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IMAGE: Graphical user interface of the developed open-access trial web application that provides readers the opportunity for hands-on freeform design experience. view more
Credit: by Fabian Duerr and Hugo Thienpont
Optical imaging systems have been playing an essential role in scientific discovery and societal progress for several centuries. For more than 150 years scientists and engineers have used aberration theory to describe and quantify the deviation of light rays from ideal focusing in an imaging system. Until recently most of these imaging systems included spherical and aspherical refractive lenses or reflective mirrors or a combination of both. With the introduction of new ultra-precision manufacturing methods, it has become possible to fabricate lenses and mirrors that lack the common translational or rotational symmetry about a plane or an axis. Such optical components are called freeform optical elements and they can be used to greatly extend the fun
Credit: Kazan Federal University
The work was sponsored by Russian Science Foundation; the project, headed by Professor Anatolii Mokshin, is titled Theoretical, simulating and experimental research of physico-mechanical traits of amorphous-producing systems with heterogeneous local visco-elastic properties . We performed calculations for porous nitinol, shares first co-author, Associate Professor Bulat Galimzyanov. It s widely used in various industries thanks to its unique physico-mechanical properties, such as low volume weight, high corrosion resistance, high biocompatibility and shape memory. Obtaining nitinol as amorphous foam is very labor-intensive, it requires high temperatures and extremely high melt cooling rate (over 1,000,000 K per second). Obviously, traditional experiments in this case are very costly and complex. We used computer modelling based on molecular dynamics.
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A new study with zebrafish shows that a deadly form of skin cancer melanoma alters the metabolism of healthy tissues elsewhere in the body. The research from Washington University in St. Louis suggests that these other tissues could potentially be targeted to help treat cancer. Tumors rely on a constant supply of nutrients to grow. Instead of competing with tumors for nutrients, other tissues can reprogram their metabolism to be complementary. In some instances, this may even allow healthy tissues to feed the tumor, said Gary Patti, the Michael and Tana Powell Professor of Chemistry in Arts & Sciences at Washington University and a professor of chemistry and medicine at the School of Medicine.
Credit: Lancaster University
Lancaster scientists have demonstrated that other physicists recent discovery of the field effect in superconductors is nothing but hot electrons after all.
A team of scientists in the Lancaster Physics Department have found new and compelling evidence that the observation of the field effect in superconducting metals by another group can be explained by a simple mechanism involving the injection of the electrons, without the need for novel physics.
Dr Sergey Kafanov, who initiated this experiment, said: Our results unambiguously refute the claim of the electrostatic field effect claimed by the other group. This gets us back on the ground and helps maintain the health of the discipline.