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    The Mother of all Motion Sensors

    August 15, 2024, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    1) Sandia National Laboratories’ four-channel, silicon photonic single-sideband modulator chip, measuring 8 millimeters on each side and marked with a green Sandia thunderbird logo, sits inside packaging that incorporates optical fibers, wire bonds and ceramic pins. (Photo by Craig Fritz) Click on the thumbnail for a high-resolution image. 2)Sandia National Laboratories scientist Jongmin Lee, left, prepares a rubidium cold-atom cell for an atom interferometry experiment while scientists Ashok Kodigala, right, and Michael Gehl initialize the controls for a packaged single-sideband modulator chip. (Photo by Craig Fritz) Click on the thumbnail for a high-resolution image.

    Quantum sensing milestone draws closer exquisitely accurate, GPS-free navigation...

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    SwRI-led team finds Evidence of Hydration on Asteroid Psyche

    August 14, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Computer generated image of Psyche asteroid impact
    Courtesy of SwRI An SwRI-led team used NASA’s Webb telescope, shown in the bottom right corner of this illustration, to confirm the presence of hydrated minerals on the surface of Psyche, a massive and heavily metallic body in the main asteroid belt. These findings suggest a complex history for this interesting asteroid, which many scientists think could be the remnant core of a protoplanet, including impacts with hydrated asteroids.

    Webb telescope data indicate a complex history for the metallic asteroid. Using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a Southwest Research Institute-led team has confirmed hydroxyl molecules on the surface of the metallic asteroid Psyche...

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    AI Accurately Diagnoses Genetic Condition from Facial Photographs

    August 13, 2024, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    population
    Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

    A Yale School of Medicine team reports in a new study that an artificial intelligence (AI) model was able to reliably diagnose people living with Marfan syndrome from a simple facial photograph.

    Marfan syndrome is a genetic disorder, affecting about 1 in 3,000 people, which impacts the body’s connective tissues. “Patients living with Marfan syndrome are usually very tall and thin,” said John Elefteriades, MD, professor of surgery at Yale School of Medicine and senior author of the study. “They have long faces and are prone to spine and joint issues. However, many are not diagnosed.”

    Marfan syndrome increases the risk for aortic dissection, where the aorta splits suddenly after becoming enlarged...

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    Scientists Find Oceans of Water on Mars. It’s just Too Deep to Tap.

    August 13, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    a triangular wedge of Mars hangs over a photo of planet, with a fly-like model on top
    A cutout of the Martian interior beneath NASA’s Insight lander. The top 5 kilometers of the crust appear to be dry, but a new study provides evidence for a zone of fractured rock 11.5-20 km below the surface that is full of liquid water — more than the volume proposed to have filled hypothesized ancient Martian oceans. James Tuttle Keane and Aaron Rodriquez, courtesy of Scripps Institution of Oceanography

    Using seismic activity to probe the interior of Mars, geophysicists have found evidence for a large underground reservoir of liquid water—enough to fill oceans on the planet’s surface.

    The data from NASA’s Insight lander allowed the scientists to estimate that the amount of groundwater could cover the entire planet to a depth of between 1 and 2 kilometers, or about a mile.

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