The European Space Agency (ESA) announced today support of a new program that will include development of an instrument for testing deep soil samples on Mars in a European mission called ExoMars. A researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara will direct the development of the instrument.
“We are very excited about this,” said Luann Becker, research scientist with the Institute of Crustal Studies at UC Santa Barbara. “Its a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” Testing by
The outer core of the Earth, whose composition until now has been a mystery, may consist of an alloy of iron and magnesium. This discovery by an international team of scientists with members from Linköping University in Sweden, being published in the journal Physical Review Letters, is, among other things, a major step toward being able to predict earthquakes.
In theoretical and experimental studies under extremely high pressure, the team has succeeded in mixing iron and magnesium.
In conventional dual-mode circuitry both signal lines are just switched by the PIN-diodes. The novel dual-mode switches, which were developed in the department…
Patent foramen ovale may be innocent bystander, not source of stroke
Mayo Clinic researchers have found that — contrary to current thinking by some in the medical community — a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a small hole between the two upper chambers of the heart, does not predestine an individual to a stroke later in life. Findings will appear online on Friday, Dec. 9 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“In the general population, it doe
New reports document dramatic changes in the ownership of southern forestland
Two new research studies document dramatic changes in the ownership of Southern forestland and declining markets for its forest products. The Southern Group of State Foresters (SGSF), with the help of scientists from the USDA Forest Service and their university cooperators, recently reviewed the findings of two year-long research projects aimed at understanding trends crucial to the future of southern fo
Duke University biochemists aided by Duke computer scientists and computational chemists have identified the likely way two key enzymes dock in an intricate three-dimensional puzzle-fit to regulate cell division. Solving the docking puzzle could lead to anticancer drugs to block the runaway cell division behind some cancers, said the researchers.
Significantly, their insights arose not just from meticulous biochemical studies, but also from using sophisticated simulation techniques to p