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| December 19, 2013 |
 Arctic sea ice volume up from record low Paris (ESA) Dec 17, 2013 - Measurements from ESA's CryoSat satellite show that the volume of Arctic sea ice has significantly increased this autumn. The volume of ice measured this autumn is about 50% higher compared to last year. In October 2013, CryoSat measured about 9000 cubic km of sea ice - a notable increase compared to 6000 cubic km in October 2012. Over the last few decades, satellites have shown a downward ... more |  |
 Surprise Picture for WISE's Fourth Anniversary Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 19, 2013 - In an unexpected juxtaposition of cosmic objects that are actually quite far from each other, a newly released image from NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) shows a dying star, called the Helix nebula, surrounded by the tracks of asteroids. The nebula is far outside our solar system, while the asteroid tracks are inside our solar system. The portrait, discovered by chance in ... more |  |
 SMA Reveals Giant Star Cluster in the Making Cambridge MA (SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - W49A might be one of the best-kept secrets in our galaxy. This star-forming region shines 100 times brighter than the Orion nebula, but is so obscured by dust that very little visible or infrared light escapes. The Smithsonian's Submillimeter Array (SMA) has peered through the dusty fog to provide the first clear view of this stellar nursery. The SMA revealed an active site of star formati ... more |  |
 The Fantastical Life of a GIS Analyst Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - What do climate modeling, malaria and black rhinos have in common? It turns out that Geographic Information Systems can be adapted to study all three. Wherever GIS is being used for humanitarian purposes, senior programmer analyst Joe Nigro is never too far away. "The common factor is knowing how to use GIS. I've worked on a range of projects from plague modeling in the American southwest ... more |  |
 SLS Chief Engineer Driven by 'Challenge' of Building America's Next Great Rocket Huntsville AL (SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - During the Saturn V days, a 10-year-old boy came to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., with his dad and uncle for an open house. There to shake that young boy's hand was Wernher von Braun, the first center director of Marshall who would later be hailed as one of the all-time champions of space exploration. That day, as S1 stage engines ignited every hour in the ... more |  |
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Astrium has finalised preparation of Gaia, the star mapper of the Milky Way Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) Dec 19, 2013 - Astrium, the world's second largest space company, has finalised its preparation of Gaia in Kourou, French Guiana. Europe's most advanced space telescope is scheduled for launch on 19 December aboard Soyuz. Designed and built by Astrium for the European Space Agency (ESA), Gaia will produce a highly accurate 3D map of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and discover and map objects far beyond its b ... more |  |
Swift satellite catches 100,000 new cosmic X-ray sources Leicester UK (SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - An international team led from the University of Leicester has published a major list of celestial X-ray sources in the Astrophysical Journal. The result of many years work, this list of over 150,000 high-energy stars and galaxies will be a vital resource for future astronomical studies. Using the X-ray telescope on board the US/UK/Italian Swift satellite, the team analysed eight years' wo ... more |  |
 Researchers split water into hydrogen, oxygen using light, nanoparticles Houston TX (SPX) Dec 17, 2013 - Researchers from the University of Houston have found a catalyst that can quickly generate hydrogen from water using sunlight, potentially creating a clean and renewable source of energy. Their research, published online Sunday in Nature Nanotechnology, involved the use of cobalt oxide nanoparticles to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Jiming Bao, lead author of the paper and an ... more |  |
 Runaway process drives intermediate-depth earthquakes Stanford CA (SPX) Dec 16, 2013 - Stanford scientists may have solved the mystery of what drives a type of earthquake that occurs deep within the Earth and accounts for one in four quakes worldwide. Known as intermediate-depth earthquakes, these temblors originate farther down inside the Earth than shallow earthquakes, which take place in the uppermost layer of the Earth's surface, called the crust. The kinds of quakes tha ... more |  |
 Northrop Grumman Reinvents Satellite Communications for Aircraft Mojave CA (SPX) Dec 16, 2013 - In one year, Northrop Grumman took a satellite communications system normally used in space and transformed it into a high-functioning, low-cost communications system that can be used on aircraft. The satellite communications (SATCOM) system was successfully demonstrated on board the company's Firebird demonstrator aircraft. Until now, no small communications system has been able to ... more |  |
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 New system allows for high-accuracy, through-wall, 3-D motion tracking Boston MA (SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - Imagine playing a video game like Call of Duty or Battlefield and having the ability to lead your virtual army unit while moving freely throughout your house. Gaming could become this realistic, thanks to new technology developed by Dina Katabi's research group at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) that allows for highly accurate, 3-D motion tracking. The new ... more |  |
 Cellulose nanocrystals possible 'green' wonder material West Lafayette IN (SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - The same tiny cellulose crystals that give trees and plants their high strength, light weight and resilience, have now been shown to have the stiffness of steel. The nanocrystals might be used to create a new class of biomaterials with wide-ranging applications, such as strengthening construction materials and automotive components. Calculations using precise models based on the atom ... more |  |
 Nepal uses satellite to track rare snow leopard Kathmandu (AFP) Dec 18, 2013 - Wildlife experts in Nepal are tracking a rare snow leopard by using a collar with a satellite link to discover how climate change and human encroachment are affecting its habitat, officials said Wednesday. The male cat was captured in a snare at the base of Mount Kangchenjunga on the Nepal-India border last month and fitted with the collar which uses a GPS tracking system. "This will be ... more |  |
 SMUD Visualizes Smart Grid with Space-Time Insight's Situational Intelligence Software San Mateo CA (SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - Space-Time Insight has announced that the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) has implemented Space-Time Insight's geospatial and visual analytics software. The software facilitates faster and more informed smart grid decisions. The system, which correlates, analyzes and visualizes data in smart grid, distribution, outage, fire and weather systems, is the primary "face" of SMUD's ... more |  |
 Ultrafast heating of water - This pot boils faster than you can watch it Hamburg, Germany (SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - Scientists from the Hamburg Center for Free-Electron Laser Science have devised a novel way to boil water in less than a trillionth of a second. The theoretical concept, which has not yet been demonstrated in practice, could heat a small amount of water by as much as 600 degrees Celsius in just half a picosecond (a trillionth of a second). That is much less than the proverbial blink of an ... more |  |
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Microprinting leads to low-cost artificial cells Philadelphia PA (SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - Easily manufactured, low-cost artificial cells manufactured using microprinting may one day serve as drug and gene delivery devices and in biomaterials, biotechnology and biosensing applications, according to a team of Penn State biomedical engineers. These artificial cells will also allow researchers to explore actions that take place at the cell membrane. "In a natural cell, so much is g ... more |  |
 Low-power tunneling transistor for high-performance devices at low voltage Philadelphia PA(SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - A new type of transistor that could make possible fast and low-power computing devices for energy-constrained applications such as smart sensor networks, implantable medical electronics and ultra-mobile computing is feasible, according to Penn State researchers. Called a near broken-gap tunnel field effect transistor (TFET), the new device uses the quantum mechanical tunneling of electrons throu ... more |  |
Nanoparticles and their orbital positions Munich, Germany (SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - Physicists have developed a "planet-satellite model" to precisely connect and arrange nanoparticles in three-dimensional structures. Inspired by the photosystems of plants and algae, these artificial nanoassemblies might in the future serve to collect and convert energy. If the scientists' nanoparticles were a million times larger, the laboratory would look like an arts and crafts room at ... more |  |
Alzheimer-substance may be the nanomaterial of tomorrow Goteborg, Sweden (SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - It causes brain diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Creutzfeldt-Jakob's disease. It is also hard and rigid as steel. Now research at Chalmers University of Technology shows that the amyloid protein carries unique characteristics that may lead to the development of new composite materials for nano processors and data storage of tomorrow and even make objects invisible. Piotr Hanczyc, ... more |  |
Nanoscale friction: High energy losses in the vicinity of charge density waves Basel, Switzerland (SPX) Dec 19, 2013 - In collaboration with the University of Basel, an international team of researchers has observed a strong energy loss caused by frictional effects in the vicinity of charge density waves. This may have practical significance in the control of nanoscale friction. The results have been published in the scientific journal Nature Materials. Friction is often seen as an adverse phenomenon that ... more |  |
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