Clint Boisdeau, MotoIQ Civic EF, MPTCC race, NASA Big willow 3/1/15 – Video

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Clint Boisdeau, MotoIQ Civic EF, MPTCC race, NASA Big willow 3/1/15
Sunday #39;s MPTCC race, gridded behind the Honda Challenge field. Sprint race was 30 mins, but cut the video after I got to the front of the race group. Finished 1st in MPTCC and over all winner...

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Clint Boisdeau, MotoIQ Civic EF, MPTCC race, NASA Big willow 3/1/15 - Video

Jelena Gerbec – Lune, lune – (Live) – Ispuni mi zelju – (TV NASA 04.03.2015.) – Video

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Jelena Gerbec - Lune, lune - (Live) - Ispuni mi zelju - (TV NASA 04.03.2015.)
Zvanina facebook stranica: https://www.facebook.com/JelenaGerbecOfficiial Management: +381 65 8822 595 Label and copyright: Jelena Gerbec Zabranjeno svako kopiranje video i/ili audio snimaka.

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Jelena Gerbec - Lune, lune - (Live) - Ispuni mi zelju - (TV NASA 04.03.2015.) - Video

NASA finds evidence of a vast ancient ocean on Mars

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Geronimo Villanueva/Nasa An artists impression of the ancient ocean on Mars, which lasted for billions of years more than was previously thought. Credits: Mars Geronimo Villanueva/Nasa

A massive ancient ocean once covered nearly half of the northern hemisphere of Mars making the planet a more promising place for alien life to have gained a foothold, Nasa scientists say.

The huge body of water spread over a fifth of the planets surface, as great a portion as the Atlantic covers the Earth, and was a mile deep in places. In total, the ocean held 20 million cubic kilometres of water, or more than is found in the Arctic Ocean, the researchers found.

Unveiled by Nasa on Thursday, the compelling evidence for the primitive ocean adds to an emerging picture of Mars as a warm and wet world in its youth, which trickled with streams, winding river deltas, and long-standing lakes, soon after it formed 4.5bn years ago.

The view of the planets ancient history radically re-writes what many scientists believed only a decade ago. Back then, flowing water was widely considered to have been a more erratic presence on Mars, gushing forth only rarely, and never forming long-standing seas and oceans.

A major question has been how much water did Mars actually have when it was young and how did it lose that water? said Michael Mumma, a senior scientist at Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Writing in the journal, Science, the Nasa team, and others at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Munich, provide an answer after studying Mars with three of the most powerful infra-red telescopes in the world.

The scientists used the Keck II telescope and Nasas Infrared Telescope Facility, both in Hawaii, and the ESOs Very Large Telescope in Chile, to make maps of the Martian atmosphere over six years. They looked specifically at how different forms of water molecules in the Martian air varied from place to place over the changing seasons.

Martian water, like that on Earth, contains standard water molecules, made from two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, and another form of water made with a heavy isotope of hydrogen called deuterium. On Mars, water containing normal hydrogen is lost to space over time, but the heavier form is left behind.

When normal water is lost on Mars, the concentration of deuterium in water left behind goes up. The process can be used to infer how much water there used to be on the planet. The higher the concentration of deuterium, the more water has been lost.

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NASA finds evidence of a vast ancient ocean on Mars

NASA Readies For Historic Visit to Dwarf Planet Ceres

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Are we there yet?

NASA's Dawn spacecraft will reach the dwarf planet Ceres on Friday after what has been a nearly eight-year long journey through space. When the probe reaches its destination and inserts itself into its orbit, it will be the first time a space mission has successfully visited a dwarf planet.

The mission is expected to continue for 16 months as researchers analyze data about Ceres, which is thought to be icy and possibly contain an ocean. Studying the dwarf planet could yield new insights into how the solar system has progressed.

"Studying Ceres allows us to do historical research in space, opening a window into the earliest chapter in the history of our solar system," Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division said in a statement. "Data returned from Dawn could contribute significant breakthroughs in our understanding of how the solar system formed."

Ceres is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

As Dawn moved closer to Ceres, the probe was able to send photos back to Earth making out a gray, round mass in space. Each photo became clearer as Dawn closed in on the dwarf planet -- and offered stunning new details of the dwarf planet's cratered surface.

It's Dawn's second rendezvous in the area. The spacecraft first explored the asteroid Vesta in 2011 and 2012 before moving along on its journey to Ceres.

NASA will make another house call to a second dwarf planet, Pluto, when the New Horizons probe reaches its destination this summer.

It's been a banner year for "firsts" in space exploration as scientists continue to seek clues that could help them unlock some of the seemingly never-ending mysteries of the universe.

Last November, the European Space Agency celebrated a successful Rosetta mission as it landed a probe on the comet 67P, nearly 300 million miles from Earth.

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NASA Readies For Historic Visit to Dwarf Planet Ceres

NASA seeks cause of Mars rover's short circuit

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The Mars rover Curiosity is sitting stationary as NASA engineers try to figure out what caused a short circuit on its robotic arm.

The Mars rover Curiosity is sitting stationary -- all work paused -- as NASA engineers try to figure out what caused a short circuit on its robotic arm.

NASA is hoping to get the arm operating again in a few days, but engineers are still searching for the cause of the problem, said NASA spokesman Guy Webster.

"I'm not sure where the short is, but we've been doing some testing," Webster told Computerworld.

NASA initially reported Tuesday that an onboard fault-protection action had stopped the robotic rover from working on Feb. 27 while it was in the process of transferring sample materials from a device on the rover's robotic arm to onboard laboratory instruments.

At the time, Curiosity, which is looking for evidence that Mars once could have supported life, sent information back to NASA indicating it had sustained a transient short circuit. Engineers immediately began diagnostic work.

"We are running tests on the vehicle in its present configuration before we move the arm or drive," said Curiosity Project Manager Jim Erickson, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. "This gives us the best opportunity to determine where the short is."

This is not the first long-distance software fix for Curiosity. In November 2013, the rover was knocked into safe mode when a problem occurred shortly after the rover received a software upgrade.

Curiosity has been working at the base of Mount Sharp, which has been the rover's destination since it landed on Mars in August 2012.

The rover first explored the area around its landing site, where it found evidence of an ancient river flow and lake beds.

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NASA seeks cause of Mars rover's short circuit

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Used in Batteries and Fuel Cells for Transportation – Video

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Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Used in Batteries and Fuel Cells for Transportation
Speaker: Prof. Emanuel Peled The Fred Chaoul 10th Annual Workshop The Center for Nanoscience Nanotechnology Tel Aviv University Feb. 15, 2015 Hagoshrim Hotel.

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Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Used in Batteries and Fuel Cells for Transportation - Video

American Chemical Society Presidential Symposia: Nanoscience, International Chemistry

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WASHINGTON, March 5, 2015 The burgeoning field of nanotechnology, nanoscience at prestigious U.S. national laboratories and the worldwide promotion of chemistry are the topics of three special Presidential Symposia planned for the 249th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

The symposia will be held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, March 22-24, and will be sponsored by Diane Grob Schmidt, Ph.D., president of ACS, the worlds largest scientific society.

Nanotechnology: Delivering on the Promise will highlight the fascinating research, development and commercialization of nanochemistry and nanotechnology, and will include 16 senior-level speakers from industry, academe and government. Sessions will be held in Mile High Ballroom 3A on Sunday, March 22, 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Monday, March 23, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.

DOE Nanoscience Research Centers: National Resources for the Nanoscience Community will feature the five heads of chemistry at national laboratories. This is the first symposium of its kind to include these prestigious scientists collectively. The session will be held Tuesday, March 24, 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., in Rooms 506/507.

The other presidential symposium, Chemistry without Borders: The Transnational Practice of Chemistry and Allied Sciences and Engineering will take place Sunday, March 22, 8 a.m. to noon, in Mile High Ballroom 3A. It will touch on issues facing researchers, students and professionals working overseas and efforts to attract and build a workforce to promote the worldwide success of chemistry.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 158,000 members, ACS is the worlds largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

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American Chemical Society Presidential Symposia: Nanoscience, International Chemistry

Behind the Storefront: Dunkin Donuts to remove nanomaterial from powdered doughnut recipe

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) Dunkin Donuts announced Thursday that it plans to remove a potentially harmful nanomaterial from its powdered doughnuts.

The San Franciscobased advocacy group As You Sow commissioned an independent study in 2013 that tested 10 types of powdered doughnuts and found a nanoparticle called titanium dioxide in Hostess Donettes and Dunkin Donuts powdered cake doughnuts.

Dont miss: Dunkin Donuts, 3M, McDonalds and even Ringling Bros. making changes under consumer pressure

Also: What substances are creeping into our food supply via nanotechnology?

Dunkin Donuts DNKN, +2.98% said it is now in the process of removing the nanomaterial after coming under pressure from As You Sow, whose effort included putting a proposal before parent company Dunkin Brands shareholders. In accordance with the withdrawal of that shareholder proposal, Dunkin Donuts has 30 days to provide a time table for the ingredients removal from its powdered doughnuts.

Titanium dioxide is used to brighten white substances. Some preliminary studies show that nanomaterials can cause DNA and chromosomal damage, organ damage, inflammation, brain damage and genital malformations among other harms, according to As You Sow.

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The main reason for deploying nanotechnology in foods is that it gives manufacturers tighter control over what theyre producing, touching on such areas as coloration, dimensions and taste. Through nanotechnology, manufacturers are able to manipulate materials down to a billionth of a meter.

Our concerns are, do doughnuts really need to be wider or brighter, and whats the effect of that? asked Danielle Fugere, president of As You Sow. If we dont know what happens to the body yet, then we shouldnt be putting these in our food.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesnt yet have a definition for what constitutes nanomaterial in food, but here is what the FDA has issued guidance to the food industry (see adjacent image).

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Behind the Storefront: Dunkin Donuts to remove nanomaterial from powdered doughnut recipe

Squeezable nano electromechanical switches with quantum tunneling function

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11 hours ago by Denis Paiste MIT electrical engineering graduate student Farnaz Niroui works in a glovebox, where she prepares a sample for deposition of gold. The glovebox is attached through a transfer line to a thermal evaporator that deposits the gold coating onto squeezable switches, or squitches, which Niroui designs, fabricates, and tests in the Organic and Nanostructured Electronics Lab at MIT. Credit: Denis Paiste/Materials Processing Center

A longstanding problem in designing nanoscale electromechanical switches is the tendency for metal-to-metal contacts to stick together, locking the switch in an "on" position. MIT electrical engineering graduate student Farnaz Niroui has found a way to exploit that tendency to create electrodes with nanometer-thin separations. By designing a cantilever that can collapse and permanently adhere onto a support structure during the fabrication process, Niroui's process leaves a controllable nanoscale gap between the cantilever and electrodes neighboring the point of adhesion.

Niroui, who works in Professor Vladimir Bulovi's Organic and Nanostructured Electronics Laboratory (ONE Lab), presented her most recent findings Jan. 20 at the IEEE Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) Conference in Portugal. MIT collaborators include professors Jeffrey Lang in electrical engineering and Timothy M. Swager in chemistry. Their paper is titled "Controlled Fabrication of Nanoscale Gaps Using Stiction."

Stiction, as permanent adhesion is called, is a very important challenge in electromechanical systems and often results in device failure. Niroui turned stiction to her advantage by using a support structure to make nanoscale gaps. "Initially the cantilever is fabricated with a relatively larger gap which is easier to fabricate, but then we modulate the surface adhesion forces to be able to cause a collapse between the cantilever and the support. As the cantilever collapses, this gap reduces to width much smaller than patterned," she explains.

"We can get sub-10-nanometer gaps," she says. "It's controllable because by choosing the design of the cantilever, controlling its mechanical properties and the placement of the other electrodes, we can get gaps that are different in size. This is useful not only for our application, which is in tunneling electromechanical switches, but as well for molecular electronics and contact-based electromechanical switches. It's a general approach to develop nanoscale gaps."

Niroui's latest work builds on her earlier work showing a design for a squeezable switchor "squitch"which fills the narrow gap between contacts with an organic molecular layer that can be compressed tightly enough to allow current to tunnel, or flow, from one electrode to another without direct contactthe "on" positionbut that will spring back to open a gap wide enough that current cannot flow between electrodesthe "off" position. The softer the filler material is, the less voltage is needed to compress it. The goal is a low-power switch with repeatable abrupt switching behavior that can complement or replace conventional transistors.

Niroui designed, fabricated, tested, and characterized the cantilevered switch in which one electrode is fixed and the other moveable with the switching gap filled with a molecular layer. She presented her initial findings at the IEEE MEMS Conference in San Francisco last year in a paper titled, "Nanoelectromechanical Tunneling Switches Based on Self-Assembled Molecular Layers." "We're working right now on alternative designs to achieve an optimized switching performance," Niroui says.

"For me, one of the interesting aspects of the project is the fact that devices are designed in very small dimensions," Niroui adds, noting that the tunneling gap between the electrodes is only a few nanometers. She uses scanning electron microscopy at the MIT Center for Materials Science and Engineering to image the gold-coated electrode structures and the nanogaps, while using electrical measurements to verify the effect of the presence of the molecules in the switching gap.

Building her switch on a silicon/silcon-oxide base, Niroui added a top layer of PMMA, a polymer that is sensitive to electron beams. She then used electron beam lithography to pattern the device structure and wash away the excess PMMA. She used a thermal evaporator to coat the switch structure with gold. Gold was the material of choice because it enables the thiolated molecules to self-assemble in the gap, the final assembly step.

For the initial tunneling current demonstration, Niroui used an off-the-shelf molecule in the gap between electrodes. Work is continuing with collaborators in Swager's chemistry lab to synthesize new molecules with optimal mechanical properties to optimize the switching performance.

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Squeezable nano electromechanical switches with quantum tunneling function

New Air Bearing Stages / Systems Showcasing at Automate 2015 by PI

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Auburn, MA (PRWEB) March 05, 2015

With the 2014 acquisition of Nelson Air Bearing Products of New Hampshire, PI is building on over 200 man-years of in-house air bearing experience to offer linear, planar XY, and rotary air bearing stages to serve both the research and industrial markets. PI offers comprehensive precision air bearing motion control and positioning products and systems, which are inherently frictionless, for smooth accurate motion. Maximum performance of precision systems is achieved thru extensive design and analysis expertise, using equipment built in-house with proprietary techniques.

Learn more about PI Air Bearing Systems: http://www.pi-usa.us/products/Air_Bearing_Stages/index.php?onl_prweb

Why Air Bearings? As opposed to mechanical bearings, air-bearing positioners literally float on air, providing completely frictionless motion resulting in negligible hysteresis or reversal error, better straightness, flatness and velocity stability, which are ideal prerequisites for high-end industrial inspection and manufacturing operations. Similar motion quality can only be provided by magnetic levitation systems and flexure guided piezo systems, both technologies that PI also offers.

Extension of Existing Nanopositioning Capabilities With 4 decades of experience in piezo nanopositioning systems design and motorized precision positioning equipment, the new air bearing systems capabilities are a natural and logical extension of PI's precision motion offerings.

PI is now in the unique position to cover the whole motion range from finger-tip sized nano-positioners to large scale stages with long travel ranges, through a plethora of different drive and guiding systems tailored exactly to the customer's needs.

About PI USA PI is a leading manufacturer of precision motion control equipment, piezo motors, air bearing stages and hexapod parallel-kinematics for semiconductor applications, photonics, bio-nano-technology and medical engineering. PI has been developing and manufacturing standard & custom precision products with piezoceramic and electromagnetic drives for 4 decades.

Globally, PI employs more than 800 people. PI USA is certified by ISO 9001:2008, ISO 14001:2004, OHSAS 18001: 2007 and ITAR TCP, DoS registered, and provides innovative, high-quality solutions for OEM and research.

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New Air Bearing Stages / Systems Showcasing at Automate 2015 by PI