Princeton University
An international team of scientists led by a Princeton University group recently discovered that on the surface of certain materials collective arrangements of electrons move in ways that mimic the presence of a magnetic field where none is present.
If you've ever walked down a dark alley and seen a stranger approach, then you probably know that automatic vigilance -- a signal from your brain making you more alert. And even if you consider yourself unprejudiced, you may have also noticed that this response is more prevalent when you encounter people of races other than yours. It can be chalked up partly as caution around the unknown -- the fact that we are generally less familiar with other races than we are with our own -- but it is still discouraging for race relations. Some new research, however, has shown that we may have more control over our race-based vigilance reaction than previously thought.
A study led by Princeton biologists has revealed a remarkably simple mechanism that allows flocking birds, schooling fish or running herds to travel in unison without any recognized leaders or signaling system. The finding, published in the Feb. 3 issue of Nature, helps settle age-old questions about how animals coordinate their actions. Previously, scientists had looked for subtle signals or other explicit systems that animals may use in disseminating information through groups. The new study showed that such complexity is not necessary: Large groups easily make accurate decisions about where to go even when no individuals are regarded as leaders and very few individuals have any pertinent information.
Successful efforts to stabilize the level of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere could still result in serious ecological damage if the cutbacks do not begin soon enough, according to a new analysis. Scientists at Princeton University and Brown University studied various strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, comparing plans that begin reductions right away and others that delay action and make a more intensive effort later. Even if they ultimately reach the same target level of greenhouse gasses, the plans would have dramatically different environmental consequences, the scientists found.
Changes in U.S. forests caused by land use practices may have inadvertently worsened ozone pollution, according to a study led by Princeton University scientists. The study examined a class of chemicals that are emitted as unburned fuel from automobile tailpipes and as vapors from industrial chemicals, but also come naturally from tree leaves. These chemicals, known collectively as VOCs, react with other pollutants to form ozone, a bluish, irritating and pungent gas that is a major form of smog in the lower atmosphere.
While pleasurable experiences may lift your spirits, the ones that leave you with a sense of purpose and meaningful relationships may do even more: protect the body against ill health. When researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Princeton University interviewed a group of older women and assessed their emotional and physical well-being, or levels of optimal health, they found that the people who were purposefully engaged in life tended to have better levels of physical functioning.
Existing technologies could stop the escalation of global warming for 50 years and work on implementing them can begin immediately, according to an analysis by Princeton University scientists. The scientists identified 15 technologies -- from wind, solar and nuclear energy to conservation techniques -- that are ripe for large-scale use and showed that each could solve a significant portion of the problem. Their analysis, published in the Aug. 13 issue of Science, indicates that many combinations of these 15 technologies could prevent global emissions of greenhouse gasses from rising for the next five decades.
In a breakthrough that could lead to dramatically smaller memory chips and other electronic components, Princeton scientists have found a way to mass produce devices that are so small they are at the limit of what can be viewed by the most powerful microscopes. The achievement is an advance over current techniques, which require expensive and time-consuming procedures to create anything so small. The technique offers a relatively simple, low-cost production method that may lead to greater memory capacity and lower costs for computers, digital cameras and other devices. In addition, the scientists achieved unprecedented success in packing the minute structures into dense clusters.
In a remarkable collaboration between engineers, physicists and biologists, Princeton scientists have invented a device that rapidly sorts microscopic particles into extremely fine gradations of sizes, opening a range of potential uses. The researchers have used the device to sort particles ranging in size from bacterial cells to large segments of DNA and reported their results in the May 14 issue of Science. The technology could greatly accelerate the work of sequencing genomes and could find uses in many other areas, from improving the performance of pharmaceuticals to detecting bioterrorism agents.
Engineers at Princeton University and Hewlett-Packard have invented a combination of materials that could lead to cheap and super-compact electronic memory devices for archiving digital images or other data. The invention could result in a single-use memory card that permanently stores data and is faster and easier to use than a compact disk. The device could be very small because it would not involve moving parts such as the laser and motor drive required by CDs.
A Princeton professor of chemistry, has invented a technique for making protein molecules from scratch, a long-sought advance that will allow scientists to design the most basic building blocks of all living things with a variety of shapes and compositions far greater than those available in nature. The technique, which was developed over the last 10 years and validated in experiments to be published in November, could prove useful in a wide range of fields. Custom-designed proteins, for example, could become a source of new drugs or could form the basis of new materials that mimic the strength and resilience of natural substances.
People suffering from scleroderma, a debilitating, sometimes-fatal skin disease, may one day benefit from a study that gives doctors their first look at the genes behind the poorly understood disease.
A team of scientists including Princeton geneticist David Botstein and led by his postdoctoral fellow Michael Whitfield (now at Dartmouth) found more than 2,700 genes with an unusual level of activity in people with scleroderma, which causes painful thickening of the skin, swelling and other tissue damage. The results could greatly improve doctors' ability to diagnose the disease and may reveal possible avenues for treating it.
As a paleontologist, Gerta Keller has studied many aspects of the history of life on Earth. But the question capturing her attention lately is one so basic it has passed the lips of generations of 6-year-olds: What killed the dinosaurs? The answers she has been uncovering for the last decade have stirred an adult-sized debate that puts Keller at odds with many scientists who study the question. Keller, a professor in Princeton's Department of Geosciences, is among a minority of scientists who believe that the story of the dinosaurs' demise is much more complicated than the familiar and dominant theory that a single asteroid hit Earth 65 million years ago and caused the mass extinction known as the Cretacious-Tertiary, or K/T, boundary.
America is facing a major roadblock to medical progress. For the speedy translation of promising scientific discoveries into patient treatment, we need a special breed of medical researchers who are trained to ask clinically relevant questions in a health research environment. It's these individuals who transform clinical observations into research studies and eventual medical advances.
The universe had a period of "Dark Ages," starting approximately half-a-million years after the Big Bang, and NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has revealed the end of the Dark Ages. "We detected the end of the Dark Ages about 200 million years after the Big Bang," said Edward L. Wright, professor of astronomy at UCLA, who helped develop key data analysis techniques for WMAP. "There were enough bright stars and quasars at that time to fill the universe with ultraviolet light and a haze of cosmic electrons. This is nearly 700 million years earlier than any of these objects has been seen before. WMAP measurements have enabled us to detect the era when the first stars formed."
