Physicists at Lehigh University achieve supercontinuum generation in nonlinear fibers
Two physicists at Lehigh University have produced a rainbow of visible and invisible colors by focusing laser light in a specially designed optical fiber that confines light in a glass core whose diameter is 40 times smaller than that of a human hair.
Jean Toulouse, professor of physics, and Iavor Veltchev, research associate in Lehigh’s Center for Optical Technologies (COT), are among the
University of Michigan engineering students have discovered a redeeming quality in junk food: waste grease produced in campus cafeterias that can be used to make biodiesel fuel for U-M buses.
During a term project for a course in environmental sustainability, a four-student team led by Lisa Colosi and Andres Clarens concluded and demonstrated that it is economically and technically feasible to harvest the 10,700 gallons of waste grease produced in the 10 campus dining halls to make an effec
Scientists will have a new view of how the AIDS virus (HIV) enters a target cell and begins its process of infection, thanks to a technique created by researchers at the Salk Institute.
The technique allows scientists to observe for the first time the steps taken by viruses like HIV after they enter a cell. The study was done with a chicken virus that was modified to contain the genes of HIV. Both the chicken virus and HIV are retroviruses, which means their genomes are made from RNA rather
Research documents first instance of band-gap shrinkage in a semiconductor
A new study, published in today’s issue of the journal Science, finds that the basic electrical properties of semiconducting carbon nanotubes change when they are placed inside a magnetic field. The phenomenon is unique among known materials, and it could cause semiconducting nanotubes to transform into metals in even stronger magnetic fields.
Scientists found that the “band gap” of semiconductin
Like most creation stories, this one is dramatic: we began, not as a mere glimmer buried in an obscure cloud, but instead amidst the glare and turmoil of restless giants.
Or so says a new theory, supported by stunning astronomical images and hard chemical analysis. For years most astronomers have imagined that the Sun and Solar System formed in relative isolation, buried in a quiet, dark corner of a less-than-imposing interstellar cloud. The new theory challenges this conventional wisdom, a
the last four decades, scientists have observed a 1.3% per decade decline in the amount of sun reaching the Earth’s surface. This phenomenon, coined “solar dimming” or “global dimming,” is due to changes in clouds and air pollution that are impeding the suns ability to penetrate. Scientists believe that the combination of growing quantities of man-made aerosol particles in the atmosphere and more moisture are causing the cloud cover to thicken.
Despite this decline in solar radiation, the E
Adding stereotactic radiosurgery – which entails delivering radiation to specific points in the brain while sparing normal tissue – after whole brain radiation therapy helps certain patients with cancer that has spread to the brain live longer, says a new study by researchers at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
In as many as one-third of all patients with lung and breast cancers, the disease spreads, or metastasizes, to the brain, leaving few good options. The disease c
URI graduate student reports 50 percent reduction in populations of invertebrates on beaches where driving is permitted
When off-road vehicles drive on beaches, they can reduce the number of creatures living on the beach by as much as 50 percent, according to a recently completed three-year study by a University of Rhode Island graduate student.
“The effect of traffic on the beaches is significant,” said Jacqueline Steinback of East Falmouth, Mass., who studied the creatures
Brown University researchers have found that there are multiple independent ways to stop cell division, a phenomenon that prevents the spread of genetic mutation, which can make cells cancerous. Results of this research, along with an accompanying editorial, were published in the current issue of the journal Molecular Cell.
The findings will be of interest to scientists who are developing new-generation drugs that target cancer at the molecular level, according to John Sedivy, principal inve
Male bullfrogs communicate with other bullfrogs through calls made up of a series of croaks, some of which contain stutters, according to a new Brown University study which describes a pattern not previously identified in scientific literature.
Researchers recorded 2,536 calls from 32 male bullfrogs in natural chorus and analyzed the number of croaks in each call and the number of stutters in each croak. It is known that the male bullfrog’s call attracts females for mating, maintains territo
Scientists have found that living cells will sometimes “shoot the messenger” as a way to halt production of certain proteins
The study, published in the May 21 issue of the journal Molecular Cell, shows that cells sometimes destroy the chemical messages that contain information for making proteins even as the messages are being “read.” The work was done by scientists at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Resea
Amyloid fibers, those clumps of plaque-like proteins that clog up the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, have perplexed scientists with their robust structures. In laboratory experiments, they are able to withstand extreme heat and cold and powerful detergents that cripple most other proteins. The fibers are in fact so tough that researchers now are exploring ways that they can be used in nanoscale industrial applications. While they are not necessarily the cause of Alzheimer’s, they are assoc
Scientists from Duke University Medical Center have identified the “master switch” that cancer cells use to dispatch protective messages to nearby blood vessels, fortifying the vessels against deadly onslaughts of radiation.
The messages enable blood vessels to survive and ultimately nourish any remaining cancer cells that escape toxic radiation therapy.
Radiation biologists from the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center identified the master switch as a protein called “Hypoxia Inducib
The idea that dying people hang on to life in order to celebrate one more birthday or holiday lacks any scientific basis, say scientists who reviewed two decades’ worth of research.
“The studies published to date have not convincingly established that death can be postponed through force of will or hastened by the loss of the desire to live,” say Judith A. Skala, R.N., Ph.D., and Kenneth E. Freedland, Ph.D., of Washington University School of Medicine.
Available research is c
Earth’s climate system is more sensitive to perturbations now than it was in the distant past, according to a study published this week in the journal Nature. The findings suggest a previously unrecognized role for tropical and subtropical regions in controlling the sensitivity of the climate to change. Christina Ravelo, an ocean scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) , and her coauthors at UCSC and Boise State University, Idaho, focused on the Pliocene epoch, from
Scientists working in the stormy and inhospitable waters off the Antarctic Peninsula have found what they believe is an active and previously unknown volcano on the sea bottom. The international science team from the United States and Canada mapped and sampled the ocean floor and collected video and data that indicate a major volcano exists on the Antarctic ontinental shelf, they announced on May 5 in a dispatch from the research vessel Laurence M. Gould, which is operated by the National Sc
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