Earth

Like any task, there is an easy and a hard way to control atoms and molecules as quantum systems, which are driven by tailored radiation fields. More efficient methods for manipulating quantum systems could help scientists realize the next generation of technology by harnessing atoms and molecules to create small but incredibly powerful devices such as molecular electronics or quantum computers.

Boulder, Colorado, USA – In the November issue of GSA Today, James W. Sears of the University of Montana in Missoula advocates a possible Canadian connection for the early Miocene Grand Canyon by arguing for the existence of a "super-river" traceable from headwaters in the southern Colorado Plateau through a proto–Grand Canyon to a delta in the Labrador Sea.

NOAA's GOES-East satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Depression Lorenzo that showed very little convection happening throughout the system because of two environmental factors: dry air and cooler sea surface temperatures.

From crimson red to lavender to mustard yellow, vibrant hues can be coaxed from common — and a few uncommon — ingredients to add color to fabrics. The American Chemical Society's (ACS') Bytesize Science series explains the chemistry behind natural dyes with a new episode filmed at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn. The episode is available now on http://www.BytesizeScience.com.

The same algorithm used to find tunes in music retrieval systems has been successfully applied in identifying the signature whistles of dolphins, affording a new time-saving device for research into the world of dolphin communication.

Australian marine scientists have found the first evidence that coral itself may play an important role in regulating local climate.

They have discovered that the coral animal—not just its algal symbiont—makes an important sulphur-based molecule with properties to assist it in many ways, ranging from cellular protection in times of heat stress to local climate cooling by encouraging clouds to form.

Where two different materials meet on the atomic level, a new material can be born that is neither one nor the other. The two parent materials do not mix – they remain distinct from one another – but their marriage begets a strange child with properties unlike those of either parent. These so-called interfacial materials are considered to be a breed of materials in their own right, and, thanks to recent technological advances that allow them to be fabricated in the laboratory, their real-world properties can now be explored.

Scientists have a new way to edge around a difficult problem in quantum physics, now that a research team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and University of Maryland's Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) have proved* their recent theory about how particles of light flow within a novel device they built.

Alexandria, VA - Following the release of data about graduates from over 71 geoscience departments that took the National Geoscience Student Exit Survey, Currents #81 examines preliminary results on where geoscience students found employment following graduation, and at which salary level.

Unprecedented torrents of data flood out of research labs on a continual basis, but making sense of it all remains a major scientific bottleneck. How software is evolving to transform this data deluge into knowledge is the topic of a news story in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.

This news release is available in German.

People are bad at getting a grip on collective risks. Climate change is a good example of this: the annual climate summits have so far not led to specific measures. The reason for this is that people attach greater value to an immediate material reward than to investing in future quality of life.

Eucalyptus trees, or gum trees as they are known in some part of the world, are drawing up gold particles from the earth via their root system and depositing it their leaves and branches.

The discovery is unlikely to start an old-time gold rush – the "nuggets" are about one-fifth the diameter of a human hair. However, it could provide a golden opportunity for mineral exploration, as the leaves or soil underneath the trees could indicate gold ore deposits buried up to tens of metres underground and under sediments that are up to 60 million years old.

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have successfully added a fourth dimension to their printing technology, opening up exciting possibilities for the creation and use of adaptive, composite materials in manufacturing, packaging and biomedical applications.

WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 22, 2013 -- Researchers modeling how changes in air flow patterns affect wind turbines' output power have found that the wind can supply energy from an unexpected direction: below.

According to the researchers, who report their results in the journal Physics of Fluids, many wind turbine array studies overlook the fact that important airflow changes occur inside the array.

Traces of past microbial life in sediments off the coast of Peru document how the microbial ecosystem under the seafloor has responded to climate change over hundreds of thousands of years. For more a decade scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and their colleagues at MARUM and the University of Aarhus have investigated microbial life from this habitat. This "Deep Biosphere", reaching several hundred metres below the seafloor, is exclusively inhabited by microbes and is generally considered as stable.