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. Anyone who has seen pictures of the giant, red-hot cauldrons in which steel is made—fed by vast amounts of carbon, and belching flame and smoke—would not be surprised to learn that steelmaking is one of the world's leading industrial sources of greenhouse gases. But remarkably, a new process developed by MIT researchers could change all that. http://phys.org/news287237532.html Chemistry Wed, 08 May 2013 13:12:20 EST news287237532 (Phys.org) —The continuing growth in space debris poses an increasing threat to economically vital orbital regions. Next week, hundreds of top experts from across the globe will meet at Europe's largest-ever debris forum to share their latest research findings and discuss potential solutions. http://phys.org/news285574931.html Space & Earth Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:22:28 EST news285574931 (Phys.org) —Researchers from Dartmouth College in the U.S. as part of their presentation at the 44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference this past week, have given evidence that suggests it was a comet that struck the Earth approximately 65 million years ago creating the Chicxulub crater—an event most scientists agree was likely the cause behind the demise of land dwelling dinosaurs. Up till now most in the field have believed that it was likely an asteroid that caused the crater and disruption that followed. http://phys.org/news283415237.html Space & Earth Mon, 25 Mar 2013 07:27:44 EST news283415237 (Phys.org)—Unraveling the complexities of spin-orbital coupling could someday lead to new high-temperature superconductors and workable quantum computers via an elusive phase of matter called a "quantum spin liquid." Two groups of researchers utilizing x-ray beamlines at the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory are delving into the new physics required to develop just such a material. http://phys.org/news274607239.html Physics Thu, 13 Dec 2012 07:47:30 EST news274607239 (Phys.org)—Space debris came into focus last week at the International Astronautical Congress in Naples, Italy. Envisat, ESA's largest Earth observation satellite, ended its mission last spring and was a subject of major interest in the Space Debris and Legal session. http://phys.org/news269182172.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:49:41 EST news269182172 The International Space Station is in danger of being hit by two pieces of debris from an old Russian satellite that had previously hit a US craft in 2009, a news report said on Wednesday. http://phys.org/news267875132.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:45:40 EST news267875132 In order to understand Earth's earliest history--its formation from Solar System material into the present-day layering of metal core and mantle, and crust--scientists look to meteorites. New research from a team including Carnegie's Doug Rumble and Liping Qin focuses on one particularly old type of meteorite called diogenites. These samples were examined using an array of techniques, including precise analysis of certain elements for important clues to some of the Solar System's earliest chemical processing. Their work is published online July 22 by Nature Geoscience. http://phys.org/news262177891.html Space & Earth Sun, 22 Jul 2012 13:00:16 EST news262177891 Diamond anvil cells (DACs) are used routinely in laboratories to apply extreme pressure to materials, recreating conditions that normally only occur deep in planetary interiors or during certain industrial manufacturing techniques. Under these conditions, however, it is difficult to measure how materials conduct heat. http://phys.org/news258131144.html Physics Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:05:57 EST news258131144 (Phys.org) -- A team made up of a diverse group of researchers has found after studying the composition of several asteroids that most such planetesimals had an abundance of highly siderophile elements in their mantles suggesting, as the team writes in their paper published in the journal Science, that they were subject to the same inner solar system bombardment by siderophile laden chondrites as were planets, including Earth. http://phys.org/news252924911.html Space & Earth Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:40:05 EST news252924911 To date, Iridium NEXT is the largest commercial space launch contract with any single entity. All total, the contract is worth an estimated $492M. Iridium Communications Inc. signed into a deal with Space Explorations Technologies (SpaceX) as its major launch provider of its communications satellites on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The manner in which the Iridium NEXT family of satellites is launched will be a dramatic departure from how Iridium launched its first suite of satellites back in the 90s. http://phys.org/news221985241.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Apr 2011 07:34:34 EST news221985241 (PhysOrg.com) -- New scheme would use only sunlight, air and water to supply energy for cars, laptops, GPS systems. http://phys.org/news221389509.html Chemistry Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:05:28 EST news221389509 (PhysOrg.com) -- Monitoring the amount of oxygen in living tissues accurately is a valuable tool in biomedical science, because it enables the elucidation of the course of metabolic processes or the detection of diseases or anomalies. Metal complexes that absorb and emit light are useful as sensors, and metal complexes of porphyrins and their derivatives are especially good candidates for such applications, as the porphyrin macrocycle can easily be modified. http://phys.org/news218913567.html Chemistry Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:19:54 EST news218913567 One of the rarest metals on Earth may be an excellent option for enabling future flash memory chips to continue to increase in speed and density, according to a group of researchers in Taiwan. http://phys.org/news211541762.html Physics Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:30:33 EST news211541762 Because of their potential application in spintronic devices such as next-generation spin-based transistors, the quest for new materials with significant spin-orbit interactions in the electronic ground state is an area of intense research. Since the spin-orbit interaction increases rapidly with atomic number, materials containing heavy elements are natural candidates for this field of inquiry. A novel oxide material containing heavy Iridium atoms displays remarkable properties dominated by spin-orbit interactions in the Iridium 5d valence states according to research carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source at Argonne and reported in Physical Review Letters. http://phys.org/news211469123.html Physics Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:40:01 EST news211469123 (PhysOrg.com) -- Sometimes, you just can’t trust the iridium. A silvery-white natural metal that’s a member of the platinum family, iridium is a key ingredient in the manufacture of spark plugs. Iridium is also an important piece of evidence in a mystery that scientists have debated for decades – why did dinosaurs disappear from the face of the earth? http://phys.org/news210271871.html Space & Earth Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:51:38 EST news210271871 US-based Iridium Communications Wednesday announced plans to launch a new fleet of satellites for global voice and data communications with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). http://phys.org/news195914973.html Technology Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:20:01 EST news195914973 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of MIT researchers has found a novel way to mimic the process by which plants use the power of sunlight to split water and make chemical fuel to power their growth. In this case, the team used a modified virus as a kind of biological scaffold that can assemble the nanoscale components needed to split a water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. http://phys.org/news190207460.html Nanotechnology Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:00:07 EST news190207460 Researchers analyzing the assembly of graphene (sheets of carbon only one atom thick) on a surface of iridium have found that the sheets grow by first forming tiny carbon domes. The discovery offers new insight into the growth of graphene layers and points the way to possible methods for assembling components of graphene-based computer circuits. http://phys.org/news174562394.html Nanotechnology Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:50:01 EST news174562394 (PhysOrg.com) -- With a simple press on his shirt insignia, the captain of the Star Ship Enterprise could send and receive messages. Now, thanks to the efforts of a Finnish company, this futuristic communication may not be limited to fiction. http://phys.org/news173369407.html Technology Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:10:36 EST news173369407