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Math goes to the movies

Minneapolis, MN—27 June, 2012—What do Avatar, The Chronicles of Narnia, X-Men, Harry Potter, and Pirates of the Caribbean have in common?

Simulated physics.

That's right. Making visual effects real for movie audiences—be it Avatar's vast ocean surface or rising water levels in The Deathly Hallows—requires quite a bit of physics and math. Physical equations and scientific computations are generated behind the scenes to ensure that the elements you see on the big screen obey the same laws of physics as their real counterparts.

New technique controls crystalline structure of titanium dioxide

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for controlling the crystalline structure of titanium dioxide at room temperature. The development should make titanium dioxide more efficient in a range of applications, including photovoltaic cells, hydrogen production, antimicrobial coatings, smart sensors and optical communication technologies.

New in Geosphere: From fractal-sized fragments to a large-footprint LiDAR survey

Boulder, Colo., USA – New Geosphere postings include the first use of virtual fieldwork to study faulting and other terrain data collected by LiDAR after the 2010 Haiti earthquake; additions to the themes "Origin and Evolution of the Sierra Nevada and Walker Lane" and "CRevolution 2: Origin and Evolution of the Colorado River System II"; development of the Mexican fold-and-thrust belt; provenance of sandstones in the Colton Formation, Desolation Canyon; and interactions of the Seattle and Saddle Mountain faults.

National Research Council presents long-term priorities for US nuclear physics program

WASHINGTON — Nuclear physics is a discovery-driven enterprise aimed at understanding the fundamental nature of visible matter in the universe. For the past hundred years, new knowledge of the nuclear world has also directly benefited society through many innovative applications. In its fourth decadal survey of nuclear physics, the National Research Council outlines the impressive accomplishments of the field in the last decade and recommends a long-term strategy for the future.

Storm researcher calls for new air safety guidelines

Aircraft turbulence guidelines should be rewritten after new research revealed thunderstorms could produce unexpected turbulence more than 100km away from storm cells.

The research by University of Melbourne and the Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science researcher, Dr Todd Lane, has highlighted the impact of atmospheric gravity waves caused by thunderstorms and how air safety guidelines have not taken them into account.

Greenland ice may exaggerate magnitude of 13,000-year-old deep freeze

MADISON -- Ice samples pulled from nearly a mile below the surface of Greenland glaciers have long served as a historical thermometer, adding temperature data to studies of the local conditions up to the Northern Hemisphere's climate.

But the method -- comparing the ratio of oxygen isotopes buried as snow fell over millennia -- may not be such a straightforward indicator of air temperature.

Discovery of material with amazing properties

Normally a material can be either magnetically or electrically polarized, but not both. Now researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen have studied a material that is simultaneously magnetically and electrically polarizable. This opens up new possibilities, for example, for sensors in technology of the future. The results have been published in the scientific journal, Nature Materials.

Climate change and the South Asian summer monsoon

The vagaries of South Asian summer monsoon rainfall impact the lives of more than one billion people. A review in Nature Climate Change (June 24 online issue) of over 100 recent research articles concludes that with continuing rise in CO2 and global warming, the region can expect generally more rainfall, due to the expected increase in atmospheric moisture, as well as more variability in rainfall.

Significant sea-level rise in a 2-degree warming world

The study is the first to give a comprehensive projection for this long perspective, based on observed sea-level rise over the past millennium, as well as on scenarios for future greenhouse-gas emissions.

"Sea-level rise is a hard to quantify, yet critical risk of climate change," says Michiel Schaeffer of Climate Analytics and Wageningen University, lead author of the study. "Due to the long time it takes for the world's ice and water masses to react to global warming, our emissions today determine sea levels for centuries to come."

New technique allows simulation of noncrystalline materials

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A multidisciplinary team of researchers at MIT and in Spain has found a new mathematical approach to simulating the electronic behavior of noncrystalline materials, which may eventually play an important part in new devices including solar cells, organic LED lights and printable, flexible electronic circuits.

Making bad worse for expectant mothers

Some Norwegian women with birth anxiety face additional trauma in their meeting with the country's health service, according to research carried out in Stavanger.

The Cesarean section rate is rising in most developed countries and many pregnant women around the world suffer from a fear of childbirth. In Norway, birth anxiety affects one in five pregnant women and can prompt some to demand a Caesarean delivery. But the question is how afraid a woman must be before her wishes are heard.

Risks and rewards of quantifying nature's 'ecosystem services'

How much is a stream worth? Can we put a dollar value on a wetland? Some conservation proponents have moved to establish the economic value of "ecosystem services," the benefits that nature provides to people. The approach translates the beauty and utility of a wetland into pounds of phosphorus removed from agricultural runoff, Joules of heat pulled out of urban wastewater, and inches of floodwater absorbed upstream of riverside communities.

Researchers test carbon nanotube-based ultra-low voltage integrated circuits

A team of researchers from Peking University in Beijing, China, and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has demonstrated that carbon nanotube-based integrated circuits can work under a supply voltage much lower than that used in conventional silicon integrated circuits. Low supply voltage circuits produce less heat, which is a key limiting factor for increased circuit density. Carbon-based electronics have attracted attention mostly because of their speed.

Bandgap engineering for high-efficiency solar cell design

ZnSnP2, an absorber material for solar cells, transitions from an ordered to a disordered structure at high temperatures. Researchers from University College London and the University of Bath have proposed taking advantage of this structural change to design high-efficiency solar absorbers. The team used theoretical calculations to investigate the electronic structure of both phases, and predicted a significant difference in the bandgap between the ordered and fully disordered materials.

Sea waves as renewable resource in new energy converter design

Sea waves are a renewable and inexhaustible resource found in abundance across the planet. But efficiently converting sea wave motion into electrical energy has been challenging, in part due to the difficulty of compensating for the relatively low speeds and irregular movements of ocean waves. Researchers from the University of Beira Interior in Portugal have designed and simulated a new energy conversion device that addresses both these challenges (i.e., low speed and irregular movements).