New research may lead to better catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory and the New Jersey Institute of Technology have taken steps toward understanding how a titanium compound reacts with a hydrogen-storage material to catalyze the release and re-absorption of hydrogen. Their results, appearing in the July 19, 2004, issue of Applied Physics Letters, may help scientists learn how similar catalysts work, improve

A rare event in the history of space exploration took place yesterday (25 July) when the second European-Chinese Double Star spacecraft lifted off a day early from Taiyuan spaceport, west of Beijing, on a Long March 2C rocket.

The launch of the spacecraft, officially called Tan Ce 2 (Explorer 2), was brought forward one day to avoid bad weather. Lift off occurred at 08:05:18 BST (07:05:18 GMT or 15.05:18 local time).

Preliminary analysis of spacecraft data indicate that th

Scientists achieve smallest-ever spacing in nanoscale structures

In a breakthrough that could lead to dramatically smaller memory chips and other electronic components, Princeton scientists have found a way to mass produce devices that are so small they are at the limit of what can be viewed by the most powerful microscopes.

The achievement is an advance over current techniques, which require expensive and time-consuming procedures to create anything so small. The technique

With ever increasing demands for greater miniaturisation and the use of flexible circuitry the need for improved fabrication methods for high resolution printed circuit boards is becoming more important. By precise control of the etching process inventors from the University of Oxford have been able to make the reliable production of High Resolution Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) with conductors down to 10 µm wide more of a cost effective reality.

PCBs currently include conductors as narrow

To support the continuing alignment of Software AG to the new strategy, Chief Executive Officer Karl-Heinz Streibich has restructured Research and Development. He has integrated the research and development of integration solutions into the strategic focus area XMLi and the research and development for modernizing Enterprise Transaction Systems, into the focus area ETS Modernization. Each Research and Development unit will be managed by a Chief Technology Officer. In the course of the restructuring,

A new study has caught a newborn star similar to the sun in a fiery outburst. X-ray observations of the flare-up, which are the first of their kind, are providing important new information about the early evolution of the sun and the process of planet formation.

The study, which was conducted by a team of astronomers headed by Joel Kastner of the Rochester Institute of Technology that included David Weintraub from Vanderbilt, is reported in the July 22 issue of the journal Nature.

L

Scientists using measurements from NASA’s Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) satellite have discovered that Venus and sunspots have something in common: they both block some of the sun’s energy going to Earth.

Using data from NASA’s SORCE satellite, scientists noticed that, when Venus came between the Earth and the sun on June 8, the other planet reduced the amount of sunlight reaching Earth by 0.1 percent. This Venus transit occurs when, from an earthly perspective, Ven

Using ESA’s Integral and XMM-Newton observatories, an international team of astronomers has found more evidence that massive black holes are surrounded by a doughnut-shaped gas cloud, called a torus. Depending on our line of sight, the torus can block the view of the black hole in the centre. The team looked `edge on’ into this doughnut to see features never before revealed in such a clarity.

Black holes are objects so compact and with gravity so strong that not even light can escape from

The new Interstate 10 bridge over University Avenue in Las Cruces may look like any other highway bridge, but it isn’t.

Embedded deep within the bridge’s concrete beams are fiber-optic sensors that will allow engineers to continually monitor the safety of the bridge. The $6.3 million bridge is the first interstate highway bridge in the nation to be fitted with this type of “smart bridge” technology.

“Traditionally, bridge inspections have relied primarily on a visual inspect

At the end of June, FIZ Karlsruhe has made available on STN International, the world’s premier online service for sci-tech information, seven new databases from the renowned database producer Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) With these new files, STN now offers a total of 26 CSA databases, and remains the largest independent online provider of CSA databases. Coverage focuses on life sciences, environmental and aquatic sciences, computer sciences, materials science, engineering and aerospace.

NASA will decommission the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) later this year. A highly successful scientific research mission, TRMM has provided data used worldwide in the monitoring and forecasting of hazardous weather on a demonstration basis. Originally intended to be a three-year mission when launched in 1997, TRMM is now in its seventh year of operation having completed all of its research and technology objectives four years ago. The extension of mission operations for nearly four add

By depositing thin films of silicon nanoparticles on silicon substrates, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have fabricated a photodetector sensitive to ultraviolet light. Silicon-based ultraviolet sensors could prove very handy in military, security and commercial applications.

“Silicon is the most common semiconductor, but it has not been useful for detecting ultraviolet light until now,” said Munir Nayfeh, a professor of physics at Illinois and a researcher at t

A major breakthrough in pinpointing some of the most primordial and violently star forming galaxies in the Universe has been made by a joint collaboration of UK and US astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope to resolve primordial galaxies initially detected by the James Clerk Maxwell telescope [JCMT]. UK astronomers from the University of Kent, The Royal Observatory Edinburgh and the University of Oxford teamed up with American cosmologists to finally identify these elusive galaxies. The work w

At the last meeting of the Aurora Board of Participants, held at ESA’s Paris headquarters on Thursday 8 July, the participating states approved the Preparatory Phase of the European Space Exploration Programme (ESEP).

Revising the original Declaration, the European countries already participating, plus Canada, unanimously agreed to remodel Aurora into a broader preparatory ESEP. This is with a view to possibly increasing their subscriptions and welcoming further participants, including

The GalileoSat development and in-orbit validation phase is well under way and the European Space Agency (ESA) has just released its procurement process to Industry indicating that the first completely civil satellite navigation system is moving forward.

Galileo Implementation: a phased approach

The Galileo Programme is being implemented in three phases:
Definition phase
Development and in-orbit validation
Full Deployment and Operations
The Definition phase was c

Complicated intellectual property rights and technical standards for digital content are potential barriers to accessing Europes incredibly rich cultural assets. However EMIIs Distributed Content Framework (DCF) is a step towards lowering these barriers.

The EMII-DCF project was developed with funding from the IST programme by the European Museums Information Institute (EMII). A collaborative, virtual network EMII connects key cultural institutions in the European Union. Its main objective