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    Category Technology/Electronics

    Protective Wear Inspired by Fish Scales

    January 25, 2017, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Biology/Biotechnology, Physics

    Stretch-and-release fabrication, testing and optimization of a flexible ceramic armor inspired from fish scales,” by Robert Martini and François Barthelat, Bioinspiration and Biomimetics: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-3190/11/6/066001

    Stretch-and-release fabrication, testing and optimization of a flexible ceramic armor inspired from fish scales,” by Robert Martini and François Barthelat, Bioinspiration and Biomimetics: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-3190/11/6/066001

    Ceramic-covered gloves offer industrial workers increased protection from piercing. They started with striped bass. Over a 2-year period the researchers went through about 50 bass, puncturing or fracturing hundreds of fish scales under the microscope, to try to understand their properties and mechanics better. “The people at the fish market must have wondered what we were up to,” says François Barthelat smiling ruefully...

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    Sci-fi Holograms a Step Closer

    January 24, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Concept artwork of the holographic image that was created with the ANU invention. Credit: Lei Wang, ANU

    Concept artwork of the holographic image that was created with the ANU invention. Credit: Lei Wang, ANU

    Physicists from The Australian National University (ANU) have invented a tiny device that creates the highest quality holographic images ever achieved, opening the door to imaging technologies seen in science fiction movies such as Star Wars. Lead researcher Lei Wang said the team created complex holographic images in infrared with the invention that could be developed with industry.

    “As a child, I learned about the concept of holographic imaging from the Star Wars movies. It’s really cool to be working on an invention that uses the principles of holography depicted in those movies,” said Mr Wang, a PhD student at the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering...

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    New Metamaterial can Switch from Hard to Soft – and back again

    January 24, 2017, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology, Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Topological transitions of a deformed kagome lattice by uniform soft twisting.

    Topological transitions of a deformed kagome lattice by uniform soft twisting. Two types of triangles (red and blue) are connected by free hinges at their corners, forming a deformed kagome lattice with primitive vectors a1, a2. The angle θ between the triangles defines the twisting coordinate. The blue curve shows (defined in equation (1)) as a function of θ. The 3 white dots on the θ axis represent three critical angles (, and ) where sides of the triangles form straight lines (yellow stripes on the lattices) and topological polarization RT (shown as black arrows above the axes) changes.

    University of Michigan researchers have developed a new way to design a “metamaterial” that allows the material to switch between being hard and soft without damaging or altering the material itself...

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    Quantum Optical Sensor tested in Space for the 1st time, with a Laser System from Berlin

    January 24, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Astronomy/Space

    1. MOPA laser module for MAIUS Hybrid-integrated master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) laser module for rubidium precision spectroscopy in space developed by the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut – three of these MOPA modules along with two redundant modules are integrated into the laser system. (© FBH/schurian.com) 2, MAIUS laser system used to successfully create a Bose-Einstein condensate for the first time in space. It is about as big as a shoe box with a mass of 27 kg. FBH’s laser modules are integrated on the bottom side of the heat sink, the top side houses modules for further processing of the light to be transferred to the main experiment. (© Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

    1. MOPA laser module for MAIUS
    Hybrid-integrated master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) laser module for rubidium precision spectroscopy in space developed by the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut – three of these MOPA modules along with two redundant modules are integrated into the laser system.
    (© FBH/schurian.com)
    2, MAIUS laser system
    used to successfully create a Bose-Einstein condensate for the first time in space. It is about as big as a shoe box with a mass of 27 kg. FBH’s laser modules are integrated on the bottom side of the heat sink, the top side houses modules for further processing of the light to be transferred to the main experiment.
    (© Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

    For the 1st time ever, a cloud of ultra-cold atoms has been successfully created in space on board of a soundin...

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