LAS CRUCES, NM--A new study contains valuable information for homeowners and horticulturalists that live and work in desert regions. The study, the first of its type to classify desert plants into nine common types, includes recommendations for helping to plan and integrate lower water-use plants into urban landscapes. Interestingly, the researchers also determined that front- and backyard environments can differ significantly.
Earth
A team of researchers from the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science in Japan has demonstrated that the magic numbers 20 and 28 disappear from all neutron-rich magnesium isotopes, thereby establishing a new, larger area of nuclear deformation in the nuclear chart.
The Japanese study, published today in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters, was made possible by the intense beam at the Radioactive Beam Factory (RIBF) at RIKEN, which produces the most intense radioactive isotope beams in the world.
COLLEGE STATION, TX--The Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences of Texas A&M University recently announced the release of 'CaroTex-312', a new high-yielding, orange-fruited, Habanero type, F1 hybrid pepper (Capsicum chinense Jacq.).
Advances in technology for computation and information storage always require to make the systems smaller and faster. The limits of miniaturization are those set by nature: Materials are composed by specific units, the atoms, that cannot be further divided. The question arising is: Can we still codify information at the atomic scale? And the answer is yes, we can! but one needs to manipulate a property of the atoms, individually, and keep them in that state there for sufficiently long time to be able to read it.
Global emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels are set to rise again in 2013, reaching a record high of 36 billion tonnes - according to new figures from the Global Carbon Project, co-led by researchers from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia (UEA).
The 2.1 per cent rise projected for 2013 means global emissions from burning fossil fuel are 61 per cent above 1990 levels, the baseline year for the Kyoto Protocol.
AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a simple scaling theory to estimate gas production from hydraulically fractured wells in the Barnett Shale. The method is intended to help the energy industry accurately identify low- and high-producing horizontal wells, as well as accurately predict how long it will take for gas reserves to deplete in the wells.
Understanding superconductivity – whereby certain materials can conduct electricity without any loss of energy – has proved to be one of the most persistent problems in modern physics. Scientists have struggled for decades to develop a cohesive theory of superconductivity, largely spurred by the game-changing prospect of creating a superconductor that works at room temperature, but it has proved to be a tremendous tangle of complex physics.
If you want to get the most out of the sun, you have to improve the performance of the materials used.
An interdisciplinary team of Engineering at Illinois researchers has set its sights on improving the materials that make solar energy conversion/photocatalysis possible. Together, they have developed a new form of high-performance solar photocatalyst based on the combination of the TiO2 (titanium dioxide) and other "metallic" oxides that greatly enhance the visible light absorption and promote more efficient utilization of the solar spectrum for energy applications.
Scientists encounter big challenges when reconstructing atmospheric compositions in the Earth's geological past because of the lack of useable sample material. One of the few organic materials that may preserve reliable data of the Earth's geological history over millions of years are fossil resins (e.g. amber). "Compared to other organic matter, amber has the advantage that it remains chemically and isotopically almost unchanged over long periods of geological time," explains Ralf Tappert from the Institute of Mineralogy and Petrography at the University of Innsbruck.
This news release is available in German.
It wasn't what they were looking for but that only made the discovery all the more exciting.
In January 2010 a team of scientists had set up two crossing lines of seismographs across Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica. It was the first time the scientists had deployed many instruments in the interior of the continent that could operate year-round even in the coldest parts of Antarctica.
Like a giant CT machine, the seismograph array used disturbances created by distant earthquakes to make images of the ice and rock deep within West Antarctica.
Long-term and average changes are in the focus of the discussion on climate change: globally, as the different scientific climate models all predict, it will be warmer on Earth at the end of the century. For decision-makers and people affected by climate change, however, information on the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as heat and cold extremes, heavy rainfall or dry spells are at least as important as indications of average values.
Traditionally, it was assumed that corals do not face a risk of extinction unless they become very rare or have a very restricted range. A team of scientists from the University of Hawaii – Manoa (UHM), Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (JIMAR) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has revealed that global changes in climate and ocean chemistry affect corals whether scare or abundant, and often it is the dominant, abundant corals with wide distributions that are affected the most.
Instruments on the Curiosity Mars rover not only measure the chemistry of rocks, elemental abundances of soils and wind speeds, but also take an incredible number of images from both mast-mounted cameras and up-close imaging systems mounted to robotic arms. The process of analyzing soil images can be daunting, particularly when there are thousands of images and when the particles can be on the order of only 5-10 pixels wide.
In the November issue of Icarus, researchers from LSU's Department of Geology & Geophysics and Stony Brook's Department of Geosciences assess the details of halogen variability and an unusual process that may influence it. The group, led by LSU's Suniti Karunatillake, investigated the potential for an existing halogen cycle on Mars, which would alter the current paradigm of halogens distributed mostly by water-related processes.