Butterfly wings inspire design of water-repellent surface
Researchers mimic the many-layered nanostructure of blue mountain swallowtail wings to make a silicon wafer that traps both air and light.
Researchers mimic the many-layered nanostructure of blue mountain swallowtail wings to make a silicon wafer that traps both air and light.
Nanomaterials
Nov 21, 2011
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(PhysOrg.com) -- While the most common device for converting light into electricity may be photovoltaic (PV) solar cells, a variety of other devices can perform the same light-to-electricity conversion, such as solar-thermal ...
This swirling landscape of stars is known as the North America Nebula. In visible light, the region resembles North America, but in this image infrared view from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the continent disappears.
Space Exploration
Oct 19, 2011
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers from the CNST and ITL has simultaneously changed the color and shape of a single photon, the smallest unit of light.
Optics & Photonics
Oct 6, 2011
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Cassini spacecraft successfully completed its Oct. 1 flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus and its jets of water vapor and ice. At its closest approach, the spacecraft flew approximately 62 miles (100 kilometers) ...
Space Exploration
Oct 4, 2011
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Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have built a very simple nanoantenna that directs red and blue colours in opposite directions, even though the antenna is smaller than the wavelength of light. The findings ...
Nanophysics
Sep 23, 2011
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Chalk up one more feat for Saturn's intriguing moon Enceladus. The small, dynamic moon spews out dramatic plumes of water vapor and ice -- first seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2005. It possesses simple ...
Space Exploration
Sep 22, 2011
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(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the most powerful and ambitious astronomical satellites designed to provide the best view yet of the Universe at far-infrared and sub-millimeter wavelengths is living up to its illustrious name, according ...
Astronomy
May 16, 2011
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Bouncing around from cloud to cloud, and down to Earth, sunlight's warmth is both enhanced and blocked by clouds. Atmospheric scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory found that clouds' overall effect on the ...
Earth Sciences
May 9, 2011
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Conventional lenses can resolve structures around 200 nanometers (nm) in size, but scientists in Europe have for the first time developed a lens capable of achieving optical resolution of under 100 nm at ...