science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Δευτέρα 2 Ιουλίου 2012

Science News SciGuru.com

A new approach to water desalination: Graphene sheets with precisely controlled pores
Inspired by nature: Paints and coatings containing bactericidal agent nanoparticles combat marine fouling
Functional Genome of the Mouse Sequenced for First Time

A new approach to water desalination: Graphene sheets with precisely controlled pores

Posted: 02 Jul 2012 06:48 AM PDT

The availability of fresh water is dwindling in many parts of the world, a problem that is expected to grow with populations. One promising source of potable water is the world’s virtually limitless supply of seawater, but so far desalination technology has been too expensive for widespread use.

Now, MIT researchers have come up with a new approach using a different kind of filtration material: sheets of graphene, a one-atom-thick form of the element carbon, which they say can be far more efficient and possibly less expensive than existing desalination systems.

Inspired by nature: Paints and coatings containing bactericidal agent nanoparticles combat marine fouling

Posted: 02 Jul 2012 05:02 AM PDT

Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany have discovered that tiny vanadium pentoxide nanoparticles can inhibit the growth of barnacles, bacteria, and algae on surfaces in contact with water, such as ship hulls, sea buoys, or offshore platforms. Their experiments showed that steel plates to which a coating containing dispersed vanadium pentoxide particles had been applied could be exposed to seawater for weeks without the formation of deposits of barnacles, bacteria, and algae.

Functional Genome of the Mouse Sequenced for First Time

Posted: 01 Jul 2012 05:58 PM PDT

Researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have mapped for the first time a significant portion of the functional sequences of the mouse genome, the most widely used mammalian model organism in biomedical research.

The research results were published online in the July 1 issue of the journal Nature.