Earth

Biomaterials play a crucial role in the development of future high-performance materials. A naturally occurring example of such biomaterial, the mollusk shell, guides chemical replication processes in laboratories. Due to its complex chemical construction, however, these processes are not easy to replicate synthetically. Chemists at the University of Konstanz, in cooperation with the University of Science and Technology of China (Hefei, China), are now the first to synthetically reproduce the structural configuration of natural mother of pearl or "nacre".

Scientists at the UK's Bangor and Oxford universities have achieved a world first: using spider-silk as a superlens to increase the microscope's potential.

Extending the limit of classical microscope's resolution has been the 'El Dorado' or 'Holy Grail' of microscopy for over a century. Physical laws of light make it impossible to view objects smaller than 200 nm - the smallest size of bacteria, using a normal microscope alone. However, superlenses which enable us to see beyond the current magnification have been the goal since the turn of the millennium.

Nearly two years ago, on August 24, 2014, just south of Napa, California, a fault in the Earth suddenly slipped, violently shifting and splitting huge blocks of solid rock, 6 miles below the surface. The underground upheaval generated severe shaking at the surface, lasting 10 to 20 seconds. When the shaking subsided, the magnitude 6.0 earthquake -- the largest in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1989 -- left in its wake crumpled building facades, ruptured water mains, and fractured roadways.

Watching a co-worker get the extra respect and attention from a supervisor that you feel you deserve can leave you feeling envious. The more that envy increases the more you can become what researchers refer to as "ego depleted" -- a general lack of the personal resources you need to focus on and complete daily tasks.

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley have created a sort of nanoscale display case that enables new atomic-scale views of hard-to-study chemical and biological samples.

Their work, published online Aug. 18 in the journal Science, could help to reveal new structural details for a range of challenging molecules--including complex chemical compounds and potentially new drugs--by stabilizing them inside sturdy structures known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).

Alexandria, VA - In a comment published in EARTH Magazine, Robert L. Fares, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, explores what causes the cost of gallon of milk to be so much higher than a gallon of gas.

In the pursuit of a new class of photovoltaic materials, researchers at UC Santa Barbara happened upon an entirely different discovery that addresses a centuries-old mystery of chemistry: Why does an iodine solution turn blue-black when starch is added to the mix?

Paleontologists with the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture and the University of Washington have discovered a Tyrannosaurus rex, including a very complete skull. The find, which paleontologists estimate to be about 20 percent of the animal, includes vertebrae, ribs, hips and lower jaw bones.

Superconductivity with a high critical temperature (high Tc) continues to present a theoretical mystery. While this phenomenon is experimentally well established, no scientist has managed to explain its mechanism. In the late 90's, the British physicist Anthony Leggett proposed a scenario based on the Coulomb energy. Today, researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, in collaboration with Leggett and his group, committed to test this scenario. Their findings challenge Leggett's conjecture, opening new avenues for the explanation of high Tc superconductivity.

UPTON, NY--Since the 1986 discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in copper-oxide compounds called cuprates, scientists have been trying to understand how these materials can conduct electricity without resistance at temperatures hundreds of degrees above the ultra-chilled temperatures required by conventional superconductors. Finding the mechanism behind this exotic behavior may pave the way for engineering materials that become superconducting at room temperature.

New Griffith University research could influence how often prescribed burning is conducted after it was found high frequency fires (i.e. every 2 years) could disrupt nutrient cycling and modify beetle populations in some forest ecosystems.

"It's about conserving and understanding the whole system and finding the right burning frequency, not just for the bigger trees, but the insects and microbes as well. Too frequent as well as too infrequent fire can be problematic and this research may help to better inform fire frequency management," says PhD researcher Orpheus Butler.

Associate Professor Dr Joan Vaccaro, of Griffith's Centre for Quantum Dynamics, has solved an anomaly of conventional physics and shown that a mysterious effect called 'T violation' could be the origin of time evolution and conservation laws.

"I begin by breaking the rules of physics, which is rather bold I have to admit, but I wanted to understand time better and conventional physics can't do that," Dr Vaccaro says.

A new photosynthesis discovery at The University of Queensland may help breed faster-growing wheat crops that are better adapted to hotter, drier climates.

A research team led by Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation researcher Professor Robert Henry has today published a paper in Scientific Reports, showing that photosynthesis occurs in wheat seeds as well as in plant leaves.

Physicists at the University of Basel have succeeded in watching a silver catalyst at work for the first time with the aid of an atomic force microscope. The observations made during an Ullmann reaction have allowed the researchers to calculate the energy turnover and, potentially, to optimize the catalysis. The study, which was performed with experts from Japan and Iran, has been published in the scientific journal Small.

The conversion of carbon dioxide molecule into valuable chemicals and fuels is an interesting research area with multidisciplinary aspects. Scientists all over the world have been investigating ways of CO2 capture and conversion for the last four decades and have still yet to reach the goal of sustainable CO2 capture based chemical synthesis due to several barriers associated with the process.