MH370 analysis starts on debris: Australia
Sydney (AFP) March 23, 2016 -
Investigators probing the fate of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 have begun analysis on debris found in Mozambique, Australian authorities said Wednesday.
So far only a wing part from the Boeing 777 recovered from a beach on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion has been found.
MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 during a Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight with 239 passengers and crew on bo ...
more
Australia invests $760 million in technologies to fight climate change
Sydney (AFP) March 23, 2016 -
Australia will invest Aus$1 billion in clean energy technologies, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Wednesday, in a stark shift away from his predecessor's climate change policies as an election looms.
Turnbull, long known as a supporter of action on climate change, said the Clean Energy Innovation Fund would be run by two agencies slated for the chopping board under former prime minister ...
more
China regulator frowns on Anbang's hotel bids: report
Shanghai (AFP) March 23, 2016 -
China's insurance regulator is opposed to multi-billion dollar bids by financial conglomerate Anbang for Starwood Hotels and a stable of properties owned by hedge fund Blackstone, according to respected business magazine Caixin.
Anbang has offered nearly $13 billion for Starwood, owner of the Sheraton and Westin brands, as well as $6.5 billion for the purchase of 16 luxury hotels from Blacks ...
more
Quantum simulation of a disordered system explain quantum many-particle problem
Urbana IL (SPX) Mar 21, 2016 -
Using some of the largest supercomputers available, physics researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have produced one of the largest simulations ever to help explain one of physics most daunting problems. "This result was a fantastic collaboration between theory and experiment," explained Physics Professor Brian DeMarco, whose group led the experimental phase of the study ...
more
Woodside halts Australian LNG project
Perth, Australia (UPI) Mar 23, 2016 -
Australian energy company Woodside said it was putting a hold on the development of its Browse liquefied natural gas project because of market conditions.
Woodside said that, even with front-end engineering and design work completed, weak economic and market conditions meant it was necessary to put a hold on the $50 billion facility.
"We have undertaken a comprehensive and rigoro ...
more
'Invulnerable' coatings for cutting tools from gas
Tomsk, Russia (SPX) Mar 24, 2016 -
Scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) create coverings for next generation cutting tools: they will be not only durable, but also suitable for the treatment of most materials. Polytechnicers develop a technology to produce diamond and cubic boron nitride thin films from a gas mixture.
Diamond coatings due to their hardness have been widely used in the manufacture of cutting to ...
more
Human impact forms 'striking new pattern' in Earth's global energy flow
Leicester, UK (SPX) Mar 24, 2016 -
The impact humans have made on Earth in terms of how we produce and consume resources has formed a 'striking new pattern' in the planet's global energy flow, according to researchers from the University of Leicester. The research suggests that the Earth is now characterised by a geologically unprecedented pattern of global energy flow that is pervasively influenced by humans - and which is neces ...
more
Detecting radioactive material from a remote distance
Washington DC (SPX) Mar 24, 2016 -
In 2004 British national Dhiren Barot was arrested for conspiring to commit a public nuisance by the use of radioactive materials, among other charges. Authorities claimed that Barot had researched the production of "dirty bombs," and planned to detonate them in New York City, Washington DC, and other cities. A dirty bomb combines conventional explosives with radioactive material.
Although ...
more
Google glass meets organs-on-chi
Boston MA (SPX) Mar 24, 2016 -
Investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have developed hardware and software to remotely monitor and control devices that mimic the human physiological system. Devices known as organs-on-chips allow researchers to test drug compounds and predict physiological responses with high accuracy in a laboratory setting.
But monitoring the results of such experiments from a convention ...
more
Burning like the Sun
Paris (ESA) Mar 24, 2016 -
Engineers building parts of a new type of power plant for generating green energy with nuclear fusion are using their expertise from building rockets like Europe's Ariane 5 to create the super-strong structures to cope with conditions similar to those inside the Sun. A technique for building launcher and satellite components has turned out to be the best way for constructing rings to support the ...
more
Engineers adapt laser method to create micro energy units
Columbia MO (SPX) Mar 24, 2016 -
In the race to design smaller handheld devices and smartphones, a key factor is decreasing the sizes of components. As the demand for thinner and lighter microelectronic devices increases, manufacturers often are limited by how oddly shaped the energy sources must become to make them conform to the smaller space. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri, have developed a method of transfer ...
more
New research shows how nanowires can be formed
Lund, Sweden (SPX) Mar 24, 2016 -
In an article published in Nature researchers at Lund University in Sweden show how different arrangements of atoms can be combined into nanowires as they grow. Researchers learning to control the properties of materials this way can lead the way to more efficient electronic devices.
Nanowires are believed to be important elements in several different areas, such as in future generations o ...
more
Uncovering bacterial role in platinum formation
Adelaide, Australia (SPX) Mar 24, 2016 -
Australian scientists have uncovered the important role of specialist bacteria in the formation and movement of platinum and related metals in surface environments. Published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the research has important implications for the future exploration of platinum group metals.
"These platinum group elements are strategically important metals, but finding new deposit ...
more
New way to control particle motions on 2-D materials
Boston MA (SPX) Mar 24, 2016 -
Researchers at MIT and other institutions have found a new phenomenon in the behavior of a kind of quasiparticles called plasmons as they move along tiny ribbons of two-dimensional materials such as graphene and TMDs (transition metal dichalcogenides), which have a hexagonal structure resembling chicken wire. The team found that these plasmons can be separated into two different streams moving i ...
more
Memory cell based on superconductors 100 times faster
Moscow, Russia (SPX) Mar 24, 2016 -
A group of scientists from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and from the Moscow State University has developed a fundamentally new type of memory cell based on superconductors - this type of memory will be able to work hundreds of times faster than the types of memory devices commonly used today, according to an article published in the journal Applied Physics Letters.
"With the ...
more
