May 12, 2006, 0:04 AM CT

First Synthetic Nanoscale Fractal Molecule

From snowflakes to the leaves on a tree, objects in nature are made of irregular molecules called fractals. Researchers now have created and captured an image of the largest man-made fractal molecule at the nanoscale.

The molecule, developed by scientists at the University of Akron, Ohio University and Clemson University, eventually could lead to new types of photoelectric cells, molecular batteries and energy storage, as per the scientists, whose study was published online today by the journal Science.

A University of Akron research team led by Vice President for Research George Newkome used molecular self-assembly techniques to synthesize the molecule in the laboratory. The molecule, bound with ions of iron and ruthenium, forms a hexagonal gasket.

Ohio University physicists Saw-Wai Hla and Violeta Iancu, who specialize in imaging objects at the nanoscale, confirmed the creation of the man-made fractal. To capture the image, the physicists sprayed the molecules onto a piece of gold, chilled them to minus 449 degrees Fahrenheit to keep them stable, and then viewed them with a scanning tunneling microscope.

Though invisible to the naked eye - the molecules are about one million times smaller than the colorful hexagons shown in the Science image - the objects are 12 nanometers wide. "That's big for a nanoscale molecule. It's huge," said Hla, an associate professor of physics and astronomy.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

May 11, 2006, 11:39 PM CT

Coffee, Black, Decaf And A Little Llama On The Side

Three llamas and two camels have provided a way to tell whether your waiter swapped regular coffee for decaf in your after-dinner cup. Using the heat-resistant antibodies these camels and llamas make, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are developing a quick test for caffeine that works even with hot beverages.

The scientists plan to adapt their technology to a simple test ("dipstick") that can be used to check for caffeine in a variety of drinks. Their research will appear in the June 1 issue of the American Chemical Society's journal Analytical Chemistry.

Caffeine can cause restlessness, irritability, dehydration or heart arrythmias, and those who are highly sensitive to caffeine can feel its stimulant effects for as long as 20 hours. In addition, some medicines adversely interact with caffeine.

"We believe our test would be the first consumer test for caffeine and would be beneficial for anyone wishing to avoid caffeine for health or personal reasons," says senior author Jack H. Ladenson, Ph.D., the Oree M. Carroll and Lillian B. Ladenson Professor of Clinical Chemistry and director of the Division of Laboratory Medicine.

Interestingly, the key to the caffeine test comes from llamas and camels -- pack animals that have transported caffeinated commodities such as coffee, tea and cocoa for centuries. These camelids happen to be among the few creatures whose immune systems can produce antibodies that aren't destroyed at the high temperatures common to brewed beverages.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

May 11, 2006, 11:26 PM CT

Nature Meets Technology

Through the centuries, nature has inspired countless number of poets, artists and musicians - now engineers are looking to nature to help them solve some of the most complex problems of the day. For two days, May 11-12, scientists from 20 institutions will gather at the Georgia Institute of Technology for the first International Symposium for Biologically-inspired Design and Engineering.

The premise underlying this evolving field is the belief that every animal must solve a particular problem to survive, so every animal embodies a design solution for a particular problem.

"The natural selection and evolution of species provides us with the longest engineering design test of all time," said Jeannette Yen, professor in Georgia Tech's School of Biology. "By studying how organisms solve the problems they face, we get to benefit from the millions of years of knowledge embedded in the DNA of each creature."

While scientists, like Leonardo DaVinci, looked to nature for inspiration centuries ago, biomimetics has recently caught on as a hot area of research at universities across the country. Last year, Georgia Tech launched the Center for Biologically Inspired Design (CBID) as a way to encourage more of the interdisciplinary research that was already taking place among research groups. Now, the center boasts 20 members comprised of scientists from various fields of engineering, biology, chemistry, psychology, applied physiology and architecture.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

May 11, 2006, 0:26 AM CT

Wasps Queue For Top Job

Researchers at UCL (University College London) have discovered that even wasps are driven by their status. The study, published recently in Nature, shows that lower-ranked female wasps work harder to help their queen than those higher up the chain because they have less to lose, and consequently are prepared to take more risks and wear themselves out.

The study, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), reveals that those higher up the chain and therefore with a greater chance of being the next in line to breed are much lazier than their lower-ranked nest-mates: rather than use up their energy in foraging to feed the queen's larvae, high-rankers sit tight on the nest and wait for their chance to become queen themselves.

Dr Jeremy Field, UCL Department of Biology, said: "Helpers wait peacefully in an age-based queue to inherit the prize of being the queen or breeder in the group. The oldest female almost always becomes the next breeder. The wasps in this queue face a fundamental trade-off: by working harder, they help the group as a whole and as a result indirectly benefit themselves, but they simultaneously decrease their own future survival and fecundity because helping is costly. It involves energy-expensive flight to forage for food, and leaving the nest is dangerous. We have found that the brighter the individual wasp's future, the less likely it is to take risks by leaving the safety of its nest to forage for food".........

Posted by: Ashley      Permalink         Source

May 11, 2006, 0:16 AM CT

Pollutant Haze Heats The Arctic

Arctic climate already is known to be especially prone to global warming caused by industrial and automotive emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Now, a University of Utah study finds a surprising new way society's pollutants warm the far north: the Arctic's well-known haze - made of particulate pollution from mid-latitude cities - mixes with thin clouds, making them better able to trap heat.

The effect makes the Arctic 2 degrees to 3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer during polluted, cloudy episodes than it would be if the air was clean, concludes the study by Tim Garrett, an assistant professor of meteorology, and Chuanfeng Zhao, a doctoral student in meteorology.

"The Arctic is warming very quickly, particularly compared with the rest of the world, due to the greenhouse effect caused by carbon dioxide from factories and cars," Garrett says.

"Now we are finding there is another way pollution can warm up the Arctic. Particulate pollution from factories and cars can be transported long distances to the Arctic, where it changes clouds so that they become more effective blankets, trapping more heat and further aggravating climate warming."

Arctic haze has been seen in the Arctic since the Industrial Revolution began about 1750. "Whalers and explorers noticed what looked like pollution and couldn't figure out where it was coming from," Garrett says. The Inuit (Eskimos) called it "poo-jok."........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

May 11, 2006, 0:10 AM CT

Home Testing Kit To Identify Hidden Caffeine

you've ever wondered whether your favorite coffee, tea or soda contains caffeine - despite its decaf label or the absence of caffeine on the ingredient list - then you may soon be able to test the beverage yourself. Chemists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are developing a quick, convenient "dipstick" test that they say could represent the first home testing kit to detect the common stimulant, which can cause insomnia and make you jittery. Their study will appear in the June 1 print issue of the American Chemical Society's Analytical Chemistry.

"We envisioned that a simple method to measure caffeine, even in hot beverages, such as coffee, would be of value to individuals and institutions wanting to verify the absence of caffeine," says study leader Jack H. Ladenson, Ph.D., a chemist at the university. "This will greatly assist individuals who wish to avoid caffeine".

Ladenson hopes to develop a simple caffeine test in which test strips that are treated with a specific antibody will react by changing color in the presence of caffeine.

The new test will be designed to be qualitative only: It allows a person to quickly determine whether caffeine is present, but does not indicate the exact amount or concentration of caffeine. In preliminary tests using coffee and cola, an experimental version of the test effectively distinguished caffeinated versions of these products from their decaf counterparts, Ladenson says.........

Posted by: Sarah      Permalink         Source

May 10, 2006, 11:25 PM CT

Recognizing the Brightest Minds in Computer Science

Until new professors can build a reputation, they typically struggle to secure adequate funding for their research work. It's a problem faced across the academic world as public funding agencies find their budgets stretched thin.

Recognizing this broad challenge for academia, Microsoft's External Research & Programs group (ER&P) established the Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowship program in 2005 to identify and support the best and brightest minds working to solve complex challenges in computer science, engineering and applied sciences at universities throughout North America. The objective is to stimulate and support creative research by promising researchers who have the potential to make a profound impact in the "state of the art" in their respective disciplines.

The program accepts just one nominee per university and includes a rigorous multi-round selection process that culminates in live interviews before a distinguished panel of reviewers from Microsoft Research and the academic community.

In just the second year of the program, more than 100 faculty members applied for five coveted positions. Winners were announced on April 26.

"Across the board, applicants for these fellowships represent some of the sharpest minds in science today," says Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research. "Some of these researchers are working on ideas and concepts that sound like the stuff of science fiction movies, and it is very exciting for us to be able to support them in their work".........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

May 10, 2006, 11:15 PM CT

Robots Manipulating Animal Behaviour

A pet dog sits on command, but nobody expects an insect to follow human instructions. So it may come as a surprise to learn that researchers recently succeeded in controlling cockroaches with tiny mobile robots. The results hint at a future where we can interact and communicate with many different kinds of animal.

Little larger than a thumbnail, the cubic insect-like robots or 'insbots' are technological marvels. Developed under the European Commission's Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) initiative of the IST programme as the project Leurre, the insbots are fitted with two motors, wheels, a rechargeable battery, several computer processors, a light-sensing camera and an array of infrared proximity sensors.

When dropped into a small experimental area with a maze of curved walls, the robots, build by the project partner from the EPFL (Lausanne), move, turn and stop. They can navigate their way safely by avoiding the walls, obstacles or each other, follow the walls, congregate around a lamp beam or even line up. When placed in the same area with cockroaches, the robots quickly adapt their behaviour by mimicking the animals' movements. Coated with pheromones taken from roaches, the infiltrator robots even fool the insects into thinking they are real creatures.........

Posted by: Kevin      Permalink         Source

May 10, 2006, 10:48 PM CT

New Movies Of Titan

New views of the most distant touchdown ever made by a spacecraft are being released recently by NASA, the European Space Agency and the University of Arizona. The movies show the dramatic descent of the Huygens probe to the surface of Saturn's moon Titan on Jan. 14, 2005.

The movies were put together with data collected by the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer instrument during the probe's 147-minute plunge through Titan's thick orange-brown atmosphere to a soft sandy riverbed. The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer was funded by NASA.

The data were analyzed for months after the landing and represent the best visual product obtained from the Huygens mission. It is the most realistic way yet to experience the Huygens probe landing. The movie "View from Huygens on Jan. 14, 2005," provides in 4 minutes and 40 seconds of what the probe actually "saw" during the 2.5 hours of the descent and touchdown.

Titan Descent Data Movie with Bells and Whistles.

"At first, the Huygens camera just saw fog over the distant surface," said Erich Karkoschka, team member at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and creator of the movies. "The fog started to clear only at about 60 kilometers [37 miles] altitude, making it possible to resolve surface features as large as 100 meters [328 feet]," he said. "But only after landing could the probe's camera resolve little grains of sand millions and millions of times smaller than Titan. A movie is a perfect medium to show such a huge change of scale".........

Posted by: Brooke      Permalink         Source

May 10, 2006, 0:17 AM CT

Importance Of Fungi In Arctic Nitrogen Cycle

A new method to calculate the transfer of nitrogen from Arctic mushrooms to plants is shedding light on how fungi living symbiotically on plant roots transfer vital nutrients to their hosts. The analytical technique, developed by John E. Hobbie, MBL Distinguished Scientist and co-director of the laboratory's Ecosystems Center and his son, Erik A. Hobbie of the University of New Hampshire, may be applied to nearly all conifers, oaks, beeches, birch and shrubs such as blueberry and cranberry-all nitrogen-poor ecosystems-and will be an important tool for future studies of plant nitrogen supply.

It has long been known when soil nitrogen is in short supply, mycorrhizal fungi (those living symbiotically on the roots of plants) transfer nutrients to their host plants in exchange for plant sugars derived from photosynthesis, but the rates of transfer have never been quantified in the field. John and Erik Hobbie's study, reported in the April 2006 issue of the journal Ecology, quantifies the role.

of mycorrhizal fungi in nitrogen cycling for the first time through measurements of the natural abundance of nitrogen isotopes in soils, mushrooms and plants. The scientists tested their technique using data from the Arctic LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) site near Toolik Lake, Alaska, in the northern foothills of the Brooks Range.........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink

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