Editors Picks
Jelly-like atmospheric particles resist chemical aging
October 16, 2012 4:46 pm | News | CommentsAtmospheric chemists at Harvard University have found that when it comes to secondary organic material (SOM) in the atmosphere, there are two distinct breeds: liquids and jellies. Their experiments, using particle of a-pinene SOM and adipic acid, have shown that a drop in humidity can send these common aerosols into a jelly-like phase, in which they resist chemical aging almost entirely.
Engineers to design affordable carbon dioxide thickener to augment oil extraction
October 16, 2012 1:48 pm | News | CommentsCrude oil extraction could be improved significantly and accessible domestic oil reserves could be expanded with an economical carbon dioxide thickener being developed by University of Pittsburgh engineers, thanks to a $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Effort to mass-produce flexible nanoscale electronics
October 16, 2012 1:27 pm | News | CommentsCase Western Reserve University researchers have won a $1.2 million grant to develop technology for mass-producing flexible electronics devices at a whole new level of small. As they're devising new tools and techniques to make wires narrower than a particle of smoke, they're also creating ways to build them in flexible materials and package the electronics in waterproofing layers of durable plastics.
Earth’s brief polarity reversal linked to other extreme events
October 16, 2012 12:45 pm | News | CommentsFor the first time, three separately found extreme Earth events have been compared by researchers who now believe they may be linked. About 41,000 years ago, a complete and rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field occurred, lasting for just a few hundred years. Around the same time, a super volcano erupted and major climate changes occurred.
Physicists crack another piece of the glass puzzle
October 16, 2012 12:24 pm | by Carol Clark, Emory University | News | CommentsWhen it comes to physics, glass lacks transparency. No one has been able to see what’s happening at the molecular level as a super-cooled liquid approaches the glass state—until now. Emory University physicists have made a movie of particle motion during this mysterious transition.
Blue Origin completes rocket engine thrust chamber test
October 16, 2012 12:11 pm | News | CommentsNASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) partner Blue Origin has successfully fired the thrust chamber assembly for its new 100,000 pound thrust BE-3 liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen rocket engine. As part of Blue's Reusable Booster System (RBS), the engines are designed eventually to launch the biconic-shaped space vehicle the company is developing.
How Huygens landed on Titan
October 16, 2012 12:10 pm | by Jia-Rui Cook/JPL and Daniel Stolte/UANews | News | CommentsScientists have pieced together the sequence of events of the farthest touchdown a man-made spacecraft has ever made on an alien world. Their work in tracking the bounces, wobbles, and skids the probe made before coming to rest on Titan reveals new clues about the Saturn moon’s surface and helps plan future missions to moons and planets.
NASA must reinvest in nanotechnology research
October 16, 2012 11:38 am | News | CommentsThe United States may lose its leadership role in space to other countries unless it makes research and development funding and processes—especially in nanotechnology—a renewed and urgent priority, according to a new paper from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
Freezing electrons in flight
October 16, 2012 8:58 am | by Daniel Stolte, University of Arizona | News | CommentsUsing the world’s fastest laser pulses, which can freeze the ultrafast motion of electrons and atoms, physicists have caught the action of molecules breaking apart and electrons getting knocked out of atoms. Their most recent accomplishment is a real-time series of snapshots documenting what happens to an oxygen molecule when it pops apart after absorbing too much energy to maintain the stable bond between its two atoms.
Engineers control thousands of cells simultaneously using magnetic nanoparticles
October 16, 2012 8:57 am | News | CommentsUsing clusters of tiny magnetic particles about 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, researchers from University of California, Los Angeles have shown that they can manipulate how thousands of cells divide, morph, and develop finger-like extensions. The tool can be used in developmental biology to understand how tissues develop.
Tracking offshore wind
October 16, 2012 7:30 am | News | CommentsThe University of Maine and the U.S. Offshore Wind Collaborative (USOWC) have announced a partnership to co-develop WindHUB, USOWC's new online resource for stakeholders interested in the emerging U.S. offshore wind industry.
Absorbent nanomaterial cleans up toxic water
October 15, 2012 2:14 pm | News | CommentsScience is full of surprises. College of Wooster chemist Paul Edminston's search for a new way to detect explosives at airports instead led to the creation of what's now called "Osorb," swellable, organically modified silica, or glass, capable of absorbing oil and other contaminants from water.
Researchers study formation of early cellular life
October 15, 2012 1:46 pm | News | CommentsResearchers at Penn State University have developed a chemical model that mimics a possible step in the formation of cellular life on Earth 4 billion years ago. Using large "macromolecules" called polymers, the scientists created primitive cell-like structures that they infused with RNA and demonstrated how the molecules would react chemically under conditions that might have been present on the early Earth.
University physics fares well with higher fees
October 15, 2012 1:20 pm | News | CommentsResearch assessing the impact of higher tuition fees on future university physics students has found them largely undeterred by fear of debt and determined to pursue a subject they love. The report uses secondary data, focus groups, and a survey, involving more than 500 applicants, to understand better the potential implications of the new funding model.
Evolving microbes help turn bio-oil into advanced biofuels
October 15, 2012 1:09 pm | News | CommentsThe bacteria and microalgae typically used to ferment biofuels don’t react well to bio-oil produced by fast pyrolysis. The result of this thermochemical process is a thick, molasses-like oil that is toxic to the microbes. Researchers at Iowa State University, however, have adopted a hybrid approach that incorporates a biochemical conversion path to improve the microbes’ tolerance to contaminants.
Jump from 24-miles high provides collective moment
October 15, 2012 1:01 pm | by Juan Carlos Llorca and Oskar Garcia, Associated Press | News | CommentsFelix Baumgartner stood poised in the open hatch of a capsule suspended above Earth, wondering if he would make it back alive. Twenty four miles below him, millions of people were right there with him, watching on the Internet and marveling at the wonder of the moment. Nine minutes later he landed, becoming the world's first supersonic skydiver.
Better fuel economy: Billions and billions saved
October 15, 2012 12:20 pm | News | CommentsAs fuel economy of new vehicles improved 18% over the past five years, billions of gallons of gas and billions of pounds of emissions have been saved, say University of Michigan researchers. To reach these results, the researchers collected fuel data on 61 million new cars, pickup trucks, minivans, and SUVs sold in the U.S. since 2007.
An affordable way to generate medical isotopes
October 15, 2012 11:49 am | News | CommentsScientists at Argonne National Laboratory have developed a safe and affordable way to ensure a reliable U.S. supply of certain medical isotopes. Although the invention is at a conceptual stage, it has the potential to provide critical medical diagnostic material for small regional hospitals.
Solar wind particles likely source of water locked inside lunar soils
October 15, 2012 11:12 am | News | CommentsThe most likely source of the water locked inside soils on the moon's surface is the constant stream of charged particles from the sun known as the solar wind, a University of Michigan researcher and his colleagues have concluded. Over the last five years, spacecraft observations and new laboratory measurements of Apollo lunar samples have overturned the long-held belief that the moon is bone-dry.
New techniques stretch carbon nanotubes, make stronger composites
October 15, 2012 9:38 am | News | CommentsResearchers from North Carolina State University have developed new techniques for stretching carbon nanotubes (CNT) and using them to create carbon composites that can be used as stronger, lighter materials. By stretching the CNT material before incorporating it into a composite for use in finished products, the researchers straighten the CNTs in the material, which significantly improves its tensile strength.
Another advance on the road to spintronics
October 15, 2012 9:23 am | News | CommentsUsing a new technique called HARPES, for hard X-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers have unlocked the ferromagnetic secrets of dilute magnetic semiconductors, materials of great interest for spintronic technology.
NREL nanotechnology solar cell achieves 18.2% efficiency
October 15, 2012 8:18 am | News | CommentsScientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have produced solar cells using nanotechnology techniques at an efficiency—18.2%—that is competitive. The breakthrough should be a step toward helping lower the cost of solar energy.
Making a layer cake with atomic precision
October 15, 2012 8:06 am | News | CommentsGraphene and associated one-atom-thick crystals offer the possibility of a vast range of new materials and devices by stacking individual atomic layers on top of each other, new research the the University of Manchester shows. The team used individual one-atom-thick crystals to construct a multilayer cake that works as a nanoscale electric transformer.
Applied physics as art
October 15, 2012 7:52 am | News | CommentsIn Harvard University's Pierce Hall, the surface of a small germanium-coated gold sheet shines vividly in crimson. A centimeter to the right, where the same metallic coating is literally only about 20 atoms thicker, the surface is a dark blue, almost black. The colors from the logo of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, where researchers have demonstrated a new way to customize the color of metal surfaces by exploiting an overlooked optical phenomenon.
Synchrotrons play role in Nobel prize research
October 12, 2012 12:04 pm | by Glenn Roberts Jr., SLAC | News | CommentsThe winners of the 2012 Chemistry Nobel Prize won for their work in revealing the structure and functioning of a key protein complex on the surface of human cells that has been a target for drug development. Their main tool for this research was X-ray crystallography, which is performed with X-ray synchrotrons. But as the researchers would discover, not all synchrotrons are created equal.
