Tech

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Physical Society, a leading organization of physicists, presses congressional leaders to increase research investments for future energy technologies that will strengthen energy security and reduce the likelihood of disastrous effects associated with fossil fuel exploration as evidenced by the BP oil spill.

High-charge-state ions in a molecule cause strong Coulomb forces, repulsive forces that try to blow its atoms apart. But the research team's crucial finding was that a way to produce only lower charge states in nitrogen molecules is with shorter pulse lengths, even though their peak power is higher.

Without aggressive action to reduce soot emissions, the time table for carbon dioxide emission reductions may need to be significantly accelerated in order to achieve international climate policy goals such as those set forth in last December's Copenhagen Accord, according to "Assessing the climatic benefits of black carbon mitigation," a study published online June 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The larvae of Diabrotica virgifera virgifera beetles wreak havoc on maize. Feasting on the plants' roots, they are estimated to cause $1 billion of damage every year in the US. Ted Turlings from the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, explains that the pest, known as western corn rootworm, only arrived in Serbia in the 1990s, but since then it has marched through at least 11 European countries.

Brief therapy at the GP's surgery can effectively treat anxiety and depression. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Medicine found that cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) was effective for treating anxiety disorders, while CBT, problem solving therapy (PST) and counseling were all equally effective in treating depression and mixed anxiety and depression.

A University of Alberta research team has discovered that a plant's strategy to capture nutrients in the soil is the result of integration of different types of information.

U of A ecologist J.C. Cahill says the plant's strategy mirrors the daily risk-versus-reward dilemmas that animals experience in their quest for food.

PULLMAN, Wash. –Earth-friendly perennial grain crops, which grow with less fertilizer, herbicide, fuel, and erosion than grains planted annually, could be available in two decades, according to researchers writing in the current issue of the journal Science.

Personal computers in enterprise environments save energy and money by "sleep-working," thanks to new software called SleepServer created by computer scientists from the University of California, San Diego.

Using an off-the-shelf digital camera, Rice University biomedical engineers and researchers from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have created an inexpensive device that is powerful enough to let doctors easily distinguish cancerous cells from healthy cells simply by viewing the LCD monitor on the back of the camera.

Simple, automated telephone reminders can increase colon cancer screening rates by 30 percent, according to a Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research study funded by the National Cancer Institute that appears in the July print edition of Medical Care.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Thursday, June 24, 2010 –A new study done by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center indicates that chest pain may no longer have to mean a hospital stay – there is another option for diagnosing heart-related chest pain that costs less and, in some cases, allows the patient to return home the same day.

Troy, N.Y. – In the split second before foot meets ball, a soccer player's body betrays whether a penalty kick will go left or right, according to recent research in cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The findings could explain how some top goalkeepers are able to head off a penalty kick, diving in the correct direction in advance of the kick. It could also point the way to changes in how players kick, and goalies react.

Researchers at Erasmus MC University Medical Centre in The Netherlands found that cyclosporine treatment is a significant risk factor for the development of de novo cancer in liver transplant patients. Full details appear in the July issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

AMES – A new green, bio-based method for producing a much-used fuel additive and industrial chemical that is currently made from petroleum products has been developed by an Iowa State University researcher.

KINGSTON, R.I. – June 21, 2010—University of Rhode Island Pharmacy Professor Bongsup Cho knows there are cancer-causing chemicals in diesel fumes and cigarette smoke.

The biomedical scientist also knows that some of the same chemicals are found in the gooey tar balls that are being produced as a result of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which began April 20 when a rig exploded and caught fire.

But what he and other scientists have little knowledge of is the long-range impact of the spill on humans and wildlife at the cellular level.