Science Letter articles from June 2003

Science Letter archives from June 2003

Study questions economic wisdom of building for earthquake-resistance.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The U.S. federal government is urging Memphis, Tennessee, and other parts of the midwestern U.S. to adopt a new building code that would make buildings as earthquake resistant as those in southern...

Study of plutonium's reaction to heat finds unexpected behavior.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The storage of plutonium has long plagued scientists. "It is a dangerous metal and its long-term storage must be done with special care so as not to harm the environment, "said physicist Serguei...

First-ever survey for cosmic hydrogen will reveal 'Invisible Universe'.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Astronomers from Cardiff University are completing the first survey ever for cosmic hydrogen, the primeval gas which emerged from the Big Bang to form all the stars and galaxies we can see today. ...

New sensor bares faults in smallest possible, most advanced circuits.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new scanning microscope developed at Brown University can uncover defects in the smallest and most complex integrated circuits at a resolution 1,000 times greater than current technology. The...

Journal Science hosts debate about mantle plume model of hotspots.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In a Perspective in the May 9, 2003, issue of Science, geochemist Don DePaolo and geodynamicist Michael Manga defended a fundamental assumption of Earth science - the mantle plume model of hotspots -...

'Stinkometer' microchip developed.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists from the University of Bonn have developed an inexpensive sensor enabling them to detect possible sources of smells completely automatically around the clock. The highly sensitive...

Arsenic in New England wells more widespread than thought.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Arsenic in the water of private wells in New England is more widespread than previously thought and its threat to residents may be growing because of increasing private well use, according to a new...

Break in dune dam may have forced Chaco Canyon Anasazi to new lifestyle.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Anasazi at Chaco Canyon who built extraordinary great houses, elaborate water-control systems, and a vast road network possibly did so because their farmlands degraded suddenly and dramatically less...

Study reports meteorites rained on Earth after massive asteroid breakup.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Using fossil meteorites and ancient limestone unearthed throughout southern Sweden, marine geologists at Rice University have discovered that a colossal collision in the asteroid belt some 500 million...

Tunnel samples provide evidence of earthquake fault characteristics.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Rock samples taken from a tunnel that runs through an active fault zone in Japan have provided evidence to indicate the structure and hydrogeology of the fault. University of Utah hydrogeologist...

Evidence presented for potassium as missing heat source in planetary cores.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- There's a small problem with Earth's magnetic field: it should not have existed, as Earth's rock record indicates it has, for the past 3.5 billion years. Motions in the Earth's molten iron core...

New virtual reality array eliminates disorienting 3-D goggles.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The University of Pennsylvania has installed a virtual reality system that allows a participant full-body interaction with a virtual environment without the hassle of bulky, dizzying 3-D glasses. ...

Study: For best results, stick to one search engine.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Web users who stick to one or two search engines and learn those well will have better results for their queries than users who try the same query or various engines, a Penn State researcher says. ...

Unique NASA satellite watches rainfall from space.
June 2, 2003... 2003 JUN 2 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Data from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, along with information from other satellites, allow researchers to see how much rain is falling over most of the world every three...

New materials show promise for hydrogen fuel storage.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In the push to develop hydrogen fuel cells for powering automobiles, cell phones, laptop computers, and other devices, one of the biggest challenges has been finding ways of storing large amounts of...

Chaos theory helps explain origin of new moons.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The ability to understand how small bodies such as moons switch from orbiting the Sun to orbiting a planet has long remained one of the outstanding problems of planetary science. A paper published...

Study says measurements of association constants often aren't accurate.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- As scientists create molecular complexes to perform increasingly minute operations, such as molecular level switches or memory devices, it is critical that the association forces that hold the molecular...

Aerosols' effects could change current understanding of global climate change.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Atmospheric aerosols - airborne particles that reflect the Sun's heat away from Earth and into space - are part of everyday life. They are in the haze of air pollution, in plumes of smoke from forest...

Real-time seismic activity detected by Global Positioning System.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A serendipitous discovery has shown for the first time that satellite signals from the Global Positioning System are a valuable new tool for studying seismic activity. University of Colorado,...

Enzyme could overcome industrial bleaching waste problems.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Taken from a microbe that thrives in the depths of a Yellowstone National Park hot springs pool, a newly discovered enzyme may be the key to transforming industrial bleaching from environmentally...

Gold nanoparticles and catalytic DNA produce colormetric lead sensor.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Detecting the presence of hazardous lead paint could become as simple as pressing a piece of paper against a wall and noting a color change. Scientists at the University of Illinois at...

Observatory at North Pole enables study of Arctic Oscillation.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In recent years, scientists have observed a rapid thinning of the sea ice that covers the Arctic Ocean as well as shifts in ocean circulation. These changes appear to be caused by an alteration in the...

Logging system software may thwart hackers.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- When hackers break into corporate networks, millions of dollars of damage can be done in a brief amount of time. Records can be deleted or altered, business plans can be exposed, and companies are...

Detergent-like surfactants being used to clean contaminated soil, groundwater.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Cleaning up contaminated soil and groundwater is estimated to cost trillions of dollars in North America. The problem requires many different approaches because there are hundreds of different types of...

Systems tool is new resource to aid groundwater cleanup.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- After almost 50 years of nuclear materials production at the 586-square-mile Hanford Site in southeastern Washington state, there are more than 700 waste sites with the potential to release contaminants...

Ancient fault lines in Indiana may have become reactivated, study suggests.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Columbia University research suggests that ancient fault lines in Indiana have been reactivated and may be the cause of recent earthquakes On June 18, 2002, a magnitude 5.0 earthquake occurred in...

Chinese desert sands dust the French Alps.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- NASA-funded scientists, using an atmospheric computer model, proved for the first time dust from China's TaklaMakan desert traveled more than 12,400 miles (20,000 kilometers) over two weeks and landed...

Technique for studying magnetic properties of rocks has other applications.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A technique for studying the magnetic properties of rocks developed by earth scientists at the University of California, Davis, is drawing attention from other scientists and the magnetic recording...

Nature designs hard and tough biocomposites at the nanoscale.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The nanoscale size of mineral particles in bone, tooth, and other biological materials may have evolved to ensure optimum strength and maximize tolerance of flaws, according to new research conducted at...

Microwaves could take the grind out of the rock business.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The feasibility of using microwaves to extract minerals from rocks has been demonstrated by U.K. researchers. This revolutionary technique could cut mining and mineral processing industry costs,...

Diamond layer makes steel rock hard.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A University of Nijmegen, Netherlands, chemist has successfully produced a diamond layer on a steel substrate. This opens up the possibility of wear-resistant tools. The secret to this technique is...

Fundamental step taken toward quantum computing.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of Maryland physicists have come one step closer to a quantum computer by demonstrating the existence of entangled states between two quantum bits (qubits), each created with a type of solid...

Brighter Neptune suggests a change of seasons.
June 9, 2003... 2003 JUN 9 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A progressive increase in the brightness of the planet Neptune suggests that, like Earth, the distant planet has seasons. Observations of Neptune made during a six-year period with NASA's Hubble...

Electron nanodiffraction technique offers atomic resolution imaging.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new imaging technique that uses electron diffraction waves to improve both image resolution and sensitivity to small structures has been developed by scientists at the University of Illinois at...

Individual electrons measured in real time.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Physicists at Rice University have completed the first real-time measurement of individual electrons, creating an experimental method that for the first time allows scientists to probe the dynamic...

Hot gas around cold dust cloud surprises astronomers.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Stargazers call a prominent dark black region in the Southern Hemisphere's night sky the Coalsack. Even for naked-eye observers, the cloud of cold gas that makes up the Coalsack is hard to miss: it...

Significant relationship reported between radon flux and earthquakes.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Geologists in Israel report a highly significant statistical connection between earthquakes and anomalous flux of radon gas that precedes them. One reason that many seismologists believe...

Study expands understanding of diffusion.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new method developed by a University of Toronto mathematician gives the most precise understanding yet of diffusion, a finding with potential applications to phenomena such as the spread of heat...

Laboratory-standard wired molecules tend to "blink" randomly.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Single-molecule switches have the potential to shrink computing circuits dramatically, but new results from the Arizona State University lab that first described how to wire a single molecule between...

Satellite uncovers X-ray emission and pulsar in Andromeda.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In the most sensitive X-ray survey of our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda (M31), the X-ray Multi-Mirror satellite observatory (XMM-Newton) has uncovered hundreds of X-ray sources and provided new...

Survey reveals seven planet-forming disks in clusters of young stars.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A mammoth sky survey led by University of Florida astronomers has uncovered seven planet-forming disks in clusters of young stars, doubling the number of such disks discovered and expanding the...

Tiny galaxies faintly seen today were once brighter, more active.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Astronomers led by the University of Colorado and Carnegie Observatories have shown that a miniature galaxy less than one-hundredth the size of the Milky Way is ejecting large quantities of gas and...

X-ray clouds emitted from black holes shape massive galaxies.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Using images from the Keck Observatory and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, an international team of scientists has discovered how the release of energy from massive black holes are shaping two...

Atmospheric Research Chamber may have broad applications.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has developed a chamber that can disclose key information about chemicals and compounds. That information may be useful in addressing a wide range...

Scientists developing technique to detect trace explosives in airports.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In an effort to enhance homeland security, U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) chemists are developing new ways to "see" collections of micrometer-sized particles of explosive...

Coastal cities turn up the heat on rainfall.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New NASA-funded research has demonstrated that urban heat islands, created from pavement and buildings in big coastal cities, cause warm air to rise and interact with sea breezes to create heavier and...

Model helps scientists home in on tropical climate controls.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- It has long been known that tropical climate, by redistributing vast amounts of solar energy through welling hot air and the formation of towering cumulous clouds, influences weather in other parts of...

Nanomanufacture of artificial mother-of-pearl could have broad applications.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- There is more to mother-of-pearl than good looks. Also called nacre, the gleaming, white material is renowned in scientific circles for its strong, yet flexible, properties. Now researchers have...

Niobium clusters display non-metallic properties at ultra-cold temperatures.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- When is a metal not a metal? A paper in the May 23, 2003, issue of Science answers that question with an account of the surprising behavior exhibited by nanometer-scale clusters of the metal...

Sending shock waves through photonic crystals enables control of light.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- You don't often see claims of "unexpected and stunning new physical phenomena" in the abstract of a reputable scientific paper, but the latest report by photonics crystal pioneer John Joannopoulos and...

Asteroid impact scenario predicts massive tsunami for Atlantic coast in 2880.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- If an asteroid crashes into Earth it is likely to splash down somewhere in the oceans that cover 70% of the planet's surface. Huge tsunami waves, spreading out from the impact site like the ripples...

Slow moving vehicle sign not recognized by drivers.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In the first evaluation of motorist comprehension of the Slow Moving Vehicle (SMV) sign, a Penn State researcher found that less than 30% of the drivers knew what it meant. The emblem, which has...

Autonomous robot explores abandoned mine.
June 16, 2003... 2003 JUN 16 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Carnegie Mellon University researchers, working with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA),...

New nanoscale device reveals behavior of individual electrons.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Engineers have a great grasp of how to control electrical charge in circuits, but they have a hard time getting rid of the heat created by flowing electrons. What's missing is a fundamental...

Study indicates it's possible to see electrons' orbital paths around atoms.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- By crunching numbers on a supercomputer for six months, University of Utah researchers showed it is possible for an atomic force microscope to make images of the wing-shaped paths of minuscule...

Research shows up to half of Earth's surface is warming.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Land use changes in the United States are responsible for a significant portion of the country's temperature increase over the past five decades, says a University of Maryland study published in the...

Upgrading two-stroke engines can improve air pollution in Asia.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Harmful emissions are so concentrated in Manila, Philippines, that many citizens wear masks and walk through the city with rags held to their noses and mouths to filter the pollution. The World...

Electrical switching in single molecules connected to weak bonding.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A report to be published in the May 30, 2003, issue of the journal Science may be a little discouraging to investigators in molecular electronics, but the finding may point the field towards more...

Technology brings precision farming one-step closer to widespread use.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service at the George E. Brown, Jr., Salinity Laboratory, Riverside, California, have developed general guidelines for soil...

Advances could help bring FPGAs into the computing mainstream.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Almost since they were first invented, the reconfigurable computing platforms called "Field Programmable Gate Arrays" have had a reputation: "Good idea in theory, but..." Now a University of...

New software helps teams deal with information overload.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Penn State researchers have developed new software that can help decision-making teams in combat situations or homeland security handle information overload by inferring teams' information needs and...

System promises super-fast Internet connections.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Imagine an Internet connection so fast it will let you download a whole movie in just five seconds, or access TV-quality video servers in real time. That's the promise from a team at the California...

Space shuttle exhaust creates night-shining clouds.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Exhaust from NASA's space shuttle, which is almost 97% water vapor, can travel to the Arctic in the Earth's thermosphere. There it forms ice to create some of the Earth's highest clouds that literally...

Next-nearest neighbor interactions influence state of matter in nanoscale world.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- When physicists form atomic surfaces using the technologically important semiconductor material gallium arsenide (GaAs), the surfaces appear in one of two kinds of states: flat or rough. But a...

Sensory analysis detects changes in drinking water quality.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Consumers may be their own best protection when it comes to evaluating and safeguarding drinking water. And they have at least 33 flavors to choose between so far. "Wet paper," "crushed grass,"...

Infrasound recordings provide insights into cause of Columbia loss.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The "sound" from Shuttle Columbia's re-entry February 1, 2003, was different, say scientists analyzing low-frequency signals from listening posts across western North America. The infrasound...

Large-scale experiments look at generating compost from municipal waste.
June 23, 2003... 2003 JUN 23 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Engineers at Cardiff University, U.K., are using the latest technology to update a time-honored practice, and turn a serious environmental problem into a valuable resource. Modern industrial...

Oxide materials may facilitate small-scale hydrogen production.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A unique group of oxide materials that readily gives up and accepts oxygen atoms with changes in temperature could be the basis for a small-scale hydrogen production system able to power fuel cells in...

Insulin study sheds light on crystal growth.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A University of Houston engineer is clearing up some questions about how insulin crystals grow in a new study that may have applications in drug design and computer chip technology. Understanding...

Million-star cluster in nearby galaxy reported.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A small, bizarre cluster of a million young stars, enshrouded in thick gas and dust in a nearby dwarf galaxy, has been confirmed. Jean Turner, University of California, Los Angeles, professor of...

New weather forecasting tool outperforms competing models.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The dramatic rescue of a physician from a remote science station at the South Pole two years ago provided researchers at Ohio State University with an opportunity to test how well current weather...

Over a thousand red variable stars discovered in Centaurus A.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An international team of astronomers has discovered more than a thousand luminous red variable stars in the nearby elliptical galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128). Brightness changes and periods of these...

Comet X-ray emissions simulated in laboratory.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Physicists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, have produced X-ray emissions in a laboratory setting by recreating the conditions that exist when...

ERS-2 displays slick threatening Swedish coast.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A 39 square mile oil slick produced by the sinking of a Chinese freighter recently threatened the southern coast of Sweden. As the glistening oil headed landward, the European Space Agency's ERS-2...

Hurricanes' effects on N.C. barrier islands, sounds to be monitored.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Predictions call for more hurricanes in the Atlantic than usual in 2003, which could mean big changes are in store for the coastline and sounds, Duke University professors say. The forecast is for...

Salt levels in rain provide clues to hurricane formation.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of Houston scientists are testing the waters - literally - with a new salt-detection device specially designed to collect data from rain and water vapor in tropical cyclones, all in an...

"Lab-on-a-chip" technology used to mix and evaluate experimental concoctions.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) project aims to stir up materials research by adapting "lab-on-a-chip" technology to mix and evaluate experimental concoctions at a...

Scientists biosynthesize gold particles.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new way to make gold form inside the cells of a microorganism has been reported in the Institute of Physics journal Nanotechnology. Researchers from the National Chemical Laboratory and the Armed...

Instrument under development that can measure nanonewtons.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- How do you weigh a dust mite? Or determine the force required to pull a molecule apart? Such tasks require a device that measures nanonewtons: forces one billion times smaller than the force...

Odyssey thermal data reveal a changing Mars.
June 30, 2003... 2003 JUN 30 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The first overview analysis of a year's worth of high-resolution infrared data gathered by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft is opening Mars to a new kind...