Science | WPN World People News

This figure shows the critical current, Ic, and engineering critical current density, JE, in a superconducting wire as a function of applied magnetic field orientation at 65 Kelvin and 3 Tesla. The top curve shows results from a newly published ORNL study. The other two curves are from previously reported record values. A minimum JE of 43.7 kiloamperes/cm2 (assuming a 50 micron thick stabilizer layer) and a minimum Ic of 455 Amperes/cm was obtained for all applied field orientations. This is the highest reported performance for a superconductor wire or a film on a technical substrate.

The scientists, from the laboratories of MIT's Anantha Chandrakasan and Subra Suresh — who is now president of Carnegie Mellon University — have built an experimental microfluidic device that takes a drop of blood and streams it across an electrode that measures a signal differentiating infected cells from uninfected cells. The work, published Aug. 8 in the journal Lab on a Chip, is a first step toward a field-ready, low-cost, portable malaria-detection device.

The picture shows ytterbium ions in an ion Coulomb crystal, taken with an EMCCD camera (electron multiplying CCD camera). The ionized atoms fluoresce in the laser light; the distance between the ions is approx. 10µm to 20 µm. (a) Radial symmetry: At a high radial trap enclosure, the ionized atoms line up like a string of pearls. The radial potential felt by the positively charged particles is depicted at the bottom left. (b) Mirror symmetry: If the strength of the radial enclosure changes, the ions become free to avoid each other, and the crystal adopts a new, energetically more favourable structure. Hereby, two energetically equivalent configurations can be chosen from. Areas which do not communicate with each other decide independently of each other on a new orientation. Topological defects occur where two areas which have made different "decisions" collide. The black-and-white images show fluorescing ytterbium ions.

The researchers show photoluminescence from an optically levitated nano diamond.

A slice through the southern highlands of Mars

The challenge of delivering to the brain a continuous regimen of antibiotics in case of infection could be met with plastic nanofibers that release medication directly to the affected site.

A Perseid meteor (at left) seen in August 2010 above the four enclosures of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope at Paranal, Chile.