http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org provides the latest news from Brown University The noble gases get their collective moniker from their tendency toward snobbishness. The six elements in the family, which includes helium and neon, don't normally bond with other elements and they don't dissolve into minerals the way other gases do. But now, geochemists from Brown University have found a mineral structure with which the nobles deign to fraternize. http://phys.org/news290587986.html Space & Earth Sun, 16 Jun 2013 13:00:04 EST news290587986 Nectar-feeding bats and busy janitors have at least two things in common: They want to wipe up as much liquid as they can as fast as they can, and they have specific equipment for the job. A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes the previously undiscovered technology employed by the bat Glossophaga soricina: a tongue tip that uses blood flow to erect scores of little hair-like structures exactly at the right time to slurp up extra nectar from within a flower. http://phys.org/news287057767.html Biology Mon, 06 May 2013 15:00:18 EST news287057767 New research finds that double cropping—planting two crops in a field in the same year—is associated with positive signs of economic development for rural Brazilians. The research focused the state of Mato Grosso, the epicenter of an agricultural revolution that has made Brazil one of the world's top producers of soybeans, corn, cotton, and other staple crops. That Brazil has become an agricultural powerhouse over the last decade or so is clear. What has been less clear is who is reaping the economic rewards of that agricultural intensification—average Brazilians or wealthy landowners and outside investors. http://phys.org/news285869556.html Other Sciences Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:12:43 EST news285869556 A "garden variety" leaf is a broad, flat structure, but if the garden happens to be somewhere arid, it probably includes succulent plants with plump leaves full of precious water. Fat leaves did not emerge in the plant world easily. A new Brown University study published in Current Biology reports that to sustain efficient photosynthesis, they required the evolution of a fundamental remodeling of leaf vein structure: the addition of a third dimension. http://phys.org/news284897797.html Biology Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:00:06 EST news284897797 (Phys.org) —A new study of how carbon is trapped and released by iron-rich volcanic magma offers clues about the early atmospheric evolution on Mars and other terrestrial bodies. http://phys.org/news284657036.html Space & Earth Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:24:11 EST news284657036 (Phys.org) —Ecologists are wary of non-native species, but along the shores of Cape Cod where grass-eating crabs have been running amok and destroying the marsh, an invasion of a predatory green crabs has helped turn back the tide in favor of the grass. The counter-intuitive conclusions appear in a new paper in the journal Ecology. http://phys.org/news284211786.html Biology Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:43:17 EST news284211786 Large impacts on the Moon can form wide craters and turn surface rock liquid. Geophysicists once assumed that liquid rock would be homogenous when it cooled. Now researchers have found evidence that pre-existing mineralogy can survive impact melt. http://phys.org/news284128993.html Space & Earth Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:43:38 EST news284128993 (Phys.org) —Researchers at Brown and Yale have demonstrated a new "enabling technology" that could use excess carbon dioxide to produce acrylate, a valuable commodity chemical involved in the manufacture of everything from polyester cloth to disposable diapers. http://phys.org/news283101037.html Chemistry Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:10:55 EST news283101037 A new paper in the peer-reviewed journal CBE—Life Sciences Education describes a Brown University program that has significantly improved recruiting and performance of underrepresented minority students in its nine life sciences doctoral programs over the last four years. http://phys.org/news283094752.html Other Sciences Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:26:01 EST news283094752 Even as the Hispanic population continues to grow rapidly, the residential separation of most Hispanic groups has declined sharply in the last two decades, according to a new analysis of census data released by the US2010 Project at Brown University. The important exception – Mexicans, who are more than half ofthe nation's Hispanics. http://phys.org/news282938793.html Other Sciences Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:10:04 EST news282938793 (Phys.org) —The Isabella anomaly—indications of a large mass of cool, dehydrated material about 100 kilometers beneath central California—is in fact a surviving slab of the Farallon oceanic plate. Most of the Farallon plate was driven deep into the Earth's mantle as the Pacific and North American plates began converging about 100 million years ago, eventually coming together to form the San Andreas fault. http://phys.org/news282845516.html Space & Earth Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:12:17 EST news282845516 Early in the Moon's history an ocean of molten rock covered its entire surface. As that lunar magma ocean cooled over millions of years, it differentiated to form the Moon's crust and mantle. But according to a new analysis by planetary scientists from Brown University, this wasn't the last time the Moon's surface was melted on a massive scale. http://phys.org/news282239995.html Space & Earth Mon, 11 Mar 2013 17:00:04 EST news282239995 Scientists are using ever more complex models running on ever more powerful computers to simulate the earth's climate. But new research suggests that basic physics could offer a simpler and more meaningful way to model key elements of climate. http://phys.org/news281712062.html Physics Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:21:10 EST news281712062 A multi-university research team has used a new spectroscopic method to gain a key insight into how light is emitted from layered nanomaterials and other thin films. http://phys.org/news281700382.html Nanotechnology Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:06:46 EST news281700382 (Phys.org)—A Brown University survey of Rhode Island voters finds that 60.4 percent of respondents favor extending the right to marry to gay and lesbian couples, a number nearly identical to a survey conducted by Brown in May 2009. Voters continue to be pessimistic about Rhode Island's economy and most express little confidence that state government officials will make the right decisions for the state's future. http://phys.org/news281345317.html Other Sciences Fri, 01 Mar 2013 07:50:01 EST news281345317