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IBM Scientists Demonstrate Quantum Phenomenon for the First Time Using a Plastic Film

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2013Science, Technologyalbert einstein, bec, big data, bose einstein condensation, bosons, computer systems, energy efficient lasers, exabytes, Germany, ibm research, johannes d plumhof, lijian mai, luminescent polymer, macroscopic quantum phenomena, macroscopic scale, nanometers, non crystalline, optical switches, particles, petabytes, picoseconds, plastic, polymer film, polymeric layer, quantum mechanical phenomenon, quantum simulations, quantum world, rainer f mahrt, satyendranath bose, smartphones, thilo stoferle, ullrich scherf, university of wuppertal

Originally predicted in the 1920s by Satyendranath Bose and Albert Einstein, applications could include energy-efficient lasers and optical switches, critical components for future computer systems processing Big Data

ZURICH – 10 Dec 2013: For the first time, scientists at IBM Research have demonstrated a complex quantum mechanical phenomenon known as Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), using a luminescent polymer (plastic) similar to the materials in light emitting displays used in many of today’s smartphones.

This discovery has potential applications in developing novel optoelectronic devices including energy-efficient lasers and ultra-fast optical switches — critical components for powering future computer systems to process massive Big Data workloads. The use of a polymer material and the observation of BEC at room temperature provides substantial advantages in terms of applicability and cost. (more…)

How living cells solved a needle in a haystack problem to generate electrical signals

By Guest PostDecember 10, 2013Sciencecalcium channels, calcium ions, cardiac muscle cells, cardiovascular physiology, cell membrane, cell physiology, concentration, electrical signals, endocrinology, extracellular fluid, hormone secretion, lin tang, living cells, needle in haystack, ning zheng, pathway, problem, sodium ions, structural data, tamer gamal eldin, william catterall, xray crystallographer

Scientists have figured out how calcium channels – the infinitesimal cell membrane pores that generate electrical signals by gating a charged-particle influx – have solved a “needle in a haystack” problem.

The solution to the longstanding riddle is reported in the Nov. 24 advanced online edition of Nature by UW and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators. Dr. Ning Zheng, a noted X-ray crystallographer, and Dr. William Catterall, a pioneer in ion channel research, were the senior researchers, and Dr. Lin Tang and Dr. Tamer Gamal El-Din headed the project. (more…)

Ancient Minerals: Which Gave Rise to Life?

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2013Scienceancient minerals, exotic minerals, hadean earth, hadean eon, hadean mineralogy, metabolic energy

Washington, D.C.— Life originated as a result of natural processes that exploited early Earth’s raw materials. Scientific models of life’s origins almost always look to minerals for such essential tasks as the synthesis of life’s molecular building blocks or the supply of metabolic energy. But this assumes that the mineral species found on Earth today are much the same as they were during Earth’s first 550 million years—the Hadean Eon—when life emerged. A new analysis of Hadean mineralogy challenges that assumption. It is published in American Journal of Science. (more…)

A Superconductor-Surrogate Earns Its Stripes

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2013Sciencecohesive theory, femtosecond, optical techniques, stripe phase, superconductivity, superconductivity mechanism, superconductors

Berkeley Lab Study Reveals Origins of an Exotic Phase of Matter

Understanding superconductivity – whereby certain materials can conduct electricity without any loss of energy – has proved to be one of the most persistent problems in modern physics. Scientists have struggled for decades to develop a cohesive theory of superconductivity, largely spurred by the game-changing prospect of creating a superconductor that works at room temperature, but it has proved to be a tremendous tangle of complex physics. (more…)

Nobels explained

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2013Scienceliterature prize, nobel committee, nobel laureates, nobel peace prize, nobel prize, prize winners

UD faculty members discuss 2013 prize-winners at annual symposium

Today’s chemists might work at a computer as often as in a laboratory, medical researchers studying conditions such as diabetes rely on understanding how cells carry and deposit materials within the body, and average investors in the market increasingly buy index funds to average out the short-term ups and downs of individual stocks. (more…)

Laser Instrument on NASA Mars Rover Tops 100,000 Zaps

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2013Sciencechemical data, curiosity rover, mars, mars rover, rock called ithaca

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has passed the milestone of 100,000 shots fired by its laser. It uses the laser as one way to check which chemical elements are in rocks and soils. (more…)

Taking a New Look at Carbon Nanotubes

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2013Scienceactin filaments, advancing nanotube technology, anisotropic, berkeley lab, carbon nanotubes, crystal, Environment, feng wang, functional device, fused silica substrate, graphene nanoribbons, human hair, kaihui liu, molecule, na, nanobiomaterials, nanorods, numerical aperture, optical anisotropy, plethora, polarization, semiconductor nanowires, species, substrates, xiaoping hong

Berkeley Researchers Develop Technique For Imaging Individual Carbon Nanotubes

Despite their almost incomprehensibly small size – a diameter about one ten-thousandth the thickness of a human hair – single-walled carbon nanotubes come in a plethora of different “species,” each with its own structure and unique combination of electronic and optical properties. Characterizing the structure and properties of an individual carbon nanotube has involved a lot of guesswork – until now.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley have developed a technique that can be used to identify the structure of an individual carbon nanotube and characterize its electronic and optical properties in a functional device. (more…)

Nanoscale Coatings Improve Stability and Efficiency of Devices for Renewable Fuel Generation

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2013Environment, Scienceaaron k vannucci, acidic, ald, atomic layer deposition, berc kalanyan, carbon dioxide, carbon neutral fuels, chemical pathway, device, efficiency, Environment, gregory parsons, hydrocarbon fuel, hydrogen, klondike bar, leila alibabaei, low ph, mark losego, molecular catalysts, molecular photoelectrochemical cell, nanoscale coatings, north Carolina, oxygen, ph, renewable fuel generation, solar water splitting, stability, state university, ultra thin layer, water oxidation, water splitting devices

Splitting water into its components, two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, is an important first step in achieving carbon-neutral fuels to power our transportation infrastructure – including automobiles and planes.

Now, North Carolina State University researchers and colleagues from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that a specialized coating technique can make certain water-splitting devices more stable and more efficient. Their results are published online in two separate papers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (more…)

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