Amazing Databases: Sloan Digital Sky Survey Database

More than a hundred terabytes dedicated to maps of the universe By Rena Marie Pacella Posted 10.31.2011 at 11:24 am 0 Comments
Amazing Databases: Sloan Wikimedia Commons

In 1998, astronomers using the 2.5-meter Sloan telescope at New Mexico’s Apache Point Observatory began scanning the sky and loading the images they captured into the freely available Sloan Digital Sky Survey database. Since then, astronomers have used that 100-terabyte-plus cache to map half a billion stars, galaxies, asteroids and quasars; create 3-D maps of our outer galaxy; and study the structure of the universe.

Last year, scientists used the SDSS’s enormous sample of stars to determine why some white dwarfs have unexpected traces of metal in their atmospheres. By comparing SDSS measurements of thousands of newly identified white dwarfs with those of other stars, they determined that the “pollution” is most likely planetary debris, including material that once contained water. Because the Milky Way contains so many polluted white dwarfs, scientists reasoned that rocky and watery planets may be more common than previously thought—thus, extraterrestrial life may be more likely to exist in our galaxy than scientists had previously guessed.

Check out the other nine most amazing databases in the world here.

View the original article here

Amazing electrical properties in polymers discovered

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2011) — Crystals and ceramics pale when compared to a material researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered that has 10 times their piezoelectric effect, making it suitable for perhaps hundreds of everyday uses.

ORNL's Volker Urban and colleagues at Technical University Aachen in Germany noticed the reverse piezoelectric effect -- defined as creating a mechanical strain by applying an electrical voltage -- while conducting fundamental research on polymers. At first they didn't think about their observations in terms of classic piezoelectric materials, but then they became more curious.

"We thought about comparing the effects that we observed to more 'classic' piezoelectric materials and were surprised by how large the effects were by comparison," said Urban, a member of the Department of Energy lab's Neutron Scattering Science Division.

Until now, scientists did not believe that non-polar polymers were capable of exhibiting any piezoelectric effect, which occurs only in non-conductive materials. This research, however, shows up to 10 times the measured electro-active response as compared to the strongest known piezoelectric materials, typically crystals and ceramics.

"We observed this effect when two different polymer molecules like polystyrene and rubber are coupled as two blocks in a di-block copolymer," Urban said.

Temperature-dependent studies of the molecular structure revealed an intricate balance of the repulsion between the unlike blocks and an elastic restoring force found in rubber. The electric field adds a third force that can shift the intricate balance, leading to the piezoelectric effect.

"The extraordinarily large response could revolutionize the field of electro-active devices," said Urban, who listed a number of examples, including sensors, actuators, energy storage devices, power sources and biomedical devices. Urban also noted that additional potential uses are likely as word of this discovery gets out and additional research is performed.

"Ultimately, we're not sure where this finding will take us, but at the very least it provides a fundamentally new perspective in polymer science," Urban said.

The paper was published recently as the cover article in Advanced Materials. In addition to Urban, other authors are Markus Ruppel and Jimmy Mays of ORNL and Kristin Schmidt of the University of California at Santa Barbara. Authors from Aachen University are Christian Pester, Heiko Schoberth, Clemens Liedel, Patrick van Rijn, Kerstin Schindler, Stephanie Hiltl, Thomas Czubak and Alexander Böker.

Funding for this research was provided by DOE's Office of Science and the German Science Foundation.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Journal Reference:

Christian W. Pester, Markus Ruppel, Heiko G. Schoberth, Kristin Schmidt, Clemens Liedel, Patrick van Rijn, Kerstin A. Schindler, Stephanie Hiltl, Thomas Czubak, Jimmy Mays, Volker S. Urban, Alexander Böker. Piezoelectric Properties of Non-Polar Block Copolymers. Advanced Materials, 2011; 23 (35): 4047 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201102192

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Amazing electrical properties in polymers discovered

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2011) — Crystals and ceramics pale when compared to a material researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered that has 10 times their piezoelectric effect, making it suitable for perhaps hundreds of everyday uses.

ORNL's Volker Urban and colleagues at Technical University Aachen in Germany noticed the reverse piezoelectric effect -- defined as creating a mechanical strain by applying an electrical voltage -- while conducting fundamental research on polymers. At first they didn't think about their observations in terms of classic piezoelectric materials, but then they became more curious.

"We thought about comparing the effects that we observed to more 'classic' piezoelectric materials and were surprised by how large the effects were by comparison," said Urban, a member of the Department of Energy lab's Neutron Scattering Science Division.

Until now, scientists did not believe that non-polar polymers were capable of exhibiting any piezoelectric effect, which occurs only in non-conductive materials. This research, however, shows up to 10 times the measured electro-active response as compared to the strongest known piezoelectric materials, typically crystals and ceramics.

"We observed this effect when two different polymer molecules like polystyrene and rubber are coupled as two blocks in a di-block copolymer," Urban said.

Temperature-dependent studies of the molecular structure revealed an intricate balance of the repulsion between the unlike blocks and an elastic restoring force found in rubber. The electric field adds a third force that can shift the intricate balance, leading to the piezoelectric effect.

"The extraordinarily large response could revolutionize the field of electro-active devices," said Urban, who listed a number of examples, including sensors, actuators, energy storage devices, power sources and biomedical devices. Urban also noted that additional potential uses are likely as word of this discovery gets out and additional research is performed.

"Ultimately, we're not sure where this finding will take us, but at the very least it provides a fundamentally new perspective in polymer science," Urban said.

The paper was published recently as the cover article in Advanced Materials. In addition to Urban, other authors are Markus Ruppel and Jimmy Mays of ORNL and Kristin Schmidt of the University of California at Santa Barbara. Authors from Aachen University are Christian Pester, Heiko Schoberth, Clemens Liedel, Patrick van Rijn, Kerstin Schindler, Stephanie Hiltl, Thomas Czubak and Alexander Böker.

Funding for this research was provided by DOE's Office of Science and the German Science Foundation.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Journal Reference:

Christian W. Pester, Markus Ruppel, Heiko G. Schoberth, Kristin Schmidt, Clemens Liedel, Patrick van Rijn, Kerstin A. Schindler, Stephanie Hiltl, Thomas Czubak, Jimmy Mays, Volker S. Urban, Alexander Böker. Piezoelectric Properties of Non-Polar Block Copolymers. Advanced Materials, 2011; 23 (35): 4047 DOI: 10.1002/adma.201102192

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here