Researchers develop ‘green’ industrial lubricant

October 8th, 2009 TORONTO - Just being around green products can make us behave more altruistically, says a new research. But buying those same products can have the opposite effect.

October 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Researchers of Eindhoven University of Technology and the Radboud University Nijmegen in The Netherlands have shown that ordinary graphite is a permanent magnet at room temperature because it can mimic iron's magnetism. Graphite is a well-known lubricant and forms the basis for pencils.

September 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists in Michigan, US, have reported that "green" roofs, which are popular urban rooftops covered with plants, could help fight global warming. The scientists found that replacing traditional roofing materials in an urban area the size of Detroit, with a population of about one-million, with green roofs would be equivalent to eliminating a year's worth of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by 10,000 mid-sized SUVs and trucks.

September 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have developed a new computing tool that could help scientists predict how plants will react to different environmental conditions in order to create better crops, such as tastier and longer lasting tomatoes. The tool will form part of a new 1.7 million pounds Syngenta University Centre at Imperial College London, which will see researchers from Imperial and Syngenta working together to improve agricultural products.

September 23rd, 2009 LONDON - If you think you are unbeatable at playing pool, then you better think again, for a new pool-playing robot developed by researchers at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, is being touted as one step ahead of any snooker-hall shark. Called the 'Deep Green', the robot is an industrial gantry robot, like those used in car manufacturing plants, equipped with a cue and camera and hung over a standard pool table.

September 15th, 2009 LONDON - The first complete map of the lakes beneath Antarctica's ice sheets reveals the continent's secret water network is far more dynamic than we thought, and could be acting as a powerful lubricant beneath glaciers, contributing to sea level rise. According to a report in New Scientist, Ian Joughin at the University of Washington in Seattle and colleagues developed the map.

September 7th, 2009 VIENNA - Ripe bananas glow blue in ultraviolet light, possibly helping monkeys to spot choice fruit, Austrian researchers have found in a study. "When brown spots develop, blue halos appear around them," said Bernhard Kraeutler, an organic chemist at the University of Innsbruck who published the work of his team in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Monday.

September 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - To help reduce pollution level and increase the green cover in the capital, the Delhi government Wednesday announced it will develop nine new city forests by the year end. "The development of these forests will help in reducing pollution level as well as increasing green cover in Delhi.

August 25th, 2009 LONDON - A group of researchers from five European countries are designing a robot using human anatomy as a blueprint. The Eccerobot project has been designed to duplicate the way human bones, muscles and tendons work and are linked together.

August 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have said that an ancient first century B.C. Greek statue, discovered off the coast of Croatia in 1998, may help researchers develop metals that are more resistant to "biofouling," the accumulation of critters that can eat away at ships' hulls.

August 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists are working on transferring the self-healing effect of human skin to materials, in the form of evenly distributed fluid-filled capsules into the electroplated layer of metals, which helps repair the layer in case of damage. The process for producing electroplated layers with nano-capsules has been developed by researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart, together with colleagues from Duisburg-Essen University.

July 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of researchers from the University of Huelva, Spain, has developed an eco friendly lubricating grease based on ricin oil and cellulose derivatives.he new formula does not include any of the contaminating components used to manufacture traditional industrial lubricants. "The objective of this research was to develop a product that could be used as a lubricating grease but that was made only from natural materials and was therefore 100 percent biodegradable", said Jose Maria Franco, a chemical engineer at the University of Huelva and co-author of the study.

May 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study by German researchers has revealed that male canaries sing well even when they are exposed to tutors lacking basic features of the song of their species. The learning of birdsong is similar to speech learning in humans.

April 4th, 2009 LONDON - Want to be good at golf? Well, try not to concentrate too much on the game, suggests a new study. Researchers have found that the secret to a good putt is to stop worrying about stance, distances and the lie of the green and simply hit the ball.

March 13th, 2009 LONDON - A group of psychologists has confirmed what many people always believed: tea and coffee taste better out of your favourite mug. According to Sheffield University researchers, an individual's brain is wired to believe the daily routine of making a brew should be done in a certain way for maximum enjoyment.