Soap bubbles and films have always fascinated children and adults, but they can also serve to solve complex mathematical calculations. This is shown by a study carried out by two professors at the University of Málaga, who have succeeded in solving classic problems using just such an innovative procedure. "With the aid of soap films we have solved variational mathematical problems, which appear in the formulation of many physical problems", explains Carlos Criado, professor at the University of Málaga, speaking to SINC. Together with his colleague Nieves Álamo, he has ...

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are an increasingly popular technology for use in energy-efficient lighting. Researchers from North Carolina State University have now developed a new technique that reduces defects in the gallium nitride (GaN) films used to create LEDs, making them more efficient. LED lighting relies on GaN thin films to create the diode structure that produces light. The new technique reduces the number of defects in those films by two to three orders of magnitude. "This improves the quality of the material that emits light," says Dr. Salah Bedair, a professor ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Mercury contamination, a worldwide environmental problem, has been called "public enemy No. 1" in California's San Francisco Bay. Mercury mining and gold recovery in the mid-1800s to late 1900s, combined with present day oil refineries, chemical manufacturing plants and wastewater treatment plants have contributed enough mercury to threaten wildlife and prompt a fish consumption advisory in the Bay Area. With so many possible sources of contamination, environmental scientists and regulatory agencies would like to know which specific sources contribute ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A study shows for the first time that the three most common chromosome changes seen in chronic lymphocytic leukemia disrupt a molecular network that includes several important genes and strongly influences the outcome of the disease. The research was led by investigators at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) and at University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, working in collaboration with investigators at seven other centers in Italy and ...

Solar cells are made from semiconductors whose ability to respond to light is determined by their band gaps (energy gaps). Different colors have different energies, and no single semiconductor has a band gap that can respond to sunlight's full range, from low-energy infrared through visible light to high-energy ultraviolet. Although full-spectrum solar cells have been made, none yet have been suitable for manufacture at a consumer-friendly price. Now Wladek Walukiewicz, who leads the Solar Energy Materials Research Group in the Materials Sciences Division (MSD) at the ...

Radiation oncologists can enhance patient safety in their clinics by further developing a culture of safety in which all team members are alerted to the possibility of errors and can work together to maximize safety, according to an invited article in the inaugural issue of Practical Radiation Oncology (PRO), a new medical journal whose mission is to improve the quality of radiation oncology practice. PRO is an official journal of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). Each year, radiation therapy is used safely and effective to cure cancer and provide pain ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – For troubled war veterans, a friendly bartender can be the source of more than just drinks and a sympathetic ear. A pilot study suggests that some bartenders may be in a good position to identify veterans in need of mental health services and help connect them to the appropriate agency. Researchers at Ohio State University surveyed 71 bartenders employed at Veterans of Foreign Wars posts in Ohio. The results showed that bartenders felt very close to their customers and that these customers shared their problems freely with them, said Keith Anderson, ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State University researchers recently tested the merits of two new dishware sanitizers, and found them more effective at removing bacteria from restaurant dishes than traditional sanitizers. Melvin Pascall, co-author of the study and associate professor of food science and technology at Ohio State, said that the two new sanitizers reflect the industry's recent efforts to develop more effective germ killers that are also environmentally friendly. The two sanitizers – one carrying the name brand PROSAN® and the other called neutral electrolyzed ...

In regenerative medicine, large supplies of safe and reliable human embryonic stem (hES) cells are needed for implantation into patients, but the field has faced challenges in developing cultures that can consistently grow and maintain clinical-grade stem cells. Standard culture systems use mouse "feeder" cells and media containing bovine sera to cultivate and maintain hES cells, but such animal product–based media can contaminate the cells. And because of difficulties in precise quality control, each batch of the medium can introduce new and unwanted variations. Now, ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- An Ohio State University mathematician and his colleagues are finding ways to tell the difference between healthy cells and abnormal cells, such as cancer cells, based on the way the cells look and move. They are creating mathematical equations that describe the shape and motion of single cells for laboratory analysis. Though this research is in its early stages, it represents an entirely new way of identifying cell abnormalities, including cancer. It could one day be useful in gauging future stages of a disease -- for example, by detecting whether ...

AURORA, Colo. (Jan. 25, 2011) – A new study led by researchers at the Children's Outcomes Research (COR) Program at The Children's Hospital and Colorado Health Outcomes Program (COHO) at the University of Colorado School of Medicine explores the barriers, facilitators and alternative approaches to providers sending reminder notices for immunization using a statewide immunization registry. Reminder or recall messages, usually in the form of postcards, letters, or phone calls, have long been regarded as an effective way to increase immunization rates within primary care ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. – One of the first studies published from the University of Missouri Brain Imaging Center (BIC) gives researchers insight into the brain and memory and may provide researchers clues to treating a variety of debilitating disorders. Nelson Cowan, director of the BIC and Curator's Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, used the BIC's magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to produce graphics that depict the structure and function of the brain during various mental tasks in an effort to understand abstract working memory. People use their abstract ...

DURHAM, NC – Duke University bioengineers have developed a new method for rapidly producing an almost unlimited variety of man-made DNA sequences. These novel sequences of recombinant DNA are used to produce repetitive proteins to create new types of drugs and bioengineered tissues. Current methods for producing these DNA sequences are slow or not robust, the researchers said, which has hindered the development of these increasingly important new classes of protein-based polymers. Researchers have already demonstrated that when a large protective macromolecule – known ...

Surgery has not been an option in the past for children with ACL tears because of the possible damage to the growth plate that can cause serious problems later in life. With this new technology, surgeons can actually see from one point to the other on either side of the knee, and can safely position the tunnels where they will place the new ligament. John Xerogeanes, MD, chief of the Emory Sports Medicine Center, and colleagues in the laboratory of Allen R. Tannenbaum, PhD, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and ...

WASHINGTON, DC, January 25, 2011 – The tiger reserves of Asia could support more than 10,000 wild tigers – three times the current number – if they are managed as large-scale landscapes that allow for connectivity between core breeding sites, a new paper from some of the world's leading conservation scientists finds. The study, co-authored by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) scientists, is the first assessment of the political commitment made by all 13 tiger range countries at November's historic tiger summit to double the tiger population across Asia by 2022. "A Landscape-Based ...

VIDEO: Jerry Nick, M.D., associate professor of medicine at National Jewish Health, discusses recent research on biofilms, bacterial infections and contact lenses. Click here for more information. Researchers at National Jewish Health and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have discovered a new method to fight bacterial infections associated with contact lenses. The method may also have applications for bacterial infections associated with severe burns and ...

A study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has raised safety concerns about an investigational approach to treating cancer. The strategy takes aim at a key signaling pathway, called Notch, involved in forming new blood vessels that feed tumor growth. When researchers targeted the Notch1 signaling pathway in mice, the animals developed vascular tumors, primarily in the liver, which led to massive hemorrhages that caused their death. Their findings are reported online Jan. 25 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation and will appear ...

New Rochelle, NY, January 25, 2011—Give caffeine to cells engineered to produce viruses used for gene therapy and the cells can generate 3- to 8-times more virus, according to a paper published in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). The paper is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/hum This simple and inexpensive strategy for increasing lentivirus production was developed by Brian Ellis, Patrick Ryan Potts, and Matthew Porteus, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas. In their paper, ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have invented a technique that uses inexpensive paper to make "microfluidic" devices for rapid medical diagnostics and chemical analysis. The innovation represents a way to enhance commercially available diagnostic devices that use paper-strip assays like those that test for diabetes and pregnancy. "With current systems that use paper test strips you can measure things like pH or blood sugar, but you can't perform more complex chemical assays," said Babak Ziaie, a Purdue University professor of electrical and computer engineering and ...

Washington, D.C. (January 25, 2011) -- In a development that may revolutionize handheld electronics, flat-panel displays, touch panels, electronic ink, and solar cells, as well as drastically reduce their manufacturing costs, physicists in Iran have created a spintronic device based on "armchair" graphene nanoribbons. Spintronic devices are being pursued by the semiconductor and electronics industries because they promise to be smaller, more versatile, and much faster than today's electronics. As described in the American Institute of Physics journal Applied Physics Letters, ...

CHESTNUT HILL, MA (1/25/11) -- Researchers from Boston College, MIT, Clemson and Virginia have used nanotechnology to achieve a 60-90 percent increase in the thermoelectric figure of merit of p-type half-Heusler, a common bulk semiconductor compound, the team reported in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters. The dramatic increase in the figure of merit, used to measure a material's relative thermoelectric performance, could pave the way for a new generation of products – from car exhaust systems and power plants to solar power technology – that that runs ...

Washington, D.C. (January 25, 2011) -- A team of physicists has taken a big step toward the development of useful graphene spintronic devices. The physicists, from the City University of Hong Kong and the University of Science and Technology of China, present their findings in the American Institute of Physics' Applied Physics Letters. Graphene, a two-dimensional crystalline form of carbon, is being touted as a sort of "Holy Grail" of materials. It boasts properties such as a breaking strength 200 times greater than steel and, of great interest to the semiconductor and ...

NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of the very cold clouds that house powerful thunderstorms within the Southern Indian Ocean's newest tropical depression, number 10S. The depression quickly strengthened into a tropical storm and continues to affect the northern coast of Western Australia. When Aqua passed over the Tropical Storm 10S on January 25 at 05:53 UTC (12:53 a.m. EST), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured an infrared image of the storm's clouds. The image showed that most of the coldest cloud tops (-63 Fahrenheit/-52 Celsius) ...

Boulder, CO, USA – The February issue of Geology is online now. Articles cover Patagonian glaciations, the Younger Dryas cold period, paleodiversity, submarine gullies, the Transantarctic Mountain micrometeorite collection, the "fastest glacier on Earth," salt diapirs in the Nordkapp Basin, reinterpretation of James Hutton's historic discovery on the Isle of Arran, a new tool to directly date dinosaur-bone fossils, ancient megalakes in Australia, Egypt's Kamil Crater, and more. GSA TODAY examines seismic activity to gain insights into the Rio Grande Rift. Keywords: Ammonoids, ...

Wilma caught the eye of NASA. NASA's Aqua satellite captured visible and infrared images of Cyclone Wilma in the Southwestern Pacific Ocean and her eye was clearly visible from space. On January 25 at 00:59 UTC (8:59 p.m. EST on Jan. 24), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured data that was used to create infrared and visible images at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The images showed Cyclone Wilma had strengthened overnight and now has a visible eye. AIRS Infrared imagery showed strong, very cold thunderstorm cloud tops around ...