For American soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, experiments conducted in the labs of UC Davis might mean the difference between life and death. Researchers in the UC Davis department of materials science recently designed a superstrong aluminum alloy that could be used to strengthen the shells of military vehicles.

The researchers studied the structure of aluminum 7075, an alloy that contains 2 percent zinc and magnesium, to see if they could make it resistant to higher degrees of pressure. By analyzing the metal on a very small scale, the team found that manipulating the tiny “grains” in the metal could make it more effective against projectiles.

“If you use this material, you can improve the efficiency against projectiles by about 30 percent, which is huge,” said Enrique Lavernia, a professor of materials science, as well as provost and executive vice chancellor at UC Davis.

To understand how the superstrong alloy works, one must understand the emerging field of nanostructured materials.

Lavernia admits that a lot of people do not understand the true meaning of “nano.” He explained that 1,000,000,000 nanometers make up one meter. In terms of scale, that’s the equivalent of the length of a grain of rice to the distance from Los Angeles to New York.

Scientists working with nanostructured metals don’t just look at the chemical compounds that make up the metal – they also study the interaction between chemicals on a molecular scale. The bonds that hold together the nano-sized molecules make a difference in how the metal reacts to pressure.

When metals become solid, the molecules take on a crystalline structure – they build a sort of lattice. But, as Lavernia said, “there’s never a perfect crystal.” Structural flaws, called dislocations, occur when a column of molecules in the crystal is missing. Dislocations within the crystal make the metal weak.

Lavernia demonstrated the problem using a paper-clip. He bent the paperclip back and forth until it was close to breaking. He explained that when you bend a paperclip – or any metal object – you are adding dislocations to the crystalline structure.

“All these dislocations start getting together and forming a crack,” Lavernia said.

When looking at the nanostructure of the aluminum alloy, Lavernia and his colleagues realized that they did not have to have the natural dislocations scattered throughout the metal. Instead, they could strengthen the metal by concentrating the flaws in one tiny space.

“Instead of allowing the dislocations to form a crack, the dislocations form a grain,” Lavernia said.

Fellow researcher Julie Schoenung, professor of chemical engineering and materials science at UC Davis, described how the newly designed aluminum reacted to “high-strain tests” conducted by colleagues at Johns Hopkins University.

“We thought the samples would just fracture – just shatter under pressure, but instead they were squeezed like a pancake,” Schoenung said.

The ability of the metal to absorb pressure without breaking makes it perfect for use in the military’s armored vehicles. Schoenung said the department is currently working with the U.S. Army and Navy to make sure the metals fulfills military requirements.

Just last week, four Italian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan when their armored vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device, reported CNN. Lavernia and Schoenung seem optimistic that their research could help reduce such casualties. The aluminum alloy not only absorbs more pressure than currently used metals, but it is lighter and more practical for use in fast-moving vehicles.

MADELINE McCURRY-SCHMIDT can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

The universe is a violent place. Not only did we start with an explosive Big Bang, but our solar system is continuously shaped by the desperate pull of gravity.

At a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society, famed astrophysicist Robin Canup proposed that the picturesque rings of Saturn may have formed when an icy moon the size of the planet Mercury careened into the gas giant. For some perspective: Mercury is about one-third the size of Earth.

Astrophysicists have traditionally believed that the rings were formed when the planet’s gravitational pull ripped a small moon or comet into pieces. The moon Canup is picturing is much bigger.

A large moon with a combination of rock and ice could explain why Saturn’s rings are different from the rings of Jupiter, Uranus or Neptune. These other planets’ rings are made up of debris being blown off their moons by meteorites. Saturn’s rings are 90 to 95 percent ice, while these planets’ rings are merely dust.

Canup said tidal forces could have ripped off the moon’s outer, icy layers, and then the moon’s rocky core would have been blasted to smithereens when it hit the planet’s atmosphere. Some of the ice could also have formed a near-by moon. Canup believes Saturn’s moon Titan was far enough away not to be pulled down too.

According to observations by the NASA/ESA Cassini orbiter, the rings of Saturn are billions of years old. No human was around to see Saturn’s gravity take its toll.

If Canup’s hypothesis is correct, then for that doomed moon, resistance was futile.

– Madeline McCurry-Schmidt

Down Old Davis Road, just across the railroad tracks and under the freeway, sits one of Davis’ hidden treasures: the California Raptor Center.

On a recent morning, three volunteers arrived at 8 a.m. sharp for the day’s first four-hour shift. They started by distributing the daily meal of rats and chicks. One of the volunteers was only working his second shift, and he was already learning to catch birds for physical exams.

“That’s how I run this place,” said director Bret Stedman. “It’s very hands-on. Brand-new volunteers learn everything we do. They’re not ready to do everything we do, but they learn it. I want them to have some independence and responsibility. And that experience is obviously compelling for most people.”

It must be compelling, since every quarter the center is flooded with so many willing volunteers that Stedman has to turn away dozens. Each quarter, the center employs about 50 volunteers, at least 30 of whom are returning staff.

John Hsu, a senior Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering, loves getting out of his lab and working with birds.

“This place is unique in that you get a lot of exposure to things you’d never otherwise see,” said Hsu. “It’s really fun.”

Lis Fleming, a trim and lively silver-haired volunteer, has been working at the center for over 15 years. She got involved when her daughter was in second grade and the class visited the center on a field trip.

“None of this landscaping was here,” says Fleming, gesturing at the shady trees, native grasses and tidy pathways. “We sat on railroad ties.”

The center has grown since its founding in 1973. Besides landscaping, the center boasts new cages and offices, a museum and more information for the public, but its focus on rehabilitating injured birds of prey has stayed constant.

Now, research and education are part of the Center’s mission statement, as long as rehabilitation isn’t compromised. Scientists who want to conduct behavioral studies and noninvasive experiments are welcome.

“We don’t do terminal studies,” said Stedman. “That would be counter to our central purpose of trying to save these birds.”

Education, too, has to accommodate rehab. None of the 200 to 250 raptors that the Center rehabilitates each year can meet the public. The center does keep a full house of resident birds, though. These are raptors that can’t be released into the wild, for a variety of reasons.

Cowboy, a sleek peregrine falcon, has a bowed leg from a broken bone that healed crooked. One of the barred owls has a lick of feathers on his chest that sticks out like a cowlick, tripping him when he walks. Another resident, a ferruginous hawk named Thor, was hit by a train and rode along in the grill until the engineer pulled him out.

When the difference between dinner and death is a fraction of an inch, vision and control are vital. So, the center can’t release birds with such impairments.

This year, the Raptor Center is threatened by budget cuts.

“We lost all of our funding this year,” said Fleming. “It costs $110,000 a year for our daily operations. We only have two paid employees. Our entire budget has to come from donations.”

“[UC Davis] still pays for medical treatment of the birds,” said Stedman, “but the operational cost of the center is no longer supported by the school. We don’t know our plans yet, but the place will not continue if we cannot get that funding.”

In hopes of stimulating public interest, the center is holding an open house on Oct. 23, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be flight demonstrations, a Hawk Walk (bring binoculars) and opportunities to get up close and personal with eagles, kestrels, owls and more.

Visit vetmed.ucdavis.edu/calraptor for more details.

EMILY GOYINS can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

Zoë Stachel had been in the wilderness of Alaska for four weeks before she made a breakthrough. She’d survived clouds of mosquitoes, run-ins with giant musk oxen and 24-hour daylight – all for the sake of archaeology. Life on the dig was so Spartan that she’d only showered once a week (with a gallon of water and a bucket). But now, peaking out of the dirt was a white shape that looked awfully like a tool made of bone.

Stachel scraped away more soil to find a ceramic oil lamp next to the tool.

“You could tell by looking at the shape of it [the tool] that it was some kind of spoon on a paddle for stirring the oil,” she said.

This was a great find. The lamp was still intact after around 1,000 years in the eroding hillsides. The roof of the house – which belonged to the ancient Thule culture – had collapsed above it, and still it survived. Stachel and the other archaeologists at the site were thrilled.

“We went off to all the other sites and gloated,” she said.

I know this story because Stachel, a fourth year anthropology and classics major, is my roommate. She worked on the dig in Alaska for five weeks as part of a field school program partially run by the UC Davis. While I’m happy in my book-wormy English major, I couldn’t help being jealous when she came back this summer with stories about science in the tundra.

What I love about archaeology are the mysteries. Stachel couldn’t predict that she would find an ancient lamp – archaeologists can’t know what to expect.

“Who knows where things will show up,” said Stachel.

Archaeology is a gamble.

Just last week, archaeologists in Norway stumbled over a 5,500-year-old structure buried under a bank of sand.

“We expected to find an ‘ordinary’ Scandinavian Stone Age site, badly preserved and small. Instead, we discovered a unique site, buried under a thick sand layer,” lead archaeologist Lars Sundström, of the Museum of Cultural History at the University in Oslo, told Discovery News.

This summer, a team of archaeologists in England discovered an ancient Stonehenge-esque site that had been hidden for 4,500 years. They started on the corner of what they thought was a small stone structure and just kept digging until they’d uncovered the ruins of a huge Neolithic religious site.

“We’re gobsmacked,” site director Jim Leary told The Guardian.

These are the cases where the endless digging and pain-staking record keeping of archaeology pays off. Archaeology is a gamble, but it helps when the gamblers have some idea of where to start digging.

Then there are the nut-cases.

Back in the 1920’s, Louis Leakey decided to look for the origins of human life in Africa. This wasn’t just a gamble, this was insanity. At the time, archaeologists believed humans had originated in Asia. Leakey was only going on some arrowheads and tools he’d found in Kenya as a teenager. To have Leakey put his money on Africa was like having Aristarchus claim the earth revolved around the sun. Insanity!

But by 1959, Leakey was a hero. He and his wife, Mary, found Australopithecus boisei, a relative of humans much older than any hominoid fossils found in Asia. The discovery took more than 30 years, but Leakey’s gamble was worth it.

I love Indiana Jones. But to me, non-fiction stories of archaeological adventures are much more fascinating. It takes Dr. Jones just minutes to swash-buckle his way to a priceless artifact, but real-life archaeology takes a heroic combination of brains and blind faith. You can study the landscape forever, but until you start digging, you’ve got no chance of finding that oil lamp.

MADELINE McCURRY-SCHMIDT can be reached at science@theaggie.org.