http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers using the W. M. Keck Observatory have peered far into a young planetary system, giving an unprecedented view of dust and gas that might eventually form planets similar to Jupiter, Venus, or even Earth. The researchers used the Keck Interferometer, which combines the light-gathering power of both 10-meter Keck telescopes to act as an 85-meter telescopemuch larger than any existing or planned telescope. http://www.physorg.com/news180806114.html Space & Earth Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:30:02 EST news180806114 Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have proposed a new paradigm that should allow scientists to observe quantum behavior in small mechanical systems. http://www.physorg.com/news180632559.html Physics Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:44:00 EST news180632559 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have spent decades searching for the elusive material known as dark matter, which is believed to make up 25 percent of the universe. On Thursday, Dec. 17, a team of physicists including some at MIT reported possible evidence of two dark matter particles in a detector located in a former iron mine in Minnesota. http://www.physorg.com/news180365061.html Physics Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:25:02 EST news180365061 Saturn's largest moon, Titan, looks to be the only place in the solar system -aside from our home planet, Earth -with copious quantities of liquid (largely, liquid methane and ethane) sitting on its surface. According to planetary astronomer Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Earth and Titan share yet another feature, which is inextricably linked with that surface liquid: common fog. http://www.physorg.com/news180350535.html Space & Earth Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:23:11 EST news180350535 For decades, science texts have told a simple and straightforward story about a particular protein -a transcription factor -that helps the embryo of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, pattern tissues in a manner that depends on the levels of this factor within individual cells. http://www.physorg.com/news180283760.html Biology Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:40:06 EST news180283760 The University of California, San Diego and nine other universities are members of a new research center charged with finding ways to improve the design of computing systems ranging from large data centers to tiny brain sensors. In its first three years, the Multi-Scale Systems Center (MuSyC) will focus on tackling a critical issue affecting multiple scales: energy efficiency. http://www.physorg.com/news180208212.html Technology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:00:11 EST news180208212 Our cells are more like us than we may think. They're sensitive to their environment, poking and prodding deliberately at their surroundings with hand-like feelers and chemical signals as they decide whether and where to move. Such caution serves us well but has vexed engineers who seek to create synthetic tissue, heart valves, implants and other devices that the human body will accept. http://www.physorg.com/news180202451.html Biology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:17:58 EST news180202451 (PhysOrg.com) -- Techniques recently invented by researchers at the California Institute of Technology -- which allow the real-time, real-space visualization of fleeting changes in the structure of nanoscale matter -- have been used to image the evanescent electrical fields produced by the interaction of electrons and photons, and to track changes in atomic-scale structures. http://www.physorg.com/news180191808.html Physics Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:17:45 EST news180191808 Have you ever found yourself struggling to get your order taken at a crowded bar or lunch counter, only to walk away in disgust as more aggressive customers elbow their way to the front? It turns out that flies do much the same thing, according to biologists from the California Institute of Technology. http://www.physorg.com/news179328346.html Biology Sun, 06 Dec 2009 13:27:08 EST news179328346 (PhysOrg.com) -- For more than 30 years, scientists have been trying to harness the power of terahertz radiation. Tucked between microwaves and infrared rays on the electromagnetic spectrum, terahertz rays can penetrate clothing, plastic, and human tissue, but they're thought to be safer than x-rays. Since they're absorbed to different degrees by different molecules, they can also tell chemicals apart: a terahertz scanner at an airport checkpoint, for example, could determine whether a vial in a closed suitcase contained aspirin, methamphetamines or an explosive. http://www.physorg.com/news179147950.html Physics Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:19:43 EST news179147950 (PhysOrg.com) -- The world's largest image of our Milky Way galaxy, taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, went on display this week at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. http://www.physorg.com/news179142417.html Space & Earth Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:47:54 EST news179142417 (PhysOrg.com) -- Donhee Ham, Gordon McKay Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics, uses his personal energy and understanding of physics to design innovative integrated circuits. http://www.physorg.com/news179085037.html Physics Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:50:02 EST news179085037 (PhysOrg.com) -- An extraordinarily bright, extraordinarily long-lasting supernova named SN 2007bi, snagged in a search by a robotic telescope, turns out to be the first example of the kind of stars that first populated the Universe. The superbright supernova occurred in a nearby dwarf galaxy, a kind of galaxy that's common but has been little studied until now, and the unusual supernova could be the first of many such events soon to be discovered. http://www.physorg.com/news179002328.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:30:02 EST news179002328 Researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have been able to view in detail, and for the first time, the previously mysterious process by which long chains of a protein called ubiquitin are added by enzymes called ubiquitin ligases to proteins that control the cell cycle. Ubiquitin chains tag target proteins for destruction by protein-degrading complexes in the cell. http://www.physorg.com/news178983771.html Biology Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:43:50 EST news178983771 NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer has been wrapped in the outer nose cone, or "fairing," that will protect it during its scheduled Dec. 9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. http://www.physorg.com/news178912011.html Space & Earth Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:30:01 EST news178912011