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Physical Sciences
A team of McGill Chemistry Department researchers led by Dr. Hanadi Sleiman has achieved a major breakthrough in the development of nanotubes – tiny "magic bullets" that could one day deliver drugs to specific diseased cells.
Source: McGill University
Posted on: Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010, 9:10pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 63 | Comments: 0
Duke University researchers have devised a method to dry and preserve proteins in a glassified form that seems to retain the molecules' properties as workhorses of biology.
Source: Duke University
Posted on: Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010, 9:10pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 70 | Comments: 0
Graphene—carbon formed into sheets a single atom thick—now appears to be a promising base material for capturing hydrogen, according to recent research* at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Pennsylvania. The findings suggest stacks of graphene layers could potentially store hydrogen safely for use in fuel cells and other applications.
Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Posted on: Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010, 5:48pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 94 | Comments: 0
In findings that took the experimenters three years to believe, University of Michigan engineers and their collaborators have demonstrated that light itself can twist ribbons of nanoparticles.
Source: University of Michigan
Posted on: Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010, 2:12pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 125 | Comments: 0
Metallic glasses are emerging as potentially useful materials at the frontier of materials science research. They combine the advantages and avoid many of the problems of normal metals and glasses, two classes of materials with a very wide range of applications.
Source: Carnegie Institution
Posted on: Tuesday, Mar 16, 2010, 6:52pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 93 | Comments: 0
An interdisciplinary team of physicists and geologists led by the University of Pennsylvania has made a major step toward predicting where and how large floods occur on river deltas and alluvial fans.
Source: University of Pennsylvania
Posted on: Tuesday, Mar 16, 2010, 6:17pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 74 | Comments: 0
Questionable lending helped sink the U.S. economy, but also provided a lifeline that kept countless firms afloat and averted an even deeper recession, according to research by a University of Illinois finance expert.
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Posted on: Tuesday, Mar 16, 2010, 6:17pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 73 | Comments: 0
Understanding the steps to the intricate dance inside a cell is essential to one day choreographing the show. By studying the molecules that give a cell its structure, University of Illinois researchers are moving closer to understanding one of those steps: the conga line.
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Posted on: Tuesday, Mar 16, 2010, 5:52pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 124 | Comments: 0
For the average college basketball fan looking for an edge in a March Madness office pool, a University of Illinois expert in statistics and data analysis has some advice on how to pick winners: After the Sweet Sixteen round of play, ignore a team's seeding, which is a statistically insignificant predictor of a team's chances of winning.
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Posted on: Monday, Mar 15, 2010, 8:19pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 116 | Comments: 0
A potent new inhibitor of HIV, derived from bananas, may open the door to new treatments to prevent sexual transmission of HIV, according to a University of Michigan Medical School study published this week.
Source: University of Michigan Health System
Posted on: Monday, Mar 15, 2010, 2:10pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 227 | Comments: 0
Desktop experiments could point the way to dark matter discovery, complementing grand astronomical searches and deep underground observations.
Source: DOE/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Posted on: Monday, Mar 15, 2010, 2:10pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 86 | Comments: 0
A new high-performance anode structure based on silicon-carbon nanocomposite materials could significantly improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries used in a wide range of applications from hybrid vehicles to portable electronics.
Source: Georgia Institute of Technology Research News
Posted on: Monday, Mar 15, 2010, 12:37pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 102 | Comments: 0
Researchers at the University of Calgary have discovered the unique genes that allow the opium poppy to make codeine and morphine, thus opening doors to alternate methods of producing these effective painkillers either by manufacturing them in a lab or controlling the production of these compounds in the plant.
Source: University of Calgary
Posted on: Monday, Mar 15, 2010, 11:16am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 122 | Comments: 0
Spiders and silkworms are masters of materials science, but scientists are finally catching up. Silks are among the toughest materials known, stronger and less brittle, pound for pound, than steel.
Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Posted on: Monday, Mar 15, 2010, 11:16am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 103 | Comments: 0
A new mathematical model developed by Indiana University Bloomington and Arizona State University geographers could help communities that are in the midst of passing or reforming sex offender laws. The researchers describe the model and report its first test in an Early View edition of Papers in Regional Science.
Source: Indiana University
Posted on: Monday, Mar 15, 2010, 11:16am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 83 | Comments: 0
Calculations are fine, but seeing is believing. That's the thought behind a new paper by Rice University students who decided to put to the test calculations made more than a century ago.
Source: Rice University
Posted on: Saturday, Mar 13, 2010, 12:37am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 162 | Comments: 0
Space physicists from the University of Leicester are part of an international team that has identified the impact of the Sun on Mars' atmosphere.
Source: University of Leicester
Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 7:12pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 86 | Comments: 0
A team led by Princeton University scientists has tested Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity to see if it holds true at cosmic scales. And, after two years of analyzing astronomical data, the scientists have concluded that Einstein's theory, which describes the interplay between gravity, space and time, works as well in vast distances as in more local regions of space.
Source: Princeton University
Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 3:20pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 176 | Comments: 0
For the first time, researchers have been able to confine and study an individual protein, one that plays a key role in photosynthesis, without having to pin it down so tightly as to alter its fundamental behavior.
Source: Stanford University
Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 2:25pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 80 | Comments: 0
The weird world of quantum mechanics describes the strange, often contradictory, behaviour of small inanimate objects such as atoms. Researchers have now started looking for ways to detect quantum properties in more complex and larger entities, possibly even living organisms.
Source: Institute of Physics
Posted on: Friday, Mar 12, 2010, 2:25pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 146 | Comments: 0
Articles From the Web
Big Bang experiment may reveal dark universe: CERN
Dark matter, which scientists believe makes up 25 percent of the universe but whose existence has never been proven, could be detected by the giant particle collider at CERN, the research centre's head said Monday.
Source: Reuters
Posted on: Monday, Mar 08, 2010, 1:23pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 55 | Comments: 0
Dunes On Mars: How Sand Shifts Without Wind
It's a scientific mystery: How did dunes form on Mars when the wind doesn't seem strong enough to move the sand? Jasper Kok tells Guy Raz he may have the answer — it has to do with sand "bouncing" and "splashing" in a way that's different than what happens on Earth.
Source: NPR
Posted on: Monday, Feb 15, 2010, 11:21am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 165 | Comments: 0
Up in the Air, and Down, With a Twist
For aerialists with the United States Freestyle Ski Team, their high-flying feats are a matter of physics, and plenty of preparation.
Source: NYTimes
Posted on: Tuesday, Feb 02, 2010, 11:51am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 114 | Comments: 0
Physicists’ Dreams and Worries in Era of the Big Collider
cosmos at the Physics of the Universe Summit in Los Angeles, but they didn’t necessarily agree.
Source: NYT
Posted on: Friday, Jan 29, 2010, 10:48am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 143 | Comments: 0
Tevatron Sees Haiti Earthquake
The massive earthquake that hit Haiti last week has devastated the region, and captured the world's attention as relief efforts continue underway. Via Symmetry Breaking, I learned that the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab actually detected the quake
Source: Discovery Channel
Posted on: Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010, 9:48am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 179 | Comments: 0
Hang Christiaan Huygens! Here's a Better Suspension Bridge
They may be pretty, but simple swooping bridge cables aren't the best design
Source: Science
Posted on: Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010, 9:41am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 171 | Comments: 0
A Flood, Not a Falls, Refilled the Mediterranean
Researchers find new clues about one of the biggest floods in history
Source: Science
Posted on: Monday, Dec 14, 2009, 11:03am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 241 | Comments: 0
Will fusion fade ... or finally flare up?
Is nuclear fusion the ultimate energy source, or the ultimate pipe dream? Millions upon millions of dollars are being spent to find out which answer is the right one.
Source: MSNBC
Posted on: Monday, Dec 07, 2009, 12:46pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 252 | Comments: 0
Experts Criticize Nanoparticle Study
Paper that hints at dangers of nanoscopic particles has no relevance to human disease, they say
Source: Science
Posted on: Wednesday, Nov 11, 2009, 1:07pm
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 338 | Comments: 0
Did Ancient Earth Go Nuclear?
Natural fission reactors may have irradiated early life
Source: Science
Posted on: Tuesday, Nov 03, 2009, 10:37am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 281 | Comments: 0
Fiber Optics, Imaging Pioneers Win Physics Nobel
The 2009 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to Charles K. Kao, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith — all of whom have American citizenship — for breakthroughs involving the transmission of light in fiber optics and inventing an imaging semiconductor circuit.
Source: NPR
Posted on: Tuesday, Oct 06, 2009, 9:31am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 348 | Comments: 0
Spider Wranglers Weave One-Of-A-Kind Tapestry
The American Museum of Natural History in New York unveiled something never before seen: an 11-by-4-foot tapestry made completely of spider silk. The tapestry took four years to make, with the help of more than 1 million spiders.
Source: NPR
Posted on: Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009, 9:55am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 288 | Comments: 0
In the Case of Droplets, Opposites Repel
Highly charged droplets bounce off one another instead of merging
Source: Science
Posted on: Monday, Sep 21, 2009, 10:29am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 334 | Comments: 0
Wall Street’s Math Wizards Forgot a Few Variables
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, many experts want formulas for risk that look at human behavior and how it can change rapidly.
Source: NYT
Posted on: Monday, Sep 14, 2009, 10:57am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 315 | Comments: 0
Tevatron tightens up the race for the Higgs
With the Large Hadron Collider yet to restart, the less powerful – but working – Tevatron is piling up data and could find the Higgs boson first
Source: New Scientist
Posted on: Monday, Aug 31, 2009, 9:57am
Rating: Not Rated | Views: 270 | Comments: 0