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Clam Fields Found at Deep, Low-Temperature Mariana Vents

By Guest PostFebruary 19, 2012Sciencehydrothermal vents, mariana plate, mariana trench, serpentinite vents, serpentinization of peridotite, shinkai seep field, southern mariana forearc, vesicomyid clams

Scientists have marveled at the unusual life forms thriving at high temperature hydrothermal vents of the deep ocean. (more…)

NASA Map Sees Earth’s Trees in a New Light

By Guest PostFebruary 19, 2012Environment, Scienceaustralia, caltech, carbon, carbon cycle, climate change, cloud, data, earth, effects of topography, eucalyptus, flowering plants, forest, forest canopy, forest habitat, global map of forest height, height, high resolution map, icesat, laser pulse measurements, lidar, light detection and ranging, marc simard, modis, monitor, NASA, new zealand, satellites, south latitude, southern tropical forests, Space, spatial modeling, spatial resolution, trmm sensors, vegetation, worldclim database

PASADENA, Calif. – A NASA-led science team has created an accurate, high-resolution map of the height of Earth’s forests. The map will help scientists better understand the role forests play in climate change and how their heights influence wildlife habitats within them, while also helping them quantify the carbon stored in Earth’s vegetation.

Scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; the University of Maryland, College Park; and Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, Mass., created the map using 2.5 million carefully screened, globally distributed laser pulse measurements from space. The light detection and ranging (lidar) data were collected in 2005 by the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System instrument on NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat). (more…)

UCLA Engineers Create Tandem Polymer Solar Cells That Set Record For Energy-Conversion

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2012Scienceabsorption, california nanosystems institute, cnsi, conductive, conversion, electricity, gang li, Japan, organic polymers, photovoltaic solar cells, polymer solar cells, shuji doi, solar energy, solar spectrum, sumitomo chemical, sunlight, tandem solar cell technology, tandem structure, yang yang

In the effort to convert sunlight into electricity, photovoltaic solar cells that use conductive organic polymers for light absorption and conversion have shown great potential. Organic polymers can be produced in high volumes at low cost, resulting in photovoltaic devices that are cheap, lightweight and flexible.

In the last few years, much work has been done to improve the efficiency with which these devices convert sunlight into power, including the development of new materials, device structures and processing techniques. (more…)

At Yale, Quantum Computing is a (qu)bit Closer to Reality

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2012Scienceartificial atoms, computation, delft university of technology, eric gershon, errors, exponentially faster, information processing, l dicarlo, l frunzio, l sun, matthew reed, molecules, Nature, Netherlands, physicists, quantum bits, quantum computing, quantum error correction, qubit states, qubits, robert schoelkopf, s e nigg, s m girvin, superconducting circuits, trapped ions, yale university

Physicists at Yale University have taken another significant step in the development of quantum computing, a new frontier in computing that promises exponentially faster information processing than the most sophisticated computers of today.

In research published online this month in the journal Nature, the Yale physicists demonstrate the most basic form of quantum error correction — a way to compensate for quantum computing’s intrinsic susceptibility to errors. Developing technology to correct these errors on the fly is a necessary step for fully realizing quantum computers. (more…)

New Mouse Reference Library Should Speed Gene Discoveries

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2012Sciencecc, collaborative cross, david threadgill, francis s collins, genes, genetic information, genetic sequences, genetic variation, human disease, jackson laboratory, lab mice, manual, mice, north carolina state university, oxford university, tel aviv university

Genetic information provided by a large group of specially designed mice could pave the way to faster human health discoveries and transform the ways people battle and prevent disease.

In 15 papers published Feb. 16 in the Genetics Society of America journals Genetics and G3:Genes/Genomes/Genetics, researchers from North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Jackson Laboratory and other universities and labs across the globe highlight a new genetic resource that could aid development of more effective treatments for any number of human diseases. (more…)

Color is Key in Controlling Flies, UF Researchers Find

By Guest PostFebruary 17, 2012Sciencebehavioral test, carrier, cholera, Cuba, dysentery, electricity, florida fly baiter, fly control, haitian refugee, house fly, hurricane, jeff hertz, joseph diclaro, natural disaster, pest problem, phil koehler, plumbing, program, robert h wells, roberto pereira, tsunamis, typhoid fever, university of florida, war fighter protection

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — As a carrier of as many as 100 types of germs, the common house fly is hardly as innocuous as its name might suggest.

Military personnel know this firsthand, and their need for effective fly control has helped University of Florida researchers create an innovative new fly control device. (more…)

Echoes From an Exploding Star

By Guest PostFebruary 16, 2012Sciencebinary star systems, eta carinae, exploding star, great eruption, stellar eruption

Astronomers watch a delayed broadcast of a powerful stellar eruption

Astronomers are watching the astronomical equivalent of streaming live video of a spectacular outburst from the unstable, behemoth double-star system Eta Carinae, which initially was seen on Earth nearly 170 years ago. (more…)

UCLA Scientists Boost Memory By Stimulating Key Site in Brain

By Guest PostFebruary 16, 2012Sciencealzheimer, americans, barbara knowlton, brain, brain cells, brain site, critical junction, cyber city, disease, entorhinal cortex, eric behnke, hippocampus, itzhak fried, john stern, memory, nanthia suthana, neuro prosthetic devices, neuroscientist, roy mukamel, taxi cab, ucla, united states, video game, virtual passenger, zulfi haneef

*Mechanism holds potential for improving recall in dementia patients*

Have you ever gone to the movies and forgotten where you parked the car? New UCLA research may one day help you improve your memory.

UCLA neuroscientists have demonstrated that they can strengthen memory in human patients by stimulating a critical junction in the brain. Published in the Feb. 9 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, the finding could lead to a new method for boosting memory in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease. (more…)

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