Tech

MIAMI-A research team led by scientists at the University of California, Riverside and the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science have found that ultraviolet light is changing the structure of the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil components into something more toxic, further threatening numerous commercially and ecologically important fishes.

A James Cook University researcher has been studying the help given to children with a parent deployed on active duty with the military.

JCU's Gail Macdonald interviewed teachers, parents and Defence School Transition Aides (DSTA) who are employed to help students when a parent is deployed to a war zone.

Ms Macdonald said there was a particular need for the service when parents were deployed for the first time.

AMES, Iowa - Medication can help trigger the enzyme that kick starts insulin production in the body, but the drugs don't always work for those who are obese or diabetic, and most need to regulate their glucose and insulin levels. That's why a recent discovery made by Rudy Valentine and a team of researchers holds so much promise.

Scientists have found an inexpensive way to monitor the storage of the most common greenhouse gas - carbon dioxide - deep underground.

Successful trials of their method at a site in Australia will inform the development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology, in which CO2 from power stations and industrial sources is held deep underground, to prevent emissions from contributing to climate change.

A focus on symmetrical activities -- and smart technology -- may be critical to creating applications that allow people to negotiate transactions with their time, rather than their money, according to Penn State researchers.

Some people have perceived that the combination of religion and political conservatism exacerbates environmental concerns in the United States. But researchers from Rice University and Baruch College have found evidence that religious identification and belief in a god dampen the otherwise strong negative effect that political conservatism typically has on whether people make purchasing decisions with concern for the environment in mind.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Automakers torture test their cars on special tracks that simulate real driving conditions. Germany's automakers have their fabled Nurburgring track. GM has its Desert Proving Ground in California. Now Michigan State University has DEPI - Dynamic Environmental Photosynthetic Imaging - to test-drive plants so scientists and plant breeders can make them work better and produce more.

Baratunde Cola would like to put sand into your computer. Not beach sand, but silicon dioxide nanoparticles coated with a high dielectric constant polymer to inexpensively provide improved cooling for increasingly power-hungry electronic devices.

In an advance that helps pave the way for next-generation electronics and computing technologies--and possibly paper-thin gadgets --scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) developed a way to chemically assemble transistors and circuits that are only a few atoms thick.

What's more, their method yields functional structures at a scale large enough to begin thinking about real-world applications and commercial scalability.

They report their research online July 11 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

The rate of groundwater contamination due to natural gas leakage from oil and gas wells has remained largely unchanged in northeastern Colorado's Denver-Julesburg Basin since 2001, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study based on public records and historical data.

Anonymity networks protect people living under repressive regimes from surveillance of their Internet use. But the recent discovery of vulnerabilities in the most popular of these networks -- Tor -- has prompted computer scientists to try to come up with more secure anonymity schemes.

A vision for improving horse welfare has been set out following research carried out by the University of Bristol's School of Veterinary Sciences and funded by World Horse Welfare. It is hoped the findings, to be unveiled at the House of Commons today [Tuesday 12 July], will enable the welfare priorities of the UK's 800,000 horses to be addressed.

This is the first time welfare organisations, breeders, the equine industry and the veterinary profession have come together to agree on a strategy to best improve the welfare of horses in the UK.

Organic solar cells are considered a competitive alternative to the standard silicon cells that are used in photovoltaics. They are incredibly thin, flexible and translucent, and can be integrated into window glass or used by architects as design elements in large lighting installations.

Materials researchers at North Carolina State University have fine-tuned a technique that enables them to apply precisely controlled silica coatings to quantum dot nanorods in a day - up to 21 times faster than previous methods. In addition to saving time, the advance means the quantum dots are less likely to degrade, preserving their advantageous optical properties.

Ever play with a magnifying lens as a kid? Imagine a lens as big as the Earth. Now focus sunlight down to a pencil tip. That still wouldn't be good enough for what some Texas scientists have in mind. They want to make light even 500 times more intense. And they say it could open the door to the most powerful radiation in the universe: gamma rays.