Material properties and interactions are largely determined by the binding and unbinding of their constituent molecules, but the standard model used to interpret data on the formation and rupturing of molecular bonds suffers from inconsistencies. A collaboration of researchers led by a scientist at the U.S Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed a first-of-its-kind model for providing a comprehensive description of the way in which molecular bonds form and rupture.
Heavens
6 September 2012: Two very different galaxies feature in this family portrait taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, together forming a peculiar galaxy pair called Arp 116. The image shows the dramatic differences in size, structure and colour between spiral and elliptical galaxies.
Arp 116 is composed of a giant elliptical galaxy known as Messier 60, and a much smaller spiral galaxy, NGC 4647.
Infrared data from NASA's Aqua satellite shows that Tropical Storm Leslie has been causing problems for itself.
Post-tropical cyclone John has been "flushed" out of existence in the eastern Pacific Ocean, and infrared NASA imagery revealed warmer cloud top temperatures and virtually no precipitation from John's remnants on Sept. 4.
NASA's Aqua satellite shows that tiny Tropical Storm Michael had some strong thunderstorms wrapped around its center and in a band of thunderstorms in its northeastern "arm" or quadrant.
Windows to the past, stars can unveil the history of our universe, currently estimated to be 14 billion years old. The farther away the star, the older it is — and the oldest stars are the most difficult to detect. Current telescopes can only see galaxies about 700 million years old, and only when the galaxy is unusually large or as the result of a big event like a stellar explosion.
Cambridge, Mass. - September 5, 2012 - A team of experts in mechanics, materials science, and tissue engineering at Harvard have created an extremely stretchy and tough gel that may pave the way to replacing damaged cartilage in human joints.
WASHINGTON –For the past four decades scientists have monitored the ebbs and flows of the icefields in the southernmost stretch of South America's vast Andes Mountains, detecting an overall loss of ice as the climate warms. A new study, however, finds that the rate of glacier thinning has increased by about half over the last dozen years in the Southern Patagonian Icefield, compared to the 30 years prior to 2000.
New data from the South Pole Telescope indicates that the birth of the first massive galaxies that lit up the early universe was an explosive event, happening faster and ending sooner than suspected.
Extremely bright, active galaxies formed and fully illuminated the universe by the time it was 750 million years old, or about 13 billion years ago, according to Oliver Zahn, a postdoctoral fellow at the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics (BCCP) at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the data analysis.
The great Italian scientist Galileo may have been the first person to use a telescope to observe the heavens, helping spark the scientific revolution of the 16th century, but Galileo definitely did not invent the famous thermometer and captivating curiosity that bears his name. That's the message of an article in ACS' Journal of Chemical Education.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – About 73 percent of online American teens use social networking sites, such as Facebook, to share photos, interests and experiences with others, according to Pew Research Center. For youths in the foster care system, sharing information online presents additional safety and privacy issues. A University of Missouri researcher recommends that child welfare agencies develop policies to guide how adolescents in foster care use social media.
A new image from ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile shows the spectacular globular star cluster Messier 4. This ball of tens of thousands of ancient stars is one of the closest and most studied of the globular clusters and recent work has revealed that one of its stars has strange and unexpected properties, apparently possessing the secret of eternal youth.
Tiny Tropical Storm Michael formed today, Sept. 4, from the thirteenth tropical depression in the Atlantic Ocean, but it seems that wind shear will make Michael struggle to intensify over the next couple of days like his "sister" Tropical Storm Leslie. Isaac's remnants blanket the U.S. east coast.
Tropical Storm John had about one day of fame in the Eastern Pacific. Born Tropical Depression 10, it intensified into Tropical Storm John on Sept. 2 at 5 a.m. EDT and maintained maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kmh) until it weakened back into a depression on Monday, Sept. 3 at 11 p.m. EDT.
Over the weekend of Aug. 31 to Sept. 2, Tropical Storm Leslie's maximum sustained winds were pretty constant and satellite imagery from NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites confirm the steadiness of the storm. That story is expected to change later this week however, as Leslie nears Bermuda and is expected to reach hurricane strength. Meanwhile, Leslie is still about the same strength today, Sept. 4 because of wind shear.