Earth

The innermost secrets of champagne bubbles are about to be unveiled in the Springer journal EPJ ST. This fascinating work is the brainchild of Gérard Liger-Belair, a scientist tackling champagne bubbles from both a physics and a chemistry perspective. Based at the University of Reims, in the heart of the region that gave champagne its name, the author is appropriately affiliated with the 'effervescence team of the molecular and atmospheric spectrometry group' and the 'oenology and applied chemistry' laboratory.

PULLMAN, Wash.—The technology that Google uses to analyze trillions of Web pages is being brought to bear on the way molecules are shaped and organized.

Aurora Clark, an associate professor of chemistry at Washington State University, has adapted Google's PageRank software to create moleculaRnetworks, which scientists can use to determine molecular shapes and chemical reactions without the expense, logistics and occasional danger of lab experiments.

Boulder, CO, USA - New science published in GSA Bulletin includes evidence from Ellesmere Island that the end-Permian mass extinction may not have been a synchronous, global event; an understanding of how weak faults are formed by weak minerals; a study of the Mull Granite of northwest Scotland; and a proposed revision of 30-year-old model of geomorphic response to climate change based on observations from the hyperarid Nahal Yael watershed in the southern Negev Desert, Israel.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- Individual atoms can make or break electronic properties in one of the world's smallest known conductors—quantum nanowires. Microscopic analysis at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is delivering a rare glimpse into how the atomic structure of the conducting nanowires affects their electronic behavior.

The world's strongest neutron beam is produced by a scientific instrument at the research neutron source FRM II (Forschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz) at the Technischen Universitaet Muenchen (TUM). But that is not all: During the long maintenance break in 2011, the instrument PGAA (Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis) was improved to give it the best ratio between usable neutrons and noisy background radiation worldwide. It is now possible to determine the elementary composition of even smallest samples in the milligram range.

Recent cuts to the scientific workforce of Environment Canada, a government agency responsible for meteorological services and environmental research, threaten scientific research related to the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere and pollution in the lower atmosphere, according to environmental scientists in the U.S. These reductions in personnel and projected budget cuts also threaten existing international agreements.

When it comes to choosing a place to hang out, big reef fish like coral trout, snappers and sweetlips have strong architectural preferences.

The choices big fish make on where to shelter could have a major influence on their ability to cope with climate change, say scientists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University.

Not surprisingly, victims of a natural disaster can experience stress and anxiety, but a new study indicates that it might also cause them to make more errors - some serious - in their daily lives. In their upcoming Human Factors article, "Earthquakes on the Mind: Implications of Disasters for Human Performance," researchers William S. Helton and James Head from the University of Canterbury explore how cognitive performance can decline after earthquakes and other natural disasters.

Top-heavy structures are more likely to maintain their balance while hovering in the air than are those that bear a lower center of gravity, researchers at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Department of Physics have found. Their findings, which appear in the journal Physical Review Letters, are counter to common perceptions that flight stability can be achieved only through a relatively even distribution of weight—and may offer new design principles for hovering aircraft.

Catalytic materials, which lower the energy barriers for chemical reactions, are used in everything from the commercial production of chemicals to catalytic converters in car engines. However, with current catalytic materials becoming increasingly expensive, scientists are exploring viable alternatives.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have now discovered that the sulphide material iron pyrite, commonly known as 'Fool's Gold', may hold the answer. Their findings were published online today, 10 February, in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

Geologists have a new tool to study how earthquakes change the landscape--down to a few inches. It's giving scientists insights into how earthquake faults behave.

In this week's issue of the journal Science, a team of scientists from the United States, Mexico and China reports the most comprehensive before-and-after picture yet of an earthquake zone, using data from the magnitude 7.2 event that struck near Mexicali, Mexico, in April 2010.

When mass-casualty events occur, orthopaedic surgeons travel throughout the world to treat wounded patients in countries devastated by war, natural disaster and poverty. In 2010, 500 U.S. orthopaedic surgeons traveled to Haiti to help treat hundreds of thousands of victims following a catastrophic earthquake on that Caribbean island. And while the effort was generally successful in treating the broken bones, fractures and other orthopaedic injuries associated with earthquakes, not all of the volunteers were adequately prepared to work in a devastated country.

DALLAS (Feb. 10, 2012) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in Dallas, Texas, researchers will report findings that show that in women with acute postpartum anemia, due to excessive blood loss during delivery, red blood cell transfusion led to a statistically significant decrease in physical fatigue. While excessive blood loss during delivery caused severe physical fatigue, the effect of red blood cell transfusion on this fatigue was small.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – As oceans warm due to climate change, water layers will mix less and affect the microbes and plankton that pump carbon out of the atmosphere – but researchers say it's still unclear whether these processes will further increase global warming or decrease it.

The forces at work are enormous and the stakes huge, said Oregon State University scientists in an article to be published Friday in the journal Science.