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In a study published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, scientists from the University of New Hampshire and colleagues answer the question of why NASA’s Voyager 1, when it became the first probe to enter interstellar space in mid-2012, observed a magnetic field that was inconsistent with that derived from other spacecraft observations.

Voyager 1 sent back several different indications that it had punched through the edge of our sun’s massive protective bubble inflated by solar wind—the heliosphere—after a 35-year journey. But the magnetic field data gathered by the spacecraft was not what scientists had expected to see. The UNH-led study resolves the inconsistencies.

“There are still naysayers out there regarding Voyager 1 crossing through the heliopause—the edge of the heliosphere,” says astrophysicist Nathan Schwadron of the UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space and department of physics and lead author of the paper. “And the reason for this doubt is that when the spacecraft supposedly broke through the heliopause we should have seen some sort of distinctive shift in the magnetic field from one medium to the other,” Schwadron says.

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More *!* — WOW — *!*
How can anyone NOT love science?!

Holograms (3-D light fields) can be projected from a 2-dimensional surface to control objects. (credit: Asier Marzo, Bruce Drinkwater and Sriram Subramanian)

Continue reading “Holographic sonic tractor beam lifts and moves objects using soundwaves” »

Stunning, truly.

NASA has presented us with yet another stunning, backlit view of Pluto, taken by the New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in July. The photo adds to the growing repertoire of Pluto images that are slowly being downloaded from the probe and released by the space agency. This one shows Pluto’s crescent in full, spectacular detail, completing the partial crescent image that NASA released in mid-September.

The image was taken by New Horizons’ Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC), just 15 minutes after making its closest approach of Pluto on July 14th. It was taken from 11,000 miles away, when New Horizons looked back at Pluto toward the Sun. The photo shows the hazy layers of the dwarf planet’s atmosphere, as well as the mountains on Pluto’s surface that surround the icy plains of Sputnik Planum.

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Trong Toan Tran states: “Ultimately we want to build a ‘plug and play’ device that can generate single photons on demand…” #QuantumComputing.

A team of UTS researchers has made a major breakthrough that could pave the way for the next generation of quantum communications.

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Can black phosphorous rival #graphene?

A new experimental revelation about black phosphorus nanoribbons should facilitate the future application of this highly promising material to electronic, optoelectronic and thermoelectric devices. A team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has experimentally confirmed strong in-plane anisotropy in thermal conductivity, up to a factor of two, along the zigzag and armchair directions of single-crystal black phosphorous nanoribbons.

“Imagine the lattice of black phosphorous as a two-dimensional network of balls connected with springs, in which the network is softer along one direction of the plane than another,” says Junqiao Wu, a physicist who holds joint appointments with Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and the University of California (UC) Berkeley’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “Our study shows that in a similar manner heat flow in the black phosphorous nanoribbons can be very different along different directions in the plane. This thermal conductivity anisotropy has been predicted recently for 2D black phosphorous crystals by theorists but never before observed.”

Continue reading “Is black phosphorous the next big thing in materials?” »

Nissan says its autonomous car will be ready for sale to consumers by 2020.

Nissan Motor Co. is aggressively pushing forward with plans for a mostly autonomous car that will be ready for sale to consumers by 2020, putting it well ahead of its global competitors.

Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said the technology would be ready by the Japanese auto maker’s self-imposed deadline—though he wasn’t sure if it would be legal on any nation’s roads.

Continue reading “Nissan Speeds Ahead of Rivals With Plans for Driverless Car” »

Students from Calgary win first prize at the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge, for their invention of a electricity-free cooling unit.

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“This ingenious cooling system circulates cooled air in an endless loop—all without any electricity.”

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Someone created an app that can tell which objects are heavier using 3D Touch.

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