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The new strain of H1N1
flu is causing "something different" to happen in the United States
this year -- perhaps an extended year-round flu season that
disproportionately hits young people, health officials said.
The most primitive dinosaurs in the famous theropod group (that later included Tyrannosaurus rex)
had five "fingers." Later theropods had three, just like the birds that
evolved from them. But which digits? The theropod and bird digits
failed to match up if you number the digits from 1 to 5 starting with
the thumb. Theropods looked like they had digits 1, 2 and 3, while
birds have digits 2, 3 and 4.
At an American Astronomical Society press conference today in Boulder, Colorado, researchers announced that a jet stream deep inside the sun is migrating slower than usual through the star's interior, giving rise to the current lack of sunspots.
Nanocomp’s fundamental breakthrough is its patent-pending method for high-volume production of very long CNTs (approximately one millimeter in length), and then processing the nanotubes into contiguous macrostructures. Over the past 18 months, the company has been distributing CNT yarn into the marketplace, recently delivering the 10 kilometer shipment to meet its customer’s volume and performance specifications.
The researchers show experimentally that the rate of creep is logarithmic, which means slowing creep increases durability exponentially. They demonstrate mathematically that creep can be slowed by a rate of 2.6. That would have a truly remarkable effect on durability: a containment vessel for nuclear waste built to last 100 years with today's concrete could last up to 16,000 years if made with an ultra-high-density (UHD) concrete.
A recent series of small earthquakes in North Texas has people wondering: could it have anything to do with drilling for natural gas?
Seismic activity used to be rare in Texas. It seems to be increasing since drilling took off in towns sitting on the Barnett Shale, a formation rich in natural gas.
Berkeley Lab researchers have created a unique ultra-high density memory storage medium that can preserve digital data for a billion years. When it comes to data storage, density and durability have always moved in opposite directions - the greater the density the shorter the durability.
Not because it's so early. It's the term for coaxing worms from the ground by the hundreds to be scooped up and plopped in a tin can until he can sell them for fishing bait.
A team in Germany first produced 112 in 1996 by firing charged zinc atoms through a 120-meter-long particle accelerator to hit a lead target.
"The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table," the scientists at the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research said in a statement late on Wednesday.
They said they have gathered a growing body evidence to show the compound, also known as BPA, might damage human health. The Endocrine Society issued a scientific statement on Wednesday calling for better studies into its effects.
A superconducting sheet of lead only two atoms thick, the thinnest superconducting metal layer ever created, has been developed by physicists at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Ken Shih and colleagues report the properties of their superconducting film in the June 5 issue of Science.
I have consistently argued that budget conscious consumers would prefer cheap lead-acid batteries to smaller, lighter and more expensive lithium-ion batteries, particularly for HEV applications. The timing of the new EU regulations has put automakers in a position where they can’t afford to wait for “the battery of tomorrow.” Instead they have to go to work immediately and meet the CO2 emission standards with batteries they can buy today from established manufacturers. Under those circumstances, I’m convinced that advanced lead-acid batteries will dominate the HEV markets until a clearly superior battery technology is developed.
Our objective is to complete component testing by September 2009. In parallel, we will be finalizing our second objective which consists of the assembly processes necessary to deliver production quality components and/or EESU's by the end of 2009. "
Until now, high hardness levels and tensile strengths could only be achieved in aluminum by a complex alloying process based on rare and expensive metals. "Our carbon nanotubes are an attractive alternative to such complicated alloys. Baytubes® carbon nanotubes can also significantly reinforce aluminum materials already alloyed with metals," says Adams.
A new test to reveal the gender of a fetus in early pregnancy has sparked a row over whether it will lead to sex-selection abortions.
The American-designed IntelliGender test kit, which can be used from eight weeks after conception, went on sale in Australia last month. Its Australian distributor hopes to launch it in New Zealand within a fortnight.
David Portnoy, managing director of Melbourne-based Early Image, said yesterday that he was negotiating with health products companies Douglas Pharmaceuticals and API to supply the kits to New Zealand pharmacies.
He expected they would sell for about $125.
A new study says that within three years jumbo jet–makers could be testing a new type of wing that reduces midair drag and cuts fuel costs by an estimated 20 percent. The wing would do this using small, built in jets that redirect air around the wing during flight. "This has come as a bit of a surprise to all of us in the aerodynamics community," Duncan Lockerby, an associate professor of fluid-solid mechanics at the University of Warwick in the U.K. and head of the research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and aircraft maker Airbus, said in a statement. "It was discovered, essentially, by waggling a piece of wing from side to side in a wind tunnel."
The mitochondria, often called "the powerhouses of the cell" in biology textbooks, are one of the coolest parts of the cell. They're the primary site of metabolism
One hundred million years ago a termite was wounded and its abdomen split open. The resin of a pine tree slowly enveloped its body and the contents of its gut preserving the microscopic organisms in its gut. These microbes are the forebears of
The news on graphene keeps getting better as researchers are rushing into print. Now we have the first centimeter sized sheets of graphene and larger sheets are now in sight. If this method can consistently lay down a single layer and I suspect that
[note video tab at top] The World Health Organization is investigating a claim by an Australian researcher that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.
[very weird] Many people suffering from swine influenza, even those who are severely ill, do not have fever, an odd feature of the new virus that could increase the difficulty of controlling the epidemic, said a leading American infectious-disease ex
It sounds like something out of science fiction: zombie fire ants. But it's all too real. Fire ants wander aimlessly away from the mound. Eventually their heads fall off, and they die.
Modern Australia lacks big land predators, but until about 30,000 years ago, the continent was ruled by Thylacoleo carnifex, the marsupial "lion." Several well-preserved skeletons of the leopard-size beast have been found. Now, a newly disc
Spaceward has a page on space elevator feasibility that looks at tether strength and power to weight ratio for the power system for the space elevator climber.
This is a welcome list of the high energy research projects currently underway and allows us to catch up on what is afoot. Serious money is been now devoted to the field and we can expect to see more avenues explored. I have reposted on some of these
The Obama administration is considering an unprecedented fall vaccination campaign that could entail giving Americans three flu shots — one to combat annual seasonal influenza and two targeted at the new swine flu virus spreading across the globe.
Sanofi-Aventis SA of Paris, Baxter International Inc. of Deerfield, Illinois, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc of London are talking with world health authorities about producing shots, the agency said.
For years, scientists have contemplated spraying ABA directly onto crops to enhance their protection in times of stress. But ABA is a costly, complicated and light-sensitive molecule that has not found use in agriculture. Now new research from the
The United Nation’s health agency will ask drugmakers to start producing a vaccine for swine strain once they finish making shots for seasonal flu, said Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the WHO’s initiative on vaccine research, in an interview.
