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Better Sensing Through Empty Receptors
from ScienceNews
Cells may benefit by paying attention to sensors that are still open for business. A new model finds that, contrary to conventional wisdom, sensors on the outside of a cell that have not yet detected a chemical signal may be more useful than those that have already detected the signal, a study set to appear in Physical Review Letters suggests. Full Article
Fish Know Other Fish by Sensing Telltale Ripples
from The Minnesota Post
Although humans experience their world through vision, touch and the other senses, many creatures gather information about their surroundings through unique sensory mechanisms that humans don't have. A new study, for example, shows how fish can "see" other fish by detecting the faint swirls cast off by fins. Full Article
Photon 'Machine Gun' Could Power Quantum Computers
from NewScientist
There is a simple rule of computing that holds true even in the weird quantum world: increase the number of units of information available and you boost computing power. Raising the number of quantum bits, or qubits, carries an even greater reward – every additional qubit doubles the computing power. Full Article
Entanglement in the Macroworld
from ScienceNews
By linking the electrical currents of two superconductors large enough to be seen with the naked eye, researchers have extended the domain of observable quantum effects. Billions of flowing electrons in the superconductors can collectively exhibit a weird quantum property called entanglement, usually confined to the realm of tiny particles, scientists report in the Sept. 24 Nature. Full Article
Why Do We Need Dark Energy?
from Seed Magazine
Why do we need dark energy to explain the observable universe? Two mathematicians propose an alternate solution that, while beautiful, may raise even more questions than it answers. Full Article
A Whiff of Water Found on the Moon
from ScienceNOW
Yes, the moon is a "wetter" place than the Apollo astronauts ever could have imagined, but don't break out the beach gear just yet. Although three independent groups today announced the detection of water on the lunar surface, their find is at most a part per 1000 water in the outermost millimeter or two of still very dry lunar rock. Full Article
The Sun Gets Its Spots (Back)
from Wired
Two sunspots are visible on our star’s face for the first time in more than a year, possibly ending an unexpected lull in solar activity. Solar flares rise and fall on an 11-year cycle, so scientists thought sunspot activity would pick up some time in 2008. It didn’t. And this year has been quiet, too. No sunspots have been visible on the sun for 80 percent of the days this year. Full Article
Steven Chu to Greenhouse Gases: We Will Bury You
from Scientific American
The U.S. Secretary of Energy – channeling former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev perhaps? – has one thing to say in this week's Science to the greenhouse gases emitted by coal-fired power plants: We will bury you. Nobel laureate Steven Chu's department has funneled $3.4 billion in stimulus dollars to research and develop the technology known as carbon capture and storage (CCS). Full Article
Physicists Shrink X-ray Source
from Nature
A team of physicists has built a small, powerful X-ray source – a prototype of the sort of machine they hope could replace much larger facilities. The technology has the potential to revolutionize everything from microbiology to materials science by giving scientists easier access to high-quality images of the things they are studying. Full Article
Climate Change May Trigger Earthquakes and Volcanoes
from NewScientist
Far from being the benign figure of mythology, Mother Earth is short-tempered and volatile. So sensitive in fact, that even slight changes in weather and climate can rip the planet's crust apart, unleashing the furious might of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides. Full Article
The Element Tin Does What Carbon Will Not
from ScienceNews
Just because carbon jumps off a bridge, doesn’t mean that tin will too. Scientists have conducted a simple experiment that attaches a simple hydrocarbon to triple-bonded tin atoms, violating a well-established set of organic chemistry rules. The finding suggests that heavier elements don't behave the same way as carbon, researchers report in the Sept. 25 Science. Full Article
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