Saturday 14 September 2013

Balloon-borne astronomy experiment X-Calibur racing to hit wind window

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In a few days, a balloon-borne telescope sensitive to the polarization of high-energy “hard” X-rays will ascend to the edge of the atmosphere above Fort Sumner, N.M. Once aloft, the telescope will stare at black holes, neutron stars and other exotic astronomical objects that shine brightly in the X-ray part of the spectrum in order to learn about their nature and structure. After years of preparation, the X-Calibur team is racing to get the experiment mission-ready in time for the stratospheric wind event they hope to ride.

via Science Daily

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Monogram - Crab Pulsar Time Lapse - Neutron Star Sticker

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: stars, galaxies, astronomy, envelope sealers, crbplsr, crab pulsar, time lapse astronomy, neutron star, matter and antimatter, near light speed, monogram initials, monograms

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Multiple observations made over several months with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope captured the spectacle of matter and antimatter propelled to near the speed of light by the Crab pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star the size of Manhattan.

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Image credit: NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope

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by Ottavio Mario Leo Posters

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space

wow! This one caught my eye, I hope you like it. By corbisimages,
another talented creative from the Zazzle community!


tagged with: portrait of galileo galilei, by ottavio mario leoni, adults, astronomer, astronomy, beards, bust-length portrait, drawings, european, period or style, europeans, eye contact, facial hair, fine art, galileo galilei, italian, italians, located in, biblioteca marucelliana, males, men, natural sciences, ottavio mario leoni, people, physical science, physicist, prominent persons, science, sciences, scientist, southern europeans, visual arts, western european, western europeans, whites

ImageID: 42-18334572 / The Gallery Collection / Corbis / <portrait of="" galileo="" galilei=""> by Ottavio Mario Leoni /</portrait>

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Spider silk coated with carbon nanotubes has multiple surprising uses

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Physicists have discovered that simple methods can result in surprising and environmentally friendly high-tech outcomes during their experiments with spider silk and carbon nanotubes. Spider silk coated with nanotubes can act as a humidity sensor, a strain sensor, an actuator (a device that acts as an artificial muscle, for lifting weights and more) and as an electrical wire, according to researchers.

via Science Daily

Updated Launch Date, NASA TV Coverage for Orbital Sciences Demonstration Mission

Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., will postpone by at least 24 hours the launch of its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft on a demonstration mission to the International Space Station. The new launch window is targeted for Wednesday, Sept. 18 between 10:50 to 11:05 a.m. EDT from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/september/updated-launch-date-nasa-tv-coverage-for-orbital-sciences-demonstration-mission

Ultrafast graphene circuits

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Graphene - gamechanger, or just hype?

Not so long ago, some started to think that graphene will never live up to its promise as a radical technology changer, because it seemed that it's been such a long time since it was discovered and hyped up, and no real graphene electronic devices have been shown. The hype was becoming apparent already in 2010, following the Nobel prize awarded for the discovery of the material, and Professor Geim had to come out with statements of caution in the media on several occasions. Even as the Graphene Flagship (which Graphenea is part of) was awarded a billion euros, Professor Andrea Ferrari of Cambridge University stressed the amount of work that still needs to be done before graphene goes commercial. Even so, the hype kept rising.

Gapless graphene

A part of the reason for the apparent dissonance in the expectations of the public and those of the experts was the lack of a band gap in graphene. A band gap is a range of energies which charge-carrying electrons in a material cannot occupy, leading to a pronounced difference in the behaviour of electrons below the gap to those above the gap. Namely, electrons below the energy band gap are fixed to their positions and do not carry any current. Those above the gap have enough energy to move around, making the entire material conductive. Materials that possess a band gap are called semiconductors, the most famous of the class being the ubiquitous silicon.

The absence of a band gap in graphene makes all its electrons mobile. While zooming mobile electrons are great for carrying electricity and showing off a range of spectacular scientific breakthroughs, the inability to switch the current off stands in stark contrast to the requirements of the traditional transistor, the basic element of electronic circuit logic. All internal circuits in consumer electronic devices operate on the principle of bits, on the exchange of "0"s and "1"s the sequence of which encodes the relevant information. Modern circuits incorporate billions of semiconductor transistors, constantly flipping between the conducting and insulating state. Graphene just isn't able to do that. Or is it?

Graphene transistors are real

Already back in February, reports showed up of a new class of graphene transistors. How was it done? By bombarding a part of a graphene sheet with helium ions, that part of the sheet is strongly modified by introducing defects. The ion-irradiated part acquires a much larger density of charge carriers than the rest of the sheet, creating an insulating region. The insulating region prevents current flow between the electrodes of the device. Now defaulting to the "0" state, the graphene transistor can be made to conduct current again by applying an electric field to the pristine parts of the graphene. The field is applied with an additional pair of electronic gates.

The result was an interesting proof of principle, and was not the first nor the last that appeared around the same time. All the effort, however, was plagued by the resultant low quality of the graphene switch. The graphene that was exposed to ions or other types of chemicals would always have a dramatically reduced ability to conduct electrons, compared to the untreated case. Also, the switching efficiency was always poor compared to what we're used to from silicon. So the partial success of the first graphene transistors was more food for the sceptics.



Figure: Printed circuits are about to become fast and flexible. Source: sxc.hu.

Just some months later, we are seeing a rise of advanced graphene electronic devices. Less than two weeks ago, researchers at MIT demonstrated a novel way of increasing the charge carrier concentration in graphene. Chlorine gas was introduced to a graphene surface in a controlled way, so to not damage the sheet in the process. Teams led by Mildred Dresselhaus and our scientific adviser Tomas Palacios, modified the graphene surface with chlorine plasma in a reactive ion etcher, a plasma-inducing chamber with tightly controlled conditions. After careful tweaking of the process, they were able to retain the high charge carrier mobility of 1500 cm2/V, commonly obtained in untreated graphene. The process uniformly coats graphene with the chlorine, with coverage up to 45% of the surface area. Theory predicts that at 50% coverage, the all-important band gap will emerge in graphene. Just 5% more, and we could have graphene transistors comparable to those made of silicon - except they would be ultrathin, transparent, printable, and flexible.

A new kind of graphene logic

Nearly simultaneously, researchers at the University of California, Riverside, have come up with a new approach to graphene transistors. Instead of modifying the graphene, Alexander Balandin and colleagues have chosen to modify the logic. The team uses regular band gap-less graphene, and utilizes the material's unique property of negative differential resistance. With negative resistance, under some conditions, the electrical current increases with decreasing the applied voltage. Biasing parts of the graphene sheet into the "negative" regime and other part normally, a new type of transistor was achieved. This time scientists did not stop at showing the proof of principle, but rather went all the way to showing a logic gate made from graphene. At operating speeds predicted to be up to 400 GHz, the approach could usher in a new era of graphene information processing.

Graphene has its share of hype and overselling, however it is important to note that research is still proceeding at an incredible pace, with the scientific landscape radically changing every few months. Although much remains to be done to fulfil all the promise that this wonderful material holds, the research and industry communities are working diligently towards a common goal - new graphene-enabled technologies.



via Graphenea

First graphene commercialization summit highlights main directions

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The first Graphene Commercialisation and Applications Summit was held June 25 and 26 in London. The summit gathered key players of the graphene industry, together with those that wish to use graphene but are not yet using it, as well as investors. The variety of speakers and guests provided for a dynamic mixture, as witnessed first-hand by our CEO Jesus de la Fuente.


"The meeting helped us to establish new connections, and see what old ones are up to," says Jesus. "Graphenea definitely enjoys networking with other members of the graphene industry and this meeting provided a good environment for that."


Jani Kivioja of Nokia mentions Graphenea in his talk.Speakers included lead researchers of industry giants, such as HEAD, BASF, Airbus and Volvo. HEAD proudly showed the first commercial graphene product - their now famous graphene tennis racquet. Nokia was also there, providing insight into the company's research into graphene-enabled mobile devices, as well as outlining their lead role in the European Commision's Graphene Flagship. Graphenea partners with Nokia on several projects to bring high-quality graphene to the real world market. Nokia, as well as Jari Kinaret (head of the Graphene Flagship) and the representative of Thales cited Graphenea as as their graphene producer partner. Graphenea partners with many large industrial leaders and academic research labs.


The conference was held in a friendly and collaborative atmosphere, with ample time for discussion and establishing new partnerships. These kinds of meetings are very welcome, as they support the coherent development of the graphene industry and help push the technology forward. We look forward to next year's meeting, at the same place around the same time!






via Graphenea

Electronics get smaller - and cooler - with graphene

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Anyone that keeps an eye on modern technology will know the fierce battle that engineers have been fighting trying to keep up with Moore's law. For more than half a century, the number of transistors on integrated circuits has doubled every two years. As the transistor density has increased to such extent that transistor dimensions have shrunk to the order of 10 nanometers, packing even more transistors on a chip has become exceedingly hard. The main challenges are integration of transistor functionality with such unbelievable precision, and heat. Now graphene technology is starting to address both these limiting issues.


Electronics is reaching atomic-level control, thanks to graphene. Image courtesy of sxc.hu.As electrons zip through circuits, they lose some of their energy to heat. As the circuits get smaller, the heat density increases. The heat problem has become so big that a recent study showed that 50% of the electricity consumed by big data servers goes on cooling the servers. Now researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, that leads the billion-euro Graphene Flagship, have shown that a layer of graphene can efficiently guide heat away from hot circuit elements. The temperature was reduced in some cases up to 13 degrees Celsius, which could double the lifetime of the electronic component. The team used CVD-grown graphene, a technology that Graphenea is proud to excel in.

Not only is graphene taking the heat out of circuits, it is helping to make circuits smaller. Chemists at the University of Copenhagen have made a tiny transistor, activated with light, featuring graphene as the transparent contact. The device is truly tiny: the active area consists of only one monolayer of photosensitive molecules. The graphene electrode is only 5 nanometers thick, permitting most of the light to pass through to the active area, while still providing better electrical contact than other solutions. Graphene oxide, used as the transparent contact, is one of the staple products offered in our online graphene store.

As if that isn't impressive enough, scientists at Aalto and Utrecht Universities have managed to make electrical contact between graphene and gold using only a single chemical bond. The bond was placed at exactly the desired position on a graphene nanoribbon using atomic force microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy. The work is an impressive demonstration of the level of structural control offered by modern technology, as well as being a peek into the future of electronics.

We already wrote about the use of graphene for energy applications. Research in that direction keeps producing potentially world-improving results, the latest coming from MIT. Researchers have built an ultrathin solar cell, made of graphene and other two-dimensional materials. The cell is 20 to 50 times thinner than any other solar cell made today. The research points to a world in which just about anything is covered with light-harvesting cells that are practically invisible, each one collecting the energy of the Sun and sending it through equally invisible wires to the power grid. If someone out there is looking to commercialize in this direction, we're on the same page!




via Graphenea

What do rabbits with LEDs in their contact lenses and low-cost fuel cells have in common?

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The diverse beauty of graphene is coming to light through advanced applications as varied as fuel cells and light-emitting contact lenses.

Researchers from Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology (UNIST) in Korea feature in both these recent achievements which caused much excitement in the graphene community. Graphene has been used as an electrode for fuel cells before, however the most recent demonstration is impressive in its performance and ease of manufacturing. A UNIST team led by Profs. Jong-Beam Baek and Noejung Park ball-milled commercial graphene nanoplatelets in the presence of various halogen elements, such as chlorine, bromine, or iodine. The milling separated the graphene sheets from each other at the edges of the nanoplatelet (nanoplatelets usually consist of multiple graphene sheets) and the halogen material creeped in between the graphene sheets. The result was a compound that acts as an excellent cathode for fuel cells, with better long-term stability than commercially available electrodes. Rabbit, source stock exchange free photos

The same institute published a NanoLetter last week, from the team led by Jang-Ung Park, describing the making of a light-emitting diode (LED) fitted with a transparent electrode made of graphene and metal nanowires. The nanowires serve to connect patches of graphene that are often present in CVD grown graphene, thus improving its electrical conductivity. The hybrid material retains graphene's superb mechanical flexibility and strength, which was forcefully demonstrated by fitting the LED into a contact lens. The lens was placed into the eye of a rabbit, who wore it for five hours without any adverse effects. This research presents a breakthrough in wearable graphene devices, raising hopes that graphene will soon be closer to us than we ever would have thought.

The very same cracks and patches in graphene were previously theoretically predicted to severely reduce the mechanical strength of graphene, however researchers from Columbia saved the day by experimentally proving that graphene retains its amazing strength even with cracks and patches, which are naturally formed during growth. It seems that the culprit for the earlier observed weakness lay in the process of transfer from the copper growth substrate to another one. The Columbia team, led by Prof. James Hone, developed a more gentle graphene transfer procedure and published their paper in Science.

Again from East Asia comes an awesome demonstration of the abilities of graphene, this time in the field of photosensors. Researchers at Nanyang Technological University have shown a graphene photosensor which is 1000 times more sensitive than current imaging sensors used in cameras. That means that with such a sensor we would never need to use a camera flash again!

To end a summary of the past weeks' exciting discoveries, Wired magazine published a guide to making your own graphene. For high quality and large areas, we still recommend buying your graphene from Graphenea.




via Graphenea

A day made of glass... (and Graphene)

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Let's see an amazing conceptual video from Corning showing future applications of new materials like Graphene.






via Graphenea

What is Graphene video?

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Graphenea are a consortium member of the Graphene Flagship initiative. The consortium has developed a nice introductory video explaining what is Graphene and why is important.






via Graphenea

Changes in Saturn's Moon Titan’s surface brightness point to cryovolcanism

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Changes in surface brightness on Titan observed over four years by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have added to evidence that cryovolcanism is active on Saturn’s largest Moon. Astronomers compared many volcanic-like features, such as flows, calderas and craters, with similar geological features found on Earth to study the possibility of cryovolcanic activity within regions observed close to Titan’s equator.

via Science Daily

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Fireballs in Jupiter's atmosphere observed by amateur astronomers

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The solar system is crowded with small objects like asteroids and comets. Most have stable orbits which keep them out of harm’s way, but a small proportion of them are in orbits that risk them colliding with planets.

via Science Daily

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Catastrophic collapse of ice lake created Aram Chaos on Mars

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Aram Chaos, the lumpy, bumpy floor of an ancient impact crater on Mars, formed as a result of catastrophic melting and outflow of a buried ice lake. A new study combines observations from satellite photos of the 280 kilometer wide and four kilometer deep crater plus models of the ice melting process and resulting catastrophic outflow.

via Science Daily

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Get ready for Rosetta's wake-up call with activity schedule for target comet

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After a journey of almost ten years, the Rosetta mission has just a few months left to wait before beginning its rendezvous with a time capsule. Comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko is a dirty snowball of ice and dust that preserves material from the formation of the Solar System 4.5 billion years ago.

via Science Daily

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Fireballs in Jupiter's atmosphere observed by amateur astronomers

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The solar system is crowded with small objects like asteroids and comets. Most have stable orbits which keep them out of harm's way, but a small proportion of them are in orbits that risk them colliding with planets.



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Stellar Nursery R136 in the Tarantula Nebula Stickers

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: stars, galaxies, astronomy, galaxy, envelope sealers, dorneblmc, stellar nursery, r136, 30 doradus nebula, massive stars, large magellanic cloud, star cluster, amazing hubble images, tarantula nebula

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds in appear in this the most detailed view of the largest stellar nursery in our local galactic neighborhood. The massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus (or Tarantula) Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.
There is no known star-forming region in our galaxy as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus. Many of the diamond-like icy blue stars are among the most massive stars known. Several of them are over 100 times more massive than our Sun. These hefty stars are destined to pop off, like a string of firecrackers, as supernovas in a few million years. The image, taken in ultraviolet, visible, and red light by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, spans about 100 light-years.
The movement of the LMC around the Milky Way may have triggered the massive cluster's formation in several ways. The gravitational tug of the Milky Way and the companion Small Magellanic Cloud may have compressed gas in the LMC. Also, the pressure resulting from the LMC plowing through the Milky Way's halo may have compressed gas in the satellite. The cluster is a rare, nearby example of the many super star clusters that formed in the distant, early universe, when star birth and galaxy interactions were more frequent.
The LMC is located 170,000 light-years away and is a member of the Local Group of Galaxies, which also includes the Milky Way. The Hubble observations were taken Oct. 20-27, 2009. The blue color is light from the hottest, most massive stars; the green from the glow of oxygen; and the red from fluorescing hydrogen.

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Image credit: Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3

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Stonehenge at Night Posters

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space

here's a design from one of the greats - corbisimages,
another talented creative from the Zazzle community!


tagged with: astronomy, dream-like, druidism, england, europe, european, period or style, henge, megalithic monument, monument, mystery, national monument, natural sciences, neolithic, night, nobody, outdoors, outer space, physical science, prehistoric, public land, sciences, south west england, stars, stone age, stonehenge, trilithon, western european, wiltshire

ImageID: AX028971 / M. Dillon / CORBIS / Stonehenge at Night /

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