COLUMBUS

Engineers create simple method for analyzing car designs

It may be too late for this one, however Engineers have developed a new mathematical formula that can spot flaws in automobile designs before they get to the costly assembly line stage. Engineers now use complicated models in which numerous car parts are represented by mathematical expressions that must take into consideration many precise mechanical details. The models have to include information such as the mass of components, their stiffness and dampening characteristics, and the exact forces involved. These models are themselves flawed, the researchers believe, because they rely on approximations about the characteristics and interactions of automotive parts. "A major difference in our method is that we don't use approximations," said one of the Purdue team. "We have found that you don't need to know all of those parameters."

Health of Native Americans on decline before Columbus' arrival

The health of indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere was on a downward trajectory long before Columbus set foot in the Americas, Ohio researchers say. The rise of agriculture is partly to blame as the demands of tending domestic crops encouraged people to settle in larger communities, where disease was more easily spread. The current research suggests that the overall health of the average person declined with the development of agriculture, government and urbanization.

Aluminum shows strange behavior; research solves old mystery

Aluminum -- one of nature's best conductors of electricity conductors of electricity -- may behave like a ceramic or a semiconductor in certain situations, according to an Ohio State University scientist and his colleagues. Among the findings that appear in the current issue of the journal Science: When it comes to forming tiny structures in computer chip circuits and nanotechnology, aluminum may endure mechanical stress more than 30 percent better than copper, which is normally considered to be the stiffer metal

Monkey see: MRI technique finds big differences in human, primate sight

Don't look at me, I'm hideous. Researchers in Ohio say they've developed a way to use a decade-old imaging technology to directly compare the brains of monkeys and humans. Specifically, they used MRIs to compare parts of the monkey and human brains --- the visual cortex --- concerned with processing visual information. "Implicit in the neuroscience community was that the monkey cortex is a good model for the human cortex," said one of the researchers. "Scientists didn't have any choice but to make that assumption, as the monkey brain was the only model we had to work with." But with the MRI they've found that there are in fact big differences.

Kilimanjaro ice reveals devastating history, future

Researchers analyzing ice cores taken from Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro say they've found evidence of several catastrophic droughts that plagued the tropic over the millennia, and strong signs the ice field itself will disappear within 20 years, the victim of global warming.

Misfolding key to prion's ability to kill brain cells

Researchers may have discovered the mechanism behind how prions ? pieces of protein molecules? can kill nerve cells in the brain and lead to some serious degenerative diseases. The key seems to lie in how one particular protein misfolds within an organelle inside the cell, transforming itself into a new agent and then poisoning the neuron in which it was made.

Strange attraction: Shaping metal with magnets

I'm feeling it. Are you feeling it? Researchers in Ohio say they've come up with a way to shape metal using powerful magnetic fields, a process that could help cut down on the use of toxic lubricants otherwise needed to stamp products as diverse as auto parts and kitchenware. Said one of the researchers: "The process has to be reliable, and require as little human intervention as possible.... In automobile production especially, manufactures need to make parts in as few steps as they possibly can. I think we can do a lot of good things for industry with this technique."