The saint's legend speaks of a king who died a dramatic death in battle outside the church in Uppsala, Sweden, where he had just celebrated mass. But what can modern science tell us about his remains? A joint research project headed by Uppsala University now reveals more of the health condition of Saint Erik, what he looked like, where he lived and what the circumstances of his death were.
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A University of Queensland (UQ)-led study is among the first in the world to systematically assess the amount of carbon stored in tropical forests recovering after controversial land-clearing practices in the Philippines.
Mr Sharif Mukul of UQ's School of Agriculture and Food Sciences said the study addressed gaps in knowledge on carbon changes following a traditional agricultural practice known as shifting cultivation or "slash-and-burn agriculture".
Ceramic capacitors are used in a wide variety of electronics, ranging from computers and mobile phones to telecommunications transmitter stations and high voltage laser power supplies. Capacitors act, in a way, like batteries. They are "dielectric" - they act as an electronic insulator in which an electric field can be sustained with minimum loss of power. Their dielectric properties allow them to store electricity and then release it. One of the most widely used ceramics in capacitors is lead zirconate titanate, but it is hazardous to the health and the environment once it's disposed.
SAN DIEGO, March 16, 2016 -- A team of scientists is exploring an unusual source of electricity -- damaged tomatoes that are unsuitable for sale at the grocery store. Their pilot project involves a biological-based fuel cell that uses tomato waste left over from harvests in Florida.
The researchers present their work today at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world's largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 12,500 presentations on a wide range of science topics.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass - Road vehicles are a key part of the climate change challenge, representing both an important source of petroleum demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide. Changes to our transportation system--how much we travel, the vehicles we use, and the fuels that power them--offer the potential for substantial reductions in GHG emissions, and are necessary to mitigate climate change. Likewise, changes in policy, driving behavior, and the development of alternative fuels and energy sources are required to meet this challenge.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., March 15, 2016 - Measurement and data analysis techniques developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory could provide new insight into performance-robbing flaws in crystalline structures, ultimately improving the performance of solar cells.
Regulation of commercial speech about pharmaceuticals should require informative content based on scientific evidence, not just formalistic truth.
Regulation of commercial speech about pharmaceuticals should be informed by the state of scientific evidence rather than mere formalistic truth, according to a Policy Forum article authored by Spencer Hey and Aaron Kesselheim from Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, in this week's PLOS Medicine.
"Most people know we are frying the planet," says MIT economist Daron Acemoglu, referring to the effects of climate change.
After all, 2015 was the hottest year on record, portending drastic long-term problems involving agriculture, rising sea levels, drought, and much more.
"What is probably less clear is how to resolve that," Acemoglu adds.
U.S. government nanotechnology researchers have demonstrated a new window to view what are now mostly clandestine operations occurring in soggy, inhospitable realms of the nanoworld--technologically and medically important processes that occur at boundaries between liquids and solids, such as in batteries or along cell membranes.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass - Road vehicles are a key part of the climate change challenge, representing both an important source of petroleum demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide. Changes to our transportation system--how much we travel, the vehicles we use, and the fuels that power them--offer the potential for substantial reductions in GHG emissions, and are necessary to mitigate climate change. Likewise, changes in policy, driving behavior, and the development of alternative fuels and energy sources are required to meet this challenge.
WASHINGTON D.C., March 15, 2016 - A team of researchers at Aix Marseille Université in Marseille, France led by Dr. Frédéric Leroy developed a technique that allows them to follow physical processes occurring at surfaces of materials at the atomic level in situ and in real time. This new process allowed the research team to study the kinetics of decomposition of a thin layer of silicon dioxide deposited onto silicon during a thermal treatment, a critical component in micro-electronics. The approach is based on the principles of electron microscopy.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Uncertainties are a fact of life for those who model climate change and the factors that amplify or moderate its effects. One important dynamic in climate change studies is the extent of permafrost (permanently frozen soils) in the northern high latitudes and the rate at which it defrosts as the climate warms.
The researchers were alerted to the natural phenomenon in Australia by the photo taken by an Australian colleague, who sent them an aerial shot of the region surrounding the town of Newman. The photo showed plant patterns that were very similar to the fairy circles which had only ever been found in southern Africa.
Nature Photonics today published research by a team from South Africa and Italy demonstrating a new type of laser that is able to produce laser beams 'with a twist' as its output. The outputs and superpositions of the new type of laser form a set of beams, called vector vortex beams. Using geometric phase inside lasers for the first time, the work opens the way to novel lasers for optical communication, laser machining and medicine.
Better thermometers might be possible as a result of a discovery at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where physicists have found a way to calibrate temperature measurements by monitoring the tiny motions of a nanomechanical system that are governed by the often counterintuitive rules of quantum mechanics.