Tech

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A team of archaeologists and paleobiologists has discovered flax fibers that are more than 34,000 years old, making them the oldest fibers known to have been used by humans. The fibers, discovered during systematic excavations in a cave in the Republic of Georgia, are described in this week's issue of Science.

Anyone who has picked dandelions as a child will be familiar with the white liquid that seeps out of the stalks as you break them off. Viscous, sticky – and a much sought-after material: natural latex. Around 30,000 everyday products contain natural rubber, everything from car tires, catheter tubes, latex gloves to tops for drinks bottles. Car tires, for instance, would not be elastic enough without the incorporation of natural rubber. The bulk of this material comes from rubber trees in Southeast Asia.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – SEPTEMBER 10, 2009 -- In addition to breaking news and new research data from clinical trials, investigations and registries, TCT (Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics) 2009, the largest global medical and scientific symposium dedicated to interventional cardiovascular medicine, will feature an important discussion led by national experts on Electronic Health Records (EHR).

Linda managed to power up to hurricane status at 11 p.m. EDT last night (September 9), and she's running into cooler waters and wind shear, so she's not expected to hold that strength through tomorrow. Microwave imagery from NASA's Aqua satellite revealed a 10 percent opening in her eyewall and that's a clue that the storm can weaken.

The blind and visually impaired often rely on others to provide cues and information on navigating through their environments. The problem with this method is that it doesn't give them the tools to venture out on their own, says Dr. Orly Lahav of Tel Aviv University's School of Education and Porter School for Environmental Studies.

DALLAS – Sept. 10, 2009 – When a terrorist bomb explodes, a tornado rips through a town, a hurricane devastates a region, or wildfires ravage homes and businesses, plastic surgeons are not typically atop the list of emergency responders.

But they should be, UT Southwestern Medical Center plastic surgeons and disaster experts recommend in the September issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Researchers at The University of Nottingham have a new weapon in their arsenal of tools to push back the boundaries of science, engineering, veterinary medicine and archaeology.

Unwanted blooms of Cladophora algae throughout the Baltic and in other parts of the world are not entirely without a positive side. A group of researchers at the Ångström Laboratory at Uppsala University have discovered that the distinctive cellulose nanostructure of these algae can serve as an effective coating substrate for use in environmentally friendly batteries. The findings have been published in an article in Nano Letters.

A NOAA-led research mission has located and identified the final resting place of the YP-389, a U.S. Navy patrol boat sunk approximately 20 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, NC, by a German submarine during World War II.

Six sailors died in the attack on June 19, 1942. There were 18 survivors. The wreck is located in about 300 feet of water in a region off North Carolina known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," home to U.S. and British naval vessels, merchant ships, and German U-boats sunk during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Berkeley, CA - In a development that holds much promise for the future of solar cells made from nanocrystals, and the use of solar energy to produce clean and renewable liquid transportation fuels, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have reported a technique by which the electrical conductivity of nanorod crystals of the semiconductor cadmium-selenide was increased 100,000 times.

"Salt-loving algae could be the key to the successful development of biofuels as well as being an efficient means of recycling atmospheric carbon dioxide", Professor John Cushman of the University of Nevada told the Society for General Microbiology meeting at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, today (10 September).

A new robot has spent most of July traveling across the muddy ocean bottom, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) off the California coast. This robot, the Benthic Rover, has been providing scientists with an entirely new view of life on the deep seafloor. It will also give scientists a way to document the effects of climate change on the deep sea. The Rover is the result of four years of hard work by a team of engineers and scientists led by MBARI project engineer Alana Sherman and marine biologist Ken Smith.

While computers can replicate many aspects of human behavior, they do not possess our ability to recognize distorted images, according to a team of Penn State researchers.

"Our goal is to seek a better understanding of the fundamental differences between humans and machines and utilize this in developing automated methods for distinguishing humans and robotic programs," said James Z. Wang, associate professor in Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology.

If you wanted to know whether or not your child had a fever if that the roast in the oven was thoroughly cooked, you would, of course, use a thermometer. However, it isn't that simple for researchers who need to measure temperatures in microfluidic systems—tiny, channel-lined devices used in medical diagnostics, DNA forensics and "lab-on-a-chip" chemical analyzers—as their current "thermometer" can only be precisely calibrated for one reference temperature.