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    Giant Ringed Planet likely cause of Mysterious Eclipses

    June 1, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist's impression of the giant gas planet orbiting the star PDS 110. Credit: University of Warwick

    Artist’s impression of the giant gas planet orbiting the star PDS 110. Credit: University of Warwick

    A giant gas planet – up to 50X the mass of Jupiter, encircled by a ring of dust – is likely hurtling around a star >1000 light years away from Earth, according to new research by an international team of astronomers, led by the University of Warwick. Hugh Osborn, a researcher from Warwick’s Astrophysics Group, has identified that the light from this rare young star is regularly blocked by a large object – and predicts that these eclipses are caused by the orbit of this as-yet undiscovered planet.

    Using data from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) and Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT), Osborn and fellow researchers from Harvard University, Vanderbilt University, and Leiden O...

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    Frost on moon’s surface: New evidence

    June 1, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    In craters near the south pole of the moon, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found some bright areas and some very cold areas. In areas that are both bright and cold, water ice may be present on the surface as frost. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio

    In craters near the south pole of the moon, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found some bright areas and some very cold areas. In areas that are both bright and cold, water ice may be present on the surface as frost. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio

    Scientists using data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, have identified bright areas in craters near the moon’s south pole that are cold enough to have frost present on the surface. The new evidence comes from an analysis that combined surface temperatures with information about how much light is reflected off the moon’s surface.
     
    “We found that the coldest places near the moon’s south pole are also the brightest places – brighter than we would expect from soil alone – and...
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    New Tech Promises easier Cervical Cancer screening

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

    A prototype of the speculum-free “pocket colposcope” being developed by Duke University produces images on a smart phone or laptop and can make cervical cancer screening more accessible to women living in low-resource areas.

    A prototype of the speculum-free “pocket colposcope” being developed by Duke University produces images on a smart phone or laptop and can make cervical cancer screening more accessible to women living in low-resource areas.

    ‘Pocket colposcope’ removes need for speculum, may enable self-screening. Duke University researchers have developed a handheld device for cervical cancer screening that promises to do away with uncomfortable speculums and high-cost colposcopes. The “pocket colposcope” is a slender wand that can connect to many devices, including laptops or cell phones.

    If widely adopted, women might even use the device to self-screen, transforming screening and cure rates in low-income countries and regions of the US, where cervical cancer is most prevalent...

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    Magnetoelectric Memory Cell increases Energy Efficiency for Data Storage

    May 31, 2017, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    Magnetoelectric Memory Cell increases Energy Efficiency for Data Storage

    MELRAM cell and the electric scheme for the magnetic state identification.

    A team from France and Russia has now developed a magnetoelectric random access memory (MELRAM) cell that has the potential to increase power efficiency, and decrease heat waste, by orders of magnitude for read operations at room temperature. The research could aid production of devices such as instant-on laptops, close-to-0-consumption flash drives, and data storage centers that require much less air conditioning.

    Billions of transistors can now be etched onto single chips in a space the size of a dime, but at some point, increasing this number for even better performance using the same space will not be possible...

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