The world’s largest particle detector is nearing completion following the construction of its ‘endcap’ at the University of Liverpool.
Its assembly of advanced apparatus, at the University’s Semiconductor Detector Centre, has been a joint effort by physicists, engineers and technicians from the Universities of Liverpool, Glasgow, Lancaster, Manchester and Sheffield as well as Daresbury and Rutherford Laboratories.
The endcap is part of a semiconductor tracker (SCT) bas
Important rivers usually have a number of tributary streams which have their sources in the mountains. It is not just water that goes on the journey but sediments, stones and other material. These materials are transported dissolved, in suspension or deposited as sediment at the bottom of the river.
A research team from the Department of Geodynamics at the University of the Basque Country (EHU-UPV) have begun a study in order to find out the amount of sediments transported fro
MIT researchers have devised a new method for shrinking the size of crystals to make safer metal alloys. The new materials could replace metal coatings such as chromium, which is dangerous for factory workers to produce.
The method, developed by Associate Professor Christopher Schuh and graduate student Andrew Detor, both of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, involves making the crystals within an alloy (a combination of two or more metals) smaller and thus hard
Using DNA analysis, MIT researchers and colleagues have gained new insight into how marine microbes thrive and survive at different depths of the ocean.
“Microbes are the central processors of matter and energy in almost every ecosystem imaginable – especially so in the sea,” said MIT Professor Ed DeLong, who led the work. Thousands of different types of microbes, the world’s smallest creatures, inhabit every cubic centimeter of seawater. They have huge effects on ocean che
Scientists at the University of Chicago are among the first ever to analyze cometary dust delivered to Earth via spacecraft.
Scientists routinely examine extraterrestrial material that has fallen to Earth as meteorites, but never before NASA’s Stardust mission have they had access to verified samples of a comet. The leftover debris from the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago, comets consist mostly of ice, dust and rock.
“We think comets make up a hug
CIHR researchers say MRIs can make surgical treatment an option for more patients
As Epilepsy Awareness Month approaches, researchers have found a way to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect minute brain lesions in people with severe epilepsy, making surgical treatment potentially available to many more patients.
Epilepsy affects about 1% of the general population. In many patients with epilepsy, seizures cannot be controlled with medication but surgery can he
Researchers evaluate the effects of warm waters on little fish
Warm Caribbean waters may provide a toasty growing area for larval fish, but that’s not enough to ensure a flourishing fish population. That’s the conclusion of research published in this month’s edition of Marine Ecology Progress Series by Dr. Su Sponaugle and colleagues from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School. The scientists studied the petite, yet eye-catching blue-headed wrasse in the uppe
University Park, Pa. Ð Deeply buried ocean sediments may house populations of tiny organisms that have extremely low maintenance energy needs and population turnover rates of anywhere from 200 to 2,000 years, according to an international team of researchers.
“The microbial ecosystem in deeply buried marine sediments may comprise a tenth of Earth’s living biomass, but little is known about the organisms, their physiologies, and their influence on surface environments,” says
Researcher outlines coral’s future in an increasingly acidic ocean
The ocean is getting more and more acidic, and that’s bad news for coral reefs. That’s the word from University of Miami Rosenstiel School’s Dr. Christopher Langdon who will speak on “Possible Consequences of Increasing Atmospheric CO2 on Coral Reef Ecosystems,” Monday, Feb. 20 at 3 p.m. HST (8 p.m. EST) in Honolulu at the American Geophysical Union’s 2006 Ocean Sciences Meeting.
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Increased carbon dioxide emissions are rapidly making the world’s oceans more acidic and, if unabated, could cause a mass extinction of marine life similar to one that occurred 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs disappeared. Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology will present this research at the AGU/ASLO Ocean Sciences meeting in Honolulu, HI on Monday, Feb 20.
Caldeira’s computer models have predicted that the oceans will become far more
A small study suggests that chewing gum after colon surgery may speed the return of normal bowel function and shorten patients’ hospital stays, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Any type of abdominal surgery can cause ileus, a marked decrease or stoppage of intestinal function, according to background information in the article. Pain, vomiting and abdominal distension are the immediate consequences. Ileus also c
Discovery may explain why more men than women develop the disease
UCLA scientists have discovered that a sex gene responsible for making embryos male and forming the testes is also produced by the brain region targeted by Parkinson’s disease. Published in the Feb. 21 edition of Current Biology, the new research may explain why more men than women develop the degenerative disorder, which afflicts roughly 1 million Americans.
“Men are 1.5 times more likely to develo
One of the greatest challenges facing marine ecologists today is finding innovative ways to reverse the rapid decline of coral reef ecosystems around the world. Ten percent of the planet’s reefs already have been degraded beyond recovery, according to one survey, and another 60 percent could die by 2050, primarily because of human activities, such as pollution, overfishing and climate change.
The situation is particularly acute in the island nations of the Caribbean, which
The Tree of Life is flourishing.
The Web-based project, a massive collaboration among scientists from all over the world, is growing more “leaves” and “branches” all the time. The project is basically a genealogy of life on Earth coupled with information about the characteristics of individual species and groups of organisms.
Having such scientific data available on the Web makes the information accessible to a wide range of scientists, spurring new collaborations and
Space science discoveries are being made in earthly labs
Reaching for the stars isn’t so out of reach these days. With the development of increasingly sophisticated instruments, researchers not only are able to get more detailed information about circumstellar and interstellar dust from afar by using advanced telescopes, but they also are now able to study actual stardust right in their own labs.
Since the discovery two decades ago that primitive meteorites contain
Variations in a number of different genes and environmental factors affect an individual’s risk for osteoporosis. Several gene variants have been linked to osteoporosis, but few have stood the test of time. The GENOMOS study, a large European collaboration led by Andre Uitterlinden (Erasmus University Medical Center), John Ioannidis (University of Ioannina), and Stuart Ralston (University of Edinburgh), now shows that a top candidate gene plays a role in osteoporosis, but with effects that
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