Current Feed Content from 31 Aug 08 16:25
Yellowstone's Ancient Supervolcano
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
The geysers of Yellowstone National Park owe their eistence to the "Yellowstone hotspot"--a region of molten rock buried deep beneath Yellowstone, geologists have found. But how hot is this "hotspot, " and what's causing it? In an effort to find out, Derek Schutt of Colorado State University and Ken Dueker of the University of Wyoming took the hotspot's temperature........Proteins Have Controlled Motions
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
Iowa State University researcher Robert Jernigan believes that his research shows proteins have controlled motions. Most biochemists traditionally believe proteins have a number of random, uncontrolled movements. Research conducted by Jernigan, director of the L.H. Baker Center for Bioinformatics and Biological Statistics together with Guang Song, an assistant professor in computer science and graduate student Lei Yang, over a 10-year period shows that not only are protein motions more restricted, but also that these restricted, controlled motions are part of the function of the proteins........Teens making poor choices when it comes to riding in vehicles
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
Injury prevention experts have long known that teens are less likely than other motorists to wear seat belts while driving. Now, scientists from the Meharry-State Farm Alliance at Meharry Medical College have discovered lack of seat belt use by teen passengers may be an even bigger problem. In the first ever direct comparison of the differences between driver and passenger seat belt use for a nationally representative teen population, the Meharry scientists observed that 59% of teens always buckled up in the driver seat but only 42% always wore seat belts as passengers. Even more sobering, only 38% of all teens reported always buckling up as both drivers and passengers........Americans need to save paycheck-to-paycheck
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
Americans are better at saving money when they set goals in the near future -- such as next month -- rather than the more distant future, as per a new study by scientists at Rice University and Old Dominion University. The study was presented this month at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association........Earthquakes may endanger New York
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
A study by a group of prominent seismologists suggests that a pattern of subtle but active faults makes the risk of earthquakes to the New York City area substantially greater than formerly believed. Among other things, they say that the controversial Indian Point nuclear power plants, 24 miles north of the city, sit astride the previously unidentified intersection of two active seismic zones. The paper appears in the current issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America at http://www.bssaonline.org/cgi/reprint/98/4/1696........Creating unconventional metals
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
The semiconductor silicon and the ferromagnet iron are the basis for much of mankind's technology, used in everything from computers to electric motors. In this week's issue of the journal Nature (August 21st) an international group of scientists, including academic and industrial scientists from the UK, USA and Lesotho, report that they have combined these elements with a small amount of another common metal, manganese, to create a new material which is neither a magnet nor an ordinary semiconductor. The paper goes on to show how a small magnetic field can be used to switch ordinary semiconducting behaviour (such as that seen in the electronic-grade silicon which is used to make transistors) back on........Research Agenda For Environmental Mercury
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
Embracing the belief that an interdisciplinary and coordinated research agenda can have a profound impact on advancing science and influencing policy, a group of experts has developed a roadmap for improving our understanding of how mercury moves through the marine ecosystem and into the fish we eat........Continued Breakup Of Two Of Greenland's Largest Glaciers
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
Scientists monitoring daily satellite images here of Greenland's glaciers have discovered break-ups at two of the largest glaciers in the last month. They expect that part of the Northern hemisphere's longest floating glacier will continue to disintegrate within the next year. A massive 11-square-mile (29-square-kilometer) piece of the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland broke away between July 10th and by July 24th. The loss to that glacier is equal to half the size of Manhattan Island. The last major ice loss to Petermann occurred when the glacier lost 33 square miles (86 square kilometers) of floating ice between 2000 and 2001........Controlling the behavior of quantum dots
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
Scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a collaborative center of the University of Maryland and NIST, have reported a new way to fine-tune the light coming from quantum dots by manipulating them with pairs of lasers. Their technique, published in Physical Review Letters, * could significantly improve quantum dots as a source of pairs of entangled photons, a property with important applications in quantum information technologies. The accomplishment could accelerate development of powerful advanced cryptography applications, projected to be a key 21st-century technology........Nano vaccine for hepatitis B shows promise
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
Chronic hepatitis B infects 400 million people worldwide, a number of of them children. Even with three effective vaccines available, hepatitis B remains a stubborn, unrelenting health problem, particularly in Africa and other developing areas. The disease and its complications cause an estimated 1 million deaths globally each year........Parasites Outweigh Predators
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
In a study of parasites living in three estuaries on the Pacific coast of California and Baja California, scientists have determined that biomass of these parasites exceeds that of top predators, in some cases by more than 20 times. Their findings, which could have significant ecological and biomedical implications, appear in this week's issue of the journal Nature........Outflow from World's Largest River
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
Nutrients from the Amazon River's outflow spread well beyond the continental shelf and drive carbon cycling in the tropical ocean, say researchers who conducted a multi-year study. They will publish their results this week online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)........System to Forecast Flash Floods
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
People living near vulnerable creeks and rivers along Colorado's Front Range may soon get advance notice of potentially deadly floods, thanks to a new forecasting system being tested this summer by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. Known as the NCAR Front Range Flash Flood Prediction System, it combines detailed atmospheric conditions with information about stream flows to predict floods along specific streams and catchments........Key to saving the world's lakes
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
After completing one of the longest running experiments ever done on a lake, scientists from the University of Alberta, University of Minnesota and the Freshwater Institute, contend that nitrogen control, in which the European Union and a number of other jurisdictions around the world are investing millions of dollars, is not effective and in fact, may actually increase the problem of cultural eutrophication........Saharan dust storms sustain life in Atlantic Ocean
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:47:40 GMT
Research at the University of Liverpool has found how Saharan dust storms help sustain life over extensive regions of the North Atlantic Ocean. Working aboard research vessels in the Atlantic, researchers mapped the distribution of nutrients including phosphorous and nitrogen and investigated how organisms such as phytoplankton are sustained in areas with low nutrient levels........
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