news

The chemical makeup of wastewater generated by "hydrofracking" could cause the release of tiny particles in soils that often strongly bind heavy metals and pollutants, exacerbating the environmental risks during accidental spills, Cornell researchers have found. Previous research has shown that 10 to 40 percent of the water and chemical solution mixture injected at high pressure into deep rock strata surges back to the surface during well development.

Testing for cocaine and other drugs usually involves two steps: a quick on-site prescreen and then a more accurate confirmatory test at a laboratory. This process can often take days or weeks — far too long in many cases where public safety can be at risk. Now, a team of researchers report development of a backpack-sized device that can perform highly accurate and sensitive tests anywhere within 15 minutes.

Methane is a simple molecule consisting of just one carbon atom bound to four hydrogen atoms. But that simplicity belies the complex role the molecule plays on Earth-it is an important greenhouse gas, is chemically active in the atmosphere, is used in many ecosystems as a kind of metabolic currency, and is the main component of natural gas, which is an energy source.

University of Washington Posted under: Engineering , Health and Medicine , News Releases , Research , Science Measurements taken at the molecular scale have for the first time confirmed a key property that could improve our knowledge of how the heart and lungs function. University of Washington researchers have shown that a favorable electrical property is present in a type of protein found in organs that repeatedly stretch and retract, such as the lungs, heart and arteries.

The University of Minnesota announced today that it has been awarded a $12 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to lead an Energy Frontier Research Center aimed at accelerating scientific breakthroughs in energy research. The University of Minnesota's center is one of only 32 innovative energy research projects nationwide chosen from a highly competitive field of 200 proposals.

The potential of minute particles – around 100 times smaller in diameter than a human hair – to increase the risks of developing diseases such as cancer is to be analysed in a study led by experts at Plymouth University. Scientists in the UK and Europe will examine the reactions of manufactured or engineered nanoparticles – used in food coloring, cosmetics and other industrial products – with other common pollutants such as exhaust fumes, tobacco smoke and oil leaks, collectively known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and universally present in the environment.

The secret of how salamanders successfully regrow body parts is being unravelled by UCL researchers in a bid to apply it to humans. For the first time, researchers have found that the 'ERK pathway' must be constantly active for salamander cells to be reprogrammed, and hence able to contribute to the regeneration of different body parts.

Menlo Park, Calif. Scientists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have made the first structural observations of liquid water at temperatures down to minus 51 degrees Fahrenheit, within an elusive " no man's land " where water's strange properties are super-amplified. The research and promises to improve our understanding of its unique properties at the more natural temperatures and states that are relevant to global ocean currents, climate and biology.

Familiar yet strange: Water's 'split personality' revealed by computer model Posted June 18, 2014; 01:00 p.m. by Catherine Zandonella, Office of the Dean for Research Seemingly ordinary, water has quite puzzling behavior. Why, for example, does ice float when most liquids crystallize into dense solids that sink?

Computer simulations that reveal a key mechanism in the replication process of influenza A may help defend against future deadly pandemics. Treating influenza relies on drugs, such as Amantadine, that are becoming less effective due to viral evolution. But University of Chicago scientists have published computational results that may give drug designers the insight they need to develop the next generation of effective influenza treatment.

Hydrogen is a neutral atom. Its single electron orbits a single proton, and the net effect is no electrical charge. But what about hydrogen's antimatter counterpart, antihydrogen? Made of a positron that orbits an antiproton, the antihydrogen atom should be neutral too. Various results have indicated as much, but because the charge of antiatoms is difficult to measure, it has remained an open question.

The quantum tunnel effect manifests itself in a multitude of well-known phenomena. Experimental physicists in Innsbruck, Austria, have now directly observed quantum particles transmitting through a whole series of up to five potential barriers under conditions where a single particle could not do the move.

Using miniaturized laser technology, a tiny sensor has been built at the Vienna University of Technology which can test the chemical composition of liquids. They are invisible, but perfectly suited for analysing liquids and gases; infrared laser beams are absorbed differently by different molecules.

Press release issued: 8 June 2014 A new method for coupling together secondary and tertiary boronic esters to aromatic compounds which preserves the 3-D shape of the boronic ester is described by researchers from the University of Bristol today. The method could have widespread application in the development of new, more effective drugs.

H2O is the molecule everybody knows, and nobody can live without. But for all its familiarity and import for life, aspects of water's behavior have been hard to pin down, including how it conducts positive charge. In the current issue of the journal Science, Yale University chemists report tracing how a cluster of water molecules adapts to the presence of an extra proton, the positively charged subatomic particle.

05 Jun 2014 Young men who use cannabis may be putting their fertility at risk by inadvertently affecting the size and shape of their sperm according to research published today. In the world's largest study to investigate how common lifestyle factors influence the size and shape of sperm (referred to as sperm morphology), a research team from the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester also found that sperm size and shape was worse in samples ejaculated in the summer months but was better in men who had abstained from sexual activity for more than six days.

World's largest study investigating how lifestyle affects sperm Cannabis users may be putting their fertility at risk Young men who use cannabis may be putting their fertility at risk by inadvertently affecting the size and shape of their sperm according to research published today (Thursday 5 June 2014).

The Silicon Vertex Detector, a crucial component of the ALPHA experiment at CERN, was designed and built within the University In a paper published , scientists report that for first time they have taken a precise measurement of the electric charge of anti-hydrogen atoms, helping understanding of the matter-antimatter asymmetry, one of the greatest challenges in physics.

Paper: Terahertz underdamped vibrational motion governs protein-ligand binding in solution² As far back as 1948, Erwin Schrödinger—the inventor of modern quantum mechanics—published the book "What is life?" In it, he suggested that quantum mechanics and coherent ringing might be at the basis of all biochemical reactions.

: Jocelyn Duffy / 412-268-9982 / jhduffy [a] andrew.cmu (p) edu PITTSBURGH—A team of researchers, including Carnegie Mellon University's Yisong Guo , have revealed a key step in the biosynthesis of carbapenems, a class of antibiotics used to treat some of the most serious drug-resistant bacterial infections.