Other Sciences News

Separating europium and yttrium with UV light. Image credit: University of Leuven.

Chemists Develop New Technique for Recovery of Rare Earth Metals from Fluorescent Lamps

May 11, 2015 by News Staff

A group of scientists at the University of Leuven in Belgium has developed a novel method for the recovery and separation of two rare earth elements –...

The study offers new insights into the formation of fat bloom, an unwelcome white layer that occasionally forms on chocolate. Image credit: Alexander Stein.

X-ray Study May Aid in Making Better Chocolate

May 7, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published online in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces provides information that could help chocolatiers prevent a whitish...

Small pollen particles can hold condensation for cloud formation. Image credit: Brin Weins.

Pollen Grains Can Influence Climate, Scientists Say

May 6, 2015 by News Staff

According to a team of researchers led by Prof Allison Steiner of the University of Michigan, tiny pollen particles may make it rain. Small pollen particles...

Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska. Image credit: Maria Michelle.

Fjords Play Crucial Role in Regulation of Earth’s Climate

May 5, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study in the journal Nature Geoscience, fjords absorb approximately 18 million tones of organic carbon each year, equivalent to 11 percent...

An ocean eddy (bottom of the image) as seen from space. Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory.

Scientists Find ‘Dead Zones’ in Atlantic Ocean

Apr 30, 2015 by News Staff

A group of researchers led by Dr Johannes Karstensen of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany has discovered unexpectedly low...

A hydrothermal vent at Brothers volcano, Kermadec arc, New Zealand. Image credit: NOAA.

Hydrothermal Vents Able to Create Simple Organic Molecules, Study Says

Apr 29, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study in the journal Chemical Communications, alkaline hydrothermal vents on the seabed are able to produce simple carbon-based molecules,...

The McMurdo Dry Valleys are a row of valleys west of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, so named because of their extremely low humidity and lack of snow and ice cover. Photosynthetic bacteria have been found living in the relatively moist interior of rocks. Scientists consider the Dry Valleys to be the closest of any terrestrial environment to Mars. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / METI / ERSDAC / JAROS / ASTER Science Team.

Scientists Find Evidence for Salty Groundwater beneath McMurdo Dry Valleys

Apr 28, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers co-led by Dr Slawek Tulaczyk of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Dr Jill Mikucki of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville,...

The experimental setup of the invisible body condition, left panel, and the mannequin condition. The participants were fitted with a set of head-mounted displays that showed the real-time 3-D video feed of a pair of downward-facing cams that were mounted on the wall or on the head of a mannequin. The scientist applied touches to the participants’ body and the corresponding body part of the invisible body/mannequin using a paintbrush. The grayed-out body in the left panel illustrates the discrete portion of empty space that was meant to represent the invisible body. Two sample frames of the actual visual stimuli presented in head-mounted displays are shown below, featuring the brushing procedure and knife threat event for the two conditions, respectively. Image credit: Arvid Guterstam et al.

Neuroscientists Create Illusion of Having Invisible Body

Apr 24, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, the feeling of invisibility changes physical stress response in challenging social...

Lion Geyser and Heart Spring in Yellowstone National Park. Image credit: Brocken Inaglory / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Discover Gigantic Magma Reservoir beneath Yellowstone Supervolcano

Apr 24, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by Dr Hsin-Hua Huang of California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the University of Utah has discovered a reservoir of...

The artificial photosynthesis system has four general components: (i) harvesting solar energy; (ii) generating reducing equivalents; (iii) reducing carbon dioxide to biosynthetic intermediates, and (iv) producing value-added chemicals.

Scientists Create Artificial Photosynthesis System

Apr 17, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute,...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

Scientists Explain Why Modern Humans Have Chins

Apr 16, 2015 by News Staff

Chins of anatomically modern humans don’t come from mechanical forces such as chewing, but instead result from an evolutionary adaptation involving face...

Permafrost in High Arctic. Image credit: TheBrockenInaGlory / CC BY-SA 3.0

Frozen Soils Could Become Major Source of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Apr 9, 2015 by News Staff

Thawing permafrost in the Artic and sub-Arctic regions will likely produce a gradual and prolonged release of large quantities of greenhouse gases spanning...

Dr Martin Vollmer and his colleagues detected a rapid accumulation of anesthetic gases isoflurane, desflurane, and sevoflurane, in the global atmosphere. Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Anesthetic Gases Contribute to Climate Change, Say Atmospheric Chemists

Apr 9, 2015 by News Staff

Desflurane, isoflurane, sevoflurane and halothane – clinically used inhalation anesthetic agents – are accumulating in the atmosphere of our...

Forensic facial reconstruction of another Australopithecus species - A. afarensis. Image credit: Cicero Moraes / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Little Foot: Australopithecus Skeleton from Sterkfontein is 3.67 Million Years Old

Apr 1, 2015 by News Staff

The new date places an almost complete skeleton of Australopithecus prometheus from the Sterkfontein cave in South Africa as an older relative of famous...

Pasig River, Manila, Philippines. Image credit: Bar Fabella / CC BY 2.0

New Low-Cost Method Can Detect Sewage Pollution in Streams, Rivers

Mar 31, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the University of Sheffield, UK, has developed and tested a promising novel method that uses inexpensive samplers (cotton tampons)...

This is an artist's reconstruction of female Homo from Dmanisi, Georgia. Image credit: Elisabeth Daynes, via tabula.ge.

Early Members of Genus Homo Varied Widely in Body Size

Mar 30, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published online March 26 in the Journal of Human Evolution suggests that the genus Homo has come in different sizes since its origins over...

A figure from the original report by Enrico Fermi et al.

Mathematicians Partially Solve Fermi-Pasta-Ulam Problem

Mar 23, 2015 by News Staff

The Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem – first introduced in 1955 by the famed physicist Enrico Fermi and his colleagues – has now been partially solved...

Molecular representations of the NU-1000 node and linker (left), MOF topology (two views, center), and the dehydration of the NU-1000 node (right). Zr – blue, O – red, C - black, H - white. Image credit: Joseph E. Mondloch et al.

Novel Material Destroys Chemical Warfare Agents Soman, VX in Minutes

Mar 18, 2015 by News Staff

A group of chemists co-led by Dr Joseph Hupp and Dr Omar Farha, both from Northwestern University, has developed a new material that is very effective...

The Totten Glacier catchment, outlined in blue, is a collection basin for ice and snow that flows through the glacier. It’s estimated to contain enough material to raise sea levels by at least 3.5 m. Image credit: Jamin Greenbaum / Australian Antarctic Division.

Totten Glacier: Scientists Identify New Threat to East Antarctic Ice

Mar 17, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Jamin Greenbaum of the University of Texas at Austin has discovered two seafloor troughs that could allow warm ocean water...