Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Tech
Poor initial Gulf spill numbers did ‘not impact’ response
In the early weeks after the catastrophic blowout of the deep-water well in the Gulf of Mexico this spring, BP — the well’s owner — provided the government dramatically low estimates of the flow rate of oil and gas into the sea. Did telling Uncle Sam and the public that the flow rate was 1,000 barrels per day and later 5,000 barrels per day — when the actual rate was closer to 50,000 to 65,000 barrels per day — affect the spill’s management?
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- Math
Potato chips: A symptom of the U.S. R&D problem
Last year, U.S. consumers spent $7.1 billion on potato chips — $2 billion more than the federal government’s total 2009 investment on research and development. There’s something wrong, here, when Americans are more willing to empty their wallets for the junk food that will swell their waistlines than for investments in the engine driving the creation of jobs, economic growth and national security.
- Tech
Everything really is relative
Two tabletop experiments demonstrate the time-warping principle at the human scale.
- Earth
Gulf spill may have been somewhat bigger than feds, BP estimated
Researchers estimate the oil output using a new technique developed for measuring the output of marine hydrothermal vents.
- Tech
A compass that lights the way
Researchers develop a highly sensitive optical instrument for measuring magnetic fields.
- Tech
To tame traffic, go with the flow
Lights should respond to cars, a study concludes, not the other way around.
- Computing
Most influential media Twitter feeds
Computer scientists find surprises when they rank top 100.
- Chemistry
Light-harvesting complexes do it themselves
A new technique could yield solar cells with no repair or assembly required.
- Tech
Tar sands ‘fingerprint’ seen in rivers and snow
A new study refutes a government claim (one echoed by industry) that the gonzo-scale extraction of tar sands in western Canada — and their processing into crude oil — does not substantially pollute the environment.
- Tech
New help for greasy works of art
NMR technique identifies oil stains, guiding art conservation efforts.
- Chemistry
Deep-sea oil plume goes missing
Controversy arises over whether bacteria have completely gobbled oil up.
