Silicon — the shiny, brittle metal commonly used to make semiconductors — is an essential ingredient of modern-day electronics. But as electronic devices have become smaller and smaller, creating tiny silicon components that fit inside them has become more challenging and more expensive. Now, UCLA chemists have developed a new method to produce nanoribbons of…
Astronomers Capture Best View Ever of Disintegrating Comet
Astronomers have captured the sharpest, most detailed observations of a comet breaking apart 67 million miles from Earth, using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The discovery is published online in Astrophysical Journal Letters. In a series of images taken over three days in January 2016, Hubble showed 25 fragments consisting of a mixture of ice and dust…
Astronomers Make First Accurate Measurement of Oxygen in Distant Galaxy
UCLA astronomers have made the first accurate measurement of the abundance of oxygen in a distant galaxy. Oxygen, the third-most abundant chemical element in the universe, is created inside stars and released into interstellar gas when stars die. Quantifying the amount of oxygen is key to understanding how matter cycles in and out of galaxies.…
Moon Was Produced By Head-On Collision Between Earth and Forming Planet
The moon was formed by a violent, head-on collision between the early Earth and a “planetary embryo” called Theia approximately 100 million years after the Earth formed, UCLA geochemists and colleagues report. Scientists had already known about this high-speed crash, which occurred almost 4.5 billion years ago, but many thought the Earth collided with Theia…
Scientists Create Graphene Barrier to Control Molecules For Nanoelectronics
Gardeners often use sheets of plastic with strategically placed holes to allow their plants to grow but keep weeds from taking root. Scientists from UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute have found that the same basic approach is an effective way to place molecules in the specific patterns they need within tiny nanoelectronic devices. The technique could…
In Our Digital World, Are Young People Losing the Ability to Read Emotions?
Children’s social skills may be declining as they have less time for face-to-face interaction due to their increased use of digital media, according to a UCLA psychology study. UCLA scientists found that sixth-graders who went five days without even glancing at a smartphone, television or other digital screen did substantially better at reading human emotions…
Disposable Biosensor Monitors New Vital Sign
A disposal, plastic listening device that attaches to the abdomen may help doctors definitively determine which post-operative patients should be fed and which should not, an invention that may improve outcomes, decrease healthcare costs and shorten hospital stays, according to a UCLA study. Some patients who undergo surgery develop a condition called post-operative ileus (POI),…
Increased Power Efficiency for Future Computer Processors
Have you ever wondered why your laptop or smartphone feels warm when you’re using it? That heat is a byproduct of the microprocessors in your device using electric current to power computer processing functions — and it is actually wasted energy. Now, a team led by researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering…