Size does matter, even in the world of small things. Scientists at Purdue University have been able to take a three-dimensional image of a virus at a resolution of 4.5 angstroms. An angstrom is 0.1 nanometer long, or 1/10 billionth of a meter. So you can imagine that's quite an achievement. Check out the full article to see the magnified virus.

CNET news reports that Purdue University professor Jerry Woodall has discovered a way to create hydrogen out of a reaction of water and an alloy of aluminum and gallium.

Despite current skepticism about using hydrogen as a fuel source, mainly due to the fact that it is quite difficult to do and costly to obtain, others have noted that perhaps research like this along with other hydrogen developments could help dispel the prevailing criticism against using hydrogen for fuel.

Such is the criticism against looking into hydrogen as a source of energy that during the Clean Energy Venture Summit, James Woolsey, former director of the CIA and an alternate energy advocate, said that for now, looking into hydrogen is a distraction, and he notes that he favors other solutions like plug-in hybrids or clean diesel. Woolsey received a standing ovation.

Woodall, however, estimates that the technique he's developed can produce fuel that can compete with gas at 3 dollars a gallon. The actual hydrogen fuel will be more expensive than gasoline, but in turn is more efficient, and will dissipate the costs in the long run.

Here's how the good professor made his discovery:

I was cleaning a crucible containing liquid alloys of gallium and aluminum. When I added water to this alloy--talk about a discovery--there was a violent poof. I went to my office and worked out the reaction in a couple of hours to figure out what had happened. When aluminum atoms in the liquid alloy come into contact with water, they react, splitting the water and producing hydrogen and aluminum oxide.

Other research into extracting hydrogen from water in a cost-efficient manner include Ecotality's procedure that involves magnesium oxide pellets, Signa Chemistry's process that uses water, sodium, and silicon, and Stanford University's James Swartz's biological means of using a microorganism to split up water molecule

Engineers from Purdue University, with guidance of mathematical theories by UK physicists back in 2006, were able to come up with a theoretical design that uses an array of tiny needles radiating outward from a central spoke. The hairbrush-like device should be able to bend light around the object that's supposed to be cloaked, just like how the "Invisibility" cloak works.

The bending of light should result in the background behind the object being visible, but the object itself no where in sight. However, the design is only limited to one single wavelength at a time, and not the entire visible spectrum. But Vladimir Shalaev, a professor at Purdue, said that it is a design step toward creating an optical cloaking device that might work for all wavelengths of visible light.

As of this moment, the calculations based on the design indicate that the device should be capable of making an object invisible with a wavelength of 632.8 nanometers, which is in the range of the color red. Shalaev is positive, however, that the design is reusable for cloaking objects covering the entire spectrum.

The research findings will be available in detail this month in the Nature Photonics journal. This first week should herald the online availability of the paper, which is based on the research performed at the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue's Discovery Park. You can click the "Read" link provided below to press details of the find.

It doesn't look like it does anything, but the picture on your right actually takes trash and turns it into energy. Some scientists over at Purdue University created this "tactical biorefinery," a generator that uses refuse as a main fuel source.

According to the scientists, the whole thing was made due to a request from the US military. The tactical biorefinery, however, can serve more than military purposes, such as in providing emergency power for relief operations and hospitals.

While diesel actually starts the process of creating power, the trash is what really gets the whole contraption going:

The machine separates food material into a bioreactor that uses the yeast ferments to create ethanol.

Other materials go to a gasifier and are converted into propane gas and methane, which then fuel the diesel engine that creates electricity. 

Purdue scientists also mention that the device may actually be more environmentally friendly, as the biomass-powered generator takes less diesel to run, and because plants absorb carbon dioxide, which is supposed to be one of its byproducts.

In the midst of strong emotion, politicizing, accusations and conspiracy rumors, one member of the scientific community is using a rational approach to determine exactly what happened that fateful day, five years ago. How was it that two planes, colliding with the World Trade Towers, were able to cause both structures to collapse the way they did?

Using mathematical models to create computer simulations, Christoph M. Hoffmann, a professor of computer science at Purdue University has recreated the physics of what happened when two medium-sized passenger planes collided with the Twin Towers at over 500 MPH, creating a fire that was fed with 10,000 gallons of fuel.

"This required a tremendous amount of detailed work," Hoffmann said. "We have finished the first part of the simulation showing what happened to the structure during the initial impact. In the coming months, we will explore how the structure reacted to the extreme heat from the blaze that led to the building's collapse, and we will refine the visual presentations of the simulation." The initial simulation took about 80 hours to create, using a high-powered computer with sixteen processors.

The key to the buildings' collapse seem to be the 47 heavy steel I-beams that comprised the core of the structures. "Current findings from the simulation have identified the destruction of 11 columns on the 94th floor, 10 columns on the 95th floor and nine columns on the 96th floor," said Hoffman. "This is a major insight. When you lose close to 25 percent of your columns at a given level, the building is significantly weakened and vulnerable to collapse."

The study is being funded by National Science Foundation. It is hoped that understanding of how these buildings collapsed will provide future engineers with the knowledge to design safer buildings.

A team of Electronics and Communications Engineeing students from Purdue University have made quite an interesting contraption for a school project. The thingamajig known as the "handy", allows the control of the Bose SoundDock for the iPod by just using hand gestures. The video below looks like an attempt to emanate the same aura as that of Apple commercials, but sadly it seem to not work their way.

I personally do not know if the prototype will ever cross to being a real product, but anything is possible. To me, the "handy" doesn't look very handy to me...It's quite bulky. But if it works, then good for them...this baby may not see the light of mass production, but I bet they got a pretty decent grade out of it.