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Feb 3
Sometimes,
DNA extracted from a plant’s green chloroplasts show great similarities
with related species that grow in the same area. The phenomenon has
confounded scientists, who have assumed the sexually incompatible
species somehow cross-bred. Now, researchers say they have the answer,
and that cross-breeding isn’t even necessary for this “chloroplast
capture” to occur.
Feb 2
A series of neutron scattering experiments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other research centers is exploring the key question about a long-sought quantum state of matter called supersolidity: Does it exist?
Feb 1
A
glimpse beyond our solar system reveals the neighborhood just outside
the sun's influence is different and stranger than expected, scientists
reported Tuesday. One oddity is the amount of oxygen. According to
observations, researchers say there are more oxygen atoms floating
freely in the solar system than in the immediate interstellar space, or
the vast region between stars.
Feb 1
New research reveals how the arrival of the first plants 470 million years ago triggered a series of ice ages. A team, led by the universities of Exeter and Oxford, set out to identify the effects that the first land plants had on the climate during the Ordovician Period, which ended 444 million years ago.
Jan 31
A
research team working in Germany and Taiwan have created a
“write-once-read-many-times” (WORM) memory device which has been made
from a thin film of salmon DNA embedded with nano-sized particles of
silver. Sandwiched between two electrodes, the device encodes
information through ultraviolet light.
Jan 31
Using
computer simulations, a researcher has shown that an oxygen molecule is
stable up to pressures of 1.9 terapascal, which is about 19 million
times higher than atmosphere pressure. The result was a complete
surprise, because other simple molecules like nitrogen or hydrogen do
not survive such high pressures.
Jan 30
The heart's inner workings are mysterious, perhaps even more so with a new finding. Engineers at the University of Washington have discovered an electrical property in arteries not seen before in mammalian tissues. The researchers found that the wall of the aorta exhibits ferroelectricity, a response to an electric field known to exist in inorganic and synthetic materials.
Jan 27
One day in 2010, Rutgers University physicist Vitaly Podzorov watched a store employee showcase a kitchen gadget that vacuum-seals food in plastic. The demo stuck with him. The simple concept—an airtight seal around pieces of food—just might apply to his research: Developing flexible electronics using lightweight organic semiconductors for products such as video displays or solar cells.
Jan 26
The driving bass rhythm of rap music can be harnessed to power a new type of miniature medical sensor designed to be implanted in the body. Acoustic waves from music, particularly rap, were found to effectively recharge the pressure sensor. Such a device might ultimately help to treat people stricken with aneurisms or incontinence due to paralysis.
Jan 26
Researchers in the United States, for the first time, cloaked a 3D object standing in free space, bringing the much-talked-about invisibility cloak one step closer to reality. Whilst previous studies have either been theoretical in nature or limited to the cloaking of 2D objects, this study shows how ordinary objects can be cloaked in their natural environment in all directions and from all of an observer's positions.
