http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- For the past few years, researchers have been using quantum dots to increase the light absorption and overall efficiency of solar cells. Now, researchers have taken a step further, demonstrating that quantum dots with a built-in electric charge can increase the efficiency of InAs/GaAs quantum dot solar cells by 50% or more. http://phys.org/news224489989.html Nanotechnology Fri, 13 May 2011 07:50:01 EST news224489989 (PhysOrg.com) -- One of the most difficult problems for designing mobile devices is finding a way to minimize the size of the device while simultaneously maximizing the size of the display. To get the best of both worlds, researchers from the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology in South Korea have designed and built a prototype of a seamless foldable display that folds in half without a visible crease in the middle. http://phys.org/news224407300.html Physics Thu, 12 May 2011 09:00:01 EST news224407300 A new software called QED (Quantitative Electron Diffraction), which has been licensed by Max Planck Innovation, has now been released by HREM Research Inc., a Japan based company, which is developing products and services in the field of High-Resolution Electron Microscopy. QED allows transmission electron microscopes to acquire novel kinds of data, opening up new possibilities in electron crystallography. http://phys.org/news224330015.html Physics Wed, 11 May 2011 10:54:11 EST news224330015 A remarkable new discovery shows the four-eyed spookfish to be the first vertebrate ever found to use mirrors, rather than lenses, to focus light in its eyes. http://phys.org/news150559326.html Biology Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:02:06 EST news150559326 Human-made light sources can alter natural light cycles, causing animals that rely on light cues to make mistakes when moving through their environment. In the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a collaboration of ecologists, biologists and biophysicists has now shown that in addition to direct light, cues from polarized light can trigger animal behaviors leading to injury and often death. http://phys.org/news150542384.html Space & Earth Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:19:44 EST news150542384 (PhysOrg.com) -- Electronic systems designed to perform simple functions, such as monitor the temperature on a yogurt pot, mustn’t cost much: This is where printed electronics are at an advantage. Researchers are now significantly improving the properties of printed circuits. http://phys.org/news150393653.html Technology Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:00:53 EST news150393653 The planet Jupiter gained weight in a hurry during its infancy. It had to, since the material from which it formed probably disappeared in just a few million years, according to a new study of planet formation around young stars. http://phys.org/news150383252.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:07:32 EST news150383252 (PhysOrg.com) -- A major goal of nanotechnology research is to create a "lab on a chip," in which a tiny biological sample would be carried through microscopic channels for processing. This could make possible portable, fast-acting detectors for disease organisms or food-borne pathogens, rapid DNA sequencing and other tests that now take hours or days. http://phys.org/news150129386.html Nanotechnology Fri, 02 Jan 2009 14:36:26 EST news150129386 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of University of Toronto physicists have demonstrated a new technique to squeeze light to the fundamental quantum limit, a finding that has potential applications for high-precision measurement, next-generation atomic clocks, novel quantum computing and our most fundamental understanding of the universe. http://phys.org/news150121818.html Physics Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:30:18 EST news150121818 A team of Johns Hopkins neuroscientists has worked out how some newly discovered light sensors in the eye detect light and communicate with the brain. The report appears online this week in Nature. http://phys.org/news149951177.html Medicine & Health Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:06:17 EST news149951177 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using tiny gold particles and infrared light, MIT researchers have developed a drug-delivery system that allows multiple drugs to be released in a controlled fashion. http://phys.org/news149860678.html Nanotechnology Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:57:58 EST news149860678 Deriving plentiful electricity from sunlight at a modest cost is a challenge with immense implications for energy, technology, and climate policy. A paper in a special energy issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal, describes a relatively new approach to solar cells: lacing them with nanoscopic metal particles. As the authors describe in the article, this approach has the potential to greatly improve the ability of solar cells to harvest light efficiently. http://phys.org/news149266955.html Nanotechnology Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:02:35 EST news149266955 (PhysOrg.com) -- For those who love "green" compact fluorescent bulbs but hate their cold light, here's some good news: Researchers are closer to flipping the switch on cheaper, richer LED-type room lighting. http://phys.org/news149258474.html Physics Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:41:14 EST news149258474 A University of Saskatchewan (U of S)-led research team at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron has received an early Christmas present. After several years of research, construction and testing, the unique-in-North-America BioMedical Imaging and Therapy facility (BMIT) captured its first X-ray images. http://phys.org/news149256035.html Medicine & Health Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:00:35 EST news149256035 A national alcohol research group is concerned that the media's misinterpretation of a recent British research study could encourage pregnant women to be more at ease with temperate alcohol consumption. http://phys.org/news148912090.html Medicine & Health Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:28:10 EST news148912090 (PhysOrg.com) -- Duke University and United States Army scientists have found that a cheap and nontoxic sunburn and diaper rash preventative can be made to produce brilliant light best suited to the human eye. http://phys.org/news148830246.html Nanotechnology Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:44:06 EST news148830246 A revolution in energy-efficient, environmentally-sound, and powerfully-flexible lighting is coming to businesses and homes, according to a paper in latest special energy issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society's open-access journal. http://phys.org/news148708739.html Physics Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:58:59 EST news148708739 Thanks to a new "super-resolution" fluorescence microscopy technique, Harvard University researchers have succeeded in resolving the features of cells as miniscule as 20-30 nanometers (nm), an order of magnitude smaller than conventional fluorescence light microscopy images, according to a presentation at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008, in San Francisco. http://phys.org/news148656934.html Biology Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:35:34 EST news148656934 Black holes can now be thought of as donut holes. The shape of material around black holes has been seen for the first time: an analysis of over 200 active galactic nuclei—cores of galaxies powered by disks of hot material feeding a super-massive black hole—shows that all have a consistent, ordered physical structure that seems to be independent of the black hole's size. http://phys.org/news148652427.html Space & Earth Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:20:27 EST news148652427 (PhysOrg.com) -- In the coming weeks, General Electric will start selling a new "ship in a bottle" lightbulb - a fluorescent spiral bulb trapped inside a traditional incandescent-shaped bulb. http://phys.org/news148313689.html Technology Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:14:49 EST news148313689 Found in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, 30 Doradus is one of the largest massive star forming regions close to the Milky Way. Enormous stars in 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula, are producing intense radiation and searing winds of multimillion-degree gas that carve out gigantic bubbles in the surrounding cooler gas and dust. http://phys.org/news148224290.html Space & Earth Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:24:50 EST news148224290 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have become the first to observe the Magnus effect in light, potentially opening a new avenue for controlling light in nanometer-scale optical devices, which could lead to much faster computation data processing. The discovery also provides a more precise way to study important physical behavior that until now could only be observed in relatively complex, messy condensed matter systems. The findings are published in the December 2008 issue of Nature Photonics. http://phys.org/news148140149.html Physics Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:02:29 EST news148140149 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using the Canadian Light Source, a team of researchers from Quebec’s Laval University and Australia’s La Trobe University has discovered how to improve the nanometers-thick layer of polymer used to coat cardiac stents. A stent is a small, springy tube made from stainless steel that is used to open arteries to the heart, that become blocked from atherosclerosis or other forms of heart disease. The findings, published at the end of August in the journal Langmuir, could lead to fewer complications when treating blocked arteries. http://phys.org/news148066662.html Nanotechnology Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:37:42 EST news148066662 Scientists have discovered that plant roots can sense UV-B light and have identified a specific gene that is a vital player in UV-B signaling, the communication between cells. http://phys.org/news147979343.html Biology Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:22:23 EST news147979343 (PhysOrg.com) -- In a few short months, the Linac Coherent Light Source will start operation as the world's first hard X-ray free electron laser, pushing SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to the frontier of photon science. Using SLAC's linac to drive a free electron laser, or FEL, the LCLS will generate X-rays an eye-popping 10 billion times brighter than the current cutting-edge technology, while simultaneously providing pulses lasting less than one millionth of one billionth of a second. http://phys.org/news147708604.html Physics Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:10:04 EST news147708604 (PhysOrg.com) -- Photoacoustics can be used to show the development of blood capillaries in and around a tumour. PhD student, Kiran Kumar Thumma, of the University of Twente (Netherlands) is the first to use the technology to follow the development of a tumour over a period of time. His results show that the application of photoacoustics is a useful addition to the methods usually used in tumour research. Mr Thumma will be awarded his PhD at the faculty of Science and Technology today. http://phys.org/news147706264.html Medicine & Health Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:31:04 EST news147706264 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have solved one of the significant remaining challenges with photonic “metamaterials,” discovering a way to prevent the loss of light as it passes through these materials, and opening the door to many important new optical, electronic and communication technologies. http://phys.org/news147542890.html Physics Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:08:10 EST news147542890 Research into the development of invisibility devices has spurred two physicists' thought on the behaviour of light to overcome the seemingly intractable problem of optical singularities which could soon lead to the manufacturing of a perfect cat's eye. http://phys.org/news146982479.html Physics Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:27:59 EST news146982479 Science fiction writers have long envisioned sailing a spacecraft by the optical force of the sun's light. But, the forces of sunlight are too weak to fill even the oversized sails that have been tried. Now a team led by researchers at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science has shown that the force of light indeed can be harnessed to drive machines — when the process is scaled to nano-proportions. http://phys.org/news146924474.html Nanotechnology Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:21:14 EST news146924474 Scientists at Penn State have shed light on some of the processes that regulate genes -- such as the processes that ensure that proteins are produced at the correct time, place, and amount in an organism -- and they also have shed light on the evolution of the DNA regions that regulate genes. The team focused on regulatory regions that, when bound to the protein GATA1, are thought to turn on genes that play an important role in the development of red blood cells. "Our findings could help others to develop drugs to treat people who suffer from sickle-cell anemia and other blood disorders," said Ross Hardison, the T. Ming Chu Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the team's leader. The results will be published on 1 December 2008 in the journal Genome Research. http://phys.org/news146833211.html Biology Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:00:11 EST news146833211