A nanoantenna with balanced electric and magnetic dipole moments exhibits a directive radiation pattern with zero backscattering. This is known as the first Kerker condition after Kerker, Wang, and Giles, who predicted in 1983 that, under plane wave illumination, magnetic spheres with equal relative permittivity and permeability radiate no light in the backscattering direction. They […]
Consider the statements below. What do they describe? A trip on psychedelics? A dream? I felt I could reach through the screen to get to another place. Lasers became entire fans of light sweeping around, and then it felt as if the screen began to expand. I saw old stone buildings … like a castle […]
Spaceflight is known to affect human physiology, but the molecular mechanisms driving these changes to our bodies in space, like for instance, the loss of muscular mass, are yet unknown. A recent study in the journal Cell used a multi-omics approach to try and examine these mechanisms. The researchers employed data from NASA’s GeneLab and […]
Coelacanth scales reveal 100-year lifespan Coelacanths, bizarre fish that reside in the deepest ocean depths, can live as long as 100 years, aren’t even mature until they reach about 45 and remain pregnant for as long as five years. Researchers used polarized light to examine the scales of about 30 different coelacanth specimens, finding rings […]
The common understanding of the uncertainty relation says that it is impossible to measure both the position and the momentum of a subatomic particle, in the same instant to unlimited accuracy. The more accurate is the measurement of the momentum, the less accurate is the measurement of the position in that instant, and vice versa […]
The modern research university was designed to produce new knowledge and to pass that knowledge on to students. North American universities over the last 100 years have been exceptionally good at that task. But this is not all that universities can do or should do. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it even easier to reduce […]
The imaginary friend is “an invisible character or personified object that takes part in children’s conversations or plays with them for a long period of time, at least several months”. The relationships are not identical; with personified objects the relationship is usually hierarchical, while with imaginary friends it is an egalitarian relationship. Peers tend to […]
Exoplanet’s atmosphere may contain water clouds The exoplanet TOI-1231 b, about 90 light-years away, may contain water clouds in its atmosphere. Researchers say the exoplanet’s relatively cool temperature hints at the water cloud possibility. CNN Humans may have arrived in Americas even earlier Animal remains dating as far back as 33,000 years ago found in […]
Common glass, used in windows or bottles, for example, is made by heating a mixture of calcium oxide (lime), sodium carbonate (soda), and silicon (IV) oxide (sand), resulting in a calcium silicate. This silicate is not a crystal but a solid in which atoms are random and have no long-range ordered pattern. These kind of […]
While U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken draws attention to climate change in the Arctic at meetings with other national officials recently in Iceland, an even greater threat looms on the other side of the planet. New research shows it is Antarctica that may force a reckoning between the choices countries make today about greenhouse […]