Conditions That Initiate Erosion Identified

Engineers have demonstrated that sustained spikes in turbulence are responsible for dislodging particles, whether on land or in the water.

Opinion: Photovoltaics - an elegant technology for electricity

Together solar heat and photovoltaics could eliminate the need for fossil fuels. Now all they need is a little support, writes Professor Andrew Blakers.

Ultrafast lasers give CU-Boulder researchers a snapshot of electrons in action

In the quest to slow down and ultimately understand chemistry at the level of atoms and electrons, University of Colorado at Boulder and Canadian scientists have found a new way...

Sniffing Out A Better Chemical Sensor

Marrying a sensitive detector technology capable of distinguishing hundreds of different chemical compounds with a pattern-recognition module that mimics the way animals recognize odors, researchers have created a new approach...

Morocco invests US$3.2 billion in renewable energy

Morocco is investing US$3.2 billion in clean energy development, including a renewable energy 'knowledge campus' in Oujda.

South Asia News in brief: 16–30 October

Pakistani scientists get connected, scientists find nitrogen dioxide 'hotspots', biomass fuels get a detailed analysis, and more.

Powered By Olive Stones? Turning Waste Stones Into Fuel

Olive stones can be turned into bioethanol, a renewable fuel that can be produced from plant matter and used as an alternative to petrol or diesel. This gives the olive...

New nanoscale dimensioning method created

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Oct. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've used an optical microscope to rapidly and inexpensively provide nanoscale dimensions with nanoscale measurement sensitivity.

Metal hazard from table wines

Potentially hazardous levels of metal ions are present in many commercially available wines. An analysis of reported levels of metals in wines from sixteen different countries, published in the open...

Households significantly reduce electricity use when prices rise

A new study in the RAND Journal of Economics examined how quickly households change their electricity use when prices rise and fall rapidly. Results show that when electricity prices increase,...

Offshore wind farm boosts German power

BERLIN, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- German officials say offshore wind power is of key importance to the country's energy supply.

Breakthrough may ease electronics assembly

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Northeastern have demonstrated a way to use single-walled carbon nanotubes, at left, to ease large-scale manufacture of flat-panel displays and electronic memory devices.

Pickens Plan Reality Check: Energy Freedom or Farce?

In U.S. TV ads, oilman T. Boone Pickens touts energy independence via wind and natural gas. Critics say his plan is expensive, is inefficient, and may keep the country in...

Q&A: Mozambique's science for the people

Mozambique's science and technology minister, Venâncio Massingue, tells SciDev.Net how he hopes to ensure that science benefits everyone.

Spreading the Health: Xerox Shares Toxic Waste Cleanup Process

Up until the 1980s, Xerox used volatile organic compounds as solvents for cleaning. Needless to say, some of them spilled and ended up contaminating the ground--and groundwater--beneath manufacturing facilities. By...

U.S. transport authority is key speaker at conference on electric cars

Cars around the world will one day be propelled by electric motors, said University of California, Davis, transportation expert Daniel Sperling at a meeting of international transportation experts and policymakers...

The Physics of Surfing (Part One: Dropping In)

Schroedinger's cat is inordinately shy

I am deeply suspicious of attempts to justify particular religious or philosophical doctrines with scientific discoveries: for one thing, there are always cou

The fluid transducer: Electricity from gas and water

Air compression systems can be found in many manufacturing operations. If a leak occurs anywhere in the system, the air pressure drops and production comes to a halt until the...

Test Driving Firefox's Minefield Browser

A colleague today showed me a cool, new browser that he's been using to browse the web at blisteringly fast speeds.

Will Alternative Energy Run Out Of Gas?

The clean-energy field is getting bitten by the credit crisis and falling fossil fuel prices. But with long-term trends pointing in its favor, the clean-tech wave has some staying power.

Best Horror Films Skip the Gore

Classic horror/thriller films engage the viewers and their imaginations.

Researchers developed OLED element that can be manufactured using printing technology

Researchers working in the European ROLLED project have developed a flexible OLED element that can be mass produced using roll-to-roll printing technology. The OLED elements can be used to add...

Laser flashes without bounds

Researchers of the Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short-Pulse Spectroscopy (MBI) have developed a novel optical fibre that enables transmission of ultrashort light pulses with an unprecedented low...

Turbocharged Nanomotors

(PhysOrg.com) -- Nanorobots that are introduced into the body to eradicate tumor cells or clean out clogged arteries are not just science fiction; they are a realistic vision of the...

The Mysterious Cough, Caught on Film

Schlieren photography captures the invisible, like heat and coughs, on film.

New Mass Sensor To Weight Atoms With Unprecedented Resolution

Scientists have developed an ultrasensitive mass sensor, which can measure tiny amounts of mass with atomic precision, and with an unprecedented resolution to date.

Satellites approach the Shannon limit

(PhysOrg.com) -- Satellites are achieving unparalleled efficiency with a new protocol, DVB-S2. The performance of DVB-S2 satellite systems is very close to the theoretical maximum, defined by the Shannon Limit....