Earth

Understanding superconductivity – whereby certain materials can conduct electricity without any loss of energy – has proved to be one of the most persistent problems in modern physics. Scientists have struggled for decades to develop a cohesive theory of superconductivity, largely spurred by the game-changing prospect of creating a superconductor that works at room temperature, but it has proved to be a tremendous tangle of complex physics.

If you want to get the most out of the sun, you have to improve the performance of the materials used.

An interdisciplinary team of Engineering at Illinois researchers has set its sights on improving the materials that make solar energy conversion/photocatalysis possible. Together, they have developed a new form of high-performance solar photocatalyst based on the combination of the TiO2 (titanium dioxide) and other "metallic" oxides that greatly enhance the visible light absorption and promote more efficient utilization of the solar spectrum for energy applications.

Scientists encounter big challenges when reconstructing atmospheric compositions in the Earth's geological past because of the lack of useable sample material. One of the few organic materials that may preserve reliable data of the Earth's geological history over millions of years are fossil resins (e.g. amber). "Compared to other organic matter, amber has the advantage that it remains chemically and isotopically almost unchanged over long periods of geological time," explains Ralf Tappert from the Institute of Mineralogy and Petrography at the University of Innsbruck.

This news release is available in German.

It wasn't what they were looking for but that only made the discovery all the more exciting.

In January 2010 a team of scientists had set up two crossing lines of seismographs across Marie Byrd Land in West Antarctica. It was the first time the scientists had deployed many instruments in the interior of the continent that could operate year-round even in the coldest parts of Antarctica.

Like a giant CT machine, the seismograph array used disturbances created by distant earthquakes to make images of the ice and rock deep within West Antarctica.

Long-term and average changes are in the focus of the discussion on climate change: globally, as the different scientific climate models all predict, it will be warmer on Earth at the end of the century. For decision-makers and people affected by climate change, however, information on the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as heat and cold extremes, heavy rainfall or dry spells are at least as important as indications of average values.

Traditionally, it was assumed that corals do not face a risk of extinction unless they become very rare or have a very restricted range. A team of scientists from the University of Hawaii – Manoa (UHM), Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (JIMAR) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has revealed that global changes in climate and ocean chemistry affect corals whether scare or abundant, and often it is the dominant, abundant corals with wide distributions that are affected the most.

Instruments on the Curiosity Mars rover not only measure the chemistry of rocks, elemental abundances of soils and wind speeds, but also take an incredible number of images from both mast-mounted cameras and up-close imaging systems mounted to robotic arms. The process of analyzing soil images can be daunting, particularly when there are thousands of images and when the particles can be on the order of only 5-10 pixels wide.

In the November issue of Icarus, researchers from LSU's Department of Geology & Geophysics and Stony Brook's Department of Geosciences assess the details of halogen variability and an unusual process that may influence it. The group, led by LSU's Suniti Karunatillake, investigated the potential for an existing halogen cycle on Mars, which would alter the current paradigm of halogens distributed mostly by water-related processes.

A normally fragile quantum state has been shown to survive at room temperature for a world record 39 minutes, overcoming a key barrier towards building ultrafast quantum computers. The research, published in the journal Science, was led by Mike Thewalt (Simon Fraser University, Canada), with involvement from researchers at UCL and Oxford University, and material provided from collaborating institutes in Berlin.

A way of using nanoparticles to investigate the mechanisms underlying 'mystery' cases of infertility has been developed by scientists at Oxford University.

The technique, published in Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine, could eventually help researchers to discover the causes behind cases of unexplained infertility and develop treatments for affected couples. The method involves loading porous silica nanoparticle 'envelopes' with compounds to identify, diagnose or treat the causes of infertility.

This is shown by the first comprehensive multi-model-based assessment of so-called Durban Platform scenarios, conducted by a team of international scientists led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) in Italy. The Durban Platform is the current negotiation track at the Warsaw climate talks that aims to reach a global climate agreement by 2015 to come into effect in 2020.

An international team of scientists has shown for the first time that atoms can work collectively rather than independently of each other to share light.

Quantum physicists have long discussed such an effect, but it has not been seen before in an experiment.

The team included scientists from ETH Zürich (a leading university in Switzerland) who performed the experiment and theoretical scientists from the Université de Sherbrooke in Québec and the University of Calgary in Alberta.

When you squeeze atoms, you don't get atom juice. You get magnets.

According to a new theory by Rice University scientists, imperfections in certain two-dimensional materials create the conditions by which nanoscale magnetic fields arise.

— Have you ever wondered why some ice cubes are as clear as glass, or why bakers use sugar, even in savory breads? Celebrity chef Alton Brown answers these questions in the American Chemical Society's (ACS') latest Bytesize Science episode. The video is available now on http://www.BytesizeScience.com.