Science

Tags:

'Exotic' material is like a switch when super thin

Researchers from Cornell University and Brookhaven National Laboratory have shown how to switch a particular transition metal oxide, a lanthanum nickelate (LaNiO3), from a metal to an insulator by making the material less than a nanometer thick.

49362.jpg

Tags:

Bright Points in Sun's Atmosphere Mark Patterns Deep In Its Interior

Like a balloon bobbing along in the air while tied to a child's hand, a tracer has been found in the sun's atmosphere to help track the flow of material coursing underneath the sun's surface.

gnodes_0_0.jpg
Brightpoints in the sun's atmosphere, left, correspond to magnetic parcels on the sun's surface, seen in the processed data on the right. Green spots show smaller parcels, red and yellow much bigger ones. Images based on data from NASA's SDO captured at 8 p.m. EDT on May 15, 2010.

Tags:

NASA Completes LADEE Mission with Planned Impact on Moon's Surface

acd13-0101-014_11_0.jpg
An artist's concept of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft seen orbiting near the surface of the moon.

Tags:

UT Arlington physicist creates new nanoparticle for cancer therapy

A University of Texas at Arlington physicist working to create a luminescent nanoparticle to use in security-related radiation detection may have instead happened upon an advance in photodynamic cancer therapy.

49346.jpg
This figure from the paper shows the X-ray destruction of human breast cancer cells using Cu-Cy particles. The images show the live cancer cells stained green and the dead cells stained red.

Tags:

Scientists Capture Ultrafast Snapshots of Light-Driven Superconductivity: X-rays reveal how rapidly vanishing 'charge stripes' may be behind laser-induced high-temperature superconductivity

A new study pins down a major factor behind the appearance of superconductivity-the ability to conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency-in a promising copper-oxide material.

49351.jpg
In equilibrium (top), the charge stripe "ripples" run perpendicular to each other between the copper-oxide layers of the material. When a mid-infrared laser pulse strikes the material (middle), it "melts" these conflicting ripples and induces superconductivity (bottom). The experimenters used a carefully synchronized x-ray laser to take this femtosecond–fast "movie" to reveal how quickly the charge stripes melt.

Tags:

A Study in Scarlet

eso1413a_0.jpg
This new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile reveals a cloud of hydrogen called Gum 41. In the middle of this little-known nebula, brilliant hot young stars are giving off energetic radiation that causes the surrounding hydrogen to glow with a characteristic red hue.

Tags:

NASA Mars Orbiter Spies Rover Near Martian Butte

pia18081-640_0.jpg
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover and tracks from its driving are visible in this view from orbit, acquired on April 11, 2014, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Tags:

Nanocrystalline cellulose modified into an efficient viral inhibitor

Researchers have succeeded in creating a surface on nano-sized cellulose crystals that imitates a biological structure. The surface adsorbs viruses and disables them. The results can prove useful in the development of antiviral ointments and surfaces, for instance.

49337.jpg
Ari Hinkkanen and Janne Ruotsalainen, University of Eastern Finland, and Aalto University

Tags:

Engineers develop new materials for hydrogen storage

Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have created new ceramic materials that could be used to store hydrogen safely and efficiently.

49338.jpg
The researchers have created for the first time compounds made from mixtures of calcium hexaboride, strontium and barium hexaboride. The resulting ceramics are essentially crystalline structures in a cage of boron. To store hydrogen, the researchers would swap the calcium, strontium and boron with hydrogen atoms within the cage.

Tags:

Scientists open door to better solar cells, superconductors and hard-drives: Research enhances understanding of materials interfaces

Using DESY's bright research light sources, scientists have opened a new door to better solar cells, novel superconductors and smaller hard-drives. The research reported in the scientific journal Nature Communications this week enhances the understanding of the interface of two materials, where completely new properties can arise. With their work, the team of Prof. Andrivo Rusydi from the National University of Singapore and Prof. Michael Rübhausen from the Hamburg Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) have solved a long standing mystery in the physics of condensed matter. CFEL is a cooperation of DESY, the University of Hamburg and the Max Planck Society.

49325.jpg
Left: If the lanthanum aluminate layer (blue) is less than three unit cells, the electrons redistribute in sub-layers. Right: If the layer has four unit cells or more, some electrons migrate to the interface.