Science News

Nanoparticles seek and destroy groundwater toxins

admin — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:56:50 +0000

(Phys.org) -- Iron nanoparticles encapsulated in a rust-preventing polymer coating could hold incredible potential for cleaning up groundwater contaminated with toxic chemicals, a leading water expert says.

Amelia Earhart Distress Call Details Emerge

admin — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:29:59 +0000

Dozens of radio signals heard after her plane crashed add to evidence that the legendary aviator didn't just vanish.

Researchers achieve RNA interference, in a lighter package

admin — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 10:53:26 +0000

Using a technique known as “nucleic acid origami,” chemical engineers have built tiny particles made out of DNA and RNA that can deliver snippets of RNA directly to tumors, turning off genes expressed in cancer cells.

Unmanned Aircraft To Study Hurricanes

admin — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 04:43:33 +0000

Beginning this summer and over the next several years, NASA will be sending unmanned aircraft dubbed "severe storm sentinels" above stormy skies to help researchers and forecasters uncover information about hurricane formation and intensity changes.

Several NASA centers are joining federal and university partners in the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) airborne mission targeted to investigate the processes that underlie hurricane formation and intensity change in the Atlantic Ocean basin.

NASA's unmanned sentinels are autonomously flown. The NASA Global Hawk is well-suited for hurricane investigations because it can over-fly hurricanes at altitudes greater than 60,000 feet with flight durations of up to 28 hours - something piloted aircraft would find nearly impossible to do. Global Hawks were used in the agency's 2010 Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) hurricane mission and the Global Hawk Pacific (GloPac) environmental science mission.

"Hurricane intensity can be very hard to predict because of an insufficient understanding of how clouds and wind patterns within a storm interact with the storm’s environment. HS3 seeks to improve our understanding of these processes by taking advantage of the surveillance capabilities of the Global Hawk along with measurements from a suite of advanced instruments," said Scott Braun, HS3 mission principal investigator and research meteorologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

HS3 will use two Global Hawk aircraft and six different instruments this summer, flying from a base of operations at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

"One aircraft will sample the environment of storms while the other will measure eyewall and rainband winds and precipitation," Braun said. HS3 will examine the large-scale environment that tropical storms form in and move through and how that environment affects the inner workings of the storms.

HS3 will address the controversial role of the hot, dry, and dusty Saharan Air Layer in tropical storm formation and intensification. Past studies have suggested that the Saharan Air Layer can both favor or suppress intensification. In addition, HS3 will examine the extent to which deep convection in the inner-core region of storms is a key driver of intensity change or just a response to storms finding favorable sources of energy.

The HS3 mission will operate during portions of the Atlantic hurricane seasons, which run from June 1 to November 30. The 2012 mission will run from late August through early October.

The instruments to be mounted in the Global Hawk aircraft that will examine the environment of the storms include the scanning High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (S-HIS), the Advanced Vertical Atmospheric Profiling System (AVAPS) also known as dropsondes, and the Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL). The Tropospheric Wind Lidar Technology Experiment (TWiLiTE) Doppler wind lidar will likely fly in the 2013 mission.

Another set of instruments will fly on the Global Hawk focusing on the inner region of the storms. Those instruments include the High-Altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP) conically scanning Doppler radar, the Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) multi-frequency interferometric radiometer, and the High-Altitude Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR) microwave sounder. Most of these instruments represent advanced technology developed by NASA, that in some cases are precursors to future satellite sensors.

NASA's Science Mission Directorate Global Hawk aircraft will deploy to Wallops Flight Facility from their home base at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

"HS3 marks the first time that NASA's Global Hawks will deploy away from Dryden for a mission, potentially marking the beginning of an era in which they are operated regularly from Wallops," said Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist at NASA Goddard and deputy principal investigator on the HS3 mission.

NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington is establishing a Global Hawk operations center for science operations from Wallops.. "With the Global Hawks at NASA Dryden in California, NASA Wallops will become the 'Global Hawk - Eastern' science center," Newman said.

From rockets studying the upper atmosphere to unmanned aircraft flying over hurricanes, NASA's Wallops Flight Facility is fast becoming a busy place for science. Wallops is one of several NASA centers involved with the HS3 mission. Others include Goddard, Dryden, Ames Research Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The HS3 mission is funded by NASA Headquarters and managed by NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder Program at NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. The HS3 mission also involves collaborations with various partners including the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, Naval Postgraduate School, Naval Research Laboratory, NOAA's Hurricane Research Division and Earth System Research Laboratory, Northrop Grumman Space Technology, National Center for Atmospheric Research, State University of New York at Albany, University of Maryland - Baltimore County, University of Wisconsin, and University of Utah.

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On the Net:

Scientists complete most comprehensive genetic analysis yet of corn

admin — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 23:17:17 +0000

Scientists have completed the most comprehensive analysis to date of the corn genome. The team expects the achievement to speed up development of improved varieties of one of the world's most important agricultural commodities. The results should boost international efforts to increase yields, expand areas where corn can be cultivated and produce varieties better equipped to resist pests and disease.

A different drummer: Engineers discover neural rhythms drive physical movement

admin — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 23:17:17 +0000

In a significant departure from earlier models, neural engineers and neuroscientists working at Stanford University have developed a new model for the brain activity underlying arm movements. Motor neurons do not represent external-world parameters as previously thought, but rather send a few basic rhythmic patterns down the spine to drive movement. The finding has implications in prosthetics, the understanding of motor disorders and other uses yet to be discovered.

Expanding the genetic alphabet may be easier than previously thought

admin — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 23:17:17 +0000

A new study suggests that the replication process for DNA -- the genetic instructions for living organisms that is composed of four bases (C, G, A and T) -- is more open to unnatural letters than had previously been thought. An expanded "DNA alphabet" could carry more information than natural DNA, potentially coding for a much wider range of molecules and enabling a variety of powerful applications, from precise molecular probes and nanomachines to useful new life forms.

Wallflowers of the Earth system

admin — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 23:16:16 +0000

In cities, the presence of algae, lichens, and mosses is not considered desirable and they are often removed from roofs and walls. It is, however, totally unfair to consider these cryptogamic covers, as the flat growths are referred to in scientific terms, just a nuisance. Scientists have discovered that these mostly inconspicuous looking growths take up huge amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide and nitrogen and fix it at the earth’s surface. Cryptogamic covers are responsible for about half of the naturally occurring nitrogen fixation on land and they take up as much carbon dioxide as is released yearly from biomass burning. These new findings will help to improve global flux calculations and climate models, in which up to now the carbon and nitrogen balance of the cryptogamic covers have been neglected.

Tundra Shrubs Turn into Trees as Arctic Warms

admin — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 18:15:37 +0000

Tundra is by definition treeless, but in Eurasia recently, its shrubs have turned to trees.

Study suggests expanding the genetic alphabet may be easier than previously thought

admin — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 18:00:11 +0000

A new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute suggests that the replication process for DNA—the genetic instructions for living organisms that is composed of four bases (C, G, A and T)—is more open to unnatural letters than had previously been thought. An expanded "DNA alphabet" could carry more information than natural DNA, potentially coding for a much wider range of molecules and enabling a variety of powerful applications, from precise molecular probes and nanomachines to useful new life forms.

Summer Brides: 5 Wedding Traditions from Around the World

admin — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 15:37:53 +0000

These rituals go beyond the white dress and veil.

Intermittent hormone therapy for prostate cancer inferior to continuous therapy

admin — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:35:35 +0000

An international randomized study finds intermittent androgen-deprivation therapy has some quality-of-life benefits, but overall survival times don’t measure up to those seen with continuous therapy.

CERN Head Predicts Higgs Boson Discovery Before 2013

admin — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 06:50:39 +0000

The Director of the(CERN) says that he is confident that his group will have proven the existence of the Higgs Boson before the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is turned off for upgrades at year's end.

Speaking at theon Saturday, Dr. Rolf-Dieter Heuer said that the LHC will be closed down at the end of 2012 and will remain non-operational for upwards of two years, during which time it will receive upgrades to enhance its power and allow it to conduct future experiments, according to Louise Gray of the.

Before that happens, however, he believes they will find the so-called "God Particle."

"If the Large Hadron Collider continues to work I know we have enough collisions to produce enough signals to identify the Higgs Boson," Dr. Heuer said. “We will know by the end of this year whether it exists or whether it is non-existent."

"This would be a huge discovery that after 50 years we are able to describe the visible universe," he added. "We will have taken a big step forward about our knowledge of the physical world. It will help us to understand the creation of the universe."

The Higgs Boson, which earned its nickname because of the vital role it possesses in explaining modern physics, has never been detected, despite a decades-long search by scientists around the world, Gray said. However, hopes are high that the LHC experiments, which are being conducted in an underground tunnel at a CERN facility on the French-Swiss border, will be able to re-create the conditions required to allow them to spot the particle.

"CERN require a high level of proof and will only announce that the Higgs Boson exists when there is just a one in three million chance they are wrong," she wrote, adding that "Once the existence of Higgs Boson is known, there will be further work to prove its properties and understand the origins of the universe."

"Dr. Heuer said the discovery of the Higgs Boson will also help investigations into this wider universe. The visible universe only makes up 5 per cent and the rest is 'dark energy' and 'dark matter'," Gray continued. "He said it was impossible to imagine at this stage how the knowledge of the particle could be applied to practical applications but pointed to previous discoveries have led to developments in medicine and the internet."

For advanced prostate cancer, new drug slows disease

admin — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 17:49:49 +0000

A new medication proved effective in slowing the spread of metastatic prostate cancer, while helping to maintain the quality of life, in patients with advanced disease. The Phase 3 study was unblinded midway, allowing patients receiving the placebo to instead take the drug because of the favorable results.

Cancer therapy that boosts immune system ready for wider testing

admin — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 17:48:48 +0000

Scientists are testing experimental drugs aimed at restoring the immune system’s ability to spot and attack cancer, have shown promising early results in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, and kidney cancer. More than 500 patients were treated in two new studies of two drugs that target the same immune-suppressive pathway, and the investigators say there is enough evidence to support wider testing in larger groups of patients.

Spectacular Texas Thundercloud Caught on Video

admin — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 15:54:25 +0000

A huge supercell in West Texas was caught on camera.

What If the Yellowstone Supervolcano Erupts?

admin — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 15:46:41 +0000

Would a supereruption be the end of us all, or just a big blow to the tourism industry in Wyoming?

Why Are Genius and Madness Connected?

admin — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 15:33:49 +0000

Creative people are far more likely to be mentally ill. But why?

Climate Change Causing Hummingbird Missed Connections

admin — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 14:39:12 +0000

Birds are missing the nectar from glacier lilies in the Rocky Mountains.

Best Science Photos of the Week – June 2, 2012

admin — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 13:14:58 +0000

From outer space to inside labs to the annals of history, we chose some amazing science photos this week. Take a look.