Saturday 10 May 2014

Stanford research shows benefits of crystallization

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Stanford scientists help create a novel way to do time-lapse studies of crystallization that will lead to more flexible and effective electronic displays, circuits and pharmaceutical drugs. High-speed video shows crystal ribbons forming as the solution is spread using a squeegee-like technique. Gaurav Giri Sometimes engineers invent something before they fully comprehend why it works. To understand the “why,” they must often create new tools and techniques in a virtuous cycle that improves the original invention while also advancing basic scientific knowledge. Such was the case about two years ago, when Stanford engineers discovered how to make a more efficient type of “strained organic semiconductors” that carry currents faster – a big step toward producing flexible electronic devices that couldn’t be built using rigid silicon chips. Stanford chemical engineering Professor Zhenan Bao and her team discovered how to control the process through which those organic molecules assembled and crystallized as the liquid evaporated. Their findings are described in a recent Nature Communications study. Bao and her team wanted to understand why their process created such an electronically useful crystal lattice. So they launched a new experiment with help from organic thin film characterization expert Aram Amassian, an assistant professor at King Abdullah University

The post Stanford research shows benefits of crystallization has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Northern Lights Or Aurora Borealis, Tilton Lake, S Posters

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ImageID: 42-24118648 / Mike Grandmaison / All Canada Photos/Corbis / Northern Lights Or Aurora Borealis, Tilton Lake, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.

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How to live happily ever after, according to science

Science Focus

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As Daniel Jones, author of Love Illuminated, explains: we spend our youth asking "How do I find love?" and midlife asking "How do I get it back?"

Anyone in a relationship or who plans on being in one needs to know how to keep love alive over the long term. But how do you learn the secret to this? Everyone is happy to explain "how they met" but few give the details on "how they stayed together."

So let's look at what science has to say.

"Happily ever after" ain't easy

Aside from being the epitome of lazy writing, "happily ever after" is not simple.

Ty Tashiro explains that couples in their...

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 » see original post http://theweek.com/article/index/260723/how-to-live-happily-ever-after-according-to-science
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Four ways to be killed by a volcano

Science Focus

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What are the four ways volcanoes wreak havoc? 
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 » see original post http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/0/21938018
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How to take the perfect nap, according to science

Science Focus

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You're probably getting sleepy just reading this. It's already been a long day at work, and maybe, just maybe, you feel compelled to shut your eyes just for a few minutes.

Hey, don't feel guilty. That nap compulsion is in your nature. Indeed, 85 percent of mammals are meant to sleep in short spurts throughout the day, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

What we don't know about the role of sleep in our lives could surely fill volumes of books. But we do know that sleep is very, very good for us — and that includes napping.

First, a quick refresher. There are two kinds of sleep...

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 » see original post http://theweek.com/article/index/261003/how-to-take-the-perfect-nap-according-to-science
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Enlarged Region of The Omega Nebula Sticker

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Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Like the fury of a raging sea, this bubbly ocean of glowing hydrogen, oxygen, and sulphur gas lies in the extremely massive and luminous molecular nebula Messier 17.
This Hubble photograph captures a small region within Messier 17 (M17), a hotbed of star formation. M17, also known as the Omega or Swan Nebula, is located about 5500 light-years away in the Sagittarius constellation.
Ultraviolet radiation is carving and heating the surfaces of cold hydrogen gas clouds and the warmed surfaces glow orange and red. The intense heat and pressure causes some material to stream away from the surface, creating the glowing veil of even hotter green-coloured gas that masks background structures. The colours in the image represent various gases. Red represents sulphur; green, hydrogen; and blue, oxygen.

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Image credit: NASA, the ACS Science Team

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Inside the Flame Nebula

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The Flame Nebula stands out in this optical image of the dusty, crowded star forming regions toward Orion's belt, a mere 1,400 light-years away. X-ray data from the Chandra Observatory and infrared images from the Spitzer Space Telescope can take you inside the glowing gas and obscuring dust clouds though. Swiping your cursor (or clicking the image) will reveal many stars of the recently formed, embedded cluster NGC 2024, ranging in age from 200,000 years to 1.5 million years young. The X-ray/infrared composite image overlay spans about 15 light-years across the Flame's center. The X-ray/infrared data also indicate that the youngest stars are concentrated near the middle of the cluster. That's the opposite of the simplest models of star formation for the stellar nursery. They predict star formation to begin first in the denser center and progressively move outward toward the edges leaving the older stars, not the younger ones, in the center of the Flame Nebula.

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Perseus Nebula Wall Graphic

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"Baby stars are forming near the eastern rim of the cosmic cloud Perseus, in this infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

"The baby stars are approximately three million years old and are shown as reddish-pink dots to the right of the image. The pinkish color indicates that these infant stars are still shrouded by the cosmic dust and gas that collapsed to form them. These stars are part of the IC348 star cluster, which consists of over 300 known member stars.

"The Perseus Nebula can be seen as the large green cloud at the center of the image."

Read more at the JPL/Spitzer website.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/L. Cieza

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NASA's Great Observatories Witness a Galactic Spec iPad Mini Case

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A new image of two tangled galaxies has been released by NASA's Great Observatories. The Antennae galaxies, located about 62 million light-years from Earth, are shown in this composite image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), the Hubble Space Telescope (gold and brown), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (red). The Antennae galaxies take their name from the long, antenna-like arms seen in wide-angle views of the system. These features were produced in the collision.

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Modified photocatalyst effective for transforming organic pollutants into harmless end products

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UiTM researchers have developed a modified photocatalyst which is economical and effective at transforming organic pollutants into harmless end products. Photocatalytic degradation is one of the highly effective applications in transforming organic pollutants to harmless end products at ambient conditions using light and aphotocatalyst. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is the most commonly used photocatalyst in many environmental applications but it can be used only under UV light owing to its high band gap energy (3.2 eV). UV light being energy intensive, it makes the photocatalytic degradation process very expensive. In solar light spectrum, UV light exists only within 3-5% compared to visible light (45%). Therefore, for practical application, it is highly desirable to develop TiO2 photocatalyst which can effectively degrade the pollutants under visible light irradiation. Various techniques proposed in the literature to extend the absorption wavelength from UV to visible light region include semiconductor coupling, metal doping, dye sensitising and doping with nonmetal elements. The most feasible method to modify the structure of photocatalyst is by doping with nonmetal, since it narrows down the band gap besides being stable, inexpensive and non photo corrosive. Doping with nitrogen attracted huge attention due to its high visible light active photocatalytic efficiency. Other nonmetal elements commonly

The post Modified photocatalyst effective for transforming organic pollutants into harmless end products has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Earth Rising Over Moon Surface Poster

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ImageID: 42-17734567 / Bloomimage / Corbis / Earth Rising Over Moon Surface /

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Enlarged Region of The Omega Nebula Rectangle Stickers

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Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Like the fury of a raging sea, this bubbly ocean of glowing hydrogen, oxygen, and sulphur gas lies in the extremely massive and luminous molecular nebula Messier 17.
This Hubble photograph captures a small region within Messier 17 (M17), a hotbed of star formation. M17, also known as the Omega or Swan Nebula, is located about 5500 light-years away in the Sagittarius constellation.
Ultraviolet radiation is carving and heating the surfaces of cold hydrogen gas clouds and the warmed surfaces glow orange and red. The intense heat and pressure causes some material to stream away from the surface, creating the glowing veil of even hotter green-coloured gas that masks background structures. The colours in the image represent various gases. Red represents sulphur; green, hydrogen; and blue, oxygen.

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image code: eroton

Image credit: NASA, the ACS Science Team

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South Pillar of Carina Wall Skins

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"This false-color image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the "South Pillar" region of the star-forming region called the Carina Nebula. Like cracking open a watermelon and finding its seeds, the infrared telescope "busted open" this murky cloud to reveal star embryos (yellow or white) tucked inside finger-like pillars of thick dust (pink). Hot gases are green and foreground stars are blue. Not all of the newfound star embryos can be easily spotted.

"Though the nebula's most famous and massive star, Eta Carinae, is too bright to be observed by infrared telescopes, the downward-streaming rays hint at its presence above the picture frame. Ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from Eta Carinae and its siblings have shredded the cloud to pieces, leaving a mess of tendrils and pillars."

Read more at the JPL/Spitzer website.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/N. Smith (University of Arizona)

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Hottest Known Star NGC 2440 Nucleus iPad Covers

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The iShoppe has a cool collection of hot iPad folio designs. See all the iShoppe's iPad Folio Cases. Check out the iShoppe's fabulous phone cases, also.

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