Science | WPN World People News

The copper nanowires, seen here with a nickel coating, can split water molecules under the power of sunlight.

Zuobin Wang of Changchun University of Science and Technology (China), Jin Zhang of Xi'an Technological University (China) and colleagues at Cardiff University (UK), who are partners of the EU FP7 LaserNaMi project, have devised an approach to lithography, the process used to "print" microelectronic circuits, that allows them to add a pattern to the surface of a solar cell. The features of the pattern are so small that individual parts are shorter than the wavelength of light. This means that incident sunlight becomes trapped rather than reflected passing on more of its energy to electricity-generation process that takes place within the panel.

Schematic represenation of zinc oxide nanostructures, which were produced by burner-flame transport synthesis, bridging two contacts.

Convenient, wearable, solar-powered electronics could be on the way soon, incorporated into watchbands (as above) or woven into clothing fibers.

As current passes through a strip of tantalum, electrons with opposite spins separate. Researchers used the resulting polarization to create a nanomagnetic switch that could one day replace computer transistors.

Alain Lamassoure

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) will lead a team of scientists and engineers to fly a Multi-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (MB-SAR) to gather information to aid in the search and recovery of unaccounted for aircraft losses in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) and Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) is sponsoring the mission. It is believed many of the downed aircraft sites are located in the Northern, Central, and Morobe provinces of PNG in austere terrain under triple canopy foliage. The goal of the mission is to highlight the effectiveness of remote sensing information to aid JPAC search and recovery efforts. Similar SAR technology was employed by Fugro Spatial Solutions GeoSAR system in 2006 which resulted in production of a 5m Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the entire mainland of Papua New Guinea.

The new AllWISE catalog will bring distant galaxies that were once invisible out of hiding, as illustrated in this image.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the best ever image of the globular cluster Messier 15, a gathering of very old stars that orbits the centre of the Milky Way. This glittering cluster contains over 100 000 stars, and could also hide a rare type of black hole at its centre.