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Researchers Build 3-D Structures Out of Liquid Metal

By Guest PostAugust 4, 2013Science3d structures, biomolecular engineering, collin ladd, component, droplets, gallium, indium, john muth, ju hee so, liquid metal, liquid metal alloy, michael dickey, north Carolina, polymer template, printing technology, room temperature, state university, substrate, three dimensions

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed three-dimensional (3-D) printing technology and techniques to create free-standing structures made of liquid metal at room temperature.

“It’s difficult to create structures out of liquids, because liquids want to bead up. But we’ve found that a liquid metal alloy of gallium and indium reacts to the oxygen in the air at room temperature to form a ‘skin’ that allows the liquid metal structures to retain their shapes,” says Dr. Michael Dickey, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the work. (more…)

Questions for Jack Mustard: Helping to shape a new Mars rover

By Guest PostAugust 4, 2013Science2020 mission, brown university, carbon compounds, curiosity, exist on mars, geological sciences, human spaceflight, jack mustard, life on mars, mars 2020, NASA, new generation, new mars rover, planet, resources on mars, science definition team, signs of life, Technology

In 2020, a new-generation Mars rover will land on the Red Planet and gather much more detailed data than Curiosity, which is on Mars now. NASA revealed details about the new rover at a news conference Tuesday, July 9, 2013. Brown University’s Jack Mustard chaired the Mars 2020 Science Definition Team.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — NASA unveiled details about a new rover proposed to land on the surface of Mars in 2020. The details came in the form of a 154-page document prepared by the Mars 2020 Science Definition Team, which was tasked with recommending scientific objectives of the mission. (more…)

Computer modeling shows crucial function of water molecules in proteins

By Guest PostAugust 3, 2013Scienceatom for atom, benoit roux, cell membrane, cellular environment, computer modeling, crucial function, diameter, human health, impact, molecular simulations, phenomenon, potassium channel, proteins, signal, single carbon atom, uchicago scientists, water molecules

Using molecular simulations that modeled a potassium channel and its immediate cellular environment, atom for atom, UChicago scientists have discovered that just 12 molecules of water cause the long post-activation recovery period required by such ion channels before they can function again. The research has revealed a new mechanism in the function of a nearly universal biological structure that will have broad implications, ranging from fundamental biology to the design of pharmaceuticals.

“Our research clarifies the nature of this previously mysterious inactivation state. This gives us better understanding of fundamental biology and should improve the rational design of drugs, which often target the inactivated state of channels,” said Benoît Roux, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, whose team’s findings were published online July 28 in Nature. (more…)

Successful Test of New U.S. Magnet Puts Large Hadron Collider on Track for Major Upgrade

By Guest PostAugust 3, 2013Scienceaccelerator technology, advance, berkeley lab, CERN, fermilab, gianluca sabb, higgs boson, high field quadrupole, high luminosity, hq02a, Large Hadron Collider, larp, lucio rossi, magnetic excitation, magnets, nb3sn, new us magnet, old dominion university, quench, superconducting quadrupole magnet, superconducting state, superconductor niobium tin

U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories – including Berkeley Lab – collaborate to build the new magnets CERN needs to increase LHC luminosity by an order of magnitude

The U.S. LHC Accelerator Program (LARP) has successfully tested a powerful superconducting quadrupole magnet that will play a key role in developing a new beam focusing system for CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This advanced system, together with other major upgrades to be implemented over the next decade, will allow the LHC to produce 10 times more high-energy collisions than it was originally designed for.

Dubbed HQ02a, the latest in LARP’s series of High-Field Quadrupole magnets is wound with cables of the brittle but high-performance superconductor niobium tin (Nb₃Sn). Compared to the final-focus quadrupoles presently in place at the LHC, which are made with niobium titanium, HQ02a has a larger aperture and superconducting coils designed to operate at a higher magnetic field. In a recent test at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), HQ02a achieved all its challenging objectives. (more…)

CU-Boulder team develops new water splitting technique that could produce hydrogen

By Guest PostAugust 3, 2013Scienceconcentrated sunlight, fuel cells, hydrogen economy, splitting water, storage, water splitting technique

A University of Colorado Boulder team has developed a radically new technique that uses the power of sunlight to efficiently split water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen, paving the way for the broad use of hydrogen as a clean, green fuel. (more…)

How Did Earth’s Primitive Chemistry Get Kick Started?

By Guest PostAugust 2, 2013Scienceacetate, alkaline hydrothermal fluids, alkaline hydrothermal vents, ancient enzymes, atlantic ocean, bottom of oceans, chemical signature, distribution, earliest oceans, earth, enceladus, evolution, floor, future of life, hypothesis, icy worlds, jupiter, lauren white, laws of thermodynamics, mike russell, moon europa, nano engines, NASA, organic carbon, origin, polymers, primitive chemistry, saturn

How did life on Earth get started? Three new papers co-authored by Mike Russell, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., strengthen the case that Earth’s first life began at alkaline hydrothermal vents at the bottom of oceans. Scientists are interested in understanding early life on Earth because if we ever hope to find life on other worlds — especially icy worlds with subsurface oceans such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus — we need to know what chemical signatures to look for.

Two papers published recently in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B provide more detail on the chemical and precursor metabolic reactions that have to take place to pave the pathway for life. Russell and his co-authors describe how the interactions between the earliest oceans and alkaline hydrothermal fluids likely produced acetate (comparable to vinegar). The acetate is a product of methane and hydrogen from the alkaline hydrothermal vents and carbon dioxide dissolved in the surrounding ocean. Once this early chemical pathway was forged, acetate could become the basis of other biological molecules. They also describe how two kinds of “nano-engines” that create organic carbon and polymers — energy currency of the first cells — could have been assembled from inorganic minerals. (more…)

Blind(fold)ed by Science: Study Shows the Strategy Humans Use to Chase Objects

By Guest PostAugust 2, 2013Sciencearizona state university, blindfolded, brain, charles swank, dennis shaffer, eric mcmanama, motion capture equipment, moving object, polymodal

Vision and Hearing Work Together in the Brain to Help Us Catch a Moving Target

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A new study has found that chasing down a moving object is not only a matter of sight or of sound, but of mind.

The study found that people who are blindfolded employ the same strategy to intercept a running ball carrier as people who can see, which suggests that multiple areas of the brain cooperate to accomplish the task.

Regardless of whether they could see or not, the study participants seemed to aim ahead of the ball carrier’s trajectory and then run to the spot where they expected him or her to be in the near future. Researchers call this a “constant target-heading angle” strategy, similar to strategies used by dogs catching Frisbees and baseball players catching fly balls. (more…)

Is sexual addiction the real deal?

By Guest PostAugust 1, 2013Health, Science, SexBible, brain, criteria, diagnosing mental disorders, dsm 5, economic ruin, hypersexual disorder, hypersexual people, hypersexual problems, hypersexuality, mental health experts, nicole prause, p300 reaction, p300 response, psychology, romantic images, sex addiction, sexual addiction, sexual compulsions, sexual desire, sexual images, timothy fong, ucla

Controversy exists over what some mental health experts call “hypersexuality,” or sexual “addiction.” Namely, is it a mental disorder at all, or something else? It failed to make the cut in the recently updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, considered the bible for diagnosing mental disorders. Yet sex addiction has been blamed for ruining relationships, lives and careers.

Now, for the first time, UCLA researchers have measured how the brain behaves in so-called hypersexual people who have problems regulating their viewing of sexual images. The study found that the brain response of these individuals to sexual images was not related in any way to the severity of their hypersexuality but was instead tied only to their level of sexual desire. (more…)

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