The strange behaviour of a magnet near absolute zero temperature provides the first direct evidence that some quantum phase transitions proceed very differently than the conventional phase transitions that occur at higher temperatures. Researchers in Germany applied a magnetic field to a metallic compound and watched it transform from a magnet to a non-magnet -- just as expected. The surprise came at higher field strengths, where a puzzling change in the character of the metal was observed. As the temperature was lowered both the magnetic phase transition and the mysterious change converged on the same magnetic field value -- the "quantum critical point" -- defying the conventional method of characterizing phase transitions in terms of a single "universality class".
Ker Than
MSNBCThu, 22 Feb 2007 07:30 UTC
Relatively calm weather was the standard forecast for the sun, which is near the end of another 11-year solar cycle, but raging solar storms just spotted at its south pole now tell a different story.
At the start of a solar cycle, sunspots - regions on the sun marked by cooler temperatures and intense magnetic activity - tend to appear near the poles and move toward the equator as the cycle concludes.
XinhuaThu, 22 Feb 2007 06:08 UTC
A group of construction workers stumbled upon 46 ancient tombs, between 1,500 and 2,500 years old while digging to build a new soccer stadium in Deportivo Cali in southwestern Colombia, an archaeologist team said on Wednesday.
For the first time, telescopes have captured the light spectra emitted directly from planets outside of our solar system. Researchers trained the infrared-sensitive Spitzer Space Telescope on two extrasolar gas giant planets, called HD 209458 b and HD 189733 b.
Seminole --- A 16-year-old high school student stumbled upon what archaeologists say could be the biggest fossil find in Pinellas County in nearly a century.
Researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto have just completed an analysis of hospital visits in Ontario, showing that, compared to people born under other astrological signs, Virgos have an increased risk of vomiting during pregnancy, Pisces have an increased risk of heart failure, and Libras have an increased risk of fracturing their pelvises.
The large amount of data - from 10,000,000 Ontario residents - showed that each of the 12 astrological signs had at least two medical disorders associated with them, thus placing people born under a given sign at increased risk compared to those born under different signs.
NEW YORK - Researchers are trying to find ways to regrow fingers - and someday, even limbs - with tricks that sound like magic spells from a Harry Potter novel.
There's the guy who sliced off a fingertip but grew it back after he treated the wound with an extract of pig bladder. And the scientists who grow extra arms on salamanders. And the laboratory mice with the eerie ability to heal themselves.
Contrary to conventional thought dating back to Freud, victims of traumatic events do not subconsciously repress the memories but rather recall them with a clarity reminiscent of reality.
That startling finding comes from a five-year-study conducted by researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax. The same study, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) concludes that people have much more difficulty recalling pleasant memories than they do unpleasant.
A giant asteroid named Apophis could be on a trajectory to careen into Earth in 2036. That was the prediction NASA scientists made in 2004, suggesting a 1 in 37 chance that the space rock would hit our planet.
The danger has since receded - the revised likelihood that Apophis will hit Earth is 1 in 45,000. But the close call has galvanized efforts among scientists to predict and hopefully prevent a potentially apocalyptic impact.
A sharp freeze could have dealt the killer blow that finished off our evolutionary cousins the Neanderthals, according to a new study.
The ancient humans are thought to have died out in most parts of Europe by about 35,000 years ago.
And now new data from their last known refuge in southern Iberia indicates the final population was probably beaten by a cold spell some 24,000 years ago.
