Science

Tags:

NASA's Spaceborne Carbon Counter Maps New Details

PIA18935_ip.jpg
This map shows solar-induced fluorescence, a plant process that occurs during photosynthesis, from Aug. through Oct. 2014 as measured by NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.

Tags:

Creation of 'Rocker' protein opens way for new smart molecules in medicine, other fields

Human cells are protected by a largely impenetrable molecular membrane, but researchers have built the first artificial transporter protein that carries individual atoms across membranes, opening the possibility of engineering a new class of smart molecules with applications in fields as wide ranging as nanotechnology and medicine.

50620.jpg
Rocker (blue ribbons and yellow sticks) is an artificially designed protein that transports zinc ions (green) across biological membranes (gray sticks) by binding zinc ions it at one end of the molecule and rearranging ('rocking') to pass them onto the other end. The protein was built by researchers from Dartmouth College and other institutions.

Tags:

Signs of Europa Plumes Remain Elusive in Search of Cassini Data

pia19048-16_0.jpg
Jupiter's icy moon Europa displays many signs of activity, including its fractured crust and a dearth of impact craters. Scientists continue to hunt for confirmation of plume activity.

Tags:

India Launches its Largest Rocket into Space

India has successfully launched its largest rocket and an unmanned capsule which could send astronauts into space.

Tags:

Switching to spintronics: Berkeley Lab reports on electric field switching of ferromagnetism at room temp

In a development that holds promise for future magnetic memory and logic devices, researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Cornell University successfully used an electric field to reverse the magnetization direction in a multiferroic spintronic device at room temperature. This demonstration, which runs counter to conventional scientific wisdom, points a new way towards spintronics and smaller, faster and cheaper ways of storing and processing data.

50613.jpg
This is a conceptual illustration of how magnetism is reversed (see compass) by the application of an electric field (blue dots) applied across gold capacitors. Blurring of compass needle under electric field represents two-step process.

Tags:

Unraveling the light of fireflie

Fireflies used rapid light flashes to communicate. This "bioluminescence" is an intriguing phenomenon that has many potential applications, from drug testing and monitoring water contamination, and even lighting up streets using glow-in-dark trees and plants. Fireflies emit light when a compound called luciferin breaks down. We know that this reaction needs oxygen, but what we don't know is how fireflies actually supply oxygen to their light-emitting cells. Using state-of-the-art imaging techniques, scientists from Switzerland and Taiwan have determined how fireflies control oxygen distribution to light up their cells.

50611.jpg
This detailed microimage shows larger channels branching into smaller ones, supplying oxygen for the firefly's light emission. The smallest channels are ten thousand times smaller than a millimeter and therefore invisible to other experimental probes: this has prevented scientists so far to unlock the mystery of firefly light flashes.

Tags:

Scientists trace nanoparticles from plants to caterpillars: Rice University study examines how nanoparticles behave in food chain

In one of the most comprehensive laboratory studies of its kind, Rice University scientists traced the uptake and accumulation of quantum dot nanoparticles from water to plant roots, plant leaves and leaf-eating caterpillars.

50602.jpg
The buildup of fluorescent quantum dots in the leaves of Arabidopsis plants is apparent in this photograph of the plants under ultraviolet light.

Tags:

Pb islands in a sea of graphene magnetise the material of the future

Researchers in Spain have discovered that if lead atoms are intercalated on a graphene sheet, a powerful magnetic field is generated by the interaction of the electrons' spin with their orbital movement. This property could have implications in spintronics, an emerging technology promoted by the European Union to create advanced computational systems.

50605.jpg
In the sea of graphene (over an iridium crystal), electrons' spin-orbit interaction is much lower than that created by intercalating a Pb island.

Tags:

Iranian Scientists Convert Curcumin Existing in Turmeric into Edible Nanodrug

The succeeded in the production of an edible nanodrug by using the API in turmeric plant.

50592_0.jpg

Tags:

A sponge-like molecular cage for purification of fullerenes

A work in Nature Communications presents a supramolecular nanocage which encapsulates fullerenes of different sizes and allows the extraction of pure C60 and C70 through a washing-based strategy.

50595.jpg