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Categories: Offbeat: Earth and Climate, Physics: Optics

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A team of chemists have developed a novel concept in which a mixture of molecules that behave like mirror images is converted to a single form. To this end, they use light as external energy source. The conversion is relevant e.g. for the preparation of drugs.

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Researchers used advanced technology to study a massive aggregation of deep-sea octopus gathered at thermal springs near an extinct underwater volcano off the coast of Central California. Warm water from hydrothermal springs accelerates development of octopus embryos, giving young octopus a better chance of survival. The Octopus Garden is the largest known aggregation of octopus on the planet -- the size of this nursery, and the abundance of other marine life that thrives in this rich community, highlight the need to understand and protect the hotspots of life on the deep seafloor from threats like climate change and seabed mining.

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Geoscientists have created a new method that can reconstruct the drift path and origin of debris from flight MH370, an aircraft that went missing over the Indian Ocean in 2014 with 239 passengers and crew. 

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The sensory hairs of the Venus flytrap contain a heat sensor that warns the plant of bush fires. It reacts to rapid temperature jumps, as researchers have discovered.

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In the ongoing quest for more efficient solar cells, the most current published record for tandem perovskite solar cells is 32.5 percent. In a new paper, researchers report on the improvements in silicon-perovskite tandem cells that have made this possible.

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Physicists use a 350-year-old theorem that explains the workings of pendulums and planets to reveal new properties of light waves.

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Recent research in cell biology highlights groundbreaking results. An international team of researchers have recently established a tool they developed to study the mechanics of the cell. The tool can be used to study the inner forces of the cell, for example, the stretching of the nuclear membrane. The microscopic force sensor, only about 0.00002 mm long, is constructed of exotic ingredients such as spider web protein parts, fluorescent proteins from jellyfish, and antibodies from alpaca. In addition, the multidisciplinary team of researchers has developed further the sensitivity of super-resolution microscopy technique.

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Researchers have proposed a highly efficient method for detecting molecular chirality using tailored laser fields.

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Scientists have observed novel ergodicity-breaking in C60, a highly symmetric molecule composed of 60 carbon atoms arranged on the vertices of a 'soccer ball' pattern (with 20 hexagon faces and 12 pentagon faces). Their results revealed ergodicity breaking in the rotations of C60. Remarkably, they found that this ergodicity breaking occurs without symmetry breaking and can even turn on and off as the molecule spins faster and faster. Understanding ergodicity breaking can help scientists design better-optimized materials for energy and heat transfer.

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A new study shows that trapping light inside magnetic materials may dramatically enhance their intrinsic properties. Strong optical responses of magnets are important for the development of magnetic lasers and magneto-optical memory devices, as well as for emerging quantum transduction applications.

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Indoor air pollution may have met its match. Scientists have designed catalyst-coated lampshades that transform indoor air pollutants into harmless compounds. The lampshades work with halogen and incandescent light bulbs, and the team is extending the technology so it will also be compatible with LEDs.

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Pouring flecks of rust into water usually makes it dirtier. But researchers have developed special iron oxide nanoparticles called 'smart rust' that actually makes it cleaner. The magnetic nanoparticles attract different pollutants by changing the particles' coating and are removed from water with a magnet. Now, the team is reporting a smart rust that traps estrogen hormones, which are potentially harmful to aquatic life.

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Research is underway around the world to find alternatives to our current electronic computing technology, as great, electron-based systems have limitations. A new way of transmitting information is emerging from the field of magnonics: instead of electron exchange, the waves generated in magnetic media could be used for transmission, but magnonics-based computing has been (too) slow to date. Scientists have now discovered a significant new method: When the intensity is increased, the spin waves become shorter and faster -- another step towards magnon computing.

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Researchers have found a way to control the interaction of light and quantum 'spin' in organic semiconductors, that works even at room temperature.

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Researchers have developed a new algorithm for recovering the 3D refractive index distribution of biological samples that exhibit multiple types of light scattering.

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Imagine using insects as a source of chemicals to make plastics that can biodegrade later -- with the help of that very same type of bug. That concept is closer to reality than you might expect. Researchers will describe their progress to date, including the isolation and purification of the insect-derived chemicals and their conversion into their bioplastics.

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Medical imaging via X-rays, CT scans, MRIs and ultrasounds provide health-care professionals with unique perspectives and a better understanding of what's happening inside a patient's body. Using various forms of waves, these machines can visualize many unseen ailments and diseases. This imaging is beneficial for health-care professionals to make correct diagnoses, but the added insight of spectroscopy provides even more detail. Spectroscopy offers a means to identify biomolecules within specimens through their characteristic signatures for absorption in the electromagnetic spectrum.

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Expensive noble metals often play a vital role in illuminating screens or converting solar energy into fuels. Now, chemists have succeeded in replacing these rare elements with a significantly cheaper metal. In terms of their properties, the new materials are very similar to those used in the past.

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Through a series of innovative experiments, scientists found that a sheet of glass crystal just a few atoms thick could trap and carry light. Not only that, but it was surprisingly efficient and could travel relatively long distances -- up to a centimeter, which is very far in the world of light-based computing.

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Using scaffolds of folded DNA, engineers assembled arrays of quantum rods with desirable photonic properties that could enable them to be used as highly efficient micro-LEDs for televisions or virtual reality devices.