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Name: Roberto Car Title: The Ralph W. Dornte *31 Professor in Chemistry and a faculty fellow of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science Scholarly focus: Car co-developed "ab-initio molecular dynamics," a theory that has had an enormous impact on the creation of molecular simulations with useful applications in all the basic sciences.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. High-intensity ultrasound waves traveling through liquid leave bubbles in their wake. Under the right conditions, these bubbles implode spectacularly, emitting light and reaching very high temperatures, a phenomenon called sonoluminescence. Researchers have observed imploding bubble conditions so hot that the gas inside the bubbles ionizes into plasma, but quantifying the temperature and pressure properties has been elusive.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Some drugs may be more effective the longer they last inside the body. To prevent such drugs from being broken down too rapidly, pharmaceutical manufacturers often attach a fluorine-containing structure called a trifluoromethyl group. However, the processes now used require harsh reaction conditions or only work in a small number of cases, limiting their usefulness for synthesizing new drug candidates for testing.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. A surprising MIT laboratory finding about the behavior of a thin sheet of material ? less than a thousandth of the thickness of a human hair ? could lead to improved ways of studying the behavior of electrodes and perhaps ultimately to improvements in the rate of power production from one type of fuel cell, according to a report published this week.

High oxygen production in thin-film materials could lead to greatly increased power production for fuel cells CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Batteries might gain a boost in power capacity as a result of a new finding from researchers at MIT. They found that using carbon nanotubes for one of the battery's electrodes produced a significant increase ' up to tenfold ? in the amount of power it could deliver from a given weight of material, compared to a conventional lithium-ion battery.

Victoria's inland waterway and estuary health will be the focus of a research centre launched this week by Gavin Jennings, Victoria's Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Innovation. The launch of this centre could not have come at a better time as the condition of nearly 80 per cent of Victoria's waterways is severely declining.

Spectroscopic images of alternating lanthanum strontium manganite and strontium titanate layers. A and C are lanthanum maps, and B and D are false-color maps with titanium (red) and manganese (green) extracted from the spectrum images. The layer grown with a smaller laser spot size shows less abrupt interfaces and a defect, marked by a white arrow.

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has discovered a galaxy tail studded with bright knots of new stars. The tail, which was created as the galaxy IC 3418 plunged into the neighboring Virgo cluster of galaxies, offers new insight into how stars form. "The gas in this galaxy is being blown back into a turbulent wake," said Janice Hester of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, lead author of a recent study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

WASHINGTON - NASA-funded scientists estimate from recent research that the volume of water molecules locked inside minerals in the moon's interior could exceed the amount of water in the Great Lakes here on Earth. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory in Washington, along with other scientists across the nation, determined that the water was likely present very early in the moon's formation history as hot magma started to cool and crystallize.

The mechanism by which 'polycomb' proteins critical for embyronic stem cell function and fate are targeted to DNA has been identified by UCL scientists. The discovery, which has implications for the fields of stem cell and tissue engineering, is detailed in research published today in the journal Molecular Cell .

A scanning electron micrograph of a gold bridge suspended 40 nanometers above a silicon substrate. In the experiment, the bridge is severed in the middle, a single molecule is suspended across the gap, and the substrate is bent to stretch the molecule while simultaneously measuring the electron current through the molecule.

Scientists at the University of Bristol have discovered a way to make a highly concentrated water-free liquid of a key blood protein, myoglobin, opening up the possibility of new types of biomedical materials. By using a chemical procedure in which surfactant molecules, a form of wetting agent, are attached to the protein surface, the researchers remove the water by freeze-drying at low temperature to produce a solid powder.

Scientists at the University of Bristol have discovered a way to make a highly concentrated water-free liquid of a key blood protein, myoglobin, opening up the possibility of new types of biomedical materials. By using a chemical procedure in which surfactant molecules, a form of wetting agent, are attached to the protein surface, the researchers remove the water by freeze-drying at low temperature to produce a solid powder.

PASADENA, Calif. Two new papers based on data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft scrutinize the complex chemical activity on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. While non-biological chemistry offers one possible explanation, some scientists believe these chemical signatures bolster the argument for a primitive, exotic form of life or precursor to life on Titan's surface.

Spanish explorers encountering an advanced civilization in Mesoamerica in the 16th century had plenty of things to be astonished about, but one type of object in particular was unlike anything they had ever seen before: rubber balls. No such stretchy, bouncy material existed in the Old World, and they had to struggle to find words to describe it.

Spanish explorers encountering an advanced civilization in Mesoamerica in the 16th century had plenty of things to be astonished about, but one type of object in particular was unlike anything they had ever seen before: rubber balls. No such stretchy, bouncy material existed in the Old World, and they had to struggle to find words to describe it.

Liverpool, UK - 3 June 2010: Scientists at the University of Liverpool have identified a protein pheromone in mouse urine that is responsible for female attraction to particular male mice. The researchers have named the pheromone 'darcin', after Jane Austen's hero in Pride and Prejudice, Mr Darcy. Darcin stimulates females to 'learn' an individual male's scent, reinforcing their memory of sexual attraction to that same male.

The first large-scale survey of 12 wastewater plants across the U.S., led by Columbia scientists, shows that the magnitude of N2O emissions from these wastewater treatment plants may be more variable and complex than previously thought. It also challenges the current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) approach for assessing N2O emissions from such plants.

A new study from Karolinska Institutet shows how two types of cell change interact in the development of cancer. The results can improve the chances of early discovery of cancer - including pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest forms of the disease. Cancer of the pancreas is a form of cancer that has few treatment options and a poor prognosis.

University of California, Berkeley, scientists have found that the molecular pumps in Listeria bacteria, and perhaps in other pathogens, also expel small signaling molecules that stimulate a strong immune response in the cells they infect. A robust immune response, involving mobilization of killer cells and a host of other defenses, is needed to kill bad microbes before they can do damage The surprising find that bacteria pump out a totally new and highly immunogenic molecule suggests that it may be possible to improve vaccines that use live or disabled bacteria to activate the immune system.