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. A new research project involving researchers from Bath aims to develop novel self-healing concrete that uses an inbuilt immune system to close its own wounds and prevent deterioration. http://phys.org/news289201961.html Technology Fri, 31 May 2013 07:10:01 EST news289201961 Russia has ordered the urgent evacuation of the 16-strong crew of a drifting Arctic research station after ice floe that hosts the floating laboratory began to disintegrate, officials said Thursday. http://phys.org/news288525749.html Space & Earth Thu, 23 May 2013 11:02:35 EST news288525749 (Phys.org) —A team of researchers from Aix-Marseille University in France has found that the number of cracks that appear in a pane of glass or other brittle material resulting from a projectile strike is related to the speed of the striking object. The team describes test trials, observations and results in their paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters. http://phys.org/news286704725.html Physics Thu, 02 May 2013 09:16:15 EST news286704725 (Phys.org) —Northern Chile's Atacama Desert is an earthquake scientist's dream – the hyper-arid plain keeps a visible record of cracks caused by a million year's worth of earthquakes. http://phys.org/news286522446.html Space & Earth Tue, 30 Apr 2013 06:34:14 EST news286522446 New research on household pesticide contamination emphasizes the need for less reliance on pesticides and more emphasis on neatness, blocking cracks where insects can enter and other so-called "integrated pest management" (IPM) measures, scientists have concluded. Their study appears in the ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology. http://phys.org/news282384233.html Chemistry Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:04:01 EST news282384233 Ceramics are hard, chemically inert and can withstand high temperatures. These attributes make them ideal structural components in engines, high-performance disk brakes and medical implants. However, as ceramics are also brittle, using conventional tools—such as drills—to machine them is difficult. Instead, manufacturers rely on ultrasonic machining, in which a 'hammer' rapidly vibrates up and down. This process pushes slurry, which contains fine and abrasive grit, into the material and causes chipping. http://phys.org/news279965942.html Chemistry Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:30:09 EST news279965942 Modern humans left Africa twice as early as previously thought, spreading in a number of climate-driven waves, new research suggests. http://phys.org/news278749975.html Other Sciences Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:00:03 EST news278749975 Eek, spiders! All right, so it's not actually little green arachnids we're talking about here, but they are definitely spidery features. Called araneiform terrain, these clusters of radially-branching cracks in Mars' south polar surface are the result of the progressing spring season, when warmer temperatures thaw subsurface CO2 ice. http://phys.org/news272534100.html Space & Earth Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:10:02 EST news272534100 Sealing cracks in roadways ensures a road's structural integrity and extends the time between major repaving projects, but conventional manual crack sealing operations expose workers to dangerous traffic and cover a limited amount of roadway each day. http://phys.org/news259233393.html Technology Mon, 18 Jun 2012 10:17:13 EST news259233393 Over the past decade, scientists have found evidence of hundreds of planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. A group of volunteers has also joined the search, and they have found several additional planets that initially fell through the cracks. http://phys.org/news258796700.html Space & Earth Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:00:19 EST news258796700 A modern recurrence of an extraordinary type of volcanic eruption in Iceland could inject large quantities of hazardous gases into North Atlantic and European flight corridors, potentially for months at a time, a new study suggests. Using computer simulations, researchers are investigating the likely atmospheric effects if a "flood lava" eruption took place in Iceland today. Flood lava eruptions, which stand out for the sheer amounts of lava and sulfurous gases they release and the way their lava sprays from cracks like fiery fountains, have occurred in Iceland four times in roughly the past thousand years, records indicate, the most recent being the deadly and remarkable eruption of Iceland's volcano Laki in 1783-84. http://phys.org/news258723793.html Space & Earth Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:43:21 EST news258723793 (Phys.org) -- Deep cracks in soil that appear during long dry spells can remain open underground even after they have visibly sealed on the surface, a new study has found. http://phys.org/news256288962.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 May 2012 08:22:50 EST news256288962 (Phys.org) -- When creating nanomaterials, cracking is generally considered a problem; it usually means something has gone wrong and the result, as with other material making processes such as glass or ceramics, almost always means either reprocessing or sending the sample to the trash bin. Now however, a research team in South Korea has found a way to cause cracking on purpose when fabricating a nanomaterial, to produce a required result. They describe their process and results in their paper published in the journal Nature. http://phys.org/news255854530.html Nanotechnology Thu, 10 May 2012 08:30:02 EST news255854530 'Self-healing' concrete is being developed by researchers at Northumbria University which could see cracks in concrete buildings become a thing of the past. http://phys.org/news255068897.html Technology Tue, 01 May 2012 05:50:01 EST news255068897 Switzerland's Beznau nuclear plant will soon boast the "dubious record" of being the oldest nuclear plant in the world and should be shut down, a group of environmental organisations said Thursday. http://phys.org/news249225592.html Technology Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:20:03 EST news249225592 In this video Dr Ingrid Graz shows us a thin layer of gold on top of rubber. Cracks in the gold allow it to stretch and we can use this for stretchable electronics. http://phys.org/news248085035.html Chemistry Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:31:36 EST news248085035 The origin of life is seen as the formation of the first biomolecules which may be subject to multiplication and further development. Hitherto it was unclear, which reactions could have triggered the evolution of this ur-metabolism. Now scientists at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen revealed mechanisms, by which a few biomolecules may bring forth new products in the style of an avalanche to initiate a self-expanding metabolism. Chemistry - A European Journal now published their results. http://phys.org/news246191331.html Chemistry Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:29:10 EST news246191331 (PhysOrg.com) -- Imagine if instead of relying on special x-ray or electrical current testing technology to find really tiny cracks in the skin that covers an airplane, microcapsules filled with easily detected materials could be rolled around on their surface, stopping here and there to fill such cracks automatically so that they could then be easily found using a simple black light. That day may be coming soon, thanks to a joint effort between two teams. One, from the University of Pittsburgh, led by Anna Balazs, the other from the University of Massachusetts, led by Todd Emrick. Together they have created just such a type of capsule, as will be described in their paper to be published in Nature Nanotechnology. http://phys.org/news245413615.html Nanotechnology Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:27:12 EST news245413615 Like lines in a deeply weathered face, the cracks and fissures in the Earth’s crust reveal a long and tumultuous lifetime. Massive continent-bearing plates have come together and broken apart, setting off earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that have fragmented underlying rock, changing the face of the planet over billions of years. http://phys.org/news245057002.html Space & Earth Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:24:37 EST news245057002 It is almost night on the island of Puerto Rico. Astronomer Joanna Rankin raises her head toward the sky. A few of the brightest stars shine through blue cracks in a ragged dome of gray clouds. To her back, a jungle throbs with the insistent call of frogs. In front of her, a giant bowl made of perforated metal dips steeply and rises on the other side of the valley, a thousand feet away. It looks like a colossal contact lens dropped from outer space. http://phys.org/news241951847.html Space & Earth Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:40:05 EST news241951847 A civil engineer at Purdue University is taking advantage of the demolition of a bridge spanning the Ohio River to learn more about how bridges collapse in efforts to reduce the annual cost of inspecting large spans. http://phys.org/news231045362.html Technology Thu, 28 Jul 2011 05:10:01 EST news231045362 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to harvest energy from flowing water. This discovery aims to hasten the creation of self-powered microsensors for more accurate and cost-efficient oil exploration. http://phys.org/news230281311.html Nanotechnology Tue, 19 Jul 2011 08:02:20 EST news230281311 In 2009, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) assigned the grade "D" to the overall quality of infrastructure in the U.S. and said that ongoing evaluation and maintenance of structures was one of five key areas necessary for improving that grade. Since that time, federal stimulus funds have made it possible for communities to repair some infrastructure, but the field of high-tech, affordable methods for the continual monitoring of structures remains in its infancy. Instead, most evaluation of bridges, dams, schools and other structures is still done by visual inspection, which is slow, expensive, cumbersome and in some cases, dangerous. http://phys.org/news228565588.html Technology Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:38:24 EST news228565588 Cracks were detected in the protective casings of a number of control rods at Bulgaria's sole nuclear plant, but there has been no release of radioactivity, the plant's operator said Thursday. http://phys.org/news223820048.html Technology Thu, 05 May 2011 13:14:27 EST news223820048 NASA said Thursday it has found four more small cracks on the metal supports of the shuttle Discovery's external fuel tank, as the aging shuttle undergoes X-ray testing before its final space mission next year. http://phys.org/news212989074.html Space & Earth Fri, 31 Dec 2010 03:38:17 EST news212989074 (AP) -- NASA has found a fourth crack in the fuel tank for space shuttle Discovery. http://phys.org/news209061172.html Space & Earth Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:33:01 EST news209061172 A bacteria that can knit together cracks in concrete structures by producing a special 'glue' has been developed by a team of students at Newcastle University. http://phys.org/news208778644.html Technology Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:04:26 EST news208778644 (AP) -- NASA discovered cracks in Discovery's fuel tank Wednesday, an added problem that will complicate trying to launch the space shuttle on its final voyage this year. http://phys.org/news208634010.html Space & Earth Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:20:02 EST news208634010 Scientists in Canada and China are reporting development of a new dental filling material that substitutes natural ingredients from the human body for controversial ingredients in existing “composite,” or plastic, fillings. The new material appears stronger and longer lasting, as well, with the potential for reducing painful filling cracks and emergency visits to the dentist, the scientists say. Their study appears in the current edition of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. http://phys.org/news162060563.html Chemistry Wed, 20 May 2009 17:49:57 EST news162060563 The first few microseconds after an explosion are the most important moments for Arun Shukla, because that's when the first hint of damage occurs to nearby structures. As one of the world's leaders in the field of fracture mechanics, he can decipher a great deal about the explosion and about the damaged materials by those first tiny cracks and how they expand. http://phys.org/news159705270.html Technology Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:34:59 EST news159705270