Artificial intelligence replaces physicists
Canberra, Australia (SPX) May 19, 2016 -
Physicists are putting themselves out of a job, using artificial intelligence to run a complex experiment. The experiment, developed by physicists from The Australian National University (ANU) and UNSW ADFA, created an extremely cold gas trapped in a laser beam, known as a Bose-Einstein condensate, replicating the experiment that won the 2001 Nobel Prize.
"I didn't expect the machine could ...
more
Combining nanotextures with Leidenfrost effect for water repellency
Washington DC (SPX) May 18, 2016 -
Combining superhydrophobic surfaces with Leidenfrost levitation - picture a water droplet hovering over a hot surface rather than making physical contact with it - has been explored extensively for the past decade by researchers hoping to uncover the holy grail of water-repellent surfaces.
In a new twist, a group of South Korean researchers from Seoul National University and Dankook Univer ...
more
Unveiling the electron's motion in a carbon nanocoil
Toyohashi, Japan (SPX) May 19, 2016 -
Carbon nanocoils (CNCs) are an exotic class of low-dimensional nanocarbons whose helical shape may make them suitable for applications such as microwave absorbers and various mechanical components such as springs. Typical thicknesses and coil diameters of CNCs fall within the ranges of 100-400 nm and 400-1000 nm, respectively, and their full lengths are much larger, on the order of several tens ...
more
Bubble volcano: Shaking, popping by earthquakes may cause eruptions
Hiroshima, Japan (SPX) May 19, 2016 -
A new study on the connection between earthquakes and volcanoes took its inspiration from old engineering basics. Future applications of these results may enable better predictions of the likelihood of a volcanic eruption for communities affected by an earthquake.
If you swirl wine in a glass too strongly, the wine crashes against the sides and spills over the top. The same swirling and cr ...
more
Rice-led study offers new answer to why Earth's atmosphere became oxygenated
Houston TX (SPX) May 18, 2016 -
Earth scientists from Rice University, Yale University and the University of Tokyo are offering a new answer to the long-standing question of how our planet acquired its oxygenated atmosphere.
Based on a new model that draws from research in diverse fields including petrology, geodynamics, volcanology and geochemistry, the team's findings were published online this week in Nature Geoscienc ...
more
Pacific stores the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide at depths of thousands of metres
Bremerhaven, Germany (SPX) May 18, 2016 -
An international team of researchers headed by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute has gained new insights into the carbon dioxide exchange between ocean and atmosphere, thus making a significant contribution to solving one of the great scientific mysteries of the ice ages.
In the past 800,000 years of climate history, the transitions from interglacials and ice ages were always ac ...
more
Tiny ocean organism has big role in climate regulation
Exeter, UK (SPX) May 18, 2016 -
Scientists have discovered that a tiny, yet plentiful, ocean organism is playing an important role in the regulation of the Earth's climate. Research, published in the journal Nature Microbiology, has found that the bacterial group Pelagibacterales, thought to be among the most abundant organisms on Earth, comprising up to half a million microbial cells found in every teaspoon of seawater, plays ...
more
Why Russia's Reviving Its Nuke Trains
Moscow (Sputnik) May 17, 2016 -
Russian "Barguzin" strategic missile trains may become an asymmetric response to NATO's complex European Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system deployed in Romania and Poland, military experts believe.
Russian designers have begun to create new elements of "Barguzin" - Russia's combat railway missile complex (BZhRK) aimed at transporting and launching strategic nuclear missiles.
Citi ...
more
NASA navigates 65,000 pound Space Shuttle fuel tank through L.A. streets
Los Angeles (UPI) May 21, 2016 -
NASA began moving a massive fuel tank used to carry propellants to Space Shuttle engines through the streets of Los Angeles Saturday to its new home at the California Science Center.
Several roads were closed as the 164-footlong, 65,000 pound external tank, or ET-94, was towed through the streets of Los Angeles.
"Resting on its side, the tank is half the length of a football fiel ...
more
Atmospheric aerosols can significantly cool down climate
Joensuu, Finland (SPX) May 20, 2016 -
It is possible to significantly slow down and even temporarily stop the progression of global warming by increasing the atmospheric aerosol concentration, shows a new study from the University of Eastern Finland. However, climate engineering does not remove the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The study used global climate models to analyse the ability of atmospheric aerosols to co ...
more
Australian, U.S. HIFiRE rocket achieves Mach 7.5
Canberra, Australia (UPI) May 18, 2016 -
Australia and the United States have successfully fired an experimental rocket with a speed of more than seven times the speed of sound.
The rocket, which reached an apogee, or highest altitude, of about 172.7 miles, is part of a joint research program called HIFiRE, or Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation Program. It is being conducted by Australia's Defense Science ...
more
Rotational motion is relative
Washington DC (SPX) May 20, 2016 -
It has been one hundred years since the publication of Einstein's general theory of relativity in May 1916. In a paper recently published in EPJ Plus, Norwegian physicist Oyvind Gron from the Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences and his co-author Torkild Jemterud demonstrate that the rotational motion in the universe is also subject to the theory of relativity.
Imagine ...
more
Alexander Gerst to be Space Station commander
Paris (ESA) May 20, 2016 -
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst has been assigned a new mission to the International Space Station, where he will fulfil the role of commander during the second part of his six-month mission in 2018.
The news was announced in the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel by ESA Director General Jan Woerner at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany. Alexander worked on the Statio ...
more
Space Solutions conference: bringing space to Earth
Paris (ESA) May 20, 2016 -
A major European space conference is taking place in the Netherlands at the end of this month, highlighting the vital role that space technology plays in all our lives, and helping European industry to explore its business potential.
The European Space Solutions conference will take place at the World Forum Convention Centre from 30 May to 3 June. This is the fourth such conference, hosted ...
more
Airbus Defence and Space starts Orion service module assembly
Paris, France (SPX) May 20, 2016 -
Airbus Defence and Space, the world's second largest space company, has started assembling the European Service Module (ESM), a key element of NASA's next-generation Orion spacecraft that will transport astronauts into deep space for the first time since the end of the Apollo program.
In November 2014, Airbus Defence and Space was chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA) as prime contract ...
more
NASA super pressure balloon begins globetrotting journey
Greenbelt MD (SPX) May 20, 2016 -
NASA successfully launched a super pressure balloon (SPB) from Wanaka Airport, New Zealand, at 11:35 a.m. Tuesday, May 17, 2016 (7:35 p.m. EDT Monday, May 16, 2016) on a potentially record-breaking, around-the-world test flight.
The purpose of the flight is to test and validate the SPB technology with the goal of long-duration flight (100+ days) at mid-latitudes. In addition, the gondola i ...
more
First Stellar Occultations Shed Additional Light on Pluto's Atmosphere
Laurel MD (SPX) May 20, 2016 -
Scientists on NASA's New Horizons team say the spacecraft succeeded in observing the first occultations of Pluto's atmosphere by ultraviolet stars, an important goal of the mission's Pluto encounter. These data, stored on New Horizons' digital recorders since last summer's encounter and recently transmitted to Earth, confirm several major findings about Pluto's atmosphere.
Approximately fo ...
more
Opportunity takes panorama; uses wheel to scuff soil
Pasadena CA (JPL) May 23, 2016 -
Pasadena CA (JPL) May 23, 2016
Opportunity is exploring 'Marathon Valley' on the rim of Endeavour crater, searching specific outcrops for evidence of clay minerals.
The rover is currently conducting an in-situ (contact) science investigation on an outcrop target, called 'Pierre Pinaut.'
The rover has also been collecting a beautiful full-color panorama of the surrounding location. ...
more
Cambridge: Evidence of Comets Orbiting a Sun-like Star
Munich, Germany (SPX) May 20, 2016 -
An international team of astronomers have found evidence of ice and comets orbiting a nearby Sun-like star, which could give a glimpse into how our own solar system developed. Using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), the researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, detected very low levels of carbon monoxide gas around the star, in amounts that are consistent with the comet ...
more
Supernova Reserve Fuel Tank Clue to Big Parents
Canberra, Australia (SPX) May 20, 2016 -
Some supernovae have a reserve tank of radioactive fuel that cuts in and powers their explosions for three times longer than astronomers had previously thought.
A team of astronomers jointly led by Dr. Ivo Seitenzahl from The Australian National University (ANU) detected the faint afterglow of a supernova, and found it was powered by radioactive cobalt-57. The discovery gives important new ...
more
Israel successfully tests missile defence system at sea: army
Jerusalem (AFP) May 18, 2016 -
Israel has successfully tested a maritime missile interception system dubbed the Iron Dome of the Sea, the military announced on Wednesday.
The system, which the military said can shoot down short-range rockets similar to those fired from Gaza, successfully destroyed "several" missiles, Ariel Shir, head of operational systems in the navy, said.
He said the test, which took place two week ...
more
Debris Alert: A Crack in the Window
Bethesda MD (SPX) May 18, 2016 -
In recent days media coverage of space debris activity has been intense. Some commentaries are reminiscent of the hysteria in Chicken Little's report of the sky falling. Others recommend that the issue be ignore. They say, "Space is big, so don't worry." However, just last week a report revealed the existence of very small cracks in an International Space Station Window.
Apparently, a tiny ...
more
Kumenan mega solar plant commissioned in Japan
Okayama, Japan (SPX) May 18, 2016 -
GE Energy Financial Services and Virginia Solar Group have commenced commercial operations on its jointly owned 32-megawatt Pacifico Energy Kumenan Mega Solar Project ("Kumenan Solar Project"), located in the Okayama prefecture of Japan. As one of largest solar power plants in the prefecture and in Japan's Chugoku region, Kumenan Solar Project has been operating with enough power to meet the dem ...
more
UW team first to measure microscale granular crystal dynamics
Seattle WA (SPX) May 1, 2016 -
Designing materials that better respond to dynamic loading can help vehicles minimize vibration, better protect military convoys or potentially make buildings safer during an earthquake.
Granular materials - assemblages of particles that range broadly from powders to sand to microscopic beads of glass - are one of the least understood forms of matter due to the incredibly complex ways that ...
more
Technique improves the efficacy of fuel cells
Boston MA (SPX) May 1, 2016 -
Fuel cells, which generate electricity from chemical reactions without harmful emissions, have the potential to power everything from cars to portable electronics, and could be cleaner and more efficient than combustion engines.
Solid oxide fuel cells, which rely on low- cost ceramic materials, are among the most efficient and promising type of fuel cell. Now, researchers from the Harvard ...
more
