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Enhancing the Magnetism: Berkeley Researchers Find Enhanced and Controllable Magnetization in Unique Bismuth Ferrite Films

By Guest PostMarch 27, 2011Sciencebfo, bismuth ferrite, dick tracy, domain walls, helen he, information age, john heron, magnetism, magnetoelectronic, multiferroic property, nanoscale, partial relaxation, qing, ramamoorthy ramesh, rhombohedral phases, spintronic devices, spontaneous magnetism, spontaneous magnetization, universe, ying hao chu

“The nation that controls magnetism will control the universe,” famed fictional detective Dick Tracy predicted back in 1935. Probably an overstatement, but there’s little doubt the nation that leads the development of advanced magnetoelectronic or “spintronic” devices is going to have a serious leg-up on its Information Age competition. A smaller, faster and cheaper way to store and transfer information is the spintronic grand prize and a key to winning this prize is understanding and controlling a multiferroic property known as “spontaneous magnetization.”

Now, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have been able to enhance spontaneous magnetization in special versions of the popular multiferroic material bismuth ferrite. What’s more, they can turn this magnetization “on/off” through the application of an external electric field, a critical ability for the advancement of spintronic technology. (more…)

MU Researcher Works to Save One of the World’s Most Endangered Birds

By Guest PostMarch 26, 2011Nature, Scienceblue feathers, coconut farmers, dylan kesler, impact of predators, kingfisher, lizards, multicolored, planet, pouncing, radio transmitters, South Pacific, tiny island, tropical bird, tuamotu kingfisher

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Tuamotu Kingfisher is a multicolored, tropical bird with bright blue feathers, a dusty orange head, and a bright green back. The entire population of these birds – less than 125 – lives on one tiny island in the south Pacific, and without serious intervention, they will no longer exist. One University of Missouri researcher is trying to stop the birds’ extinction by working with farmers and residents on the island inhabited by the kingfishers.

“If we lose these birds, we lose 50,000 years of uniqueness and evolution,” said Dylan Kesler, assistant professor in fisheries and wildlife at the University of Missouri’s School of Natural Resources in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. “Because it has lived in isolation for a very long time, it’s unlike any other bird. There is no other bird like this on the planet.” (more…)

On the Sizeable Wings of Albatrosses

By Guest PostMarch 25, 2011Nature, Scienceabove ocean wind shear, air sea friction, airborne sailboat, albatross, albatross flight, albatrosses, colin pennycuick, dynamic soaring, kinetic energy, large bird, lord rayleigh, model, nobel laureate, oceanographer, oceans, philip richardson, physicist, radio controlled gliders, scientist, south atlantic ocean, sustained soaring, wave trough, wings

An oceanographer may be offering the best explanation yet of one of the great mysteries of flight—how albatrosses fly such vast distances, even around the world, almost without flapping their wings. The answer, says Philip L. Richardson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), lies in a concept called dynamic soaring, in which the large bird utilizes the power of above-ocean wind shear while tacking like an airborne sailboat.

“I have a simple model that explains the basic physics of what albatrosses do,” says Richardson, a scientist emeritus at WHOI, who, in addition to his primary career in studying ocean currents, has also piloted gliders. The key, he says, is the bird’s ability to balance the kinetic energy gained in soaring with the energy lost from drag. (more…)

Study of How Brain Corrects Perceptual Errors Has Implications For Brain Injuries, Robotics

By Guest PostMarch 24, 2011Sciencebiological and artificial systems, brain, david bowie, david wozny, flash of light, ladan shams, mars rovers, milliseconds, NASA, perception of the sound, perceptual systems, radio static, rehabilitation from brain injuries, robotic recalibration, sensory recalibration, shams, shams and wozny, spatial map, static environments, ventriloquist illusion

“Don’t you wonder sometimes about sound and vision?” — David Bowie

New research provides the first evidence that sensory recalibration — the brain’s automatic correcting of errors in our sensory or perceptual systems — can occur instantly.

“Until recently, neuroscientists thought of sensory recalibration as a mechanism that is primarily used for coping with long-term changes, such as growth during development, brain injury or stroke,” said Ladan Shams, a UCLA assistant professor of psychology and an expert on perception and cognitive neuroscience. “It appeared that extensive time, and thus many repetitions of error, were needed for mechanisms of recalibration to kick in. However, our findings indicate we don’t need weeks, days, or even minutes or seconds to adapt. To some degree, we adapt instantaneously. (more…)

Study Finds That Overweight People Really Are Big-Boned

By Guest PostMarch 23, 2011Scienceforensic experts, forensic science, skeletal remains, unknown remains

One of the blind spots in forensic science, particularly in identifying unknown remains, is the inability of experts to determine how much an individual weighed based on his or her skeleton. New research from North Carolina State University moves us closer to solving this problem by giving forensic experts valuable insight into what the shape of the femur can tell us about the weight of an individual. (more…)

A Dose of Safflower Oil Each Day Might Help Keep Heart Disease at Bay

By Guest PostMarch 22, 2011Health, Scienceabdominal fat, adiponectin, cardiovascular disease, cholesterol, diabetes, glycemic control, inflammation, insulin sensitivity, linoleic acid, lipid control, metabolic syndrome, omega-3 pufas, omega-6 pufas, postmenopausal, safflower oil, triglycerides

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A daily dose of safflower oil, a common cooking oil, for 16 weeks can improve such health measures as good cholesterol, blood sugar, insulin sensitivity and inflammation in obese postmenopausal women who have Type 2 diabetes, according to new research.

This finding comes about 18 months after the same researchers discovered that safflower oil reduced abdominal fat and increased muscle tissue in this group of women after 16 weeks of daily supplementation.

This combination of health measures that are improved by the safflower oil is associated with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that can increase risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. (more…)

Berkeley Lab Scientists Achieve Breakthrough in Nanocomposite for High-Capacity Hydrogen Storage

By Guest PostMarch 20, 2011Scienceclean energy, fossil fuels, greenhouse gas, hydrogen storage technology, nanoparticles of magnesium, nanoscale materials, plexiglas, pliable nanocomposite, polymethyl methacrylate, volatile gas

Since the 1970s, hydrogen has been touted as a promising alternative to fossil fuels due to its clean combustion —unlike the combustion of fossil fuels, which spews greenhouse gases and harmful pollutants, hydrogen’s only combustion by-product is water. Compared to gasoline, hydrogen is lightweight, can provide a higher energy density and is readily available. But there’s a reason we’re not already living in a hydrogen economy: to replace gasoline as a fuel, hydrogen must be safely and densely stored, yet easily accessed. Limited by materials unable to leap these conflicting hurdles, hydrogen storage technology has lagged behind other clean energy candidates. (more…)

Stars Gather in ‘Downtown’ Milky Way

By Guest PostMarch 20, 2011Science120 degree view, astronomers, earth, galactic center, Galaxy, infrared array camera, milky way galaxy, multiband imaging photometer, myriad of stars, NASA, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, spitzer image, spitzer space telescope, starlight

The region around the center of our Milky Way galaxy glows colorfully in this new version of an image taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

The data were previously released as part of a long, 120-degree view of the plane our galaxy (see https://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/2680-ssc2008-11a-Spitzer-Finds-Clarity-in-the-Inner-Milky-Way). Now, data from the very center of that picture are being presented at a different contrast to better highlight this jam-packed region. In visible-light pictures, it is all but impossible to see the heart of our galaxy, but infrared light penetrates the shroud of dust giving us this unprecedented view. (more…)

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