Category Archives: Science

Space Station to Host New Cosmic Ray Telescope

By Guest PostMarch 13, 2013Sciencealan watson, angela olinto, atmosphere, auger project, big bang, center, cosmic ray detector, cosmic ray telescope, decaying particles, delaware, earth atmosphere, earth based detectors, international project, iss, james cronin, japanese experiment module, light emissions, light speed, marshall space flight, NASA, nobel laureate, observatory in argentina, physicist john linsley, space station, stagg field, supermassive black holes, tennis ball, the universe, ultra high energy, university of chicago, university of leeds

UChicago’s Angela Olinto leads U.S. collaboration on international project

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has awarded $4.4 million to a collaboration of scientists at five United States universities and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to help build a telescope for deployment on the International Space Station in 2017.

The U.S. collaboration is part of a 13-nation effort to build the 2.5-meter ultraviolet telescope, called the Extreme Universe Space Observatory. UChicago Prof. Angela Olinto leads the U.S. collaboration. The telescope will search for the mysterious source of the most energetic particles in the universe, called ultra high-energy cosmic rays, from the ISS’s Japanese Experiment Module. The source of these cosmic rays has remained one of the great mysteries of science since physicist John Linsley discovered them more than 50 years ago. These cosmic rays consist of protons and other subatomic scraps of matter that fly through the universe at almost light speed. (more…)

NASA Rover Finds Conditions Once Suited for Ancient Life on Mars

By Guest PostMarch 12, 2013Scienceancient life, ancient wet environment, bedrock, calcium sulfate, carbon, chemical energy source, chemical ingredients, chemin, chlorinated forms, condition, david blake, gale crater, hydrogen, instruments, john grotzinger, john klein, life, living microbes, mars, mars exploration program, methane, michael meyer, micro-organisms, mildly alkaline, mudstone, nasa rover, neutral, nitrogen, oxygen, paul mahaffy, phosphorus, powder, presence, red planet, rocknest, sam, soil, stream bed, sulfur, yellowknife bay

PASADENA, Calif. –– An analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes.

Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon — some of the key chemical ingredients for life — in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet last month.

“A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “From what we know now, the answer is yes.” (more…)

Big Bang Meets Big Data: South Africa Joins ASTRON and IBM to Build the Foundation for a New Era of Computing

By Guest PostMarch 12, 2013Science, Technology13 billion years, 3d stacked chips, astron, australia, big bang, big data, big data challenge, cognitive systems, computing, dome, drenthe, dutch ministry, economic affairs, exascale computer systems, exascale technology, human capital development, ibm, institute, national research foundation, new era, nrf, radio astronomy, simon ratcliffe, ska, ska phase 2, ska project, South Africa, square kilometer array, Technology, the netherlands

South African scientists to develop rugged microservers to handle the harsh desert conditions, explore new computer architectures and develop advanced algorithms for radio astronomy imaging

Pretoria, South Africa – 11 Mar 2013: Square Kilometer Array (SKA) South Africa, a business unit of the country’s National Research Foundation is joining ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, and IBM in a four-year collaboration to research extremely fast, but low-power exascale computer systems aimed at developing advanced technologies for handling the massive amount of data that will be produced by the SKA, which is one of the most ambitious science projects ever undertaken.

The SKA is an international effort to build the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope, which is to be located in Southern Africa and Australia to help better understand the history of the universe. The project constitutes the ultimate Big Data challenge, and scientists must produce major advances in computing to deal with it. The impact of those advances will be felt far beyond the SKA project—helping to usher in a new era of computing, which IBM calls the era of cognitive systems. (more…)

Energy-momentum Spectroscopy: New Technique Could Improve Optical Devices

By Guest PostMarch 10, 2013Scienceangle, electronic excitations, energy momentum spectroscopy, grapheme, interference, jon schuller, keliang he, kymissis group, layered nanomaterials, leds, light absorbing devices, light emitting, molybdenum disulfide, mos2, new technique, optical devices, organic semiconductor, orientation of light, polarization, ptcda, rainbow colors, rashid zia, sinan karaveli, solar cells, source, theanne schiros, thin films, two dimensional material

Understanding the source and orientation of light in light-emitting thin films — now possible with energy-momentum spectroscopy — could lead to better LEDs, solar cells, and other devices that use layered nanomaterials.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A multi-university research team has used a new spectroscopic method to gain a key insight into how light is emitted from layered nanomaterials and other thin films.

The technique, called energy-momentum spectroscopy, enables researchers to look at the light emerging from a thin film and determine whether it is coming from emitters oriented along the plane of the film or from emitters oriented perpendicular to the film. Knowing the orientations of emitters could help engineers make better use of thin-film materials in optical devices like LEDs or solar cells. (more…)

Reading the Human Genome

By Guest PostMarch 10, 2013Scienceautomated data collection, berkeley lab, biomolecular machinery, biophysicist eva nogales, cellular process, central dogma, cryo electron microscopy, cryo em, DNA, dna promoter complex, dylan taatjes, gene sequence, genetic information, human genome, jie fang, malfunctions, molecular biology, paula flicker, pre initiation complex, rna, rna polymerase, rna transcription, structural data, tata binding protein, tbp, transcription, transcription factors, yuan he

Berkeley Lab Researchers Produce First Step-by-Step Look at Transcription Initiation

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have achieved a major advance in understanding how genetic information is transcribed from DNA to RNA by providing the first step-by-step look at the biomolecular machinery that reads the human genome.

“We’ve provided a series of snapshots that shows how the genome is read one gene at a time,” says biophysicist Eva Nogales who led this research. “For the genetic code to be transcribed into messenger RNA, the DNA double helix has to be opened and the strand of gene sequences has to be properly positioned so that RNA polymerase, the enzyme that catalyzes transcription, knows where the gene starts. The electron microscopy images we produced show how this is done.” (more…)

Researchers ‘Nanoweld’ by Applying Light to Aligned Nanorods in Solid Materials

By Guest PostMarch 9, 2013Sciencealigned nanoparticles, aligned nanorods, gold nanorods, nanoweld, resilient nanofibers

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a way to melt or “weld” specific portions of polymers by embedding aligned nanoparticles within the materials. Their technique, which melts fibers along a chosen direction within a material, may lead to stronger, more resilient nanofibers and materials. (more…)

Brown Unveils Novel Wireless Brain Sensor

By Guest PostMarch 9, 2013Scienceanimal model, arto nurmikko, brain machine interfaces, brain radio, broadband signals, brown university, computer cursors, copper coil, cortex, data, david borton, decision-making, electrodes, engineer, ghz, Houston, human neuroscience, infrared transmitters, international workshop, john donoghue, lithium-ion battery, mbps, ming yin, motor cortex, neural data transmission, neuroengineers, novel, paralysis control devices, parkinsons disease, real-time, recharging, robotic arms, sealed titanium can, signal processing system, translational motivation, wireless brain sensor, wireless radio, wriston professor

In a significant advance for brain-machine interfaces, engineers at Brown University have developed a novel wireless, broadband, rechargeable, fully implantable brain sensor that has performed well in animal models for more than a year. They describe the result in the Journal of Neural Engineering and at a conference this week.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A team of neuroengineers based at Brown University has developed a fully implantable and rechargeable wireless brain sensor capable of relaying real-time broadband signals from up to 100 neurons in freely moving subjects. Several copies of the novel low-power device, described in the Journal of Neural Engineering, have been performing well in animal models for more than year, a first in the brain-computer interface field. Brain-computer interfaces could help people with severe paralysis control devices with their thoughts. (more…)

How to Thrive in Battery Acid and Among Toxic Metals

By Guest PostMarch 9, 2013Environment, Scienceandreas weber, archaebacteria, bacteria, battery acid, biofuel production, biotechnology, decoded genetic information, dusseldorf, effects of toxins, eukaryote, eukaryotic microorganisms, evolution, extraterrestrial creature, extreme environment, galdieria, galdieria sulphuraria, genes from bacteria, genome of extremophile, gerald schoenknecht, Germany, heinrich heine universitat, horizontal gene transfer, hot springs, martin lercher, matt kane, movie alien, national science foundation, oil producing algae, oklahoma state university, photosynthesis, red alga, thrive, toxic metals, yellowstone national park

Genome of “extremophile” red alga offers insights

In the movie Alien, the title character is an extraterrestrial creature that can survive brutal heat and resist the effects of toxins.

In real life, organisms with similar traits exist, such as the “extremophile” red alga Galdieria sulphuraria.

In hot springs in Yellowstone National Park, Galdieria uses energy from the sun to produce sugars through photosynthesis. (more…)