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    Nanobionic Spinach plants can detect Explosives

    November 2, 2016, Categories  Uncategorized

    Nitroaromatic detection and infrared communication in wild-type plants via plant nanobionics.

    Nitroaromatic detection and infrared communication in wild-type plants via plant nanobionics.

    After sensing dangerous chemicals, the carbon-nanotube-enhanced plants send an alert. Spinach is no longer just a superfood: By embedding leaves with CNTs, MIT engineers have transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld device similar to a smartphone. This is one of the first demonstrations of engineering electronic systems into plants, an approach that the researchers call “plant nanobionics.”

    “The goal of plant nanobionics is to introduce nanoparticles into the plant to give it non-native functions,” says Prof. Michael Strano, Chemical Engineering, MIT...

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    Flexible Solar panel goes where Silicon can’t

    November 2, 2016, Categories  Uncategorized

    Post-doctoral researcher Congcong Wu, who is working in the lab of Shashank Priya, the Robert E. Hord Jr. Professor of Mechanical Engineering, holds up a layer of the flexible solar panel the group is working on. The process to adhere a thin film of titanium oxide to the panel takes less than 10 seconds using screen-printing technology.

    Post-doctoral researcher Congcong Wu, who is working in the lab of Shashank Priya, the Robert E. Hord Jr. Professor of Mechanical Engineering, holds up a layer of the flexible solar panel the group is working on. The process to adhere a thin film of titanium oxide to the panel takes less than 10 seconds using screen-printing technology.

    In the very near future, recycling light energy may be easier than recycling any other item in your house. Led by Shashank Priya, a team at Virginia Tech is producing flexible solar panels that can become part of window shades or wallpaper that will capture light from the sun as well as light from sources inside buildings...

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    Pillars of Destruction: Colourful Carina Nebula blasted by brilliant nearby stars

    November 2, 2016, Categories  Uncategorized

    Spectacular new observations of vast pillar-like structures within the Carina Nebula have been made using the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The different pillars analysed by an international team seem to be pillars of destruction — in contrast to the name of the iconic Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, which are of similar nature.

    Spectacular new observations of vast pillar-like structures within the Carina Nebula have been made using the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The different pillars analysed by an international team seem to be pillars of destruction — in contrast to the name of the iconic Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, which are of similar nature.

    Spectacular new observations of vast pillar-like structures within the Carina Nebula have been made using the MUSE instrument on ESO’s VLT. The different pillars analysed by an international team seem to be pillars of destruction—in contrast to the name of the iconic Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, which are of similar nature...

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    New Model explains the Moon’s Weird Orbit

    November 2, 2016, Categories  Uncategorized

    In the "giant impact" model of the moon's formation, the young moon began its orbit within Earth's equatorial plane. In the standard variant of this model (top panel), Earth's tilt began near today's value of 23.5 degrees. The moon would have moved outward smoothly along a path that slowly changed from the equatorial plane to the "ecliptic" plane, defined by Earth's orbit around the sun. If, however, Earth had a much larger tilt after the impact (~75 degrees, lower panel) then the transition between the equatorial and ecliptic planes would have been abrupt, resulting in large oscillations about the ecliptic. The second picture is consistent with the moon's current 5-degree orbital tilt away from the ecliptic. Credit: Douglas Hamilton

    In the “giant impact” model of the moon’s formation, the young moon began its orbit within Earth’s equatorial plane. In the standard variant of this model (top panel), Earth’s tilt began near today’s value of 23.5 degrees. The moon would have moved outward smoothly along a path that slowly changed from the equatorial plane to the “ecliptic” plane, defined by Earth’s orbit around the sun. If, however, Earth had a much larger tilt after the impact (~75 degrees, lower panel) then the transition between the equatorial and ecliptic planes would have been abrupt, resulting in large oscillations about the ecliptic. The second picture is consistent with the moon’s current 5-degree orbital tilt away from the ecliptic. Credit: Douglas Hamilton

    Simulations suggest a dramatic history for the Earth-moo...

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