Science

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In settlement papers filed in federal district court, three companies have agreed to pay about $29.8 million in cleanup costs for a Superfund site in Fairmont, Marion County, W. Va., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today.

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This artist's rendition illustrates the formation of rocky bodies in the solar system - how they form and differentiate and evolve into terrestrial planets.

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Fantastic Phobos

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Phobos in 3D

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Rover's Laser Instrument Zaps First Martian Rock

Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Mission Status Report

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This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.

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Rover's Laser Instrument Zaps First Martian Rock

Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity Mission Status Report

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This composite image, with magnified insets, depicts the first laser test by the Chemistry and Camera, or ChemCam, instrument aboard NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.

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UCSB Researchers Demonstrate That 15=3x5 About Half of the Time

Computing prime factors may sound like an elementary math problem, but try it with a large number, say one that contains more than 600 digits, and the task becomes enormously challenging and impossibly time-consuming. Now, a group of researchers at UC Santa Barbara has designed and fabricated a quantum processor capable of factoring a composite number -- in this case the number 15 -- into its constituent prime factors, 3 and 5.

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The device used to run the first solid state demonstration of Shor's algorithm. It is made up of four phase qubits and five superconducting resonators, for a total of nine engineered quantum elements. The quantum processor measures one-quarter inch square.

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Finding the nano-needle in the haystack

Norwegian researchers are among the first in the world to use radioactivity to trace nanoparticles in experimental animals and soil. Their findings have made it easier to identify any negative environmental impact of nanoparticles, which are found in an increasing number of products.

Nanotechnology can be used to improve the properties of commercial products, to kill bacteria, fight odours and more. But what happens when these products are discarded and these incomprehensibly small particles are released into the environment? Can these same qualities that kill bacteria in athletic garments, washing machines and refrigerators have an unintended detrimental impact on health and the environment as well?

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Constructive conflict in the superconductor: Charge density waves improve our understanding of the zero-resistance transport of electricity and could explain an unusual interplay of superconducting and magnetic materials

Whether a material conducts electricity without losses is not least a question of the right temperature. In future it may be possible to make a more reliable prediction for high-temperature superconductors. These materials lose their resistance if they are cooled with liquid nitrogen, which is relatively easy to handle. An international team, in which physicists of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart played a crucial role, has now discovered that this form of superconductivity competes with charge density waves, i.e. with a periodically fluctuating distribution of the charges. Since the physicists did not previously take account of this competition in their models, their calculations of the transition temperature, where superconductivity sets in, remained inaccurate. In further work, the researchers at the Stuttgart Max Planck Institute have gained insights into how superconducting materials interact with magnetic ones. They observed that the electronic properties affect crystal vibrations to a greater extent than was to be expected. This effect could help to control material properties such as superconductivity or thermoelectricity.

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Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research have discovered charge density waves in ceramic yttrium and neodymium barium cuprates. They form above the temperature at which the material becomes superconducting and thus loses its electrical resistance, slightly distorting the crystal lattice, as indicated in a layer of the crystal lattice by the irregular distances between the atoms (blue spheres). The superconductivity competes with the charge density waves, and it is probably down to a coincidence that superconductivity prevails at a certain temperature.

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NASA Curiosity Team Pinpoints Site for First Drive

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Glenelg Intrigue
This image shows a closer view of the landing site of NASA's Curiosity rover and a destination nearby known as Glenelg.

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Hubble Watches Star Clusters on a Collision Course

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This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of a pair of star clusters that are believed to be in the early stages of merging. The clusters lie in the gigantic 30 Doradus Nebula, which is 170,000 light-years from Earth.
Hubble's circumstantial evidence for the impending collision comes from seeing an elongated structure in the cluster at upper left, and from measuring a different age between the two clusters.

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Iranian Researchers' Method to Produce Nickel Oxide Nanopowders Receives US Patent

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently issued a patent (US 8,110,173) disclosing a new and simple method for fabrication of nickel oxide nanopowders invented by a group of Iranian researchers.

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"So far, I have patented two inventions concerning the production of nickel oxide nanopowders both in Iran and the US in joint collaborations with my colleagues.

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