Scientists have long predicted that tuna, with their highly streamlined body and elevated internal temperatures, are equipped with a "high performance" muscle system. Tuna, researchers suspected, power their swimming by projecting muscle force from the mid-body, where the muscle is concentrated, back to the tail, which essentially acts as a natural, thrust-producing hydrofoil.
Scientists studying an Amazonian watershed have found strikingly different seasonal patterns of nutrient cycling than elsewhere in the world.
Inspired by nature's own building blocks, Purdue University researchers are using the same principle that makes DNA strands link together to create tiny structures that may someday be used to manufacture molecular wires and other components for use in nanometer-sized electronic devices.
Scientists have long known that plants and certain microorganisms use an important protein to convert carbon dioxide from the air into useable carbon. Now, researchers investigating green sulfur bacteria - microbes capable of breaking down sulfur compounds - have uncovered a new link they believe to be an ancestor of that carbon-fixing protein.
Scientist Tullis Onstott of Princeton University will speak on subsurface microbial communities that live deep within the gold mines of South Africa at the National Science Foundation on April 24.
Two tests have been conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of burning a combination of subbituminous coal and sunflower hulls to produce heat for the campus at the University of North Dakota. What was once considered a waste material can now be used to produce clean energy from an alternative, renewable fuel source.
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have used a new form of laser technology called single molecule spectroscopy to make important contributions to understanding the motion of molecules in supercooled liquids, a problem of interest to scientists for more than half a century.
Using a novel detector attached to the submarine Alvin, a research team led by University of Delaware marine scientists has determined that water chemistry controls the location and distribution of two species of weird worms that inhabit deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites.
Although the Human Genome Project grabs headlines, perhaps the bigger story in biology will be in plant and animal genomics: the first benefits to society are likely to come from these areas, where it is generally easier and less controversial to utilize genetic information, according to the director of Purdue University's Office of Agricultural Research Programs.
"Egypt is the gift of the Nile," wrote Herodotus in 450 B.C. But according to research by Boston University Professor, the Greek historian got it only half right.
Robots are headed for your house. A U of A robotics researcher predicts that this Christmas season parents will bring home robots in unprecedented numbers, and many of them won't even realize it.
U of A robotics researchers have designed and demonstrated systems that significantly reduce the cost of hearing and vision systems for intelligent robots.
Major development and construction planned for China's Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, especially the Three Gorges Dam, could dramatically alter the salt content of the Sea of Japan and thereby change the climate in regions near these ocean waters.
Breaking research conducted by Tim Barnett and David Pierce of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, has shown preliminary evidence of human-produced warming in the upper 3,000 meters of the world's oceans.
If current trends in the growth of global population and wealth continue, the planet will lose a billion hectares of natural ecosystems--an area the size of the United States--to agriculture by the year 2050, according to projections by a team of scientists.
A University of Arkansas physicist has discovered a "quantum fractal" pattern -- with unforeseen mathematical capabilities -- that results when you "squeeze" the spatial uncertainty of a quantum wave. This space-time interference pattern repeats itself at discrete intervals, creating a sub-atomic quantum counter that could potentially be used in quantum computers.
A working quantum computer could be so powerful that it would solve in seconds certain problems that would take the fastest existing supercomputer millions of years to complete.
A new technique developed by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories using an inexpensive disposable fiber optics telemetry system to relay real-time information about the drilling process is capturing oil and gas industry attention.
Researchers from Pennsylvania State University supported by the National Science Foundation have performed an important step in the drive to remove environmentally harmful materials from waste streams and drinking water.
Engineers at The University of Texas are working with a Massachusetts-based startup firm to improve a leading-edge technology for cleaning up contaminated soil.
Prairie plots with greater plant biodiversity respond to augmented carbon dioxide and nitrogen more vigorously than plots with fewer plant species. Results imply that simplification of ecosystems may hamper ecosystems' ability to remove carbon dioxide from circulation.
Joseph Duncan, formerly of Oracle Corp. and Borland International, has joined the University of Washington's Cell Systems Initiative as chief of operations and information technology.
The National Science Foundation announced a $4.47 billion budget request for fiscal 2002 - $56 million (1.3 percent) over 2001.
1) "Dive and Discover" Website Puts Classrooms On Frontier Of Ocean Exploration; 2) Students Vital To Future Workforce; 3) Hotspots No Panacea For Endangered Species Or Biodiversity.
NASA scientists are learning how to grow plants in space. Such far-out crops will eventually take their place alongside people, microbes and machines in self-contained habitats for astronauts.
Winners of the Johns Hopkins Young Investigators' awards cite different reasons for becoming scientists, but have in common a knack for elegant research, a keen discipline to see it through and an unusual ability to communicate what they're doing.
Classroom activities designed by teachers, for teachers, to enhance middle schoolers' skills in science and math are now available on the Web. "Cycles of the Earth and Atmosphere" builds the excitement of scientific discovery into the curriculum, along with the basic concepts middle school students are expected to master.
As of early April, the Colorado State University hurricane forecast team led by William Gray has upped the numbers for 2001 just slightly, suggesting a normal season. For the June 1-Nov. 30, 2001 season, the scientists are calling for 10 named storms, six hurricanes and two intense (Saffir-Simpson category 3 or higher) hurricanes.
Timothy Fisher is taking a Tiffany's approach to converting sunlight into electricity. He is exploring the use of polycrystalline diamond as a replacement for the silicon solar cells currently used in many space applications.
Despite one restart and one human intervention, the Purdue student chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers won the 13th annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest today (Saturday, 4/7) with a machine that paid tribute to New York City. The team's were challenged to build a machine that could select, clean and peel an apple using at least 20 steps and within a time limit.
A scheme to drain agricultural land in south-east Austrralia threatens one of the nation's prime wetlands under the international RAMSAR agreement.
Quarterly news highlights from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state.
A team of engineers and surgeons led by a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State University, is using computer simulation to pioneer new, experimental methods of designing synthetic arteries, veins and bypass grafts.
Hurricane season starts June 1 and experts from Florida State University and its world renowned meterology program are available to answer media questions and give perspective to news stories as the season unfolds.
Two families of viruses, which were previously thought to be related and later were considered unrelated, are celebrating a scientific family reunion of sorts. The report provides new insights on how many insect-borne viruses are structured and how they infect cells.
A mycologist at the University of Georgia has shown for the first time that crucial cell "scaffold" proteins called septins belong to one of four classes. The discovery could help unlock more information about septins, which are found in most animals.
Physicists at the University of California, San Diego who last year produced a new class of composite materials believed to reverse the behavior of many fundamental electromagnetic properties associated with materials, have experimentally verified the first of these predicted reversals.
Scientists exploring a remote area of the central Indian Ocean seafloor two and one-half miles deep have found animals that look like fuzzy snowballs and chimney-like structures two stories tall spewing super-heated water full of toxic metals.
A undergraduate biomedical engineering major at Johns Hopkins is conducting ground-breaking research to help scientists find out how human tooth enamel is affected by acids that reach the mouth through acid reflux, a common digestive disorder.
Streams are vibrant ecosystems, and the smallest streams remove as much as half of the inorganic nitrogen that enters them, according to researchers from more than a dozen institutions. (Science, 4-6-01)
A species of small wolf spiders' has been found to possess "an early warning system" to detect danger - a system triggered by traces of silk and excrement left by predators - which reduces the spiders' desire to eat and reproduce. (Animal Behaviour, 2-01)
A team of researchers has discovered an effective way to move small amounts of fluid around miniscule channels. Their work may one day lead to the creation of a lab on a chip, or a hand-held device, which could be used in medicine, research and industry to provide on-the-spot diagnosis, experimentation and monitoring.
Oceanographers have been awarded a grant to examine the deep biosphere of the Earth and the "extremophile" communities that thrive there as part of a grant from NASA's Astrobiology Institute. Research will aid the search for sub-surface life on other planets through exploration and documentation of such life on Earth.
Sandia National Laboratories and the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company Ardesta have joined forces through a new partnership agreement to transfer Labs-developed microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and microsystems technologies to start-up companies in the commercial sector.
A progressive warming of tropical oceans, likely due to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, is driving major climate changes observed in the Northern Hemisphere since 1950, according to a new study. (Science, 4-6-01)
The way to panda extinction may be paved with good intentions. Panda habitat is being destroyed quicker inside the world's most high-profile protected nature reserve than in adjacent areas of China that are not protected. (Science)
Scientists developing photonic devices for optical and electronic applications may get a boost from a new process for "cutting" 3-D arrays of holes in a polymer material. (Science, 4-6-01)
Small streams remove more nutrients such as nitrogen from water than do their larger counterparts, according to researchers who have applied sampling methods developed in a National Science Foundation Arctic area ecological study to waterways across the nation.
The Science@NASA family of web sites received a prestigious international honor, the 2000 Pirelli INTERNETional Award, which recognizes excellence in science communications and "the spread of science culture" using the Internet.
A Johns Hopkins University undergraduate developed tiny biodegradable plastic particles that could be used in an aerosol spray to carry DNA vaccines and other important medications deep into human lungs.
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