Tech

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for using multi-core chips more efficiently, significantly enhancing a computer's ability to build computer models of biological systems. The technique improved the efficiency of algorithms used to build models of biological systems more than seven-fold, creating more realistic models that can account for uncertainty and biological variation. This could impact research areas ranging from drug development to the engineering of biofuels.

Los Angeles, CA (June 8, 2011) Regrets—we've all had a few. Although too many regrets can interfere with life and mental health, a healthy amount of regret can motivate us to improve our lives, say researchers Mike Morrison of the University of Illinois and Neal Roese of Northwestern University in the current issue of Social Psychological and Personality Science (published by SAGE).

The planet's soils are under greater threat than ever before, at a time when we need to draw on their vital role to support life more than ever, warns an expert from the University of Sheffield today (9 June 2011) in the journal Nature.

Professor Steve Banwart from the University's Kroto Research Institute, will be helping to tackle this challenge as part of a new programme of international research, called Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs), funded initially by the USA National Science Foundation and the European Commission.

A new University of Colorado Boulder study indicates the infestation of trees by mountain pine beetles in the high country across the West could potentially trigger earlier snowmelt and increase water yields from snowpack that accumulates beneath affected trees.

Like an opera singer hitting a note that shatters a glass, a signal at a particular resonant frequency can concentrate energy in a material and change its properties. And as with 18th century "musical glasses," adding a little water can change the critical pitch. Echoing both phenomena, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a unique fluid-tuned "metasurface," a concept that may be useful in biomedical sensors and microwave-assisted chemistry.

Depending on whom you ask, nanoparticles are, potentially, either one of the most promising or the most perilous creations of science. These tiny objects can deliver drugs efficiently and enhance the properties of many materials, but what if they also are hazardous to your health in some way? Now, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have found* a way to manipulate nanoparticles so that questions like this can be answered.

Take a random person from a so-called "red state," and the odds are nearly 50/50 that he or she would actually be more liberal on political issues than a random resident of a "blue state."

More specifically, the chances of any one red state citizen scoring more liberal than a blue state citizen are 46 percent on economic issues and 51 percent on social issues.

BONN, GERMANY (8 JUNE 2011)—The majority of countries participating in a major global effort to reduce greenhouse emissions caused by forest destruction cite agriculture as the main cause of deforestation, but very few provide details on how they would address the link between agriculture and forestry, according to a new analysis by experts probing the effect of climate change on food security.

Minority youth aged 8 to 18 consume an average of 13 hours of media content a day -- about 4-1/2 hours more than their white counterparts, according to a Northwestern University report, the first national study to focus exclusively on children's media use by race and ethnicity.

In work published in the June 2011 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, Kolossov, Spring and their co-investigators - a multidisciplinary team within the Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois - have transferred the concept of redox-sensitive Green Fluorescent Proteins (GFPs) to a quantitative Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) imaging platform.

RICHLAND, Wash. -- By adding the right amount of heat, researchers have developed a method that improves the electrical capacity and recharging lifetime of sodium ion rechargeable batteries, which could be a cheaper alternative for large-scale uses such as storing energy on the electrical grid.

Heart function may be affected in people with Type 2 diabetes as early as adolescence, according to a new study that will be presented Sunday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.

Scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have produced groundbreaking global maps of land plant fluorescence, a difficult-to-detect reddish glow that leaves emit as a byproduct of photosynthesis. While researchers have previously mapped how ocean-dwelling phytoplankton fluoresce, the new maps are the first to focus on land vegetation and to cover the entire globe.

San Antonio, Texas (June 6, 2011)—Research presented at SNM's 58th Annual Meeting may mark the expansion of a novel imaging agent for an optical technique called near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF), which uses light energy to glean information about cells and tissues. NIRF combined with the newly synthesized agent can image dangerous blood clots hiding inside elusive veins, most commonly within the deep tissues of the thighs and pelvis, but potentially also in the coronary arteries.