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arclein

Automobile owners around the world may some day soon be driving on tires that are partly made out of trees - which could cost less, perform better and save on fuel and energy. Wood science researchers at Oregon State University have made some surprising findings about the potential of microcrystalline cellulose - a product that can be made easily from almost any type of plant fibers - to partially replace silica as a reinforcing filler in the manufacture of rubber tires.

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arclein

Part of the goal of once again returning to our only satellite, and establishing bases there, is to learn more about its hidden natural resources. "The moon still has a great deal of scientific information left to be discovered that relates directly to... our understanding of the history of the Earth and early history of other planets," geologist Harrison Schmitt told AFP.

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LiveScience

Space rocks that slammed into the glaciers of eastern Canada some 12,900 years ago likely helped wiped out mega-animals like woolly mammoths and possibly the continent's first human inhabitants called the Clovis people, according to a new study that adds to evidence that a trio of factors were involved.

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arclein

I would like to make a couple of comments. The core working component is a sphere coated with a thin layer of aluminum. It could not be any simpler. Their contribution has been to size down to nanometer scale. That way they are able to approach physical limits of charge concentration while also maximizing available surface area. So far so good. Rather importantly, third party participants can observe demonstrations of the characteristics of the spheres even one at a time. That makes a convincing proof of concept long before anyone sees real product.

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LiveScience

Tiger moths can thwart attacks from bats by effectively jamming the bats' sonar, doing so by emitting sudden bursts of ultrasound.
Past research had revealed that many night-flying moths have evolved the ability to hear bat sonar. A number were even seen responding with clicks of ultrasound.

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AP

Thousands of jumbo flying squid — aggressive 5-foot-long sea monsters with razor-sharp beaks and toothy tentacles — have invaded the shallow waters off San Diego....known to attack humans and are nicknamed "red devils" for their rust-red coloring and mean streak. Those who dive with them there chum the water with bait and sometimes get in a metal cage or wear chain mail to avoid being lashed by tentacles.

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PhysOrg

Usually when physicists talk about quantum teleportation, they're referring to the transfer of quantum states from one particle to another without a physical link. Now, physicists have investigated a slightly different form of teleportation, in which they teleport a quantum field, or an entire beam of light, from one location to another. This kind of "strong" teleportation is required for some quantum information applications, and could lead to the teleportation of quantum images.

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LiveScience

A newly discovered repulsive aspect to light could one day control telecommunications devices with greater speed and less power.

The discovery was made by splitting infrared light into two beams that each travel on a different length of silicon nanowire, called a waveguide. The two light beams became out of phase with one another, creating a push, or repulsive force, with an intensity that can be controlled; the more out of phase the two light beams, the stronger the force.

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McClatchy News

[Robert Klein has written about it on occasion, and finally the MSM picks it up.] Imagine a carbon sheet that's only one atom thick but is stronger than diamond and conducts electricity 100 times faster than the silicon in computer chips.

That's graphene, the latest wonder material coming out of science laboratories around the world. It's creating tremendous buzz among physicists, chemists and electronic engineers.

 

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LiveScience

Scientists may have solved the mystery of a bat with an extremely large nose, according to a new study. The oversized feature could help the bat sharpen its sonar.

The Bourret's horseshoe bat, or Rhinolophus paradoxolophus, was discovered 58 years ago in Southeast Asia and named for its strange facial trait. The bat has a roughly 9-millimeter-long nose (a third of an inch), while other species of horseshoe bats have a nose that is about half that size, said researcher Rolf Mueller, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech and director of the Bio-inspired Technology Laboratory in Danville, Va.

"This nose is so much larger

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www.metro.co.uk/news

Women who say they don't need a man may well be right – after human sperm was created in the lab.

The breakthrough could give hope to infertile couples and men left unable to have children after having cancer treatment.

But don't worry guys, the scientists who created the sperm using stem cells don't plan to take you out of the baby-making process just yet.

arclein

From a single contract three years ago for a plant to replace costly natural gas at a plywood mill at Heffley Creek, north of Kamloops, Nexterra has grown to the point where it is partnering with giants like GE Energy and signing contracts at the American research lab where the atomic bomb was conceived.

News Link • Global Reported By robert klein
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arclein

In 1984, it was revealed that the North Sea oil field Ekofisk, situated 70 metres below sea level, had subsided by 1-2 metres. This was not the first time in history that a reservoir had compacted as a result of oil and gas extraction. But the scale of the seabed subsidence was unprecedented. The explanation to this phenomenon lay in the specific rock formation in this particular field. The Ekofisk rock reservoir is mainly made of chalk, as is the neighbouring Valhall field

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