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. Sprays of dirt flew out of a soil box that held a retaining wall as it violently shook from a simulated 7.4 magnitude earthquake. The wall was put to test recently by engineers at the UC San Diego Englekirk Structural Engineering Center, which has the largest outdoor shake table in the United States. During the first series of tests, led by Dawn Cheng, a UCSD engineering alumna and now a civil engineering professor at UC Davis, researchers investigated the seismic response of a semi-gravity reinforced concrete cantilever wall. http://www.physorg.com/news180116153.html Technology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:40:02 EST news180116153 (PhysOrg.com) -- The bodywork on motor vehicles must be sufficiently stable, but processing the high-strength steels involved -- for example punching holes in them -- can prove something of a challenge. A new steel-cutting process will save time, energy and money in the future. http://www.physorg.com/news178914974.html Technology Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:10:02 EST news178914974 (PhysOrg.com) -- Every month, Sarah Stewart-Mukhopadhyay fires her 20-foot gun in the basement of Harvard's Hoffman Lab, sending shivers through the concrete and steel structure that can be picked up by seismometers upstairs. http://www.physorg.com/news176050830.html Space & Earth Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:01:07 EST news176050830 (PhysOrg.com) -- In the cosmos, all celestial objects - planets, stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies - have magnetic fields. On Earth, the magnetic field of our home planet is most easily observed in a compass where the needle points north. http://www.physorg.com/news174308539.html Space & Earth Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:30:02 EST news174308539 A fabric-covered, steel frame practice facility owned by the National Football League's Dallas Cowboys collapsed under wind loads significantly less than those required under applicable design standards, according to a report released on October 6 for public comment by the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology. http://www.physorg.com/news174074119.html Technology Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:55:51 EST news174074119 TECNALIA Technological Corporation is developing an innovative application for the automatic inspection of hot steel surfaces, based on Machine Vision technologies that enhance quality control in hot rolling mill processes. http://www.physorg.com/news172229963.html Technology Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:00:02 EST news172229963 Hook and loop fasteners have become commonplace features of both industry and households. However, they have one snag: they are too weak for many applications. Hook and loop fasteners made of spring steel have now been developed at the Institute of Metal Forming and Casting of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen. These fasteners are resistant to chemicals and can withstand a tensile load of up to 35 tonnes per square meter at temperatures as high as 800°C. http://www.physorg.com/news171204435.html Technology Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:47:53 EST news171204435 A new earthquake-resistant structural system for buildings, just successfully tested in Japan, will not only help a multi-story building hold itself together during a violent earthquake, but also return it to standing up straight on its foundation afterward, true and plumb, with damage confined to a few easily replaceable parts. http://www.physorg.com/news171101621.html Technology Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:14:39 EST news171101621 A leading microbiologist from the University of Southampton has told a conference that his research has found copper is effective in inhibiting the influenza A H1N1 virus. http://www.physorg.com/news167574621.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:31:30 EST news167574621 Better predictions of how many valuable materials behave under stress could be on the way from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where scientists have recently found evidence of an important similarity between the behavior of polycrystalline materials -such as metals and ceramics -and glasses. http://www.physorg.com/news164455263.html Physics Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:40:01 EST news164455263 A team of University of Kansas engineers is testing a new class of devices that could double the life of America's existing bridges using composite materials. http://www.physorg.com/news157964806.html Technology Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:07:16 EST news157964806 People are always looking for ways to make something less expensive and more environmentally friendly - and a team of researchers from North Carolina State University has figured out how to do both of those things at once when raising the large-scale buildings, such as parking garages, of the future. http://www.physorg.com/news155282307.html Technology Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:00:27 EST news155282307 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Michigan simulated an off-the-charts earthquake in a laboratory to test their new technique for bracing high-rise concrete buildings. Their technique passed the test, withstanding more movement than an earthquake would typically demand. http://www.physorg.com/news154888577.html Technology Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:37:01 EST news154888577 (PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny bacteria munching on and metabolizing biodegradable materials can produce electrons that could be harnessed by microbial fuel cells for energy. By taking advantage of the catalytic reactions of these microorganisms to convert chemical energy to electric energy, microbial fuel cells could be a promising method for generating hydrogen fuel. http://www.physorg.com/news154630043.html Technology Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:47:59 EST news154630043 University of Texas (UT) professor, Dean Neikirk, will be field-testing a new bridge monitoring system within the year. The project is a collaboration between industry, government, and academia that will provide real-time monitoring of dangerous bridges and reduce inspection costs for all bridges. http://www.physorg.com/news154614946.html Technology Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:36:24 EST news154614946 Scientists at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington have worked with the Wallace Collection to analyse the contents of Viking swords - and the results shed new light on trade routes in the middle ages. http://www.physorg.com/news150373962.html Physics Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:32:42 EST news150373962 In warehouses, tidiness is a flexible term. Storage areas can be rearranged or moved around at any time. Forklift trucks will soon make it easy to follow the material flow and keep an overview in the warehouse automatically and with no special effort. http://www.physorg.com/news145542544.html Technology Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:29:04 EST news145542544 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the U.S. ITER Project Office, which is housed at ORNL, have developed a new cast stainless steel that is 70 percent stronger than comparable steels and is being evaluated for use in the huge shield modules required by the ITER fusion device. http://www.physorg.com/news144061886.html Physics Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:11:26 EST news144061886 With steelworks around the world emitting huge amounts of carbon dioxide, scientists are reporting that a byproduct of steel production could be used to absorb that greenhouse gas to help control global warming. The study is scheduled for the October 15 issue of ACS' Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. http://www.physorg.com/news143112914.html Chemistry Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:35:14 EST news143112914 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Colorado School of Mines (CSM) have developed a prototype sensor that quickly detects very small amounts of hydrogen accumulation in coated pipeline steel. The new sensor could provide early warning of pipes that have accumulated excessive amounts of hydrogen -- a notorious source of embrittlement -and avert potentially disastrous failures of pipelines carrying hydrogen fuel. http://www.physorg.com/news142258762.html Technology Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:19:22 EST news142258762 A team of researchers from the University of Manchester (United Kingdom), the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon (France) and the ESRF has revealed how a growing crack interacts with the 3D crystal structure of stainless steel. By using a new grain mapping technique it was possible to determine the internal 3D structure of the material without destroying the sample. http://www.physorg.com/news135523038.html Physics Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:17:18 EST news135523038