Science

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Spitzer and ALMA Reveal a Star's Bubbly Birth

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Combined observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the newly completed Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile have revealed the throes of stellar birth, as never before, in the well-studied object known as HH 46/47.

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NASA Cassini Spacecraft Provides New View of Saturn and Earth

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On July 19, 2013, in an event celebrated the world over, NASA's Cassini spacecraft slipped into Saturn's shadow and turned to image the planet, seven of its moons, its inner rings -- and, in the background, our home planet, Earth.

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Structure of bacterial nanowire protein hints at secrets of conduction: Electrically conducting bacteria important for energy, environment and technology

Tiny electrical wires protrude from some bacteria and contribute to rock and dirt formation. Researchers studying the protein that makes up one such wire have determined the protein's structure. The finding is important to such diverse fields as producing energy, recycling Earth's carbon and miniaturizing computers.

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Zooming in on the Geobacter-Gonorrhea composite shows how the aromatic residues (teal balloon-like structures) bulge from the surface of pilin proteins (variously colored helical structures) within the fiber.

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Taking a New Look at Carbon Nanotubes: Berkeley Researchers Develop Technique For Imaging Individual Carbon Nanotubes

Despite their almost incomprehensibly small size - a diameter about one ten-thousandth the thickness of a human hair - single-walled carbon nanotubes come in a plethora of different "species," each with its own structure and unique combination of electronic and optical properties. Characterizing the structure and properties of an individual carbon nanotube has involved a lot of guesswork - until now.

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In this display showing optical imaging and spectroscopy of an individual nanotube on substrates and in devices, (a–c) are schematics of a nanotube on a fused-silica substrate, in a field-effect transistor device with two gold electrodes, and under an alumina dielectric layer; (d–f) are SEM images and (g-i) are direct optical images of these individual nanotubes.

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NSA has no direct access to customers' data, IT firms tell MEPs

Microsoft, Google and Facebook managers denied giving the NSA or any government in the world direct or unfettered access to their servers, at the ninth NSA inquiry hearing on the mass surveillance of EU citizens held at Parliament on Monday. US Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner told MEPs that abuses by the NSA were carried out outside congressional authority.

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Sun Unleashes Another X-class Flare

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NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of the sun showing an X1.1 class flare that peaked at 11:26 p.m. EST on Nov. 7, 2013. Increased numbers of flares are quite common at the moment as the sun's normal 11-year activity cycle is ramping up toward solar maximum conditions.

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Hubble catches stellar explosions in NGC 6984

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Laser diodes versus LEDs

Solid-state lighting based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is the most efficient source of high color quality white light. Nevertheless, they show significant performance limitations such as the "efficiency droop". Blue laser diodes operated in stimulated emission offer a potential alternative.

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Nanogrid, activated by sunlight, breaks down pollutants in water, leaving biodegradable compounds: Innovation Corps project explores how to bring technology to the field

Oil spills do untold damage to the environment--to the waters they pollute and to marine and other wildlife. The Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, for example, the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, flowed unabated for three months.

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Transmission electron microscopy image and related electron diffraction pattern of the nanogrids structures as manifested at the nanoparticle level. Each nanoparticle is about 20nm and it is connected to the next one forming "links" in a chain-like configuration.

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Asylum Research Introduces blueDrive™ Photothermal Excitation For Atomic Force Microscopy Imaging and Nanomechanics

Asylum Research, an Oxford Instruments company, announces blueDrive photothermal excitation, an option available exclusively for Asylum's Cypher™ Atomic Force Microscopes (AFMs). blueDrive makes tapping mode imaging remarkably simple, incredibly stable, and strikingly accurate. blueDrive replaces the conventional piezoacoustic excitation mechanism, instead using a blue laser to directly excite the AFM cantilever photothermally. This results in an ideal cantilever drive response in both air and liquids, which provides significant performance and ease of use benefits for tapping mode imaging.

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blueDrive photothermal excitation produces ideal drive responses in both air and liquid. Here, the response of a small, high-frequency cantilever was measured using blueDrive. In both air and liquid, the blueDrive response almost perfectly matches the expected simple harmonic oscillator response.