Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: Water Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

Eddies: Circular currents and their influence on the world's hottest ocean      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Water from the Pacific Ocean flows into the Indian Ocean via the Indonesia Archipelago thanks to a vast network of currents that act as a conveyor belt, transporting warmth and nutrients. Currents can sometimes form circular motions and these are known as eddies. An international group of researchers has modeled the impacts of eddies on the currents that carry water from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean.

Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Physics: General Physics: Optics
Published

Mirror, mirror on the wall... Now we know there are chiral phonons for sure      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

New findings settle the dispute: phonons can be chiral. This fundamental concept, discovered using circular X-ray light, sees phonons twisting like a corkscrew through quartz.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry: Organic Chemistry Chemistry: Thermodynamics
Published

Sustainable technique to manufacture chemicals      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A newly published study details a novel mechanochemistry method that can produce chemicals using less energy and without the use of solvents that produce toxic waste.

Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry: Organic Chemistry Offbeat: General Physics: General Physics: Quantum Computing Physics: Quantum Physics
Published

Breakthrough: Scientists develop artificial molecules that behave like real ones      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have developed synthetic molecules that resemble real organic molecules. A collaboration of researcher can now simulate the behavior of real molecules by using artificial molecules.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Developmental Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Marine Biology: Microbiology Biology: Molecular Ecology: Sea Life Environmental: Water Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

When water temperatures change, the molecular motors of cephalopods do too      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Working with live squid hatchlings, scientists find the animals can tune their proteome on the fly in response to changes in ocean temperature via the unique process of RNA recoding. The findings inspire new questions about basic protein function.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Physics: General Physics: Quantum Physics
Published

Physicists discover an exotic material made of bosons      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Take a lattice -- a flat section of a grid of uniform cells, like a window screen or a honeycomb -- and lay another, similar lattice above it. But instead of trying to line up the edges or the cells of both lattices, give the top grid a twist so that you can see portions of the lower one through it. This new, third pattern is a moiré, and it's between this type of overlapping arrangement of lattices of tungsten diselenide and tungsten disulfide where physicists found some interesting material behaviors.

Chemistry: Biochemistry Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Energy: Nuclear Physics: General Physics: Quantum Physics
Published

Calculation shows why heavy quarks get caught up in the flow      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Theorists have calculated how quickly a melted soup of quarks and gluons -- the building blocks of protons and neutrons -- transfers its momentum to heavy quarks. The calculation will help explain experimental results showing heavy quarks getting caught up in the flow of matter generated in heavy ion collisions.

Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry: Organic Chemistry
Published

More complex than expected: Catalysis under the microscope      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Usually, catalytic reactions are analyzed by checking which chemicals go into a chemical reactor and which come out. But as it turns out, in order to properly understand and optimize catalysts, much more information is necessary. Scientists developed methods to watch catalytic reactions with micrometer resolution under the microscope -- and the process is much more complex than previously thought.

Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Engineering: Nanotechnology Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Physics: General
Published

The problems with coal ash start smaller than anyone thought      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Burning coal doesn't only pollute the air. The resulting ash can leach toxic chemicals into the local environments where it's kept. New research shows that the toxicity of various ash stockpiles relies heavily on its nanoscale structures, which vary widely between sources. The results will help researchers predict which coal ash is most environmentally dangerous.

Biology: Marine Ecology: General Ecology: Nature Ecology: Research Ecology: Sea Life Environmental: Ecosystems Environmental: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Oceanography
Published

Whales not to be counted on as 'climate savers'      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Do whales increase the removal of carbon from the atmosphere? Despite some hope that this would be the case, a new study has found the amount of potential carbon capture by whales is too little to meaningfully alter the course of climate change. The team found the amount potentially sequestered by the whales was too minimal to make significant impact on the trajectory of climate change.

Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Engineering: Nanotechnology Offbeat: General Physics: Optics
Published

Buckle up! A new class of materials is here      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Would you rather run into a brick wall or into a mattress? For most people, the choice is not difficult. A brick wall is stiff and does not absorb shocks or vibrations well; a mattress is soft and is a good shock absorber. Sometimes, in designing materials, both of these properties are needed. Materials should be good at absorbing vibrations, but should be stiff enough to not collapse under pressure. A team of researchers from the UvA Institute of Physics has now found a way to design materials that manage to do both these things.

Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Mathematics: Modeling Physics: General Physics: Quantum Physics
Published

Finally solved! The great mystery of quantized vortex motion      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists investigated numerically the interaction between a quantized vortex and a normal-fluid. Based on the experimental results, researchers decided the most consistent of several theoretical models. They found that a model that accounts for changes in the normal-fluid and incorporates more theoretically accurate mutual friction is the most compatible with the experimental results.

Chemistry: General Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry: Organic Chemistry Physics: Optics
Published

Flat fullerene fragments attractive to electrons      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have gained new insights into the unique chemical properties of spherical molecules composed entirely of carbon atoms, called fullerenes. They did it by making flat fragments of the molecules, which surprisingly retained and even enhanced some key chemical properties.

Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Engineering: Graphene
Published

Producing large, clean 2D materials made easy      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An international team of surface scientists has now developed a simple method to produce large and very clean 2D samples from a range of materials using three different substrates.

Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry Chemistry: Thermodynamics Engineering: Nanotechnology Physics: General
Published

Researchers finds a way to reduce the overheating of semiconductor devices      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have identified a method for improving the thermal conductivity of thin metal films in semiconductors using surface waves for the first time in the world.

Environmental: Water Geoscience: Earth Science Geoscience: Geochemistry Geoscience: Geography Geoscience: Geology Geoscience: Oceanography Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Petit-spot volcanoes involve the deepest known submarine hydrothermal activity, possibly release CO2 and methane      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Underwater volcanism and its hydrothermal activity play an important role in marine biogeochemical cycles, especially the carbon cycle. But the nature of hydrothermal activity at 'petit-spot' volcanoes have not been revealed at all. Now, scientists reveal that petit-spot hydrothermal activity occurs on the deepest seafloor known to date and could release carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, which may have implications for the global carbon cycle.