Researchers discover quantum algorithm that could improve stealth fighter design

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(Phys.org) —Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) have devised a quantum algorithm for solving big linear systems of equations. Furthermore, they say the algorithm could be used to calculate complex measurements such as radar cross sections, an ability integral to the development of radar stealth technology, among many other applications. Their research is reported in the June 18 issue of Physical Review Letters.



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New theory points to 'zombie vortices' as key step in star formation

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(Phys.org) —A new theory by fluid dynamics experts at the University of California, Berkeley, shows how "zombie vortices" help lead to the birth of a new star.



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NASA to Preview Orbital Sciences Flight to Space Station

NASA will host a televised news conference at 4 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 4, to preview the upcoming test flight of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/august/nasa-to-preview-orbital-sciences-flight-to-space-station

'Groovy' hologram creates strange state of light at visible and invisible wavelengths

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(Phys.org) —Applied physicists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated that they can change the intensity, phase, and polarization of light rays using a hologram-like design decorated with nanoscale structures.



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Swedish museum to recover lost scientific artifact

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A rare 16th-century scientific instrument used by early astronomers that has been missing from a Swedish museum for around a decade has been recovered and will be returned this week, the London-based Art Loss Register says.



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ALMA takes close look at drama of starbirth

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(Phys.org) —Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have obtained a vivid close-up view of material streaming away from a newborn star. By looking at the glow coming from carbon monoxide molecules in an object called Herbig-Haro 46/47 they have discovered that its jets are even more energetic than previously thought. The very detailed new images have also revealed a previously unknown jet pointing in a totally different direction.



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Technique to improve high precision and nanotechnology surface measurement

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(Phys.org) —A University of Warwick scientist has conceived a new method to improve the measurement of the surfaces of components essential for use in high-precision and nanotechnology applications.



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Polymer solar cells employing Forster resonance energy transfer

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Two crucial tasks exist for realizing high-efficiency polymer solar cells: increasing the range of the spectral absorption of light and efficiently harvesting photo-generated excitons. In this work, Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based heterojunction polymer solar cells that incorporate squaraine dye (SQ) were fabricated and investigated.



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Free-floating planets may be born free

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Tiny, round, cold clouds in space have all the right characteristics to form planets with no parent star. New observations, made with Chalmers University of Technology telescopes, show that not all free-floating planets were thrown out of existing planetary systems. They can also be born free.



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Stunning images of Andromeda demonstrate the world's most powerful astronomical camera

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(Phys.org) —Stunning images of the Andromeda Galaxy are among the first to emerge from a new wide-field camera installed on the enormous Subaru Telescope atop the Hawaiian mountain Mauna Kea. The camera, called the Hyper-Suprime Cam (HSC), is the result of an international collaboration between Princeton University astrophysicists and Japanese and Taiwanese scientists.



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Waking up to a new year: Team discovers an exoplanet that orbits its star in 8.5 hours

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In the time it takes you to complete a single workday, or get a full night's sleep, a small fireball of a planet 700 light-years away has already completed an entire year.



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New study reveals that stellar winds scatter star-forming material (w/ Video)

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(Phys.org) —A University of Alberta astrophysicist's 3-D computer animation is helping an international research team get an unprecedented look at star-forming gases escaping from a nearby galaxy.



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Air quality measurements: New manufacturing method for nano gas sensors opens doors

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Nano-sized gas sensors in mobile telephones that measure the atmospheric humidity are nothing new as such. However, so far it was necessary to rely on complex lithographic methods to produce the required nano-structure of the sensors, and they have the added disadvantage that they do not work well on uneven surfaces. A relatively new approach is the focussed electron beam deposition method – FEBID for short – in which the nano-structures can be "written directly" without requiring any pre- or after-treatment.



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Raman pixel by pixel

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New data processing protocol enables feature-based recognition of Surface-enhanced Raman spectra for intracellular molecule probing of biological targets. It relies on locally detecting the most relevant spectra to retrieve all data independently through indexing.



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Bubbles are the new lenses for nanoscale light beams

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Bending light beams to your whim sounds like a job for a wizard or an a complex array of bulky mirrors, lenses and prisms, but a few tiny liquid bubbles may be all that is necessary to open the doors for next-generation, high-speed circuits and displays, according to Penn State researchers.



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Physicists discover atomic clock can simulate quantum magnetism

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Researchers at JILA have for the first time used an atomic clock as a quantum simulator, mimicking the behavior of a different, more complex quantum system.



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Molecules form 2-D patterns never before observed: Experiments produce elusive 5-vertex tilings

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Tessellation patterns that have fascinated mathematicians since Johannes Kepler worked out their systematics 400 years ago – and that more recently have caught the eye of both artists and crystallographers – can now be seen in the laboratory. They first took shape on a surface more perfectly two-dimensional than any sheet of writing paper, a single layer of atoms and molecules atop an atomically smooth substrate. Physicists coaxed these so-called Kepler tilings "onto the page" through guided self-assembly of nanostructures.



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Magnetic switching simplified

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An international team of researchers has described a new physical effect that could be used to develop more efficient magnetic chips for information processing. The quantum mechanical effect makes it easier to produce spin-polarized currents necessary for the switching of magnetically stored information. The research findings were published online on 28 July in the high-impact journal Nature Nanotechnology.



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Squeezed light produced using silicon micromechanical system

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One of the many counterintuitive and bizarre insights of quantum mechanics is that even in a vacuum—what many of us think of as an empty void—all is not completely still. Low levels of noise, known as quantum fluctuations, are always present. Always, that is, unless you can pull off a quantum trick. And that's just what a team led by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has done. The group has engineered a miniature silicon system that produces a type of light that is quieter at certain frequencies—meaning it has fewer quantum fluctuations—than what is usually present in a vacuum.



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Battery design gets boost from aligned carbon nanotubes

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Researchers at North Carolina State University have created a new flexible nano-scaffold for rechargeable lithium ion batteries that could help make cell phone and electric car batteries last longer.



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Quantum communication controlled by resonance in 'artificial atoms'

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Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute, together with colleagues in the US and Australia, have developed a method to control a quantum bit for electronic quantum communication in a series of quantum dots, which behave like artificial atoms in the solid state. The results have been published in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters.



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Making a mini Mona Lisa

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The world's most famous painting has now been created on the world's smallest canvas. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have "painted" the Mona Lisa on a substrate surface approximately 30 microns in width – or one-third the width of a human hair. The team's creation, the "Mini Lisa," demonstrates a technique that could potentially be used to achieve nanomanufacturing of devices because the team was able to vary the surface concentration of molecules on such short-length scales.



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Quantum inverted pendulum: Control scheme dynamically maintains unstable quantum system

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A simple pendulum has two equilibrium points: hanging in the "down" position and perfectly inverted in the "up" position. While the "down" position is a stable equilibrium, the inverted position is definitely not stable. Any infinitesimal deviation from perfectly inverted is enough to cause the pendulum to eventually swing down.



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Teleported by electronic circuit: Physicists 'beam' information

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ETH-researchers cannot "beam" objects or humans of flesh and blood through space yet, a feat sometimes alluded to in science fiction movies. They managed, however, to teleport information from A to B – for the first time in an electronic circuit, similar to a computer chip.



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Small-molecule solar cells get 50% increase in efficiency with optical spacer

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(Phys.org) —In the world of organic solar cells, polymer-based devices may currently be at the top, but other organic materials such as "small molecules" also prove to be promising. Although small-molecule organic solar cells currently have lower efficiencies than polymer solar cells, they are generally easier to fabricate and their efficiencies are improving.



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New electron beam writer enables next-gen biomedical and information technologies

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(Phys.org) —The new electron beam writer housed in the Nano3 cleanroom facility at the Qualcomm Institute is important for electrical engineering professor Shadi Dayeh's two major areas of research. He is developing next-generation, nanoscale transistors for integrated electronics; and he is developing neural probes that have the capacity to extract electrical signals from individual brain cells and transmit the information to a prosthetic device or computer. Achieving this level of signal extraction or manipulation requires tiny sensors spaced very closely together for the highest resolution and signal acquisition. Enter the new electron beam writer.



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Zero-dimensional transistor harvests bubble energy wasted during water electrolysis

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(Phys.org) —When hydrogen is produced from water during electrolysis, some energy is lost as tiny bubbles. In a new study, researchers have demonstrated that 25-nm transistors—so small that they're considered zero-dimensional (0D)—can be used to transform this lost energy into electric pulses. Millions of these 0D transistors could be used to detect individual bubbles and generate electric pulses at an optimal efficiency, gathering part of the energy lost during electrolysis and making it available for other uses.



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NASA Tests Limits of 3-D Printing with Powerful Rocket Engine Check

The largest 3-D printed rocket engine component NASA ever has tested blazed to life Aug. 22 during an engine firing that generated a record 20,000 pounds of thrust.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/august/nasa-tests-limits-of-3-d-printing-with-powerful-rocket-engine-check

Pulsars make a GPS for the cosmos

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(Phys.org) —CSIRO scientists have written software that could guide spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, show that the planet Nibiru doesn't exist … and prove that the Earth goes around the Sun.



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NASA gives up fixing Kepler planet-hunting telescope

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NASA called off all attempts to fix its crippled Kepler space telescope Thursday. But it's not quite ready to call it quits on the remarkable, robotic planet hunter.



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NASA-Funded Scientists Detect Water on Moon's Surface that Hints at Water Below

NASA-funded lunar research has yielded evidence of water locked in mineral grains on the surface of the moon from an unknown source deep beneath the surface.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/august/nasa-funded-scientists-detect-water-on-moons-surface-that-hints-at-water-below

Scientists detect magmatic water on moon's surface

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Scientists have detected magmatic water — water that originates from deep within the Moon's interior — on the surface of the Moon. These findings represent the first such remote detection of this type of lunar water.

via Science Daily

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NASA continues preparation for new Space Launch System engine testing at Stennis

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Think about negotiating an intricate maze, and you begin to appreciate the challenge of designing and fabricating test stand piping for NASA's RS-25 rocket engine. NASA is meeting that challenge at its Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., where liquid oxygen (LOX), liquid hydrogen and related piping is being produced for RS-25 engine testing on the A-1 test stand. Testing of the core-stage engine for NASA's new Space Launch System (SLS) is scheduled to begin next spring. The SLS is being developed to carry humans deeper into space than ever before.

via Science Daily

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Quantum measurement carries information even when the measurement outcome is unread

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(Phys.org) —Some tasks that are impossible in classical systems can be realized in quantum systems. This fact is exemplified by a new protocol that highlights an important difference between classical and quantum measurements. In classical mechanics, performing a measurement without reading the measurement outcome does not carry any information and is therefore equivalent to not performing the measurement at all. But in the new protocol, a quantum measurement that is performed but not read can carry information because the information can be encoded in the choice of the type of measurement that was performed.



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Quantum computing: Manipulating a single nuclear spin qubit of a laser cooled atom

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It is advantageous to implement a quantum bit (qubit) with a single nuclear spin because the nuclear spin is robust against any stray magnetic fields. This robustness can be attributed to the small magnitude of the magnetic moment of the nuclear spin compared with that of the electronic spin.



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Cosmic Cloud2 iPad Mini Cover

Here's a great product from Zazzle featuring an astronomy case. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!

it's always a pleasure to choose a design from reflections06,
another talented artist from the Zazzle community!

Cosmic Cloud2 iPad Mini Cover

Great little custom case for your device!

»visit the reflections06 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!

Researchers figure out how to 'grow' carbon nanotubes with specific atomic structures

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Move over, silicon. In a breakthrough in the quest for the next generation of computers and materials, researchers have solved a longstanding challenge with carbon nanotubes: how to actually build them with specific, predictable atomic structures.

via Science Daily

Retirement Luck, Red Supergiant Star Monocerotis Greeting Cards

Retirement Luck, Red Supergiant Star Monocerotis Greeting Cards

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

A gorgeous card featuring a distant star, named V838 Monocerotis, in the direction of the constellation of Monoceros on the outer edge of our Milky Way. The image shows the swirls of dust spiralling across trillions of miles of interstellar space, lit mainly from within by a pulse of light from the red supergiant, two years into its journey.

All items with this image
All items in the Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series
Image code: monocerotis

Image credit: NASA, the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) and ESA
via Zazzle Astronomy market place

Bursting Nebula iPad Mini Case

Here's a great product from Zazzle featuring an astronomy device case. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!

in my relentless search to find great designs, I found this one by reflections06,
another talented artist from the Zazzle community!

Bursting Nebula iPad Mini Case

Great little custom case for your device!

»visit the reflections06 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!