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. Nanotubes are stronger than steel and smaller than any element of silicon-based electronics. They can potentially process information faster while using less energy. The challenge has been figuring out how to incorporate these properties into useful electronic devices. Now scientists at the University of California, Riverside have discovered that by adding ionic liquid—a kind of liquid salt—they can modify the optical transparency of single-walled carbon nanotube films in a controlled pattern. http://phys.org/news287769987.html Nanotechnology Tue, 14 May 2013 17:06:37 EST news287769987 Bacteria are life forms, which, like all other life forms, struggle for the best living conditions for themselves. Therefore they will try to avoid getting attacked by the human immune system, and therefore they have developed various ways to protect themselves from the human immune system. When safe from the immune system, they can focus on breeding and multiplying, and if they become numerous enough, the human body will experience their presence as an infection. Some bacteria are relatively harmless, while others are fatal. The bacteria avoid being attacked by the human immune system by forming a biofilm - a surface to protect them against the immune system. http://phys.org/news287753667.html Biology Tue, 14 May 2013 12:34:35 EST news287753667 Researchers from National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) conducted surveys of the seafloor off the coast around Kumejima Island, Okinawa Prefecture and Okinoerabujima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture using the research vessel Kaiyo Maru No.7 (499 tons; owned by Nippon Kaiyo Co., Ltd.) from August 20 to September 13, 2012 and discovered a new submarine hydrothermal activity area off the western coast of Kumejima Island. This submarine hydrothermal activity area is located in the caldera of a submarine volcano. Multiple plumes indicating intense hydrothermal activity were observed by acoustic surveys, and in addition, samples that appear to be fragments of chimneys formed in relation to submarine hydrothermal activity were collected. There were also several submarine volcanoes with similar calderas adjacent to this area of hydrothermal activity, and manganese oxide that appears to have been formed from hydrothermal activity was collected from some of these. No submarine volcanoes with caldera topographies or submarine hydrothermal activity areas have previously been known off the western coast of Kumejima Island. http://phys.org/news287308645.html Space & Earth Thu, 09 May 2013 08:57:34 EST news287308645 (Phys.org) —Proteins, the workhorses of the body, can have more than one function, but they often need to be very specific in their action or they create cellular havoc, possibly leading to disease. http://phys.org/news286479307.html Biology Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:36:23 EST news286479307 Human tendency to adopt the behaviour of others when on their home territory has been found in non-human primates. Researchers at the University of St Andrews observed 'striking' fickleness in male monkeys, when it comes to copying the behaviour of others in new groups. http://phys.org/news286117028.html Biology Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:00:11 EST news286117028 (Phys.org) —University of Auckland scientists have discovered that Rangitoto erupted not once or twice as previously believed, but multiple times over a period of 1,000 years, prompting a rethink of how Auckland volcanoes may behave in the future. http://phys.org/news284884566.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:36:15 EST news284884566 The fossils of an extinct species of fox discovered at the Malapa site in Gauteng, South Africa, have recently been confirmed as a new species named Vulpes skinneri. http://phys.org/news283417939.html Other Sciences Mon, 25 Mar 2013 08:12:25 EST news283417939 (Phys.org) —A new species of crocodile newt has been identified by a team of Japanese researchers—based on study of a specimen held at Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo and field study in Vietnam. The original specimen, the team writes in their article describing the find in the journal Current Herpetology, was found in the mountainous northern provinces of Vietnam's Ha Giang and Cao Bang. http://phys.org/news283082673.html Biology Thu, 21 Mar 2013 11:04:41 EST news283082673 (Phys.org) —A team of paleontologists with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing has discovered what are believed to be fossilized ovarian follicles in three birds from approximately 125 million years ago. As they describe in their paper published in the journal Nature, one of the birds appears to be a known type—Jeholornis—a bird from the Early Cretaceous that retained some non-avian features. The other two specimens were not well enough preserved to identify. http://phys.org/news282811912.html Other Sciences Mon, 18 Mar 2013 07:52:11 EST news282811912 Artificial bone, created using stem cells and a new lightweight plastic, could soon be used to heal shattered limbs. http://phys.org/news279538030.html Chemistry Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:27:20 EST news279538030 Genes relocated from their correct position in the nucleus cause them to malfunction and this may lead to the heart, blood vessels and muscles breaking down. This new discovery by A*STAR scientists may be the key to finding new cures in the future. http://phys.org/news279521865.html Biology Fri, 08 Feb 2013 04:57:53 EST news279521865 (Phys.org)—A team of researchers from New Zealand's Victoria University has discovered what its members believe to be, a third type of volcanic eruption. In their paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, they describe a type of eruption that is neither explosive nor effusive. http://phys.org/news277976532.html Space & Earth Mon, 21 Jan 2013 07:58:03 EST news277976532 (Phys.org)—A research team from Germany has found a new way to study animal diversity in the wild – capture carrion flies and analyze the DNA found in their digestive tracks. The team discovered the new technique, they write in their paper published in Molecular Ecology, as part of a study that involved capturing a large number of carrion flies in two remote locations looking for evidence of anthrax. http://phys.org/news276936121.html Biology Wed, 09 Jan 2013 07:30:01 EST news276936121 (Phys.org)—In the early 1900s, an archaeologist, William Mills, dug up a treasure-trove of carved stone pipes that had been buried almost 2,000 years earlier. Mills was the first to dig the Native American site, called Tremper Mound, in southern Ohio. And when he inspected the pipes, he made a reasonable – but untested – assumption. The pipes looked as if they had been carved from local stone, and so he said they were. That assumption, first published in 1916, has been repeated in scientific publications to this day. But according to a new analysis, Mills was wrong. http://phys.org/news275058258.html Other Sciences Tue, 18 Dec 2012 13:04:24 EST news275058258 Sylvie Roke, scientist in EPFL's Bioengineering Institute, is refuting previously held theories and offering a new explanation of electrochemical phenomena occurring at the interface between water and a hydrophobic matter. A new paradigm may be on the horizon. http://phys.org/news273241757.html Chemistry Tue, 27 Nov 2012 12:29:26 EST news273241757 (Phys.org)—Based on a new discovery by researchers at Oregon State University, the world's multi-billion dollar foundry industry may soon develop a sweet tooth. http://phys.org/news271609603.html Chemistry Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:07:29 EST news271609603 Controlling and modifying at will the transparency, electrical properties, and stiffness of a gel - such are the promises of a new discovery by researchers supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). This marks an important step for materials used in healthcare, high-tech, and the cosmetics industry. http://phys.org/news271436714.html Chemistry Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:07:27 EST news271436714 A new discovery by University of Oklahoma and North Carolina State University researchers shows a breakthrough in speeding up the process for synthesizing transition metal oxide nanostructures. What had once taken days can now be accomplished instantaneously. http://phys.org/news270983596.html Nanotechnology Thu, 01 Nov 2012 10:14:12 EST news270983596 (Phys.org)—An unusual collaboration between researchers in two disparate fields resulted in a new discovery about the teeth of 65-million-year-old dinosaurs. http://phys.org/news269187606.html Other Sciences Thu, 11 Oct 2012 15:21:36 EST news269187606 (Phys.org)—The mystery surrounding how an electrically charged solar wind can be unleashed from around the Sun's equator – an area where strong magnetic fields should strap it to the surface – has been solved by an international team of researchers. http://phys.org/news269077571.html Space & Earth Wed, 10 Oct 2012 08:47:53 EST news269077571 (Phys.org)—Ancient sites and cultural heritage are under threat in Syria due to the current conflict. An interdisciplinary research team hopes this new discovery, which has major implications for understanding the world's first empire, will help to highlight the importance of protecting Syria's heritage. http://phys.org/news265962248.html Other Sciences Tue, 04 Sep 2012 07:50:01 EST news265962248 (Phys.org)—Researchers at the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), an organized research unit within the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, have made a remarkable new discovery. http://phys.org/news264932502.html Biology Thu, 23 Aug 2012 09:21:57 EST news264932502 (Phys.org) -- On Aug. 20, NASA announced the selection of InSight, a new Discovery-class mission that will probe Mars at new depths by looking into the deep interior of Mars. http://phys.org/news264771875.html Space & Earth Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:44:53 EST news264771875 A new study led by scientists at the University of York has shown how birds, butterflies, other insects and spiders have colonised nature reserves and areas protected for wildlife, as they move north in response to climate change and other environmental changes. http://phys.org/news264067044.html Biology Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:00:02 EST news264067044 A new discovery could make more tomatoes taste like heirlooms, reports an international research team headed by a University of California, Davis, plant scientist. http://phys.org/news260110851.html Biology Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:01:04 EST news260110851 German archaeologists of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena found one of the oldest archaeological evidence so far of Jewish Culture on the Iberian Peninsula at an excavation site in the south of Portugal, close to the city of Silves. http://phys.org/news257162889.html Other Sciences Fri, 25 May 2012 11:08:55 EST news257162889 (Phys.org) -- Is Earth really a sort of giant living organism as the Gaia hypothesis predicts? A new discovery made at the University of Maryland may provide a key to answering this question. This key of sulfur could allow scientists to unlock heretofore hidden interactions between ocean organisms, atmosphere, and land -- interactions that might provide evidence supporting this famous theory. http://phys.org/news256321026.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 May 2012 17:17:21 EST news256321026 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using the IRAM array of millimetre-wave telescopes in the French Alps, a team of European astronomers from Germany, the UK and France have discovered a large reservoir of gas and dust in a galaxy that surrounds the most distant supermassive black hole known. Light from the galaxy, called J1120+0641, has taken so long to reach us that the galaxy is seen as it was only 740 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only 1/18th of its current age. Team leader Dr. Bram Venemans of the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany presented the new discovery at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester. http://phys.org/news252574933.html Space & Earth Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:46:15 EST news252574933 A Japanese scientist said he has made violin strings out of spider silk and claims that -- in the right hands -- they produce a beautiful sound. http://phys.org/news250229456.html Chemistry Tue, 06 Mar 2012 04:11:05 EST news250229456 Deep-diving ocean "gliders" have revealed the journey of Bass Strait water from the Tasman Sea to the Indian Ocean. http://phys.org/news249120874.html Space & Earth Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:14:51 EST news249120874