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Supervolcanic Ash Can Turn To Lava Miles From Eruption, MU Scientists Find

By Guest PostSeptember 6, 2013Sciencepyroclastic flows, supervolcano eruption, supervolcanoes, viscous heating, volcanic ash, volcanic eruptions

“Viscous heating” can reheat volcanic ash enough to convert it to lava

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Supervolcanoes, such as the one sitting dormant under Yellowstone National Park, are capable of producing eruptions thousands of times more powerful than normal volcanic eruptions. While they only happen every several thousand years, these eruptions have the potential to kill millions of people and animals due to the massive amount of heat and ash they release into the atmosphere. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have shown that the ash produced by supervolcanoes can be so hot that it has the ability to turn back into lava once it hits the ground tens of miles away from the original eruption. (more…)

Declassified spy photographs reveal lost Roman frontier

By Guest PostSeptember 5, 2013Sciencedeclassified photographs, frontier barrier system, lost roman frontier, military surveillance, spy photographs, trajans rampart

Declassified spy photography has uncovered a lost Roman Eastern frontier, dating from the second century AD. (more…)

Physicists pinpoint key property of material that both conducts and insulates

By Guest PostSeptember 5, 2013Sciencebell laboratories, conductor, david cobden, electrical insulator, ice, jae hyung park, jim coy, liquid, metal insulator transition, phases of water, pressure, scott hunter, temperature, triple point, university of washington, vanadium dioxide, vapor

It is well known to scientists that the three common phases of water – ice, liquid and vapor – can exist stably together only at a particular temperature and pressure, called the triple point.

Also well known is that the solid form of many materials can have numerous phases, but it is difficult to pinpoint the temperature and pressure for the points at which three solid phases can coexist stably. (more…)

Poor concentration: Poverty reduces brainpower needed for navigating other areas of life

By Guest PostSeptember 4, 2013Scienceanandi mani, cognitive function, easy, eldar shafir, financial woe, hard, harvard university, ifmr trust, India, iq, jiaying zhao, journal science, mental tax, money situation, new jersey, poor concentration, poverty reduces brainpower, scenario, sendhil mullainathan, university of warwick in britain

Poverty and all its related concerns require so much mental energy that the poor have less remaining brainpower to devote to other areas of life, according to research based at Princeton University. As a result, people of limited means are more likely to make mistakes and bad decisions that may be amplified by — and perpetuate — their financial woes.

Published in the journal Science, the study presents a unique perspective regarding the causes of persistent poverty. The researchers suggest that being poor may keep a person from concentrating on the very avenues that would lead them out of poverty. A person’s cognitive function is diminished by the constant and all-consuming effort of coping with the immediate effects of having little money, such as scrounging to pay bills and cut costs. Thusly, a person is left with fewer “mental resources” to focus on complicated, indirectly related matters such as education, job training and even managing their time. (more…)

Ultracold Big Bang experiment successfully simulates evolution of early universe

By Guest PostSeptember 1, 2013Scienceabsolute zero, andrei sakharov, background radiation, beginning of universe, big bang, black holes, chao lin kuo, chen lung hung, cheng chin, cmb, cobe, cosmic microwave, dynamics, early universe, evolution, excitations, galaxy formation, infant universe, initial conditions, john carlstrom, laboratory simulation, matter and radiation, michael turner, phenomenon, power of physics, russian physicist, sakharov acoustic oscillations, sakharov oscillations, simulation, sound wave excitations, stanford university, ultracold big bang, ultracold cesium atoms, university of chicago, vacuum chamber, wayne hu, wmap

Physicists have reproduced a pattern resembling the cosmic microwave background radiation in a laboratory simulation of the Big Bang, using ultracold cesium atoms in a vacuum chamber at the University of Chicago.

“This is the first time an experiment like this has simulated the evolution of structure in the early universe,” said Cheng Chin, professor in physics. Chin and his associates reported their feat in the Aug. 1 edition of Science Express, and it will appear soon in the print edition of Science. (more…)

Magma can survive in upper crust for hundreds of millennia

By Guest PostSeptember 1, 2013Scienceandes mountains, cascades range, craggy granite formation, crystallization, francisco gutierrez, hawaii, heat conductivity, hundreds of millennia, kilauea volcano, magma, modeling research, molten rock, mount pinatubo, mount st helens, national scientiﬁc, olivier bachmann, oozing, pacific northwest, period, Philippines, plutonic magma, plutonic rock, reservoir, Santiago, sarah gelman, silica rich magma, south america, survive, temperature dependent, universidad de chile, university of washington, upper crust, volcanic arcs, volcanic eruptions, volcanic magma, washington state, yellowstone national park, yosemite national park

Reservoirs of silica-rich magma – the kind that causes the most explosive volcanic eruptions – can persist in Earth’s upper crust for hundreds of thousands of years without triggering an eruption, according to new University of Washington modeling research.

That means an area known to have experienced a massive volcanic eruption in the past, such as Yellowstone National Park, could have a large pool of magma festering beneath it and still not be close to going off as it did 600,000 years ago.

“You might expect to see a stewing magma chamber for a long period of time and it doesn’t necessarily mean an eruption is imminent,” said Sarah Gelman, a UW doctoral student in Earth and space sciences. (more…)

Saturn Moon May Have Rigid Ice Shell

By Guest PostAugust 30, 2013Sciencecassini data, cassini huygens mission, cassini spacecraft, cassini team, douglas hemingway, european space agency, francis nimmo, gravity, ice roots, ice shell, italian space agency, NASA, orange brown atmosphere, santa cruz, saturn moon, saturnian moon titan, topography data, university of california

An analysis of gravity and topography data from the Saturnian moon Titan obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggests there could be something unexpected about the moon’s outer ice shell. The findings, published on Aug. 28 in the journal Nature, suggest that Titan’s ice shell could be rigid, and that relatively small topographic features on the surface could be associated with large ice “roots” extending into the underlying ocean.

The study was led by planetary scientists Douglas Hemingway and Francis Nimmo at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who used data from Cassini. The researchers were surprised to find a counterintuitive relationship between gravity and topography. (more…)

Self-Healing Solar Cells ‘Channel’ Natural Processes

By Guest PostAugust 29, 2013Sciencegel microfluidic cell, power of sun, silicon solar cells, solar cell, solar cell devices

To understand how solar cells heal themselves, look no further than the nearest tree leaf or the back of your hand.

The “branching” vascular channels that circulate life-sustaining nutrients throughout leaves and hands serve as the inspiration for solar cells that can restore themselves efficiently and inexpensively. (more…)

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