Crystals are more than just pretty faces. Many of the useful properties associated with metal alloys or polymer blends — like strength, flexibility and clarity — stem from a material’s specific crystal microstructure. So the more scientists know about how crystal patterns grow as a material solidifies, the better they’ll be able to create new materials with specific properties.

In a recent issue of Nature Materials, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researche

A light bulb isn’t very useful without a reliable on/off switch. The same holds true for quantum dots. These ultra tiny electronic nanostructures someday may serve as the ones and zeros used by a superfast quantum computer, but first physicists need to refine their ability to turn quantum dots “on” and “off.”

In the June 23, 2003, on-line issue of Applied Physics Letters, researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Renewal Energy Laborato

Astronauts on extended missions go into space with a spring in their step but rarely return from the International Space Station (ISS) walking steady.

“We want to develop a training device to counter the effects while in space and help astronauts recover more quickly upon return to Earth,” said Dr. Jacob Bloomberg, a researcher on the National Space Biomedical Research Institute’s (NSBRI) neurovestibular adaptation team.

Returning astronauts walk with an unstable gait and wide sta

When internal waves up to 300 feet first form they cause a mighty churning of ocean waters – something invisible to and unfelt by anyone at the surface.

Now in a novel use of mooring data, some of it three decades old, a University of Washington researcher has calculated just how much punch these waves appear to carry as they travel, or propagate, thousands of miles from where they originate.

It’s energy that appears to be crucial to the conveyor-belt-like circulation wherein m

Like all living organisms, cells ingest foreign bodies, but not always as nutrients. Ingestion is also used to eliminate pathogens such as bacteria or harmful cellular waste. This cell function, known as phagocytosis, is vital, notably to the immune and inflammatory response.

CNRS research scientists at the Institut Curie have recently clarified the function of the protein ARF6 in phagocytosis, a mechanism which is still poorly understood. When ARF6 is lacking, the cells can eliminate neith

Web users are picky and impatient, typically visiting only the first three results from a query, with one in five searchers spending 60 seconds or less on a linked Web document, according to Penn State researchers.

“People make instantaneous judgments about whether to stay on a site, and if a site doesn’t the give the right impression, users will bypass it,” said Dr. Jim Jansen, assistant professor in Penn State’s information sciences and technology (IST). “A page has to be well-d