An Earth System model developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign indicates that the best location to store carbon dioxide in the deep ocean will change with climate change.
The direct injection of carbon dioxide deep into the ocean has been suggested as one method to help control rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and mitigate the effects of global warming. But, because the atmosphere interacts with the oceans, the net uptake of carbo
Was Miller-Urey experiment correct?
Using primitive meteorites called chondrites as their models, earth and planetary scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have performed outgassing calculations and shown that the early Earth’s atmosphere was a reducing one, chock full of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water vapor.
In making this discovery Bruce Fegley, Ph.D., Washington University professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, and Laura Sch
Cave crickets travel farther from their homes to forage — by about double — than their previously reported range, researchers have discovered. In Texas, that means protective buffer areas around caves may need to be extended to protect endangered invertebrate species that live inside and depend on the crickets.
Reporting in the journal American Midland Naturalist, a team of researchers led by Steven J. Taylor, an entomologist with the Illinois Natural History Survey and Un
Another brain receptor confirmed to affect alcohol intake; may serve as treatment target
A new set of experiments in mice confirms that a brain receptor associated with the reinforcing effects of marijuana also helps to stimulate the rewarding and pleasurable effects of alcohol. The research, which was conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and was published online September 2, 2005 by the journal Behavioural Brain Research, confirms a genetic
A new study to be published in tomorrow’s New England Journal of Medicine shows that United States investment in tuberculosis (TB) treatment abroad saves lives and money at home. Most cases of TB in the US and Canada occur among immigrants, refugees, visitors, and other migrants from countries where this disease remains common.
An international team led by McGill University Health Centre researchers Dr. Dick Menzies, Dr. Kevin Schwartzman, and Ms. Olivia Oxlade predicts that
Rice scientists replace pricey solvents with cheap processing fluids
In an important advance toward the large-scale manufacture of fluorescent quantum dots, scientists at Rice University have developed a new method of replacing the pricey solvents used in quantum dot synthesis with cheaper oils that are commonplace at industrial chemical plants.
Rice’s study, which was conducted under the auspices of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN)
In many patients with type 2 diabetes, the liver acts like a sugar factory on overtime, churning out glucose throughout the day, even when blood sugar levels are high. Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies discovered a key cellular switch that controls glucose production in liver cells.
This switch may be a potential new target for the development of highly specific diabetes drugs that signal the liver to reduce the production of sugar. The Salk researcher
Scientists find link between Earth’s orbit and climate change 85m years ago
An oxygen-free ocean from bottom to surface is probably the worst scenario that marine higher life can experience. Are processes and feedbacks linking the atmosphere to the deep ocean capable to cause a rapid change from an oxygen-rich to an oxygen-free deep ocean? And what are the consequences for the global carbon cycle that ultimately drive marine and terrestrial ecosystems and climate variation
An article published in the Sept. 8, 2005 New England Journal of Medicine sheds new light on the $130 billion smoking cessation plan proposed in the Department of Justice suit against the tobacco companies. The tobacco cessation plan was embroiled in controversy when Department of Justice attorneys reduced the amount proposed for the smoking cessation remedy from $130 billion over 25 years to $10 billion over five years.
“Spending $5 billion a year on tobacco cessation for 25 y
Two Brown Medical School biologists have figured out the fate of healthy protein when it comes in contact with the infectious prion form in yeast: The protein converts to the prion form, rendering it infectious. In an instant, good protein goes bad.
This quick-change “mating” maneuver sheds important light on the mysterious molecular machinery behind prions, infectious proteins that cause fatal brain ailments such as mad cow disease and scrapie in animals and, in rare cases, Creut
A ‘living’ artificial hand that learns through imitation has been developed, enhancing human-machine communication and paving the way for novel prosthetic aides.
“The last decade has seen enormous advances in the design and implementation of all kinds of robot platforms,” says Alois Knoll of Technische Universität München and coordinator of the ArteSImit project. “However, their abilities to ‘learn’ how to solve even simple tasks are still very restricted.”
According to
Researchers at the Universitat Jaume I of Castelló and at the University of California have devised a system to reduce the damage caused by earthquakes in bridges. Installed between the piers of a bridge and their respective foundations, it is a flexible device that helps to mitigate the effects produced by the movement of the Earth’s surface, working in a similar way to the shock absorbers in cars. The study has been published in the journal Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics.
SSETI Express, a low Earth orbit spacecraft designed and built by European university students under the supervision of ESA’s Education Department, is to be launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Russian Cosmos 3M launcher on 27 September in the morning.
On that occasion, ESA will be organising a launch event at Space Expo, the public visitors’ centre close to ESA/ESTEC at Noordwijk in the Netherlands. A live televised transmission of the launch will bring images from Plesetsk a
A simple but clever idea by a Bath engineer could revolutionise the way that safety devices across the world are constructed.
Dr Fayek Osman’s new concept could mean that devices such as train buffers, safety barriers and aircraft undercarriages will be much more efficient and cheaper.
Dr Osman, of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the University of Bath, UK, has developed a concept for devices that can absorb enormous impact and yet still remain intact so th
Young children may be missing out on ‘pretend’ games like pirates and spacemen due to the demands of the school curriculum, according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
The project, led by Dr Sue Rogers at the University of Plymouth, found that reception classes were not always designed to meet the needs of 4-5 year olds. ‘Children of this age learn to make friends as well as to use their imagination through role play,’ says Dr Rogers. ‘We know th
A breakthrough by a team of British, US and French scientists will help protect astronauts, spacecraft and satellites from radiation hazards experienced in space.
Reporting in the journal Nature this week, the team describe how their study of rare and unusual space storms provided a unique opportunity to test conflicting theories about the behaviour of high energy particles in the Van Allen radiation belts* – a volatile region 12000 miles (19,000 km) above the Earth.
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