Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
New process yields high-energy-density, plant-based transportation fuel
A team of engineers has developed a highly efficient, environmentally friendly process that selectively converts gamma-valerolactone, a biomass derivative, into the chemical equivalent of jet fuel.
World's Most Sensitive Neutrino Experiment Launches, To Seek Answers About Matter's Origins
The questions that plague particle physicists and cosmology buffs seem fundamental, but it's startling how little we really know about some of them; for instance, why does matter exist? Researchers in Japan are...
World's Largest Solar Powered Boat Unveiled, Global Voyage Slated for 2011
If you fall into the niche category of eco-conscious boating enthusiast with a desire to circumnavigate the globe on a 100-feet-long catamaran, your long wait is finally over. PlanetSolar - the dream of...
New Answer to 80-Year-Old Question Makes Computer Modeling 100,000 Times Faster
Fermi would approve A new formula allows computers to simulate how new materials behave up to 100,000 times faster than previously possible, and could drastically speed up innovation relating to electronic devices and...
UCLA 'dark matter' conference highlights new research on mysterious cosmic substance
Dark matter, for more than 70 years as mysterious and unknowable a subject to science as the legendary island of Atlantis has been to history, is bringing 140 scientists from...
Scientists glimpse nanobubbles on super non-stick surfaces
UPTON, NY -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have obtained the first glimpse of miniscule air bubbles that keep water from wetting a...
Cell-inspired electronics
(PhysOrg.com) -- A single cell in the human body is approximately 10,000 times more energy-efficient than any nanoscale digital transistor, the fundamental building block of electronic chips. In one second,...
A new way forward for nanocomposite nanostructures
Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the University of Illinois -- Urbana Champaign recently reported a new technique for directly writing composites of nanoparticles and polymers.
Biofuels without the blend
New method recycles agricultural waste into renewable alkenes for jet and diesel fuel that doesn’t need to be blended with other fuel
UV light stick purifies water
(PhysOrg.com) -- Today, about one billion people on Earth don't have access to clean drinking water, and that number is expected to increase even more in the coming years. To...
Solar Panel Productivity Boosted by Origami
Solar panels nowadays are flat, but folding them in origami-like ways could help dramatically boost the amount of power they could generate.
Going the extra mile with lithium–air batteries
Improved performance of rechargeable lithium–air batteries brings them a step closer to powering cars
New fuel cell technology is introduced
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- A U.S. energy company has unveiled a fuel cell that it says can transform the nation's current system of grid-distributed power into localized...
NJIT patent may be able to replace bisphenol A, make consumer products safer
Michael Jaffe, a professor of biomedical engineering at NJIT, has received a patent for a chemical derived from sugar. This new material is a derivative of isosorbide and may...
Gazprom gobbles up Minsk transit company
MOSCOW, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Russian energy giant Gazprom purchased a 12.5 percent stake in a Belorussian gas transit company, raising its holdings in the company to 50 percent.
Evidence of a new phase in liquid hydrogen
(PhysOrg.com) -- We like to think that we`ve got hydrogen, one of the most basic of elements, figured out. However, hydrogen can still surprise, especially once scientists start probing its...
The Fix: A Sticky Little Lizard Inspires a New Adhesive Tape
Scientists have developed a prototype for a very strong tape based on the gecko.
End of the World [1999 Edition]
At the recent AAAS meeting, Stony Brook University’s Robert Crease talked about a doomsday scare involving Scientific American and Brookhaven National Lab’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or RHIC:
Drug delivery breakthrough: Vehicle that can carry drugs to a specific organelle inside the cell
A team of scientists has got a step closer to one of the holy grails of drug delivery. The goal -- to find a vehicle that can carry drugs not...
Prediction Vs Understanding
Babylonian astronomy sounds a lot like some areas of omics/computational biology today: Looking back at Babylonian astronomy from the twentieth century, one is struck by two things: the care with which...
Uruguay and Peru sign their first scientific agreement
The governments of Peru and Uruguay have signed an agreement to boost cooperation in science, technology and innovation.
Crystal control moves towards 3D-displays
Doping nanocrystals changes the colours they emit
Boost to UK geothermal energy prospects
(PhysOrg.com) -- Geothermal energy in the UK is a step closer to reality after exploratory drilling by experts at Newcastle University revealed record levels of permeability in granite.
Where does the fluid go?
Combined mechanisms of transport have important applications -- transport of nutrients across cell membranes in plants and animals, the aeration of agricultural soils, performance of chemical reactors, the design of...
Samsung Expands Green Line-up with 40nm-class 4Gigabit DDR3
Samsung Electronics announced today that it has begun mass producing the industry`s first low-power (green) four gigabit (Gb) DDR3 devices using 40 nanometer (nm) class process technology. The high-density memory...
Wired Waters: Bacterial Electric Circuits Facilitate Chemistry in Marine Sediments
Bacteria in ocean sediments string together nanowires to connect complementary but spatially separated chemical processes, according to a new study. The finding is the first example of a natural electrical...
CDF and D0 joint paper puts a further squeeze on the Higgs
Almost a decade after the experiments at CERN`s Large Electron-Positron (LEP) collider set a limit on the mass of the Higgs boson of 114.4 GeV/c2, the two experiments at Fermilab`s...
New Hydrophobic Interface Mimics Spider Hairs
Engineers from the University of Florida and Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea have developed what they call a 'nearly perfect hydrophobic interface' by reproducing, on small bits of flat plastic,...