Thursday, January 31, 2013

New method of measuring the mass of supermassive black holes

Jan. 30, 2013 ? In a letter to Nature, an international team of astronomers, including Marc Sarzi from the University of Hertfordshire, report the exciting discovery of a new way to measure the mass of supermassive black holes in galaxies. By measuring the speed with which carbon monoxide molecules orbit around such black holes, this new research opens the possibility of making these measurements in many more galaxies than ever before.

A black hole is an object so dense that its gravity prevents anything, including light, from escaping. Supermassive black holes can be as much as a million to a billion times more massive than our Sun, and it is believed that most, if not all galaxies including the Milky Way,contain supermassive black holes at their centres -- suggesting that the evolution of black holes and galaxies is very tightly linked.

Understanding the formation of the first galaxies, the way galaxies change over time, and the processes that have generated the variety of structures observed in nearby galaxies is one of the most active research areas in astrophysics.

Marc Sarzi, from the University of Hertfordshire's Centre for Astrophysics Research, said: "There is an intriguing link between the mass of supermassive black holes and the mass of their host galaxies, but this is based only on quite a small number of estimates. Until now only three methods were used to measure the mass of supermassive black holes and these only work on relatively nearby galaxies. With this new technique, we have been able to show that we can measure black hole masses much further out in the universe, which will help understanding the role that supermassive black holes played during the formation of galaxies."

Tim Davis, lead author of the paper and from the European Southern Observatory, commented: "We observed carbon monoxide molecules in the galaxy we were monitoring using the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) telescope. With its super-sharp images we were able to zoom right into the centre of the galaxy and observe the gas whizzing around the black hole. This gas moves at a speed which is determined by the black-hole's mass, and the distance from it. By measuring the velocity of the gas at each position, we can measure the mass of the black hole."

The CARMA observations were rather challenging, but the new ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) telescope currently being built in Chile will allow this new technique to be applied more routinely to hundreds of galaxies in the nearby Universe.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Hertfordshire. The original article was written by Julie Cooper.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Timothy A. Davis, Martin Bureau, Michele Cappellari, Marc Sarzi, Leo Blitz. A black-hole mass measurement from molecular gas kinematics in NGC4526. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature11819

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/k7qY6RZgeM4/130130132324.htm

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

?Sick? Lindsay Lohan Avoids Jail?For Now (VIDEO)

“Sick” Lindsay Lohan Avoids Jail…For Now (VIDEO)

Lindsay Lohan lucks out againLindsay Lohan lucked out again in her latest court hearing. The “Liz & Dick” actress, who previously said she was “too ill” to attend the hearing, decided to appear and avoided jail time. Judge Stephanie Sautner addressed Lindsay’s alleged illness, quipping, “I’m glad to see you’re feeling better”. Lohan had obtained a doctor’s note trying ...

“Sick” Lindsay Lohan Avoids Jail…For Now (VIDEO) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/01/sick-lindsay-lohan-avoids-jail-for-now-video/

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This Week's Pet: An Affectionate Grey-Haired Cat - Palos, IL Patch

Kit Kat is a 1-year-old Domestic Shorthair cat with grey and white fur. She?has been living at?PAWS Animal Shelter?since Jan. 1, and is in need of a home.

Staff at PAWS describe her as a kind and playful girl.

Looking for more adoptable pets?

  • Tom and Snuggle?are two affectionate and adorable cats.
  • Damon might be a pint-size canine, but he's got a big heart.
  • Squirt is Agent Double-Oh Cute?and is a feline with a license to steal your heart.
  • Baby is a playful orange, white and black striped cat.
  • Angel, a German Shepherd mix, still needs a home.

Pets with new homes

Felix, a tabby that was featured Dec. 4, was recently adopted. Other success stories include?Millie, a lovable pointer mix, and?Patches the cat. Rosie and Lily,?a pair of adorable Dachshunds, have also found owners.

Want News Headlines and Updates Delivered to Your Inbox? Sign Up for These Patch Newsletters:

Palos?|?Orland Park?|?Oak Forest?|?Tinley Park

Source: http://palos.patch.com/articles/this-week-s-pet-an-affectionate-grey-haired-cat

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Actor Burt Reynolds released from hospital after flu bout

(Reuters) - American actor Burt Reynolds has left a Florida hospital after a battle with the flu, a representative for the "Smokey and the Bandit" star said on Tuesday.

"Burt has been released from the hospital," said Reynolds' manager, Erik Kritzer.

Reynolds, 76, was admitted to an unidentified hospital last week with dehydration and was later placed in intensive care.

Reynolds is best known for his roles in 1970s films such as "Deliverance" and "The Longest Yard."

He won a Golden Globe award and scored an Oscar nomination for his role as a porn king in the 1997 film "Boogie Nights."

Reynolds underwent heart bypass surgery in 2010.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/actor-burt-reynolds-released-hospital-flu-bout-180948286.html

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Bioinspired fibers change color when stretched

Jan. 28, 2013 ? A team of materials scientists at Harvard University and the University of Exeter, UK, have invented a new fiber that changes color when stretched. Inspired by nature, the researchers identified and replicated the unique structural elements that create the bright iridescent blue color of a tropical plant's fruit.

The multilayered fiber, described January 28 in the journal Advanced Materials, could lend itself to the creation of smart fabrics that visibly react to heat or pressure.

"Our new fiber is based on a structure we found in nature, and through clever engineering we've taken its capabilities a step further," says lead author Mathias Kolle, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). "The plant, of course, cannot change color. By combining its structure with an elastic material, however, we've created an artificial version that passes through a full rainbow of colors as it's stretched."

Since the evolution of the first eye on Earth more than 500 million years ago, the success of many organisms has relied upon the way they interact with light and color, making them useful models for the creation of new materials. For seeds and fruit in particular, bright color is thought to have evolved to attract the agents of seed dispersal, especially birds.

The fruit of the South American tropical plant, Margaritaria nobilis, commonly called "bastard hogberry," is an intriguing example of this adaptation. The ultra-bright blue fruit, which is low in nutritious content, mimics a more fleshy and nutritious competitor. Deceived birds eat the fruit and ultimately release its seeds over a wide geographic area.

"The fruit of this bastard hogberry plant was scientifically delightful to pick," says principal investigator Peter Vukusic, Associate Professor in Natural Photonics at the University of Exeter. "The light-manipulating architecture its surface layer presents, which has evolved to serve a specific biological function, has inspired an extremely useful and interesting technological design."

Vukusic and his collaborators at Harvard studied the structural origin of the seed's vibrant color. They discovered that the upper cells in the seed's skin contain a curved, repeating pattern, which creates color through the interference of light waves. (A similar mechanism is responsible for the bright colors of soap bubbles.) The team's analysis revealed that multiple layers of cells in the seed coat are each made up of a cylindrically layered architecture with high regularity on the nano- scale.

The team replicated the key structural elements of the fruit to create flexible, stretchable and color-changing photonic fibers using an innovative roll-up mechanism perfected in the Harvard laboratories.

"For our artificial structure, we cut down the complexity of the fruit to just its key elements," explains Kolle. "We use very thin fibers and wrap a polymer bilayer around them. That gives us the refractive index contrast, the right number of layers, and the curved, cylindrical cross-section that we need to produce these vivid colors."

The researchers say that the process could be scaled up and developed to suit industrial production.

"Our fiber-rolling technique allows the use of a wide range of materials, especially elastic ones, with the color-tuning range exceeding by an order of magnitude anything that has been reported for thermally drawn fibers," says coauthor Joanna Aizenberg, Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at Harvard SEAS, and Kolle's adviser. Aizenberg is also Director of the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology at Harvard and a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.

The fibers' superior mechanical properties, combined with their demonstrated color brilliance and tunability, make them very versatile. For instance, the fibers can be wound to coat complex shapes. Because the fibers change color under strain, the technology could lend itself to smart sports textiles that change color in areas of muscle tension, or that sense when an object is placed under strain as a result of heat.

Additional coauthors included Alfred Lethbridge at the University of Exeter, Moritz Kreysing at Ludwig Maximilians University (Germany), and Jeremy B. Baumberg, Professor of Nanophotonics at the University of Cambridge (UK).

This research was supported by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and through a postdoctoral research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The researchers also benefited from facilities at the Harvard Center for Nanoscale Systems, which is part of the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard also contributed to this research.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Harvard University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Mathias Kolle, Alfred Lethbridge, Moritz Kreysing, Jeremy J. Baumberg, Joanna Aizenberg, Peter Vukusic. Bio-Inspired Band-Gap Tunable Elastic Optical Multilayer Fibers. Advanced Materials, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/adma.201203529

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/F55whN1jT3w/130128151938.htm

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Progressive optics for side mirrors ends automobile blind spots without distorting view, experts say

Jan. 28, 2013 ? A new optical prescription for automobile side-view mirrors may eliminate the dreaded "blind spot" in traffic without distorting the perceived distance of cars approaching from behind. As described in a new paper? in the Optical Society's (OSA) journal Optics Letters, objects viewed in a mirror using the new design appear larger than in traditional side-view mirrors, so it's easier to judge their following distance and speed.

Today's motor vehicles in the United States use two different types of mirrors for the driver and passenger sides. The driver's side mirror is flat so that objects viewed in it are undistorted and not optically reduced in size, allowing the operator to accurately judge an approaching-from-behind vehicle's separation distance and speed. Unfortunately, the optics of a flat mirror also create a blind spot, an area of limited vision around a vehicle that often leads to collisions during merges, lane changes, or turns. The passenger side mirror, on the other hand, possesses a spherical convex shape. While the small radius of curvature widens the field of view, it also causes any object seen in it to look smaller in size and farther away than it actually is. Because of this issue, passenger side mirrors on cars and trucks in the United States must be engraved with the safety warning, "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear." In the European Union, both driver and passenger side mirrors are aspheric (One that bulges more to one side than the other, creating two zones on the same mirror).The inner zone -- the section nearest the door -- has a nearly perfect spherical shape, while the outer zone -- the section farthest from the door -- becomes less and less curved toward the edges. The outer zone of this aspheric design also produces a similar distance and size distortion seen in spherical convex designs.

In an attempt to remedy this problem, some automotive manufacturers have installed a separate, small wide-angle mirror in the upper corner of side mirrors. This is a slightly domed square that provides a wide-angle view similar to a camera's fisheye lens. However, drivers often find this system to be a distracting as well as expensive addition.

A simpler design for a mirror that would be free of blind spots, have a wide field of view, and produce images that are accurately scaled to the true size of an approaching object -- and work for both sides of a vehicle -- has been proposed by researchers Hocheol Lee and Dohyun Kim at Hanbat National University in Korea and Sung Yi at Portland State University in Oregon. Their solution was to turn to a progressive additive optics technology commonly used in "no-line multifocal" eyeglasses that simultaneously corrects myopia (nearsightedness) and presbyopia (reduced focusing ability).

"Like multifocal glasses that give the wearer a range of focusing abilities from near to far and everything in between, our progressive mirror consists of three resolution zones: one for distance vision, one for close-up viewing and a middle zone making the transition between the two," says Lee. "However, unlike glasses where the range of focus is vertically stacked [from distance viewing on top to close-up viewing on bottom], our mirror surface is horizontally progressive."

Lee says that a driver's side mirror manufactured with his team's new design would feature a curvature where the inner zone is for distance viewing and the outer zone is for near-field viewing to compensate for what otherwise would be blind spots. "The image of a vehicle approaching from behind would only be reduced in the progressive zone in the center," Lee says, "while the image sizes in the inner and outer zones are not changed."

The horizontal progressive mirror, Lee says, does have some problems with binocular disparity (the slight difference between the viewpoints of a person's two eyes) and astigmatism (blurring of a viewed image due to the difference between the focusing power in the horizontal and vertical directions). These minor errors are a positive trade off, the researchers feel, to gain a mirror with a greatly expanded field of view, more reliable depth perception, and no blind spot.

To prove the merits of their design, the researchers used a conventional glass molding process to manufacture a prototype horizontal progressive mirror. They were able to produce a mirror with more than double the field of view of a traditional flat mirror.

Other wide-angle designs have also been proposed, but the new design described January 28 in the Optics Letters paper offers a particularly easy-to-manufacture approach to the problem of blind spots by seamlessly integrating just three zones.

The researchers claim that the manufacturing cost of their proposed mirror design would be cheaper than the mirror design with the added small wide-angle viewing section. Since mirror designs are stipulated by national automobile regulations, the new design would need to be approved for use in the United States before appearing on cars here.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Optical Society of America, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Hocheol Lee, Dohyun Kim, and Sung Yi. Horizontally progressive mirror for blind spot detection in automobiles. Opt. Lett., 38, 317-319 (2013) [link]

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/TlI_Qm6Iv7c/130128104735.htm

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Why Civil War Hunley sub tanked

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) ? Scientists say a pole on the front of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley designed to plant explosives on enemy ships may hold a key clue to its sinking during the Civil War.

The experts are to release their findings Monday at a North Charleston lab where the hand-cranked sub is being preserved and studied. The Hunley was the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship.

The pole, called a spar, was once placed at the front of the sub and used to plant a powder charge into the Union blockade ship Housatonic in 1864.The Housatonic sank, while the Hunley and its eight-man crew never returned.

The sub was found in waters off South Carolina in 1995 and raised five years later. It's been in the laboratory ever since.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/experts-clues-sinking-confederate-sub-113855343.html

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Gas leak proves fatal at Samsung chip plant in Korea

Gas leaks proves fatal at Samsung chip plant in Korea

A maintenance contractor called out to fix a hydrofluoric acid leak at a Samsung plant has died in hospital, according to Korean media. Four others were injured by the lethal gas but have reportedly been discharged. The factory in question is located within South Korea, which isn't known for the sort of lax safety standards that plague workers in China, but AsiaE reports that the accident will nevertheless be investigated to find out if any laws were breached in the way the leak was handled, and if the killed contractor was wearing the right protective gear. For the sake of context, it's worth remembering that even state-of-the-art installations can be prone to accidents -- in 2011, for example, seven American workers were injured in an explosion at Intel's semiconductor fab in Arizona.

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Via: The Verge, The Next Web

Source: AsiaE, Yonhap News, CriEnglish

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/28/samsung-gas-leak/

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Monday, January 28, 2013

James Schramko & Tim Reid ? Freedom Ocean Profitable Internet ...

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