Claims 100 stray dogs buried alive in China probed
Beijing (AFP) April 27, 2014 -
Claims that about 100 stray dogs were buried alive in northern China are being investigated, an official said Sunday, the latest apparent case of animal cruelty to shock the nation.
Allegations that a pit pictured online Wednesday containing scores of stray dogs had been filled in by local government officials were made by a charity based in Inner Mongolia.
The Yinchuan Dawn Pets Home gr ...
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Concordia calling
South Pole (ESA) Apr 28, 2014 -
Are you a team player who is unafraid of long isolation? Do you have a medical degree and a healthy love of extremes? ESA is offering the chance of a lifetime to run space experiments in one of the world's most isolated places: Concordia research station in Antarctica.
Lying 1600 km from the South Pole in the Antarctic desert, Concordia was built on a plateau 3200 m up. Its location means ...
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Top 12 ways the world can eliminate agriculture's climate footprint
San Francisco CA (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
Annual carbon emissions from global agriculture can be reduced by as much as 50 to 90 percent by 2030-the equivalent of removing all the cars in the world-according to a comprehensive new report released by Climate Focus and California Environmental Associates. The study highlights twelve key strategies-led by reduced global beef consumption, reduced food waste and better farm nutrient managemen ...
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Discovery helps solve mystery source of African lava
East Lansing MI (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
Floods of molten lava may sound like the stuff of apocalyptic theorists, but history is littered with evidence of such past events where vast lava outpourings originating deep in the Earth accompany the breakup of continents.
New research at Michigan State University shows that the source of some of these epic outpourings, however, may not be as deep as once thought. The results, published ...
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Metabolism may have started in our early oceans before the origin of life
London, UK (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
The chemical reactions behind the formation of common metabolites in modern organisms could have formed spontaneously in the earth's early oceans, questioning the events thought to have led to the origin of life.
In new research funded by the Wellcome Trust, researchers at the University of Cambridge reconstructed the chemical make-up of the earth's earliest ocean in the laboratory. The te ...
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Reconstructed ancient ocean reveals secrets about the origin of life
Heidelberg, Germany (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have published details about how the first organisms on Earth could have become metabolically active. The results, which are reported in the journal Molecular Systems Biology, permit scientists to speculate how primitive cells learned to synthesize their organic components - the molecules that form RNA, lipids and amino acids. The findings also sugges ...
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No Yellowstone mega-eruption coming, experts say
Washington (AFP) April 27, 2014 -
Yellowstone National Park are fighting viral rumors of an impending, cataclysmic eruption of a mega volcano slumbering at the US Western preserve known for its geothermal features.
Volcanologists said reams of geological data have given them a deep of understanding of the Yellowstone Caldera - and all signs point to calm.
Over the past several weeks, the Internet has been abuzz with sp ...
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Bake Your Own Droplet Lens
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
A droplet of clear liquid can bend light, acting as a lens. Now, by exploiting this well-known phenomenon, researchers have developed a new process to create inexpensive high quality lenses that will cost less than a penny apiece.
Because they're so inexpensive, the lenses can be used in a variety of applications, including tools to detect diseases in the field, scientific research in the ...
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'Double-duty' electrolyte enables new chemistry for longer-lived batteries
Oak Ridge TN (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new and unconventional battery chemistry aimed at producing batteries that last longer than previously thought possible.
In a study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, ORNL researchers challenged a long-held assumption that a battery's three main components - the positive cathod ...
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Your T-shirt's ringing: telecommunications in the spaser age
Melbourne, Australia (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
A new version of "spaser" technology being investigated could mean that mobile phones become so small, efficient, and flexible they could be printed on clothing.
A team of researchers from Monash University's Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering (ECSE) has modelled the world's first spaser (surface plasmon amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) to be made c ...
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Ahead of Iraq polls, oil still fuelling economic hopes
Baghdad (AFP) April 28, 2014 -
With a budget languishing in parliament, crucial reforms on the back burner and a hamstrung private sector, prospects for Iraq's economy after Wednesday's election hinge heavily on the oil factor.
Iraq has some of the world's largest deposits of oil and gas and aims to boost energy production dramatically, but a slow-moving bureaucracy and poor infrastructure are holding it back.
Complic ...
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AllCell Working on ARPA-E Grant for Advanced EV Battery
Chicago IL (SPX) Apr 27, 2014 -
AllCell Technologies is working on a program led by Stanford University to develop advanced electric vehicle (EV) batteries through an ARPA-E grant. The program, titled "Robust Multifunctional Battery Chassis Systems for Automotive Applications," will integrate lithium-ion battery systems into vehicle structures, generating significant savings in cost and weight, which in turn improve drive rang ...
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Nanomaterial Outsmarts Ions
Dresden, Germany (SPX) Apr 27, 2014 -
Ions are an essential tool in chip manufacturing, but these electrically charged atoms can also be used to produce nano-sieves with homogeneously distributed pores. A particularly large number of electrons, however, must be removed from the atoms for this purpose. Such highly charged ions either lose a surprisingly large amount of energy or almost no energy at all as they pass through a membrane ...
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Mantis Shrimp Stronger than Airplanes
Riverside CA (SPX) Apr 27, 2014 -
Inspired by the fist-like club of a mantis shrimp, a team of researchers led by University of California, Riverside, in collaboration with University of Southern California and Purdue University, have developed a design structure for composite materials that is more impact resistant and tougher than the standard used in airplanes.
"The more we study the club of this tiny crustacean, the mo ...
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Halving hydrogen
Richland WA (SPX) Apr 27, 2014 -
Like a hungry diner ripping open a dinner roll, a fuel cell catalyst that converts hydrogen into electricity must tear open a hydrogen molecule. Now researchers have captured a view of such a catalyst holding onto the two halves of its hydrogen feast. The view confirms previous hypotheses and provides insight into how to make the catalyst work better for alternative energy uses.
This study ...
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Grasp of SQUIDs dynamics facilitates eavesdropping
Heidelberg, Germany (SPX) Apr 27, 2014 -
Theoretical physicists are currently exploring the dynamics of a very unusual kind of device called a SQUID. This Superconducting Quantum Interference Device is a highly sensitive magnetometer used to measure extremely subtle magnetic fields.
It is made of two thin regions of insulating material that separate two superconductors - referred to as Josephson junctions - placed in parallel int ...
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New material coating technology mimics nature's lotus effect
Blacksburg VA (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
Ever stop to consider why lotus plant leaves always look clean? The hydrophobic - water repelling - characteristic of the leaf, termed the "Lotus effect," helps the plant survive in muddy swamps, repelling dirt and producing beautiful flowers.
Of late, engineers have been paying more and more attention to nature's efficiencies, such as the Lotus effect, and studying its behavior in order t ...
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Better thermal-imaging lens from waste sulfur
Tucson AZ (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
Sulfur left over from refining fossil fuels can be transformed into cheap, lightweight, plastic lenses for infrared devices, including night-vision goggles, a University of Arizona-led international team has found.
The team successfully took thermal images of a person through a piece of the new plastic. By contrast, taking a picture taken through the plastic often used for ordinary lenses ...
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Vacuum Ultraviolet Lamp of the Future Created in Japan
Washington DC (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
A team of researchers in Japan has developed a solid-state lamp that emits high-energy ultraviolet (UV) light at the shortest wavelengths ever recorded for such a device, from 140 to 220 nanometers. This is within the range of vacuum-UV light - so named because while light of that energy can propagate in a vacuum, it is quickly absorbed by oxygen in the air.
This fact makes vacuum UV ligh ...
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Thinnest feasible membrane produced
Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
Researchers have produced a stable porous membrane that is thinner than a nanometre. This is a 100,000 times thinner than the diameter of a human hair.
The membrane consists of two layers of the much exalted "super material" graphene, a two-dimensional film made of carbon atoms, on which the team of researchers, led by Professor Hyung Gyu Park at the Department of Mechanical and Process En ...
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Piezotronics and piezo-phototronics leading to unprecedented active electronics and optoelectronics
Beijing, China (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
New technologies for developing electronics and optoelectronics with tunable/adaptive functionalities and performance are critical to emerging applications in wearable technology, communication, pervasive computing, human-machine interfacing and biomedical diagnostics, in which the active and adaptive interactions between devices and stimuli from the ambient/host (e. g. human body) are essential ...
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Progress made in developing nanoscale electronics
Rochester NY (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
Scientists are facing a number of barriers as they try to develop circuits that are microscopic in size, including how to reliably control the current that flows through a circuit that is the width of a single molecule.
Alexander Shestopalov, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Rochester, has done just that, thereby taking us one step closer to nanoscale cir ...
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Superconducting Qubit Array Points the Way to Quantum Computers
Santa Barbara CA (SPX) Apr 28, 2014 -
A fully functional quantum computer is one of the holy grails of physics. Unlike conventional computers, the quantum version uses qubits (quantum bits), which make direct use of the multiple states of quantum phenomena. When realized, a quantum computer will be millions of times more powerful at certain computations than today's supercomputers.
A group of UC Santa Barbara physicists has mo ...
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Vega for third Arianespace mission, carrying Earth observation spacecraft
Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) Apr 27, 2014 -
Arianespace's Vega mission with DZZ-HR, Kazakhstan's first Earth observation satellite, is entering the final preparation phase for a nighttime liftoff next week from the Spaceport in French Guiana.
This will be the light-lift Vega's third flight, once again demonstrating its capability to accommodate a full range of payloads as the smallest member in Arianespace's launcher family - operat ...
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An Earth-sized planet that might hold liquid water
Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Apr 27, 2014 -
In a dim and faraway solar system, astronomers have for the first time discovered a rocky, Earth-sized planet that might hold liquid water-a necessary ingredient for life as we know it.
The planet Kepler-186f is the fifth and outermost world orbiting the red dwarf Kepler-186. The slow-burning sun is smaller and cooler than our own. Too faint to be seen without a telescope, it's roughly 500 ...
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