Science X Newsletter Week 49

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Here is your customized Phys.org Newsletter for week 49:

	Superconductivity without cooling Superconductivity is a remarkable phenomenon: superconductors can transport electric current without any resistance and thus without any losses whatsoever. It is already in use in some niche areas, for example as magnets for nuclear spin tomography or particle accelerators. However, the materials must be cooled to very low temperatures for this purpose. But during the past year, an experiment has provided some surprises.
	The human eye can see 'invisible' infrared light Any science textbook will tell you we can't see infrared light. Like X-rays and radio waves, infrared light waves are outside the visual spectrum. But an international team of researchers co-led by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found that under certain conditions, the retina can sense infrared light after all.
	Engineers take big step toward using light instead of wires inside computers (Phys.org)—Stanford engineers have designed and built a prism-like device that can split a beam of light into different colors and bend the light at right angles, a development that could eventually lead to computers that use optics, rather than electricity, to carry data.
	Oldest engraving rewrites view of human history Anthropologists on Wednesday said they had found the earliest engraving in human history on a fossilised mollusc shell some 500,000 years old, unearthed in colonial-era Indonesia.
	10 facts about the Milky Way The Milky Way Galaxy is an immense and very interesting place. Not only does it measure some 100,000–120,000 light-years in diameter, it is home to planet Earth, the birthplace of humanity. Our Solar System resides roughly 27,000 light-years away from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of one of the spiral-shaped concentrations of gas and dust particles called the Orion Arm.
	Researchers convert sunlight to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency UNSW Australia's solar researchers have converted over 40% of the sunlight hitting a solar system into electricity, the highest efficiency ever reported.
45-year physics mystery shows a path to quantum transistors An odd, iridescent material that's puzzled physicists for decades turns out to be an exotic state of matter that could open a new path to quantum computers and other next-generation electronics.
	Desolenator has tech for water independence, looks to 2015 (w/ Video) (Phys.org) —What else is new: Earnest people who are aware of the difficulties very poor families face in many regions of the world wish for safe, cheap drinking water for everyone on the planet. The difference is that there is something new in a team who think that their Desolenator can actually deliver water for those in need.
	Can capacitors in electrical circuits provide large-scale energy storage? (Phys.org)—Capacitors are widely used in electrical circuits to store small amounts of energy, but have never been used for large-scale energy storage. Now researchers from Japan have shown that the right combination of resistors and capacitors can allow electrical circuits to meet two key requirements of an energy storage device: quick charging and long-term discharging. Using capacitors as energy storage devices in circuits has potential applications for hybrid electric vehicles, backup power supplies, and alternative energy storage.
	New revelations on dark matter and relic neutrinos The Planck collaboration, which notably includes the CNRS, CEA, CNES and several French universities, has disclosed, at a conference in Ferrara, Italy, the results of four years of observations from the ESA's Planck satellite. The satellite aims to study relic radiation (the most ancient light in the Universe). This light has been measured precisely across the entire sky for the first time, in both intensity and polarisation, thereby producing the oldest image of the Universe. This primordial light lets us "see" some of the most elusive particles in the Universe: dark matter and relic neutrinos.
	Research confirms how global warming links to carbon emissions Research by the University of Liverpool has identified, for the first time, how global warming is related to the amount of carbon emitted.
	New study suggests US fracking boom may not last as long as predicted (Phys.org)—A team of researchers with the University of Texas has conducted an analysis of the fracking business in the United States and has found that the estimates made by other groups, most specifically the Energy Information Administration (EIA) regarding the amount of natural gas that can be extracted, is much too high. In a Nature News Feature, team lead Mason Inman suggests that the boom may last just half as long as predicted.
	Hawking warns AI 'could spell end of human race' British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has warned that development of artificial intelligence could mean the end of humanity.
	Can binary terrestrial planets exist? The possible existence of Earth-like binary planets is being described today at the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Tucson, AZ. Two bodies, each of mass similar to Earth, can form a closely orbiting pair under certain conditions present during the formation of planetary systems. This theoretical proposal is completely unlike the Earth-Moon system or Pluto-Charon, where the two bodies are very different in mass, and arises in some "kissing" collisions where two similar mass bodies encounter each other and become a bound system because of the energy lost in the strong tides raised on each other in the encounter. The resulting binary can then persist for billions of years provided it forms well away from the central star, at half an astronomical unit (the distance between the Earth and Sun) or more. This work was presented by undergraduate Keegan Ryan, graduate student Miki Nakajima, and Dr.! David Stevenson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. The result does not contradict existing data for planets around other stars but suggests that future data may uncover such systems. This is the first such study to examine the possibility of terrestrial binary planets.
	See it, touch it, feel it: Team develops invisible 3-D haptic shape (w/ Video) Technology has changed rapidly over the last few years with touch feedback, known as haptics, being used in entertainment, rehabilitation and even surgical training. New research, using ultrasound, has developed an invisible 3-D haptic shape that can be seen and felt.
	Moon's molten, churning core likely once generated a dynamo When the Apollo astronauts returned to Earth, they brought with them some souvenirs: rocks, pebbles, and dust from the moon's surface. These lunar samples have since been analyzed for clues to the moon's past. One outstanding question has been whether the moon was once a complex, layered, and differentiated body, like the Earth is today, or an unheated relic of the early solar system, like most asteroids.
	Researchers discover intact 'ghost ship' off Hawai'i Researchers from the University of Hawai'i (UH) and NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries today announced the discovery of an intact "ghost ship" in 2,000 feet of water nearly 20 miles off the coast of Oahu. Sitting upright, its solitary mast still standing and the ship's wheel still in place, the hulk of the former cable ship Dickenson, later the USS Kailua, was found on the seabed last year on a maritime heritage submersible mission with the UH Hawai'i Undersea Research Laboratory's (HURL) Terry Kerby and Drs. James Delgado and Hans Van Tilburg of the maritime heritage program in NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.
	Traces of possible Martian biological activity inside a meteorite Did Mars ever have life? Does it still? A meteorite from Mars has reignited the old debate. An international team that includes scientists from EPFL has published a paper in the scientific journal Meteoritics and Planetary Sciences, showing that martian life is more probable than previously thought.
	A bright future for LEDs A single wafer-level LED chip that produces more than 150 Watts of light output has been made in work form China. This level of output from a single chip makes applications for LEDs in high power lighting from stadiums to runways feasible, and the researchers have long term plans for a new way to light buildings and towns.
	New Horizons mission nearing Pluto after nine years in space It took the spacecraft New Horizons, hurtling from Earth faster than any mission before it, a matter of hours to pass the moon's orbit and a year to reach Jupiter's gravity.

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