Latest News

Nanoscale model catalyst paves way toward atomic-level understanding

In an attempt to understand why ruthenium sulfide (RuS2) is so good at removing sulfur impurities from fuels, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have succeeded in making a model of this catalyst — nanoparticles supported on an inert surface — which can be studied under laboratory conditions. “If we can understand why this catalyst is so active, we might be able to make it even better, or use what we learn to design other highly efficient catalysts,” sa

In place fabrication solves organic polymer shortcoming

Just like the manufacturers of silicon electronics, a team of Penn State chemical engineers wants to assemble circuit boards in place, but these circuits are made of conducting organic polymers that pose major fabrication roadblocks.

“We want to build electronic devices like transistors and flexible circuits,” says Dr. Seong Kim, assistant professor of chemical engineering.

Kim and Sudarshan Natarajan, graduate student in chemical engineering, looked at fabricating circuits from po

A sophisticated virtual simulation tool to test-drive new cars

The rapidly increasing demands of today’s car buyers have placed a heavy burden on car manufacturers to constantly innovate. Building prototypes to test innovative car designs is a lengthy, not to mention expensive, process and one that companies keen to retain their competitive edge can ill afford. With contemporary simulation systems often falling short of R&D expectations, the eight-company-strong team of EUREKA project E! 1924 CARDS (Comprehensive Automobile Research and Development Simulator) s

Pay-as-you-go motoring just around the corner

Death and taxes may be unavoidable, but road tolls and car insurance could be made fairer if satellite-assisted distance pricing is implemented.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is funding Irish provider of location technology products Mapflow to undertake a feasibility study to look into the possibility of implementing a pan-European road tolling system. The research aims to establish whether satellite technology can be used to calculate the cost of motoring.

A plan exists to

Glowing Green Slime Shows GM Swaps

Knowing how bacteria of different types swap genes is vitally important to regulators trying to decide how safe genetically modified organisms are, but so far the way genes are transferred naturally is poorly understood. Research presented today, Monday 8 September 2003, by scientists from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology at the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting at UMIST provides some of the missing information.

“We all know that bacteria have an incr

Germ Warfare with Gut Bugs

Stuffing yourself with good bacteria could prevent repeat attacks from bugs responsible for ulcers and stomach upsets, according to scientists from the University of Reading. Food scientist Belinda O’’Grady is presenting the research today, Monday 8 September 2003, at the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting at UMIST in Manchester.

“We wondered whether prevention really is better than cure,” says Ms O’’Grady, of the University of Reading, “There is a school of thoug

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Physics and Astronomy

Parity Anomaly Demonstrated in a Topological Insulator

Experimental and theoretical physicists from the Würzburg Institute for Topological Insulators observed a re-entrant quantum Hall effect in a mercury telluride device and identify it as a signature of parity…

New method to measure entropy production on the nanoscale

Entropy, the amount of molecular disorder, is produced in several systems but cannot be measured directly. An equation developed by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology and Heinrich Heine University…

Artificial intelligence to reconstruct particle paths leading to new physics

Particles colliding in accelerators produce numerous cascades of secondary particles. The electronics processing the signals avalanching in from the detectors then have a fraction of a second in which to…

Life Sciences and Chemistry

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Acetylation: a Time-Keeper of glucocorticoid Sensitivity

Understanding the regulatory mechanism paves the way to enhance the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory therapies and to develop strategies to counteract the negative effects of stress- and age-related cortisol excess. The…

Beating by overheating: new strategy to combat cancer

Paradoxical activation of oncogenic signaling shows surprising results. Many new drugs inhibit the processes that cancer cells need to divide rapidly. So as to inhibit the cancer as a whole….

Materials Sciences

The Sound of the Perfect Coating

Fraunhofer IWS Transfers Laser-based Sound Analysis of Surfaces into Industrial Practice with “LAwave”. Sound waves can reveal surface properties. Parameters such as surface or coating quality of components can be…

Customized silicon chips

…from Saxony for material characterization of printed electronics. How efficient are new materials? Does changing the properties lead to better conductivity? The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS develops and…

Elusive 3D printed nanoparticles could lead to new shapeshifting materials

Stanford materials engineers have 3D printed tens of thousands of hard-to-manufacture nanoparticles long predicted to yield promising new materials that change form in an instant. In nanomaterials, shape is destiny….

Information Technology

Memory Self-Test via Smartphone

… Can Identify Early Signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Dedicated memory tests on smartphones enable the detection of “mild cognitive impairment”, a condition that may indicate Alzheimer’s disease, with high accuracy….

Mini satellite wants to take quantum communication to space

Researchers from Jena, Würzburg and Potsdam have successfully developed a design for the smallest system of its kind so far to take highly secure quantum communication to space: Led by…

Engineering household robots to have a little common sense

With help from a large language model, MIT engineers enabled robots to self-correct after missteps and carry on with their chores. From wiping up spills to serving up food, robots…