Τρίτη 10 Ιουλίου 2012

ScienceDaily: Top Science News

ScienceDaily: Top Science News


Pompeii-style volcanic ash fall preserved 'nursery' of earliest animals

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 02:26 PM PDT

A volcanic eruption around 579 million years ago buried a 'nursery' of the earliest-known animals under a Pompeii-like deluge of ash, preserving them as fossils in rocks in Newfoundland, new research suggests.

Triboelectric generator produces electricity by harnessing friction between surfaces: Could touch screens generating own electricity?

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 12:06 PM PDT

Researchers have discovered yet another way to harvest small amounts of electricity from motion in the world around us -- this time by capturing the electrical charge produced when two different kinds of plastic materials rub against one another. Because the devices can be made approximately 75 percent transparent, they could potentially be used in touch screens to replace existing sensors. "Transparent generators can be fabricated on virtually any surface," said one of the researchers. "This technique could be used to create very sensitive transparent sensors that would not require power from a device's battery."

Technique spots disease using immune cell DNA

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 10:36 AM PDT

By looking at signature chemical differences in the DNA of various immune cells called leukocytes, scientists have developed a way to determine their relative abundance in blood samples. The relative abundance turns out to correlate with specific cancers and other diseases, making the technique, described in two recent papers, potentially valuable not only for research but also for diagnostics and treatment monitoring.

Belching black hole proves a biggie: First known 'middleweight' black hole

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 07:27 AM PDT

Astronomers have found the first known "middleweight" black hole. Before it was found, astronomers had good evidence for only supermassive black holes -- ones a million to a billion times the mass of the Sun -- and "stellar mass" ones, three to thirty times the mass of the Sun.

Sounds of Northern Lights are born close to ground

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 06:30 AM PDT

For the first time, researchers have located where the sounds associated with the northern lights are created. The auroral sounds that have been described in folktales and by wilderness wanderers are formed about 70 meters above the ground level in the measured case. Researchers located the sound sources by installing three separate microphones in an observation site where the auroral sounds were recorded. They then compared sounds captured by the microphones and determined the location of the sound source.

Climate in northern Europe reconstructed for the past 2,000 years: Cooling trend calculated precisely for the first time

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 06:26 AM PDT

Scientists have published a reconstruction of the climate in northern Europe over the last 2,000 years based on the information provided by tree-rings. Researchers used tree-ring density measurements from sub-fossil pine trees originating from Finnish Lapland to produce a reconstruction reaching back to 138 BC. In so doing, the researchers have been able for the first time to precisely demonstrate that the long-term trend over the past two millennia has been towards climatic cooling.

'MRI' of the Sun's interior motions challenges existing explanations for sunspots

Posted: 09 Jul 2012 06:24 AM PDT

Scientists have created an "MRI" of the Sun's interior plasma motions, shedding light on how it transfers heat from its deep interior to its surface. The result upends our understanding of how heat is transported outwards by the Sun and challenges existing explanations of the formation of sunspots and magnetic field generation.

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