Staff Reporter

NASA's NICER mission maps 'light echoes' of new black hole

Scientists have charted the environment surrounding a stellar-mass black hole that is 10 times the mass of the Sun using NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) payload aboard the International Space Station. NICER detected X-ray light from the recently discovered black hole, called MAXI J1820+070 (J1820 for short), as it consumed material from a companion star.

River levels tracked from space

Water levels in the Mekong basin, which extends through six countries in South-East Asia, are subject to considerable seasonal fluctuations. A new model now makes it possible to compute how water levels are impacted on various sections of the river by extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall or drought over extended periods.

Antireflection coating makes plastic invisible

Antireflection (AR) coatings on plastics have a multitude of practical applications, including glare reduction on eyeglasses, computer monitors and the display on your smart-phone when outdoors. Now, researchers at Penn State have developed an AR coating that improves on existing coatings to the extent that it can make transparent plastics, such as Plexiglas, virtually invisible.

NSF awards Indiana University $4 million to advance medical nanotechnology

Only a year after establishing the intelligent systems engineering program in the Indiana University School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering, the university has been awarded a five-year, $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to advance nanoscale devices to improve human health, including fighting cancer.

The energy implications of organic radical polymers

Texas A&M University professor Dr. Jodie L. Lutkenhaus is one step closer to realizing her goal of creating a battery made entirely of polymers, which has the potential to charge and discharge much faster than traditional batteries.

Plasmonic pioneers fire away in fight over light

In a new paper in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters, Rice chemist Stephan Link and graduate student Yi-Yu Cai make a case that photoluminescence, rather than Raman scattering, gives gold nanoparticles their remarkable light-emitting properties.

Missing link in planet evolution found

For the first time ever, astronomers have detected a 1.3 km radius body at the edge of the solar system. Kilometer-sized bodies like the one discovered have been predicted to exist for more than 70 years.

Artificial skin could give superhuman perception

A new type of sensor could lead to artificial skin that someday helps burn victims 'feel' and safeguards the rest of us, University of Connecticut researchers suggest in a paper in Advanced Materials.

Materials that open in the heat of the moment

Kyoto University researchers have designed a temperature-controllable copper-based material for sieving or storing different kinds of gases. The rationale used to design the material, described in the journal Science, could act as a blueprint for developing nanoporous materials with a wide variety of energy, medical and environmental applications.

Speed of light: Toward a future quantum internet

Engineering researchers have demonstrated proof-of-principle for a device that could serve as the backbone of a future quantum Internet. University of Toronto Engineering professor Hoi-Kwong Lo and his collaborators have developed a prototype for a key element for all-photonic quantum repeaters, a critical step in long-distance quantum communication.

New Technology for Experimental Zika test under development

A collaboration of scientists including Professor Jean Patterson, Ph.D., of Texas Biomedical Research Institute, is working on a new way to detect Zika virus that will help guide clinicians in their treatment of patients with the disease.

Self-assembling nanomaterial offers pathway to more efficient, affordable harnessing of solar power

New nanomaterials developed by researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York (CUNY) could provide a pathway to more efficient and potentially affordable harvesting of solar energy. Early research suggests these materials could create more usable charges and increase the theoretical efficiency of solar cells up to 44 percent.

Muscle memory discovery ends 'use it or lose it' dogma

New research shows that extra nuclei gained during exercise persist even after a muscle shrinks from disuse, disease or aging -- and can be mobilized rapidly to facilitate bigger gains on retraining

3D human epidermal equivalent created using math

Scientists have successfully constructed a three-dimensional human epidermis based on predictions made by their mathematical model of epidermal homeostasis, providing a new tool for basic research and drug development.

Guiding the way to a more sustainable energy future

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released an alarming report this October about what it would take to cap rising global temperatures at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
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