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Here is your customized PHYSorg.com Newsletter for week 29:
Solar-powered process could decrease carbon dioxide to pre-industrial levels in 10 years
(PhysOrg.com) -- By using the sun's visible light and heat to power an electrolysis cell that captures and converts carbon dioxide from the air, a new technique could impressively clean the atmosphere and produce fuel feedstock at the same time. The key advantage of the new solar carbon capture process is that it simultaneously uses the solar visible and solar thermal components, whereas the latter is usually regarded as detrimental due to the degradation that heat causes to photovoltaic materials. However, the new method uses the sun's heat to convert more solar energy into carbon than either photovoltaic or solar thermal processes alone.
India develops 35-dollar 'laptop' for schools
India has come up with a 35-dollar touch-screen "laptop" -- a computing prototype that it aims to make available to students from elementary schools to universities.
300 solar masses: Scientists find most massive star ever discovered (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using a combination of instruments on ESO's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have discovered the most massive stars to date, one weighing at birth more than 300 times the mass of the sun, or twice as much as the currently accepted limit of 150 solar masses. The existence of these monsters -- millions of times more luminous than the sun, losing weight through very powerful winds -- may provide an answer to the question, "how massive can stars be?"
Time travel theory avoids grandfather paradox
(PhysOrg.com) -- The possibility of going back in time only to kill your ancestors and prevent your own birth has posed a serious problem for potential time travelers, not even considering the technical details of building a time machine. But a new theory proposed by physicists at MIT suggests that this grandfather paradox could be avoided by using quantum teleportation and "post-selecting" what a time traveler could and could not do. So while murdering one's relatives is unfortunately possible in the present time, such actions would be strictly forbidden if you were to try them during a trip to the past.
Researchers seeking the fourth property of electrons
Do electrons have a fourth property in addition to mass, charge and spin, as popular physics theories such as supersymmetry predict? Researchers from Germany, the Czech Republic and the USA want to find the answer to this fundamental question of physics. In order to improve the precision of previous measurements, they have created a new material with the aid of the Juelich supercomputer JUROPA. The scientists report on this in the current issue of Nature Materials.
Quantum Mechanics Not In Jeopardy: Physicists Confirm Decades-Old Key Principle Experimentally
(PhysOrg.com) -- When waves -- regardless of whether light or sound -- collide, they overlap creating interferences. Austrian and Canadian quantum physicists have now been able to rule out the existence of higher-order interferences experimentally and thereby confirmed an axiom in quantum physics: Born's rule. They have published their findings in the scientific journal Science.
Now You See It, Now You Don't -- an Invisibility Cloak Made of Glass
(PhysOrg.com) -- From Tolkien's ring of power in The Lord of the Rings to Star Trek's Romulans, who could make their warships disappear from view, from Harry Potter's magical cloak to the garment that makes players vanish in the video game classic Dungeons and Dragons, the power to turn someone or something invisible has fascinated mankind. But who ever thought that a scientist at Michigan Technological University would be serious about building a working invisibility cloak?
Introducing Cornucopia, the food printer
(PhysOrg.com) -- US scientists have introduced a concept design of the "Cornucopia" or Digital Fabricator, a "personal food factory" able to print food from specified ingredients, with no waste at the point of cooking.
Finding frugal aliens: 'Benford beacons' concept could refocus search for intelligent extraterrestrial life
(PhysOrg.com) -- For 50 years, humans have scanned the skies with radio telescopes for distant electronic signals indicating the existence of intelligent alien life. The search — centered at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. — has tapped into our collective fascination with the concept that we may not be alone in the universe.
Could dark baryons explain dark matter?
(PhysOrg.com) -- "The prevailing belief about dark matter particles is that they should be about 100 or more times heavier than protons," Subir Sarkar tells PhysOrg.com. "However, we were thinking about the possibility of lighter particles that can constitute dark matter, which may be more easily detectable with current experiments."
Hyperfast Star Was Booted from Milky Way
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected a hypervelocity star - a rare entity moving three times faster than our sun.
'The friend of my enemy is my enemy': Virtual universe study proves 80-year-old theory on how humans interact
A new study analysing interactions between players in a virtual universe game has for the first time provided large-scale evidence to prove an 80 year old psychological theory called Structural Balance Theory. The research, published today in PNAS, shows that individuals tend to avoid stress-causing relationships when they develop a society, resulting in more stable social networks.
Researchers discover water on the moon is widespread, similar to Earth's
Researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are once again turning what scientists thought they knew about the moon on its head.
New hypothesis for human evolution and human nature
It's no secret to any dog-lover or cat-lover that humans have a special connection with animals. But in a new journal article and forthcoming book, paleoanthropologist Pat Shipman of Penn State University argues that this human-animal connection goes well beyond simple affection. Shipman proposes that the interdependency of ancestral humans with other animal species -- "the animal connection" -- played a crucial and beneficial role in human evolution over the last 2.6 million years.
A plane that lands like a bird (w/ Video)
Everyone knows what it's like for an airplane to land: the slow maneuvering into an approach pattern, the long descent, and the brakes slamming on as soon as the plane touches down, which seems to just barely bring it to a rest a mile later. Birds, however, can switch from barreling forward at full speed to lightly touching down on a target as narrow as a telephone wire. Why can't an airplane be more like a bird?
Boeing unveils its commercial capsule spacecraft
(PhysOrg.com) -- Boeing unveiled its plans for a capsule spacecraft for ferrying astronauts and cargo to space stations at the biennial Farnborough International Air Show in the UK on July 19th. The craft is designed to fill the gap that will be left when the NASA space shuttles are retired from service next year.
Laser shoots down drones at sea (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- An infrared laser developed by Arizona company Raytheon Missile Systems has been demonstrated shooting down incoming drones over the ocean off the coast of California.
Destroyed Chinese satellite close to ISS: official
Debris from a satellite destroyed in 2007 by a Chinese missile is in the vicinity of the International Space Station and astronauts are ready to take cover if required, a Russian official said Friday.
Does the sun hold a dark secret?
(PhysOrg.com) -- A scientist at Royal Holloway, University of London believes dark matter is lurking at the centre of the sun and cooling down its core temperature.
Quick jolt of energy could improve energy harvesting by a factor of 40
(PhysOrg.com) -- Harvesting mechanical energy from the environment and converting it into electrical energy has recently become a viable method for powering low-energy electronics, such as sensors and actuators. But the major drawback of energy harvesting is how little energy it generates, which limits its potential applications. In a new study, Mickael Lallart and Daniel Guyomar from the LGEF Laboratory at the University of Lyon have proposed that an initial energy injection extracted from the harvested energy itself could greatly increase the total energy output; specifically, this method could generate 20 times more energy than normal when using off-the-shelf components, and up to 40 times more when using low-loss devices.
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