encoded by Grand Canyon rock layers and landscapes.
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Source: University of New Mexico
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June 5, 2007
Ports Could Hasten Freight Traffic by Doubling Up on Crane Trips
Ports could use their cranes to move goods more quickly without investing in any new equipment. A system called double cycling would minimize empty return trips--what taxi drivers and long-haul truckers refer to as "deadheading" by the massive cranes.
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Source: University of Washington
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June 4, 2007
Fire and Structural Safety a Hot Topic for Engineers -- and the Nation
Earthquakes and explosions grab the headlines when structures are toppled, but often the Achilles' heel of engineering is fire. Fire is the follow-up act in disasters. Yet in a research world awash in data keeping skyscrapers, bridges and buildings upright and safe in disaster, fire remains largely unstudied. A Michigan State professor says bringing the United States up to speed in integrating fire and structural engineering is crucial to homeland security.
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Source: Michigan State University
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June 1, 2007
Mouse Model Points to Possible New Strategy for Treating Rare Muscle Disease, Kidney Disorders
Based on clues provided by a study with transgenic mice, a research group at the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, has developed a strategy that will be tested as the first treatment for people with hereditary inclusion body myopathy (HIBM), a rare, degenerative muscle disease. In an unexpected finding, the research indicates that the approach also might benefit patients with certain kidney disorders.
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Source: NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute |
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June 1, 2007
UC Santa Cruz Researchers Achieve Atomic Spectroscopy on a Chip
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have performed atomic spectroscopy with integrated optics on a chip for the first time, guiding a beam of light through a rubidium vapor cell integrated into a semiconductor chip.
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Source: University of California, Santa Cruz |
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June 1, 2007
How to Rip and Tear a Fluid
In a simple experiment on a mixture of water, soap and a salt, researchers have shown that a rigid object like a knife will pass through the mixture as if it were a liquid when speeds are slow, but when careening through at speed, the knife rips the mixture as if it were a rubbery solid. The experiment sheds light into the properties of many everyday materials, like toothpaste, that do not fall into the standard textbook case of solid, liquid or gas.
Full story
Source: Penn State |
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May 31, 2007
NASA Pondering a Future Grapple on the James Webb Space Telescope
When it launches in 2013, the James Webb Space Telescope will settle in an orbit roughly one million miles from the Earth. That distance is currently too far away for any astronaut or any other existing NASA servicing capability to reach. Therefore, NASA is doing everything necessary to design and test the telescope on the ground using techniques that will ensure that it deploys and operates reliably in space.
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Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center |
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May 31, 2007
Single Spinning Nuclei in Diamond Offer a Stable Quantum Computing Building Block
Surmounting several distinct hurdles to quantum computing, physicists at Harvard University have found that individual carbon-13 atoms in a diamond lattice can be manipulated with extraordinary precision to create stable quantum mechanical memory and a small quantum processor, also known as a quantum register, operating at room temperature. The finding brings the futuristic technology of quantum information systems into the realm of solid-state materials under ordinary conditions.
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Source: Harvard University |
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May 31, 2007
Northeastern University Researchers Solve Rubik's Cube in 26 Moves
It's a toy that most kids have played with at one time or another, but the findings of Northeastern University computer science professor Gene Cooperman and graduate student Dan Kunkle are not child's play. The two have proven that 26 moves suffice to solve any configuration of a Rubik's cube--a new record. Historically, the best that had been proved was 27 moves.
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Source: Northeastern University |
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May 31, 2007
UCR Physicist Demonstrates How Light Can be Used to Remotely Operate Micromachines
A research team led by physicist Umar Mohideen at the University of California, Riverside has demonstrated in the laboratory that the Casimir force -- the small attractive force that acts between two close parallel uncharged conducting plates -- can be changed using a beam of light, making the remote operation of micromachines a possibility.
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Source: University of California, Riverside |
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May 31, 2007
Study: Directly Observed HIV Therapy for Children is Promising
The first study in the developing world of directly observed antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infected children shows this form of treatment is an inexpensive, effective way to ensure that children take life-saving medications. Researchers at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, together with Maryknoll, the international Catholic charity, conducted the study. Results are published in the June issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
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Source: Brown University |
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May 31, 2007
Research Finds Evidence Tropical Cyclones Have Climate-control Role
Purdue University researchers have found evidence that tropical cyclones and hurricanes play an important role in the ocean circulation patterns that transport heat and maintain the climate of North America and Europe. These findings suggest that there is an additional factor to be included in climate models that may change predictions of future climate scenarios.
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Source: Purdue University |
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May 30, 2007
Nanoscale Imaging Reveals Unexpected Behaviors in High-Temperature Superconductors
Recent discoveries regarding the physics of ceramic superconductors may help improve scientists' understanding of resistance-free electrical power. Tiny, isolated patches of superconductivity exist within these substances at higher temperatures than previously were known, according to a paper by Princeton scientists, who have developed new techniques to image superconducting behavior at the nanoscale.
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Source: Princeton University |
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May 30, 2007
Old Idea Spawns New Way to Study Dark Matter
An international team of astronomers led by Ohio State University has examined dark matter in the outer reaches of our galaxy in a new way. For the first time, they were able to employ triangulation--a method rooted in ancient Greek geometry--to estimate the location of dark matter and calculate its mass.
Full story
Source: Ohio State University |
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May 30, 2007
Children Can Perform Approximate Math Without Arithmetic Instruction
In a study conducted at Harvard by researchers from the University of Nottingham and Harvard, children who had not yet received arithmetic instruction, but had mastered verbal counting, were able to perform symbolic addition and subtraction, provided that only approximate accuracy was required.
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Source: Harvard University |
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May 30, 2007
For Many Insects, Winter Survival Is in the Genes
Many insects living in northern climates don't die at the first signs of cold weather. Rather, new research suggests that they use a number of specialized proteins to survive the chilly months. These so-called "heat-shock proteins" ensure that the insects will be back to bug us come spring.
Full story
Source: Ohio State University |
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May 29, 2007
Researchers Catch Motion of a Single Electron on Video
Using pulses of high-intensity sound, two Brown University physicists have succeeded in making a movie showing the motion of a single electron. Humphrey Maris, a physics professor at Brown University, and Wei Guo, a Brown doctoral student, were able to film the electron as it moved through a container of superfluid helium.
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Source: Brown University |
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May 29, 2007
Eavesdropping Comes Naturally to Young Song Sparrows
Long before the National Security Agency began eavesdropping on the phone calls of Americans, young song sparrows were listening to and learning the tunes sung by their neighbors. The discovery that the sparrows acquire many of their songs by eavesdropping, may also have implications on how human infants learn language.
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Source: University of Washington |
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May 28, 2007
28 New Planets, 7 New Brown Dwarfs Reported by California, Carnegie Team
The combined California and Carnegie Planet Search team and Anglo-Australian Planet Search team announced at this week's American Astronomical Society meeting the discovery of 28 new planets outside our solar system, a 12 percent increase in the number of known exoplanets. The bounty of new planets, not to mention seven new brown dwarfs, allows the astronomers to draw conclusions about how planets form and how planet systems evolve.
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Source: University of California, Berkeley |
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May 24, 2007
Two MSU Professors Spearhead International Water Project
Two Michigan State University professors are leading an international partnership of environmental engineers and scientists from two U.S. research universities, two research centers in France, and three institutions in Ukraine and Russia, to purify the world's waters. With the biggest funding of its kind--a $2.5 million grant--by the National Science Foundation, the team leaders are bringing together domestic and international expertise, as well as investing in students, to develop water purifying strategies using what are called "membrane-based" technologies.
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Source: Michigan State University |
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May 24, 2007
New Genetic Data Overturn Long-Held Theory of Limb Development
Long before animals with limbs (tetrapods) came onto the scene about 365 million years ago, fish already possessed the genes associated with limb growth, scientists have found. This finding overturns a long-held theory that limb acquisition was a novel evolutionary event.
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Source: University of Chicago |
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May 24, 2007
Mapping the Past to Forecast the Future
Humans are changing the ecology of the Earth in many ways. Scientists are asking: how do we know when these changes signal a dangerous acceleration of ecological change? One way to answer that question, they believe, is to look at the past to learn what changes can be considered "natural," and what changes fall outside that range. A Web-based resource called MIOMAP is helping scientists find out where mammals lived in the United States in the past 30 million years, and may shed light on this question.
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Source: University of California Museum of Paleontology |
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May 24, 2007
Stereotype-Induced Math Anxiety Undermines Girls' Ability to Perform in Other Academic Areas
A popular stereotype that boys are better at mathematics than girls undermines girls' math performance because it causes worrying that erodes the mental resources needed for problem solving, new research shows. The scholars also found for the first time, that this threat to performance caused by stereotyping can also hinder success in other academic areas because mental abilities do not immediately rebound after being compromised by mathematics anxiety.
Full story
Source: University of Chicago |
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May 23, 2007
Ancient Meteor Blast May Have Caused Extinctions
New scientific findings suggest that a large, extraterrestrial rock may have exploded over North America 13,000 years ago, explaining an abrupt cooling of the atmosphere and the extinction of large mammals at that time.
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Source: University of California, Santa Barbara |
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May 23, 2007
Quasicrystals: Somewhere Between Order and Disorder
Until 1982, quasicrystals weren't just undiscovered, they were believed to be physically impossible. But in new research published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Mathematical Society, mathematicians David Damanik and Serguei Tcheremchantsev offer key proof in the study of quasicrystals. The work, which was 10 years in the making, sheds new light on the electrical properties of these mysterious materials.
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Source: Rice University |
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May 23, 2007
El Niño and African Monsoon have Strongly Influenced Intense Hurricane Frequency in the Past
The frequency of intense hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean appears to be closely connected to long-term trends in the El Niño/Southern Oscillation and the West African monsoon, according to new research from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Geologists Jeff Donnelly and Jonathan Woodruff made the discovery while assembling the longest-ever record of hurricane strikes in the Atlantic basin.
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Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
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May 23, 2007
In New Statistical Approach, Data Decide Model
A data-driven computational approach developed by a University of Illinois statistician is revealing secrets about inner Earth and discovering unique gene expressions in fruit flies, zebra fish and other living organisms.
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Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
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May 23, 2007
UGA Study Reveals Function of Ubiquitous Yet Poorly Understood Microorganisms
A new study, led by University of Georgia researchers and announced on Wednesday at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in Toronto, finds that crenarchaeota, one of the most common groups of archaea and a group that includes members that live in hot springs, use ammonia as their energy source. Such a metabolic mode has not been found in any of the other known high-temperature archaea.
Full story
Source: University of Georgia |
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May 18, 2007
Handheld Device 'Sees' Damage in Concrete Bridges, Piers
Engineers have developed a new technique for detecting damage in concrete bridges and piers that could increase the safety of aging infrastructure by allowing easier, more frequent onsite inspections that don't interfere with traffic or service. Full story
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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May 18, 2007
B12 Is Also an Essential Vitamin for Marine Life
B12--an essential vitamin for land-dwelling animals, including humans--also turns out to be an essential ingredient for growing marine plants that are critical to the ocean food web and Earth's climate, scientists have found. Full story
Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
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May 17, 2007
New Technique Provides Continual View of Approaching Hurricanes
Hurricane forecasters will test a new technique this summer that provides a detailed 3-D view of an approaching storm every six minutes and shows whether the storm is gathering strength as it nears land. The technique, which relies on existing coastal radars, will help meteorologists quickly alert coastal communities. Full story
Source: National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research |
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May 17, 2007
Adaptive Optics Pinpoints 2 Supermassive Black Holes in Colliding Galaxies
Astronomers have used powerful adaptive optics technology at the W. M. Keck Observatory on the island of Hawaii to reveal the precise locations and environments of a pair of supermassive black holes at the center of an ongoing collision between two galaxies 300 million light-years away. Full story
Source: University of California, Santa Cruz |
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May 17, 2007
Ocean Storms Create Oases in Watery Desert
Episodic swirling currents, known as eddies, act to pump nutrients up from the deep ocean to fuel blooms of tiny plant plankton called phytoplankton. Biological activity is surprisingly high, scientists have found, when the ocean is stirred by certain types of eddies. These huge water currents are teeming with diatoms, a type of phytoplankton, in concentrations of 10,000 to 100,000 times the norm. Full story
Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution |
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May 17, 2007
Nanoscale Pasta: Toward Nanoscale Electronics
Carbon nanotubes and nanofibers that look like nanoscale spiral pasta have completely different electronic properties than their non-spiraling cousins. Engineers are studying these differences in the hopes of creating new kinds of components for nanoscale electronics. Full story
Source: University of California, San Diego |
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May 16, 2007
Working With Inuit Community Is Part of Scientific Expedition
When Elizabeth Thomas, a graduate student at the University at Buffalo, travels this month to Baffin Island in the northeast Canadian Arctic, she not only will be sampling sediments from the bottom of frozen lakes, she also will be educating a native Inuit class about global warming, taking local schoolchildren on a sediment-coring field trip and possibly participating in a call-in radio show with translators that will be broadcast in Inuktitut, the local language. Full story
Source: University at Buffalo |
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May 16, 2007
From Ink to Optics, Study of Particle Mixtures Yields Fundamental Insights
Since the invention of ink over 3,000 years ago, people have exploited the unique properties of colloids, in which particles of one substance are suspended in another. Now, Princeton University chemical engineers have answered a fundamental question about these mixtures in work that may have wide-ranging practical applications, including the manufacturing of medicines and optical fibers. Full story
Source: Princeton University, Engineering School |
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May 16, 2007
Iowa State Scientists Demonstrate First Use of Nanotechnology to Enter Plant Cells
A team of Iowa State University (ISU) plant scientists and materials chemists are the first to use nanotechnology to penetrate plant cell walls and simultaneously deliver a gene and a chemical that triggers its expression with controlled precision. The team modified an ISU proprietary technology--mesoporous silica nanoparticles--to work in plant cells. Their breakthrough creates a powerful new tool for targeted delivery into plant cells. The research was a highlighted article in the May issue of Nature Nanotechnology. Full story
Source: Iowa State University |
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May 16, 2007
West Nile Virus Threatens Backyard Birds
Many species of birds, including backyard favorites like tufted titmice and chicadees, are suffering serious declines from West Nile virus. The virus may eventually make some of the most common backyard birds in the United States relatively uncommon, say scientists. Several species have already declined by almost 50 percent across entire regions. Full story
Source: Consortium for Conservation Medicine |
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May 15, 2007
Reproductive Speed Protects Large Animals From Being Hunted to Extinction
The slower their reproductive cycle, the higher the risk of extinction for large grazing animals such as deer and antelope that are hunted by humans, a new study has found. This understanding of the importance of reproductive rates could help conservation managers zero in on which species are in the greatest peril. Full story
Source: Duke University |
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May 15, 2007
Medical Imaging Advance Relies on Microscopic Detector
Researchers have developed a radically different approach to the medical imaging technique known as nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, or NMR. Using a microscopic detector, researchers have drastically decreased the amount of protein needed to image structures, a development that could lead to tabletop NMR devices that could reach nearly every research laboratory and medical office--a vast improvement over today's vehicle-sized million-dollar machines. Full story
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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May 14, 2007
Learning Cut-and-Paste Rules to Fight a Deadly Fungus
Researchers are learning how the yeast that causes diaper rash, yeast infections, and a potentially fatal meningitis among newborn, premature infants, adapts and changes to invade different types of tissue in the human body. Full story
Source: University of California, San Francisco |
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May 14, 2007
Protecting Reef Fish Species Helps Corals Recover
Threatened coral reefs are getting a helping hand from fish species that graze on harmful algae, scientists have found. Marine reserves that protect fish could also help coral reefs become reestablished. Full story
Source: American Museum of Natural History |
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May 11, 2007
Simple Equations Track Listeria Trails
A simple and robust mathematical description of the movement of Listeria monocytogenes yields insights into the mechanisms that drive this pathogenic bacterium. Vivek Shenoy, associate professor of engineering at Brown University, and Julie Theriot, associate professor at Stanford University, published the equations in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Full story
Source: Brown University |
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May 10, 2007
Study Tracks Carbon Dioxide at End of Last Ice Age
Scientists have traced the origin of a large carbon dioxide increase in Earth's atmosphere at the end of the last ice age, via two ancient releases that originated in the deepest parts of the ocean. Full story
Source: University of Colorado at Boulder |
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May 10, 2007
"Missing Mass" Found in Recycled Dwarf Galaxies
Astronomers studying dwarf galaxies formed from the debris of a collision of larger galaxies found the dwarfs much more massive than expected, and think the additional material is "missing mass" that theorists said should not be present in this kind of dwarf galaxy. Full story
Source: National Radio Astronomy Observatory |
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May 10, 2007
Real-time Seismic Monitoring Station Installed Atop Active Underwater Volcano
This week, researchers will begin direct monitoring of the rumblings of a submarine volcano in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. On May 6, a team of scientists led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution installed a new underwater earthquake monitoring system on top of "Kick'em Jenny," a volcano just off of the northern coast of the island nation of Grenada.
Full story
Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
See also: NSF press release |
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May 3, 2007
Astronomer Finds That Mercury Has Molten Core
Newly released data from 21 delicately timed observations at three telescopes taken over five years yields the strongest evidence, to date, that Mercury has a molten core. The news was reported by Jean-Luc Margot, assistant professor of astronomy at Cornell University, in
the journal Science. Full story
Source: Cornell University
See also: NSF press release. |
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May 3, 2007
Scientists Offer New View of Photosynthesis
During the remarkable cascade of events involved in photosynthesis, plants scavenge nearly every photon of available light energy to produce food. In the May 4 issue of Science, an Arizona State University Biodesign Institute team led by Neal Woodbury has published new insights that allow plants or bacteria to harness light energy efficiently, even when conditions aren't optimal. The answers may be good news for organic solar cell technology, a low-cost alternative to traditional silicon solar cells. Full story
Source: Arizona State University
See also: NSF press release. |
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May 2, 2007
Ecology in an Era of Globalization
In a special issue, scientists from the Americas explore ecology in an era of globalization, looking at the impacts of human migration, production systems, and invasive species on ecosystems and people throughout North, Central and South America. Full story
Source: Ecological Society of America |
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May 2, 2007
Laser-Induced Shocks in Diamond Anvil Can Achieve Pressures Inside Supergiant Planets
Diamond anvil cells and laser-induced shocks can separately achieve pressures higher than that at the core of the Earth, but in combination they could achieve pressures 100 to 1,000 times greater than possible today, reproducing conditions expected in the cores of supergiant planets. According to Univerity of California, Berkeley's Raymond Jeanloz, such pressures will allow researchers to explore the chemistry that takes place at a billion atmospheres and learn about conditions in the cores of extreme planets. Full story
Source: University of California, Berkeley |
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May 1, 2007
Climate Change a Threat to Indonesian Agriculture, Study Says
Rice farming in Indonesia is greatly affected by short-term climate variability and could be harmed significantly by long-term climate change, according to a new study by researchers at Stanford University, the University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin. The results are scheduled for publication the week of April 30 in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Full story
Source: Stanford University |
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May 1, 2007
Technique Monitors Thousands of Molecules Simultaneously
A chemist at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. is making molecules the new-fashioned way--selectively harnessing thousands of minuscule electrodes on a tiny computer chip that do chemical reactions and yield molecules that bind to receptor sites. Kevin Moeller, Ph.D., Washington University professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, is doing this so that the electrodes on the chip can be used to monitor the biological behavior of up to 12,000 molecules at the same time. Full story
Source: Washington University in St. Louis |
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May 1, 2007
'Wrapping' Gleevec® Fights Drug-Resistant Cancer
A study in this week's Cancer Research finds the anti-cancer drug Gleevec is far more effective against a drug-resistant strain of cancer when it wraps the target with a molecular bandage that seals out water from a critical area. The wrapping version of the drug--known as WBZ-7--was created, produced and tested by three research teams from Rice University and the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Full story
Source: Rice University |
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April 12, 2007
Soft Tissue Taken From Tyrannosaurus Rex Fossil Yields Original Protein
Dr. Mary Schweitzer, a North Carolina State University researcher, and colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have confirmed the existence of protein in soft tissue recovered from the bone of a 68 million-year-old T. rex. Their results may change the way that people think about fossil preservation, as well as present a new method for studying diseases such as cancer. Full story.
Source: North Carolina State University
See also: NSF press release. |
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April 6, 2007
High Resolution Images Herald New Era in Earth Sciences
High-resolution images that reveal unexpected details of Earth's internal structure have been developed by geologists. The researchers adapted technology used in oil and gas exploration to image the core-mantle boundary some 1,800 miles beneath Central and North America.
Full story
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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April 5, 2007
New Study Shows Climate Change Leads to Extreme Drought in U.S. Southwest
The Southwest region of the United States will dry significantly as a result of climate change in coming decades, leading to a need for allocation of water resources and perhaps changing the course of regional development. The transition to a more arid climate is likely already underway. Full story
Source: Columbia University, The Earth Institute |
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April 5, 2007
Why Small Dogs Are Small
Soon after humans began domesticating dogs 12,000 to 15,000 years ago, they started breeding small canines. Now, scientists from the University of Utah and seven other institutions have identified a piece of doggy DNA that reduces the activity of a growth gene, ensuring that small breeds stay small. Full story
Source: University of Utah |
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April 5, 2007
Researchers Identify Gene That Plays key Role in Size Of Dogs
An international team of scientists, including researchers from Cornell University, have found a mutation in a single gene that plays a key role in determining body-size differences within and among dog breeds, and probably is important in determining the size of humans as well. Full story
Source: Cornell University |
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April 5, 2007
Laser -Cooling Brings Large Object Near Absolute Zero
Researchers are building an $8.7 million hybrid magnet for "neutron
scattering" experiments. When finished in 2011, the new magnet will
produce a magnetic field between 25 and 30 tesla--more than half a million
times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field. It will be the world's strongest
magnet for neutron experiments. Full story
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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April 4, 2007
Device Draws Cells Close--But Not Too Close--Together
A new device arranges cells so that they touch, remain completely separated, or come close but do not touch. Because the close-but-not-touching arrangement had been impossible to control, the new mechanism may allow biologists to perform experiments in cell signaling that were previously out of reach.
Full story
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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April 3, 2007
Magnet Lab to Build World's Strongest Magnet Designed for Neutron Scattering
Researchers are building an $8.7 million hybrid magnet for "neutron
scattering" experiments. When finished in 2011, the new magnet will
produce a magnetic field between 25 and 30 tesla--more than half a million
times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field. It will be the world's strongest
magnet for neutron experiments.
Full story
Source: National High Magnet Field Laboratory (NHMFL) |
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April 2, 2007
First Impressions: Computer Model Behaves Like Humans on Visual Categorization Task
In a new MIT study, a computer model designed to mimic how the brain itself processes visual information, performs as well as humans do on rapid categorization tasks. This study supports the hypothesis that rapid categorization happens without feedback from cognitive or other areas of the brain. The results also indicate that the model can help neuroscientists make predictions and drive new experiments to explore brain mechanisms involved in human visual perception, cognition and behavior. Full story
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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April 2, 2007
"Picky-eater" Flies Losing Smell Genes
The specialist fruit fly Drosophila sechellia is losing genes for smell and taste receptors 10 times faster than its generalist relative Drosophila simulans. The findings could help researchers understand how some insect pests adapt to feeding on a particular plant. Full story
Source: University of California, Davis |
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April 2, 2007
Possibilities Widen for Electronic Devices
Researchers are now experimenting with using liquids instead of solids to make devices, harness electricity to separate fluids, and perform other tasks. A recent breakthrough with liquid-state-field-effect transistors promises improvement in “lab on a chip” technology and other applications. These tiny devices can be introduced into the blood stream to monitor the blood’s chemistry. Full story
Source: University of Cincinnnati |
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March 29, 2007
Attention Linked to Specific Brain Regions
Researchers have found that the signal in the brain that tells someone to pay attention when they spot a snake in the grass originates in a different part of the brain than signals recognizing a snake at the zoo. The work, which could have implications for treating attention deficit disorder (ADD), is the first concrete evidence that two radically different brain regions--the prefrontal cortex and the parietal cortex--play different roles in these different modes of attention. Full story
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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March 29, 2007
New Algorithms Improve Automated Image Labeling
Electrical engineers are making progress on a different kind of image search engine--one that analyzes the images themselves. This approach may be folded into next-generation image search engines for the Internet; and in the shorter term, could be used to annotate and search commercial and private image collections.
Full story
Source: University of California, San Diego |
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March 28, 2007
University of Alaska Fairbanks Scientist to Lead Sea ice Expedition
Jennifer Hutchings, a research associate at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks International Arctic Research Center, is chief scientist on a team of researchers that will spend the next two weeks at the U.S. Navy ice camp in the Beaufort Sea studying the relationship between ice movement, stress and the overall mass of sea ice. Full story
Source: University of Alaska, Fairbanks |
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March 28, 2007
Researchers Reveal the Tangle Under Turbulence
Picture the flow of water over a rock. At very low speeds, the water looks like a smooth sheet skimming the rock's surface. As the water rushes faster, the flow turns into turbulent, roiling whitewater that can overturn your raft. Turbulence is important in virtually all phenomena involving fluid flow, such as air and gas mixing in an engine, ocean waves breaking on a cliff and air whipping across the surface of a vehicle. However, a comprehensive description of turbulent fluid motion remains one of physics' major unsolved problems. Researchers have visualized, for the first time, a hidden but coherent structure underlying turbulence's messy complexity. The work may ultimately help engineers design better planes, cars, submarines and engines. Full story
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
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March 26, 2007
Engineers Developing Robotic Locomotion That Mimics the Amoeba
Researchers are designing a whole skin locomotion (WSL) mechanism for robots which will work under a principle similar to the one driving the pseudopod--or cytoplasmic "foot"--of the amoeba. With its elongated cylindrical shape and expanding and contracting actuating rings, the WSL can turn itself inside out in a single continuous motion, mimicking the motion of the cytoplasmic tube an amoeba generates for propulsion.
Full story
Source: Virginia Tech
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March 25, 2007
Dust in Antarctic Ice Reveals Important Climate Clues
Recent climate warming and land use changes may be altering atmospheric dustiness over the Antarctic Peninsula and the nearby oceans, according to a new study. Atmospheric dust, climate and landscape are connected in many ways. Atmospheric dust refers to very small particles of soil that are eroded from arid parts of continents and suspended in air. Warm or dry weather, combined with removal of plant cover through clearing of forests, grazing and burning generally make soils more vulnerable to wind erosion, leading to increased atmospheric dust. While past studies of ice cores have linked high levels of atmospheric dust with large decreases in global air temperature at the end of the last ice age, there are few reliable records from recent decades and centuries when natural processes and human activities have altered climate and the landscape.
Full story
Source: Desert Research Institute
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March 22, 2007
The Delicate Trails of Star Birth
An image released today by the Gemini Observatory brings into focus a new and remarkably detailed view of supersonic "bullets" of gas and the wakes created as they pierce through clouds of molecular hydrogen in the Orion Nebula. The image was made possible with new laser guide star adaptive optics technology that corrects in real time for image distortions caused by Earth's atmosphere.
Full story
Source: Gemini Observatory
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March 21, 2007
A New View on Plate-Mantle Activity
After years of results that repeatedly dogged him, University of Oregon geologist Dougles R. Toomey decided to follow the trail of data surfacing from the Pacific Ocean. In doing so, he and his collaborators may have altered long-held assumptions involving plate tectonics on the ocean floor. Scientists have found that the boundaries of Earth's tectonic plates change orientation with time. Toomey and co-authors propose that the flow in the Earth's mantle is rotated beneath the East Pacific Rise, causing the plate boundary to change orientation with time. Secondly, they argue that deep-sea hydrothermal vents frequently form above volcanoes that are located under the ocean floor, where upwelling of the mantle and spreading of the plates are aligned.
Full story
Source: University of Oregon
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March 21, 2007
Moral Judgment Fails Without Feelings
Consider the following scenario: someone you know has AIDS and plans to infect others, some of whom will die. Your only options are to let it happen or to kill the person. Do you pull the trigger? Most people waver or say they could not, even if they agree that in theory they should. But according to a new study, subjects with damage to a part of the frontal lobe make a less personal calculation.
Full story
Source: University of Southern California
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March 21, 2007
Researchers Find Way to Use Microbial Fuel Cells for Large-Scale Electricity Production
Generating electricity from renewable sources will soon become as easy as putting a brush and a tube in a tub of wastewater. A carbon fiber, bottle-brush anode developed by Penn State researchers will provide more than enough surface for bacteria to colonize, for the first time making it possible to use microbial fuel cells for large scale electricity production. In addition, a membrane-tube air cathode, adapted from existing wastewater treatment equipment, will complete the circuit.
Full story
Source: Penn State
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March 20, 2007
Researchers Find Mercury Entering Ocean Through Groundwater
Scientists have found a new and substantial pathway for mercury pollution flowing into coastal waters. Marine chemists have detected much more dissolved mercury entering the ocean through groundwater than from atmospheric and river sources.
Full story
Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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March 9, 2007
Tiny Building Blocks Could Aid Development of New Nanodevices
Chemists have discovered that tiny building blocks, known as gold nanorods, spontaneously assemble themselves into ring-like superstructures. The finding could potentially lead to the development of novel nanodevices like highly sensitive optical sensors, superlenses, and even invisible objects for use in the military.
Full story
Source: Rice University
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March 8, 2007
Regardless of Global Warming, Rising CO2 Levels Threaten Marine Life
Ocean acidity is rising as seawater absorbs more carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from power plants and automobiles. The higher acidity threatens marine life, including corals and shellfish, which may become extinct later this century from the chemical effects of carbon dioxide, even if the planet warms less than expected. A new study by University of Illinois atmospheric scientist Atul Jain, graduate student Long Cao and Carnegie Institution scientist Ken Caldeira suggests that future changes in ocean acidification are largely independent of climate change.
Full story
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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March 7, 2007
Sunlight Can Change the Way Asteroids Spin in Space
Sunlight alone can change the way an asteroid and other small bodies spin in space, suggests a new study. The observations provide the most conclusive evidence to date that an effect of sunlight called YORP (Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack) plays a direct role in the evolution of asteroids. Full story
Source: Cornell University Chronicle
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March 7, 2007
International Telescope Achieves Major Milestone With Antenna-Link Success
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international telescope project, reached a major milestone when two ALMA prototype antennas were linked together to observe an astronomical object. Faint radio waves emitted by the planet Saturn were collected by the two antennas, then processed by new, state-of-the-art electronics to turn the two antennas into a single, high-resolution telescope system, called an interferometer.
Full story
Source: NRAO
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March 1, 2007
Individuals and Populations Differ in Gene Activity Levels
The level at which genes are activated in humans differs from one person to another. Though some of those differences are seen between different populations--Asians versus Europeans, for instance--more of those variations are due to individual-level factors, scientists have found. The findings could have major implications for medical research, as differing levels of gene activity may affect someone's susceptibility to a disease or response to a drug.
Full story
Source: University of Washington
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February 26, 2007
Researchers Break New Ground in Spin Electronics
Scientists have broken new ground in spin electronics through experiments that prove the phenomenon of magnetoresistance on the nanoscale. The research is significant because it provides the first experimental evidence that the new physical phenomenon exists.
Full story
Source: University of Nebraska - Lincoln
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February 25, 2007
New Technique Opens Door To Tabletop X-Ray Laser
A team of researchers has developed a new technique to generate laser-like X-ray beams, removing a major obstacle in the decades-long quest to build a tabletop X-ray laser that could be used for biological and medical imaging.
Full story
Source: University of Colorado at Boulder
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February 22, 2007
Killing the Messenger RNA – But Which One?
Tiny molecules called microRNAs only 19 to 21 nucleotides in length, are able to effectively silence sometimes large sets of genes. Several hundred species of microRNAs have been identified to date, and increasingly they are being seen as vitally important players in regulating the genome.
Full story
Source: The Wistar Institute
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February 21, 2007
Bacteria Could Steady Buildings Against Earthquakes
Soil bacteria could be used to help steady buildings against earthquakes, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis. The microbes can literally convert loose, sandy soil into rock.
Full story
Source: University of California, Davis
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February 15, 2007
Quantum Hall Effect Observed at Room Temperature
Using the highest magnetic fields in the world, an international team of researchers has observed the quantum Hall effect-–a much studied phenomenon of the quantum world–-at room temperature. The quantum Hall effect was previously believed to only be observable at temperatures close to absolute zero (equal to minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit).
Full story
Source: National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
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February 8, 2007
Scientists Use Seismic Waves to Locate Missing Rock Under Tibet
Geologists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have located a huge chunk of Earth's lithosphere that went missing 15 million years ago. By finding the massive block of errant rock beneath Tibet, the researchers are helping solve a long-standing mystery, and clarifying how continents behave when they collide.
Full story
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
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February 7, 2007
In Tiny, Supercooled Clouds, Physicists Exchange Light and Matter
Physicists have, for the first time, stopped and extinguished a light pulse in one part of space, then revived it in a completely separate location. They accomplished this feat by completely converting the light pulse into matter that travels between the two locations and is subsequently changed back to light.
Full story
Source: Harvard University
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February 7, 2007
Machine Learning Could Speed Up Radiation Therapy for Cancer Patients
A new computer-based technique could eliminate hours of manual adjustment associated with a popular cancer treatment. Researchers have developed an approach that has the potential to automatically determine acceptable radiation plans in a matter of minutes, without compromising the quality of treatment.
Full story
Source: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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February 2, 2007
Physicists Find Way to 'See' Extra Dimensions
Peering backward in time to an instant after the big bang, physicists have devised an approach that may help unlock the hidden shapes of alternate dimensions of the universe.
Full story
Source: University of Wisconsin at Madison
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January 31, 2007
Breakthrough in Nanodevice Synthesis Revolutionizes Biological Sensors
Researchers have developed a novel approach to synthesizing nanowires that, for the first time, allows direct integration with microelectronic systems. The devices are able to act as highly sensitive biomolecule detectors that could revolutionize biological diagnostic applications.
Full story
Source: Yale University
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January 26, 2007
DNA Gets New Twist: Scientists Develop Unique DNA "Nanotags"
Scientists have married bright dye molecules with DNA structures to make nanosized fluorescent labels that hold considerable promise for studying fundamental chemical and biochemical reactions in single molecules or cells. The work could improve the sensitivity of fluorescence-based imaging and medical diagnostics.
Full story
Source: Carnegie Mellon University
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January 19, 2007
Illinois Researchers Break Billion Variable Optimization Barrier
Researchers using theories of scalability and implementation techniques and specially programmed genetic algorithms--search procedures based on natural selection and genetics--have achieved efficient, scalable solutions for difficult optimization problems containing over a billion variables.
Full story
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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January 17, 2007
Large Keck Survey Identifies Young Binaries to Test Models of Star Formation
Results from the largest survey of its kind have provided data to test theories describing how small, relatively cool but numerous "M-class" stars are born and change over time. The results will help scientists understand how the most common type of stars in the universe form in molecular clouds, and how--and at what rate--they develop.
Full story
Source: W. M. Keck Observatory; Lowell Observatory
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January 16, 2007
Quantum Biology: Powerful Computer Models Reveal Key Biological Mechanism
Using powerful computers to model the intricate dance of atoms and molecules, researchers have revealed the mechanism behind an important biological reaction wherein an intein—a type of protein found in single-celled organisms and bacteria—cuts itself out of its host protein and reconnects the two remaining strands. The researchers are working to harness the reaction to develop a "nanoswitch" for a variety of applications, from targeted drug delivery to genomics and proteomics to sensors.
Full story
Source: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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January 9, 2007
Sloan and the Seven -- Make that Eight -- Dwarfs
With the prospect of finding dozens of new dwarf systems in our Local Group of galaxies, an international team of researchers has moved the count ahead with the discovery of seven - and perhaps eight - new satellites of the Milky Way.
Full story
Source: Sloan Digital Sky Survey
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January 9, 2007
Radio Telescopes Provide Key Clue on Black Hole Growth
Astronomers have discovered the strongest evidence yet found indicating that matter is being ejected by a medium-sized black hole, providing valuable insight on a process that may have been key to the development of larger black holes in the early Universe.
Full story
Source: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
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January 8, 2007
Hybrid Structures Combine Strengths of Carbon Nanotubes and Nanowires
A team of researchers has created hybrid structures that combine the best properties of carbon nanotubes and metal nanowires. The new structures could help overcome some of the key hurdles to using carbon nanotubes in computer chips, displays, sensors and many other electronic devices.
Full story
Source: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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January 8, 2007
VLBA Helps Build New Picture of Star-Forming Regions
New, high-precision distance measurements by the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescope are providing a major advance for astronomers trying to understand how stars form.
Full story
Source: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
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January 4, 2007
UCLA's J. Fraser Stoddart Adds Knight Bachelor to His List of Honors
J. Fraser Stoddart has been named Knight Bachelor for services to chemistry and molecular nanotechnology by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Stoddart is one of the few chemists to have created a new field of chemistry over the past quarter century by introducing an additional bond — the mechanical bond — into chemical compounds.
Full story
Source: University of California, Los Angeles
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For "News From the Field" from previous years, see the Archive.
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