JJ Nitro

9 January 2008, for New Scientist

Store shelves that know when they need restocking are one of many potential applications for a novel sensing foam developed by researchers in Europe.

Shelves fitted with a thin layer of the foam can tell when products are out of stock, allowing a store to automatically monitor supply. And the foam could give other objects and surfaces sensing abilities, the researchers say.

5 January 2008, for New Scientist

Could a Wiki-style website speed up broadband access in the US?

Because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) releases little information on the availability and quality of existing services, it's hard to know where to start, although the US government has a mandate to increase access to broadband.

19 December 2007, for New Scientist

Bridges built from bamboo instead of steel could provide a cheaper, more environmentally sustainable engineering solution in China, a recent experiment suggests.

19 December 2007, for Nature Network Boston

Local researchers demonstrated their leadership this year in neuroscience, stem cell research, genomics, and astronomy.

14 December 2007, for National Geographic News

Earth has already crossed a number of climate change "tipping points" at which today's levels of greenhouse gases will cause additional large and rapid changes, a leading climate scientist said yesterday.

But it's not too late to avoid much of the damage by curbing the use of fossil fuels such as oil and coal, climatologist James Hansen added during a presentation at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco.

14 December 2007, for National Geographic News

Arctic sea ice shrank drastically this summer, reaching a record low, largely because warm ocean currents ate away at the base of the ice sheet, new research says.

Wind currents also played a key role, blowing sea ice south into the Atlantic Ocean, where the ice then melted, according to the research. 

6 December 2007, for New Scientist

"Scrambled-up" polymers can kill bacteria, and may offer hope in beating problems of antibiotic drug resistance, suggests a new study.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, US, had been working on making molecules that mimic the short proteins known as "host-defence peptides".

5 December 2007, for National Geographic News

Magma-spewing volcanoes developed on the moon soon after its formation, according to a new study of a moon rock that fell to Earth.

The findings will help researchers understand how planets develop in their early stages, the study authors say.

30 November 2007, for Nature Network Boston

For most teachers, the ready availability of video games on students’ cell phones and laptops can be a source of frustration in class.

But in an introductory chemistry class at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, one professor is encouraging his students to play computer games and even giving extra credit to top scorers.

28 November 2007, for New Scientist

Just running an elevator up and down is enough to determine the "structural health" of a building, a new study reveals.

The elevator itself might run smoothly up and down, but the heavy counterweights that rumble along the vertical tracks of cable-suspended elevators produce vibrations as they go.