Rochester Institute of Technology
A dangerous level of carbon dioxide and methane gas haunts Lake Kivu, the freshwater lake system bordering Rwanda and the Republic of Congo.
The tight cluster of stars surrounding a supermassive black hole after it has been violently kicked out of a galaxy represents a new kind of astronomical object and a fossil record of the kick.
My high school classmate Alan Entenberg, who is a physics professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, has invited me to give two presentations there on Tuesday 4/28/09 based on my book Physics: Decade by Decade. As of yesterday, the lecture hall was still TBD, but it will likely be in the Imaging Center. Contact Alan or me if you would like to attend. Read on for details.
A scientist at Rochester Institute of Technology has expanded the Hubble Space Telescope's capability without the need for new instruments or billions of dollars.
Scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology are designing a new kind of optical sensor to fly in unmanned air vehicles, or surveillance drones, tracking suspects on foot or traveling in vehicles identified as a threat.
Until now, lightweight plastic solar cells have remained elusive. During the last decade, scientists have struggled to substitute polymers for the expensive, but effective crystalline materials such as silicon, a traditional solar cell material. These attempts produced solar cells with poor efficiencies at converting light into electricity. Researchers now hope to develop an improved polymer solar cell using nanomaterial additives. Specifically, a team in Rhose Island will use a thin polymer film that can be rolled out in sheets. The film will contain nanoscale pieces of semiconductor material and single-walled carbon nanotubes to maximize energy conversion.
The U.S. Presidential candidates George Bush and John Kerry promise very different economic policies. But research sociologist and consumer debt expert Robert Manning argues that the expansion of the global consumer economy will necessarily lead to the diminished economic power of the United States, including slower economic growth due to higher interest rates and excessive public and private debt burdens. Manning, a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, finds that if the U.S. model of credit is adapted globally, it can be expected that household savings rates will plummet while credit card market penetration will continue to soar and average consumer debt will continue to rise.
A new study has caught a newborn star similar to the sun in a fiery outburst. X-ray observations of the flare-up, which are the first of their kind, are providing important new information about the early evolution of the sun and the process of planet formation.
When black holes collide, look out! An enormous burst of gravitational radiation results as they violently merge into one massive black hole. The "kick" that occurs during the collision could knock the black hole clear out of its galaxy. A new study describes the consequences of such an intergalactic collision.
