Efficient structures help build a sustainable future
Coral Gables FL (SPX) Jul 22, 2014 -
When envisioning a new structure, engineers often have to balance design choices against the environmental impact of materials used. It is estimated that 40 to 50 percent of greenhouse gases are produced by the construction industry, according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board. Lessening the impact of construction on the environment is a work in progress.
Researchers at t ...
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Canadian Solar Responds to WTO Ruling Against US Photovoltaic Import Duties
Guelph, Canada (SPX) Jul 22, 2014 -
Canadian Solar has released this statement on behalf of Thomas Koerner, General Manager of the Company's America's division, in response to the World Trade Organizations ("WTO's") ruling against the United States' imposition of import duties against certain photovoltaic products.
"The WTO's ruling is in alignment with the opinion of Canadian Solar as well as other organizations which repre ...
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An anti-glare, anti-reflective display for mobile devices?
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 22, 2014 -
If you've ever tried to watch a video on a tablet on a sunny day, you know you have to tilt it at just the right angle to get rid of glare or invest in a special filter. But now scientists are reporting in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces that they've developed a novel glass surface that reduces both glare and reflection, which continue to plague even the best mobile displays tod ...
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New material puts a twist in light
Canberra, Australia (SPX) Jul 22, 2014 -
Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have uncovered the secret to twisting light at will. It is the latest step in the development of photonics, the faster, more compact and less carbon-hungry successor to electronics.
A random find in the washing basket led the team to create the latest in a new breed of materials known as metamaterials. These artificial materials show e ...
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"Nanocamera" takes pictures at distances smaller than light's own wavelength
Champaign IL (SPX) Jul 22, 2014 -
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated that an array of novel gold, pillar-bowtie nanoantennas (pBNAs) can be used like traditional photographic film to record light for distances that are much smaller than the wavelength of light (for example, distances less than ~600 nm for red light). A standard optical microscope acts as a "nanocamera" whereas the pBN ...
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Improving the cost and efficiency of renewable energy storage
by Staff Writers -
Lausanne, Switzerland (SPX) Jul 22, 2014
A major challenge in renewable energy is storage. A common approach is a reaction that splits water into oxygen and hydrogen, and uses the hydrogen as a fuel to store energy. The efficiency of 'water splitting' depends heavily on a solid substance called a catalyst.
However, only the surface of the catalyst acts on the reaction, while its bulk is i ...
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19th Century Math Tactic Tweak Yields Answers 200 Times Faster
Baltimore MD (SPX) Jul 22, 2014 -
A relic from long before the age of supercomputers, the 169-year-old math strategy called the Jacobi iterative method is widely dismissed today as too slow to be useful. But thanks to a curious, numbers-savvy Johns Hopkins engineering student and his professor, it may soon get a new lease on life.
With just a few modern-day tweaks, the researchers say they've made the rarely used Jacobi me ...
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Cheap and easy software provides highly accurate real-time data on traffic
Granada, Spain (SPX) Jul 22, 2014 -
Researchers at the University of Granada have designed new software that provides real time data on traffic. It is a device that provides information on traffic flow between cities. Drivers can use this information to choose the fastest route as they plan to drive to their destinations.
It is a highly reliable, low-cost method, easy and quick to install, which uses bluetooth devices. These ...
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Using LED lighting to reduce streetlight glare
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 22, 2014 -
Long hours of nighttime driving can cause eyestrain because while our vision adapts to the surrounding darkness, the sudden stabs of brightness from streetlamps can be irritating, distracting and even painful. Even as LED technology has transformed the lighting industry, bringing the promise of more energy-efficient road illumination, some fear that the new lights could cause even more troubleso ...
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Future Electronics May Depend on Lasers, Not Quartz
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jul 22, 2014 -
Nearly all electronics require devices called oscillators that create precise frequencies-frequencies used to keep time in wristwatches or to transmit reliable signals to radios. For nearly 100 years, these oscillators have relied upon quartz crystals to provide a frequency reference, much like a tuning fork is used as a reference to tune a piano.
However, future high-end navigation system ...
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Genetic blueprint of bread wheat genome unveiled
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 21, 2014 -
The genetic blueprint is an invaluable resource to plant science researchers and breeders. For the first time, they have at their disposal a set of tools enabling them to rapidly locate specific genes on individual wheat chromosomes throughout the genome. Jorge Dubcovsky, Professor at the University of California Davis, USA, says that these results "have been a fantastic resource for our laborat ...
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Physicists reveal random nature of metastasis
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 21, 2014 -
The spreading of a cancerous tumour from one part of the body to another may occur through pure chance instead of key genetic mutations, a new study has shown.
Physicists from the University of Dundee and Arizona State University have used a statistical model to show that the formation of a new secondary tumour - commonly known as a metastasis - could just as likely derive from "common" cancer ...
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First comprehensive library of master genetic switches in plants
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 21, 2014 -
Researchers have created the first comprehensive library of genetic switches in plants, setting the stage for scientists around the globe to better understand how plants adapt to environmental changes and to design more robust plants for future food security.
The collection, which took more than 8 years and $5 million to create, contains about 2,000 clones of plant transcription factors, n ...
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AIDS: Circumcision campaign lifted by new evidence
Melbourne (AFP) July 21, 2014 -
A campaign to encourage circumcision among men in sub-Saharan Africa to help protect them against the AIDS virus was backed by new research on Monday showing that men who have had the operation are unlikely to engage in unprotected sex.
Three major trials have previously shown that, for heterosexual men, male circumcision reduces the risk of contracting HIV by as much as 60 percent - a find ...
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AIDS: Anger flares at homophobic laws
Melbourne (AFP) July 21, 2014 -
Campaigners at the world AIDS conference are taking aim at countries with anti-gay laws, accusing them of creating conditions that let HIV spread like poison.
Powerfully mixing concerns over human rights and health, the issue threatens to divide western donor countries where gay equality is making strides from poor beneficiary nations where anti-gay laws persist or have been newly passed, sa ...
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Beef's environmental costs far outweigh poultry, pork
Washington (AFP) July 21, 2014 -
Beef is by far the most costly protein when it comes to the environmental damage wreaked by feeding and raising cattle, according to a study out Monday.
Beef requires 28 times more land than the average total needed to produce either dairy, eggs, poultry or pork, said the research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Raising beef also requires 11 times more irrigation ...
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Mudslides kill 14 in southwest China, 11 missing
Hong Kong (AFP) July 21, 2014 -
Fourteen people were killed and 11 others are still missing after mudslides swept through two villages in southwest China on Monday following days of heavy rain, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Rescuers were working to retrieve people still buried after mudslides struck the villages in Yunnan province, the news agency said, citing local government.
Heavy downpours battering the mount ...
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Chinese Communist Party in ideology crackdown: paper
Beijing (AFP) July 21, 2014 -
China's ruling Communist Party has demanded that government officials be prevented from "being disoriented and losing themselves" to the influence of Western ideals, a newspaper with close ties to the party reported Monday.
A recent circular from the party's powerful Organisation Department insists that the officials reconfirm their faith in "socialism with Chinese" characteristics through a ...
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Magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits off Japan's northeast coast: USGS
Tokyo (AFP) July 20, 2014 -
A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck off Japan's northeast coast early Monday morning, the US Geological Survey said.
The agency said the quake struck at 02:32am (1732 GMT Sunday) in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of 70 kilometres (44 miles) north east of Japan's Hokkaido island, close to the disputed Russian-administered Kuril Islands.
There were no immediate reports of damage. USGS had earl ...
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Nepal Army gets emergency bridge kits
Parsippany, N.J. (UPI) Jul 21, 2013 -
Ready to assemble roadway bridges by Acrow Bridge have been supplied to Nepal by the U.S. Army Security Assistance Command.
The modular bridges supplied part of USASAC's program to help Nepal respond national emergencies, such as landslides, avalanches, earthquakes and floods, the company said.
"All over the world, Acrow bridges connect people to the necessities they need to retu ...
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HIV epidemic 'smaller' than UN estimates: report
Paris (AFP) July 22, 2014 -
Anti-AIDS drugs have helped save 19 million years of human life since 1996, said an analysis Tuesday which also slashed UN estimates for HIV deaths and disease by a quarter.
"The HIV epidemic is smaller than estimated by UNAIDS", wrote the team which had reviewed data contained in the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.
"The overall amount of ill-health and premature death resulting fro ...
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Veteran Hong Kong activists urge Britain to speak up for freedom
Hong Kong (AFP) July 20, 2014 -
Leading Hong Kong pro-democracy activists on Sunday urged Britain to defend freedoms in its former colony instead of its "shameful" pursuit of trade with China.
Former Hong Kong number two official Anson Chan and campaigner Martin Lee made the remarks following a visit to London, weeks after a huge July 1 march demanding democratic reforms in Hong Kong.
"The British government has an und ...
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Sandstone arches formed by gravity and stress, not erosion
Bryce Canyon, Utah (UPI) Jul 21, 2013 -
Sandstone arches, alcoves and pillars are scattered across the globe, monuments to nature's strange beauty - odd, gravity-defying shapes carved by the wind and rain. Or so we thought.
A new study suggests these spontaneous stone structures are not exactly carved by the whims of erosion. Although wind and water perform the grunt work - blowing abrasive sheets of sand and water droplets ...
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China shuts meat producer supplying KFC and McDonald's
Shanghai (AFP) July 21, 2014 -
Shanghai has shut a factory of US food producer OSI Group for selling out-of-date meat to restaurant giants including McDonald's and KFC, authorities said Monday, in China's latest food safety scandal.
A Shanghai television channel, which reported the original allegations, said that workers at the plant mixed expired meat with the fresh product and deliberately misled quality inspectors from ...
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Death toll rises, blackouts remain in Philippines after typhoon
Manila (AFP) July 21, 2014 -
The death toll is still rising and hundreds of thousands of homes are without power five days after Typhoon Rammasun's rampage through the Philippines, authorities said Monday.
Reports of fatalities from the typhoon, which struck the archipelago on July 16, continued to come in from isolated areas, bringing the number of dead to 97, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council ...
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