Archive for January, 2008
Scientists Create Carbon Nanopipettes That Are Smaller Than Cells And Measure Electric Current
University of Pennsylvania engineers and physicians have developed a carbon nanopipette thousands of times thinner than a human hair that measures electric current and delivers fluids into cells.
Smaller is stronger — now scientists know why
As structures made of metal get smaller — as their dimensions approach the micrometer scale (millionths of a meter) or less — they get stronger. Scientists discovered this phenomenon 50 years ago while measuring the strength of tin “whiskers” a few micrometers in diameter and a few millimeters in length.
Science and Engineering Indicators 2008
Members of the National Science Board today delivered to the President and the Congress Science and Engineering Indicators 2008 (SEI’08), the Board’s biennial report on the state of science and engineering research and education in the United States. Read the full report at NSF.gov
Engineers Produce a Rocket-Powered Human Arm
Michael Goldfarb, prof of mechanical engineering, Vanderbilt University, with a prototype of an artifical arm powered by a tiny rocket motor.
MESSENGER Space Probe’s Flyby Of Mercury A Success
At 2:04 p.m. EST on Jan. 14, 2008, the MESSENGER spacecraft skimmed 200 kilometers (124 miles) above the surface of Mercury in the first of three flybys of the planet. Initial indications from the radio signals indicate the spacecraft is still operating nominally.
Self-Paced Brain-Computer Interface Gets Closer to Reality
Using the human mind to control computers could lead to a wide range of applications, such as giving people with limited motion the ability to operate machines. However, translating thoughts into actions is a great challenge for researchers.
Artificial Muscles: New materials flex without bulky power source
Robots with oxygen-breathing muscles, aircraft that change the shape of their wings while in the air and other technical advances may be on the way, thanks to a new generation of artificial muscles. Scientists have designed the muscles to run on fuels rather than batteries or electricity from power cords.
Violent Lives Of Galaxies: Dark Matter Found Tugging At Galaxies In Supercluster
Astronomers are using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to dissect one of the largest structures in the Universe as part of a quest to understand the violent lives of galaxies.
Feeling the Heat: Thermoelectric Breakthrough in Silicon Nanowires
Rough silicon nanowires synthesized by Berkeley Lab researchers demonstrated high performance thermoelectric properties even at room temperature when connected between two suspended heating pads. In this illustration, one pad serves as the heat source (pink), the other as the sensor.
Beating Heart Created In Laboratory
By using a process called whole organ decellularization, scientists from the University of Minnesota Center for Cardiovascular Repair grew functioning heart tissue by taking dead rat and pig hearts and reseeding them with a mixture of live cells.
Canberra to get first glimpse of Mercury
NASA will return to Mercury for the first time in almost 33 years tomorrow when a robotic probe makes its first fly-by of the Sun’s nearest neighbour. The Messenger spacecraft is expected to make its closest approach to Mercury sometime after 6am (AEST) tomorrow, flying just 200km above the rocky surface.
Super-computer Could Throw Light On Mysterious Dark Energy
Cosmologists have run a series of huge computer simulations of the Universe that could ultimately help solve the mystery of dark energy.
Happiness is a Warm Electrode
SHOCK TRAUMA Diane Hire, shown here in profile and x-ray, is among the first depression patients to receive deep-brain stimulation, a procedure in which two electrodes are implanted in the head.
Perfectly Aligned Galaxies Found For the First Time
Astronomers have found three galaxies in a never before seen perfect alignment?a discovery that may help scientists better understand the mysterious dark matter and dark energy believed to dominate the universe.
Let the cooling begin at the LHC
Tens of thousands of tonnes of equipment must be cooled to near absolute zero before the Large Hadron Collider can detect its first exotic particle.
A dark future for cosmology
Even with the many observations planned over the next decade, there is a real chance that we will never understand the true nature of dark energy, argues Lawrence M Krauss
