Science

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NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Tiny Planet System

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NASA's Kepler mission has discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star like our sun, approximately 210 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.

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Hubble Sees Cosmic “Flying V” of Merging Galaxies

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Organic electronics -- how to make contact between carbon compounds and metal

Until now, however, it was practically impossible to accurately predict which molecules performed well on the job. They basically had to be identified by trial-and-error.

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Upon contact between the oxygen atoms protruding from the backbone and the metal, the molecules' internal structure changed in such a way that they lost their semiconducting properties and instead adopted the metallic properties of the surface.

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Exploring supercapacitors to improve their structure

No matter how intimidating their name, supercapacitors are part of our daily lives. Take buses for example: supercapacitors are charged during braking and supply electricity to open the doors when the vehicle stops! Yet the molecular organization and functioning of these electricity storage devices had never previously been observed. For the first time, researchers from CNRS and the Université d'Orléans have explored the molecular rearrangements at play in commercially available supercapacitors while in operation. The technique devised by the scientists provides a new tool for optimizing and improving tomorrow's supercapacitors.

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Simplified diagram of a supercapacitor and how it works from the macroscopic scale to the molecular level.

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Cassini sheds light on cosmic particle accelerators

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Cassini at Saturn’s bow shock

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Nano-machines for 'bionic proteins'

Physicists of the University of Vienna together with researchers from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna developed nano-machines which recreate principal activities of proteins. They present the first versatile and modular example of a fully artificial protein-mimetic model system, thanks to the Vienna Scientific Cluster (VSC), a high performance computing infrastructure. These "bionic proteins" could play an important role in innovating pharmaceutical research. The results have now been published in the renowned journal "Physical Review Letters".

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This shows the self-knotted structure of the bionic protein.

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Playing quantum tricks with measurements

A team of physicists at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, performed an experiment that seems to contradict the foundations of quantum theory - at first glance. The team led by Rainer Blatt reversed a quantum measurement in a prototype quantum information processor. The experiment is enabled by a technique that has been developed for quantum error correction in a future quantum computer.

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In their recent experiment, the scientists demonstrated that it is possible to reverse a measurement with the aid of a quantum error correction protocol.

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Russian meteor impact shows the need for a sentry line of asteroid inspection spacecraft

The impact in Russia and the near miss by asteroid 2012 DA14 should shock the world into creating a sentry line of spacecraft circling the Earth to intercept and evaluate incoming threats, Deep Space Industries proposed.

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Nanosensors support skin cancer therapy

Malignant melanoma is the most aggressive type of skin cancer. In more than 50 percent of affected patients a particular mutation plays an important role. As the life span of the patients carrying the mutation can be significantly extended by novel drugs, it is very important to identify those reliably. For identification, researchers from the University of Basel and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Lausanne have developed a novel method, as they report in the renowned journal "Nature Nanotechnology". In Switzerland, every year about 2100 persons are affected by malignant melanoma, which makes it one of the most frequent tumors. While early detected the prospects of recovery are very good, in contrast at later stages the chances of survival are reduced drastically.

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Nanosensor: Eight cantilevers of 500 μm in length are applied for detection of the genetic mutation.

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The Spark Within: Light-Emitting Bioprobe Fits in a Single Cell

Stanford study is the first to demonstrate that sophisticated, engineered light resonators can be inserted inside cells without damaging the host. The researchers say it marks a new age in which tiny lasers and light-emitting diodes yield new avenues in the study and influence of living cells.

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This scanning electron microscope (SEM) image shows a nanobeam probe, including a large part of the handle tip, inserted in a typical cell.

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