Blog

In the quest to harvest light for electronics, the focal point is the moment when photons—light particles—encounter electrons, those negatively-charged subatomic particles that form the basis of our modern electronic lives. If conditions are right when electrons and photons meet, an exchange of energy can occur.

The discovery of stone tools found in a Florida river show that humans settled the southeastern United States far earlier than previously believed—perhaps by as much as 1,500 years, according to a team of scientists that includes a University of Michigan paleontologist.

Researchers and businesses have often operated under the idea that work-related cultural values are defined by country – just think of stereotypes about countries that are known to have hard workers or are team-oriented. A new study finds that nationality is actually a bad proxy for work-related cultural values, and points to other groupings – such as occupation – as more reliable indicators.

An international team of researchers headed by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute has gained new insights into the carbon dioxide exchange between ocean and atmosphere, thus making a significant contribution to solving one of the great scientific mysteries of the ice ages. In the past 800,000 years of climate history, the transitions from interglacials and ice ages were always accompanied by a significant reduction in the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere

When the star that created this supernova remnant exploded in 1572, it was so bright that it was visible during the day. And though he wasn’t the first or only person to observe this stellar spectacle, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe wrote a book about his extensive observations of the event, gaining the honor of it being named after him.

Mucous surfaces in the nose, throat, lungs, intestine, and genital tract are points of first contact for many pathogens. As a defensive strategy, most animals (and humans) can rapidly exfoliate these surfaces (i.e., shed the surface layer) to get rid of any attached attackers.

(Phys.org)—A trio of researchers with The University of Texas has found a possible way to create gamma ray beams by firing a laser beam at a piece of plastic. In their paper published in Physical Review Letters, David Stark, Toma Toncian and Alexey Arefiev describe the computer simulation they created, what they found and their hopes that their discovery will lead to a means for creating intense beams of gamma rays for use in a wide variety of applications.

Engineer Fabienne Sallaberry has calculated the losses sustained by solar thermal collectors, devices that convert the sun’s energy into useful heat, when one of their components is not correctly focusing direct solar radiation. This researcher is also proposing that certain sections included in the Spanish standards and in the international ones should be revised so that the global output of these devices can be better determined.

Longer, hotter, more regular heat waves could have a damaging effect on life expectancy and crop production in Africa warn climate scientists in a study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Examining temperature data from 1979 to 2015, the researchers caution that heat waves classified as unusual today could become a normal occurrence within 20 years

Modern wild sheep, Ovis, is widespread in the mountain ranges of the Caucasus through Himalaya, Tibetan Plateau, Tianshan-Altai, eastern Siberia, and the Rocky Mountains in North America. In Eurasia, fossil sheep are known by a few isolated records at a few Pleistocene sites in North China, eastern Siberia, and western Europe, but are so far absent from the Tibetan Plateau.