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Other Sciences news
Wholesale food prices rose last month by the most in 36 years, and experts can't say how high they'll ultimately go. As the effects appear everywhere from the supermarket to fast food restaurants, an economist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences said farmers probably won't be reaping much of the increase.
A new report on young people's use of social networking and cyber safety reveals that young people may be more aware and better able to manage online risks than their parents commonly think.
(PhysOrg.com) -- High school students who feel they do not fit in are less likely to attend college -- particularly girls who are gay or obese -- according to new research from The University of Texas at Austin.
(PhysOrg.com) -- A 19th-century painting depicting a scene of early settlers on Huntsville’s Monte Sano Mountain was recently rediscovered and restored to its original brilliance and depth by representatives of The University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Conventional wisdom suggests that average citizens hate politics, loathe hyper-partisan gridlock, balk at voting even in presidential election years and are, incidentally, woefully ill-informed.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Learning to be a member of a culture is a primary developmental task for all young children. For most, it happens at home. But for deaf children around the world – more than 90 percent of them live with hearing parents and siblings – their assimilation into deaf culture, the world of sign, and their national culture is likely to begin in early-childhood programs.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Bribery is condemned in most cultures; but it is more common in some countries than in others. Is poverty, political instability, or lax regulation to blame? A new study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests a surprising contributor: Collectivism—a culture that downplays individual self-determination and stresses interdependence and shared responsibility.
(PhysOrg.com) -- The country rated highest on the map which rated words and icons used to describe happiness on social network site Twitter.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Werner Herzog’s new film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, tells the story of the ancient creation and modern discovery of the stunning rock-art of the Chauvet cave in the Ardèche Valley, south-east France. Shot in 3-D, the documentary takes the audience deep inside the huge caverns to marvel at the vivid, almost cinematic depictions of animals that date back some 32,000 years. The apparent freshness of these ancient images, and the technical ability they demonstrate, is staggering.
When bad news needs to be shared, management scholars have shown that the response is influenced by how bad the news is, what is said, and who says it. New research by Terry Cobb, management associate professor in the Pamplin College of Business, focuses on what makes such communications effective or successful.
"Even the wide interval between birds and reptiles has been shown by the naturalist to be partially bridged over in the most unexpected manner, on the one hand, by the ostrich and extinct Archeopteryx, and on the other hand, by the Compsognathus, one of the Dinosaurians". - Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species, 1872.
Introductory science courses – in biology, chemistry, math and physics – can be challenging for first-year college, CEGEP and university students. Science 101 courses can make or break a student's decision to venture into a scientific field or even pursue higher education.
The long-standing conflicts over nuclear power and the risks of radiation exposure are nothing new – in fact, the debate over the damaged Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant in Japan are similar to arguments happening between scientists, governmental agencies and the public since 1945, according to an Oregon State University expert on the history of science.
Faced with filling in the 2011 census form plenty of people will be tempted to put frivolous answers into the boxes asking for details about their lives. 200 years ago, a Norfolk vicar had similar ideas.
What is the difference between e-learning, online learning and distance learning? University of Missouri researchers have found that even educators can't agree on what different forms of learning environments entail and, without some common definitions, it is difficult to study the best methods and provide students with accurate previews of courses.
The persistence and recurrence of H5N1 avian influenza in endemic regions can largely be blamed on movement and infection by migratory birds. Trade in poultry, poultry products and caged birds, and movement of wild birds also account for H5N1 prevalence in these areas. Several recent outbreaks of avian influenza have suggested strong evidence of migratory birds playing a role in transmitting the virus over long distances.
A new University of Missouri study says that the reasons students give for cheating are rational, and that stricter punishments won't solve the problem. Instead, teachers should communicate clear standards and provide consistent enforcement to reduce instances of cheating.
(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Hawaii archaeologists, led by Barry Rolett, have published a journal in Quaternary Science Reviews focusing on the early settlements of Taiwan. It is their belief that rising sea waters in China led to the movement of settlements.
Halfway up Salt Mountain in Utah, petroglyphs on a limestone rock bear witness to an obscure twist of history: a Hawaiian Mormon settlement that flourished briefly more than a century ago.
(PhysOrg.com) -- The first known case of clogged arteries, or atherosclerosis, has been found in the mummy of an Egyptian princess, said a study presented Sunday at a major US cardiology conference.
Nanotechnology news
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using an advanced form of a rubber stamp, researchers have developed a way to adhere an ultra-thin antibacterial coating to a wound.
Using minute graphite particles 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, mechanical engineers at Arizona State University hope to boost the efficiency -- and profitability -- of solar power plants.
(PhysOrg.com) -- A Purdue University biochemist has demonstrated a process using nanotechnology to better assess whether cancer drugs hit their targets, which may help reduce drug side effects.
Physics news
Research shows that vibrations in the inner ear continue even after a sound has ended, perhaps serving as a kind of mechanical memory of recent sounds. In addition to contributing to the understanding of the complex process of sound perception, the results may shed light on other fascinating aspects of the auditory system, such as why some gaps between sounds are too brief to be perceived by the human ear. The study is published by Cell Press in the April 5th issue of Biophysical Journal.
Controlling the rotation of light – this amazing feat was accomplished at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna), by means of a ultra thin semiconductor. This can be used to create a transistor that works with light instead of electrical current.
A very simple bench-top technique that uses the force of acoustical waves to create a variety of 3D structures will benefit the rapidly expanding field of metamaterials and their myriad applications -- including "invisibility cloaks."
A team of physicists experimentally produces quantum-superpositions, simply using a mirror.
For the first time – as presented in Nature Communications - the quantum behaviour of molecules consisting of more than 400 atoms was demonstrated by quantum physicists based at the University of Vienna in collaboration with chemists from Basel and Delaware.
Space & Earth news
Australian scientists have begun the process of delivering the most detailed national climate change projections yet.
A search team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has located the wreckage of Air France Flight 447 some 3,900 meters, or nearly 2.5 miles, below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil’s northeastern coast.
Algal bloom specialist David Caron knows exactly what caused the death of 2.5 million sardines at King Harbor and is producing a paper on his research. The city of Redondo Beach gave him and his team a coin medallion for their guidance on the recent die-off.
By elevating its life and physical sciences research program, NASA could achieve the biological understanding and technical breakthroughs needed to allow humans to be sent deeper into space, including to Mars, says a new National Research Council report. In addition, access to the space environment -- for example, on the International Space Station -- will open up further opportunities for groundbreaking research in the physical and life sciences. The report, one of a series of decadal surveys that the Research Council has completed for NASA and the first on interdisciplinary life and physical sciences for exploration missions, lays out a research agenda for the next decade that could bring about developments with substantial payoffs for human exploration of space.
British food waste activist Tristram Stuart won Norway's Sophie Prize for environment and sustainable development Tuesday, the foundation behind the award said.
The United States has invited energy officials from a dozen countries to a forum next week to share lessons learned from last year's devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a US official said Tuesday.
Recycling manure is an important practice, especially for large livestock producers. Manure can be used as fertilizer to aid in crop production, aiding livestock producers that grow their own feed crops. While manure does provide a rich nutrient source for crops, it also can contribute to nutrient leaching and runoff. This can contaminate the surrounding ecosystem and lead to eutrophication of waterways. The desire for farmers to be able to recycle manure in an environmentally safe manner while providing a sufficient supply of nutrients to their crops without reducing profit, is an ongoing struggle.
Large, untapped oil and gas reserves have been attracting oil firms to Greenland, which hopes the resources will help speed up its independence, but there is unwanted attention from environmentalists.
Americans have been lulled into a false sense of security that they are prepared for a devastating earthquake, according to a report issued Wednesday by the National Research Council.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Keeping moorland soils wet could prove vital in conserving some of Britain's important upland breeding bird species – by protecting the humble daddy longlegs, according to new research.
Loss of glaciers and snowpack due to climate warming in alpine regions is putting pressure on a rare aquatic insect, the meltwater stonefly, according to a study recently released in Climatic Change Letters.
(AP) -- The protective ozone layer in the Arctic that keeps out the sun's most damaging rays - ultraviolet radiation - has thinned about 40 percent this winter, a record drop, the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday.
That the thyroid can be affected and that the kidneys in rare cases can be damaged are known side-effects of medication with lithium. Female patients who become pregnant are also advised against taking medicine containing lithium, as the substance can affect the foetus.
(AP) -- Scientists are monitoring a massive pool of fresh water in the Arctic Ocean that could spill into the Atlantic and potentially alter the key ocean currents that give Western Europe its moderate climate.
Mary Cleave left the NASA astronaut corps in the early 1990s to make a rare jump from human spaceflight to Earth science. She was going to work on an upcoming mission to measure gradations in ocean color – something she had actually seen from low-Earth orbit with her own eyes. From space, differing densities of phytoplankton and algae and floating bits of plant life reveal themselves as so many blues and greens. For Cleave, a former environmental engineer, the attraction was simple.
ESA’s Envisat satellite has measured record low levels of ozone over the Euro-Atlantic sector of the northern hemisphere during March.
Sunspots have been observed for about four centuries, since they were first reported by Galileo. Appearing in roughly eleven-year cycles of activity, sunspots are regions of strong and complex magnetic fields which are also home to large releases of energy and furious solar storms. These storms modulate winds of energetic charged particles that cause significant disruption to communications and power grids when they reach the Earth.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have discovered that two symmetrical jets shooting away from opposite sides of a blossoming star are experiencing a time delay: knots of gas and dust from one jet blast off four-and-a-half years later than identical knots from the other jet.
(AP) -- After monitoring a small piece of space junk for 11 hours, NASA determined it posed no danger Tuesday to the International Space Station and its three residents.
In an unprecedented collaborative analysis published in the journal PLoS Biology, scientists from 49 nations demonstrated that the ability of reef fish systems to produce goods and services to humanity increases rapidly with the number of species. However, growing human populations hamper the ability of reefs to function normally, and counterintuitively, the most diverse reef fish systems suffer the greatest impairments from stressors triggered by human populations. The study documented that the extent of this distress is widespread and likely to worsen because 75% of the world's reefs are near human settlements and because around 82% of the tropical countries with coral reefs could double their human populations within the next 50 to 100 years.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Private spaceflight company, SpaceX, unveiled their massive 22 story big Falcon Heavy rocket capable of carrying a cargo capacity of 117,000 pounds. The 27-enginge Falcon Heavy is aimed to carry large commercial and government payloads into Earth orbit.
For the first time, scientists have found convincing evidence for the presence of liquid water in a comet, shattering the current paradigm that comets never get warm enough to melt the ice that makes up the bulk of their material.
Chemistry news
The arrays of fine adhesive hairs or 'setae' on the foot pads of many insects, lizards and spiders give them the ability to climb almost any natural surface. Research by James Bullock and Walter Federle from the University of Cambridge in England found that the different forces required to peel away these adhesive hairs from surfaces are what allows beetles to adhere to diverse surfaces, thereby reducing the risk of detachment. Their study, published online in the Springer journal Naturwissenschaften – The Nature of Science, reports the first adhesive force measurements from single microscopic setae in a live animal.
Scientists are working to develop a new drug that will regenerate a critical enzyme in the human body that "ages" after a person is exposed to deadly chemical warfare agents.
Popular in cosmetic medicine for making tiny frown wrinkles go away, botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) is, perhaps, more notorious for historic outbreaks of respiratory paralysis and death. Traditionally, medical responders have relied on the highly sensitive, but slow, mouse assay to confirm the presence of BoNT and determine its serotype. But today, research emphasis has turned to developing in vitro immunoassay techniques with high sensitivity and rapid sample results -- both important for potential exposure.
Nearly 3 billion pounds of chicken feathers are plucked each year in the United States -- and most end up in the trash. Now, a new method of processing those feathers could create better types of environmentally-friendly plastics.
Some people collect stamps and coins, but when it comes to sheer utility, few collections rival the usefulness of Rice University researcher Michael Deem's collection of 2.6 million zeolite structures.
(PhysOrg.com) -- What do Winslow Homer's For to Be a Farmer's Boy (1887) and Vincent van Gogh's The Bedroom (1889) have in common?
Provided by PhysOrg.com
