NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory came across an oddity that the spacecraft has rarely observed before: a dark filament encircling an active region (Oct. 29-31, 2017). Solar filaments are clouds of charged particles that ...
Space Exploration
Nov 9, 2017
3
167
September 2017 saw a spate of solar activity, with the Sun emitting 27 M-class and four X-class flares and releasing several powerful coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, between Sept. 6-10. Solar flares are powerful bursts of ...
Space Exploration
Oct 27, 2017
1
250
A decade on from suggesting light can be dramatically slowed - or even stopped - by new materials, Ortwin Hess reviews the progress and applications.
Optics & Photonics
Oct 20, 2017
5
879
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen have developed a technique for directly observing how enzymes and other biomolecules go about their work, with potentially significant medical ...
Biochemistry
Aug 28, 2017
0
20
When the Earth is dark, human activity sparkles across the globe. As seen from space, night-time lights tell a story about how we live, correlating to everything from electricity consumption and CO2 emissions, to gross domestic ...
Economics & Business
Mar 28, 2017
0
17
The darkest form of ultraviolet light, known as UV-C, is unique because of its reputation as a killer – of harmful organisms.
Nanophysics
Mar 2, 2017
1
949
Seen from outside, Enceladus appears to be like most of its sibling moons: cold, icy and inhospitable. But under that forbidding exterior may exist the very conditions needed for life.
Space Exploration
Feb 7, 2017
0
43
The northern lights are nature's very own magnificent light show. They are the mesmerising end result of electrically charged particles from the sun colliding with the Earth's upper atmosphere. Though more frequently witnessed ...
Space Exploration
Feb 6, 2017
0
16
Britain may lose the magic of the Northern Lights by the middle of the century due to major shifts in solar activity, scientists have discovered.
Space Exploration
Feb 1, 2017
2
351
A tool that uses light to manipulate matter inside living cells has begun to explain how proteins assemble into different liquid and gel-like solid states, a key to understanding many critical cellular operations.
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 29, 2016
0
436
