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 relatively simple combination of naturally occurring sugars and amino acids offers a plausible route to the building blocks of life, according to a paper published in Nature Chemistry co-authored by a professor at the University of California, Merced. http://phys.org/news232117880.html Chemistry Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:11:40 EST news232117880 Chemists at Oregon State University have discovered that the same crystal structure they identified two years ago to create what may be the world's best blue pigment can also be used with different elements to create other colors, with significant potential in the paint and pigment industries. http://phys.org/news230998933.html Chemistry Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:22:37 EST news230998933 A new approach to growing graphene greatly reduces problems that have plagued researchers in the past and clears a path to the crystalline form of graphite's use in sophisticated electronic devices of tomorrow. http://phys.org/news230227532.html Nanotechnology Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:05:45 EST news230227532 Sepiolite is a lightweight porous mineral used in cat litter and other applications. The extraordinary properties of this clay make it a highly sought after mineral, despite its scarcity in the Earth's crust: only a few mines worldwide extract it, several of them clustered near Madrid in Spain, the world's biggest exporter of this material. http://phys.org/news229695414.html Physics Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:20:02 EST news229695414 (PhysOrg.com) -- In the search for superconductors, finding ways to compress hydrogen into a metal has been a point of focus ever since scientists predicted many years ago that electricity would flow, uninhibited, through such a material. http://phys.org/news227201619.html Physics Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:34:05 EST news227201619 (PhysOrg.com) -- Magnetic studies of ultrathin slabs of copper-oxide materials reveal that at very low temperatures, the thinnest, isolated layers lose their long-range magnetic order and instead behave like a "quantum spin liquid" - a state of matter where the orientations of electron spins fluctuate wildly. This unexpected discovery by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland may offer support for the idea that this novel condensed state of matter is a precursor to the emergence of high-temperature superconductivity - the ability to carry current with no resistance. http://phys.org/news226921512.html Physics Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:45:36 EST news226921512 A University of California, San Diego faculty-student team is about to demonstrate a first-of-its kind, phase-change memory solid state storage device that provides performance thousands of times faster than a conventional hard drive and up to seven times faster than current state-of-the-art solid-state drives (SSDs). http://phys.org/news226246170.html Technology Thu, 02 Jun 2011 15:09:58 EST news226246170 On May 13 2011, the journal Science published a paper where scientists from Risoe DTU (Denmark), in collaboration with scientists from China and the USA, report a new method for revealing a 3-D picture of the structure inside a material. http://phys.org/news224759154.html Nanotechnology Mon, 16 May 2011 10:06:15 EST news224759154 A new software called QED (Quantitative Electron Diffraction), which has been licensed by Max Planck Innovation, has now been released by HREM Research Inc., a Japan based company, which is developing products and services in the field of High-Resolution Electron Microscopy. QED allows transmission electron microscopes to acquire novel kinds of data, opening up new possibilities in electron crystallography. http://phys.org/news224330015.html Physics Wed, 11 May 2011 10:54:11 EST news224330015 The latest Perspectives in General Physiology series examines the ion selectivity of cation-selective channels and transporters. The series appears in the May 2011 issue of the Journal of General Physiology. http://phys.org/news222953406.html Medicine & Health Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:30:28 EST news222953406 (PhysOrg.com) -- An enzyme essential for DNA replication and repair in humans works in a way that might be exploited as anti-cancer therapy, say researchers at The Scripps Research Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. http://phys.org/news222007938.html Chemistry Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:52:47 EST news222007938 A chance observation by a Queen's researcher might have ended a decades-old debate about the precise way antifreeze proteins (AFP) bind to the surface of ice crystals. http://phys.org/news221757311.html Chemistry Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:15:32 EST news221757311 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA and co-researchers from the United States, South Korea and Japan have found a new mineral named "Wassonite" in one of the most historically significant meteorites recovered in Antarctica in December 1969. http://phys.org/news221286701.html Space & Earth Wed, 06 Apr 2011 05:32:31 EST news221286701 New insights into why and how nanowires take the form they do will have profound implications for the development of future electronic components. PhD student Peter Krogstrup from the Nano-Science Center at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen is behind the sensational new theoretical model, which is developed in collaboration with researchers from CINAM-CNRS in Marseille. The results have been published in the scientific magazine, Physical Review Letters. http://phys.org/news220261280.html Nanotechnology Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:41:38 EST news220261280 A Syracuse University chemist has developed a way to use very low frequency light waves to study the weak forces (London dispersion forces) that hold molecules together in a crystal. This fundamental research could be applied to solve critical problems in drug research, manufacturing and quality control. http://phys.org/news220099634.html Physics Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:47:44 EST news220099634 The ubiquitous and unremarkable magnet, BaFe12O19, is manufactured in large volumes, has the simplest crystal structure in its class, and is often seen on refrigerator doors—but it is set for an interesting future. By substituting a few of its iron atoms with the elements scandium and magnesium, Yusuke Tokunaga and Yoshinori Tokura from the Japan Science and Technology Agency, along with Yasujiro Taguchi from the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute and their colleagues, have produced a very rare magnet. The rarity of the magnet lies in three features that, taken together, endow it with a high degree of tunability. http://phys.org/news219064971.html Physics Fri, 11 Mar 2011 11:23:41 EST news219064971 (PhysOrg.com) -- It's not just the type of molecules a material is made of, the way in which they are arranged in space is important too. For many organic molecules, multiple crystal structures are known, and their physical properties can differ significantly. For example, a drug can be effective in one crystalline form but much less effective in another because it doesn't dissolve fast enough. Unfortunately, it has not been possible until recently to reliably predict crystal structures by using computer simulations. Frank Leusen and his co-workers at the University of Bradford (UK) are making significant progress on this front. As the scientists report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, they successfully used a quantum mechanical approach to predict the three known crystal structures of a sulfonamide. http://phys.org/news218964606.html Chemistry Thu, 10 Mar 2011 07:30:39 EST news218964606 (PhysOrg.com) -- Livermore researchers have found that a crystal of cerium -- the chemical element that can be used for catalysts and fuel additives -- behaves in very unique ways when subjected to high pressures. http://phys.org/news215334961.html Physics Thu, 27 Jan 2011 07:17:20 EST news215334961 (PhysOrg.com) -- Stony Brook University Professor of Geosciences and Physics, Artem Oganov, along with several colleagues, appears to have solved the long-standing mystery of excessive heat on the planet Neptune. Using Oganov’s innovative method for crystal structure prediction, the researchers have established support for theory that the sinking of massive amounts of diamond in Neptune’s interior creates its heat. http://phys.org/news213468212.html Chemistry Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:43:59 EST news213468212 (PhysOrg.com) -- Fuel cells may power the cars of the future, but it's not enough to just make them work -- they have to be affordable. Cornell researchers have developed a novel way to synthesize a fuel cell electrocatalytic material without breaking the bank. http://phys.org/news211093515.html Nanotechnology Thu, 09 Dec 2010 05:05:32 EST news211093515 Dutch professors Bauke Dijkstra and Lubbert Dijkhuizen have deciphered the structure and functional mechanism of the glucansucrase enzyme that is responsible for dental plaque sticking to teeth. This knowledge will stimulate the identification of substances that inhibit the enzyme. Just add that substance to toothpaste, or even sweets, and caries will be a thing of the past. The results of the research have been published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). http://phys.org/news210967338.html Chemistry Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:02:41 EST news210967338 The ability to tell the difference between crystals that formed naturally and those formed by human activity can be important to archaeologists in the field. This can be a crucial bit of information in determining the ancient activities that took place at a site, yet archaeologists often wait for months for the results of laboratory tests. http://phys.org/news209219319.html Physics Wed, 17 Nov 2010 12:28:58 EST news209219319 Using a neutron beam as a probe, researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have begun to reveal the crystal structure of a compound essential to technologies ranging from sonar to computer memory. Their recent work* provides long-sought insight into just how a widely used material of modern technology actually works. http://phys.org/news208619849.html Physics Wed, 10 Nov 2010 13:58:06 EST news208619849 (PhysOrg.com) -- Though it began as a science fair project involving a shiny Brazilian beetle, Lauren Richey’s research may advance the pursuit of ultra-fast computers that manipulate light rather than electricity. http://phys.org/news205081678.html Physics Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:09:05 EST news205081678 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University scientists have recreated the tremendous pressures and high temperatures deep in the Earth to resolve a long-standing puzzle: why some seismic waves travel faster than others through the boundary between the solid mantle and fluid outer core. http://phys.org/news204470470.html Space & Earth Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:21:26 EST news204470470 A team at The Scripps Research Institute has detailed the structure of a member of the only remaining class of multidrug resistance transporters left to be described. The work has implications for combating dangerous antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria, as well as for developing hardy strains of agricultural crops. http://phys.org/news204382024.html Biology Wed, 22 Sep 2010 13:47:54 EST news204382024 Symmetry is a fundamental concept in physics. Our ‘standard model’ of particle physics, for example, predicts that matter and anti-matter should have been created in equal amounts at the big bang, yet our existing universe is mostly matter. Such a discrepancy between the symmetry of known physical laws, and what we actually observe, are often the inspiration for realizing that new interactions are important or that new phases of matter can exist. http://phys.org/news204201232.html Physics Mon, 20 Sep 2010 11:34:26 EST news204201232 Measurements taken* at the National Institute of Standards and Technology may help physicists develop a clearer understanding of high-temperature superconductors, whose behavior remains in many ways mysterious decades after their discovery. A new copper-based compound exhibits properties never before seen in a superconductor and could be a step toward solving part of the mystery. http://phys.org/news202562620.html Physics Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:23:53 EST news202562620 (PhysOrg.com) -- Circuits that can perform logic operations at the push of a button are a dime-a-dozen these days, but a breakthrough by researchers in the USA has meant they can be smaller and simpler than ever before. Using a single material as both the button and the circuit for the first time, scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created tiny logic circuits that can be used as the basis of nanometer-scale robotics and processors. http://phys.org/news200213686.html Nanotechnology Thu, 05 Aug 2010 07:55:09 EST news200213686 NIST researchers grow nanowires made of semiconductors -- gallium nitride alloys -- by depositing atoms layer-by-layer on a silicon crystal under high vacuum. NIST has the unusual capability to produce these nanowires without using metal catalysts, thereby enhancing luminescence and reducing defects. NIST nanowires also have excellent mechanical quality factors. http://phys.org/news199722696.html Nanotechnology Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:31:49 EST news199722696