Whats new?
Scientists have developed a large-scale economical method to extract hydrogen (H2) from oil sands (natural bitumen) and oil fields. This can be used to power hydrogen-powered vehicles, which are already marketed in some countries, as well as to generate electricity; hydrogen is regarded as an efficient transport fuel, similar to petrol and diesel, but with no pollution problems. The process can extract hydrogen from existing oil sands reservoirs, with huge existing supplies found in Canada and Venezuela. Interestingly, this process can be applied to mainstream oil fields, causing them to produce hydrogen instead of oil.
A second planet has been discovered circling Beta Pictoris, a fledgling star in our own galaxy offering astronomers a rare glimpse of a planetary system in the making, according to a study published Monday.
Sea temperature and ocean acidification have climbed during the last three decades to levels beyond what is expected due to natural variation alone, a new study led by Princeton researchers finds. Meanwhile other impacts from climate change, such as changes in the activity of ocean microbes that regulate the Earth's carbon and oxygen cycles, will take several more decades to a century to appear. The report was published Aug. 19 online in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Since the first Homo sapiens emerged in Africa roughly 300,000 years ago, grasslands have sustained humanity and thousands of other species. But today, those grasslands are shifting beneath our feet. Global change—which includes climate change, pollution and other widespread environmental alterations—is transforming the plant species growing in them, and not always in the ways scientists expected, a new study published Monday revealed.
Over the course of 40 years, biologist Sharon Long has become an expert in symbiotic bacteria that help alfalfa grow. She has published over 150 papers on this one topic but when she realized her lab's decades of highly focused research could contribute to a solution for citrus greening—a disease that devastates citrus crops—she was inspired to go in a new direction.
A common origin shared by teeth and taste buds in a fish that has regenerative abilities has been identified by a team of researchers from the UK and the States. Regulated by the BMP signalling pathway, the results suggest that the oral organs have surprising regenerative capabilities and can be manipulated to express characteristics of different tissue types.
Northern hemisphere summers will deliver dangerously longer heatwaves, droughts and bouts of rain even if humanity manages to cap global warming at two degrees Celsius, scientists said Monday.
If we accept that information can’t travel faster than the speed of light, a quantum theorem seems to require many worlds that split when you make a measurement
Author(s): Wolfgang S. M. Werner
A law describing electron attenuation in solids has long helped researchers determine the size of nanoscale objects, but experiments show that it is less general than previously thought.
[Physics 12, 93] Published Mon Aug 19, 2019
Focus: Friction, Not Inertia, Controls Avalanches
Author(s): Peter Weiss
By tuning the friction between tiny beads suspended in water, researchers gain new understanding of how avalanches begin.
[Physics 12, 92] Published Fri Aug 16, 2019
Synopsis: Quantum Teleportation Now Comes in 3D
The first experiment to teleport qutrits rather than qubits paves the way to teleporting the complete quantum state of a particle.
[Physics] Published Thu Aug 15, 2019
What if there was no big bang and we live in an ever-cycling universe?
There is no good evidence that our universe even had a beginning, a startling proposition that means the cosmos could collapse in about 100 billion years
Author(s): Dominic W. Berry
A new way to simulate a molecule is potentially much faster than other approaches because it relies on random—as opposed to deterministic—sequences of operations.
[Physics 12, 91] Published Wed Aug 14, 2019
Synopsis: Static Electricity Needs Water
Experiments pressing two materials together show that static electricity accumulates when surface water lets ions move from one surface to another.
[Physics] Published Wed Aug 14, 2019
Military-grade jet fuel made cheaply from plant waste instead of coal
An expensive superfuel normally reserved for missiles and hypersonic jets can now be made from crop waste instead of fossil fuels - and more cheaply to boot
Two separate groups have designed structures that can hide objects from fluid flows and surface waves so that no wake is visible.
[Physics] Published Tue Aug 13, 2019
No sign radiation from a missile explosion has spread beyond Russia
An explosion at a Russian missile testing range led to local spikes in radiation, but it doesn’t seem to have spread to Europe as it did during the Chernobyl incident
Iron-60 found in fresh Antarctic snow was forged in nearby supernovae and could help deduce the structure and origin of interstellar dust clouds.
[Physics] Published Mon Aug 12, 2019
Earth's magnetic poles probably won't flip within our lifetime
Contrary to recent reports, new research suggests the next reversal of Earth’s magnetic pole won’t happen in a human lifetime and could take tens of thousands of years
Discovering giant prime numbers involves laborious trial and error, and they are of little use when they are found. For certain devotees, that's beside the point
Exoplanets are abundant near the galaxy's smallest stars. Observing M dwarfs could teach us more about the worlds beyond our solar system, writes Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
New device could boost telecommunications and be adapted for photonics
Revamped accelerator will soon be smashing electrons and positrons together
New material is made by compressing treated wood
Technique could be used to create quantum-information systems
Breakthrough could lead to new type of energy source
Ising model could account for nut production of pistachio orchards
Agency will now require every grantee organization to report cases of sexual harassment