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    Category Physics

    Cling-on Warriors: Sandcastle Worms serve as Inspiration for a New Underwater Adhesive

    February 3, 2016, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Biology/Biotechnology, Physics

    Sandcastle worm

    Sandcastle worm (Phragmatopoma californica) Credit: Fred Hayes

    It has the potential for biomedical and non-biological applications. Areas such as tissue repair, dental adhesives and other surface adhesion applications, industrial and commercial – which are often required under adverse conditions, such as salty sea water and in aqueous solutions containing organic impurities – could benefit from this glue, which replicates the adhesion strategy of the Sandcastle worm (Phragmatopoma californica), a segmented marine invertebrate commonly found along the California coast.

    Known for constructing hive-like shelters in colonies out of grains of sand glued together by a protein adhesive, sandcastle worms, along with mussels and other glue-secreting inhabitants of the intertidal zone, have served a...

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    Physicists create Artificial ‘Graphene’

    February 2, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    (a) One unit cell of the perovskite structure. A RE ion, located at the center of the cube, has been omitted for clarity. (b) Bilayer of NdNiO3 sandwiched between layers of dielectric LaAlO3 along the pseudocubic [111] direction. (c) Schematic of a (111) bilayer that forms a buckled honeycomb lattice. The Ni atoms on the individual (111) plane are highlighted by thin and thick red circles, respectively. (d) HAADF-STEM image of the [ 2NdNiO3/4LaAlO3 ]x3 superlattice, grown on LaAlO3 (111) substrate.

    (a) One unit cell of the perovskite structure. A RE ion, located at the center of the cube, has been omitted for clarity. (b) Bilayer of NdNiO3 sandwiched between layers of dielectric LaAlO3 along the pseudocubic [111] direction. (c) Schematic of a (111) bilayer that forms a buckled honeycomb lattice. The Ni atoms on the individual (111) plane are highlighted by thin and thick red circles, respectively. (d) HAADF-STEM image of the [ 2NdNiO3/4LaAlO3 ]x3 superlattice, grown on LaAlO3 (111) substrate.

    An international group of physicists led by University of Arkansas has created an artificial material with a structure comparable to graphene.
    “We’ve basically created the first artificial graphene-like structure with transition metal atoms in place of carbon atoms,” said Jak Chakhalian, profes...

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    Switching Light with a Silver Atom

    February 2, 2016, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    The switch is based on the voltage-induced displacement of one or more silver atoms in the narrow gap between a silver and a platinum plate. Credit: Alexandros Emboras / ETH Zurich

    The switch is based on the voltage-induced displacement of one or more silver atoms in the narrow gap between a silver and a platinum plate. Credit: Alexandros Emboras / ETH Zurich

    Researchers have created the world’s smallest integrated optical switch. Applying a small voltage causes an atom to relocate, turning the switch on or off. The quantity of data exchanged via communications networks around the globe is growing at a breathtaking rate. The volume of data for wired and mobile communications is currently increasing by 23% and 57% respectively every year. It is impossible to predict when this growth will end. This also means that all network components must constantly be made more efficient.

    These components include modulators, which convert the information that is originally availabl...

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    Bright Sparks shed new light on the Dark Matter riddle

    February 2, 2016, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    A CRESST Detector Module

    One of the CRESST detector modules. When illuminated with ultraviolet light, the scintillating inner shield glows brightly.

    Highest sensitivity detector ever for very light dark matter elementary particles. The origin of matter in the universe has puzzled physicists for generations. Today, we know that matter only accounts for 5% of our universe; another 25% is constituted of dark matter. And the remaining 70% is made up of dark energy. Dark matter itself represents an unsolved riddle.

    Physicists believe that such dark matter is composed of (as yet undefined) elementary particles that stick together thanks to gravitational force. In a study recently published in EPJ C, scientists from the CRESST-II research project use the phonon-light technique to detect dark matter...

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