Recent Scientific Discoveries in the Spotlight

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Posts from the Sciencebase Archives -

 

For current scientific discoveries under the Spotlight, check out Intute.

2007

Fertile Global Warming Plan [Dec 2007 - earth]
Plans to fertilize the oceans with iron or other nutrients in order to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide and so ward off global warming ...

Buckyball Necklace [Dec 2007 - chemistry]
A new type of polymer material made by stringing together the tiny football-shaped fullerene molecules has been synthesise ...

Volcanoes of the Moon [Dec 2007 - astronomy,earth]
Even though astronauts have set foot on the Moon, analysed its surface and brought samples back to Earth, we do not yet fully understand the Moon's origins nor how it has evolved during the last few billion years ...

Elemental Discoveries [Nov 2007 - chemistry,physics]
Things have got heavy for aluminium and magnesium with the synthesis of three previously unseen isotopes of these elements by researchers in the US. ...

Exposed stumps and global warming [Nov 2007 - earth]
Tree stumps at the foot of glaciers in western Canada show that glaciation there is at a 7000-year low. The revelations could provide new insights into the accelerated rates ...

Nobel chemistry rises to the surface [Nov 2007 - chemistry,physics]
This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes much deeper than any superficial notion of surface chemistry might suggest. Surface chemistry helps explain many of the processes of the chemical industry, such as catalysis in the production of fine chemicals, ...

Could Bicarb Solve Greenhouse Gas Problem? [Oct 2007 - chemistry]
A nanostructured polymer membrane that can extract carbon dioxide from a gaseous flow and convert it to bicarbonate ions could be the key to carbon sequestration in the fight to control levels of the greenhouse gas. ...

Big Watts, Low Cost [Oct 2007 - physics]
A method developed by US researchers for making solar panels is closing in on mass production and could bring us the 50 pence per Watt device ...

Rocky Neighbours [Oct 2007 - astronomy]
A meteorite smashed into Peru recently. Fortunately, no one was injured by the immediate impact, but a lot of people who rushed to see the crater subsequently became ill. Initially, reports blamed toxic gas from the meteorite itself, but ...

Explosive Crystal [Sep 2007 - chemistry,materials]
Three centuries after its discovery by alchemists, the crystal structure of mercury fulminate - an explosive detonation ...

Hubble Beater [Sep 2007 - astronomy]
Cambridge and Caltech astronomers have devised a new digital sensor for their telescopes that effectively cancels out the "twinkling" caused by the Earth's atmosphere and allows them ...

Bottom up to nanotech [Sep 2007 - materials,physics]
Two back-to-back papers published by IBM scientists could herald the long-awaited advent of molecular or nanotech computing devices. ...

Casting pearls [Aug 2007 - materials]
Despite its common use in jewellery and for decoration, mother-of-pearl, or nacre, could more suited to engineering applications. This natural material found lining the shells of sea creatures, such as oysters and abalones, ...

In a flap over giant bird [Aug 2007 - earth]
Andean condors are impressive in their soaring majesty with a 3 metre wing span, but 6 million years ago, the world's largest bird took to the skies with a wingspan the size of a Cessna 152 light aircraft. Now, ...

It's life Jim, but not as we know it [Aug 2007 - astronomy]
Would we recognize life if we found it on other planets? Are the weird imaginings of decades of science ...

Telescopic lunar liquid [Jul 2007 - astronomy]
A liquid reflector for a vast Newtonian telescope to be based on the surface of the Moon is being developed by scientists in Canada...

Arctic drought [Jul 2007 - earth]
Frozen Arctic ponds that have persisted for millennia are drying out during the polar summer, according to evidence from Canadian scientists...

Plastic breakdown [Jul 2007 - chemistry]
As if to show just how diverse the properties and applications of ionic liquids can be, a new era in recycling of plastics is fast approaching thanks to scientists in Japan...

Nickel shots and stellar nurseries [Jun 2007 - astronomy]
A chemical analysis of meteorites almost as old as the Solar system itself suggests that rather than forming from the remnants of a supernova explosion our solar system was formed ...

To the tower! [Jun 2007 - chemistry]
Pollution regulations aimed at protecting human health are having an unexpected effect on the London skyline. Buildings such as the Tower of London complex were soot encrusted from as early as the thirteenth century because of fires and industrial smoke. ...

Elemental magnetism [Jun 2007 - chemistry,physics]
Carbon is the element of life, without it we simply would not exist, despite the sci-fi penchant for silicon-based life forms. It is indeed a unique element with many apparently anomalous properties. However, one phenomenon that has not been observed unambiguously in carbon, ...

Endless gas [May 2007 - earth]
Norwegian scientists have drawn up a league table of alternative fuels for cars based on what they call a "well-to-wheel" analysis. Their approach takes into account the energy costs in manufacturing, total energy use, and overall pollution included greenhouse gas emissions. ...

Seconds out [May 2007 - physics]
In the 1950s, the atomic clock was the pinnacle of split-second time-keeping. Today, physicists use its successors based on energy transitions in rubidium atoms that gives them 100 times more accuracy. These clocks ...

The Matrix Recharged [May 2007 - chemistry,materials]
One of the big problems facing society in its search for sustainable alternative energy sources is not how to harness wind, solar, or wave power, but how to store the electricity produced using these elements at times of low demand. Capacitors could be the answer. These devices ...

Fault finding [Apr 2007 - earth]
Almost half a million US dollars, about £250k, was earmarked by the National Science Foundation (NSF) for a project to map California's San Andreas Fault, ...

Science comes in from the cold [Apr 2007 - physics]
Research into the phenomenon formerly known as cold fusion is heating up again. Despite an initial chilly reception to anything related to this once-maverick science, it seems that studies of what are now called ...

Interplanetary rubble [Apr 2007 - astronomy]
It's not the most romantic image of heavenly bodies, but the latest observations of a pair of asteroids suggest that the pair is essentially two piles of rubble dancing an eternal pas de deux. The description emerges from a collation of observations from the world's largest telescopes as well as the small instrument of a backyard amateur ...

Chemists go veggie [Mar 2007 - chemistry]
Chemists working on tight budgets in developing countries may be able to swap flasks of laboratory reagents for extracts of celery and potatoes, or cassava and carrots and other inexpensive, ...

Neanderthals more than severely put out by bad weather [Mar 2007 - earth]
Climate change saw off the last of the Neanderthals from their final stronghold on the Iberian peninsula thousands of years ago, according to ...

Slumbering Yellowstone snores [Mar 2007 - earth]
Beneath the beautiful Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming lies a slumbering giant, a supervolcano who wakes every few hundred thousand years and wreaks havoc across hundreds of ...

Anthropogenic volcanic activity [Feb 2007 - earth]
The first scientific report into the causes and impact of Lusi, the Indonesian mud volcano located in Eastern Java that erupted on 29th May 2006 in the middle of a rice paddy, has now been published. The study by ...


Shedding light on a molecular lock [Feb 2007 - chemistry]
Logic at the molecular scale has been exploited to build a keypad lock that "opens" only when the correct sequence of inputs is applied. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel explain how they have harnessed the principles of molecular Boolean ...


Demonic chemistry [Feb 2007 - physics]
In 1867, Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell devised a thought experiment that would help scientists find ways of breaking the law. The second law of thermodynamics, that is. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that heat cannot pass from a hotter object to a colder one


Molecular Speed Bumps [Jan 2007 - chemistry]
New organic molecules that interact with light more strongly than any other materials could provide the template for new high-speed optical switches for telecommunications and data processing, ...

Cheap as LED chips [Jan 2007 - materials]
Light-emitting diodes almost ubiquitously provide the illumination in electronics and potentially will provide energy-efficient brightness in our homes. However, ...

A Blast From The Past [Jan 2007 - earth]
Volcanic activity can have serious consequences for climate change as particles and gases spewed out by volcanoes enter the upper atmosphere ...

Scientific Discoveries in 2007

Scientific Discoveries in 2006

Scientific Discoveries in 2005

Read earlier scientific discoveries...

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