In a background magnetic field, represented by the cyan arrows, two electrons are propagating to the right, executing identical gyromotion. A circularly polarized electromagnetic wave approaches the upper electron from the left.
Credits: NASA

Encircling Earth are two enormous rings – Van Allen radiation belts – of highly energized ions and electrons. Various processes can accelerate these particles to relativistic speeds, which endanger spacecraft unlucky enough to enter these giant bands of damaging radiation. Scientists had previously identified certain factors that might cause particles in the belts to become highly energized, but they had not known which cause dominates.

Now, with new research from NASA’s Van Allen Probes and Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Sub...

Illustration of emissions from a tidal disruption event shows in cross section what happens when the material from a disrupted star is devoured by a black hole. The material forms an accretion disk, which heats up and emits vast amounts of light and radiation. The emissions we are able to see from Earth depend on our viewing angle with respect to the orientation of the black hole. Credit: Illustration by Jane Lixin Dai

A star that wanders too close to the supermassive black hole in the center of its galaxy will be torn apart by the black hole’s gravity in a violent cataclysm called a tidal disruption event (TDE), producing a bright flare of radiation...

This is a graphic about improving OLEDS on the nanoscale. Credit Credit: Joan Rafols Ribé (UAB) and Paul Anton Will (TU Dresden)

Researchers demonstrate the possibility of using ultrastable film formation to improve the performance of state-of-the-art OLEDs. The researchers show in a detailed study significant increases of efficiency and operational stability (>15% for both parameters and all cases, significantly higher for individual samples) are achieved for 4 differentultrastable glasses,.
Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) truly have matured enough to allow for first commercial products in form of small and large displays. In order to compete in further markets and even open new possibilities (automotive lighting, head-mounted-displays, micro displays, etc...

Irina M. Bochkis, Ph.D., of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, has made a new discovery that could let us prevent or cure diseases such as diabetes and fatty liver disease — and possibly let us turn back the clock on aging itself. Credit: Dan Addison, University of Virginia Communications

How would we do it? By using viruses as tiny aestheticians. A new discovery about the effects of aging in our cells could allow doctors to cure or prevent diabetes, fatty liver disease and other metabolic diseases – and possibly even turn back the clock on aging itself. The new finding from the University of Virginia School of Medicine suggests that fatty liver disease and other unwanted effects of aging may be the result of our cells’ nuclei getting wrinkly...