New Technique Accurately Detects All Known Human Viruses in a Single Blood Sample

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A team of researchers from Columbia University in New York had just published a paper describing their brand-new

The post New Technique Accurately Detects All Known Human Viruses in a Single Blood Sample has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Making batteries with portabella mushrooms

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Can portabella mushrooms stop cell phone batteries from degrading over time? Researchers think so. They have created a new type of lithium-ion battery anode using portabella mushrooms, which are inexpensive, environmentally friendly and easy to produce.
via Science Daily

Milestone single-biomolecule imaging technique may advance drug design

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Knowing the detailed shape of biomolecules such as proteins is essential for biological studies and drug discovery. Modern structural biology relies on techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy to discover the tiny structural details of biomolecules. All these methods, however, require averaging over a large number of molecules and thus structural details of an individual biomolecule are often lost. Now researchers have made a breakthrough by obtaining the first nanometer (one billionth of a meter) resolved image of individual tobacco mosaic virions, a rod-shaped RNA virus that infects a wide range of plants, especially tobacco.
via Science Daily

Physicists map the strain, pixel by pixel, in wonder material graphene

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Scientists have mapped the strain in graphene, a 2-D sheet of carbon that is strong, flexible and can expand without breaking. Though the material has found its way into several applications, ranging from tennis rackets to smartphone touch screens, several obstacles are holding up further commercialization of graphene. One of these is the presence of defects that impose strain on graphene's lattice structure and adversely affects its electronic and optical properties.
via Science Daily

A different type of 2D semiconductor

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The first atomically thin 2D sheets of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have been developed by researchers. These ionic materials exhibit optical properties not found in 2D covalent semiconductors such as graphene, making them promising alternatives to silicon for future electronic devices.
via Science Daily

In the Shadow of Saturn Poster

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

In the Shadow of Saturn Poster

tagged with: shadow, saturn, nasa, outer, space, universe, galaxy, astronomy, solar, system, eclipse, sun, cassini, ring, new, rings, earth, color

In the shadow of Saturn, unexpected wonders appear. The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn recently drifted in giant planet's shadow for about 12 hours and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun. Cassini saw a view unlike any other. First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Next, the rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn and slightly scattering sunlight, in the above exaggerated color image. Saturn's rings light up so much that new rings were discovered, although they are hard to see in the above image. Visible in spectacular detail, however, is Saturn's E ring, the ring created by the newly discovered ice-fountains of the moon Enceladus, and the outermost ring visible above. Far in the distance, visible on the image left just above the bright main rings, is the almost ignorable pale blue dot of Earth. Credit: CICLOPS, JPL, ESA, NASA

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Researchers create first entropy-stabilized complex oxide alloys

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Materials researchers have created the first entropy-stabilized alloy that incorporates oxides -- and demonstrated conclusively that the crystalline structure of the material can be determined by disorder at the atomic scale rather than chemical bonding.
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Gravity waves missing in action in latest test

Science Focus

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The Parkes radio telescope, used in these observations. (credit: SCIRO)

The Universe should be teeming with gravity waves. As near as we can tell, just about every galaxy has at least one supermassive black hole at its core. Most large galaxies were formed by multiple mergers, which would put more than one of these supermassive black holes in close proximity. As they get close enough to start spiraling in towards a merger, their orbital interactions should produce gravity waves. As long as this process doesn't end in a merger too quickly, the Universe's population of merging black holes should fill space with a gravity wave background.

Our Earth-bound detectors aren't sensitive enough to pick this background up. Conveniently, however, nature has provided us with its own detector: pulsars. Unfortunately, a detailed study of a handful of pulsars has failed to turn up any sign of gravity waves, suggesting it might be time to revisit some of our models.

A pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star. Each revolution, it sends flashes of light towards Earth, often separated by a handful of milliseconds. The timing of these pulses can sometimes be tracked with a precision of 20 nanoseconds, providing an extremely tight constraint on their expected behavior. If a gravity wave happened to ripple through the right patch of space-time as the light pulse was on its way to Earth, it could distort the timing enough to be detectable.

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 » see original post http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/09/gravity-waves-missing-in-action-in-latest-test/
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Microchannel systems could boost future of solar thermal electricity

Science Focus

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Microchannel technology pioneered at Oregon State University has demonstrated in laboratory experiments that it can significantly improve the

The post Microchannel systems could boost future of solar thermal electricity has been published on Technology Org.

 
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 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/N3HByBpwbyo/
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Initialled Dumbbell Nebula Constellation Vulpecula Oval Sticker

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

Initialled Dumbbell Nebula Constellation Vulpecula Oval Sticker

tagged with: awesome astronomy images, inspirational, dmbblneb, vulpecula constellation, intense ultraviolet radiation, european southern observatory, messier 27 ngc 6853, heavens, monograms, initialled, eso, vista, initials, monogrammed, monogram

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A great photo from deep space featuring the Dumbbell Nebula - also known as Messier 27 or NGC 6853. It's a typical planetary nebula and is located in the constellation Vulpecula (The Fox).

The distance is rather uncertain, but is believed to be around 1,200 light-years. It was first described by the French astronomer and comet hunter Charles Messier who found it in 1764 and included it as no. 27 in his famous list of extended sky objects.

Despite its class, the Dumbbell Nebula has nothing to do with planets. It consists of very rarefied gas that has been ejected from the hot central star (well visible on this photo), now in one of the last evolutionary stages. The gas atoms in the nebula are excited (heated) by the intense ultraviolet radiation from this star and emit strongly at specific wavelengths.

This image is the beautiful by-product of a technical test of some FORS1 narrow-band optical interference filters. They only allow light in a small wavelength range to pass and are used to isolate emissions from particular atoms and ions.

In this three-colour composite, a short exposure was first made through a wide-band filter registering blue light from the nebula. It was then combined with exposures through two interference filters in the light of double-ionized oxygen atoms and atomic hydrogen. They were colour-coded as "blue", "green" and "red", respectively, and then combined to produce this picture that shows the structure of the nebula in "approximately true" colours.



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ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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Earth-like planets around small stars likely have protective magnetic fields, aiding chance for life

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Earth-like planets orbiting close to small stars probably have magnetic fields that protect them from stellar radiation and help maintain surface conditions that could be conducive to life, according to research from astronomers.
via Science Daily
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Supermoon Total Lunar Eclipse and Lightning Storm

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Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Universe Subject Room Decal

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

Universe Subject Room Decal

tagged with: space, galaxy, universe, astronomy, nebula, cosmos

Space Subject, Galaxy. Great Gift For Any Astronomy Admirer.

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Turbulent Star-Birth Region Selection 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!

Turbulent Star-Birth Region Selection iPad Mini Covers

tagged with: hubble, nasa, stars, star, galaxy, galaxies, space, astronomy, telescope, beautiful, photos, nebula, nature, landscapes

In commemoration of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope completing its 100,000th orbit in its 18th year of exploration and discovery, scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., have aimed Hubble to take a snapshot of a dazzling region of celestial birth and renewal. Hubble peered into a small portion of the nebula near the star cluster NGC 2074 (upper, left). The region is a firestorm of raw stellar creation, perhaps triggered by a nearby supernova explosion. It lies about 170,000 light-years away near the Tarantula nebula, one of the most active star-forming regions in our Local Group of galaxies. The three-dimensional-looking image reveals dramatic ridges and valleys of dust, serpent-head "pillars of creation," and gaseous filaments glowing fiercely under torrential ultraviolet radiation. The region is on the edge of a dark molecular cloud that is an incubator for the birth of new stars. The high-energy radiation blazing out from clusters of hot young stars already born in NGC 2074 is sculpting the wall of the nebula by slowly eroding it away. Another young cluster may be hidden beneath a circle of brilliant blue gas at center, bottom. In this approximately 100-light-year-wide fantasy-like landscape, dark towers of dust rise above a glowing wall of gases on the surface of the molecular cloud. The seahorse-shaped pillar at lower, right is approximately 20 light-years long, roughly four times the distance between our Sun and the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. The region is in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite of our Milky Way galaxy. It is a fascinating laboratory for observing star-formation regions and their evolution. Dwarf galaxies like the LMC are considered to be the primitive building blocks of larger galaxies. This representative color image was taken on August 10, 2008, with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Red shows emission from sulfur atoms, green from glowing hydrogen, and blue from glowing oxygen. Source: NASA.

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Researchers use disordered matter for computation, evolving breakthrough nanoparticle Boolean logic network

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(Phys.org)—Natural computers, such as evolved brains and cellular automata, express sophisticated interconnected networks and exhibit massive parallelism. They also adapt to exploit local physical properties such as capacitative crosstalk between circuits. By contrast, synthetic computers channel activity according to established design rules and do not adapt to take advantage of their surroundings. Thus, researchers are interested in using matter itself for computation.

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Scientists found that metallic glasses have a fractal atomic-level structure

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Metallic glasses are rather curious materials. They may appear to look like stainless steel, but yet differ from

The post Scientists found that metallic glasses have a fractal atomic-level structure has been published on Technology Org.

 
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DNA Galaxy Print

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

DNA Galaxy Print

tagged with: galaxy, milky way, milky way galaxy, space art, astronomical illustration, lynette cook, astronomy, astronomy magazine, dna, dna galaxy, double helix, chromosomes, life in space

A spiral galaxy metamorphoses into the DNA double helix. Chemical structures and chromosomes are visible, symbolic of life in space. From a mixed media illustration created for Astronomy magazine. The original art is in a private collection.

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Monogram - Eagle Nebula, Pillars of Creation Oval Sticker

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

Monogram - Eagle Nebula, Pillars of Creation Oval Sticker

tagged with: breathtaking astronomy images, eglneb, young stars clusters, star forming nebulae, messier 16 ngc 6611, pillars of creation, inspirational, eagle nebula, monograms, initialled, heavens, eso, european southern observatory, vista, initials, monogrammed, monogram

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A breathtaking outer space picture showing a spectacular three-colour composite mosaic image of the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16, or NGC 6611). It's based on images obtained with the Wide-Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory.

At the centre, the so-called "Pillars of Creation" can be seen and this wide-field image shows not only the central pillars, but also several others in the same star-forming region, as well as a huge number of stars in front of, in, or behind the Eagle Nebula.

The cluster of bright stars to the upper right is NGC 6611, home to the massive and hot stars that illuminate the pillars. The "Spire" - another large pillar - is in the middle left of the image.

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ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
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Spike Subject Wall Decal

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

Spike Subject Wall Decal

tagged with: cosmos, space, universe, sky, nebula, celestial, plasma, nebulae, astronomy, galaxy

Abstract Subject, Art. Great Gift For Any Spiky Admirer.

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Veil Nebula 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!

Veil Nebula Cover For The iPad Mini

tagged with: international, astronomy, space, nasa, hubble, telescope, gift, outer space, deep space, star

Supernova discoveries are reported to the International Astronomical Union's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, which sends out a circular with the name it assigns to it. The name is the year of discovery, immediately followed by a one or two-letter designation. The first 26 supernovae of the year are designated with a capital letter from A to Z. Afterward pairs of lower-case letters are used: aa, ab, and so on.[36] Since 2000, professional and amateur astronomers find several hundreds of supernovae each year (572 in 2007, 261 in 2008, 390 in 2009). For example, the last supernova of 2005 was SN 2005nc, indicating that it was the 367th[nb 1] supernova found in 2005.[37][38] Historical supernovae are known simply by the year they occurred: SN 185, SN 1006, SN 1054, SN 1572 (Tycho's Nova) and SN 1604 (Kepler's Star). Since 1885 the letter notation has been used, even if there was only one supernova discovered that year (e.g. SN 1885A, 1907A, etc.)—this last happened with SN 1947A. "SN", for SuperNova, is a standard prefix. Until 1987, two-letter designations were rarely needed; since 1988, however, they have been needed every year.

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