Month: October 2012

  • London Array is the World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm

    The London Array is the world’s largest offshore wind farm, and it’s currently under construction in the outer Thames Estuary in the UK. The goal of this platform is to create a 1,000 megawatt capacity. Read more @ SciTechDaily

  • Smartphones Are Great for Sharing Bacteria

    Smartphones’ proximity to people’s ears, nose and mouth make them a good vector for transferring microbes. Bacteria and other infectious agents on smartphones can cause the flu, pinkeye, or diarrhea. Lab tests show that most phones have abnormally high levels of coliforms, a bacteria stemming from fecal contamination. Read more @ SciTechDaily

  • Hurricane Sandy Viewed from Space

    Hurricane Sandy has been downgraded to a post-cyclone storm, and most of the devastating effects of the hurricane are past, but people in 22 states in the USA are still dealing with the effects of its landfall. Read more @ SciTechDaily

  • Image of RCW 120 Nebula Shows Expanding Bubble of Ionized Gas

    In this color composite image of the RCW 120 nebula (above), an expanding bubble of ionized gas, about ten light-years across, is revealed. It is causing the surrounding material to collapse into dense clumps where star formation occurs. Read more @ SciTechDaily

  • Archer Fish Shoots Down Prey with Its Incredible Water Jet

    Archer fish have been observed to knock down prey with a precise jet of water that is six times as powerful as the fish could generate with its own muscles. This allows the archer fish to take down aerial prey from inside the water. Read more @ SciTechDaily

  • Filamentous Bacteria Act as Living Power Cables

    The filamentous bacteria Desulfobulbus can function as living power cables in order to transmit electrons thousands of cell lengths away. The bacteria, which are only a few thousandths of a millimeter in length and are invisible to the naked eye, can form a multicellular filament that can transmit electrons across a distance as large as…

  • Synthetic Molecule Destroys Key Allergy-Inducing Complexes

    A new synthetic molecule has been used to destroy the complexes that induce allergic responses, a discovery that could lead to highly potent, rapidly acting interventions for a host of acute allergic reactions. Read more @ SciTechDaily

  • Changing Gulf Stream is Destabilizing Gases Trapped in Sediments

    Methane gas is escaping from the seabed sediments somewhere off the coast of North Carolina. Researchers think that a shifting Gulf Stream, the Atlantic Ocean current that flows north from the Gulf of Mexico, is to blame since it is delivering warmer waters to areas that had previously only received colder waters. Read more @…

  • Honeybees Have a Bite that Stuns

    Honeybees are well known for their sting, but scientists have discovered that they also have a bite that stuns. Bees resort to biting when faced with pests, such as parasitic mites, that are too small to sting. Read more @ SciTechDaily

  • Leopard Seals Suction Feed on Krill like Whales

    The leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), one of Antarctica’s apex predators, kills penguins and smaller seals in a violent yet efficient manner. However, it seems that that’s not the only thing that H. leptonyx eats. A new study reports that H. leptonyx uses suction feeding to eat large amounts of krill, which is akin to how…