Kites flying in high-altitude winds could provide clean electricity

Technology / Energy

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (44) | 29

(PhysOrg.com) -- At any moment, the winds in high-altitude jet streams hold roughly 100 times more energy than all the electricity being consumed on Earth, according to a study by Stanford environmental and ...

Ageing Brains Show Great Promise for Rejuvenation

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (24) | 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- UQ neuroscientists have, for the first time, been able to demonstrate that moderate exercise significantly increases the number of neural stem cells in the ageing brain.

Organic light-emitting diode screens ready to go mainstream

Electronics / Hardware

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (22) | 6

It's not yet lights-out for LCD and plasma, but OLED displays are finally ready to begin pushing those technologies out of the limelight.

Could Maxwell's Demon Exist in Nanoscale Systems?

Physics / General Physics

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (18) | 30

(PhysOrg.com) -- Maxwell’s demon may be making a comeback. Physicists know that the demon, an imaginary creature that decreases the entropy of a system, cannot exist in macroscopic systems due to the energy ...

Space shuttle science shows how 1908 Tunguska explosion was caused by a comet

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Jun 24, 2009 | 3.4 / 5 (19) | 15

The mysterious 1908 Tunguska explosion that leveled 830 square miles of Siberian forest was almost certainly caused by a comet entering the Earth's atmosphere, says new Cornell University research. The conclusion ...

Scientists Observe Liquid Water Below Freezing

Chemistry / Materials Science

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (14) | 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- Below 0 °C, water turns to ice. But beyond that, or below about -75 °C, the ice may turn back into liquid water. While scientists have previously predicted this phase transition with computer ...

First acoustic metamaterial 'superlens' created

Physics / General Physics

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (13) | 6

A team of researchers at the University of Illinois has created the world's first acoustic "superlens," an innovation that could have practical implications for high-resolution ultrasound imaging, non-destructive ...

Scientists discover giant Rydberg atom molecules

Physics / Condensed Matter

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (12) | 4

A group of University of Oklahoma researchers led by Dr. James P. Shaffer, Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, have discovered giant Rydberg molecules with a bond as large as a red blood cell. Determining ...

Jets on Saturn's moon Enceladus not geysers from underground ocean

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.1 / 5 (12) | 9

Water vapor jets that spew from the surface of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus are not really geysers from an underground ocean as initially envisioned by planetary scientists, according to a study led by the ...

Lasers can lengthen quantum bit memory by 1,000 times

Physics / Quantum Physics

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (10) | 1

Physicists have found a way to drastically prolong the shelf life of quantum bits, the 0s and 1s of quantum computers.

Sleep helps build long-term memories

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (9) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Experts have long suspected that part of the process of turning fleeting short-term memories into lasting long-term memories occurs during sleep. Now, researchers at the RIKEN-MIT Center for ...

Prehistoric flute in Germany is oldest known

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (9) | 5

Excavations in the summer of 2008 at the sites of Hohle Fels and Vogelherd produced new evidence for Paleolithic music in the form of the remains of one nearly complete bone flute and isolated small fragments ...

Students create portable device to detect suicide bombers (w/ Video)

Technology / Engineering

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (9) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the weapons of suicide bombers, are a major cause of soldier casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. A group of University of Michigan engineering undergraduate students have ...

Ancient well, and body, found in Cyprus

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (8) | 0

(AP) -- Archaeologists have discovered a water well in Cyprus that was built as long as 10,500 years ago, and the skeleton of a young woman at the bottom of it, an official said Wednesday.

Salt block unexpectedly stretches in new experiments

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

Jun 24, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (7) | 4

To stretch a supply of salt generally means using it sparingly.