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Scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab want to know more about the potential harmful effects of organic contamination on space exploration hardware and how to prevent it. They will talk about their research at the 66th annual AVS International Symposium and Exhibition. JPL scientist Martin Maxwell will present a session on how increased sensitivity of instruments and missions calls for an update in outdated contamination procedures.

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Modern advances in oncology have significantly improved cancer survival rates. However, personalized treatment methods are necessary, since tumors may behave differently for different patients. At the AVS 66th International Symposium and Exhibition, Cristina Canal, a researcher at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, will present cold plasmas as a promising tool for minimally invasive cancer therapy. She will discuss the benefits of using plasma jets for cancer therapy, and explain the use of different liquid media, hydrogels and their properties.

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At the AVS 66th International Symposium and Exhibition, Oct. 20-25, Daniel Gunlycke will present a study on using symmetry to reduce the effects of random quantum entanglement in quantum computing applications. When deliberate, quantum entanglement can make algorithms more powerful and efficient, but uncontrolled entanglement adds unnecessary additional complexity to quantum computing, making algorithms suboptimal and more prone to error. Gunlycke says by reducing the frequency of accidental entanglements, quantum computing can be improved.

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The American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics 72nd Annual Meeting will take place on Nov. 23-26, 2019, in Seattle, Washington. Journalists are invited to attend the meeting for free. Live press webcasts, featuring a selection of newsworthy research, will take place during the meeting. Fluid dynamics is an interdisciplinary field that investigates visible and invisible phenomena from a wide range of disciplines including engineering, physics, biology, oceanography, atmospheric science and geology.

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Mohan Edirisinghe leads a team at University College London studying the fabrication of polymeric nanofibers and microfibers -- very thin fibers made up of polymers. The fibers can be woven into textilelike structures but depending on the use, different fiber thicknesses may be necessary. To study the effects of various parameters on fiber fabrication, the researchers compared the characteristics of fibers created in different ways. The group describes the work in Applied Physics Reviews.

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The entry probe of the Galileo mission to Jupiter entered the planet’s atmosphere in 1995 in fiery fashion, generating enough heat to cause plasma reactions on its surface. The data relayed about the burning of its heat shield differed from the effects predicted in fluid dynamics models, and new work examines what might have caused such a discrepancy.

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Hydrogen-containing substances are important for many industries, but scientists have struggled to obtain detailed images to understand the element’s behavior. In Review of Scientific Instruments, researchers demonstrate the quantification of hydrogen for different states of water -- i.e., liquid, frozen and supercooled -- for applications to eco-friendly fuel cells.

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When a heart attack occurs, muscle in the heart tissue can be scarred, interfering with electrical activity necessary for healthy heart function. Using artificial materials to patch or rebuild damaged parts has been tried but only recently has work focused on the electrical properties needed for proper cardiac operation. In this week’s APL Bioengineering, investigators review the use of electrically conductive biomaterials for heart repair and treatment.

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During the past 20 years, the oil industry has begun to transition away from light oils toward heavier oils. But transporting heavy oils cost-effectively is a challenge because heavy oils are viscous -- essentially a thick, sticky and semifluid mess. One way to outmaneuver this problem, reported in Physics of Fluids, is a viscoplastic lubrication technique.

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The winners of the 2019 AIP Science Communication Awards are announced for their topical works on robotics inspired by animals, the nature of the universe, climate change, the awe and excitement of space, and the mystery of black holes. The winners are David L. Hu, Marcia Bartusiak, Nathaniel Rich, Raman Prinja, and Rushmore DeNooyer.

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Inspired by cephalopods, scientists developed an aquatic robot that mimics their form of propulsion. These high-speed, squidlike robots are made of smart materials, which make them hard to detect, while maintaining a low environmental footprint. Physicists used numerical simulations to illustrate the physical mechanisms and fluid mechanics of a squid’s swimming method. By using this form of locomotion, the new device can achieve impressive speeds, just like its animal inspiration.

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To develop higher capacity batteries, researchers have looked to lithium sulfur batteries because of sulfur’s high theoretical capacity and energy density. But there are still several problems to solve before they can be put into practical applications. The biggest is the shuttling effect that occurs during cycling. To solve this problem and improve lithium sulfur battery performance, the researchers created a sandwich-structured electrode using a novel material that traps polysulfides and increases the reaction kinetics.

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The complex interplay among the arteriovenous grafts, the vessels they connect, and the blood they transport has been difficult to simulate with computers, but one new method provides a way. Researchers report in Physics of Fluids on a series of simulations that reconstructed the fluid dynamics affected by the insertion of an AVG.

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Researchers in Japan have developed a type of processor called PAXEL, a device that can potentially bypass Moore’s Law and increase the speed and efficiency of computing. In APL Photonics, the researchers looked at using light for the data transport step in integrated circuits, since photons are not subject to Moore’s Law. Instead of integrated electronic circuits, much new development now involves photonic integrated circuits. The PAXEL accelerator takes this approach and uses power-efficient nanophotonics.

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By studying the brain dynamics of 28 subjects with epilepsy, scientists demonstrated there is no evidence for a previously suspected warning sign for seizures known as “critical slowing down,” which refers to characteristic changes in the behavior of a complex system that approaches a theoretical tipping point; when this point is exceeded, there can be impactful and devastating changes. The researchers discuss their work in this week’s Chaos.

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Being able to accurately forecast how much solar energy reaches the surface of the Earth is key to guiding decisions for running solar power plants and new work in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy looks to provide a standard of reference to the field. Dazhi Yang proposes an improved way to assess day-ahead solar forecasting, which combines two popular reference methods for weather forecasting, namely persistence and climatology. His approach provides a new way to gauge the skill of a forecaster.

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Scientists and companies will showcase their latest research, tools, equipment and services at the AVS 66th International Symposium and Exhibition. The event will be held Oct. 20-25 in Columbus, Ohio. This will be a great opportunity for reporters to interact with experts in a variety of science fields, such as quantum science, plasmas, biomaterials, photonics, nanometer scale technology and more.

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Despite advances in medical imaging, the mechanisms leading to the irregular contractions of the heart during rhythm disorders remain poorly understood. Research suggests existing data from ultrasound imaging can be used to work backwards to reconstruct underlying electrical causes of arrhythmias.

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Scientists have used a microchip to map the back of the eye for disease diagnosis. The interference technology used in the microchip has been around for a little while. This is the first time technical obstacles have been overcome to fabricate a miniature device able to capture high quality images.

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In a kaleidoscope, mirrors are placed at angles to create a visual illusion of multiple, symmetric images from one object. Researchers started with a cylindrical vector optical field and introduce a kaleidoscope structure to the polarization states by assigning a parameter for mirror-symmetric axes.

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An interdisciplinary team has found a solution to a problem plaguing developmental biology -- long-term cell tracking and manipulation. Researchers painstakingly developed an automated microfluidic device for the stable imaging of mice embryonic stem cells over a three-day period.

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African Americans are seeing growth in engineering and physical sciences but are not progressing at the same rate when compared to the general population. A report from the American Institute of Physics Statistical Research Center examined the number of bachelor’s degrees earned from 2005 to 2015.

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After noticing how the construction of dams significantly alter the hydrodynamics of natural rivers and the resulting downstream riverbed evolution, researchers decided to apply numerical simulations to help determine what’s at play in the relationship of sediment motion and flow conditions.

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Medical implants of the future may feature reconfigurable electronic platforms that can morph in shape and size dynamically as bodies change or transform to relocate from one area to monitor another within our bodies. In Applied Physics Letters, a group of researchers reports a silicon honeycomb-serpentine reconfigurable electronic platform that can dynamically morph into three different shapes: quatrefoils (four lobes), stars and irregular ones.

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History of science author and editor Melinda Baldwin has been named the AIP Endowed Professor in the History of Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland (UMD) in partnership with the American Institute of Physics (AIP), effective fall 2020.

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LEDs made of indium gallium nitride provide better luminescence efficiency than many of the other materials used to create blue and green LEDs, but a big challenge of working with InGaN is its known dislocation density defects that make it difficult to understand its emission properties.

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An explosion is a complex event involving quickly changing temperatures, pressures and chemical concentrations. In the Journal of Applied Physics, a special type of infrared laser, known as a swept-wavelength external cavity quantum cascade laser, is used to study explosions.

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Many industrial buildings rely on ultrasound instruments that continually monitor the structural integrity of their systems without damaging or altering their features. One new technique draws on laser technology and candle soot to generate effective ultrasonic waves for nondestructive testing and evaluation.

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Researchers have developed a way to remove ice and frost from surfaces extremely efficiently, using less than 1% of the energy and less than 0.01% of the time needed for traditional defrosting methods. Instead of conventional defrosting, which melts all the ice or frost from the top layer down

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Scientists are using nanoparticle screening on personal care products and finding previously thought toxic chemicals may not be harmful. In Biomicrofluidics, researchers discuss their work successfully using microchips to demonstrate titanium dioxide, a chemical found in most sunscreens, not only is nontoxic but also offers protection against ultraviolet damage to skin cells.

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When energy is added to uranium under pressure, it creates a shock wave, and even a tiny sample will be vaporized like a small explosion. By using smaller, controlled explosions, physicists can test on a microscale what could previously be tested only in larger, more dangerous experiments. In a recent experiment, scientists used a laser to ablate atomic uranium while recording chemical reactions as the plasma cooled, oxidized and formed species of more complex uranium. They discuss their work in this week’s Physics of Plasmas.

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Monitoring and tracking biological threats or epidemics require the ability to carry out tests in the field during austere situations. Expensive laboratory equipment is often unavailable in these settings, so inexpensive point-of-care technology is needed. Ordinary paper is often used, since it’s cheap, portable and widely available. However, paper poses some problems that hinder its usefulness. In this week’s Biointerphases, investigators report a technique that greatly improves the performance of paper-based point-of-care technologies.

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The American Institute of Physics announced astronomer Virginia Trimble has been selected to receive the 2019 Andrew Gemant Award, an annual prize recognizing contributions to the cultural, artistic and humanistic dimension of physics. The award recognizes Trimble’s lifelong successes in the physical sciences and “for taking the broader view of how physics and astronomy is accomplished, creatively engaging physical scientists and the public throughout her lifetime, and commitment to establishing science within the social perspective.”

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The human heart’s energy needs and functions are difficult to reproduce in other animals; one new system looks to circumvent these issues and provide a functional view of how different treatments can help ailing cells in the heart following oxygen and nutrient deprivations. Researchers have unveiled a new silicon chip that holds human lab-grown heart muscle cells for assessing the effectiveness of new drugs. They discuss their work in this week’s APL Bioengineering.

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Advances in adapting the technology and better methods for predicting wind conditions have fanned significant growth of the use of wind turbines for electricity in the last 40 years. A new report, in Applied Physics Reviews, takes stock of where the field is now and what lies ahead. Researchers surveyed the growth of wind technology as a source of renewable energy and assessed its viability for continuing to capture larger shares of the electricity market.

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Molecular interactions between gases and liquids underpin much of our lives, but difficulties in measuring gas-liquid collisions have so far prevented the fundamental exploration of these processes. Researchers in the U.K. hope their new technique of enabling the visualization of gas molecules bouncing off a liquid surface will help climate scientists improve their predictive atmospheric models. The technique is described in The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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Blood spatters are hydrodynamic signatures of violent crimes, often revealing when an event occurred and where the perpetrator and victim were located. Researchers have worked toward gaining a better physical understanding of the fluid dynamical phenomena during gunshot spatters, which could enhance investigations. In the Physics of Fluids, they propose a generalized model for the chaotic disintegration of a liquid due to an arbitrarily shaped projectile. Their model focuses on providing predictive models of gunshot blood atomization and droplet flight and spattering.

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Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites have been used in optoelectronic devices including solar cells, photodetectors, light-emitting diodes and lasers, but the surface of hybrid perovskites is prone to surface defects, where charge carriers are trapped in the semiconducting material. To solve this problem, the crystal surface must be passivated. In this week’s Applied Physics Reviews, researchers describe testing hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite crystals treated with benzylamine to investigate the mechanisms by which the surface of the crystal is passivated, and traps states are reduced.

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Advances in organic phosphorescent materials are opening new opportunities for organic light-emitting diodes for combined electronics and light applications, including solar cells, photodiodes, optical fibers and lasers. While low-dimensional luminescent materials, like the calcium titanium oxide mineral perovskite, have promising optical properties, their performance remains insufficient compared to conventional organic LEDs. A recent study, in this week’s Applied Physics Reviews, explores a new approach using an exciton confinement effect to optimize highly efficient perovskite LEDs.

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Nuclear power plants can withstand most inclement weather and do not emit harmful greenhouse gases. However, trafficking of the nuclear materials to furnish them with fuel remains a serious issue as security technology continues to be developed. Two physicists conducted research to enhance global nuclear security by improving radiation detectors. According to them, improving radiation detectors requires the identification of better sensor materials and the development of smarter algorithms to process detector signals. They discuss their work in this week’s Journal of Applied Physics.

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Gaining a full understanding of systems of exoplanets and distant stars is difficult, because the initial positions and velocities of the exoplanets are unknown. Determining whether the system dynamics are quasi-periodic or chaotic is cumbersome, expensive and computationally demanding. In this week’s Chaos, Tamás Kovács delivers an alternative method for stability analysis of exoplanetary bodies using only the observed time series data to deduce dynamical measurements and quantify the unpredictability of exoplanet systems.

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Several screening tests for cervical cancer have been developed in recent years. One technique uses immunofluorescent staining to determine the levels of biomarkers to indicate a cell is undergoing HPV-related cancerous growth. Immunostaining for these proteins, however, can be time-intensive. One new approach, discussed in this week’s Biomicrofluidics, looks to provide a way to screen cervical cells with immunostaining more efficiently, drawing inspiration from an unlikely source: Pachinko.

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As technology and science continue to play an even greater role in everyday lives, training and developing the next wave of scientists needs to evolve. Noncognitive factors and new strategies to more fully engage each student and promote an inclusive classroom are being considered for improved learning experiences in STEM courses. During the 69th ACA meeting, July 20-24, Bernie Santarsiero, University of Illinois at Chicago, will talk about how resources other than remedial training can foster significant improvements in successful student outcomes.

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Diamond is one of the only materials hard and tough enough for the job of constant grinding without significant wear, but as any imminent proposee knows, diamonds are pricey. High costs drive the search for new hard and superhard materials. However, the experimental trial-and-error search is itself expensive. A simple and reliable way to predict new material properties is needed to facilitate modern technology development. Using a computational algorithm, Russian theorists have published a predictive tool in the Journal of Applied Physics.

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Pathology labs mounted on chips are set to revolutionize the detection and treatment of cancer by using devices as thin as a human hair to analyze bodily fluids. The technology, known as microfluidics, promises portable, cheap devices that could enable widespread screening for early signs of cancer and help to develop personalized treatments for patients, said Ciprian Iliescu, a co-author of a review of microfluidic methods for cancer analysis published in the journal Biomicrofluidics.

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Two experiments on the International Space Station examined how different crystal formations can be grown in a microgravity environment. One of the experiments was designed by six prize-winning students from Wisconsin, who were looking to compare growing salt crystals in space to growing crystals on Earth. The other experiment tested new advancements in methods and hardware to direct protein crystal growth by astronauts on the space station. Both experiments will be featured during a session at the 69th ACA meeting, July 20-24.

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Researchers at Cornell University are using a high-pressure biology facility dedicated to providing the emerging “deep-life” community with new technology to study fundamental molecular biology. The facility provides high-pressure small angle X-ray scattering and macromolecular crystallography technologies to examine how biomolecules function in organisms under high-pressure conditions.

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Imagine powering your devices by walking. With technology recently developed by researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and described in Applied Physics Letters, that possibility might not be far out of reach. An energy harvester is attached to the wearer’s knee and can generate 1.6 microwatts of power while the wearer walks without any increase in effort. The energy is enough to power small electronics like health monitoring equipment and GPS devices.

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Floating air particles following disasters and other geological events can have a lasting impact on life on Earth, and a new model drawing on chaos theory looks to help predict how these particles move, with an eye toward applications for geoengineering. Using available wind data, Tímea Haszpra developed a model for following particles as they travel around the globe. Using it, she has generated maps that can be used to predict how particles will be dispersed above the world.