Wednesday 18 March 2015

Pleiades Star Cluster iPad Mini Cases

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: pleiades, star, cluster, blue, stars, nasa, hubble, space, image, art

One of the loveliest images in the NASA/Hubble collection ... the Pleiades Star Cluster.

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Galaxy M82 iPad Mini 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: galaxy, galactic, ngc, 3034, m82, colorful, space, image, nasa, hubble

Colorful composite image of M82 that was released around the time of Hubble's 16th anniversary.

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How to make palm oil without destroying forests

original post »

The versatility of palm oil has led to its use in not just food products but also in

The post How to make palm oil without destroying forests has been published on Technology Org.

 
#materials 
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Mercury: Results from Messenger’s low-altitude campaign

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NASA's MESSENGER mission, now nearing the end of its fourth and final year of orbital operations at Mercury, is well into a low-altitude campaign that is returning images and measurements of the planet's surface and interior that are unprecedented in their resolution.

via Science Daily

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Scientists develop cool process to make better graphene

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A new technique to produce graphene -- a material made up of an atom-thick layer of carbon -- at room temperature could help pave the way for commercially feasible graphene-based solar cells and light-emitting diodes, large-panel displays, and flexible electronics.

via Science Daily

Fine-tuning quantum dots from coal

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The size of graphene quantum dots made from coal can be finely tuned in a single step for electronic and fluorescent properties, according to scientists.

via Science Daily

Orion, From Head to Toe Print

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


tagged with: nebula, space, astronomy, poster, orion, horsehead, rigel, betelgeuse, constellation, stars, nebulae

An incredible and colorful deep wide field image of the Constellation of Orion.

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Click to customize with size, paper type etc.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place

Extent of moon's giant volcanic eruption is revealed

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Scientists have produced a new map of the Moon's most unusual volcano showing that its explosive eruption spread debris over an area much greater than previously thought. A team of astronomers and geologists studied an area of the lunar surface in the Compton-Belkovich Volcanic Complex.

via Science Daily

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What would happen if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today?

Science Focus

original post »

Earth's climate is changing rapidly. We know this from billions of observations, documented in thousands of journal papers and texts, and summarized every few years by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The primary cause of that change is the release of carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil, and natural gas.

Negotiations about reducing emissions grind on. But in the meantime, how much warming are we already locked into? If we stop emitting greenhouse gases tomorrow, why would the temperature continue to rise?

The basics of carbon and climate

The carbon dioxide that accumulates in the atmosphere insulates the surface of the Earth. It's like a warming blanket that holds in heat. This energy increases the Earth's surface average temperature, heats the oceans, and melts polar ice. As consequences, sea level rises and weather changes.

Global average temperature has increased. Anomalies are relative to the mean temperature of 1961-1990. | (Finnish Meteorological Institute and Finnish Ministry of the Environment/The Conversation US)

Since 1880, after carbon dioxide emissions took off with the Industrial Revolution, the average global temperature has increased about 1.5F (0.85C). Each of the last three decades has been warmer than the preceding decade, as well as warmer than the entire previous century.

The Arctic is warming much faster than the average global temperature; ice in the Arctic Ocean is melting and the permafrost is thawing. Ice sheets in both the Arctic and Antarctic are melting. Ecosystems on both land and in the sea are changing. The observed changes are coherent and consistent with our theoretical understanding of the Earth's energy balance and simulations from models that are used to understand past variability and to help us think about the future.

Slam on the climate brakes

What would happen to the climate if we were to stop emitting carbon dioxide today, right now? Would we return to the climate of our elders? The simple answer is no. Once we release the carbon dioxide stored in the fossil fuels we burn, it accumulates in and moves amongst the atmosphere, the oceans, the land, and the plants and animals of the biosphere. The released carbon dioxide will remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years. Only after many millennia will it return to rocks, for example, through the formation of calcium carbonate — limestone — as marine organisms' shells settle to the bottom of the ocean. But on time spans relevant to humans, once released the carbon dioxide is in our environment essentially forever. It does not go away, unless we, ourselves, remove it.

If we stop emitting today, it's not the end of the story for global warming. There's a delay in temperature increase as the climate catches up with all the carbon that's in the atmosphere. After maybe 40 more years, the climate will stabilize at a temperature higher than what was normal for previous generations.

This decades-long lag between cause and effect is due to the long time it takes to heat the the ocean's huge mass. The energy that is held at the Earth by the increased carbon dioxide does more than heat the air. It melts ice; it heats the ocean. Compared to air, it's harder to raise the temperature of water — it takes time, decades. However, once the ocean temperature is elevated, it adds to the warming of the Earth's surface.

So even if carbon emissions stopped completely right now, as the oceans catch up with the atmosphere, the Earth's temperature would rise about another 1.1F (0.6C). Scientists refer to this as committed warming. Ice, also responding to increasing heat in the ocean, will continue to melt. There's already convincing evidence that significant glaciers in the West Antarctic ice sheets are lost. Ice, water, and air — the extra heat held on the Earth by carbon dioxide affects them all. That which has melted will stay melted — and more will melt.

Ecosystems are altered by natural and manmade occurrences. As they recover, it will be in a different climate from that in which they evolved. The climate in which they recover will not be stable; it will be continuing to warm. There will be no new normal, only more change.

Glacial ice loss over Greenland and Antarctica from 2003 to 2010.

Best of the worst case scenarios

In any event, it's not possible to stop emitting carbon dioxide today, right now. Despite significant advances in renewable energy sources, total demand for energy accelerates and carbon dioxide emissions increase. I teach my students that they need to plan for a world 7F (4C) warmer. A 2011 report from the International Energy Agency states that if we don't get off our current path, then we're looking at an Earth 11F (6C) warmer. Our current Earth is just over 1F warmer, and the observed changes are already disturbing.

There are many reasons that we need to essentially eliminate our carbon dioxide emissions. The climate is changing rapidly; if that pace is slowed, the affairs of nature and human beings can adapt more readily. The total amount of change, including sea-level rise, can be limited. The further we get away from the climate that we have known, the more unreliable the guidance from our models and the less likely we will be able to prepare. The warmer the planet gets, the more likely reservoirs of carbon dioxide and methane, another greenhouse gas that warms the planet, will be released from storage in the frozen Arctic permafrost — further adding to the problem.

If we stop our emissions today, we won't go back to the past. This is not reason, however, to continue with unbridled emissions. We are adaptable creatures, with credible knowledge of our climate's future and how we can frame that future. We're already stuck with some amount of guaranteed climate change at this point. Rather than trying to recover the past, we need to be thinking about best possible futures.

More from The Conversation US...

 
#science 
 » see original post http://theweek.com/articles/441503/what-happen-stopped-emitting-greenhouse-gases-today
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Wind has big impact in shaping arid South American canyons

Science Focus

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The beauty of a canyon is principally the artful work of that masterful sculptor, the river. Rivers wouldn’t exist, obviously, without gravity, which also brings material down from the canyon walls. Various types of weathering—reducing rock to loose sediment—also do their part to make the river’s work easier. But there’s another force typically left off the acknowledgements list at the canyon awards that might deserve to be there—wind.

In arid places, wind erosion plays an important role, but its effectiveness is limited. When you come across a feature as dramatic as a canyon, you can be sure water put it there. Wind’s contribution has generally been considered minor. Jonathan Perkins and Noah Finnegan of the University of California Santa Cruz, and Oregon State’s Shanaka de Silva found a way to put that notion to the test.

Where you find water, you can generally find wind, too, so it’s a challenge to tease apart their effects. Constructing an experiment and waiting a million years for clear results isn’t a proposal likely to garner funding. But on the dry western slope of the Andes in northern Chile, the researchers found a natural experiment that conveniently started four million years ago.

Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

 
#science 
 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/8AYaWqzMJXI/
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No need for color correction: Perfect colors, captured with one ultra-thin lens

Science Focus

original post »

Most lenses are, by definition, curved. After all, they are named for their resemblance to lentils, and a

The post No need for color correction: Perfect colors, captured with one ultra-thin lens has been published on Technology Org.

 
#physics 
 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/E_xyZd7ZWsU/
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Carina Nebula, Star Forming Gas-cloud Sculpture Stickers

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


tagged with: billowing interstellar gas clouds, cnbigc, star forming activity, carina nebula, amazing space sculpture, star nurseries, stellar winds, young hot stars, gas cloud sculpture

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A beautiful space photograph featuring the 7500 light year distant Carina Nebula. This Hubble image shows rich, interstellar gas clouds feeding the formation of new stars. As a proto star forms, the gas clouds get dragged to its surface and some gets emitted as tight jets of material travelling at hundreds of miles per second. These in turn help sculpt the gas clouds into weird and grotesque shapes, some looking like strange worms, swimming through space.

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image code: cnbigc

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

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Click to customize.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place

Mystic Mountains - Carina Nebula Astronomy Image 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: mystic mountain, star forming activity, star nurseries, stellar winds, young hot stars, carina nebula, galaxy stars, hubble space photography, gas clouds, outer space sculpture, hrbstslr cnbigc

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A beautiful space photograph featuring the 7500 light year distant Carina Nebula. This Hubble image shows rich, interstellar gas clouds feeding the formation of new stars. As a proto star forms, the gas clouds get dragged to its surface and some gets emitted as tight jets of material travelling at hundreds of miles per second. These in turn help sculpt the gas clouds into weird and grotesque shapes, some looking like strange worms, swimming through space.
more items with this image
more items in the Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

image code: cnbigc

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

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Click to personalize with name and message - or just to see it bigger.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place

Earth During a Total Eclipse of the Sun

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Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Heart Nebula IC 1805 Room Decals

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


tagged with: photo, photography, space, universe, wallpaper, background, stars, nebula, galaxy, astronomy, scifi, space photography, science, beautiful, decorative, black, dark, colors, red, purple, pink, green, colorful, mosaic, planets, abstract, art, artistic

A mosaic of images from WISE in the constellation of Cassiopeia. This region contains a large star forming nebula within the Milky Way Galaxy, called IC 1805 (sometimes called the Heart Nebula), a portion of which is seen at the right of the image. IC 1805 is over 6 thousand light-years from Earth. Also visible in this image are two nearby galaxies, Maffei 1 and Maffei 2. Available on posters, canvas prints, phone cases and many great gifts.

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ImagineNano 2015 lights the way for the graphene industry

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ImagineNano 2015 was Europe's largest nanotechnology event of the year. Graphenea took part on several grounds, including an exhibition booth, an invited talk at the Industrial Forum, participation in collaboration meetings, and chairing oral sessions.


ImagineNano, the series of events covering latest developments of nanotechnology, nanoscience, and nanobusiness, was held this year in Bilbao, Spain, very near our headquarters at San Sebastian. The event consisted of several conferences held in parallel at the Bilbao Exhibition Center, including Graphene 2015 and an Industrial Forum, where industry leaders discussed recent progress and issues that nanotechnology faces on the road to commercialization.


An entire day of the Industrial Forum was dedicated to graphene, where our Business Development Director Iñigo Charola gave a talk about “Advances in Technology Development for the Production and Applications of Graphene Materials”.


After an introduction to the company, Iñigo discussed our graphene oxide line of products, their potential uses in the society and the obstacles to be overcome on the road to commercialization. Graphene oxide (GO) is known for its superlative mechanical properties, and as such the most promising potential applications are those that make use of GO as an additive, for example in composites, in electrostatic painting, enhancement of construction materials, etc. Challenges to be overcome are, of course, further reducing the price of the material to match competing technologies, and in parallel working on modifying GO technology to comply with established technological solutions in each user industry.


Importantly, Iñigo announced that the Graphene Flagship, the billion-euro graphene project funded by the European Commission, has established a standardization committee. The first aim of the committee will be to deliver a publication within a year about standard methods of characterizing graphene. The end goal of the standardization effort is to produce a database of the various forms of graphene with all their properties and ways of measuring those properties, so that graphene sellers can properly categorize their products and buyers can know exactly what they are about to buy. Currently there is no established standard for graphene, which introduces confusion to the market. Graphenea is on the standardization committee, as the largest graphene supplier in the Flagship program.


The Graphenea stand at the exhibit was very well visited and several potential collaborations were initiated over coffee and lunch provided by the organizing Phantoms Foundation. Specifically designed meetings and brokerage events at the fringes of the conference also provided a great opportunity to deepen networking activities. Graphenea will continue to show presence in the graphene community events, for example at Graphene & 2D Materials LIVE! in Berlin next month. Iñigo Charola will also speak at that event.



Photo: Business Development Director Iñigo Charola speaks at the Indusitral Forum. Photo courtesy of nanoBasque.




via Graphenea

Oat breakfast cereals may contain a common mold-related toxin

original post »

Oats are often touted for boosting heart health, but scientists warn that the grain and its products might

The post Oat breakfast cereals may contain a common mold-related toxin has been published on Technology Org.

 
#materials 
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Planets in the habitable zone around most stars, calculate researchers

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Astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets in our galaxy, the Milky Way, using the Kepler satellite and many of them have multiple planets orbiting the host star. By analysing these planetary systems, researchers from the Australian National University and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen have calculated the probability for the number of stars in the Milky Way that might have planets in the habitable zone. The calculations show that billions of the stars in the Milky Way will have one to three planets in the habitable zone, where there is the potential for liquid water and where life could exist. The results are published in the scientific journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.



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Tarantula Nebula Star Forming Gas Cloud Sculpture Star Sticker

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


tagged with: envelope sealers, tnlmcsfr, billowing interstellar gas clouds, awesome hubble images, tarantula nebula, large magellanic cloud, star forming activity, young hot stars, star nurseries, triggering star formation

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series An awesome mobile phone shell featuring the Tarantula Nebula of the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way, our galactic home. This Hubble image shows old stars from the distant past and rich, interstellar gas clouds feeding the formation of new ones. The most massive and hottest stars are intense, high-energy radiation sources and this pushes away what remains of the gas and dust, compressing and sculpting it. As the whorls and eddies clump and stretch it, gravity takes over and the birth of the next generation of new stars is triggered.

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image code: tnlmcsfr

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

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Click to customize.
via Zazzle Astronomy market place