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    New Catalyst turns Ammonia into an Innovative Clean Fuel

    April 30, 2018, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology, Environment/Geology

    CuOx/3A2S selectively produces N2 and H2O from NH3 through a two-step reaction. Credit: Dr. Satoshi Hinokuma

    CuOx/3A2S selectively produces N2 and H2O from NH3 through a two-step reaction. Credit: Dr. Satoshi Hinokuma

    Ammonia (NH3) has attracted attention in recent years as a carbon-free fuel that does not emit carbon dioxide. For use as a fuel, it should have a lower combustion temperature and produce only nitrogen (N2) and water. Now, researchers have succeeded in developing a new catalyst that burns NH3 at a low temperature and produces N2. The results are expected to contribute to climate change countermeasures and increased renewable energy use.

    NH3 is a combustible gas that can be widely used in thermal power generation and industrial furnaces as an alternative to gasoline and light oil...

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    A Powerful Laser Breakthrough

    April 30, 2018, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Top: A scanning electron microscope image of a high-power surface-emitting terahertz semiconductor laser with hybrid gratings. Multiple lasers are fabricated on a Gallium Arsenide semiconductor chip. Each laser is approximately 1.5mm long, 10 microns thick and varies in width between 0.1mm to 0.2mm. Bottom: Artistic illustration of the terahertz laser in operation. The laser's semiconductor material is sandwiched between metallic layers on both top and bottom. A periodic grating is introduced in the top metallic layer in the form of apertures from where light could leak out. An interplay of second- and fourth-order Bragg gratings (manifested as alternating single and double slits) leads to intense radiation from alternating periods of the periodic structure, combining coherently into a high quality single-lobed laser beam in the surface-normal direction. Credit: Sushil Kumar, Lehigh University

    Top: A scanning electron microscope image of a high-power surface-emitting terahertz semiconductor laser with hybrid gratings. Multiple lasers are fabricated on a Gallium Arsenide semiconductor chip. Each laser is approximately 1.5mm long, 10 microns thick and varies in width between 0.1mm to 0.2mm. Bottom: Artistic illustration of the terahertz laser in operation. The laser’s semiconductor material is sandwiched between metallic layers on both top and bottom. A periodic grating is introduced in the top metallic layer in the form of apertures from where light could leak out...

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    A Yellowstone Guide to Life on Mars

    April 30, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Spectroscopy reveals elements such as gallium in a bacterial sample taken from silica in Yellowstone National Park. (Andrew Gangidine)

    Spectroscopy reveals elements such as gallium in a bacterial sample taken from silica in Yellowstone National Park. (Andrew Gangidine)

    Geologists are looking for an elemental biosignature that might help NASA identify life on the red planet during the Mars 2020 rover mission. Doctoral candidate Andrew Gangidine is working with UC geology professor Andrew Czaja to develop a marker for ancient bacterial life on Mars. The research could help scientists put to rest one of our most fundamental mysteries. “We’re trying to answer the question: How rare is life in the universe?” Gangidine said.

    Czaja, an assistant professor in UC’s McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, serves on a NASA advisory committee that will decide where on Mars to send the next remote-controlled rover...

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    Mercury’s Thin, Dense Crust

    April 30, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Though Mercury may look drab to the human eye, different minerals appear in a rainbow of colors in this image from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University APL/Carnegie Institution of Washington

    Though Mercury may look drab to the human eye, different minerals appear in a rainbow of colors in this image from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University APL/Carnegie Institution of Washington

    Mercury’s crust is thinner than anyone thought, new mathematical calculations reveal. A planetary scientist has used careful mathematical calculations to determine the density of Mercury’s crust, which is thinner than anyone thought. Mercury is small, fast and close to the sun, making the rocky world challenging to visit. Only one probe has ever orbited the planet and collected enough data to tell scientists about the chemistry and landscape of Mercury’s surface. Learning about what is beneath the surface, however, requires careful estimation.

    After the probe’s mission end...

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