New mechanism converts natural gas to energy faster, captures CO2

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North Carolina State University researchers have identified a new mechanism to convert natural gas into energy up to 70 times faster, while effectively capturing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2).

"This could make power generation from natural gas both cleaner and more efficient," says Fanxing Li, co-author of a paper on the research and an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State.

Landsat thermal sensor lights up from volcano's heat

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As the Landsat Data Continuity Mission satellite flew over Indonesia's Flores Sea April 29, it captured an image of Paluweh volcano spewing ash into the air. The satellite's Operational Land Imager detected the white cloud of smoke and ash drifting northwest, over the green forests of the island and the blue waters of the tropical sea. The Thermal Infrared Sensor on LDCM picked up even more.

By imaging the heat emanating from the 5-mile-wide volcanic island, TIRS revealed a hot spot at the top of the volcano where lava has been oozing in recent months.

Columbia engineers manipulate a buckyball by inserting a single water molecule

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More hurricanes for Hawaii?

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News of a hurricane threat sends our hearts racing, glues us to the Internet for updates, and makes us rush to the store to stock up on staples. Hawaii, fortunately, has been largely free from these violent storms in the recent past, only two having made landfall in more than 30 years.

Another 'trophy' for the chemistry cabinet

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The search for cleaner, low temperature nuclear fuels has produced a shock result for a team of experts at The University of Nottingham.

First they created a stable version of a 'trophy molecule' that has eluded scientists for decades. Now they have discovered that the bonding within this molecule is far different than expected. Remarkably their findings have shown that it behaves in much the same way as its counterparts in the well-known transitional metals such as chromium, molybdenum and tungsten.

AGU journal highlights -- May 7, 2013

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The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth (JGR-B), Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans (JGR-C), Journal of Geophysical Research-Earth Surface (JGR-F) and Tectonics.

In this release:

Chaos proves superior to order

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An international team of physicists, including researchers from the Universities of York and St. Andrews, has demonstrated that chaos can beat order - at least as far as light storage is concerned.

In a collaboration led by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, the researchers deformed mirrors in order to disrupt the regular light path in an optical cavity and, surprisingly, the resulting chaotic light paths allowed more light to be stored than with ordered paths.

Solid-state controllable light filter may protect preterm infants from disturbing light

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Scaling up gyroscopes: From navigation to measuring the Earth's rotation

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As climate changes, boreal forests to shift north and relinquish more carbon than expected

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It's difficult to imagine how a degree or two of warming will affect a location. Will it rain less? What will happen to the area's vegetation?

New Berkeley Lab research offers a way to envision a warmer future. It maps how Earth's myriad climates—and the ecosystems that depend on them—will move from one area to another as global temperatures rise.