Scientists have solved a 40-year-old puzzle by identifying the origin of the intense radio waves in the Earth's upper atmosphere that control the dynamics of the Van Allen radiation belts — belts consisting of high-energy electrons that can damage satellites and spacecraft and pose a risk to astronauts performing activities outside their spacecraft.

The source of these low-frequency radio waves, which are known as plasmaspheric hiss, turns out to be not lightning or instabilities from a plasma, as previously proposed, but an intense electromagnetic wave type called "chorus," which energizes electrons and was initially thought to be unrelated to hiss, said Jacob Bortnik, a researcher with the UCLA Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

A destructive spring freeze that chilled the eastern United States almost a year ago illustrates the threat a warming climate poses to plants and crops, according to a paper just published in the journal BioScience. The study was led by a team from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The "Easter freeze" of April 5-9, 2007, blew in on an ill wind. Plants had been sending out young and tender sprouts two to three weeks earlier than normal during an unusually warm March. Plant ecologists, as well as farmers and gardeners, took note of the particularly harsh turn of the weather in early April.

"The warm weather was as much a culprit for the damage as the cold," said lead author Lianhong Gu of ORNL's Environmental Sciences Division.

Plant leaves are photosynthetic organs. Their main job is to harvest energy from sunlight, and use that energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates. In addition to capturing sunlight, leaves need to be good at doing two other things - taking up carbon dioxide and conserving water. These requirements conflict - anything that lets carbon dioxide in also lets water out. To deal with these conflicting requirements, plants produce a waterproof cuticle and regulate carbon dioxide uptake by opening and closing their stomata.

Modern diesel cars are quieter than their predecessors but also release considerably fewer exhaust fumes into the atmosphere.

But the real culprit in diesel are heavy-duty, construction and off-road vehicles - they're often special vehicles made in small batches and each requires a different filter geometry. The filters for are not yet state-of-the-art. A new diesel particulate filter technology will soon teach even these vehicles to give up smoking.

Conventional diesel soot filters usually consist of cylindrical ceramic blocks crisscrossed by numerous channels. A block of this kind cannot be made in one piece. Instead, individual quadratic honeycomb segments are bonded together to form a large block.

The RoboSwift micro-aircraft has made its first flight. The small, quiet plane is equipped with observation cameras that can be used in the future to study birds or to conduct surveillance of groups of people or vehicles.

The RoboSwift is characterised by the continuously variable shape of its wings, known as ‘morphing' wings, which are modelled on the wings of the swift bird. These wings make the aircraft, like its living model, very maneuverable and efficient. As a result, the RoboSwift is the first aircraft in the world to have the wing properties of living birds. Wind tunnel tests have shown that it can come remarkably close to the exceptional flying ability of the swift.

NEW YORK, March 5 /PRNewswire/ --

SunGard (http://www.sungard.com) today announced that it has acquired Advanced Portfolio Technologies, Inc. (APT), a leading global provider of risk management systems and portfolio optimization software for asset managers, hedge funds, pension funds, broker/dealers and proprietary traders. The acquisition, the terms of which were not disclosed, is not expected to have a material impact on SunGard's financial results.

LONDON, March 5 /PRNewswire/ --

Planalytics Inc., the global leader in Business Weather Intelligence(R), released its February WeatherCall(SM) report today pointing to differences in consumer demand during the month as a result of below normal precipitation. Starting around the 6th of February, many parts of southern England and also the Midlands went between 16 and 18 days without measurable rainfall, which boosted overall high street footfall but hurt sales of specific categories such as rainwear.

LONDON, March 5 /PRNewswire/ --

Chiltern, a leading global research organization, is proud to announce that it won 4 'Pharmas' at the PharmaTimes Clinical Researcher of the Year ceremony, including the coveted Clinical Department of the Year.

Chiltern received the following awards: Gold: Clinical Department of the Year - Chiltern International Gold: Anne Tebbatt in the Project Manager category Gold: Kara Tanabe in Clinical Research Associate category Silver: Donna Sexton in Clinical Research Associate category

A combination of negative mother-daughter relationships and low blood levels of serotonin, an important brain chemical for mood stability, may be lethal for adolescent girls, leaving them vulnerable to engage in self-harming behaviors such as cutting themselves.

New University of Washington research indicates that these two factors in combination account for 64 percent of the difference among adolescents, primarily girls, who engage in self-harming behaviors and those who do not.

“Girls who engage in self harm are at high risk for attempting suicide, and some of them are dying,” said Theodore Beauchaine, a UW associate professor of psychology and co-author of a new study. “There is no better predictor of suicide than previous suicide attempts.”

Solving a long-standing biological mystery, UCLA stem cell researchers have discovered that blood stem cells, the cells that later differentiate into all the cells in the blood supply, originate and are nurtured in the placenta.

The discovery may allow researchers to mimic the specific embryonic microenvironment necessary for development of blood stem cells in cell culture and grow them for use in treating diseases like leukemia and aplastic anemia, said Dr. Hanna Mikkola, a researcher in the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research and senior author of the study.