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Testing relativity in the laboratory

Even Albert Einstein might have been impressed. His theory of general relativity, which describes how the gravity of a massive object, such as a star, can curve space and time, has been successfully used to predict such astronomical observations as the bending of starlight by the sun, small shifts in the orbit of the planet Mercury and the phenomenon known as gravitational lensing.

Ben-Gurion U discovers drug can prevent epilepsy following traumatic brain injury

BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL JULY, 15 2009 -- Dr. Alon Friedman, a neurosurgeon, professor and researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, working with researchers from UC Berkeley, California have identified a TGF Beta Blocker that when given to rats prevents epilepsy after brain damage, according to a new study appearing in the July 15 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Memory test and PET scans detect early signs of Alzheimer's

Berkeley -- A large study of patients with mild cognitive impairment revealed that results from cognitive tests and brain scans can work as an early warning system for the subsequent development of Alzheimer's disease.

Superconductivity: Which one of these is not like the other?

Superconductivity appears to rely on very different mechanisms in two varieties of iron-based superconductors. The insight comes from research groups that are making bold statements about the correct description of superconductivity in iron-based compounds in two papers about to be published in journals of the American Physical Society.

Spontaneous assembly

Self-assembling and self-organizing systems are the Holy Grails of nanotechnology, but nature has been producing such systems for millions of years. A team of scientists has taken a unique look at how thousands of bacterial membrane proteins are able to assemble into clusters that direct cell movement to select chemicals in their environment.

Nanopillars promise cheap, efficient, flexible solar cells

BERKELEY, CA -- Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have demonstrated a way to fabricate efficient solar cells from low-cost and flexible materials.

New theory gives more precise estimates of large-scale biodiversity

Ask biologists how many species live in a pond, a grassland, a mountain range or on the entire planet, and the answers get increasingly vague. Hence the wide range of estimates for the planet's biodiversity, predicted to be between 2 million and 50 million species.

Tremors on southern San Andreas Fault may mean increased earthquake risk

Berkeley -- Increases in mysterious underground tremors observed in several active earthquake fault zones around the world could signal a build-up of stress at locked segments of the faults and presumably an increased likelihood of a major quake, according to a new University of California, Berkeley, study.

UC San Diego Astrophysicist Wins Shaw Prize in Astronomy

An astrophysicist at the University of California, San Diego whose wide-ranging research advanced our understanding of how stars, spiral galaxies and planetary systems form has been awarded the $1-million Shaw Prize in Astronomy.

Frank H.

Extreme makeover chemistry style

In revisiting a chemical reaction that's been in the literature for several decades and adding a new wrinkle of their own, researchers with Berkeley Lab and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have discovered a mild and relatively inexpensive procedure for removing oxygen from biomass.

New fabricated material changes color instantly in response to external magnetic field

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A research team led by a chemist at the University of California, Riverside has fabricated microscopic polymer beads that change color instantly and reversibly when external magnetic fields acting upon the microspheres change orientation.

Stress puts double whammy on reproductive system, fertility

Berkeley-- University of California, Berkeley, researchers have found what they think is a critical and, until now, missing piece of the puzzle about how stress causes sexual dysfunction and infertility.

Peculiar, junior-sized supernova discovered by New York teen

In November 2008, Caroline Moore, a 14-year-old student from upstate New York, discovered a supernova in a nearby galaxy, making her the youngest person ever to do so. Additional observations determined that the object, called SN 2008ha, is a new type of stellar explosion, 1000 times more powerful than a nova but 1000 times less powerful than a supernova.

Tunable semiconductors possible with hot new material called graphene

Berkeley -- Today's transistors and light emitting diodes (LED) are based on silicon and gallium arsenide semiconductors, which have fixed electronic and optical properties.

Bilayer graphene gets a bandgap

BERKELEY, CA -- Graphene is the two-dimensional crystalline form of carbon, whose extraordinary electron mobility and other unique features hold great promise for nanoscale electronics and photonics. But there's a catch: graphene has no bandgap.



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