Oct

29

Bad News for Biofuels: Five-Year Moratorium Proposed

October 29, 2007 | 2 Comments

BBC News: Biofuels ‘crime against humanity’. ‘A United Nations expert has condemned the growing use of crops to produce biofuels as a replacement for petrol as a crime against humanity. The UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, said he feared biofuels would bring more hunger. The growth in the production of [...]

Oct

28

Supersolidity

October 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Evidence for “Supersolidity” Becomes More Solid. ‘In recent years, no topic in condensed matter physics has been hotter than the study of ultracold solid helium. Subtle experiments suggest that as temperatures dip toward absolute zero, crystalline helium can bizarrely flow like a liquid with no viscosity, a phenomenon known as supersolidity. Now, a new experiment [...]

Oct

17

2007 Physics Nobel Prize Laureates Articles Freely Available

October 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment

The American Physical Society has announced that both of the original articles describing the work that led to this year’s physics Nobel Prize have been made free-to-read. While the Nobel Laureates made their discoveries independently, both published their fundamental work in papers submitted to the Physical Review journals in 1988: Enhanced magnetoresistance in layered magnetic [...]

Oct

14

Plastic Steel: Light and Transparent but Strong as Steel

October 14, 2007 | 1 Comment

U-M research: New plastic is strong as steel, transparent. ‘By mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells, University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that’s as strong as steel but lighter and transparent. It’s made of layers of clay nanosheets and a water-soluble polymer that shares chemistry with white glue. Engineering professor Nicholas [...]

Oct

10

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2007: Studies of Chemical Processes on Solid Surfaces

October 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2007 – “for his studies of chemical processes on solid surfaces”: Gerhard Ertl. ‘The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2007 is awarded for groundbreaking studies in surface chemistry. This science is important for the chemical industry and can help us to understand such varied processes as why iron rusts, how fuel [...]

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