News tagged with decomposition
New Study of Meteorite Provides More Evidence for Ancient Life on Mars
(PhysOrg.com) -- In 1996, when scientists examined a meteorite from Mars previously uncovered in Antarctica, they were intrigued by what looked like microscopic fossils of ancient Martian life forms. Now, ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 17, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (47) |
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Microbiologist discovers new super-preservative
(PhysOrg.com) -- In one of those freak accidents that sometimes occur in science, where someone is looking at something for one purpose and finds another for it, Dan O'Sullivan has found a use for a byproduct of harmless ...
Aug 17, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (26) |
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Gold-palladium nanoparticles achieve greener, smarter production of hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is one of the world's most versatile and widely used chemicals. A powerful oxidizing agent, H2O2 is commonly used as a bleach, an antiseptic and a disinfectant.
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Feb 19, 2009 |
4.4 / 5 (5) |
0
Exploding dinosaur hypothesis implodes
Exploding carcasses through putrefaction gases - this is how science explained the mysterious bone arrangements in almost fully preserved dinosaur skeletons for decades. Now a Swiss-German research team has ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Mar 28, 2012 |
4.2 / 5 (5) |
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Colorful leaves: New chlorophyll decomposition product found in Norway maple
(PhysOrg.com) -- Autumn is right around the corner in the northern hemisphere and the leaves are beginning to change color. The cause of this wonderful display of reds, yellows, and oranges is the decomposition ...
Oct 10, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (5) |
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Researchers discover two early stages of carbon nanotube growth
Boston College researchers have discovered two early-stage phases of carbon nanotube growth during plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, finding a disorderly tangle of tube growth that ultimately yields to orderly rows ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Oct 03, 2011 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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Hydrogen may be key to growth of high-quality graphene
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.
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Jul 18, 2011 |
5 / 5 (10) |
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Wetlands are bad and good news for Arctic warming: study
(PhysOrg.com) -- Seasonal wetlands in Arctic regions will initially persist longer due to global warming but then shrink as temperatures rise further, according to new study into how climate change will progress this century.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 07, 2011 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Don't Compare Bananas to Pears
(PhysOrg.com) -- Yellow leaves on banana plants give off a blue glow when viewed under UV light. This luminescence comes from decomposition products of chlorophyll, the substance that makes leaves green.
Jun 23, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
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Novel studies of decomposition shed new light on our earliest fossil ancestry (w/ Video)
Decaying corpses are usually the domain of forensic scientists, but palaeontologists have discovered that studying rotting fish sheds new light on our earliest ancestry.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Jan 31, 2010 |
4.4 / 5 (11) |
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Graphene: Unravelling the secrets of a magic material
UCL researchers are helping to unlock the secrets of a material that could ultimately be used in a new generation of electronic devices.
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Oct 15, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (13) |
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New insights into the 'smell of death' could help recover bodies in disasters and solve crimes
In an advance toward the first portable device for detecting human bodies buried in disasters and at crime scenes, scientists today report early results from a project to establish the chemical fingerprint ...
Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry
Aug 17, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
1
Small-scale soil studies provide big benefits
When it comes to studying microbial communities in soil, the smaller the sample, the better. Only by approaching the scale at which microbes interact and function, the micron scale, can scientists understand ...
Feb 24, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Study finds decomposition responsible for fossilised deformations
A two-man research team from Germany and Switzerland has discovered how the decomposition of dead dinosaurs triggered strange deformations of fossilised dinosaurs. The finding counters what most researchers ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Feb 21, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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How the N2O greenhouse gas is decomposed
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a harmful climate gas. Its effect as a greenhouse gas is 300 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide destroys the ozone layer. In industrial agriculture, it is generated ...
Aug 22, 2011 |
4 / 5 (2) |
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Decomposition
Decomposition (or rotting) is the process by which organic material is broken down into simpler forms of matter. The process is essential for recycling the finite matter that occupies physical space in the biome. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death. Although no two organisms decompose in the same way, they all undergo the same sequential stages of decomposition. The science which studies decomposition is generally referred to as taphonomy from the Greek word taphos, meaning tomb.
One can differentiate abiotic and biotic decomposition or biodegradation. The former one means "degradation of a substance by chemical or physical processes, eg hydrolysis). The latter one means "the metabolic breakdown of materials into simpler components by living organisms", typically by microorganisms.
For more information about Decomposition, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
