The farmer casts a worried gaze at his potato field: where only recently a lush green field of plants was growing, much of the foliage has now turned brown – presumably the result of a fungal disease. Usually, by the time the disease becomes visible, it is already too late. The course of the disease is then so advanced that there is little the farmer can do to counteract the damage done. To determine early on whether and how severely his plants are diseased, he would have to submit samples to a laboratory on a regular basis.
Tech
Ever worried you left a window open in your house when you heard the weather forecast called for rain? Or because you drove away and saw 99 Wall Street protesters loitering out there? In situations like that, window contacts can make life easier and give peace of mind.
These little electronic helpers are fitted onto window handles, and they can tell from the position of the handle whether the window is wide open, tilted open or closed. They transmit this information to a base station, and the house's occupants can then see at a glance which windows are open.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- An Illinois research team has succeeded in overcoming one major obstacle to a promising technology that simultaneously reduces atmospheric carbon dioxide and produces fuel.
WORCESTER, Mass. -- An iPhone app that measures the user's heart rate is not only a popular feature with consumers, but it sparked an idea for a Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researcher who is now turning smart phones, and eventually tablet devices, into sophisticated medical monitors able to capture and transmit vital physiological data.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Given the stakes of in vitro fertilization, prospective parents and their doctors need the best information they can get about the eggs they will extract, attempt to fertilize, and implant. New research at Brown University and Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island has found a way to see which genes each egg cell is expressing without harming it.
Heavy rainfall was occurring in Tropical Storm Philippe's southeastern quadrant when NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite flew over it this week, and the storm continues to strengthen.
Researchers have used the atomically-sharp tip of a scanning tunneling microscope to move 1-nanometer sized molecules on top of a silver substrate.
The tip is controlled with such great accuracy that it is possible to precisely choose the position of each molecule and build tiny molecular squares, crosses, and chains of controlled size and orientation. The same tip is then used as a mobile electrode to probe the electrical conductivity of the molecules as a function of their position in the array.
If an electric car wants to be environmentally friendly it must weigh as little as possible, for two reasons: when the light turns green every additional pound/kilogram must be accelerated with considerable energy expenditure; and the lighter the electric vehicle, the longer it can be on the road without having to be plugged back into a power outlet.
The exceptional strength of certain biological materials is due principally to their complex structure. Long bones, for instance, consist of a compact, solid outer casing filled with spongy tissue, which makes them particularly strong and resilient.
Millimeter by millimeter, the polisher uses grinding stones and polishing pastes to polish the surface of a metal mold, working at a rate of some ten minutes per square centimeter. This activity is time-consuming and hence incurs a significant cost. What is more, many companies are struggling to find new recruits for such a challenging yet monotonous task.
More than 100 artefacts from the First World War have been uncovered in an archaeological fieldwork survey on the Gallipoli battlefield, leading to some interesting theories about life on the frontline according to University of Melbourne survey archaeologist Professor Antonio Sagona.
The discoveries were made as part of a second season of fieldwork undertaken as part of the Joint Historical and Archaeological Survey – the only systematic survey of the battlefields of Gallipoli since the First World War.
State-of-the-art, highly-sensitive golf clubs, developed by scientists, regularly catch the eye of golf's elite; however before the likes of Rory McIlroy get excited this time, this new golf putter is being put to use in microbiology laboratories.
The 'micro putter', developed for a study published in Measurement Science and Technology, has been designed to test the "stickiness" of single cells.
(Garrison, NY) Shedding light on a question that has baffled research ethics review boards, a new analysis of the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in pediatric clinical trials finds that the risks of physical and psychological harm associated with this procedure are no greater than the risks that healthy children face from everyday activities, such as playing soccer or riding in motor vehicles. However, adding an intravenous contrast dye or sedation to an MRI increases the odds of harm and makes them unacceptably high.
WASHINGTON — It is unlikely the United States will meet some specific biofuel mandates under the current Renewable Fuel Standard by 2022 unless innovative technologies are developed or policies change, says a new congressionally requested report from the National Research Council, which adds that the standard may be an ineffective policy for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving this standard would likely increase federal budget outlays as well as have mixed economic and environmental effects.