Synthetic process of metal-organic framework nanosheet array. Figure 1 Metal salts and substrate are firstly mixed together in an aqueous solution, and then introduces the organic ligand. Next, the MOF nanosheet array grows on the surface of substrate via a dissolution-crystallization mechanism.

UNSW Sydney chemists have invented a new, cheap catalyst for splitting water with an electrical current to efficiently produce clean hydrogen fuel. The technology is based on the creation of ultrathin slices of porous metal-organic complex materials coated onto a foam electrode, which have are highly conductive of electricity and active for splitting water...

This diagram compares Hubble Space Telescope observations of two “hot Jupiter”-class planets orbiting very closely to different sunlike stars. Astronomers measured how light from each parent star is filtered through each planet’s atmosphere. HAT-P-38 b did have a water signature indicated by the absorption-feature peak in the spectrum. This is interpreted as indicating the upper atmosphere is free of clouds or hazes. WASP-67 b, has a flat spectrum that lacks any water-absorption feature, suggesting most of the planet’s atmosphere is masked by high-altitude clouds.
Credits: Artwork: NASA, ESA, and Z. Levy (STScI); Credit: Science: NASA, ESA, and G. Bruno (STScI)

Is it a case of nature versus nurture when it comes to 2 “cousin” exoplanets? In a unique experiment, scientists used NASA’s Hubble...

Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); NASA/ESA Hubble; NRAO/AUI/NSF

An ancient, red giant star in the throes of a frigid death has produced the coldest known object in the cosmos – the Boomerang Nebula. How this star was able to create an environment strikingly colder than the natural background temperature of deep space has been a compelling mystery for more than two decades. The answer, according to astronomers using ALMA may be that a small companion star has plunged into the heart of the red giant, ejecting most the matter of the larger star as an ultra-cold outflow of gas and dust.

This outflow is expanding so rapidly – about 10 times faster than a single star could produce on its own – that its temperature has fallen to less than 0.5 K (-458.5F)...

The internal components of a battery-free pacemaker introduced this week by Rice University and the Texas Heart Institute. The pacemaker can be inserted into the heart and powered by a battery pack outside the body, eliminating the need for wire leads and surgeries to occasionally replace the battery. Courtesy of Rice Integrated Systems and Circuits

Researchers test microwave-powered device. A wireless, battery-less pacemaker that can be implanted directly into a patient’s heart is being introduced by researchers from Rice University and their colleagues at the Texas Heart Institute (THI) at the IEEE’s International Microwave Symposium (IMS) in Honolulu June 4-9...