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Graphene Ink Moves Bendy Gadgets Closer to Reality. A digital screen that you can fold up like paper, solar cells embedded in house paint and a battery printed on the bottom of your phone — all this may soon be possible thanks to the so-called graphene ink, printed circuits made from graphene — a one-atom-thick layer of carbon that is the strongest, thinnest and most conductive material discovered yet.

Graphene Ink Moves Bendy Gadgets Closer to Reality

New Engine Could Turn Tiny CubeSats into Deep-Space Explorers. Researchers plan to launch a tiny spacecraft to Earth orbit and beyond within the next 18 months, in a key test of new propulsion technology that could help cut the cost of planetary exploration by a factor of 1,000.

New Engine Could Turn Tiny CubeSats into Deep-Space Explorers

The scientists and engineers are developing a new plasma propulsion system designed for ultrasmall CubeSats. If all goes well, they say, it may be possible to launch a life-detection mission to Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa or other intriguing worlds for as little as $1 million in the not-too-distant future.

"We want to enable new missions that right now cost about $1 billion, or maybe $500 million — to go, for example, explore the moons of Jupiter and Saturn," said project leader Ben Longmier, a plasma physicist and assistant professor at the University of Michigan. [6 Promising Places for Alien Life in the Solar System] To get the ball rolling, Longmier and his team launched a crowdfunding campaign on the website Kickstarter Thursday (July 4). Spoken-word fireworks. Chimp Genetic History Stranger Than Humans'

The most comprehensive catalog of great-ape genome diversity to date offers insight into primate evolution, revealing chimpanzees have a much more complex genetic history than humans.

Chimp Genetic History Stranger Than Humans'

In a new study, researchers sequenced a total of 79 great apes, including chimpanzees, bonobos, eastern and western gorillas, orangutans and humans, as well as seven ape subspecies. The animals were wild- and captive-born individuals from populations in Africa and Southeast Asia. Chimp Genetic History Stranger Than Humans' Spiderwebs Lure Prey Through Charged Attraction. Spiders may trap unsuspecting prey by sucking them in using electrostatic attraction, new research suggests.

Spiderwebs Lure Prey Through Charged Attraction

The new study, published today (July 4) in the journal Scientific Reports, found that the spiderweb of the common cross spider (or garden spider) is attracted to electrically charged objects, with the sticky threads of spider silk arcing toward each other in response to a charged object. Spiderwebs Lure Prey Through Charged Attraction. Frigid Space Speeds Chemical Reaction. Navy Designs Solar Cell to Break Efficiency Barrier. U.S.

Navy Designs Solar Cell to Break Efficiency Barrier

Naval Research Laboratory scientists in the Electronics Technology and Science Division, in collaboration with the Imperial College London and MicroLink Devices, Inc., Niles, Ill., have proposed a novel triple-junction solar cell with the potential to break the 50 percent conversion efficiency barrier, which is the current goal in multi-junction photovoltaic development. “This research has produced a novel, realistically achievable, lattice-matched, multi-junction solar cell design with the potential to break the 50 percent power conversion efficiency mark under concentrated illumination,” said Robert Walters, Ph.D., NRL research physicist.

“At present, the world record triple-junction solar cell efficiency is 44 percent under concentration and it is generally accepted that a major technology breakthrough will be required for the efficiency of these cells to increase much further.” Recently awarded a U.S. Forget about leprechauns, engineers are catching rainbows. (Phys.org)—University at Buffalo engineers have created a more efficient way to catch rainbows, an advancement in photonics that could lead to technological breakthroughs in solar energy, stealth technology and other areas of research.

Forget about leprechauns, engineers are catching rainbows

Qiaoqiang Gan, PhD, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at UB, and a team of graduate students described their work in a paper called "Rainbow Trapping in Hyperbolic Metamaterial Waveguide," published Feb. 13 in the online journal Scientific Reports. They developed a "hyperbolic metamaterial waveguide," which is essentially an advanced microchip made of alternate ultra-thin films of metal and semiconductors and/or insulators. The waveguide halts and ultimately absorbs each frequency of light, at slightly different places in a vertical direction, to catch a "rainbow" of wavelengths. Gan is a researcher within UB's new Center of Excellence in Materials Informatics. Before joining UB, Gan helped pioneer a way to slow light without cryogenic gases. 'Nuclear Pasta' in Neutron Stars: New Type of Matter Found. A rare state of matter dubbed "nuclear pasta" appears to exist only inside ultra-dense objects called neutron stars, astronomers say.

'Nuclear Pasta' in Neutron Stars: New Type of Matter Found

There, the nuclei of atoms get crammed together so tightly that they arrange themselves in patterns akin to pasta shapes — some in flat sheets like lasagna and others in spirals like fusilli. And these formations are likely responsible for limiting the maximum rotation speed of these stars, according to a new study. "Such conditions are only reached in neutron stars, the most dense objects in the universe besides black holes," said astronomer José Pons of Alicante University in Spain. [The Top 10 Star Mysteries Ever] 'Nuclear Pasta' in Neutron Stars: New Type of Matter Found. Jets of Molten Rock Push Earth's Tectonic Plates. Giant fountains of hot rock under central Africa and the central Pacific that have apparently remained stationary for at least 250 million years are helping drive the movements of the massive tectonic plates making up Earth's surface, researchers say.

Jets of Molten Rock Push Earth's Tectonic Plates

Below the rocky layer that makes up Earth's outermost skin, known as the lithosphere, is the searing hot rock of the mantle layer. Jets of Molten Rock Push Earth's Tectonic Plates. Why Warp Drives Aren't Just Science Fiction. Astrophysicist Eric Davis is one of the leaders in the field of faster-than-light (FTL) space travel.

Why Warp Drives Aren't Just Science Fiction

But for Davis, humanity's potential to explore the vastness of space at warp speed is not science fiction. Davis' latest study, "Faster-Than-Light Space Warps, Status and Next Steps" won the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' (AIAA) 2013 Best Paper Award for Nuclear and Future Flight Propulsion. TechNewsDaily recently caught up with Davis to discuss his new paper, which appeared in the March/April volume of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society and will form the basis of his upcoming address at Icarus Interstellar's 2013 Starship Congress in August.

Temperature differences create electricity. By Kari Williamson Thermoelectric materials are already in use, such as for powering space probes using plutonium – exploiting its high temperature compared to the cold of space.

Temperature differences create electricity

Thermoelectric materials are also used in cooler bags using lead and tellurium. However, these solutions are all toxic. "We want to replace them with inexpensive and readily available substances. New 'Charmed' Particle Represents Rare State of Matter. A new type of particle may have shown up independently at two particle accelerators, physicists say.

The particle, made of four quarks (the ingredients of protons and neutrons), appears to represent a state of matter previously unknown. Signs of the particle were sighted at the Belle experiment in Japan and the Beijing Spectrometer Experiment (BESIII) in China. Scientists can't be sure what the particle is made of, or if it's even a single particle at all — there's a chance it could be two particles, each made of a pair of quarks, bound together. But nothing like it has been seen before, and the discovery offers the hope of clarifying the strange nature of quarks. Why Is Africa Ripping Apart? Seismic Scan May Tell - Yahoo! Weather. Arrays of sensors stretching across more than 1,500 miles in Africa are now probing the giant crack in the Earth located there — a fissure linked with human evolution — to discover why and how continents get ripped apart.

Over the course of millions of years, Earth's continents break up as they are slowly torn apart by the planet's tectonic forces. All the ocean basins on the Earth started as continental rifts, such as the Rio Grande rift in North America and Asia's Baikal rift in Siberia. The giant rift in Eastern Africa was born when Arabia and Africa began pulling away from each other about 26 million to 29 million years ago. Although this rift has grown less than 1 inch (2.54 centimeters) per year, the dramatic results include the formation and ongoing spread of the Red Sea, as well as the East African Rift Valley, the landscape that might have been home to the first humans. 3D-Printed Metamaterial Gets Its Strength, Structure From Human Bones.

Move over nanotubes, there's a new futuristic building material in town and its origins may surprise you. Developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), human bone is the inspiration behind the latest high-tech composite, which can be made in just a few hours using a 3D printer. The new material — which is lauded for its durability, low density and environmentally sustainable constituents — gets its strength from its bone-like structure.

Real bones have a complex hierarchical structure thanks to their two main building blocks, collagen protein and hydroxyapatite minerals. 3D-Printed Metamaterial Gets Its Strength, Structure From Human Bones. Illegal Drone Business Thrives in U.S. Popularized by their military applications, drones are now taking flight over U.S. skylines with at least hundreds of small, unmanned aircraft hard at work buzzing over football stadiums, Hollywood sets and farms.

Despite regulations banning commercial drone use in the United States, a thriving black market is on the rise, sending the Federal Aviation Administration into a tailspin. As the domestic debate over drones and associated privacy and safety issues heats up in Washington, D.C., companies aren't waiting for formal rules that would permit their commercial use. President Obama has mandated that Congress come up with rules that would permit commercial drone use, but they are not due until 2015. A search on Google for "drones" turns up dozens of companies brazenly advertising drone-related services here in the United States. Metamaterials breakthrough could lead to the first wide-spectrum optical invisibility cloak. Metamaterials breakthrough could lead to the first wide-spectrum optical invisibility cloak. Body-Double: Lifelike Android Demoed at Futuristic Conference.

NEW YORK — An extremely humanlike robot made a public appearance today (June 15) here at the Global Futures 2045 International Congress, a futuristic conference focused on the technological singularity. Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University, Japan, described some of his efforts to develop lifelike androids. How Deep Must Life Hide to be Safe on Europa? How Deep Must Life Hide to be Safe on Europa? Tiny Submersible Could Search for Life in Europa's Ocean. Plastic Could Protect Astronauts from Deep-Space Radiation. Plastic shielding could help protect astronauts from harmful radiation on long journeys through deep space, new observations from a NASA moon probe suggest. New Kind of Dark Matter Could Form 'Dark Atoms' The mysterious dark matter that makes up most of the matter in the universe could be composed, in part, of invisible and nearly intangible counterparts of atoms, protons and electrons, researchers say.

How does Elon Musk's Hyperloop work? Over the past year, Elon Musk, billionaire founder of PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX, has been floating the notion of a "Hyperloop" as a future replacement for bullet trains; one that would get commuters from San Francisco to Los Angeles in as little as 30 minutes. How does Elon Musk's Hyperloop work? Why PRISM Shouldn't Surprise You. If you're concerned about PRISM, the National Security Agency's program that can spy on U.S. citizens through services like Google and Facebook, just keep in mind the government is simply taking advantage of what the Internet was meant to do. According to a slideshow leaked from the NSA, PRISM collects massive amounts of data from Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple, with a Dropbox partnership on the way. This gives the government access to private citizens' emails, videos, photos and file transfers, among other things.

Why PRISM Shouldn't Surprise You. Pollution From America and Europe Caused Africa's Biggest Drought. The biggest drought to hit the planet in the 20th century, the Sahel drought sucked Central Africa dry from the 1970s to the 1990s. The severe famines that resulted killed hundreds of thousands of people during this period and gained worldwide attention. Small, Laser-Beam Box Detects Clandestine Nuclear Materials. More bad news today for bad guys. The scientific brain trust at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has discovered a powerful new method for detecting clandestine nuclear materials. Small, Laser-Beam Box Detects Clandestine Nuclear Materials. Nearby Star Has Strange Cool Layer Like the Sun. Scientists have discovered that the sun and its nearest twin star, Alpha Centauri A, share an odd solar quirk: a puzzling cool layer in their wispy, hot atmospheres.

The different temperatures of the sun's layers have long intrigued solar scientists. Student researchers discover building blocks of DNA in cosmic cloud. Technical Reports Server - Eagleworks Laboratories: Advanced Propulsion Physics Research. Supermassive black hole found to rotate near speed of light. The universe’s extra dimensions - Astronomy Magazine. Antimatter's Magnetic Charge Revealed. One Photon Can Be Converted Into Multiple Electrons. 5 Strange Sightings in the Peruvian Amazon. Graphene aerogel takes world’s lightest material crown. 'Dark Lightning' Zaps Airline Passengers with Radiation. Senator: NASA to lasso asteroid, bring it closer. Jets and Drones of the Future Powered by Ionic Thrust Technology. Astronomers using Keck Observatory discover rain falling from Saturn’s rings - Astronomy Magazine.

Ross Lovegrove and Renault create the high-concept Twin'Z city-car. Biodynamic Farming & Gardening. Black Hole's Mystery 'Wave' Hyakutake: Comet with a Long, Long Tail. Catechism for a Witch's Child. Ancient Pagan History of the Goddess Worshipers. Fly Cells Divide by the Clock. Gooey Suits Help Teensy Critters Survive Space Conditions. 360. Technology.

Robots Mimic Ant Colony Behavior. Supersized Crabs Bad News for Seafood Lovers. Ancient Life Form Breathes Rocket Fuel Ingredient. Why Does the Ocellated Icefish Have Gin-Clear Blood. Smart Robot Tends to Your Every Need By Predicting the Future. Saturn Is Shaking Its Rings. ‘Spintronics’ Could Get Computers Running Faster Than Ever. NASA Moon Probe Sheds Light on Space Radiation Risks. Smell Receptors Found in Heart, Lungs and Blood. Atom Smashers Find Something Not So Charm-ing. Solar System's Mysterious Rock Origin Puzzle Revealed.

Whoa! Mini-Supernovas Discovered. Search for Online Short Films, Documentaries and Film-makers. Mostly Harmless. Study sheds light on formation of atmospheres in terrestrial planets - Astronomy Magazine. Discoveries suggest icy cosmic start for amino acids and DNA ingredients. Holometer Frequently Asked Questions. Elusive 'Superman' Particle Found Changing Flavor. This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again. Why Some People Get Zits And Others Don't. Forget The Sequester: Entrepreneurs Are Saving The Future. Prehistoric Wolf Ice-Skated to Remote Island. Too much salt may trigger autoimmune diseases - studies. IBM Takes Another Step Toward a Post-Human World (IBM) Is Fuel From Carbon Dioxide Too Good to Be True? WTF is wrong with Americans? Supercomputers Reveal How Spiral Galaxy Arms Grow. Improved ion engines will open up the outer Solar System. Alien Life Could be Detectable on Planets Around Dying Stars.

Sustainable Design Lab. Watch How a Solar Panel Could Repel Dust. Geometrically Coded Magnets Behave Differently - Click HD Option and SEE VID DESCRIPTION. The secret life of plankton - Tierney Thys. The Primer Fields Part 1. Electric Bacteria Could Be Used for Bio-Battery. Jupiter's Moon Europa May Have 'Spikes of Ice' ‘Paintable’ Electronics Paves Way for Cheaper Gadgets. Sun's Magnetic 'Heartbeat' Revealed. This is What Human Cells Look Like in Space.

Mirrorsheeting.com. Digital Evolution: DNA May Bring Computers to Life.