Science

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Veggie juice that illuminates the gut: The medical imaging drink, developed to diagnose and treat gastrointestinal illnesses, is made of concentrated chlorophyll, the pigment that makes spinach green

The pigment that gives spinach and other plants their verdant color may improve doctors' ability to examine the human gastrointestinal tract. Veggie juice that illuminates the gut: The medical imaging drink, developed to diagnose and treat gastrointestinal illnesses, is made of concentrated chlorophyll, the pigment that makes spinach green

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A new University at Buffalo-led study suggests that chlorophyll-based nanoparticles are an effective imaging agent for the gut.

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Germs add ripples to make 'groovy' graphene: New nanomaterial conducts differently at right angles

Graphene, a two-dimensional wonder-material composed of a single layer of carbon atoms linked in a hexagonal chicken-wire pattern, has attracted intense interest for its phenomenal ability to conduct electricity. Now University of Illinois at Chicago researchers have used rod-shaped bacteria - precisely aligned in an electric field, then vacuum-shrunk under a graphene sheet - to introduce nanoscale ripples in the material, causing it to conduct electrons differently in perpendicular directions.

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Atomic force microscopy image of a graphene sheet draped over a Bacillus bacterium (left). The bacterium is about 1 micron or 1/25,000 of an inch wide. After applying vacuum and heat treatment, regular wrinkles form in the graphene (right, at twice the magnification).

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Astronomers find evidence for 'direct collapse' black hole

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An image based on a supercomputer simulation of the cosmological environment where primordial gas undergoes the direct collapse to a black hole. The gas flows along filaments of dark matter that form a cosmic web connecting structures in the early universe. The first galaxies formed at the intersection of these dark matter filaments.

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University of Illinois researchers demonstrate tunable wetting and adhesion of graphene

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have demonstrated doping-induced tunable wetting and adhesion of graphene, revealing new and unique opportunities for advanced coating materials and transducers.

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Doping-induced tunable wetting of graphene.

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'Origami' is reshaping DNA's future: Three leading researchers discuss how DNA may be used as a building material to help us develop a new generation of medicines, build electronic devices and probe the mysteries of proteins

Ten years after its introduction, DNA origami, a fast and simple way to assemble DNA into potentially useful structures, is finally coming into its own.

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While the design certainly elicited some chuckles, Paul Rothemund’s DNA orgami method, introduced 10 years ago, gave researchers a fast and powerful way to shape DNA into useful structures.

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Frosty Cold Nights Year-Round on Mars May Stir Dust

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This map shows the frequency of carbon dioxide frost's presence at sunrise on Mars, as a percentage of days year-round. Carbon dioxide ice more often covers the ground at night in some mid-latitude regions than in polar regions, where it is generally absent for much of summer and fall.

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Setting a satellite to catch a satellite

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e.Deorbit closing on target satellite

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Transporting netted satellite

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A New Kind of Black Hole, Once a Theory, Now Firmly within Observers' Sight

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Wireless, wearable toxic-gas detector: Inexpensive sensors could be worn by soldiers to detect hazardous chemical agents

MIT researchers have developed low-cost chemical sensors, made from chemically altered carbon nanotubes, that enable smartphones or other wireless devices to detect trace amounts of toxic gases.

Using the sensors, the researchers hope to design lightweight, inexpensive radio-frequency identification (RFID) badges to be used for personal safety and security. Such badges could be worn by soldiers on the battlefield to rapidly detect the presence of chemical weapons -- such as nerve gas or choking agents -- and by people who work around hazardous chemicals prone to leakage.

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Hubble Captures Vivid Auroras in Jupiter's Atmosphere

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Astronomers are using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study auroras — stunning light shows in a planet's atmosphere — on the poles of the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter.
Auroras are formed when charged particles in the space surrounding the planet are accelerated to high energies along the planet's magnetic field. When the particles hit the atmosphere near the magnetic poles, they cause it to glow like gases in a fluorescent light fixture. Jupiter's magnetosphere is 20,000 times stronger than Earth's. These observations will reveal how the solar system's largest and most powerful magnetosphere behaves.

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