Tag Archives | technology

Researchers and physicians in the field could soon run on-the-spot tests for environmental toxins, medical diagnostics, food safety and more with their smartphones. […]

The Ring Nebula’s distinctive shape makes it a popular illustration for astronomy books. But new observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of the glowing gas shroud around an old,... […]

Approximately a year ago, the leading journal Science published an article about bexarotene as a potential Alzheimer’s drug. A significant breakthrough and an important starting point for further... […]

Detection of HIV antibodies is used to diagnose HIV infection and monitor trials of experimental HIV/AIDS vaccines. New, more sensitive detection systems being developed use microspheres to capture... […]

A conference of 500 leading water scientists from around the world today issued a stark warning that, without major reforms, “in the short span of one or two generations, the majority of the 9... […]

A new study by archaeologists at the University of York challenges evolutionary theories behind the development of our earliest ancestors from tree dwelling quadrupeds to upright bipeds capable of... […]

A study by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital found “substantial evidence” that a regenerative process involving damaged nerve fibers in the spinal cord could hold the key to better... […]

The temperature in the permafrost on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian high Arctic is nearly as cold as that of the surface of Mars. So the recent discovery by a McGill University led team of […]

Magnetars – the dense remains of dead stars that erupt sporadically with bursts of high-energy radiation – are some of the most extreme objects known in the Universe. A major campaign using... […]

A University of British Columbia engineer and a team of U.S. researchers have made a breakthrough utilizing spray-on technology that could revolutionize the way optical lenses are made and used.... […]

Oscillation effects in the Bs meson system provide a window on physics beyond the Standard Model. The latest results from LHCb on the mass and width differences between the two physical eigenstates, and the CP violating phase measured in the Bs -> J/psi phi decay channel are presented. In addition, results of a first study of the CP violating phase in the […]

Simon Baird A major milestone was passed this week at the PS Booster, where the first Personnel Access Door (PAD) of the new PS Complex access system is now operational. The new Material Access Door will follow very shortly. In the LHC, another significant milestone should be reached by the end of this week, when all 8 sectors will be fully warmed up to room […]

The 8th Physics Week of the ALICE Collaboration will take place in Padova, Italy from 19-24 May 2013. The aim of the meeting is to review and discuss the ongoing analyses and the future prospects of the ALICE physics programme. In the course of the week the latest results from all the Physics Working groups will be presented and discussed covering the analys […]

The Asian Committee for Future Accelerators (ACFA) and the fourth International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC’13, have awarded the ACFA / IPAC’13 Accelerator Prizes for outstanding and original contributions to the field. The awards were presented at the conference in Shanghai on 17 May. For more see http://www.aps.org/units/dpb/news/accelerator13.cf […]

A screenshot of the CERN homepage featuring an event display from CMS The CERN homepage features event displays and data plots from CERN experiments. Would you like your experiment or project to be highlighted on the homepage? If so, please get in touch with the web editorial team at: web-team-editors@cern.ch (note that this address only accepts incoming mai […]

The LHCb Collaboration has just presented at the Workshop on proton-nucleus collisions at the LHC, Trento, Italy, the first results from the analysis of proton with lead ion collision run data taken in January-February 2013. Already these first results made an important contribution to the understanding of heavy ion collisions. In the Standard Model of Cosmo […]

Heavy-ion collisions are used at CERN and other laboratories to re-create conditions of high temperature and high energy density, similar to those that must have characterized the first instants of the universe, after the big bang. Yet heavy-ion collisions are not all equal. Because heavy ions are extended objects, the system created in a central head-on col […]

The LHCb collaboration has just submitted for publication a paper which sets an important milestone in the history of particle physics. A difference between properties of matter and antimatter, named CP violation by particle physicists, was discovered in 1964 in the decays of neutral K mesons and was rewarded with the 1980 Nobel prize in physics for James Cr […]

In a seminar at CERN today the ATLAS and CMS experiments presented recent results on Higgs studies. The results built upon those already presented at the Moriond winter conference, with the experiments releasing combined spin measurements for the Higgs boson for the first time. Krisztian Peters, presenting on behalf of the ATLAS experiment and Chiara Mariott […]

Cian O'Luanaigh In CERN Council chamber today, physicists and engineers from the LHC injector accelerators presented their plans for the first Long Shutdown (LS1) of the accelerator complex. The goal of the LHC Injectors Upgrade (LIU) project is prepare to reliably deliver proton beams to meet the goals of the High Luminosity LHC, planned for after […]

By Julie Cooper Each month in “Slice of History” we feature a historical photo from the JPL Archives. See more historical photos and explore the JPL Archives at https://beacon.jpl.nasa.gov/. Infrared Ear Thermometer — Photograph Number JPL-17459Ac In 1991, Diatek Corporation of San Diego put a new infrared thermometer - Model 7000 - on the market. Early [... […]

By Marc Rayman As NASA’s Dawn spacecraft makes its journey to its second target, the dwarf planet Ceres, Marc Rayman, Dawn’s chief engineer, shares a monthly update on the mission’s progress. In this graphic of Dawn’s interplanetary trajectory, the thin solid lines represent the orbits of Earth, Mars, Vesta and Ceres. After leaving Vesta, Dawn’s orbit tempor […]

By Julie Cooper Each month in “Slice of History” we feature a historical photo from the JPL Archives. See more historical photos and explore the JPL Archives at https://beacon.jpl.nasa.gov/. 100 kilogauss magnet — Photograph Number 328-430Ac An intense magnetic field facility was completed in 1964 by the Physics Section of the Space Sciences Division at NASA […]

By Marc Rayman As NASA’s Dawn spacecraft makes its journey to its second target, the dwarf planet Ceres, Marc Rayman, Dawn’s chief engineer, shares a monthly update on the mission’s progress. Artist’s concept of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Dear Indawnstrious Readers, In the depths of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, […]

By Marc Rayman As NASA’s Dawn spacecraft makes its journey to its second target, the dwarf planet Ceres, Marc Rayman, Dawn’s chief engineer, shares a monthly update on the mission’s progress. Artist’s concept of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Dear Impordawnt Readers, The indefatigable Dawn spacecraft is continuing to forge through the […]

By Chip Miller In this new series on “Big Fat Planet,” we will answer selected questions about Earth’s climate submitted by readers. Recently, a reader asked: “Is there still time to reduce climate change, or is it too late?” The following answer is from Dr. Chip Miller, a researcher specializing in remote sensing of carbon dioxide […]

By Julie Cooper Each month in “Slice of History” we feature a historical photo from the JPL Archives. See more historical photos and explore the JPL Archives at https://beacon.jpl.nasa.gov/. Granite Oil Slip Table — Photograph Number P-2784Ac In 1963, spacecraft vibration tests were conducted in the Environmental Laboratory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laborator […]

By Marc Rayman As NASA’s Dawn spacecraft makes its journey to its second target, the dwarf planet Ceres, Marc Rayman, Dawn’s chief engineer, shares a monthly update on the mission’s progress. As NASA’s Dawn spacecraft takes off for its next destination, this mosaic synthesizes some of the best views the spacecraft had of the giant asteroid Vesta. […]

By Marc Rayman As NASA’s Dawn spacecraft makes its journey to its second target, the dwarf planet Ceres, Marc Rayman, Dawn’s chief engineer, shares a monthly update on the mission’s progress. Artist’s concept of NASA’s Dawn spacecraft departing the giant asteroid Vesta. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Dawn concluded 2012 almost 13,000 times farther from Vesta […]

By Amber Jenkins An interesting recent paper from Dr. Son Nghiem at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and colleagues finds that the bottom of the Arctic Ocean controls the pattern of sea ice thousands of feet above on the water’s surface. The seafloor topography exerts its control not only locally, in the Bering, Chukchi, Beaufort, Barents and […]

The Smithsonian Libraries offer a vast amount of resources to the general public. This video gives you a peek into the amazing world of discovery and preservation offered by the Library. It also contains links […]

This composite image of a galaxy illustrates how the intense gravity of a super massive black hole can be tapped to generate immense power. The image contains X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), optical light obtained […]

They’ve got no roots or veins and grow in hanging pendants or tightly packed mats attached to stones, soil and wood. Called by some “the secret plants that surround us,” the bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) […]

                    The Smithsonian Libraries will open its new exhibition “Whales: From Bone to Book” in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History on May 25. This exhibition is a […]

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This scientific visualization is much more than a dizzying dance of whirling worlds. It shows 2,299 planets found by NASA’s Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft. […]

The impact of industrial fishing on coastal ecosystems has been studied for many years. But how it affects food webs in the open ocean―a vast region that covers almost half of the Earth’s surface―has not […]

Detecting alien worlds presents a significant challenge since they are small, faint, and close to their stars. The two most prolific techniques for finding exoplanets are radial velocity (looking for wobbling stars) and transits (looking […]

What can you do to bring some of the Smithsonian’s 137 million objects to life? Put them in 3-D! This is a full-time job for two of the Smithsonian’s very own “laser cowboys,” Vince Rossi […]

There is little doubt that human activity is affecting planet Earth, but just how much? And is it all negative? Rick Potts is the director of the Human Origins Program and curator of anthropology at […]