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Rice University scientists have reduced to one step the process to turn silicon wafers into the black silicon used in solar cells. The advance could cut costs associated with the production of solar cells. Here, a cross section shows inverted pyramids etched into silicon by a chemical mixture over eight hours.

An artist’s concept of the ATLAST telescope under construction in space. This design has a segmented mirror 20 metres across.

Core/shell PbSe/CdSe quantum dots (a) and a carrier multiplication (CM) pathway (b) in these nano structures. (a) Transmission electron microscopy image of thick-shell PbSe/CdSe quantum dots developed for this study. (b) A hot hole generated in the shell via absorption of a photon collides with a core-localized valence-band electron, promoting it across the energy-gap, which generates a second electron-hole pair. In thick-shell PbSe/CdSe quantum dots this process is enhanced due to slow relaxation of shell-localized holes into the core.

DARPA’s SUBNETS program seeks new neurotechnology for analyzing neuronal activity across sub-networks of the brain to enable next-generation therapies tailored to individual patients.

This is an artist's rendering of the New Horizons spacecraft encountering a Kuiper Belt object — a city-sized icy relic left over from the birth of our solar system. The Sun, more than 4.1 billion miles (6.7 billion kilometers) away, shines as a bright star embedded in the glow of the zodiacal dust cloud. Jupiter and Neptune are visible as orange and blue "stars" to the right of the Sun.

This is an optoelectronic device formed of multiple quantum wells, whose design is optimised to maximise the dipole and thus its efficiency, emitting terahertz light.

Melting fat away could one day become a reality with a new liposuction technique now under development.

Cassini will attempt to bounce signals off of Saturn's moon Titan once more during a flyby on June 18, 2014, revealing important details about the moon's surface.