Monday, March 21, 2011

PhysOrg Newsletter Week 11

Dear Reader ,

Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for week 11:

MSU researchers create a new engine prototype (w/ video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Michigan State University have built a prototype, based on the research first released in 2009, of the Wave Disk Generator -- an engine that does not have pistons, crankshafts or valves.

Physicists investigate lower dimensions of the universe
(PhysOrg.com) -- Several speculative theories in physics involve extra dimensions beyond our well-known four (which are broken down into three dimensions of space and one of time). Some theories have suggested 5, 10, 26, or more, with the extra spatial dimensions "hiding" within our observable three dimensions. One thing that all of these extra dimensions have in common is that none has ever been experimentally detected; they are all mathematical predictions.

Large Hadron Collider could be world's first time machine
(PhysOrg.com) -- If the latest theory of Tom Weiler and Chui Man Ho is right, the Large Hadron Collider – the world's largest atom smasher that started regular operation last year – could be the first machine capable causing matter to travel backwards in time.

Is space like a chessboard?
(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists at UCLA set out to design a better transistor and ended up discovering a new way to think about the structure of space.

Physicists demonstrate conditions for laser-driven fusion
(PhysOrg.com) -- Currently, commercial nuclear power plants generate electricity using nuclear fission, in which an atom’s nucleus is split into lighter nuclei. But scientists are also researching the reverse reaction, nuclear fusion, in which two light atomic nuclei fuse to form a single heavier nucleus. Compared with fission, fusion has the potential to produce less radioactive waste while still generating large amounts of energy.

Neanderthals were nifty at controlling fire: study
A new study involving the University of Colorado Boulder shows clear evidence of the continuous control of fire by Neanderthals in Europe dating back roughly 400,000 years, yet another indication that they weren't dimwitted brutes as often portrayed.

Hubble rules out one alternative to dark energy
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have ruled out an alternate theory on the nature of dark energy after recalculating the expansion rate of the universe to unprecedented accuracy.

Using quantum methods to read classical memories offers surprising advantages
(PhysOrg.com) -- Currently, the data stored in classical digital memories such as CDs, DVDs, and barcodes is read by classical light. But as a new study shows, using quantum light to read these classical memories can bring surprising advantages. Quantum light can read digital data using very few photons, an ability that could lead to faster digital readers and optical memories with larger storage capacities than before.

New process cleanly extracts oil from tar sands and fouled beaches
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new, more environmentally friendly method of separating oil from tar sands has been developed by a team of researchers at Penn State. This method, which utilizes ionic liquids to separate the heavy viscous oil from sand, also is capable of cleaning oil spills from beaches and separating oil from drill cuttings, the solid particles that must be removed from drilling fluids in oil and gas wells.

Research overturns oldest evidence of life on Earth
(PhysOrg.com) -- It appears that the supposed oldest examples of life on our planet -- 3.5 billion-year-old bacteria fossils found in Australian rock called Apex Chert -- are nothing more than tiny gaps in the rock that are packed with minerals.

NASA spacecraft now circling Mercury -- a first
For the first time, Earth has a regular orbiting eye-in-the-sky spying on the solar system's smallest and strangest planet, Mercury.

Super full moon
Mark your calendar. On March 19th, a full Moon of rare size and beauty will rise in the east at sunset. It's a super "perigee moon"--the biggest in almost 20 years.

Seedless cherimoya, the next banana?
Mark Twain called it "the most delicious fruit known to man." But the cherimoya, or custard apple, and its close relations the sugar apple and soursop, also have lots of big, awkward seeds. Now new research by plant scientists in the United States and Spain could show how to make this and other fruits seedless.

Experimental philosophy opens new avenues into old questions
Philosophers have argued for centuries, millennia actually, about whether our lives are guided by our own free will or are predetermined as the result of a continuous chain of events over which we have no control.

Are the wealthiest countries the smartest countries?
It's not just how free the market is. Some economists are looking at another factor that determines how much a country's economy flourishes: how smart its people are. For a study published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, researchers analyzed test scores from 90 countries and found that the intelligence of the people, particularly the smartest 5 percent, made a big contribution to the strength of their economies.

Simulating tomorrow's accelerators at near the speed of light
(PhysOrg.com) -- As conventional accelerators like CERN's Large Hadron Collider grow ever more vast and expensive, the best hope for the high-energy machines of the future may lie in "tabletop" accelerators like BELLA (the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator), now being built by the LOASIS program at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). BELLA, a laser-plasma wakefield accelerator, is remarkably compact. In just one meter a single BELLA stage will accelerate an electron beam to 10 billion electron volts, a fifth the energy achieved by the two-mile long linear accelerator at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

AMD's Bulldozer architecture to battle Intel's Core i7
(PhysOrg.com) -- AMD's upcoming four-, six- and eight-core processors, code name Zambezi, is based on its Bulldozer architecture and will target Intel’s flagship 9000 series six-core desktop CPU’s. AMD's Zambezi processors will feature AMD's TurboCore 2.0 technology and will be listed under their FX line-up.

Scientists find a key to maintaining our DNA
DNA contains all of the genetic instructions that make us who we are, and maintaining the integrity of our DNA over the course of a lifetime is a critical, yet complex part of the aging process. In an important, albeit early step forward, scientists have discovered how DNA maintenance is regulated, opening the door to interventions that may enhance the body's natural preservation of genetic information.

3D, 360-degree fog display shown off (w/ video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Any fan of Star Trek knows about the joys of the holodeck. The idea of a 3D, 360-degree immersive digital environment, projected on demand, is an enticing one that has thus far been confined to the silver screen, but technologies are emerging that just may make this possible. In 2008 Physorg reported on a 3D fog display on a room-sized scale, but it could not give a 360 degree experience. New developments in this area may make this possible at some point in the future.

Nanorods could greatly improve visual display of information (w/ Video)
Chemists at the University of California, Riverside have developed tiny, nanoscale-size rods of iron oxide particles in the lab that respond to an external magnetic field in a way that could dramatically improve how visual information is displayed in the future.


This email is a free service of PhysOrg.com
You received this email because you subscribed to our list.
If you no longer want to receive this email use the link below to unsubscribe.
http://www.physorg.com/profile/nwletter/
You are subscribed as jmabs1@gmail.com

No comments: