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. (AP) -- Officials from the United States, the European Union and Japan are pledging to work closer together on ways to ensure secure supplies of strategically vital rare earths and other critical materials. http://phys.org/news252154651.html Technology Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:58:32 EST news252154651 Plant science is key to addressing the major challenges facing humanity in the 21st Century, according to Carnegie's David Ehrhardt and Wolf Frommer. In a Perspective published in The Plant Cell, the two researchers argue that the development of new technology is key to transforming plant biology in order to meet human needs. http://phys.org/news249931099.html Biology Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:19:33 EST news249931099 A pilot research project into vibration energy on the N34 provincial motorway near Hardenberg in the eastern Netherlands has shown that vibration energy as a local energy source is a sustainable alternative for the batteries of roadside sensors and other applications. The trial project has provided valuable insights into this innovative form of energy production. http://phys.org/news249806597.html Technology Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:10:01 EST news249806597 TransCanada Corp announced Monday it would go ahead with construction of part of its Keystone XL oil pipeline that does not require US presidential approval, a stretch from the state of Oklahoma to the US Gulf Coast. http://phys.org/news249572290.html Space & Earth Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:38:15 EST news249572290 (AP) -- Iran's mobile phone companies have denied blocking text messages with the words dollar and currency after the Iranian rial rapidly weakened on the announcement of new U.S. sanctions against Iran. http://phys.org/news245444387.html Technology Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:59:52 EST news245444387 The nearly 9,000 hogs at Loyd Ray Farms in Yadkin County, N.C., produce 400,000 gallons of manure every week. Since the waste had too high a nitrogen content to be used as fertilizer, owner Loyd Bryant used to pump that waste into a local lagoon, where it released methane, ammonia and "an unholy stink," according to the Los Angeles Times. http://phys.org/news245338841.html Technology Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:00:03 EST news245338841 Scientists are a step closer to explaining one of the most enduring mysteries of modern biology; why are there males and females? http://phys.org/news243508498.html Biology Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:15:12 EST news243508498 Villagers in Ethiopia's arid north live as they have for centuries surrounded by cattle and donkeys; only the rows of towering white wind turbines look out of place. http://phys.org/news242796290.html Technology Sun, 11 Dec 2011 03:24:59 EST news242796290 The first climate study to focus on variations in daily weather conditions has found that day-to-day weather has grown increasingly erratic and extreme, with significant fluctuations in sunshine and rainfall affecting more than a third of the planet. http://phys.org/news240594484.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:48:21 EST news240594484 Human pluripotent stem cells, which can develop into any cell type in the body, rely heavily on glycolysis, or sugar fermentation, to drive their metabolic activities. http://phys.org/news240576066.html Biology Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:41:20 EST news240576066 To achieve nuclear fusion for practical energy production, scientists often use magnetic fields to confine plasma. This creates a magnetic (or more precisely "magneto-hydrodynamic") fluid in which plasma is tied to magnetic field lines, and where regions of plasma can be isolated and heated to very high temperatures—typically 10 times hotter than the core of the sun! At these temperatures the plasma is nearly superconducting, and the magnetic field becomes tightly linked to the plasma, able to provide the strong force needed to hold in the hot fusion core. The overall plasma and magnetic field structure becomes akin to that of an onion, where magnetic field lines describe surfaces like the layers in the onion. While heat can be transported readily within the layers, conduction between layers is far more limited, making the core much hotter than the edge. http://phys.org/news240166907.html Physics Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:01:56 EST news240166907 (PhysOrg.com) -- Carbon dioxide is a by-product of energy production, but must it always be viewed as a waste product? This gas could be a useful renewable resource and an environmentally friendly chemical reagent. If we really could use it, it would not just reduce the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but also our dependence on petrochemicals, which will eventually start to run out. In the journal Angewandte Chemie French scientists working with Thibault Cantat at the Institut Rayonnement Matière de Saclay in Gif-sur-Yvette have now introduced a new approach for the conversion of carbon dioxide into both useable building blocks for chemical synthesis and new fuels. http://phys.org/news239968029.html Chemistry Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:47:19 EST news239968029 (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 Using solar thermal energy to power an air conditioning unit can be difficult and expensive. But a team of researchers at the University of California, Merced, have added a game-changing advance to the process that could make it much simpler, less costly and more effective. http://phys.org/news236585381.html Technology Fri, 30 Sep 2011 07:10:18 EST news236585381 Mitochondria are compartments within cells and have their own DNA. The key protein required for the expression of the genetic information in this DNA is the mitochondrial RNA polymerase enzyme. Its three-dimensional structure has now been determined in atomic detail. http://phys.org/news236257602.html Biology Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:07:14 EST news236257602 The science of light and liquids has been intimately entwined since Léon Foucault discovered the speed of light in 1862, when he observed that light travels more slowly in water than in air. This physical harmony between the two materials is now being harnessed to collect and drive light to where it can be the most useful. October's issue of Nature Photonics focuses on optofluidics, the study of microfluidics—the microscopic delivery of fluids through extremely small channels or tubes—combined with optics. In a review written by Demetri Psaltis, Dean of EPFL's School of Engineering, he and his co-authors argue that optofluidics is poised to take on one of this century's most important challenges: energy. http://phys.org/news234964417.html Physics Sun, 11 Sep 2011 13:00:01 EST news234964417 Like all living things, plants depend for their growth and sustenance on elaborate signaling networks to maintain stem cells, cells that have an almost magical regenerative capacity. The signals sent through these networks convey an incredible diversity of instructions, which make it possible for plants to follow genetic and cellular programs regulating growth, shape, and energy production and consumption. http://phys.org/news233498209.html Biology Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:00:53 EST news233498209 German auto giant BMW plans to build four wind turbines to power a factory with enough electricity to assemble hundreds of vehicles a day, auto newspaper Automobilwoche will report on Monday. http://phys.org/news233160806.html Technology Sun, 21 Aug 2011 15:53:40 EST news233160806 Energy producers expect European wind power generation to triple by 2020, with tens of thousands of new, ever-bigger wind turbines springing up, an industry body said Tuesday. http://phys.org/news231513635.html Technology Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:20:53 EST news231513635 German national railway Deutsche Bahn (DB) and power company RWE signed on Monday a 15-year hydro-electric supply contract worth 1.3 billion euros ($1.9 billion). http://phys.org/news230818158.html Technology Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:09:35 EST news230818158 Presented during the EPFL Middle East research days, a device only 4mm thick can manage an urban power grid a thousand times faster than currently possible. http://phys.org/news226861700.html Technology Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:08:42 EST news226861700 The production of wind energy in the U.S. over the next 30-50 years will be largely unaffected by upward changes in global temperature, say a pair of Indiana University Bloomington scientists who analyzed output from several regional climate models to assess future wind patterns in America's lower 48 states. http://phys.org/news223567303.html Space & Earth Mon, 02 May 2011 15:02:10 EST news223567303 (PhysOrg.com) -- This flow chart of the estimated US energy use in 2009, assembled by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), paints a pretty sobering picture of our energy situation. To begin with, it shows that more than half (58%) of the total energy produced in the US is wasted due to inefficiencies, such as waste heat from power plants, vehicles, and light bulbs. In other words, the US has an energy efficiency of 42%. And, despite the numerous reports of progress in solar, wind, and geothermal energy, those three energy sources combined provide just 1.2% of our total energy production. The vast majority of our energy still comes from petroleum (37%), natural gas (25%), and coal (21%). http://phys.org/news221588062.html Technology Sat, 09 Apr 2011 17:14:47 EST news221588062 An ambitious switch from fossil fuels to green energy could generate up to 350,000 new jobs by 2020 in the Poland, the European Union's most coal-dependent member, Greenpeace said Friday in Warsaw. http://phys.org/news219070009.html Technology Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:47:00 EST news219070009 The Italian government on Thursday adopted a law designed to progressively reduce the multi-billion euro state subsidies for renewable energy. http://phys.org/news218376487.html Technology Thu, 03 Mar 2011 12:20:01 EST news218376487 Solar cells are a key technology in the drive toward cleaner energy production. Unfortunately, solar technology is not yet economically competitive and the cost of solar cells needs to be brought down. One way to overcome this problem is to reduce the amount of expensive semiconductor material used, but thin-film solar cells tend to have lower performance compared with conventional solar cells. http://phys.org/news216458213.html Nanotechnology Wed, 09 Feb 2011 07:17:15 EST news216458213 The growing popularity of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems across the United States has made it more important to maximize their power input. That's why UC San Diego environmental engineering professor Jan Kleissl is working on technologies and methods that will better predict how much power we can actually harness from the sun. http://phys.org/news213979325.html Technology Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:42:32 EST news213979325 A study that relates global energy use to economic growth, published in the January issue of BioScience, finds strong correlations between these two measures both among countries and within countries over time. The research leads the study's authors to infer that energy use limits economic activity directly. They conclude that an "enormous" increase in energy supply will be required to meet the demands of projected world population growth and lift the developing world out of poverty without jeopardizing standards of living in most developed countries. http://phys.org/news213599234.html Other Sciences Fri, 07 Jan 2011 05:07:31 EST news213599234 (PhysOrg.com) -- Fresh water and reusable energy. Humans are on a constant hunt for a sustainable supply of both. Water purification requires a lot of energy, while utility companies need large amounts of water for energy production. Their goal is to find a low-energy-required treatment technology. Researchers from the University of Colorado Denver College of Engineering and Applied Science may have discovered an answer. http://phys.org/news210595858.html Technology Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:00:01 EST news210595858 The Fuel Cell Nano-Materials Group at the Japanese National Institute for Materials Science has successfully developed two types of novel materials which satisfy all the three requirements for electrolyte: ion conductivity, chemical stability and sinterability, at high levels. http://phys.org/news209811729.html Chemistry Wed, 24 Nov 2010 09:02:22 EST news209811729