Science Letter articles from January 2003

Science Letter archives from January 2003

Speed of gravity measured for first time.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Taking advantage of a rare cosmic alignment, scientists have made the first measurement of the speed at which the force of gravity propagates, giving a numerical value to one of the last unmeasured...

Breakthrough brings laser light to new regions of the spectrum.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Combining concepts from electromagnetic radiation research and fiber optics, researchers have created an extreme-ultraviolet, laser-like beam capable of producing tightly-focused light in a region of...

Farthest known planet opens the door for finding new Earth-like worlds.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced they have detected the most distant extrasolar planet (OGLE-TR-56b) ever found in the...

Quasar study shows black holes form first, galaxies follow.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A study at Ohio State University has uncovered more evidence that black holes form before the galaxies that contain them. The finding could help resolve a long-standing debate, said Marianne...

Global warming linked to rise in tropopause height over past 2 decades.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California, have discovered another fingerprint of human effects on global climate. Recent research has shown that increases in the height...

Computer program reveals optimum microstructure for new materials.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Princeton University chemist has developed a general mathematical system for designing materials that perform two functions at once, even when the desired properties sometimes conflict with each...

Hunt for life on Mars dealt another blow.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An Australian geologist has identified what could be the first ever active flow of fluids through gullies on Mars. University of Melbourne geologist, Dr. Nick Hoffman, identified recent gully and...

Clouds dominate the galactic halo.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Using the exquisite sensitivity of the National Science Foundation's Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), astronomer Jay Lockman of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank,...

Collaboration will apply novel way to look for comets beyond Neptune.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory astronomers are major partners in a scientific collaboration that will conduct an extremely novel search for small, comet-like bodies in the outer solar system...

Coronal activity may be 'buried alive' in red giant stars.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- When Earth's sun expands into a red giant star in roughly five billion years, long after Earth has become uninhabitable, the hydrogen core will be burned out and the bloated outer shell will be cool...

Digital sky survey shedding light on faint Milky Way stars.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Glitzy tools such as the Hubble Space Telescope let modern astronomers peer deeper and deeper into space, billions of light years from Earth. But it's a small special-purpose telescope on a New Mexico...

European Space Agency's Rosetta will be first mission to orbit, land on a comet.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The European Space Agency's Rosetta will be the first mission to orbit and land on a comet, one of the icy bodies that travel throughout the Solar System and develop a characteristic tail when they...

Faint debris trail detected in the Andromeda galaxy.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The discovery of a faint trail of stars in the nearby Andromeda galaxy offers new evidence that large spiral galaxies have grown by gobbling up smaller satellite galaxies. The new findings were...

La Silla Camera observes Chandra Deep Field South.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The combined efforts of three European teams of astronomers, targeting the same sky field in the southern constellation Fornax (The Oven) have enabled them to construct a very deep, true-color image,...

Missing link found between old and young star clusters.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- One and a half billion years ago the small, inconspicuous galaxy Messier 82 (M82) almost smashed into its large, massive neighbor galaxy Messier 81 (M81), causing a frenzy of star formation. New...

New satellite may help reveal more about near-Earth supernovas.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Australopithecus squinted at the blue African sky. He had never seen a star in broad daylight before, but he could see one today. White. Piercing. Not as bright as the Sun, yet much more than a...

New type of star identified.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Astronomers announced at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Seattle, Washington, that they have confirmed the existence of a new variety of stellar end-product. This previously unknown...

Newly discovered ring of stars appears to surround Milky Way Galaxy.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A vast, but previously unknown structure has been discovered around our own Milky Way galaxy by an international team of astronomers. The announcement was made at the American Astronomical...

Robotic telescope catches early image of optical afterglow of gamma-ray burst.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A team of University of California, Berkeley, astronomers announced that its robotic telescope has captured one of the earliest images ever of the visible afterglow of a gamma-ray burst. The...

Stellar cocoons in surprisingly harsh environment.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of Colorado at Boulder astronomers have discovered what they believe to be dozens of potential stellar cocoons within a giant star-forming region that may harbor disks of dust and gas that...

Wireless network boosts supernova search to stellar first year.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Astrophysicists reported at the 2003 meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Seattle, Washington, that their supernova factory project has discovered an unprecedented 34 new supernovae in...

Young star probably ejected from triple system.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Astronomers analyzing nearly 20 years of data from the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array radio telescope have discovered that a small star in a multiple-star system in the constellation...

Evolution of galaxy-spanning magnetic fields explained.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers at the University of Rochester have uncovered how giant magnetic fields up to a billion billion miles across, such as the one that envelopes our galaxy, are able to take shape despite a...

Ulysses spacecraft views solar activity from many directions.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Take a piece of paper. Make a little wad. If you're a kid, spit on it. Put it in a straw and blow hard. If your teacher sends you to the principal's office, here's your excuse: you were making a...

Universe's vibrations help scientists map its topology.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Cosmologists hope to "hear the shape of space", namely its topology, by analyzing in detail the temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). An international team...

"Whistler" waves cause electron loss in Van Allen radiation belt.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Lightning storms on Earth are a major cause of electron loss in the Van Allen radiation belt, according to researchers studying the upper atmosphere and near-Earth space. Craig J. Rodger,...

Company increases smartcard security.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Finnish Miotec has increased smartcard security through biometrics, which uses physical characteristics, such as fingerprint, retinal patterns, or voice to identify an individual. Biometric...

Exhaust from airplanes promotes surface cooling, upper-atmospheric warming.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Meteorologists predict that increased sulfate aerosols from commercial airliners will affect tropospheric ozone levels and may lead to surface cooling while contributing to upper-atmospheric warming....

ICESat will map Earth's ice sheets.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The frozen wasteland of Antarctica's McMurdo Station may be about as far from the beaches of Ocean City, Maryland, as anyone could get. But the same Ohio State University software that mapped the...

Southwest droughts may trigger Midwest flooding in U.S.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Abnormally dry conditions in the American Southwest during the summer of 1993 may be partially responsible for the devastating Midwest flooding during the same year along the Mississippi River. ...

U.S. Senate gets overview of federal research plan on climate change.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, on January 8, 2003, heard an overview of U.S. climate change science efforts. Dr. James R. Mahoney, director of the U.S. Climate Change...

Company builds largest wind portfolio in the Eastern U.S.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Exelon Generation reports it has added close to 150 megawatts (MW) of wind generation to its portfolio. Exelon Generation is a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), an electricity and...

Next-generation solar cells could put power stations in space.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Someday, large-scale solar power stations in space could beam electricity to the surface of the moon, the Earth, and other planets, decreasing our dependence on a dwindling fossil-fuel supply. ...

Nuclear agency workers are concerned about safety.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The top officials of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) say it is committed to safety, but they're having trouble convincing many of the agency's own workers. A survey of NRC employees shows...

Production sharing contracts will exploit coalbed methane resources in China.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Greka Energy Corporation (Nasdaq: GRKA) announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Greka Energy (International) B.V., has signed four Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) with China United Coalbed...

Solar power companies form strategic alliance.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Uni-Solar, Auburn Hills, Michigan, announced an exclusive strategic alliance with Solar Integrated Technologies of Los Angeles, California, to use Uni-Solar flexible solar electric laminates for...

Atmosphere's natural cleanser may be more abundant than earlier thought.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A natural chemical that scrubs pollution from the sky is more abundant than previously believed, leading scientists to wonder if they have been underestimating the atmosphere's ability to cleanse...

Cow manure used to treat mine drainage.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Rarely does anyone advertise to buy 400 tons of cow manure, but that's what Bob Du Breucq did to get enough fertilizer for a water treatment project at a mine in central Pennsylvania. As...

E.U. Commission bans blue dye to protect aquatic life.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The European Commission has adopted a new directive banning the marketing and use of a dangerous "azo-dye," a chromate-based chemical used for coloring textiles. It has been found that this...

Non-polluting motor oil to be developed in crop plants.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Linnaeus Plant Sciences has announced an initiative directed toward developing a plant-based oil to substitute for petroleum-based motor oil. Concerns about the environment and in particular,...

Public agencies can now recycle rechargeable batteries at no cost.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC), a non-profit public service organization dedicated to recycling rechargeable batteries, announced that any public agency that wishes to...

Food-based antioxidant additives prolong shelf life of burgers.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Prolonging the shelf life of fresh meat, without using artificial additives, is a very important concern for both consumers and meat processors. Researchers from the University of Zaragoza have now...

Panel backs Smithsonian science centers.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Complaining that research at the Smithsonian Institution has become "unfocused and underfunded," a special commission urged the institution on January 7, 2003, to concentrate its scientific work in...

Study suggests potential seismic hazard for coasts of Portugal, Spain, Morocco.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers report that submarine topography and shallow seismic activity suggest the presence of active thrusts that may pose a threat to the coasts of Portugal, Spain, and Morocco. According to...

Moon's early history may have been interrupted by big burp.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Using a state-of-the-art computer model of the lunar interior, geophysicists at the University of California, Berkeley, have shown that a mighty burp early in the moon's history could account for some...

Hitchhiking rocks provide details of glacial melting in West Antarctic.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Rocks deposited by glaciers on mountain ranges in West Antarctica have given scientists the most direct evidence yet that parts of the ice sheet are on a long-term, natural trajectory of melting. ...

Pasta provides glimpse of friction forces occurring in earthquake faults.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A popular brand of angel hair pasta is helping researchers experimentally to understand the friction forces that occur in an earthquake fault and providing better information than current numerical...

USGS reports streamflow increased sharply in 1970s.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Streamflow in the conterminous United States increased sharply around 1970, according to a recent study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The results show marked increases in low to moderate...

Mature El Nino conditions in place, NOAA forecasters report.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The climate phenomenon El Nino has reached its "mature stage" and will linger through the end of spring, according to forecasters at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)...

Oceanic temperatures aid prediction of winter weather.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A model of the North Atlantic circulation that uses 50 years of sea surface temperatures can predict weather patterns for the upcoming winter with surprising accuracy. Mark A. Saunders and Budong...

Physicists say new seasonal forecasting method is accurate.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers in Physics at the University of Oxford and in Meteorology at the University of Reading, both in the U.K., have devised a new model-based approach to seasonal forecasting using perfect...

Electromagnetic field around nanoparticles can be controlled precisely.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Nanotechnology researchers at Rice University have demonstrated the ability to precisely control the electromagnetic field around nanoparticles, opening the door for chemical screening techniques that...

Fear of terrorism leads to discussion of openness, security of research.
January 27, 2003... 2003 JAN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Finding a balance between the sometimes conflicting needs of scientific openness and national security drew the attention of dozens of scientists at a recent meeting. "The dilemma that we face...