Graphene, the one-atom-thick "wonder material" made of carbon, has another potential use in the world of high-speed electronics – as a tool that can focus a stream of electrons similar to the way an optical lens focuses light. A new prototype reveals that a layer of graphene, when strained through stretching, can act as a two-dimensional lens for electrons.
Earth
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It was a figurative whack on the head that started Sandia National Laboratories distinguished technical staff member Juan Elizondo-Decanini thinking outside the box — which in his case was a cylinder.
He developed a new configuration for neutron generators by turning from conventional cylindrical tubes to the flat geometry of computer chips. For size comparison, small neutron generators, which are like mini accelerators, are 1 to 2 inches in diameter, he said.
Both the US and UK are pouring money into building proton accelerators to treat cancer. They have been described as the world's "most costly medical devices" but in an article published on bmj.com today, journalist Keith Epstein reports that "no clear evidence of better effectiveness exists" and asks whether the investment is premature.
The GOES animation of the severe weather outbreak is in a large-format HDTV movie that runs 30 seconds. "The animation runs through the period of April 14-15, 2012 and the GOES imagery reveals the strong flow of warm, moist air from the Gulf into the advancing cold front," said Dennis Chesters of NASA's GOES Project.
WASHINGTON – Physicians and nurses have a role if not "a moral and professional responsibility to act" to help to reduce climate change and help those impacted, say the authors of "Climate Change & Health: Is There a Role for the Health Care Sector?," published by the Catholic Health Association of the United States.
Research led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History shows that ammonites—an extinct type of shelled mollusk that's closely related to modern-day nautiluses and squids—made homes in the unique environments surrounding methane seeps in the seaway that once covered America's Great Plains. The findings, published online on April 10 in the journal Geology, provide new insights into the mode of life and habitat of these ancient animals.
Scientists and engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) have discovered an entirely new carbon-based material that is synthesized from the "wonder kid" of the carbon family, graphene. The discovery, which the researchers are calling "graphene monoxide (GMO)," pushes carbon materials closer to ushering in next-generation electronics.
Electron microscopy, conducted as part of the Shared Research Equipment (ShaRE) User Program at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has led to a new theory to explain intriguing properties in a material with potential applications in capacitors and actuators.
Marine researchers have definitively linked the collapse of oyster seed production at a commercial oyster hatchery in Oregon to an increase in ocean acidification.
Larval growth at the hatchery declined to a level considered by the owners to be "non-economically viable."
A study by the scientists found that increased seawater carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, resulting in more corrosive ocean water, inhibited the larval oysters from developing their shells and growing at a pace that would make commercial production cost-effective.
Washington, D.C. — How hydrogen--the most abundant element in the cosmos--responds to extremes of pressure and temperature is one of the major challenges in modern physical science. Moreover, knowledge gleaned from experiments using hydrogen as a testing ground on the nature of chemical bonding can fundamentally expand our understanding of matter. New work from Carnegie scientists has enabled researchers to examine hydrogen under pressures never before possible. Their work is published online in Physical Review Letters.
Imagine a world where the rooftops and pavements of every urban area are resurfaced to increase the reflection of the Sun's light rays. Well, this is exactly what a group of Canadian researchers have done in an attempt to measure the potential effects against global warming.
In a study published today, 13 April, in IOP Publishing's journal Environmental Research Letters, researchers from Concordia University created this scenario to see what effect a global increase in surface reflectance would have on global temperature and our own carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Meat consumption in the developed world needs to be cut by 50 per cent per person by 2050 if we are to meet the most aggressive strategy, set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to reduce one of the most important greenhouse gases, nitrous oxide (N2O).
This is the finding from a new study, published today, 13 April, in IOP Publishing's Environmental Research Letters, which also claims that N2O emissions from the industrial and agricultural sectors will also need to be cut by 50 per cent if targets are to be met.
Two new studies into the "plumbing systems" that lie under volcanoes could bring scientists closer to understanding plate ruptures and predicting eruptions—both of which are important steps for protecting the public from earthquake and volcanic hazards.
International teams of researchers, including two scientists from the University of Rochester, have been studying the location and behaviour of magma chambers on the Earth's mid-ocean ridge system—a vast chain of volcanoes along which the Earth forms new crust.
(Boston) – Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified a gene that plays a key role in regulating inflammatory response and homeostasis. These findings could help lead to the development of innovative methods to reduce the inflammation associated with cancer, type 2 diabetes and other diseases.