An advanced technique for analysing radar images shows tremendous promise for scientists studying forests, agriculture, ice and other terrain types, but experts at a recent ESA workshop cautioned that research work is needed before practical applications can be developed.
More than 120 scientists and researchers from 20 countries gathered recently at ESA’s ESRIN facility in Frascati, Italy, for a three-day workshop to share the latest results on scientific tests and potential applications of
UK astronomers Elizabeth Stanway, Andrew Bunker and Richard McMahon at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, England, have used three of the most powerful telescopes in existence to identify some of the farthest galaxies yet seen. But at the same time, they have encountered a cosmic conundrum: it looks as if there were fewer galaxies forming stars at this early stage in the history of the Universe than in the more recent past. Their results, which will be published in the Monthly Notic
A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory astrophysicist, working with an international group of researchers, has discovered that high-energy neutrinos — particles that rarely interact with other matter — are produced in the accretion discs of neutron stars in amounts significant enough to be detected by the next-generation of neutrino telescopes.
Using computer simulations, the team of scientists, which includes Lab astrophysicist Diego Torres, has shown that magnetized, accreting neutron
A lot of attention has been paid in recent years to the asteroid threat issue. The International Asteroid Patrol has been set up to monitor the flight of potentially dangerous celestial rocks in visual diapason. However, the accuracy of optical methods for determining the trajectory leaves much to be desired. That accounts for inaccuracy of numerous forecasts predicting the date when the space “killer” is to collide with the Earth.
The scientists of the Radio-Astronomical Institute (
Mathematical models have given physicists a new look at DNA’s chemical counterpart, RNA.
The models – showing that RNA behaves differently depending on the temperature of its environment – may help biologists better understand how life evolved on Earth.
The models suggest that high temperatures give twisted strands of RNA the flexibility to fold into many different shapes, while low temperatures cause it to collapse into a single shape.
Ralf Bundschuh, assistant pro
Researchers at the University of Rochester have created the highest resolution optical image ever, revealing structures as small as carbon nanotubes just a few billionths of an inch across. The new method should open the door to previously inaccessible chemical and structural information in samples as small as the proteins embedded in a cell’s membrane. The research appears in today’s issue of Physical Review Letters.
“This is the highest resolution optical spectroscopic measuremen
For the first time, scientists have identified and analyzed single grains of silicate stardust in the laboratory. This breakthrough, to be reported in the Feb. 27 issue of Science Express, provides a new way to study the history of the universe.
“Astronomers have been studying stardust through telescopes for decades,” said first author Scott Messenger, Ph.D., senior research scientist in the Laboratory for Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. “And they have derived models of wha
p> Using a sensitive new imaging instrument on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, researchers at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., have discovered a large and surprisingly dense gas cloud sharing an orbit with Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
Stretching millions of miles around Jupiter, the donut-shaped cloud, known as a “torus,” is believed to result from the uncommonly severe bombardment of ion radiation that Jupiter sends toward Europa. That radiatio
Marlan Scully, the Texas A&M University professor who applied quantum physics to the automotive engine and came up with a design that emits laser beams instead of exhaust, has been tinkering under the hood again. This time, he’s sized up the perfect engine — and improved it.
Scully, known as the “Quantum Cowboy” for his innovations in quantum physics and his Franklin Society prize-winning research into beef cattle production, has invented a theoretical design more efficient than the Carno
The quantum entanglement of three electrons, using an ultrafast optical pulse and a quantum well of a magnetic semiconductor material, has been demonstrated in a laboratory at the University of Michigan, marking another step toward the realization of a practical quantum computer. While several experiments in recent years have succeeded in entangling pairs of particles, few researchers have managed to correlate three or more particles in a predictable fashion.
The results were presented in a
University of Colorado at Boulder researchers have conducted the most sensitive search to date for gravitational-strength forces between masses separated by only twice the diameter of a human hair, but they have observed no new forces.
The results rule out a substantial portion of parameter space for new forces with a range between one-tenth and one-hundredth of a millimeter, where theoretical physicists using string theory have proposed that “moduli forces” might be detected, according to
Densely packed granular particles that inch past each other under tension interact in ways more complex and surprising than previously believed, two Duke University physicists have discovered.
Their observations, described in the Thursday, February 27, 2003, issue of the research journal Nature, could provide new insight into such geophysical processes as the behavior of a slowly moving glacier or an active earthquake fault, said Robert Behringer, a Duke physics professor who is one of the
Ever wonder where your favourite ESA Earth observation satellites are, right now?
Now that curiosity can be satisfied from your PC, thanks to ESA’s Satellites in Orbits website and the new addition of its Earth observation missions. The Earth Observation Orbits site displays real-time information and animations about the orbital tracks and current locations of ESA’s four Earth imaging satellites that were launched to help us better understand our own planet.
The interactive
Ten construction workers will often get a job done faster than one. But in digging a deep well, for instance, ten workers are a waste of human resources: the diggers can’t work simultaneously, as the second worker isn’t able to start digging until the first one has finished, and so on.
A similar challenge is encountered by scientists who study the structure and dynamics of molecules using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. This technique serves as an essential tool in understand
Explosive detonations at speeds faster than current theories predict have been shown to be possible in a powerful new computer simulation developed by a physical chemist and an aerospace engineer at Penn State. James B. Anderson, Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry and Physics, and Lyle N. Long, Professor of Aerospace Engineering, say their simulation points the way toward the production of ultrafast detonations, which could lead to innovative propulsion systems for space travel and a better understandi
On a semiconductor chip, one essential element is missing: a lightsource. An integrated lightsource can be very useful, however. In optical telecommunications, for example, or in lab-on-a-chip applications. University of Twente’s Phuong Le Minh developed a nanoscale integrated lightsourse. The principle of this tiny light source was discoverd by coincidence, performing semiconductor breakdown experiments. Le Minh succeeded in fabricating a micro channel
The nano-lightsource is formed by ‘con
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