Earth

WASHINGTON, May 19, 2016 -- 3-D printing has inspired visions of manufacturing revolutions but is currently held back by inefficiency and the underwhelming quality of available materials. Innovators at the California startup Carbon say they have overcome these barriers with a blend of chemistry and engineering. In the first video of Speaking of Chemistry's five-stop road trip through the Golden State, Matt Davenport explains how Carbon is improving 3-D printing.

Does female membership on corporate boards impact mergers and acquisitions? As the percentage of females on boards of America's largest companies has risen from 15 percent in 2005 to 20 percent in 2015, the question is relevant to today's decision makers.

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria. Using state-of-the-art tools, EPFL scientists have described a million-atom "tail" that bacteriophages use to breach bacterial surfaces. The breakthrough has major implications for science and medicine, as bacteriophages are widely used in research.

Current rates of climate change could trigger instability in a major Antarctic glacier, ultimately leading to more than 2m of sea-level rise.

This is the conclusion of a new study looking at the future of Totten Glacier, a significant glacier in Antarctica. Totten Glacier drains one of the world's largest areas of ice, on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS).

Hot molecules, which are found in extreme environments such as the edges of fusion reactors, are much more reactive than those used to understand reaction studies at ambient temperature. Detailed knowledge of their reactions is not only relevant to modelling nuclear fusion devices; it is also crucial in simulating the reaction that takes place on a spacecraft's heat shield at the moment when it re-enters Earth's atmosphere. Further, it can help us understand the physics and chemistry of planetary atmospheres.

In microelectronics, devices made up of two electrodes separated by an insulating barrier are subject to multiple of microdischarges - referred to as microfilaments - at the same spot. These stem from residual excited atoms and ions from within the material, the surface charge deposited on the insulating part of the device, and local temperature build-up. These reoccurences can lead to the creation of pin-holes in the material of the microelectronic devices where they occur, and are due to local reductions in the electric field.

New York, NY - May 18, 2016 - A study published today in Nicotine & Tobacco Research demonstrates in a carefully controlled series of studies that the self-administration of nicotine by rats suppresses body weight gain independent of food intake.

A University of Oklahoma team of chemists has developed a new antibiotic formulation to fight the sometimes deadly staph infection caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus or MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant infectious bacteria. The new drug to treat MRSA combines traditional Food and Drug Administration-approved antibiotics, such as methicillin, with the polymer BPEI.

Research published in the journal Nature on May 19, 2016 has revealed that vast regions of the Totten Glacier in East Antarctica are fundamentally unstable and have contributed significantly to rising sea levels several times in the past.

Totten Glacier is the most rapidly thinning glacier in East Antarctica, and this study raises concerns that a repeat scenario could be underway as the climate warms.

CORVALLIS, Ore. - New geologic mapping in the Himalayan mountains of Kashmir between Pakistan and India suggests that the region is ripe for a major earthquake that could endanger the lives of as many as a million people.

Fish can adjust to warmer ocean temperatures, but heat waves can still kill them, a team of researchers from Sweden, Norway and Australia reports in an article published this week in Nature Communications.

"A species might adapt and grow well (in warmer waters) but once you get strong heat spells, the water temperature might reach lethal temperatures and kill them," said Fredrik Jutfelt, an associate professor in biology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology who was senior author of the study.

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2016 -- It's a legendary piece of playground lore: If you swallow a piece of gum, it stays stuck in your stomach forever. So was your elementary-school buddy right? This week, Reactions looks at the mechanics and chemistry of digestion in order to settle the myth. Chew on the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R6R_V9xkAo.

Washington, D.C., May 17, 2016 -- At a microscopic level, every material contains spontaneous sound waves -- acoustic phonons -- that have properties dependent on the material's mechanical properties. When light interacts with these acoustic phonons, it scatters and acquires a frequency shift related to the material's elastic modulus, a characteristic measure of its ability to resist deformation and stress.

RICHLAND, Wash. -- To make "clean" fossil fuel burning a reality, researchers have to pull carbon dioxide out of the exhaust gases that rise from coal or natural gas power plants and store or reuse it. For the capturing feat, researchers are studying special scrubbing liquids that bind and release the gas, but some of the most promising ones thicken up to a cold honey consistency when binding carbon dioxide, rendering them inefficient and expensive to use.

EUGENE, Ore. -- May 17, 2016 -- A study of the 15-mile length of Coos Bay, from the ocean to the city of the same name, finds the bay is free of toxic levels of reduced oxygen that often affect other Oregon locations.

The narrow offshore continental shelf combines with the deep-dredged ship channel to help maintain safe oxygen levels during summertime wind changes and reduced rainfall that curtails freshwater discharge from the Coos River, says Dave Sutherland, a professor in the Department of Geological Sciences.