Saturday 6 June 2015

Taking control of light emission

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Researchers have found a way to couple the properties of different two-dimensional materials to provide an exceptional degree

The post Taking control of light emission has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Science Rocks Sir Isaac Newton Poster

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


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Science Rocks Isaac Newton Posters

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The unexpected beauty of carbon nanotubes and graphene

Science Focus

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The Conversation

We all know engineering is useful, functional, even ingenious. But the engineering photography competition we hold each year provides us a chance to wander outside its merely utilitarian aspects into dimensions such as beauty, humor, and even humanity to find unexpected connections and poetic resonance.

As one of the judges, one quality I look for in the images is some added dimension, a richness, the capacity to trigger a cascade of unrelated ideas. Quite by accident this year a few of the photos shared an unplanned underwater theme.

The winner (above) appeared to be a starfish. There was a column, perhaps from a pier, encrusted with coral and barnacles.


Concrete Crack Bridge for Self-Healing, electron microscopy prize winner, by Tanvir Qureshi. | (The Conversation/CC BY: Cambridge University)

Then there was a strange ghost fish, the likes of which might range in Challenger Deep.


Web of Science I by Christian Hoecker. | (The Conversation/CC BY: Cambridge University)

Of course they were none of these things: they were images of carbon nanotubes and graphene, but the forms that emerged at these micro- and nano-scales are familiar from elsewhere in nature.

The winning photo shows a fine pentagonal shape — I lecture on geometry and a question I ask the audience is: "When did you last see a pentagon?" They're quite rare. They can be found in passionfruit flowers, or the shape of one of the most well-known buildings on the planet. But pentagons in the wild are something of a collector's item — and this a fine example.

Extrapolated Art II, second prize winner, by Yarin Gal. | (The Conversation/CC BY: Cambridge University)

Second prize went to a re-imagining of a van Gogh painting, as the artist may have painted had he a larger canvas. Based on a playful use of mathematics, a computer algorithm analyzes a pattern and style and extrapolates it to fill a larger area. It demonstrates the new science of machine learning that is now entering our lives, from junking spam emails to the product or content recommendations websites suggest.


Francis the Engineer, third prize winner, by Anthony Rubinstein-Baylis. | (The Conversation/CC BY: Cambridge University)

Third prize went to Francis the Engineer, an image that represented the human dimension of engineering. The children's smiles are fabulous, but emphasize not just happiness, but relief at having their essential need for clean drinking water met. Engineering is not all about jet engines, smartphones and nanotubes.


Fractured Rainbows: Mode II Cracks in Glass I, by James Griffith. | (The Conversation/CC BY: Cambridge University)

The glass shear pattern is striking, like a flow of lava, or molten sugar, there are hints of rainbows among the sumptuous red — so many positive resonances from what is essentially a piece of broken glass.


Stretch and Swirl I, by Dhiren Mistry. | (The Conversation/CC BY: Cambridge University)

The similar stretch and swirl image of fluid dynamics reminds me of the timeless pleasure of watching the flicker of bonfire flames, but freeze-framed so you can admire their inner structures: paisley patterns and curling vortices — all this found in what is essentially the inside of an engine chamber.


Carbon Nanotube Clover Field, by Michael De Volder. | (The Conversation/CC BY: Cambridge University)

The two images of graphene revealed symmetrical patterns of clover and flowers. The four-leafed clover is a symbol of good fortune, and here there are fields of them, looking like a some architect's plan of futuristic tower blocks.


Graphene Flowers II, by Mari Ijäs. | (The Conversation/CC BY: Cambridge University)

The red flowers have six-fold symmetry, and although we rarely give prizes to images created on a computer (it is so much easier to make pretty virtual shapes than to actually build them at the nanoscale) this one pleased with its interconnecting shapes, representing the electrical flow across a graphene lattice.


Natural Engineer in the Field II, by Audrey Hon. | (The Conversation/CC BY: Cambridge University)

An old bridge over the River Cam at the back of the engineering department in Cambridge, supported by two truss beams: the photo shows what is known as the "web" of the beam, the vertical face between handrail and deck. And within the web, the photo captures another: the spider's web shares the same structural principles — the flow of tension within the silk matches that acting on the steel diagonals. I sometimes think that bio-mimetics is often accompanied by overblown rhetoric, but the unspoken simplicity here appealed to me.


A contrasting landscape, by Calum Williams, Yunuen Montelongo & Jaime Tenorio-Pearl. | (The Conversation/CC BY: Cambridge University)

This nano-scale image is decidedly other-worldly, unlike any landscape I ever saw, despite its title. Perhaps it's where they leave planets to dry before sending them out into the universe. I like how an image of something so small can so readily conjure the impression of something so vast. Perhaps we have the microscope the wrong way round.

Birefringence Earth's Magnetic Field, by Long Teng. | (The Conversation/CC BY: Cambridge University)

The same applies to the magnetic field image: taking aside the extraordinary iridescent colors produced by birefringence (the property of refracting light in different ways), it is an image of something so small as to be almost invisible, yet we see only the Earth itself. I think William Blake said something about that once.

You can see the complete set of photos here.

Allan McRobie does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.

More from The Conversation US...

 
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 » see original post http://theweek.com/articles/442080/unexpected-beauty-carbon-nanotubes-graphene
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DARPA laser research boosts airborne death rays, tiny laser scanners

Science Focus

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This week has been laser week at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, with two very different laser-based programs hitting major milestones: an inexpensive array of lasers on a single chip that can be used as sensors on drones and robots and a killer laser system that could blow up missiles, shells, and possibly vehicles and people.

Yesterday, DARPA announced the successful test of a single-chip laser detection and ranging system that makes it possible to build inexpensive, lightweight short-range "phased array" LADAR that could be mounted on small unmanned aircraft, robots, and vehicles. The technology could bring low-cost, solid-state, high-resolution 3D scanning to a host of devices in the near future.

Called SWEEPER (Short-range Wide-field-of-view Extremely agile Electronically steered Photonic EmitteR), the sensor technology embeds thousands of laser-emitting dots microns apart on a silicon chip—creating a "phased array" optical scanning system that can scan rapidly across a 51-degree arc without the need for mechanical rotation. In the latest test, the system was able to scan back and forth across that entire arc more than 100,000 times per second.

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 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/xU2XH9VPupU/
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Doppler on Wheels–the biggest ‘dish’ on the road!

Science Focus

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For nearly a decade, with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Doppler on Wheels (DOW) has been

The post Doppler on Wheels–the biggest ‘dish’ on the road! has been published on Technology Org.

 
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 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/qZ7-UW-gM1E/
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The Active Cigar Galaxy - Messier 82 Rectangular Sticker

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


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Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

Composite of images of the active galaxy Messier 82 from the three Great Observatories: Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and Spitzer Space Telescope. X-ray data recorded by Chandra appears here in blue, infrared light recorded by Spitzer appears in red. Hubble's observation of hydrogen emission appears in orange. Hubble's bluest observation appears in yellow-green.

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Image code: agmet

Image credit: Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope

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Into the Void

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Fifty years ago, on June 3, 1965, Edward White stepped out of the orbiting Gemini 4 spacecraft to become the first US astronaut to walk in space. White is captured in this photo taken by mission commander James McDivit from inside the capsule as White's spacewalk began over the Pacific Ocean on Gemini 4's third orbit. Planet Earth, spacecraft, and tether are reflected in White's gold tinted helmet visor. A gas powered manuevering gun is held in his right hand. Though the gun ran out of gas after only 3 minutes, he continued to manuever by twisting his body and pulling on the tether for the remainder of the 23 minute long Extra Vehicular Activity. White later described his historic spacewalk as the most comfortable part of the mission, and said the order to end it was the "saddest moment" of his life.

Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Dwarf Galaxy Holmberg IX 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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"This loose collection of stars is actually a dwarf irregular galaxy, called Holmberg IX. It resides just off the outer edge of M81, a large spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. This image was taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys in early 2006. Holmberg IX is of the so-called Magellanic type of galaxy, as its size and irregularity in structure are similar to the Small Magellanic Cloud, a neighbor to our own Milky Way. Holmberg IX was first discovered by astronomer Sidney van den Bergh in 1959, and cataloged as DDO 66. The galaxy received its "Holmberg IX" naming when it was discussed in Eric Holmberg's study of groups of galaxies ten years later. It is suspected that the dwarf galaxy was created as a result of a galactic interaction between M81 and neighboring galaxy M82."

(qtd. from Hubblesite.org NewsCenter release STScI-2008-02)

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

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New device captures metastasis-associated circulating tumor cell clusters

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The latest version of a microfluidic device for capturing rare circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is the first designed

The post New device captures metastasis-associated circulating tumor cell clusters has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Milky Way Panorama 2.0 Print

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


tagged with: milky way, all sky, all-sky, milky way panorama, axel mellinger, galaxy, big dipper, orion, astronomy, astrophotography

Between October 2007 and August 2009, Central Michigan University physics professor Axel Mellinger assembled a digital all-sky mosaic image from more than 3000 individual CCD frames, which he took from remote, dark sites in South Africa, Texas and Michigan. The result is a panoramic image of our home galaxy that no stargazer could ever see from a single spot on Earth. It shows stars 1000 times fainter than those visible to the unaided human eye.

For more information, visit Dr. Mellinger's Milky Way home page at http://home.arcor-online.de/axel.mellinger/.
Or go directly to a zoomable version of the panorama: http://galaxy.phy.cmich.edu/~axel/mwpan2/krpano/.

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Monogram - Cigar Galaxy - Messier 82 Classic Round Sticker

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


tagged with: stars, galaxies, outer space, envelope sealers, monogram initials, agmet, galaxies and stars, hubble, chandra, messier 82, cigar galaxy, active galaxies

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

Composite of images of the active galaxy Messier 82 from the three Great Observatories: Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and Spitzer Space Telescope. X-ray data recorded by Chandra appears here in blue, infrared light recorded by Spitzer appears in red. Hubble's observation of hydrogen emission appears in orange. Hubble's bluest observation appears in yellow-green.

All items with this image
All items in the Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

Image code: agmet

Image credit: Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope

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Stunning Aqua Star Cluster 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!


tagged with: cosmological, cosmos, space, hubble, telescope, magellanic, turquoise, aqua, blue, stars, outer space

A breathtaking blue and turquoise dance of heavenly clouds, Star Cluster NGC 2074 in the Large Magellanic Cloud as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

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