Wednesday 7 May 2014

MRI, on a molecular scale

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For decades, scientists have used techniques such as X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging to gain invaluable insight into the atomic structure of molecules. Such efforts have long been hampered by the fact that they demand large quantities of a specific molecule, often in ordered and crystalized form, to be effective — making it all but impossible to peer into the structure of most molecules. Harvard researchers say those problems may soon be a thing of the past. A team of scientists, led by Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics Amir Yacoby, has developed a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system that can produce nanoscale images, and may one day allow researchers to peer into the atomic structure of individual molecules. Their work is described in a March 23 paper in Nature Nanotechnology. Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics Amir Yacoby (left, photo 1) and physics research assistant Yuliya Dovzhenko work in the lab where Yacoby (photo 2) and his colleagues have developed an MRI system that can produce nanoscale images. Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer     “What we’ve demonstrated in this new paper is the ability to get very high spatial resolution, and a fully operational MRI technology,” Yacoby said. “This

The post MRI, on a molecular scale has been published on Technology Org.

 
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A stellar explosion on the outer reaches of the Universe provides clues about black hole formation

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On 24 October 2012 observatories across the world were alerted about a huge stellar explosion, the GRB121024A, which had been located just hours before in the Eridanus constellation. The data obtained on that explosion, which took place about 11,000 million years ago, have made it possible to reconstruct how a black hole is formed.

via Science Daily

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Nearest bright 'hypervelocity star' found: Speeding at 1 million mph, it probes black hole and dark matter

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Astronomers have discovered a "hypervelocity star" that is the closest, second-brightest and among the largest of 20 found so far. Speeding at more than 1 million mph, the star may provide clues about the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way and the halo of mysterious "dark matter" surrounding the galaxy, astronomers say.

via Science Daily

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M16 Eagle Nebula 'Pillars of Creation' poster

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This is a dramatic Hubble Space Telescope image of a section of the Eagle Nebula (M16) is known was named the ‘Pillars of Creation’ by the Hubble imaging team.

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Lab gets funding to put 3D goggles on praying mantises

Science Focus

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Newcastle University

It sounds like the kind of research project that a future a Congressman might hold up as an example of wasteful government spending: gluing a praying mantis to a stick and putting mini-3D goggles on it. But this project is very real and pretty neat, and it should actually tell us something about neurobiology. (Plus, it's all being funded by a private foundation.)

Praying mantises aren't just unusually large insects; they're extremely efficient predators that have even been known to catch and eat birds. This requires both a lightning-quick strike and the visual acuity to direct the strike towards the prey. Researchers at Newcastle University, led by Jennifer Read, want to test out the limits of the mantis' vision. To do that, they'll try to determine how the animals reconstruct a 3D scene.

Right now, as the video below demonstrates, that involves placing a mantis (glued to a stick so it doesn't move around) in front of a television monitor and filming its strikes. But the lab is now attaching the world's smallest 3D goggles to a mantis and attempting to manipulate the 3D scene by sending each of its eyes slightly different images. It may turn out that the insect's brain operates much like a vertebrate's, using the physical separation of the eyes and the difference in perspective it involves to figure out locations in 3D. If so, it would indicate that the amount of neural horsepower needed to do so is much more limited than we might have thought.

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 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/-ShtdDgaCTs/
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Physicists hope to find traces of dark matter by studying particles with low masses and interaction rates

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This is assistant professor Richard Schnee. Credit: Syracuse University Physicist Richard Schnee hopes to find traces of dark matter by studying particles with low masses and interaction rates, some of which have never been probed before. The ongoing search for invisible dark matter is the subject of a recent article involving physicists from Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences. Research by Richard Schnee, assistant professor of physics, is referenced in Symmetry magazine, a joint publication of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Palo Alto, Calif., and Fermilab in Batavia, Ill. “Scientists looking for dark matter face a serious challenge, in that no one knows its properties,” says Schnee, also principal investigator of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) Physics Lab at SU. “Experiments have seen no signs of dark matter particles that have high masses, but a few experiments have claimed hints of possible interactions from dark matter particles with low masses.” An expert in particle physics, Schnee hopes to find traces of dark matter with an experiment that is more sensitive to such low-mass dark matter particles. Read more at: Phys.org

The post Physicists hope to find traces of dark matter by studying particles with low masses and interaction rates has been published on Technology Org.

 
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 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/B3nDs7nd3UA/
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VIDEO: Tell-tale signs of a mini-stroke

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As people are urged not to dismiss "funny turns", one young woman tells of when she suffered a mini-stroke. 
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 » see original post http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27221201#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Monogram, Star Cluster Pismis 24, core of NGC 6357 Round Stickers

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tagged with: stars, galaxies, astronomy, peel off, envelope sealers, star cluster, pismis 24, sculpting ultaviolet ionisation, super massive stars, sclustpsms, nebula ngc 6357

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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New NIST microscope sees what others can't

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Microscopes don't exactly lie, but their limitations affect the truths they can tell. For example, scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) simply can't see materials that don't conduct electricity very well, and their high energies can actually damage some types of samples.



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Curiosity Inspects Mt. Remarkable on Mars

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Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) Wall Sticker

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"Resembling a nightmarish beast rearing its head from a crimson sea, this monstrous object is actually an innocuous pillar of gas and dust. Called the Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) — so named because, in ground-based images, it has a conical shape — this giant pillar resides in a turbulent star-forming region.

This picture, taken by the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows the upper 2.5 light-years of the nebula, a height that equals 23 million roundtrips to the Moon."

(qtd. from Hubblesite.org NewsCenter release STScI-2002-11)

Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (UCSC/LO), M.Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA

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Nebula in Turquoise iPad Air Powis Case iPad Air Covers

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!


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Nebula in Turquoise iPad Air Powis Case Personalize

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Gecko-like Adhesives Now Useful for Real World Surfaces

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The ability to stick objects to a wide range of surfaces such as drywall, wood, metal and glass with a single adhesive has been the elusive goal of many research teams across the world, but now a team of University of Massachusetts Amherst inventors describe a new, more versatile version of their invention, Geckskin, that can adhere strongly to a wider range of surfaces, yet releases easily, like a gecko’s feet. “Imagine sticking your tablet on a wall to watch your favorite movie and then moving it to a new location when you want, without the need for pesky holes in your painted wall,” says polymer science and engineering professor Al Crosby. Geckskin is a ‘gecko-like,’ reusable adhesive device that they had previously demonstrated can hold heavy loads on smooth surfaces such as glass. Crosby and polymer science researcher Dan King, with other UMass Amherst researchers including biology professor Duncan Irschick, report in the current issue of Advanced Materials how they have expanded their design theory to allow Geckskin to adhere powerfully to a wider variety of surfaces found in most homes such as drywall, and wood. Unlike other gecko-like materials, the UMass Amherst invention does not rely on mimicking the tiny,

The post Gecko-like Adhesives Now Useful for Real World Surfaces has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Saturn Solar Eclipse Posters

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You may think that this is a fake image, but it is actually a real photo taken from the Cassini space craft of Saturn eclipsing the Sun. The rings glow brightly as the light filters through them and the reflect that light all the way around to the back of the planet creating a surreal effect. A special surprise in the photo is that, just to the left of the rings, that bright blue dot is Earth, where you're sitting right now. This is truly a fascinating and beautiful image. Courtesy of NASA and JPL.

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Graphene for real-world devices: New research in phonon scattering sheds more light on graphene as a replacement for silicon

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Graphene is an excellent conductor of electricity and heat, but a number of practical challenges must be overcome before it can emerge as a replacement for silicon. Scientists are exploring novel ways of supporting and connecting graphene using experimental and computational methods.

via Science Daily

Eye - Stellar Nursery R136 on nebula background Square Sticker

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Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series On a background of the Pelican and North American nebulae, an eye made from hundreds of brilliant blue stars wreathed by warm, glowing clouds 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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NASA's Curiosity rover drills sandstone slab on Mars

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Portions of rock powder collected by the hammering drill on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover from a slab of Martian sandstone will be delivered to the rover's internal instruments.

via Science Daily

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Magnetic fingerprint of our galaxy revealed

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Astrophysicists have released an unprecedented map of the entire sky that charts the magnetic field shaping our Milky Way Galaxy. The map reveals magnetic field lines running parallel to the plane of the Galaxy, as well as great loops and whorls associated with nearby clouds of gas and dust.

via Science Daily

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Are we ready for contact with extraterrestrial intelligence?

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The SETI project scientists are known for tracking possible extraterrestrial signals, but now they are also considering sending messages from Earth telling of our position. A researcher questions this idea in view of the results from a survey taken by students, revealing the general level of ignorance about the cosmos and the influence of religion when tackling these matters.

via Science Daily

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Galaxy's biggest telescope harnesses most precise measurement of spinning star

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An international team of astronomers has made a measurement of a distant neutron star that is one million times more precise than the previous world’s best. The researchers were able to use the interstellar medium, the 'empty' space between stars and galaxies that is made up of sparsely spread charged particles, as a giant lens to magnify and look closely at the radio wave emission from a small rotating neutron star.

via Science Daily

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Cute cartoon Planet with rings Wall Decals

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Cute cartoon Planet with rings infront of a Nebula and twinkling stars.

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Astronomy iPad Mini Cover

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!


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HOBBIES

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