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Other Sciences news
Standing at the head of a classroom in a building with humming supercomputers making background music, Reinhard Laubenbacher told a group of grade-school teachers, “The language of patterns is mathematics. Math underlies absolutely everything.”
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, jewelers are gearing up for a busy period as happy couples come shopping for the perfect engagement ring. Top of the list is the classic diamond, and this year there are more choices than ever.
While the tragic shooting in Arizona has spotlighted the vitriol that seems to pervade political commentary, objective research examining the scope of this disturbing phenomenon has been lacking. In the first published study of its kind, social scientists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences have found that outrage talk is endemic among commentators of all political stripes, but measurably worse on the political right, and is more prevalent than it was even during the turmoil of the war in Viet Nam and the Watergate scandal.
Scientists hunting for fossils of giant rats in East Timor stumbled on unique rock carvings up to 12,000 years old, Australia's research agency said.
Portable laser scanning technology allows researchers to tote their latest fossil discovery from the field to the lab in the form of lightweight digital data stored on a laptop. But sharing that data as a 3D model with others requires standard formats that are currently lacking, say paleontologists at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Measuring the results of scientific research has seen little federal focus until now.
Nanotechnology news
(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny gold particles can help doctors detect tumor cells circulating in the blood of patients with head and neck cancer, researchers at Emory and Georgia Tech have found.
Physics news
Mysterious expanding ice crystals in the moons of Saturn and Neptune may be of interest to future developers of microelectronics. Neutron scattering has discovered that methanol crystals that may be found in outer solar system 'ice lavas' have unusual expansion properties. The unexpected finding by a British planetary geologist using neutrons at the Institut Laue-Langevin and the ISIS neutron source will interest developers of 'nano-switches' – single atom thick valves used in ‘micro-electronics’ at the nano scale.
A researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology has invented a method of making high-temperature superconducting (HTS) cables that are thinner and more flexible than demonstration HTS cables now installed in the electric power grid while carrying the same or more current. The compact cables could be used in the electric grid as well as scientific and medical equipment and may enable HTS power transmission for military applications.
Astronomers have a neat trick they sometimes use to compensate for the turbulence of the atmosphere that blurs images made by ground-based telescopes. They create an artificial star called a guide star and use its twinkling to compensate for the atmospheric turbulence.
(PhysOrg.com) -- "Silicon based logic devices may run out of steam soon because as devices get smaller, they run into different problems," Laurens Molenkamp tells PhysOrg.com. Molenkamp is a physics professor at Universität Würzburg in Würzburg, Germany. Along with a team of scientists, Molenkamp has been studying ways to make use of different materials and structures to improve logic devices, such as computers.
Space & Earth news
Spanish legislation stipulates that at least 60% of waste paper and cardboard collected must be recycled, along with 60% of glass, 50% of metals and 22.5% of plastics. However, a study by researchers at the Jaume I (UJI) University in Castellón shows that this minimum requirement is only exceeded in the case of glass.
The problem with phosphorus, a critical element in fertilizers and food, is, as comedian Rodney Dangerfield would say, that it "can't get no respect."
Inspectors found no damage to the Space Shuttle Discovery or to its external reserve tanks after a thin multi-piece measuring tool fell during repair work, NASA said Thursday.
When NASA astronaut Leland Melvin thinks back on his 12-year career, he estimates he must have read to a half million children, sometimes in classrooms, sometimes via videolink from space.
They're called atmospheric rivers - narrow regions in Earth's atmosphere that transport enormous amounts of water vapor across the Pacific or other regions. Aptly nicknamed "rivers in the sky," they can transport enough water vapor in one day, on average, to flood an area the size of Maryland 0.3 meters (1 foot) deep, or about seven times the average daily flow of water from the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico. The phenomenon was the subject of a recent major emergency preparedness scenario led by the U.S. Geological Survey, "ARkStorm," which focused on the possibility of a series of strong atmospheric rivers striking California - a scenario of flooding, wind and mudslides the USGS said could cause damages exceeding those of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Here are five facts you should know about NASA's Stardust-NExT spacecraft as it prepares for a Valentine's "date" with comet Tempel 1. Feel free to sing along!
For many Americans, giving your significant other a dozen sweet-smelling roses is the ultimate symbol of Valentine's Day affection, but it might not be the best expression of love for your planet.
What is La Niña and why does it matter?
A group of volunteers will on Saturday reach a key stage in an unprecedented one-and-a-half year experiment to study the effects of a mission to Mars when they "land" on the Red Planet's surface.
A set of maps created by the University of Sheffield have illustrated, for the first time, how our last British ice sheet shrunk during the Ice Age.
Tiny organisms preserved in marine sediments hold clues about Arctic climate variation during an ancient episode of greenhouse warming.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using new, high-resolution global ocean circulation models, University of Massachusetts Amherst geoscientist Alan Condron, with Peter Winsor at the University of Alaska, report this week that massive glacial meltwaters assumed to have flooded the entire North Atlantic 8,200 years ago, drastically cooling Europe, instead flowed thousands of miles further south. "These results dramatically affect our understanding of what causes climate change," Condron says.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Stars at all stages of development, from dusty little tots to young adults, are on display in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Chemistry news
Researchers have created a tiny device that triggers reactions in cells.
(PhysOrg.com) -- A unique new probe based on luciferase, the enzyme that gives fireflies their glow, enables researchers to monitor hydrogen peroxide levels in mice and thereby track the progression of infectious diseases or cancerous tumors without harming the animals or even having to shave their fur. Developed by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley, this new bioluminescent probe has already provided the first direct experimental evidence that hydrogen peroxide is continuously made even in a healthy animal.
An international team of researchers has discovered a new class of magnetic superhalogens – a class of atomic clusters able to exhibit unusual stability at a specific size and composition, which may be used to advance materials science by allowing scientists to create a new class of salts with magnetic and super-oxidizing properties not previously found.
Provided by PhysOrg.com
