Better than Superman? X-Ray Microscope Enables Nanovision | X-ray Diffraction Microscope | Energy & Technology Forget X-ray glasses. A new X-ray microscope can see details a small as a billionth of a meter — without even using a lens. Instead, the new microscope uses a powerful computer program to convert patterns from X-rays bouncing off materials into images of objects as small as a one nanometer across, on the scale of a few atoms. Unlike Superman's X-ray vision, which allows him to look through walls to see the bad guys beyond, the new technology could be used to look at different elements inside a material, or to image viruses, cells and tissue in great detail, said study researcher Oleg Shpyrko, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego. "We can make things at nanoscale, but we can't see them very well," Shpyrko told LiveScience. Astronomers use similar programs to remove distortions from their images and even to sharpen the pictures sent back by the Hubble Space Telescope, but the nanovision technique, developed by UC San Diego graduate student Ashish Tripathi, is new.
Artificial photosynthesis hits record speed Swedish researchers say they've built a molecular catalyzer that can oxidize water to oxygen very quickly - reaching speeds not far off those of natural photosynthesis. While artificial photosynthesis has been under development for 30 years, it's the first time that such a conversion rate has been reached - about 300 turnovers per second, compared with 100 to 400 for natural photosynthesis. "Speed has been the main problem, the bottleneck, when it comes to creating perfect artificial photosynthesis," says Licheng Sun, professor of organic chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). "This is clearly a world record, and a breakthrough regarding a molecular catalyzer in artificial photosynthesis." The result, he says, could make it possible in the future to create large-scale facilities for producing hydrogen in the Sahara, or combine the technique with traditional solar cells. The team plans to continue working to try and drive down the price of the technology.
Little Elephant Shows Big Brains | Problem Solving, Elephants & Tool Use A 7-year-old Asian elephant named Kandula at the Smithsonian National Zoo wowed his keepers when he devised a strategy to use a large plastic cube to obtain out-of-reach food. And when the cube wasn't around, Kandula found other means, including using a tire and stacking multiple, smaller objects, to reach toward the food. [Elephant Images: The Biggest Beasts on Land] The researchers said he seems to have thought out the strategy all on his own, making Kandula one smart elephant. This aha moment — the split second spark of genius resulting in the sudden arrival of a solution to a problem — is a common human experience. While elephants are thought of as relatively intelligent animals, they haven't been observed exhibiting this type of spontaneous problem-solving until now. Light bulb! Kandula reaching for a branch by stepping on his play cube.Credit: Foerder, et. al, PLoS ONE Elephant thoughts
Usenet Physics FAQ Version Date: August 2013 This list of answers to frequently asked questions in physics was created by Scott Chase in 1992. Its purpose was to provide good answers to questions that had been discussed often in the sci.physics and related Internet news groups. The articles in this FAQ are based on those discussions and on information from good reference sources. Most of the entries that you'll find here were written in the days when the Internet was brand new. So because of their age, the FAQ entries that you'll find here have a great deal of academic credibility—but they are not always perfect and complete. This document is copyright. General Physics Particle and Nuclear Physics Quantum Physics Relativity and Cosmology Speed of Light Special Relativity General Relativity and Cosmology Black Holes Reference Topics There are many other places where you may find answers to your question. This FAQ is currently available from these web sites: Australia:
How Nature and Biomimicry Make Us Smarter | Innovations An underwater system generates power through blades that mimic the swaying motion of coral and kelp. Image courtesy of Biowave Ever since my wife and I bought a cottage near the Shenandoah Mountains in Virginia I’ve noticed that when I’m out in the country, I’m much more likely to (a) bring up snakes in conversation and (b) spend a great deal of time staring at butterflies and spider webs. While so many things said to be awesome aren’t even close, much of what I see out there on a daily basis actually is. Benyus was referring to nature, the world’s greatest headline act. Truth is, biomimicry is driving innovation just about anywhere you can imagine—medicine (spider webs), construction (termite mounds), bullet trains (kingfishers), self-cleaning fabrics (lotus plants). Impressive. Here are a half dozen ways where taking our cues from nature is making us smarter about energy. Of course, nature can sometimes cause people to dream too big. What else do you think we can copy from nature?
Body's Defenses Made Mightier by Microbes, Study Says <br/><a href=" US News</a> | <a href=" Business News</a> Copy When it comes to bacteria, many people have a pretty simple view: Germs are bad, and our lives should be as free of them as possible. But an alternate idea suggests just the opposite: Germs are a necessary part of a healthy immune system, helping our body's defenses beef up and fight future illnesses. The idea is called the hygiene hypothesis. But a new study from researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston has changed that. Researchers studied two kinds of mice: One group had been exposed to a normal bacteria environment, and another group that was germ-free. Additionally, the germ-free mice had exaggerated inflammation in their lungs and colon, similar to what is seen in humans who have asthma and ulcerative colitis. But all was not lost for the germ-free mice. The results were published today in the journal Science. Dr.
Synthetic Life Could Help Colonize Mars, Biologist Says | Synthetic Life & Human Spaceflight | Mars Exploration & Mars Settlement SAN FRANCISCO — Synthetic organisms engineered to use carbon dioxide as a raw material could help humans settle the planet Mars one day, a prominent biologist says. Man-made, CO2-munching lifeforms are already in the works, geneticist Craig Venter told a crowd here during an event called TEDxNASA@SiliconValley Wednesday night (Aug. 17). Venter and his team, who made headlines last year by creating the world's first synthetic organism, are trying to design cells that can use atmospheric carbon dioxide to make food, fuel, plastics and other products. This ability would obviously have huge implications here on Earth, but it could also help make Mars — whose thin atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide — a more livable place, Venter said. "These kinds of processes will allow us to make almost anything needed there from that CO2 environment," Venter said in a video presentation. Synthetic life The feat was more than just a neat trick. Helping out on Earth, and beyond
Wave Bubble Two Wavebubbles. Left is an earlier revision with the top removed and with external antennas. Right is v1.0 with internal antennas, fit into a pack of cigarettes. This website details the design and construction Wave Bubble: a self-tuning, wide-bandwidth portable RF jammer. An internal lithium-ion battery provides up to 2 hours of jamming (two bands, such as cell) or 4 hours (single band, such as cordless phone, GPS, WiFi, bluetooth, etc). Output power is .1W (high bands) and .3W (low bands). Self-tuning is provided via dual PLL, therefore, no spectrum analyzer is necessary to build this jammer and a single Wave Bubble can jam many different frequency bands - unlike any other design currently available! While the documentation here is both accurate and complete (as much as possible), the construction of such a device is still an advanced project. This design is not for sale or available as a kit and never will be due to FCC regulations.
Synthetic Life May Reveal Origins of Natural Life After he announced the creation of the first organism with a fully synthetic genome last Thursday, Craig Venter, founder of the genomics research institute that bears his name, went on to talk about how this breakthrough will benefit industries like pharmaceuticals, energy and materials. In his explanation of the methods used to create the synthetic bacterium, Venter highlighted an important use for synthetic organisms: research. Like living test tubes, bacteria created by scientists could serve as controlled platforms for experiments by reducing the complexity that obscures the workings of many biological systems. This work could lead to staggering findings in two major ways. Second, while cells with synthetic genomes couldn't be used to recreate extinct creatures, they could be used to create organisms that have the genes of extinct organisms, possibly even those of Earth's earliest life forms. Designing more elegant experiments Breathing life into fossils First life on Earth
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Can Life Evolve From a Different Chemical Code? | Life Evolution In the Universe | Alien Life & Extraterrestrial Life All life on Earth relies on a standard set of 20 molecules called amino acids to build the proteins that carry out life's essential actions. But did it have to be this way? All living creatures on this planet use the same 20 amino acids, even though there are hundreds available in nature. Scientists therefore have wondered if life could have arisen based on a different set of amino acids. And what's more, could life exist elsewhere that utilizes an alternate collection of building blocks? "Life has been using a standard set of 20 amino acids to build proteins for more than 3 billion years," said Stephen J. So Freeland and his University of Hawaii colleague Gayle K. Amino acids are molecules built primarily from carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. "Technically there is an infinite variety of amino acids," Freeland told Astrobiology Magazine. Testing the possibilities The researchers defined a likely pool of candidate amino acids from which life drew its 20. Natural selection