Tech

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused social disruption and psychological stress among Gulf residents that is similar to the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez spill and the impacts are likely to persist for years, a new study finds.

"Just ask the residents of Cordova today whether they are over the Exxon Valdez," said study co-author Liesel Ritchie, assistant director for research of the University of Colorado Boulder's Natural Hazards Center. The Alaska community was considered "ground zero" for the 1989 oil spill.

A new study by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science shows that turbulence from boat propellers can and does kill large numbers of copepods—tiny crustaceans that are an important part of marine food webs.

The study—by VIMS graduate student Samantha Bickel, VIMS professor Kam Tang, and Hampton University undergraduate Joseph Malloy Hammond—appears in the March issue of the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology.

The fisheries sector Trade Fair in Spain —Sinaval-Eurofishing 2011— was the scenario chosen by Azti-Tecnalia (the technological centre specialising in marine and food research) to present two technologies employed by its researchers aimed at enhancing energy efficiency in the sector. In concrete, it involves a system for the management of fuel consumption on board vessels and a system of monitoring and computer-simulation of fishing gears.

Researchers in America have shown that ozone—a known pollutant at low levels in the earth's atmosphere, causing harmful effects on the respiratory system and sensitive plants—can be reduced, on average, when electric vehicle charging is done at night time.

A preliminary report suggests that virtual nasal surgery has the potential to be a productive tool that may enable surgeons to perform personalized nasal surgery using computer simulation techniques, according to a report posted online today that will appear in the September print issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

AMES, Iowa – David Grewell flipped on the augers that carry corn from a truck to a biorefinery.

Then, with a few more clicks of his computer mouse, he turned on the pumps that send grain all the way through an ethanol plant, from storage to hammer mill to slurry tanks to jet cooker to liquefaction, fermentation, distillation, water separation and ultimately to ethanol storage.

Don't forget the centrifuges, evaporators and driers that recover distillers grains for livestock feed.

PITTSBURGH—A University of Pittsburgh-led team has created a single-electron transistor that provides a building block for new, more powerful computer memories, advanced electronic materials, and the basic components of quantum computers.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – New research suggests that currently available types of synthetic skin may now be good enough to imitate animal skin in laboratory tests, and may be on their way to truly simulating human skin in the future.

Researchers compared the response of synthetic skins to rat skin when they were both exposed to a generic skin cream treatment, and the results indicated they both reacted similarly.

The scientists used high-resolution images of two types of synthetic skin and samples of rat skin to discover similarities on microscopic scales.

With its promise of superfast computers and ultrapowerful optical microscopes among the many possibilities, plasmonics has become one of the hottest fields in high-technology. However, to date plasmonic properties have been limited to nanostructures that feature interfaces between noble metals and dielectrics. Now, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shown that plasmonic properties can also be achieved in the semiconductor nanocrystals known as quantum dots.

Companies spend millions to develop their brand's personality, in hopes that it can help sell products. But they've had no way of measuring whether that personality actually appeals to consumers. Now, research from North Carolina State University lays out a system for measuring the appeal of a brand's personality.

On the 5th October 2010 the historic Hastings Pier was set on fire, destroying 95% of the Grade II listed building, leading to concerns over its future. Now scientists from the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) are helping to show that the future of the pier is more positive than expected.

• Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are infections that patients acquire during their hospitalization and that were not present at the time of admission to the hospital.
• A new study has found that people with alcohol use disorders who develop HAIs have longer hospital stays, thousands of dollars of higher hospital costs, and much greater odds of dying.

Tips to reduce your carbon footprint frequently include buying compact florescent light bulbs, taking your own bag to the grocery store or buying local produce. But how much difference do these actions make?

A new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that who you are and where you live make a big difference in which activities have the largest impact.

Many transportation companies in Germany have a serious problem: their trucks are only carrying part loads or returning to base empty. In the German road freight sector, the number of kilometers driven without a load has stagnated at around 20 percent since 2006. But experts expect the volume of road freight to increase dramatically in the near future, and innovative concepts will be needed to prevent a parallel increase in the number of empty trips.