Imaging
On board Mars Express, in orbit around the Red Planet
June 3, 2013 3:42 pm | News | CommentsJust about 10 years ago, NASA’s Mars Express launched, setting the stage for a remarkable advance in knowledge of the Red Planet in the past decade. Using high-resolution camera technologies, researchers could for the first time see Mars spatially. Over time, a 3-D image of Mars was built. Researchers at the German Aerospace Center, who have been instrumental in this effort, have taken a look back the impact of this orbiter.
Invention allows clear photos in dim light
May 30, 2013 8:06 am | News | CommentsCameras fitted with a new sensor will soon be able to take clear and sharp photos in dim conditions, thanks to a new image sensor invented at Nanyang Technological University. The new sensor made from graphene, is believed to be the first to be able to detect broad spectrum light, from the visible to mid-infrared, with high photoresponse or sensitivity.
X-ray laser brings gold exploration to the nanoscale
May 28, 2013 10:08 am | News | CommentsPushing gold exploration to the nanoscale, scientists used SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory's Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser to produce a series of 3D images that detail a ringing effect in tiny gold crystals. The technique provides a unique window for studying why smaller is better for some specialized materials, including those used in chemical reactions and electronic components.
Scientists build record-setting metamaterial flat lens
May 24, 2013 10:20 am | News | CommentsFor the first time, scientists working NIST have demonstrated a new type of lens that bends and focuses ultraviolet light in a way that it can create ghostly, 3D images of objects that float in free space. The easy-to-build lens could lead to improved photolithography, nanoscale manipulation and manufacturing, and even high-resolution 3D imaging, as well as a number of as-yet-unimagined applications in a diverse range of fields.
Columbia University licenses 3D segmentation software to Varian
May 21, 2013 8:19 am | News | CommentsColumbia University has signed a licensing agreement with Varian Medical Systems for new imaging software that facilitates 3D segmentation, the process by which anatomical structures in medical images are distinguished from one another—an important step in the precise planning of cancer surgery and radiation treatments.
Computational tool simplifies complex data into 2D images
May 20, 2013 9:30 am | News | CommentsResearchers at Columbia University and Stanford University have developed a computational method that enables scientists to visualize and interpret "high-dimensional" data produced by single-cell measurement technologies such as mass cytometry. A sophisticated algorithm converts difficult-to-interpret data into visual representations similar to two-dimensional "scatter plots".
Tiny camera in Illinois offers bug's eye view
May 17, 2013 9:47 am | News | CommentsA tiny new camera developed at an Illinois university is giving researchers a bug's eye view. The camera created by a research team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is about the size of a penny and mimics insects' bulging eyes. It features 180 micro-lenses, giving it a panoramic field of view and the ability to focus simultaneously on objects at different depths.
Weather on the outer planets only goes so deep
May 16, 2013 12:31 pm | News | CommentsThe planets Uranus and Neptune are home to extreme winds blowing at speeds of over 1,000 km/hour, hurricane-like storms as large around as Earth, immense weather systems that last for years, and fast-flowing jet streams. Researchers using a new method for analyzing the gravitational field of these planets have determined an upper limit for the thickness of the atmospheric layer, which limits the depth of stormy weather.
Feynman's double-slit experiment preserved
May 13, 2013 8:05 am | News | CommentsDescribed as the "most beautiful experiment in physics," Richard Feynman emphasized how the diffraction of individual particles at a grating is an unambiguous demonstration of wave-particle duality and contrary to classical physics. A research team recently used carefully made fluorescent molecules and nanometric detection accuracy to provide clear and tangible evidence of the quantum behavior of large molecules in real time.
Imaging nanoscale polarization in ferroelectrics with coherent X-rays
May 7, 2013 11:19 am | News | CommentsAn international team working to image ferroelectric thin films have reported the development of a new X-ray imaging technique, coherent X-ray Bragg projection ptychography. Under certain conditions, these thin films, which are used in computer memory, form networks of nanoscale domains with distinct local polarizations that are normally difficult to image.
Telling time on Saturn
May 3, 2013 12:30 pm | News | CommentsA University of Iowa undergraduate student has discovered that a process occurring in Saturn’s magnetosphere is linked to the planet's seasons and changes with them, a finding that helps clarify the length of a Saturn day and could alter our understanding of the Earth’s magnetosphere.
New imaging technique visualizes bio-metals and molecules simultaneously
May 2, 2013 2:25 pm | by Juliette Savin, RIKEN | News | CommentsMetal elements and molecules interact in the body, but visualizing them together has always been a challenge. Researchers at RIKEN in Japan have developed a new molecular imaging technology that enables them to image bio-metals and bio-molecules at the same time in a live mouse. This new technology will enable researchers to study the complex interactions between metal elements and molecules in living organisms.
Observations of massive neutron star confirm relativity theory
May 1, 2013 12:01 pm | News | CommentsAn international research team led by astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy used a collection of large radio and optical telescopes to investigate in detail a pulsar that weighs twice as much as the sun. This neutron star, the most massive known to date, has provided new insights into the emission of gravitational radiation and serves as an interstellar laboratory for general relativity in extreme conditions.
Mysterious catalyst explained
May 1, 2013 9:01 am | by Julia Weiler, Ruhr University Bochum | News | CommentsMethanol to formaldehyde: This reaction is the starting point for the synthesis of many everyday plastics. Using catalysts made of gold particles, however, formaldehyde could be produced without the environmentally hazardous waste generated in conventional methods. But just how a gold catalyst could work has only recently been discovered by researchers.
Tracking gunfire with a smartphone
April 26, 2013 8:41 am | by David Salisbury, Vanderbilt University | News | CommentsYou are walking down the street with a friend. A shot is fired. The two of you duck behind the nearest cover and you pull out your smartphone. A map of the neighborhood pops up on its screen with a large red arrow pointing in the direction the shot came from. A team has made such a scenario possible by developing a system that transforms a smartphone into a shooter location system.
Bold move forward in molecular analyses
April 25, 2013 2:42 pm | News | CommentsA dramatic leap forward in the ability of scientists to study the structural states of macromolecules such as proteins and nanoparticles in solution has been achieved by a pair of researchers with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The researchers have developed a new set of metrics for analyzing data acquired through small angle scattering experiments with X-rays or neutrons.
Imaging technology could reveal cellular secrets
April 25, 2013 2:30 pm | News | CommentsResearchers have married two biological imaging technologies, creating a new way to learn how good cells go bad. Being able to study a cell's internal workings in fine detail would likely yield insights into the physical and biochemical responses to its environment. The technology, which combines an atomic force microscope and nuclear magnetic resonance system, could help researchers study individual cancer cells.
Scientists image nanoparticles in action
April 25, 2013 8:49 am | News | CommentsThe macroscopic effects of certain nanoparticles on human health have long been clear to the naked eye. What scientists have lacked is the ability to see the detailed movements of individual particles that give rise to those effects. Scientists at Virginia Tech have invented a technique for imaging nanoparticle dynamics with atomic resolution as these dynamics occur in a liquid environment.
Team Effort
April 24, 2013 2:16 pm | by Paul Livingstone | Articles | CommentsAdvances in microscopy and fundamental science are closely intertwined. Without prior understanding of the basis for research, the tools of microscopy are useless. Without microscopy, an understanding of how materials, chemistry, or life behave(s) at the molecular and atomic level cannot be discovered.
FDA device will screen for fake medicines overseas
April 24, 2013 1:19 pm | by MATTHEW PERRONE - AP Health Writer - Associated Press | News | CommentsU.S. health officials are making a high-tech screening device available to African authorities to help spot counterfeit malaria pills in hopes that the technology may eventually be used to combat the fake drug trade worldwide. The FDA announced Wednesday that regulators in Ghana will begin using a federally developed handheld device to screen for fake or diluted versions of two common malaria pills.
Remote Sensing to the Next Level
April 24, 2013 12:12 pm | by Dick Merk and Thomas J Tague Jr., PhD, Bruker Optics, Billerica, Mass. | Articles | CommentsBruker Corporation has coupled highly efficient interferometer technology and proprietary chemometric methods for automatic identification and imaging of chemical species present. The HI 90 hyperspectral imager rapidly detects molecules over a large field of regard (FOR) in seconds and provides both spatial and spectral analysis of the FOR.
Measurement technique offers way of improving optical lens making
April 24, 2013 9:20 am | News | CommentsResearchers at the University of Rochester have applied a sophisticated imaging technique to obtain the first 3D, high-resolution pictures of a recently developed type of optical lenses. They say that using optical coherence tomography during the manufacturing process allows them to significantly improve the quality of these new and promising lenses.
Rare galaxy found furiously burning fuel for stars
April 24, 2013 9:02 am | News | CommentsAstronomers have found a galaxy turning gas into stars with almost 100% efficiency, a rare phase of galaxy evolution that is the most extreme yet observed. The findings come from the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer in the French Alps, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA sees distant planets that seem ideal for life
April 19, 2013 12:33 pm | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsThe planet-hunting Kepler telescope has discovered two planets that seem like ideal places for some sort of life to flourish. According to scientists working with the NASA telescope, they are just the right size and in just the right place near their star. The discoveries, published online Thursday, mark a milestone in the search for planets where life could exist.
Fine bubble structure of bread dough visualized for first time
April 19, 2013 7:45 am | News | CommentsBaking the perfect loaf of bread is both a science and an art, so researchers are using Canada’s only synchrotron to look at the way bubbles form in bread dough to understand what makes the perfect loaf. Researchers from the University of Manitoba alongside scientists at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron used powerful X-rays on the Biomedical Imaging and Therapy beamline to look carefully at the fine details of dough.
