Tech

UPTON, NY - A team of scientists studying the parent compound of a cuprate (copper-oxide) superconductor has discovered a link between two different states, or phases, of that matter - and written a mathematical theory to describe the relationship. This work, appearing in the July 22, 2011, issue of Science, will help scientists predict the material's behavior under varying conditions, and may help explain how it's transformed into a superconductor able to carry current with no energy loss.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- As workers continue to grapple with the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in Japan, the crisis has shone a spotlight on nuclear reactors around the world. In June, The Associated Press released results from a yearlong investigation, revealing evidence of "unrelenting wear" in many of the oldest-running facilities in the United States.

Each community of soil microbes has a unique fingerprint that can potentially be used to track soil back to its source, right down to whether it came from dust from a rural road or from a farm field, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) soil scientist.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Regulatory hurdles abound for the successful commercialization of emerging liquid biofuels, which hold the promise of enhancing U.S. energy security, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and serving as a driver for rural economic development, according to new U. of I. research.

In the study, University of Illinois law professor Jay P. Kesan and Timothy A. Slating, a regulatory associate with the University of Illinois Energy Biosciences Institute, argue that regulatory innovations are needed to keep pace with technological innovations in the biofuels industry.

In the fight to improve global health, alleviate hunger, raise living standards and empower women in the developing world, chickens have an important role to play.

Jagdev Sharma, a researcher at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute has been investigating the advantages of a more productive species of chicken for villagers in rural Uganda. He reports his findings this week at the American Veterinary Medical Association Meeting in Saint Louis, Missouri.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Instead of calming fears, the death of Osama bin Laden actually led more Americans to feel threatened by Muslims living in the United States, according to a new nationwide survey.

In the weeks following the U.S. military campaign that killed bin Laden, the head of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, American attitudes toward Muslim Americans took a significant negative shift, results showed.

Scientists have taken the next major step toward quantum computing, which will use quantum mechanics to revolutionize the way information is processed.

Quantum computers will capitalize on the mind-bending properties of quantum particles to perform complex calculations that are impossible for today's traditional computers.

Using high magnetic fields, Susumu Takahashi, assistant professor in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and his colleagues managed to suppress decoherence, which is one of the key stumbling blocks in quantum computing.

Scientists are reporting a key advance toward the long-awaited era of "single-molecule electronics," when common electronic circuits in computers, smart phones, audio players, and other devices may shrink to the size of a grain of sand. The breakthrough is a method for creating and attaching the tiny wires that will connect molecular components, reports a new study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Government assurances that seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is safe to eat after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill are the result of a monitoring and testing program that continues more than a year after the April 20, 2010 disaster. The little-known story of the effort by Federal agencies to assure safety of Gulf seafood is the topic of the cover article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS's weekly news magazine.

KINGSTON, R.I. – July 20, 2011 – More than half of all college students have received sexually suggestive images via text messaging, and nearly 80 percent have received suggestive messages, according to research by University of Rhode Island faculty in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

Taking another major step in sleuthing the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a research team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) determined what chemicals were contained in a deep, hydrocarbon-containing plume.

The plume was at least 22 miles long.

The scientists mapped and sampled it last summer in the Gulf of Mexico; it was a residue of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, July 20, 2011—Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory and Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center have found a potential key for unlocking the energy potential from non-edible biomass materials such as corn leaves and stalks, or switch grass.

A new study suggests young people with a serious genetic blood disorder are not getting the right help at school, especially pupils who miss lessons due to sickness.

Research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) at De Montfort University, the University of York and Loughborough University reveals that most children with sickle cell disease (SCD) do not feel supported by schools in catching up on absences from class.

Terahertz radiation can penetrate numerous materials—plastic, clothing, paper and some biological tissues—making it an attractive candidate for applications such as concealed weapons detection, package inspection and imaging skin tumors. However, to date there is no standard method for measuring the absolute output power of terahertz lasers, one source of this type of radiation.

Troy, N.Y. – Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to harvest energy from flowing water. This discovery aims to hasten the creation of self-powered microsensors for more accurate and cost-efficient oil exploration.