Science

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One Million Downloads for JPL Space Images App

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NASA/JPL's popular mobile app continues to amass many exciting images including the Mars Curiosity Rover, dying stars, moons of Saturn and giant asteroids.

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2 problems in chemical catalysis solved: University of Jyvaskyla Department of Chemistry and NanoScience Center

The research group of Professor Petri Pihko at the Department of Chemistry and the NanoScience Center of the University of Jyväskylä has solved two acute problems in chemical catalysis. The research has been funded by the Academy of Finland.

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This image shows a novel bifunctional catalyst for the Mannich reaction.

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May the force be with the atomic probe: New models suggest devising means of probing a surface at a sub-micrometric level as this will help us understand how electrons’ diffusion affects long-range attractive forces

Theoretical physicist Elad Eizner from Ben Gurion University, Israel, and colleagues created models to study the attractive forces affecting atoms located at a wide range of distances from a surface, in the hundreds of nanometers range. Their results, about to be published in EPJ D, show that these forces depend on electron diffusion, regardless of whether the surface is conducting or not. Ultimately, these findings could contribute to designing minimally invasive surface probes.

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CryoSat hits land

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Shot Away from its Companion, Giant Star Makes Waves

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The giant star Zeta Ophiuchi is having a "shocking" effect on the surrounding dust clouds in this infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Stellar winds flowing out from this fast-moving star are making ripples in the dust as it approaches, creating a bow shock seen as glowing gossamer threads, which, for this star, are only seen in infrared light.

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Stars Reveal the Secrets of Looking Young

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Novel Nanoparticles for Easier Biomarker Detection

Finding ways to diagnose cancer earlier could greatly improve the chances of survival for many patients. One way to do this is to look for specific proteins secreted by cancer cells, which circulate in the bloodstream. However, the quantity of these biomarkers is so low that detecting them has proven difficult.

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These nanoparticles created by MIT engineers can act as synthetic biomarkers for disease. The particles (brown) are coated with peptides (blue) that are cleaved by enzymes (green) found at the disease site. The peptides then accumulate in the urine, where they can be detected using mass spectrometry.

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Synthetic and biological nanoparticles combined to produce new metamaterials

Scientists from Aalto University, Finland, have succeeded in organising virus particles, protein cages and nanoparticles into crystalline materials. These nanomaterials studied by the Finnish research group are important for applications in sensing, optics, electronics and drug delivery.

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Two different protein cages, cowpea chlorotic mottle virus (blue) and Pyrococcus furiosus ferritin (red), can be used to guide the assembly of binary nanoparticles superlattices through tunable electrostatic interactions with charged gold nanoparticles (yellow).

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Hubble's "Smoky" Shells

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NASA to Provide Commentary as Grail Moon Mission Ends

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This still image and animation shows the final flight path for NASA's twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission spacecraft, which will impact the moon on Dec. 17, 2012, around 2:28 p.m. PST.