Discovery

Electric cars today really get a big attention from US government and commercial viewer. Beside supporting the issue of energy efficiency, electric cars are also claimed to be environmentally frienly, because in most cases, they use an alternative fuel car that uses electric motors and motor controllers instead of an internal combustion engine (ICE). Currently, in most cases, electrical power is derived from battery packs carried on board the vehicle.

Nowadays, as electric cars get more attention and getting popular, the US Department of Energy has announced $8bn in support to help firms make the next generation of cars more efficient than ever before. As NewScientist reported, Founded by PayPal billionaire and space entrepreneur Elon Musk, the bailout money will be used to improving the efficiency of conventional engines, most will be spent on electric vehicles which most auto firms now think are the best bet for making transport cleaner and greener.

Source : NewScientist, Image : savinggas4me

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It was reported in ScienceDaily that an international group of researchers led by Dr. Renate Matzke-Karasz, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, has indirectly detected signs of giant sperm in fossilized ostracods.

Picture shows the length of the filamentous, helical sperm-cells of freshwater ostracods can reach up to ten times the body length of its producer. The longest known ostracod sperm cell is 1 cm long. This scanning electron micrograph shows a bundle of such giant sperm extracted from Eucypris virens, which are approximately 1.8 mm long. (Credit: Dr. Renate Matzke-Karasz)

An organs that are required for transferring giant spermatozoa has been detected, make it seems to be an evolutionary successful reproduction strategy. According to the research, males who produce a large number of tiny spermatozoa quickly and cheaply better their chances for reproduction, while females invest in only a few, yet larger ova. But if the sperm have to compete inside the female’s body, quality sometimes seems to trump quantity. Dr. Robin James Smith of Lake Biwa Museum in Shiga, Japan ponders said, this finding shows that  reproduction with giant sperm had already developed around 100 million years ago in this group of ostracods. But, one thing that stillunknown is the matter whether giant sperm ostracod sperm arose multiple times over the course of evolution, like those of Drosophila, or whether they have been a persistent feature in certain groups for millions of years.

For the complete report,visit ScienceDaily.

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In the news reported by ScienceDaily, June 9th, it was mentioned that there has been found a surprising chemical weapon used by some Amazonian poison frogs.

The poisen itself identified as never been known before, called as the N-methyldecahydroquinolines. As I read on some sources, it is reported that N-methyldecahydroquinolines known to beat the Class of Alkaloids. The dominant alkaloids previously identified in skin extracts of Amazonian dendrobatid frogs of the genus Ameerega are histrionicotoxins and 2,5-disubstituted decahydroquinolines. Analysis of alkaloids in skin extracts of Ameerega picta from Bolivia revealed that the alkaloid 257A, previously reported as a 2,5-disubstituted decahydroquinoline, is an N-methyl-2,5-disubstituted decahydroquinoline. A dietary source for N-methyldecahydroquinolines is unknown; however, myrmicine ants are the likely source for the 2,5-disubstituted decahydroquinolines.

H. Martin Garraffo and colleagues note there are more than 500 alkaloids, potentially toxic substances, known to exist in the skin of poison frogs.

Source : ScienceDaily, Credit : pubs.acs

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Researchers in Purdue University’s Robert and Anne Burnett Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. They created a new type of invisibility cloak that is simpler than previous designs and works for all colors of the visible spectrum, making it possible to cloak larger objects than before and possibly leading to practical applications in “transformation optics.

the new design is a far simpler device based on a “tapered optical waveguide by tapered waveguide to cloak an area 100 times larger than the wavelengths of light shined by a laser into the device, unlike the previous method that used exotic “metamaterials,” which require complex nanofabrication.

Credit : ScienceDaily 

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Radioactive wastes are waste products containing radioactive materials. They are usually the products of nuclear processes, such as nuclear fission. However, industries not directly connected to the nuclear industry may produce large quantities of radioactive waste.

Recently, it has been reported in ScienceDaily that Scientists in Germany and India are reporting development of a new polymer that reduces the amount of radioactive waste produced during routine operation of nuclear reactors.

It has been long known that the nuclear energy produces a great radioactive wastes, like carbon steel and cobalt–that presents in some alloys used in the reactors’ water systems, is a major contributor toward this problem because of its long half-life.

Börje Sellergren and colleagues created an adsorbent material that is selective for cobalt but has the unique ability of disregarding iron-based ions.

Source and Credit : ScienceDaily

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Look at the video! The team of doctors from the Heart Hospital in London, joining with the computer animators from Glassworks, have created a model of heart–a virtual heart–that can be used by heart specialist. NewScientist reported that this super-realistic computer model makes it possible to explore the heart’s anatomy in ways not possible in real patients.

The virtual heart will work by computer mouse. It can be manipulated, rotated, and set to beat normally as well. Hopefully, the model will be very much benefits the specialist that related to heart, includes the medical students, for their reference.

Source ; NewScientist

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As well as green plants and algae, some bacteria are also capable of using the energy in sunlight, to get their energy through photosynthesis. The green bacteria are particularly specialised for growth at very low light intensities. The ability of green bacteria to grow at very low light intensities depends on the way the light-absorbing molecules - bacteriochlorophylls - are organised. In plants and algae, the chlorophylls are associated with pigment-binding proteins.

Recently, in the ScienceDaily, green bacteria has been suggested as the source of light energy. The scientist determined the structure of the chlorophyll molecules in green bacteria that are responsible for harvesting light energy, and suggested that one day could be used to build artificial photosynthetic systems, such as those that convert solar energy to electrical energy.

Donald Bryant, Ernest C. Pollard Professor of Biotechnology at Penn State and one of the team’s leaders, said that the ability to capture light energy and rapidly deliver it to where it needs to go is essential to these bacteria, some of which see only a few photons of light per chlorophyll per day.

The scientist hopes, someday the result will be applicable to build artificial photosynthetic systems that convert solar energy to electricity.

Source and Credit : ScienceDaily

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Heart disease known to be number one killer in the US, and also the major cause of disability. Researches that related to the cure of heart disease have been widely published.

You know, in the report of DOI, it was reported that listen to the music can be the way of heart disease healing. Well, i can capture that actually–analyzed from the characteristic–heart disease is intimately related to the stress level. Since music can decrease our stress level, it is very possible that at the same way, it also gives a benefit for those, who suffers from heart disease or anxiety.

Joke Bradt, who works at the Arts and Quality of Life Research Center at Temple University in Philadelphia said that their finding suggests music listening may be beneficial for heart disease patients. But, future researches are needed, because it also depends on the style and length of the music listened.

Me myself, just suggest everybody to be more often listening to the music. Since it has many benefits for our emotion or physiological responses, why don’t we just set our favorit playlist and listen to them? Let’s singing, people!

Credit : Wellesleyhillscc

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It was reported in ScienceDaily that the researchers from Ohio State University have developed a new strategy to overcome one of the major obstacles to a grand challenge in physics, that intimately linked to the making of light crystals.

Before, in the year of 2008, the researchers from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) had an ambitious problem called “optical lattice”. It has been known that this thing affected the simulation of exotic materials and answer fundamental questions in physics, but the team have been unable to make the atoms cold enough for their experiments to work.

Then, Ohio State university physicist Tin-Lun Ho and doctoral student Qi Zhou present a potential solution, using a new method that cools the atoms in an optical lattice by literally squeezing the heat out of them and into a surrounding BEC.

Three-dimensional cubic structure made of laser light which contains many smaller cubes hopefully can create an adjustable crystal out of laser light, and will be able to emulate different solid materials.

For the complete research report, see here, Credit : ScienceDaily

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The technology of hydrogen cars has been stepping closer to reality. California and Japan have many hydrogen cars being used as fleet vehicles now.

Researchers at the Hydrogen Systems Laboratory at Purdue’s Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories have developed a critical part of a hydrogen storage system for cars that makes it possible to fill up a vehicle’s fuel tank within five minutes with enough hydrogen to drive 300 miles.

To date, it long has been known that hydrogen car uses hydrogen as its on-board fuel for motive power. The idea of hydrogen cars is to have a system that fills the tank and at the same time uses accessory connectors that supply coolant to extract the heat.

The new found technology was linked to the storage system, that lead to a more efficient system, where hydrogen storage systems can be charged multiple times in much the same way a gasoline tank is charged today.

For the complete report, see ScienceDaily.

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