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New material for quantum computing discovered out of the blue

By Guest PostOctober 31, 2013Scienceblue pigment, copper phthalocyanine, matter, organic semiconductor, quantum computer, quantum properties

A common blue pigment used in the £5 note could have an important role to play in the development of a quantum computer, according to a paper published in the journal Nature. (more…)

What is it About Your Face?

By Guest PostOctober 30, 2013Scienceabout your face, alex nord, axel visel, berkeley lab, catia attanasio, craniofacial birth defects, craniofacial development, craniofacial pathologies, denise liberton, DNA, epigenomic profiling, facial morphology, genetic defects, human chromosomal regions, human face, identical twins, importance of enhancers, in vivo characterization, matthew blow, mice, skull morphology, therapeutic approaches, unique as fingerprint, yiwen zhu, zirong li

The human face is as unique as a fingerprint, no one else looks exactly like you. But what is it that makes facial morphology so distinct? Certainly genetics play a major role as evident in the similarities between parents and their children, but what is it in our DNA that fine-tunes the genetics so that siblings – especially identical twins – resemble one another but look different from unrelated individuals? A new study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has now shown that gene enhancers – regulatory sequences of DNA that act to turn-on or amplify the expression of a specific gene – are major players in craniofacial development. (more…)

Watching Earth’s Winds, On a Shoestring

By Guest PostOctober 30, 2013Scienceatmosphere, climate, earth, earth science mission, el niño, ernesto rodríguez, european ascat scatterometer, hazard for populations, hurricane, interaction, international space station, iss rapidscat, low energy microwave, michael suffredini, microwave energy, NASA, ocean, rapid scatterometer, scatterometer satellite mission, seasat satellite, simon collins, sun synchronous orbit, tropical cyclone

Built with spare parts and without a moment to spare, the International Space Station (ISS)-RapidScat isn’t your average NASA Earth science mission.

Short for Rapid Scatterometer, ISS-RapidScat will monitor ocean winds from the vantage point of the space station . It will join a handful of other satellite scatterometer missions that make essential measurements used to support weather and marine forecasting, including the tracking of storms and hurricanes. It will also help improve our understanding of how interactions between Earth’s ocean and atmosphere influence our climate. (more…)

Mosquitofish Genital Shape Linked to Presence of Predators

By Guest PostOctober 29, 2013Scienceblue holes, evolutionary changes, gambusia hubbsi, gambusia predators, justa heinen kay, male bahamas mosquitofish, male genital shape, mosquitofish genital shape, north Carolina, presence of predators, sperm transferring organ, state university, threat of predation

When predators lurk nearby, male Bahamas mosquitofish (Gambusia hubbsi) change mating strategies, rejecting elaborate courting rituals for more frequent and sometimes forceful encounters with females.

But as a recent North Carolina State University study shows, mating strategies aren’t the only things changing for G. hubbsi when predators abound. The shape and size of the male fish’s genitalia are also linked to the presence or absence of predators. (more…)

Creating fuel from sunlight

By Guest PostOctober 29, 2013Environment, Sciencecarbon dioxide byproduct, CO2, components of syngas, creating fuel, energy mix, fossil fuel, from, jane davidson, liquid hydrocarbon fuel, methane, natural, next generation, solar power, solar simulator, sunlight, syngas, synthetic gas, tom chase, university of minnesota

Turning fossil fuel into energy is easy: You just burn it. And live with the carbon dioxide byproduct. What if we could reverse the process and turn water and carbon dioxide back into fuel?

A dream solution, but it may seem like trying to put the genie back in the bottle. (more…)

Ghostly Specter Haunts the ‘Coldest Place in the Universe’

By Guest PostOctober 26, 2013Sciencealma, alma data, atacama large millimeter, big bang, boomerang nebula, coldest place, constellation centaurus, dwarf stars, ghost like appearance, ghostly specter haunts, lars ake nyman, NASA, patrick huggins, planetary nebula, raghvendra sahai, submillimeter array, telescope in chile, ultra cold object, universe, visible wavelengths, wouter vlemmings

At a cosmologically crisp one degree Kelvin (minus 458 degrees Fahrenheit), the Boomerang nebula is the coldest known object in the universe — colder, in fact, than the faint afterglow of the Big Bang, the explosive event that created the cosmos.

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile have taken a new look at this object to learn more about its frigid properties and to determine its true shape, which has an eerily ghost-like appearance. (more…)

UCLA psychologists report new insights on human brain, consciousness

By Guest PostOctober 25, 2013Sciencebelgium, brain injury, Cambridge University, computational biology, consciousness, evan lutkenhoff, fmri, human brain, liege, los angeles, martin monti, mikahil rubinov, network properties, new york, phenomenon, steven laureys, ucla psychologists, university hospital, vegetative state, volunteers under anesthesia, zig zag route

UCLA psychologists have used brain-imaging techniques to study what happens to the human brain when it slips into unconsciousness. Their research, published Oct. 17 in the online journal PLOS Computational Biology, is an initial step toward developing a scientific definition of consciousness.

“In terms of brain function, the difference between being conscious and unconscious is a bit like the difference between driving from Los Angeles to New York in a straight line versus having to cover the same route hopping on and off several buses that force you to take a ‘zig-zag’ route and stop in several places,” said lead study author Martin Monti, an assistant professor of psychology and neurosurgery at UCLA. (more…)

Dolphins Assist Scientists Studying Effects of Data-logging Tags

By Guest PostOctober 24, 2013Nature, Scienceandreas fahlman, carbon dioxide level, data logging tags, dolphin, dolphin quest, kahala hotel, marine mammal, micah brodsky, michael moore, optimal hydrodynamic design, rae stone, resort in oahu, respiratory flow rate, tamucc, vmd consulting, whoi

For scientists studying marine mammals in the wild, data-logging tags are invaluable tools that allow them to observe animals’ movements and behaviors that are otherwise hidden beneath the waves much of the time. The tags, which temporarily attach to animals using suction, record sounds and gather information about animals’ pitch, speed, and depth. But what effect do the tags have on the animals?

Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) are working with dolphins and their trainers at Dolphin Quest at The Kahala Hotel and Resort in Oahu to answer that question, among others. (more…)

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