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) -- Keeping water vole and mink populations apart is vital if efforts to reintroduce water voles, one of Britain`s most endangered mammals, are to be successful. http://www.physorg.com/news150728581.html Biology Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:03:01 EST news150728581 When extremes of drought and flood come in rapid succession, the extent of damage to vegetation may depend in part on the sequence of those events, according to a new study published in The American Naturalist. http://www.physorg.com/news150642444.html Biology Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:07:24 EST news150642444 (PhysOrg.com) -- The nuclei of ordinary hydrogen atoms contain only a single proton. If a neutron is added, the hydrogen becomes deuterium. In principle, molecules that contain deuterium in place of hydrogen atoms are chemically identical. However, there can be significant differences. Thus `heavy water`, water with molecules that contain deuterium in place of hydrogen, is toxic because it disrupts highly sensitive biochemical processes in the body and leads to metabolic failure. http://www.physorg.com/news150561487.html Chemistry Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:38:07 EST news150561487 (PhysOrg.com) -- Cell phones have already revolutionized the way people around the world communicate and do business. Thanks to advances being made at UCLA, they are about to do the same thing for medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news149190128.html Technology Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:42:08 EST news149190128 (PhysOrg.com) -- It's no simple matter to figure out how regional changes in precipitation, expected to result from global climate change, may affect water supplies. Now, a new analysis led by MIT researchers has found that the changes in groundwater may actually be much greater than the precipitation changes themselves. http://www.physorg.com/news148836122.html Space & Earth Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:22:02 EST news148836122 (PhysOrg.com) -- Over the last several years, scientists have built a very convincing case that Mars hosted water, at least early in its history. Recent observations from the Mars Phoenix lander and other spacecraft show that the planet still holds vast deposits of water as ice at its poles and in soil-covered glaciers in the mid-latitudes. http://www.physorg.com/news148832939.html Space & Earth Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:28:59 EST news148832939 Scientists are looking to outer space for help in their attempt to prevent new outbreaks of the tropical disease schistosomiasis in southern China. http://www.physorg.com/news148831902.html Space & Earth Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:11:42 EST news148831902 (PhysOrg.com) -- Venus Express has made the first detection of an atmospheric loss process on Venus's day-side. Last year, the spacecraft revealed that most of the lost atmosphere escapes from the night-side. Together, these discoveries bring planetary scientists closer to understanding what happened to the water on Venus, which is suspected to have once been as abundant as on Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news148816159.html Space & Earth Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:49:19 EST news148816159 Scientists have discovered where they believe would be the best place to find ice on the moon. http://www.physorg.com/news148805928.html Space & Earth Thu, 18 Dec 2008 06:58:48 EST news148805928 Concern about increasing ocean acidification has often focused on its potential effects on coral reefs, but broader disruptions of biological processes in the oceans may be more significant, according to Donald Potts, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an expert in coral reef ecology and marine biodiversity. http://www.physorg.com/news148756963.html Space & Earth Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:22:43 EST news148756963 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have found the most distant water yet seen in the Universe, in a galaxy more than 11 billion light-years from Earth. Previously, the most distant water had been seen in a galaxy less than 7 billion light-years from Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news148753546.html Space & Earth Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:25:46 EST news148753546 (PhysOrg.com) -- It`s no simple matter to figure out how regional changes in precipitation, expected to result from global climate change, may affect water supplies. Now, a new analysis led by MIT researchers has found that the changes in groundwater may actually be much greater than the precipitation changes themselves. http://www.physorg.com/news148752865.html Space & Earth Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:14:25 EST news148752865 One of the most pernicious aspects of multiple sclerosis (MS) - its sheer unpredictability - may finally be starting to yield to advanced medical imaging techniques. http://www.physorg.com/news148672324.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:52:04 EST news148672324 (PhysOrg.com) -- The closer scientists look at Saturn's small moon Enceladus, the more they find evidence of an active world. The most recent flybys of Enceladus made by NASA's Cassini spacecraft have provided new signs of ongoing changes on and around the moon. The latest high-resolution images of Enceladus show signs that the south polar surface changes over time. http://www.physorg.com/news148581568.html Space & Earth Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:39:28 EST news148581568 (PhysOrg.com) -- The Martian arctic soil that NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander dug into this year is very cold and very dry. However, when long-term climate cycles make the site warmer, the soil may get moist enough to modify the chemistry, producing effects that persist through the colder times. http://www.physorg.com/news148581442.html Space & Earth Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:37:22 EST news148581442 By magnetically levitating water droplets, and using a `liquid electric motor` technique to spin them, researchers can investigate how the droplets change shape. Rather than being just a curious experiment, the results could provide insights into systems that cannot be controlled in the laboratory, such as black holes and atomic nuclei. http://www.physorg.com/news148560530.html Physics Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:48:50 EST news148560530 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at MIT recently found an elegant solution to a sticky scientific problem in basic fluid mechanics: why water doesn't soak into soil at an even rate, but instead forms what look like fingers of fluid flowing downward. http://www.physorg.com/news148225444.html Physics Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:44:04 EST news148225444 Intensifying winds in the Southern Ocean have had little influence on the strength of the Southern Ocean circulation and therefore its ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience. http://www.physorg.com/news147955224.html Space & Earth Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:40:24 EST news147955224 Saturn's moon Enceladus may indeed hide an underground reservoir of water. Scientists at Jet Propulsion Lab in California, the University of Colorado and the University of Central Florida in Orlando teamed up to analyze the plumes of water vapor and ice particles spewing from the moon. They used data collected by the Cassini spacecraft's Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS). Cassini was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in 1997 and has been orbiting Saturn since July 2004. http://www.physorg.com/news146924617.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:23:37 EST news146924617 A Michigan State University researcher and a colleague have won the Boston Innovation Prize for the design of a low-cost, energy-efficient method of cooling and dehumidifying residential and small commercial spaces. http://www.physorg.com/news146832737.html Technology Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:52:17 EST news146832737 Agriculture producers may find they don't have to bottle their water from the Seymour Aquifer in the Rolling Plains to make it more valuable, according to Texas AgriLife Research scientists. http://www.physorg.com/news146757081.html Space & Earth Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:51:21 EST news146757081 A course of water aerobics classes has been shown to reduce the amount of pain-killing medication women request during labor. Research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Reproductive Health has shown that, as well as being safe, the gentle exercise has the benefit of making it easier to give birth. http://www.physorg.com/news146472347.html Medicine & Health Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:45:47 EST news146472347 Vast Martian glaciers of water ice under protective blankets of rocky debris persist today at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on Mars, says new research using ground-penetrating radar on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. http://www.physorg.com/news146409495.html Space & Earth Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:18:15 EST news146409495 Chemists at the University of Liverpool have developed a way of converting methane gas into a powder form in order to make it more transportable. http://www.physorg.com/news146398407.html Chemistry Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:13:27 EST news146398407 Materials engineers have created a new type of membrane that separates oil from water and, if perfected, might be used for environmental cleanup, water purification and industrial applications. http://www.physorg.com/news146228886.html Technology Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:08:06 EST news146228886 (PhysOrg.com) -- Water vapor is known to be Earth's most abundant greenhouse gas, but the extent of its contribution to global warming has been debated. Using recent NASA satellite data, researchers have estimated more precisely than ever the heat-trapping effect of water in the air, validating the role of the gas as a critical component of climate change. http://www.physorg.com/news146160316.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:05:16 EST news146160316 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists appear to have the rock-solid evidence that suggests carbon dioxide can be safely and permanently sequestered in deep, underground basalt rock formations, without risk of it eventually escaping to the atmosphere. The findings have potential implications for sequestering carbon in other reservoir systems as well. http://www.physorg.com/news146158855.html Space & Earth Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:40:55 EST news146158855 Two hundred and fifty miles above the Earth puts you a long way from the nearest kitchen tap. And at $10,000 a pint, the cost of shipping fresh water aboard the space shuttle is, well, astronomical. http://www.physorg.com/news145941700.html Space & Earth Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:21:40 EST news145941700 When mice are exposed to arsenic at federally-approved levels for drinking water, pores in liver blood vessels close, potentially leading to cardiovascular disease, say University of Pittsburgh researchers in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, available online Nov. 13. The study, while preliminary, also reveals how an enzyme linked to hypertension and atherosclerosis alters cells, and may call into question current Environmental Protection Agency standards that are based solely on risks for cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news145818421.html Medicine & Health Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:07:01 EST news145818421 (PhysOrg.com) -- Between 16 and 18 percent of home energy is used to generate hot water, so hot water tank maintenance can pay big dividends on your energy bill. http://www.physorg.com/news145816039.html Technology Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:27:19 EST news145816039