science wire

Research Opportunities Plentiful for Next Generation Batteries
In the opening scene of the iconic movie of the 1960s, The Graduate , Benjamin Braddock, at a party to celebrate his college degree, is given one word of advice for his future: "Plastics." Were youn

Getting to the bottom of the zombie ant phenomenon
The cadaver of a zombie ant clings to a leaf in the tropical understory. Emerging from its head are spores of the parasitic fungus that killed it.

New Center Targets Ocean Contaminants and Human Health
Scripps scientists lead two separate projects to track potentially toxic chemicals in marine life and their impacts on human health Capitalizing on UC San Diego's unique ability to address environ

Planes, trains and automobiles: faster, stronger, lighter
New technique advances carbon-fiber composites. These days, aerospace engineering is all about the light stuff: building airplanes with lighter wings, fuselage and landing gear in an effort to reduce fuel costs. Advanced carbon-fiber composites have been used in recent years to lighten planes' loads.

Beautiful "flowers" self-assemble in a beaker
: Caroline Perry , (617) 496-1351 These false-color SEM images reveal microscopic flower structures created by manipulating a chemical gradient to control crystalline self-assembly.

Artificial Forest for Solar Water-Splitting
In the wake of the sobering news that atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at its highest level in at least three million years, an important advance in the race to develop carbon-neutral renewable energy sources has been achieved.

Secrets of life on Earth, Mars bubbling in 2.7 billion-year-old water
A team of scientists from the University of Toronto and Manchester University in the United Kingdom have gone three kilometres beneath the surface of the Canadian Shield to find some of the oldest fluids in our planet's history. The waters are rich in clues about lives lived without sunlight on Earth and possibly on Mars.

Renowned U of’T Alzheimer’s researcher wins prestigious international health award
World-renowned molecular geneticist Professor Peter St George-Hyslop , director of the University of Toronto's Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases , has won one of Europe's top health awards for his pioneering work on the roots of neurodegenerative diseases.

Flawed Diamonds Promise Sensory Perfection
From brain to heart to stomach, the bodies of humans and animals generate weak magnetic fields that a supersensitive detector could use to pinpoint illnesses, trace drugs - and maybe even read minds.

An 18-year-old wunderkind named top graduating senior

New Advance in Biofuel Production
Advanced biofuels - liquid fuels synthesized from the sugars in cellulosic biomass - offer a clean, green and renewable alternative to gasoline, diesel and jet fuels. Bringing the costs of producing these advanced biofuels down to competitive levels with petrofuels, however, is a major challenge.

Early career award funds study of messenger RNA stability
In an effort to improve microorganisms that can sustainably produce fuels and chemicals, a University of Wisconsin-Madison engineer is using a U.S. Department of Energy award to study what — if anything — gets lost in the translation of genetic information.

Melvin Calvin’s Moon Dust Reappears After 44 Years
When Apollo 11 returned from its historic flight in 1969, the moon rocks and lunar soil collected by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin eventually found their way to some 150 laboratories worldwide.

Science Xplained: Ice cream chemistry
Ainissa Ramirez, associate professor of mechanical engineering, describes the science behind a tasty bit of chemistry - ice cream.

Composite Organic/Inorganic Thermoelectric is More Than Sum of Its Parts
A team led by Berkeley Lab Materials Sciences Division's Jeffrey Urban and Rachel Segalman have discovered highly conductive polymer behavior occurring at a polymer/nanocrystal interface. The composite organic/inorganic material is a thermoelectric - a material capable of converting heat into electricity - and has a higher performance than either of its constituent materials.

Improving materials that convert heat to electricity and vice-versa
ANN ARBOR-Thermoelectric materials can be used to turn waste heat into electricity or to provide refrigeration without any liquid coolants, and a research team from the University of Michigan has fou

Seahorse’s Armor Gives Engineers Insight Into Robotics Designs
The tail of a seahorse can be compressed to about half its size before permanent damage occurs, engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have found.

Three Yale faculty elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Three Yale faculty members were among 105 new members and foreign associates elected April 30 to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, one of science's most prestigious honors.

Chromatography Goes Gold: Gold Nanoparticles and Monoliths Make a Perfect Match
For identifying and measuring the chemical constituents of a sample, or for purification purposes, one of the indispensable tools of chemistry is chromatography.

Four Berkeley Lab Researchers Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Four Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) scientists have been elected to the 2013 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary society founded in 1780 to recognize

Artificial Photosynthesis, Bio-inspired Design
Artificial photosynthesis is a dream technology that mimics a natural leaf, converting water and carbon dioxide into fuels with sunlight.

Yale undergrads uncover antifreeze secrets of a Siberian beetle
In 2011, Yale undergraduates asked a question: How does a Siberian beetle survive some of the cruelest winters on earth? Their answer appears on the cover of the April 26 issue of the Journal Biological Chemistry in the form of a peculiarly shaped protein with an ability to prevent ice from forming.

Design principles of quantum biology could open path to new solar technology
University of Chicago researchers have created a synthetic compound that mimics the complex quantum dynamics observed in photosynthesis and may enable fundamentally new routes to creating solar energy technologies. Engineering quantum effects into synthetic light-harvesting devices is not only possible, but also easier than anyone expected, the researchers report in the April 18 edition of Science Express .

Biological Activity Alters the Ability of Particles from Sea Spray to Seed Clouds
Ocean biology alters the chemical composition of sea spray in ways that influence its ability to form clouds over the ocean. That's the conclusion of a team of scientists using a new approach to study tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols that can influence climate by absorbing or reflecting sunlight and seeding clouds.

Special deal on photon-to-electron conversion: Two for one!
New technique developed at MIT could enable a major boost in solar-cell efficiency. Throughout decades of research on solar cells, one formula has been considered an absolute limit to the efficiency of such devices in converting sunlight into electricity: Called the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit, it posits that the ultimate conversion efficiency can never exceed 34 percent for a single optimized semiconductor junction.

Research May Help Drastically Reduce Cost of Powerful Microscope Technique
A dye-based imaging technique known as two-photon microscopy can produce pictures of active neural structures in much finer detail than functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, but it requires powerful and expensive lasers. Now, a research team at the University of Pennsylvania has developed a new kind of dye that could reduce the cost of the technique by several orders of magnitude.

Scientists produce best image yet of atoms moving in real time
Call it the ultimate nature documentary. Scientists at the University of Toronto have recorded atomic motions in real time, offering a glimpse into the very essence of chemistry and biology at the atomic level. Their recording is a direct observation of a transition state in which atoms undergo chemical transformation into new structures with new properties – in this case the transfer of a charge leading to metallic behaviour in organic molecules.

A key to mass extinctions could boost food, biofuel production
Hydrogen sulfide, the pungent stuff often referred to as sewer gas, is a deadly substance implicated in several mass extinctions, including one at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago that wiped out more than three-quarters of all species on Earth. But in low doses, hydrogen sulfide could greatly enhance plant growth, leading to a sharp increase in global food supplies and plentiful stock for biofuel production, new University of Washington research shows.

Going nano to improve drug delivery
UAlberta pharmacy researcher patents nano-scale polymer that improves drug absorption, targets delivery and reduces side-effects. A University of Alberta researcher is thinking small to find innovative ways to improve the delivery of drugs that can be more easily administered with fewer side-effects.

To Build a Better Battery: Two Takes on Lithium-ion Batteries from Berkeley Lab Researchers
Lithium-ion batteries have transformed our lives. Without them, we wouldn't have laptop computers or cell phones - at least, not the long-lived, lightweight kind we're used to - and in the near future they may become more important yet.

Turbulent seas signal sea urchin larvae to settle down, Stanford scientist discovers
Sea urchins mature prematurely in swirling coastal waters to avoid missing their chance to find a home on rocky shores. The swirling waters of a rocky shore motivate sea urchin larvae to grow up and settle down. Scientists, including Stanford marine biologist Jason Hodin, discovered that young sea urchins will prematurely go through puberty and attach to coastal rocks to avoid being washed back out to sea permanently.

Good Cats Wear Black: Black Nanoparticles Could Play Key Role in Clean Energy Photocatalysis
A unique atomic-scale engineering technique for turning low-efficiency photocatalytic "white" nanoparticles of titanium dioxide into high-efficiency "black" nanoparticles could be the key to clean energy technologies based on hydrogen. Samuel Mao, a scientist who holds joint appointments with Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division and the University of California at Berkeley, leads the development of a technique for engineering disorder into the nanocrystalline structure of the semiconductor titanium dioxide.

Chemist Bozhi Tian selected as 2013 Searle Scholar
Bozhi Tian , assistant professor in chemistry, has been named a 2013 Searle Scholar and will receive $300,000 to support his research over the next three years.

Flexible electronics could transform the way we make and use electronic devices
Example of a flexible-circuit film displayed by a member of Professor Tom Jackson's Electronics Research Group on Penn State's University Park campus.

Sweet Success
Catalysis may initiate almost all modern industrial manufacturing processes, but catalytic activity on solid surfaces is poorly understood. This is especially true for the cellulase enzymes used to release fermentable sugars from cellulosic biomass for the production of advanced biofuels. Now, researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) through support from the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) have literally shed new light on cellulase  catalysis.

Scientists engineer space-age molecules from nature’s blueprints
The enzyme needed to introduce the key micronutrient selenium into bacteria looks something like a space station with 10 different docking stations.

A mighty wind
Thrusters powered by ionic wind may be an efficient alternative to conventional atmospheric propulsion technologies.

Ozone masks plant's volatiles, plant eating insects confused
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Increases in ground-level ozone, especially in rural areas, may interfere not only with predator insects finding host plants, but also with pollinators finding flowers, according to researchers from Penn State and the University of Virginia. "Ozone pollution has great potential to perniciously alter key interactions between plants and animals," the researchers said in a recent issue of Environmental Research Letters.

Ten winning pictures at the intersection of art and science
Captured by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), these are nanoflowers made of zinc oxide (ZnO), an important semiconductor in the electronics industry.

Infant tests for debilitating diseases set for mainstream
Michael Gelb and František Turecek have worked more than a decade to devise and implement newborn screening for some debilitating, often-fatal conditions that show up in the first year to several years of a child's life. The idea is to detect the conditions as early as possible, before symptoms begin to appear, so treatment can lessen the physical damage.

Sorting out the structure of a Parkinson’s protein
Computer modeling may resolve conflicting results and offer hints for new drug-design strategies. Clumps of proteins that accumulate in brain cells are a hallmark of neurological diseases such as dementia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Over the past several years, there has been much controversy over the structure of one of those proteins, known as alpha synuclein.

Making Do with More: Joint BioEnergy Institute Researchers Engineer Plant Cell Walls to Boost Sugar Yields for Biofuels
When blessed with a resource in overwhelming abundance it's generally a good idea to make valuable use of that resource.

Light may recast copper as chemical industry ’holy grail’
ANN ARBOR-Wouldn't it be convenient if you could reverse the rusting of your car by shining a bright light on it?

Picking Apart Photosynthesis
Chemists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory believe they can now explain one of the remaining mysteries of photosynthesis, the chemical

UCLA physicists’ technique for cooling molecules may be a stepping stone to quantum computing
The next generation of computers promises far greater power and faster processing speeds than today's silicon-based based machines.

Stirred, not shaken: Physicists gain more particle control
Cornell physicists can now precisely control how particles in viscous liquids swirl, twirl and whirl.

Researchers Attach Lyme Disease Antibodies to Nanotubes, Paving Way for Diagnostic Device
Early diagnosis is critical in treating Lyme disease. However, nearly one quarter of Lyme disease patients are initially misdiagnosed because currently available serological tests have poor sensitivity and specificity during the early stages of infection. Misdiagnosed patients may go untreated and thus progress to late-stage Lyme disease, where they face longer and more invasive treatments, as well as persistent symptoms.

Carnegie Mellon Professors Use Nanocrystal Arrays To Explore Novel Heat Flow In Hybrid Materials
Press Release: Carnegie Mellon Professors Use Nanocrystal Arrays To Explore Novel Heat Flow In Hybrid Materials-Carnegie Mellon News - Carnegie Mellon University Researchers Break Barriers With N

Measuring mercury: common test may overestimate exposure from dental amalgam fillings
ANN ARBOR-A common test used to determine mercury exposure from dental amalgam fillings may significantly overestimate the amount of the toxic metal released from fillings, according to University of Michigan researchers. Scientists agree that dental amalgam fillings slowly release mercury vapor into the mouth.

International technology partnership to focus on water problems
The University of Chicago and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have signed an agreement to begin exploring a research partnership that would create new water production and purification technologies for deployment in regions of the globe where fresh water resources are scarce.

Energy institute fueling innovation in new facility
A group of UW alumni from the College of Engineering take a tour of the Wisconsin Energy Institute building, which is designed to use natural light to reduce its energy consumption.

Nine McGill researchers among recent CRCs announced
Nine McGill researchers are among the recipients of the newly awarded and renewed Canada Research Chairs announced today by the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology) at Western University in London, Ontario.

Ready to plant: ’Iron Lady’ tomato punches out blights
If the name fits, grow it: "Iron Lady" is the first tomato to resist three major fungal diseases - early blight, late blight and Septoria leaf spot - plaguing New York's growers for years.

Penn Medicine: How the Body's Energy Molecule Transmits Three Types of Taste to the Brain
Saying that the sense of taste is complicated is an understatement, that it is little understood, even more so.

Watery research theme to flow through new Tokmakoff lab
Once Andrei Tokmakoff gets his new laser laboratory operational later this year, he will use the world's shortest infrared light pulses to pluck molecular bonds like a stringed musical instrument.

‘Ninja parasites’ elude immune response through molecular mimicry
In feudal-age Japan, cunning, unorthodox mercenaries known as ninjas were notorious for using disguise, deception, and stealth to infiltrate enemy fortifications.

In the Blink of an Eye: X-ray Imaging on the Attosecond Timescale
In the blink of an eye, more attoseconds have expired than the age of Earth measured in - minutes. A lot more.

Flip of a single molecular switch makes an old brain young
The flip of a single molecular switch helps create the mature neuronal connections that allow the brain to bridge the gap between adolescent impressionability and adult stability. Now Yale School of Medicine researchers have reversed the process, recreating a youthful brain that facilitated both learning and healing in the adult mouse.

Startup using U of M technology to manufacture key industrial chemicals from renewable sources
News Release MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (03/06/2013) —Startup Ascenix BioTechnologies will perfect and commercialize production methods to synthesize chemicals from renewable feedstocks.

Researchers develop solar-to-fuel roadmap for crystalline silicon
New analysis points the way to optimizing efficiency of an integrated system for harvesting sunlight to make storable fuel.

Industrial innovation could help humanity beat malaria
A University of Alberta researcher is working with funders and technology investors to get his malaria diagnosis equipment to equatorial Africa, where it's needed most. Sirish Shah knows how serious the need is for new technology that will bring fast and accurate diagnosis of the disease to malaria clinics in the developing world.

A Closer Look at Life: X-ray Microscopy Hits the Sweet Spot for Chemical and Elemental Imaging
In perhaps no other scientific field does the adage “form follows function” hold more true than in biology, especially the biology of living cells, which is why our knowledge of cells starts with imaging.

Clues to Climate Cycles Dug from South Pole Snow Pit
Particles from the upper atmosphere trapped in a deep pile of Antarctic snow hold clear chemical traces of global meteorological events, a team from the University of California, San Diego and a colleague from France have found.

Five exceptional UCLA scholars awarded 2013 Sloan Research Fellowships
Five outstanding young professors from UCLA are among 126 scientists and scholars in the United States and Canada to receive 2013 Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Searching for the Solar System’s Chemical Recipe
By studying the origins of different isotope ratios among the elements that make up today's smorgasbord of planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and interplanetary ice and dust, Mark Thiemens and his colleagues hope to learn how our solar system evolved. Thiemens, Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, has worked on this problem for over three decades.

Scientists develop new therapeutics that could accelerate wound healing
In "before" and "after" photos from advertisements for wound-healing ointments, bandages and antibiotic creams, we see an injury transformed from an inflamed red gash to smooth and flawless skin. What we don't appreciate is the vital role that our own natural biomolecules play in the healing process, including their contribution to the growth of new cells and the development of new blood vessels that provide nutrients to those cells.

Engineering cells for more efficient biofuel production
Yeast research takes a step toward production of alternatives to gasoline. In the search for renewable alternatives to gasoline, heavy alcohols such as isobutanol are promising candidates. Not only do they contain more energy than ethanol, but they are also more compatible with existing gasoline-based infrastructure.

Chemistry Prof. Koji Nakanishi Remains Hard at Work at 87
When Koji Nakanishi retired six years ago, the chemistry department threw a party for him, complete with a cake that said, “Happy Retirement, Koji.

A cure for the common hangover?
In a discovery that could derail the popular "Hangover" movie franchise, a team of researchers led by UCLA engineers has identified a method for speeding up the body's reaction to the consumption of alcohol. In a paper published online Feb. 17 in the peer-reviewed , Yunfeng Lu, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science , and his colleagues describe successfully placing two complementary enzymes in a tiny capsule to speed up the elimination of alcohol from the body.

A cooler way to protect silicon surfaces
New room-temperature process could lead to less expensive solar cells and other electronic devices. Silicon, the material of high-tech devices from computer chips to solar cells, requires a surface coating before use in these applications. The coating "passivates" the material, tying up loose atomic bonds to prevent oxidation that would ruin its electrical properties.

New Clue to Clinical Trial Failures of MMP Cancer Therapies
Proposed cancer therapeutic drugs based on blocking the catalytic activities of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which profoundly remodel the environment surrounding a breast cell, have performed poorly in clinical trials. In mouse studies of MMP14, an enzyme that is often highly expressed in breast cancer, Berkeley Lab researchers have found a possible clue as to why.

Creating New Quantum Building Blocks
Scientists have long dreamed of creating a quantum computer-a device rooted in the bizarre phenomena that transpire at the level of the very small, where quantum mechanics rules the scene.

Light-emitting triangles may have applications in optical technology
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - For the first time, scientists have created single layers of a naturally occurring rare mineral called tungstenite, or WS2. The resulting sheet of stacked sulfur and tungsten atoms forms a honeycomb pattern of triangles that have been shown to have unusual light-emitting, or photoluminescent, properties.

Caltech Senior Wins Churchill Scholarship
Caltech senior Andrew Meng has been selected to receive a Churchill Scholarship, which will fund his graduate studies at the University of Cambridge for the next academic year.

Scientists chipping away at graphene’s secrets
Stanford Report, January 31, 2013 Thinnest graphene sheets react strongly with hydrogen atoms; thicker sheets are relatively unaffected. Single sheets of graphene, a curious material only 1 atom thick, are 100 times more chemically reactive than double or triple sheets, Stanford scientists say in a new paper published online Jan.

First artificial enzyme created by evolution in a test tube
News Release Media Note: To request high resolution images of Seelig and/or of a 3D structure of the evolved enzyme, please Matt Hodson at mjhodson [a] umn (p) edu.

Biofuels Blend Right In
Winemakers have long known that blending different grape varietals can favorably balance the flavor characteristics of the wine they produce. In the future, makers of advanced biofuels might use a similar strategy, blending different feedstock varieties to balance the energy characteristics of the transportation fuel they produce.

UT Chemist Wins Japan Prize (50 Million Yen) for Innovative Semiconductor Materials
AUSTIN, Texas — C. Grant Willson, professor of chemistry and chemical engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, has won the Japan Prize , an international award similar to the Nob

Nanotech's Next Frontier: Initiative Brings Disciplines Together for Pioneering Discoveries
The word “nanos” is Greek for dwarf, and over time “nano” has come to refer to anything small, like the iPod nano. In science, however, it has a very precise definition: 10 -9 , or a billionth. An electronic chip based on nanometer scale pores designed to study the properties of single biomolecules Nanoscience, then, involves working with the tiniest components in nature.

Physicist Writes the Rules for Conducting Electricity in Molecules
Latha Venkataraman, a professor of applied physics and applied mathematics, discovered a new technique to measure the electrical conduction of single molecules wired to electrodes. This graphic shows the maximum force that a molecule circuit can sustain under stress and shows that the force varies with the chemical character of the molecule making up the circuit.

Liquid metal makes silicon crystals at record low temperatures
ANN ARBOR-A new way of making crystalline silicon, developed by U-M researchers, could make this crucial ingredient of computers and solar cells much cheaper and greener. Silicon dioxide, or sand, makes up about 40 percent of the earth's crust, but the industrial method for converting sand into crystalline silicon is expensive and has a major environmental impact due to the extreme processing conditions.

Research Team Maximizes Impact of New Energy Technologies
History is rife with new inventions that initially seemed beneficial but later turned out to have unforeseen environmental consequences. Chlorofluorocarbons, for example, were viewed as miracle chemicals and used in huge amounts starting in the 1960s in a myriad of ways, from refrigeration to firefighting.

Storing data in individual molecules
An international team of researchers demonstrates the possibility of molecular memory near room temperature. Moore's law - the well-known doubling of computer chips' computational power every 18 months or so - has been paced by a similarly steady increase in the storage capacity of disk drives.

Putting the squeeze on cells
By deforming cells, researchers can deliver RNA, proteins and nanoparticles for many applications. Living cells are surrounded by a membrane that tightly regulates what gets in and out of the cell. This barrier is necessary for cells to control their internal environment, but it makes it more difficult for scientists to deliver large molecules such as nanoparticles for imaging, or proteins that can reprogram them into pluripotent stem cells.

Synchrotron Infrared Unveils a Mysterious Microbial Community
In the fall of 2010, Hoi-Ying Holman of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) was approached by an international team researching a mysterious microbial community discovered deep in cold sulfur springs in southern Germany. "They told me what they were doing and said, 'We know what you contributed to the oil-spill research,'" recalls Holman, who heads the Chemical Ecology group in Berkeley Lab's Earth Sciences Division.

Rare earth oxides make water-repellent surfaces that last
Ceramic forms of hydrophobic materials could be far more durable than existing coatings or surface treatments. Water-shedding surfaces that are robust in harsh environments could have broad applications in many industries including energy, water, transportation, construction and medicine. For example, condensation of water is a crucial part of many industrial processes, and condensers are found in most electric power plants and in desalination plants.

Quirky video on adrenal glands wins Scientific American contest
Top video, written by a SEAS postdoc, explains science with creativity, humor, and a shoestring budget A two-minute video written by Raluca Ellis , a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School

One Step Closer to Hydrogen Production from Photoelectrochemical Water-Splitting
In the quest to produce an environmentally benign renewable fuel, scientists have explored many techniques to split water molecules to produce hydrogen. Still, the current photovoltaic designs are not yet technically or economically viable. Materials research in this area has been promising, but research on the engineering design of these photoelectrochemical systems has been sparse.

Foot soldiers of the immune system
Researchers at McGill University and the Research Center for Molecular Medicine (CeMM) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have discovered the molecular blueprint behind the IFIT protein. This key protein enables the human immune system to detect viruses and prevent infection by acting as foot soldiers guarding the body against infection.

Life in orbit: tales from the International Space Station
Reception was surprisingly good on the phone call from space. “We just flew across Canada,” said Commander Chris Hadfield, speaking from the International Space Station.

Surgical Technique Spots Cancer Invasion with Fluorescence
One of the greatest challenges faced by cancer surgeons is to know exactly which tissue to remove, or not, while the patient is under anesthesia. A team of surgeons and scientists at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have developed a new technique that will allow surgeons to identify during surgery which lymph nodes are cancerous so that healthy tissue can be saved.

New material harvests energy from water vapor
Polymer film could be used in artificial muscle and to power microand nanoelectronic devices. MIT engineers have created a new polymer film that can generate electricity by drawing on a ubiquitous source: water vapor.

Cassini suggests ice floats on Saturn’s largest moon
It's not exactly icing on a cake, but it could be icing on a lake. A new paper, by a Cornell astronomy graduate student as lead author, finds that blocks of hydrocarbon ice could decorate the surface of liquid hydrocarbon lakes and seas on Saturn's moon Titan.

How to stop leaks -- the way blood does
Harnessing the principle that allows blood to clot, MIT researchers are working on new synthetic materials to plug holes. When you get a cut, blood starts to flow from the wound. But very quickly, complex biochemical processes spring into action, creating a scaffolding of molecules to block the hole, and then building up an impervious clot to stanch the flow.

Extraordinary properties of ordinary glasses
Technologically valuable ultrastable glasses can be produced in days or hours with properties corresponding to those that have been aged for thousands of years, computational and laboratory studies have confirmed.

New Path to More Efficient Organic Solar Cells Uncovered at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source
Why are efficient and affordable solar cells so highly coveted? Volume. The amount of solar energy lighting up Earth's land mass every year is nearly 3,000 times the total amount of annual human energy use. But to compete with energy from fossil fuels, photovoltaic devices must convert sunlight to electricity with a certain measure of efficiency.

Extraordinary glass properties
Technologically valuable ultrastable glasses can be produced in days or hours with properties corresponding to those that have been aged for thousands of years, computational and laboratory studies have confirmed. Aging makes for higher quality glassy materials because they have slowly evolved toward a more stable molecular condition.

How Computers Push on the Molecules They Simulate
Because modern computers have to depict the real world with digital representations of numbers instead of physical analogues, to simulate the continuous passage of time they have to digitize time into small slices. This kind of simulation is essential in disciplines from medical and biological research, to new materials, to fundamental considerations of quantum mechanics, and the fact that it inevitably introduces errors is an ongoing problem for scientists.

New Level of Control Over Liquid Crystals
Directed assembly is a growing field of research in nanotechnology in which scientists and engineers aim to manufacture structures on the smallest scales without having to individually manipulate each component. Rather, they set out precisely defined starting conditions and let the physics and chemistry that govern those components do the rest.

McGill Expert Alert: Holiday sources
Retail, Consumer jui [dot] ramaprasad [at] mcgill [dot] ca (Jui Ramaprasad) Professor, Information Systems, Desautels Faculty of Management Expertise: social media, digital goods, music in

American Academy of Pediatrics issues policy statement on pesticide exposure in children
Posted under: Education , News Releases , Politics and Government , Research , Science , UW and the Community Increasing evidence shows urban and rural children are regularly exposed to low levels of pesticides that can have serious long-term health effects, according to a report issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

AAAS elects four LANL scientists as Fellows

Unlocking New Talents in Nature
Nature uses cytochrome P450 to make alcohols. The enzyme can be engineered to make cyclopropanes via an artificial reaction relevant to the creation of many biologically active compounds.

Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk's University Lecture Tells the Story of Objects
With his 2008 work The Museum of Innocence Orhan Pamuk combined his love of fine arts and literature by building an actual museum that brings the obsessive love portrayed in the novel into the real world.

Plant sniffs out danger to prepare defenses against pesky insect
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - A plant may start to prime its defenses as soon as it gets a whiff of a male fly searching for a mate, according to Penn State entomologists. Once tall goldenrod plants smell a sex attractant emitted by true fruit fly males, they appear to prepare chemical defenses that make them less appealing to female flies that could damage the plants by depositing eggs on them, the researchers said.

Nanofibers clean sulfur from fuel
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Sulfur compounds in petroleum fuels have met their nano-structured match. University of Illinois researchers developed mats of metal oxide nanofibers that scrub sulfur from petroleum-based fuels much more effectively than traditional materials.  Such efficiency could lower costs and improve performance for fuel-based catalysis, advanced energy applications and toxic gas removal.

Physicist’s Research May Lead to More Precise Measurements of Time
Tanya Zelevinsky 's Pupin Hall lab is home to a sprawling contraption of gangly wires, metal pipes and chambers, and flashing lights. Inside a container that opens up like a porthole is a glowing blue dot—a cloud of a million atoms cooled to nearly absolute zero, or close to minus 460 degrees Fahrenheit, eight orders of magnitude below room temperature.

Former Solicitor General Returns to Law School to Teach Contracts
When Charles Fried was a student at Columbia Law School in the late 1950s, he took three classes with Herbert Wechsler, a legendary constitutional law professor whose achievements included developing

Global rise in life expectancy not equal
A 100-year-old chemical formula co-developed by one of the University of Toronto's first female medical graduates has helped U of'T researchers determine that the global rise in life expectancy is not benefitting everybody equally.

Energy Dept. funds UW project to turn wasted natural gas into diesel
The U.S. Department of Energy this month awarded a group led by the University of Washington $4 million to develop bacteria that can turn the methane in natural gas into diesel fuel for transportation.

Research Update: Wordy Worms and Their Eavesdropping Predators
  For over 25 years, Paul Sternberg has been studying worms-how they develop, why they sleep, and, more recently, how they communicate. Now, he has flipped the script a bit by taking a closer look at how predatory fungi may be tapping into worm conversations to gain clues about their whereabouts.

Yale chemist wins $3.6 million from military for breast cancer research
Yale chemist David A. Spiegel has been awarded $3.6 million from the U.S. Department of Defense for new work expected to push the boundaries of breast cancer research.

New Biomaterial gets "Sticky" with Stem Cells
Scanning electron microscope image of newly developed foam biomaterial with just the right amount of random stickiness so that stem cells can adhere and grow into mature tissue cells. Image Credit: Adam Engler, Department of Bioengineering, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Just like the bones that hold up your body, your cells have their own scaffolding that holds them up.

Developers of Manufacturing Technology Named Inventors of the Year at UT Austin
AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas at Austin honored two researchers whose collaboration led to a company that aims to change how electronics are made.

Next scientific fashion could be designer nanocrystals
Three University of Chicago chemistry professors hope that their separate research trajectories will converge to create a new way of assembling what they call “designer atoms” into materials with a broad array of potentially useful properties and functions.

Organic metamaterial flows like a liquid, remembers its shape
A bit reminiscent of the Terminator T-1000, a new material created by Cornell researchers is so soft that it can flow like a liquid and then, strangely, return to its original shape. Rather than liquid metal, it is a hydrogel, a mesh of organic molecules with many small empty spaces that can absorb water like a sponge.

A better way to make chemicals?
Bulk solvents, widely used in the chemical industry, pose a serious threat to human health and the environment.

Five Penn Professors Named AAAS Fellows

AAAS names 11 UW researchers as fellows
Posted under: Campus , For UW Employees , Honors and Awards , Research , UW and the Community Eleven University of Washington researchers are among 702 new fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Hungry salmon a problem for restoration efforts
Food webs needed by young salmon in the Columbia River basin are likely compromised in places, something that should be considered when prioritizing expensive restoration activities aimed at rebuilding endangered runs.

Scientists develop new technique for visualizing blood flow
Stanford Report, November 29, 2012 Stanford scientists have developed a new technique for watching blood flow in living animals. It involves carbon nanotubes and lasers, and will allow researchers to better study arterial diseases and therapies. These images of a mouse's blood vessels show the difference in resolution between traditional near-infrared fluorescence imaging (top) and Stanford's new NIR-II technique (bottom).

Joanna Aizenberg elected Fellow of the American Physical Society

Greener storage for green energy
ARPA-E grant will support research into next-generation flow batteries to solve wind/solar intermittency problem : Michael Rutter , (617) 496-3815 Renewable energy solutions like wind and solar operate on nature's timetable.

Synthetic fuels could eliminate entire U.S. need for crude oil, create 'new economy'
The United States could eliminate the need for crude oil by using a combination of coal, natural gas and non-food crops to make synthetic fuel, a team of Princeton researchers has found.  Besides economic and national security benefits, the plan has potential environmental advantages.