The world's most famous painting has now been created on the world's smallest canvas. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have "painted" the Mona Lisa on a substrate surface approximately 30 microns in width – or one-third the width of a human hair. The team's creation, the "Mini Lisa," demonstrates a technique that could potentially be used to achieve nanomanufacturing of devices because the team was able to vary the surface concentration of molecules on such short-length scales.
Earth
Researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a way for photographers and microscopists to create a 3D image through a single lens, without moving the camera.
Published in the journal Optics Letters, this improbable-sounding technology relies only on computation and mathematics—no unusual hardware or fancy lenses. The effect is the equivalent of seeing a stereo image with one eye closed.
FROSTBURG, MD (August 5, 2013)—Climate changes how species interact with one another—and not just today. Scientists are studying trends from fossil records to understand how climate change impacted the world in the ancient past and to identify ways to predict how things may change in the future, according to a new study published in the August 2 issue of Science.
There is no high quality evidence that antioxidant supplements help to increase a woman's chances of having a baby, according to the results of a new systematic review. The review, published in The Cochrane Library, found women were no more likely to conceive when taking oral antioxidants and that there was limited information about potential harms.
DURHAM, N.C. -- Microscopic tears in a new kind of man-made material may actually help the substance bulk up like a bodybuilder at the gym.
"We've shown how normally destructive mechanical forces can be channeled to bring about stronger materials," said Duke chemist Steve Craig, who led the research. "The material responses are like Silly Putty transforming into a solid as stiff as the cap of a pen or a runny liquid transforming into soft Jell-O."
Warming oceans are causing marine species to change breeding times and shift homes with expected substantial consequences for the broader marine landscape, according to a new global study.
The three-year research project, funded by the National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in California, has shown widespread systemic shifts in measures such as distribution of species and phenology – the timing of nature's calendar – on a scale comparable to or greater than those observed on land.
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface, yet our knowledge of the impact of climate change on marine habitats is a mere drop in the proverbial ocean compared to terrestrial systems. An international team of scientists set out to change that by conducting a global meta-analysis of climate change impacts on marine systems.
Counter to previous thinking, marine species are shifting their geographic distribution toward the poles and doing so much faster than their land-based counterparts. The findings were published in Nature Climate Change.
Pyroclastic flows are ground-hugging dense mixtures of gas and particles generated during volcanic eruptions.
Field evidence shows that they can entrain blocks from underlying substrates formed by earlier geological events, yet, counter-intuitively, they are less likely to erode unconsolidated layers of fine particles.
RICHLAND, Wash. -- Chemists have unexpectedly made two differently colored crystals – one orange, the other blue – from one chemical in the same flask while studying a special kind of molecular connection called an agostic bond. The discovery, reported in Angewandte Chemie International Edition on July 29, is providing new insights into important industrial chemical reactions such as those that occur while making plastics and fuels.
Most aircraft carrying Doppler radar look like they've grown a tail, developed a dorsal fin, or sprouted a giant pancake on their backs. But when the unmanned Global Hawk carries a radar system this summer, its cargo will be hard to see. The autonomous and compact High-altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Profiler, or HIWRAP, a dual-frequency conical-scanning Doppler radar, will hang under the aircraft's belly as it flies above hurricanes to measure wind and rain and to test a new method for retrieving wind data.
SAN FRANCISCO -- New evidence suggests the 1906 earthquake ruptured the San Andreas Fault in a single trace through Portola Village, current day Town of Portola Valley, and indicates a revised location for the fault trace.
Portola Valley, south of San Francisco, has been extensively studied and the subject of the first geological map published in California. Yet studies have offered conflicting conclusions, caused in part by a misprinted photograph and unpublished data, as to the location and nature of the 1906 surface rupture through the area.
Washington, DC—Researchers reviewed the likelihood of continued changes to the terrestrial climate, including an analysis of a collection of 27 climate models. If emissions of heat-trapping gases continue along the recent trajectory, 21st century mean annual global warming could exceed 3.6 °F ( 2 °C) over most terrestrial regions during 2046 to 2065 and 7.2 °F (4 °C) during 2081-2100. If warming occurs at this pace, it will probably be the most rapid large climate change in the last 65 million years.
The planet is undergoing one of the largest changes in climate since the dinosaurs went extinct. But what might be even more troubling for humans, plants and animals is the speed of the change. Stanford climate scientists warn that the likely rate of change over the next century will be at least 10 times quicker than any climate shift in the past 65 million years.
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Climate change is likely fueling the larger and more destructive wildfires that are scorching vast areas of the American West, according to new research led by Michigan State University scientists.
These erratic fires are harder to contain and often result in catastrophic damage and loss of property and life. Although not analyzed in the study, the recent Arizona wildfire that began with a lightning strike and killed 19 firefighters appeared to be such an unpredictable, fast-spreading blaze, according to a state report.
Probing the preformation of the α-particle in the α-decay process is a very attractive subject in studies of nuclear structure. Recently, this crucial α-preformation probability was empirically deduced and exhibits a new feature that had been inferred to some extent by Professor REN Zhongzhou and his group from Department of Physics, Nanjing University. This work, titled "Model-independent trend of α-preformation probability", was published in SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy 2013, Vol. 56(8).