The process involved here sounds unwieldy, but is, in fact, quite simple: a material has a 6-fold rotation symmetry if the arrangement of its atoms remains unchanged when it is rotated by 60 degrees – one sixth of a circle. The atoms in metals often order themselves in this way. However, more complicated structures with 5-fold, 8-fold or 10-fold rotation symmetry also exist.
Tech
What makes some viral infections fatal and others much less severe is largely a mystery. It is thought that a part of the variability can be attributed to differences in how individuals respond to infection.
Professor Michael Katze, presenting at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh today, describes how computer modelling could be a powerful tool to allow treatments to be tailored to individuals. This approach could ultimately prevent future pandemics.
Isoprene is a Jekyll-and-Hyde gas that is capable of both warming and cooling the Earth depending on the prevailing conditions. It is an important industrial gas, necessary for the manufacture of important compounds such as rubber and vitamins, but very little is known about how isoprene is cycled in the environment.
Today, at the Society for General Microbiology's spring meeting in Edinburgh, Dr Terry McGenity reveals the identity of some crucial players in the gas cycle; isoprene-degrading bacteria that are able to intercept the release of isoprene into the atmosphere.
Having a large number of supportive relatives increases the fear of dying among the elderly from ethnic minority groups, suggests research in Postgraduate Medical Journal.
This runs counter to the perception that a network of supportive informal family carers eases the fear of death, say the authors.
And it has important implications for health service provision as fears around death are one of the factors driving the rising numbers of people dying in hospital rather than at home.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Decreasing or increasing the function of a newly discovered gene in corn may increase vitamin A content and have significant implications for reducing childhood blindness and mortality rates, according to a Purdue University-led study.
"In China, we have a saying," Liu says. "We don't kill the hen to get the eggs." Rather than destroying the cyanobacteria, the group has ingeniously reengineered their genetics, producing mutant strains that continuously secrete fatty acids through their cell walls. The cyanobacteria essentially act like tiny biofuel production facilities.
A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examines the potential influence that the business connections between broiler chicken growers may have on the transmission of avian influenza, H5N1. According to the study, the risk of between-farm transmission is significantly greater among farms within the same company group than it is between farms with different company affiliation.
After an extensive period of testing, researchers have launched an Internet portal to showcase the real-time measurement and visualization of energy use on the University of California, San Diego campus.
URBANA – University of Illinois researchers recently identified a new soybean aphid biotype that can multiply on aphid-resistant soybean varieties. Soybean aphids are the No. 1 insect threat to soybean production in the North Central region of the United States.
A Queen's University chemistry professor has invented a special solvent that may make cooking oil production more environmentally friendly.
Philip Jessop, Canada Research Chair in Green Chemistry, has created a solvent that – when combined with carbon dioxide – extracts oil from soybeans. Industries currently make cooking oils using hexane, a cheap, flammable solvent that is a neurotoxin and creates smog. The process also involves distillation, which uses large amounts of energy.
ATHENS, Ohio (March 29, 2010) — Scientists have discovered the world's smallest superconductor, a sheet of four pairs of molecules less than one nanometer wide. The Ohio University-led study, published Sunday as an advance online publication in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, provides the first evidence that nanoscale molecular superconducting wires can be fabricated, which could be used for nanoscale electronic devices and energy applications.
Clever as a blind fish, the underwater robot "Snookie" can orient itself in murky waters with an artificial sensory organ inspired by the so-called lateral-line system, found in fish and some amphibians. The experimental vehicle was developed by researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen within the framework of the CoTeSys (Cognition for Technical Systems) excellence cluster. In the future, the researchers expect such capabilities to enable underwater robots to work autonomously in operations ranging from deep sea exploration to inspection of sewer pipes.
A new study by the Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies at Rochester Institute of Technology indicates that the use of E20 fuel, which blends 20 percent ethanol with gasoline, reduces the tail pipe emissions of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, compared with traditional gasoline or E10 blends. In addition, the research team found no measurable impact to vehicle drivability or maintenance in conventional internal combustion engines.
This release is available in Spanish.
Delicious new cakes and frostings may someday contain less fat and fewer calories, thanks to work by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists such as Mukti Singh. She's based at the ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR) in Peoria, Ill.
How do we handle the ethical dilemmas of research on adults who can't give their informed consent? In a recent article in the journal Bioethics, ethicist Stefan Eriksson proposes a new approach to the dilemma of including dementia patients and others with limited decision making capabilities in research.