news 2009

World?s fastest supercomputer used to create first-of-a-kind computer codes and simulations of the biggest of the big and smallest of the small Los Alamos, New Mexico, October 26, 2009—The world's fastest supercomputer, Roadrunner, at Los Alamos National Laboratory has completed its initial "shakedown" phase doing accelerated petascale computer modeling and simulations of a variety of unclassified, fundamental science projects.

The NASA IBEX mission has sent back data that indicates a "noodle soup" of solar material has accumulated at the outer fringes of the heliosphere bubble. Science paper to describe unexpected structural features shown by LANL camera The invisible structures of space are becoming less so, as scientists look out to the far edges of the solar wind bubble that separates our solar system from the interstellar cloud through which it flies.

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have made an exciting breakthrough in the control of the movement of single molecules. The findings represent a significant step forward in the field of molecular nanotechnology, which requires such control to achieve self-assembling nano-machines. This could potentially lead to the development of a method to send artificial drugs to their targets, or the creation of self-healing structures which could naturally repair tears in a surface.

High-energy heavy ion collisions, which are studied at RHIC in Brookhaven and soon at the LHC in Geneva, can be a source of light flashes of a few yoctoseconds duration (a septillionth of a second, 10-24 s, ys) - the time that light needs to traverse an atomic nucleus. This is shown in calculations of the light emission of so-called quark-gluon plasmas, which are created in such collisions for extremely short periods of time.

PA 253/09 Scientists at The University of Nottingham have overcome one of the significant research challenges facing electrochemists. For the first time they have found a way of probing right into the heart of an electrochemical reaction. Their breakthrough will help scientists understand how catalysts work.

A new method for "recycling" hydrogen-containing fuel materials could open the door to economically viable hydrogen-based vehicles. Economical hydrogen-based vehicles could result from rechargeable 'chemical fuel tank' Ammonia borane (AB) is a potential hydrogen releasing fuel. In this Los Alamos National Laboratory graphic, the AB would be used on-board the vehicle to run a fuel cell.

Energy sciences flourish under DOE grant award Los Alamos, New Mexico, August 26, 2009—Lower-cost, higher-efficiency lighting and better superconducting materials could result from a pair of grants awarded to Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers. The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, recently announced its commitment to fund two Single Investigator and Small Group Research projects at Los Alamos.

Physicist Ivan Vitev received a prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers Los Alamos, New Mexico, July 10, 2009—The White House today announced that Los Alamos National Laboratory physicist Ivan Vitev has received a prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

Cassini finding hints at ocean within Saturn's moon Enceladus 24 June 2009 European scientists on the joint NASA/ESA Cassini mission have detected, for the first time, sodium salts in ice grains of Saturn's E-ring, which is primarily replenished by material from the plumes of water vapour and ice grains emitted by Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Cambridge, Mass. June 4, 2009 - By applying cutting-edge techniques in single-molecule manipulation, researchers at Harvard University have uncovered a fundamental feedback mechanism that the body uses to regulate the clotting of blood. The finding, which could lead to a new physical, quantitative, and predictive model of how the body works to respond to injury, has implications for the treatment of bleeding disorders.

A Hubble Space Telescope image (left) of the galaxy M82 shows hydrogen gas (red) breaking out from the central starburst (box), a region of intense star formation. A May 2008 VLA image of the starburst region (top left) clearly shows the supernova (SN 2008iz), which probably exploded in January 2008.

BERKELEY — With commissioning of the 42 radio dishes of the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) nearly complete, UC Berkeley astronomers are now embarking on several major radio astronomy projects, including daily surveys of the sky. "The ATA is fast by design, covering a wide field of view, which is ideal for dedicated surveys of the sky," said Don Backer, UC Berkeley professor of astronomy and director of the Radio Astronomy Laboratory that oversees the ATA.

May 27, 2009 — News story — A telescope designed by a University of Miami physicist and an international team of collaborators has produced the clearest images of starburst galaxies, revealing a new picture of the universe in its early stages People have always wondered where we, our Earth, our galaxy, come from.

Office of News and Information Johns Hopkins University 901 South Bond Street, Suite 540 Baltimore, Maryland 21231 Phone: 443-287-9960 Fax: 443-287-9920 May 7, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JH Media Contact: Lisa De Nike 443-287-9960, Lde [a] jhu (p) edu Space Telescope Science Institute Contact: Ray Villard 410-338-4514, villard [a] stsci (p) edu Whatever dark energy is, explanations for it have less wiggle room following a Hubble Space Telescope observation that has refined the measurement of the universe's present expansion rate to a precision where the error is smaller than five percent.

Were alleged major extinction events real biological catastrophes or merely the result of gaps in the fossil record' Research by a team of geologists, led by the University of Plymouth, has shed new light on a debate that has divided modern scientists and was recognised as far back as Darwin's Origin of Species.

Researchers have discovered a potential chink in the armor of fibers that make the cell walls of certain inedible plant materials so tough. Los Alamos researchers crack code for binding lignocellulosic biomass LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, April 22, 2009—Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers have discovered a potential chink in the armor of fibers that make the cell walls of certain inedible plant materials so tough.

Office of News and Information Johns Hopkins University 901 South Bond Street, Suite 540 Baltimore, Maryland 21231 Phone: 443-287-9960 Fax: 443-287-9920 April 7, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JH Media Contact: Lisa De Nike 443-287-9960, Lde [a] jhu (p) edu JPL Media Contact: Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673, whitney.clavin [a] jpl.nasa (p) gov Life on Earth is thought to have arisen from a hot soup of chemicals.

Scientists from the University of Sheffield and Queen´s University Belfast have made a unique discovery which will help us understand one of the most puzzling features of the Sun. The research has helped explain why the outside atmosphere of the Sun is actually hotter than the inner photosphere.

A team led by astronomers at The University of Nottingham has used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to uncover a strong new line of evidence that galaxies are embedded in halos of dark matter. Peering into the tumultuous heart of the nearby Perseus galaxy cluster, the researchers discovered a large population of small galaxies that have remained intact while larger galaxies around them are being ripped apart by the gravitational tug of other galaxies.

BERKELEY — When NASA's Kepler telescope rockets into the night sky on Friday, March 6, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, two University of California, Berkeley, astronomers - key members of the Kepler team - will be watching its fading contrail, hoping that the telescope will reveal Earth's and humanity's place in the universe.