(CHICAGO) -- A 40-year search for a gene that causes some one-celled sea creatures to flash at night and is also found in others that produce deadly red tides, has been successfully culminated by a group of scientists led by Thomas E. DeCoursey, PhD, professor of biophysics and physiology at Rush University Medical Center.
Earth
Athens, Ga. – Increasing acidification in coastal waters could compromise the ability of oysters and other marine creatures to form and keep their shells, according to a new study led by University of Georgia researchers.
Their findings will be published in the November 2011 issue of Nature Geoscience. The researchers determined the combined effects of fertilizer runoff carried by the Mississippi River to the northern Gulf of Mexico and excess atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels result in an unexpected increase in the acidity of Gulf waters.
Nanoparticulate flow in a curved pipe differs to that in a straight pipe, and is of scientific and technological interest.
The length of flow path within a curved pipe is generally short, and the fluid experiences a centrifugal force which significantly changes the particle distribution both inside and downstream of the pipe. This phenomenon is more obvious when particle coagulation occurs. Prior to this study, nanoparticle migration in a rotating curved pipe with consideration of coagulation and dispersion has not been reported in detail.
"We have investigated the cycling of molybdenum (Mo) in ancient oceans by studying the elemental and isotopic composition of Mo in sedimentary rocks from Grand Canyon that formed in the oceans 750 million years ago", explains Tais W. Dahl, who did this research in collaboration with researchers from Arizona State University, Harvard University and the Nordic Center of Earth Evolution in Denmark (NordCEE).
Molybdenum tracks the presence of poisonous sulfide in ancient oceans
Introducing heterogeneities into the structure is an effective way to enhance the plasticity of metallic glasses (MGs). The original randomly distributed free volume in MGs, a natural heterogeneity, has been found to promote plasticity. However, the exact correlation between the free volume distribution and mechanical response is still unclear. Professor Dai Lanhong and his group from the State Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Mechanics, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, set out to tackle this problem.
Soft matters maintain their structures via weak interactions, such as Van der Waals, capillary, hydrogen bonds etc. The entropy plays a key role in the ordering of this kind of materials. They behave as a solid until a sufficiently large stress is applied, and then behave as a viscoelastic liquid. Due to the unique structures and rheological properties, soft matter such as concentrated suspensions, emulsions, pastes and gels often exhibit unusual slow relaxation and aging effect.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – The largest and most comprehensive study yet done on the effect of biofuel production from West Coast forests has concluded that an emphasis on bioenergy would increase carbon dioxide emissions from these forests at least 14 percent, if the efficiency of such operations is optimal.
The findings are contrary to assumptions and some previous studies that suggest biofuels from this source would be carbon-neutral or even reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In this research, that wasn't true in any scenario.
A peer-reviewed study commissioned by NOAA shows the American people assign an estimated total economic value of $33.57 billion for the coral reefs of the main Hawaiian Islands.
"The study shows that people from across the United States treasure Hawaii's coral reefs, even though many never get to visit them," said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. "It illustrates the economic value of coral reefs to all Americans, and how important it is to conserve these ecosystems for future generations."
Global warming, simultaneous warming events in the northern and southern hemispheres, have not occurred in the past 20 000 years, which is as far back as it is possible to analyze with sufficient precision to compare with modern developments.
The study by Svante Björck, a climate researcher at Lund University in Sweden, goes 14 000 years further back in time than previous studies have done."What is happening today is unique from a historical geological perspective", he says.
WASHINGTON -- The Antarctic ozone hole, which yawns wide every Southern Hemisphere spring, reached its annual peak on Sept. 12. It stretched to 10.05 million square miles, the ninth largest ozone hole on record. Above the South Pole, the ozone hole reached its deepest point of the season on Oct. 9, tying this year for the 10th lowest in this 26-year record.
HOUSTON -- (Oct. 20, 2011) -- Giant flakes of graphene oxide in water aggregate like a stack of pancakes, but infinitely thinner, and in the process gain characteristics that materials scientists may find delicious.
A new paper by scientists at Rice University and the University of Colorado details how slices of graphene, the single-atom form of carbon, in a solution arrange themselves to form a nematic liquid crystal in which particles are free-floating but aligned.
Theoretical chemists at Emory University have solved an important mystery about the rates of chemical reactions and the so-called Polanyi rules.
The findings, published in the journal Science, reveal why a reaction involving methane does not conform to the known rules, a problem that has baffled physical chemists in recent years.
The Antarctic ozone hole, which yawns wide every Southern Hemisphere spring, reached its annual peak on September 12, stretching 10.05 million square miles, the ninth largest on record. Above the South Pole, the ozone hole reached its deepest point of the season on October 9 when total ozone readings dropped to 102 Dobson units, tied for the 10th lowest in the 26-year record.
The first scientists to witness exploding rock and molten lava from a deep sea volcano, seen during a 2009 expedition, report that the eruption was near a tear in the Earth's crust that is mimicking the birth of a subduction zone.
Scientists on the expedition collected boninite, a rare, chemically distinct lava that accompanies the formation of Earth's subduction zones.
Seeking to better understand the level of death and destruction that would result from a large meteorite striking the Earth, Princeton University researchers have developed a new model that can not only more accurately simulate the seismic fallout of such an impact, but also help reveal new information about the surface and interior of planets based on past collisions.