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.

»visit the annaleeblysse store for more designs and products like this
The Zazzle Promise: We promise 100% satisfaction. If you don't absolutely love it, we'll take it back!

Phenomenally deep zoom into the mandlebrot set

Science Saturdays

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

  #funandrandom #science
attached video

See Zazzle gifts tagged with 'science'

A gorgeous flight of fancy

Science Saturdays

original post »
A gorgeous flight of fancy
...set to music. It's a powerful and emotive journey through a fractal world of art. Nice! :)
  #forwidersharing #science  
attached video

See Zazzle gifts tagged with 'science'

Autism 'begins long before birth'

Science Saturdays

original post »
Scientists say they have new evidence that autism begins in the womb with changes in the early development of the brain.
#science
original post...
See Zazzle gifts tagged with 'science'

Gaia is starting to reprogram herself

Science Saturdays

original post »
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  

See Zazzle gifts tagged with 'science'

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

Science Saturdays

original post »

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
original post...
See Zazzle gifts tagged with 'science'

Tenuis Andronicus: A parasite and moose tragedy, in six acts

Science Saturdays

original post »

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,...
More
#science
See Zazzle gifts tagged with 'science'

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

Science Saturdays

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

I never thought of it that way, cool!

  #outerspace #forwidersharing  

Oh Star Stuff originally shared:


See Zazzle gifts tagged with 'science'

Anti-counterfeit ‘fingerprints’ made from silver nanowires

original post »

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
See Zazzle gifts tagged with 'science'

On the shoulders of giants

original post »
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  

Zazzle Space Gifts for every occasion

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

»visit the beverlytazangel store for more designs and products like this
Click to customize with size, paper type etc.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place

Graphene on the human body

more »

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

Spiral Galaxy - NGC 253 Oval Stickers

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


tagged with: spgxy253, breathtaking astronomy images, galaxies, stars, spiral galaxy, european southern observatory, eso, vista, spiral galactic arms

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous image that reveals a little of the wonder that is our universe.

Measuring 70 000 light-years across and laying 13 million light-years away, the nearly edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 253 is revealed here in an image from the Wide Field Imager (WFI) of the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope at the La Silla Observatory.

more items with this image
more items in the Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

image code: spgxy253

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

»visit the HightonRidley store for more designs and products like this
Click to customize.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place

Name, Butterfly Nebula in Scorpius 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 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).
more items with this image
more items in the Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

image code: btbgneb

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.

»visit the HightonRidley store for more designs and products like this
Click to personalize with name and message - or just to see it bigger.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place

A Milky Way Dawn

more »

As dawn broke on March 27, the center of the Milky Way Galaxy stood almost directly above the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory. In the dry, clear sky of Chile's Atacama desert, our galaxy's dusty central bulge is flanked by Paranal's four 8 meter Very Large Telescope units in this astronomical fisheye view. Along the top, Venus is close to the eastern horizon. The brilliant morning star shines very near a waning crescent Moon just at the edge of one of the telescope structures. Despite the bright pairing in the east, the Milky Way dominates the scene though. Cut by dust lanes and charged with clouds of stars and glowing nebulae, the center of our galaxy sprawls across the darker zenith even as the deep blue sky grows brighter and buildings still glint in moonlight.

Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Planet, stars and Sun in Galaxy Fantasy Art Room Sticker

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


tagged with: planets, galaxy, universe, solar system, fantasy art, nebula, stars, cosmos, sun, astronomy, sci fi, science fiction

Planet, stars and sun in the galaxy fantasy art design with a graphic design of a gas planet with rings in colors of beige against a solar system of pink, mauve, and light purple, and a sun with a solar flare, and a nebula. Stars dot the cosmic sky. This fantasy art of the universe can be printed on many different products.

»visit the OneBigSky store for more designs and products like this
Click to customize.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place

Worrying but not surprising. We need to do better...

original post »
Worrying but not surprising. We need to do better...
Imagine #outerspace littered with dangerous nanotech...!
 #forwidersharing

evolveSUSTAIN originally shared:

Environmental and public health still secondary to product development in new national nanotech strategy

Zazzle Space Gifts for every occasion

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.

»visit the astara store for more designs and products like this
Click to customize with size, paper type etc.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place

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, starfields, european southern observatory, heavens, eso, vista

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.
more items with this image
more items in the Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

image code: helixneb

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

»visit the HightonRidley store for more designs and products like this
Click to customize.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place

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.
more items with this image
more items in the Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

image code: sclustpsms

Image credit: NASA/ESA Hubble

»visit the HightonRidley store for more designs and products like this
Click to personalize with name and message - or just to see it bigger.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place

Trifid Nebula, Messier 16 Room Graphic

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


tagged with: breathtaking astronomy images, star forming nebulae, trfdnbl, nebulae, star factory, trifid nebula, clusters of stars, factories for stars, star nurseries, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A fantastic picture from our universe featuring the massive star factory known as the Trifid Nebula.

It was captured in all its glory with the Wide-Field Imager camera attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in northern Chile.
So named for the dark dust bands that trisect its glowing heart, the Trifid Nebula is a rare combination of three nebulae types that reveal the fury of freshly formed stars and point to more star birth in the future. The field of view of the image is approximately 13 x 17 arcminutes.
It's an awe-inspiring, breathtaking image that reveals some of the wonder that is our universe.

more items with this image
more items in the Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

image code: trfdnbl

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

»visit the HightonRidley store for more designs and products like this
Click to customize.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place