Boiling is not just for heating up dinner. It's also for cooling things down. Turning liquid into gas removes energy from hot surfaces, and keeps everything from nuclear power plants to powerful computer chips from overheating. ...
General Physics
Jul 8, 2021
0
259
Sometimes water spreads evenly when it hits a surface; sometimes it beads into tiny droplets. While people have noticed these differences since ancient times, a better understanding of these properties, and new ways of controlling ...
General Physics
Jul 16, 2013
0
0
(Phys.org)—Dryland ecosystems cover 41% of the Earth's land surface. These ecosystems are highly vulnerable to global environmental change and desertification. But climate change seems to have a positive impact on some ...
Ecology
Oct 8, 2012
5
0
The vapor that plants emit when they breathe serves to lower land surface temperature, much like watering the yard on a hot day. Until now, the greenhouse effect has been blamed for the rise in global temperature. But an ...
Environment
May 14, 2020
3
1716
By 2030, the world's population is projected to be about 8.5 billion people. Global food security is a major concern for governments—zero hunger is the second most important of the United Nations Sustainable Development ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 23, 2019
0
324
By learning how water is collected by living organisms, including rice leaves and pitcher plants, scientists at The University of Texas at Dallas created and tested a combination of materials that can do the same thing, but ...
Condensed Matter
Mar 30, 2018
0
237
Many plants and animals have textured surfaces on their body for manipulating water. Some textured surfaces are designed, for example, to improve adhesion, while others may enable the collection of water from fog in arid ...
Soft Matter
Aug 15, 2012
2
0
The simple act of boiling water is one of humankind's oldest inventions, and still central to many of today's technologies, from coffee makers to nuclear power plants. Yet this seemingly simple process has complexities that ...
General Physics
Apr 5, 2019
1
1069
In one of the most comprehensive laboratory studies of its kind, Rice University scientists traced the uptake and accumulation of quantum dot nanoparticles from water to plant roots, plant leaves and leaf-eating caterpillars.
Bio & Medicine
Dec 16, 2014
0
0
Nature is inspiring scientists all the time. Some ideas are still in research, like beaver-inspired super-warm wetsuits. But others are already part of human life, like Velcro (based on burdock burrs) and the Japanese bullet ...
Materials Science
Jul 15, 2023
2
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