Graphene beyond the hype

The wonder material. It’s just one atom thick but 200 times stronger than steel; extremely conductive but see-through and flexible. Graphene has shot to fame since its discovery in 2004 by UK-based researchers Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, for which the University of Manchester pair were awarded the 2010 Nobel prize in physics.

New explosive is powerful but greener

One of the most powerful non-nuclear explosives to date has been synthesized by scientists in Germany, who say the compound, and its more thermally stable potassium salt, could be more environmentally benign replacements for some common primary explosives.

Skinny Jeans Gave Woman Nerve and Muscle Damage

A woman in Australia who spent long hours squatting while wearing skinny jeans experienced muscle damage in her legs that was so severe it impaired her ability to walk, according to the new report of her case.

Sugary Drinks Kill 184,000 People Every Year

Sugary drinks cause 184,000 deaths worldwide annually, including 25,000 deaths in the United States, according to a new study.
The finding — a revised estimate of numbers first presented at a scientific meeting in 2013 — represents a tally of deaths from diabetes, heart disease and cancer that scientists say can be directly attributed to the consumption of sweetened sodas, fruit drinks, sports/energy drinks and iced teas.
The numbers imply that sugary drinks can cause as many deaths annually as the flu.

Altered gene leaves people totally painfree

Naturally occurring changes in a previously unstudied gene can prevent people from experiencing pain. And that’s not good. It can leave them dangerously unaware of harm.

Researchers presented the finding May 25 in Nature Genetics.

A Vegetable Garden (Almost) on the Moon

No air, no water, poor soil, extreme heat and cold, deadly cosmic rays: at first glance, the lunar landscape doesn't look like much of a place to grow crops. But if humans are ever going to colonize the moon, Mars, or anywhere else in the solar system, we're going to need to bring some edible plants along.

Researchers develop new method to count DNA molecules in just 30 minutes

3D illustration of droplet formation on a lab-on-a-chip system: Drops of water tear off from the mouths of the channels as the disk rotates. A layer of oil ensures that the drops do not combine again.

Researchers successfully transform liquid deuterium into a metal

Schematic phase diagram of hydrogen. The figure shows the four known solid phases I to IV and two observed liquid phases, together with the predicted atomic liquid. Blue rings imply rotating quantum molecules, wiggly lines imply entangled rotor state, and solid bonds are where calculation shows a covalent bond.

Why June 30 will get an extra second

The day will officially be a bit longer than usual on Tuesday, June 30, 2015, because an extra second, or "leap" second, will be added.

"Earth's rotation is gradually slowing down a bit, so leap seconds are a way to account for that," said Daniel MacMillan of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Strictly speaking, a day lasts 86,400 seconds. That is the case, according to the time standard that people use in their daily lives -- Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC. UTC is "atomic time" -- the duration of one second is based on extremely predictable electromagnetic transitions in atoms of cesium. These transitions are so reliable that the cesium clock is accurate to one second in 1,400,000 years.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory this week released a study that shows gasoline and diesel refined from Canadian oil sands have a higher carbon impact than fuels derived from conventional domestic crude sources.

The research, which was conducted in collaboration with Stanford University and the University of California at Davis, shows variability in the increase of greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts, depending on the type of extraction and refining methods. But generally speaking, fuel extracted and refined from Canadian oil sands will release approximately 20 percent more carbon into the atmosphere over its lifetime than fuel from conventional domestic crude sources.