Earth

By sandwiching a biological molecule between sheets of graphene, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have obtained atomic-level images of the molecule in its natural watery environment.

The results are published online in advance of print in the journal Advanced Materials.

The molecule, ferritin, is a highly conserved protein that regulates the levels of iron in animals and plants. Ferritin can sequester excess iron, which can be toxic, and release it when it is needed.

A graphene water balloon may soon open up new vistas for scientists seeking to understand health and disease at the most fundamental level.

Electron microscopes already provide amazingly clear images of samples just a few nanometers across. But if you want a good look at living tissue, look again.

Climate researchers at the University of East Anglia have made the world's temperature records available via Google Earth.

The Climatic Research Unit Temperature Version 4 (CRUTEM4) land-surface air temperature dataset is one of the most widely used records of the climate system.

The new Google Earth format allows users to scroll around the world, zoom in on 6,000 weather stations, and view monthly, seasonal and annual temperature data more easily than ever before.

The following highlights summarize research papers that have been recently published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL), Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth (JGR-B), and Paleoceanography.

In this release:

1. Canada's subarctic lakes could face widespread desiccation

2. Seafloor sites could stably store centuries' worth of carbon emissions

3. Detection of supershear rupture in 2013 Craig, Alaska, earthquake

4. Acoustic emissions unveil internal motion in granular materials

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Look out, super glue and paint thinner. Thanks to new dynamic materials developed at the University of Illinois, removable paint and self-healing plastics soon could be household products.

U. of I. materials science and engineering professor Jianjun Cheng, graduate student Hanze Ying and postdoctoral researcher Yanfeng Zhang published their work in the journal Nature Communications.

Washington, D.C.—New research shows that a remarkable defect in synthetic diamond produced by chemical vapor deposition allows researchers to measure, witness, and potentially manipulate electrons in a manner that could lead to new "quantum technology" for information processing. The study is published in the January 31, 2014, issue of Physical Review Letters.

From Egyptian mummies to Ötzi the Iceman, human remains are a common, if macabre, feature of museum exhibits. Writing in Clinical Anatomy, Dr. Philippe Charlier explores the argument that curators have an ethical obligation to return these bodies to their native communities for burial.

University of Adelaide researchers have identified a key step for the future prevention of liver failure resulting from taking too much of the everyday painkiller paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen).

Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the study pinpoints a target for new treatments to prevent the potentially lethal consequences of paracetamol overdose.

The number of annual excess deaths caused by hot weather in England and Wales is projected to surge by 257% by the middle of the century, as a result of climate change and population growth, concludes research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The elderly (75+) will be most at risk, particularly in the South and the Midlands, the findings suggest.

Services provided by Mother Nature, such as pest control from insect-eating bats, are affected by market forces like most anything else in the economy, a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, study finds.

The study's results have implications for biodiversity conservation efforts.

Government initiatives to improve access to healthy foods may have a limited impact on obesity in the US, according to new research by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Penn State University.

Alexandria, VA – A complex interaction between lava and water, rather than a fight between mythical troll-beasts of lore, is responsible for the occurrence of rare terrestrial basalt pillars. EARTH Magazine uncovers the truth behind the pillars in the February issue. Despite regional tales of a fight between a pair of angry trolls resulting in the moss-covered basalt pillars, geoscientists from the University at Buffalo have determined that the pillars formed during a rare, nonexplosive lava-water interface during the 1783 eruption at Laki.

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