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Researcher solves 37-year old lunar mysteryResearcher solves 37-year old lunar mystery

The 35-kilometer lunar trek by the Soviet Union’s Lunokhod 2 still holds the record for distance by a robotic rover on a celestial body. Using his own lunar atlas and NASA images, Phil Stooke, a researcher in Canada, has found the rover and its tracks. Recent images and data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter confirmed the location.

Mars Express buzzes Phobos

Mars Express buzzes Phobos

Images from the recent flyby of Phobos—a proposed landing for an upcoming mission—were captured on the rarely seen “dark side” of the Martian moon thanks to the highly elliptical orbit of the Mars Express that takes outside the moon’s path. The images were also taken as part of the High Resolution Stereo Camera experiment.

Testing century-old calculations

Testing century-old calculations

Calculations are fine, but seeing is believing. That's the thought behind a new paper by Rice Univ. students who decided to put to the test calculations made more than a century ago.

Nano-based RFID tags could replace bar codes

Nano-based RFID tags could replace bar codes

A carbon-nanotube-infused ink for ink-jet printers first developed in the Rice Univ. lab of James Tour has been used to make thin-film transistors in radio-frequency identification tags that can be printed on paper or plastic. The transmitter can be invisibly embedded in packaging, instantly sharing far more information than a bar code.

First look inside Jupiter's Great Red Spot

First look inside Jupiter's Great Red Spot

The biggest storm in the Solar System has attracted a lot of attention over the years, but the extreme complexity of the storm system has only just recently come to light through intense study by the Very Large Telescope in Chile and the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii. They show that despite continuous upheaval the Spot is remarkably stable.

Bacteria could put lock on uranium that threatens groundwater

Bacteria could put lock on uranium that threatens groundwater

Scientists already know that some types of bacteria can alter uranium (VI)—a radioactive, toxic, and water-soluble relic of the Cold War era—into uranium (IV)—insoluble, stationary, and less harmful. Argonne Lab studies are beginning to unlock this pathway, but because bacteria interact with so many other elements, harnessing their abilities will prove difficult.

Our defensive chemical sensors are almost as ancient as vision

 The detection of tissue-damaging pungent chemicals like those found in wasabi, tear gas and cigarette smoke is called chemical nociception. It’s different than either taste or smell, and according to recent phylogenetics research, this defensive sensor has been conserved across 500 million years of evolution.

Unexpected finding: Light can twist ribbons of nanoparticles

Unexpected finding: Light can twist ribbons of nanoparticles

In findings that took the experimenters three years to believe, Univ. of Michigan engineers and their collaborators have demonstrated that light itself can twist ribbons of nanoparticles.

DNA nanotubes offer promising applications in medicine

A team of McGill Chemistry Department researchers led by Dr. Hanadi Sleiman has achieved a breakthrough in the development of nanotubes—tiny "magic bullets" that could one day deliver drugs to specific diseased cells.

Solving hydrogen storage issues with layered graphene sheets

Solving hydrogen storage issues with layered graphene sheets

Graphene—carbon formed into sheets a single atom thick—now appears to be a promising base material for capturing hydrogen, according to recent research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Univ. of Pennsylvania. The findings suggest stacks of graphene layers could potentially store hydrogen safely for use in fuel cells and other applications.

Turning proteins into glass

Duke Univ. researchers have devised a method to dry and preserve proteins in a glassified form that seems to retain the molecules' properties as workhorses of biology.

Testimony: Mastery of rare earth elements vital to U.S. security

Testimony: Mastery of rare earth elements vital to U.S. security

Karl A. Gschneidner Jr., a senior metallurgist at Ames Lab, spoke before a House Subcommittee this week, cautioning them that rare-earth R&D in America is “virtually zero”. He went on to say that expertise in rare-earth alloying is crucial to economic performance and that the U.S. has given up much ground to other countries in this area.

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Much ado about next to nothing

Much ado about next to nothing

The recent review of the past 10 years of the National Nanotechnology Initiative--as presented by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology--suggested the rise of nanomanufacturing as the near future of nanotechnology. But the actual proposed funding reflects a cautious approach, even about nanotech in general.

Lunar tires, space MRSA, and resonating microfluidics

Lunar tires, space MRSA, and resonating microfluidics

I typically attend the annual Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy each year in pursuit of specific coverage. This year, I sought out candidates for coverage in a vacuum technology article, and pulled together some instruments for a spectroscopy guide. But as busy as that kept me, it wasn’t all mass spectrometers and vacuum pumps on the show floor.  

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New JEOL TEM quickly breaks into picoscale territory

 Just three weeks after its installation at the Univ. of Texas San Antonio campus, the latest transmission electron microscope from JEOL delivered data on silicon samples that resolved down to 78 picometers, a level that enables atom-by-atom chemical mapping.

Rapidly deployable shelter to improve disaster response, battlefield support

Today, developers of a new federal disaster response technology demonstrated how the Rapid Deployment Shelter System (RDSS) will shape the future of emergency preparedness and disaster relief. The compact, highly portable rigid wall shelter is easily transportable to domestic and global disaster sites, and may be deployed by one person in less than two minutes with the push of a button.

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Airflow in subways could spread contaminants

As part of a Homeland Security study on the spread of airborne contaminants released in subway systems, Berkeley Lab researchers are measuring the flow of gas throughout tunnels and cars. Subways created significant airflow as they move through tunnels, which could raise risk in the event of a terrorist attack or spill.

Physicists make new discovery in quantum mechanics

Physicists at UC Santa Barbara have made an important advance in quantum mechanics using a superconducting electrical circuit. The researchers showed that they could detect the quantum correlations in the results of measurements of entangled quantum bits, using a superconducting electrical circuit. The correlations are stronger than can be obtained using classical (non-quantum mechanical) physics, and according to the physicists, this illustrates that the oddities of quantum mechanics clearly extend to macroscopic systems.

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