http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/science-blog.html Science blog From What is this Mon, 18 May 2009 11:37:02 GMT en-us http://www.what-is-this.com/images/blogs/science-blog-57820.jpg http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/science-blog.html 100 75 http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2009/high-altitude-ice-clouds.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2009/high-altitude-ice-clouds.html Mon, 18 May 2009 11:37:02 GMT A team of UC San Diego-led atmospheric chemistry scientists moved closer to what is considered the "holy grail" of climate change science when it made the first-ever direct detection of biological particles within ice clouds. The team, led by Kerri Pratt, a Ph.D. student of atmospheric chemistry Professor Kim Prather, who also holds appointments at Scripps Institution of Oceanography as well as the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCSD, sampled water droplet and ice crystal residues at high speeds from an aircraft flying through clouds in the skies over Wyoming in fall 2007. Analysis of the ice crystals revealed that they were made up almost entirely of either dust or biological particles such as bacteria, fungal spores and plant material. While it has long been known that microorganisms or parts of them get airborne and travel great distances, this study is the first to yield in-situ data on their participation in cloud ice processes........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/array-of-ufo-shapes.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/array-of-ufo-shapes.html Mon, 18 May 2009 11:37:02 GMT The array is intended only to convey some idea of the variety of shapes that have appeared, it does not give an adequate impression of the relative frequencies with which the different UFO shapes have appeared. ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/sustainable-education-reform.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/sustainable-education-reform.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT Any educational reform, no matter how effective it may seem today, will have to change in order to last, as per University of Chicago education researcher Jeanne Century. The oxymoron stems from the reality of complex social processes. But this complexity is paralyzing educational reform efforts, said Century, director of science education at the University of Chicago's Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/decline-in-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/decline-in-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT The threat of global warming can still be greatly diminished if nations cut emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases by 70 percent this century, as per a new analysis. While global temperatures would rise, the most dangerous potential aspects of climate change, including massive losses of Arctic sea ice and permafrost and significant sea-level rise, could be partially avoided........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/isolating-harmful-forms-of-chemicals.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/isolating-harmful-forms-of-chemicals.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT Researchers studying how marine bacteria move have discovered that a sharp variation in water current segregates right-handed bacteria from their left-handed brethren, impelling the microbes in opposite directions. This finding and the possibility of quickly and cheaply implementing the segregation of two-handed objects in the laboratory could have a big impact on industries like the pharmaceutical industry, for which the separation of right-handed from left-handed molecules can be crucial to drug safety........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/novel-technique-to-sequence-human-genome.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/novel-technique-to-sequence-human-genome.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT Since the human genome was sequenced six years ago, the cost of producing a high-quality genome sequence has dropped precipitously. More recently, the National Institutes of Health called for cutting the cost to $1,000 or less, which may enable sequencing as part of routine medical care. The obstacles to reaching that goal have been primarily technological: Researchers have struggled to figure out how to accurately read the 3 billion base pairs - the amount of DNA found in humans and other mammals - without time-consuming, inefficient methods........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/complex-nucleation-processes.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/complex-nucleation-processes.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT The construction of complex man-made objects--a car, for example, or even a pizza--almost invariably entails what are known as "top-down" processes, in which the structure and order of the thing being built is imposed from the outside (say, by an automobile assembly line, or the hands of the pizza maker)........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/significant-portion-of-arctic-warming.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/significant-portion-of-arctic-warming.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT Though greenhouse gases are invariably at the center of discussions about global climate change, new NASA research suggests that much of the atmospheric warming observed in the Arctic since 1976 appears to be due to changes in tiny airborne particles called aerosols. Emitted by natural and human sources, aerosols can directly influence climate by reflecting or absorbing the sun's radiation. The small particles also affect climate indirectly by seeding clouds and changing cloud properties, such as reflectivity........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2009/movie-of-individual-carbon-atoms-in-action.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2009/movie-of-individual-carbon-atoms-in-action.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT Science fiction fans still have another two months of waiting for the new Star Trek movie, but fans of actual science can feast their eyes now on the first movie ever of carbon atoms moving along the edge of a graphene crystal. Given that graphene - single-layered sheets of carbon atoms arranged like chicken wire - may hold the key to the future of the electronics industry, the audience for this new science movie might also reach blockbuster proportions........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/2-2009/graphenes-edge-structure-affects.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/2-2009/graphenes-edge-structure-affects.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT Graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon, holds remarkable promise for future nanoelectronics applications. Whether graphene actually cuts it in industry, however, depends upon how graphene is cut, say scientists at the University of Illinois. Graphene consists of a hexagonal lattice of carbon atoms. While researchers have predicted that the orientation of atoms along the edges of the lattice would affect the material's electronic properties, the prediction had not been proven experimentally........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/2-2009/new-hydrogen-purification-method.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/2-2009/new-hydrogen-purification-method.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT President Barack Obama's pursuit of energy independence promises to accelerate research and development for alternative energy sources -- solar, wind and geothermal power, biofuels, hydrogen and biomass, to name a few. For the hydrogen economy, one of the roadblocks to success is the hydrogen itself. Hydrogen needs to be purified before it can be used as fuel for fuel cells, but current methods are not very clean or efficient........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/organic-solar-cells-a-step-closer.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/organic-solar-cells-a-step-closer.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT Inexpensive solar cells, vastly improved medical imaging techniques and lighter and more flexible television screens are among the potential applications envisioned for organic electronics. Recent experiments conducted by Greg Scholes and Elisabetta Collini of University of Toronto's Department of Chemistry may bring these within closer reach thanks to new insights into the way molecules absorb and move energy. Their findings would be reported in the prestigious international journal Science on January 16........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/biofuel-carbon-footprint-not-as-big.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/biofuel-carbon-footprint-not-as-big.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT Publications ranging from the journal Science to Time magazine have blasted biofuels for significantly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, calling into question the environmental benefits of making fuel from plant material. But a new analysis by Michigan State University researchers says these dire predictions are based on a set of assumptions that may not be correct........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/stability-testing-of-soy-based-biofuel.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/stability-testing-of-soy-based-biofuel.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a method to accelerate stability testing of biodiesel fuel made from soybeans and also identified additives that enhance stability at high temperatures. The results, described in a new paper,* could help overcome a key barrier to practical use of biofuels........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/ultra-sensitive-gas-detectors.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/ultra-sensitive-gas-detectors.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT When cells are under stress, they blow off steam by releasing minute amounts of nitrogen oxides and other toxic gases. In a recent paper,* scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) described a new method for creating gas detectors so sensitive that some day they appears to be able to register these tiny emissions from a single cell, providing a new way to determine if drugs or nanoparticles harm cells or to study how cells communicate with one another. Based on metal oxide nanotubes, the new sensors are a hundred to 1,000 times more sensitive than current devices based on thin films and are able to act as multiple sensors simultaneously........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/understand-polymer-film-instability.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/understand-polymer-film-instability.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT While exploring the properties of polymer formation, a team of researchers at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has made a fundamental discovery* about these materials that could improve methods of creating the stable crystalline films that are widely used in electronics applicationsand also offer insight into a range of other phenomena........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/nano-tractor-beam-traps-dna.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/nano-tractor-beam-traps-dna.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT View a video of DNA molecules suspended in a stream of water flowing through a nanoscale channel. Using a beam of light shunted through a tiny silicon channel, scientists have created a nanoscale trap that can stop free floating DNA molecules and nanoparticles in their tracks. By holding the nanoscale material steady while the fluid around it flows freely, the trap may allow scientists to boost the accuracy of biological sensors and create a range of new 'lab on a chip' diagnostic tools........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/historic-mission-to-measure-greenhouse-gases.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/historic-mission-to-measure-greenhouse-gases.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT One of the nation's most advanced research aircrafts, Harper, is scheduled to embark on an historic mission spanning the globe from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Starting Jan. 7, 2008, the HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) mission will cover more than 24,000 miles as an international team of researchers makes a series of five flights over the next three years sampling the atmosphere in some of the most inaccessible regions of the world........ ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/a-very-darling160christmas.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/a-very-darling160christmas.html Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:11:36 GMT This is what went down today at our place…


A Very Darling Christmas. Lots & lots of ridiculous love from our family to yours!

I hope you have an amazing 25th of December, regardless of whether you celebrate Christmas or not! Huge kisses! Be safe! ]]> http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/next-generation-microscopy.html http://www.what-is-this.com/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/next-generation-microscopy.html Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:34:35 GMT Microscopes have revolutionized the practice of science, particularly in the fields of biology and medicine. Just a few hundred years ago, gaining the ability to study what was previously unobservable opened up an entirely new world. Today, imaging techniques remain indispensable to clinicians and scientists who regularly diagnose medical conditions and work to develop new therapys........ ]]>