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    Exoplanet apparently Disappears in Latest Hubble Observations

    April 21, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This diagram simulates what astronomers, studying Hubble Space Telescope observations, taken over several years, consider evidence for the first-ever detection of the aftermath of a titanic planetary collision in another star system. The color-tinted Hubble image on the left is of a vast ring of icy debris encircling the star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away. The star is so brilliant that a black occulting disk is used to block out its glare so that the dust ring can be photographed. In 2008, astronomers saw what they thought was the first direct image of a planet orbiting far from the star. However, by 2014, the planet candidate faded below Hubble’s detection...
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    Synthetic Scaffolds to Heal Injured Tendons and Ligaments

    April 21, 2020, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    The research hopes to improve the outcomes of sport injury surgeries. Credit: Pixabay

    The research hopes to improve the outcomes of sport injury surgeries. Credit: Pixabay

    Top biomedical engineering researcher develops synthetic scaffolds for tendon and ligament regeneration. Australia’s love of sport means it has one of the highest rates of knee anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and reconstruction in the world.

    Worldwide, the costs of tendon and ligament rupture repair and surgery revision represent tens of billions of dollars of the clinical orthopaedic market.

    A team of biomedical engineering researchers from the University of Sydney, working with Columbia University’s Regenerative Engineering Laboratory and FAU Erlangen-Nurnberg Institute of Medical Biotechnology (Germany), are hoping to improve the outcomes of tendon and ligament repair by developing a new synthe...

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    New discovery settles Long-Standing Debate about Photovoltaic Materials

    April 20, 2020, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    Ames Laboratory scientists discovered evidence of the Rashba effect by using extremely strong and powerful bursts of light firing at trillions of cycles per second to switch on or synchronize a “beat” of quantum motion within a material sample; and a second burst of light to “listen” to the beats, triggering an ultrafast receiver to record images of the oscillating state of matter. Credit: US Department of Energy, Ames Laboratory

    Scientists have theorized that organometallic halide perovskites— a class of light harvesting “wonder” materials for applications in solar cells and quantum electronics— are so promising due to an unseen yet highly controversial mechanism called the Rashba effect. Scientists at the U.S...

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    California Nebula Stars in final mosaic by NASA’s Spitzer

    April 20, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Figure A shows the section of the nebula captured by Spitzer in the context of a larger, visible-light image of the nebula.

    Five days before NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope ended its mission on Jan. 30, 2020, scientists used the spacecraft’s infrared camera to take multiple images of a region known as the California Nebula—a fitting target considering the mission’s management and science operations were both based in Southern California at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech. This mosaic is made from those images. It is the final mosaic image taken by Spitzer and one of hundreds the spacecraft captured throughout its lifetime.

    Located about 1,000 light-years from Earth, the nebula looks more than a little like the Golden State when viewed by visible-light telescopes: It is...

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