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This artist's concept shows the silhouette of a rocky planet, dubbed HD 219134b. At 21 light-years away, the planet is the closest outside of our solar system that can be seen crossing, or transiting, its star.

Schematic illustration of the experiment. An initial density modualtion is imprinted onto the ultracold atoms held in the optical lattice potential (1). Without any disorder, the density modulation is washed out completely in the ensuing dynamics, indicating relaxation towards a thermal equilibrium state (2). In the presence of sufficiently strong disorder, the researchers find that even for long evolution times the system retains memory of the initial state, indicating a non-thermal state in which the system remains stuck (3).

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.