Earth | Page 1040 | Science Codex

Spontaneous symmetry breaking and Higgs excitations

Phase transitions between different states of matter can be associated with a specific type of excitation called the "Higgs excitation". This phenomenon has now been observed in a two-dimensional quantum gas at temperatures near absolute zero.

In physics, spontaneous symmetry breaking is a fundamental feature of transitions between different states of matter. An example of this phenomenon is the abrupt alignment of spin orientation in a ferromagnetic substance when the material is cooled below the so-called Curie temperature.

Nano Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and modern analytical chemistry

An ultimate goal in modern chemistry and materials science is the non-invasive chemical mapping of materials with nanometer scale resolution. A variety of high-resolution imaging techniques exist (e.g. electron microscopy or scanning probe microscopy), however, their chemical sensitivity cannot meet the demands of modern chemical nano-analytics. Optical spectroscopy, on the other hand, offers high chemical sensitivity but its resolution is limited by diffraction to about half the wavelength, thus preventing nanoscale resolved chemical mapping.

Climate change could open trade opportunities for some vulnerable nations

Tanzania is one developing country that could actually benefit from climate change by increasing exports of corn to the U.S. and other nations, according to a study by researchers at Stanford University, the World Bank and Purdue University.

Rivers flowing into the sea offer vast potential as electricity source

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2012 — The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS') award-winning Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions podcast series describes a process that could pave the way for a new genre of electric power-generating stations.

Entropy can lead to order, paving the route to nanostructures

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Researchers trying to herd tiny particles into useful ordered formations have found an unlikely ally: entropy, a tendency generally described as "disorder."

Computer simulations by University of Michigan scientists and engineers show that the property can nudge particles to form organized structures. By analyzing the shapes of the particles beforehand, they can even predict what kinds of structures will form.

Climate concerns

For decades, scientists have known that the effects of global climate change could have a potentially devastating impact across the globe, but Harvard researchers say there is now evidence that it may also have a dramatic impact on public health.

Methane measurements at low level flight

A team of scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association (AWI) and the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences has just completed an airborne measurement campaign that allowed for the first time to measure large-scale methane emissions from the extensive Arctic permafrost landscapes. The study area extended from Barrow, the northernmost settlement on the American mainland, across the entire North Slope of Alaska, to the Mackenzie Delta in the Northwest Territories of Canada.

Disabled Pakistani women abandoned, ignored after quake

(Edmonton) Women who suffered spinal injuries in the 2005 Pakistan earthquake continued to endure hardships years later, including abandonment by spouses and families, according to new research from the University of Alberta.

It's a bird, not a plane: York U study finds migrating songbirds depart on time

TORONTO, July 25, 2012 – A new study by York University researchers finds that songbirds follow a strict annual schedule when migrating to their breeding grounds – with some birds departing on precisely the same date each year.

The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, is the first to track the migration routes and timing of individual songbirds over multiple years. Researchers outfitted wood thrushes with tiny geolocator "backpacks," recording data on their movements.

Alpine Fault study shows new evidence for regular magnitude 8 earthquakes

RENO, Nev. – A new study published in the prestigious journal Science, co-authored by University of Nevada, Reno's Glenn Biasi and colleagues at GNS Science in New Zealand, finds that very large earthquakes have been occurring relatively regularly on the Alpine Fault along the southwest coastline of New Zealand for at least 8,000 years.

The Alpine Fault is the most hazardous fault on the South Island of New Zealand, and about 80 miles northwest of the South Island's main city of Christchurch.

Forest carbon monitoring breakthrough in Colombia

Washington, D.C.—Using new, highly efficient techniques, Carnegie and Colombian scientists have developed accurate high-resolution maps of the carbon stocks locked in tropical vegetation for 40% of the Colombian Amazon (165,000 square kilometers/64,000 square miles), an area about four times the size of Switzerland.

Professor's essay is 1 of 10 in special issue of Daedalus

Cambridge, Mass – Bren professor David Tilman's essay on the role of biodiversity in environmental sustainability is one of only ten essays in a new volume of the journal Daedalus, titled "Science in the 21st Century. Released on July 19 by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the issue included the thoughts of ten prominent scientists, each exploring emerging advances in their fields and respond to the question, "What secrets will science unlock in the coming decades?"

Pulling CO2 from air vital, say researchers

Emerging techniques to pull carbon dioxide from the air and store it away to stabilize the climate may become increasingly important as the planet tips into a state of potentially dangerous warming, researchers from Columbia University's Earth Institute argue in a paper out this week.

The upfront costs of directly taking carbon out of the air will likely be expensive, but such technology may well become cheaper as it develops and becomes more widely used, and cost should not be a deterrent to developing such a potentially valuable tool, the authors said.

More gold -- and other minerals -- in them thar hills?

Though technology has taken much of the guesswork out of mining, mountain ranges are still notoriously difficult environments in which to hunt for valuable minerals. Various methods used to draw a picture of the underground environment, including the measurement of gravitational and magnetic fields, are easily thrown off by factors such as changes in topography height, surrounding temperature, and barometric pressure.

Rubbing boulders, fossil mammal teeth, barrier islands, and a change in volcanic behavior

Boulder, Colo., USA – In Geology: researchers experience an earthquake while studying the Atacama's rubbing boulders; information from fossil mammals, such as tooth crown height, is used to track aridity patterns; calibration of the plant transpiration of an ancient terrestrial ecosystem is presented; researchers chronicle the discovery of a new chain of barrier islands in one the highest wave-energy environments on Earth; and a change in volcanic behavior at Pisciarelli, Campi Flegrei, Italy, comes to light.