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    Single Metalens focuses all colors of the Rainbow in One Point; opens new possibilities in Virtual, Augmented Reality

    January 1, 2018, Categories  Technology/Electronics, Physics

    This flat metalens is the first single lens that can focus the entire visible spectrum of light -- including white light -- in the same spot and in high resolution. It uses arrays of titanium dioxide nanofins to equally focus wavelengths of light and eliminate chromatic aberration. Credit: Jared Sisler/Harvard SEAS

    This flat metalens is the first single lens that can focus the entire visible spectrum of light — including white light — in the same spot and in high resolution. It uses arrays of titanium dioxide nanofins to equally focus wavelengths of light and eliminate chromatic aberration. Credit: Jared Sisler/Harvard SEAS

    Metalenses—flat surfaces that use nanostructures to focus light—promise to revolutionize optics by replacing the bulky, curved lenses currently used in optical devices with a simple, flat surface. But, these metalenses have remained limited in the spectrum of light they can focus well. Now a team of researchers at the Harvard John A...

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    Supermassive Black Holes control Star Formation in large galaxies

    January 1, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    centaurus-a-410.jpg

    The power of a supermassive black hole is seen in this image of Centaurus A, one of the active galactic nuclei closest to Earth. The image combines data from several telescopes at different wavelengths, showing jets and lobes powered by the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. Image credit: ESO/WFI (Optical); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al. (Submillimetre); NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al. (X-ray)

    Young galaxies blaze with bright new stars forming at a rapid rate, but star formation eventually shuts down as a galaxy evolves. A new study shows that the mass of the black hole in the center of the galaxy determines how soon this “quenching” of star formation occurs...

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    Novel Complementary Effects of Estrogen Treatment in Multiple Sclerosis

    December 31, 2017, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Immunofluorescence images of spinal cord tissues stained with CD11c-GFP (green), ERβ (red) and nuclear stain DAPI (blue) with merged images for co-localization (yellow) on right. Top row: CD11c-cre-GFP+ control mice showed co-localization (white arrows) of CD11c-GFP and ERβ. Bottom row: CD11c-cre-GFP+;ERβfl/fl CKO mice did not show co-localization (white arrows). Orange arrows represent other cells in the CNS expressing ER&beta. NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to Kim et al./Brain.

    Immunofluorescence images of spinal cord tissues stained with CD11c-GFP (green), ERβ (red) and nuclear stain DAPI (blue) with merged images for co-localization (yellow) on right. Top row: CD11c-cre-GFP+ control mice showed co-localization (white arrows) of CD11c-GFP and ERβ. Bottom row: CD11c-cre-GFP+;ERβfl/fl CKO mice did not show co-localization (white arrows). Orange arrows represent other cells in the CNS expressing ER&beta. NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to Kim et al./Brain.

    UCLA researchers reveal the mechanism behind how estrogen can protect CNS system damage in people with MS. The researchers report estrogen treatments have positive effects on immune cells in the brain and oligodendrocytes. Complementary actions on these two types provide protection from disease.

    Multipl...

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    NASA’s Flying Observatory SOFIA to Explore Magnetic Universe and Beyond

    December 31, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Image of polarization measurements capturing the structure of the magnetic field in the Orion star forming region.

    HAWC+ performed polarization measurements at 89 μm to capture the structure of the magnetic field in the Orion star forming region. Each line segment represents the orientation of the magnetic field at that location, overlaid on an image of the total intensity at the same wavelength. Credits: NASA/SOFIA/Caltech/Darren Dowell

    NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, is preparing for its 2018 observing campaign, which will include observations of celestial magnetic fields, star-forming regions, comets, Saturn’s giant moon Titan and more. This will be the fourth year of full operations for SOFIA, with observations planned between February 2018 and January 2019...

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