纳米科学家展望未来

夏威夷 ,维里亚———从 2 0 0 1年 1 0月 2 8日～3 0日 ,大约 1 5 0名研究人员聚集在这里研讨纳米科学新近的重要进展 ,与会者聆听了人类在操纵纳米物体以及提高光学数据存贮方面所取得的成就———一位年轻的科学家给我们以这样的希望 ,那就是纳米技术的未来不是梦     

美国《科学》杂志评选出2001年度的十大科技进展

让分子拉起手来在 2 0 0 1年里 ,科学家们用分子组配成的基本电路 ,增加了实现全新的纳米电子世界的希望。计算机芯片技术已经伴随重大科技进展十多年了。没有计算机 ,科学家就没法来追踪气候的变迁 ,没法对整个生物体基因组进行测序 ,也没法对工作中的人脑进行成像。但是现在 ,把更多的电路融刻到硅片上却面临着一个根本上的极限。颇为令人尴尬的是 ,人们实际上也不能把电路的“内脏”———晶体管、电阻、电容以及导线———做到小得使其无法正常工作的地步。继 2 0 0 0年开发出一批纳米极装置后 ,2 0 0 1年科学家再进一步将其连接成可以…     

芳醛电合成的研究—Ⅰ对甲苯甲醛电合成方法的改进

确定了用Ｐｂ（＋）－Ｐｂ（－）电极对使Ｍｎ（Ⅱ）电氧化成Ｍｎ（Ⅲ）的优选条件，并测定了在四丁基溴化铵催化下选用Ｍｎ（Ⅲ）氧化对二甲苯制对甲苯甲醛反应的动力学参数。     

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations before 2.2 billion years ago

The composition of the Earth's early atmosphere is a subject of continuing debate. In particular, it has been suggested that elevated concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide would have been necessary to maintain normal surface temperatures in the face of lower solar luminosity in early Earth history. Fossil weathering profiles, known as palaeosols, have provided semi-quantitative constraints on atmospheric oxygen partial pressure (pO2) before 2.2 Gyr ago. Here we use the same well studied palaeosols to constrain atmospheric pCO2 between 2.75 and 2.2 Gyr ago. The observation that iron lost from the tops of these profiles was reprecipitated lower down as iron silicate minerals, rather than as iron carbonate, indicates that atmospheric pCO2 must have been less than 10(-1.4) atm--about 100 times today's level of 360 p.p.m., and at least five times lower than that required in one-dimensional climate models to compensate for lower solar luminosity at 2.75 Gyr. Our results suggest that either the Earth's early climate was much more sensitive to increases in pCO2 than has been thought, or that one or more greenhouse gases other than CO2 contributed significantly to the atmosphere's radiative balance during the late Archaean and early Proterozoic eons.     

大学物理实验课程的必要性及其实施

大学物理实验课程作为高等学校理工科的基础课程之一,其所开设的实验内容以基础性为主,即学生通过做实验能够培养良好的实验习惯,掌握物理实验方法、提高动手能力,以及掌握与实验相关的基础理论知识。物理实验不仅能够帮助学生对抽象的物理知识加深理解;而且还能培养学生对物理学科的兴趣,提高学生对事物的观察能力以及逻辑思维能力,是大学生从理论转向实践的重要环节,本文重点论证大学物理实验课程的必要性以及如何在教学中改进方法。     

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 is an essential regulator of heart function

Cardiovascular diseases are predicted to be the most common cause of death worldwide by 2020. Here we show that angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ace2) maps to a defined quantitative trait locus (QTL) on the X chromosome in three different rat models of hypertension. In all hypertensive rat strains, ACE2 messenger RNA and protein expression were markedly reduced, suggesting that ace2 is a candidate gene for this QTL. Targeted disruption of ACE2 in mice results in a severe cardiac contractility defect, increased angiotensin II levels, and upregulation of hypoxia-induced genes in the heart. Genetic ablation of ACE on an ACE2 mutant background completely rescues the cardiac phenotype. But disruption of ACER, a Drosophila ACE2 homologue, results in a severe defect of heart morphogenesis. These genetic data for ACE2 show that it is an essential regulator of heart function in vivo.     

光学望远镜可以“看见”暗物质

暗物质是一种弥漫在整个星际空间中的不发光物质．它的总质量至少比可见恒星和可见星系的总质量大１０倍。     

太空：物理学的新实验室

物理学家和宇宙学家正在组织规划一些新的科学实验。虽然目前尚处于设想阶段,也是他们仍希望从大爆炸的遗迹和当今宇宙的高能角落里找出基本的物理规律——     

透过镜子看一个颠倒的世界──物理学家为何钟情于反物质研究

物理学家为何钟情于反物质研究── 物理学家正在布置陷阱以捕获反氢,这个反物质的镜像世界中最简单的元素。亚历山大·海利曼斯（Ａｌｅｘ－ａｎｄｅｒＨｅｌｌｅｍａｎｓ）认为他们的研究成果将会改变我们对基本粒子以及基本作用力的看法。 ＣＥＲＮ（欧洲核子中心）是世界上最领先的高能物理实验室之一,在它的一个角落里,一扇通向反物质世界的大门即将开启。在日内瓦附近的ＣＥＲＮ,大约有１５０名物理学家正在尖端的静电阱、磁铁以及高精度激光的帮助下试图捕获反原子,并且他们还首次把反原子问题提交到科学的议事日程上来了。他们…