Science

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VCU Physicists Discover Theoretical Possibility of Large, Hollow Magnetic Cage Molecules: New molecules could be larger than the original Buckminster fullerene with potential applications in technology and health care

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have discovered, in theory, the possibility of creating large, hollow magnetic cage molecules that could one day be used in medicine as a drug delivery system to non-invasively treat tumors, and in other emerging technologies.

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Illustration depicts a Mn24C18 cluster carrying a magnetic moment of 70 Bohr magnetons.

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Tiny, brightly shining silicon crystals could be safe for deep-tissue imaging: In a new study, the crystals had no toxic effects in non-human primates

Tiny silicon crystals caused no health problems in monkeys three months after large doses were injected, marking a step forward in the quest to bring such materials into clinics as biomedical imaging agents, according to a new study.

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Bright light emission from silicon quantum dots in a cuvette. The image is from a camera that captures the near-infrared light that the quantum dots emit. The light emission shown is a psuedo color, as near-infrared light does not fall in the visible spectrum.

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Tetrapod Quantum Dots Light the Way to Stronger Polymers: Berkeley Lab Researchers Use Fluorescent Tetrapod Quantum Dots to Measure the Mechanical Strength of Polymer Fibers

Fluorescent tetrapod nanocrystals could light the way to the future design of stronger polymer nanocomposites. A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has developed an advanced opto-mechanical sensing technique based on tetrapod quantum dots that allows precise measurement of the tensile strength of polymer fibers with minimal impact on the fiber's mechanical properties.

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Fluorescent tetrapod quantum dots or tQDs (brown) serve as stress probes that allow precise measurement of polymer fiber tensile strength with minimal impact on mechanical properties. Inserts show relaxed tQDs (upper) and stressed tQDs (lower).

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Novel Nanostructures Synthesized to Adsorb Toxic Ions from Polluted Water

Iranian researchers from Sharif University of Technology synthesized a set of zeolite modified nanostructures which can entrap toxic ions of heavy metals in water.

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Earth from Space: Peaceful Paxi

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Elementary Physics in a Single Molecule

A team of physicists has succeeded in performing an extraordinary experiment: They demonstrated how magnetism that generally manifests itself by a force between two magnetized objects acts within a single molecule.

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The molecule of about 2 nm in size is kept stable between two metal electrodes for several days.

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NASA's WISE Finds Mysterious Centaurs May Be Comets

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New observations from NASA's NEOWISE project reveal the hidden nature of centaurs, objects in our solar system that have confounded astronomers for resembling both asteroids and comets. The centaurs, which orbit between Jupiter and Neptune, were named after the mythical half-horse, half-human creatures called centaurs due to their dual nature. This artist's concept shows a centaur creature together with asteroids on the left and comets at right.

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ALMA Sheds Light on Mystery of Missing Massive Galaxies

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New observations from the ALMA telescope in Chile have given astronomers the best view yet of how vigorous star formation can blast gas out of a galaxy and starve future generations of stars of the fuel they need to form and grow. The dramatic images show enormous outflows of molecular gas ejected by star-forming regions in the nearby Sculptor Galaxy. These new results help to explain the strange paucity of very massive galaxies in the Universe.

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Tropical Ecosystems Boost Carbon Dioxide as Temperatures Rise

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Above image was made with the satellite instrument MODIS (or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data. It is a key instrument aboard the Terra (EOS AM) and Aqua (EOS PM) satellites.

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UCSB study reveals mechanism behind squids' and octopuses' ability to change color

Color in living organisms can be formed two ways: pigmentation or anatomical structure. Structural colors arise from the physical interaction of light with biological nanostructures. A wide range of organisms possess this ability, but the biological mechanisms underlying the process have been poorly understood.

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This shows the diffusion of the neurotransmitter applied to squid skin at upper right, which induces a wave of iridescence traveling to the lower left and progressing from red to blue. Each object in the image is a living cell, 10 microns long; the dark object in the center of each cell is the cell nucleus.