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Aug 19, 2020

Black hole collision may have exploded with light

Posted by in categories: cosmology, education, physics

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Astronomers have seen what appears to the first light ever detected from a black hole merger.


When two black holes spiral around each other and ultimately collide, they send out ripples in space and time called gravitational waves. Because black holes do not give off light, these events are not expected to shine with any light waves, or electromagnetic radiation. Graduate Center, CUNY astrophysicists K. E. Saavik Ford and Barry McKernan have posited ways in which a black hole merger might explode with light. Now, for the first time, astronomers have seen evidence of one of these light-producing scenarios. Their findings are available in the current issues of Physical Review Letters.

A team consisting of scientists from The Graduate Center, CUNY; Caltech’s Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF); Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC); and The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) spotted what appears to be a flare of light from a pair of coalescing black holes. The event (called S190521g) was first identified by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and the European Virgo detector on May 21, 2019. As the black holes merged, jiggling space and time, they sent out gravitational waves. Shortly thereafter, scientists at ZTF — which is located at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego — reviewed their recordings of the same the event and spotted what may be a flare of light coming from the coalescing black holes.

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Aug 19, 2020

Synthesis of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Images via Multi-channel Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs)

Posted by in category: computing

Circa 2017


Positron emission tomography (PET) image synthesis plays an important role, which can be used to boost the training data for computer aided diagnosis systems. However, existing image synthesis methods have problems in synthesizing the low resolution PET images. To address these limitations, we propose multi-channel generative adversarial networks (M-GAN) based PET image synthesis method. Different to the existing methods which rely on using low-level features, the proposed M-GAN is capable to represent the features in a high-level of semantic based on the adversarial learning concept. In addition, M-GAN enables to take the input from the annotation (label) to synthesize the high uptake regions e.g., tumors and from the computed tomography (CT) images to constrain the appearance consistency and output the synthetic PET images directly.

Aug 19, 2020

Metamaterials Generate Gecko-Like Adhesive Force

Posted by in category: materials

Circa 2012


Back in 1871, James Clerk Maxwell predicted that light exerts a force on any surface it hits. This radiation pressure was experimentally discovered some 30 years later and has since emerged as a hugely important force that is now exploited in systems such as solar sails and laser cooling.

Today, John Zhang and buddies at the University of Southampton in the UK go one better. These guys predict that a far more powerful optical force can exist between a metal or dielectric plate and a metamaterial, a substance with optical properties that have been engineered to control light in specific ways.

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Aug 19, 2020

Scientists create new super-hard metal

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, materials

Circa 2016


A super-hard metal has been made in the laboratory by melting together titanium and gold.

The alloy is the hardest known metallic substance compatible with living tissues, say US physicists.

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Aug 19, 2020

A Wood Product Stronger than Steel that Could Change the World

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, mobile phones, weapons

Circa 2018


Measuring one million times less than the width of a human hair, graphene is harder than diamonds and 200 times stronger than steel. Small, strong, and flexible, it is the most conductive material on earth and has the potential to charge a cell phone in just five seconds or to upload a terabit of data in one. It can be used to filter salt from water, develop bullet-stopping body armor, and create biomicrorobots.

These incredible properties have captured the attention of scientists and industry specialists around the world, all seeking to harness graphene’s potential for applications in electronics, energy, composites and coatings, biomedicine, and other industries.

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Aug 19, 2020

Ultralight ‘Super-Material’ Is 10 Times Stronger Than Steel

Posted by in categories: materials, particle physics

Circa 2016


By using heat and temperature to modify the orientation of atoms, scientists have created a spongy, ultrastrong material that is lighter than a zip-close bag.

Aug 19, 2020

This Star Appears to Have Survived a Supernova

Posted by in category: cosmology

It seems a fusion shield could survive a supernova explosion.


“That’s what makes this white dwarf unique — it did undergo nuclear burning, but stopped before it got to iron,” Gänsicke told Space.com.

“This star is unique because it has all the key features of a white dwarf but it has this very high velocity and unusual abundances that make no sense when combined with its low mass,” Boris Gänsicke, physics professor at the University of Warwick, UK, and lead author of a paper about the research published the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, said in a statement.

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Aug 19, 2020

The interaction of a flowing plasma with a dipole magnetic field: measurements and modelling of a diamagnetic cavity relevant to spacecraft protection

Posted by in categories: physics, space travel

R Bamford 1, K J Gibson 2, A J Thornton 2, J Bradford 1, R Bingham 1,6, L Gargate 1,3, L O Silva 3, R A Fonseca 3, M Hapgood 1, C Norberg 4, T Todd 5 and R Stamper 1

Published 4 November 2008 • 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Volume 50, Number

Aug 19, 2020

Human body-on-chip platform may speed up drug development

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

Multiple human organ chips that quantitatively predict drug pharmacokinetics may offer better, accelerated drug testing.

Aug 19, 2020

From sociology of quantification to ethics of quantification

Posted by in categories: ethics, information science, mathematics

Quantifications are produced by several disciplinary houses in a myriad of different styles. The concerns about unethical use of algorithms, unintended consequences of metrics, as well as the warning about statistical and mathematical malpractices are all part of a general malaise, symptoms of our tight addiction to quantification. What problems are shared by all these instances of quantification? After reviewing existing concerns about different domains, the present perspective article illustrates the need and the urgency for an encompassing ethics of quantification. The difficulties to discipline the existing regime of numerification are addressed; obstacles and lock-ins are identified. Finally, indications for policies for different actors are suggested.