Science

Tags:

Hubble Maps Show Jupiter Changes and Prepare for Juno

New maps of Jupiter, produced using images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, provide a detailed window on the giant planet's dynamic features. The views come as the agency prepares for its Juno mission to arrive at Jupiter in a little less than a year.

Tags:

NASA Eyes on Earth Aid Response to Carolina Flooding

sport20151008MAIN_0.jpg
Relative soil moisture over the Carolinas on Oct. 5, 2015, shown in percent. Green indicates the soils are 50 to 65 percent saturated, while blues and purples indicate 65 to 100 percent saturated. Saturated soils can hold no more water so those areas will flood.

Tags:

Exoplanet Anniversary: From Zero to Thousands in 20 Years

PIA12753_ip_0.jpg
NASA's Cassini spacecraft will get its best-ever look at the northernmost reaches of the Saturnian moon Enceladus on Oct. 14.

Tags:

Scientific breakthrough can lead to cheaper and environmentally friendly solar cells

The hope is to develop efficient and environmentally friendly solar energy applications. Solar energy is an inexhaustible resource that we currently only utilise to a very limited extent. Researchers around the world are therefore trying to find new and more efficient ways to use the energy in sunlight.

52391.jpg

Tags:

A resonator for electrons

More than two thousand years ago the Greek inventor and philosopher Archimedes already came up with the idea of using a curved mirror to reflect light in such a way as to focus it into a point - legend has it that he used this technique to set fire to the ships of the Roman enemies. Today such curved or parabolic mirrors are used in a host of technical applications ranging from satellite dishes to laser resonators, where light waves are amplified between two mirrors. Modern quantum physics also makes use of resonators with curved mirrors. In order to study single atoms, for example, researchers use the light focused by the mirrors to enhance the interaction between the light waves and the atoms. A team of physicists at ETH Zurich, working within the framework of the National Centre of Competence in Research Quantum Science and Technology (NCCR QSIT), have now managed to build a resonator that focuses electrons rather than light waves. In the near future, such resonators could be used for constructing quantum computers and for investigating many-body effects in solids.

52393.png
Electron microscope image of the ETH Zurich experiment. Between the quantum dot (left) and the curved electrode (right) electronic standing waves arise, which interact with the electrons of the quantum dot.

Tags:

A better way to read the genome: If your genome was a library, some genes would be 'Choose Your Own Adventure' novels.

UConn researchers have sequenced the RNA of the most complicated gene known in nature, using a hand-held sequencer no bigger than a cell phone.

52383.jpg
As a strand of DNA moves through the MinION nanopore, the MinION 'sees' five nucleotides at a time. Every set of five nucleotides produces a characteristic current, allowing the MinION to read out the DNA code in a single, continuous stream.

Tags:

Banking X-Ray Data for the Future

Archives, in their many forms, save information from October 8 that people will want to access and study in the future. This is a critical function of all archives, but it is especially important when it comes to storing data from today’s modern telescopes.

Tags:

CubeSat to Demonstrate Miniature Laser Communications in Orbit

NASA and The Aerospace Corporation of El Segundo, California, have received confirmation the Optical Communications and Sensor Demonstration (OCSD) CubeSat spacecraft is in orbit and operational. OCSD launched aboard an Atlas V rocket Thursday from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Tags:

Scientists pave way for diamonds to trace early cancers

Physicists from the University of Sydney have devised a way to use diamonds to identify cancerous tumours before they become life threatening.

Their findings, published on October 10 in Nature Communications, reveal how a nanoscale, synthetic version of the precious gem can light up early-stage cancers in non-toxic, non-invasive Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans.

Tags:

NASA Eyes on Earth Aid Response to Carolina Flooding

It was rain that wouldn't quit. A weather system fueled by warm moisture streaming in from the Atlantic Ocean on Oct. 3 and 4 relentlessly dumped between 1 and 2 feet (0.3 and 0.6 meters) of rain across most of South Carolina. The result was rivers topping their banks and dams bursting. Catastrophic flooding followed across most of the state, which has left residents in some areas without power or clean drinking water.