http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/science-blog.html Science blog from networlddirectory, the place for information. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 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/7-2008/parasites-outweigh-predators.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/parasites-outweigh-predators.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT In a study of parasites living in three estuaries on the Pacific coast of California and Baja California, scientists have determined that biomass of these parasites exceeds that of top predators, in some cases by more than 20 times. Their findings, which could have significant ecological and biomedical implications, appear in this week's issue of the journal Nature........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/outflow-from-worlds-largest-river.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/outflow-from-worlds-largest-river.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT Nutrients from the Amazon River's outflow spread well beyond the continental shelf and drive carbon cycling in the tropical ocean, say researchers who conducted a multi-year study. They will publish their results this week online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/system-to-forecast-flash-floods.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/system-to-forecast-flash-floods.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT People living near vulnerable creeks and rivers along Colorado's Front Range may soon get advance notice of potentially deadly floods, thanks to a new forecasting system being tested this summer by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. Known as the NCAR Front Range Flash Flood Prediction System, it combines detailed atmospheric conditions with information about stream flows to predict floods along specific streams and catchments........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/key-to-saving-the-worlds-lakes.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/key-to-saving-the-worlds-lakes.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT After completing one of the longest running experiments ever done on a lake, scientists from the University of Alberta, University of Minnesota and the Freshwater Institute, contend that nitrogen control, in which the European Union and a number of other jurisdictions around the world are investing millions of dollars, is not effective and in fact, may actually increase the problem of cultural eutrophication........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/saharan-dust-storms-sustain-life-in-atlantic-ocean.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/saharan-dust-storms-sustain-life-in-atlantic-ocean.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT Research at the University of Liverpool has found how Saharan dust storms help sustain life over extensive regions of the North Atlantic Ocean. Working aboard research vessels in the Atlantic, researchers mapped the distribution of nutrients including phosphorous and nitrogen and investigated how organisms such as phytoplankton are sustained in areas with low nutrient levels........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/satellites-measure-crop-water-demand.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/satellites-measure-crop-water-demand.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT Horticultural crops account for almost 50% of crop sales in the United States, and these crops are carefully managed to ensure good quality. But more information is needed about the crops' growth and response to seasonal and climatic changes so that management practices such as irrigation can be precisely scheduled. Existing research can be difficult to generalize because of variations in crops, planting densities, and cultural practices........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/nanosculpture-could-enable-new-types-of-heat-pumps.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/nanosculpture-could-enable-new-types-of-heat-pumps.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT A new technique for growing single-crystal nanorods and controlling their shape using biomolecules could enable the development of smaller, more powerful heat pumps and devices that harvest electricity from heat. Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered how to direct the growth of nanorods made up of two single crystals using a biomolecular surfactant. The scientists were also able to create "branched" structures by carefully controlling the temperature, time, and amount of surfactant used during synthesis........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/a-new-way-to-weigh-giant-black-holes.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/a-new-way-to-weigh-giant-black-holes.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT How do you weigh the biggest black holes in the universe? One answer now comes from a completely new and independent technique that astronomers have developed using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. By measuring a peak in the temperature of hot gas in the center of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4649, researchers have determined the mass of the galaxy's supermassive black hole. The method, applied for the first time, gives results that are consistent with a traditional technique........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/arctic-ice-research-is-childs-play.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/arctic-ice-research-is-childs-play.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT Several snowmobiles navigated speedily over arctic ice and snow in Alaska's outback in late June. This scene might seem ordinary except that the recently unveiled snowmobiles are unmanned, autonomous, toy-size robots called SnoMotes the first prototype network of their kind envisioned to rove treacherous areas of the Arctic and Antarctic capturing more accurate measurements that will help researchers better understand what is causing the well-documented melting of ice in those regions........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/scattered-nature-of-wisconsins-woodlands.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/scattered-nature-of-wisconsins-woodlands.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT If a warmer Wisconsin climate causes some northern tree species to disappear in the future, it's easy to imagine that southern species will just expand their range northward as soon as the conditions suit them. The reality, though, may not be nearly so simple. A model developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison forest ecologists Robert Scheller and David Mladenoff suggests that while certain northern species, such as balsam fir, spruce and jack pine, are likely to decline as the state's climate warms, oaks, hickories and other southern Wisconsin trees will be slow to replace them........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/future-snowmelt-in-west-twice-as-early-as-expected.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/future-snowmelt-in-west-twice-as-early-as-expected.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT As per a new study, global. warming could lead to larger changes in snowmelt in the western United States than was previously thought, possibly increasing wildfire risk and creating new water management challenges for agriculture, ecosystems and urban populations. Researchers, including a Purdue University professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, discovered that a critical surface temperature feedback is twice as strong as what had been projected by earlier studies........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/potential-effects-of-volcanic-eruptions.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/potential-effects-of-volcanic-eruptions.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT For the first time, scientists have taken a detailed look at what lies beneath all of Iceland's volcanoes - and found a world far more complex than they ever imagined. They mapped an elaborate maze of magma chambers - work that could one day help researchers better understand how earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in Iceland and elsewhere in the world........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/air-quality-problem-for-olympics.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/air-quality-problem-for-olympics.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT The outlook for air quality in Beijing during the Olympics is borderline, and there's little that the Chinese government can do to improve it. That's the conclusion drawn by a University of Rhode Island atmospheric chemist who analyzed pollution data collected regularly for the last five years by Chinese scientists........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/physicists-tweak-quantum-force.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/physicists-tweak-quantum-force.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT Cymbals don't clash of their own accord - in our world, anyway. But the quantum world is bizarrely different. Two metal plates, placed almost infinitesimally close together, spontaneously attract each other. What seems like magic is known as the Casimir force, and it has been well-documented in experiments. The cause goes to the heart of quantum physics: Seemingly empty space is not actually empty but contains virtual particles linked to fluctuating electromagnetic fields. These particles push the plates from both the inside and the outside. However, only virtual particles of shorter wavelengths - in the quantum world, particles exist simultaneously as waves - can fit into the space between the plates, so that the outward pressure is slightly smaller than the inward pressure. The result is the plates are forced together........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/wilkins-ice-shelf-hanging-by-its-last-thread.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/wilkins-ice-shelf-hanging-by-its-last-thread.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT The Wilkins Ice Shelf is experiencing further disintegration that is threatening the collapse of the ice bridge connecting the shelf to Charcot Island. Since the connection to the island in the image centre helps to stabilise the ice shelf, it is likely the break-up of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/fossil-feathers-preserve-evidence-of-color.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/fossil-feathers-preserve-evidence-of-color.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT Traces of organic material found in fossil feathers are remnants of pigments that once gave birds their color, as per researchers whose research results are published online this week in the journal Biology Letters. Their findings open the potential to depict the original coloration of fossilized birds and their ancestors, the dinosaurs........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/long-wait-before-next-china-quake.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/long-wait-before-next-china-quake.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT A new analysis of the setting for May's devastating earthquake in China shows that the quake resulted from faults with little seismic activity--and that similar events in that area occur, on average, only once every 2,000 to 10,000 years. However, geologists caution that because earthquakes can sometimes occur in clusters, people should still be wary of another possible large-scale earthquake........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/methane-formation-in-the-oceans.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/methane-formation-in-the-oceans.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT A new pathway for methane formation in the oceans has been discovered, with significant potential for advancing our understanding of greenhouse gas production on Earth, researchers believe. A paper on the findings, reported in the July 2008, issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, reveals that decomposition of a phosphorus-containing compound called methylphosphonate may be responsible for an unexpected supersaturation of methane in the oceans' oxygen-rich surface waters........ ]]> http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/a-colorful-approach-to-solar-energy.html http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/a-colorful-approach-to-solar-energy.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:00:38 GMT Revisiting a once-abandoned technique, engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have successfully created a sophisticated, yet affordable, method to turn ordinary glass into a high-tech solar concentrator. The technology, which uses dye-coated glass to collect and channel photons otherwise lost from a solar panel's surface, could eventually enable an office building to draw energy from its tinted windows as well as its roof........ ]]>