Sooner or later,
the reign of Einstein, like the reign of Newton before him, will
come to an end. An upheaval in the world of physics that will overthrow
our notions of basic reality is inevitable, most scientists believe,
and currently a horse race is underway between a handful of theories
competing to be the successor to the throne. A physics experiment
on the drawing board for the International Space Station could
help find the grand unifying "Theory of Everything."
Astronomers modelling
minuscule changes in the Earth's orbital wobble have concluded
that today should be 2 April, not 1 April, they announced this
week at the Royal Astrological Society meeting in Milton Keynes,
UK. Chiste Inocente and Prima Mentira, both at the Centre for Spin
Studies at the University of Barcelona, have modelled the effects
of climate on our planet's rotation. Their work shows that a tiny
increase in the trade winds is pushing the planet into a faster
spin. Over the last century, this has shortened the length of the
day by an average of 3.67 seconds daily, they say. [April 1!!!]
Johns Hopkins
University researchers have created a new class of artificial proteins
that can assemble themselves into a gel and encourage the growth
of selected cell types. This biomaterial, which can be tailored
to send different biological signals to cells, is expected to help
scientists who are developing new ways to repair injured or diseased
body parts. "We're trying to give an important new tool to
tissue engineers to help them do their work more quickly and efficiently," said
James L. Harden, whose lab team developed the new biomaterial.
NASA's second
X-43A hypersonic research aircraft flew successfully today, the
first time an airbreathing scramjet powered aircraft has flown
freely. The unpiloted vehicle's supersonic combustion ramjet, or
scramjet, ignited as planned and operated for the duration of its
hydrogen fuel supply, which lasted about 10 seconds. The X-43A
reached its test speed of Mach 7.
UCLA supramolecular
chemists report in the journal Science an artificial molecular
machine that functions like a nanoelevator. "Such nanoscale
robotic devices could find use in slow-release drug delivery systems
and in the control of chemical reactions within nanofluidic systems
conducted in laboratories on a chip," said Jovica Badjic.
In Badjic's incrementally staged design of the nanoelevator — a
rig-like construct with three legs embracing an interlocked deck-like
component which can be made to move between two levels, he had
to get the matching components to fit together just perfectly.
The devastating
US drought of the 1930s was caused by unusual sea surface temperatures,
according to new climate research. The work could help predict
future dry spells, and demonstrates that tiny changes in ocean
temperature can have a massive impact on the land. The researchers
fed sea surface temperature data from the tropical Atlantic and
Pacific oceans into a computer model, which accurately predicted
the drought that affected three-quarters of the United States between
1931 and 1939.
Tennessee could
become a model for the nation when it comes to protecting the public
from chemical, biological or radiological releases. Already, sensors
that are part of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's SensorNet are
deployed in Nashville, Knoxville and Oak Ridge, and in other parts
of the nation. Additional sensors are planned for Memphis, Chattanooga
and Sullivan County in Upper East Tennessee. ORNL project managers
envision more being added in the next few years, eventually spanning
the state with sensors that would alert emergency responders and
the public if they were in danger of being exposed to water or
airborne hazards.
Maps of our Solar
System may have to be redrawn to include a tenth planet. The object
has been named Sedna, after the Inuit goddess of the ocean. It
is the largest body orbiting the Sun to be discovered since Pluto
was spotted in 1930. Sedna is similar in size to Pluto, measuring
about 2000 kilometres across. It has a highly elliptical orbit:
at its furthest point, the 'planet' is around 130 billion kilometres
from the Sun. At its closest point, Sedna is roughly 13 billion
kilometres away, three times further from the Sun than Pluto.
Penn State environmental
engineers have shown, for the first time, that a microbial fuel
cell (MFC) can generate electricity while simultaneously cleaning
the wastewater that you flush down the drain or toilet. So far,
the experiments have produced between 10 mW and 50 mW of power
per square meter of electrode surface while removing up to 78%
of organic matter as measured by biochemical oxygen demand (BOD).
Researchers at
the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have linked smell
loss in mice with excessive levels of a key protein associated
with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Smell loss is well documented
as one of the early and first clinical signs of such diseases.
If smell function declines as the levels of this protein increase
in brain regions associated with smelling, the research could validate
the use of smell tests for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease. Their
findings appear in the March 12th issue of the journal Brain Research,
the commemorative volume 1000.
Astronomers at
the Space Telescope Science Institute today unveiled the deepest
portrait of the visible universe ever achieved by humankind. Called
the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), the million-second-long exposure
reveals the first galaxies to emerge from the so-called "dark
ages," the time shortly after the big bang when the first
stars reheated the cold, dark universe. The new image should offer
new insights into what types of objects reheated the universe long
ago.
Using one large
computer, one borrowed graduate student, one good friend and one
piece of advice from dear old Dad, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln
chemist and his team came up with an unexpected discovery -- at
extremes of size, silicon may behave like a metal. They found the
thinnest known nanotube -- the square configuration at less than
0.5 nanometer in diameter. They appear not to have the semiconducting
properties that have made three-dimensional silicon one of the
foundation materials for the modern electronics industry.
