http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Future teams of subterranean search and rescue robots may owe their success to the lowly fire ant, a much-despised insect whose painful bites and extensive networks of underground tunnels are all-too-familiar to people living in the southern United States. http://phys.org/news288270951.html Biology Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:17 EST news288270951 An entomologist at the University of California, Riverside discovered a new wasp species in Russia and named it after the university, commonly abbreviated as UCR. http://phys.org/news287079054.html Biology Mon, 06 May 2013 17:11:09 EST news287079054 University of Chicago researchers have created a synthetic compound that mimics the complex quantum dynamics observed in photosynthesis and may enable fundamentally new routes to creating solar-energy technologies. Engineering quantum effects into synthetic light-harvesting devices is not only possible, but also easier than anyone expected, the researchers report in the April 18 edition of Science Express. http://phys.org/news285601733.html Physics Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:49:04 EST news285601733 The beetle family Cerambycidae, also known as long-horned beetles or longicorns, is characterized by emblematic extremely long antennae, which are usually longer than the total body length of the animal. The family is rather rich in diversity with more than 20 000 species known, distributed worldwide. Some representatives of these bizarre-shaped beetles, are also known as serious pests with their wood-feeding larvae causing extensive damage to living trees or untreated lumber. The beetles from this family are mainly associated with leaf litter habitats, where the specimens in this study were also collected. http://phys.org/news282476893.html Biology Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:48:39 EST news282476893 (Phys.org) —Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, led by lab director Ian Akyildiz, are proposing that a graphene antenna could be built that would be capable of transferring data at the 10 to 100 terabit level. In a paper to be published in IEEE's Journal of Selected Areas in Communication, the team will outline how a nano-sized antenna made of graphene could be constructed that would take advantage of the materials' superfast electron transfer properties. http://phys.org/news281864142.html Nanotechnology Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:30:04 EST news281864142 (Phys.org)—The presence of quantum coherence in photosynthesis in plants, bacteria and marine algae at ambient temperatures is well-established. Two such effects that appeared to be unrelated – enhanced solar cell efficiency and population oscillations in photosynthetic antennae – have been detected in natural and artificial light-harvesting systems. Recently, however, scientists at Texas A&M University and University of California-Irvine have shown that these effects are, in fact, deeply connected: Both arise from the same population–coherence coupling term that is noise-induced and does not require coherent light – meaning that these effects will take place under the incoherent conditions of natural solar excitation. By focusing on the fact that charge separation in light-harvesting complexes occurs in a pair of tightly coupled chlorophylls (the so-called "special pair") at the core of plant, bacteria and algae photosynthetic reaction centers (RCs), and using an analogy between the energy level schemes of the core of the reaction center (including the special pair) and those of the laser/photocell quantum heat engines (QHEs), the scientists were able to demonstrate that both effects operate as QHEs that convert solar photon energy into useful work. The scientists predict that when coexisting they can potentially increase charge separation yield by 27%, and conclude that their findings suggest the viability of artificial solar energy devices based on biomimetic quantum heat engine architectures. http://phys.org/news281186550.html Physics Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:23:45 EST news281186550 (Phys.org)—Metal nanostructures can act as tiny antennae to control light since they can focus and guide light on the smallest of scales. The optical properties of these antennae depend strongly on their size and shape, making it difficult to predict which shape to choose for a desired optical effect without relying on complex theoretical calculations. Mohsen Rahmani and co-workers at the A*STAR Data Storage Institute, Singapore, and Imperial College London, UK, have now developed a method that allows for the practical and reliable design of these nano-antennae. http://phys.org/news279965742.html Nanotechnology Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:16:01 EST news279965742 A small, two-wheeled robot has been driven by a male silkmoth to track down the sex pheromone usually given off by a female mate. http://phys.org/news279307377.html Electronics Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:00:01 EST news279307377 Honey bees are a highly organized, social species, as demonstrated by their complex colonies and the geometric structure of their hives. For hive building, the honey bee strongly relies on its tactile sense, and a new video-article in JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) illustrates a novel tactile conditioning experiment using honey bees. The technique, presented by the lab of Dr. Volker Dürr of Bielefeld University, trains honey bees to stick out their tongues when their antennae touch an object. This procedure allows researchers to analyze how changes in antennal movement correspond to tactile pattern recognition and learning. http://phys.org/news274539121.html Biology Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:52:16 EST news274539121 Semiconductors have revolutionized computing because of their efficient control over the flow of electrical currents on a single chip, which has led to devices such as the transistor. Working towards a similar tunable functionality for light, researchers from the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), Singapore, have shown how graphene could be used to control light at the nanometer scale, advancing the concept of photonic circuits on chips. http://phys.org/news273917470.html Nanotechnology Wed, 05 Dec 2012 08:11:24 EST news273917470 Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Finnish and German engineering giants Nokia and Siemens, said Wednesday it is shutting down one of its German units with the potential loss of 1,000 jobs. http://phys.org/news273914684.html Technology Wed, 05 Dec 2012 07:24:54 EST news273914684 Stunning images, including video footage, from a CT scan of amber have revealed the first evidence of any creature using an adult mayfly for transport. http://phys.org/news269705151.html Other Sciences Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:00:20 EST news269705151 (Phys.org)—NOAA's GOES-13 weather satellite has been temporarily substituted with the back-up GOES satellite as engineers work to fix the satellite's issues. http://phys.org/news268301533.html Space & Earth Mon, 01 Oct 2012 09:12:22 EST news268301533 (Phys.org)—Luminescent carbon nanoparticles based on carbon exhibit advantageous optical properties. They are also biocompatible, and therefore better suited for imaging procedures in the biosciences than metal-based semiconductor quantum dots. A variety of processes have thus been developed to make these miniature objects known as carbon dots or C-dots. Chinese researchers have now introduced a new method in the journal Angewandte Chemie, by which C-dots can be produced particularly quickly and inexpensively. In addition, they have demonstrated the use of these luminescent dots as printer ink. http://phys.org/news266743635.html Nanotechnology Thu, 13 Sep 2012 08:27:27 EST news266743635 Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a technique that uses an electronic interface to remotely control, or steer, cockroaches. http://phys.org/news266170470.html Technology Thu, 06 Sep 2012 17:14:43 EST news266170470 One day 370 million years ago, a tiny larva came to a sticky end when it plunged into a shrimp-infested swamp and drowned. http://phys.org/news263055253.html Other Sciences Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:54:18 EST news263055253 (Phys.org) -- Deep in the recesses of a northwestern Arizona cave, a beetle scuttles along the floor, navigating its way with its long antennae as hair-like tufts on its slender legs drag across the rocks. http://phys.org/news262858700.html Biology Mon, 30 Jul 2012 09:20:23 EST news262858700 What must the staid-faced University luminaries in those portraits around Sayles Hall have thought while they watched this scene play out for four days last week? Over and over, two to 20 young men and women in bike helmets adorned with what appeared to be five large antennae walked back and forth across a cardboard-covered floor. En route to goals marked by numbers just beneath the portraits, they dodged each other and arrangements of cardboard pillars. Each time they generated patterns of foot traffic. http://phys.org/news262600731.html Other Sciences Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:39:12 EST news262600731 (Phys.org) -- New research at Rice University that seeks to establish points of reference between plasmonic particles and polymers might lead to smaller computer chips, better antennae and improvements in optical computing. http://phys.org/news261314979.html Nanotechnology Thu, 12 Jul 2012 12:29:49 EST news261314979 A lipid that helps lotion soften the skin also helps cells find and stay in the right location in the body by ensuring they keep their "antennae" up, scientists report. http://phys.org/news261052347.html Biology Mon, 09 Jul 2012 11:32:34 EST news261052347 Now that the summer season is in full swing, many of us will be hosting picnics and barbecues and socializing outside. Chances are, we'll also have some unwanted guests in the form of mosquitoes. http://phys.org/news260446984.html Biology Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:23:10 EST news260446984 Evarcha culicivora jumping spiders, also known as vampire spiders, are picky eaters by any standards. Explaining that the arachnid's environment is swamped with insects, Ximena Nelson from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, says, "You can see from the diet when you find them in the field that there is a high number of mosquitoes in what they eat." And when Robert Jackson investigated their diet further, he found that the spiders were even more selective. The delicacy that E. culicivora prize above all others is female blood-fed Anopheles mosquitoes, which puzzled Nelson. How could these picky spiders pick out blood-engorged Anopheles mosquitoes from the swarms of similarly sized insects infesting the area? Nelson and Jackson decided to do some jumping spider psychology to find out how the arachnids pick out blood-fed female Anopheles mosquitoes from the crowd and they publish their discovery that the spiders identify the females by their antennae in The Journal of Experimental Biology. http://phys.org/news258223211.html Biology Thu, 07 Jun 2012 00:20:03 EST news258223211 A long-running joust to host a radio telescope that would give mankind its farthest peek into the Universe ended on Friday with a Solomon-like judgement to split the site between Australia and South Africa. http://phys.org/news257155017.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 May 2012 08:57:08 EST news257155017 Sex differences account for some of the most of the spectacular traits in nature: the wild colours of male guppies, the plumage of peacocks, tusks on walruses and antlers on moose. Sexual conflict – the battle between males and females over mating – is thought to be a particularly potent force in driving the evolution traits that differ in males and females. http://phys.org/news255278958.html Biology Thu, 03 May 2012 15:49:28 EST news255278958 Catching the vine weevil (Otiorhynchus sulcatus) is now possible with the identification of odours these weevils find attractive. Scientists of Plant Research International, part of Wageningen UR, discovered that vine weevils prefer three distinct odours. This research has been published in BioOne Online Journal. http://phys.org/news254134634.html Biology Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:57:26 EST news254134634 It's one of life's special moments: a child finds a fat caterpillar, puts it in a jar with a twig and a few leaves, and awakens one day to find the caterpillar has disappeared and an elegant but apparently lifeless case now hangs from the twig. http://phys.org/news249742731.html Biology Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:59:03 EST news249742731 (PhysOrg.com) -- Sometimes when people talk about solar energy, they tacitly assume that we're stuck with some version of the silicon solar cell and its technical and cost limitations. Not so. http://phys.org/news241799885.html Chemistry Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:38:18 EST news241799885 (PhysOrg.com) -- Indiana University biologists have uncovered how a control system works in producing the important light-harvesting antennae that power photosynthesis in cyanobacteria, the microorganisms that are progenitors of all land plants and responsible for nearly half of the Earth's current oxygen production. http://phys.org/news239524875.html Biology Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:41:43 EST news239524875 Advances in microchip technology may someday enable clinicians to perform tests for hundreds of diseases -- sifting out specific molecules, such as early stage cancer cells -- from just one drop of blood. But fabricating such "lab-on-a-chip" designs -- tiny, integrated diagonistic sensor arrays on surfaces as small as a square centimeter -- is a technically challenging, time-consuming and expensive feat. http://phys.org/news238219776.html Nanotechnology Wed, 19 Oct 2011 05:09:53 EST news238219776 Usually it's the frog that catches the unsuspecting bug for a tasty snack, but in an unprecedented predator-prey role reversal, a certain group of ground beetle larvae are able to lure their amphibious would-be predators and consume them with almost 100% success. In a report published today in the online journal PLoS ONE, researchers begin to describe how these larvae are able to pull off this feat. http://phys.org/news235846733.html Biology Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:59:01 EST news235846733