news 2017

IceCube is a neutrino detector composed of 5,160 optical modules embedded in a gigaton of crystal-clear ice a mile beneath the geographic South Pole. Photo courtesy of National Science Foundation For a decade, astronomers have puzzled over ephemeral but incredibly powerful radio bursts from space. The phenomena, known as fast radio bursts or FRBs, were first detected in 2007 by astronomers scouring archival data from Australia's Parkes Telescope, a 64-meter diameter dish best known for its role receiving live televison images from the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.

TU Wien is conducting research into high-precision 3D printing technology. Now, a new method is enabling researchers to look for suitable materials with greater precision than ever. How is it possible to build a model of St Stephen's Cathedral the size of a dust particle' Well, using TU Wien's modern 3D-printing technology, this is no longer a problem.

In order to get rid of unpleasant competitors, some bacteria use a sophisticated weapon - a nanosized speargun.

A 50-year-old debate has at last been settled: the highest-energy cosmic rays do not originate in our own Galaxy but in galaxies located tens or even hundreds of millions of light years away.

Physicists have described how observations of gravitational waves limit the possible explanations for the formation of black holes outside of our galaxy; either they are spinning more slowly than black holes in our own galaxy or they spin rapidly but are 'tumbled around' with spins randomly oriented to their orbit.

When fast radio bursts, or FRBs, were first detected in 2001, astronomers had never seen anything like them before. Since then, astronomers have found a couple of dozen FRBs, but they still don't know what causes these rapid and powerful bursts of radio emission. For the first time, two astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have estimated how many FRBs should occur over the entire observable universe.

Groundbreaking research led by Simon Woodward,a professor of synthetic organic chemistry at the University of Nottingham, has proved how a catalyst (a small atomic-sized 'machine' that knits together new molecules) in organo-copper chemistry works. This is one of the key approaches of modern chemistry to making larger molecules.

Sometimes things that are technically defects, such as imperfections in a material's crystal lattice, can actually produce changes in properties that open up new kinds of useful applications. New research from a team at MIT shows that such imperfections in a family of materials known as insulating metal oxides may be key to their performance for a variety of high-tech applications, such as nonvolatile memory chips and energy conversion technologies.

Over the past half-century, scientists have shaved silicon films down to just a wisp of atoms in pursuit of smaller, faster electronics. For the next set of breakthroughs, though, they'll need novel ways to build even tinier and more powerful devices. In a study published Sept. 20 in  Nature , UChicago and Cornell University researchers describe an innovative method to make stacks of semiconductors just a few atoms thick.

Scientists have developed a new form of high-resolution 'printing' which could have wide-ranging applications in data storage, anti-counterfeiting measures, and digital imaging. Dr Alasdair Clark discusses plasmonic colour New research from the University of Glasgow, published today (Wednesday 20 September) in the journal Advanced Functional Materials , outlines how engineers have developed nano-scale plasmonic colour filters that display different colours depending on the orientation of the light which hits it.

Simulations and analysis at Berkeley Lab provide new atomic-scale clues to material's enhanced hydrogen storage properties A powdery mix of metal nanocrystals wrapped in single-layer sheets of carbon atoms, developed at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), shows promise for safely storing hydrogen for use with fuel cells for passenger vehicles and other uses.

UCLA physicists have pioneered a method for creating a unique new molecule that could eventually have applications in medicine, food science and other fields. Their research , which also shows how chemical reactions can be studied on a microscopic scale using tools of physics, is reported . For the past 200 years, scientists have developed rules to describe chemical reactions that they've observed, including reactions in food, vitamins, medications and living organisms.

Glass is everywhere. Whether someone is gazing out a window or scrolling through a smartphone, odds are that there is a layer of glass between them and whatever it is they're looking at. Despite being around for at least 5,000 years, there is still a lot that is unknown about this material, such as how certain glasses form and how they achieve certain properties.

A new cloaking technology has been developed at TU Wien: a special kind of material is irradiated from above in such a way that another beam of light can pass completely uninhibited. The material is irradiated with a specially designed pattern, the wave from the left can pass through the object completely unperturbed.

Experiments carried out at Oxford University have revealed that tectonic plates are weaker than previously thought. The finding explains an ambiguity in lab work that led scientists to believe these rocks were much stronger than they appeared to be in the natural world. This new knowledge will help us understand how tectonic plates can break to form new boundaries.

By incorporating magnetic nanoparticles in cells and developing a system using miniaturized magnets, researchers at the Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes (CNRS/Université Paris Diderot), in c

The effort to build a quantum computer is often described as the space race of the 21st century. Our work will allow us to build a global network to connect quantum computers. Scientists at ANU have found a new way to store quantum data long enough to share the information around a next-generation internet which promises to be impervious to hacking.

A riddle, which has been bugging atomic physicists for more than 20 years, has been solved. The solution should help to understand the helpful effects of ionizing radiation in cancer therapy. A highly charged ion (center) passing through graphene can transfer energy to several carbon atoms simultaneously.

Thunderstorms directly above two of the world's busiest shipping lanes are significantly more powerful than storms in areas of the ocean where ships don't travel, according to new University of Washington research. A new study mapping lightning around the globe finds lightning strokes occur nearly twice as often directly above heavily-trafficked shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea than they do in areas of the ocean adjacent to shipping lanes that have similar climates.

EPFL scientists have developed a scanning transmission electron microscopy method that can quickly and efficiently generate 3D representations of curvilinear nanostructures. Image caption: Superposed, tilt-less electron microscopy stereo image (color-filtered) of carbon nanospheres decorated with nanoparticles.