news 2011

If all the UK's discarded wrapping paper and Christmas cards were collected and fermented, they could make enough biofuel to run a double-decker bus to the moon and back more than 20 times, according to the researchers behind a new scientific study. The study, by scientists at Imperial College London, demonstrates that industrial quantities of waste paper could be turned into high grade biofuel, to power motor vehicles, by fermenting the paper using microorganisms.

Scientific discoveries come through many different means. Breakthroughs can result from purposefully-executed research projects that are perhaps punctuated with unexpected flashes of insight. In rare cases, discoveries occur through a chain of highly improbable, very lucky, occurrences. I strongly prefer my research team to stay on the first path and use their highly developed scientific skills to guide their efforts towards a rational goal.

A protein's function depends on both the chains of molecules it is made of and the way those chains are folded. And while figuring out the former is relatively easy, the latter represents a huge challenge with serious implications because many diseases are the result of misfolded proteins. Now, a team of chemists at the University of Pennsylvania has devised a way to watch proteins fold in "real-time," which could lead to a better understanding of protein folding and misfolding in general.

Learning is when you change your behaviour in the light of new experience, and this is what a locust needs to do when it gets caught up in the crowd." —Dr Swidbert Ott from the University of Cambridge Department of Zoology New research has found that a protein associated with learning and memory plays an integral role in changing the behaviour of locusts from that of harmless grasshoppers into swarming pests.

Researchers from The Australian National University have discovered a new treatment for Type-1 diabetes - an autoimmune disease which currently affects some 130,000 Australians. Charmaine Simeonovic and Professor Christopher Parish from The John Curtin School of Medical Research have identified a previously unknown process which causes destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.

Humans pump thousands of tons of vapor from the metallic element mercury into the atmosphere each year, and it can remain suspended for long periods before being changed into a form that is easily removed from the atmosphere. New research shows that the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere work to transform elemental mercury into oxidized mercury, which can easily be deposited into aquatic ecosystems and ultimately enter the food chain.

AUSTIN, Texas — The efficiency of conventional solar cells could be significantly increased, according to new research on the mechanisms of solar energy conversion led by chemist Xiaoyang Zhu at The University of Texas at Austin. Zhu and his team have discovered that it's possible to double the number of electrons harvested from one photon of sunlight using an organic plastic semiconductor material.

University pledges continued cooperation with NCAA inquiry Hotels to support RAINN over commencement weekend A message from President Rodney Erickson As lawmakers review child abuse laws, Erickson expresses support Blue out, canning efforts raise $47,000 to fight child abuse, rape A generally accepted, 44-year-old assumption about how certain kinds of bacteria make energy and synthesize cell materials has been shown to be incorrect by a team of

CHAMPAIGN, lll. Researchers have developed a bandage that stimulates and directs blood vessel growth on the surface of a wound. The bandage, called a "microvascular stamp," contains living cells that deliver growth factors to damaged tissues in a defined pattern. After a week, the pattern of the stamp "is written in blood vessels," the researchers report.

At the KTH Symposium, the director of the U.S. National Science Foundation explains how scientific co-operation with Sweden benefits American research. Reception and service at central level for international students after arrival at KTH. For Master's students For Exchange students KTH researchers and their colleagues from France and Japan have found a method to reveal previously unknown details of the atomic binding process.

University pledges continued cooperation with NCAA inquiry Hotels to support RAINN over commencement weekend A message from President Rodney Erickson As lawmakers review child abuse laws, Erickson expresses support Blue out, canning efforts raise $47,000 to fight child abuse, rape A new chemical technique for depositing a noncrystalline form of silicon into the long, ultra-thin pores of optical fibers has been developed by an international team of scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Physical equilibrium, assumed to be almost instant, may take months or years for particles in oil-water mixtures By studying the behavior of tiny particles at an interface between oil and water, researchers at Harvard have discovered that stabilized emulsions may take longer to reach equilibrium than previously thought.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered a universal technique for stripping nanocrystals of tether-like molecules that until now have posed as obstacles for their integration into devices. These findings could provide scientists with a clean slate for developing new nanocrystal-based technologies for energy storage, photovoltaics, smart windows, solar fuels and light-emitting diodes.

Glass fiber cables are indispensable for the internet - now they can also be used as a quantum physics lab. The Vienna University of Technology is the only research facility in the world, where single atoms can be controllably coupled to the light in ultra-thin fiber glass. Specially prepared light waves interact with very small numbers of atoms, which makes it possible to build detectors that are extremely sensitive to tiny trace amounts of a substance.

Since the invention of liquid crystal displays in the mid-1960s, display electronics have undergone rapid transformation. Recently developed organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have shown several advantages over LCDs, including their light weight, flexibility, wide viewing angles, improved brightness, high power efficiency and quick response.

Scientists at The University of Nottingham have discovered a way to control how tiny flat molecules fit together in a seemingly random pattern. The researchers have been studying molecules which resemble tiny rhombus/diamond shaped tiles, with a side length of around 2 nanometres — 2 billionths of a metre.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. An international team of astronomers has mapped in detail the star-birthing regions of the nearest star-forming galaxy to our own, a step toward understanding the conditions surrounding star creation. Led by University of Illinois astronomy professor Tony Wong, the researchers published their findings in the December issue of the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.

Newly published research explores the role of 14-3-3 ? in tumour suppression New research out of McGill University's Goodman Cancer Research Centre provides compelling new evidence that a gene known as 14-3-3? plays a critical role in halting breast cancer initiation and progression. The study, led by the Dept.

by Morgan Kelly Scientists can now take that "a-ha" moment to go with a method Princeton University researchers developed — and successfully tested — to speed up the chances of an unexpected yet groundbreaking chemical discovery. The researchers report this month a technique to accomplish "accelerated serendipity" by using robotics to perform more than 1,000 chemical reactions a day with molecules never before combined.

Scientists at Oxford University and The University of Sheffield have demonstrated that natural silks are a thousand times more efficient than common plastics when it comes to forming fibres. A report of the research is published this week in the journal Advanced Materials . The finding comes from comparing silk from the Chinese silkworm ( Bombyx mori ) to molten high density polyethylene (HDPE) - a material from which the strongest synthetic fibres are made.