National Science Foundation
How tiny microbes took a big bite out of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
(PhysOrg.com) -- Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, seeps naturally from the seafloor in many places around the planet, including in the Gulf of Mexico.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 24, 2011 |
5 / 5 (5) |
0
|
Lab in a can: New robotic labs are now going mobile to collect ocean samples
It looks a lot like a garbage can-–but it's actually a fully functioning laboratory, thrown overboard, to analyze water samples in the open ocean. One day, a machine like it might tell us whether a beach is safe for ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 23, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
Just four percent of galaxies have neighbors like the Milky Way
How unique is the Milky Way? To find out, a group of researchers led by Stanford University astrophysicist Risa Wechsler compared the Milky Way to similar galaxies and found that just four percent are like ...
May 23, 2011 |
3.8 / 5 (5) |
5
|
After Japan nuclear power plant disaster: How much radioactivity in the oceans?
Among the casualties of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan was the country's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 19, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
10
|
Big clue to future climate change in small plants
Yarrow, it's called, this flowering plant also known as "little feather" for the shape of its leaves. Prized as a garden plant that repels unwanted insects while attracting beneficial ones, it also improves ...
May 19, 2011 |
4 / 5 (8) |
5
|
Miracle material: Graphene
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the 19th century novel, Flatland, by Edward A. Abbott, residents of that fictional country exist in only two dimensions. Women are born as line segments, while men come in a range of geometric ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
May 19, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (9) |
12
|
Sound safety: Novel device with rock 'n' roll roots may protect listeners
Engineers investigating "listener fatigue" -- the discomfort and pain some people experience while using in-ear headphones, hearing aids and other devices that seal the ear canal from external sound--have ...
May 17, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
The search serpent: The next wave in robotics
How does one design a robot that maneuvers in three dimensions and navigates all manner of terrain? Those are the main challenges that Howie Choset at Carnegie Mellon University is attempting to tackle.
May 17, 2011 |
5 / 5 (5) |
0
|
3D proteins -- Getting the big picture
How do you get to know a protein? How about from the inside out? If you ask chemistry professor James Hinton, "It's really important that students be able to touch, feel, see ... embrace--if you like, these ...
May 10, 2011 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
'Fool's Gold' from the deep is fertilizer for ocean life
Similar to humans, the bacteria and tiny plants living in the ocean need iron for energy and growth. But their situation is quite different from ours--for one, they can't turn to natural iron sources like ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 09, 2011 |
5 / 5 (8) |
1
|
Testing technicolor physics
(PhysOrg.com) -- As the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ramps up the rate and impact of its collisions, physicists hope to witness the emergence of the Higgs boson, an anticipated, but as-yet-unseen, fundamental ...
May 06, 2011 |
4 / 5 (5) |
12
|
Mobile action lab trains young people to design, develop and market apps
In nearly 20 years, Youth Radio has grown from a small radio skills training program in Berkeley, Calif. to a national organization with bureaus in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. The program has ...
May 06, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
Journey to the center of the Amazon
The Amazon Rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest on Earth and home to millions of species. Yet, deforestation, or the clearing of forested areas, poses a threat to the livelihood of the forest.
May 05, 2011 |
not rated yet |
2
Talk to the animals (w/ video)
When African Grey parrots talk, do they mimic sounds or consciously understand their speech? Irene Pepperberg, a comparative psychologist at both Brandeis and Harvard universities believes African Greys actually ...
May 02, 2011 |
5 / 5 (10) |
4
|
Using supercomputers to understand the super stars of the cosmos
(PhysOrg.com) -- Is it a high-speed graphic animation of a yellow-golden cauliflower erupting in fast motion? No. Maybe it's some kind of time-lapse, computer-generated X-ray of a brain as it grows over years. ...
Apr 25, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
1
|
