Bird sized airplane to fly like a swift
... the wings that is used to roll and turn the micro plane in the air. Efficient The team based the project on research performed by its tutor ir. David Lentink, who published a study into the swifts flight characteristics in this years April issue of Nature. During its life, a common swift flies a dista...Small, self-controlled planes combine plant pathology and engineering
...enter of an agricultural field, and the autonomous plane can circle around the waypoint at a set altitude, with about a meter variation up and down. Second, the autonomous technology enables us to have coordinated flight with multiple aircraft. In other words, we can have two aircraft sampling pathogens at...Researchers shed light on shrinking of chromosomes
...Like this, no long chromosome arms extend over the plane of division, because that could expose the DNA to serious mechanical damage. The extreme condensation of chromosomes towards the end of cell division can also serve as a safety net if something goes wrong with chromosome separation in earlier phases...A living memory chip, black holes on the loose, and a clearer picture of ocean currents
...ir sides, with their axes of rotation lying in the plane of their orbit, and they must spin in opposite directions. They spiral toward one another, and when they merge, they are kicked in a direction perpendicular to the orbital plane. Some astrophysicists have argued that such conditions are rather un...Scientists track impact of Asian dust and pollution on clouds, climate change
...ated and maintained by NCAR. This newly configured plane has a range of about 6,000 miles and can cruise from just a few hundred feet above Earth's surface to over 50,000 feet. These features enable scientists to study the plumes across thousands of miles and at different levels of the atmosphere. "Aeros...Biologically inspired sensors can augment sonar, vision system in submarines
...uced torque causes the pieces to rotate out of the plane on tiny hinges and lock into place. Each sensor is integrated with metal-oxide-superconductor circuitry for on-chip signal processing, noise reduction and data acquisition. The largest array the researchers have built consists of 16 flow sensors with...New weather, old pipes challenge nation's water supply
...k. "Outbreaks of waterborne illness are like the plane crashes of the water industry," Rose said. "They'...ouble. "We don't have time just to wait for the plane crashes, because our infrastructure is going to take a long time to fix. We need to pay attention to...Silver bullet: UGA researchers use laser, nanotechnology to rapidly detect viruses
... could actually apply it to a person walking off a plane and know if they're infected." The technique, called surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), works by measuring the change in frequency of a near-infrared laser as it scatters off viral DNA or RNA. This change in frequency, named the Raman shif...New biochip helps study living cells, may speed drug development
...it Comet," the nickname for a high-flying research plane used by NASA to briefly simulate zero gravity. The experiment analyzed gravity's effect on plant development, trying to solve the riddle of how a plant determines which way is "up." "We conducted research with the chip while we were flying in parab...Widespread elephant slaughter discovered in Chad
... horses and five men, who quickly packed up as the plane flew over. "Zakouma elephants are getting massacred right before our eyes," Fay said. "We hadn't been in the air more than two hours when we saw our first carcass. It was fresh, maybe just a few weeks old, not far from the park headquarters, and the...Light guides flight of migratory birds
... Polarized light is light that oscillates in one plane relative to the direction of propagation. At sunrise and sunset, there is a band of intense polarized light 90 degrees from the sun that passes directly overhead through the zenith and intersects the horizon 90 degrees to the right and left of the su...Snakes' virtual glasses, leopard spots and all-optical transistors
...Snakes_on_a_plane Even in the dark, snakes on a plane (at least those of the pit viper and boa varieties) could keep a close watch on terrorized passengers and crew thanks to small cavities near their snouts known as pit organs. The organs are sensitive to the infrared radiation emitted by warm prey suc...NASA assists search for woodpecker thought to be extinct
...better assess the complex vegetation structure the plane flies over." The flights are the latest step in an effort spanning over two years to find absolute evidence that a bird once thought extinct continues to survive. "We're trying to understand the environment where these birds live or used to live, u...ACS Weekly PressPac -- June 26, 2006
...ecules Old-fashioned paper airplanes may be just plane fun for kids, but the next generation of paper flying objects could flap their wings like butterflies and pack micro-cameras and sensors for battlefield surveillance or security monitoring. Those and a range of other new applications for cellulose ...K-Staters design and build a low-cost remote sensing tool for environmental studies
...is prototyping a small, inexpensive remote-control plane as a sensing tool, also known as an unmanned aerial vehicle, to collect environmental data. The team plans to test it over the Konza Prairie Biological Station near Manhattan this summer. If the sensing tool performs as the team hopes, it will be mad...Training improves sound localization in ferrets
...alize sound and interprets sound on the horizontal plane by using disparities in how the sound reaches each ear, called interaural time differences and interaural level differences. Changes in level at different frequencies can reveal the source's elevation. To study adaptive hearing in an adult mammal...Astronomer announces shortlist of stellar candidates for habitable worlds
...also tend to reside in more peaceful orbits in the plane of the galaxy, Turnbull said. She also stars that, like our Sun, that reside on the "main sequence" of stellar evolution. No red giants or white dwarfs allowed. While her criteria are clearly Sun-centric, Turnbull said they make sense. "We are intent...Recycling of aeronautics components
...tal impact. Considering that the average life of a plane is about 20 years and that parts made from composite materials are not repaired but replaced, the aeronautics sector is finding a huge quantity of waste material on its hands a solution for which has to be found. This is because the only currently av...Bats use touch receptors on wings to fly, catch prey, study finds
...ed lift. But if you curve it too much, the bat or plane may suddenly lose lift, hitting a stall point and falling out of the air. These receptor cells give bats constant feedback about their wing positions," said Zook, who has studied bats for more than 30 years, focusing on echolocation and the bat audi...Scientists discover secret behind human red blood cell's amazing flexibility
...random, whereas the pitch, or upward tilt from the plane of the membrane, is more parallel to the membrane than perpendicular to it. Sung's team was pleasantly surprised that its model also generated near-random yaw angles for the proto-filament during deformation of the red blood cell and no more than 18 ...