Wednesday 30 April 2014

Graphene is only as strong as its weakest link: Experiments determine real-world limits of two-dimensional carbon

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Scientists have tested the fracture toughness of graphene for the first time by making and measuring "pre-cracks" under stress. The results show the material to be somewhat brittle.

via Science Daily

Atomic switcheroo explains origins of thin-film solar cell mystery

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Treating cadmium-telluride (CdTe) solar cell materials with cadmium-chloride improves their efficiency, but researchers have not fully understood why. Now, an atomic-scale examination of the thin-film solar cells led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has answered this decades-long debate about the materials’ photovoltaic efficiency increase after treatment. A research team from ORNL, the University of Toledo and DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory used electron microscopy and computational simulations to explore the physical origins of the unexplained treatment process. The results are published in Physical Review Letters (PRL). Thin-film CdTe solar cells are considered a potential rival to silicon-based photovoltaic systems because of their theoretically low cost per power output and ease of fabrication. Their comparatively low historical efficiency in converting sunlight into energy, however, has limited the technology’s widespread use, especially for home systems. Research in the 1980s showed that treating CdTe thin films with cadmium-chloride significantly raises the cell’s efficiency, but scientists have been unable to determine the underlying causes. ORNL’s Chen Li, first author on the PRL study, explains that the answer lay in investigating the material at an atomic level. “We knew that chlorine was responsible for this magical effect, but we needed to find

The post Atomic switcheroo explains origins of thin-film solar cell mystery has been published on Technology Org.

 
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First view of nature-inspired catalyst after ripping hydrogen apart provides insights for better, cheaper fuel cells

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 Like a hungry diner ripping open a dinner roll, a fuel cell catalyst that converts hydrogen into electricity must tear open a hydrogen molecule. Now researchers have captured a view of such a catalyst holding onto the two halves of its hydrogen feast. The view confirms previous hypotheses and provides insight into how to make the catalyst work better for alternative energy uses. This study is the first time scientists have shown precisely where the hydrogen halves end up in the structure of a molecular catalyst that breaks down hydrogen, the team reported online April 22 in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. The design of this catalyst was inspired by the innards of a natural protein called a hydrogenase enzyme. “The catalyst shows us what likely happens in the natural hydrogenase system,” said Morris Bullock of the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “The catalyst is where the action is, but the natural enzyme has a huge protein surrounding the catalytic site. It would be hard to see what we have seen with our catalyst because of the complexity of the protein.” Ironing Out Expense Hydrogen-powered fuel cells offer an alternative to burning fossil fuels, which generates greenhouse gases. Molecular hydrogen

The post First view of nature-inspired catalyst after ripping hydrogen apart provides insights for better, cheaper fuel cells has been published on Technology Org.

 
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How to make someone fall in love with you, according to science

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When researchers asked people to tell the stories of how they fell in love, what were the eleven most common factors?

Variables that influence falling in love:

1. Similarity in attitudes, background, personality traits

2. Geographic proximity

3. Desirable characteristics of personality and appearance

4. Reciprocal affection, the fact that the other likes us

5. Satisfying needs

6. Physical and emotional arousal

7. Social influences, norms, and the approval of people in our circle

8. Specific cues in the beloved's voice, eyes, posture, way of moving

9. Readiness for a romantic relationship...

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 » see original post http://theweek.com/article/index/260659/how-to-make-someone-fall-in-love-with-you-according-to-science
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Draining reservoir after urination incident shows tenuous grasp of science

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Dallas Swonger, right, caught in the act by a security tape.

The city of Portland, OR will empty a 38-million gallon reservoir after a teenager allegedly urinated in it, according to the Associated Press. It's the second time in three years that Portland is flushing its Mount Tabor reservoir after a urine-related incident.

The reservoir is open-air and sits exposed to all of nature, leading many parties to question how necessary a draining would be, or how polluted 38 million gallons of water can really be by a single man's urine.

David Shaff, Portland's water bureau administrator, reserves a special disgust specifically for human urine. In 2011, when Shaff drained the reservoir following a urination, he reasoned to the Portland Mercury, "Do you want to be drinking someone's pee?… There's probably no regulation that says I have to be doing it but, again, who wants to be drinking pee?" This time around, Shaff wrote in a statement, "Our customers have an expectation that their water is not deliberately contaminated."

Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

 
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 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/VCF6kfnBLbg/
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Information storage for the next generation of plastic computers

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Inexpensive computers, cell phones and other systems that substitute flexible plastic for silicon chips may be one step closer to reality, thanks to research published on April 16 in the journal Nature Communications. The paper describes a new proposal by University of Iowa researchers and their colleagues at New York University for overcoming a major obstacle to the development of such plastic devices—the large amount of energy required to read stored information. Although it is relatively cheap and easy to encode information in light for fiber optic transmission, storing information is most efficiently done using magnetism, which ensures information will survive for years without any additional power. “So a critical issue is how to convert information from one type to another,” says Michael Flatté, professor of physics and astronomy in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) and director of the UI Optical Science and Technology Center. “Although it does not cost a lot of energy to convert one to the other in ordinary, silicon-chip-based computers, the energy cost is very high for flexible, plastic computing devices that are hoped to be used for inexpensive “throwaway” information processors. “Here we show an efficient means of converting information encoded in magnetic storage to

The post Information storage for the next generation of plastic computers has been published on Technology Org.

 
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 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/HtMr3mBVKpc/
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Monogram Carina Nebula - Breathtaking Universe Stickers

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


tagged with: stlrnrsry, star clusters, galaxies, stars, starfields, awesome astronomy pictures, constellation puppis, the stern, monogram, monograms, star nurseries, nebulae, european southern observatory, eso, vista, initials, initialled, monogrammed

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

A gorgeous set of oval stickers showing the area surrounding the stellar cluster NGC 2467, located in the southern constellation of Puppis ("The Stern"). With an age of a few million years at most, it is a very active stellar nursery, where new stars are born continuously from large clouds of dust and gas.

The image, looking like a colourful cosmic ghost or a gigantic celestial Mandrill, contains the open clusters Haffner 18 (centre) and Haffner 19 (middle right: it is located inside the smaller pink region - the lower eye of the Mandrill), as well as vast areas of ionised gas.

The bright star at the centre of the largest pink region on the bottom of the image is HD 64315, a massive young star that is helping shaping the structure of the whole nebular region.

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ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
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Name, Carina Nebula, intriguing outer space image Wrapping Paper

Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!


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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Design of a new fluorescent hybrid material that changes colour according to the direction of the light

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The UPV/EHU’s Molecular Spectroscopy Group, in collaboration with the Institute of Catalysis and Petroleum Chemistry of the CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), has developed a highly fluorescent hybrid material that changes colour depending on the polarisation of the light that it is illuminated by. The research has been published in ACS Photonics, the new journal devoted exclusively to Photonics published by the American Chemical Society.



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A Partially Eclipsed Setting Sun

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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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Optical traps on chip manipulate many molecules at once

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(Phys.org) —Optical trapping, a technique for studying single molecules, is traditionally delicate, requiring special equipment and a soundproof room, with data collected one molecule at a time.



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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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Researchers achieve higher solar-cell efficiency with zinc-oxide coating

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Yahia Makableh demonstrates how a small array of 9-millimeter, gallium-arsenide solar cells can provide energy for small devices. Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have achieved the highest efficiency ever in a 9 millimeter-squared solar cell made of gallium arsenide. After coating the cufflink-sized cells with a thin layer of zinc oxide, the research team reached a conversion efficiency of 14 percent. A small array of these cells – as few as nine to 12 – generate enough energy for small light-emitting diodes and other devices. But surface modification can be scaled up, and the cells can be packaged in large arrays of panels to power large devices such as homes, satellites, or even spacecraft. The research team, led by Omar Manasreh, professor of electrical engineering, published its findings in Applied Physics Letters and the April 2014 issue of Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells. An alternative to silicon, gallium arsenide is a semiconductor used to manufacture integrated circuits, light-emitting diodes and solar cells. The surface modification, achieved through a chemical synthesis of thin films, nanostructures and nanoparticles, suppressed the sun’s reflection so the cell could absorb more light. But even without the surface coating, the researchers were able to achieve 9-percent efficiency

The post Researchers achieve higher solar-cell efficiency with zinc-oxide coating has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Chaos at the Heart of Orion Print

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


tagged with: orion, nebula, star, stars, space, astronomy, spitzer, hubble, telescope, nasa, color

NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes have teamed up to expose the chaos that baby stars are creating 1,500 light-years away in a cosmic cloud called the Orion Nebula. This striking infrared and visible-light composite indicates that four monstrously massive stars at the center of the cloud may be the main culprits in the familiar Orion constellation. The stars are collectively called the "Trapezium." Their community can be identified as the yellow smudge near the center of the image. Swirls of green in Hubble's ultraviolet and visible-light view reveal hydrogen and sulfur gas that have been heated and ionized by intense ultraviolet radiation from the Trapezium's stars. Meanwhile, Spitzer's infrared view exposes carbon-rich molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the cloud. These organic molecules have been illuminated by the Trapezium's stars, and are shown in the composite as wisps of red and orange. On Earth, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are found on burnt toast and in automobile exhaust. Together, the telescopes expose the stars in Orion as a rainbow of dots sprinkled throughout the image. Orange-yellow dots revealed by Spitzer are actually infant stars deeply embedded in a cocoon of dust and gas. Hubble showed less embedded stars as specks of green, and foreground stars as blue spots. Stellar winds from clusters of newborn stars scattered throughout the cloud etched all of the well-defined ridges and cavities in Orion. The large cavity near the right of the image was most likely carved by winds from the Trapezium's stars. Located 1,500 light-years away from Earth, the Orion Nebula is the brightest spot in the sword of the Orion, or the "Hunter" constellation. The cosmic cloud is also our closest massive star-formation factory, and astronomers believe it contains more than 1,000 young stars. The Orion constellation is a familiar sight in the fall and winter night sky in the northern hemisphere. The nebula is invisible to the unaided eye, but can be resolved with binoculars or small telescopes. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Megeath (University of Toledo) & M. Robberto (STScI)

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Monogrammed Helix Nebula, Galaxies and Stars Stickers

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


tagged with: star nurseries, star clusters, galaxies, stars, astronomy, nebulae, helixneb, helix nebula, initialled, monogrammed, starfields, heavens, eso, european southern observatory, vista, monogram, initials, monograms

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A fantastic colour-composite image of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293). It was created from images obtained using the Wide Field Imager (WFI), an astronomical camera attached to the 2.2-metre Max-Planck Society/ESO telescope at the La Silla observatory in Chile.

The blue-green glow in the centre of the Helix comes from oxygen atoms shining under effects of the intense ultraviolet radiation of the 120 000 degree Celsius central star and the hot gas.

Further out from the star and beyond the ring of knots, the red colour from hydrogen and nitrogen is more prominent. A careful look at the central part of this object reveals not only the knots, but also many remote galaxies seen right through the thinly spread glowing gas.
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Name, Tarantula Nebula, outer space image Gift Wrap

Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!


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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Over 20% Off the Celestron AstroMaster 70AZ Refractor Telescope

Amazon Gold Box Daily Deal

An amazing daily deal from Amazon's Sky Watching Specials. Grab yours quickly, it won't last long!


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For a limited time, save over 20% on the Celestron AstroMaster 70AZ refractor telescope from Amazon.com.
Expires Jun 1, 2014

The intergalactic medium unveiled

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Astronomers have taken unprecedented images of the intergalactic medium -- the diffuse gas that connects galaxies throughout the universe -- with the Cosmic Web Imager. Until now, the structure of the IGM has mostly been a matter for theoretical speculation. However, with observations from the Cosmic Web Imager, deployed on the Hale 200-inch telescope at Palomar Observatory, astronomers are obtaining our first three-dimensional pictures of the IGM.

via Science Daily

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Search for extraterrestrial life more difficult than thought

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A new study suggests the search for life on planets outside our solar system may be more difficult than previously thought. The study finds the method used to detect biosignatures on such planets, known as exoplanets, can produce a false positive result.

via Science Daily

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Herschel discovers mature galaxies in the young Universe

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New Herschel results have given us a remarkable insight into the internal dynamics of two young galaxies. Surprisingly, they have shown that just a few billion years after the Big Bang, some galaxies were rotating in a mature way, seemingly having completed the accumulation of their gas reservoirs.

via Science Daily

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Plasma flows in laboratory used to understand how beam-like jets may form in space

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Streaming jets of high-speed matter produce some of the stunning objects seen in space. Astronomers have seen them shooting out of young stars just being formed, X-ray binary stars and supermassive black holes at the centers of large galaxies. Theoretical explanations for what causes those beam-like jets have been around for years, but now an experiment using extremely high-powered lasers offers experimental verification of one proposed mechanism for creating them.

via Science Daily

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Christmas Tree Star Cluster Wall Decal

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


tagged with: christmas tree cluster, cone nebula, red nebula, nebula, astronomy, space, star formation, nebulae, nebula photo, red sky, star cluster, nebula photograph, stars, eso, universe, outer space, cosmos, cosmic, astronomical, astrophotography, cosmology, space photograph, space picture, space image, deep space, nature, natural, science, abstract, space photo, milky way, ngc 2264, glowing, soft, cloudy, dust, misty, gas, gas clouds, fuzzy

This deep red image shows NCG 2264, a region of the Milky Way galaxy in which new stars are being formed. Included in this area are the Christmas Tree Star Cluster & the Cone Nebula. This image was taken by Chile's La Silla Observatory in 2008.

Image credit: ESO | Released by ESO.org under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

You can personalise the design further if you'd prefer, such as by adding your name or other text, or adjusting the image - just click 'Customize it' to see all the options. IMPORTANT: If you choose a different sized version of the product, it's important to click Customize and check the image in the Design view to ensure it fills the area to the edge of the product, otherwise white edges may be visible.

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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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Graphene very mobile in lakes: Risks of negative environmental impacts if released

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In a first-of-its-kind study of how a material some think could transform the electronics industry moves in water, researchers found that graphene oxide nanoparticles are very mobile in lakes or streams and therefore may well cause negative environmental impacts if released.

via Science Daily

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Disorder on the nanoscale may be responsible for solar-cell efficiency

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Methylammonium lead iodide perovskite In the past few years, perovskite solar cells have made large leaps forward in efficiency, recently achieving energy conversion with up to 16 percent efficiency. These simple and promising devices are easy enough to make and are made up of earth abundant materials, but little work has been done to explore their atomic makeup. Researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Columbia University used high-energy x-rays at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) to characterize the structure of methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) in titanium oxide – the active material in high-performance perovskite solar cells. Their results are reported in a paper published online in Nano Letters on November 22, 2013, Photoluminescent properties of these materials are thought to depend sensitively on the degree of structural order and defects. To characterize the structure, the researchers used beamline X17A at NSLS to study samples of the MAPbI3. Atomic pair distribution function analysis of x-ray diffraction data revealed that 30 percent of the material forms a tetragonal perovskite phase, while 70 percent exists in a disordered state. The presence of disordered material correlates with strong changes in the photoluminescence and absorbance spectra. Read more at: Phys.org

The post Disorder on the nanoscale may be responsible for solar-cell efficiency has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Black Hole Poster

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


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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VIDEO: Footage of rare 'blood moon' eclipse

Science Focus

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People in the Americas have been treated to a rare "blood moon" lunar eclipse. Jonathan Amos explains the science behind the colour change. 
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 » see original post http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27035021#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Scientists track ripples in freestanding graphene for first time

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Scientists have tracked the dynamic movement of ripples in freestanding graphene at the atomic level. Freestanding graphene could emerge as a replacement for silicon and other materials in microprocessors and next-generation energy devices, but much remains unknown about its mechanical and thermal properties.

via Science Daily

Monogram Crab Nebula in Taurus Stickers

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tagged with: crbneb, astronomy, messier 1, neutron stars, star ejecta, pulsars, supernovae explosions, galaxies, outer space pictures, monogram initials, heavens, european southern observatory, eso, vista, monograms, initialled, monogrammed

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, Butterfly Nebula in Scorpius space image Gift Wrap

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tagged with: galaxies and stars, stellar winds, btbgneb, butterfly nebula, bug nebula, scorpius constellation, ngc 6302, sculptured gas clouds, outer space, astronomy

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series NGC 6302, more popularly called the Bug Nebula or the Butterfly Nebula, lies within our Milky Way galaxy, roughly 3,800 light-years away in the constellation of Scorpius.
The central dying star cannot be seen because it's hidden within a doughnut-shaped ring of dust, which appears as a dark band pinching the nebula in the centre. The thick dust belt constricts the star's outflow, creating the classic "bipolar" or hourglass shape displayed by some planetary nebulae.
The nebula's reddish outer edges are largely due to light emitted by nitrogen, which marks the coolest gas visible in the picture. The white-coloured regions are areas where light is emitted by sulphur. These are regions where fast-moving gas overtakes and collides with slow-moving gas that left the star at an earlier time, producing shock waves in the gas (the bright white edges on the sides facing the central star).
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image credit: NGC 6302 was imaged on 27 July 2009 with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 in ultraviolet and visible light. Filters that isolate emissions from oxygen, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur were used to create this composite image.

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Research trio suggests exomoon atmospheres could cause false-positive signs of life on exoplanets

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(Phys.org) —A trio of space scientists has published a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in which they suggest that current assumptions regarding using spectral signatures as a means to identify exoplanets that may harbor life, has a major flaw—a false positive could occur if the planet has a moon with an atmosphere that contaminates the spectrum. In their paper, Hanno Rein, Yuka Fujii and David Spiegel of the University of Toronto, the Tokyo Institute of Technology and MIT respectively, point out a major problem with using spectral signatures as a means for finding out if life exists on other planets—moons which can cause the false impression of chemical disequilibrium.



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Aurora Dog over Alaska

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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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New material coating technology mimics nature’s lotus effect

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Ever stop to consider why lotus plant leaves always look clean? The hydrophobic – water repelling – characteristic of the leaf, termed the “Lotus effect,” helps the plant survive in muddy swamps, repelling dirt and producing beautiful flowers. Of late, engineers have been paying more and more attention to nature’s efficiencies, such as the Lotus effect, and studying its behavior in order to make advances in technology. As one example, learning more about swarming schools of fish is aiding in the development of unmanned underwater vehicles. Other researchers are observing the extraordinary navigational abilities of bats that might lead to new ways to reconfigure aviation highways in the skies. Ranga Pitchumani , professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech and currently on an invitational assignment as the chief scientist and director of the Concentrating Solar Power and Systems Integration programs of the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, would like to see more efficiencies and clever designs in technology. His work reflects this philosophy. His recent development of a type of coating for materials that has little to no affinity for water emulates the Lotus effect. Commonplace material coatings are as simple as paints and varnishes. More sophisticated coatings might be used

The post New material coating technology mimics nature’s lotus effect has been published on Technology Org.

 
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It's started, we're on the knee of the exponential curve!

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It's started, we're on the knee of the exponential curve!
It won't be long now, I think anyone younger than thirty will see 3-d printed planet and asteroid bases as the norm in their lifetime.

 #outerspace
 
original post: https://plus.google.com/116000959328274308893/posts/LvbTfAkdHuC
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Whirlpool Galaxy M51 Posters

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


tagged with: nasa, space, astronomy, prints, posters, photographs, hubble, telescope, beautiful, photography, pictures, picture, print, galaxy, galaxies, stars, star, gifts, gift, fantasy, science fiction

Whirlpool Galaxy M51 Poster.The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust.
This sharpest-ever image of the Whirlpool Galaxy, taken in January 2005 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, illustrates a spiral galaxy's grand design, from its curving spiral arms, where young stars reside, to its yellowish central core, a home of older stars. The galaxy is nicknamed the Whirlpool because of its swirling structure.
The Whirlpool's most striking feature is its two curving arms, a of so-called grand-design spiral galaxies. Many spiral galaxies possess numerous, loosely shaped arms which make their spiral structure less pronounced. These arms serve an important purpose in spiral galaxies. They are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars. In the Whirlpool, the assembly line begins with the dark clouds of gas on the inner edge, then moves to bright pink star-forming regions, and ends with the brilliant blue star clusters along the outer edge.
Some astronomers believe that the Whirlpool's arms are so prominent because of the effects of a close encounter with NGC 5195, the small, yellowish galaxy at the outermost tip of one of the Whirlpool's arms. At first glance, the compact galaxy appears to be tugging on the arm. Hubble's clear view, however, shows that NGC 5195 is passing behind the Whirlpool. The small galaxy has been gliding past the Whirlpool for hundreds of millions of years.
As NGC 5195 drifts by, its gravitational muscle pumps up waves within the Whirlpool's pancake-shaped disk. The waves are like ripples in a pond generated when a rock is thrown in the water. When the waves pass through orbiting gas clouds within the disk, they squeeze the gaseous material along each arm's inner edge. The dark dusty material looks like gathering storm clouds. These dense clouds collapse, creating a wake of star birth, as seen in the bright pink star-forming regions. The largest stars eventually sweep away the dusty cocoons with a torrent of radiation, hurricane-like stellar winds, and shock waves from supernova blasts. Bright blue star clusters emerge from the mayhem, illuminating the Whirlpool's arms like city streetlights.
The Whirlpool is one of astronomy's galactic darlings. Located 31 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs), the Whirlpool's beautiful face-on view and closeness to Earth allow astronomers to study a classic spiral galaxy's structure and star-forming processes. Courtesy: NASA.

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Name, Star Cluster Pismis 24 outer space image Gift Wrapping Paper

Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!


tagged with: galaxies, star cluster, pismis 24, sculpting ultaviolet ionisation, super massive stars, sclustpsms, nebula ngc 6357, astronomy pictures, outer space

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series The star cluster Pismis 24 lies in the core of the large emission nebula NGC 6357 that extends one degree on the sky in the direction of the Scorpius constellation. Part of the nebula is ionised by the youngest (bluest) heavy stars in Pismis 24. The intense ultraviolet radiation from the blazing stars heats the gas surrounding the cluster and creates a bubble in NGC 6357. The presence of these surrounding gas clouds makes probing into the region even harder. One of the top candidates for the title of "Milky Way stellar heavyweight champion" was, until now, Pismis 24-1, a bright young star that lies in the core of the small open star cluster Pismis 24 (the bright stars in the Hubble image) about 8,000 light-years away from Earth. Pismis 24-1 was thought to have an incredibly large mass of 200 to 300 solar masses. New NASA/ESA Hubble measurements of the star, have, however, resolved Pismis 24-1 into two separate stars, and, in doing so, have "halved" its mass to around 100 solar masses.
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image code: sclustpsms

Image credit: NASA/ESA Hubble

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Initialled Dumbbell Nebula Constellation Vulpecula Stickers

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


tagged with: awesome astronomy images, inspirational, dmbblneb, vulpecula constellation, intense ultraviolet radiation, european southern observatory, messier 27 ngc 6853, heavens, monograms, initialled, eso, vista, initials, monogrammed, monogram

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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Image code: dmbblneb

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

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Paper-thin tablets and TV screens? How to create nanowires only three atoms wide with an electron beam

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Scientists have used a focused beam of electrons to create some of the smallest nanowires ever made. The discovery gives a boost to efforts aimed at creating electrical circuits on mono-layered materials, raising the possibility of flexible, paper-thin tablets and television displays.

via Science Daily

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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Monday 28 April 2014

‘Exotic’ material is like a switch when super thin

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An artist’s rendering of the thickness-driven, metal-insulator transition in sub-nanometer films of a lanthanum nickelate. Nickel atoms are shown in gold, oxygen atoms in white, and lanthanum atoms in red, and metallicity is achieved in going from two to three atomic layers.     Ever-shrinking electronic devices could get down to atomic dimensions with the help of transition metal oxides, a class of materials that seems to have it all: superconductivity, magnetoresistance and other exotic properties. These possibilities have scientists excited to understand everything about these materials, and to find new ways to control their properties at the most fundamental levels. Researchers from Cornell and Brookhaven National Laboratory have shown how to switch a particular transition metal oxide, a lanthanum nickelate (LaNiO3), from a metal to an insulator by making the material less than a nanometer thick. The team, which published its findings online April 6 in Nature Nanotechnology (to appear in the journal’s May issue), includes lead researcher Kyle Shen, associate professor of physics; first author Phil King, a recent Kavli postdoctoral fellow at Cornell now on the faculty at the University of St. Andrews; Darrell Schlom, the Herbert Fisk Johnson Professor of Industrial Chemistry; and co-authors Haofei Wei,

The post ‘Exotic’ material is like a switch when super thin has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Brown dwarf or large planet?

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Brown dwarf or large planet?

The NASA mob reckon it's much more likely to be a brown dwarf, though. Anyway, it's good to meet a new resident in our near neighbourhood.

  #outerspace  
 
original post: https://plus.google.com/116000959328274308893/posts/41EMPfRdWUG
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Flexible battery, no lithium required: Lab creates thin-film battery for portable, wearable electronics

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Scientists have created a thin, flexible film that combines the best qualities of batteries and supercapacitors. Chemists developed a flexible material with nanoporous nickel-fluoride electrodes layered around a solid electrolyte to deliver battery-like supercapacitor performance that combines the best qualities of a high-energy battery and a high-powered supercapacitor without the lithium found in commercial batteries today.

via Science Daily

Beyond graphene: Controlling properties of 2-D materials

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Researchers have shown how they can control the properties of stacks of two-dimensional materials, opening up opportunities for new, previously-unimagined electronic devices. The next step is to combine several of these crystals in a 3D stack. This way, one can create 'heterostructures' with novel functionalities -- capable of delivering applications as yet beyond the imagination of scientists and commercial partners.

via Science Daily

Researchers able to watch phase transition in 2D semiconductors using STEM

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(Phys.org) —A team of researchers with members from Japan, Taiwan and Switzerland has discovered that it is possible to watch a phase transition occur in a 2D semiconducting material using a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). In their paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnolgy describing their research and results, the team outlines how they used the microscope to watch as a sample of the direct bandgap semiconductor molybdenum sulphide underwent a phase shift.



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How triangles revolutionized mapmaking

Science Focus

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Equations are the lifeblood of mathematics, science, and technology. Without them, our world would not exist in its present form. However, equations have a reputation for being scary: Stephen Hawking's publishers told him that every equation would halve the sales of A Brief History of Time. [In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World]

This captures our aversion to equations well. Yet, as mathematician Ian Stewart argues in his book In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World, "[e]quations are too important to be hidden away."

Equations are a vital part...

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 » see original post http://theweek.com/article/index/259367/how-triangles-revolutionized-mapmaking
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Volcanic islands merge in Pacific

Science Focus

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A volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean has merged with its neighbour to form one landmass, the US space agency says. 
#science 
 » see original post http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26941017#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Education, breastfeeding, and gender affect our bodies’ microbiomes

Science Focus

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Trillions of microbes live in and on our body. We don’t yet fully understand how these microbial ecosystems develop or the full extent to which they influence our health. Some provide essential nutrients, while others cause disease. A new study now provides some unexpected influences on the contents of these communities, as scientists have found that life history, including level of education, can affect the sorts of microbes that flourish. They think this information could help in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

A healthy human provides a home for about 100 trillion bacteria and other microbes. These microbes are known as the microbiome, and they normally live on the body in communities, with specialized populations on different organs.

Evolution has assured that both humans and bacteria benefit from this relationship. In exchange for somewhere to live, bacteria protect their hosts from harmful pathogens. Past analysis of the gut microbiome has shown that when this beneficial relationship breaks down, it can lead to illnesses such as Crohn’s disease, a chronic digestive disorder.

Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

 
#science 
 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/r5x_8Bav_A4/
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