All-in-one system offers green power for off-grid homes and farms
London, UK (SPX) Aug 01, 2014 -
An innovative 'trigeneration' system fuelled entirely by raw plant oils could have great potential for isolated homes and businesses operating outside grid systems both in the UK and abroad.
Developed by a consortium led by Newcastle University and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), through the RCUK Energy Programme, the small-scale combined cooling, ...
more
Asia's richest man targets aviation and Irish firm AWAS
Hong Kong (AFP) Aug 04, 2014 -
A property flagship led by Asia's richest tycoon Li Ka-shing is seeking to buy into Irish aircraft leasing group AWAS - the Hong Kong businessman's first major foray into the aviation industry.
Cheung Kong Holdings said Monday in a filing to Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the company "has submitted a preliminary non-binding proposal in respect of the possible acquisition of certain aircrafts fro ...
more
Study finds physical link to strange electronic behavior
Houston TX (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
Scientists have new clues this week about one of the baffling electronic properties of the iron-based high-temperature superconductor barium iron nickel arsenide.
A Rice University-led team of U.S., German and Chinese physicists has published the first evidence, based on sophisticated neutron measurements, of a link between magnetic properties and the material's tendency, at sufficiently l ...
more
Chemists develop MRI technique for peeking inside battery-like devices
New York NY (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
A team of chemists from New York University and the University of Cambridge has developed a method for examining the inner workings of battery-like devices called supercapacitors, which can be charged up extremely quickly and can deliver high electrical power. Their technique, based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), establishes a means for monitoring and potentially enhancing the performance ...
more
Light pulses control graphene's electrical behavior
Boston MA (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
Graphene, an ultrathin form of carbon with exceptional electrical, optical, and mechanical properties, has become a focus of research on a variety of potential uses. Now researchers at MIT have found a way to control how the material conducts electricity by using extremely short light pulses, which could enable its use as a broadband light detector.
The new findings are published in the jo ...
more
'Active' surfaces control what's on them
Boston MA (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
Researchers at MIT and in Saudi Arabia have developed a new way of making surfaces that can actively control how fluids or particles move across them. The work might enable new kinds of biomedical or microfluidic devices, or solar panels that could automatically clean themselves of dust and grit.
"Most surfaces are passive," says Kripa Varanasi, an associate professor of mechanical enginee ...
more
Scientists warn time to stop drilling in the dark
Vancouver, Canada (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
The co-authors of a new study, including two Simon Fraser University research associates, cite new reasons why scientists, industry representatives and policymakers must collaborate closely on minimizing damage to the natural world from shale gas development.
Viorel Popescu and Maureen Ryan, David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellows in SFU's Biological Sciences department, are among eig ...
more
Spin Diagnostics
College Park MD (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is the medical application of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, is a powerful diagnostic tool. MRI works by resonantly exciting hydrogen atoms and measuring the relaxation time - different materials return to equilibrium at different rates; this is how contrast develops (i.e. between soft and hard tissue).
By comparing the measurements to a k ...
more
Refocusing research into high-temperature superconductors
Munich, Germany (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
Below a specific transition temperature superconductors transmit electrical current nearly loss-free. For the best of the so-called high-temperature superconductors, this temperature lies around -180 C - a temperature that can be achieved by cooling with liquid nitrogen.
The location of atomic nuclei and binding electrons in a material is determined by its crystal structure. However, elec ...
more
On-chip topological light
College Park MD (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
Topological transport of light is the photonic analog of topological electron flow in certain semiconductors. In the electron case, the current flows around the edge of the material but not through the bulk. It is "topological" in that even if electrons encounter impurities in the material the electrons will continue to flow without losing energy.
In the photonic equivalent, light flows no ...
more
'Wetting' a battery's appetite for renewable energy storage
Richland WA (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
Sun, wind and other renewable energy sources could make up a larger portion of the electricity America consumes if better batteries could be built to store the intermittent energy for cloudy, windless days. Now a new material could allow more utilities to store large amounts of renewable energy and make the nation's power system more reliable and resilient.
A paper published in Nature Comm ...
more
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency taps BAE Systems for assist
Arlington, Va. (UPI) Jul 31, 2013 -
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's effort to transform its intelligence data and products is being assisted by BAE Systems.
The transformation effort is called the Map of the World project, intended to give the U.S. military clearer on-the-ground intelligence pictures to enhance situational awareness and mission planning.
Under its $335 million contract, BAE Systems wi ...
more
New NASA Studies to Examine Climate/Vegetation Links
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 01, 2014 -
NASA has selected proposals for two new instruments, including one from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, that will observe changes in global vegetation from the International Space Station. The sensors will give scientists new ways to see how forests and ecosystems are affected by changes in climate or in land use.
A high-resolution, multiple-wavelength imaging spect ...
more
ALMA Finds Double Star with Weird and Wild Planet-forming Discs
Paris (SPX) Aug 01, 2014 -
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found wildly misaligned planet-forming gas discs around the two young stars in the binary system HK Tauri. These new ALMA observations provide the clearest picture ever of protoplanetary discs in a double star.
The new result also helps to explain why so many exoplanets - unlike the planets in the Solar System - ...
more
New NASA Research Shows Giant Asteroids Battered Early Earth
Moffet Field CA (NASA) Aug 01, 2014 -
New research shows that more than four billion years ago the surface of Earth was heavily reprocessed - or melted, mixed, and buried - as a result of giant asteroid impacts. A new terrestrial bombardment model, calibrated using existing lunar and terrestrial data, sheds light on the role asteroid collisions played in the evolution of the uppermost layers of the early Earth during the geologic eo ...
more
NEEMO 18 Aquanauts Complete Underwater Mission
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 01, 2014 -
Four astronauts splashed up from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean on July 29, bringing to a successful close the 18th NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) expedition. "Splashup" took place at 11:40 a.m. EDT Tuesday.
Accompanied by two lab technicians, the crew, commander Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, NASA's Jeanette Epps and Mark Vande Hei, and T ...
more
Comet-chaser nears prey after crossing billions of miles
Paris (AFP) Aug 03, 2014 -
After a decade-long quest spanning six billion kilometres (3.75 billion miles), a European probe will come face to face Wednesday with a comet, one of the Solar System's enigmatic wanderers.
The moment will mark a key phase of the most ambitious project ever undertaken by the European Space Agency (ESA) - a 1.3 billion euro ($1.76 billion) bid to get to know these timeless space rovers.
...
more
NASA's Fermi Space Telescope Reveals New Source of Gamma Rays
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
Observations by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope of several stellar eruptions, called novae, firmly establish these relatively common outbursts almost always produce gamma rays, the most energetic form of light.
"There's a saying that one is a fluke, two is a coincidence, and three is a class, and we're now at four novae and counting with Fermi," said Teddy Cheung, an astrophysicist ...
more
United Launch Alliance Launches Two Rockets in Just Four Days
Cape Canaveral AFB FL (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the seventh Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF (GPS IIF-7) satellite for the U.S. Air Force launched at 11:23 p.m. EDT yesterday from Space Launch Complex-41. This is the second successful ULA launch in just four days.
"Congratulations to the U.S. Air Force and all of our mission partners on the successful launch of the Atlas V carryi ...
more
SwRI-led team's research shows giant asteroids battered early Earth
San Antonio TX (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
A new terrestrial bombardment model developed by an international group of scientists led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) indicates that Earth's surface was heavily reprocessed - or melted, mixed and buried - as a result of giant asteroid impacts more than four billion years ago.
The model, calibrated using existing lunar and terrestrial data, sheds light on the role asteroid collis ...
more
How Rosetta arrives at a comet
Paris (ESA) Aug 05, 2014 -
After travelling nearly 6.4 billion kilometres through the Solar System, ESA's Rosetta is closing in on its target. But how does a spacecraft actually arrive at a comet? The journey began on 2 March 2004 when Rosetta was launched on an Ariane 5 from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Since then, Rosetta has looped around the Sun five times, picking up speed through three gravity- ...
more
Hubble Shows Farthest Lensing Galaxy Yields Clues to Early Universe
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have unexpectedly discovered the most distant galaxy that acts as a cosmic magnifying glass. Seen here as it looked 9.6 billion years ago, this monster elliptical galaxy breaks the previous record-holder by 200 million years.
These "lensing" galaxies are so massive that their gravity bends, magnifies, and distorts light from objects behind it ...
more
The Walker Circulation: ENSO's atmospheric buddy
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
Reading back over the many excellent (if I do say so myself) posts here at the ENSO blog, there have been several re-occurring themes-the biggest of which is that ENSO is not just an ocean phenomena but an ocean-atmospheric interaction.
ENSO is no one-man act. If the ocean is Abbott, then the atmosphere is Costello; the ocean...Laverne, the atmosphere...Shirley; the ocean...Kanye, the atmo ...
more
Companion planets can increase old worlds' chance at life
Seattle WA (SPX) Aug 05, 2014 -
Having a companion in old age is good for people - and, it turns out, might extend the chance for life on certain Earth-sized planets in the cosmos as well.
Planets cool as they age. Over time their molten cores solidify and inner heat-generating activity dwindles, becoming less able to keep the world habitable by regulating carbon dioxide to prevent runaway heating or cooling.
But a ...
more
Manned Moon Mission to Cost Russia $2.8 Bln
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Aug 05, 2014 -
A manned mission to the Moon will cost Russia 100 billion rubles (about $2.8 billion), Igor Mitrofanov, laboratory director at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute said Sunday.
"An estimated cost of one project aimed at the development of an automatic lunar station is 10 billion rubles (about $280 million). The project is to be completed in five or six years. The manne ...
more
