Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Simonyi Survey Telescope ready to receive optical components. The NSF-funded Vera C. Rubin Observatory has reached a major construction milestone with the completion of the telescope structure, known as the Telescope Mount Assembly. This designation means that the telescope, named the Simonyi Survey Telescope, is on track to receive the observatory’s massive 8.4-meter mirror, 3200-megapixel LSST Camera (the largest digital camera ever constructed for astronomy, funded by the Department of Energy and built at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory), and other precision optical…
What cell types are found in which human tissue, and where? Which genes are active in the individual cells, and which proteins are found there? Answers to these questions and more are to be provided by a specialised atlas – in particular how the different tissues form during embryonic development and what causes diseases. In creating this atlas, researchers aim to map not only tissue directly isolated from humans, but also structures called organoids. These are three-dimensional clumps of tissue…
Short, externally occulted Space Weather Solar Coronagraph features novel 1.5-stage occultation scheme. NASA has selected Southwest Research Institute for a Phase A study to develop SwRI’s Space Weather Solar Coronagraph (SwSCOR) on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA’s Space Weather Next Program is charged with providing critical data for its space weather prediction center. SwRI is one of five organizations developing a definition-phase study to produce the next-generation NOAA L1 Series COR instrument to detect and…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, in particular, lower the prognosis of ischemic strokes by causing inflammation in the brain. Air pollution has been shown to have a negative effect on the prognosis of ischemic stroke, or stroke caused by reduced blood flow to the brain, but the exact mechanism is unknown. A team of researchers recently conducted a study to determine whether or not increased inflammation of the brain, also known as neuroinflammation, is the main culprit. The team published their findings…
Modeled behavior consistent with results from helical magnet experiments. Physicists have discovered “stacked pancakes of liquid magnetism” that may account for the strange electronic behavior of some layered helical magnets. The materials in the study are magnetic at cold temperatures and become nonmagnetic as they thaw. Experimental physicist Makariy Tanatar of Ames National Laboratory at Iowa State University noticed perplexing electronic behavior in layered helimagnetic crystals and brought the mystery to the attention of Rice theoretical physicist Andriy Nevidomskyy, who…
… could be used to detect cancer, lung disease. Quantum laser-based technology a big step forward toward using exhaled breath to diagnose illness. With each breath, humans exhale more than 1,000 distinct molecules, producing a unique chemical fingerprint or “breathprint” rich with clues about what’s going on inside the body. For decades, scientists have sought to harness that information, turning to dogs, rats and even bees to literally sniff out cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis and more. Scientists from CU Boulder and…
More than 100 years ago, scientists discovered how to turn water into hydrogen gas — a highly desired green energy that’s been nicknamed “the fuel of the future.” Despite this breakthrough, hydrogen has not latched on as a dominant fuel source. Breaking down water into hydrogen can be inefficient and costly and the transformation process, called electrolysis, remains unperfected. Now, engineers at The University of Texas at El Paso have proposed a low-cost, nickel-based material to help split water more…
Microorganisms can help to extract dangerous heavy metals from wastewater. A research team at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) has managed to purify water containing uranium using a special kind of bacteria known as magnetotactic bacteria. The name derives from their ability to react to magnetic fields. They can accumulate dissolved heavy metal in their cell walls. These research findings (DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129376) also shed new light on the interaction between uranium and bioligands. “Our experiments are geared towards potential industrial applications…
… is suitable for packaging and food products. The innovative and universally applicable barrier layer is both impermeable to water and heat-resistant, mechanically resilient and also suitable for consumption or compostable. It is suitable for packaging, but also to separate individual components in food from each other. Sustainability is also a major challenge in the food and packaging industry. Plastic packaging is being replaced by organic-based and biodegradable materials, but it must still fulfill high functional requirements. For example, both…
TeMoRett project develops computer-assisted therapy. The Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institut (HHI) is coordinating the newly launched project “Technology-supported Motor Rehabilitation for People with Rett Syndrome” (TeMoRett). Intending to devise an interactive computer-assisted motor rehabilitation therapy, TeMoRett is designed as a collaborative project for the duration of three years and will run until January 2026. Generously funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the total budget is 1.62 million euros. The Fraunhofer HHI receives about 650 thousand euros from the…
The precision of obtaining abundant light-matter-interact information with a snapshot measurement makes optical spectroscopy indispensable for modern industries and scientific research. The miniaturization of traditionally bulky spectrometers has been strongly motivated by the vast applications, including bio/medical sensing, material analysis, optical communication, and light source characterization. Researchers have been engineering spectrometers for lower cost, higher flexibilities, smaller size, better stabilities, and performances for quite some time. However, an inherent trade-off between the above aspects constrains this long-term theme of miniaturization…
Quantum dots in semiconductors such as silicon or gallium arsenide have long been considered hot candidates for hosting quantum bits in future quantum processors. Scientists at Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University have now shown that bilayer graphene has even more to offer here than other materials. The double quantum dots they have created are characterized by a nearly perfect electron-hole-symmetry that allows a robust read-out mechanism – one of the necessary criteria for quantum computing. The results were published…
Research team investigates links between molecular structure, function, and dynamics in enzymes. Professor Nicolas Doucet and his team at Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) made a major breakthrough earlier this year in the field of evolutionary conservation of molecular dynamics in enzymes. Their work, published in the journal Structure, points to potential applications in health, including the development of new drugs to treat serious diseases such as cancer or to counter antibiotic resistance. As a researcher specializing in…
A perfect interface between free-space and integrated optical systems. New class of integrated nanophotonic devices–a world record in simultaneous control of all four optical degrees of freedom–can convert light initially confined in an optical waveguide to an arbitrary optical pattern in free space. Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a new class of integrated photonic devices–“leaky-wave metasurfaces”–that can convert light initially confined in an optical waveguide to an arbitrary optical pattern in free space. These devices are the first to…
… which could be precursor to huge freshwater release. A new study provides the first observational evidence of the stabilization of the anti-cyclonic Beaufort Gyre, which is the dominant circulation of the Canada Basin and the largest freshwater reservoir in the Arctic Ocean. The study uses a newly extended record of “dynamic ocean topography” satellite data from 2011-2019 provided by two of the co-authors, along with an extensive hydrographic dataset from 2003-2019, to quantify the changing sea surface height of…
The race is on to provide high speed satellite internet to the Earth’s most remote areas. New tech companies such as Starlink, One Web, and Amazon’s Kuiper are competing with traditional, established “satcomm” companies such as Thuraya and Inmarsat to provide global high speed, low latency satellite internet across the globe. These new mega-constellations rely on tens of thousands of small low earth orbit satellites flying at a few hundred miles altitude. Network interconnectivity is a basic building block for…
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