Obama opens up stem cell work, science inquiries

(AP) -- From tiny embryonic cells to the large-scale physics of global warming, President Barack Obama urged researchers on Monday to follow science and not ideology as he abolished...

Protein structure determined in living cells

The function of a protein is determined both by its structure and by its interaction partners in the cell. Until now, proteins had to be isolated for analyzing them. An...

'Nanostitching' could lead to stronger airplane skins

MIT engineers are using carbon nanotubes only billionths of a meter thick to stitch together aerospace materials in work that could make airplane skins and other products some 10 times...

Combating Nuclear Proliferation: New Method 'De-claws' Nuclear Fuel Producers Ensuring Only Peaceful Plutonium Use

Engineers have developed a technique to "denature" plutonium created in large nuclear reactors, making it unsuitable for use in nuclear arms. By adding Americium (Am 241), a form of the...

Potential On-off Switch For Nanoelectronics

Researchers have shown that electrical resistance through a molecular junction -- a nanometer scale circuit element that contacts gold atoms with a single molecule -- can be turned "on" and...

Buckyballs Could Keep Water Systems Flowing

Microscopic particles of carbon known as buckyballs may be able to keep the nation's water pipes clear in the same way clot-busting drugs prevent arteries from clogging up.

Immune reaction to metal debris leads to early failure of joint implants

Researchers at Rush University Medical Centre have identified a key immunological defence reaction to the metals in joint replacement devices, leading to loosening of the components and early failure...

Nanotechnology goes to war

Student Developer of Versatile "G-gels" Wins $30,000 Lemelson-Rensselaer Prize

Yuehua "Tony" Yu, a doctoral student in Rensselaer' Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, is the first researcher to create binary guanosine gels, or G-gels, with unique, highly tunable properties....

Green car makers urged to go a step further

Four international bodies on Wednesday called on governments and car makers to halve global vehicle emissions by 2050 as the auto industry insisted it was serious about producing greener vehicles.

New genre of sugar-coated 'quantum dots' for drug delivery

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in Switzerland are reporting an advance that could help tap the much-heralded potential of `quantum dots` - nanocrystals that glow when exposed to ultraviolet light -...

Walls (even sofas) can talk

Most college students will admit to searching their couch cushions for extra coins to do laundry. But Jon McKinney's cushion hunt isn't about finding money. He wants to help epidemiologists...

RF remote control is a superior alternative to infrared control

The ZigBee Alliance and the RF4CE Consortium, founded by Panasonic, Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics and Sony have reached an agreement to deliver a standardized specification for radio frequency-based (RF) remote...

Powerful Ideas: Humans as Renewable Sources

Humans can make power while they work out at the gym, push open a door or just walk.

New design model cuts construction costs

RALEIGH, N.C., March 4 (UPI) -- U.S. engineers have created a design model that allows the use of 30 percent less reinforcing steel in precast concrete beams without...

How to Reduce Car-Made Pollution? Tune-Up the Existing Technology

Projected carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from cars could remain level at three gigatons through 2050 despite many more personal vehicles on the road with only minor and affordable changes to...

Black Holes Bound to Join Forces

Spectrum of quasar shows evidence of orbiting binary black hole system.

Impact Specialist to Receive Shoemaker Memorial Award

University of Arizona's planetary scientist and impact specialist H. Jay Melosh is this year's recipient of the Eugene Shoemaker Memorial Award presented by the BEYOND Center for Fundamental Concepts in...

Hydrogen storage steps up a gear

Improved storage capability takes us one step closer to hydrogen powered cars

Florida pinning magnets on unwanted crocs

MIAMI, March 4 (UPI) -- Florida wildlife researchers are taping magnets to the heads of crocodiles removed from residential areas to try to keep the crocs from returning.

'Spooky Action At A Distance' Of Quantum Mechanics Directly Observed

In quantum mechanics, a vanguard of physics where science often merges into philosophy, much of our understanding is based on conjecture and probabilities, but a group of researchers in Japan...

Hot electrons in carbon - graphite behaves like a semiconductor

Nanomaterials like carbon possess unique properties, which have led to first applications in novel electronic devices and sensors. These materials are based on ordered, atomically thin layers of carbon atoms,...

Solar-car inventor pursues distance record alone, with empty pockets

From stem to stern across the continent, skirting blacktop and blue highway in his oddball little electric car, Marcelo da Luz has devoted the last eight months of his life...

Cellulosic biofuel technology will generate low-cost green fuel, says major study

Cellulosic biofuels offer similar, if not lower, costs and very large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions compared to petroleum-derived fuels. That's one of the key take-home messages from a series...

God is not a scientific proposition

Exhibition Review | 'Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts': Darwin’s Wake Splashed Artists, Too

As you walk through this exhibition, you may not learn anything new about his theories, but you will begin to understand that our ways of seeing have evolved because of...

Train engineer sent text 22 seconds before California crash

An engineer had been sending text messages seconds before his commuter train failed to stop at a red light and collided head on with a freight train in a Los...

Sharp to sell solar power systems applicable to various roofs

Sharp Corp. said Tuesday it will release a home-use solar power generation system in April that can be installed on a wide range of roof shapes with various roof surface...