Astronomy and Physics News - University of...
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Astronomy and Physics News
Our colleague Prof. Nacir Tit has been awarded the Khalifa Award for Education in the field of Scientific Research for 2012-2013 (Sixth Cycle). The annual Khalifa Award (KA) recognizes excellence in the field of education of indi-viduals, schools and institu-tions. “The award was created to enhance the quality of edu-cation and initiate a sense of positive competition between participants to provide the field of education with rich experi-ences, creative ideas and inno-vative educational projects,” Amal Al Afifi, secretary-general of the award, said. The awards are given in 11 categories in-
cluding public education, higher education in the UAE and across the Arab World, special needs, creating knowledge networks, new media and education, educa-tion and sustainable environ-ment, education and commu-nity service, educational re-search, projects and innova-tive educational programs and educational writing for chil-dren, Amal added. Congratulations to Prof. Nacir Tit for this magnificent award and achievement.
Prof. Nacir Tit (UAEU) wins the Khalifa
Award for Scientific Research for 2012/2013
It is one of the cosmos' most mys-terious unsolved cases: dark mat-ter. It is supposedly what holds the universe together. We can't see it, but scientists are pretty sure it's out there. Led by a dogged, Nobel Prize-winning gumshoe who has spent 18 years on the case, scien-tists put a $2 billion detector aboard the International Space Station to try to track down the stuff. And after two years, the first evidence came in Wednesday: tantalizing cosmic footprints that seem to have been left by dark
matter. But the evidence isn't enough to declare the case closed. The footprints could have come from another, more con-ventional suspect: a pulsar, or a rotating, radiation-emitting star. The Sam Spade in the investiga-tion, physicist and Nobel laureate Sam Ting of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he expects a more definitive answer in a matter of months. He confi-dently promised: "There is no question we're going to solve this problem." "It's a tantalizing hint,"
said California Institute of Tech-nology physicist Sean Carroll, who was not part of the team. "It's a sign of something." But he can't quite say what that something is. It doesn't elimi-nate the other suspect, pulsars, he added. Read more…..
Scientists report hint of dark matter in first results from $2 billion cosmic ray detector
Department of Physics—United Arab Emirates University April 06, 2013 Volume 3, Issue 14
Prof. Nacir Tit wins the Kha-lifa Award for Scientific Re-
1
Scientists report hint of dark matter in first results from ..
1
Are Our Textbooks Wrong? Astronomers Clash Over Hub-
2
Don't call it vaporware: Scien-tists use cloud of atoms as ..
2
Gravity-Bending Find Leads to Kepler Meeting Einstein
2
Rocket powered by nuclear fusion could send humans to
3
New camera system creates high-resolution 3-D images
3
Graphene foams: Cozy and
conductive scaffolds for neural
3
IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead
Reflection Nebula
4
One grate idea leads to another 4
Inside this issue:
Weekly news from around the world compiled by Dr. Ilias Fernini
A technician examines the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer at Kennedy Space Center in
Cape Canaveral, Fla.. The cosmic ray detector was mounted on the International
Space Station, searched the universe and shall help to explain how everything came to
be. CERN , the European Organization for Nuclear Research, released first results
of the experiment Wednesday April 3, 2013. (AP Photo/NASA, Glenn Benson).
Prof. Nacir Tit is a faculty member at the
Physics Department at the United Arab
Emirates University. His research interests
are in computational semiconductor physics.
Edwin Hubble’s contributions to
astronomy earned him the honor of
having his name bestowed upon
arguably the most famous space
telescope (the Hubble Space Tele-
scope, HST). Contributions that are
often attributed to him include the
discovery of the extragalactic scale
(there exist countless other galaxies
beyond the Milky Way), the expand-
ing Universe (the Hubble constant),
and a galaxy classification system
(the Hubble Tuning Fork). However,
certain astronomers are questioning
Hubble’s pre-eminence in those
topics, and if all the credit is warrant-
ed.
“[The above mentioned] discoveries …
are well-known … and most astrono-
mers would associate them solely with
Edwin Hubble; yet this is a gross over-
simplification. Astronomers and histori-
ans are beginning to revise that standard
story and bring a more nuanced version
to the public’s attention,” said NASA
scientist Michael J. Way, who just pub-
lished a new study entitled “Dismantling
Hubble’s Legacy?” Has history clouded
our view of Hubble the man? Or are his
contributions seminal to where we are
today in astronomy? Read more…...
with its partner, a small "red
dwarf" star. While the tiny white
dwarf is physically smaller than the
red dwarf, it is more massive.
"This white dwarf is about the size
of Earth but has the mass of the
sun," said Phil Muirhead of the
California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, lead author of the find-
ings to be published April 20 in
the Astrophysical Journal. "It's so
hefty that the red dwarf, though
NASA's Kepler space telescope
has witnessed the effects of a dead
star bending the light of its com-
panion star. The findings are
among the first detections of this
phenomenon -- a result of Ein-
stein's general theory of relativity -
- in binary, or double, star systems.
The dead star, called a white
dwarf, is the burnt-out core of
what used to be a star like our sun.
It is locked in an orbiting dance
larger in physical size, is circling
around the white dwarf."
Kepler's primary job is to scan
stars in search of orbiting plan-
ets. As the planets pass by, they
block the starlight by miniscule
amounts, which Kepler's sensi-
tive detectors can see. Read
more ………...
Are Our Textbooks Wrong? Astronomers Clash Over Hubble’s Legacy
Don't call it vaporware: Scientists use cloud of atoms as optical memory device (w/ video)
Talk about storing data in the
cloud. Scientists at the Joint Quan-
tum Institute (JQI) of the National
Institute of Standards and Tech-
nology (NIST) and the University
of Maryland have taken this to a
whole new level by demonstrating
that they can store visual images
within quite an ethereal memory
device—a thin vapor of rubidium
atoms. The effort may prove help-
ful in creating memory for quan-
tum computers. Their work builds
on an approach developed at the
Australian National University,
where scientists showed that a
Page 2 Astronomy and Phys ics News Volume 3, I ssue 14
Illustration only.
Images of Galactic nebulae and a supernova remnant that
were obtained via the Hubble Space Telescope, which is
named after astronomer Edwin Hubble. The honor was
bestowed upon E. Hubble given his seminal contributions to
astronomy (image credit: spikedrocker/deviantart).
Gravity-Bending Find Leads to Kepler Meeting Einstein
rubidium vapor could be manipu-
lated in interesting ways using
magnetic fields and lasers. The
vapor is contained in a small tube
and magnetized, and a laser pulse
made up of multiple light frequen-
cies is fired through the tube. The
energy level of each rubidium
atom changes depending on which
frequency strikes it, and these
changes within the vapor become
a sort of fingerprint of the pulse's
characteristics. Read more …..
Rocket powered by nuclear fusion could send humans to Mars
Graphene foams: Cozy and conductive scaffolds for neural stem cells
Human travel to Mars has long
been the unachievable dangling
carrot for space programs. Now,
astronauts could be a step closer
to our nearest planetary neighbor
through a unique manipulation of
nuclear fusion, the same energy
that powers the sun and stars.
University of Washington re-
searchers and scientists at a Red-
mond-based space-propulsion
company are building components
of a fusion-powered rocket aimed
to clear many of the hurdles that
block deep space travel, including
long times in transit, exorbitant
costs and health risks. "Using
existing rocket fuels, it's nearly
impossible for humans to explore
much beyond Earth," said lead
researcher John Slough, a UW
research associate professor of
aeronautics and astronautics. "We
are hoping to give us a much more
powerful source of energy in space
that could eventually lead to mak-
ing interplanetary travel common-
place." . The project is funded
through NASA's Innovative Ad-
vanced Concepts Program. Last
month at a symposium, Slough
and his team from MSNW, of
which he is president, presented
their mission analysis for a trip to
Mars, along with detailed comput-
er modeling and initial experi-
mental results. Theirs was
one of a handful of projects
awarded a second round of
funding last fall after already
receiving phase-one money in
a field of 15 projects chosen
from more than 700 pro-
posals. Read more…….
based physicists has recently tack-
led these limitations and reported
their findings in the Optical Socie-
ty's (OSA) open-access journal
Optics Express. The research
team, led by Gerald Buller, a pro-
fessor at Heriot-Watt University in
Edinburgh, Scotland, describes a
ToF imaging system that can gath-
er high-resolution, 3-D infor-
mation about objects that are
typically very difficult to image,
from up to a kilometer away.
Read more …..
A standard camera takes flat, 2-D
pictures. To get 3-D information,
such as the distance to a far-away
object, scientists can bounce a
laser beam off the object and
measure how long it takes the light
to travel back to a detector. The
technique, called time-of-flight
(ToF), is already used in machine
vision, navigation systems for
autonomous vehicles, and other
applications, but many current
ToF systems have a relatively
short range and struggle to image
objects that do not reflect laser
light well. A team of Scotland-
Their open paper, published yes-
terday in Nature's Scientific Re-
ports, suggests new approaches for
neural tissue engineering, and
possibly for interfacing with neural
prosthetics. It has been previously
reported that graphene sheets
support growth and differentiation
of human neural stem cells (NSCs)
in a similar fashion to other com-
mon substrates like glass or poly-
Graphene foams have been
around now for a couple years.
Their widespread application in
everything from electronics and
energy storage to substitutes for
helium in balloons is still greatly
anticipated. Researchers from the
Chinese Academy of Sciences in
Suzhou, and Beijing, have now
shown that graphene foams can
also be used to craft conductive
scaffolds for neural stem cells.
mer PDMS. Chinese researchers have
done pioneering work in synthesizing
graphene foams to exacting standards
of purity and uniformity. When coat-
ed with laminin or other matrix pro-
teins, these foams could potentially
serve not only as compatible neural
housing but also as a means to con-
trol the tenants electrically. Read
more….
Page 3 Astronomy and Phys ics News Volume 3, I ssue 14
This shows 3-D images of a mannequin
(top) and person (bottom) from 325
meters away. The left-hand panels show
close-up photos of the targets taken with a
standard camera. In the center are 3-D
images of these targets taken by the scan-
ner from 325 meters away. On the right
is a color-coded map showing the number
of photons that bounce off the targets and
return to the detector, with black indicat-
ing a low number of photons. Notice that
human skin does not show up well using
the scanner: the mannequin's face includes
depth information, but the person's face
does not. Credit: Optics Express.
A concept image of a spacecraft powered by a fusion-driven rocket. In this
image, the crew would be in the forward-most chamber. Solar panels on
the sides would collect energy to initiate the process that creates fusion.
Credit: University of Washington, MSNW.
New camera system creates high-resolution 3-D images from up to a kilometer away
College of Science - United Arab Emirates University
POB 17551
Al-Ain
United Arab Emirates
http://fos.uaeu.ac.ae/department/physics
rant’s request.
The eatery, The Pass and Provi-
sions, turned to a Rice faculty
member last year for a design that
would fit its aesthetic. Five stu-
dents who cheekily called them-
selves “Fork Yeah” took up the
challenge as part of the freshman
engineering course taught by Ann
Saterbak, a professor in the prac-
tice of bioengineering education.
Read more….
Diners at a downtown Houston
restaurant will soon have to pause
and think about a process they all
too often take for granted when
they wash their hands.
Instead of a common wall-mounted
dispenser spitting out runny glop, a
device built around a real kitchen
grater will serve up flakes from a
high-quality bar of soap. Patrons
will find they have to scrub, scrub,
scrub to lather up and get clean.
That’s by design. They’ll be doing
the bidding of a group of Rice Uni-
versity freshman engineering stu-
dents who are creating a set of
unique soap graters for the women’s
and men’s restrooms at the restau-
One “grate” idea leads to another
Phone: 00-971-3-7136336
E-mail: [email protected]
Physics Department
IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Scott Rosen
Freshman engineering students at Rice University
created a unique kitchen-themed soap dispenser in
a project sponsored by a Houston restaurant. The
dispenser provides flakes of high-quality soap to
patrons who literally grate the soap as if it were
cheese. Image: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University
Do you see the horse's head? What you are seeing is not the famous
Horsehead nebula toward Orion but rather a fainter nebula that only takes
on a familiar form with deeper imaging. The main part of the above im-
aged molecular cloud complex is a reflection nebula cataloged as IC 4592.
Reflection nebulas are actually made up of very fine dust that normally
appears dark but can look quite blue when reflecting the light of energetic
nearby stars. In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star
at the eye of the horse. That star is part of Nu Scorpii, one of the brighter
star systems toward the constellation of the Scorpion Scorpius. A second
reflection nebula dubbed IC 4601 is visible surrounding two stars on the
upper right of the image center.