Tech | Page 1408 | Science Codex

UCLA Engineering researchers use electricity to generate alternative fuel

Imagine being able to use electricity to power your car — even if it's not an electric vehicle. Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have for the first time demonstrated a method for converting carbon dioxide into liquid fuel isobutanol using electricity.

Today, electrical energy generated by various methods is still difficult to store efficiently. Chemical batteries, hydraulic pumping and water splitting suffer from low energy-density storage or incompatibility with current transportation infrastructure.

SMU's David Blackwell touts nationwide geothermal energy potential at Capitol Hill science briefing

DALLAS (SMU) – SMU Geothermal energy expert David Blackwell gave a Capitol Hill briefing Tuesday, March 27, on the growing opportunities for geothermal energy production in the United States, calling "unconventional" geothermal techniques a potential game changer for U.S. energy policy.

Autism Speaks demands urgent response to the autism epidemic in new CDC prevalence estimates

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Autism Speaks, the world's leading autism science and advocacy organization, today called on the nation's elected and appointed leaders to immediately develop a new, coordinated strategy to take on a national public health emergency – the autism epidemic – in the wake of a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) finding that autism is now diagnosed in a staggering 1 in every 88 American children.

Reducing cash bite of wind power

The State of Illinois is facing an important renewable energy deadline in 2025, and Northwestern University's Harold H. Kung has a piece of advice for Springfield to consider now: Investment Tax Credit.

New understanding of how materials change when rapidly heated

Collaboration between the University of Southampton and the University of Cambridge has made ground-breaking advances in our understanding of the changes that materials undergo when rapidly heated.

Study supports association of alcohol and diabetes

Subjects in a cohort in Sweden, some of whom had been exposed to a community intervention program to prevent diabetes, were evaluated 8-10 years after baseline for the presence of diabetes mellitus or impaired glucose metabolism ("pre-diabetes") in relation to a baseline report of alcohol consumption. Approximately 2,000 men and 3,000 women had a normal glucose tolerance test at baseline; of these 105 men and 57 women developed type II diabetes. Of subjects with pre-diabetes at baseline, 175 men and 98 women progressed to diabetes.

Supercomputing the difference between matter and antimatter

UPTON, NY — An international collaboration of scientists has reported a landmark calculation of the decay process of a kaon into two pions, using breakthrough techniques on some of the world's fastest supercomputers. This is the same subatomic particle decay explored in a 1964 Nobel Prize-winning experiment performed at the U.S.

A simple and effective approach to improve device performance of pentacene thin film transistors

Organic thin film transistors (TFTs) have attracted much attention due to their wide and potential applications in, e.g., flexible displays, radio frequency identification cards, and sensors. Pentacene TFTs, in which gold (Au) source/drain electrodes are commonly used as the charge-injecting metal, are particularly attractive on account of their large mobility (~ 1 cm2 V-1 s-1) and high on/off ratios (>105), particularly when compared to those for amorphous silicon TFTs.

Bokhari tests performance of diverse HPC architectures

Surveying the wide range of parallel system architectures offered in the supercomputer market, an Ohio State University researcher recently sought to establish some side-by-side performance comparisons.

The journal, Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience, in February published, "Parallel solution of the subset-sum problem: an empirical study." The paper is based upon a master's thesis written last year by computer science and engineering graduate student Saniyah Bokhari.

2-in-1 device uses sewage as fuel to make electricity and clean the sewage

SAN DIEGO, March 28 — Scientists today described a new and more efficient version of an innovative device the size of a home washing machine that uses bacteria growing in municipal sewage to make electricity and clean up the sewage at the same time. Their report here at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, suggested that commercial versions of the two-in-one device could be a boon for the developing world and water-short parts of the U.S.

Fusion presents low proliferation risk, experts conclude

American researchers have shown that prospective magnetic fusion power systems would pose a much lower risk of being used for the production of weapon-usable materials than nuclear fission reactors and their associated fuel cycle.

The researchers, from Princeton University, found that if nuclear fusion power plants are designed to accommodate appropriate safeguards, there is little risk of fissile materials being produced for weapons, either secretly or overtly.

Their results have been published today, 29 March, by IOP Publishing in the journal Nuclear Fusion.

Toward a test strip for detecting TNT and other explosives in water

SAN DIEGO, March 28, 2012 — Scientists today described development of a new explosives detector that can sense small amounts of TNT and other common explosives in liquids instantly with a sensitivity that rivals bomb-sniffing dogs, the current gold standard in protecting the public from terrorist bombs. They reported on the technology, suitable for incorporation into a TNT test strip, at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), being held here this week.

States keep up with ozone mandates

States are doing an effective job of monitoring air quality, but the federal government remains the primary player in clearing the air, according to a new study by Rice University.

UCSB Physicists mix 2 lasers to create light at many frequencies

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– A team of physicists at UC Santa Barbara has seen the light, and it comes in many different colors. By aiming high- and low-frequency laser beams at a semiconductor, the researchers caused electrons to be ripped from their cores, accelerated, and then smashed back into the cores they left behind. This recollision produced multiple frequencies of light simultaneously. Their findings appear in the current issue of the science journal Nature.

Federal agencies should take advantage of opportunities to promote integration of primary care and public health

WASHINGTON — The traditional separation between primary health care providers and public health professionals is impeding greater success in meeting their shared goal of ensuring the health of populations, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. Integration of these fields will require national leadership as well as substantial adaptation at the local level, said the committee that wrote the report.