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COROT sees first light Jan 18
COROT, the first space observatory designed to search for p***ts beyond our solar system (exop***ts), captured its "first light" yesterday. Engineers from France's Space Agency CNES sent a command to open the hatch protecting the 30-cm telescope, exposing its extremely sensitive charge-coupled device (CCD) arrays to the stars. Launched into Earth orbit about three weeks ago, the spacecraft will look for exop***ts around 60 000 stars in two regions of our galaxy.
Neutrino detector is compact yet sensitive Jan 18
A new p-type germanium radiation detector could be the first to measure "soft neutrino-nucleus scattering", a mechanism that was originally predicted 30 years ago. Neutrinos are elusive particles that rarely interact with other matter, and are normally only glimpsed in huge detectors. This is not so with the prototype detector made by physicists in the US, which could be small enough to monitor for the illegitimate use of nuclear reactors, such as the removal of weapons-grade radioactive material (arXiv.org/physics/0701012).
Molecular carrier is on the straight and narrow Jan 18
A "molecular carrier" that can transport carbon dioxide molecules in straight lines across a crystalline surface has been developed by physicists in the US. The molecules hitch a ride with an organic compound called anthraquinone (AQ), which grabs hold of them and carries them over distances of about 10 nm before dropping them on request. The researchers believe that this phenomenon could be harnessed to boost the performance of surface catalysts or to improve the processing of semiconductor devices (Sciencexpress 10.1126/science.1135302).
Tropical beetle has the brightest whites Jan 18
The secret behind the brilliant white shell of a peculiar tropical beetle is an unusual, aperiodic structure, according to physicists from the UK. Electron microscopy revealed that a random network of protein filaments allows the shell to scatter light with high efficiency. The protein structure, which is at least two orders of magnitude thinner than manmade materials of equivalent whiteness, could be imitated in future synthetic systems (Science 315 348).
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