Science

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State aid: Commission approves £50 million UK support for the research and development of an innovative space launcher engine

The European Commission has found that a £50 million (around €71 million) grant that the UK authorities intend to provide for designing a SABRE space launcher engine is in line with EU state aid rules. SABRE is a research and development (R&D) project carried out by UK company Reaction Engines Limited (REL). The project aims to develop an engine that would power a reusable airframe to launch satellites into low Earth orbit, significantly reducing the costs of such space missions. The Commission found that the measure fosters aerospace R&D in Europe while limiting distortions of competition in the Single Market.

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Attosecond physics: Attosecond electron catapult: Physicists from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich studied the interaction of light with tiny glass particles

A team of physicists and chemists from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU) and the Laboratory of Attosecond Physics (LAP) at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ), from the Institute of Physics of the University of Rostock, and from the Freie Universität Berlin studied the interaction between strong laser pulses and glass nanoparticles, which consist of multiple millions of atoms. Depending on how many atoms were contained in the nanoparticles, these objects reacted differently over attosecond timescales (an attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second). Depending on their size, so called near-fields (electromagnetic fields close to the particle surface) were induced by the laser pulses, resulting in a controlled directional emission of electrons. These findings could eventually extend cancer therapy and imaging methods in medicine. The study was published in the latest issue of the journal Nature Communications.

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Directional electron acceleration on glass nanospheres. A femtosecond laser pulse (coming from the left) hits a glass nanosphere. The light releases electrons (green) from the group of atoms.

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New optical chip lights up the race for quantum computer

The microprocessor inside a computer is a single multipurpose chip that has revolutionised people's life, allowing them to use one machine to surf the web, check emails and keep track of finances.

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This is the silicon based quantum optics lab-on-a-chip.

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Newly Discovered World Is Most Like Jupiter

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Discovery image of 51 Eri b with the Gemini Planet Imager taken in the near-infrared light on December 18, 2014. The bright central star has been mostly removed by a hardware and software mask to enable the detection of the exoplanet one million times fainter.

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NASA's Hubble Finds Supernovae in 'Wrong Place at Wrong Time'

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These Hubble Space Telescope images show elliptical galaxies with dark, wispy dust lanes, the signature of a recent galaxy merger. The dust is the only relic of a smaller galaxy that was consumed by the larger elliptical galaxy.
The "X" in the images marks the location of supernova explosions that are associated with the galaxies. Each supernova may have been gravitationally kicked out of its host galaxy by a pair of central supermassive black holes. When two galaxies merge, so do their supermassive black holes. Astronomers suggest the supernovae were stars that were once part of double-star systems. These systems wandered too close to the binary black holes, which ejected them from their galaxies. Eventually, the stars in each system moved close enough together to trigger a supernova blast.

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These Hubble Space Telescope images show elliptical galaxies with dark, wispy dust lanes, the signature of a recent galaxy merger. The dust is the only relic of a smaller galaxy that was consumed by the larger elliptical galaxy.
The "X" in the images marks the location of supernova explosions that are associated with the galaxies. Each supernova may have been gravitationally kicked out of its host galaxy by a pair of central supermassive black holes. When two galaxies merge, so do their supermassive black holes. Astronomers suggest the supernovae were stars that were once part of double-star systems. These systems wandered too close to the binary black holes, which ejected them from their galaxies. Eventually, the stars in each system moved close enough together to trigger a supernova blast.

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Discovery in growing graphene nanoribbons could enable faster, more efficient electronics

Graphene, an atom-thick material with extraordinary properties, is a promising candidate for the next generation of dramatically faster, more energy-efficient electronics. However, scientists have struggled to fabricate the material into ultra-narrow strips, called nanoribbons, that could enable the use of graphene in high-performance semiconductor electronics.

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Progressively zoomed-in images of graphene nanoribbons grown on germanium. The ribbons automatically align perpendicularly and naturally grow in what is known as the armchair edge configuration.

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Scientists Apply Semi-Conductive, Magnetic Photocatalysts to Purify Wastewater

Researchers from Iran University of Science and Technology produced nanoparticles at the laboratorial scale that can purify contaminated wastewater with high efficiency.

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Conformal transfer of graphene for reproducible device fabrication

Conformal transfer of graphene on a prepatterned substrate is a viable technology for reproducible fabrication of graphene devices. Such is the conclusion of a recent study by a team of scientists from Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Saudi Arabia.

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Reliable wafer scale production of graphene devices.

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Perseid meteors to light up summer skies

The evening of Wednesday 12 August into the morning of Thursday 13 August sees the annual maximum of the Perseid meteor shower. This year, a new moon makes prospects for watching this natural firework display particularly good.

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Charge density and optical properties of multicomponent crystals

Optical materials serve a major role in modern sciences and technology. Many of the devices we use feature technology resulting from material discoveries in this fast moving area of research. Nowadays, the need for more efficient devices and minimisation in optoelectronics requires a novel approach towards crystal engineering of functional solids. A solution can be multicomponent materials built from either organic or mixed organic and inorganic components selected in a specific way, to combine molecular and structural properties to form a 3D architecture. Optical properties of a crystal strongly depend on two factors, i.e. the spatial distribution of molecules in the crystal structure and the electronic properties of molecular building blocks. The latter are easy to predict whereas the former are not. Crystal symmetry is often a key to obtaining a desired property. Noncentrosymmetric crystal structure (chiral/polar) is a necessary (limiting) condition for such properties as nonlinear properties of even order and linear properties like optical activity, piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity and ferroelectricity. However, fulfilling symmetry rules does not guarantee the existence of a physical effect. The choice of building blocks is crucial; in ideal cases, push-pull molecules should be linked with constituents enabling synthon formation flexibility.

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APIs in the design of multi-component functional solids are shown.