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Science Tidbits

By possum

Once again the time has come to gather around for a day of new and exciting, tantalizing news in the realm of science.  New discoveries.  New takes on old knowledge.  The base of information and knowledge grows at a rate much too fast to keep up with all that is available.

Over the fold are some selections from a few of my favorite science news sites around the world.  Tidbits include a giant step for nanotechnology, pit houses in Los Vegas, green driving through technology, possible cancer treatment by smart nano-hydrogels, and rainforest trees are getting bigger along with absorbing more CO2.  Follow over the fold and down the yellow brick road for one more session of science education and entertainment.
Nanotechnology is the manipulation of materials less than 1000 nanometers or so in size.

A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. Put another way, if a nanometer were the size of a normal apple, measuring approximately 10 centimeters in diameter, a normal apple, enlarged proportionally, would be roughly the size of the earth.

Chemists at New York University and China's Nanjing University have developed a two-armed nanorobotic device that can manipulate molecules within a device built from DNA.

The use of this device allows scientists to put molecules in the exact position desired.  The possibilities for science and medicine opened by this ability to manipulate small particles are amazing.

Prehistoric civilizations are confirmed in the American southwest.  Among these were the Puebloans who lived as transients in the Los Vegas area.  Pit houses built by these people have been found less than 5 miles from the Los Vegas strip.

Using ground penetrating radio equipment, Michael "Bodhi" Rogers and two of his undergraduate researchers have produced images showing the possible location of two ancient dug-out dwellings known as pit houses.

Smart driving by using GPS technology is on the horizon.

GreenDrive that combines information on where a vehicle is located, what the road conditions are and the type of car being used to calculate and advise the driver on the most economical driving style to use, when to accelerate, when to break, and when to keep the speed constant.

This information is given to the driver both in graphical displays and audio alerts.

But how distracted will the driver be with all that input?  Can humans handle the information in a manner consistent with safe driving?

Hydrogels are polymers in the shape of a net.  They may swell with liquid but cannot be dissolved in water.  Now scientists have developed a way to make the hydrogel a standard size to hold drug particles inside the net.  Since pH drops in the region of cancer the polymers were made "smart" in order to deliver their drug package at the site of action.

In order to achieve this capability, these hydrogels are functionalised with folic acid, which has the ability to detect and to "trick" cancer cells, in such a way that these permit penetration of their membranes: under these conditions the hydrogel acts like a "Trojan horse".

And we all know what Trojan horses have accomplished in the past.

Nearly a fifth of CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels is being absorbed by the planet's tropical forests.

he researchers show that remaining tropical forests remove a massive 4.8 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere each year. This includes a previously unknown carbon sink in Africa, mopping up 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 each year.

While scientists are not speculating as to why the trees are growing larger, but the evidence of their importance in global climate change is gaining ground day by day.

For more science news see these and other websites:

General Science Collectors:
Eureka Science News
New Scientist
LiveScience
PhysOrg.com
Space Daily

Blogs:
ScienceBlogs
Tetrapod Zoologyvertebrate paleontology
Laelapsmore vertebrate paleontology
Cantauri Dreamsspace exploration
Deep Sea Newsmarine biology
A Few Things Ill Considered
Techie and Science News:
Wired News
Techonology Review
Space Review
List of Geoscience Blogs

Science RSS Feed: Medworm

NASA picture of the day.  For more see the NASA website.  These pictures are evidence of your tax dollars hard at work.

Apollo 17 moonwalk, NASA, Public Domain

Peace.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on February 20, 2009 (boomark / email).