Unexpected discovery could impact on future climate models
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Feb 10, 2009 |
3.7 / 5 (26) |
11
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have made an unexpected find using a polarimeter (an instrument used to measure the wave properties of light) funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), that ...
More power from bumps in the road: Energy-harvesting shock absorbers
Feb 10, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (16) |
8
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of MIT undergraduate students has invented a shock absorber that harnesses energy from small bumps in the road, generating electricity while it smoothes the ride more effectively than ...
Research Highlights Potential for Improved Solar Cells
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Feb 10, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (13) |
0
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of Los Alamos researchers led by Victor Klimov has shown that carrier multiplication—when a photon creates multiple electrons—is a real phenomenon in tiny semiconductor crystals and not a false observation ...
Climate change may kill the Amazon rainforest
Feb 10, 2009 |
2.2 / 5 (22) |
6
(PhysOrg.com) -- The dieback of the Amazonian forests caused by climate change is not inevitable but remains a distinct possibility, according to a study led by the Professor of Ecosystem Science at Oxford. ...
Scientists read minds with infrared scan
Feb 10, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (10) |
5
Researchers at Canada's largest children's rehabilitation hospital have developed a technique that uses infrared light brain imaging to decode preference - with the goal of ultimately opening the world of choice to children ...
Two-step chemical process turns raw biomass into biofuel
Feb 10, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (9) |
2
(PhysOrg.com) -- Taking a chemical approach, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a two-step method to convert the cellulose in raw biomass into a promising biofuel. The process, which is described ...
Shades of 1918? New study compares avian flu with a notorious killer from the past
Biology /
Feb 10, 2009 |
5 / 5 (7) |
0
In the waning months of the First World War, a lethal virus known as the Spanish flu (influenza A, subtype H1N1), swept the United States, Europe and Asia in three convulsive waves. The year was 1918. The ...
Drug discovery short-circuits cancer growth
Biology /
Feb 10, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (7) |
1
A new drug that blocks cancer's main source of growth has been created in the lab and proven effective in mice, scientists are reporting. It is now being readied for clinical trials in patients.
Ford to launch electric van in the US next year
Feb 10, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (6) |
8
(PhysOrg.com) -- Ford's first all-electric vehicle in the US will be a commercial van that gets a range of 100 miles per charge with a top speed of 70 mph. The van, called the Ford Transit Connect, should ...
Vigorous exercise may help prevent vision loss
Feb 10, 2009 |
3.9 / 5 (7) |
0
There's another reason to dust off those running shoes. Vigorous exercise may help prevent vision loss, according to a pair of studies from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The studies ...
Plants take a hike as temperatures rise
Feb 10, 2009 |
3 / 5 (8) |
10
Plants are flowering at higher elevations in Arizona's Santa Catalina Mountains as summer temperatures rise, according to new research from The University of Arizona in Tucson.
Google's PowerMeter Will Help Reduce Energy Consumption (Video)
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
Feb 10, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (5) |
2
(Physorg.com) -- Google.org has announced "PowerMeter", a platform that will help users track their home electricity usage in real-time on their home computer. This platform will receive data from "smart meters" ...
Swift, Fermi probe fireworks from a flaring gamma-ray star (Video)
Feb 10, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
3
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers using NASA's Swift satellite and Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope are seeing frequent blasts from a stellar remnant 30,000 light-years away. The high-energy fireworks arise from ...
Diverse 'connectomes' hint at genes' limits in the nervous system
Feb 10, 2009 |
5 / 5 (4) |
3
Genetics may play a surprisingly small role in determining the precise wiring of the mammalian nervous system, according to painstaking mapping of every neuron projecting to a small muscle mice use to move ...
Biologists find gene network that gave rise to first tooth
Biology /
Feb 10, 2009 |
4 / 5 (4) |
0
A paper in this week's PLoS Biology reports that a common gene regulatory circuit controls the development of all dentitions, from the first teeth in the throats of jawless fishes that lived half a billion years ago, to the ...
