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The approach relies on engineered materials consisting of nanostructured semiconductor alloy crystals. Heat is a vibration of matter — technically, a vibration of the atomic lattice of a material — just as sound is. Such vibrations can also be thought of as a stream of phonons — a kind of "virtual particle" that is analogous to the photons that carry light. The new approach is similar to recently developed photonic crystals that can control the passage of light, and phononic crystals that can do the same for sound.

Research has shown that alternative antimicrobials such as PlyC can effectively kill bacteria. However, fundamental questions remain about how bacteria respond to the holes that these therapeutics make in their cell wall and what size holes bacteria can withstand before breaking apart. Answering those questions could improve the effectiveness of current antibacterial drugs and initiate the development of new ones.

Methods which allow predictable and reproducible control over the shape and defect structures of nanoparticles are a sought-after ideal in research on nanoparticle synthesis. Realising this ideal for silver nanoparticles is one step closer with the discovery that the localised surface plasmon resonance feature observed for nanoscale metals - the collective oscillation of their electrons caused by incident light - can be used to predictably direct the growth of silver nanocrystals.

Asteroid Apophis was discovered on June 19, 2004.

The spectacular barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 has ranked among the biggest stellar systems for decades. Now a team of astronomers from the United States, Chile and Brazil has crowned it the largest known spiral, based on archival data from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) mission, which has since been loaned to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Artist’s conception of two extrasolar moons orbiting a giant gaseous planet.

Herschel’s three-colour view of asteroid Apophis

This is a long time exposure photography viewing from Tenerife to La Palma. A green laser beam indicates the free-space link between the two laboratories.

Surface of a tooth, with two large scratches (dark blue lines) that have been caused by quartz particles.