around_the_web
The dynamics of global innovation are changing as a result of the activities of emerging economies, according to The Global Innovation Index 2012. Countries like China, India – and even Paraguay and Sri Lanka – show that while innovative activity generally increases with income levels, good results can be achieved using their own innovation models….
Results from an expedition to far eastern Russia that set out to find the origin of naturally occurring quasicrystals have provided convincing evidence that they arrived on Earth from outer space. Writing in Reports on Progress in Physics, Paul J Steinhardt and Luca Bindi reveal that new, naturally occurring quasicrystal samples have been found in…
When placed under stressful situations, men rate larger women as more attractive, new research has shown. British researchers found that men exposed to tasks that were designed to put them under pressure preferred a wider range of female body sizes. They conclude that stress can act to alter judgments of potential partners. The work by…
An international team of researchers have developed a new technique to measure dark matter, using a state-of-the-art simulation of the Milky Way to test their mass-measuring method before applying it to real data. This threw up a number of surprises: they noticed that standard techniques used over the past twenty years were biased, always tending…
The world is depleting underground water reserves faster than they can be replenished due to over-exploitation, according to scientists in Canada and the Netherlands. The researchers combined groundwater usage data from around the globe with computer models of underground water resources to come up with a measure of water usage relative to supply. That measure…
In the early 2000s, Lowell Wood of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory proposed cooling the earth by launching reflective mirrors into space, though he cautioned that the mirror should be considered only as a measure of last resort. Why? Because the mirror would have to have an area of 600,000 square miles – a slightly smaller…
The largest 3D map yet of the universe’s huge galaxies and bright black holes may serve as a springboard toward solving some of astronomy’s greatest mysteries, its creators say. The map uses new data to reveal the locations of more than a million galaxies over a total volume of 70 billion cubic light-years. David Schlegel…
Exotic kingdoms and bizarre creatures deep beneath the sea or within the bowels of the Earth have been the stuff of myths, science fiction and steampunk fantasy since before Jules Verne first set pen to paper. However, a real-life realm of strange beings lurks within undersea volcanoes and understanding that ecosystem on Earth helps in…
DNA holds the genetic code for all sorts of biological molecules and traits. But University of Illinois researchers have found that DNA’s code can similarly shape metallic structures. The team found that DNA segments can direct the shape of gold nanoparticles — tiny gold crystals that have many applications in medicine, electronics and catalysis. Led…
As human activities put increasing pressures on natural systems and wildlife to survive, 200 scientists around the world carved up pieces of the puzzle to present a clearer picture of reality and find ways to mitigate the destructive forces at work. Their work, published by Nature’s Advanced Online Publication, examined more than 30 different categories…