s c i n f o

My SciTek Stream

• Crystalline materials enable high-speed electronic function in optical fibers
  Scientists at the University of Southampton, in collaboration with Penn State University have, for the first time, embedded the high level of performance normally associated with chip-based semiconductors into an optical fibre, creating high-speed optoelectronic function. […]
• Tree rings may underestimate climate response to volcanic eruptions: study
  Some climate cooling caused by past volcanic eruptions may not be evident in tree-ring reconstructions of temperature change because large enough temperature drops lead to greatly shortened or even absent growing seasons, according to climate researchers, who compared tree-ring temperature reconstructions with model simulations of past temperature changes. […]
• PM urged to cut wind farm subsidy
  More than 100 Conservatives are among MPs who have written to the prime minister calling on him to slash subsidies for onshore wind turbines. […]
• How to Make Electricity Using Plants and Sunshine
  When plants engage in photosynthesis , sunlight breaks apart water and CO2 to release oxygen and build plant--and people--food. It's cheap and ubiquitous but not much use for powering a home. [More] […]
• Human Waste-Powered Robots May Be Future of Machines
  Today's robots that fly, jump or roll around must refuel or recharge as does any gadget that runs out of energy. Tomorrow's new generation of self-sustaining robots might keep going nearly forever by grazing on dead insects, rotting plant matter or even human waste. [More] […]
• "San Diego Demonoid": you mean that dead opossum?
  By night, I work as a technical research scientist, writer of papers and so on, but by day I walk the beaches of the world, looking for partially decomposed mystery carcasses and identifying them. Kidding: of course I don t, but you get the idea thanks in no small part to the Montauk Monster flap of 2008 , I ve become known as the guy who identifies weird ca […]
• VIDEO: Birds' paradise lost in Kashmir?
  Nearly a million migratory birds visit Kashmir's wetlands every year, but this time the severe winter has made it nearly impossible for them to find food. […]