http://www.what-is-this.com/ New Article Alert From From What is this Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT en-us http://www.what-is-this.com/images/blogs/what-new-article-alert-5883.jpg http://www.what-is-this.com/ 99 74 http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/smithsonian-coral-biodiversity.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/smithsonian-coral-biodiversity.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT A comprehensive survey of coral biodiversity in Panama's Las Perlas Archipelago, reported in the journal Environmental Conservation by scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and their colleagues, has resulted in clear conservation recommendations for a new coastal management plan........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/how-older-adults-function-in-daily-life.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/how-older-adults-function-in-daily-life.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT As more adults age into the high-risk period for cognitive impairment, clinicians need simple and reliable methods to identify where they may have problems in everyday life that reveal underlying changes in the brain. A new, carefully validated questionnaire called Everyday Cognition (ECog), when filled out by someone who knows an older adult well, can sensitively evaluate the performance of everyday activities that reflect basic mental functioning, as per a report in the recent issue of Neuropsychology, published by the American Psychological Association........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/why-do-people-vote.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/why-do-people-vote.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT A groundbreaking new study finds that genes significantly affect variation in voter turnout, shedding new light on the reasons why people vote and participate in the political system. This research, which was conducted by political researchers James H. Fowler, Christopher T. Dawes (of UC San Diego) and psychology expert Laura A. Baker (of University of Southern California), appears in the recent issue of the American Political Science Review, a journal of the American Political Science Association (APSA). The article is available online at: www.apsanet.org/imgtest/APSRMay08Fowler_etal.pdf........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/physicists-produce-quantum-entangled-images.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/physicists-produce-quantum-entangled-images.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT Using a convenient and flexible method for creating twin light beams, scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland (UM) have produced "quantum images," pairs of information-rich visual patterns whose features are "entangled," or inextricably linked by the laws of quantum physics........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/extreme-ultraviolet-photoresists.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/extreme-ultraviolet-photoresists.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have confirmed that the photoresists used in next-generation semiconductor manufacturing processes now under development are twice as sensitive as previously believed. This finding, announced at a workshop last month,* has attracted considerable interest because of its implications for future manufacturing. If the photoresists are twice as sensitive as previously thought, then they are close to having the sensitivity mandatory for high volume manufacturing, but the flip side is that the extreme ultraviolet optical systems in the demonstration tools currently being used are only about half as effective as believed........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/slippery-at-the-nanoscale.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/slippery-at-the-nanoscale.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT They call diamonds "ice," and not just because they sparkle. Engineers and physicists have long studied diamond because even though the material is as hard as an ice ball to the head, diamond slips and slides with remarkably low friction, making it an ideal material or coating for seals, high performance tools and high-tech moving parts........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/a-look-into-the-nanoscale.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/a-look-into-the-nanoscale.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have captured time-series snapshots of a solid as it evolves on the ultra-fast timescale. Using femtosecond X-ray free electron laser (FEL) pulses, the team, led by Anton Barty, is able to observe condensed phase dynamics such as crack formation, phase separation, rapid fluctuations in the liquid state or in biologically relevant environments........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/tiny-refrigerator-taking-shape.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/tiny-refrigerator-taking-shape.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT Scientists at Purdue University are in the process of developing a miniature refrigeration system small enough to fit inside laptops and personal computers, a cooling technology that would boost performance while shrinking the size of computers. Unlike conventional cooling systems, which use a fan to circulate air through finned devices called heat sinks attached to computer chips, miniature refrigeration would dramatically increase how much heat could be removed, said Suresh Garimella, the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Professor of Mechanical Engineering........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/dna-knot-keepsviral-genes-tightly-corked-inside-shell.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/dna-knot-keepsviral-genes-tightly-corked-inside-shell.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT A novel twist of DNA may keep viral genes tightly wound within a capsule, waiting for ejection into a host, a high-resolution analysis of its structure has revealed. Using electron microscopy and three-dimensional computer reconstruction, UC San Diego biologists and chemists have produced the most detailed image yet of the protein envelope of an asymmetrical virus and the viral DNA packed within, they report this week in the journal Structure. The image, with a resolution of less than a nanometer, or a millionth of a millimeter, will help to unravel how the virus locks onto its host and infects the cells by injecting its DNA........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/secrets-of-newest-form-of-carbon.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/secrets-of-newest-form-of-carbon.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT Using one of the world's most powerful sources of man-made radiation, physicists from UC San Diego, Columbia University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have uncovered new secrets about the properties of graphene-a form of pure carbon that may one day replace the silicon in computers, televisions, mobile phones and other common electronic devices........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/carbon-emissions-trading-in-europe.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/carbon-emissions-trading-in-europe.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT For the past three years, the European Union has been operating the world's largest emissions trading system and the first system to limit and to trade carbon dioxide emissions. An MIT analysis of this initial "trial" phase finds that-despite its hasty adoption and somewhat rocky beginning-the European Union cap-and-trade system has operated well and has had little or no negative impact on the overall EU economy........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/climate-is-changing-life-on-global-scale.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/climate-is-changing-life-on-global-scale.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT A vast array of physical and biological systems across the earth are being affected by warming temperatures caused by humans, says a new analysis of information not previously assembled all in one spot. The effects on living things include earlier leafing of trees and plants over a number of regions; movements of species to higher latitudes and altitudes in the northern hemisphere; changes in bird migrations in Europe, North America and Australia; and shifting of the oceans plankton and fish from cold- to warm-adapted communities. The study appears in the May 15 issue of the leading scientific journal Nature........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/cells-communicate-to-activate.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/cells-communicate-to-activate.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT A study performed by scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) on the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, unveils how distinct signaling pathways operate between neighboring cells in order to activate the cell proliferation machinery that results in the organized growth of the fly wing. The signaling pathways involved in this process are also conserved in humans, and when altered in diverse tissues give rise to the appearance of different types of cancer, including cancer of the colon and skin, and leukemia. The study has been undertaken in the Cell and Development Biology Laboratory headed by ICREA Research Professor, Marco Milán, at IRB Barcelona, and has been released in and advanced online format by the EMBO Journal........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/fixing-up-this-old-house-may-increase-young.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/fixing-up-this-old-house-may-increase-young.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT Ripping out and tearing down to create a divinely designed home, a la HGTV, is all the rage today and the economic downturn may be leading more families to renovate rather than relocate. But a new study has observed that parents need to be aware that all this interior renovation can put their children's health at risk due to exposure to lead........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/injecting-sulfate-particles-into-stratosphere.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/injecting-sulfate-particles-into-stratosphere.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:10:22 GMT A much-discussed idea to offset global warming by injecting sulfate particles into the stratosphere would have a drastic impact on Earth's protective ozone layer, new research concludes. The study, led by Simone Tilmes of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., warns that such an approach would delay the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole by decades and cause significant ozone loss over the Arctic........ ]]>