Category Physics

Scanning electron microscopy image of a calcite crystal generated in the presence of the sea urchin protein rSM50 on a silicon wafer showing organized nanotexturing on exposed surfaces

Researchers are investigating a protein found inside the spicules of a sea urchin embryo to understand what makes these proteins such efficient ‘brick organizers’. Calcium carbonate, or CaCO3, comprises more than 4% of Earth’s crust. Its most common natural forms are chalk, limestone, and marble, produced by the sedimentation of the shells of small fossilized snails, shellfish, and coral over millions of years. NYU Dentistry researchers are studying how nature creates 3D CaCO3 inorganic/organic based materials to form seashells, invertebrate exoskeletons, and vertebrate bone, dentine, and enamel.

John Evans,...

Novel Strategy for Photopatterning Emissive Polymer Brushes for Organic Light Emitting Diode Applications

From smartphones to TVs and laptops, light emitting diode (LED) displays are ubiquitous. OLEDs (where the O denotes they are organic, or carbon-based) are among the most energy efficient of these devices, but they generally have higher production costs due to the laborious fabrication processes needed to arrange them properly. Today in ACS Central Science, researchers introduce a new way to efficiently create patterns of OLEDs.

In an LED display, the emissions from red, green and blue diodes are blended to create the white and colored light necessary to render images. It is crucially important to precisely position the different types of diodes in relation to one another...

Flight paths for the 7km arc and line, followed from left to right. The star indicates the location of the ground station at Smith Falls{Montague Airport. The inner portions represent where the quantum link was active. Photo produced using GPSVisualizer.com, map data c 2016 Google, imagery c 2016 Cnes/Spot Image, DigitalGlobe, Landsat, New York GIS, USDA Farm Service Agency.

Researchers in Canada have taken a significant step towards enabling secure quantum communication via moving satellites, as announced by the Canadian Government in April 2017. Their study demonstrates the first quantum key distribution transmissions from a ground transmitter to a quantum payload on a moving aircraft...