Earth | Page 1009 | Science Codex

Supercharged

MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Supercharging is a technique no longer confined to automotive enthusiasts.

Artem Rudenko, a new assistant professor of physics at Kansas State University and member of the James R. Macdonald Laboratory, was one of the principal investigators in an international physics collaboration that used the world's most powerful X-ray laser to supercharge an atom. By stripping a record 36 electrons from a xenon atom, researchers were able to bring the atom to a high positively charged state thought to unachievable with X-ray energy.

Lithosphere highlights: Slab dynamics, the Troodos ophiolite, and the Jurassic Bonanza arc

Boulder, Colo., USA – The latest Lithosphere articles to go online 26 October through 14 November include studies of slab dynamics both on Earth and on Mars; several discussions of the Troodos ophiolite, Cyprus, as well as other ophiolites; analysis and dating of the Jurassic Bonanza arc, Vancouver Island, Canada; fault system characterization in the central Bhutanese Himalaya; and sandstone dating in northern Russia.

ORNL pushes the boundaries of electron microscopy to unlock the potential of graphene

Electron microscopy at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is providing unprecedented views of the individual atoms in graphene, offering scientists a chance to unlock the material's full potential for uses from engine combustion to consumer electronics.

LLNL scientists assist in building detector to search for elusive dark matter material

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers are making key contributions to a physics experiment that will look for one of nature's most elusive particles, "dark matter," using a tank nearly a mile underground beneath the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Airborne particles smuggle pollutants to far reaches of globe

RICHLAND, Wash. -- Pollution from fossil fuel burning and forest fires reaches all the way to the Arctic, even though it should decay long before it travels that far. Now, lab research can explain how pollution makes its lofty journey: rather than ride on the surface of airborne particles, pollutants snuggle inside, protected from the elements on the way. The results will help scientists improve atmospheric air-quality and pollution transport models.

USA's ancient hurricane belt and the US-Canada equator

The recent storms that have battered settlements on the east coast of America may have been much more frequent in the region 450 million years ago, according to scientists.

New research pinpointing the positions of the Equator and the landmasses of the USA, Canada and Greenland, during the Ordovician Period 450 million years ago, indicates that the equator ran down the western side of North America with a hurricane belt to the east.

The hurricane belt would have affected an area covering modern day New York State, New Jersey and most of the eastern seaboard of the USA.

Human umbilical cord blood cell co-culture supports embryonic stem cell expansion

Putnam Valley, NY. (Nov. 15, 2012) – Researchers in Taiwan have developed a "safe, feasible and robust co-culture system" supplied by human umbilical cord mensenchymal stem cells (HUCMSCs) to feed the sustained culture used for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) expansion prior to cell transplantation. The co-culture, said the researchers, "appears to eliminate the most feared characteristic of transplanted hESCs," which is their propensity to form tumors.

Researchers uncover some good news for BC's troubled salmon populations

Researchers uncover some good news for BC's troubled salmon populations

A University of Alberta led research team has some positive news for British Columbia's pink salmon populations, and the salmon farming industry that has struggled to protect both captive and wild salmon from sea lice infestations.

There has long been concern that concentrations of sea lice in BC's fish farming pens spread to wild fish stock in surrounding waters.

How cells in the nose detect odors

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The human nose has millions of olfactory neurons grouped into hundreds of different neuron types. Each of these neuron types expresses only one odorant receptor, and all neurons expressing the same odorant receptor plug into one region in the brain, an organization that allows for specific odors to be sensed.

Eocene extension generated massive sediment floods into the Franciscan trench and Tyee, Great Valley, and Green River basins

One important process by which a continent can grow over geologic time is when the erosion of high mountain belts in the continental interior sheds large volumes of rock debris, which is carried away by rivers and eventually fills in adjacent ocean basins.

An unusually vigorous episode of such growth occurred from 53 to 40 million years ago in the northwestern United States. Over that time period, intense mountain uplifts and volcanic eruptions occurred in the Challis volcanic province in central Idaho.

Tropical Indo-Pacific climate shifts to a more El Niño-like state

The Walker circulation determines much of the tropical Indo-Pacific climate and has a global impact as seen in the floods and droughts spawned by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. Meteorological observations over the last 60 years show this atmospheric circulation has slowed: the trade winds have weakened and rainfall has shifted eastward toward the central Pacific.

The immediate cause of this slowdown has puzzled climate scientists. They could not reproduce it in their atmospheric models, questioning the ability of climate models to simulate gradual climate change.

New dating of sea-level records reveals rapid response between ice volume and polar temperature

A new study has revealed a rapid response between global temperature and ice volume/sea-level, which could lead to sea-levels rising by over one metre.

During the last few million years, global ice-volume variability has been one of the main feedback mechanisms in climate change, because of the strong reflective properties of large ice sheets. Ice volume changes in ancient times can be reconstructed from sea-level records. However, detailed assessment of the role of ice volume in climate change is hindered by inadequacies in sea-level records and/or their timescales.

What lies beneath? New survey technique offers detailed picture of our changing landscape

A new surveying technique developed at The University of Nottingham is giving geologists their first detailed picture of how ground movement associated with historical mining is changing the face of our landscape.

The new development by engineers at the University has revealed a more complete map of subsidence and uplift caused by the settlement of old mines in the East Midlands and other areas of the country and has shown that small movements in the landscape are bound by natural fault lines and mining blocks.

Preserving van Gogh's priceless masterpieces

The chrome yellow pigment that renowned post-Impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh favored in priceless masterpieces like Sunflowers, the Yellow House and Wheatfield with Crows is especially sensitive to certain types of light and should be protected to prevent darkening. That's the conclusion of a series of studies in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry, which could help preserve masterpieces by van Gogh and contemporaries like Gauguin, Cézanne and others.

Boosting the sensitivity of airport security screening

Scientists are reporting a simple way to improve the sensitivity of the test often used to detect traces of explosives on the hands, carry-ons and other possessions of passengers at airport security screening stations. Their report appears in ACS' The Journal of Physical Chemistry C.