Rare blurring of black hole light spotted

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Scientists have captured an extreme and rare event in the regions immediately surrounding a supermassive black hole. A compact source of X-rays that sits near the black hole, called the corona, has moved closer to the black hole over a period of just days.

via Science Daily

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Could hemp nanosheets topple graphene for making the ideal supercapacitor?

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As hemp makes a comeback in the U.S. after a decades-long ban on its cultivation, scientists are reporting that fibers from the plant can pack as much energy and power as graphene, long-touted as the model material for supercapacitors.

via Science Daily

GEARing technology for developing markets

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Several years ago, as a graduate student at MIT, Amos Winter spent a summer in Tanzania surveying wheelchair technology. What he found was a disconnect between products and the lives of their customers. “You had normal wheelchairs that worked fine indoors but were tough to take off-road, and you had hand-powered tricycles that worked pretty well on smooth terrain over long distances, but were difficult to manage off-road and way too big to use indoors,” Winter says. “I saw a need for a product that could go fast and efficiently on rough terrain, but was still small enough to use indoors.” That insight resulted in the Leveraged Freedom Chair (LFC), developed at the Global Engineering and Research (GEAR) Laboratory, which Winter directs. The LFC is an early success story in the emerging field of low-cost, high-performance technology for the rural poor. The novel device, which is powered with a hand lever, incorporates a single-speed, variable mechanical advantage drivetrain. Grasping high on the lever increases torque, while grasping low increases speed. The all-terrain design goes 80 percent faster and enables 50 percent higher peak-wheel torque than a conventional wheelchair. It’s also constructed from standard bicycle parts, making it easier to repair. GEAR Lab is

The post GEARing technology for developing markets has been published on Technology Org.

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Water droplets - beaded star formation

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Water droplets - beaded star formation
Just like fractals form the same patterns at every scale, so the laws of physics do the same.
Big fleas have little fleas, upon their backs to bite 'em and little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum

  #outerspace #forwidersharing

 » see original post https://plus.google.com/116000959328274308893/posts/GF2smE3ptFo
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Television Review: ‘Man vs. the Universe,’ on the Science Channel

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“Man vs. the Universe,” on the Science Channel, looks at current space research in three parts.















via New York Times

Horses' ears 'communication tool'

Science Focus

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Horses look to the ears to work out what another animal is thinking, according to a study. 
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 » see original post http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/28583944#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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Red dwarf stars might be best places to discover alien life

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Red dwarfs are the most common type of star in the universe, and nearly every one of these stars may have a planet located in its habitable zone where life has the best chance of existing, a new study concludes.



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Collapse in Hebes Chasma on Mars

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Beyond six nines: Ultra-enriched silicon paves the road to quantum computing

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(Phys.org) —Using a relatively straightforward technique, a team of NIST researchers has created what may be the most highly enriched silicon currently being produced. The material is more than 99.9999% pure silicon-28 (28Si), with less than 1 part per million (ppm) of the problematic isotope silicon-29 (29Si). Many quantum computing schemes require isotopically pure silicon, for example to act as a substrate in which qubits – the quantum bits that store information – are embedded. In reaching "five nines" (99.9998%) last year and better than "six nines" this year*, the NIST team has surpassed its own enrichment goals.



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Crab Nebula Wall Decal

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

Crab Nebula Wall Decal

tagged with: crab nebula, supernova, remnant, pulsar, wind nebula, nebulae, space, astronomy, universe

The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus.

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Researchers discover cool-burning flames in space that could lead to better engines here on earth

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A team of international researchers has discovered a new type of cool burning flames that could lead to cleaner, more efficient engines for cars. The discovery was made during a series of experiments on the International Space Station by a team led by Forman Williams, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, San Diego. Researchers detailed their findings last month in the journal Microgravity Science and Technology. “We observed something that we didn’t think could exist,” Williams said. A better understanding of the cool flames’ chemistry could help improve  internal combustion engines in cars, for example by developing homogenous-charge compression ignition. This technology is not currently available in cars. But it could potentially lead to engines that burn fuel at cooler temperatures, emitting fewer pollutants such as soot and nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, also known as NOx, while still being efficient. During the experiments, researchers ignited large droplets of heptane fuel. At first, it looked like the flames had extinguished themselves, just as they would have on earth. But sensors showed that the heptane was still burning, although the resulting cool flames were invisible to the naked eye. The cool flames occurred in a wide

The post Researchers discover cool-burning flames in space that could lead to better engines here on earth has been published on Technology Org.

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1. Low-temperature combustion enables cleaner, more efficient engines

 
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Fraunhofer project aims to halve demand for heavy rare earths

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Mobility would be at a standstill without electric motors and their powerful permanent magnets. These owe their useful magnetic properties to the chemical elements neodymium and dysprosium, which belong to the group of rare earths. Sometimes called critical raw materials, nobody is sure whether the supply of rare earths will hold out in the medium and long term. But ensuring that these raw materials remain available on the world market is far from easy, and prices have been rising steadily for years. One of the factors affecting the expansion of emerging technologies is having these prized resources available in sufficient quantities. This is why Fraunhofer researchers in the »critical rare earths« lighthouse project are working on technologies to process rare earths more efficiently, reuse them or to find suitable substitutes. Cell phones, laptops, electric motors and wind turbines all have one thing in common: manufacturing them is impossible without the use of rare earths. Electric-vehicle motors and wind-turbine generators in particular require powerful permanent magnets that contain rare earths such as neodymium and dysprosium. What makes these elements so sought after are the outstanding, hard-magnetic properties of the intermetallic bonds they can form with ferromagnetic elements such as iron or cobalt. The

The post Fraunhofer project aims to halve demand for heavy rare earths has been published on Technology Org.

Similar news or articles:

1. Discovery of rare earths just below seafloor
2. Ames Laboratory to Lead New Research Effort to Address Shortages in Rare Earth and Other Critical Materials
3. Research on Rare Earth Elements in Alaska Could Help Make Them Less Rare

 
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Monogram - Enlarged Region of The Omega Nebula Sticker

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

Monogram - Enlarged Region of The Omega Nebula Sticker

tagged with: stars, galaxies, astronomy, universe, outer space, envelope sealers, eroton, galaxies stars, gas clouds, star forming activity, green hydrogen, omega nebula m17, ultraviolet radiation, young massive stars, monogram initials, blue oxygen, red sulpher

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Like the fury of a raging sea, this bubbly ocean of glowing hydrogen, oxygen, and sulphur gas lies in the extremely massive and luminous molecular nebula Messier 17.
This Hubble photograph captures a small region within Messier 17 (M17), a hotbed of star formation. M17, also known as the Omega or Swan Nebula, is located about 5500 light-years away in the Sagittarius constellation.
Ultraviolet radiation is carving and heating the surfaces of cold hydrogen gas clouds and the warmed surfaces glow orange and red. The intense heat and pressure causes some material to stream away from the surface, creating the glowing veil of even hotter green-coloured gas that masks background structures. The colours in the image represent various gases. Red represents sulphur; green, hydrogen; and blue, oxygen.

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image code: eroton

Image credit: NASA, the ACS Science Team

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Carina Nebula Room Graphics

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

Carina Nebula Room Graphics

tagged with: carina nebula, nebula, stars, astronomy, univesrse, space

The Carina Nebula is a large bright nebula that surrounds several open clusters of stars.

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Hubble Speak Case for iPad Cover For The iPad Mini

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!

Hubble Speak Case for iPad Cover For The iPad Mini

tagged with: hubble

Hubble

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