Science

Tags:

World's first flexible multi-functional timer to be distributed at Printed Electronics Europe

A consortium of partners will launch the world's first flexible timer based on printed electronics at the IDTechEx Printed Electronics Europe event in Berlin, April 1-2. The device consists of an electronic logic circuit implemented with thin film metal oxide transistors, powered by a printed battery, and integrated onto a paper substrate. It has four timing sequences and is designed for multi-functional use across four different applications.

Led by IDTechEx, partners included consumer goods company Procter & Gamble, printed logic company PragmatIC, printed battery supplier Blue Spark Technologies, conductive ink and photonic curing equipment supplier NovaCentrix and Cal Poly, who designed and printed on the paper substrate.

Tags:

NASA's Spitzer Telescope Brings 360-Degree View of Galaxy to Our Fingertips

pia17996-640_0.jpg
When you look up at the Milky Way on a clear, dark night, you'll see a band of bright stars arching overhead. This is the plane of our flat spiral galaxy, within which our solar system lies.

Tags:

Spintronic Thermoelectric Power Generators: A step towards energy efficient electronic devices

Imagine a computer so efficient that it can recycle its own waste heat to produce electricity. While such an idea may seem far-fetched today, significant progress has already been made to realize these devices. Researchers at the Nanostructured Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Utah have fabricated spintronics-based thin film devices which do just that i.e., convert even minute waste heat into useful electricity.

49191.jpg
Schematic of the spintronic thermoelectric device fabricated by the University of Utah’s researchers. This device can convert even minute heat emitted by hand-held electronic devices such as laptops, etc. into useful electricity.

Tags:

A mathematical equation that explains the behavior of nanofoams

A research study, participated in by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), has discovered that nanometric-size foam structures follow the same universal laws as does soap lather: small bubbles disappear in favor of the larger ones.

49195.jpg

Tags:

Space Sunflower May Help Snap Pictures of Planets

starshade20140320-640_0.jpg
This animation shows the prototype starshade, a giant structure designed to block the glare of stars so that future space telescopes can take pictures of planets.

Tags:

Amazon Inhales More Carbon than It Emits, NASA Finds

earth20140317-640_0.jpg
Old-growth Amazon tree canopy in Tapajós National Forest, Brazil. A new NASA study shows that the living trees in the undisturbed Amazon forest draw more carbon dioxide from the air than the forest's dead trees emit.

Tags:

NASA Releases First Interactive Mosaic of Lunar North Pole

14-079-lro-mosaic_0_0.jpg
A new interactive mosaic from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter covers the north pole of the moon from 60 to 90 degrees north latitude at a resolution of 6-1/2 feet (2 meters) per pixel. Close-ups of Thales crater (right side) zoom in to reveal increasing levels of detail.

Tags:

NASA Orbiter Finds New Gully Channel on Mars

pia17958-640_0.jpg
This pair of before (left) and after (right) images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter documents formation of a new channel on a Martian slope between 2010 and 2013, likely resulting from activity of carbon-dioxide frost.

Tags:

NASA Historic Earth Images Still Hold Research Value

pia18137-640_0.jpg
This Seasat synthetic aperture radar image from Aug. 27, 1978, shows the Massachusetts coast from Nantucket Island in the south past Cape Cod and Boston to Cape Ann in the north.

Tags:

Bright Future for Protein Nanoprobes: Berkeley Lab Researchers Discover New Rules for Single-Particle Imaging with Light-Emitting Nanocrystals

The term a "brighter future" might be a cliché, but in the case of ultra-small probes for lighting up individual proteins, it is now most appropriate. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered surprising new rules for creating ultra-bright light-emitting crystals that are less than 10 nanometers in diameter. These ultra-tiny but ultra-bright nanoprobes should be a big asset for biological imaging, especially deep-tissue optical imaging of neurons in the brain.

49167.jpg
Researchers at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry created upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) from nanocrystals of sodium yttrium fluoride (NaYF4) doped with ytterbium and erbium that can be safely used to image single proteins in a cell without disrupting the protein’s activity.