Science

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NASA Rover Finds Clues to Changes in Mars' Atmosphere

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This picture shows a lab demonstration of the measurement chamber inside the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, an instrument that is part of the Sample Analysis at Mars investigation on NASA's Curiosity rover.

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In-sync Brain Waves Hold Memory of Objects Just Seen

Brain’s Code for Visual Working Memory Deciphered in Monkeys – NIH-Funded Study

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brain visual working memory circuit holds information in mind about what has just been seen. It represents the memory and distinguishes among objects via unique patterns of brain wave synchronization between neurons in the circuit. For example, two distant hubs in the circuit, one at the front of the brain (right circle) and the other at the rear side (left circle), showed varying amounts of synchrony in their brain waves, depending on what object a monkey was holding in memory. The coherence of synchronous activity between cells in these regions was plotted for different objects the monkey saw over several trials. The large area of red in the lowest graph indicates that the brain waves in the two regions were highly in-sync after seeing a particular object – indicating that they were highly involved in holding in short-term memory information about that object. The modest amount of red for the top graph indicates lesser involvement for another object. By contrast, lack of red in the middle graph shows that the two groups of neurons weren’t much involved in remembering a third object. So the memory of any particular object appears to be represented by its own unique mix of neurons oscillating in-sync.

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NASA/NOAA's Suomi NPP Captures Night-time View of Sandy's Landfall

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A Hint of Hawaii in the Sands of Mars

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The first x-ray crystallography view of Martian soil. Obtained by the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) experiment on NASA's Curiosity rover, these data reveal crystalline feldspar, pyroxenes and olivine mixed with some amorphous (non-crystalline) material. The soil sample is similar to volcanic soils in Hawaii.

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Folding Funnels Key to Biomimicry: Berkeley Lab Finding that Protein Folding Funnels Also Apply to Self-Assembly Should Benefit Biomimicry and Nanosynthesis

Proteins are able to self-assemble into a wide range of highly ordered structures that feature a diverse array of properties. Through biomimicry - technological innovation inspired by nature - humans hope to emulate proteins and produce our own version of self-assembling molecules. A key to accomplishing this is understanding how protein-folding - a process critical to the form and function of a protein - is extended from individual proteins to complex assemblies.

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AFM micrograph of 2D S-layers assembled on mica shows two different pathways to crystalization, one in which the domans are 2-3 nanometers taller (white circles). Height differences, measured along the dotted black line, were the result of kinetic trapping.

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Stanford scientists build the first all-carbon solar cell

Stanford University scientists have built the first solar cell made entirely of carbon, a promising alternative to the expensive materials used in photovoltaic devices today.

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This shows the new all-carbon solar cell consists of a photoactive layer, which absorbs sunlight, sandwiched between two electrodes.

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Dust's Warming Counters Half of its Cooling Effect

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Before (left) and after (right) photos of the study site in Zhangye, China, show the magnitude of the May 2008 dust event.

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Low-resistance connections facilitate multi-walled carbon nanotubes for interconnects: Hybrid electronics

Using a new method for precisely controlling the deposition of carbon, researchers have demonstrated a technique for connecting multi-walled carbon nanotubes to the metallic pads of integrated circuits without the high interface resistance produced by traditional fabrication techniques.

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Georgia Tech Professor Andrei Fedorov demonstrates the electron beam induced deposition (EBID) system used to create graphitic nanojoints to multi-walled carbon nanotubes.

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NIST research highlights promise of AFM-IR for quantitative nanoscale chemical analysis

Anasys Instruments announces a new paper authored by Dr Andrea Centrone and his colleagues at NIST published recently in Small*, a leading publication which focuses on the nano and micro worlds.

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Schematic to show the operation of AFM-IR

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NASA Lunar Scientists Develop New Theory on Earth and Moon Formation

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New research funded by NLSI theorizes that our early Earth and moon were perhaps created in a different manner than has previously been believed.