Monday 18 September 2017

2-D Electronics' metal or semiconductor? Both

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Researchers produced the first 2-D field-effect transistor (FET) made of a single material.
via Science Daily

When radio galaxies collide, supermassive black holes form tightly bound pairs

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Supermassive black holes found in the centers of galaxies can form gravitationally bound pairs when galaxies merge, according to a new study.
via Science Daily
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More evidence of water on Mars

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River deposits exist across the surface of Mars and record a surface environment from over 3.5 billion years ago that was able to support liquid water at the surface. A region of Mars named Aeolis Dorsa contains some of the most spectacular and densely packed river deposits seen on Mars.
via Science Daily
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New quantum phenomena in graphene superlattices

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Researchers have just shown the first new type of quantum oscillation to be reported for thirty years. It is the first of its kind to be present at high temperature and on the mesoscale and sheds light on the Hofstadter butterfly phenomenon.
via Science Daily

Secrets of bright, rapidly spinning star revealed

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Almost 50 years after it was first predicted that rapidly rotating stars would emit polarized light, scientists have succeeded in observing the phenomenon for the first time. They have now detected the polarized light from Regulus, one of the brightest stars in the night sky.
via Science Daily
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Devilish source of dust in atmosphere of Earth and Mars

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Swirling columns of sand and dust, known as dust devils, are a feature of desert areas on Mars and on Earth. Now, a study of terrestrial dust devils has shown that around two thirds of the fine particles lifted by these vortices can remain suspended in the atmosphere and be transported around the globe. The findings have implications for the climate and weather of both planets and, potentially, human health here on Earth.
via Science Daily
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Orion above Easter Island

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Why were the statues on Easter Island built? No one is sure. What is sure is that over 800 large stone statues exist there. The Easter Island statues, stand, on the average, over twice as tall as a person and have over 200 times as much mass. Few specifics are known about the history or meaning of the unusual rock sculptures, but many believe that they were created about 700 years ago in the images of local leaders of a lost civilization. Featured here, one of the ancient Moai sculptures was imaged in 2016 before the constellation of Orion, including the famous line of three belt stars and brilliant stars Betelgeuse (far left in red) and Rigel (upper center). The stone giant appears, however, to be inspecting the brightest star in the night sky (far right): Sirius.

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The magic of superconductors in the spotlight

A superconducting magnet from the LHC on display outside the United Nations Office in Geneva during the EUCAS 2017 conference. (Image: Michael Struik/CERN)

A major conference on superconductors and their applications gets under way today in Geneva. Organised by CERN in collaboration with the University of Geneva and EPFL-SPC (Swiss Plasma Center) under the auspices of the European Society for Applied Superconductivity, EUCAS 2017 will welcome more than 1000 scientists and engineers to share the latest advances in superconductor technology and its applications.

It’s no coincidence that CERN is co-organising this conference. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is quite simply the biggest application of superconductivity in the world, with 23 kilometres of superconducting magnets around its 27-kilometre circumference.

The phenomenon of superconductivity was discovered in 1911. Below a very low critical temperature, some materials lose all of their electrical resistance. This amazing property opens up many exciting possibilities. Since there is no resistance to stop the flow of current and the superconductor does not heat up, it can carry far stronger electrical currents than “normal” or resistive conductors. A coil made from superconducting material can produce stronger magnetic fields than resistive electromagnets. This is the property that is of particular interest to particle physicists.

In circular accelerators like the LHC, particles are kept in their orbits by a magnetic field. But the higher the energy (speed) of the particles, the stronger the field needs to be. The energy of circular accelerators is therefore limited by the power of their magnets. At the end of the 1960s, this limit began to stand in the way of progress and superconductivity was exactly the innovation required to overcome it.

At the start of the 1970s, the idea really started being taken seriously. At the time, the most advanced work on the technology was being carried out by the “Energy Doubler” project at the Fermilab laboratory in the United States. This project later became the Tevatron, the first superconducting collider, which started operation in 1983. Its success really accelerated the use of superconductors for high-energy physics and since then, superconductivity and particle physics have driven each other on. Following the extraordinary technological achievement of the LHC, the future of superconductors is now taking shape in accelerator projects such as the High-Luminosity LHC and, in the longer term, bigger colliders able to push back even further the boundaries of the energy levels that humanity is able to explore.

This text is based on an article published in the September issue of the CERN Courier entitled “Powering the field forward”.


via CERN: Updates for the general public
http://home.cern/about/updates/2017/09/magic-superconductors-spotlight

Herschel moments

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Space Science Image of the Week: Share your favourite memory of the Herschel space observatory as we celebrate the legacy of this extraordinary mission
via ESA Space Science
http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2017/09/Celebrating_Herschel_s_legacy