http://www.blogspan.org/ Blogspan the place for blogs Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT en-us http://www.blogspan.org/images/blogs/astronomy-blog.jpg http://www.blogspan.org/ 100 125 http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/sticky-nanotubes-hold-key-to-future-technologies.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/sticky-nanotubes-hold-key-to-future-technologies.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT Scientists at Purdue University are the first to precisely measure the forces mandatory to peel tiny nanotubes off of other materials, opening up the possibility of creating standards for nano-manufacturing and harnessing a gecko's ability to walk up walls. So-called "peel tests" are used extensively in manufacturing. Knowing how much force is needed to pull a material off of another material is essential for manufacturing, but no tests exist for nanoscale structures, said Arvind Raman, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/waterman-award-to-uclas-mozart-of-math.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/waterman-award-to-uclas-mozart-of-math.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT The National Science Foundation (NSF) is proud to announce that 32-year-old Terence Tao, a professor of mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles, will receive its 2008 Alan T. Waterman Award. Called a andquot;supreme problem-solver,andquot; and named one of andquot;the Brilliant 10andquot; researchers by Popular Science (October 2006), Tao's extraordinary work, much of which has been funded by NSF through the years, has had a tremendous impact across several mathematical areas. He will receive the award at a black tie dinner program at the U.S. Department of State on May 6........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/the-big-gamble.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/the-big-gamble.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT Despite cuts in interest rates, the problems on the US real estate and banking markets have still not been solved and form the epicenter of a financial crisis in the OECD countries. The wave of asset-backed securities in the 1990s, in which the banks passed their credits on to the capital market, led to dubious developments. In view of the crisis faced by the British bank Northern Rock, which caused an almost unprecedented shock in Britain, the economist Paul J.J. Welfens sees the inadequate protection of deposits and poor banking supervision in Britain - and in other OECD countries - as the root of the problem. Typically in an article on the ongoing banking crisis recently reported in the springer journal international economics and economic policy, he writes that the leading finance centers are responsible for the shocking international crisis characterized by a loss of confidence in major markets........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/fake-diamonds-help-jet-engines-take-the-heat.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/fake-diamonds-help-jet-engines-take-the-heat.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT Ohio State University engineers are in the process of developing a technology to coat jet engine turbine blades with zirconium dioxide -- usually called zirconia, the stuff of synthetic diamonds -- to combat high-temperature corrosion. The zirconia chemically converts sand and other corrosive particles that build up on the blade into a new, protective outer coating. In effect, the surface of the engine blade constantly renews itself........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/skewered-pumpkins.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/skewered-pumpkins.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT We encounter valves every day, whether in the water faucet, the carburetor in our car, or our bicycle tire tube. Valves are also present in the world of nanotechnology. A team of scientists headed by J. Fraser Stoddart and Jeffrey I. Zink at the University of California, Los Angeles, has now developed a new nanovalve. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, the researchers reveal what is special about it: In contrast to previous versions, which only function in organic solvents, this valve operates in an aqueous environment and under physiological conditions-prerequisites for any application as a gate for nanoscopic drug-transport agents, which need to set their cargo free at the right place and time........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/containing-carbon-dioxide.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/containing-carbon-dioxide.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT Injecting CO2, the most troublesome greenhouse gas, into porous rock formations beneath the earth might be the best short-term option for slowing global warming. Los Alamos scientists are developing a comprehensive risk assessment program to ensure safe and effective CO2 containment. This program includes a unique computer model, named "CO2-PENS," to guide the choice and development of the best sites; laboratory experiments to understand the geochemistry of sequestration systems; and field studies to quantify natural CO2 flux in the ecosystem. Los Alamos has advanced its geologic sequestration research by partnering with the Enhanced Oil Recovery Industry, which has injected CO2 underground for 30 years........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2008/hillary-may-be-a-disaster-in-november.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2008/hillary-may-be-a-disaster-in-november.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT Electing Hillary Clinton in the primary may prove disastrous for the Democratic Party in the November Presidential Election. A new Time magazine poll shows McCain has a good chance of winning the presidential race if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Nominee for the President. In this situation Hillary Clinton ties with McCain with 46 percent of the votes........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/1-2008/magnetism-loses-under-pressure.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/1-2008/magnetism-loses-under-pressure.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT Washington, D.C. Scientists have discovered that the magnetic strength of magnetitethe most abundant magnetic mineral on Earthdeclines drastically when put under pressure. Researchers from the Carnegie Institutions Geophysical Laboratory, together with colleagues at the Advanced Photon Source of Argonne National Laboratory, have found that when magnetite is subjected to pressures between 120,000 and 160,000 times atmospheric pressure its magnetic strength declines by half. They discovered that the change is due to what is called electron spin pairing........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/1-2008/debate-about-capital-punishment.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/1-2008/debate-about-capital-punishment.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT In a commentary and two editorials reported in the September 2007 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, three anesthesiologists and a medical ethicist discussed whether doctors should participate in capital punishment executions. Since that issue was published, discussions about doctor involvement in capital punishment have made their way into the state and federal court systems. And the North Carolina Medical Board has published a statement threatening to discipline physicians who actively participate in executions........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/proton-camera.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/proton-camera.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT Lab researchers, working with Teledyne Imaging Sensors, have built the world's fastest camera, and it has just won an RandD 100 Award from RandD Magazine as one of the 100 most technologically significant products of 2007. Made from two bonded microelectronic chips, the "Camera on a Chip" can capture 2.8 million frames per second. A normal motion picture camera captures 24 frames per second........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/nanoscale-details-of-photolithography-process.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/nanoscale-details-of-photolithography-process.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made the first direct measurements of the infinitesimal expansion and collapse of thin polymer films used in the manufacture of advanced semiconductor devices. It's a matter of only a couple of nanometers, but it can be enough to affect the performance of next-generation chip manufacturing. The NIST measurements, detailed in a new paper,* offer a new insight into the complex chemistry that enables the mass production of powerful new integrated circuits........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/now-protecting-americas-birth-certificate.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/now-protecting-americas-birth-certificate.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT A hermetically sealed glass and aluminum encasement built by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will protect the first world map to label the lands of the New World as "America" when the "Exploring the Early Americas" exhibition opens Dec. 13, 2007, at the Library of Congress (LOC) in Washington, D.C. The 40-square-foot, state-of-the-art display case is the new home for the 1507 Waldseemüller map, often called "America's birth certificate"........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/software-helps-mars-rovers-find-winter-havens.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/software-helps-mars-rovers-find-winter-havens.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT New software is helping NASA find safe places for the Spirit rover to ride out future Martian winters -- and also plan where Spirit and its companion rover, Opportunity, will explore in the future. The steep Martian mesa dubbed "Von Braun" would be a safe haven, the software and data analysis determined -- but the path that Spirit would have to follow to get there is a little too risky to travel with winter on the way, explained Ron Li, professor of civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science at Ohio State University........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/mit-creates-oil-repelling-materials.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/mit-creates-oil-repelling-materials.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT MIT engineers have designed a class of material structures that can repel oils, a novel discovery that could have applications in aviation, space travel and hazardous waste cleanup. Such materials could be used to help protect parts of airplanes or rockets that are vulnerable to damage from being soaked in fuel, like rubber gaskets and o-rings........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/james-webb-space-telescope-testing.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/james-webb-space-telescope-testing.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:22 GMT A model of the James Webb Space Telescope's Mid-InfraRed Instrument will be tested before Christmas at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, England to ensure the final instrument can see infrared light. Observing the universe in the infrared light portion of the spectrum is important because a number of objects researchers want to observe in space are far too cold to radiate at shorter wavelengths that can be seen as visible light, but they radiate strongly in infrared light........ ]]>