Washington University in St. Louis announced that its X-Calibur instrument, a telescope that measures the polarization of X-rays arriving from distant neutron stars, black holes and other exotic celestial bodies, launched today from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The telescope is carried aloft on a helium balloon intended to reach an altitude of 130,000 feet. At this…
A Hard, Rusty Bouquet of Nanoflowers
It’s called a nanoflower, but if you could brush your cheek against its microscopic petals, you would find them cool, hard, and … rusty. Common rust forms the inner skeleton of these lovely and intricate nanostructures, while their outer layer is a kind of plastic. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have developed a…
A New Look at Electron Interactions in Graphene
Electrons in graphene — an atomically thin, flexible and incredibly strong substance that has captured the imagination of materials scientists and physicists alike — move at the speed of light, and behave like they have no mass. Now, scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have demonstrated how to view many-particle interactions in graphene using…