Wednesday 23 July 2014

Getting a charge out of water droplets

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Last year, MIT researchers discovered that when water droplets spontaneously jump away from superhydrophobic surfaces during condensation, they can gain electric charge in the process. Now, the same team has demonstrated that this process can generate small amounts of electricity that might be used to power electronic devices. The new findings, by postdoc Nenad Miljkovic, associate professor of mechanical engineering Evelyn Wang, and two others, are published in the journal Applied Physics Letters. This approach could lead to devices to charge cellphones or other electronics using just the humidity in the air. As a side benefit, the system could also produce clean water. The device itself could be simple, Miljkovic says, consisting of a series of interleaved flat metal plates. Although his initial tests involved copper plates, he says any conductive metal would do, including cheaper aluminum. In initial testing, the amount of power produced was vanishingly small — just 15 picowatts, or trillionths of a watt, per square centimeter of metal plate. But Miljkovic says the process could easily be tuned to achieve at least 1 microwatt, or millionth of a watt, per square centimeter. Such output would be comparable to that of other systems that have been proposed for

The post Getting a charge out of water droplets has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Brand New Look at the Face of Mars

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A map captures the Martian craters, valleys and peaks in stunning detail and offers ideas on where the rovers of the future might land.















via New York Times

A crystal wedding in the nanocosmos may lead to fast multi-functional processing units on single chip

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Researchers have succeeded in embedding nearly perfect semiconductor crystals into a silicon nanowire. With this new method of producing hybrid nanowires, very fast and multi-functional processing units can be accommodated on a single chip in the future.

via Science Daily

Voyager spacecraft might not have reached interstellar space

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In 2012, the Voyager mission team announced that the Voyager 1 spacecraft had passed into interstellar space, traveling further from Earth than any other humanmade object. But, in the nearly two years since that historic announcement, and despite subsequent observations backing it up, uncertainty about whether Voyager 1 really crossed the threshold continues.

via Science Daily

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New approach in search for extraterrestrial intelligence: Target alien polluters

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Humanity is on the threshold of being able to detect signs of alien life on other worlds. By studying exoplanet atmospheres, we can look for gases like oxygen and methane that only coexist if replenished by life. But those gases come from simple life forms like microbes. What about advanced civilizations? Would they leave any detectable signs? They might, if they spew industrial pollution into the atmosphere.

via Science Daily

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Atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon

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An astronomer has published the results of the comparison of his model of Titan's atmosphere with the latest data.

via Science Daily

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Astronomers pioneer a 'Google street view' of galaxies

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A new instrument based on bundles of optical fibers is giving astronomers the first 'Google street view' of the cosmos -- incredibly detailed views of huge numbers of galaxies. The optical-fiber bundles can sample the light from up to 60 parts of a galaxy, for a dozen galaxies at a time.

via Science Daily

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Lives and deaths of sibling stars

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In a new image from ESO, young stars huddle together against clouds of glowing gas and lanes of dust. The star cluster, NGC 3293, would have been just a cloud of gas and dust itself about ten million years ago, but as stars began to form it became the bright group of stars we see here. Clusters like this are laboratories that allow astronomers to learn about how stars evolve.

via Science Daily

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Vintage Astronomy Celestial Stars in the Night Sky Print

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


tagged with: retro, vintage, americana, nostalgia, nostalgic, celestial map, star chart, planisphere, astronomy, zodiac constellations

Vintage illustration astronomy and celestial star chart map by the Dutch cartographer family Frederik de Wit. Frederik de Wit can refer to any of three members (Father, son or grandson) of a family of Dutch engravers, cartographers and publishers. The senior de Wit opened a printing office in Amsterdam under the name "De Witte Pascaert".

Planisphæri cœleste, 1680, is a celestial planisphere featuring the constellations of the northern and southern hemispheres (with the signs of the zodiac), the earth, sun and phases of the moon.

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Can you supercharge your brain?

Science Focus

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Brea Souders at East Photographic

This article first appeared on Mosaic, a weekly outlet published by the Wellcome Trust.

In the summer of 2010, Ryan Clark twisted his ankle during a gym class. It was painful, but inconvenient more than anything. He was put on crutches for a week and his ankle healed. Then, six weeks later, the pain returned—only this time, it was a lot worse. Ryan ended up in a wheelchair, unable to bear the agony of walking. Drugs and rehab helped and after six weeks or so he recovered. Then he injured himself again, and a third time, each minor accident triggering pain that became horrendous. “They were just normal injuries for a nine-year-old,” says Ryan’s father, Vince, “but for him it was huge. As well as the pain, he got tremors. His muscles locked up. He’d go into full body spasms, and just curl up on the floor.”

Ryan was eventually diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, a disorder that affects one in a million children his age. Vince Clark, who directs the Psychology Clinical Neuroscience Center at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, threw himself into understanding the syndrome and finding ways to help Ryan. Traditional painkillers had provided no relief, so Clark wondered about what he’d been researching in his lab. It’s called transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) and it involves applying mild electrical currents to the head.

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Trio of physicists create computer simulation of dark matter using an empirical function

Science Focus

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Tangled web. A simulation of gravitationally interacting dark matter particles in the Universe shows the stringy nature of dark matter, peppered with voids, over the largest distance scales. Credit: N. Hamaus/Paris Inst. of Astrophys. & M. Warren/Los Alamos National Lab, via Physics Three physicists affiliated with several universities in the U.S. and France have built a computer simulation of the bubble-like voids that exist in dark matter which offers better density information. In their paper published in the journalPhysical Review Letters, the researchers describe how their simulation showed that such voids have a wide range of sizes and ages with highest densities occurring in boundary areas. Scientists still don’t know much about dark matter—it’s believed to make up most of the known universe (as evidenced by gravitational studies) and doesn’t interact much with parts of the universe we can see, which of course, includes light. To gain a better understanding of it, researchers have been creating computer simulations based on what is observable. Such simulations in the past have shown that dark matter is not uniform, in fact, if we could see it, it would look a lot like the inside of bones—lots of air pockets (voids) with boundary material between them. The simulations

The post Trio of physicists create computer simulation of dark matter using an empirical function has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Nature of solids and liquids explored through new pitch drop experiment

Science Focus

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Physicists at Queen Mary University of London have set up a new pitch drop experiment for students to explore the difference between solid and liquids. Known as the ‘world’s longest experiment’, the set up at the University of Queensland was famous for taking ten years for a drop of pitch – a thick, black, sticky material – to fall from a funnel. The movie clip shows the bitumen flow from the top camera view, and corresponds to approximately 24 days of real time. Credit: Queen Mary University of London   Publishing in the journal Physics Education, the design of QMUL’s trial is different to both well-known pitch drop experiments*. It uses different bitumen (the pitch), which is 30 times less viscous than the Queensland experiment, so that the flow can be seen quicker. The team have installed not one but five different glass tubes with varying diameters to give five speeds of flow, and set up web cameras to catch the drop in action. “We’re using the pitch drop experiment to inspire our students and make them question the fundamental nature between solids and liquids,” said Kostya Trachenko, lead author and Reader at QMUL’s School of Physics and Astronomy. “Because our experimental set-up

The post Nature of solids and liquids explored through new pitch drop experiment has been published on Technology Org.

 
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A new approach in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence: targeting alien polluters

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Humanity is on the threshold of being able to detect signs of alien life on other worlds. By studying exoplanet atmospheres, we can look for gases like oxygen and methane that only coexist if replenished by life. But those gases come from simple life forms like microbes. What about advanced civilizations? Would they leave any detectable signs?



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Wreath Nebula in our awesome Milky Way Sticker

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


tagged with: envelope sealers, star forming activity, wnmwbpt, interstellar gas clouds, milky way, wreath nebula, awesome astronomy images, metallic elements, new born stars, galaxies, dust clouds, star nurseries, young hot stars

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous outer space picture featuring the Wreath Nebula, located in our Milky way near the boundary between the constellations of Perseus and Taurus.
Tiny particles of dust, glowing warmly in the energy being radiated by the new-born star are similar to those in the composition of our Earthly smog. The red cloud is cooler than its environs and likely comprises more metallic elements as well.

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image code: wnmwbpt

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

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IC 4603: Reflection Nebula in Ophiuchius

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Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Hubble's Sharpest View of the Orion Neb Powiscases iPad Mini 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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Thousands of stars are forming in the cloud of gas and dust known as the Orion nebula. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image. Some of them have never been seen in visible light. Credit: NASA,ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

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Internal exposure dose from radiocesium-contaminated cedar pollen negligible compared to fugitive dust

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In the spring of 2012, a year after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, there was general concern that inhalation of radiocesium-contaminated Japanese cedar pollen may have caused the general population internal exposure to radioactive material. To determine if pollen had been contaminated through uptake of radiocesium by Japanese cedar and was therefore contributing to inhaled doses, Research Associate Shogo Higaki at the University of Tokyo Radioisotope Center measured radiocesium and Japanese cedar pollen adhered to nonwoven fabric masks worn by 68 subjects residing in eastern Japan, including Fukushima prefecture, for 8 weeks in the spring of 2012 (19 February 2012 to 14 April 2012). It was discovered that the principle source of radiocesium that might bring about internal exposure was not cedar pollen but fugitive dust (small particles without a clear point of origin). The maximum cumulative Cesium-137(137Cs) and Cesium-134(134Cs) radioactivities on masks worn by an individual were 21 ± 0.36 Bq and 15 ± 0.22 Bq, respectively, and the estimated effective dose during the 8 week was 0.494 µSv. Based on these values, the internal exposure over one year was estimated at 3.2 µSv. While this value is 1/310th of the official internal exposure limit of 1 mSv/year, this

The post Internal exposure dose from radiocesium-contaminated cedar pollen negligible compared to fugitive dust has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Vintage Astronomy, Celestial Planisphere Map Poster

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


tagged with: planisphere, constellations, retro, antique, americana, vintage, celestial map, star chart, mythology, nostalgic

Vintage illustration astronomy and celestial star chart map created in 1702 featuring the signs of the zodiac and other figures from Greek mythology. Planisphere Celeste featuring the constellations of the northern and southern night sky, planets (Mercury, Mars, Venus and Saturn), the phases of the moon and the sun. A mythological representation of our universe.

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Henry Hartsfield Jr. Is Dead at 80; Flew, With Fortune, on 3 Shuttles

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Mr. Hartsfield, who logged 483 hours in space, flew on the Columbia and the Challenger before they met disaster.















via New York Times

Star Birth in Constellation Cygnus, The Swan Sticker

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


tagged with: envelope sealers, nebulae, gstlnrsr, rcw120, breathtaking astronomy images, star nurseries, ionised gas clouds, star forming regions, european southern observatory, clusters of stars, galaxies, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous star forming region in Constellation Cygnus (The Swan). This Hubble image shows a dust-rich, interstellar gas cloud with a new-born star in the centre of the hour-glass shape. The glowing blue of the hydrogen in this nebula is due to the jets being emitted from the forming star as dust falls into into it and this causes the heating and turbulence of the hydrogen. The star, known as S106 IR, is reaching the end of its birth and will soon enter the much quieter period of adulthood known as the main stage.

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Image code: cygsb

Image credit: NASA, the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) and ESA

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Omega Nebula Wall Graphic

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


tagged with: omega nebula, swan nebula, checkmark, nebula, lobster nebula, horseshoe nebula, space, universe, astronomy, astromomer

The Omega Nebula, also known as the Swan Nebula, Checkmark Nebula, Lobster Nebula, and the Horseshoe Nebula is an H II region in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745. Charles Messier catalogued it in 1764. It is located in the rich starfields of the Sagittarius area of the Milky Way. Photo by NASA.

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