A research group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a relatively simple, fast and effective method of depositing uniform, ultrathin layers of platinum atoms on a surface.* The new process exploits an unexpected feature of electrodeposition of platinum—if you drive the reaction much more strongly than usual, a new reaction steps in to shuts down the metal deposition process, allowing an unprecedented level of control of the film thickness. Platinum is a widely used industrial catalyst—in automobile catalytic converters and hydrogen ...

Prices for solar modules—the part of solar panels that produce electricity—will continue to fall, in line with the long-term trend since 1980, according to a survey of experts by Near Zero, , a nonprofit energy research organization. However, for prices to keep falling for the long term will require continued committment to research, such as on materials used for making solar modules. To get a sense of what future prices for solar power are likely to be, as well as other challenges and bottlenecks that the industry faces, Near Zero conducted a formal, quantitative survey ...

A new Northwestern University study of professors in STEM fields at top research universities across the country shows that bias against women is ingrained in the workforce, despite a societal desire to believe workplace equality exists. The quantitative study of the complete publication records of more than 4,200 professors in seven STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) confirms that, for some disciplines, female faculty do publish fewer papers than male faculty but not for lack of talent or effort. The researchers found the "productivity ...

BOSTON--When people with a family history of colorectal cancer develop the disease, their tumors often carry a molecular sign that the cancer could be life-threatening and may require aggressive treatment, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists report in a new study. The finding, reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, draws on data from studies that have tracked the health of tens of thousands of people over several decades. It suggests that colorectal cancer patients could one day have their tumor tissue tested for the molecular sign, and, if necessary, ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Heart disease is a leading cause of death throughout the world. Doctors say that it is important to detect heart disease early before it becomes too serious. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found a way that they believe could help detect heart disease before it progresses too far as well as identify patients who are at risk for strokes. In a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Isabelle Masseau, an assistant teaching professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, found that she could use targeted micro-bubbles ...

SEATTLE – Younger women who wait at least 15 years after their first menstrual period to give birth to their first child may reduce their risk of an aggressive form of breast cancer by up to 60 percent, according to a Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study. The findings, by Christopher I. Li, M.D., Ph.D., a member of the Public Health Sciences Division at Fred Hutch, are published online in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. "We found that the interval between menarche and age at first live birth is inversely associated with the risk of triple-negative breast ...

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered seven primitive galaxies from a distant population that formed more than 13 billion years ago. In the process, their observations have put forward a candidate for the record for the most distant galaxy found to date (at redshift 11.9), and have shed new light on the earliest years of cosmic history. The galaxies are seen as they were when the Universe was less than 4 percent of its present age. A team of scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope has made new observations of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field ...

Research by University of Notre Dame biochemist Anthony S. Serianni is providing new insights that could have important implications for understanding and treating diabetes. Serianni points out that biological compounds known as dicarbonyl sugars are produced inside the human body from the natural breakdown of the simple sugar, glucose. The formation of these sugars is enhanced in diabetic patients because glucose concentrations in the blood and plasma of diabetics are significantly elevated. "We investigated, under laboratory conditions that approximate those in the ...

Some people like to have a few close friends, while others prefer a wider social circle that is perhaps less deep. These preferences reflect people's personalities and individual circumstances — but is one approach to social networks "better" than the other? New research suggests that the optimal social networking strategy depends on socioeconomic conditions. Researchers Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia and Selin Kesebir of the London Business School explore the benefits of social networking strategies in two studies published in Psychological Science, a ...

PASADENA, Calif.—A team of astronomers led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to discover seven of the most primitive and distant galaxies ever seen. One of the galaxies, the astronomers say, might be the all-time record holder—the galaxy as observed existed when the universe was merely 380 million years old. All of the newly discovered galaxies formed more than 13 billion years ago, when the universe was just about 4 percent of its present age, a period astronomers call the "cosmic dawn," when the first galaxies ...

WASHINGTON -- Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered a previously unseen population of seven primitive galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago, when the universe was less than 4 percent of its present age. The deepest images to date from Hubble yield the first statistically robust sample of galaxies that tells how abundant they were close to the era when galaxies first formed. The results are from an ambitious Hubble survey of an intensively studied patch of sky known as the Ultra Deep Field (UDF). In the 2012 campaign, called UDF12, ...

As one of the top 10 barley producers in the world, Canada faces a problem of adapting to the 'new normal' of a warmer, drier climate. The 2012 growing season was considered an average year on the Canadian Prairies, "but we still had a summer water deficit, and it is that type of condition we are trying to work with," said Scott Chang, a professor of soil science in the University of Alberta's Department of Renewable Resources in Edmonton, Canada. Chang teamed with fellow crop scientist Anthony Anyia of Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures in 2006, following a severe ...

A new study by biologists at Mercyhurst University focuses on the influence of climate change, particularly warmer winters, on the survival and potential fecundity of cold-blooded animals. Cold blooded animals, or ectotherms, do not have an internal mechanism for regulating body temperature. Instead, they rely on solar energy captured by the environment. The purpose of the Mercyhurst study, a collaboration of Michael Elnitsky, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology; and students Drew Spacht and Seth Pezar, is to assess the current and future impacts of climate change ...

A specific pattern of neuronal firing in a brain reward circuit instantly rendered mice vulnerable to depression-like behavior induced by acute severe stress, a study supported by the National Institutes of Health has found. When researchers used a high-tech method to mimic the pattern, previously resilient mice instantly succumbed to a depression-like syndrome of social withdrawal and reduced pleasure-seeking – they avoided other animals and lost their sweet tooth. When the firing pattern was inhibited in vulnerable mice, they instantly became resilient. "For the first ...

Back in January, a new X-ray source flared and rapidly brightened in the Andromeda galaxy (M31), located 2.5 million light-years away. Classified as an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX), the object is only the second ever seen in M31 and became the target of an intense observing campaign by orbiting X-ray telescopes -- including NASA's Swift -- and radio observatories on the ground. These efforts resulted in the first detection of radio-emitting jets from a stellar-mass black hole outside our own galaxy. A ULX is thought to be a binary system containing a black hole that ...

Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered a protein that does its best work with one foot in the grave. The study, which appears in the current issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, focuses on the nontraditional lifestyle of Retinoblastoma tumor suppressor proteins, which could lead to new ways to treat cancer. "Retinoblastoma proteins are unique in that they use controlled destruction to do their jobs in a timely but restrained fashion," said Liang Zhang, a lead author and MSU cell and molecular biology graduate student. "This is an unusual way ...

A drug that works through the same brain mechanism as the fast-acting antidepressant ketamine briefly improved treatment-resistant patients' depression symptoms in minutes, with minimal untoward side effects, in a clinical trial conducted by the National Institutes of Health. The experimental agent, called AZD6765, acts through the brain's glutamate chemical messenger system. Existing antidepressants available through prescription, which work through the brain's serotonin system, take a few weeks to work, imperiling severely depressed patients, who can be at high risk ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study of the batteries commonly used in hybrid and electric-only cars has revealed an unexpected factor that could limit the performance of batteries currently on the road. Researchers led by Ohio State University engineers examined used car batteries and discovered that over time lithium accumulates beyond the battery electrodes – in the "current collector," a sheet of copper which facilitates electron transfer between the electrodes and the car's electrical system. This knowledge could aid in improving design and performance of batteries, explained ...

The date 12-12-12 may be numerically significant, but for the residents of American Samoa and Fiji in the South Pacific Ocean, it means a newborn tropical storm named Evan is causing problems. NASA's Aqua satellite and NOAA's GOES-15 satellite both captured imagery of the newborn storm's cloud cover. Tropical Storm Evan caused regional warnings to be posted on Dec. 12. In American Samoa, a gale warning and storm watch are in effect for Tutuila, Aunuu, Manua and Swains Island. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured an ...

DEERFIELD, Il. (December 11, 2012)—Inexpensive, locally-produced ceramic cookstoves may produce less smoke than traditional indoor 3-stone firepits, but they don't significantly reduce indoor air pollution or the risk of pneumonia in young children, according to results from a small, year-long observational study by researchers working in rural Kenya. The findings, published online today in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, are the first to examine the health impacts of ceramic cookstoves that do not vent smoke to the outside of the house, said Robert ...

An international collaboration including researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has refined a key process in understanding extreme plasmas such as those found in the sun, stars, at the rims of black holes and galaxy clusters. In short, the team identified a new solution to an astrophysical phenomenon through a series of laser experiments. In the new research, appearing in the Dec. 13 edition of the journal Nature, scientists looked at highly charged iron using the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) free-electron laser. Highly charged iron produces ...

TEMPE, Ariz. – One of the great mysteries of life is how it began. What physical process transformed a nonliving mix of chemicals into something as complex as a living cell? For more than a century, scientists have struggled to reconstruct the key first steps on the road to life. Until recently, their focus has been trained on how the simple building blocks of life might have been synthesized on the early Earth, or perhaps in space. But because it happened so long ago, all chemical traces have long been obliterated, leaving plenty of scope for speculation and disagreement. Now, ...

Are you allergic to peanuts and worried there might be some in that cookie? Now you can find out using a rather unlikely source: your cell phone. A team of researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has developed a lightweight device called the iTube, which attaches to a common cell phone to detect allergens in food samples. The iTube attachment uses the cell phone's built-in camera, along with an accompanying smart-phone application that runs a test with the same high level of sensitivity a laboratory would. Food allergies are ...

[EMBARGOED FOR DEC. 13, 2012] A new study suggests that human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in women at or after menopause may represent an infection acquired years ago, and that HPV infections may exist below limits of detection after one to two years, similar to other viruses, such as varicella zoster, which can cause shingles. The study, published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases and available online, highlights the need for additional research to better understand HPV infections and the role of HPV persistence and reactivation, particularly in women of the baby ...

An international team of scientists studying the elusive nocturnal primate the slow loris in the jungles of Borneo have discovered an entirely new species. The team's analysis of the primate's distinctive facial fur markings, published in the American Journal of Primatology, reveals the existence of one entirely new species, while two of species, previously considered as possible sub-species, are being officially recognized as unique. "Technological advances have improved our knowledge about the diversity of several nocturnal mammals," said Rachel Munds from the University ...