Culture

PHILADELPHIA –- Due to its remarkable electronic properties, few layer graphene, or FLG, has emerged as a promising new material for use in post-silicon devices that incorporate the quantum effects that emerge at the nanoscale. Now, physicists at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated a new method by which FLG can be etched along flawless, crystallographic axes by using thermally activated nanoparticles, a technique that results in atomically precise, macroscopic length ribbons of graphene.

Accurate measurement of thermal performance is crucial if new government legislation aimed at producing dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions is to be successful. The UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is offering construction companies a way of meeting this mandate.

TEMPE, Ariz. – Butterfly wings, peacock feathers, opals and pearls are some of nature's jewels that use nanostructures to dazzle us with color. It's accomplished through the way light reaches our eyes after passing through the submicroscopic mazes within these materials.

The seemingly effortless way that nature creates this effect is now rivaled by a rapid and simple method developed through a collaboration of researchers from North Carolina State University (NCSU), Arizona State University (ASU) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM).

In the largest field trial of its kind in the United States, researchers have determined that the giant perennial grass Miscanthus x giganteus outperforms current biofuels sources – by a lot. Using Miscanthus as a feedstock for ethanol production in the U.S. could significantly reduce the acreage dedicated to biofuels while meeting government biofuels production goals, the researchers report.

The new findings, from researchers at the University of Illinois, appear this month in the journal Global Change Biology.

Fruit flies fine-tune their olfactory systems by recalibrating the sensitivity of different odor channels in response to changing concentrations of environmental cues, a new study has shown. Disable this calibration system, and flies have trouble finding a mate, the researchers found.

Just like overly bright light can wash out a photographic image, strong smells can overwhelm the olfactory system and eliminate an animal's ability to detect subtle differences, such as changes in concentration that would allow it to track a scent.

While industrial action is largely perceived as a legitimate means of encouraging organisational change in Australia, research has shown industrial action can adversely affect those involved.

Dr Jane Fowler, an industrial-organisational psychologist at Griffith University, has examined the psychological impact on members of the United Steelworkers of America while on strike from 2004-2006.

She found strikers reported higher levels of depression, anxiety and irritation and lower levels of general mental health than non-strikers.

Bar Harbor, Maine – A team of Jackson Laboratory scientists have figured out a simple, cost-effective process to freeze mouse sperm and get it to achieve high fertilization rates with mouse eggs. The breakthrough will greatly reduce the cost of developing and distributing new mouse models of human disease.

Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London are helping to perfect a technique used to catch serial killers, by testing it on bumblebees.

Geographic profiling (GP) is a technique used by police forces around the world to help them prioritise lists of suspects in investigations of serial crimes. It uses the sites of a serial killer's crimes to predict where the killer is most likely to live.

Researchers at Durham, the RSPB and Cambridge University have found that birds such as the Cirl Bunting and Dartford Warbler are becoming more common across a wide range of habitats in Britain as temperatures rise.

Unfortunately, some northern species, such as the Fieldfare and Redwing, are not faring quite so well and their numbers are falling

Researchers looked at twenty-five year population trends of 42 bird species in relation to changes in climatic suitability simulated using climatic envelope models.

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University's Christopher L. Weber argues that China's new title as the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter is at least partly due to consumption of Chinese goods in the West.

As the world's greatest athletes prepare to participate in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, there is increasing concern from some athletes about the growing pollution caused by smoke and smog from coal-fired plants that helped boost Chinese exports 21 percent last quarter to a whopping $666.6 billion in trade.

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University's Christopher L. Weber argues that China's new title as the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter is at least partly due to consumption of Chinese goods in the West.

As the world's greatest athletes prepare to participate in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, there is increasing concern from some athletes about the growing pollution caused by smoke and smog from coal-fired plants that helped boost Chinese exports 21 percent last quarter to a whopping $666.6 billion in trade.

A new study of DNA from ancient and modern chickens has shed light on the controversy about the extent of pre-historic Polynesian contact with the Americas.

The study questions recent claims that chickens were first introduced into South America by Polynesians, before the arrival of Spanish chickens in the 15th century following Christopher Columbus.

Accurate measurement of thermal performance is crucial if new government legislation aimed at producing dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions is to be successful. The UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is offering construction companies a way of meeting this mandate.

ARGONNE, Ill. (July 28, 2008) – Scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are dealing with an entirely new type of frustration, but it's not stressing them out.

Dynamic frustration has been found to be the cause of glassy behavior in materials that previously had none of the features of a normal glass.

"This has been a puzzle for 10 years now," Argonne physicist Raymond Osborn said.

NEW YORK (JULY 28, 2008) – Just three years after it was discovered, a new species of monkey is threatened with extinction according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, which recently published the first-ever census of the endangered primate. Known as the "kipunji," the large, forest-dwelling primate hovers at 1,117 individuals, according to a study released in the July issue of the journal Oryx.