http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/science-blog.html Science blog from networlddirectory, the place for information. Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT en-us http://www.networlddirectory.com/images/blogs/science-blog.jpg http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/science-blog.html 128 85 http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2009/influences-of-nature-and-nurture.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2009/influences-of-nature-and-nurture.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT Practice, practice, practice might get you to Carnegie Hall, but for aspiring musicians, there's new evidence that genes may influence one's ability to get there, as well. Perfect pitch, also known as absolute pitch, is the rare ability to recognize and name musical notes without any reference pitch for comparison, detecting, for instance, A before middle C. The rarity of the aptitude contrasts with the common ability to immediately recognize and name colors, distinguishing pink from red or azure from blue........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/opt-for-rented-cars.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/opt-for-rented-cars.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT Are you planning a trip to Lihue? If you want travelling to be hassle-free then car rental is the best viable option for commuting. To pamper your traveling impulses just throw yourself in a car in which you can move around at your will and take in the awe-inspiring panoramic view of this holiday spot. Make your vacation at Lihue, a rich sight-seeing experience with facilities of car rental provided by top most auto agencies. Whatever kind of car you need, whether it is economy, luxury or prestige, there are numerous companies ready to cater to your transportation needs........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/outpace-production.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/outpace-production.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT With the caloric needs of the planet expected to soar by 50 percent in the next 40 years, planning and investment in global agriculture will become critically important, according a new report released recently (June 25). The report, produced by Deutsche Bank, one of the world's leading global investment banks, in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, provides a framework for investing in sustainable agriculture against a backdrop of massive population growth and escalating demands for food, fiber and fuel........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/a-glimpse-of-things-to-come.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/a-glimpse-of-things-to-come.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT Herschel opened its 'eyes' on 14 June and the Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer obtained images of M51, 'the whirlpool galaxy' for a first test observation. Researchers obtained images in three colours which clearly demonstrate the superiority of Herschel, the largest infrared space telescope ever flown........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/dino-not-so-soaring.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/dino-not-so-soaring.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT The largest animals ever to have walked the face of the earth may not have been as big as previously thought, reveals a paper published recently in the Zoological Society of London's Journal of Zoology Researchers have discovered that the original statistical model used to calculate dinosaur mass is flawed, suggesting dinosaurs have been oversized........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/in-a-geologic-instant.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/in-a-geologic-instant.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT Modern glaciers, such as those making up the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, are capable of undergoing periods of rapid shrinkage or retreat, as per new findings by paleoclimatologists at the University at Buffalo. The paper, published on June 21 in Nature Geoscience, describes fieldwork demonstrating that a prehistoric glacier in the Canadian Arctic rapidly retreated in just a few hundred years........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/climate-change-is-already-having-.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/climate-change-is-already-having-.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT Extreme weather, drought, heavy rainfall and increasing temperatures are a fact of life in a number of parts of the U.S. as a result of human-induced climate change, scientists report today in a new evaluation. These and other changes will continue and likely increase in intensity into the future, the researchers found........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/extreme-makeover-chemistry-style.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/extreme-makeover-chemistry-style.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT In revisiting a chemical reaction that's been in the literature for several decades and adding a new wrinkle of their own, scientists with Berkeley Lab and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have discovered a mild and relatively inexpensive procedure for removing oxygen from biomass. This procedure, if it can be effectively industrialized, could allow a number of of today's petrochemical products, including plastics, to instead be made from biomass........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/magnetic-superatoms.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/magnetic-superatoms.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT A team of Virginia Commonwealth University researchers has discovered a 'magnetic superatom' - a stable cluster of atoms that can mimic different elements of the periodic table - that one day appears to be used to create molecular electronic devices for the next generation of faster computers with larger memory storage........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/positive-ads-arent-always-the-most-effective.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/positive-ads-arent-always-the-most-effective.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT Ads that feature positive emotions, like happiness, are not always the best way to reach consumers, as per a newly released study in the Journal of Consumer Research Authors Loraine Lau-Gesk (University of California, Irvine) and Joan Meyers-Levy (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis) investigated consumer attitudes toward emotional ads. They discovered that people's responses are affected by factors such as the amount of mental energy or attention they are able to devote to the ads as well as the physical layout of the advertising........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/record-for-past-half-million-years.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/record-for-past-half-million-years.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT Scientists here have used sediment from the deep ocean bottom to reconstruct a record of ancient climate that dates back more than the last half-million years. The record, trapped within the top 20 meters (65.6 feet) of a 400-meter (1,312-foot) sediment core drilled in 2005 in the North Atlantic Ocean by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, gives new information about the four glacial cycles that occurred during that period........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/global-warming-from-carbon-emissions.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/global-warming-from-carbon-emissions.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT Damon Matthews, a professor in Concordia University's Department of Geography, Planning and the Environment has found a direct relationship between carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. Matthews, together with colleagues from Victoria and the U.K., used a combination of global climate models and historical climate data to show that there is a simple linear relationship between total cumulative emissions and global temperature change. These findings would be reported in the next edition of Nature, to be released on June 11, 2009........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/maybe-its-raining-less-than-we-thought.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/maybe-its-raining-less-than-we-thought.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT It's conventional wisdom in atmospheric science circles: large raindrops fall faster than smaller drops, because they're bigger and heavier. And no raindrop can fall faster than its "terminal speed"its speed when the downward force of gravity is exactly the same as the upward air resistance. Now two physicists from Michigan Technological University and his colleagues at the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico (National University of Mexico) have discovered that it ain't necessarily so........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/graphene-may-have-advantages-over-copper.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/graphene-may-have-advantages-over-copper.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT The unique properties of thin layers of graphite-known as graphene-make the material attractive for a wide range of potential electronic devices. Scientists have now experimentally demonstrated the potential for another graphene application: replacing copper for interconnects in future generations of integrated circuits........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/nanoscale-zipper-cavity.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2009/nanoscale-zipper-cavity.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:03:16 GMT Physicists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a nanoscale device that can be used for force detection, optical communication, and more. The device exploits the mechanical properties of light to create an optomechanical cavity in which interactions between light and motion are greatly strengthened and enhanced. These interactions, notes Oskar Painter, associate professor of applied physics at Caltech, and the principal investigator on the research, are the largest demonstrated to date........ ]]>