Earth

Battery technology hasn't kept pace with advancements in portable electronics, but the race is on to fix this. One revolutionary concept being pursued by a team of researchers in New Zealand involves creating "wearable energy harvesters" capable of converting movement from humans or found in nature into battery power.

BOGOR, Indonesia (April 5, 2011) _ New research shows that mangroves store exceptionally more carbon than most tropical forests, but they are being destroyed from coastlines at a rapid rate causing significant emissions of greenhouse gases.

The findings from the study, which was carried out by scientists from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the USDA Forest Service, underscore a call by scientists for mangroves to be protected as part of global efforts to combat climate change.

Medical and military leaders have come together today to warn that climate change not only spells a global health catastrophe, but also threatens global stability and security.

"Climate change poses an immediate and grave threat, driving ill-health and increasing the risk of conflict, such that each feeds upon the other," they write in an editorial published on bmj.com today. Their views come ahead of an open meeting on these issues to be held at the British Medical Association on 20 June 2011.

Scientists are working to develop a new drug that will regenerate a critical enzyme in the human body that "ages" after a person is exposed to deadly chemical warfare agents.

Christopher Hadad, Ph.D., professor of chemistry at The Ohio State University (OSU), is leveraging Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) resources to help develop a more effective antidote to lethal chemicals called organophosphorus (OP) nerve agents.

Washington, D.C. (April 5, 2011) -- A very simple bench-top technique that uses the force of acoustical waves to create a variety of 3D structures will benefit the rapidly expanding field of metamaterials and their myriad applications—including "invisibility cloaks."

Metamaterials are artificial materials that are engineered to have properties not found in nature. Thesematerials usually gain their unusual properties—such as negative refraction that enables subwavelength focusing, negative bulk modulus, and band gaps—from structure rather than composition.

Washington, D.C. (April 5, 2011) -- Sealants, like weather stripping, are what separates the inside from the outside of a building, byproviding a barrier that prevents water from seeping in, for example, or heat from leaking out. The challenge, says research chemist Christopher White of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is predicting when they will fail.

HOUSTON -- (April 5, 2011) -- Some people collect stamps and coins, but when it comes to sheer utility, few collections rival the usefulness of Rice University researcher Michael Deem's collection of 2.6 million zeolite structures.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Breast cancer survivors who experience extreme weight gain have an increased risk of death after breast cancer diagnosis. Moderate weight gain did not affect breast cancer outcomes. These study results were presented at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011, held here April 2-6.

Oakland, Calif., April 5, 2011 — Breast cancer survivors who experience large weight gain have an increased risk of death after diagnosis, according to research scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.

Breast cancer survivors who experienced large weight gain (10 percent or more over their pre-diagnosis weight) were 14 percent more likely to experience a cancer recurrence compared to women whose weight remained stable (within 5 percent of pre-diagnosis weight) following diagnosis.

Geologists have long-debated about when plate tectonics started on the planet. One of the key indicators has been whether or not fragments of oceanic crust, generated at sea-floor spreading centers, are preserved in the planet's oldest crust.

A study coordinated by Universitat Autònoma Barcelona (UAB) on the origin and evolution of peculiar morphologies created by ancient subterranean springs in the central pre-Pyrenees of Catalonia (Spain) pose new questions for planetary geomorphology research. Similar to small volcanoes, these formations until now had only been described in Australia and closely resemble gigantic forms found on Mars. The study may shed new light on the origin of these formations and the search for water on the red planet.

The term entanglement was introduced by the Austrian Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger in 1935, and it describes a quantum mechanical phenomenon that while it can clearly be demonstrated experimentally, is not understood completely. Entangled particles cannot be defined as single particles with defined states but rather as a whole system. By entangling single quantum bits, a quantum computer will solve problems considerably faster than conventional computers.

WALTHAM, MA – April 1, 2011 – Avila Therapeutics™, Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel targeted covalent drugs, today announced the publication of a scientific review article in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery titled "The Resurgence of Covalent Drugs" (www.nature.com/reviews/drugdisc, Vol. 10, April 2011, Singh, J.).

Durham, NC —'Outer' tree canopy leaves influence the sunlight reaching inner canopy leaves by changing their shape, says a new study.

The shape and physiology of leaves within the tree canopy is not constant, and can vary depending on their position within the tree crown. This phenomenon is expected to have important consequences for how trees cope with stress and use resources.