A renaissance is underway in materials science, and especially in metals design, fabrication, and characterization, says MIT Materials
The post A renaissance in metals has been published on Technology Org.
Auroras are the most visible manifestation of the Sun’s effect on Earth, but many aspects of these spectacular displays are still poorly understood. Thanks to ESA’s Cluster and NASA’s Image satellites working together, a particular type of very high-latitude aurora has now been explained.
Chemists face a lot of challenges when synthesizing complex organic chemicals. Chief among them is the fact that many of their reactions are indiscriminate. If there are any alcohols (carbon-oxygen-hydrogen combinations) in a molecule whatsoever, the reaction will typically modify all of them rather than the specific one you're trying to change.
Chemists have come up with a variety of clever ways to avoid this problem, and one of the most commonly used is a protecting group. This is a chemical that attaches to part of your molecule and keeps it from reacting while the rest of the molecule is built up. When your synthesis is done, you simply pop the protecting group off, restoring part of the original molecule.
In general, biological systems don't need protecting groups. But a new paper suggests that they've evolved them anyway.
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Scientists have developed a way to sniff out tiny amounts of toxic gases — a whiff of nerve
The post Laser sniffs out toxic gases from afar has been published on Technology Org.
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 7331 is often touted as an analog to our own Milky Way. About 50 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Pegasus, NGC 7331 was recognized early on as a spiral nebula and is actually one of the brighter galaxies not included in Charles Messier's famous 18th century catalog. Since the galaxy's disk is inclined to our line-of-sight, long telescopic exposures often result in an image that evokes a strong sense of depth. The effect is further enhanced in this sharp image from a small telescope by galaxies that lie beyond the gorgeous island universe. The most prominent background galaxies are about one tenth the apparent size of NGC 7331 and so lie roughly ten times farther away. Their close alignment on the sky with NGC 7331 occurs just by chance. Seen through faint foreground dust clouds lingering above the plane of Milky Way, this visual grouping of galaxies is known as the Deer Lick Group. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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This latest release from the camera on ESA’s Mars Express is a simulated flight over the Becquerel crater, showing large-scale deposits of sedimentary material.
Defect-free nanowires with diameters in the range of 100 nanometers (nm) hold significant promise for numerous in-demand applications
The post Uniform Nanowire Arrays for Science and Manufacturing has been published on Technology Org.
