Intriguing Structural Strategy Aims at Making Designer Plastics Affordable

The future was supposed to be “plastics,” according to advice given in a 1960s movie The Graduate. Many a company thought that future meant the gradual ascendancy of “designer” or specialty plastics, but almost 40 years later the market is still dominated by plastics that can be manufactured cheaply in bulk.

Six researchers from the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and one at Helsinki U

Scientists studying trees ranging from saplings to 130 years old in Canada’s northern forests have discovered that the period since a fire last swept through an area determines how much carbon the forest can store. Twenty to forty year old stands absorb more carbon than those 70 years old and older, despite being smaller and having less biomass or plant material.

Boreal or northern forests account for close to 25 percent of total carbon stored in vegetation and soils in the Earth’s biospher

Inhaled glucocorticoid drugs are more effective than the newer anti-leukotriene tablets for adults with mild or moderate asthma, concludes a study in this week’s BMJ.

Professor Francine Ducharme reviewed 13 trials comparing leukotriene receptor antagonists with low doses of inhaled glucocorticoids for 28 days or more in children and adults.

She found that adults treated with leukotriene receptor antagonists were 60% more likely to suffer worsening of symptoms, whereas those treated

University of Minnesota researchers have made the first-ever hardness measurements on individual silicon nanospheres and shown that the nanospheres’ hardness falls between the conventional hardness of sapphire and diamond, which are among the hardest known materials. Being able to measure such nanoparticle properties may eventually help scientists design low-cost superhard materials from these nanoscale building blocks.

Up to four times harder than typical silicon-a principal ingredient o

Industry experts at Search Engine Watch recently named Vivísimo the Web’s Best Meta-Search Engine for its ability to instantly organize search results into a computer-generated “index.” The software behind Vivísimo’s search engine can also be applied to any collection of documents, in languages ranging from English and German to Arabic and Korean.

A success story from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research and computer science programs, Vivísimo’s Web site

Magnetic fields explosively release energy in events throughout the universe, from experiments conducted in laboratories to huge outbursts within galaxies. On the Sun, these magnetic explosions are responsible for solar flares and ejections of material from the Sun’s corona.

Similar events associated with Earth’s magnetic field drive magnetic storms, and the dramatic brightening and expansion of the northern and southern lights, the aurora borealis and aurora australis. The reconnection of