Earth

Were you one of the many people who got stuck in an airport when the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010? It wasn't a major eruption, and it happened a long way from the heart of Europe. But it cost society an absolute fortune by paralysing air traffic across northern Europe.

The first step in developing a cost-effective micro sensor for long-term monitoring of ocean acidification has been achieved by a team of scientists and engineers.

The new technology, that will measure pH levels in seawater, was developed by engineers from the National Oceanography Centre, in close collaboration with oceanographers from University of Southampton Ocean and Earth Science, which is based at the centre.

Millimeter-wave imaging technology is widely used in airborne radar, automotive sensors and full-body scanners for passenger screening at airports. A new, quasi-optical radar technique images millimeter-wave radiation reflected from fusion plasmas in 2D, time-resolved images. This novel application lets researchers image waves in fusion plasmas in startling detail, and provides vital information to devise strategies to avoid instabilities which can reduce fusion power output.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia have found out why birds are migrating earlier and earlier each year.

Experts have long suspected climate change is somehow driving this advancing migration pattern. But new research published today reveals that individual birds migrate like clockwork – arriving at the same time each year.

However, climate warming is resulting in earlier nesting and hatching earlier each year, and this appears to be linked to the advancing migration.

With the rise of online open course platforms such as Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseWare and iTunes U, it has never been easier to teach yourself everything from American history to semiconductor manufacturing. These courses enable students to advance at their own pace while accessing the limitless resources available on the internet for supplemental material.

An interdisciplinary team of University of Pennsylvania researchers has already developed a technique for controlling liquid crystals by means of physical templates and elastic energy, rather than the electromagnetic fields that manipulate them in televisions and computer monitors. They envision using this technique to direct the assembly of other materials, such as nanoparticles.

Now, the Penn team has added another tool to its directed assembly toolkit, developing a new kind of template for rearranging particles and a new set of patterns that can be formed with them.

WASHINGTON, D.C. Nov. 12, 2013 -- Researchers across the globe are racing to find ways to improve the cooling of hot surfaces -- for technologies ranging from small handheld electronics all the way to industrial-sized applications such as nuclear power plants.

Despite their almost incomprehensibly small size – a diameter about one ten-thousandth the thickness of a human hair – single-walled carbon nanotubes come in a plethora of different "species," each with its own structure and unique combination of electronic and optical properties. Characterizing the structure and properties of an individual carbon nanotube has involved a lot of guesswork – until now.

WASHINGTON, D.C. Nov. 12, 2013 -- Researchers have identified some of the underlying physics that may explain how insects can so quickly recover from a stall in midflight -- unlike conventional fixed wing aircraft, where a stalled state often leads to a crash landing.

A promising technology may enable doctors to diagnose and possibly treat in utero a common cause of stillbirth and sudden death in infants, according to research published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

The study is the first to document the electrophysiological characteristics of fetal long QT syndrome and to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the magnetic EKG, or magnetocardiogram, in a sizable population of at-risk fetuses.

A computational method to quantify the adsorption of gas by porous zeolites should help labs know what to expect before they embark upon slow, costly experiments, according to researchers at Rice University.

The new method created by engineers in Rice's Multiscale Materials Modeling Lab accurately calculated the ability of two zeolites, small cage-like molecules with enormous surface area, to trap and store gas molecules.

Alexandria, VA – Geoscientists studying paleontology, paleoclimatology and ecology have paid homage to a king of rock, by naming a newly identified extinct lizard species after him. The November issue of EARTH Magazine introduces readers to B. morrisoni, a giant vegetarian lizard thought to live alongside mammals during the Eocene.

Tiny self-assembling transport networks, powered by nano-scale motors and controlled by DNA, have been developed by scientists at Oxford University and Warwick University.

The system can construct its own network of tracks spanning tens of micrometres in length, transport cargo across the network and even dismantle the tracks.

The work is published in Nature Nanotechnology and was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

WASHINGTON, D.C. Nov. 8, 2013 -- Although silicon semiconductors are nearly universal in modern electronics, devices made from silicon have limitations—including that they cease to function properly at very high temperatures.

Stinging insects are everywhere making them nearly inescapable. The thought of being stung can cause depression and anxiety for the two million Americans that are allergic to their venom. But according to a study being presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting in Baltimore, Nov. 7-11, allergy shots, also known as immunotherapy, can improve quality of life for these sufferers. Allergy shots are the only allergy treatment known to modify and prevent disease progression, and can be life-saving for those allergic to insect stings.