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Tests may lead to doubling of fuel cell life
May 23, 2013 | Comments
To improve fuel cell module durability and predict longevity, researchers are studying the degradation mechanisms of the fuel cells that occur under real-world transit bus conditions. While quantifying the effects of electrode degradation stressors in the operating cycle of the bus on the membrane lifetime, the team has discovered links between electrode degradation and membrane durability.
Inkjet-printed graphene may open doors to foldable electronics
May 20, 2013 3:15 pm | Comments
Northwestern University researchers have recently developed a graphene-based ink that...
Record-breaking high-energy particles detected by telescope buried in Antarctic
May 17, 2013 12:26 pm | Comments
A massive telescope buried in the Antarctic ice has detected 28 extremely high-energy...
Peering into living cells without dye or fluorophore
February 8, 2013 11:31 am | Comments
Two scientists in Switzerland have developed a device that can create 3D images of living cells...
Earth’s mantle may affect long-term sea-level rise estimates
May 24, 2013 11:27 am | by Rob Enslin, Syracuse University | CommentsFrom Virginia to Florida, there is a prehistoric shoreline that, in some parts, rests more than 280 feet above modern sea level. The shoreline was carved by waves more than 3 million years ago—possible evidence of a once higher sea level, triggered by ice-sheet melting. But new findings by a team of researchers reveal that the shoreline has been uplifted by more than 210 feet, meaning less ice melted than expected.
Cinnamon: Could it prevent Alzheimer's?
May 24, 2013 10:42 am | CommentsCinnamon: Can the red-brown spice with the unmistakable fragrance and variety of uses offer an important benefit? The common baking spice might hold the key to delaying the onset of—or warding off—the effects of Alzheimer's disease. That is, according to scientists at University of California, Santa Barbara.
Scientists build record-setting metamaterial flat lens
May 24, 2013 10:20 am | CommentsFor the first time, scientists working NIST have demonstrated a new type of lens that bends and focuses ultraviolet light in a way that it can create ghostly, 3D images of objects that float in free space. The easy-to-build lens could lead to improved photolithography, nanoscale manipulation and manufacturing, and even high-resolution 3D imaging, as well as a number of as-yet-unimagined applications in a diverse range of fields.
Biophysicists measure mechanism that determines fate of living cells
May 24, 2013 8:11 am | CommentsCells in the human body do not function in isolation. Living cells rely on communication with their environment—neighboring cells and the surrounding matrix—to activate a wide range of cellular functions. This cellular communication occurs on the molecular level and it is reciprocal. Now, for the first time, researchers have measured the molecular force required to mechanically transmit function-regulating signals within a cell.
Balance is key to making quantum-dot solar cells work
May 24, 2013 7:53 am | by David L. Chandler, MIT News Office | CommentsThere has been great interest in using quantum dots to produce low-cost, easily manufactured, stable photovoltaic cells. But, so far, the creation of such cells has been limited by the fact that in practice, quantum dots are not as good at conducting an electric charge as they are in theory. Something in the physical structure of these cells seems to trap their electric-charge carriers. Now researchers may have found the key.
NSF and SRC to fund research to create failure-resistant circuits
May 24, 2013 5:00 am | CommentsLeaders of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), the world's leading university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies, this week announced 18 new projects funded through a joint initiative to address research challenges in the design of failure-resistant circuits and systems.
Scientists offer first definitive proof of bacteria-feeding behavior in green algae
May 23, 2013 11:21 pm | CommentsA team of researchers has captured images of green alga consuming bacteria, offering a glimpse at how early organisms dating back more than 1 billion years may have acquired free-living photosynthetic cells. This acquisition is thought to have been a critical first step in the evolution of photosynthetic algae and land plants.
Cockroaches quickly lose sweet tooth to survive
May 23, 2013 11:04 pm | by Malcolm Ritter, AP Science Writer | CommentsFor decades, people have been getting rid of cockroaches by setting out bait mixed with poison. But in the late 1980s, in an apartment test kitchen in Florida, something went very wrong. A killer product stopped working. Cockroach populations there kept rising. Mystified researchers tested and discarded theory after theory until they finally hit on the explanation.
NASA head views progress on asteroid lasso mission
May 23, 2013 10:59 pm | by Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer | CommentsSurrounded by engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, NASA chief Charles Bolden on Thursday inspected a prototype spacecraft engine that could power an audacious mission to lasso an asteroid and tow it closer to Earth for astronauts to explore. Once relegated to science fiction, ion propulsion is preferred for deep space cruising because it's more fuel-efficient.
New filtration material could make petroleum refining cheaper, more efficient
May 23, 2013 10:55 pm | CommentsA newly synthesized material might provide a dramatically improved method for separating the highest-octane components of gasoline. These components are expensive to isolate. Created in the laboratory of Jeffrey Long, professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, the material is a metal-organic framework, or MOF, which can be imagined as a sponge with microscopic holes.
Cradle turns smartphone into handheld biosensor
May 23, 2013 10:49 pm | by Liz Ahlberg, University of Illinois | CommentsUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers have developed a cradle and app for the iPhone that uses the phone’s built-in camera and processing power as a biosensor to detect toxins, proteins, bacteria, viruses and other molecules. Having such sensitive biosensing capabilities in the field could enable on-the-spot tracking of groundwater contamination, or provide immediate and inexpensive medical diagnostic tests.
FDA approves blood test to diagnose diabetes
May 23, 2013 5:23 pm | by The Associated Press | CommentsThe Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it approved a new blood test from Roche to help doctors diagnose diabetes. The Cobas Integra 800 is a blood test that measures a patient's average blood sugar level over the previous three months. In particular, the test measures an oxygen-carrying blood component known as hemoglobin.
Scientists announce top 10 new species
May 23, 2013 2:18 pm | CommentsAn amazing glow-in-the-dark cockroach, a harp-shaped carnivorous sponge and the smallest vertebrate on Earth are just three of the newly discovered species selected by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University to be recognized as the top 10 of 2012. The announcement comes with a call to discover, in the next 50 years, what are thought to be 10 million undiscovered species on Earth.
Engineer helps pioneer flat spray-on optical lens
May 23, 2013 2:10 pm | CommentsA University of British Columbia engineer and a team of U.S. researchers have made a breakthrough utilizing spray-on technology that could revolutionize the way optical lenses are made and used. Nearly all lenses—whether in an eye, a camera, or a microscope—are presently curved, which limits the aperture, or amount of light that enters. The new spray-on lens is flat, and can be affixed to a glass slide.
Bacterium from Arctic offers clues about life on Mars
May 23, 2013 2:04 pm | CommentsThe temperature in the permafrost on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian high Arctic is nearly as cold as that of the surface of Mars. So the recent discovery by a McGill University led team of scientists of a bacterium that is able to thrive at -15 C, the coldest temperature ever reported for bacterial growth, is exciting. The bacterium offers clues about some of the necessary preconditions for microbial life on Mars.
