Rockville, MD — Scientists have just come several steps closer to understanding change blindness — the well studied failure of humans to detect seemingly obvious changes to scenes around them — with new research that used a computer-based model to predict what types of changes people are more likely to notice.
These findings on change blindness were presented in a Journal of Vision article, "A semi-automated approach to balancing bottom-up salience for predicting change detection performance."
LIVERMORE, Calif. – Scientists can now peer into the inner workings of catalyst nanoparticles 3,000 times smaller than a human hair within nanoseconds.
The findings point the way toward future work that could greatly improve catalyst efficiency in a variety of processes that are crucial to the world's energy security, such as petroleum catalysis and catalyst-based nanomaterial growthfor next-generation rechargeable batteries. The work was performed in a collaborative effort by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of California at Davis.
Putting a tree – figuratively speaking – into your car's gas tank may be the way of the future. Dr. In-Gyu Choi, associate professor in the department of forest science at Seoul National University, will coordinate a session at the 2010 IUFRO World Congress that will look at the future of forest biomass as raw materials for the development of green biofuels and chemicals.
Forest biomass is renewable, abundant and carbon-neutral. Its importance as a future source of green energy and green chemicals should not be ignored, he says.
MADISON — Establishing a firm link between environmental change and human disease has always been an iffy proposition.
Now, however, a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, writing in the current (June 16, 2010) online issue of the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, presents the most enumerated case to date linking increased incidence of malaria to land-use practices in the Amazon.
The widespread belief that chemical dispersants will enhance the breakdown of oil from the Gulf of Mexico disaster is based on weak scientific data. That's among the topics in a comprehensive status report that is the cover story in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Firing off e-mails and cueing up videoconferences get work done fast, but not necessarily well, research by a University of Illinois business leadership expert found.
Gregory Northcraft says high-tech communication strips away the personal interaction needed to breed trust, a key ingredient in getting workers to pull together and carry their share of the load.
We learned in science class that light beams travel in straight lines and spread through a process known as diffraction –– and they can't go around corners. But now researchers at Tel Aviv University are investigating new applications for their recent discovery that small beams of light can indeed be bent in a laboratory setting, diffracting much less than a "regular" beam.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —A new process for storing and generating hydrogen to run fuel cells in cars has been invented by chemical engineers at Purdue University.
In this edition of Science Picks, learn what the USGS is doing in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and how satellite imagery can be used to get information after a major disaster. Also, learn how the USGS is helping restore the Chesapeake Bay and how to receive text messages from rivers and streams. You can even go on a pollinator safari and follow a sea turtle named Bertha!
KNOXVILLE -- As carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise, policy makers and scientists are looking at new ways to tackle the problems associated with the greenhouse gas.
One method under much discussion is carbon capture and storage (CCS), otherwise known as carbon sequestration. CCS, a newly developing technology, involves injecting carbon dioxide underground to remove it from the Earth's atmosphere.
KNOXVILLE -- Scientists who work at the atomic and molecular levels – nanoscale – have to think big. After all, it is at this level where everything happens.
A team of researchers led by Elliott Dasenbrook, MD, MHS, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Associate Director of the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program at University Hospitals Case Medical Center's Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital today published the findings from a major study about cystic fibrosis (CF) survival rates in the June 16 issue of JAMA.
AMES, Iowa - Two years into a study looking at methods of combining a living cover crop between corn rows shows that yield can be maintained at high levels using environmentally friendly practices.
