Scientists find new way to generate electricity

Coated carbon nanotubes could replace combustion engines and turbines

Researchers have found a way to produce large amounts of electricity from tiny cylinders made from carbon atoms.

The achievement could replace decades-old methods of generating electricity, such as combustion engines and turbines, the researchers say.

In the future, coated carbon nanotubes crafted from individual atoms could power everything from cell phones to hybrid-electric vehicles. The team envisions such nanotube-based power being available to consumers in the next five years.

Carbon nanotubes are thin sheets of carbon rolled up into teensy tubes each with a diameter about 30,000 times smaller than a strand of hair.

When carbon — one of the most abundant elements on Earth — is rolled up into tubes, it exhibits some extraordinary properties such as high heat conduction, which the team exploited in the new study.

A carbon firecrackerThe researchers coated the nanotubes with a fuel, such as gasoline or ethanol, and applied heat to one end. The result:  The fuel reacts and produces more heat, which ignites more fuel to create even more heat.

The process creates “a wave that travels like dominoes falling in a line [down the length of the nanotube],” said study team member Michael Strano, a chemical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The resulting heat wave, it turns out, also creates a wave of electrons moving in one direction — aka electricity.

“The thermal wave squeezes electrons out of the nanotubes like a tube of toothpaste,” Strano explained.

The devices built in the MIT lab produced 10 times more power than a lithium-ion battery of equivalent mass.

“What's intriguing about these waves is that we haven’t really done any engineering to make them efficient yet and already they’re ten times [more powerful than] a lithium-ion battery,” Strano told TechNewsDaily. “We may be able to make very very small power sources out of them."

Cell phone battery replacementThe fuel-coated nanotubes could replace batteries for cell phones and other devices. Strano imagines a device with a button that you would push to create heat from friction, triggering the electricity-generating reaction inside the microscopic tubes.

These power devices could be made 10 times smaller than today’s cell-phone batteries but still hold the same amount of power. Furthermore, unlike today’s batteries, the carbon nanotube variety would not contain any toxic metals.

With some tweaking, the carbon nanotubes could even power a car, Strano said. But instead of coating the carbon cylinders with fuel, a liquid fuel could be stored in the car's gas tank and get injected onto the carbon nanotube battery when needed.

Strano said he was confident his team's discovery could be translated into commercial batteries within a few years.

 

Missing dog turns up 600 miles from home

Deacon the German shepherd survived journey from Virginia to Florida

About two weeks before Christmas, Deacon, an 85-pound German shepherd, went missing from his family home in rural Stuart, Va.

During the first couple of days, Pamela Holt, her husband Keith, and their daughter Brooklyn, 3, weren't terribly worried because they figured their nearly 2-year-old pet was running in the fields behind their home.

"We have a lot of land and thought Deacon might be enjoying the outdoors," Holt, who works as a teller for SunTrust bank, tells PEOPLEPets.com. "But we soon got worried and called the area dog warden, the pound and the sheriff's office. After two weeks, we gave up, fearing he had died or was stolen."

About two weeks before Christmas, Deacon, an 85-pound German shepherd, went missing from his family home in rural Stuart, Va.

During the first couple of days, Pamela Holt, her husband Keith, and their daughter Brooklyn, 3, weren't terribly worried because they figured their nearly 2-year-old pet was running in the fields behind their home.

"We have a lot of land and thought Deacon might be enjoying the outdoors," Holt, who works as a teller for SunTrust bank, tells PEOPLEPets.com. "But we soon got worried and called the area dog warden, the pound and the sheriff's office. After two weeks, we gave up, fearing he had died or was stolen."

Deacon, a gift from Holt to her husband Keith, a teacher and football coach, had become a beloved family member, and everyone was upset. But a curious call in late February from a man in Deland, Fla., changed everything.

"A male voice on the other end said he thought he may have Deacon," Holt tells PEOPLEPets.com. "I was angry at first and thought he was a prankster trying to play a joke on us ... I nearly hung up on him."

The man, who said he was from Animal Control in Deland, told Holt he was looking at her dog. Holt said she thought Deacon was dead. But when he asked her if the dog's name was Bruno, Holt went crazy with joy.

"I was speechless," she says. "The dog was originally called Bruno when he was micro chipped, so I knew this was not a hoax. When the man emailed me a picture, and I knew it was Deacon, I called my husband. We were so thrilled that we drove 10 hours to Florida to pick him up."

The Holts believe Deacon was stolen by people who had hoped to breed him, but they were unaware that he had been fixed so it was a waste of time. And somehow, the dog ended up in the Sunshine State for the holidays.

"Deacon was in a pen with another dog when he saw us," Holt recalls. "He trampled the poor thing to get to us. He ran to my husband and jumped on him. He was so excited."

The following day, when they got back to Virginia after the 600 mile drive, Deacon ran directly over to the outside window of Brooklyn's bedroom, hoping to see her.

"He cried and cried until she got home," Holt says. "Once he saw her, he was so happy!"

Even though there is no leash law in their area, the family has vowed to tie their dog in the yard so nothing ever happens again.

"We are blessed to have Deacon back," Holt says. "And will do what we must to keep him safe and sound."

 

Giant George is world’s tallest dog on record

The 4-year-old Great Dane beat his ruff rival by three-quarters of an inch

TUCSON, Ariz. - A 250-pound blue Great Dane from Arizona gives new meaning to the term "big dog."

Guinness World Records says Giant George from Tucson is the tallest dog ever on record.

Guinness said Monday that he stands 3 feet, 7 inches tall from paw to shoulder, which is three-quarters of an inch taller than his closest rival — Titan, a white Great Dane from San Diego.

The 4-year-old Titan took the title of world's tallest dog in 2009 after Gibson, a Great Dane from Grass Valley, Calif., died of bone cancer.

Guinness officials say there were conflicting reports about Giant George's height, so they sent a judge to verify it.

The 4-year-old is owned by David Nasser.

 

Mid, late 20s best age to have a baby

When is the ideal age to have or adopt a first baby? For most women it is between the ages of 25 to 34 years old.

Slightly more than 75 percent of women questioned in a joint survey by Forbes Woman.com and TheBump.com believe it is the perfect time to become a mother. Forty-two percent narrowed it down further to 25-29 years old, and 17 percent said there was no best age.

Women felt that by their mid-to-late 20s they were more likely to have established themselves in their career and financially, and were ready to take on a new role, according to the poll. A ticking biological clock was a factor for only 21 percent of women.

"Women are looking for a good balance." said Jenna Goudreau, of Forbes Woman.com who worked on the survey. "The number one factor in coming up with this ideal age bracket was career and financial security."

The poll included responses from 2,210 women, nearly half of whom were mothers. More than 50 percent of women without children said they planned to have two children, while slightly more than a third intended to have three or more.

"One of the things we were trying to do with the study is not only find the ideal age to become a mom but to become a mom and have a successful career, as half of the workforce are women now," Goudreau explained.

Although many women combined, or planned to combine, motherhood with a job, 62 percent believe having children has a negative impact on a career. But only 30 percent of working mothers said it had affected their own career.

"I did find that women who have their children younger tend not to earn as much money in their lifetimes," said Goudreau, adding that the younger women are when they have their first child, the less invested they tend to be in their career.

Scared straight after a health threat?

People vow to change their ways, but often not for very long

The medical tests are back. The cruel news is delivered: the numbers show trouble inside your body.

Instantly, you rocket from mildly anxious to scared straight. That’s how it feels, anyway. In the exam room, in that raw moment, you firmly renounce your bad health habits. You promise to adopt a low-fat, gym-heavy routine. You’ll live right, you tell the doctor — and yourself. You’ll stick to it. You swear.

Save it. Your doctor has heard it before. 

“I think every physician has,” said Dr. Steven Chang, a family practitioner at the University of California Davis Medical Center and a staff physician at RightHealth.com. He recalled diagnosing some patients with diabetes and collaborating with them on a new diet plan. “They will leave my office and I’ll immediately see them in the [hospital] cafeteria — eating a hamburger and French fries ... That’s difficult.”

What’s the true shelf life of a health scare? That can depend on individual willpower, the height of the internal emergency and whether someone feels or sees physical symptoms — like chest pain or blood after coughing. Tangible signs of sickness may inject deeper fear and more lasting improvements compared to, say, merely reading ugly stats on a sheet of paper (such as a high cholesterol count).

A text message poll of 100 U.S. family physicians, conducted by Truth On Call for msnbc.com, found that 47 percent of doctors said patients typically stick to their vow to live better for just a matter of weeks after a health scare, 25 percent said the good behavior lasts several months and just 7 percent said patients stick to their resolve for a year or longer. Nineteen percent said the effect of a health scare lasts just a few days and 2 percent said it doesn't last for even a day. 

Chang said he pins the typical duration of fright-induced lifestyle adjustments at three to six months. “Once you start an exercise regimen, if it peters out after a few months and if you don’t feel any different, the impetus to change may not be [as strong] as that initial shock.”

As Lori Hope found, drastic change is tough to maintain no matter how powerful your motivation.

“How long can we go vegan and macrobiotic? How long can we sustain that?” asked the former medical journalist. 

In 2002, after Hope was diagnosed with lung cancer, she stepped up her exercise routine. She already ate an organic diet but also added meditation and yoga to the list of things she tried to boost her health.

"I continued after my treatment, but that went away fairly quickly," she said, finding it her busy schedule made it impossible to do it all.

 

Dinosaurs had wrists like birds

Wrists and feathers in the lineage that led to birds preceded flight

The flexible wrists of birds that let them fold their wings have now been seen in dinosaurs well before flight, scientists find.

Dinosaurs such as Velociraptor might have partly folded their feathered arms to protect such plumage from harm's way, researchers explained. The wrists and the feathers in the lineage that led to birds then became more extreme, laying the groundwork for flight, they added.

Although birds are most known for their feathers, wings and toothless beaks, another distinctive feature is a wrist joint that is extremely flexible, although only in one direction. A bird can bend its wrist to the point where the side of the hand where the little finger would be can lie closely alongside the forearm, so any fingertips would point back almost towards the elbow, but the wrist cannot bend in the opposite direction, nor even fully straighten. 

This unique joint permits a bird to fold the wing when at rest, and to partly fold the wing during the upstroke in flight, greatly improving the efficiency of their flight. The question then is when and how this wrist evolved.

Evolution evidence

There is overwhelming evidence that birds evolved from predatory dinosaurs , the theropods, which include carnivores such as Velociraptor and giants such as Tyrannosaurus rex.

For instance, these hunters seemed to have possessed a similar way of breathing, and many also may have possessed feathers to keep them warm or to serve as courtship ornaments. The earliest theropods had wrists that were apparently relatively straight and inflexible, raising the questions of when and how the avian-style wrist developed.

A team of Canadian, British and Chinese researchers traced the gradual evolution of this wrist in roughly a dozen species of theropods, analyzing several well-preserved members of this group from 110 to 160 million years ago that included a wide range of body designs. They found that a wrist bone called the radiale slowly and progressively took on a wedge-like shape in the theropods more closely related to birds, such as Velociraptor and Deinondenychus.

As this bone changed its shape, the wrist would have become increasingly bird-like in its range of motion. 

This increase in the ability to fold the wrist took place alongside two other trends — an increase in arm length and an increase in the length of the feathers that adorned the arms of many theropods.

"If the wrist could not fold like this, the long feathers on the hand would drag on the ground, getting dirty or snagging on vegetation," said researcher David Hone, a paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of China in Beijing. "Protecting them would have been important for feathered dinosaurs in the past, as it is for birds today."

Cause or effect?
It remains unclear if the fold able wrist allowed dinosaurs to evolve longer feathers or if the evolution of longer feathers drove the need for more flexible wrists .

Still, it is clear "that wing-folding, or at least feathered arm folding, significantly preceded flight," said lead researcher Corwin Sullivan, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. "This pattern of flexibility originally evolved in a terrestrial context and just happened to be present and available for use when birds took to the air.

This discovery highlights the fact "that some characteristics that biologists used to think of as distinctively avian — feathers and air sacs are other good examples — are actually quite deeply rooted in theropod evolution," Sullivan added.

 

Giant snake preyed on baby dinosaurs

Fossil of Cretaceous Era snake was found coiled inside a dinosaur nest

Remains of an enormous snake have been discovered in a 67-million-year-old dinosaur nest, according to a new study. The snake was found coiled around a crushed dinosaur egg and next to what was left of a hatchling titanosaur.

This preserved moment in Cretaceous time provides the first direct evidence of the feeding behavior of a primitive snake, co-author Jason Head told Discovery News. Aside from this discovery, two other similar snake-egg pairings were also found at the site, located in what is now Gujarat in western India.

The 11.5-foot-long snake, described in the latest PLoS Biology, represents a new species, Sanajeh indicus, meaning "ancient-gaped one from the Indian subcontinent."

"It was not necessarily a specialized constrictor, but it clearly grabbed dinosaur hatchlings and gobbled them down," said Head, a paleontologist and assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

"Sauropods laid their eggs in nests covering several hundred miles, so the newly hatched dinosaurs would have been like meatballs on a smorgasbord for the snakes," he added.

Dinosaur egg expert Dhananjay Mohabey from the Geological Survey of India first found the fossils in 1987. A formal agreement with the Government of India Ministry of Mines in 2004 allowed for additional study, fieldwork and other experts to come into the project. The best-preserved snake and nest set was brought to the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology to facilitate analysis.

"The eggs were laid in loose sands and covered by a thin layer of sediment," said Mohabey. "We think that the hatch ling had just exited from its egg, and its movement attracted the snake."

Head added that, based on the geology of the site and the manner in which the fossils were preserved, a storm probably caused a sandy mudslide that buried the snake and remaining dinosaur hatchlings alive.

The parents, 70-foot-long titanosaur adults, were not present. "There was no evidence of parental care," Head said.

Even if these adult dinosaurs did encounter snakes, he doubts the lumbering plant-eating animals would have been very skillful at stomping out a fast moving snake.

He compared the scenario to modern sea turtles, which lay their eggs on the beach and then return to the ocean. When the turtle eggs hatch, "it's like a dinner bell for the ecosystem," Head said. The 1.6-foot-long baby dinosaurs would have been just as defenseless when facing large snake predators.

Snakes, therefore, probably helped to keep sauropod populations in check sometime after 100 million years ago, when snakes began to appear in the fossil record. The huge body of Sanajeh helped it to pack in such dinosaur meals.

Man, daughter fall 13 floors in Chile quake Man wrongfully convicted of rape gets pardon Drug gangs taking over U.S. public lands Body of missing Calif. teen believed found Chicago gun ban goes before Supreme Court Most viewed on msnbc.com

Chile earthquake may have shortened days Pacific Northwest at risk for mega earthquake ‘Lazy’ Brit fined for walking dog from his car Citrus Christ? Cheesus? 11 religious sightings How can women have it all — minus the guilt? Most viewed on msnbc.com

Tons of water ice found on moon's north pole

Discovery opens up another region of potential exploration, says NASA

 Vast pockets of water ice numbering in the millions of tons have been discovered at the north pole of the moon, opening up another region of the lunar surface for potential exploration by astronauts and unmanned probes, NASA announced Monday.

A NASA radar instrument on an Indian moon probe found evidence of at least 600 million metric tons of water ice spread out on the bottom of craters at the lunar north pole. It is yet another supply of lunar water ice, a vital resource that could be mined to produce oxygen or rocket fuel to support a future moon base, NASA officials said.

More than 40 craters ranging from 1 mile (2 km) to 9 miles (15 km) wide were found harboring the water ice, which was detected using NASA's Mini-SAR radar instrument on India's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter. The instrument is also known as Mini-RF in NASA parlance.

"After analyzing the data, our science team determined a strong indication of water ice, a finding which will give future missions a new target to further explore and exploit," said Jason Crusan, program executive for the Mini-RF Program for NASA's space operations program in Washington, D.C., in a statement.

Water, water everywhereThe ice was discovered in permanently shadowed craters at the moon's north pole. Similar conditions of perpetual night exist at the moon's south pole as well, where water ice was also confirmed to be present last year. Because these regions never see sunlight, water can stay in its frozen form indefinitely.

Last September, NASA and other scientists confirmed without a doubt the existence of water ice at the moon's south pole, as well as signals of water molecules across large areas of the lunar surface. Several spacecraft, including India's Chandrayaan-1 probe that carried the radar instrument used for the new findings, found hard evidence of water on the moon.

In October, NASA crashed two impactor probes into the lunar south pole in an attempt to kick up clouds of water ice and measure it from an orbiting spacecraft and other space and ground-based observatories. The subsequent analysis turned up significant amounts of water and water vapor in the debris cloud, NASA scientists said.

"The emerging picture from the multiple measurements and resulting data of the instruments on lunar missions indicates that water creation, migration, deposition and retention are occurring on the moon," said Paul Spudis, principal investigator of the Mini-SAR experiment at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, in a statement. "The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought."

The research will be detailed in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Slideshow   50 years of moon shots Take a look at scenes from 50 years of moon exploration. more photos

Will astronauts go?Water ice is a tantalizing find anywhere on the moon because it can serve as a natural resource for astronauts on future lunar landing missions. The ice could be melted into drinking water or be separated into its component oxygen and hydrogen to provide breathing air and rocket fuel, NASA officials have said in the past.

NASA had planned to send astronauts on new lunar landing missions by 2020 as part of its Constellation program. The program was building the new Altair moon landers, as well as the Orion spacecraft and Ares rockets needed to launch ferry them to lunar surface, but experts said it was extremely underfunded and behind schedule.

Last month, President Barack Obama ordered NASA to cancel the Constellation program and focus on using commercial spacecraft to launch American astronauts to orbit instead. The move is aimed at freeing up NASA to concentrate on more lofty exploration missions, such as returning to the moon or sending astronauts to visit an asteroid, stable regions in space called Lagrange points or the moons of Mars.

NASA chief Charles Bolden told members of the U.S. Senate and Congress last week that Mars is expected to be the ultimate destination for astronauts. But the moon, he said, is still a good interim target to serve as a stepping stone for more distant space exploration goals.

Chandrayaan-1's Mini-SAR radar was one of two instruments involving NASA on India's Chandrayan-1 spacecraft. The probe also carried the Moon Mineralogy Mapper for NASA. A version of Mini-SAR, called Mini-RF, is riding on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

India launched Chandrayaan-1 probe in October 2008 and carried 11 instruments to observe the moon from lunar orbit. It was India's first moon probe and carried an impactor probe that it unleashed in November 2008. The spacecraft went offline in late August 2009 after an abrupt malfunction cut off communications with Earth.

Your old mascara may spoil your looks

Out-of-date make-up can be a magnet for germs

Women are using cosmetics well past the use-by date, unaware that some products could be magnets for germs which could damage their health and looks, said Sara Stern, Director of Cosmetics at retail chain Debenhams.

"British women are famously loyal to make-up brands and products, however, their reluctance to throw away old products is a risky business," Stern said in a statement.

"We wouldn't hesitate to chuck out moldy or bacteria-ridden food and the same standards should apply to the lotions and potions and that we put on our skin. Beauty is timeless but unfortunately, products are not."

Favorite beauty essentials such as foundation, concealer, blusher, eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, lipstick and perfume all include a "period after opening" indicator, denoted by an open pot with the number of months of safe use written inside.

Debenhams asked 1,000 women aged 18 to 70 about the contents of their cosmetic bags and their understanding of the health considerations.

Despite European Union guidelines meaning brands have to state product shelf lives, 89 percent of respondents said they were unaware that such information exists, did not understand what the symbol meant or were unable to read the often tiny writing.

Make up, perfume and skincare products used after the expiration date carry a risk of irritation and infection, Debenhams said. This is due to air and bacteria infiltrating the products. Multiuse products carry an even higher risk as they can spread germs from eyes to skin to lips.

To add to the shock factor, 60 percent of respondents admitted they shared make-up with friends and family, multiplying the chances of infection.

More than two thirds of women (68 percent) said they only replace make-up and skincare when they run out, however long that might take.

Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed (72 percent) never wash their make-up sponges or brushes, even though they should do so at least once a week and 81 percent of British women also regularly (at least once a week) go to sleep without removing make-up.