Applied Physics

'Nanosculpture' Could Mean New Ways Of Harvesting Energy From Heat

A new technique for growing single-crystal nanorods and controlling their shape using biomolecules could enable the development of smaller, more powerful heat pumps and devices that harvest electricity from heat. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 19 2008 - 11:19am

E. Coli As Biology's Decoder Ring

If you had to pick one organism with which to tell the story of the modern science of biology, you couldn't do better than to pick the tiny gut bacterium Escherichia coli, commonly called just E. coli. In his latest book Microcosm: E. coli and The New ...

Article - Michael White - Jul 26 2008 - 10:47am

A Cranberry Shield Against Bacteria Protects Against Infection

For generations, people have consumed cranberry juice, convinced of its power to ward off urinary tract infections, though the exact mechanism of its action has not been well understood. A new study by researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 21 2008 - 1:19pm

How Do Monsoons Develop? An 'Aquaplanet' Brings A New Theory

Geoscientists at the California Institute of Technology have come up with a new explanation for the formation of monsoons, proposing an overhaul of a theory about the cause of the seasonal pattern of heavy winds and rainfall that essentially had held firm ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 21 2008 - 1:24pm

Lobula Plate Tangential Cells In Flies May Make Autonomous Robot Airplanes Reality

The nerve connections that keep a fly's gaze stable during complex aerial manoeuvres, enabling it to respond quickly to obstacles in its flight path, are revealed in new detail in research published today. Scientists from Imperial College London have ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 21 2008 - 11:57pm

Oxygen-Storing Skin Lets Insects Breathe Underwater

An insect that can dive as deep as 30 meters? Or Neoplea striola, a New England insect that can hibernate underwater all winter long? Indeed, hundreds of insect species spend much of their time underwater, where food may be more plentiful, but until now sc ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 30 2008 - 5:29pm

These MIT Researchers Say They Are Going To Revolutionize Solar Energy

To-date, solar power is a marginal, boutique alternative to mainstream energy but MIT researchers say they have overcome a major barrier to large-scale, cost-effective solar power: efficiently storing energy for use when the sun doesn't shine. Solar p ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 31 2008 - 10:46pm

No Chairs And 'Walking' Meetings? Welcome To The Office Of The Future

Mayo Clinic endocrinologist James Levine, M.D., Ph.D., has laid out some environment-changing innovations with a six-month study of a real-life office that was re-engineered to increase daily physical activity, a program called NEAT (non-exercise activity ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 2 2008 - 11:05am

Military: 30 Percent Robot Forces By 2020, Say Researchers

The first thing iRobot Corporation wants you to know, because they have been asked so many times, is that the Packbot is no Terminator- and never will be. Robots in the military are not the stuff of science fiction but their mission parameters are very spe ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 4 2008 - 5:53pm

Cloud Computing And Next Generation Anti-Virus Software

A 'cloud computing', applications and services provided seamlessly on the Internet, approach to malicious software detection developed at the University of Michigan could make old antivirus software techniques a relic of the past. Traditional ant ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 6 2008 - 5:50pm