An international team of scientists with roots at SLAC and Stanford has shown that ultra-thin sheets of an exotic material remain transparent and highly conductive even after being deeply flexed 1,000 times and folded and creased like a piece of paper.
first practical applications: flexible, transparent electrodes for solar cells, sensors and optical communications devices.
basic structural unit for bismuth selenide is a five-layer sandwich made up of alternating single-atom sheets of selenium (orange) and bismuth (purple).
stacked on top of each other as thicker samples are made
selenium-selenium bonds between the units are weak
overall material to flex durably without being damaged
researchers made and tested samples of a compound in which sheets of bismuth and selenium, each just one atom thick, alternate to form five-layer units. The bonds between the units are weak, allowing the overall material to flex while retaining its durability
topological insulator
the material conducts electricity only on its surface while its interior remains insulating
it is an exceptionally good electrical conductor – as good as gold
bismuth selenide is transparent to infrared light, which we know as heat
about half the solar energy that hits the Earth comes in the form of infrared light, few of today’s solar cells are able to collect it
transparent electrodes on the surfaces of most cells are either too fragile or not transparent or conducting enough
experiments also showed that bismuth selenide does not degrade significantly in humid environments or when exposed to oxygen treatments that are common in manufacturing.
bismuth selenide may be useful in communications devices. This material could also improve infrared sensors common in scientific equipment and aerospace systems.”
there is still a lot we don’t know about the Moon says Zuber, like why the near side is flooded with magma and smooth and the back side is not smooth and completely different.
formation-flying spacecraft will make detailed science measurements from lunar orbit with unparalleled precision to within 1 micron – the width of a human red blood cell
MoonKAMs on both Ebb and Flow were turned on Monday, March 5, and all appears well
Bozeman 4th graders will have the opportunity to target the first images a week after our science operations begin
Early forecasts showed that the oncoming CME could boost solar radiation in space and trigger geomagnetic storms on Earth, potentially disrupting satellites, power grids and other electronic infrastructure.
effects of the solar tempest have been milder than scientists originally predicted
due to the orientation of the CME and Earth's magnetic fields
"If it's oriented more southward, which is opposite to Earth, then we expect a stronger storm, but it appears that this one was very much north oriented
orientation of the magnetic field in the CME is a big determining factor for how strong or weak the event is going to be
coronal mass ejection has a cloud of particles, but also embedded in that is a magnetic field structure
while it hasn't packed much of a punch so far, this ongoing solar storm is the largest one scientists have seen in more than five years
Last May, amateur astronomers were able to detect the orbital pattern of the first X-37B which
included flyovers of North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, heightening the suspicion that the vehicle was being used for
surveillance.
Other industry analysts have
speculated that the Air Force is just making use of the X-37B’s amazing
fuel efficiency and keeping it in space for as long as possible to show
off its credentials and protect it from budget cuts.
fossilized plumage, which had hues of black and blue like a crow
earliest record of iridescent feather color
Although its anatomy is very similar to birds, Mircroraptor is considered a non-avian dinosaur
placed in the group of dinosaurs called dromaeosaurs that includes Velociraptor
color displayed by many modern birds is produced partially by arrays of pigment-bearing organelles called melanosomes
t a hundred of which can fit across a human ha
melanosome's structure is constant for a given color
imaging power of scanning electron microscopes, paleontologists recently started analyzing the shape of melanosomes in well-preserved fossilized feather imprints
comparing these patterns to those in living birds, scientists can infer the color of dinosaurs that lived many millions of years ago
Iridescence is widespread in modern birds and is frequently used in displays
Statistical analysis of the data predicts that Microraptor was completely black with a glossy, weakly iridescent blue sheen.
researchers also made predictions about the purpose of the dinosaur's tail
Once thought to be a broad, teardrop-shaped surface meant to help with flight
researchers think that the tail feather was ornamental and likely evolved for courtship and other social interactions, not for aerodynamics
actually much narrower with two elongate feathers
findings also contradict previous interpretations that Microraptor was a nocturnal animal because dark glossy plumage is not a trait found in modern nighttime birds.
image of the Apollo 11 landing site captured from just 24 km (15 miles) above the surface provides LRO's best look yet at humanity’s first venture to another world
Armstrong and Aldrin's surface activities were quite restricted. Their tracks cover less area than a typical city block
Apollo 15, 16, and 17, which had the benefit of a Lunar Roving Vehicle
April 10, 1912 file photo, the Luxury liner Titanic departs Southampton, England
Researchers have pieced together what's believed to be the first comprehensive map of the entire 3-by-5-mile Titanic debris field
Marks on the muddy ocean bottom suggest, for instance, that the stern rotated like a helicopter blade as the ship sank, rather than plunging straight down
Russian and South Korean scientists have signed a deal on joint research intended to recreate a woolly mammoth, an animal which last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago.
The deal was signed by Vasily Vasiliev, vice rector of North-Eastern Federal University of the Sakha Republic
controversial cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk of South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, on Tuesday.
Hwang was a national hero until some of his research into creating human stem cells was found in 2006 to have been faked
Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, in 2005, has been verified by experts
Sooam said it would launch research this year if the Russian university can ship the remains. The Beijing Genomics Institute will also take part in the project
South Korean foundation said it would transfer technology to the Russian university
first and hardest mission is to restore mammoth cells
scientists in trying to find well-preserved tissue with an undamaged gene
replacing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those taken from the mammoth's somatic cells,
embryos with mammoth DNA could be produced and planted into elephant wombs for delivery
Sooam will use an Indian elephant for its somatic cell nucleus transfer
South Korean experts have previously cloned animals including a cow, a cat, dogs, a pig and a wolf
Evidence uncovered during research conducted in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio late last year appears to support the theory that a lost Leonardo da Vinci painting existed on the east wall of the Hall of the 500, behind Giorgio Vasari's mural "The Battle of Marciano."
data supporting the theoretical location of the da Vinci painting "The Battle of Anghiari" was obtained through the use of an endoscopic probe that was inserted through the wall on which the Vasari fresco was painted
researchers were able to view the wall behind the Vasari mural and obtain samples for analysis
data from chemical analysis, while not conclusive, suggest the possibility that the da Vinci painting, long assumed to have been destroyed in the mid-16th century when the Hall of the 500 was completely remodeled, might exist behind the Vasari.
Although we are still in the preliminary stages
data are very encouraging
still a lot of work to be done to solve this mystery
evidence does suggest that we are searching in the right place."
team report four lines of evidence supporting the hypothesis that the lost Leonardo painting is located behind the Vasari mural
sample containing a black material was analyzed with SEM-EDX
scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy), which identifies the chemical elements present in a sample
material found behind the Vasari wall shows a chemical composition similar to black pigment found in brown glazes on Leonardo's "Mona Lisa" and "St. John the Baptist," identified in a recently published scientific paper by the Louvre, which analyzed all the da Vinci paintings in its collection.
Flakes of red material were found
these samples seems to identify them as organic material, which could be associated with red lake (lacquer). This type of material is unlikely to be present in an ordinary plastered wall.
research team confirmed the existence of an air gap, originally identified through radar scans conducted of the Hall, between the brick wall on which Vasari painted his mural and the wall located behind
finding suggests that Vasari may have preserved da Vinci's masterpiece by building a wall in front of it at this location. No other location in the Hall presented this type of air gap.
opportunity to conduct an endoscopic investigation through the Vasari wall
identified 14 areas to be explored
six points of entry were ultimately implemented
chosen by the restorers of the Opificio delle Peitre Dure in areas free of original Vasari paint
including cracked or previously restored areas, to ensure that drilling would not cause any damage to the original Vasari mural
Testing on those samples was conducted with portable instruments on the scaffolding itself
The painting commemorated the 1440 victory of the battle on the plain of Anghiari between Milan and the Italian League led by the Republic of Florence
capturing such energy could lead to cheap, clean ways to sanitize a small container of water, for example, or to run a simple lab bench reaction
Scientists knew that bonds can break when mechanical force is applied to a polymer
breakage can generate free radicals, atoms with unpaired electrons that are eager to engage in further reactions
new work shows that when a polymer is squeezed in water, the free radicals migrate and react with the water, generating enough hydrogen peroxide to spur other reactions.
When the scientists added gold and silver metal salts to a PDMS tube filled with water, squeezing the tube powered reactions that generated gold and silver nanoparticles
also injected the sole of a Nike LeBron sneaker with water and a compound that fluoresces when it is cleaved
Half an hour of walking applied force to the polymers in the sneaker’s sole, and the resulting free radicals made enough hydrogen peroxide to cleave the fluorescing compound and make the sole glow.
capturing and converting the mechanical energy of polymer squeezing into energy for driving reactions can be as efficient as 30 percent
comparable to some power plants that use coal.
PDMS is used in some medical devices such as catheters, and in some breast implants, raising the issue that normal wear in the body might generate free radicals that could cause inflammation and other problems
adding an antioxidant such as vitamin E, which latches onto free radicals, to the implant ingredients might be a quick and easy way to
Some of the body’s immune cells, though, generate well more hydrogen peroxide than that generated by the polymers
the fact that enough free radicals are generated to drive reactions — which might even contribute to the breakdown of medical devices — is interesting, Tang says. “I don’t know how unique it is or material-specific, but it could have potential importance.”
According to Raul, he and his father traveled to Germany to launch the balloon, since that country's regulations on this sort of project are more relaxed than those in Romania
launch took place on December 31, and the balloon with its Lego cargo flew to an altitude of about 35,000 meters (that's roughly 114,800 feet for those of us in the US).
Check out Raul's blog for the full story, and a list of the equipment he used to carry out the launch
a team of researchers has designed a program that can automatically transform movie scenes into comic strips, without the need for any human intervention.
previous programs have been developed to assist cartoonists in converting movies into comics
automatic script-face mapping algorithm that identifies the speaking character in scenes with multiple characters, automatic generation of comic panels of different sizes, positioning word balloons, and rendering movie frames in a cartoon style.
used the new method to transform 15 movie clips into comic strips
varied in length from 2 to 7 minutes
Titanic,” “Sherlock Holmes,” and “The Message
sometimes put word bubbles next to the faces of incorrect characters
script-face mapping algorithm had an accuracy of 85%, which the researchers hope to improve.
technique is capable of performing all steps automatically
researchers noted that involving some human effort could lead to even better results
software would provide recommendations for each step of the transformation process, and humans could manually adjust the results much more quickly and efficiently than in pure manual methods
two future plans
improve the performance of each component, such as script-face mapping, and hope we can generate perfect clips without user interaction
integrate speech recognition technology to generalize the software, such that we can generate comics without movie scripts
New observations made with ESO’s Very Large Telescope are making a major contribution to understanding the growth of adolescent galaxies
biggest survey of its kind astronomers have found that galaxies changed their eating habits during their teenage years - the period from about 3 to 5 billion years after the Big Bang
start of this phase smooth gas flow was the preferred snack, but later, galaxies mostly grew by cannibalising other smaller galaxies.
Astronomers have known for some time that the earliest galaxies were much smaller than the impressive spiral and elliptical galaxies that now fill the Universe
employing the state-of-the-art instruments on ESO's Very Large Telescope an international team is unravelling what really happened
more than one hundred hours of observations the team has collected the biggest ever set of detailed observations of gas-rich galaxies at this early stage of their development.
Two different ways of growing galaxies are competing
violent merging events when larger galaxies eat smaller ones
smoother and continuous flow of gas onto galaxies
zoom sequence starts
Smooth gas flow (eso1040) seems to have been a big factor in the building of galaxies in the very young Universe, whereas mergers became more important later.
measurements from the NASA SOHO spacecraft and the University of Michigan's Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) on NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft at Mercury
creator is Robert Alexander, a design science doctoral student at the University of Michigan and NASA fellow.
a composer with a NASA fellowship to study how representing information as sound could aid in data mining.
raw information to an audio waveform
To sonify the data
in its original sampling rate of 44,100 hertz, it played back in less than a quarter of a second
benefits of sonifying data. You can zip through days' worth of information in an instant
Sonification is the process of translating information into sound
used in Geiger counter radiation detectors, which emit clicks in the presence of high-energy particles
not typically used to pick out patterns in information, but scientists on the U-M Solar and Heliospheric Research Group are exploring its potential in that realm. They're looking to Alexander to make it possible.
used to looking at wiggly-line plots and graphs, but humans are very good at hearing things. We wonder if there's a way to find things in the data that are difficult to see."
his approach led to a new discovery
a particular ratio of carbon atoms that scientists had not previously keyed in to can reveal more about the source of the solar wind than the ratios of elements they currently rely on. The solar wind is a squall of hot plasma, or charged particles, continuously emanating from the sun.
hopes to build a bridge between science and art.
movies were silent and people just accepted that that's the way it
this high res footage of what's happening on the surface of the sun, and it's silent. I'm creating a soundtrack