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. Noise abatement is growing in importance, thus, the demand for better acoustic building components raises. Scientists are developing new solutions: aesthetically good looking and flexibly applicable microperforated sound absorbers. http://phys.org/news276762423.html Technology Mon, 07 Jan 2013 06:27:32 EST news276762423 (Phys.org)—A new way to prepare biaryls – compounds that are essential building blocks in the creation of drugs and many modern materials such as LEDs – using gold as a catalyst is described by researchers from the University of Bristol in this week's edition of Science. Gold catalysis is easier, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than current methods which use palladium as a catalyst. http://phys.org/news268046870.html Chemistry Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:28:07 EST news268046870 (Phys.org)—Few modern materials have achieved the fame of silicon, a key element of computer chips and the namesake for Silicon Valley, home to some of the world's most prominent technology firms. http://phys.org/news266828457.html Nanotechnology Fri, 14 Sep 2012 08:01:07 EST news266828457 (PhysOrg.com) -- Led by a group at the University of Maryland (UMd), a multi-institution team of researchers has combined modern materials research and an age-old metallurgy technique to produce an alloy that could be the basis for a new class of sensors and micromechanical devices controlled by magnetism. The alloy, a combination of cobalt and iron, is notable, among other things, for not using rare-earth elements to achieve its properties. Materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) contributed precision measurements of the alloy's structure and mechanical properties to the project. http://phys.org/news241260813.html Physics Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:30:02 EST news241260813 (PhysOrg.com) -- For the first time in nearly 500 years, a full-size balsa-wood raft just like those used in pre-Columbian Pacific trade took to the water on Sunday, May 10. Only this time, instead of the Pacific coast between Mexico and Chile where such rafts carried goods between the great civilizations of the Andes and Mesoamerica as long as a millennium ago, the replica raft was floated in the Charles River basin. http://phys.org/news161446493.html Other Sciences Wed, 13 May 2009 15:19:05 EST news161446493