news

Titan's tides point to hidden ocean Nothing like it has been seen before beyond our own planet: large tides have been found on Saturn's moon Titan that point to a liquid ocean - most likely water - swirling around below the surface. On Earth, we are familiar with the combined gravitational effects of the Moon and Sun creating the twice-daily tidal rise and fall of our oceans.

Breakthrough could reduce costs for the consumer MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (06/28/2012) —University of Minnesota engineering researchers are leading an international team that has made a major breakthrough in developing a catalyst used during chemical reactions in the production of gasoline, plastics, biofuels, pharmaceuticals, and other chemicals.

Exhumed rocks reveal Mars water ran deep By studying rocks blasted out of impact craters, ESA's Mars Express has found evidence that underground water persisted at depth for prolonged periods during the first billion years of the Red Planet's existence. Impact craters are natural windows into the history of planetary surfaces - the deeper the crater, the further back in time you can probe.

Compared to normal cells, cancer cells have a prodigious appetite for glucose, the result of a shift in cell metabolism known as aerobic glycolysis or the "Warburg effect." Researchers focusing on this effect as a possible target for cancer therapies have examined how biochemical signals present in cancer cells regulate the altered metabolic state.

Multidisciplinary team develops mathematical approach that could help in simulating materials for solar cells and LEDs. A multidisciplinary team of researchers at MIT and in Spain has found a new mathematical approach to simulating the electronic behavior of noncrystalline materials, which may eventually play an important part in new devices including solar cells, organic LED lights and printable, flexible electronic circuits.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have uncovered a new signal transduction pathway specifically devoted to the regulation of alternative RNA splicing, a process that allows a single gene to produce or code multiple types of protein variants. The discovery, published in the June 27, 2012 issue of Molecular Cell , suggests the new pathway might be a fruitful target for new cancer drugs.

The first unequivocal evidence that humans in prehistoric Saharan Africa used cattle for their milk nearly 7,000 years ago is described in research by an international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, UK, published today in Nature. By analysing fatty acids extracted from unglazed pottery excavated from an archaeological site in Libya, the researchers showed that dairy fats were processed in the vessels.

An infrared laser beam focused on the arm of an atomic-force microscope launches plasmons, waves through electrons, on the surface of graphene, a single honeycomb layer of linked carbon atoms. Credit: Basov Lab. With a beam of infrared light, scientists have sent ripples of electrons along the surface of graphene and demonstrated that they can control the length and height of these oscillations, called plasmons, using a simple electrical circuit.

The first unequivocal evidence that humans in prehistoric Saharan Africa used cattle for their milk nearly 7,000 years ago is described in research by an international team of scientists, led by researchers from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and including Kathleen Ryan of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

UC San Diego Nanoengineers have developed a technique that enables silver nanocubes to self-assemble into larger-scale structures for use in antennas and lenses. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering have developed a technique that enables metallic nanocrystals to self-assemble into larger, complex materials for next-generation antennas and lenses.

An effective new weapon in the fight against the spread of cane toads has been developed by the University of Sydney, in collaboration with the University of Queensland. "This is the first powerful tool we have created to control cane toads," said Professor Rick Shine , from the University's School of Biological Sciences and the lead author of the study which is published in the Proceedings of Royal Society B on Wednesday 13 June.

Lifestyle advice given by doctors to men diagnosed with infertility should be radically overhauled according to research published today (Wednesday). Current guidelines from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence 1 advise doctors to warn infertile men about the dangers of smoking, alcohol consumption and recreational drug use, as well as the risks of being overweight and wearing tight underwear.

Chemists at UCL have discovered a new property of flames, which allows them to control reactions at a solid surface in a flame and opens up a whole new field of chemical innovation. Published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, authors of the new study have discovered their previous understanding of how flames interact with a solid surface was mistaken.

Chemical reactions on the surface of metal oxides, such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, are important for applications such as solar cells that convert the sun's energy to electricity. Now University of Washington scientists have found that a previously unappreciated aspect of those reactions could be key in developing more efficient energy systems.

Working with researchers in the US and Germany, Johannes Messinger at Umeå University is opening new avenues to understand photosynthesis and create artificial photosynthesis. Using x-ray analysis, they have managed to see the structure of molecules under conditions where photosynthesis can occur, and they have also found that calcium plays a critical role in decomposing water.

Scientists wake up a dormant spinal column and restore voluntary lower body movement when stimulated. Rats with spinal cord injuries and severe paralysis are now walking (and running) thanks to researchers at EPFL. Published in the June 1, 2012 issue of Science, the results show that a severed section of the spinal cord can make a comeback when its own innate intelligence and regenerative capacity is awakened.

AUSTIN, Texas — Humans, fish and frogs share neural circuits responsible for a diversity of social behavior, from flashy mating displays to aggression and monogamy, that have existed for more than 450 million years, biologists at The University of Texas at Austin found. "There is an ancient circuitry that appears to be involved in social behavior across all vertebrates," said  Hans Hofmann , associate professor of integrative biology.

For more than three decades scientists have been investigating magnetic nanoparticles as a method of drug delivery. Now by combining three metals - iron, gold and platinum - pharmacists at the University of Sydney believe they have discovered a method for magnetically directing drugs through the body.

Most people value large chunks of gold - but scientists at the Vienna University of Technology are interested in gold at the smallest possible scale, because single gold atoms are potentially the most reactive catalysts for chemical reactions. However, when gold atoms are placed on a surface they tend to ball up into tiny nuggets consisting of several atoms.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The smoke rising from a cookstove fills the air with the tantalizing aroma of dinner - and a cloud of pollutants and particles that threaten both health and the environment. How families in developing countries use their cookstoves has a big effect on emissions from those stoves, and laboratory emission tests don't accurately reflect real-world operations, according to a study by University of Illinois researchers.