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

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


tagged with: astronomy, hubble space telescope, crab, nebula



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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.


#physics
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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?
#science
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Eagle Nebula, Pillars of Creation Oval Sticker

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


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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image code: eglneb

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
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Name, Dumbbell Nebula, Intriguing Outer Space 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: 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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image code: dmbblneb

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
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2012 VP113: A New Furthest Known Object in Solar System

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Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

'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

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


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

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


tagged with: astronomy, hubble space telescope, pleiades, cluster



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Dumbbell Nebula in Taurus Oval 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, 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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Image code: dmbblneb

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

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Name, Flame Nebula in Orion, intriguing deep space 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: 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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image code: hfflmnb

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
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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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