Science

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New Hubble mosaic of the Orion Nebula

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In the search for rogue planets and failed stars astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have created a new mosaic image of the Orion Nebula. During their survey of the famous star formation region, they found what may be the missing piece of a cosmic puzzle; the third, long-lost member of a star system that had broken apart.

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Mars Volcano, Earth's Dinosaurs Went Extinct About the Same Time

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New research using observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicates that Arsia Mons, one of the largest volcanos on Mars, actively produced lava flows until about 50 million years ago. This wide view of the volcano is from the Viking 1 Orbiter.

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Next-gen steel under the microscope

Next-generation steel and metal alloys are a step closer to reality, thanks to an international research project involving a University of Queensland scientist.

Eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The old and the new bridge, as seen at night from Yerba Buena Island to Oakland (mid-September 2013). The inset in the top left hand corner shows V Vanadium and 2H, Deuterium a hydrogen isotope (1 proton plus 1 neutron and 1 electron) as a Hydrogen substitute.

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Electro-optical switch transmits data at record-low temperatures: Operating at temperatures near absolute zero, switch could enable significantly faster data processing with lower power consumption

A silicon optical switch newly developed at Sandia National Laboratories is the first to transmit up to 10 gigabits per second of data at temperatures just a few degrees above absolute zero. The device could enable data transmission for next-generation superconducting computers that store and process data at cryogenic temperatures. Although these supercomputers are still experimental, they could potentially offer computing speeds ten times faster than today's computers while significantly decreasing power usage.

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This is an illustration of a silicon photonic micro-disk modulator operating at cryogenic temperatures. Light traveling down the silicon waveguide couples to the resonance of the micro-disk cavity. An electrical signal applied to the disk shifts the resonance and as a result modulates the light passing through the waveguide.

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Block copolymer micellization as a protection strategy for DNA origami

The precise positioning of individual molecules with respect to one another is fundamentally challenging. DNA Nanotechnology enables the synthesis of nanometer-sized objects with programmable shapes out of many chemically produced DNA fragments. One of the most widely used methods in this field is called "DNA origami" which allows to fabricate nanoparticles with almost arbitrary shapes, which are around a thousand-fold smaller than the diameter of a human hair. They can be site-specifically functionalized with a large variety of materials such as individual protein molecules, antibodies, drugs molecules or inorganic nanoparticles. This allows to place them in defined geometries or distances with nanometer precision.

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DNA origami.

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NASA Studying Shared Venus Science Objectives with Russian Space Research Institute

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he Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute (IKI) Venera-D mission concept includes a Venus orbiter that would operate for up to three years, and a lander designed to survive the incredibly harsh conditions a spacecraft would encounter on Venus' surface for a few hours.

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Enceladus' south pole is warm under the frost

Over the past decade, the international Cassini mission has revealed intense activity at the southern pole of Saturn's icy moon, Enceladus, with warm fractures venting water-rich jets that hint at an underground sea. A new study, based on microwave observations of this region, shows that the moon is warmer than expected just a few metres below its icy surface. This suggests that heat is produced over a broad area in this polar region and transported under the crust, and that Enceladus' reservoir of liquid water might be lurking only a few kilometres beneath.

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False-colour image of Enceladus highlighting the tiger stripes in blue.

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Discovery in new material raises questions about theoretical models of superconductivity

The U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory has successfully created the first pure, single-crystal sample of a new iron arsenide superconductor, CaKFe4As4, and studies of this material have called into question some long-standing theoretical models of superconductivity.

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(a) Calculated 3D Fermi surface of CaKFe 4 As 4 (b) Band dispersion along the key symmetry directions with respective orbital contributions marked by color-coded outlines.

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New nanofiber marks important step in next generation battery development

One of the keys to building electric cars that can travel longer distances and to powering more homes with renewable energy is developing efficient and highly capable energy storage systems.

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This is a 20 nanometer double perovskite nanofiber that can be used as a highly efficient catalyst in ultrafast oxygen evolution reactions -- one of the underlying electrochemical processes in hydrogen-based energy and the newer metal-air batteries.

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MIPT physicists predict the existence of unusual optical composites

Physicists from MIPT have predicted the existence of transparent composite media with unusual optical properties. Using graphics card based simulations, scientists studied regular volume structures composed of two dielectrics with close parameters, and found that the optical properties of these structures differ from both those of natural crystals and artificial periodic composites, which are currently attracting a lot of interest.

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Physicists from MIPT have predicted the existence of transparent composite media with unusual optical properties. Using graphics card based simulations, scientists studied regular volume structures composed of two dielectrics with close parameters, and found that the optical properties of these structures differ from both those of natural crystals and artificial periodic composites, which are currently attracting a lot of interest.

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