Science Letter articles from September 2003

Science Letter archives from September 2003

Scientists rewrite laws of glacial erosion.
September 1, 2003... 2003 SEP 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Glaciers, it turns out, aren't so different from people: they can gain weight in their bottoms and be less active, scientists have discovered. Glaciers, the heavyweights of landscape erosion, grow...

Scientists devise environmentally friendly way to dispose of nuclear waste.
September 1, 2003... 2003 SEP 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists from the University of Strathclyde, U.K., collaborating with an international team from Imperial College, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory(RAL), ITU (Karlsruhe), and the University of Jena,...

Global warming not man-made phenomenon, researchers say.
September 1, 2003... 2003 SEP 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Global warming will not be helped much by efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere, say two scientists who have studied the matter. Dr. Nir Shaviv, an astrophysicist from the...

Researchers document Earth's movement in Turkey.
September 1, 2003... 2003 SEP 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- In Turkey, the phrase "solid as a rock" does not mean much. More than 30 magnitude-7 quakes have rocked the country over the past century. Earthquakes are such a way of life in this second-world...

Genomes of tiny microbes yield clues to global climate change.
September 1, 2003... 2003 SEP 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- By analyzing the genomes of several microscopic ocean-dwelling organisms sequenced at the U.S. Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI), scientists are gaining new insights into how the...

New solid-state power switch safeguards electric service.
September 1, 2003... 2003 SEP 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Electricity moves across miles in seconds to power manufacturing and utilities nationwide. But, for all its speed, the loss of just fractions of seconds of electric power is costing the U.S. economy...

Project to compile online database of world's glaciers gets funded.
September 1, 2003... 2003 SEP 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder will receive $1.8 million from NASA to compile an online database of the world's glaciers that combines...

Scientists are exploring neutrinos with 6,000-ton detector.
September 1, 2003... 2003 SEP 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Using a 6,000-ton detector, scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, are gathering data on neutrinos as part of the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search...

Target selection and function determination in structural genomics outlined.
September 1, 2003... 2003 SEP 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Target selection and function determination in structural genomics has been outlined in a report published in a recent issue of IUBMB Life. "The first crucial step in any structural genomics project...

Hydrogen cycle findings suggest Earth's soil may be as important as atmosphere.
September 8, 2003... 2003 SEP 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- New evidence is emerging on the probable effects of an anticipated reliance on hydrogen as a fuel: surprisingly, we may need to look down in the ground rather up in the air, for answers. In the...

Textbook case of tectonic movement is wrong, says new study.
September 8, 2003... 2003 SEP 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Results from an expedition to the sea floor near the Hawaiian Islands show evidence that the deep Earth is more unsettled than geologists have long believed. A new University of Rochester study...

Weather extremes shed light on prairie's past and environment's future.
September 8, 2003... 2003 SEP 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Highway travelers view much of the midwest U.S. as little more than barren flatlands. The formation of the region and its rich soils, especially tall grass areas that seemingly should support diverse...

Diatoms, seashells provide lessons for development of complex nanomaterials.
September 8, 2003... 2003 SEP 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Sandia National Laboratories researchers are developing complex nanomaterials that look strikingly similar to the microstructures of diatoms and seashells. The materials may have potential for a wide...

IGF-1 prevents diabetes-induced alterations in coenzymes Q[subscript]9 and Q[subscript]10.
September 8, 2003... 2003 SEP 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-1) supplementation prevents diabetes-induced alterations in coenzymes Q[subscript]9 and Q[subscript]10. "Diabetes, which causes enhanced oxidative stress, is a...

El Nino's surprising steady Pacific rains can affect world weather.
September 8, 2003... 2003 SEP 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists using data from a NASA satellite have found another piece in the global climate puzzle created by El Nino. El Nino events produce more of a steady rain in the middle of the Pacific...

Editorial says U.S. needs to focus on energy conservation to protect health.
September 8, 2003... 2003 SEP 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The editorial in the August 22, 2003, issue of the Lancet comments on the new energy bill that will increase U.S. domestic energy supply, concluding that the bill's implications for increased energy...

Scientists achieve first full mapping of phonons in plutonium.
September 8, 2003... 2003 SEP 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Marking a landmark event in the history of the experimental investigation of plutonium, scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, for the first time have fully...

New findings could dash hopes for past oceans on Mars.
September 8, 2003... 2003 SEP 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- After a decades-long scientific quest, scientists analyzing data from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have at last found critical evidence the...

Accumulated prion proteins appear to be neurotoxic.
September 8, 2003... 2003 SEP 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Accumulated prion proteins appear to be neurotoxic. "Recent work on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) suggests a role for protein quality-control mechanisms in both prion protein...

Epitope of SARS-coronavirus nucleocapsid protein identified.
September 8, 2003... 2003 SEP 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An epitope of the SARS-coronavirus nucleocapsid protein has been identified. "The nucleocapsid (N) protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is a major virion structural...

Threatened juvenile salmon get scientific assistance.
September 8, 2003... 2003 SEP 8 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Research has found that thousands of miles of essential juvenile salmon habitat are blocked by tens of thousands of culverts that lay beneath Pacific Northwest roadways. Many of these culverts,...

Stratospheric air analysis resolves enigma of hydrogen balance in atmosphere.
September 15, 2003... 2003 SEP 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Discovery of the last piece of a long-standing puzzle - what happens to hydrogen gas in the atmosphere - will help scientists assess the impact of additional hydrogen escaping into the atmosphere if...

Nanometer-sized particles change crystal structure when they get wet.
September 15, 2003... 2003 SEP 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- As scientists shrink materials down to the nanometer scale, creating nanodots, nanoparticles, nanorods, and nanotubes a few tens of atoms across, they've found weird and puzzling behaviors that have...

Researchers measure electrical resistance of single molecules.
September 15, 2003... 2003 SEP 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers at Arizona State University have developed a relatively straightforward method for measuring the electrical resistance of single molecules. The advance, a technical achievement in terms...

Self-assembling silicon particles are first step toward tiny robots.
September 15, 2003... 2003 SEP 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Chemists at the University of California, San Diego, have developed minute grains of silicon that spontaneously assemble, orient, and sense their local environment, a first step toward the development...

Scientists discover secret of spider, silkworm fiber strength.
September 15, 2003... 2003 SEP 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Tufts University bioengineers have discovered how spiders and silkworms are able to spin webs and cocoons made of incredibly strong fibers. The answer lies in how they control the silk protein...

Modern global warming more damaging than in the past, scientist says.
September 15, 2003... 2003 SEP 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- "Some people will tell you that the planet has warmed in the past and that species always managed to adapt, so there's no cause for alarm. Unfortunately that's not the case," said Johannes Foufopoulos,...

Researchers pioneer interconnect technology that may take chips into 3-D.
September 15, 2003... 2003 SEP 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers led by Ronald J. Gutmann in the Focus Center-New York at Rensselaer (FC-NY-RPI) are pioneering new interconnect technologies that promise to deliver smaller, faster, inexpensive,...

Unexpected properties of iron at Earth's core may relate to ground movements.
September 15, 2003... 2003 SEP 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The core of the Earth doesn't look the way it was expected to. Scientists at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, have shown that iron, under extremely high pressure, such as...

Triggered deep earthquakes provide insight into how such phenomena get started.
September 15, 2003... 2003 SEP 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A University of California, Riverside, geophysicist says two large, deep earthquakes (depth > 300 km below the surface of the earth) that occurred in August 2002 in the Tonga subduction zone were...

Granular materials not so puzzling after all.
September 15, 2003... 2003 SEP 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Understanding the physics of granular materials is important in industries that handle and process large amounts of the materials, such as pills and powders in the pharmaceutical and food industries...

Technological breakthrough made in silicon photonics.
September 15, 2003... 2003 SEP 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A technique for tailormaking silicon nanocrystals on 4-inch wafers has been developed and submitted for patent (German patent number: DE 101 04 193 A 1) by Dr. Margit Zacharias and colleagues of the...

Ground-breaking research to develop 'conscious' robot.
September 15, 2003... 2003 SEP 15 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers at the Universities of Essex and Bristol, U.K., will soon be launching a ground-breaking project to develop a 'conscious' robot. The aim of the project, which involves computer...

Solar system 'fossils' discovered by Hubble Telescope.
September 22, 2003... 2003 SEP 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered three of the faintest and smallest objects ever detected beyond Neptune. Each lump of ice and rock is roughly the size of...

Smallest whirlpools can pack stunningly strong force.
September 22, 2003... 2003 SEP 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Researchers studying physical and chemical processes at the smallest scales, smaller even than the width of a human hair, have found that fluid circulating in a microscopic whirlpool can reach radial...

Ocean may sponge up some warmth over next 50 years.
September 22, 2003... 2003 SEP 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- NASA's improved global climate computer model, which simulates and projects how the Earth's climate may change, indicates that the oceans have been absorbing heat since 1951 and will continue to absorb...

Innovative engine mixes rotary and internal combustion technology.
September 22, 2003... 2003 SEP 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Five mechanical engineering undergraduate students at the University of Arizona have designed and built an engine that combines some of the best features found in internal-combustion (IC) and rotary...

Plasma detected at black hole.
September 22, 2003... 2003 SEP 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of California, Los Angeles, astronomers report they have detected remarkably stormy conditions in the hot plasma being pulled into the monstrous black hole residing at the center of our...

Iron nanoparticles could aid site remediation.
September 22, 2003... 2003 SEP 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An ultrafine, "nanoscale" powder made from iron, one of the most abundant metals on Earth, is turning out to be a remarkably effective tool for cleaning up contaminated soil and groundwater - a...

Crater found in Japanese Alps.
September 22, 2003... 2003 SEP 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A crater from a meteorite impact more than 20,000 years ago has been discovered in the Japanese Alps, an amateur geologist announced in early September 2003. The crater is the first found in Japan....

Ferroelectric superlattices' unusual properties may enhance current technology.
September 22, 2003... 2003 SEP 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- University of Arkansas researchers have used computer models to study the properties of a potential material for use in ultrasound and sonar and found that it exhibits some unusual properties that...

University gets grant to study nanoscience ethics.
September 22, 2003... 2003 SEP 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The National Science Foundation has awarded the University of South Carolina a $1.3 million grant from to research the ethics of nanoscience, the study of atoms and molecules. The 4-year grant is...

Measuring surface tension just got easier.
September 22, 2003... 2003 SEP 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Inventors at Oxford University, U.K., have developed a new method to indirectly measure the surface tension of liquid by tracking reflected light intensity to assess the surface configuration. The...

Nanotubes yield ideal photon emission.
September 22, 2003... 2003 SEP 22 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Carbon nanotubes, recently created cylinders of tightly bonded carbon atoms, have dazzled scientists and engineers with their seemingly endless list of special abilities, from incredible tensile...

Sound waves detected from super-massive black hole.
September 29, 2003... 2003 SEP 29 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has detected sound waves, for the first time, from a super-massive black hole. The "note" is the deepest ever detected from an object in the universe. The...

New technique could lead to widespread use of solar power.
September 29, 2003... 2003 SEP 29 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Princeton electrical engineers have invented a technique for making solar cells that, when combined with other recent advances, could yield a highly economical source of energy. The results,...

Scientists trying to mimic photosynthesis.
September 29, 2003... 2003 SEP 29 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Scientists studying the conversion of carbon dioxide (CO[subscript]2) to carbon monoxide (CO) - a crucial step in transforming CO[subscript]2 to useful organic compounds such as methanol - are trying...

New chemistry software automatically generates computer code.
September 29, 2003... 2003 SEP 29 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A new software tool promises to aid scientists whose research has forced them to lead double lives - as computer programmers. The tool, called the Tensor Contraction Engine (TCE), automatically...

Process developed for solvent-free acrylic fiber and cheap, fast carbon fibers.
September 29, 2003... 2003 SEP 29 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Carbon-fiber reinforced polymer matrix composite materials are strong without being brittle and retain their integrity over a wide temperature range while being impervious to most environments. While...

Voice control predicted to soon outmode current technologies.
September 29, 2003... 2003 SEP 29 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Using phone numbers, remote controls, and computer keyboards will likely seem quaint within a decade as new capability to turn human speech into accurate, efficient computer code radically changes the...

Researchers use transgenic trees to help clean up toxic waste site.
September 29, 2003... 2003 SEP 29 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Can genetically engineered cottonwood trees clean up a site contaminated with toxic mercury? A team of researchers from the University of Georgia, in the first such field test ever done with...

Study begins to unravel fate of toxic pollutants harbored in Arctic waters.
September 29, 2003... 2003 SEP 29 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- An analysis of pesticides that accumulate in Arctic waterways is giving scientists insight into the fate of such pollutants once they settle in polar regions. The Arctic holds a telltale record of...

Medicine changing from a genetics to a genomics approach.
September 29, 2003... 2003 SEP 29 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Medicine is slowly changing from a genetics to a genomics approach. According to recent research from the United States, "This article reviews how the continuum and gradual shift from genetics...

MIT team achieves coldest temperature ever.
September 29, 2003... 2003 SEP 29 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists have cooled a sodium gas to the lowest temperature ever recorded: only half-a-billionth of a degree above absolute zero. The work, reported...