Washington, D.C. — Superconductivity is a rare physical state in which matter is able to conduct electricity—maintain a flow of electrons—without any resistance. This phenomenon can only be found in certain materials at low temperatures, or can be induced under chemical and high external pressure conditions. (more…)
— Scientists use special kind of atomic force microscopy at low temperatures and in ultrahigh vacuum to image the charge distribution within a single molecule
— The new technique will further the understanding of nanoscale physics and could help develop future applications such as solar photoconversion, energy storage, or molecular scale computing devices
ZURICH – 27 Feb 2012: IBM scientists were able to measure for the first time how charge is distributed within a single molecule. This breakthrough will enable fundamental scientific insights into single-molecule switching and bond formation between atoms and molecules. The ability to image the charge distribution within functional molecular structures holds great promise for future applications such as solar photoconversion, energy storage, or molecular scale computing devices. (more…)
New research into how the stock market perceives the capabilities of female company directors finds that an initial negative response by investors is overturned in the longer term, once markets respond to corporate performance rather than stereotypes.
The study analysed the stock market response to male and female directors’ purchases of their own company shares, examining both the short-run and long-run stock market reaction response to directors’ trades.
Results suggest that the price reaction to male directors’ share activity is initially faster and larger than that for female directors, showing that the short-term market reaction retains a gender bias reflecting the prevalence of negative stereotypes; where the market reacts to beliefs rather than performance. (more…)
UA professor Sheri Bauman, an expert in cyberbullying, is among those invited to attend the launch of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, a nationwide education and advocacy organization. (more…)
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Hispanics are enrolling in the higher education system at a greater rate than ever, yet they are less likely than their non-Hispanic peers to enter college or earn degrees, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. A new study by a University of Missouri researcher found that Mexican-American college students’ family and peer attachments are associated with prosocial and physically aggressive behaviors that can affect their success in college. (more…)
PASADENA, Calif. — Astronomers using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have, for the first time, discovered buckyballs in a solid form in space. Prior to this discovery, the microscopic carbon spheres had been found only in gas form in the cosmos. (more…)
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— One in five households with children in poverty are surviving on the cash equivalent of a half gallon of milk per person per day in a given month.
The National Poverty Center has released a new report that examines poverty trends between 1996 and 2011. The number of households with children who are in extreme poverty in a given month—living at $2 or less in income per person per day—in 2011 totaled roughly 1.46 million households, including 2.8 million kids. This number is up from 636,000 households in 1996, nearly a 130 percent increase. (more…)
*Berkeley Lab Researchers Identify Structure of Key Control Element Behind Protein Misfolding That Can Lead to Disease*
The gold standard for nanotechnology is nature’s own proteins. These biomolecular nanomachines – macromolecules forged from peptide chains of amino acids – are able to fold themselves into a dazzling multitude of shapes and forms that enable them to carry out an equally dazzling multitude of functions fundamental to life. As important as protein folding is to virtually all biological systems, the mechanisms behind this process have remained a mystery. The fog, however, is being lifted.
A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), using the exceptionally bright and powerful x-ray beams of the Advanced Light Source, have determined the crystal structure of a critical control element within chaperonin, the protein complex responsible for the correct folding of other proteins. The incorrect or “misfolding” of proteins has been linked to many diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and some forms of cancer. (more…)
