A team of researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, have discovered a new nano-scale thin film material with the highest-ever conductivity in its class.

A new nano-scale thin film material with the highest-ever conductivity in its class has been found by a team of researchers, led by the University of Minnesota. The new material could lead to smaller, faster, and more powerful electronics, as well as more efficient solar cells. Besides high conductivity, it also has a wide bandgap, which means light can easily pass through the material making it optically transparent. In most cases, materials with wide bandgap, usually have either low conductivity or poor transparency.

“The high conductivity and wide bandgap make this an ideal material for making optically transparent conducting fil...

The Rapid Acquisition Imaging Spectrograph Experiment or RAISE was successfully launched at 2:24:58 p.m. EDT, May 5. The payload was launched on a NASA Black Brant IX sounding rocket at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and flew to an altitude of 184 miles The experimenter, Don Hassler with the Southwest Research Institute, reported that good data from the instruments observing the sun was received during the flight. The payload is being recovered.

The NASA-funded RAISE mission scrutinized split-second changes occurring near the sun’s active regions — areas of intense, complex magnetic activity that can give rise to solar flares, which eject energy and solar material out into space...

Cinnamon (1 tsp) copyright American Heart Association

Cinnamon may lessen the risk of cardiovascular damage of a high-fat diet by activating the body’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory systems and slowing the fat-storing process, according to a preliminary animal study presented at the American Heart Association’s Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology | Peripheral Vascular Disease 2017 Scientific Sessions.

In the study, researchers fed rats cinnamon supplements for 12 weeks along with a high-fat diet. They found: The rats weighed less and had less belly fat and healthier levels of sugar, insulin and fat in their blood, compared to rats that did not receive cinnamon with their high-fat foods...

Image of photonic hypercrystals courtesy of Tal Galfsky

Control of light-matter interaction is central to fundamental phenomena and technologies such as photosynthesis, lasers, LEDs and solar cells. City College of New York researchers have now demonstrated a new class of artificial media called photonic hypercrystals that can control light-matter interaction in unprecedented ways. This could lead to such benefits as ultrafast LEDs for Li-Fi (a wireless technology that transmits high-speed data using visible light communication), enhanced absorption in solar cells and the development of single photon emitters for quantum information processing, said Vinod M. Menon, professor of physics in City College’s Division of Science.

Photonic crystals and metamaterials are two of the most well-known...