Monday 31 March 2014

Unavoidable disorder used to build nanolaser

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Researchers the world round are working to develop optical chips, where light can be controlled with nanostructures. These could be used for future circuits based on light (photons) instead of electron – that is photonics instead of electronics. But it has proved to be impossible to achieve perfect photonic nanostructures: they are inevitably a little bit imperfect. Now researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute in collaboration with DTU have discovered that imperfect nanostructures can offer entirely new functionalities. They have shown that imperfect optical chips can be used to produce ‘nanolasers’, which is an ultimately compact and energy-efficient light source. The results are published in the scientific journal Nature Nanotechnology. Professor Peter Lodahl, Assistant Professor David Garcia and Associate Professor Søren Stobbe from the Niels Bohr Institute designed the photonic crystal and carried out the experimental studies in the research group’s laboratories.     The researchers are working with extremely small photonic crystal membranes – the width of the membrane is 25 micrometer (1 micrometer is one thousandth of a millimeter), and the thickness is 340 nanometers (1 nanometer is one thousandth of a micrometer). The crystals are made of the semiconducting material gallium arsenide (GaAs). A pattern of holes

The post Unavoidable disorder used to build nanolaser has been published on Technology Org.


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'Cosmic barometer' could reveal violent events in universe's past

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Scientists have developed a way of reading the universe’s ‘cosmic barometer’ to learn more about ancient violent events in space. Exploding stars, random impacts involving comets and meteorites, and even near misses between two bodies can create regions of great heat and high pressure. Researchers have now developed a method for analysing the pressure experienced by tiny samples of organic material that may have been ejected from dying stars before making a long journey through the cosmos.

via Science Daily

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The Crab Nebula. Poster

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Shrink wrap used to enhance detection of infectious disease biomarkers

Science Focus

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These are close-up images of the new shrink wrap nanostructures taken with a scanning electron microscope. Each image depicts the shrink wrap’s surface with a fixed amount of nickel (5 nm) and different thicknesses of gold in the metal coating. The top is 10 nm thick. The middle is 20 nm thick. The bottom is 30 nm thick. The black arrows in the top image indicate a nanogap. Credit: Optical Materials Express Detecting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other deadly infectious diseases as early as possible helps to prevent their rapid spread and allows for more effective treatments. But current detection methods are cost-prohibitive in most areas of the world. Now a new nanotechnology method—employing common, everyday shrink wrap—may make highly sensitive, extremely low-cost diagnosis of infectious disease agents possible. The new technique, described in a paper published today in The Optical Society’s (OSA) journal Optical Materials Express, offers a way to significantly boost the signal of fluorescent markers used in biosensing, by depositing a combination of metals onto shrink wrap. “Using commodity shrink wrap and bulk manufacturing processes, we can make low-cost nanostructures to enable fluorescence enhancements greater than a thousand-fold, allowing for significantly lower limits of detection,” said co-author Michelle Khine,

The post Shrink wrap used to enhance detection of infectious disease biomarkers has been published on Technology Org.


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Hunger games with climate change

Science Focus

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Is global warming pushing affluent Japan towards a food crisis?
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Eagle Nebula, Pillars of Creation Oval Sticker

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tagged with: breathtaking astronomy images, eglneb, young stars clusters, star forming nebulae, messier 16 ngc 6611, pillars of creation, inspirational, eagle nebula, heavens, stars, eso, european southern observatory, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A breathtaking outer space picture showing a spectacular three-colour composite mosaic image of the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16, or NGC 6611). It's based on images obtained with the Wide-Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory.

At the centre, the so-called “Pillars of Creation” can be seen and this wide-field image shows not only the central pillars, but also several others in the same star-forming region, as well as a huge number of stars in front of, in, or behind the Eagle Nebula.

The cluster of bright stars to the upper right is NGC 6611, home to the massive and hot stars that illuminate the pillars. The “Spire” - another large pillar - is in the middle left of the image.

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Name, Dumbbell Nebula, Intriguing Outer Space Gift Wrap

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tagged with: inspirational, dmbblneb, vulpecula constellation, intense ultraviolet radiation, heavens, dumbbell nebula, star galaxies, the fox constellation, outer space, astronomy pictures, european southern observatory, messier 27 ngc 6853, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A great photo from deep space featuring the Dumbbell Nebula - also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853. It's a typical planetary nebula and is located in the constellation Vulpecula (The Fox).
The distance is rather uncertain, but is believed to be around 1,200 light-years. It was first described by the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier who found it in 1764 and included it as no. 27 in his famous list of extended sky objects.
Despite its class, the Dumbbell Nebula has nothing to do with planets. It consists of very rarefied gas that has been ejected from the hot central star (well visible on this photo), now in one of the last evolutionary stages. The gas atoms in the nebula are excited (heated) by the intense ultraviolet radiation from this star and emit strongly at specific wavelengths.
This image is the beautiful by-product of a technical test of some FORS1 narrow-band optical interference filters. They only allow light in a small wavelength range to pass and are used to isolate emissions from particular atoms and ions.
In this three-colour composite, a short exposure was first made through a wide-band filter registering blue light from the nebula. It was then combined with exposures through two interference filters in the light of double-ionized oxygen atoms and atomic hydrogen. They were colour-coded as “blue”, “green” and “red”, respectively, and then combined to produce this picture that shows the structure of the nebula in “approximately true” colours.
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2012 VP113: A New Furthest Known Object in Solar System

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'Cosmic barometer' could reveal violent events in universe's past

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Scientists have developed a way of reading the universe's 'cosmic barometer' to learn more about ancient violent events in space.



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Helix Nebula Wall Decal

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tagged with: helix, nebula, blue, pink, white, stars, space, eye, caseous, big, astronomy, vast, universe, galaxy, wall, decor, decal, decorations

Awesome colors in this altered version of the Helix Nebula viewed by the Hubble Telescope

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Turbulent Star-Birth Region Selection Case For The iPad Mini

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: hubble, nasa, stars, star, galaxy, galaxies, space, astronomy, telescope, beautiful, photos, nebula, nature, landscapes

In commemoration of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope completing its 100,000th orbit in its 18th year of exploration and discovery, scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., have aimed Hubble to take a snapshot of a dazzling region of celestial birth and renewal. Hubble peered into a small portion of the nebula near the star cluster NGC 2074 (upper, left). The region is a firestorm of raw stellar creation, perhaps triggered by a nearby supernova explosion. It lies about 170,000 light-years away near the Tarantula nebula, one of the most active star-forming regions in our Local Group of galaxies. The three-dimensional-looking image reveals dramatic ridges and valleys of dust, serpent-head "pillars of creation," and gaseous filaments glowing fiercely under torrential ultraviolet radiation. The region is on the edge of a dark molecular cloud that is an incubator for the birth of new stars. The high-energy radiation blazing out from clusters of hot young stars already born in NGC 2074 is sculpting the wall of the nebula by slowly eroding it away. Another young cluster may be hidden beneath a circle of brilliant blue gas at center, bottom. In this approximately 100-light-year-wide fantasy-like landscape, dark towers of dust rise above a glowing wall of gases on the surface of the molecular cloud. The seahorse-shaped pillar at lower, right is approximately 20 light-years long, roughly four times the distance between our Sun and the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. The region is in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite of our Milky Way galaxy. It is a fascinating laboratory for observing star-formation regions and their evolution. Dwarf galaxies like the LMC are considered to be the primitive building blocks of larger galaxies. This representative color image was taken on August 10, 2008, with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Red shows emission from sulfur atoms, green from glowing hydrogen, and blue from glowing oxygen. Source: NASA.

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Study on element californium could change ballgame on radioactive waste

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Florida State Professor Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt.  Groundbreaking work by a team of chemists on a fringe element of the periodic table could change how the world stores radioactive waste and recycles fuel. The element is called californium — Cf if you’re looking at the Periodic Table of Elements — and it’s what Florida State Professor Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt, the lead researcher on the project, calls “wicked stuff.” In carefully choreographed experiments, Albrecht-Schmitt and his colleagues found that californium had amazing abilities to bond and separate other materials. They also found it was extremely resistant to radiation damage. “It’s almost like snake oil,” he said. “It sounds almost too good to be true.” Albrecht-Schmitt said that the discoveries could help scientists build new storage containers for radioactive waste, plus help separate radioactive fuel, which means the fuel could be recycled. “This has real world application,” he said. “It’s not purely an academic practice.” Albrecht-Schmitt’s work, “Unusual Structure, Bonding, and Properties in a Californium Borate,” appears in the newest edition of Nature Chemistry. But, running the experiments and collecting the data were not small tasks. After years of working with the U.S. Department of Energy, Albrecht-Schmitt obtained 5 milligrams of californium costing \$1.4 million, paid for

The post Study on element californium could change ballgame on radioactive waste has been published on Technology Org.


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The Solar Cycle

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Space science image of the week: The rise and fall of solar activity, as seen by SOHO

via ESA Space Science

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/03/Solar_cycle

The Pleiades. Poster

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Dumbbell Nebula in Taurus Oval Stickers

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tagged with: awesome astronomy images, inspirational, dmbblneb, vulpecula constellation, intense ultraviolet radiation, messier 27 ngc 6853, heavens, stars, dumbbell nebula, the fox constellation, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A great photo from deep space featuring the Dumbbell Nebula - also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853. It's a typical planetary nebula and is located in the constellation Vulpecula (The Fox).

The distance is rather uncertain, but is believed to be around 1,200 light-years. It was first described by the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier who found it in 1764 and included it as no. 27 in his famous list of extended sky objects.

Despite its class, the Dumbbell Nebula has nothing to do with planets. It consists of very rarefied gas that has been ejected from the hot central star (well visible on this photo), now in one of the last evolutionary stages. The gas atoms in the nebula are excited (heated) by the intense ultraviolet radiation from this star and emit strongly at specific wavelengths.

This image is the beautiful by-product of a technical test of some FORS1 narrow-band optical interference filters. They only allow light in a small wavelength range to pass and are used to isolate emissions from particular atoms and ions.

In this three-colour composite, a short exposure was first made through a wide-band filter registering blue light from the nebula. It was then combined with exposures through two interference filters in the light of double-ionized oxygen atoms and atomic hydrogen. They were colour-coded as “blue”, “green” and “red”, respectively, and then combined to produce this picture that shows the structure of the nebula in “approximately true” colours.



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Name, Flame Nebula in Orion, intriguing deep space Gift Wrap

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tagged with: star forming, orion constellation, young stars clusters, orions belt, orion the hunter, flame nebula, astronomy pictures, deep space image, star galaxies, hrbstslr hfflmnb, heavens, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous outer space picture featuring the spectacular star-forming region known as the Flame Nebula, or NGC 2024, in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter) and its surroundings.
In views of this evocative object in visible light the core of the nebula is completely hidden behind obscuring dust, but in this VISTA view, taken in infrared light, the cluster of very young stars at the object’s heart is revealed. The wide-field VISTA view also includes the glow of the reflection nebula NGC 2023, just below centre, and the ghostly outline of the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) towards the lower right.
The bright bluish star towards the right is one of the three bright stars forming the Belt of Orion. The image was created from VISTA images taken through J, H and Ks filters in the near-infrared part of the spectrum.
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First sightings of solar flare phenomena confirm 3D models of space weather

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Scientists have for the first time witnessed the mechanism behind explosive energy releases in the Sun's atmosphere, confirming new theories about how solar flares are created. New footage put together by an international team of researchers shows how entangled magnetic field lines looping from the Sun's surface slip around each other and lead to an eruption 35 times the size of the Earth and an explosive release of magnetic energy into space.

via Science Daily

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Purple Galaxy with Stars Wall Graphics

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: outer space, galaxy, galaxies, cosmic, cosmos, space art, outer space art, fantasy art

Graphic art design of a purple galaxy with stars shining. This cosmic design has light purple and pink nebulas. A fantasy astronomy design for any fans of outer space art.

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NGC 602 bright stars Cover For The iPad Mini

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: nasa, space, astronomy, shuttle, hubble, bright, star, starry, blue, nebula

NGC 602 is a young, bright open cluster of stars located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way. Radiation and shock waves from the stars have pushed away much of the lighter surrounding gas and dust that compose the nebula known as N90, and this in turn has triggered new star formation in the ridges (or "elephant trunks") of the nebula.

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Sunday 30 March 2014

Nanostructures enhance light trapping for solar fuel generation

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Illustration of a hematite photoelectrode consisting of a periodic nanobeam-array (red) on a conductive ITO layer (dark blue). The nanobeam structure boosts the absorption of sunlight at the hematite/H2O interface, resulting in more efficient conversion of sunlight into solar fuel. Credit: Soo Jin Kim, et al. ©2014 American Chemical Society As the world’s dependence on fossil fuels causes ever-increasing problems, researchers are investigating solar fuels as an alternative energy source. To make solar fuels, sunlight is converted into hydrogen or another type of chemical energy. Compared to energy produced by solar cells, which convert sunlight directly to electricity, solar fuels such as hydrogen have the advantage of being easier to store for later use. Because of the enormous amount of sunlight that reaches Earth, solar fuel generation has the potential to serve as a clean, terawatt-scale global energy source. But in order for this to happen, the photocatalysts that enhance light absorption and light trapping must be improved, both in terms of higher performance and lower cost. In a new study, researchers Soo Jin Kim, et al., at the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials in Stanford, California, have demonstrated that photocatalysts made from iron oxide exhibit substantial performance improvements when they are

The post Nanostructures enhance light trapping for solar fuel generation has been published on Technology Org.


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All Solar System Bodies larger than 200 Miles Print

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tagged with: solar system, space, astronomy, scale, visualization

A visual listing of objects in the Solar System, ordered by size. A (large) image showing the 88 known objects in our Solar System that are larger than 200 miles in diameter. Captures a fair percentage of known Trans-Neptunian Objects (51), enough to give a good idea of their place in the larger scheme of things. http://kokogiak.com/gedankengang/2007/03/all-known-bodies-in-solar-system.html

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The sexual battles of plants

Science Focus

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Humans physically fight over mates, sure (see Popeye vs Bluto). Other animals also get into confrontation over mates (bears, for example). But plants? Psssh. No way, right? How do you fight when you're basically immobile and blind to your competitors?

Even though plant reproduction doesn't resemble more familiar mating rituals, plants are still sexually competitive and try to exploit pollinators like birds and insects to one up each other. Now scientists in Argentina have found what appears to be the first evidence of a plant evolving weaponry to physically fight off its competitors.

Milkweeds...

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Research brings new control over topological insulator

Science Focus

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An international team of scientists investigating the electronic properties of ultra-thin films of new materials – topological insulators (TIs) – has demonstrated a new method to tune their unique properties using strain. Topological insulators are new materials with surfaces that host a new quantum state of matter and are insensitive to contaminants, defects and impurities. Surface electrons in TIs behave like massless Dirac particles in a similar way to electrons in graphene. Moreover, surface currents in topological insulators also preserve their spin orientation and coherence on a macro scale. The research, carried out by physicists from the University of York, UK, the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA, and the University of Cadiz, Spain is reported in the journal Nature Physics. The ability to control the surface electronic states of TIs is a crucial step in the realisation of their potential in highly energy efficient spintronic devices. Dr Vlado Lazarov, from York’s Department of Physics, said: “These inherent properties of TIs, and the interplay between magnetism and proximity to superconductors, make topological insulators a prime platform for the realisation of solid state quantum computing devices. “The ability to control the surface electronic state of the TIs is a crucial step in realising

The post Research brings new control over topological insulator has been published on Technology Org.


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Synthetic DNA advance is hailed

Science Focus

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Scientists have created the first synthetic chromosome for yeast in a landmark achievement for biological engineering.
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Crab Nebula in Taurus - Our Awesome Universe Sticker

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tagged with: crbneb, astronomy, messier 1, neutron stars, star ejecta, pulsars, supernovae explosions, heavens, european southern observatory, supernova, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A great outer space picture featuring a three colour composite of the well-known Crab Nebula (also known as Messier 1), as observed with the FORS2 instrument in imaging mode in the morning of November 10, 1999.

It's the remnant of a supernova explosion at a distance of about 6,000 light-years, observed almost 1,000 years ago, in the year 1054. It contains a neutron star near its center that spins 30 times per second around its axis (see below).

In this picture, the green light is predominantly produced by hydrogen emission from material ejected by the star that exploded. The blue light is predominantly emitted by very high-energy ("relativistic") electrons that spiral in a large-scale magnetic field (so-called synchrotron emission). It's believed that these electrons are continuously accelerated and ejected by the rapidly spinning neutron star at the centre of the nebula and which is the remnant core of the exploded star.

This pulsar has been identified with the lower/right of the two close stars near the geometric center of the nebula, immediately left of the small arc-like feature, best seen in ESO Press Photo eso9948.

Technical information: ESO Press Photo eso9948 is based on a composite of three images taken through three different optical filters: B (429 nm; FWHM 88 nm; 5 min; here rendered as blue), R (657 nm; FWHM 150 nm; 1 min; green) and S II (673 nm; FWHM 6 nm; 5 min; red) during periods of 0.65 arcsec (R, S II) and 0.80 (B) seeing, respectively. The field shown measures 6.8 x 6.8 arcminutes and the images were recorded in frames of 2048 x 2048 pixels, each measuring 0.2 arcseconds. North is up; East is left.

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Name, Carina Nebula, intriguing outer space image Wrapping Paper

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tagged with: star nurseries, star clusters, galaxies, starfields, nebulae, carina nebula, outer space photography, astronomy photographs, universe images, hrbstslr crnneb, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A fantastic astronomy photograph showing a panoramic view of the WR 22 and Eta Carinae regions of the Carina Nebula.
The picture was created from images taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.

It's a stunning, fantastic image that reveals a little of the wonder that is our universe.
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Io in True Color

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Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Crab Nebula Room Decals

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tagged with: astronomy, space, space images, nebula, supernova, remnant, crab nebula, hubble telescope, hubble, telescope, exploration, constellation of taurus, constellation, taurus

The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus. The nebula was observed by John Bevis in 1731; it corresponds to a bright supernova recorded by Arab, Chinese and Japanese astronomers in 1054. The Crab Nebula is one of the most intricately structured and highly dynamical objects ever observed.

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The Active Cigar Galaxy - Messier 82 Cover For The iPad Mini

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: agmet, hubble, cigar galaxy, active galaxies, hubble space photography, outer space, stars, cosmological, messier 82, astronomy pictures, chandra

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Composite of images of the active galaxy Messier 82 from the three Great Observatories: Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and Spitzer Space Telescope. X-ray data recorded by Chandra appears here in blue, infrared light recorded by Spitzer appears in red. Hubble's observation of hydrogen emission appears in orange. Hubble's bluest observation appears in yellow-green.
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Image credit: Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope

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Astronauts' hearts become more spherical in space

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New findings from a study of 12 astronauts show the heart becomes more spherical when exposed to long periods of microgravity in space, a change that could lead to cardiac problems, according to research. With implications for an eventual manned mission to Mars, the findings represent an important step toward understanding how a spaceflight of 18 months or more could affect astronauts' heart health.

via Science Daily

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Spintronic Thermoelectric Power Generators

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Imagine a computer so efficient that it can recycle its own waste heat to produce electricity. While such an idea may seem far-fetched today, significant progress has already been made to realize these devices. Researchers at the Nanostructured Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Utah have fabricated spintronics-based thin film devices which do just that, i.e. convert even minute waste heat into useful electricity. “As electronic devices enter the nano-size regime, the problem of heat generation is becoming more and more severe,” says University of Utah Materials Scientist Ashutosh Tiwari, who led the research published online Friday, March 21 in the Nature publishing group’s journal “Scientific Reports”. “Our spintronic-based thermoelectric devices work at room temperature and don’t require the continuous application of an external magnetic field,” Tiwari says. “Most of the spintronic thermoelectric devices in earlier studies required the continuous application of a magnetic field to keep the device magnetized.” “Spintronics is a new branch of electronics which utilizes both the charge as well as the spin of electrons,” says Tiwari. “Tiwari conducted the research with graduate students Gene Siegel, Megan Campbell Prestgard, and Shiang Teng. The study was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Condensed Matter Physics

The post Spintronic Thermoelectric Power Generators has been published on Technology Org.


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Destinations in space could get much prettier

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Destinations in space could get much prettier
For the future space tourism market... When I'm in my spaceship, voyaging through #outerspace I'll be able to see wondrous sights that aren't normally within reach of my eyes! Or would the portholes be made of this material?
  #forwidersharing  

Zazzle Space Gifts for every occasion

Black Hole Poster

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tagged with: black, hole, nasa, holes, blackhole, blackholes, space, astronomy, universe, galaxy, image, photography, exotic, color

Three hot blobs of matter orbiting a black hole. If placed in our Solar System, this black hole would appear like a dark abyss spread out nearly as wide as Mercury's orbit. And the three blobs (each as large as the Sun) would be as far out as Jupiter. They orbit the black hole in a lightning-quick 20,000 miles per second, over a tenth of the speed of light. Credit: NASA/Dana Berry, SkyWorks Digital

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Name, Tarantula Nebula, outer space image Gift Wrap

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tagged with: galaxies, astronomy, stellar nursery, 30 doradus nebula, massive stars, amazing hubble images, tarantula nebula, cosmological stars, outer space, doorneblmc, r136, large magellanic cloud, star cluster

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 code: dorneblmc

Image credit: Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3

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Fires of the Flame Nebula - in Orion Rectangular Sticker

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


tagged with: breathtaking astronomy images, hfflmnb, star forming, orion constellation, young stars clusters, orion the hunter, flame nebula, awesome space picture, heavens, orions belt, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous outer space picture featuring the spectacular star-forming region known as the Flame Nebula, or NGC 2024, in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter) and its surroundings.

In views of this evocative object in visible light the core of the nebula is completely hidden behind obscuring dust, but in this VISTA view, taken in infrared light, the cluster of very young stars at the object’s heart is revealed. The wide-field VISTA view also includes the glow of the reflection nebula NGC 2023, just below centre, and the ghostly outline of the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) towards the lower right.

The bright bluish star towards the right is one of the three bright stars forming the Belt of Orion. The image was created from VISTA images taken through J, H and Ks filters in the near-infrared part of the spectrum.

The image shows about half the area of the full VISTA field and is about 40 x 50 arcminutes in extent. The total exposure time was 14 minutes and was the first to be released publicly from VISTA, the world’s largest survey telescope.

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ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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Eta Carinae Nebula Wall Skin

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: eta carinae nebula, eta carinae, carinae, nebula, carinae nebula, space, astronomy, stars, outer space, wr 22

This spectacular panoramic view combines a new image of the field around the Wolf–Rayet star WR 22 in the Carina Nebula (right) with an earlier picture of the region around the unique star Eta Carinae in the heart of the nebula (left).

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Saturday 29 March 2014

The Crab Nebula iPad Folio Case

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: crab, nebula, supernova, remnant, aqua, pretty, space, picture, image

Lovely space image of the Crab Nebula thanks to NASA Hubble: A Giant Hubble Mosaic of the Crab Nebula.

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Phenomenally deep zoom into the mandlebrot set

Science Saturdays

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Phenomenally deep zoom into the mandlebrot set
Turn down the volume on the vid and listen to something relaxing instead ;)

  #funandrandom #science
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A gorgeous flight of fancy

Science Saturdays

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A gorgeous flight of fancy
...set to music. It's a powerful and emotive journey through a fractal world of art. Nice! :)
  #forwidersharing #science  
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Autism 'begins long before birth'

Science Saturdays

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Scientists say they have new evidence that autism begins in the womb with changes in the early development of the brain.
#science
original post...
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Gaia is starting to reprogram herself

Science Saturdays

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Gaia is starting to reprogram herself
All the DNA across the world, its variants and what serves for DNA in some life forms has evolved to where it is today.

In recent evolutionary history, humankind has influenced and manipulated the DNA present on the planet today by selective and cross-breeding, by supporting some breeds and wiping out others.

For the first time, we're now able to manipulate the DNA present on the planet directly and immediately. Are any areas sacrosanct?

I ask because we don't have a great record of keeping unintended side-effects to close to zero.

Hmmm... Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!

  #science #forwidersharing  

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Everything you've ever wanted to know about spacewalking -- in one out-of-this-world chart

Science Saturdays

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March 18 marked the 49th anniversary of the first extravehicular activity (EVA), or spacewalk. When Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov left his capsule during 1965’s Voskhod 2 mission, he became the first of 205 people who have donned a spacesuit and ventured outside the hatch. Here’s everything you need to know.

(Click and zoom to enlarge)


More from World Science Festival...

  • Astronaut diary — life in space
  • Where are they now: checking in on Earth’s 25 active missions [infographic]
  • The future of spacesuits
More
#science
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Tenuis Andronicus: A parasite and moose tragedy, in six acts

Science Saturdays

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Our tragedy opens somewhere in the North Country, as a lowly marsh slug prowls the leaf litter. Slurp, munch, slurp. Munch, slurp, wriggle. The slug is quick, for a gastropod at least, but its movements have not gone unnoticed.
From stage right enters our story's leading actors, the larvae of a brainworm. As the curtain falls on Act One, the brainworms have surreptitiously drilled their way into the slug's foot. The slug slurps on, unaware, and a hush falls upon the forest.
Act Two. There's a chill in the air this morning, but that won't stop ol' sluggy. Spring has finally come to the woods,...
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#science
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Aargh, the universe / reality is a self-referring place!

Science Saturdays

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Aargh, the universe / reality is a self-referring place!

I never thought of it that way, cool!

  #outerspace #forwidersharing  

Oh Star Stuff originally shared:


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Anti-counterfeit ‘fingerprints’ made from silver nanowires

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Image credit: Wikimedia. Unique patterns made from tiny, randomly scattered silver nanowires have been created by a group of researchers from South Korea in an attempt to authenticate goods and tackle the growing problem of counterfeiting. The nanoscale ‘fingerprints’ are made by randomly dumping 20 to 30 individual nanowires, each with an average length of 10 to 50 µm, onto a thin plastic film, and could be used to tag a variety of goods from electronics and drugs to credit cards and bank notes. They have been presented in a paper published today, 21 March, in IOP Publishing’s journal Nanotechnology. According to the researchers, the fingerprints are almost impossible to replicate because of the natural randomness of their creation and the difficulty associated with manipulating such small materials. Lead author of the research Professor Hyotcherl Ihee, from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Institute for Basic Science (IBS), said: “It is nearly impossible to replicate the fingerprints due to the difficulty in trying to manipulate the tiny nanowires into a desired pattern. The cost of generating such an identical counterfeit pattern would generally be much higher than the value of the typical product being protected.” Read more

The post Anti-counterfeit ‘fingerprints’ made from silver nanowires has been published on Technology Org.


#materials
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On the shoulders of giants

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On the shoulders of giants
These are but tiny steps on the way to mastery of #outerspace - all necessary, of course :)

Technology Org originally shared:

Stanford scientists have developed a process to create flexible chips that can tolerate power fluctuations in much the same way as silicon circuitry. #CarbonNanotubes   #nanotech   #nanotechnology  

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In the Shadow of Saturn Poster

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


tagged with: shadow, saturn, nasa, outer, space, universe, galaxy, astronomy, solar, system, eclipse, sun, cassini, ring, new, rings, earth, color

In the shadow of Saturn, unexpected wonders appear. The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn recently drifted in giant planet's shadow for about 12 hours and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun. Cassini saw a view unlike any other. First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Next, the rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn and slightly scattering sunlight, in the above exaggerated color image. Saturn's rings light up so much that new rings were discovered, although they are hard to see in the above image. Visible in spectacular detail, however, is Saturn's E ring, the ring created by the newly discovered ice-fountains of the moon Enceladus, and the outermost ring visible above. Far in the distance, visible on the image left just above the bright main rings, is the almost ignorable pale blue dot of Earth. Credit: CICLOPS, JPL, ESA, NASA

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Graphene on the human body

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As graphene inches its way out of the lab and into production, old applications are being perfected and new ones invented. The research and product landscape keeps evolving and the community of interested parties seems to be rapidly expanding. To contribute our knowledge to the community, we wrote an article for Industrial Minerals - “The many ways of making graphene”. In their own words, “Industrial Minerals is a market leading resource for in-depth non-metallic minerals intelligence. Industrial Minerals offers comprehensive global coverage of all relevant news affecting the supply, logistics and demand of industrial minerals. Industrial Minerals covers over 70 minerals.” Our article explains to the IM community that graphene has many variants, all of which are good for a specific purpose, but all of which are made with different methods.


In research, the possibility of infrared-vision contact lenses enabled by graphene aroused public interest with a publication from the University of Michigan. The real breakthrough in that research is the use of a novel method to increase the photosensitivity of graphene. Instead of using the photothermal effect or other more common procedures for detecting light with graphene (all of which have a rather weak sensitivity to light), the researchers moved to a new paradigm, by employing two sheets of graphene spaced by a thin insulating layer. The bottom sheet of graphene senses the photo-excited charge carriers in the top sheet. With this method, the sensitivity of broadband graphene photodetectors was improved by two orders of magnitude.



Figure: Highly sensitive broadband graphene photodetector. University of Michigan.


A new type of strong and flexible yarn made from graphene oxide that could be ideal in “smart” wearable textiles has been developed by researchers in Australia and Ireland. In addition to being strong and highly conducting, the yarn has the highest ever capacitance reported to date for such a graphene-based structure. Smart clothing is clothing with embedded electronics such as processors, sensors, or LEDs, often used to enhance human perception. Smart clothing can, for example, be anything from running shoes that send data about your run to your smartphone, to a futuristic “thought helmet”. Graphene, being both conductive, flexible, and integrable with other materials, seems a logical material for “smart” clothes.


If all recent discoveries make it to the market in due time, it seems that graphene will be not only in every home – but also in every body. Recent research, published in ACS Nano, portrays targeted drug delivery using graphene oxide (GO). Drugs that deliver medication only to the place it's needed should reduce many undesired side effects of common drugs. The team, based in the University of Pittsburgh, experimented with GO buried in a conducting polymer. The compound was deposited on top of an electrode and loaded with an anti-inflammatory agent. The medication was successfully released by providing voltage on the electrode, and the dosage could even be controlled by voltage regulation. The authors think that their approach could be useful for treatment of epilepsy, with the drug triggering on electrical signals released during a seizure.


On April 1st and 2nd we'll stay tuned to Graphene LIVE! Europe 2014 in Berlin, an international conference and tradeshow covering the applications and latest technology developments of graphene. On the first day, Graphenea CEO Jesus de la Fuente will give a presentation entitled “Graphene Market Opportunities in Energy Storage Applications”, including the current situation and forecasts of the graphene market, graphene for energy applications, graphene in Li-ion battery electrodes, supercapacitors, and in redox flow batteries. See you there!




via Graphenea