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7 hours ago | News
It’s been a busy time for seismologists, but massive earthquakes also provides work for experts in civil engineering, urban planning, architecture, geography, and social support. The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute had just published its team report of the magnitude 7.0 quake in Haiti when the Chilean city of Concepción was moved 10 feet to the west by the most recent 8.8 magnitude earthquake.
7 hours ago | News
What if space held the key to producing alternative energy crops on Earth? That's what researchers are hoping to find in a new experiment on the International Space Station. The experiment, National Lab Pathfinder-Cells 3, is aimed at learning whether microgravity can help jatropha curcas plant cells grow faster to produce biofuel, or renewable fuel derived from biological matter.
8 hours ago | News
A team of engineers from MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratory (MTL) are working on tiny, low-power chips that could diagnose heart problems, monitor patients with Parkinson’s disease or predict seizures in epileptic patients.
8 hours ago | News
Scientists have made synthetic ‘sea shells’ from a mixture of chalk and polystyrene cups—and produced a tough new material that could make our homes and offices more durable.
Mar 8 | News
Today, at the world’s largest supercollider, all of the control rooms will be staffed by women. A brainstorm of Indiana Univ.'s Pauline Gagnon, the event is part of a larger observation of International Women’s Day and a celebration of the accomplishments of women in the highly technical field of high-energy physics.
Mar 8 | News
Most polymers—materials made of long, chain-like molecules—are very good insulators for both heat and electricity. But an MIT team has found a way to transform the most widely used polymer, polyethylene, into a material that conducts heat just as well as most metals, yet remains an electrical insulator.
Mar 5 | News
According to findings by Univ. of Rochester researchers who visited sites in Africa known to contain extremely old rocks, the Earth’s magnetic field 3.5 billion years ago was only half as strong as it is today. This may mean the Sun took away much of Earth’s hydrogen and water.
Mar 5 | News
Scientists from the Functional Materials Group at Kent Univ.'s School of Physical Sciences (SPS) have expanded the potential uses of glass by developing an experimental technique that reveals more clearly how atoms in glass vibrate.
Mar 5 | News
If harnessing the unlimited solar power of the sun were easy, we wouldn't still have the greenhouse gas problem that results from the use of fossil fuel. And while solar energy systems work moderately well in hot desert climates, they are still inefficient and contribute only a small percentage of the general energy demand. A new solution may be coming from an unexpected source—a source that may be on your dinner plate tonight.
Mar 5 | News
Solar cells made from silicon are projected to be a prominent factor in future renewable green energy equations, but so far the promise has far exceeded the reality. While there are now silicon photovoltaics that can convert sunlight into electricity at impressive 20% efficiencies, the cost of this solar power is prohibitive for large-scale use. Researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), however, are developing a new approach that could substantially reduce these costs.