Tech | Page 1322 | Science Codex

As Brazil ramps up sugarcane production researchers foresee regional climate effects

TEMPE, Ariz. – Conversion of large swaths of Brazilian land for sugar plantations will help the country meet its needs for producing cane-derived ethanol but it also could lead to important regional climate effects, according to a team of researchers from Arizona State University, Stanford University and the Carnegie Institution for Science.

The team found that anticipated conversion to sugarcane plantations could lead to a 1°C decrease in temperature during the growing season, to be followed by a 1°C increase after harvest.

Illuminating fractures: X-ray imaging sheds new light on bone damage

ITHACA, N.Y. — From athletes to individuals suffering from osteoporosis, bone fractures are usually the result of tiny cracks accumulating over time -- invisible rivulets of damage that, when coalesced, lead to that painful break.

Using cutting-edge X-ray techniques, Cornell University researchers have uncovered cellular-level detail of what happens when bone bears repetitive stress over time, visualizing damage at smaller scales than previously observed. Their work could offer clues into how bone fractures could be prevented.

Biobatteries catch breath

An air-breathing bio-battery has been constructed by researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. The core element providing the new power source with relatively high voltage and long lifetime is a carefully designed cathode taking up oxygen from air and composed of an enzyme, carbon nanotubes and silicate.

Ketchup turns somersaults

The unusual behavior of complex fluids is part of our daily life: cake dough climbs up the stirring bar, ketchup becomes liquid when you shake it. Also technology uses such phenomena: if we add a small amount of long-chained polymer molecules, a pipeline can transport more oil. The polymers reduce the flow resistance. But up to now the origin of these effects was unclear. The engineers had to rely on estimates and lengthy trials.

Federal figures miss most work-related amputations

A new report from Michigan State University and the Michigan Department of Community Health raises significant concerns about the federal government's system for tracking work-related injuries.

Published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the study found the number of amputations following jobsite accidents in Michigan was nearly two-and-a-half times higher than the official estimate from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

UTHealth researchers find industrial chemicals in food samples

HOUSTON – (March 6, 2013) – Researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) have discovered phthalates, industrial chemicals, in common foods purchased in the United States. Phthalates can be found in a variety of products and food packaging material, child-care articles and medical devices.

How to predict the progress of technology

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Researchers at MIT and the Santa Fe Institute have found that some widely used formulas for predicting how rapidly technology will advance — notably, Moore's Law and Wright's Law — offer superior approximations of the pace of technological progress. The new research is the first to directly compare the different approaches in a quantitative way, using an extensive database of past performance from many different industries.

INRS overcomes a hurdle in the development of terahertz lasers

Novel marker helps identify preeclampsia risk in pregnancy

SAN FRANCISCO (March 7, 2013) — Pregnant women who have a reduced number of capillaries under their skin during pregnancy may be at heightened risk for preeclampsia, according to research being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. Researchers say monitoring such changes in small blood vessels early in pregnancy may allow for medical intervention long before the potentially life-threatening condition occurs.

A new material using doped carbon allows fuels to be produced while reducing CO2 emissions

Researchers from the University of Granada (UGR) have developed a new material using doped carbon that allows low-cost energy to be produced and also reduces the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere. The recently-patented material is a gel that enables the CO2 to be turned back into hydrocarbons via electro-catalytic transformation, with great savings both in time and money

Duckweed as a cost-competitive raw material for biofuel production

The search for a less-expensive, sustainable source of biomass, or plant material, for producing gasoline, diesel and jet fuel has led scientists to duckweed, that fast-growing floating plant that turns ponds and lakes green. That's the topic of a report in ACS' journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.

First discovery of a natural topological insulator

In a step toward understanding and exploiting an exotic form of matter that has been sparking excitement for potential applications in a new genre of supercomputers, scientists are reporting the first identification of a naturally occurring "topological insulator" (TI). Their report on discovery of the material, retrieved from an abandoned gold mine in the Czech Republic, appears in the ACS journal Nano Letters.

Whoa there! Quick switch to 'barefoot' shoes can be bad to the bone

For the growing number of runners who are considering trying "barefoot" five-finger running shoes, researchers at BYU have a message for you: Take it slow!

A new study from a team of exercise science professors found that runners who transition too quickly to minimalist shoes suffer an increased risk of injury to bones in the foot, including possible stress fractures.

With minimalist shoes now making up 15 percent of the $6.5 billion running shoe market, the findings are nothing to run from.

New reports: African governments giving land away quickly, recognizing land rights slowly

Yaoundé, Cameroon (7 March 2013) -- While African governments are moving gradually towards protecting the land rights of rural people and indigenous communities, they are moving quickly to give away community forests and other lands for development. These conflicting choices are the focus of two new reports and a regional dialogue on forests, governance, and climate change.

Internet searches can identify drug safety issues well ahead of public alerts

The authors base their findings on an analysis of the anonymised search logs of millions of US web users, who agreed to install a browser add-on and share their online searches with Microsoft throughout 2010.

The researchers developed automated tools to analyse the queries of people who searched for information on the antidepressant (paroxetine) and a cholesterol lowering drug (pravastatin), using the search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo.