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    Collective Gravity, not Planet Nine, may explain the Orbits of ‘detached objects’

    June 5, 2018, Categories  Uncategorized

    An artist's rendering of Sedna, which looks reddish in color in telescope images. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

    An artist’s rendering of Sedna, which looks reddish in color in telescope images. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

     
    Bumper car-like interactions at the edges of our solar system – and not a mysterious ninth planet – may explain the dynamics of strange bodies called “detached objects,” according to a new study. CU Boulder Assistant Professor Ann-Marie Madigan and a team of researchers have offered up a new theory for the existence of planetary oddities like Sedna. This minor planet orbits Earth’s sun at a distance of 8 billion miles but appears separated from the rest of the solar system.
     
    One theory for its unusual dynamics is that an as-of-yet-unseen ninth planet beyond Neptune may have disturbed the orbits of Sedna and other detached objects...
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    Deep Learning Transforms Smartphone Microscopes into Laboratory-grade devices

    April 12, 2018, Categories  Uncategorized

    Image of a blood smear from a cell phone camera (left), following enhancement by the algorithm (center), and taken by a lab microscope (right). Credit: Ozcan Research Group/UCLA

    Image of a blood smear from a cell phone camera (left), following enhancement by the algorithm (center), and taken by a lab microscope (right). Credit: Ozcan Research Group/UCLA

    Researchers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have demonstrated that deep learning, a powerful form of artificial intelligence, can discern and enhance microscopic details in photos taken by smartphones. The technique improves the resolution and color details of smartphone images so much that they approach the quality of images from laboratory-grade microscopes.

    The advance could help bring high-quality medical diagnostics into resource-poor regions, where people otherwise do not have access to high-end diagnostic technologies...

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    Meteorite Hunters find First Fragments of Michigan Meteor

    January 22, 2018, Categories  Uncategorized

    Meteorite hunters find first fragments of Michigan meteor

    A piece of stony-iron meteorite sits on a display during a press conference, Friday, Jan. 19, 2018, at the Longway Planetarium in Flint, Mich. Longway Planetarium astronomers have located three meteorites, after a meteor broke apart about 20 miles over Earth Tuesday. Most of the meteorite’s fragments landed in Hamburg Township, Mich. The meteor will be sent to NASA for analysis. (Bronte Wittpenn/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP)

    Meteorite hunters who flocked to Detroit from across the U.S. after a meteor exploded are finding the fragments. The 6-foot-wide meteor broke apart Tuesday about 20 miles over Earth, NASA scientists said. Most of the fragments landed in Hamburg Township...

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    Method uses DNA, Nanoparticles and Lithography to make Optically Active Structures

    January 21, 2018, Categories  Uncategorized

    Northwestern University researchers have developed a new method to precisely arrange nanoparticles of different sizes and shapes in two and three dimensions, resulting in optically active superlattices. Credit: Northwestern University

    Northwestern University researchers have developed a new method to precisely arrange nanoparticles of different sizes and shapes in two and three dimensions, resulting in optically active superlattices. Credit: Northwestern University

    Technique could lead to new classes of materials that can bend light, such as for those used in cloaking devices. Northwestern University researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind technique for creating entirely new classes of optical materials and devices that could lead to light bending and cloaking devices – news to make the ears of Star Trek’s Spock perk up. Using DNA as a key tool, the interdisciplinary team took gold nanoparticles of different sizes and shapes and arranged them in two and three dimensions to form optically active superlattices...

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