Latest science news in Physics & Chemistry
Design tool for materials with a memory
Shape memory alloys can "remember" a condition. If they are deformed, a temperature change can be enough to bring them back to their original shape. A simulation calculates the characteristics...
New Approach To Engineering For Extreme Environments
Composite materials such as fiberglass, which take on a mix of properties of their constituent compounds, have been around for decades. Now, a materials scientist is taking composites to the...
New Way To Make Sensors That Detect Toxic Chemicals
Researchers have developed a new method for making extremely pure, very small metal-oxide nanoparticles. They are using this simple, fast, and low-temperature process to make materials for gas sensors that...
Faster, more cost-effective DNA test for crime scenes, disease diagnosis
Scientists in Japan are reporting development of a faster, less expensive version of the fabled polymerase chain reaction (PCR) a DNA test widely used in criminal investigations, disease diagnosis, biological...
Environmentalists Protest G8 Summit
Demonstrators Break into Power Stations Across Italy as World Leaders Meet
Study pinpoints UK wind hotspots
An Energy Saving Trust study identifies the 'best and worst' locations in the UK for domestic small-scale wind turbines.
The Power of Pee
Cars and devices could soon be powered by hydrogen extracted from urine Because it’s the universe’s most abundant element, hydrogen is a good candidate for a renewable energy source. But there’s a problem:...
TMS Foundation Co-sponsors Materials Camp for Teachers at Carnegie Mellon University
Twenty-seven teachers became students for a week in June during Materials Camp for Teachers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their goal was to learn how to help their...
NASA names 'Invention of 2008'
WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency has named its 2008 Commercial Invention of the Year -- a high temperature resin designed to create low-cost composites.
Contaminated site remediation: Are nanomaterials the answer?
WASHINGTON -- A new review article appearing in Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) co-authored by Dr. Todd Kuiken, a research associate for the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN), focuses on the...
Beyond -- way beyond -- WIMP interfaces
(PhysOrg.com) -- Human-computer interaction is undergoing a revolution, entering a multimodal era that goes beyond, way beyond, the WIMP (Windows-Icons-Menus-Pointers) paradigm. Now European researchers have developed a platform to speed...
Graphene gains nearly perfect liquid status
Scientists have found the electrons in a layer of carbon atoms can become a strongly interacting swirling soup
This Message Will Self Destruct: Scientists Develop Programmable, Self-Erasing Documents
Researchers are harnessing nanoparticle properties to develop fading ink Remember when, as a kid, you would pass “top-secret” notes written in lemon juice that your friends could only read in the right light?...
Researchers enlist DNA to bring carbon nanotubes' promise closer to reality
A team of researchers from DuPont and Lehigh University has reported a breakthrough in the quest to produce carbon nanotubes (CNTs) that are suitable for use in electronics, medicine and...
Audit Smokes Out Lax Fire Protection at U.S. Nuclear Weapons Lab
A recent audit of fire prevention measures has scorched the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the facility that created the atomic bomb during World War II and is now the home of top-level...
New solution for dye wastewater pollution
Novel recyclable metal oxide filter removes harmful dyes from wastewater
Chemical weapons cleanup
Researchers have used a hydrogen peroxide-based microemulsion system to safely decontaminate chemical warfare agents
New military drone based on bats
RALEIGH, N.C., July 8 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they used real bats as the inspiration for a new type of military surveillance drone equipped with wings that...
New method to efficiently produce less toxic drugs using organic molecules
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)'s Associate Professor Zhong Guofu has made a significant contribution to the field of organic chemistry, in particular the study of using small organic molecules as catalysts,...
White glow: Dye-doped DNA nanofibers emit white light
(PhysOrg.com) -- Efficient energy transport plays an important role in the development of optoelectonic materials. The true masters of energy transfer via a hierarchical arrangement of different molecules are the...
Hydrogen Technology Steams Ahead
Could the cars and laptops of the future be fueled by old chip fat? A group of engineers believe so, and are developing an energy efficient, environmentally-friendly hydrogen production system....
How Strain At Grain Boundaries Suppresses High-temperature Superconductivity
Researchers have discovered that a reduction in mechanical strain at the boundaries of crystal grains can significantly improve the performance of high-temperature superconductors.
Chalk River reactor could be idle into next year: reports
The nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ont., that usually produces medical isotopes for cancer and heart disease testing could be idled until October or even later, according to media reports...
Beyond petroleum?
BP's chief chemist talks about balancing the company's commitment to renewable energies with profit.
Light-absorbing nanowires may make better solar panels
(PhysOrg.com) -- A century after German physicist Gustav Mie derived the math to explain why the colors in some stained glass windows look especially resplendent in the sunlight, a team...
Piaggio Speeds Ahead with Hybrid Scooter
CNET: Italian Co. Introduces Gas/Electric Vehicle with Improved Mileage, Carbon Emissions Reduced By Half
'Lab on a chip' to measure water stress in plants
(PhysOrg.com) -- Fifteen years ago, when Alan Lakso first sought to enlist Cornell's nanofabrication laboratory to develop a tiny sensor that would measure water stress in grapevines, the horticultural sciences...
Bell Aliant wires Saint John, Fredericton with fibre optic network
Bell Aliant is spending $60 million to wire 70,000 homes and businesses in Fredericton and Saint John with fibre optic technology by mid-2010.