Will Europe Be Powered by the Sahara

Technology / Energy

Nov 04, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (16) | 22

(PhysOrg.com) -- Europe has long been interested in developing alternative energy sources. And, one of the more interesting places that some Europeans are looking for solar power is the Sahara. With the vast ...

Space hotel taking bookings for 2012 opening

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 05, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (18) | 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first orbiting space hotel is on track to open for its first customers in 2012, but hurry, as bookings are filling fast.

Metal-Air Battery Could Store 11 Times More Energy than Lithium-Ion

Technology / Energy

Nov 05, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (32) | 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- A spinoff company from Arizona State University plans to build a new battery with an energy density 11 times greater than that of lithium-ion batteries for just one-third the cost. With a ...

Nanoparticles for gene therapy improve

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

Nov 06, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- About five years ago, Professor Janet Sawicki at the Lankenau Institute in Pennsylvania read an article about nanoparticles developed by MIT's Robert Langer for gene therapy, the insertion ...

'Whitewash' could slow global warming: Peruvian scientist

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 04, 2009 | 1.4 / 5 (9) | 10

A Peruvian scientist has called on his country to help slow the melting of Andean glaciers by daubing white paint on the rock and earth left behind by receding ice so they will absorb less heat.

Earthquakes actually aftershocks of 19th century quakes

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 04, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (17) | 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- When small earthquakes shake the central U.S., citizens often fear the rumbles are signs a big earthquake is coming. Fortunately, new research instead shows that most of these earthquakes ...

Solving Teapot Effect

Physics / General Physics

Nov 02, 2009 | 5 / 5 (9) | 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists from France have worked out why teapots dribble at low flow rates, and how to stop them. The effect is called the "teapot effect", and solving it could finally put an ...

Researchers use trident laser to accelerate protons to record energies

Physics / General Physics

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 10

An international team of physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory has succeeded in using intense laser light to accelerate protons to energies never before achieved. Using this technique, scientists can ...

Precise picture of early Universe supports 'dark matter' theory

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (15) | 9

A detailed picture of the seeds of structures in the universe has been unveiled by an international team co-led by a Cardiff University scientist.

Turn On, Tune In, Develop? Researchers Examine How Brain Benefits From Musical Training

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

Nov 06, 2009 | 5 / 5 (5) | 4

For most people music is an enjoyable, although momentary, form of entertainment. But for those who seriously practiced a musical instrument when they were young, perhaps when they played in a school orchestra ...

Laser etching safe alternative for labeling grapefruit

Biology / Other

Nov 03, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (13) | 8

Laser labeling of fruit and vegetables is a new, patented technology in which a low-energy carbon dioxide laser beam is used to label, or "etch" information on produce, thereby eliminating the need for common ...

African desert rift confirmed as new ocean in the making

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 02, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (34) | 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled ...

Rapid supernova could be new class of exploding star

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Nov 05, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (17) | 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- An unusual supernova rediscovered in seven-year-old data may be the first example of a new type of exploding star, possibly from a binary star system where helium flows from one white dwarf ...

Shedding Light on the Cosmic Skeleton

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Nov 03, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (17) | 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have tracked down a gigantic, previously unknown assembly of galaxies located almost seven billion light-years away from us. The discovery, made possible by combining two of the ...

Scientists Reproduce a Building Block of Life in Laboratory

Chemistry / Biochemistry

Nov 06, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (21) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA scientists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of our hereditary material, in the laboratory.

1930s drug slows tumor growth

Medicine & Health / Medications

Nov 06, 2009 | 5 / 5 (5) | 1

Drugs sometimes have beneficial side effects. A glaucoma treatment causes luscious eyelashes. A blood pressure drug also aids those with a rare genetic disease. The newest surprise discovered by researchers at the Johns ...