Recent Comments

    Light-controlled Higgs modes found in Superconductors; potential Sensor, Computing uses

    January 21, 2021, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    This illustration shows light-controlled Higgs modes in a superconductor.

    Researchers have discovered a short-lived form of the famous Higgs boson — subject of a groundbreaking search at the Large Hadron Collider — within an iron-based superconductor. This Higgs mode can be accessed and controlled by laser light flashing on the superconductor at trillions of pulses per second.

    There was the title of a 1993 book by Nobel laureate Leon Lederman that dubbed the Higgs “The God Particle.” There was the search for the Higgs particle that launched after 2009’s first collisions inside the Large Hadron Collider in Europe...

    Read More

    Astronomers dissect the Anatomy of Planetary Nebulae using Hubble Space Telescope images

    January 20, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    side-by-side images of the Jewel Bug Nebula using different colors to highlight different areas.
    STScI, Alyssa Pagan; P. Moraga (RIT) et al.
    On the left is an image of the Jewel Bug Nebula (NGC 7027) captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2019 and released in 2020. Further analysis by researchers produced the RGB image on the right, which shows extinction due to dust, as inferred from the relative strength of two hydrogen emission lines, as red; emission from sulfur, relative to hydrogen, as green; and emission from iron as blue.

    Researchers shed new light on nebula formation processes. Images of two iconic planetary nebulae taken by the Hubble Space Telescope are revealing new information about how they develop their dramatic features...

    Read More

    Rapid Blood Test identifies COVID-19 patients at high risk of severe disease

    January 20, 2021, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    WANDY BEATTYA new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that measuring mitochondrial DNA in the blood of patients with COVID-19 can help predict which patients are at highest risk of severe disease, requiring more intensive care. Mitochondrial DNA levels are a measure of tissue damage. Pictured are damaged mitochondria (dark grey areas) released from human lungs. The small dark dots surrounding the mitochondria are magnetic beads that carry antibodies used to isolate and study unhealthy mitochondria that have been released from dying tissues.

    Measuring mitochondrial DNA could predict who will need ICU care, intubation...

    Read More

    Inexpensive Battery Charges Rapidly for Electric Vehicles, Reduces Range Anxiety

    January 20, 2021, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Drawing of green modern car on a road attached by a plug to a charging station
    A thermally modulated battery for mass-market electric vehicles without range anxiety and with unsurpassed safety, low cost, and containing no cobalt, is being developed by a team of Penn State engineers.
     IMAGE: CHAO-YANG WANG’S LAB, PENN STATE

    Range anxiety, the fear of running out of power before being able to recharge an electric vehicle, may be a thing of the past, according to a team of Penn State engineers who are looking at lithium iron phosphate batteries that have a range of 250 miles with the ability to charge in 10 minutes.

    “We developed a pretty clever battery for mass-market electric vehicles with cost parity with combustion engine vehicles,” said Chao-Yang Wang, William E...

    Read More