Big Thoughts

NGC 7023: The Iris nebula

These clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Sometimes called the Iris Nebula, NGC 7023 is not the only nebula in the sky to evoke the imagery of flowers, though. Still, this deep telescopic view shows off the Iris Nebula’s range of colors and symmetries in impressive detail. Within the Iris, dusty nebular material surrounds a hot, young star. The dominant color of the brighter reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting starlight. Central filaments of the dusty clouds glow with a faint reddish photoluminesence as some dust grains effectively convert the star’s invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Infrared observations indicate that this nebula may contain complex carbon molecules known as PAHs. The pretty blue petals of the Iris Nebula span about six light-years.

Value of Pi, written in Sanskrit by Arya Bhatta.

Spider silk is considered the strongest bio polymer known to man and is stronger than steel, It is spun from an organ on the underside of the abdomen called spinnerets.

The spinnerets control how thick, think, dry, sticky, beaded the silk will be and can spin silk for specific purposes. Spiders do not stick to their webs because they only make the spiral region sticky so the spokes joining the web together are not enabling them to exist in their webs. 

The web is a temporary feature, they are only effective about a day as dust accumulation and exposure to air causes them to loose their stickiness. To conserve energy as web production is a very costly adaptation, some spiders actually eats its own web to save protein and uses this to make his new one, recycling the energy.

Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) caught in mid-breach attacking a seal decoy at Seal Island, False Bay, South Africa.

What A Chromosome Really Looks Like.

A chromosome is essentially a hybrid structure that contains our genetic information. It is predominantly visualized as X-shaped, but in reality chromosomes only exist like that when they are about to divide. Recent research by scientists at the BBSRC-funded Babraham Institute have created a new technique to generate models of how chromosomes really exist.

The new technique combines molecular measurements of chromosomes and uses the latest DNA sequencing technology. From which they have created a 3D model of how the DNA folds within a chromosome.

These findings reveal the structure of chromosomes which are directly linked to when and how much genes are expressed. This field of study into how the structure contributes to genome control is known as Epigenetics. Additionally 3D models of chromosomes will allow for mapping of specific genes and other important genomic features onto the structures giving further insight into how chromosome structure affects genomes.

The first gif zooms into a cell showing how chromosomes are normally visualized.  The second gif shows four typical cell nuclei in which only one of the chromosomes has been dyed in green and all other DNA with a blue dye, note how different chromosomes actually appear. The final gif shows the created 3D chromosome structure.

Logikblok

Inside the D-Wave Two quantum computer housed at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility. A dilution refrigerator cools the 512-qubit Vesuvius processor to 20 millikelvin (near absolute zero) — more than 100 times colder than interstellar space.

Credit: NASA Ames / John Hardman

Graphene - the new wonder material

The molecule is priceless but it is not a matter of cost – a few hundred dollars per kilo. The value lies in its potential. The molecule in question is called graphene and the EU is prepared to devote €1bn ($1.3bn) to it between 2013 and 2023 to find out if it can transform a range of sectors such as electronics, energy, health and construction. According to Scopus, the bibliographic database, more than 8,000 papers have been written about graphene since 2005.

As its name indicates, graphene is extracted from graphite, the material used in pencils. Like graphite, graphene is entirely composed of carbon atoms and 1mm of graphite contains some 3 million layers of graphene. Whereas graphite is a three-dimensional crystalline arrangement, graphene is a two-dimensional crystal only an atom thick. The carbons are perfectly distributed in a hexagonal honeycomb formation only 0.3 nanometres thick, with just 0.1 nanometres between each atom.

This 100% pure carbon simplicity confers some remarkable properties on graphene, very close to the calculated theoretical ones, as observed by the authors of A Roadmap for Graphene published in Nature last year.

Graphene conducts electricity better than copper. It is 200 times stronger than steel but six times lighter. It is almost perfectly transparent since it only absorbs 2% of light. It impermeable to gases, even those as light as hydrogen or helium, and, if that were not enough, chemical components can be added to its surface to alter its properties.

Astounding Black Thread Portraits

How Does Volcanic Lightning Occur?

Researchers hypothesize that volcanic lightning is the result of charge-separation. As positively charged ejecta makes its way skyward, regions of opposite but separated electrical charges take shape. A lightning bolt is nature’s way of balancing the charge distribution. The same thing is thought to happen in regular-old thunderstorms. But this much is obvious, right? So what makes volcanic lightning different?

One of the most significant studies done to make meaningful observations of volcanic eruptions was published in 2007, after researchers used radio waves to detect a previously unknown type of lightning zapping from the crater of Alaska’s Mount Augustine volcano in 2006.

"During the eruption, there were lots of small lightning (bolts) or big sparks that probably came from the mouth of the crater and entered the (ash) column coming out of the volcano," said study co-author Ronald J. Thomas in a 2007 interview with National Geographic. "We saw a lot of electrical activity during the eruption and even some small flashes going from the top of the volcano up into the cloud. That hasn’t been noticed before."

The observations suggest that the eruption produced a large amount of electric charge, corroborating the 1963 hypothesis – but the newly identified lightning posed an interesting puzzle: where, exactly, do these charges come from? “We’re not sure if it comes out of the volcano or if it is created just afterwards,” Thomas explains. “One of the things we have to find out is what’s generating this charge.”

Skeleton Leaf

In this interesting close-up by Dietmut Teijgeman-Hansen, we see what remains of a leaf that was likely consumed by an insect and is now slowly decomposing. According to reddit’s resident biologist Unidan:

“The reason this skeletal like pattern remains in the leaves is due to higher concentrations of lignin (a strong carbon structural molecule that is what makes wood woody) in the tracheid xylem cells. The more easily decomposed cells will rot away (or be eaten away, as it is more nutritious and more easily digested by insects), leaving the tougher skeletal lignin frame”