#rtificial nose detects dangerous vapors Researchers have developed a way to sniff out solvent gases by combining a common mineral zeolite with a metallic compound based on rhenium.
They report that in the presence of the compound each gas has a photoluminescent ingerprintwith a specific intensity lifetime and color.
The challenge for Angel Mart assistant professor of chemistry and bioengineering at Rice university and his team of student researchers was to get their large metallic particles through the much smaller pores of a zeolite cage.
or search for such formations on Mars and other planets to determine where water once existed.
First they are boosted to nearly the speed of light. Then any additional acceleration increases their energy but not their speed;
These deep earthquakes occur in older and colder areas of the oceanic plate that gets pushed into the earth s mantle.
because seismologists could not find a seismic signal in the Earth that could confirm the results.
The ability to do such experiments allows scientists like Green to simulate the appropriate conditions within the Earth
and found the arthquakesonly within a narrow temperature range that simulates conditions where the real earthquakes occur in Earth. sing synchrotron X-rays to aid our observations we found that fractures nucleate at the onset of the olivine to spinel transitiongreen says. urther these fractures propagate dynamically
#Densest galaxy is jam-packed with stars Michigan State university right Original Studyposted by Tom Oswald-Michigan State on September 25 2013 Astronomers have discovered the densest galaxy in the nearby universe.
The stars are about 25 times closer than those in the Milky way. Imagine the distance between the sun and the star nearest to itâ##a star called Alpha centauri.
That's a distance of about 4 light years. Now imagine as many as 10000 of our suns crammed into that relatively small space. his galaxy is more massive than any ultra-compact drawfs of comparable sizesays Jay Strader assistant professor of physics
and astronomy at Michigan State university nd is arguably the densest galaxy known in the local universe. s detailed in the recent edition of the publication Astrophysical Journal Letters the ultra-compact dwarf galaxy was found in near
the massive elliptical galaxy NGC 4649 also called M60 about 54 million light years from Earth.
What makes this galaxy dubbed M60-UCD1 so remarkable is that about half of its mass is found within a radius of only about 80 light years.
This would make the density of stars about 15000 times greater than that found in Earth's neighborhood in the Milky way. raveling from one star to another would be a lot easier in M60-UCD1 than it is in our galaxystrader says. ince the stars are so much closer in this galaxy
it would take just a fraction of the time. he discovery of ultra-compact galaxies is relatively newâ##only within the past 10 years or so.
Until then astronomers could see these hingsway off in the distance but assumed they were either single stars or very-distant galaxies.
Another intriguing aspect of this galaxy is the presence of a bright X-ray source in its center.
One explanation for this is a giant black hole weighing in at some 10 million times the mass of our sun. Astronomers are trying to determine
if M60-UCD1 and other ultra-compact dwarf galaxies are born either as really jam-packed star clusters or if they are galaxies that get smaller
because they have ripped stars away from them. The possible massive black hole combined with the high galaxy mass and sun-like levels of elements found in the stars favor the latter idea.
A giant black hole at the center of M60-UCD1 helps tip the scales against the scenario where this galaxy was once a star cluster
since such large black holes are not found in these types of objects. The galaxy was discovered using NASA's Hubble space telescope.
Follow-up observations were done with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ground-based optical telescopes including the Keck 10-meter telescope in Hawaii. wenty years ago we couldn't have done thisstrader says. e didn't have Hubble or Chandra.
This is one of those projects where you bring together the full force of NASA's great observatories plus ground-based resources. ource:
Michigan State Universityyou are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noderivs 3. 0 Unported license u
#Colonies of wired microbes turn sewage into electricity Stanford university rightoriginal Studyposted by Tom Abate-Stanford on September 19 2013a new way to generate electricity from sewage uses naturally occurring ired microbesas mini power plants
to produce electricity as they digest plant and animal waste. Scientists hope the icrobial batterycan be used in places such as sewage treatment plants
or to break down organic pollutants in the ead zonesof lakes and coastal waters where fertilizer runoff and other organic waste can deplete oxygen levels
and suffocate marine life. At the moment however the laboratory prototype is about the size of A d-cell battery
and looks like a chemistry experiment with two electrodes one positive the other negative plunged into a bottle of wastewater.
Inside that murky vial attached to the negative electrode bacteria feast on particles of organic waste
and produce electricity that is captured by the battery s positive electrode. e call it fishing for electronssays Craig Criddle a professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford university.
That is roughly the same efficiency at which the best commercially available solar cells convert sunlight into electricity.
#Earth s inner core spins faster than rest of planet University of Leeds rightoriginal Studyposted by Ben Jones-U. Leeds on September 17 2013the Earth s
Although Edmund Halley who also discovered the famous comet showed the westward-drifting motion of the Earth s geomagnetic field in 1692 it is the first time that scientists have been able to link the way the inner core spins to the behavior of the outer core.
The planet behaves in this way because it is responding to the Earth s geomagnetic field.
The findings published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences help scientists to interpret the dynamics of the core of the Earth the source of our planet s magnetic field.
In the last few decades seismometers measuring earthquakes travelling through the Earth s core have identified an eastwards
or superrotation of the solid inner core relative to Earth s surface. he link is explained simply in terms of equal and opposite actionsays Philip Livermore of the School of Earth
and Environment at the University of Leeds. he magnetic field pushes eastwards on the inner core causing it to spin faster than the Earth
but it also pushes in the opposite direction in the liquid outer core which creates a westward motion. he solid iron inner core is about the size of the Moon.
It is surrounded by the liquid outer core an iron alloy whose convection-driven movement generates the geomagnetic field.
The fact that the Earth s internal magnetic field changes slowly over a timescale of decades means that the electromagnetic force responsible for pushing the inner and outer cores will itself change over time.
The authors used a model of the Earth s core that was run on the giant supercomputer Monte Rosa part of The swiss National Supercomputing Centre in Lugano Switzerland.
Using a new method they were able to simulate the Earth s core with an accuracy about 100 times better than other models.
#Earth s wobble fixes food for ocean creatures Princeton university rightoriginal Studyposted by Catherine Zandonella-Princeton on September 16 2013the cyclic wobble of the Earth on its axis controls the production of ixednitrogen
and fell in a pattern that closely matched the changing orientation of Earth s axis of rotation or axial precession.
and arises because the Earth wobbles slightly as it rotates similar to the wobble of a toy top.
and geophysical sciences at Princeton university. y studying the response of nitrogen fixation to different environmental changes in the Earth s past we have found connections that may ensure that the ocean s fixed nitrogen level will always reboundsigman says. his suggests that an ocean over time has a relatively stable nutrient reservoir
Some of the work was carried out at the Jet propulsion laboratory under a contract with NASA and the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech provided support and infrastructure.
and robust performance on virtually all surfaces. n aerospace company has expressed already interest in furthering thes technology.
#Ice may explain odd craters on Mars Brown University right Original Studyposted by Kevin Stacey-Brown on August 6 2013brown (US) More than 600 double-layer craters on Mars may have been caused by debris
These distinctive craters were documented first in data returned from the Viking missions to Mars in the 1970s
Recent discoveries by planetary geoscientists at Brown and elsewhere have shown that the climate of Mars has varied in the past says James W. Head professor of geological science at Brown University.
During these times ice from the polar caps is redistributed into the mid-latitudes of Mars as a layer about 50 meters thick in the same place that we see that the DLES have formed.
or high latitudes areas where scientists believe there may once have been glacial ice on Mars. Ultimately understanding how DLES
and other crater types are formed could lead to a better understanding of Mars past. There are over 600 DLES on the Martian surface
so reconciling how they formed with our knowledge of the climate of Mars is pretty important Weiss says.
It could tell us a lot about the history of the martian climate on a global scale.
NASA supported the work. Source: Brown University you are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivs 3. 0 Unported license c
Maurizio Porfiri associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Polytechnic institute of New york University (NYU-Poly) and Simone Macr##a collaborator at the Istituto Superiore di Sanit##in Rome Italy published their findings
#This discovery of electron neutrino appearance from muon neutrinos by the T2k experiment opens another critical door in our journey to unveil the secrets of our universe.#
because it could help explore a fundamental question of science#why is made the universe up almost exclusively of matter
when matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts in the Big bang? Somehow this balance changed over time to a dominance of matter.
##Solar steam kills germs while off the grid RICE (US) A new sterilization system uses nanomaterials to convert 80 percent of the energy in sunlight into heat,
director of the Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) at Rice university. olar steam efficiency at converting sunlight directly into steam opens up new possibilities for off-grid sterilization that simply aren available today In a previous study last year,
Halas and colleagues showed that olar steamwas so effective at direct conversion of solar energy into heat that it could even produce steam from ice water. t makes steam directly from sunlight,
and exposed to sunlight, the particles heat up so quickly they instantly vaporize water and create steam.
#New evidence suggests giant ocean on Mars CALTECH (US) esearchers have found signs of an ancient delta on Mars where a river might have emptied once into a vast ocean.
could have covered much of Mars northern hemispheretretching over as much as a third of the planet. cientists have hypothesized long that the northern lowlands of Mars are a dried-up ocean bottom,
Most of the northern hemisphere of Mars is flat and at a lower elevation than the southern hemisphere,
Researchers used new high-resolution images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to study a 100-square-kilometer area that sits right on this possible former coastline.
Previous satellite images have shown that this areaart of a larger region called Aeolis Dorsa which is about 1,
000 kilometers away from Gale crater where the Curiosity rover is now roamings covered in ridge-like features called inverted channels.
By taking pictures from different points in its orbit, the spacecraft was able to make stereo images that have allowed scientists to determine the topography of the martian surface.
of Mars, says Dibiase, lead author of the paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
This large body of water could be the ocean that has been hypothesized to have covered a third of the planet.
and that of othersncluding the Curiosity rovercientists are finding a rich sedimentary record on Mars that is revealing its past environments,
and potentially oceans, Lamb says. oth the ancient environments on Mars and the planet sedimentary archive of these environments are turning out to be surprisingly Earthlike.
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation NASA, and Caltech
#Graphene#s jagged edge can easily slice cells Brown University right Original Study Posted by Kevin Stacey-Brown on July 10 2013brown (US) the jagged edges of tiny graphene sheets
can spell trouble for human cells. New research shows the sharp edges can puncture cell membranes.
a science fiction idea of a space elevator that could connect an orbiting satellite to Earth by a long cord that might consist of sheets of CVD graphene,
and Exploration Science Directorate NASA/Johnson Space center notes that the spindles appear to be the same as those found in rocks from the Strelly Pool Formation in Western australia
The NASA Astrobiology Institute the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate Johnson Space center and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science supported this research.
#One of the major advantages of robotics is that we can provide a fully controllable consistent stimulus for the zebrafish#says Maurizio Porfiri associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Polytechnic institute of New york University (NYU-Poly.#
#It is one of the most durable construction materials on the planet and that was no accident.
#Earth-friendly alternativewhile Roman concrete is durable it#s unlikely to replace modern concrete because it is not ideal for construction where faster hardening is needed.
But the researchers are now finding ways to apply their discoveries about Roman concrete to the development of more earth-friendly and durable modern concrete.
we use the hurricane to take us places#says Kamran Mohseni professor in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Florida.
Mohseni and colleagues use mathematical models to predict regions in the atmosphere and ocean that can give the vehicles a free ride toward their destination.
##Dynamo accounts for Sun s weather cycle University of Chicago University of Leeds rightoriginal Studyposted by Richard Mellor-Leeds on May 23 2013u.
what drives the generation of astrophysical magnetic fields like the Sun s. Scientists have known since the 18th century that the Sun regularly oscillates between periods of high and low solar activity in an 11-year cycle
but have been unable to fully explain how this cycle is generated. It has become increasingly important to be able to understand the Sun#s magnetic activity as it is the changes in its magnetic field that are responsible for#space weather#phenomena including solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
When this weather heads in the direction of Earth it can damage satellites endanger astronauts on the International space station and cause power grid outages on the ground.
The research published in Nature explains how the cyclical nature of these large-scale magnetic fields emerges providing a solution to the mathematical equations governing fluids and electromagnetism for a large astrophysical body.
which makes up the Sun. More importantly it does so in the extreme parameter regime that is relevant to astrophysical bodies.#
#Previously dynamos for large highly conducting bodies such as the Sun would be overwhelmed by small-scale fluctuations in the magnetic field.
In addition this mechanism could be used to describe other large spinning astronomical bodies with large-scale magnetic fields such as galaxies.
and huge supercomputers shows how complicated the dynamo process really is#says Professor Fausto Cattaneo of the University of Chicago#s department of astronomy and astrophysics.
The presence of spots on the Sun has been known since antiquity and further analyzed after the invention of the telescope by Galileo in the 16th century.
However their cyclic nature with periods of high activity (lots of sunspots) and low activity (few sunspots) following each other was identified not until the 18th century.
At the start of the 20th century it was recognized then that these sunspots were the result of the Sun#s magnetic field.
#Spire wants to improve weather forecasting with tiny satellites will need you a raincoat or shorts tomorrow?
Chances are the weather data you use to determine the answer comes from the roughly 20 satellites orbiting Earth that monitor weather systems.
Spire, a San francisco startup that is currently testing a small group of shoebox-sized satellites, will announce Thursday that it will put its soon-to-launch fleet of commercial satellites to work collecting an unprecedented amount of weather data.
Spire will have 20 satellites orbiting Earth by the end of this year, and at least 100 3. 5 years from now if all goes according to plan.
Together the satellites will eventually provide 100 times more information. e want to take advantage of technology that available,
technology that we have developed, and move weather forecasting into an entirely different realm, CEO Peter Platzer said in an interview.
With more satellites, the experience will be more akin to pulling up Google maps on a mobile device.
Spire satellites will measure the humidity temperature and pressure the three main ingredients of weather forecasting of Earth atmosphere.
The sensors are attached to satellites designed to only last a few years. There are so many that if one fails it doesn take down the entire system,
and replacements with even newer technology will be launched frequently. Spire is among a growing number of startups to be launching large constellations of satellites into space.
Many of the earliest entrants, such as Planet Labs, have been focusing on imaging. Big players like Spacex and Google are looking at satellite-based internet.
Spire is the first to name weather as a major part of its business plan. e are just unwilling to accept that the way people think about the weather is just the way it is said,
Platzer. e think it very un-Silicon valley
#Biolite low-emission camping stove creates its own electricity Consider the humble camping stove. It requires fuel-perhaps some unwieldy bottle that air carriers object strongly to.
to develop the world first forced air rocket stove. Biolite won top prize in the Vodafone Innovation Project recently,
#Humancar aims for a healthy planet with healthy drivers At first glance it might look a bit like an elongated pedal car for kids,
So not only is it healthy for the planet it is healthy for the occupants too.
Humancar aims for a healthy planet with healthy drivers History The Humancar is the brainchild of Chief Scientist/Engineer Charles Samuel Greenwood P. E.,who first hit upon the idea for a human
Humancar aims for a healthy planet with healthy drivers NEV The innovative vehicle is dubbed an NEV because it falls into the U s. Department of transportation Neighborhood Electric vehicle (NEV) classification for low speed vehicles.
reasonably priced alternative that not only helps the planet, but helps the health of its occupants too.
which is 50 million times weaker than the Earth's magnetic field.""By making an inexpensive system you could have one in every hospital to test for traumatic brain injuries
#Lely Astronaut A4 milking robot lets cows milk themselves If cow milking recalls a bucolic image of a farmer strolling out to the barn with a bucket and stool,
A case in point is the Astronaut 4 from Dutch agricultural firm Lely. With this robotic milker, the farmer needn't come any closer to the action than a readout on a smartphone,
The Astronaut 4 is one of a range of robotic farming systems made by Lely, including robotic cowshed cleaners and forage pushers.
The Astronaut 4 system is designed to be as easy as possible for the cow to use.
and the Astronaut 4 version is developed a more model. It looks formidable, but that because it designed to be stable
and pen of the Astronaut 4 are equipped also with sensors to detects signs of mastitis.
#NASA probe will reveal 3d architecture of forests from space NASA is developing a laser-based instrument for deployment on the International space station that will probe the depths of Earth's forests from space in a bid to reveal more about their role in the planet's carbon cycle.
After its completion in 2018, this Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar will join the likes of the Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite in studying Earth's vegetation on a global scale."
"GEDI will be a tremendous new resource for studying Earth's vegetation, "said Piers Sellers, deputy director of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER."
"In particular, the GEDI data will provide us with global-scale insights into how much carbon is being stored in the forest biomass.
when combined with the historical record of changes captured by the U s. longstanding program of Earth-orbiting satellites, such as Landsat and MODIS."
GEDI's 3d maps could be combined with maps from other satellites to examine the role forest architecture plays in biodiversity and land use,
The GEDI lidar will be built at NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, with the University of Maryland, College Park leading the project e
and the filters gradually degrade under exposure to sunlight. The Rice researchers stumbled upon the new technique while studying the hypothesis that cephalopods such as octopus and squid
#Nissan and NASA team up for autonomous drive vehicle development It may seem akin to an alliance between a railway and a submarine manufacturer,
but Japanese automaker Nissan has signed a pact with US space agency NASA to develop self-driving cars. The five-year agreement announced last week covers a partnership on research and development of autonomous vehicle systems and their commercial applications.
Nissan) View All the agreement involves scientists and engineers at Nissan's US Silicon valley Research center and NASA's Ames Research center,
NASA has, in fact, been in the car business for over forty years, ever since the first Lunar rover went for a spin during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971.
Since then, the space agency has been developing more sophisticated versions for lunar and planetary excursions, including the nuclear-powered Curiosity Mars rover,
which is essentially a semi-autonomous 4x4 with six wheels.""The work of NASA and Nissan with one directed to space
and the other directed to earth, is connected by similar challenges, "says Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of Nissan motor company."
"The partnership will accelerate Nissan's development of safe, secure and reliable autonomous drive technology that we will progressively introduce to consumers beginning in 2016 up to 2020."
"Nissan says that the partnership will focus on the development of autonomous driving systems, human-machine interfaces, network-based applications,
such as the mountains of Mars or driving cross town in the rush hour. Source: Nissa s
and sizes can safely operate in the US airspace.""Source: CN N
#8 ways the Oculus Rift could (eventually) transcend gaming Gamers have been buzzing about the Oculus Rift for a couple of years already
and miles of boring dirt during your road trip to Vegas you could battle aliens save Gotham City
#New Spanish streetlight powered by the sun and the wind The light is being developed through a collaboration between the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and Spanish startup Eolgreen.
Spain University of Seville is also working on a solar wind-powered streetlight, while New york-based Urban Green energy already manufacturers one r
"Seventy-five percent of the universe is made out of hydrogen. Hydrogen is the most plentiful substance in the universe.
Contrast that now to oil, black gold, one of the rarest of substances on the Planet Earth.
Nations will kill to secure supplies of oil. Oil is found perhaps in the most dangerous, volatile, unstable areas of the Planet Earth."
"Toyota hopes to help jumpstart this future hydrogen society by sharing its intellectual property. This week's announcement represents the first time that it's sharing patents free of charge.
Professor Sun Xiaowei and colleagues at NTU have developed a self-powered smart window that is bi-functional.
"says Sun. The scientists also used a small section of their device to power a red LED,
Sun and team are now focusing on further improving the performance of their device and are looking into commercializing the technology,
and can be used easily outdoors, even in full sunlight. As a result, the new technology lends itself to applications such as 3d electronic billboards that could display different ads at the same time, dependent upon the angle of the viewer."
#Panasonic#s new technology purifies water with sunlight and photocatalysts Drinking clean water is something that many people in the world can't take for granted as they rely on polluted sources
In response to that problem Panasonic is developing a new technology that looks to the sun to clean water extracted from the ground.
The company recently presented a system that uses sunlight and photocatalysts to purify polluted water at a high reaction rate to improve access to clean water where it's needed.
and it's essential for the future sustainability of the planet that these vehicles are able to cope with the increasing demands being put on them.
#ISAAC robot joins NASA to weave advanced composites The robot revolution continues at NASA this month as its Langley Research center in Hampton,
it will be formally commissioned on January 26 before being put to work making lighter, stronger composite components for aerospace vehicles.
NASA/David C. Bo...The idea is that the ribbons are made up of partially cured resins mixed with carbon fibers.
According to NASA, more conventional composite manufacturing requires these ribbons to be laid down at one of three angles 0 degrees, 45, or 90.
lighter material that can be tailored quickly to match precise aerospace specifications at lower costs. NASA says that this versatility will not only help in creating better composites
but it will also speed up the prototyping process As well as ISAAC begins work on the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Advanced Composites Project and the Space technology Mission Directoratecomposites for Exploration Upper Stage,
it will not only be able to create scale models for wind tunnel tests, but even fan blades for the wind tunnel itself.
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