Cichlids are a remarkably diverse family of fish, with many African freshwater species known for their incredible visual system. These cichlids’ complex vision results from a diverse array of visual pigment proteins in their retinas: while humans have the genes to produce three of these proteins (called opsins), many cichlids have seven. Each African cichlid…
Researchers Expect to Calculate Fuel Amount Inside Earth by 2025
Earth requires fuel to drive plate tectonics, volcanoes and its magnetic field. Like a hybrid car, Earth taps two sources of energy to run its engine: primordial energy from assembling the planet and nuclear energy from the heat produced during natural radioactive decay. Scientists have developed numerous models to predict how much fuel remains inside…
‘Blue Whirl’ Fire Tornado Burns Cleaner for Reduced Emissions
Fire tornados, or ‘fire whirls,’ pose a powerful and essentially uncontrollable threat to life, property, and the surrounding environment in large urban and wildland fires. But now, a team of researchers in the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering say their discovery of a type of fire tornado they call a ‘blue…
Tiny Diamonds Could Enable Huge Nanotechnology Advances
Nanomaterials have the potential to improve many next-generation technologies. They promise to speed up computer chips, increase the resolution of medical imaging devices and make electronics more energy efficient. But imbuing nanomaterials with the right properties can be time consuming and costly. A new, quick and inexpensive method for constructing diamond-based hybrid nanomaterials could soon…