Sarah Brightman chases her dream to the International Space Station

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Brightman contributed to the design of her own mission patch for TMA 18/16M to commemorate her trip to the International Space Station in September. (credit: SarahBrightman.com)

In September, soprano and classical crossover performer Sarah Brightman, with cosmonaut Sergey Volkov and ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. She will be travelling as a spaceflight participant arranged by Space Adventures. Brightman will be only the second female spaceflight participant to travel to the ISS, after Anousheh Ansari in 2006.

Six men have also made the epic trip through Space Adventures. However, Brightmans worldwide fame will draw unprecedented attention to orbital personal spaceflight during her mission to and aboard the ISS. News networks will begin airing segments about her trip weeks in advance of launch. The day of launch it could be the top story on every news broadcast around the world. For Brightman, it will be the realization of a dream she has had for decades.

Brightman was born in August 1960, the first of six children. By the time of the Apollo 11 lunar landing in 1969, she had already been attending piano and dancing classes for five years. She had followed the news of the July 16 launch of the Saturn V carrying Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins.

On July 20th, the Brightmans gathered their children around the television in their Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England home for the live broadcast. Millions of people were riveted to their TVs as the black and white video images were beamed live back to Earth. Sarah Brightman watched in wonder as Neil Armstrong stepped down the ladder of the lunar module. He cautiously placed his boot on the lunar surface and uttered those immortal words, Thats one small step for manone giant leap for mankind. At that moment, something clicked for Brightman, she recalled in an interview.

Being lucky enough to have watched the first man land on the Moon, Brightman said in a London press conference on March 10 hosted by Carol Vorderman, we thought we were going to be astronauts. It was all about space [back then]. For me to have got this far and to be able to have a taste of what I felt at the time, is an amazing thing.

Like many others who witnessed the first American astronauts to walk on the surface of the Moon, Brightman harbored the dream of one day going into space herself. She did not know how that might come about, but she always carried this dream with her. She continued her musical training and entered the Arts Education School in 1971. The die was cast, and Brightman embarked on a path that led her to stardom and worldwide fame. She focused on theater performance and later, her voice as a soprano having received her formal training at the Royal College of Music.

During the 1980s and the 1990s, Brightman continued to build a recording and performing career around the world. In 2001, she learned with interest of the flight of Dennis Tito to the ISS, arranged by Space Adventures. She became even more intrigued at the possibility when she read about Anousheh Ansarithe first female spaceflight participantwho achieved her own dream of going into space for an eight-day mission aboard the ISS.

On October 10, 2012, Brightman was in Moscow for a press conference where she would make a dramatic announcement. Also present were Alexey Krasnov, chief of Roscosmos Piloted Programs Department; Eric Anderson, Chairman of Space Adventures, Ltd.; and Neil Ford of UNESCO. The suspicions of the media that were present were confirmed before a word was even spoken. Being the consummate entertainer and performer, the conference opened with a music video showing film clips of Sarah Brightmans childhood interspaced with historic footage from American and Russian manned space missions, with a musical overlay of her singing Angel, from her upcoming album Dreamchaser.

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Sarah Brightman chases her dream to the International Space Station

How to train your astronauts

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IMAGE:Astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren are shown during International Space Station EVA Maintenance 9 Training at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at the Sonny Carter Training Facility. view more

Credit: NBL/Bill Brassard

Training an astronaut is no easy task. Astronauts go through years of rigorous technical, health and safety training to learn simple and complex tasks for a typical four to six month mission. They develop skills in systems, robotics, spacecraft operations, space engineering activities and even learn Russian. As NASA develops deep space exploration missions on its journey to Mars, the agency is investigating current training methods in order to adapt to the longer and longer missions.

"During the Shuttle Program, astronauts trained about 5 to 8 years for a 10 to 14 day mission, with a work-timeline scripted down to the minute." says Immanuel Barshi, a research psychologist from NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, in the center's Human Systems Integration division.

Decades of crew member research demonstrate that space can have adverse effects on people. Data suggests that the longer humans are in space, the greater the effects. On a trip to Mars, for instance, humans will be exposed to three years of microgravity and radiation; confined in an environment with three to five other people; separated from home; will experience altered day-night/light cycles; and will have three years to inevitably forget some of the training learned before leaving the planet.

Barshi's research, a study called Training Retention, examines to what extent these aspects of a Mars mission might affect a crew member's performance, as well as provide fresh insights into the way humans are trained for their jobs on Earth. Working with collaborators at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Barshi will study astronaut Scott Kelly's performance during his one-year mission aboard the International Space Station, in addition to that of other astronauts on six-month missions, and will compare results with astronauts on the ground over the same timeframe.

In conjunction with the Center for Research on Training at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado, Barshi will compare the astronaut skill retention data from space and ground with that of undergraduate students. Much of what is known on how people learn and how well they retain information or skills is based upon university research. Such comparisons are critical to the application of ground assumptions to space operations, especially how the effects of long duration space travel affect crew members.

"Researchers know that skills retained for long periods are very specific, while generalizable skills decay much faster unless continuously practiced," says Barshi.

For example, a person can learn to enter the numbers 8675309 on a computer keypad extremely fast with excellent accuracy, and retain the skill for a long time. Ask them to do the same task, only this time using a different number sequence and the same person will be just as slow as another person who never practiced the original task. Meaning, it is the specific sequence of numbers that people remember, not the generalizable skill of entering any number.

Results from this study will not only inform choices about astronaut pre-launch, on-board and follow-on training, but they may apply to training requirements for other professional careers. Currently, high risk industries, such as oil drillers, nuclear power plant operators, medical doctors and aircraft pilots or air traffic controllers, set training requirements based upon industry consensus and not necessarily specific research.

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NASA Administrator to Visit Marshall Space Flight Center, Meet Media

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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will be at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, on Tuesday, April 7, to honor the Center with a small business award and discuss the status of the Space Launch System rocket and the centers support role with the International Space Station and other center programs and projects that are contributing to NASA's mission of space exploration and steps on its journey to Mars.

Marshall Center Director Patrick Scheuermann will join Bolden at 11 a.m. CDT in the Building 4200 press room for a short question-and-answer session with media. The event will not be televised.

Media interested in attending should contact Kimberly Newton in the Marshall Center's Public & Employee Communications Office at 256-544-0034 by 5 p.m. Monday, April 6. Participants must be at the Redstone Arsenal Joint Visitor Control Center at Gate 9, Interstate 565 interchange at Rideout Road/Research Park Boulevard, by 10:15 a.m. April 7 to attend. Vehicles are subject to a security search at the game. News media will need two photo identification and proof of car insurance. Visitor parking is available in front of Building 4200 on the southwest side.

For more information on the Marshall Space Flight Center, visit us on the Web:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall

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NASA Administrator to Visit Marshall Space Flight Center, Meet Media

Babin: Human space flight should be NASAs top priority

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The Pasadena Kiwanis Club 32nd Annual Mayors Prayer Breakfast on Thursday (April 2) featured Congressman Brian Babin as the keynote speaker. Babin represents Texas District 36, which includes Pasadena as well as the Clear Lake area and Johnson Space Center. He is a member of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

My focus as member of the House Science Committee is to return human space flight as NASAs top priority. NASAs attention has been diverted toward a host of other competing priorities over the last several years. I think it is long past due that we return NASAs focus to what their mission was originally and that was human space flight and exploration.

Ending NASAs reliance on other countries to send astronauts to the International Space Station should also be a top priority, Babin said.

The only way we have of getting our astronauts to our space station is through the Russians. They have to be launched in a Russian Soyuz capsule from Russian soil. We have an obligation and a duty to make sure American astronauts are launched from American rockets from American soil and to do this as soon as possible, he said. We must provide NASA with the resources to return to flight and we must never put America in this position ever again.

The American space program offers numerous benefits such as its contributions to science, the economy and serves to inspire younger generations to learn about science and space, Babin said.

Not only has (the American space program) given us a healthy pride in America, but it has given us the motivation to explore the sciences, study harder in school for our kids and to think about doing what is considered impossible, he said.

As a Christian who believes that God is the author of the universe, what we saw over the past two decades through the lens of the Hubble Space Telescope is nothing short of awe-inspiring. The Hubble lifted the blinders even more and gave us a glimpse of our vast universe, he said.

Babin also commented on the impact of the nations investment in the space program on future generations.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson pointed out our investment in space is the only investment this generation makes that will benefit the next. While this may be a bit of an overstatement, it is true that our investment is space is mostly about the next generation.

Many of us may not live to see Americans landing on Mars. But, future generations will do so because of what we invest in our space program today, he said. I believe our investment in space is really a part of our fight for freedom because these investments are not only of scientific value, they also provide us with the military high ground. Throughout the history of mankind whoever controls the high ground has won the battlefields.

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Babin: Human space flight should be NASAs top priority

Comparative Planetology – Teach Astronomy

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Comparative Planetology

In the 1970s, space probes radically increased our data on other planets in our solar system from space probes. Researchers were able to use this information to compare and contrast the different planets, looking for processes that work universally across planets with similar conditions. According to this technique, called comparative planetology, we can learn more by looking for the unifying principles different planets share, rather than by studying each planet as an unrelated system.

The planets in our solar system all formed from essentially the same stuff, yet they are now strikingly different in appearance and surface composition. To understand how this differentiation occurred we must look at both external processes (such as the delivery of water by comets) and internal processes (such as volcanism). The comparison of greenhouse warming on Venus, Earth, and possibly Mars, is one example of a process that occurs in different levels on different worlds. The presence of life and liquid water is another example they are present on Earth, but our two closest neighbors, Venus and Mars, currently lack either. Nature has performed various experiments for us, placing planets of different sizes at different distances from the Sun. We can compare the results of the experiments to learn more about how planets work in general, and especially about how the Earth itself works. Life, just like volcanism, effects our planets atmosphere, chemistry, and surface. Studying other, simpler, systems can help us understand the Earth more completely.

There are some simple, general rules we can derive from this method that helps us understand planets. Here are some examples:

The tenets of comparative planetology are all based on simple physical principles related to gravity, chemistry, and the kinetic theory of matter. Since we have evidence that these physical properties are universal, its a good bet that these rules apply to planets beyond the solar system, too. The exciting idea that we can predict the properties of yet-undiscovered planets is an example of the long reach of the scientific method.

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Comparative Planetology - Teach Astronomy

NASA Hosts Student Rocket Fair, Helps Students Launch High-Power Rockets

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More than 30 high school, college and university teams will launch student-built rockets during the 15th annual NASA Student Launch event April 10-11 near NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Middle school and high school teams will launch their rockets to an altitude of one mile, deploy onboard science experiments and land safely using a system of recovery parachutes. University and college teams will participate in either the Mini-Mars Ascent Vehicle (Mini-MAV) or the Maxi-Mars Ascent Vehicle (Maxi-MAV) divisions. Mini-MAV teams must use a robotic system to autonomously load a payload into their rocket, launch to half a mile and eject the payload during descent. Maxi-MAV teams, competing for a share of $50,000 in prize money, will attempt to meet more autonomy requirements before also launching to a half mile.

All launches will take place at Bragg Farms in Toney, Alabama. Maxi-MAV launches begin at 10 a.m. CDT and will run until approximately 5 p.m. on April 10. Mini MAV and middle and high school launches begin at 7:30 a.m. and run until completed April 11. In the event of rain, the event will move to April 12.

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., April 9, students will participate in a Rocket Fair at Marshall's Activities Building 4316, where they will give technical presentations to, and get valuable feedback from, engineers and team members from NASA and Student Launch corporate sponsor Orbital ATK.

New to this year's Student Launch event is a partnership with NASA's Centennial Challenges, the agency's prize program for citizen inventors. The awards banquet will be held at 6:30 p.m. April 10 inside the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center at 1 Tranquility Base in Huntsville. Real-time coverage of the banquet and awards presentation will be provided on the NASA Student Launch Twitter account @NASA_Launchfest.

Media interested in covering Student Launch activities should contact Angela Storey of the Marshall Public and Employee Communications Office at 256-544-0034 no later than 4 p.m. April 8. Media attending events at Marshall must report to the Redstone Visitor Center at Gate 9, Interstate 565 interchange at Rideout Road and Research Park Boulevard no later than 10 a.m. April 9 for escort. Vehicles are subject to a security search at the gate. Journalists will need photo identification and proof of car insurance.

The Student Launch program challenges participating student teams to design rockets that address the research needs of different NASA missions. Student teams will share their research results, which may be used to design and develop future NASA projects.

The program is managed by Marshall's Academic Affairs Office and supported by NASA's Office of Education, Human Explorations Operations Mission Directorate, and Centennial Challenges Program at the agencys headquarters in Washington, as well as Orbital ATK Propulsion Systems of Promontory, Utah. Marshall manages the Centennial Challenges program for NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington.

Student Launch is open to public viewing and will be aired live on NASA Television and Marshall's Ustream and Twitter accounts, at:

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NASA sees Tropical Cyclone 22S 'come together right now'

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IMAGE:NASA's Aqua satellite captured this visible-light image of Tropical Storm 22S in the Southern India Ocean on April 6 at 09:45 UTC. view more

Credit: NASA Goddard's MODIS Rapid Response Team

Like the classic song from 1969, NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Cyclone 22S in the Southern Indian Ocean and saw it "come together, right now."

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Storm 22S as it organized and became a tropical storm on April 6 at 09:45 UTC (5:45 a.m. EDT). The image was created by the NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The image showed a rounded area of clouds associated with the tropical storm and a band of thunderstorms from the north feeding into the eastern side of the center of circulation.

On April 6, 2015, at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT), Tropical Cyclone 22S' maximum sustained winds were near 45 knots (51.7 mph/83.3 kph). It was centered near 14.9 south latitude and 61.4 east longitude, about 401 nautical miles (461 miles/ 743 km) northeast of Port Louis, Mauritius. 22S has tracked west-southwestward at 9 knots (10.3 mph/16.6 kph).

22S is moving along the northern edge of a subtropical ridge (elongated area) of high pressure and once that ridge weakens and moves east, the tropical storm will turn to the south and intensify to hurricane-force upon approach to Rodrigues Island. Rodrigues Island is an outer island in the Republic of Mauritius, located about 350 miles (560 km) east of Mauritius.

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NASA sees Tropical Cyclone 22S 'come together right now'

NASA spots an eye in fast-developing Cyclone Ikola

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IMAGE:NASA's Aqua satellite captured this visible image of Tropical Cyclone Ikola in the Southern India Ocean on April 6 at 08:05 UTC. view more

Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response Team

Tropical Cyclone Ikola formed quickly on April 6 and quickly strengthen to hurricane-force in the Southern Indian Ocean. NASA's Aqua satellite passed overhead after the storm developed an eye.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Ikola on April 6 at 08:05 UTC (4:05 a.m. EDT). The MODIS image clearly showed an eye with thunderstorms wrapping into the center from the eastern and western quadrants. A large, thick band of thunderstorms from the eastern side were spinning around the southern quadrant and into the western side of the low-level center. The image was created by the NASA MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that also flies aboard Aqua captured infrared data on the storm during the same overpass. Cloud top temperatures circling the eye were colder than -63F/-52C, indicating high, strong thunderstorms with the potential for heavy rainfall.

At 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT) on April 6, 2015, Tropical Cyclone Ikola's maximum sustained winds were near 65 knots (75 mph/120 kph). It was located about 1,497 nautical miles (1,723 miles/ 2,772 km) west-northwest of Learmonth, Australia, near 14.2 south latitude and 89.2 east longitude. Ikola was moving to the southeast at 9 knots (10.3 mph/16.6 kph) and poses no threat to land areas.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center expects Ikola to strengthen to 75 knots (86.3 mph/138.9 kph) and then gradually weaken, where it is forecast to dissipate far west of Perth, Western Australia.

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NASA spots an eye in fast-developing Cyclone Ikola

NASA Extends Campaign for Public to Name Features on Pluto

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The public has until Friday, April 24 to help name new features on Pluto and its orbiting satellites as they are discovered by NASAs New Horizons mission.

Announced in March, the agency wants to give the worldwide public more time to participate in the agencys mission to Pluto that will make the first-ever close flyby of the dwarf planet on July 14.

The campaign extension, in partnership with the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Paris, was due to the overwhelming response from the public.

Due to increasing interest and the number of submissions were getting, it was clear we needed to extend this public outreach activity, said Jim Green, director of NASAs Planetary Science Division at the agencys headquarters in Washington. This campaign not only reveals the publics excitement about the mission, but helps the team, which will not have time to come up with names during the flyby, to have a ready-made library of names in advance to officially submit to theIAU.

TheIAUis the formal authority for naming celestial bodies. Submissions must follow a set of accepted themes and guidelines set out by the IAUs Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature. After the campaign concludes, NASAs New Horizons team will sort through the names and submit its recommendations to theIAU. TheIAUwill decide whether and how the names will be used.

The campaign allows the public of all ages to submit names for the many new features scientists expect to discover on Pluto following the encounter.

"Im impressed with the more than 40,000 thoughtful submissions, said MarkShowalter, scientist New Horizons science team co-investigator, andSETIInstitute in Mountain View, California, which is hosting the naming website. Every day brings new lessons in the world's history, literature and mythology. Participation has come from nearly every country on Earth, so this really is a worldwide campaign.

New Horizons already has covered more than 3 billion miles since it launched on Jan. 19, 2006. Its journey has taken it past each planets orbit, from Mars to Neptune, in record time, and now its now in the first stage of an historic encounter with Pluto that includes long-distance imaging, as well as dust, energetic particle and solar wind measurements to characterize the space environment near Pluto.

The spacecraft will pass Pluto at a speed of 31,000 mph taking thousands of images and making a wide range of science observations. At a distance of nearly 4 billion miles from Earth at flyby, it will take approximately 4.5 hours for data to reach Earth.

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NASA Extends Campaign for Public to Name Features on Pluto

NASA Allowing Public To Name Features On Dwarf Planet Pluto

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By Bradford Hornsby April 6, 2015 2:59 PM

(NASA/JHU APL/SwRI/Steve Gribben)

(CBS SF) NASA has partnered with the International Astronomical Union to allow the public to nominate names for soon-to-be-discovered features on Pluto and its orbiting satellites.

NASAs New Horizons spacecraft will make the first-ever close flyby of Pluto and its satellites in July, collecting thousands of photographs which should reveal an in-depth look at the features on the bodies in the Pluto system.

These features will be named by the public after a vetting by NASAs New Horizons team and the IAU. Dont get too excited and think a feature on Pluto will soon be named after you, your pet hamster, or Seymour Buttz as there is a very strict set of rules for nomenclature.

All nominated names must related to mythology and the literature and history of exploration. Nominations also can not be the name of a living person. Below are the basic rules for names from IAU.

Pluto: Names for the Underworld from the worlds mythologies, Gods, goddesses, and dwarfs associated with the Underworld. Heroes and other explorers of the Underworld. Writers associated with Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. Scientists and engineers associated with Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.

Charon: Destinations and milestones of fictional space and other exploration. Fictional and mythological vessels of space and other exploration. Fictional and mythological voyagers, travelers and explorers.

Styx: River gods.

Nix: Deities of the night.

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NASA Allowing Public To Name Features On Dwarf Planet Pluto

Mars rover Curiosity spots 'ice cream sandwich' rocks (Photos)

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This photo, taken by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on March 18, 2015, shows a network of two-tone mineral veins at an area called "Garden City" in the foothills of Mount Sharp.(NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

This image, taken by the Curiosity rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager on Mars 25, 2015, is a close-up of a two-tone mineral vein at the Garden City site in the lower reaches of Mount Sharp.(NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

NASA's Curiosity rover has photographed some Martian rocks that bear a passing resemblance to a tasty frozen treat.

The rocks, which lie at a site dubbed Garden City near the base of Mars' 3.4-mile-high Mount Sharp, harbor ridges up to 2.5 inches tall that are composed of bright and dark mineral veins.

"Some of them look like ice-cream sandwiches: dark on both edges and white in the middle," Curiosity science team member Linda Kah of the University of Tennessee said in a statement. "These materials tell us about secondary fluids that were transported through the region after the host rock formed." [Latest Photos from NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity]

The car-size Curiosity rover touched down in August 2012, on a mission to determine if Mars could ever have supported microbial life. The rover found evidence of an ancient, habitable lake-and-stream system at a spot near its landing site called Yellowknife Bay.

The fluid movement responsible for the Garden City veins was likely more recent than the conditions that formed the Yellowknife Bay lake, which probably existed around 3.5 billion years ago.

"Mud that formed lake-bed mudstones Curiosity examined near its 2012 landing site and after reaching Mount Sharp must have dried and hardened before the fractures formed," NASA officials wrote in the statement. "The dark material that lines the fracture walls reflects an earlier episode of fluid flow than the white, calcium-sulfate-rich veins do, although both flows occurred after the cracks formed."

Mount Sharp has long been Curiosity's main science destination. Mission team members want the rover to climb up through the mountain's foothills, reading a history of Mars' changing environmental conditions as it goes.

Curiosity reached the foot of Mount Sharp in September 2014. The six-wheeled robot then spent six months exploring the bottom layers of an outcrop called Pahrump Hills, drilling into three different rocks to collect samples for analysis.

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Mars rover Curiosity spots 'ice cream sandwich' rocks (Photos)

IISc opens up its nano science lab for external researchers

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The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, (IISc) has been facilitating research at some of its facilities by people in dire need of the right facilities. A prominent one among them is the lab of the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering or better known as CeNSE.

When many a researcher in the country wants to test a hypothesis or wants to verify data relating to nano particles, they have two places to turn to in the country. One, IIT-Bombay and the other CeNSE at IISc. The two are among the only eight facilities with advanced nanotech research laboratories in the world. The other such labs are those in Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Cornell University, and Purdue University among others.

Speaking of those who have been using or have used the facilities, said Rudra Pratap, chairperson, CeNSE: "There are about 300 universities across the country. We are only one of the two in the country and over 300 people from outside the IISc have used the facility." About 500-odd studies have been done at the facility.

The four year old facility, set up at a cost of Rs 150 crore, has helped many a company in its endeavours by allowing access to its labs for a fee. According to IISc sources, an individual user may need to pay Rs 2,500 for using the lab for one hour. It could go up to Rs 5,000 depending on the equipment, and if it's an individual or an organisation using the lab and its other facilities, said a researcher who has used the lab.

The researchers who have been using the facilities include those from the healthcare sector across disciplines, including homoeopathy.

We have received a request from a researcher in Ayurveda now who wants to do some studies at the nano level, added Pratap. The largest number of studies at the facility have been by researchers from the field of electronics.

Debunking allegations The lab has also now helped debunk the allegations against homoeopathy that it is not effective or that in higher dilutions, it only has a placebo effect.

But, a two-year-long research by Dr E S Rajendran, director of Vinayaka Missions Homoeopathy Medical College, Salem has proved that they do contain nano-particles even at higher dilutions. This could open up vistas of research in future, said Dr Rajendran. A paper on his research will be presented at the World Homoeopathy Summit to be held in Mumbai.

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IISc opens up its nano science lab for external researchers

Water makes wires even more nano

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IMAGE:This crossbar array was produced with the meniscus-mask lithography technique invented at Rice University. The crossbar wires are made of silicon dioxide. The scale bar is 10 microns; the inset... view more

Credit: Tour Group/Rice University

HOUSTON - (April 6, 2015) - Water is the key component in a Rice University process to reliably create patterns of metallic and semiconducting wires less than 10 nanometers wide.

The technique by the Rice lab of chemist James Tour builds upon its discovery that the meniscus - the curvy surface of water at its edge - can be an effective mask to make nanowires.

The Rice team of Tour and graduate students Vera Abramova and Alexander Slesarev have now made nanowires between 6 and 16 nanometers wide from silicon, silicon dioxide, gold, chromium, tungsten, titanium, titanium dioxide and aluminum. They have also made crossbar structures of conducting nanowires from one or more of the materials.

A paper on their technique, called meniscus-mask lithography, has been published online by the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.

The process is promising for the semiconductor industry as it seeks to make circuits ever smaller. State-of-the-art integrated circuit fabrication allows for signal wires that approach 10 nanometers, visible only with powerful microscopes. These are the paths that connect the billions of transistors in modern electronic devices.

"This could have huge ramifications for chip production since the wires are easily made to sub-10-nanometer sizes," Tour said of the Rice process. "There's no other way in the world to do this en masse on a surface."

Current approaches to making such tiny wires take several paths. Lithography, the standard method for etching integrated circuits, is approaching the physical limits of its ability to shrink them further. Bulk synthesis of semiconducting and metallic nanowires is also possible, but the wires are difficult to position in integrated circuits.

Water's tendency to adhere to surfaces went from an annoyance to an advantage when the Rice researchers found they could use it as a mask to make patterns. The water molecules gather wherever a raised pattern joins the target material and forms a curved meniscus created by the surface tension of water.

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Fighting cancer with medicine and the mind Tom Silver’s Journey with Prostate Cancer – Video

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Fighting cancer with medicine and the mind Tom Silver #39;s Journey with Prostate Cancer
http://www.tomsilver.com/ FIGHTING CANCER AND KILLING CANCER WITH LOWERING BRAINWAVES AND AUTO SUGGESTIONS. MEDICINE AND MIND TO DESTROY CANCER! TOM SILVER ...

By: Tom Silver

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Fighting cancer with medicine and the mind Tom Silver's Journey with Prostate Cancer - Video