Earth | Page 1126 | Science Codex

Physicists consider their own carbon footprint

In October's issue of Physics World, Phil Marshall, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford, calls on physicists to pull their weight when it comes to climate change, drawing on his own research showing that astronomers average 23,000 air miles per year flying to observatories, conferences and meetings, and use 130 KWh more energy per day than the average US citizen.

Marshall says that physicists must not only act as "trusted voices" in climate-change debates, but also do all they can to reduce their own carbon footprints.

Scientists and engineers create the 'perfect plastic'

Researchers at the University of Leeds and Durham University have solved a long-standing problem that could revolutionize the way new plastics are developed.

The breakthrough will allow experts to create the 'perfect plastic' with specific uses and properties by using a high-tech 'recipe book.' It will also increase our ability to recycle plastics. The research paper is published in the prestigious journal Science on Thursday.

Productivity of land plants may be greater than previously thought

London. The global uptake of carbon by land plants may be up to 45 per cent more than previously thought. This is the conclusion of an international team of scientists, based on the variability of heavy oxygen atoms in the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere driven by the El Niño effect. As the oxygen atoms in carbon dioxide were converted faster than expected during the El Niño years, current estimates for the uptake of carbon by plants are probably too low. These should be corrected upwards, say the researchers in the current issue of the scientific journal NATURE.

Unexpected role of noise in spine formation

The development of periodic structures in embryos giving rise to the formation of, e.g., spine segments, is controlled not by genes but by simple physical and chemical phenomena. Researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the University Pierre et Marie Curie have proposed a straightforward theoretical model to describe the process, and studied how the segmentation is affected by internal, thermodynamic noise of the system. The results turned out to be counterintuitive.

Single ions -- extremely cool

Quantum logic is quite a new and absolutely fascinating field of physics and might – ultimately – lead to the fabrication of a quantum computer. And it could also aid the search for the "theory of everything" – the missing link between traditional physics and quantum physics. One of the fundamental questions hereby is whether fundamental constants possibly vary. To prove this in the case of the fine-structure constant, for instance, we have to measure the spectral lines of atoms (i.e. their inner structure) more accurately than ever before.

Quantum Hall effect: Redefining the kilogram and the ampere

Groundbreaking research by the National Physical Laboratory's (NPL) Quantum Detection Group and an international team of collaborators is underpinning the biggest change in the Système Internationale d'unités (SI Units) since the system began 50 years ago.

It has long been the goal of scientists to relate all of the unit definitions to fundamental constants of nature, making them stable and universal, and giving them closer links to each other and the quantities they measure.

Managing future forests for water supply

Otto, NC—Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientists recently used long-term data from the Coweeta Hydrological Laboratory (Coweeta) in Western North Carolina to examine the feasibility of managing forests for water supply under the changing weather conditions forecast for the future.

Loss of 'lake lawnmowers' leads to algae blooms

Unprecedented algae growth in some lakes could be linked to the decline of water calcium levels and the subsequent loss of an important algae-grazing organism that helps keep blooms at bay.

Daphnia—also known as water fleas—act like microscopic lawnmowers in lakes, feeding on algae and keeping it in check. However, without sufficient calcium, these water fleas cannot reproduce.

Assessing California earthquake forecasts

In the study, UC Davis researchers compare seven different earthquake forecasts (including their own) that were submitted to a competition organized by the Southern California Earthquake Center.

The findings should help researchers both develop better earthquake forecasts and improve their tools for assessing those forecasts, said Donald Turcotte, a distinguished professor of geology at UC Davis and co-author of the paper.

Quantum teleportation analyzed by mathematical separation tool

Scientists from the University of Vienna's Faculty of Physics in Austria recently gave a theoretical description of teleportation phenomena in sub-atomic scale physical systems, in a publication in the European Physical Journal D.

For the first time, the Austrian team proved that mathematical tools give us the freedom to choose how to separate out the constituting matter of a complex physical system by selectively analysing its so-called quantum state. That is the state in which the system is found when performing measurement, which can either be entangled or not.

Climate change set to increase ozone-related deaths over next 60 years

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Scientists are warning that death rates linked to climate change will increase in several European countries over the next 60 yrs.

A new study, which will be presented today (27 September 2011) at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Amsterdam, predicts that Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal will see the biggest climate-induced increase in ozone-related deaths over the next 60 yrs.

How graphene's electrical properties can be tuned

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – An accidental discovery in a physicist's laboratory at the University of California, Riverside provides a unique route for tuning the electrical properties of graphene, nature's thinnest elastic material. This route holds great promise for replacing silicon with graphene in the microchip industry.

'Next-generation' optical tweezers trap tightly without overheating

Cambridge, Mass. – September 26, 2011 – Engineers at Harvard have created a device that may make it easier to isolate and study tiny particles such as viruses.

Their plasmonic nanotweezers, revealed this month in Nature Communications, use light from a laser to trap nanoscale particles. The new device creates strong forces more efficiently than traditional optical tweezers and eliminates a problem that caused earlier setups to overheat.

Sneaking up on the glassy transition of water

Rapid cooling of ordinary water or compression of ordinary ice: either of these can transform normal H2O into an exotic substance that resembles glass in its transparency, brittleness, hardness, and luster. Unlike everyday ice, which has a highly organized crystalline structure, this glass-like material's molecules are arranged in a random, disorganized way.

Scientists model the pathways of pain-blocking meds

Benzocaine, a commonly used local anesthetic, may more easily wiggle into a cell's membrane when the membrane is made up of compounds that carry a negative charge, a new study shows. The finding could help scientists piece together a more complete understanding of the molecular-level mechanisms behind pain-blocking medicines, possibly leading to their safer and more effective use.