Reflected moonlight found to make barn owls less visible to prey
A team of biology and optics researchers affiliated with a host of institutions in Spain has found that the unique undercoating of the barn owl helps to make it less visible to prey when flying under the moon and starlit skies......»»
Quality control: Neatly arranging crystal growth to make fine thin films
Table salt and refined sugar look white to our eyes, but that is only because their individual colorless crystals scatter visible light. This feature of crystals is not always desirable when it comes to materials for optical and electrical devices, h.....»»
Researchers observe Floquet states in colloidal nanoplatelets driven by visible pulses
Solution-processed semiconductor nanocrystals are also called colloidal quantum dots (QDs). While the concept of size-dependent quantum effects had long been known to physicists, a sculpture of the theory into real nanodimensional objects remained im.....»»
Project Helianthus—a solar-sail-driven geomagnetic storm tracker
Solar storms captured the imagination of much of the American public earlier this year when auroras were visible well south of their typical northern areas. As the sun ramps into another solar cycle, those storms will become more and more common, and.....»»
Spider exploits firefly"s flashing signals to lure more prey
Fireflies rely on flashing signals to communicate to other fireflies using light-emitting lanterns on their abdomens. In fireflies of the species Abscondita terminalis, males make multi-pulse flashes with two lanterns to attract females, while female.....»»
Faint auroras may be visible in Northern Hemisphere skies after weekend solar storms
Solar storms persisting from the weekend may produce faint colorful auroras across the Northern Hemisphere, with little disruption to power and communications, space forecasters said Monday......»»
Exploring the impact of attentional uniqueness and attentional allocation on firm growth
According to the attention-based view, a firm's actions and growth performance are directly influenced by its attentional allocation to specific issues. The consequences of organizational attention are reflected in the firm's strategic decision-makin.....»»
Swimming trunks: transparent tank shows paddling pachyderms
Paddling with chunky legs and using their trunks as a snorkel, the elephants at Fuji Safari Park in Japan are taking a dip in their summer swimming pool—with each graceful movement visible thanks to a special see-through tank......»»
New technology protects crops by testing the air for the DNA of plant diseases
Plant infections can now be detected in our crops before they're even visible......»»
Twitter for Mac leaves the Mac App Store, but iPad X is still usable
Formerly a must-have social app, Twitter for Mac is no longer visible in the Mac App Store, but you could still use the X iPad app on Apple Silicon.Twitter icon, pre-XThe Elon Musk era's changing of Twitter to X has seemingly claimed another victim......»»
Hidden players in climate change: How microscopic proteins could shape our future
In the narrative about climate change, we often focus on the big and visible—like shrinking glaciers and churning hurricanes. But there's another world, microscopic and hidden, that's just as crucial and the focus of a new study by Amy Gladfelter,.....»»
Experiment uses quantum techniques to stimulate photons, enhancing search for dark matter
Scientists cannot observe dark matter directly, so to "see" it, they look for signals that it has interacted with other matter by creating a visible photon. However, signals from dark matter are incredibly weak. If scientists can make a particle dete.....»»
Research shows that brown treesnakes frequently kill prey too large to swallow
Brown treesnakes are not indigenous to Guam. The species arrived shortly after World War II, perhaps aboard shipping vessels. Since then, they have caused the local or total extinction of most native forest bird species......»»
Komodo dragons have iron-coated teeth to rip apart their prey, researchers find
Scientists have discovered that the serrated edges of Komodo dragons' teeth are tipped with iron. Led by researchers from King's College London, the study gives new insight into how Komodo dragons keep their teeth razor-sharp and may provide clues to.....»»
Paris 2024: How the Olympics shape—and are shaped by—geopolitics
When French historian and educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the modern Olympics in 1894, he did so with a vision of promoting peace through sport. In reality, the Olympics have often reflected the geopolitics of the period......»»
Image: A Saturnian summer
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Saturn and its colossal rings on July 4, 2020, during summer in the gas giant's northern hemisphere. Two of Saturn's icy moons are also clearly visible: Mimas at right, and Enceladus at bottom......»»
NASA sounding rocket launches, studies heating of sun"s active regions
Investigators at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, will use observations from a recently-launched sounding rocket mission to provide a clearer image of how and why the sun's corona grows so much hotter than the visible surfa.....»»
Zooplankton study challenges traditional views of evolution
In new research, Arizona State University scientists and their colleagues investigated genetic changes occurring in a naturally isolated population of the water flea, Daphnia pulex. This tiny crustacean, barely visible to the naked eye, plays a cruci.....»»
Moving from the visible to the infrared: Developing high quality nanocrystals
Awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, quantum dots have a wide variety of applications ranging from displays and LED lights to chemical reaction catalysis and bioimaging. These semiconductor nanocrystals are so small—on the order of nanometers.....»»
Researchers claim photoluminescent aerogel has a visible light reflectance of 104%
A team of chemists and materials scientists at Sichuan University, in China, has developed a photoluminescent aerogel with a visible light reflectance of 104%. In their study, published in the journal Science, the group created their aerogel from rea.....»»
Photoenzymatic synthesis achieves efficient oxidation of fatty acids
A research team designed and built a photoenzymatic cascade by combining photochemical water oxidation/O2 reduction with P450 peroxygenase catalysis to achieve efficient visible-light-driven oxidation of a range of fatty acids (C12-C20), leading to p.....»»