Science

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Sound waves precisely position nanowires

The smaller components become, the more difficult it is to create patterns in an economical and reproducible way, according to an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers who, using sound waves, can place nanowires in repeatable patterns for potential use in a variety of sensors, optoelectronics and nanoscale circuits.

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This image shows a simulation of the electric field distribution in a two-dimensional standing surface wave field.

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A Battery Made of Wood? Wood fibers help nano-scale batteries keep their structure

A sliver of wood coated with tin could make a tiny, long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly battery.

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Billion-Pixel View of Mars Comes From Curiosity Rover

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This is a reduced version of panorama from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity with 1.3 billion pixels in the full-resolution version. It shows Curiosity at the "Rocknest" site where the rover scooped up samples of windblown dust and sand. Curiosity used three cameras to take the component images on several different days between Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2012.

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Polymer-coated catalyst protects "artificial leaf"

Due to the fluctuating availability of solar energy, storage solutions are urgently needed. One option is to use the electrical energy generated inside solar cells to split water by means of electrolysis, in the process yielding hydrogen that can be used for a storable fuel. Researchers at the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels have modified so called superstrate solar cells with their highly efficient architecture in order to obtain hydrogen from water with the help of suitable catalysts. This type of cell works something like an "artificial leaf." But the solar cell rapidly corrodes when placed in the aqueous electrolyte solution. Now, Ph.D. student Diana Stellmach has found a way to prevent corrosion by embedding the catalysts in an electrically conducting polymer and then mounting them onto the solar cell's two contact surfaces, making her the first scientist in all of Europe to have come up with this solution. As a result, the cell's sensitive contacts are sealed to prevent corrosion with a stable yield of approx. 3.7 percent sunlight.

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This complex solar cell is coated with two different catalysts and works like an "artificial leaf", using sunlight to split water and yield hydrogen gas.

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The Turbulent, High-Energy Sky Is Keeping NuSTAR Busy

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Artist's concept of NuSTAR in orbit. NuSTAR has a 33-foot (10-meter) mast that deploys after launch to separate the optics modules (right) from the detectors in the focal plane (left).

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Working backward: Computer-aided design of zeolite templates: Rice scientists apply drug-design lessons to production of industrial minerals

Taking a page from computer-aided drug designers, Rice University researchers have developed a computational method that chemists can use to tailor the properties of zeolites, one of the world's most-used industrial minerals.

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Rice University scientists have created a computational procedure to identify small organic molecules (purple) that can be used to guide the growth of zeolite crystals (yellow).

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Hubble Uncovers Evidence for Extrasolar Planet Under Construction

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Discovery of new material state counterintuitive to laws of physics

Dense materials made porous, doubling the number of nanotraps for use as water filters, chemical sensors, sequestration, hydrogen fuel cell storage, drug delivery, and catalysis.

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Pressure-induced transitions are associated with near 2-fold volume expansions. While an increase in volume with pressure is counterintuitive, the resulting new phases contain large fluid-filled pores, such that the combined solid + fluid volume is reduced and the inefficiencies in space filling by the interpenetrated parent phase are eliminated.

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Nanoparticle Opens the Door to Clean-Energy Alternatives

Cheaper clean-energy technologies could be made possible thanks to a new discovery. Led by Raymond Schaak, a professor of chemistry at Penn State University, research team members have found that an important chemical reaction that generates hydrogen from water is effectively triggered -- or catalyzed -- by a nanoparticle composed of nickel and phosphorus, two inexpensive elements that are abundant on Earth.

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A transmission-electron microscope image of a collection of quasi-spherical nickel phosphide nanoparticles. A team led by Raymond Schaak of Penn State University has found that these nanoparticles can catalyze an important chemical reaction that generates hydrogen from water.

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NASA's 2013 HS3 Hurricane Mission to Delve into Saharan Dust

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A well-defined plume of dust swept across the entire Atlantic Ocean on June 24, 2009. In this photo-like image taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite in three consecutive overpasses, the dust stretches from its origins in Africa’s Sahara Desert to the Lesser Antilles Islands on the eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea. Such spectacular dust storms are not uncommon.

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