Tuesday 5 May 2015

Major Advance in Artificial Photosynthesis Poses Win/Win for the Environment

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A potentially game-changing breakthrough in artificial photosynthesis has been achieved with the development of a system that can

The post Major Advance in Artificial Photosynthesis Poses Win/Win for the Environment has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Traffic around Mars gets busy

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NASA has beefed up a process of traffic monitoring, communication and maneuver planning to ensure that Mars orbiters do not approach each other too closely. Last year's addition of two new spacecraft orbiting Mars brought the census of active Mars orbiters to five, the most ever.
via Science Daily
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Astronomers Measure Distance to Farthest Galaxy Yet

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The exceptionally luminous galaxy, EGS-zs8-1, is already about one-sixth as massive as the Milky Way and making stars 80 times faster than our galaxy.







via New York Times

Astronomers unveil farthest galaxy, more than 13 billion years in the past

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Astronomers have pushed back the cosmic frontier of galaxy exploration to a time when the universe was only 5 percent of its present age. Age and distance are vitally connected in any discussion of the universe. The light we see from our Sun takes just eight minutes to reach us, while the light from distant galaxies we see via today's advanced telescopes travels for billions of years before it reaches us -- so we're seeing what those galaxies looked like billions of years ago.
via Science Daily
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Astrophysicists offer proof that famous image shows forming planets

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A recent and famous image from deep space marks the first time we've seen a forming planetary system, according to a study by University of Toronto astrophysicists.

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Improving transistors that drive flexible electronics

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A revolution is coming in flexible electronic technologies as cheaper, more flexible, organic transistors replace expensive, rigid, silicone-based semiconductors, but not enough is known about how bending thin-film electronic devices affects performance. A new study provides answers.
via Science Daily

Astronomers Set a New Galaxy Distance Record


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The universe is incredibly big. But how do astronomers know that? Billion-mile-long tape measures can't be found at the hardware store. Instead, astronomers use the expansion of the universe itself to establish milepost markers. The light from remote objects is attenuated and weakened as space stretches like a rubber band. The consequences are that starlight will look redder relative to a nearby star of the same temperature. When starlight is spread into its component color via spectroscopy, features in the light will be shifted to the red end of the spectrum. This "redshift" can be used to reliably calibrate distances. The challenge is the farthest objects in the universe are typically too faint for spectroscopy to work. So instead, astronomers deduce a galaxy's distance by precisely measuring its colors in visible and infrared light. This technique has found candidates for the farthest object in the universe.


via HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/22/

Espresso? Now the International Space Station Is Fully Equipped

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Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman in orbit, used a special “ISSpresso” machine and an antigravity cup to satisfy a thirst and curiosity.







via New York Times

A Rose Made Of Galaxies - Hubble Space Telescope Print

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


tagged with: hubble space telescope, space, astronomy, galaxies, stars, nasa, esa

This is an image of a pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The distorted shape of the larger of the two galaxies shows signs of tidal interactions with the smaller of the two. It is thought that the smaller galaxy has actually passed through the larger one.

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How to grow a microscopic alien garden

Science Focus

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Some sculptors work in marble, others in wood… but Harvard University biomineralization researcher Wim Noorduin creates his masterpieces inside a beaker. You'd be hard-pressed to put his flowery sculptures on a regular museum pedestal, though. They're actually microscopic crystal structures many times smaller than the width of a human hair.

(Wim Noorduin/World Science Festival)

(More from World Science Festival: Six tiny scientific mistakes that created huge disasters)

Minerals can naturally assemble into impressive shapes, even at very tiny scales, and Noorduin's scientific research is part of an effort to understand how chemistry can drive this process. His sculptures start with a solution of the salt barium chloride and the compound sodium silicate, also known as waterglass. When these ingredients are added, carbon dioxide from the air that's dissolved in the beaker's water kicks off a reaction that forms barium carbonate crystals — and also lowers the pH of the solution near the newly formed crystals. This pH change then sparks a reaction with the sodium silicate, which deposits silica on the growing crystals.

(Wim Noorduin/World Science Festival)

"We know how fast these structures grow and what is going to happen if we change, say, the temperature or acidity," Noorduin said in a phone interview. And knowing those principles "allows you to collaborate with the self-assembly process that's going on, and you can really manipulate the sculptures in a rational way."

(More from World Science Festival: Alan Turing vs. the mechanical Nazi)

(Wim Noorduin/World Science Festival)

Left to its own devices, the solution will form an intriguing forest of shapes. But human intervention can sculpt them into even more ethereal forms. There are lots of ways that Noorduin can manipulate the microenvironment inside the solution: The temperature can be altered with an ice bath, for example, or he can control the addition of carbon dioxide in the solution by capping the beaker. "If we take off the cap for just a few minutes and put it back on, in that time more CO2 will come into the solution from the air," Noorduin says. "As a result, the chemical reaction completely changes — it allows me to split structures open or make well-controlled ripples.

(Wim Noorduin/World Science Festival)

Noorduin can manipulate the sculptures even further, joining separate pieces into more complex shapes. He can grow a "vase" shape in one solution, then start the growth of a new "stem" shape from that and manipulate the whole into a flower. Noorduin thinks the mechanics underlying his microscopic bouquets could one day help researchers create tiny tools and devices, or manipulate everyday materials to make them stronger.

(More from World Science Festival: 11 small wonders captured on camera)

"I'm amazed by how very simple processes can give rise to complex shapes and structures," Noorduin says. While the driving force behind his work is scientific inquiry, he isn't immune to the eerily beautiful aesthetics of his work. "I am interested in trying to make the most beautiful landscapes. I got addicted to wandering around in this world."

 
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 » see original post http://theweek.com/articles/442446/how-grow-microscopic-alien-garden
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Science by robot: Outfitting the world’s “smartest” lake

Science Focus

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BOLTON LANDING, New York—Arriving at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's field research station on the shores of lovely Lake George, the offices appeared deserted. The station's staff didn't hide from us; they had all relocated to another building for a training session on a new piece of technology. They've been doing a lot of that lately.

The scene in their meeting room was mostly pretty standard—tables, chairs, coffee, and snacks—but not many field stations have a shiny new nine-panel computer display on the wall. And no field stations have what that display will soon be showing.

Nestled along the eastern edge of New York’s stout and beautiful Adirondack Mountains, south of sprawling Lake Champlain, Lake George is a long, glacially sculpted basin filled by clear waters. The lake is 51 kilometers long, doesn’t get much more than three kilometers wide, and has long been a natural attraction. Thomas Jefferson once called it “the most beautiful water I ever saw." But today, a partnership between IBM, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the local FUND for Lake George has a different descriptor in mind—“smartest” lake in the world. It's an effort dubbed the “Jefferson Project.”

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 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/UWINLuLobE0/
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LHC restart back on track

Science Focus

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On Monday, teams working on the Large Hadron Collider resolved a problem that had been delaying the restart

The post LHC restart back on track has been published on Technology Org.

 
#physics 
 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/27cymGtVglk/
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Carina Nebula in Argo Navis constellation Round Stickers

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


tagged with: stars, galaxies, astronomy, envelope sealers, carina nebula, argos navis constellation, carina the keel, star formation, carnebngcttst, outer space photography, gas clouds, ngc 3372

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Hubble's view of the Carina Nebula shows star birth in a new level of detail. The fantasy-like landscape of the nebula is sculpted by the action of outflowing winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation from the monster stars that inhabit this inferno. In the process, these stars are shredding the surrounding material that is the last vestige of the giant cloud from which the stars were born. The immense nebula is an estimated 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina the Keel (of the old southern constellation Argo Navis, the ship of Jason and the Argonauts, from Greek mythology).
The original image is a mosaic of the Carina Nebula assembled from 48 frames taken with Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The Hubble images were taken in the light of ionized hydrogen. Colour information was added with data taken at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Red corresponds to sulfur, green to hydrogen, and blue to oxygen emission.

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image code: carnebngcttst

Image credit: Hubble Space Telescope; colour data from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Chile

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Gravitational Anomalies of Mercury

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Graphene spintronics: From science to technology

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Electronics is based on the manipulation of electrons and other charge carriers, but in addition to charge, electrons possess a property known as spin. When spin is manipulated with magnetic and electric fields, the result is a spin-polarized current that carries more information than is possible with charge alone.
via Science Daily

Low-energy collisions tune LHC experiments

Orion Nebula iPad Air 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: orion, nebula, space, image, nasa, hubble, astronomy

A lovely detail of an image of the Orion Nebula in infrared thanks to NASA/Hubble.

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Astronomers find first evidence of changing conditions on a super Earth

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Astronomers have detected wildly changing temperatures on a super Earth – the first time any atmospheric variability has been observed on a rocky planet outside the solar system – and believe it could be due to huge amounts of volcanic activity, further adding to the mystery of what had been nicknamed the 'diamond planet'.

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A Starburst Galaxy - Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy) Stickers

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


tagged with: envelope sealers, monogram initials, galaxies and stars, hubble, messier 82, cigar galaxy, active galaxies, starburst galaxy, nasa esa, sbglxymet

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series This mosaic image of the magnificent starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (aka Cigar Galaxy) is a really sharp wide-angle view of M82. It is a galaxy remarkable for its webs of shredded clouds and flame-like plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out from its central regions where young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside in our Milky Way Galaxy.

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image code: sbglxymet

Image credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: J. Gallagher (University of Wisconsin), M. Mountain (STScI) and P. Puxley (NSF).

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Orion Nebula iPad Mini Retina 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: orion, nebula, space, image, nasa, hubble, astronomy

A lovely detail of an image of the Orion Nebula in infrared thanks to NASA/Hubble.

»visit the annaleeblysse store for more designs and products like this
The Zazzle Promise: We promise 100% satisfaction. If you don't absolutely love it, we'll take it back!