science wire

Mars Express reveals wind-blown deposits on Mars
Mars Express reveals wind-blown deposits on Mars New images from ESA's Mars Express show the Syrtis Major region on Mars. Once thought to be a sea of water, the region is now known to be a volcanic province dating back billions of years. Syrtis Major can be spotted from Earth even with relatively small telescopes - the near-circular dark area on the planet stretches over 1300 x 1500 km.

All set and ready to glow
A breakthrough technique for manufacturing LEDs on silicon is to be exploited in the UK, putting mass-produced, energy-efficient lighting within reach. —Colin Humphreys A new technique that paves the way for manufacturing affordable LED light bulbs is to be exploited in the UK, in a deal that researchers say could have a dramatic impact on carbon emissions.

Eight more Galileo navsats agreed
Eight more Galileo navsats agreed ESA today signed a contract to build a further eight Galileo satellites, alongside other agreements to modify Europe's Ariane 5 launcher to carry four navigation satellites at a time.

Researchers awarded funds to develop promising technologies
Five Princeton faculty teams are the new recipients of support from a University fund designed to help propel promising discoveries out of the laboratory into products and technologies that can benefit society. The funding will support the following projects: a cheaper and more efficient solar cell for converting sunlight to electricity; a novel water-treatment technology; a microscope that uses sound waves to focus the lens; a graphene-based boost for battery-like devices; and a new class of antiviral drugs.

Self-Assembling Nanorods
A relatively fast, easy and inexpensive technique for inducing nanorods – rod-shaped semiconductor nanocrystals – to self-assemble into one-, two- and even three-dimensional macroscopic s

Want to understand the fluid dynamics of the oceans and atmosphere? UCLA’s got the video
Oceans and clouds, even the atmosphere itself, are in constant motion and can undergo dramatic fluctuations, like hurricanes, that lead to severe consequences.

"How to Grow a Planet" on the BBC
Geologist Iain Stewart will demonstrate how plants are the “silent power” that has shaped the Earth, in a new three-part series for BBC2 starting this week. How to Grow a Planet will offer a totally new perspective on the world's history, and will document the crucial role that plants have played in its evolution.

How Do You Fight Fire in Space? Experiments Provide Some Answers
Improving fire-fighting techniques in space and getting a better understanding of fuel combustion here on Earth are the focus of a series of experiments on the International Space Station, led by a professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. A first round of experiments ran from March 2009 to December 2011.

Watch the replay: Earth from Space - special edition
Watch the replay: Earth from Space - special edition Discover more about our planet with the Earth from Space video programme.

U of M Physics Circus brings large-scale stunts and physics lessons to the public Feb. 9
Media Note: Members of the media may attend a daytime school group show at the Minneapolis Convention Center to get photos or video, but please Rhonda Zurn at rzurn [a] umn (p) edu to make arrangements. MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (01/31/2012) —If you've never seen a physicist drop 20 feet through thin air while a friend shoots a ball at him from a cannon, or grown men and women shooting streams of toilet paper over an audience with a leaf blower, the University of Minnesota Physics Force has a show for you.

Watch online: Earth from Space - special edition
Watch online: Earth from Space - special edition Discover more about our planet with the Earth from Space video programme.

A Man of Magnetism
At the KTH Symposium, the director of the U.S. National Science Foundation explains how scientific co-operation with Sweden benefits American research. Reception and service at central level for international students after arrival at KTH. For Master's students For Exchange students Physicist Stefano Bonetti prepares to move from KTH to Stanford on a two-year post-doctoral fellowship studying the smallest and fastest magnetic phenomena known to science.

Under the Microscope #4 – Liquid crystals
Tim Wilkinson is combining liquid crystals with nanotechnology to try and create 3D displays which would look like real life.

Better Insulation for Durable Transformers
At the KTH Symposium, the director of the U.S. National Science Foundation explains how scientific co-operation with Sweden benefits American research.

From Cancer Research to Energy Storage, Berkeley Lab Scientist Takes on Big Challenges
On a typical day, Rizia Bardhan walks through the doors of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Molecular Foundry and immerses herself in the tricky business of tweaking optical spectroscopy equipment to study phase transitions in metal hydrides. It's fair to say that what she does is difficult to grasp.

Degree project factory
For those studying engineering, a degree project usually forms the final component of the degree, often carried out in collaboration with industry.However, at the Ideon company Modelon, there are an

ANU people given the order on Australia Day
A world-renowned quantum physicist and a researcher working to improve space travel are among the members of the ANU community recognised with 2012 Australia Day honours.

Supermaterial goes superpermeable
Wonder material graphene has revealed another of its extraordinary properties - University of Manchester researchers have found that it is superpermeable with respect to water. Graphene is one of the wonders of the science world, with the potential to create foldaway mobile phones, wallpaper-thin lighting panels and the next generation of aircraft.

Volunteers sought for simulated Mars mission and study of ’menu fatigue’
Astronauts on a mission to Mars will need much more than freeze-dried ice cream to sustain them, and researchers at Cornell are working to determine the best way to keep them well nourished during their three-year journeys and four-month stays on the Red Planet.

Berkeley Lab to Develop Novel Materials for Hydrogen Storage
The biggest challenge with hydrogen-powered fuel cells lies in the storage of hydrogen: how to store enough of it, in a safe and cost-effective manner, to power a vehicle for 300 miles?  Lawrence Ber

Degree matter mimics stars
Extreme conditions of temperature and pressure found in stars have been recreated on Earth using the world's brightest X-ray source.

Opening of UK site producing the heart of Galileo
Opening of UK site producing the heart of Galileo The first Galileo satellites are already in orbit, with more on the way.

Suomi remembered for problem-solving ability, drive
Verner Suomi's career — even his life — may not have been as long and illustrious had he not been an inveterate problem solver.

Satellite renamed to honor UW-Madison space pioneer
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have renamed their newest Earth-observing satellite after Verner Suomi, a longtime UW-Madison professor who often is called the father of satellite meteorology.

Robot competition in zero-gravity
Robot competition in zero-gravity School teams from Europe and America have been commanding robots competing in the Spheres ZeroRobotics tournament in space.

Solar storm heading toward Earth
A large solar flare yesterday triggered a coronal mass ejection travelling at 1400 km/s that will reach Earth today.

Under the Electron Microscope - A 3-D Image of an Individual Protein
When Gang Ren whirls the controls of his cryo-electron microscope, he compares it to fine-tuning the gearshift and brakes of a racing bicycle. But this machine at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is a bit more complex. It costs nearly $1.5 million, operates at the frigid temperature of liquid nitrogen, and it is allowing scientists to see what no one has seen before.

Weaving electronics into the fabric of our physical world
The integration of electronics with materials opens up a world of possibilities, the surface of which is just being scratched. Professor Arokia Nathan has joined the University to take up a new Chair in Engineering, where he will be exploring the application of research that allows us to glimpse a world rivalling our wildest dreams of the future.

Scientists produce world’s first magnetic soap
A University of Bristol team has dissolved iron in liquid surfactant to create a soap that can be controlled by magnets. The discovery could be used to create cleaning products that can be removed after application and used in the recovery of oil spills at sea Scientists from the University of Bristol have developed a soap, composed of iron rich salts dissolved in water, that responds to a magnetic field when placed in solution.

The two faces of Titan’s dunes
The two faces of Titan's dunes A new analysis of radar data from the international Cassini spacecraft has revealed regional variations amongst Titan's sand dunes. The result yields new clues to the giant moon's climatic and geological history. Dune fields are common on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, second only to the seemingly uniform plains that cover most of the surface.

Researchers provide new insight into how metals fail
The eventual failure of metals, such as the aluminum in ships and airplanes, can often be blamed on breaks, or voids, in the material's atomic lattice. They're at first invisible, only microns in size, but once enough of them link up, the metal eventually splits apart. Cornell engineers, trying to better understand this process, have discovered that nanoscale voids behave differently than the larger ones that are hundreds of thousands of atoms in scale, studied through traditional physics.

Satellites detect abundance of fresh water in the Arctic
ESA satellites show that a large dome of fresh water has been building up in the Arctic Ocean over the last 15 years. A change in wind direction could cause the water to spill into the north Atlantic, cooling Europe. The results are remarkable: since 2002, the sea surface in the studied area has risen by about 15 cm, and the volume of fresh water has increased by some 8000 cubic km - around 10% of all the fresh water in the Arctic Ocean.

T-rays technology could help develop Star Trek-style hand-held medical scanners
A*STAR and Imperial College London news release For immediate release Friday 10 January 2012 Scientists have developed a new way to create electromagnetic Terahertz (THz) waves or T-rays - the technology behind full-body security scanners. The researchers behind the study, published recently Photonics, say their new stronger and more efficient continuous wave T-rays could be used to make better medical scanning gadgets and may one day lead to innovations similar to the 'tricorder' scanner used in Star Trek.

Quantum codes make cloud computing safe
Quantum supercomputers could safely store and manipulate sensitive data, with help from University research.

UCLA professors Andrea Ghez, Terence Tao honored by Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Two internationally renowned UCLA professors — Andrea Ghez, a professor of physics and astronomy, and Terence Tao, a professor of mathematics — have been awarded the Crafoord Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The prize, which recognizes extraordinary achievements in mathematics, astronomy and other fields, is among the most prestigious honors in science.

Violin and subatomic particle duet set to be performed at leading UK particle physics lab
One of the world’s leading physics laboratories is set to stage a unique musical duet between a violinist and radioactive subatomic particles later this month.

Interdisciplinary science building opens doors to researchers
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - When Penn State's Millennium Science Complex opened its doors to researchers this fall, it inaugurated a new era of scientific discovery at the intersection of materials science, engineering, nanoscience and the life sciences at Penn State.

A New View of an Icon
The Eagle Nebula as never seen before. In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope's 'Pillars of Creation' image of the Eagle Nebula became one of the most iconic images of the 20th century. Now, two of ESA's orbiting observatories have shed new light on this enigmatic star-forming region. The Eagle Nebula is 6500 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens.

Planck’s HFI completes its survey of early Universe
Planck's HFI completes its survey of early Universe The High Frequency Instrument on ESA's Planck mission has completed its survey of the remnant light from the Big Bang. The sensor ran out of coolant on Saturday as expected, ending its ability to detect this faint energy. "Planck has been a wonderful mission; spacecraft and instruments have been performing outstandingly well, creating a treasure trove of scientific data for us to work with," said Jan Tauber, ESA's Planck Project Scientist.

Researcher wins top astronomy medal
Professor Joss Bland-Hawthorn, from the University of Sydney's School of Physics , has been awarded the prestigious 2012 Jackson-Gwilt Medal by the UK's Royal Astronomical Society.

Jim Arnold, Founding Chemist at UC San Diego Dies at 88
James R. Arnold, founding chairman of UC San Diego's chemistry department and first director of the California Space Institute whose contributions to science spanned the study of cosmic rays to the future of manned space flight, died Friday, January 6. He was 88. "Jim Arnold truly was a visionary scientist who found creative ways of looking at a broad range of problems, terrestrial and extraterrestrial," said Mark Thiemens, Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences.

One step closer to controlling nuclear fusion
Using a heating system, physicists have succeeded for the first time in preventing the development of instabilities in an efficient alternative way relevant to a future nuclear fusion reactor.

DOE Awards Record Supercomputing Time to UC San Diego, SDSC Researchers
One Quarter Billion Hours Plus Allocated for 2012 Scientists from the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and other areas of the University of California, San Diego, conducting research in physics, computer science, earth science, and engineering, together were awarded an all-time high of more than a quarter billion hours in supercomputing processor time by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the agency's 2012 Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program.

Astronomers Release Unprecedented Data Set on Celestial Objects that Brighten and Dim
Astronomers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Arizona have released the largest data set ever collected that documents the brightening and dimming of stars and other celestial objects—two hundred million in total.

Supercomputers help Yale astrophysicists interpret secrets of the universe
A series of papers released this week by the international scientific collaboration known as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey depended heavily on supercomputing performed by Yale astrophysicists.

Choreographing dance of electrons offers promise in pursuit of quantum computers
by John Sullivan In the basement of Hoyt Laboratory at Princeton University, Alexei Tyryshkin clicked a computer mouse and sent a burst of microwaves washing across a silicon crystal suspended in a frozen cylinder of stainless steel. The waves pulsed like distant music across the crystal and deep within its heart, billions of electrons started spinning to their beat.

Stargazing LIVE returns to Jodrell Bank
The hugely-popular Stargazing LIVE returns to The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory next week.

Calculating What’s in the Universe from the Biggest Color 3-D Map
Scientific : Shirley Ho, cwho [a] lbl (p) gov Since 2000, the three Sloan Digital Sky Surveys (SDSS I, II, III) have surveyed well over a quarter of the night sky and produced the biggest color map of the universe in three dimensions ever.

Planets with Double Suns are Common
Austin, TX - Astronomers using NASA's Kepler mission have discovered two new circumbinary planet systems - planets that orbit two stars, like Tatooine in the movie Star Wars. Their find, which brings the number of known circumbinary planets to three, shows that planets with two suns must be common, with many millions existing in our Galaxy.

Milky Way stars that wander but are not lost
Panel discussion 'Responding to Child Sexual Abuse' set for Jan. 24 Penn State President Erickson signs employment contract New York Alumni Town Hall meeting to be streamed Website consolidates sexual assault resource information Affirmative Action vice provost presents sexual harassment workshop New evidence that will help to answer long-standing questions about the history of stars in the disk of our galaxy is being released this week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society by a team that includes a Penn State astronomer.

Hubble spies old stars that shed their skins to look younger
Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a University of Washington-led team has peered deep into the neighboring Andromeda galaxy to find what look like young blue stars in a neighborhood that should be populated by old stars. Blue is considered a telltale signal for hot, young stars but, in a “surprising and intriguing” twist, it turns out that some old stars can also be blue, said Philip Rosenfield, a UW doctoral student in astronomy who discussed the findings Jan.

Berkeley Lab Seeks to Help U.S. Assert Scientific Leadership in Critical Materials
A few short decades ago, few could have imagined that the world would be seriously concerned over something called dysprosium. Also known as number 66 on the periodic table, dysprosium was once just another element for chemistry students to memorize but is now one of the most sought-after and critically needed materials on the planet.

Doomsday Clock moves one minute closer to midnight
Faced with inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and proliferation, and continuing inaction on climate change, the University of Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced Jan.

Yale’s new microscope brings atoms’ identities into focus
Yale's acquisition of a powerful new transmission electron microscope (TEM) is expected to transform researchers' ability to examine and manipulate atom-scale materials and devices on campus.

Stephen Hawking 70th Birthday Symposium
A capacity 550-strong audience gave a standing ovation at the end of a moving, amusing and wide-ranging autobiographical speech by Stephen Hawking on the occasion of his 70th birthday on Sunday.

Scientists map frontiers of dark matter
University astronomers have helped to map dark matter on the largest scale ever observed. Their findings reveal the Universe as an intricate web of dark matter and galaxies spanning more than one billion light years.

Graphene reveals its magnetic personality
Can organic matter behave like a fridge magnet? Scientists from The University of Manchester have now shown that it can. In a report published , they used graphene, the world's thinnest and strongest material, and made it magnetic. Graphene is a sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a chicken wire structure.

Seeing Quantum Mechanics with the naked eye
New research lays groundwork for new generation of ultrasensitive gyroscopes to measure gravity, magnetic field, and create quantum circuits Just to see and prod quantum mechanics working in front of your eyes is amazing." —Dr Gab Christmann A Cambridge team have built a semiconductor chip that converts electrons into a quantum state that emits light but is large enough to see by eye.

The Next Big Step Toward Atom-Specific Dynamical Chemistry
For Ali Belkacem of Berkeley Lab's Chemical Sciences Division, "What is chemistry?" is not a rhetorical question. "Chemistry is inherently dynamical," he answers.

Now you see it, now you didn’t: Cloaking a moment in time
In movie magic, people and objects can appear or disappear or move from place to place in an instant. Just stop the camera, move things around and start it again. Now, Cornell researchers have demonstrated a similar "temporal cloak" - albeit on a very small scale - in the transport of information by a beam of light.

Young minds experiment with a future career in science

Magnetically-levitated flies offer clues to future of life in space
PA 03/12 Using powerful magnets to levitate fruit flies can provide vital clues to how biological organisms are affected by weightless conditions in space, researchers at The University of Nottingham say. The team of scientists has shown that simulating weightlessness in fruit flies here on earth with the use of magnets causes the flies to walk more quickly — the same effect observed during similar experiments on the International Space Station.

Series sheds light on Universe’s darkest secrets

New ICASSP papers
4 papers accepted for publication at IEEE ICASSP 2012. Recent LTS4 works about distributed detection with GT, distributed quantized consensus averaging, joint reconstruction of correlated compressed signals and dictionary learning on graphs have been accepted at IEEE ICASSP 2012. More info.

‘Extreme Sleepover #8’ – unlocking the universe from the Atacama desert
In the eighth of a series of reports contributed by Cambridge researchers, we hear about John Richer's night-time research activities at the ALMA observatory in Chile's Atacama desert.

Stanford physicist’s moderate approach to climate change gaining supporters
Stanford physicist's prescriptions include more natural gas and nuclear power, doubts about renewable energy goals, and a new way to gain political support.

Season’s greetings from the other extreme
Season's greetings from the other extreme It is summer in Antarctica and the new crew for the Concordia research station will soon arrive.

New technique makes it easier to etch semiconductors
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Creating semiconductor structures for high-end optoelectronic devices just got easier, thanks to University of Illinois researchers. The team developed a method to chemically etch patterned arrays in the semiconductor gallium arsenide, used in solar cells, lasers, light emitting diodes (LEDs), field effect transistors (FETs), capacitors and sensors.

Flipping an egg carton of light traps giant atoms
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - In an egg carton of laser light, University of Michigan physicists can trap giant Rydberg atoms with up to 90 percent efficiency, an achievement that could advance quantum computing and terahertz imaging, among other applications.

Engineers boost electrical efficiency in organic semiconductors
By packing molecules closer together, chemical engineers at Stanford have dramatically improved the electrical conductivity of organic semiconductors. The advance could herald flexible electronics, more efficient solar panels, and perhaps even better television screens. Organic semiconductors could usher in an era of foldable smartphones, better high-definition television screens and solar clothing that turns sunlight into electricity for recharging your iPad.

ESA astronaut André Kuipers on his way to the International Space Station
PR 37 2011 - After their launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 13:16 GMT (14:16 CET) today, ESA astronaut André Kuipers and crewmates Oleg Kononenko and Don Pettit are circling Earth every

A Single Cell Endoscope
An endoscope that can provide high-resolution optical images of the interior of a single living cell, or precisely deliver genes, proteins, therapeutic drugs or other cargo without injuring or damaging the cell, has been developed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

Glacial tap is open but the water will run dry
Retreating glaciers threaten water supplies Glaciers are retreating at an unexpectedly fast rate according to research done in Peru's Cordillera Blanca by McGill doctoral student Michel Baraer.

Geology research in Lund receives SEK 40 million
Within the space of a week, Lund University’s geology researchers have raked in SEK 40 million. Professor Birger Schmitz has received SEK 25 million for his ground breaking research on the meteorite flux to earth that has been taking place for billions of years.

André’s rocket rolled out
The Christmas season has brought the gift of a Soyuz launcher for the PromISSe mission. ESA's André Kuipers and his crewmates are running their final simulations and preparing to board the rocket on Wednesday to head towards the International Space Station.

Scientists ’trigger’ high energy physics at CERN in India-UK collaboration
The University of Birmingham is working with partners at Jammu University on particle physics experiments, including those at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research – CERN.

Star images helping to save Vatican books
Star images helping to save Vatican books Antique books in the Vatican Library are being digitised to preserve them for future generations using a technique developed through ESA to store satellite images of the sky.

Understanding the Mechanical Biology of Life’s Bonds
Julio Fernandez talks about creating a new field, mechanical biology, to further study protein dynamics.

Robert Osserman, noted Stanford mathematician, dies at 84
In addition to his important research, Bob Osserman brought math to a broad audience through public conversations with comedian Steve Martin, among others.

European particle physics plots course for the future
European particle physics plots course for the future Geneva, 15 December 2011. CERN 1 Council today announced an Open Symposium to be held on 10-13 September 2012 at Cracow, Poland for the purpose of updating the European Strategy for Particle Physics.

Young star rebels against its parent cloud
Young star rebels against its parent cloud Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 has captured this image of a giant cloud of hydrogen gas illuminated by a bright young star.

Powerful potential
SEAS holiday lecture engages young learners with the wonders of energy By Mureji Fatunde '12 Research assistant Daniel Rosenberg, a key member of Harvard's science lecture demonstration te

Vibration rocks for entangled diamonds
Diamonds are celebrated for their enduring beauty and hardness but they can also be a physicist's best friend. In Nature Photonics and Science an international team of scientists report that a strange quantum state called ‘ entanglement ' has been achieved in two 3mm-wide diamond crystals, spaced 15cm apart, at room temperature.

Scanning the Arctic skies
Researchers from the University of Toronto's Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics are taking the search for other worlds to a new frontier: the Canadian Arctic.

Dwarf star triggered supernova
The star that exploded to create the nearest supernova of its type to be discovered since 1986 has been revealed by an international team including Oxford University scientists. New observations reported in two papers in this week's Nature show that a very dense, very small white dwarf star made of carbon and oxygen, orbiting another star, triggered the explosion.

Caltech Chemists Propose Explanation for Superconductivity at High Temperatures
It has been 25 years since scientists discovered the first high-temperature superconductors—copper oxides, or cuprates, that conduct electricity without a shred of resistance at temperatures much higher than other superconducting metals. Yet no one has managed to explain why these cuprates are able to superconduct at all.

The beginning of the end for comet Lovejoy
The SOHO spaceborne solar observatory today captured comet Lovejoy in its field of view for the first time, indicating that the icy body is on its final destructive plunge towards the Sun. Announced on 2 December, the newly discovered comet Lovejoy is on a near-collision course with the Sun and is expected to plunge to its fiery fate late on 15 December.

More Clues in the Hunt for the Higgs
Physicists have announced that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has produced yet more tantalizing hints for the existence of the Higgs boson.

’Fingerprinting’ method tracks mercury emissions from coal-fired power plant
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - For the first time, the chemical "fingerprints" of the element mercury have been used by University of Michigan researchers to directly link environmental pollution to a specific coal-burning power plant. The primary source of mercury pollution in the atmosphere is coal combustion.

Disaster looms for gas cloud falling into Milky Way’s central black hole
A simulated view of the gas cloud (red orbit) now approaching the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Closest Type Ia Supernova in Decades Solves a Cosmic Mystery
Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia's) are the extraordinarily bright and remarkably similar "standard candles" astronomers use to measure cosmic growth, a technique that in 1998 led to the discovery of dark energy - and 13 years later to a Nobel Prize, "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe." The light from thousands of SN Ia's has been studied, but until now their physics - how they detonate and what the star systems that produce them actually look like before they explode - has been educated guesswork.

Galileo in tune: first navigation signal transmitted to Earth
Galileo in tune: first navigation signal transmitted to Earth Europe's Galileo system has passed its latest milestone, transmitting its very first test navigation signal back to Earth.

Sharpening the lines
New advance could lead to even smaller features in the constant quest for more compact, faster microchips. The microchip revolution has seen a steady shrinking of features on silicon chips, packing in more transistors and wires to boost chips' speed and data capacity. But in recent years, the technologies behind these chips have begun to bump up against fundamental limits, such as the wavelengths of light used for critical steps in chip manufacturing.

Higgs hunt narrows
Today scientists at the Large Hadron Collider announced tantalising news about the biggest piece missing from the physics jigsaw. The Higgs boson is a hypothetical particle used to explain why many of the fundamental particles in the Standard Model of particle physics have mass. Proving if it exists is tricky because the model doesn't predict its exact mass.

Call for Media: Follow the launch of ESA astronaut André Kuipers

Planet Earth in your pocket ... and on your tablet
ESA has updated its application for iPhone and iPad. With the launch of the ESA App V2, users can see ESA's latest satellite imagery from Envisat in near-real time, complementing the latest news and discoveries in space exploration and Earth observation.

ATLAS and CMS experiments present Higgs search status
ATLAS and CMS experiments present Higgs search status 13 December 2011. In a seminar held at CERN 1 today, the ATLAS 2 and CMS 3 experiments presented the status of their searches for the Standard Model Higgs boson. Their results are based on the analysis of considerably more data than those presented at the summer conferences, sufficient to make significant progress in the search for the Higgs boson, but not enough to make any conclusive statement on the existence or non-existence of the elusive Higgs.

Hints of the Higgs Boson Seen as Trap Set for the Elusive Particle Tightens
A spray of particles scatters after two protons collide in the LHC.

New Path to Flex and Stretch Electronics
Imprinting electronic circuitry on backplanes that are both flexible and stretchable promises to revolutionize a number of industries and make "smart devices" nearly ubiquitous.

World science community abuzz as latest Higgs boson results announced
The international team of researchers that has been smashing high-energy protons together inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to re-create the conditions at the time of the Big Bang announced new evidence today pointing to an observation of the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics.

Trillion-frame-per-second video
By using optical equipment in a totally unexpected way, MIT researchers have created an imaging system that makes light look slow.

ANU experts join Academy Council

U.S. Energy Secretary Visits KTH
At the KTH Symposium, the director of the U.S. National Science Foundation explains how scientific co-operation with Sweden benefits American research.

Diamonds and Dust for Better Cement
It's no surprise that humans the world over use more water, by volume, than any other material. But in second place, at over 17 billion tons consumed each year, comes concrete made with Portland cement. Portland cement provides the essential binder for strong, versatile concrete; its basic materials are found in many places around the globe; and, at about $100 a ton, it's relatively cheap.

Haul of 50 oscillating stars with orbiting planets found by Kepler Spacecraft
Oscillations have been discovered in 50 stars with their own orbiting candidate planets (exo- or extrasolar planets) by an international team of scientists using data from the NASA Kepler Mission, according to an announcement made by one of the lead scientists, Professor Bill Chaplin from the UK's University of Birmingham, at a NASA conference in California (Friday 9th December, 2011).

André is ’go for launch’ and has arrived at Baikonur
ESA astronaut André Kuipers is now officially ready for liftoff on 21 December: he and his crewmates have passed their final exams and left for the launch site yesterday.

Rosemary Knight: Geophysicist, senate chair, hitchhiking advocate
Rosemary Knight, who joined the Stanford faculty in 2000 after teaching for a decade at the University of British Columbia, loved math, physics and chemistry in high school and was elated when she "discovered" geology, a field that combined all three.

Road to world's largest telescope
Today saw the ESO give the go-ahead for work to begin on a series of roads on a mountain in Northern Chile.

Scientists develop pioneering telescope
University scientists are helping design and launch a satellite that will map more of the Universe than ever before. The satellite, known as Euclid, will follow on from the Hubble telescope, launched by in 1990. The Hubble broke new ground in space observation and led to many discoveries in our knowledge and understanding of physics.

Researchers enhance graphene to enable multicolor photodetection
Graphene, a one-atom–thick layer of carbon lattice with a honeycomb structure, is seen as an attractive semiconductor material for use in future electronics and optoelectronics because of its speed, transparency, flexibility and strength.

Engineers making solar power more efficient
Innovations by a team of Yale University researchers could lead to improvements in basic solar power technology that result in lower-cost, higher-efficiency photovoltaic systems.

100 years of discovery: Celebrating South Pole research
To mark the centennial of Roald Amundsen's expedition to the South Pole, the IceCube Research Center is hosting an evening of exploration and learning on Tuesday, Dec. 13 from 6:30-8:30 at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. A hose caries hot water to the top of an Antarctic drill tower as part of the IceCube project.

Gaia spreads its wings
Gaia spreads its wings : the spacecraft's sunshield has been deployed for the first time. Gaia's sunshield is an essential component of the mission.

Device promises nutrition diagnosis in minutes
Bioengineer Buddy Ratner believes his lab's latest device could be a powerful tool, capable of addressing health and child development issues by delivering a blood test in minutes to some of the most remote parts of the globe. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also sees potential in the device, adding an additional $611,000 last month to prior funding for this work.

Five Penn Researchers Named American Physical Society Fellows
PHILADELPHIA - The American Physical Society has elected five University of Pennsylvania faculty members to its 2011 APS Fellowship class.

First Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN laureate announced
First Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN laureate announced Geneva 6 December 2011.

Campus Leaders Describe Plans to “Flash Forward from 50” in Research and Discovery
As the campus looks beyond last year's 50th anniversary celebrations, university leaders are developing a new long-term vision for the decades ahead. The central idea behind that vision is a familiar one: "We will build on faculty collaboration across disciplines to produce transformative research with societal impact." The Founders' Symposium, held on Nov.

Researchers star in Academy awards

Partnership for Progress in Electronics Strengthened by New Lab-Industry Investment
As manufacturers pack more and more circuitry into the tiny microchips on which electronic technologies depend, ultraviolet light's narrow wavelengths are essential for creating the densely patterned chips of the future.

Pair of black holes ‘weigh in’ at 10 billion suns, the most massive yet
AUSTIN, Texas — A team of astronomers including Karl Gebhardt and graduate student Jeremy Murphy of The University of Texas at Austin have discovered the most massive black holes to date - two

Peculiar cosmic explosion on Christmas Day 2010 remains a mystery
Town Hall Forum video posted Board executive committee reaffirms, ratifies earlier decisions Students host fundraiser to benefit abused children Penn State, PA Coalition Against Rape join to

Record massive black holes discovered lurking in monster galaxies
University of California, Berkeley, astronomers have discovered the largest black holes to date - two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns that are threatening to consume anything, even light, within a region five times the size of our solar system.

ESA’s space weather box Proba-2 tracks stormy Sun
ESA's space weather box Proba-2 tracks stormy Sun Researchers gathered for European Space Weather Week have been presented with the latest results from ESA's own space weather station: the Proba-2 microsatellite.

Mountains and buried ice on Mars
Mountains and buried ice on Mars New images from Mars Express show the Phlegra Montes mountain range, in a region where radar probing indicates large volumes of water ice are hiding below. This could be a source of water for future astronauts. Phlegra Montes is a range of gently curving mountains and ridges on Mars.

Eminent Notts scientist receives blue plaque honour
A blue plaque commemorating the life and work of one of Nottinghamshire's most eminent scientists is to be unveiled at the Beeston home he built.

A novel way to concentrate sun’s heat
MIT researchers find a way to generate power without the usual mirror arrays. — Most technologies for harnessing the sun’s energy capture the light itself, which is turned into electricity using photovoltaic materials.

Materials which expand and contract like muscles could be used as gas sensors
Materials which expand and contract like muscles could be used as gas sensors. Experts at the University of Sheffield have created an `artificial muscle´ reaction in materials that respond to chemical vapours, something that could pave the way for a new type of gas sensor.

In the Dragonfish's Mouth
Three astronomers at the University of Toronto have found the most numerous batch of young, supermassive stars yet observed in our galaxy: hundreds of thousands of stars, including several hundreds of the most massive kind - blue stars dozens of times heavier than our Sun.

David Krakauer nurtures scientific collaboration
David Krakauer, the new director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, discusses his thoughts on "transcience" and scientific collaboration.

Has our black hole been blowing bubbles?
Our galaxy is a relatively quiet neighbourhood with the supermassive black hole at its heart gently dozing: or is it? The recent discovery of huge gamma-ray emitting ‘bubbles' around the Milky Way is challenging this assumption and posing a new puzzle: just where do these bubbles come from? Philipp Mertsch and Subir Sarkar of Oxford University's Department of Physics recently reported in Physical Review Letters a model that could explain the origins of these strange phenomena.

A beast with four tails
The Milky Way galaxy continues to devour its small neighbouring dwarf galaxies and the evidence is spread out across the sky.

Princeton's new computing research center builds research capacity
by Catherine Zandonella After several years of planning and more than a year of construction, Princeton University's High-Performance Computing Research Center opened its doors this week.

Swedish-Swiss Partnership in Accelerator Science
At the KTH Symposium, the director of the U.S. National Science Foundation explains how scientific co-operation with Sweden benefits American research.

Europe prepares new technologies for future launchers
Europe prepares new technologies for future launchers ESA and the DLR German Space Center fired a Texus rocket 263 km into space on 27 November to test a new way of handling propellants on Europe's future rockets.

Penn State science is among the best in the U.S., national study shows
Football head coach search committee formed University launches hotline for reporting abuse Student government leaders to host forum for students, administrators Penn State faculty offer tea

Architectural Integration and Design of Solar Systems, a new book
Solar thermal systems are today the most efficient renewable choice for hot water production.

Where God meets physics
Eminent thinker and commentator Revd John Polkinghorne, Fellow of the Royal Society, will be giving a public talk - titled A Destiny Beyond Death - tomorrow lunchtime at St Edmund's College, Cambridge.

ESA Bulletin 148 (November 2011)
ESA Bulletin 148 (November 2011) A fully assembled and operational International Space Station is waiting for ESA astronaut André Kuipers this Christmas.

ESA station keeps contact with Russian Mars mission Phobos-Grunt
ESA station keeps with Russian Mars mission Phobos-Grunt Following the first successful on Tuesday, ESA's tracking station in Australia again established two-way communication with Russia's Phobos-Grunt spacecraft on 23 November.

Mast from classic racing yacht holds one of the keys to sustainable biofuels
The mast from a classic racing yacht and samples from a Forestry Commission breeding trial have played a key role in the search for sustainable biofuels. Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on earth — and therefore a potentially major source of glucose for the production of biofuels.

ESA tracking station establishes contact with Russia’s Mars mission
ESA tracking station establishes with Russia's Mars mission On Tuesday, 22 November at 20:25 GMT, ESA's tracking station at Perth, Australia, established with Russia's Phobos-Grunt spacecraft.

Nanoparticle electrode for batteries could make large-scale power storage on the energy grid feasible, say Stanford researchers
Stanford researchers have used nanoparticles of a copper compound to develop a high-power battery electrode that is so inexpensive to make, so efficient and so durable that it could be used to build b

ESA tracking station establishes contact with Russia’s Phobos Mars mission
ESA tracking station establishes with Russia's Phobos Mars mission On Tuesday, 22 November at 20:25 UT, ESA's tracking station at Perth, Australia, established with Russia's Phobos-Grunt spacecraft.

Making more sense of time
The University of Sydney has received US$1.5 million from the John Templeton Foundation to explore the nature of time and streamline worldwide academic research on the subject.

The impending revolution of low-power quantum computers
Electronics could be 100 times less energy-hungry thanks to a quantum phenomenon known as the tunnel effect - by 2017 in consumer electronics By 2017, quantum physics will help reduce the energy consumption of our computers and cellular phones by up to a factor of 100. For research and industry, the power consumption of transistors is a key issue.

Physicists: Did neutrinos break the speed of light?
The revolutionary news that an experiment measured particles traveling faster than the speed of light drew varied ages and backgrounds to a standing-room only physics department forum, "Faster Than the Speed of Light'," in Clark Hall Nov. 17. The experiment that triggered the excitement was simple: Scientists at the CERN accelerator in Switzerland fired a beam of neutrinos 730 kilometers through the mountains to the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy and its enormous OPERA neutrino detector.

On the Road to Plasmonics With Silver Polyhedral Nanocrystals
The question of how many polyhedral nanocrystals of silver can be packed into millimeter-sized supercrystals may not be burning on many lips but the answer holds importance for one of today's hottest new high-tech fields - plasmonics! Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) may have opened the door to a simpler approach for the fabrication of plasmonic materials by inducing polyhedral-shaped silver nanocrystals to self-assemble into three-dimensional supercrystals of the highest possible density.

Team develops highly efficient method for creating flexible, transparent electrodes
As the market for liquid crystal displays and other electronics continues to drive up the price of indium — the material used to make the indium tin oxide (ITO) transparent electrodes in these devices — scientists have been searching for a less costly and more dynamic alternative, particularly for use in future flexible electronics.

’Perfect black’ coating can render a 3D object flat, raises intriguing dark veil possibility in astronomy
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - A carbon nanotube coating developed at the University of Michigan acts as a "magic black cloth" that conceals an object's three-dimensional geometry and makes it look like a flat black sheet. The 70-micron coating, or carbon nanotube carpet, is about half the thickness of a sheet of paper.

First-class views of the world below
First-class views of the world below Images of some of our planet's most beautiful features can be seen from the comfort of your Air France aircraft thanks to satellites.

A big bang in Nottingham’s Particle Theory Group
PA359/11 Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO The University of Nottingham's School of Physics and Astronomy is celebrating a bumper crop of top new research brains in its Particle Theory Group after receiv

NASA’s Chandra Adds to Black Hole Birth Announcement
Cambridge, MA - New details about the birth of a famous black hole that took place millions of years ago have been uncovered, thanks to a team of scientists who used data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory as well as from radio, optical and other X-ray telescopes.

ESA’s ’Earth from Space’ web-TV takes off
ESA's 'Earth from Space' web-TV takes off Discover more about our planet with the new Earth from Space video programme. Join us every Friday at 10:00 CET for an 800 km-high tour with spectacular images from Earth-observing satellites. Unusual perspectives and stunning scenes supplemented by interesting facts and new insights await you.

Mars Science Lab: Michigan scientists bring special expertise to new rover mission
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Two University of Michigan planetary scientists are vital members of the science team of the Mars Science Laboratory, which will study whether the Red Planet was ever capable of harboring microbial life.

CERN has 2020 vision for LHC upgrade
CERN has 2020 vision for LHC upgrade Geneva, 16 November 2011.

In new quantum-dot LED design, researchers turn troublesome molecules to their advantage
A robust new architecture enables optimization for quantum-dot displays : Caroline Perry , (617) 496-1351 By nestling quantum dots in an insulating egg-crate structure, researchers at the Ha

Lightning-fast, efficient data transmission developed at Stanford
A new nanoscale device developed at Stanford's School of Engineering transmits data at ultrafast rates while using thousands of times less energy than current technologies. The nanophotonics device is a major step forward for on-chip data transmission, the researchers say. A team at Stanford's School of Engineering has demonstrated an ultrafast nanoscale light-emitting diode (LED) that is orders of magnitude lower in power consumption than today's laser-based systems and is able to transmit data at the very rapid rate of 10 billion bits per second.

Using ionized plasmas as cheap sterilizers for developing world
University of California, Berkeley, scientists have shown that ionized plasmas like those in neon lights and plasma TVs not only can sterilize water, but make it antimicrobial - able to kill bacteria - for as long as a week after treatment.

University of Manchester is part of consortium for new super microscope
The University of Manchester has been awarded part of a £4.5m grant because of the quality of its microscopy research.

NASA Releases Updated Radar Movie of Asteroid 2005 YU55
PASADENA, Calif. - NASA Scientists working with the 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have released a second, longer, and more refined, movie clip of asteroid 2005 YU55. The images were generated from data collected at Goldstone on Nov. 7, 2011, between 11:24 a.m. and 1:35 p.m. PST (2:24 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. EST).

Spinning blood device set to safeguard astronaut health
Spinning blood device set to safeguard astronaut health ESA has begun developing a new blood-testing device for astronauts on the International Space Station.

Amplifier helps diamond spy on atoms
An ‘amplifier' molecule placed on the tip of a diamond could help scientists locate and identify individual atoms, Oxford University and Singapore scientists believe. The idea builds on ongoing work towards creating a diamond nanocrystal that can be used to detect an atom's incredibly weak magnetic field.

NASA Ready for November Launch of Car-Size Mars Rover
The Mars Science Laboratory Spacecraft, inside its payload fairing, is hoisted onto its Atlas V launch vehicle (left).

The Tarantula Glows with X-rays and Infrared Light
This spiderweb-like tangle of gas and dust is a star-forming region called 30 Doradus. It is one of the largest such regions located close to the Milky Way galaxy, and is found in the neighboring galaxy Large Magellanic Cloud.

Melbourne University partners with Vanderbilt University: a positive and enduring exchange
Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee and Australia's University of Melbourne have been engaged in building a new kind of strategic international partnership since 2007 through joint research, mobility and cultural exchange programs.

3D ripples in a 2D layer.
Ripples and Layers in Ultrathin MoS2 Membranes. Single-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a newly emerging two-dimensional semiconductor with a potentially wide range of applications in the fields of nanoelectronics and energy harvesting.

Astronomer Sally Dodson-Robinson Receives Prestigious Career Grant from National Science Foundation
AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas at Austin Assistant Professor Sally Dodson-Robinson has received a Faculty Early Career Development award of $363,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Berkeley Lab-founded Program Shares Astronomy With African Youth
Susan Murabana majored in economics, but science is her true calling, or more specifically, science education and outreach.

Graphene to propel mechanical device technology forward
Graphene is sort of a scientific rock star, with countless groups studying its amazing electrical properties and tensile strength and dreaming up applications ranging from flat-panel screens to elevators in space.

Switching light on and off -- with just a few photons
Cornell researchers have demonstrated that the passage of a light beam through an optical fiber can be controlled by just a few photons of another light beam. Such all-optical control is the idea behind photonics, where beams of light replace electric currents in circuits, yielding higher speed and lower power consumption.

Battered Tharsis Tholus volcano on Mars
Battered Tharsis Tholus volcano on Mars The latest image released from Mars Express reveals a large extinct volcano that has been battered and deformed over the aeons.

Space Shuttle Data Helps Researchers Develop Better Model for Forecasting Solar Power Production
The space shuttle program may have ended, but data the space craft collected over the past three decades are still helping advance science.

How languages are built
A team of Cambridge linguists has embarked on an ambitious project to identify how the languages of the world are built - from Inuit Yupik to sub-Saharan Bantu, from Navajo to Nepalese.

Nanowires could be solution for high- performance solar cells
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Tiny wires could help engineers realize high-performance solar cells and other electronics, according to University of Illinois researchers. The research group, led by electrical and computer engineering professor Xiuling Li, developed a technique to integrate compound semiconductor nanowires on silicon wafers, overcoming key challenges in device production.

Launch date confirmed for PromISSe mission to Space Station
ESA's next mission to the International Space Station will be launched on 21 December: André Kuipers will ride into orbit aboard the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft as a member of the orbital outpost's Expedition 30.

Durham scientists part of new space mission to find dark energy
Durham scientists part of new space mission to find dark energy Scientists at Durham University will be part of a major new space mission to discover the nature of two mysterious substances believed to make up a large part of our Universe. The Euclid project will aim to uncover the secrets of dark energy and dark matter using one of the largest optical digital cameras ever put into Space.

NASA Captures New Images of Large Asteroid Passing Earth
PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif. has captured new radar images of Asteroid 2005 YU55 passing close to Earth.

Research Sparks Record-Breaking Solar Cell Performances
Theoretical research by scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has led to record-breaking sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiencies in solar cells. The researchers showed that, contrary to conventional scientific wisdom, the key to boosting solar cell efficiency is not absorbing more photons but emitting more photons.

An Incredible Shrinking Material
They shrink when you heat 'em. Most materials expand when heated, but a few contract. Now engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have figured out how one of these curious materials, scandium trifluoride (ScF 3 ), does the trick—a finding, they say, that will lead to a deeper understanding of all kinds of materials.