HOUSTON – (Sept. 4, 2013) – Scientists at Rice University have trapped bismuth in a nanotube cage to tag stem cells for X-ray tracking.
Bismuth is probably best known as the active element in a popular stomach-settling elixir and is also used in cosmetics and medical applications. Rice chemist Lon Wilson and his colleagues are inserting bismuth compounds into single-walled carbon nanotubes to make a more effective contrast agent for computed tomography (CT) scanners.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- In all the centuries that humans have studied chemical reactions, just 36 basic types of reactions have been found. Now, thanks to the work of researchers at MIT and the University of Minnesota, a 37th type of reaction can be added to the list.
University of Calgary scientists have overcome an 'Achilles' heel' of quantum-based secure communication systems, using a new approach that works in the real world to safeguard secrets.
The team's research – published in the journal Physical Review Letters back-to-back with similar work by a group from Hefei, China – also removes a big obstacle to realizing future applications of quantum communication, including a fully functional quantum network.
Because animals can't talk, researchers need to study their behavior patterns to make sense of their activities. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University are using these zoological methods to study people with serious mental disorders.
Engineers working in the nanoscale will have a new tool at their disposal thanks to an international group of researchers led by Drexel University's College of Engineering. This innovative procedure could alleviate the persistent challenge of measuring key features of electron behavior while designing the ever-shrinking components that allow cell phones, laptops and tablets to get increasingly thinner and more energy efficient.
A team of researchers in Ireland have found evidence that altering the chemistry of an electrode surface (surface engineering) can help microbial communities to connect to the electrode to produce more electricity (electron-exchange) more rapidly compared to unmodified electrodes. Electron exchange is at the heart of all redox reactions occurring in the natural world, as well as in bioengineered systems: so called 'biolectrochemical systems'. Practical applications of these systems include current generation, wastewater treatment, and biochemical and biofuel production.
TEMPE. Ariz. -- New types of nanostructures have shown promise for applications in electrochemically powered energy devices and systems, including advanced battery technologies.
One process for making these nanostructures is dealloying, in which one or more elemental components of an alloy are selectively leached out of materials.
The use of whole bacterial genome sequencing will allow scientists to inexpensively track how bovine tuberculosis (TB) is transmitted from farm to farm, according to research presented this week at the Society of General Microbiology Autumn Conference.
Bovine TB is primarily a disease of cattle, caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis. The disease is hugely expensive, costing the Government over £91 million in England in 2010/11.
HOUSTON – (Sept. 3, 2013) – Clay, an abundant and cheap natural material, is a key ingredient in a supercapacitor that can operate at very high temperatures, according to Rice University researchers who have developed such a device.
The traditional audience for books and scientific papers in which scientists report their findings has been the human reader. Now we can enhance publications by attaching to them many different kinds of digital objects (such as the sounds made by birds, maps that show where they occur, or images and videos) or by adding computer-readable sections and terms that allow computers to extract information for re-use. We refer to these enriched and marked-up documents as 'enhanced'.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering have solved a problem that previously presented a serious hurdle for the use of graphene in electronic devices.
Scanning electron microscopy image of graphene device used in the study. The scale bar is one micrometer. The UCR logo next to it is implemented with etched graphene.
ALMA opens another window to the universe in the 500 GHz frequency band. Astronomers successfully synthesized the distribution of atomic carbon around a planetary nebula NGC 6302 in test observations with the ALMA Band 8 receiver, developed by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). This is the first 500 GHz band astronomical image captured by a radio interferometer with unprecedentedly high resolution.
Dr Laukkanen said: "Sudden cardiac death (SCD) accounts for approximately 50% of deaths from coronary heart disease. SCD typically occurs shortly after the onset of symptoms, leaving little time for effective medical interventions, and most cases occur outside hospital with few or no early warning signs. Finding ways to identify individuals at elevated risk of SCD would allow early interventions on risk factors to be implemented."
Despite the size and severity of the massive 2007 Anaktuvuk River fire on Alaska's North Slope, much of the arctic vegetation has recovered and the tundra is likely to return to its pre-fire condition according to University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist Syndonia "Donie" Bret-Harte and colleagues in a recent scientific paper.
Bacteria living in the Gulf of Mexico beaches were able to 'eat up' the contamination from the Deep Water Horizon oil spill by supplementing their diet with nitrogen, delegates at the Goldschmidt conference will be told today, Friday 30th August.