My Science School

From medical examinations and airport screenings to space missions, X-rays have been used everywhere since its discovery by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895. A group of scientists from Ohio University, Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Illinois-Chicago, and others, have now taken the world's first X-ray signal (or signature) of a single atom. The groundbreaking achievement could revolutionise the way in which scientists detect the materials.

One atom at a time

Before this, the smallest amount one can X-ray a sample is an attogram, which is about 10,000 atoms or more. The paper brought out by the scientists was published in the scientific journal Nature on May 31, 2023 and also made it to the cover of the print edition on June 1. The paper details how physicists and chemists used a purpose-built synchrotron X-ray instrument at the XTIP beamline of Advanced Photon Source and the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory.

Specialised detector

The team involved picked an iron atom and terbium atom for their demonstration. Both atoms were inserted in respective molecular hosts. Conventional detectors were supplemented with a specialised detector by the research team.

This specialised detector was made of a sharp metal tip. It is positioned at extreme proximity to the sample, enabling it to collect X-ray excited electrons. This technique is known as synchrotron X-ray scanning tunnelling microscopy or SX-STM.

Apart from achieving the X-ray signature of an atom, the team also succeeded in another key goal. This was to employ their technique to find out the environmental effect of a single rare-earth atom.

The scientists were able to detect the chemical states of the individual atoms inside respective molecular hosts and compare them. While the terbium atom, a rare-earth metal, remained rather isolated and didn't change its chemical state, the iron atom interacted with its surrounding strongly.

Many rare-earth materials are used in everyday devices like cell phones, televisions, and computers. This discovery allows scientists to not only identify the type of element, but also its chemical state. Knowing this enables them to work on these materials inside different hosts, paving the way for further advancement of technology.

This team aims to continue to use X-ray to detect properties of a single atom. They are also seeking ways to revolutionise their applications so that they can be put to use in critical materials research.

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On June 11, 1963, the Mercury space capsule was patented and assigned to NASA. The patent was received less than a month after the last flight of Project Mercury had been carried out.

Receiving a patent generally signals a major milestone. As an exclusive right granted for an invention, be it a product or a process, it usually denotes a new way of doing something, thereby becoming important. In the case of the Mercury space capsule, however, the patent came closer to the end.

Project Mercury was conceived as a NASA programme to put the first American astronauts in space. Named after a Roman god who was very fast, the project notched up many successes. At the centre of this success was the Mercury space capsule.

"Space capsule"

The principal designer of the Mercury spacecraft was Maxime Faget, a mechanical engineer who also contributed to the designs of the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft. Faget, along with Andre Meyer, Robert Chilton, Willard Blanchard Jr., Alan Kehlet, Jerome Hammack and Caldwell Johnson filed for a patent titled "Space capsule" on October 16, 1959.

In this patent application, they described their invention relating to space vehicles as a "manned capsule configuration capable of being launched into orbital flight and returned to the Earth's surface."

Additionally, it was capable of providing "protection for its occupant from the deleterious effects of large pressure differentials, high temperatures, micrometeorite collisions, high level acoustical noise, and severe inertial and impact loads."

Not cosy

It did all that, but the capsule was a rather small one, with room for just one astronaut. What's more, this astronaut had to stay seated throughout the flight. While there was very little room for even the single seated astronaut to make any movements, it was argued that not much was required as the pilot would only need to move his arms and head, and was to never leave the spacecraft during flight.

Following uncrewed flights and those with primates as part of Project Mercury, the first crewed flight took place on May 5, 1961. Alan Shepard made the first crewed Mercury flight in a capsule that he named Freedom 7. The 15-minute flight that went into space and came back down made him the first American in space.

Between 1961 and 1963, there were six successful flights as part of Project Mercury that showed that Americans could fly in space. While two of these flights were suborbital flights (reached space and came right back down), the other four made it into orbit and circled our Earth.

Every time the Mercury spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, the blunt end came in first to not only slow down the spacecraft, but also shed the heat caused by friction with the air during the descent. With layers of heat resistant ablative resins coating the curved heat shield, it charred away to minimise structural heating, preventing damage to the spacecraft, and of course, protecting the crewman.

The last of the six successful crewed Mercury Project spaceflight took place on May 15, 1963. Each of these flights lasted from 15 minutes to 34 hours, with most lasting less than nine hours.

Just a formality

This meant that by the time the patent for the Mercury capsule was awarded on June 11, 1963, it had already been put to use multiple times successfully, with each of the successes celebrated by an entire country. The patent, which was assigned to NASA, was merely a formality.

In fact, NASA retired the Mercury capsule in the same week in which the patent was awarded. The first manned space vehicle of the U.S. was retired with honours of course, having been central to a project that came at the height of the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

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On June 4, 1872, American chemist Robert Chesebrough was granted a patent titled "Improvement in products from petroleum". Chesebrough mentioned the name with which he marketed petroleum jelly in this patent, which is now a brand name.

Whenever you had minor skin scrapes and burns, or just had to moisturise your face, hands, or other parts of the body, chances are that you probably used petroleum jelly. Yes, the folks around you or the elders at home probably referred to it with its brand name, but if you look at what it is made of, you will realise that it is petroleum jelly.

For one-and-a-half centuries now, petroleum jelly has played a pivotal part in skincare, be it to help with skin moisturising or healing. Also called petrolatum, petroleum jelly is a mixture of mineral oils and waxes that forms a semisolid jelly-like substance. Ever since American chemist Robert Augustus Chesebrough discovered it in the 19th Century, the product hasn't changed much.

His job turns obsolete        

A British-born American chemist, Chesebrough owed his discovery to serendipity. He began his career as a chemist distilling kerosene from the oil of sperm whales. This role, however, soon turned obsolete with the discovery of petroleum in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Now jobless, Chesebrough decided to travel to Titusville. He decided to research the new fuel to see what new materials might be created from it. Strolling around the oil field, Chesebrough came across something called rod wax, also known as petroleum jelly.

A byproduct of oil drilling, the jelly-like substance was cleaned off from the pumping equipment often. The workers told Chesebrough that it was largely a nuisance, except for one particular use. When someone had a cut or a burn, rubbing the wax on the injured area not only reduced the pain, but also allowed the injury to heal quickly.

Refines the process

Chesebrough set off back to his chemistry lab in Brooklyn with a batch of rod wax. He began experimenting and refining the process by which the wax was generated in order to come up with a solution that healed and protected the skin.

He spent the following years perfecting the technique of extracting a colourless, odourless form of petroleum jelly. By 1865, Chesebrough patented his purification method. This marked the beginning of triple-distilled petroleum jelly products, which remains the norm till this day.

By 1870, Chesebrough began distributing this pure petroleum jelly under the brand name Vaseline. He opened a factory in Brooklyn that same year and even promoted his "miracle" product by touring the entire State in a horse-driven carriage.

On June 4, 1872, Chesebrough received U.S. patent 127568A titled "Improvement in products from petroleum". In this, Chesebrough mentions that he has "invented a new and useful Product from Petroleum, which I have named Vaseline".

Even before Chesebrough started to sell his petroleum jelly, he had tested it on himself for his own cuts and burns. Despite his firm belief in the product and its efficacy, Chesebrough was still unable to sell these to drug stores.

Daredevil marketing

Things changed, however, when he demonstrated his "wonder jelly" in an extreme fashion. Chesebrough started to burn his skin with acid or an open flame in front of the gathered audience, before dabbing the clear jelly on his injuries. He would then demonstrate his past injuries, healed, he would claim, by his "miracle" product. He also gave out free samples to further increase demand.

Chesebrough's daredevil acts worked as a tin of his product was being sold every minute in the U.S. by 1874. They continue to work till this day as the brand name he coined is now a household name, used to refer to pure petroleum jelly itself rather than just the product.

But then, Chesebrough’s belief in the product was so sound that he actually ate a spoonful of it every day until his death aged 96, according to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! The next time you use the product, be sure to tell the tale to those around you, but please don't take it to your mouth!

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Hundreds of new UFO reports, but...there is still no evidence of aliens. The Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, has set up a new office to track reports of UFO sightings and collect data.

What are UFOs?

A new Pentagon office set up to track reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOS) has received "several hundreds" of new reports. What are UFOS? Over the centuries, people have reported seeing strange airborne objects or unusual optical phenomena in the sky. These are called UFOS. Over the years, the belief that UFOs are the spaceships of aliens from other planets has gained ground - though without any concrete evidence. Are there possibilities of extraterrestrial life? Shouldn't the sightings be tracked systematically? Well, that's why the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) was formed.

2. What is AARO?

The AARO was set up in July 2022 to track unidentified objects in the sky, underwater and in space. It was established following more than a year of attention on unidentified flying objects that military pilots have observed.

It focusses on unexplained activity around military installations, restricted airspace and "other areas of interest" and is aimed at helping identify possible threats to the safety of U.S. military operations and to national security.

3. Scientific approach

Sean Kirkpatrick, director, AARO, did not rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial life and said he was taking a scientific approach to the research. Since the launch of the AARO, there have been several hundred new reports.

"We are structuring our analysis to be very thorough and rigorous. We will go through it all. And as a physicist, I have to adhere to the scientific method."

4. No alien life

The U.S. military officially calls the 144 sightings observed between 2004 and 2021 as "unidentified aerial phenomena."

But they have seen nothing that indicates alien life. "I have not seen anything that would suggest that there has been an alien visitation, an alien crash or anything like that," said Ronald Moultrie, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security.

5. Quick facts

The Air Force conducted an investigation into UFO activity called 'Project Blue Book’. It ended in 1969 with a list of 12,618 sightings, 701 of which involved objects that officially remained "unidentified."

In 1994, it concluded that the 1947 famous "Roswell incident" in New Mexico, was not an UFO but a crashed balloon, the military's long-standing explanation.

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A new method has been developed by researchers that allows a flapping-wing robot to land on a horizontal perch using a claw-like mechanism.

Mimicking nature has allowed us to master many things. The sight of a bird landing on a branch makes it seem like the manoeuvre is probably the easiest thing in the world. The act of perching, however, is far from easy. It involves a delicate balance of timing, high-impact forces, speed, and precision.

The move is so complex that no flapping-wing robot or ornithopter has been able to achieve it so far. That has changed now with researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland along with colleagues at the University of Seville, Spain being able to achieve it in a controlled environment. The results of the study have been published in Nature Communications in December 2022.

Engineering challenges

The engineering challenges for an ornithopter included slowing down significantly as it perched while still maintaining flight; building a claw strong enough to support its weight while grasping and perching, without being too heavy that it can't be held aloft; and being able to perceive its environment with respect to its own position, speed, and trajectory.

By equipping their ornithopter with a fully on-board computer and a navigation system that was complemented by a motion-sensor system, the researchers were able to overcome all these challenges. Once perched, the robot was able to remain perched, without expending energy.

Next up, unpredictable environment

The flight experiments were carried out indoors so that the flight zone could be a more controlled environment. The next task is to increase the robot’s autonomy to perform these perching and manipulation tasks outdoors in uncontrolled environments.

Once that is achieved, these ornithopters would be ready for more real word applications, such as unobtrusively collecting biological samples or measurements from a tree. This is because ornithopters, like many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). have limited battery life. The ability to land on a perch would enable flapping-wing robots to possibly recharge using solar energy, making them viable options for long-distance missions.

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