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California's accumulated precipitation "deficit" from 2012 to 2014 shown as a percent change from the 17-year average based on TRMM multi-satellite observations.

The magnetic moments of the three organic molecules and the cobalt surface align very stably relative to each other.

Rice is a staple for half the world’s population and the model plant for grass-type biofuel feedstocks.

The magnetic moments of the three organic molecules and the cobalt surface align very stably relative to each other.

South Africa pictured from space.

Backlit by the sun, Pluto’s atmosphere rings its silhouette like a luminous halo in this image taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft around midnight EDT on July 15. This global portrait of the atmosphere was captured when the spacecraft was about 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers) from Pluto and shows structures as small as 12 miles across. The image, delivered to Earth on July 23, is displayed with north at the top of the frame.

By encoding information in photons via their spin, photonic computers could be orders of magnitude faster and efficient than their current-day counterparts. Likewise, encoding information in the spin of electrons, rather than just their quantity, could make spintronic computers with similar advantages. University of Pennsylvania engineers and physicists have now discovered a property of silicon that combines aspects of all of these desirable qualities. In their experimental set-up, pictured here, they a silicon-based photonic device that is sensitive to the spin of the photons in a laser shined on one of its electrodes. Light that is polarized clockwise causes current to flow in one direction, while counter-clockwise polarized light makes it flow in the other direction.

Artist’s impression of Gaia14aae.

Array of nanowires gallium phosphide made with an electron microscope.