The next generation of carbon monoxide nanosensors
Washington DC (SPX) May 29, 2016 -
The detection of carbon monoxide (CO) in the air is a vital issue, as CO is a poisonous gas and an environmental pollutant. CO typically derives from the incomplete combustion of carbon-based fuels, such as cooking gas and gasoline; it has no odour, taste, or colour and hence it is difficult to detect. Scientists have been investigating sensors that can determine CO concentration, and a team fro ...
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Top-down design brings new DNA structures to life
Tempe AZ (SPX) May 30, 2016 -
Among the valuable holdings in London's Wellcome Library is a rough pencil sketch made in 1953 by Francis Crick. The drawing is one of the first to show the double-helix structure of DNA - Nature's blueprint for the design of sea snails, human beings, and every other living form on earth. Few could have predicted however, that DNA's simple properties of self-assembly, and its versatile informati ...
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Beating the limits of the light microscope, one photon at a time
Fort Collins CO (SPX) May 30, 2016 -
The world's most advanced light microscopes allow us to see single molecules, proteins, viruses and other very small biological structures. But even the best microscopes have their limits. Colorado State University scientists are pushing the limits of a technique called super-resolution microscopy, opening potential new pathways to illuminating, for example, individual cell processes in living t ...
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Engineers discover a new gatekeeper for light
Buffalo NY (SPX) May 30, 2016 -
Imagine a device that is selectively transparent to various wavelengths of light at one moment, and opaque to them the next, following a minute adjustment. Such a gatekeeper would enable powerful and unique capabilities in a wide range of electronic, optical and other applications, including those that rely on transistors or other components that switch on and off.
In a paper in the journa ...
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Could optical clocks redefine the length of a second
Washington DC (SPX) May 30, 2016 -
GPS-based navigation, communication systems, electrical power grids and financial networks all rely on the precise time kept by a network of around 500 atomic clocks located around the world. In The Optical Society's journal for high impact research, Optica, researchers present a way to use optical clocks for more accurate timekeeping than is possible with today's system of traditional atomic cl ...
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Doubling down on Schrodinger's cat
New Haven CT (SPX) May 30, 2016 -
Yale physicists have given Schrodinger's famous cat a second box to play in, and the result may help further the quest for reliable quantum computing.
Schrodinger's cat is a well-known paradox that applies the concept of superposition in quantum physics to objects encountered in everyday life. The idea is that a cat is placed in a sealed box with a radioactive source and a poison that will ...
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Antarctic fossils reveal south was not safer during dinosaur extinction
Leeds, UK (SPX) May 27, 2016 -
A study of more than 6,000 marine fossils from the Antarctic shows that the mass extinction event that killed the dinosaurs was sudden and just as deadly to life in the polar regions. Previously, scientists had thought that creatures living in the southernmost regions of the planet would have been in a less perilous position during the mass extinction event than those elsewhere on Earth.
T ...
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