A highly sensitive chemical sensor based on Raman spectroscopy and using nitrogen-doped graphene as a substrate was developed by an international team of researchers working at Penn State. In this case, doping refers to introducing nitrogen atoms into the carbon structure of graphene. This technique can detect trace amounts of molecules in a solution at very low concentrations, some 10,000 times more diluted than can be seen by the naked eye.
Earth
As Tropical Storm Georgette was forming, the Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite flew overhead and gathered data that showed an intensifying storm.
The eastern Pacific Ocean continues to show that its environment is favorable for the birth of tropical cyclones. Tropical Depression 8-E developed early on July 22 hours later strengthened into Tropical Storm Georgette. Georgette quickly follows Tropical Storm Frank as the latest example of tropical cyclogenesis in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
The Suomi NPP satellite passed over Tropical Storm Estelle as it was transitioning to a post-tropical storm in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Today, a team of leading scientists and community experts with decades of experience released key recommendations to maintain and build land in coastal Louisiana. Their recommendations focus on operating Mississippi River sediment diversions and consider the needs of communities, wildlife and fisheries.
An international team of researchers has predicted the existence of several previously unknown types of quantum particles in materials. The particles -- which belong to the class of particles known as fermions -- can be distinguished by several intrinsic properties, such as their responses to applied magnetic and electric fields. In several cases, fermions in the interior of the material show their presence on the surface via the appearance of electron states called Fermi arcs, which link the different types of fermion states in the material's bulk.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass -- Adapting an old trick used for centuries by both metalsmiths and pastry makers, a team of researchers at MIT has found a way to efficiently create composite materials containing hundreds of layers that are just atoms thick but span the full width of the material. The discovery could open up wide-ranging possibilities for designing new, easy-to-manufacture composites for optical devices, electronic systems, and high-tech materials.
There is some consolation in how the fossil fuel-induced climatic changes we increasingly experience through droughts and storm surges are playing out. It could have happened sooner, and therefore already have been much worse.
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., July 21, 2016--The triggering of small, deep earthquakes along California's San Andreas Fault reveals depth-dependent frictional behavior that may provide insight into patterns signaling when a major quake could be on the horizon, according to a paper released this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Using today's advanced microscopes, scientists are able to capture exponentially more information about the materials they study compared to a decade ago--in greater detail and in less time. While these new capabilities are a boon for researchers, helping to answer key questions that could lead to next-generation technologies, they also present a new problem: How to make effective use of all this data?
In today's world of ever-increasing digital information storage and computation, the next information storage revolution seeks to exploit a novel effect arising from the relativistic physics of Einstein which allows to make a new type of magnet behave like cats. Similar to the ability of a cat to flip itself in the air by twisting different parts of its body in different directions and land on its feet, these magnets can flip themselves through the internal motion of their own electrons.
University of Adelaide physicists have discovered that the timing of electronic orders on the stock market can be mathematically described in the same way as the lifetime of a light bulb.
The surprising finding is a "crucial first step" towards predicting dramatic movements on stock exchanges that could lead to stock market crashes.
Carbon dioxide has emerged as a secret ingredient in the recipe for making ethanol, and that addition represents a major step forward in streamlining the biofuel production process.
When mineral-rich water drips from a cave's ceiling over centuries and millennia, it forms rocky cones that hold clues to the Earth's past climate. Now, researchers in Australia and the UK have found that these structures can also help trace past wildfires that burned above the cave. Their research is published today (21 July) in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, an open access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).
LEAD, S.D., U.S.A. / SHEFFIELD, U.K. -- The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter experiment, which operates beneath a mile of rock at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in the Black Hills of South Dakota, has completed its silent search for the missing matter of the universe.
LEAD, SD, USA / SHEFFIELD, UK -- The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter experiment, which operates beneath a mile of rock at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in the Black Hills of South Dakota, has completed its search for the missing matter of the universe.