On the long and difficult road toward a carbon-neutral source of transportation fuels, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is pursuing a diversified approach. This effort involves exploring a range of potential new fuel sources in nature: from plants that may serve as cellulosic feedstocks — fast-growing trees and perennial grasses on land — to [...]
Archive for the ‘Chemistry’ Category
Physical Model Describes Structures of Viral Capsids
June 17th, 2010 The genetic material of viruses is shielded by a protective protein covering called a capsid. The UB researchers David Reguera and Antoni Luque, of the Department of Fundamental Physics, have uncovered the strict selection rules that define capsid structure in spherical and bacilliform viruses, which they report in two papers published in the Proceedings of the [...]
Origin of Life: Adding UV Light Helps Form ‘Missing G’ of RNA Building Blocks
June 14th, 2010 For scientists attempting to understand how the building blocks of RNA originated on Earth, guanine — the G in the four-letter code of life — has proven to be a particular challenge. While the other three bases of RNA — adenine (A), cytosine (C) and uracil (U) — could be created by heating a simple [...]
New Process Is Promising for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars
June 10th, 2010 A new process for storing and generating hydrogen to run fuel cells in cars has been invented by chemical engineers at Purdue University. The process, given the name hydrothermolysis, uses a powdered chemical called ammonia borane, which has one of the highest hydrogen contents of all solid materials, said Arvind Varma, R. Games Slayter Distinguished [...]
On a Roll: Designing the Next Rover to Explore Mars
June 2nd, 2010 The concept of a wind-powered vehicle that can be used to explore the surface of Mars — a so-called “tumbleweed rover” that would roll over the surface of Mars like a tumbleweed — has been around for more than 10 years, but so far there has been no consensus on exactly what that vehicle should [...]
First Images of Heavy Electrons in Action: Characteristics of ‘Hidden Order’ in Unusual Uranium Compound
June 2nd, 2010 Using a microscope designed to image the arrangement and interactions of electrons in crystals, scientists have captured the first images of electrons that appear to take on extraordinary mass under certain extreme conditions. The technique reveals the origin of an unusual electronic phase transition in one particular material, and opens the door to further explorations [...]
Microbe Power as a Green Means to Hydrogen Production
June 1st, 2010 Scientists have been hard at work harnessing the power of microbes as an attractive source of clean energy. Now, Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University researcher Dr. Prathap Parameswaran and his colleagues have investigated a means for enhancing the efficiency of clean energy production by using specialized bacteria. Microbial electrochemical cells or MXCs are able [...]
Mouse work: New insights on a fundamental DNA repair mechanism.
March 10th, 2010 Adding a new link to our understanding of the complex chain of chemistry that keeps living cells alive, a team of researchers from the University of Vermont (UVM), the University of Utah, Vanderbilt University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has demonstrated for the first time the specific activity of the protein [...]
Friction: All May Look Smooth, but There Are ‘Bumps’ Along the Way
March 10th, 2010 In an article appearing in the journal Nature (with a further reference to it in Nature Physics), the scientists show how frictional strength evolves from extremely short to long time scales. The new information could be useful in assessing a wide range of natural and man-made phenomena — from earthquakes to computer hard drives “Although [...]
Posted in Chemistry 
Tags: frictinal motion, Friction, Frictional strenght, Nature Physics 
Comments Off