NASA has selected a team of University of Florida aerospace engineers to pursue a groundbreaking $12 million mission aimed at improving the way we track changes in Earth’s structures, such as tectonic plates and oceans. The mission, titled “GRATTIS” (Gravitational Reference Advanced Technology Test in Space), was the sole proposal selected in a national competition. GRATTIS will demonstrate the performance of state-of-the-art sensors that measure nanometer-scale gravitational changes from space to monitor movements on the Earth’s surface and interior. “UF…
Most people with early-stage glaucoma don’t know they have it, even though early treatment is key to reducing vision loss. While detecting a subtle increase in eye pressure helps doctors to diagnose glaucoma, it’s challenging to monitor continuously, especially with the variety of temperatures eyes experience. Now, researchers in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces report a prototype “smart” contact lens that measures eye pressure accurately, regardless of temperature. About three million people in the U.S. have glaucoma, a group of…
Good vibrations… What if your earbuds could do everything your smartphone can do already, except better? What sounds a bit like science fiction may actually not be so far off. A new class of synthetic materials could herald the next revolution of wireless technologies, enabling devices to be smaller, require less signal strength and use less power. The key to these advances lies in what experts call phononics, which is similar to photonics. Both take advantage of similar physical laws…
An international research team from the University of Jena and the Helmholtz Institute Jena are demystifying the mechanisms by which high-intensity laser pulses produce plasma on the surface of solids. The interaction between high-intensity, ultrashort laser pulses and solids has opened up significant technological opportunities in recent years. Laser ablation, for example, allows high-precision materials processing, thereby facilitating the miniaturization of components in medical and telecommunications technologies. The synergy between intense laser pulses and solids can also be used to…
In five years’ time, a large asteroid will fly very close to Earth – a unique opportunity to study it. Concepts for a national German small satellite mission are being examined at the University of Würzburg. The author of a disaster novel couldn’t have dreamed it up any better: On a Friday, the thirteenth of all days, the potentially dangerous asteroid (99942) Apophis will come extremely close to humanity. On 13 April 2029, there will only be around 30,000 kilometres…
Using the Hubbard model, Flatiron Institute senior research scientist Shiwei Zhang and his colleagues have computationally re-created key features of the superconductivity in materials called cuprates that have puzzled scientists for decades. Superfast levitating trains, long-range lossless power transmission, faster MRI machines — all these fantastical technological advances could be in our grasp if we could just make a material that transmits electricity without resistance — or ‘superconducts’ — at around room temperature. In a paper published in the May…
The rapid advancement in photonic integrated circuits (PICs), whichcombine multiple optical devices and functionalities on a single chip, has revolutionized optical communications and computing systems. For decades, silicon-based PICs have dominated the field due to their cost-effectiveness and through their integration with existing semiconductor manufacturing technologies, despite their limitations with regard to their electro-optical modulation bandwidth. Nevertheless, silicon-on-insulator optical transceiver chips were successfully commercialized, driving information traffic through millions of glass fibers in modern datacenters. Recently, the lithium niobate-on-insulator wafer…
Our human brain is not only bigger and contains more neurons than the brains of other species, but it is also connected in a special pattern: Thick bundles of neurons connect brain regions across long distances, such as the right and left brain hemispheres. A team of researchers at IMBA, including Catarina Martins-Costa, Nina Corsini and Jürgen Knoblich, now presents the first organoid model in which these information highways can be studied. Their results are published on May 7th in…
Macquarie University researchers have debunked a 75-year-old theory about how humans determine where sounds are coming from, and it could unlock the secret to creating a next generation of more adaptable and efficient hearing devices ranging from hearing aids to smartphones. In the 1940s, an engineering model was developed to explain how humans can locate a sound source based on differences of just a few tens of millionths of a second in when the sound reaches each ear. This model…
Chemical reactions are complex mechanisms. Many different dynamical processes are involved, affecting both the electrons and the nucleus of the present atoms. Very often the strongly coupled electron and nuclear dynamics induce radiation-less relaxation processes known as conical intersections. Such dynamics, which are at the basis of many biological and chemical relevant functions, are extremely difficult to experimentally detect. Schematic illustration portraying the details of the entire ring-opening dynamics of furan. ©ICFO The problem arises when one tries to simultaneously…
Scientists uncover how plants “see” shades of light, temperature. Plants’ ability to sense light and temperature, and their ability to adapt to climate change, hinges on free-forming structures in their cells whose function was, until now, a mystery. For the first time, UC Riverside researchers have determined how these structures work on a molecular level, as well as where and how they form. This information is described in two Nature Communications papers published this week. Scientists have long studied membrane-bound…
The new technique can modify the nanostructure of bulk and 2D crystals without a cleanroom or expensive etching equipment. In a new paper published on May 1 in the journal Science Advances, researchers at Columbia Engineering used commercially available tabletop lasers to create tiny, atomically sharp nanostructures, or nanopatterns, in samples of a layered 2D material called hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). While exploring potential applications of their nanopatterned structures with colleagues in the Physics Department, the team found that their…
A new study at Hebrew University reveals insights into mRNA regulation during embryonic development. The study combines single-cell RNA-Seq and metabolic labeling in zebrafish embryos, distinguishing between newly-transcribed and pre-existing mRNA. This approach quantifies mRNA transcription and degradation rates within individual cell types, uncovering varied regulatory rates across genes and cell-type-specific differences in degradation. Understanding mRNA regulation during embryonic development helps decipher how genes are turned on and off in specific cells at precise times, informing our understanding of development,…
How cancer cells tug against each other determines whether they can migrate elsewhere in the body. Understanding how cancerous cells spread from a primary tumor is important for any number of reasons, including determining the aggressiveness of the disease itself. The movement of cells into the extracellular matrix (ECM) of neighboring tissue is an essential step in cancer progression that directly correlates to the onset of metastasis. In APL Bioengineering, by AIP Publishing, a team of researchers from Germany and…
Magnesium implants support coronary arteries and keep them open. Constricted coronary arteries harbor dangers: Because the heart is not supplied with blood properly, this can lead to pain, cardiac arrhythmia, cardiac insufficiency and sudden cardiac death. One way of eliminating a constriction in a vessel is to implant a stent. This involves the minimally invasive insertion of a small mesh tube into the vessel. Until now, all stents were made of metal and remained in the body, sometimes for decades,…
The MHH joint project TARGET-MPN is investigating why the disease persists and progresses in malignant bone marrow diseases from the group of myeloproliferative neoplasms despite targeted treatment. Haematopoietic stem cells supply us with fresh blood throughout our lives and ensure that our immune system functions properly. In adults, haematopoietic stem cells are found in the bone marrow. There they divide and develop into new mature blood cells such as red and white blood cells or platelets. Normally, this process is…
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