Science

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NASA's Curiosity Rover Views Serene Sundown on Mars

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NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recorded this view of the sun setting at the close of the mission's 956th Martian day, or sol (April 15, 2015), from the rover's location in Gale Crater.

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Scientists' Efforts Lead to Increased Stability of Anticancer Drug Nanocarriers in Blood

anian researchers from the University of Tabriz succeeded in the production of nanocarriers for a type of anticancer drug, which significantly decreases the side effects of the drug.

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Quick Detour by NASA Mars Rover Checks Ancient Valley

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This map shows the route on lower Mount Sharp that NASA's Curiosity followed in April and early May 2015, in the context of the surrounding terrain. Numbers along the route identify the sol, or Martian day, on which it completed the drive reaching that point, as counted since its 2012 landing.

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Penn and UC Merced researchers match physical and virtual atomic friction experiments

Technological limitations have made studying friction on the atomic scale difficult, but researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Merced, have now made advances in that quest on two fronts.

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Studying atomic scale friction, teams from Penn and UC Merced helped slow experiments and fast simulations meet in the middle.

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NASA Selects Advanced Space Technology Concepts for Further Study

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This artist's rendering depicts 2015 NIAC Phase I Fellow Mason Peck's soft-robotic rover for planetary environments for missions that cannot be accomplished with conventional power systems. It resembles a squid, with tentacle-like structures that serve as electrodynamic 'power scavengers' to harvest power from locally changing magnetic fields. The goal is to enable amphibious exploration of gas-giant moons like Europa.

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Electrons corralled using new quantum tool: 'Whispering gallery' effect confines electrons, could provide basis for new electron-optics devices

Researchers have succeeded in creating a new "whispering gallery" effect for electrons in a sheet of graphene -- making it possible to precisely control a region that reflects electrons within the material. They say the accomplishment could provide a basic building block for new kinds of electronic lenses, as well as quantum-based devices that combine electronics and optics.

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Putting a new spin on plasmonics: Researchers at Aalto University have discovered a novel way of combining plasmonic and magneto-optical effects

Researchers at Finland's Aalto University have discovered a novel way of combining plasmonic and magneto-optical effects. They experimentally demonstrated that patterning of magnetic materials into arrays of nanoscale dots can lead to a very strong and highly controllable modification of the polarization of light when the beam reflects from the array. This discovery could increase the sensitivity of optical components for telecommunication and biosensing applications.

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Magnetic nanoparticles arranged in arrays put a twist on light: depending on the distance between the nanoparticles, one frequency of light (visible to the human eye by its colour) resonates in one direction; in the other direction, light (induced by quantum effects in the magnetic material) is enhanced at a different wavelength.

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Attosecond physics: A new gateway to the microcosmos

Ludwig Maximilians Universitaet (LMU) in Munich physicists at the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics have developed a new laser-light source that will lead to significant advances in research on fundamental physics.

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The novel ytterbium:yttrium-aluminium-garnet thin-disk laser emits light pulses lasting 7.7 femtoseconds and consisting of 2.2 optical oscillations. The pulses have an average power of 6 W and carry 0.15 microjoules of energy, over 1.5 orders of magnitude higher than those generated by commercially available Ti:Sa lasers. (LAP)

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Channeling valleytronics in graphene: Berkeley Lab researchers discover 1-D conducting channels in bilayer graphene

To the list of potential applications of graphene - a two-dimensional semiconductor of pure carbon that is stronger and much faster than silicon - we can now add valleytronics, the coding of data in the wavelike motion of electrons as they speed through a conductor. Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered topologically protected one-dimensional electron conducting channels at the domain walls of bilayer graphene. These conducting channels are "valley polarized," which means they can serve as filters for electron valley polarization in future devices such as quantum computers.

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In this near-field infrared nanoscopy image of bilayer graphene, domain walls are revealed by bright lines that arise because of the walls' local electronic structures and IR responses.

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Field-effect transistors on hybrid perovskites fabricated for first time

Researchers from Wake Forest University and the University of Utah are the first to successfully fabricate halide organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite field-effect transistors and measure their electrical characteristics at room temperature.

"We designed the structure of these field-effect transistors that allowed us to achieve electrostatic gating of these materials and determine directly their electrical properties," said lead author, Oana Jurchescu, an assistant professor of physics at Wake Forest. "Then we fabricated these transistors with the Utah team and we measured them here in our lab."

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