A group of University of Colorado at Boulder faculty and students involved in the international Large Hadron Collider project in Europe are celebrating the most powerful smashing of subatomic particles into each other today in a quest to discover the physical conditions immediately following the Big Bang.
Tech
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University scientists have defined a hidden second option plants have for making an essential amino acid that could be the first step in boosting plants' nutritional value and improving biofuel production potential.
The amino acid phenylalanine is required to build proteins and is a precursor for more than 8,000 other compounds essential to plants, including lignin, which allows plants to stand upright but acts as a barrier in the production of cellulosic ethanol.
WASHINGTON -- A new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council evaluates various technologies and methods that could improve the fuel economy of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, such as tractor-trailers, transit buses, and work trucks. The report also recommends approaches that federal agencies could use to regulate these vehicles' fuel consumption. Currently there are no fuel consumption standards for such vehicles, which account for about 26 percent of the transportation fuel used in the U.S.
COLUMBUS, Ohio – A self-administered test to screen for early dementia could help speed the diagnosis and subsequent treatment of memory disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. It could also provide health care providers and caregivers an earlier indication of life-changing events that could lie ahead.
An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist participated in a project to fine-tune computer models that can indicate when forest "carbon sinks" become net carbon generators instead. The results will help pinpoint the effectiveness of trees in offsetting carbon releases that contribute to higher atmospheric temperatures and global climate change.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Call them tattletale pills.
Seeking a way to confirm that patients have taken their medication, University of Florida engineering researchers have added a tiny microchip and digestible antenna to a standard pill capsule. The prototype is intended to pave the way for mass-produced pills that, when ingested, automatically alert doctors, loved ones or scientists working with patients in clinical drug trials.
Rainer Blatt's and Piet Schmidt's research team from the University of Innsbruck have successfully realized a single-atom laser, which shows the properties of a classical laser as well as quantum mechanical properties of the atom-photon interaction. The scientists have published their findings in the journal Nature Physics.
Montreal, March 30, 2010 – A new study has found that fathers give toddlers more leeway and that allows them to actively explore their environments, according to a new study on parent-child attachment published in Early Child Development and Care.
A newly discovered path for the conversion of sunlight to electricity could brighten the future for photovoltaic technology. Researchers with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found a new mechanism by which the photovoltaic effect can take place in semiconductor thin-films. This new route to energy production overcomes the bandgap voltage limitation that continues to plague conventional solid-state solar cells.
Jülich, 31 March 2010 – A quantum computer could provide an enormous improvement in the processing speed of existing computers. However, as yet they only exist in the laboratory in the form of small prototypes with a capacity of a few bits. They can now be explored in more detail, at least in simulations. The Jülich supercomputer JUGENE can now simulate the largest quantum computer system in the world with 42 bits.
Essential oils could be a cheap and effective alternative to antibiotics and potentially used to combat drug-resistant hospital superbugs, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh this week.
It's not easy being a bacterium and constantly having to adapt to whatever your environment throws at you. Dr Robert Endres explains how bacteria rely on their 'memories' to fine-tune their ability to sense food and danger, in his talk at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh today.
What if all software was open source? Anybody would then be able to add custom features to Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop, Apple iTunes or any other program. A University of Washington project may make this possible.
"Microsoft and Apple aren't going to open up all their stuff. But they all create programs that put pixels on the screen. And if we can modify those pixels, then we can change the program's apparent behavior," said James Fogarty, a UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering.
TORONTO, Ont., March 30, 2010 — One in three South Asian, West Asian or Arab women — one of the fastest growing segments of Canada's population — say they have trouble accessing a doctor to address an urgent health concern or to monitor health problems. The findings, from a new study by researchers at St.
Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles -- such as tractor-trailers, transit buses, and work trucks -- consume about 26 percent of transportation fuel used in the U.S. Congress has charged the U.S. Department of Transportation with developing fuel economy standards for these vehicles, whose fuel consumption currently is not regulated.