http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/science-blog.html Science blog from blogspan.org, the place for information. Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:21 GMT en-us http://www.blogspan.org/images/blogs/science-blog-8855990.jpg http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/science-blog.html 124 96 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 23:27:21 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 23:27:21 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/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 23:27:21 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 23:27:21 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 23:27:21 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/dicranopteris-linearis.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/2-2008/dicranopteris-linearis.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:27:21 GMT Thank you again to Krystyna Szulecka for sharing another of her excellent photographs (posted in this thread in the BPotD submissions forum). If you like, see more of Krystyna''s images by searching for “Krystyna” on the FLPA web ......... ]]> 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 Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:45:05 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/12-2007/proton-camera.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/proton-camera.html Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:45:05 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 Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:45:05 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/ricinus-communis-cultivar.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/ricinus-communis-cultivar.html Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:45:05 GMT Anne from Alberta (aka annkelliott@Flickr) shares another of her great images with BPotD (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). Thank you, ......... ]]> 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 Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:35:13 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 Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:35:13 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/hibiscus-clayi.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/12-2007/hibiscus-clayi.html Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:35:13 GMT A thank you to frolickauai@Flickr for today''s first-time contribution to Botany Photo of the Day (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). Much appreciated! Do investigate frolickauai''s other photographs on Flickr – plenty of plant ......... ]]> 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 Sat, 08 Dec 2007 03:33:25 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........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/fatigue-effects-in-silicon.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/fatigue-effects-in-silicon.html Sat, 08 Dec 2007 03:33:25 GMT Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a mechanical fatigue process that eventually leads to cracks and breakdown in bulk silicon crystalsa phenomenon thats especially interesting because it long has been thought not to exist. Their recently published* results have important implications for the design of new silicon-based micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices that have been proposed for a wide variety of uses........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/lupinus-breweri-var-breweri.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/lupinus-breweri-var-breweri.html Sat, 08 Dec 2007 03:33:25 GMT Thank you again to one of the good folks at the University of Colorado at Boulder for today''s image and write-up. Janice Forbis is the assistant manager of the greenhouse in U of C''s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. A big thank you to you, ......... ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/cause-of-us-near-ground-aerosol-pollution.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/cause-of-us-near-ground-aerosol-pollution.html Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:56:13 GMT A new NASA study estimates that most ground-level particulate pollution in the United States stems from regional sources in North America and only a small amount is brought to the country from other parts of the world. Scientists using an innovative global aerosol tracking model have for the first time produced a global estimate of sources and movements of aerosols near the ground where they can affect human health and run afoul of environmental regulations. Previously, scientists studying aerosols moving between continents focused primarily on tracking a single type of aerosol, such as dust or black carbon, or measuring their quantities throughout the atmosphere. This left gaps in understanding where ground-level particulate pollution comes from........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/seven-year-old-becomes-scientist-for-a-day.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/seven-year-old-becomes-scientist-for-a-day.html Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:56:13 GMT When I grow up, I want to be a scientist. How a number of MIT students uttered these words when they were children? Though not an MIT student, Juliana Bach, a 7-year-old from Miami, discovered her passion for science at a young age. On Tuesday, Nov. 13, MIT, in conjunction with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, made her wish to be a scientist come true........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/noahs-flood-kick-started.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/noahs-flood-kick-started.html Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:56:13 GMT The flood thought to bebehind the Noahs Ark myth kick-started European agriculture, as per new research by the Universities of Exeter, UK and Wollongong, Australia. Reported in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, the research paper assesses the impact of the collapse of the North American (Laurentide) Ice Sheet, 8000 years ago. The results indicate a catastrophic rise in global sea level led to the flooding of the Black Sea and drove dramatic social change across Europe. The research team argues that, in the face of rising sea levels driven by contemporary climate change, we can learn important lessons from the past........ ]]> http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/effects-of-low-dose-arsenic-on-development.html http://www.blogspan.org/blogs/permalinks/11-2007/effects-of-low-dose-arsenic-on-development.html Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:56:13 GMT A team of Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) scientists has determined that low doses of arsenic disrupt the activity of a hormone critical in development. The finding is further evidence that arsenic at low doses (at levels found in U.S. drinking water in some areas) can be harmful. The study appeared in the Oct. 26, 2007, online edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), and it will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal........ ]]>