Earth

For hundreds of millions of years, Earth's climate has remained on a fairly even keel, with some dramatic exceptions: Around 80 million years ago, the planet's temperature plummeted, along with carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The Earth eventually recovered, only to swing back into the present-day ice age 50 million years ago.

Liquid water is a very good heat storage medium - anyone with a Thermos bottle knows that. However, as soon as water boils or freezes, its storage capacity drops precipitously. Physicists at the University of Bonn have now observed very similar behavior in a gas of light particles. Their findings can be used, for example, to produce ultra-precise thermometers. The work appears in the prestigious technical journal "Nature Communications".

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) is a new concept coined by Ben Zhong Tang of the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST) in 2001 and refers to a unique photo-physical phenomenon that some nonplanar-shaped luminogens emit faintly in their dilute solutions, but show remarkably enhanced luminescence upon aggregation. The AIE is exactly opposite to the notorious aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect, which has been regarded as a general phenomenon for conventional fluorophores.

HAMILTON, April 19, 2016 - Imagine throwing Lego pieces into the air and seeing them fall to the ground assembled into the shape of a house or plane.

Nature effortlessly does the equivalent all the time, using molecules as building blocks.

The right combination of ingredients and conditions spontaneously assembles structures as complex as viruses or cellular membranes. Chemists marvel at this very efficient approach to creating large molecular structures and keep searching for new ways to emulate the process using their own components.

CORVALLIS, Ore. - A recent study at Oregon State University has identified specific intake levels of xanthohumol, a natural flavonoid found in hops, that significantly improved some of the underlying markers of metabolic syndrome in laboratory animals and also reduced weight gain.

The findings were published in a special issue of Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics that was focused on "Polyphenols and Health," and they suggest a possible new approach to issues such as human obesity, high cholesterol and elevated glucose.

In the past two years, phosphorene has attracted increased attention due to its potential in thin, flexible electronics. And because it is naturally a semi-conductor, phosphorene holds promise where miracle material graphene falls short.

"There has been a decade-long attempt to make graphene semi-conducting," said Northwestern University's Mark Hersam. "Our group and others have tried to do it with limited success. So why not just use a material that is already a semi-conductor?"

"Our findings make it possible to reconstruct nutrient content in early marine settings and demonstrate that the iron-rich content of the early oceans must have severely restricted the availability of nutrients important for life", says Dr Ernest Chi Fru of Stockholm University, who has led the research group.

Many scientists fear that global warming will hit staple food crops hard, with heat stress, extreme weather events and water shortages. On the other hand, higher levels of carbon dioxide--the main cause of ongoing warming--is known to boost many plants' productivity, and reduce their use of water. So, if we keep pouring more CO2 into the air, will crops fail, or benefit? A new study tries to disentangle this complex question.

Researchers at Northern Arizona University weighed in on the hotly debated relationship between lineage and behavior in microorganisms by using a new tool--quantitative stable isotope probing--producing results that have implications for how much may be lost when strains of bacteria are lost from a soil community.

Researchers from Umeå University in Sweden have discovered that the single-celled parasite causing African sleeping sickness has a defence mechanism against potential pharmaceuticals under development against the disease. The deadly parasite has an enzyme that can cleave and hence disarm adenosine analogue pharmaceuticals. This according to a study recently published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Researchers have demonstrated proof of concept for a novel low-energy nuclear reaction imaging technique designed to detect the presence of "special nuclear materials" -- weapons-grade uranium and plutonium -- in cargo containers arriving at U.S. ports. The method relies on a combination of neutrons and high-energy photons to detect shielded radioactive materials inside the containers.

Women with epilepsy are just as likely to achieve a successful pregnancy as women without the neurological disorder, according to a new study led by research teams at multiple centers, including NYU Langone Medical Center.

Alexandria, VA - This issue, EARTH Magazine explores the world's top weather-related killer: exposure to extreme heat. Humans' response to extreme heat leads to heat stress, an illness related to the body's inability to cool itself. Humidity plays a crucial role, because as humidity increases, the ability of sweat to evaporate and cool the body decreases.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., April 15, 2016--Epitaxy, or growing crystalline film layers that are templated by a crystalline substrate, is a mainstay of manufacturing transistors and semiconductors. If the material in one deposited layer is the same as the material in the next layer, it can be energetically favorable for strong bonds to form between the highly ordered, perfectly matched layers. In contrast, trying to layer dissimilar materials is a great challenge if the crystal lattices don't match up easily.

Using a state-of-the-art ultrafast electron microscope, University of Minnesota researchers have recorded the first-ever videos showing how heat moves through materials at the nanoscale traveling at the speed of sound.

The research, published today in Nature Communications, provides unprecedented insight into roles played by individual atomic and nanoscale features that could aid in the design of better, more efficient materials with a wide array of uses, from personal electronics to alternative-energy technologies.