news 2017

Induction heating can completely change the energy budget of an exoplanet and even melt its interior. In a study published by Nature Astronomy an international team led by the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences with participation of the University of Vienna explains how magma oceans can form under the surface of exoplanets as a result of induction heating.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have found that newer gasoline vehicles emit less particulate matter, but vapors in the "cleaner" exhaust form particulate matter long after exiting the tailpipe. These secondary particles, can be just as harmful to human health. Mechanical Engineering Professor Allen Robinson and his research team investigated the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and the effects that more stringent vehicle standards could have on SOA formation.

Around 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period, a giant asteroid crashed into the present-day Gulf of Mexico, leading to the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. How plants were affected is less understood, but fossil records show that ferns were the first plants to recover many thousands of years afterward.

In experiments on transport tissues in plants, researchers from Heidelberg University were able to identify factors of crucial importance for the formation of the plant tissue known as phloem. According to Thomas Greb of the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS), these factors differ from all previously known factors that trigger the specification of cells.

Origami-inspired materials use folds in materials to embed powerful functionality. However, all that folding can be pretty labor intensive. Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are drawing material inspiration from another ancient Japanese paper craft - kirigami.

Formation mechanism of spontaneous dust traps(red) in a protoplanetary disk after the formation of a spontaneous dust trap, visible as a bright dust ring. JF Gonzalez? One of the major questions in astronomy today is how do planets form? Until recently, no theory has been able to provide a complete answer.