Tech

A Detroit entrepreneur surprised academics when he invented a heat-treatment that makes steel 7 percent stronger than any steel on record – in less than 10 seconds. That steel, now trademarked as Flash Bainite, has tested stronger and more shock-absorbing than the most common titanium alloys used by industry.

Now Gary Cola is helping researchers at Ohio State University to better understand the science behind the new treatment, called flash processing. What they've discovered may hold the key to making cars and military vehicles lighter, stronger, and more fuel-efficient.

In April 2007, teacher Irka Elsevier and then-graduate student Biance Moebius-Clune began their second inquiry unit designed to enable high school students to better understand soil science concepts through their own research and experiments. Moebius-Clune was an NSF fellow in the Cornell Science Inquiry Partnerships (CSIP) program, which allowed the pair to develop inquiry curriculum to guide students through the process of doing research themselves.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have developed a new type of imaging technology to diagnose cardiovascular disease and other disorders by measuring ultrasound signals from molecules exposed to a fast-pulsing laser.

The new method could be used to take precise three-dimensional images of plaques lining arteries, said Ji-Xin Cheng, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry at Purdue University.

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, June 9, 2011 – A unique, international summit of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and future leaders from around the world has concluded with the release of the Equinox Summit: Energy 2030 Communiqué. The event's preliminary report includes visionary proposals for transformative action to reduce the electricity-related emissions that drive global warming.

The full Equinox Communiqué is now available at: http://wgsi.org/files/EquinoxCommunique_June9_2011.pdf

Researchers funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)-led Integrated Biorefining Research and Technology (IBTI) Club have identified an enzyme in bacteria which could be used to make biofuel production more efficient. The research is published in the 14 June Issue of the American Chemical Society journal Biochemistry.

This research, carried out by teams at the Universities of Warwick and British Columbia, could make sustainable sources of biofuels, such as woody plants and the inedible parts of crops, more economically viable.

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new technique for using multi-core chips more efficiently, significantly enhancing a computer's ability to build computer models of biological systems. The technique improved the efficiency of algorithms used to build models of biological systems more than seven-fold, creating more realistic models that can account for uncertainty and biological variation. This could impact research areas ranging from drug development to the engineering of biofuels.

Los Angeles, CA (June 8, 2011) Regrets—we've all had a few. Although too many regrets can interfere with life and mental health, a healthy amount of regret can motivate us to improve our lives, say researchers Mike Morrison of the University of Illinois and Neal Roese of Northwestern University in the current issue of Social Psychological and Personality Science (published by SAGE).

The planet's soils are under greater threat than ever before, at a time when we need to draw on their vital role to support life more than ever, warns an expert from the University of Sheffield today (9 June 2011) in the journal Nature.

Professor Steve Banwart from the University's Kroto Research Institute, will be helping to tackle this challenge as part of a new programme of international research, called Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs), funded initially by the USA National Science Foundation and the European Commission.

A new University of Colorado Boulder study indicates the infestation of trees by mountain pine beetles in the high country across the West could potentially trigger earlier snowmelt and increase water yields from snowpack that accumulates beneath affected trees.

Like an opera singer hitting a note that shatters a glass, a signal at a particular resonant frequency can concentrate energy in a material and change its properties. And as with 18th century "musical glasses," adding a little water can change the critical pitch. Echoing both phenomena, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a unique fluid-tuned "metasurface," a concept that may be useful in biomedical sensors and microwave-assisted chemistry.

Depending on whom you ask, nanoparticles are, potentially, either one of the most promising or the most perilous creations of science. These tiny objects can deliver drugs efficiently and enhance the properties of many materials, but what if they also are hazardous to your health in some way? Now, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have found* a way to manipulate nanoparticles so that questions like this can be answered.

Take a random person from a so-called "red state," and the odds are nearly 50/50 that he or she would actually be more liberal on political issues than a random resident of a "blue state."

More specifically, the chances of any one red state citizen scoring more liberal than a blue state citizen are 46 percent on economic issues and 51 percent on social issues.

BONN, GERMANY (8 JUNE 2011)—The majority of countries participating in a major global effort to reduce greenhouse emissions caused by forest destruction cite agriculture as the main cause of deforestation, but very few provide details on how they would address the link between agriculture and forestry, according to a new analysis by experts probing the effect of climate change on food security.

Minority youth aged 8 to 18 consume an average of 13 hours of media content a day -- about 4-1/2 hours more than their white counterparts, according to a Northwestern University report, the first national study to focus exclusively on children's media use by race and ethnicity.