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    Mars Express detects Liquid Water Hidden under Planet’s South Pole

    July 27, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    ESA’s Mars Express has used radar signals bounced through underground layers of ice to find evidence of a pond of water buried below the south polar cap. Credit: Context map: NASA/Viking; THEMIS background: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University; MARSIS data: ESA/NASA/JPL/ASI/Univ. Rome; R. Orosei et al 2018

    ESA’s Mars Express has used radar signals bounced through underground layers of ice to find evidence of a pond of water buried below the south polar cap. Credit: Context map: NASA/Viking; THEMIS background: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University; MARSIS data: ESA/NASA/JPL/ASI/Univ. Rome; R. Orosei et al 2018

    Radar data collected by ESA’s Mars Express point to a pond of liquid water buried under layers of ice and dust in the south polar region of Mars. Evidence for the Red Planet’s watery past is prevalent across its surface in the form of vast dried-out river valley networks and gigantic outflow channels clearly imaged by orbiting spacecraft...

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    Excitons: Taking Electronics into the Future

    July 27, 2018, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    EPFL researchers have developed a transistor based on excitons – a type of particle most people have not heard of – that is able to function at room temperature. This breakthrough could lead to a new breed of faster, more energy efficient and smaller electronics.

    EPFL researchers have developed a transistor based on excitons – a type of particle most people have not heard of – that is able to function at room temperature. This breakthrough could lead to a new breed of faster, more energy efficient and smaller electronics.

    Excitons could revolutionize the way engineers approach electronics. A team of EPFL researchers has created a new type of transistor – one of the components of circuits – using these particles instead of electrons. What is remarkable is that their exciton-based transistor functions effectively at room temperature, a hitherto insurmountable obstacle. They achieved this by using two 2D materials as semiconductors...

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    More Mysteries of Metallic Hydrogen

    July 26, 2018, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Metallic hydrogen is one of the rarest materials on earth yet it makes up more than 80% of planets like Jupiter. Researchers at the the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics created metallic hydrogen in the lab to study Jupiter’s magnetic field. The research has implications in planet formation and evolution, including how planets both inside and outside our solar system form magnetic shields. (NASA / JPL photo)

    Liquid metallic hydrogen is not present naturally on Earth and has only been created in a handful of places. Now scientists are researching the properties of liquid metallic hydrogen to understand how planets both inside and outside our solar system form magnetic shields...

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    Discovery reveals how Obesity causes disease – and 2 ways to stop it

    July 26, 2018, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Norbert Leitinger, Ph.D. (left), and Vlad Serbulea, Ph.D., of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, have determined why obesity causes harmful inflammation that can lead to diabetes, clogged arteries and other health problems. Doctors may be able to use this knowledge to battle these chronic diseases and others driven by damaging inflammation.
    Credit: Dan Addison, University of Virginia Communications

    Finding points to new approaches to battling diabetes, other chronic conditions. New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine explains why obesity causes harmful inflammation that can lead to diabetes, clogged arteries and other health problems. Doctors may be able to use this knowledge to battle these chronic diseases and others driven by damaging inflammation...

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