Science | WPN World People News

After years of preparatory studies, NASA is formally starting an astrophysics mission designed to help unlock the secrets of the universe -- the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).

The device manipulates light to such an extent that it can filter specific colours while still being transparent and could be used in the future to make smart contact lenses.

Iranian researchers from Amirkabir University of Technology produced nanocomposite membranes that are able to improve performance of fuel cells at high temperature.

This is an image captured by CU-Boulder researchers using an ultrafast optical microscope shows clouds of electrons oscillating in gold material in space and time. The width of the image is 100 nanometers (about the size of a particle that will fit through a surgical mask), while the time between the top and bottom frame (10 fs, or femtoseconds) is less than 1 trillionth of a second.

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This is the crystal structure of Ca-intercalated bilayer graphene fabricated on SiC substrate. Insertion of Ca atoms between two graphene layers causes the superconductivity.

In this time-lapse, retractable protein actuators called "R bodies" - found naturally in certain bacteria - are seen extending from barely-visible tiny coils into long pointy tubes that are capable of rupturing cell membranes. The extension is triggered by a rise in pH level. Wyss Institute researchers have harnessed these structures and are adapting them for use in mammalian cells, which could one day lead to novel mechanisms for delivering drugs and other chemicals of interest.