http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. VISTA is the latest telescope to be added to ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It is housed on the peak adjacent to the one hosting the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) and shares the same exceptional observing conditions. VISTA's main mirror is 4.1 metres across and is the most highly curved mirror of this size and quality ever made -- its deviations from a perfect surface are less than a few thousandths of the thickness of a human hair -- and its construction and polishing presented formidable challenges. http://www.physorg.com/news179739402.html Space & Earth Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:10:02 EST news179739402 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Rochester optics professor Chunlei Guo made headlines in the past couple of years when he changed the color of everyday metals by scouring their surfaces with precise, high-intensity laser bursts. http://www.physorg.com/news179504199.html Physics Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:17:11 EST news179504199 (PhysOrg.com) -- Chemistry professor Harry Frank led an international group of researchers that identified the molecules in algae which direct the organisms to convert sunlight into oxygen. The findings may ultimately help in developing new solar energy conversion devices. http://www.physorg.com/news178964604.html Chemistry Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:24:06 EST news178964604 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers from Ibaraki University, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Kanagawa University, University of Tokyo, Academica Sinica, and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan have used the Subaru Telescope`s Cooled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer (COMICS) to capture the first direct, well-resolved infrared images of a circumstellar disk around a young massive star -- HD200775. Their findings contribute to understanding the role of circumstellar disks in massive star formation in particular and to the birth of stars in general. http://www.physorg.com/news178310192.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:37:50 EST news178310192 (PhysOrg.com) -- Stars, the most familiar objects in the night sky, make up only a tiny percentage of the total amount of matter in the universe -- about 2%. http://www.physorg.com/news176122887.html Space & Earth Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:02:34 EST news176122887 (PhysOrg.com) -- Finally, an optical frequency comb that visibly lives up to its name. Scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S. have built the first optical frequency comb -- a tool for precisely measuring different frequencies of visible light -- that actually looks like a comb. http://www.physorg.com/news176046009.html Physics Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:41:00 EST news176046009 NASA's Aqua and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites are watching Tropical Storm Neki become extra-tropical, and TRMM data was used to create a three-dimensional image of the storm. http://www.physorg.com/news175792002.html Space & Earth Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:08:02 EST news175792002 (PhysOrg.com) -- The remarkable eyes of a marine crustacean could inspire the next generation of DVD and CD players, according to a new study from the University of Bristol published today in Nature Photonics. http://www.physorg.com/news175702057.html Physics Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:08:17 EST news175702057 (PhysOrg.com) -- Two physicists in China have used metamaterials to create the first artificial electromagnetic black hole. The scientists, Qiang Cheng and Tie Jun Cui from the Southeast University in Nanjing, China created the tiny black hole in their laboratory, in an experiment that aimed to simulate a black hole. http://www.physorg.com/news174893601.html Physics Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:40:01 EST news174893601 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of astronomers have found an unexpected link between mysterious 'dark matter' and the visible stars and gas in galaxies that could revolutionise our current understanding of gravity. http://www.physorg.com/news174056210.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:30:01 EST news174056210 A dark red area discovered on dwarf planet Haumea appears to be richer in minerals and organic compounds than the surrounding icy surface. The discovery will be presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam by Dr Pedro Lacerda on Wednesday 16 September. http://www.physorg.com/news172316850.html Space & Earth Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:40:10 EST news172316850 (PhysOrg.com) -- Surgeons at The Methodist Hospital in Houston are removing gall bladders through a single incision in the belly button to prevent scarring for patients with gall stones. The procedure also has the potential for less pain. http://www.physorg.com/news172243277.html Medicine & Health Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:50:01 EST news172243277 (PhysOrg.com) -- Nicholas Turro of Columbia University, Bernhard Krautler of the University of Innsbruck, Austria and their colleagues have found that, as chlorophyll ages and begins to disintegrate in banana peels it does not change color in the spectrum of visible light we see. Instead, it glows blue when observed under ultraviolet light. http://www.physorg.com/news171740114.html Chemistry Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:49:02 EST news171740114 (PhysOrg.com) -- Just as health-food manufacturers work on developing the best possible sodium substitutes for low-salt diets, physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have acquired new knowledge on a promising sodium alternative of their own. Sodium-like tungsten ions could pepper -- and conveniently monitor -- the hot plasma soup inside fusion energy devices, potential sources of abundant, clean power. http://www.physorg.com/news171650049.html Physics Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:35:05 EST news171650049 Smouldering several thousand light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer), the Trifid Nebula presents a compelling portrait of the early stages of a star's life, from gestation to first light. The heat and "winds" of newly ignited, volatile stars stir the Trifid's gas and dust-filled cauldron; in time, the dark tendrils of matter strewn throughout the area will themselves collapse and form new stars. http://www.physorg.com/news170518236.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:00:05 EST news170518236 The University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. (UGARF) and the University of Puerto Rico have granted an international, non-exclusive license for a portfolio of glow-in-the-dark pigments that can be designed to emit light in any color of the visible spectrum for nearly a day. Performance Indicator, LLC, of Lowell, Mass., acquired the license. http://www.physorg.com/news169751346.html Physics Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:09:55 EST news169751346 (PhysOrg.com) -- Because the new device, called a "spaser," is the first of its kind to emit visible light, it represents a critical component for possible future technologies based on "nanophotonic" circuitry, said Vladimir Shalaev, the Robert and Anne Burnett Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. http://www.physorg.com/news169649724.html Physics Sun, 16 Aug 2009 13:56:15 EST news169649724 (PhysOrg.com) -- Inside a mountain range in central Italy, Columbia researchers are trying to solve one of the most pressing questions in modern physics: What is dark matter? The riddle has obsessed astronomers and physicists since the 1930s, when Caltech professor Fritz Zwicky first predicted its existence. Because dark matter neither emits nor reflects light and cannot be directly observed, no one has ever proven that it exists; yet theories show it makes up as much as a quarter of the universe. Columbia physics professor Elena Aprile, with collaborators from universities around the world, including Rice University and UCLA, is leading the race to find and identify dark matter for the first time. http://www.physorg.com/news167927738.html Physics Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:36:47 EST news167927738 (PhysOrg.com) -- Monochromatic light-emitting diodes cover a large part of the visible spectrum with high effi-ciency. For blue light, nitride diodes achieve external quantum efficiencies in excess of 65%, i. e., one photon is emitted for approx. 2/3 of the electron-hole pairs injected into the diode. For red light, phosphor diodes achieve efficiencies of approx. 50%. However, so far no highly efficient monochromatic LEDs have been available for the `yellow gap` at around 560 nm. Now researchers with Philips Lumileds have developed a monochromatic nitride diode that closes this gap. http://www.physorg.com/news167555795.html Physics Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:17:44 EST news167555795 A team of astrophysicists has solved a mystery that led some scientists to speculate that the distribution of certain gamma rays in our Milky Way galaxy was evidence of a form of undetectable "dark matter" believed to make up much of the mass of the universe. http://www.physorg.com/news166356300.html Space & Earth Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:05:40 EST news166356300 This new guide for astronomers, known as the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) shows the Milky Way in submillimetre-wavelength light (between infrared light and radio waves). Images of the cosmos at these wavelengths are vital for studying the birthplaces of new stars and the structure of the crowded galactic core. http://www.physorg.com/news165669952.html Space & Earth Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:27:58 EST news165669952 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have created a new type of invisibility cloak that is simpler than previous designs and works for all colors of the visible spectrum, making it possible to cloak larger objects than before and possibly leading to practical applications in "transformation optics." http://www.physorg.com/news162048302.html Physics Wed, 20 May 2009 14:25:35 EST news162048302 (PhysOrg.com) -- Compact lasers which can work in formerly inaccessible parts of the spectrum and are suitable for mass production are now within reach. http://www.physorg.com/news160324237.html Physics Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:31:52 EST news160324237 Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have created the first carbon nanotube device that can detect the entire visible spectrum of light, a feat that could soon allow scientists to probe single molecule transformations, study how those molecules respond to light, observe how the molecules change shapes, and understand other fundamental interactions between molecules and nanotubes. http://www.physorg.com/news160318604.html Nanotechnology Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:57:21 EST news160318604 (PhysOrg.com) -- A research team from Northeastern University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology has discovered, serendipitously, that a residue of a process used to build arrays of titania nanotubes -a residue that wasn`t even noticed before this - plays an important role in improving the performance of the nanotubes in solar cells that produce hydrogen gas from water. Their results, published online on March 27, 2009 in the Journal of Materials Chemistry, indicate that by controlling the deposition of potassium on the surface of the nanotubes, engineers can achieve significant energy savings in a promising new alternate energy system. http://www.physorg.com/news159638959.html Nanotechnology Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:10:00 EST news159638959 (PhysOrg.com) -- Will the legacy of Nobel prize winner Richard Smalley finally be fulfilled? Ever since his pioneering work in the mid 1990's on the synthesis of carbon nanotubes, companies have been struggling to find a commercial application for this amazing material. There was a nanotech "bubble" of start-up companies, none of which managed to successfully IPO due to lack of realizable commercial revenue. Is that about to change? Recent research by Rice University and Unidym indicate that a fully realizable application is finally here for carbon nanotubes. Fortunately, it's in one of the fastest growing display markets, touch screens. http://www.physorg.com/news158587561.html Nanotechnology Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:06:35 EST news158587561 European astronomers said on Wednesday that an anomalous energy signal detected by an orbiting satellite could be a telltale of the enigmatic substance known as dark matter. http://www.physorg.com/news157814632.html Physics Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:24:17 EST news157814632 An international team of astrophysicists using telescopes on the ground and in space have uncovered surprising changes in radiation emitted by an active galaxy. The picture that emerges from these first-ever simultaneous observations with optical, X-ray and new-generation gamma-ray telescopes is much more complex than scientists expected and challenges current theories of how the radiation is generated. http://www.physorg.com/news156613697.html Space & Earth Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:49:17 EST news156613697 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope offers a rare view of an imminent collision between the cores of two merging galaxies, each powered by a black hole with millions of times the mass of the sun. http://www.physorg.com/news156440810.html Space & Earth Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:47:43 EST news156440810 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have already known that carbon nanotube thin films have mechanical and conductive advantages that could make them useful as electrodes in solar cells, solid state lighting, and electronic displays. However, studies so far have focused on how well nanotube films transmit light in the visible range, but have not explored the films` infrared properties. http://www.physorg.com/news155993510.html Nanotechnology Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:32:47 EST news155993510