Posts
May 13, 2013
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1:00 PM | Making New Elements
Linear Particle Accelerator Jim Kopp How scientists create superheavy atoms. Last year, scientists in Germany set out to create the heaviest known element in the universe: element 119. For five months, they attempted to fuse the atoms of two lighter elements to form one large atom with 119 protons in its nucleus. Like other artificially created superheavy elements (those with 103 or more protons), element 119 will decay in a fraction of a second. Scientists strive to make ever-heavier elements
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April 09, 2013
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11:01 PM | Building A Better Bed Bug Trap
Building a better bed bug trap False-colored green trichomes either pierced through the bed bugs' feet (a, b and c) or hooked around them (d) M. Szyndler, C. Loudon/UC IrvineNew research shows that tiny hairs on bean leaves impale the pests through the feet. A synthetic version may eventually add to the anti-bed bug arsenal. An old folk remedy involving hairy bean leaves strewn around the bedroom may have a new life as a modern bed bug trap, according to new research from the University of
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Gaia Diagram Kevin Hand From the outside, galaxies appear as a mass of stars orbiting a dense center. But inside, they are more complex, with some groups of stars moving at different speeds or directions, in part because they originated from separate galaxies that collided billions of years ago. To untangle these disparate components of the Milky Way, the European Space Agency plans to launch Gaia in October. The two-ton craft will map a billion of our galaxy's more than 100 billion stars,
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March 11, 2013
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Alvin Redux Illustration: Kevin Hand Inset: Courtesy Mark Spear © Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionWhich is a bargain, actually. The ocean covers nearly three quarters of our planet, yet humans have probed a mere 5 percent of it. To better explore its greatest depths, scientists will soon board the revamped Alvin, the workhorse of human-operated deep-submergence vehicles. Owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, the sub has logged 4,664 dives
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February 05, 2013
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Dedication An entomologist feeding bed bugs on his forearm. Brooke BorelA sanguinary luncheon for laboratory insects When the common bed bug staged its comeback over a decade ago, scientists hadn't really studied the insect for about forty years. Once it was clear bed bugs weren't going away, researchers who wanted to learn how to thwart them first had to figure out how to keep thousands--or hundreds of thousands--alive in the lab. The first trick was to feed them. Bed bugs eat just one thing:
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November 26, 2012
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Bed Bug Pill? Brooke BorelA so-called "bed bug pill" has been in the news. Is it for real? Can you cure a bed bug infestation just by downing drugs? While the idea has appeal, particularly for people afflicted with nightly bites and for scientists dealing with a pest that is increasingly difficult to kill, the short answer is probably no. But before we get to the long answer, some background. Bloomberg recently reported on research from the Eastern Virginia Medical School which showed that
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