Earth | Page 983 | Science Codex

Stanford ecologist uses social media data to gauge recreational value of coastal areas

Where to play and spend money while on vacation depends on characteristics of the environment. To correctly value ecosystems, researchers must account for outdoor recreational opportunities and understand how changes in the environment lead to changes in visitation rates.

But that information is costly and hard to get because site-specific data are necessary to predict how changes in the environment will lead to changes in visitation rates. In most places, particularly developing countries, scientists lack data on where people go.

Artificial platelets could treat injured soldiers on the battlefield

When it comes to healing the terrible wounds of war, success may hinge on the first blood clot – the one that begins forming on the battlefield right after an injury.

Avoiding virus dangers in 'domesticating' wild plants for biofuel use

In our ongoing quest for alternative energy sources, researchers are looking more to plants that grow in the wild for use in biofuels, plants such as switchgrass.

However, attempts to "domesticate" wild-growing plants have a downside, as it could make the plants more susceptible to any number of plant viruses.

Most comprehensive report in 50 years on education of key scientists

Source:

Climate change's costly wild weather consequences

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Throughout 2012, the United States was battered by severe weather events such as hurricanes and droughts that affected both pocketbooks and livelihoods. Research suggests that in the coming years, U.S. five-day forecasts will show greater numbers of extreme weather events, a trend linked to human-driven climate change.

Scientists develop improved fire management tools for Africa's savannas

DAKAR, SENEGAL (15 February 2013)—Scientists at the Nairobi-based World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and partners have developed specialized graphs that map out fire behavior, known as nomographs, for landscape managers in Africa's savannas. The study, published in the February issue of the Journal of Arid Environments, pinpoints the optimal conditions for setting early-season prescribed fires—a process that when executed and timed properly, reduces the risk and impact of late dry season bushfires in increasingly fragile ecosystems, both of which are exacerbated by climate change.

Proof: Cosmic rays come from exploding stars

Menlo Park, Calif. — A new study confirms what scientists have long suspected: Cosmic rays – energetic particles that pelt Earth from all directions – are born in the violent aftermath of supernovas, exploding stars throughout the galaxy.

A research team led by scientists at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at the Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory sifted through four years of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to find the first unambiguous evidence of how cosmic rays are born.

Rapid changes in the Arctic ecosystem during ice minimum in summer 2012

X-ray laser sees photosynthesis in action

Opening a new window on the way plants generate the oxygen we breathe, researchers used an X-ray laser at the Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to simultaneously look at the structure and chemical behavior of a natural catalyst involved in photosynthesis for the first time.

Combining quantum information communication and storage

Aalto University researchers in Finland have successfully connected a superconducting quantum bit, or qubit, with a micrometer-sized drum head. Thus they transferred information from the qubit to the resonator and back again.

- This work represents the first step towards creating exotic mechanical quantum states. For example, the transfer makes it possible to create a state in which the resonator simultaneously vibrates and doesn't vibrate, says professor Mika Sillanpää from Aalto University, who runs the research group.

A quantum dot energy harvester

A new type of nanoscale engine has been proposed that would use quantum dots to generate electricity from waste heat, potentially making microcircuits more efficient.

Team creates MRI for the nanoscale

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reveals details of living tissues, diseased organs and tumors inside the body without x-rays or surgery. What if the same technology could peer down to the level of atoms? Doctors could make visual diagnoses of a person's molecules – examining damage on a strand of DNA, watching molecules misfold, or identifying a cancer cell by the proteins on its surface.

Penn geologists quantify, characterize sediment carried by Mississippi flood to Louisiana's wetlands

PHILADELPHIA — The spring 2011 flood on the Mississippi was among the largest floods ever, the river swelling over its banks and wreaking destruction in the surrounding areas. But a University of Pennsylvania-led study also shows that the flood reaped environmental benefits — transporting and laying down new sediment in portions of the Delta — that may help maintain the area's wetlands.

Origami meets chemistry in scholarly video-article

February 13, 2013

Cambridge, MA: The nanotechnology research space is rapidly growing, with vast implications for the healthcare, consumer electronics, surveillance, and defense industries. However, a major limitation to this research is the ability to create particles that vary in shape and function on a micrometer or nanometer scale.

Magnetic shielding of ion beam thruster walls

Electric rocket engines known as Hall thrusters, which use a super high-velocity stream of ions to propel a spacecraft in space, have been used successfully onboard many missions for half a century. Erosion of the discharge channels walls, however, has limited their application to the inner solar system. A research team at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., has found a way to effectively control this erosion by shaping the engine's magnetic field in a way that shields the walls from ion bombardment.