Monday, July 12, 2010

PhysOrg Newsletter Week 27

Dear Reader ,

Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for week 27:

Particle physics: 'Honey, I shrunk the proton'
Scientists lobbed a bombshell into the world of sub-atomic theory on Wednesday by reporting that a primary building block of the visible Universe, the proton, is smaller than previously thought.

HDMI could soon be replaced by new cable technology
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new audio/video cable techology is being developed that might spell the end of HDMI cables, which are currently used to connect a wide range of audio and video devices. The new technology is known as HDBaseT and carries audio and video signals and power on standard Cat 5e/6 Ethernet cables.

Planck satellite unveils the Universe -- now and then (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's Planck mission has delivered its first all-sky image. It not only provides new insight into the way stars and galaxies form but also tells us how the Universe itself came to life after the Big Bang.

Coldest Antimatter Ever Produced
(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists working at the CERN nuclear research lab on the border of Switzerland and France have generated the coldest particles of antimatter ever recorded.

Sharp-eyed robins can see magnetic fields
(PhysOrg.com) -- It has been known for decades that some birds are able to sense the Earth's magnetic field and set their direction as if following a compass heading, which is an extremely useful ability for birds migrating long distances. The ability is believed to be linked to the availability of light and it is thought that specialized molecules in the birds' retinas allow them to literally see the magnetic fields, which appear as patterns of light and shade superimposed over the regular image from light. Now a new study shows that the internal compass also depends on the birds having clear vision in their right eyes.

Quantum non-demolition measurement allows physicists to count photons without destroying them
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a way, the quantum world seems to know when it's being watched. When physicists make measurements on photons and other quantum-scale particles, the measurements always disturb the system in some way. Although an ideal disturbance should still enable physicists to make multiple measurements and get the same result twice, most real measurements cause a greater disturbance than this ideal minimum, and prohibit physicists from making repeated measurements. In a recent study, physicists have demonstrated a new way to make one of the ideal measurements - called quantum non-demolition (QND) measurements - allowing physicists to detect single particles repeatedly without destroying them.

Black hole blows big bubble
Combining observations made with ESO's Very Large Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope, astronomers have uncovered the most powerful pair of jets ever seen from a stellar black hole. This object, also known as a microquasar, blows a huge bubble of hot gas, 1000 light-years across, twice as large and tens of times more powerful than other known microquasars. The discovery is reported this week in the journal Nature.

A chemical to make brain cells grow: Mental decline thwarted in aging rats
Scientists have discovered a compound that restores the capacity to form new memories in aging rats, likely by improving the survival of newborn neurons in the brain's memory hub. The research, funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, has turned up clues to a neuroprotective mechanism that could lead to a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

Nano-sized light mill drives micro-sized disk (w/ Video)
While those wonderful light sabers in the Star Wars films remain the figment of George Lucas' fertile imagination, light mills - rotary motors driven by light - that can power objects thousands of times greater in size are now fact. Researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California Berkeley have created the first nano-sized light mill motor whose rotational speed and direction can be controlled by tuning the frequency of the incident light waves. It may not help conquer the Dark Side, but this new light mill does open the door to a broad range of valuable applications, including a new generation of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), nanoscale solar light harvesters, and bots that can perform in vivo manipulations of DNA and other biological molecules.

An energy-saving magnetic fridge? Perhaps, but first some basic research
(PhysOrg.com) -- Forget the magnets on your fridge. How about a magnet in your fridge, one that keeps your leftover pizza cold while consuming less energy than today's refrigerators?

Superconductor breakthrough could power new advances (w/ Video)
 (PhysOrg.com) -- The first batch of a new range of powerful superconductors which could revolutionise the production of machines like hospital MRI scanners and protect the national grid has been developed by scientists.

Report: Oceans' deteriorating health nearing 'irreversible'
A sobering new report warns that oceans face a "fundamental and irreversible ecological transformation" not seen in millions of years as greenhouse gases and climate change already have affected temperature, acidity, sea and oxygen levels, the food chain and possibly major currents that could alter global weather.

Mathematical formula predicts clear favorite for the FIFA World Cup
A sophisticated new analysis of team tactics predicts a Spanish win in Sunday's FIFA World Cup final and also shows why England were beaten by Germany.

Tunable quantum cascade laser
(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the issues associated with lasers is their tunability. In many cases, if you want to produce a particular wavelength, you have to build a laser to accomplish this. In order to get another wavelength, you may have to build a different laser. A tunable laser would provide an opportunity to adjust the wavelength, without the use of another laser. One novel quantum cascade laser design that could achieve this is based on a dual upper state design.

New adhesive for tape, label industry discovered
An incidental discovery in a wood products lab at Oregon State University has produced a new pressure-sensitive adhesive that may revolutionize the tape industry - an environmentally benign product that works very well and costs much less than existing adhesives based on petrochemicals.

A New Way to Find Earths
Astronomers have used a completely new technique to find an exotic extrasolar planet. The same approach might even be sensitive enough to find planets as small as the Earth in orbit around distant stars.

Heat waves could be commonplace in the US by 2039, Stanford study finds
Exceptionally long heat waves and other hot events could become commonplace in the United States in the next 30 years, according to a new study by Stanford University climate scientists.

High reliability of flexible organic transistor memory looks promising for future electronics
(PhysOrg.com) -- With the constant demand for high-performance nonvolatile memory devices, researchers continue to develop better memories - ones with low power consumption, good reliability, and low manufacturing costs. In a recent study, engineers from Korea have demonstrated a flexible memory based on an organic transistor, which they say could be easily and cheaply integrated, along with transistors and logic circuits, into flexible electronic devices.

Scientists reveal the mystery of sudden cardiac death
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at The University of Manchester have solved a mystery connected with why people die from sudden cardiac arrest during sleep - potentially saving thousands of lives.

Scientists find antibodies that prevent most HIV strains from infecting human cells
Scientists have discovered two potent human antibodies that can stop more than 90 percent of known global HIV strains from infecting human cells in the laboratory, and have demonstrated how one of these disease-fighting proteins accomplishes this feat. According to the scientists, these antibodies could be used to design improved HIV vaccines, or could be further developed to prevent or treat HIV infection. Moreover, the method used to find these antibodies could be applied to isolate therapeutic antibodies for other infectious diseases as well.


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