Lockergnome

East Tennessee is now home to two of the world’s three fastest computers, according to new rankings released today.
The Top500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers places University of Tennessee supercomputer Kraken in third place, where it also holds the title of world’s fastest academic supercomputer, while Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Jaguar computer took first [...]

Small amounts of oil leave a fluorescent sheen on polluted water. Oil sheen is hard to remove, even when the water is aerated with ozone or filtered through sand. Now, a University of Utah engineer has developed an inexpensive new method to remove oil sheen by repeatedly pressurizing and depressurizing ozone gas, creating microscopic bubbles [...]

Rising water temperatures are kicking up more powerful winds on Lake Superior, with consequences for currents, biological cycles, pollution and more on the world’s largest lake and its smaller brethren.
Since 1985, surface water temperatures measured by lake buoys have climbed 1.2 degrees per decade, about 15 percent faster than the air above the lake and [...]

Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham), the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics and the University of California, San Diego have found that normal synaptic activity in nerve cells (the electrical activity in the brain that allows nerve cells to communicate with one another) protects the brain from the [...]

Patients with coronary heart disease who practiced the stress-reducing Transcendental Meditation technique had nearly 50 percent lower rates of heart attack, stroke, and death compared to nonmeditating controls, according to the results of a first-ever study presented during the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Fla., on Nov.16, 2009.
The trial was sponsored [...]

Spurred by a warming climate, daily record high temperatures occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade across the continental United States, new research shows.
The ratio of record highs to lows is likely to increase dramatically in coming decades if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to climb.
Results of the research, by authors [...]

When Charles Darwin visited the Falkland Islands during the voyage of the Beagle in 1835, he saw a wolf-like species, wrote about it in his diaries and correctly commented that it was being hunted in such large numbers that it would soon become extinct.
Darwin was baffled by how this animal got on the islands, and [...]

Many parents of preschoolers struggle with their children’s fears of real and imaginary creatures. A new study offers some ideas on how they can better manage their children’s worries.
The study, which was carried out by researchers at the University of California, Davis, appears in the November/December 2009 issue of the journal Child Development.
Researchers studied about [...]

Coral reefs support some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, yet they thrive in a marine desert. So how do reefs sustain their thriving populations?
Marine biologist Fleur Van Duyl from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research is fascinated by the energy budgets that support coral reefs in this impoverished environment. According to [...]

Scientists at the University of Adelaide have made a breakthrough that could change the world’s thinking on what light is capable of.
The researchers in the University’s new Institute for Photonics & Advanced Sensing (IPAS) have discovered that light within optical fibers can be squeezed into much tighter spaces than was previously believed possible.
Optical fibers usually [...]

In the quest to make hydrogen as a clean alternative fuel source, researchers have been stymied about how to create usable hydrogen that is clean and sustainable without relying on an intensive, high-energy process that outweighs the benefits of not using petroleum to power vehicles.
New findings from a team of researchers from the University of [...]

Short-term memory may depend in a surprising way on the ability of newly formed neurons to erase older connections. That’s the conclusion of a report in the November 13th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, that provides some of the first evidence in mice and rats that new neurons sprouted in the [...]

Malfunctioning circadian clock genes may be responsible for bipolar disorder in children. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry found four versions of the regulatory gene RORB that were associated with pediatric bipolar disorder.
Alexander Niculescu from Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, US, worked with a team of researchers at Harvard, UC San [...]

It is currently estimated that natural gas resources will be exhausted in 130 years; however, those reserves where extraction is cost-effective will only flow for another 60 years or so. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research and at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces might be helping to make it [...]

Drug companies and nonprofit organizations are joining forces to develop new drugs and vaccines to target so-called “neglected” diseases that claim millions of lives in the developing world each year. Those hard-to-treat diseases include malaria, tuberculosis, dengue fever, and other conditions. That’s the topic of the cover story scheduled for the current issue of Chemical [...]

A comfort food, a tasty treat, an indulgence — ice cream conjures feelings of happiness and satisfaction for millions. Ice cream researchers at the University of Missouri have discovered ways to make ice cream tastier and healthier and have contributed to ice cream development and manufacturing for more than a century. Today, MU researchers are [...]

Tel Kabri is the only site in Israel where wall paintings similar in style to those found in the Aegean 3,600 years ago have been found; researchers say this was a conscious decision made by the city rulers to lean toward Mediterranean culture.
The remains of a Minoan-style wall painting, recognizable by a blue background, the [...]

What are known as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can enhance the concept of democracy, boosting public participation. The most widespread manner of gathering the opinions of the public is through the electoral process. Over recent decades, thanks to ICTs, new systems for improving these election processes have been put forward.
University of Basque Country (UPV/EHU) [...]

If you forget your password when logging into an e-mail or online shopping Web site, the site will likely ask you a security question: What is your mother’s maiden name? Where were you born?
The trouble is that such questions are not very secure. More people than you may think will know your answers. And if [...]

Heart rate variability, a sign of a healthy heart, has been shown to be higher in yoga practitioners than in non-practitioners, according to research to be published in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics.
The autonomic nervous system regulates the heart rate through two routes - the sympathetic and parasympathetic [...]