Tag Archives: phenomenon

Portable X-Ray Source Invented at MU Could Put Medical Diagnosis and Terrorism Prevention in the Palm of the Hand

By Guest PostJanuary 19, 2013Sciencecell phone, compact source, crystal, curiosity rover, electric charge, electricity, energy, forms of radiation, hand held scanners, interplanetary probes, lithium niobate, phenomenon, piezoelectric effect, portable x ray, power consumption, radiation source, radioactive material, radioisotopes, remote, scanner, scott kovaleski, shooting the rays, star trek, stress, tricorders, university of missouri, x-rays

The inexpensive device could improve health in the developing world and reduce mining risks

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The hand-held scanners, or tricorders, of the Star Trek movies and television series are one step closer to reality now that a University of Missouri engineering team has invented a compact source of X-rays and other forms of radiation. The radiation source, which is the size of a stick of gum, could be used to create inexpensive and portable X-ray scanners for use by doctors, as well as to fight terrorism and aid exploration on this planet and others.

“Currently, X-ray machines are huge and require tremendous amounts of electricity,” said Scott Kovaleski, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at MU. “In approximately three years, we could have a prototype hand-held X-ray scanner using our invention. The cell-phone-sized device could improve medical services in remote and impoverished regions and reduce health care expenses everywhere.” (more…)

Want Better Employees? Get Somebody Else To Rate Their Personalities, Suggests New Study.

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Economyassessment, business, co worker, current employees, evaluation tool, job, maastricht university, michael scott, performance, personality test, phenomenon, potential, predictive, self rated, the office, toronto, university, ute huelsheger

TORONTO, ON – Businesses will get more accurate assessments of potential and current employees if they do away with self-rated personality tests and ask those being assessed to find someone else to rate them, suggest results from a new study.

Previous job performance studies have shown that outsiders are best at rating an individual’s personality in terms of how they work on the job. But observers in these studies have always been co-workers. (more…)

Asteroid Vesta Has Unique ‘Space Weathering’

By Guest PostNovember 1, 2012Scienceairless bodies, analysis, asteroid belt, brown university, carle pieters, dawn spacecraft, energetic particle, geologist, giant asteroid, gravitational characteristics, lunar surface, metal nanoparticle, mineral composition, moon, nanophase coatings, nanophase weathering, NASA, phenomenon, solar system, solar wind, space weathering, vaporized meteorite, vesta

Space weathering — a darkening of lunar surfaces by solar wind and metal nanoparticles from vaporized meteorites — appears to happen differently on Vesta, the largest body in the asteroid belt. The discovery, from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, has planetary geologists returning to their lunar data for another look and further analysis.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The surface of the giant asteroid Vesta is weathering in a way that appears to be completely different from any other asteroid yet visited, according to new data recorded by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. This new type of space weathering suggests that there’s something about Vesta — perhaps its mineral composition or its position in the solar system — that makes its surface environment fundamentally different from other asteroids studied thus far.

The new data are presented in a paper published Nov. 1, 2012, in the journal Nature. (more…)

Armchair Astronomers Find Planet in Four-Star System

By Guest PostOctober 16, 2012Scienceamerican, arizona, arxiv preprint, astronomical data, astronomical society, circumbinary planet, citizen scientist, cottonwood, debra fischer, discovery, earth, eclipsing star, Environment, four star, hawaii, jerome orosz, johns hopkins, keck telescopes, kepler spacecraft, kian jek, mauna kea, meg schwamb, NASA, neptune, nevada, orbit, ph1, phenomenon, planet, planet discovery, planet formation, planethunters, professional astronomer, radius, reno, robert gagliano, san diego, san francisco, server, star, state university, system, twin suns, university, website, yale

A joint effort of citizen scientists and professional astronomers has led to the first reported case of a planet orbiting twin suns that in turn is orbited by a second distant pair of stars.

Aided by volunteers using the Planethunters.org website, a Yale-led international team of astronomers identified and confirmed discovery of the phenomenon, called a circumbinary planet in a four-star system.

Only six planets are known to orbit two stars, according to researchers, and none of these are orbited by distant stellar companions. (more…)

Experiment Would Test Cloud Geoengineering as Way to Slow Warming

By Guest PostAugust 20, 2012Environment, Scienceairplane, burning fuel, climate science, climatological impact, cloud geoengineering, Environment, global warming, john latham, long lived clouds, marine cloud brightening, particle, phenomenon, pollutant, rob wood, salt water, satellite, science fiction, sea salt, sensor, ship trails, sky, sunlight, warming

Even though it sounds like science fiction, researchers are taking a second look at a controversial idea that uses futuristic ships to shoot salt water high into the sky over the oceans, creating clouds that reflect sunlight and thus counter global warming.

University of Washington atmospheric physicist Rob Wood describes a possible way to run an experiment to test the concept on a small scale in a comprehensive paper published this month in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

The point of the paper — which includes updates on the latest study into what kind of ship would be best to spray the salt water into the sky, how large the water droplets should be and the potential climatological impacts — is to encourage more scientists to consider the idea of marine cloud brightening and even poke holes in it. In the paper, he and a colleague detail an experiment to test the concept. (more…)

Scientists Discover Huge Phytoplankton Bloom in Ice Covered Waters

By Guest PostJune 13, 2012Environmentalaska, aleutian islands, alga phaeocystis, arctic algal boom, arctic circle, arctic summer, arctic waters, beaufort seas, bob pickart, chlorophyll, climate change, continental shelf, ecosystem, emily peacock, healy, heidi sosik, ice free waters, icebreaker, icescape program, imaging flowcytobot, kevin arrigo, magnifying lenses, melt water, microscopic marine plants, NASA, optical measurements, phenomenon, photosynthetic, phytoplankton, polar chukchi, pools of water, rob olson, sam laney, sea ice, skylights, stanford university, thalassiosira, us coast guard, whoi

A team of researchers, including scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), discovered a massive bloom of phytoplankton beneath ice-covered Arctic waters. Until now, sea ice was thought to block sunlight and limit the growth of microscopic marine plants living under the ice.

The amount of phytoplankton growing in this under-ice bloom was four times greater than the amount found in neighboring ice-free waters. The bloom extended laterally more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) underneath the ice pack, where ocean and ice physics combined to create a phenomenon that scientists had never seen before. (more…)

Locked RNA Editing Yields Odd Fly Behavior

By Guest PostApril 26, 2012Scienceabiotic factor, als, arthur sugden, asli sahin, brown university, cell, charles lawrence, dadar, enzyme adar, epilepsy, factor, fruit fly, function, genetic, jacquelyn dorsky, james jepson, lauren alpert, locking down, lou gehrigs disease, nucleus, organism, phenomenon, protein, rna, robert reenan, suicidal depression, temperature, wallflowers, yiannis savva

At the level of proteins, organisms can adapt by editing their RNA — and an editor can even edit itself. Brown University scientists working with fruit flies found that “locking down” the self-editing process at two extremes created some strange behaviors. They also found that the process is significantly affected by temperature.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Because a function of RNA is to be translated as the genetic instructions for the protein-making machinery of cells, RNA editing is the body’s way of fine-tuning the proteins it produces, allowing us to adapt. The enzyme ADAR, which does this editing job in the nervous system of creatures ranging from mice to men, even edits itself. In a new study that examined the self-editing process and locked it down at two extremes in fruit flies, Brown University scientists found some surprising insights into how this “fine-tuning of the fine-tuner” happens, including bizarre behavioral effects that come about when the self-editor can’t edit. (more…)

Plant Scientists Find Mechanism That Gives Plants ‘Balance’

By Guest PostApril 23, 2012Sciencearabidopsis, decision, defense mode, disease, gibberellins, growth mechanism, harsh weather, hormone, jasmonates, michigan state university, narrow leafed plant, phenomenon, plant, sheng yang he

EAST LANSING, Mich. — When a plant goes into defense mode in order to protect itself against harsh weather or disease, that’s good for the plant, but bad for the farmer growing the plant. Bad because when a plant acts to defend itself, it turns off its growth mechanism.

But now researchers at Michigan State University, as part of an international collaboration, have figured out how plants can make the “decision” between growth and defense, a finding that could help them strike a balance – keep safe from harm while continuing to grow. (more…)