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Shape Shifters: NC State Creates New Breed Of Antennas

Matt Shipman
North Carolina State University
Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:49 UTC
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© UnknownThe antenna consists of liquid metal injected into elastomeric microchannels. The antennas can be deformed (twisted and bent) since the mechanical properties are dictated by the elastomer and not the metal.
Antennas aren't just for listening to the radio anymore. They're used in everything from cell phones to GPS devices. Research from North Carolina State University is revolutionizing the field of antenna design - creating shape-shifting antennas that open the door to a host of new uses in fields ranging from public safety to military deployment.

Modern antennas are made from copper or other metals, but there are limitations to how far they can be bent - and how often - before they break completely. NC State scientists have created antennas using an alloy that "can be bent, stretched, cut and twisted - and will return to its original shape," says Dr. Michael Dickey, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State and co-author of the research.
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Crime scene measurements can be taken from a single image


Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology
Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:41 UTC
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© Alan CleaverCrime scene measurements can be taken from a single image.
Two researchers from the University of Salamanca have developed a procedure to enable forensic police to extract metric data from crime scenes using just a single photograph. Their proposal, published this month in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, makes it possible to reconstruct a crime scene in 3D.

"We have studied an unprecedented and original line of research in the field of criminology and forensic engineering, which makes it possible to derive metric data from a single image", Diego González-Aguilera, co-author of the study and a researcher in the Department of Cartography and Soil Engineering at the University of Salamanca (in the University's Ávila offices), tells SINC.

González-Aguilera and his colleague Javier Gómez-Lahoz have recently published a study in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, which offers "a novel approach for documenting, analysing and visualizing crime scenes".
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Light Saber

Researchers demonstrate 100-watt-level mid-infrared lasers

Kyle Delaney
Northwestern University
Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:38 UTC
Northwestern University researchers have achieved a breakthrough in quantum cascade laser output power, delivering 120 watts from a single device at room temperature.

The results are particularly attractive for infrared countermeasure, a way of misguiding incoming missiles to protect commercial and military aircrafts.

The research, led by Manijeh Razeghi, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, was published in the journal Applied Physics Letters on Dec. 1.
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Magnify

Physical forces acting in and around cells are fast

Jef Akst
TheScientist.com
Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:46 UTC
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© Andrew Meehan
When it comes to survival, few things are more important than being able to respond quickly to a change of circumstances. And when it comes to fast-acting indicators, it turns out that signals induced by physical forces acting in and around cells, appropriately dubbed biomechanical signals, are the champions of the cellular world.

"If you look at this mechanical signaling, it's about 30 meters per second - that's very fast," says bioengineer Ning Wang of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. That's faster than most family-owned speedboats, and second only to electrical (e.g., nerve) impulses in biological signaling. By comparison, small chemicals moving by diffusion average a mere 2 micrometers per second - a speed even the slowest row boater could easily top.
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Magnify

Archaeologists Discover Wall of Ancient City of Vergina


BalkanTravellers.com
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:06 UTC
An exceptional fortification structure surrounding the ancient city of Vergina, located in northern Greece, was recently discovered by archaeologists from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

According to the university's announcement, cited by the www.ana-mpa.gr website, the architectural elements of the enclosure indicate that it dates back to the reign of Cassander, in the early third century BC, a period when Macedonia was plagued by major turmoil, including civil wars and attacks from the outside.
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Telescope

Black holes are cosmic factories for building galaxies, scientists believe


Telegraph
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:49 UTC
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© NASA
Black holes may act as cosmic factories for building galaxies, scientists believe. The new research may help explain why large galaxies tend to have super-massive black holes at their cores.

Astronomers have long wanted an answer to the chicken-and-egg question of what comes first, a super-massive black hole or the stars surrounding it.

A new observation of a far away object five billion light years from Earth may now help to solve the riddle. The object is a quasar, a powerful source of energy believed to mark the location of an active giant black hole.
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Question

Scientists Grow Pork Meat in a Laboratory

Lois Rogers & Georgia Warren
Times Online
Sun, 29 Nov 2009 17:49 UTC
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Scientists have grown meat in the laboratory for the first time. Experts in Holland used cells from a live pig to replicate growth in a petri dish.

The advent of so-called "in-vitro" or cultured meat could reduce the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals - if people are willing to eat it.

So far the scientists have not tasted it, but they believe the breakthrough could lead to sausages and other processed products being made from laboratory meat in as little as five years' time.

They initially extracted cells from the muscle of a live pig. Called myoblasts, these cells are programmed to grow into muscle and repair damage in animals.
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Info

Large Hadron Collider sets world energy record

Paul Rincon
BBC News
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:19 UTC
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The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment on the French-Swiss border has set a new world record for energy. The LHC pushed the energy of its particle beams beyond one trillion electron volts, making it the world's highest-energy particle accelerator.

The previous record was held by the Tevatron particle accelerator in Chicago.

Officials say it is another milestone in the LHC's drive towards its main scientific tests set for 2010.

The LHC is designed to smash together beams of sub-atomic particles at just under the speed of light. Researchers hope to see signs of new physics in the aftermath of the collisions, helping them unlock the secrets of the Universe.
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Control Panel

3D mash-up maps let you 'edit' the world

Colin Barras
New Scientist
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:29 UTC
Armchair explorers who soar over 3D cityscapes on their computer may be used to the idea of maps with an extra dimension. But they are now getting accurate enough to offer much more than a preview of your next holiday destination. Accurate, large-scale 3D maps could soon change the way we design, manage and relate to our urban environments.
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Umbrella

Triangular Snowflakes Have Scientists Puzzled

Tudor Vieru
Technology Review
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:16 UTC
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© K. G. LibbrechtAn image detailing various snowflake shapes
One of the most commonly known traits of snowflakes is the fact that they are hexagonal. Even pre-school children can tell you this, and their properties as such have been exhaustively investigated over the years. But, commonly, scientists discover that the frozen water falling from the sky is actually shaped like a triangle, which raises a number of questions as to the phenomena that are at work to create this effect. The real mystery is why is the triangle the second most preferred shape after the hexagonal one, and not, for example, a square, or a diamond-like structure, Technology Review reports.
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