July 22, 2006, 11:17 PM CT

Yeast In Space

Far above the heads of Earthlings, arrays of single-cell creatures are circling Earth in nanostructures.

The sample devices are riding on the International Space Station (courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico, NASA and US Air Force) to test whether nanostructures whose formations were directed by yeast and other single cells can create more secure homes for their occupants - even in the vacuum and radiation of outer space - than those created by more standard chemical procedures.

Sandia is a National Nuclear Security Administration laboratory.

"Cheap, tiny, and very lightweight sensors of chemical or biological agents could be made from long-lived cells that require no upkeep, yet sense and then communicate effectively with each other and their external environment," says former UNM graduate student and Sandia consultant Helen Baca, lead author on the paper. Baca was advised by Sandia Fellow and UNM professor of chemical engineering, molecular genetics & microbiology Jeff Brinker.

Groups of such long-lived cells may also serve as models to investigate how tuberculosis bacteria survive long periods of dormancy within human bodies.

En masse, they also may be used to generate signals to repel harmful bacteria from the surfaces of surgical tools like catheters.........

Posted by: Brooke      Permalink

July 22, 2006, 7:56 PM CT

Power plants and regional mercury emissions

The amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere in the Northeast fluctuates annually depending on activity in the electric power industry, as per scientists at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Xuhui Lee, professor of meteorology, and Jeffrey Sigler, a recent Yale Ph.D. and now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of New Hampshire, co-authored the Yale study "Recent Trends in Anthropogenic Mercury Emission in the Northeast United States." They observed that between 2000 and 2002 the emission rate of mercury decreased by 50 percent, but between 2002 and 2004 the rate increased between 50 and 75 percent. During that five-year period, overall emissions declined by 20 percent.

The dramatic annual changes in mercury emissions, the study's authors say, cannot be explained climatologically by air flow patterns that would bring either clean or polluted air into the region.

Mild winters and a correspondent decrease in the need for regional power plants to burn coal could partially explain the decline in mercury emissions, as per the authors. The study, published this summer in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, estimates that power plants account for up to 40 percent of total emissions in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania and in New England.........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

July 19, 2006, 9:41 PM CT

Ocean Floor May Drive Global Warming

Gas escaping from the ocean floor may provide some answers to understanding historical global warming cycles and provide information on current climate changes, as per a team of researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The findings are published in the July 20 on-line version of the scientific journal, Global Biogeochemical Cycles.

Remarkable and unexpected support for this idea occurred when divers and researchers from UC Santa Barbara observed and videotaped a massive blowout of methane from the ocean floor. It happened in an area of gas and oil seepage coming out of small volcanoes in the ocean floor of the Santa Barbara channel -- called Shane Seep -- near an area known as the Coal Oil Point seep field. The blowout sounded like a freight train, as per the divers.

Atmospheric methane is at least 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is the most abundant organic compound in the atmosphere, as per the study's authors, all from UC Santa Barbara.

"Other people have reported this type of methane blowout, but no one has ever checked the numbers until now," said Ira Leifer, lead author and an associate researcher with UCSB's Marine Science Institute. "Ours is the first set of numbers linked to a seep blowout." Leifer was in a research boat on the surface at the time of the blowouts.........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

July 19, 2006, 9:09 PM CT

Predicting Crystal Structures

The same computer methods used by online sales sites to suggest books to customers can help predict the crystal structures of materials, MIT scientists have found.

These structures are key to designing new materials and improving existing ones, which means that everything from batteries to airplane wings could be influenced by the new method.

The researchers report their findings in the July 9 online edition of Nature Materials.

Using a technique called data mining, the MIT team preloaded the entire body of historical knowledge of crystal structures into a computer algorithm, or program, which they had designed to make correlations among the data based on the underlying rules of physics.

Harnessing this knowledge, the program then delivers a list of possible crystal structures for any mixture of elements whose structure is unknown. The team can then run that list of possibilities through a second algorithm that uses quantum mechanics to calculate precisely which structure is the most stable energetically -- a standard technique in the computer modeling of materials.

"We had at our disposal all of what is known about nature," said Professor Gerbrand Ceder of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, leader of the research team. Ceder compared the database of crystal structures to the user database of an online bookseller, which can make correlations among millions of customers with similar interests. "If you tell me you've read these 10 books in the last year and you rate them, can I make some prediction about the next book you're going to like?".........

Posted by: Sarah      Permalink         Source

July 18, 2006, 10:46 PM CT

Antarctic Ocean Crucial To Atmosphere's Health

Circulation in the waters near the Antarctic coast may be one of the planet's critical means of regulating levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere, as per scientists from MIT, Princeton and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Though climate researchers have long debated why atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide vary over lengthy periods in Earth's history, scientists now appear to have found a clue.

In a recent issue of the journal Nature, the team reports that computer modeling has revealed that the waters in the Southern Ocean below 60 degrees south latitude -- the region that hugs the continent of Antarctica -- play a far more significant role than was previously thought in regulating atmospheric carbon.

The waters north of this region do comparably little to regulate it, confuting past theories, the team found.

"Cold water that wells up regularly from the depths of the Southern Ocean spreads out on the ocean's surface along both sides of this dividing line, and we have observed that the water performs two very different functions depending on which side of the line it flows toward," said Irina Marinov, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral fellow in MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

July 18, 2006, 6:10 AM CT

Seismic Shock Absorbers For Woodframe Houses

As part of a major international project to design more earthquake-resistant woodframe buildings, Michael Symans, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rensselaer, will be testing a damping system designed to act as a seismic shock absorber. The dampers, which have never been tested before in wood construction, will be installed inside the walls of a full-scale, 1,800-square-foot townhouse - the world's largest wooden structure to undergo seismic testing on a shake table.

The unprecedented testing is part of a $1.24 million international project called NEESWood, funded by the National Science Foundation through its George E. Brown Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) program. The goal of NEESWood is to safely increase the height of woodframe buildings in active seismic zones through the development of a design approach that considers a wide range of performance levels - from completely undamaged to almost collapsing.

The height of woodframe buildings traditionally has been limited to about four stories, mainly due to a lack of understanding of how taller structures might respond to earthquakes and other natural disasters. "We don't have accurate physical data to fully define how wood structures behave in earthquakes," Symans said. "We have some models, but their accuracy has not been verified with full-scale test data. This experiment will help us to further evaluate and refine those models".........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

July 18, 2006, 5:51 AM CT

Ozone Health Guidelines

Ground-level ozone is an air pollutant. While ozone in the upper atmosphere protects us from the sun's rays, at ground level it is a harmful lung irritant.

Like the weather, ozone concentrations change from day to day and even hour to hour. The highest concentrations commonly occur in the afternoon and early-evening hours on hot, sunny days.

Ozone affects everyone, but some people are more sensitive to its impacts than others. People with existing respiratory problems such as asthma, bronchitis and emphysema are more likely to be affected. Even healthy people may feel the impacts of ozone when they are outdoors working, playing or exercising and breathing ozone more deeply into their lungs.

Children are particularly vulnerable because they spend time outdoors playing vigorously, their lungs are still developing, and pound for pound, they breathe in more air than do adults.

The health effects linked to increased ozone concentrations vary among individuals but may include: coughing; nose, and throat irritation; chest pain; aggravation of asthma; shortness of breath; increased.

susceptibility to respiratory infection; decreased lung function; and other respiratory ailments.

The Department of Environmental Protection provides air quality ratings for ozone each day from May through September using the color categories and Air Quality Index numbers shown below. A higher Air Quality Index number within the categories reflects a higher level of risk.........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

July 17, 2006, 7:16 PM CT

Lightning Shared The Sky With A Rainbow

When a rainbow formed in the sky people stopped and stared at the natural wonder.

But then lightning sparked across the evening panorama as two of nature's most spectacular phenomenon created an unusual alliance.

The clash of weather was seen above the affluent city of Fort Smith, in the Southern state Arkansas.

One onlooker said: "It was awe inspiring. The lightning made a huge rumbling sound and when you looked up there was also this incredible rainbow forming on the horizon."........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

July 17, 2006, 5:01 AM CT

Undersea Vehicles to Study Formation of Gold

An international team of researchers will explore the seafloor near Papua New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean later this month with remotely operated and autonomous underwater vehicles, investigating active and inactive hydrothermal vents and the formation of mineral deposits containing copper, gold and other commercially valuable minerals.

The cruise is a joint expedition between Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Nautilus Minerals Inc. of Vancouver, British Columbia, a mining exploration company that holds exploration leases in the Bismarck Sea within the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea. Nautilus is the first firm to commercially explore the ocean floor for economically viable massive sulfide deposits, and is interested in understanding the size and mineral content of the seafloor massive sulfide systems.

The joint expedition includes a 32-day WHOI research program funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation to the Pacmanus vent sites in the Eastern Manus Basin. The remotely operated vehicle Jason will be used to survey and map the vent areas around an Ocean Drilling Program hole drilled in 2000. Nautilus will fund an additional 10-day program to explore and sample the Vienna Woods sulfide prospects on the Manus Ridge, northwest of the Pacmanus study area.........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

July 17, 2006, 4:53 AM CT

A New Look At The Oceans

The current condition of the oceans, their significance as the most important resource for the world's population, and their impact on the climate will be at the centre of discussion during the seminar 'A new look on the ocean' at the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF 2006) in Munich. The primary focus of the seminar will be on utilisation and monitoring of coastal zones and their potential benefits for industries and society. Friedhelm Schroder and Wilhelm Petersen of the GKSS Research Centre Geesthacht, together with Prof Dr Karen Wiltshire of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, will be organising the seminar. On July 16, 2006, from 8.30 to 11.15, the meeting will take place at the Forum of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. Prof Wiltshire is Assistant Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven. Her own research emphasis is on plankton, and her work is carried out at the Biological Station Helgoland which is part of the Alfred Wegener Institute. One of the current projects within her field is the data base PLANKTON*NET.

Free access to the plankton data base.

PLANKTON*NET is an online data base illustrating plankton organisms both visually and contextually. Originally, the data base was established at the Alfred Wegener Institute to provide a source of information for students participating in courses at the Biological Station Helgoland. Plankton is constituted by free-floating organisms in the water, from bacteria to jelly fish. The image material and related information on planktonic organisms, e.g. taxonomic descriptions, facilitate the identification of species. The data base was re-installed recently and, at present, holds more than 3000 images and over 500 species descriptions. Free access to the data base enables all registered users to add their own images and data, and to supplement existing data records. All newly entered data are evaluated, and, if necessary, reviewed by experts. This not only facilitates the fast development and expansion of the data base, but also leads to a high diversity of data entries with varied geographic origin through contributions from across the globe. This large geographic scope is of great importance for plankton research and is currently a unique feature of PLANKTON*NET in comparison to other data base systems.........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

Older Blog Entries   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15