— Cassini finds an underground ocean on Titan — [20 Mar] NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered evidence that points to the existence of an underground ocean...
— First organic molecule on extrasolar planet discovered with Hubble — [19 Mar] The tell-tale signature of the molecule methane in the atmosphere of the...
Micropositioning using shape memory materials
A research team from the Department of Electricity and Electronics at the University of the Basque Country's Faculty of Science and Technology in Leioa, led by Victor Etxebarria, is investigating the characteristics of various types of materials for their use in the generation and measurement of precise movements... — full story
New observations indicate interior of Mars is colder
— 15 May | AstronomyNew observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate that the crust and upper mantle of Mars are stiffer and colder than previously thought. The findings suggest any liquid... — full story
New research examines the excessive reactive nitrogen entering the environment
— 15 May | EnvironmentWhile human-caused global climate change has long been a concern for environmental scientists and is a well-known public policy issue, the problem of excessive reactive nitrogen in... — full story
How thin materials make the transition from wrinkles into folds
— 15 May | PhysicsScientists at the University of Chicago and the University of Santiago in Chile have explained, for the first time, the physics that governs how thin materials at scales millions of... — full story
New mechanism to recover information from black holes
— 15 May | AstronomyPhysicists at Penn State have provided a mechanism by which information can be recovered from black holes, those regions of space where gravity is so strong that, according to Einstein's... — full story
Ancient sea reptile named for Calgary scientist after being unearthed at Syncrude mine
— 20 Mar | Geology and palaeontologyOne of the oldest and most complete plesiosaur fossils recovered in North America, and the oldest yet... — full story
Chinese researchers have recently made a miniature 'golden crown'
— Chinese researchers have recently made a 'golden crown' with a diameter of only a few nanometres. It is a large ring-shaped molecule containing 36 gold atoms. The lords of the ring, a team of researchers from the Universities of Beijing, Hong Kong, and Nanjing report their unusual compound in the journal Angewandte Chemie: the molecular ring structure is held together exclusively by gold - gold bonds and is thus the largest ring system made of gold atoms produced to date... — full story
How thin materials make the transition from wrinkles into folds
— Scientists at the University of Chicago and the University of Santiago in Chile have explained, for the first time, the physics that governs how thin materials at scales millions of times different in thickness make the transition from wrinkles into folds under compression. The study stems from a research program at the University of Chicago aimed at understanding the characteristics of lung surfactant, a microscopically thin membrane that facilitates breathing... — full story
Researchers present a new tool to understand evolution of multi-domain genes
— Carnegie Mellon scientists have discovered critical flaws in the standard method used to analyse gene evolution. Standard methods fail when applied to genes that encode multi-domain proteins, an important class of proteins crucial to human health... — full story
Palaeontologists discover parrot fossil in Scandinavia
— Palaeontologists have discovered fossil remains in Scandinavia of parrots dating back 55 million years. Reported today in the current issue of the journal Palaeontology, the fossils indicate that parrots once flew wild over what is now Norway and Denmark. Parrots today live only in the tropics and southern hemisphere, but this new research suggests that they first evolved in the North, much earlier than had been thought... — full story
New observations indicate interior of Mars is colder
— New observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate that the crust and upper mantle of Mars are stiffer and colder than previously thought. The findings suggest any liquid water that might exist below the planet's surface, and any possible organisms living in that water, would be located deeper than scientists had suspected... — full story
New research examines the excessive reactive nitrogen entering the environment
— While human-caused global climate change has long been a concern for environmental scientists and is a well-known public policy issue, the problem of excessive reactive nitrogen in the environment is little-known beyond a growing circle of environmental scientists who study how the element cycles through the environment and negatively alters local and global ecosystems and potentially harms human health... — full story
Micropositioning using shape memory materials
— A research team from the Department of Electricity and Electronics at the University of the Basque Country's Faculty of Science and Technology in Leioa, led by Victor Etxebarria, is investigating the characteristics of various types of materials for their use in the generation and measurement of precise movements... — full story
Scientists show link between vitamin D status and breast cancer
— Using newly available data on worldwide cancer incidence, researchers at the Moores Cancer Centre at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine have shown a clear association between deficiency in exposure to sunlight, specifically ultraviolet B (UVB), and breast cancer... — full story