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Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for week 12:
Religion on the verge of extinction in many countries: math study
(PhysOrg.com) -- A study recently released by a team from Northwestern University and the University of Arizona shows that religion and religious affiliations may be on the verge of extinction in the nine countries studied. Utilizing a mathematical model of nonlinear dynamics, the team analyzed data from censuses taken in nine different countries dating as far back as a century.
High-temperature superconductor spills secret: A new phase of matter
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley have joined with researchers at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to mount a three-pronged attack on one of the most obstinate puzzles in materials sciences: what is the pseudogap?
New science suggests we might soon be able to mix computers and neurons
(PhysOrg.com) -- Graduate students at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, led by Minrui Yu and Yu Huang, have published an ACS Nano paper, "Semiconductor Nanomembrane Tubes: Three-Dimensional Confinement for Controlled Neurite Outgrowth," in which they show that they have been able to successfully coax nerve cell tendrils to grow through tiny tubes made of the semi-conductor materials silicon and germanium. While this ground-breaking research may not portend cyborgs or even human brains enmeshed with computer parts, it does open the door to the possibility of regenerating nerve cells damaged due to disease or injury.
Portable solar device creates potable water
(PhysOrg.com) -- By harnessing the power of the sun, a Monash University graduate has designed a simple, sustainable and affordable water-purification device, which has the potential to help eradicate disease and save lives.
Habitable planets and white dwarfs
(PhysOrg.com) -- The search for habitable planets similar to Earth has routinely focused around active nuclear burning stars. However, in a recently published paper by Eric Agol from the University of Washington, the idea to expand the search to white dwarfs shows promise.
New lens doubles the resolution of conventional microscopes
(PhysOrg.com) -- Conventional lenses can resolve structures around 200 nanometers (nm) in size, but scientists in Europe have for the first time developed a lens capable of achieving optical resolution of under 100 nm at visible wavelengths.
Scientists plan to drill all the way down to the Earth's mantle
(PhysOrg.com) -- In what can only be described as a mammoth undertaking, scientists, led by British co-chiefs, Dr Damon Teagle of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England and Dr Benoit Ildefonse from Montpellier University in France, have announced jointly in an article in Nature that they intend to drill a hole through the Earth’s crust and into the mantle; a feat never before accomplished, much less seriously attempted.
Are you a Martian? We all could be, scientists say -- and new instrument might provide proof
Are we all Martians? According to many planetary scientists, it's conceivable that all life on Earth is descended from organisms that originated on Mars and were carried here aboard meteorites. If that's the case, an instrument being developed by researchers at MIT and Harvard could provide the clinching evidence.
Transistor performance improves due to quantum confinement effects
(PhysOrg.com) -- Manufacturing on the nanoscale has come a long way since Feynman’s visions of nanotechnology more than 50 years ago. Since then, studies have demonstrated how low-dimensional structures, such as nanowires and quantum dots, have unique properties that can improve the performance of a variety of devices. In the latest study in this area, researchers have fabricated transistors made with exceptionally thin silicon nanowires that exhibit high performance due to quantum confinement effects in the nanowires.
An elegant multiverse? Professor Brian Greene considers the possibilities
You might think it’s hard to have a conversation with theoretical physicist Brian Greene. His research specialty is superstring theory, the hypothesis that everything in the universe is made up of miniscule, vibrating strands of energy. Luckily for an interviewer, Greene has a knack for explaining difficult concepts to non-scientists.
Creating power from water
(PhysOrg.com) -- Creating power from water. I bet when I say that you picture a dam or a large turbine being pushed by hundreds of thousands of gallons of water, all rushing at tremendous speeds. It is a cool, and accurate, image of how most power comes from water. That is not to say that it is the only way that power can come from water.
Scientists get glimpse of how the 'code' of life may have emerged
A portion of the "code" of life has been unraveled by a UC Santa Barbara graduate student from the town of Jojutla, Mexico.
New entropy battery pulls energy from difference in salinity between fresh water and seawater
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers, led by Dr. Yi Cui, of Stanford and Dr. Bruce Logan from Penn State University have succeeded in developing an entropy battery that pulls energy from the imbalance of salinity in fresh water and seawater. Their paper, published in Nano Letters, describes a deceptively simple process whereby an entropy battery is used to capture the energy that is naturally released when river water flows into the sea.
Physicists observe antihelium-4 nucleus, the heaviest antinucleus yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- In 1932, scientists observed the first antimatter particle, a positron (or antielectron). Since then, scientists have observed heavier and heavier states of antimatter: antiprotons and antineutrons in 1955, followed by antideuterons, antitritons, and antihelium-3 during the next two decades. Advances in accelerator and detector technology led to the first production of antihydrogen in 1995 and antihypertriton (strange antimatter) in 2010. Now, scientists with the STAR collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory have observed another state of antimatter for the first time: the antimatter helium-4 nucleus, which is the heaviest antinucleus observed so far.
Experimental Scramjet aircraft set for test flight
The X-51A Waverider hypersonic scramjet project is set for its second test flight today, and the U.S. Air Force hopes it will demonstrate technology that can eventually be used for more efficient transport of payloads into orbit. The craft will be carried to 15,240 meters (50,000 ft.) by a B-52 from Edwards Air Force Base in California, and be dropped over the Pacific Ocean. A booster rocket will fire, getting the Waverider to Mach 4.5; then the scramjet will kick in, and designers hope it will reach Mach 6 or more.
Flying machines are YouTube sensation
(PhysOrg.com) -- The latest YouTube sensation isn’t a puppy that dances to Lady Gaga or a kitten that opens beer bottles. By using unmanned aerial vehicles called quadrotors, two Ph.D. candidates at the School of Engineering and Applied Science have built an autonomous airborne construction crew able to build small structures—and in the process they’ve captured the attention of millions.
'Knowing it in your gut' is real
A lot of chatter goes on inside each one of us and not all of it happens between our ears.
20 petaflops: New supercomputer for Oak Ridge facility to regain speed lead over the Chinese
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) campus in Oak Ridge Tennessee will soon play host once again to the fastest computer in the world (barring any new sudden announcements by the Chinese). The computer, dubbed "Titan" has been commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy, and is expected to achieve 20,000 trillion calculations (20 petaflops) per second.
Speedy toads advance theory of evolution
(PhysOrg.com) -- Speed and the mating habits of the Australian cane toad are set to expand the theory of evolution according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
Distrust of climate science due to lack of media literacy: researcher
(PhysOrg.com) -- Though most climate science studies show evidence that climate change is real, the public persists in distrusting the science.
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