Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

^{By Dr. Inés Urdaneta / Physicist at Resonance Science Foundation}

A team of researchers from India and Seoul has developed “black” gold that harvests sunlight and uses it to turn carbon dioxide (CO₂) into useful chemicals and fuel.

One of the most amazing things about nanomaterials, concerns their design properties. It´s astonishing how in a nanoparticle of a particular element, the same atom disposed in different geometries from that of the bulk confers to the material a completely different behavior regarding chemical or physical properties (conductivity, resistance, melting point, etc) to that of the bulk material … it´s like we were dealing with a completely different element!

In the case of the new, and black, gold, by varying the inter-particle distance between gold nanoparticles through a cycle-by-cycle growth approach and optimizing the nucleation-growth step with dendritic fibrous nanosilica,...

by Resonance Science Foundation

As surprising as it may sound, no one really knows what an electron is. To answer the question “What is an electron?”, you would think the first step would be to observe it. However, that is easier said than done. So, while we can’t observe an electron, we can observe its behavior—more specifically its energy. 

Full Article by RSF Research Scientist Dr. Amira Val Baker in Popular Electronics: Read more

   
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by William Brown, Resonance Science Foundation Biophysicist

Collective intercellular communication through ultra-fast hydrodynamic trigger waves:

Researchers studying one of the longest single cell organisms—Spirostomum ambiguum—which can grow up to lengths of 4mm (a unicellular organism observable to the naked eye) have discovered that it is also one of the fastest cells ever documented. The gargantuan protist can contract its long body by 60% within milliseconds, experiencing an acceleration force of up to 14g.

The contractile behavior protects the unicellular organism from would-be predators, as small vacuoles along the cellular membrane containing toxins are dispersed when undergoing the extreme g forces of the contraction. Remarkably, researchers have discovered that the contractions also generate long-ranged vortex flows that function as hydrodynamic signals to other Spirostomum.

This is the first time that hydrodynamic cellular signaling has been documented, and...

^{By Dr. Inés Urdaneta / Physicist at Resonance Science Foundation}

Image from ESA

Stars were thought to be the principal and most important component for life to thrive… till now. Researchers from Harvard university explain that radiation coming from Black holes could do the same!

Habitable zones in outer space have been defined with respect to stars (suns), as regions where the stars radiation and energy are suitable for emergence of life. Closer or farther away from this source of energy, temperature would be too cold or too hot in order for liquid water to exist in a planet´s surface. The zones were liquid water and biological opportunity can happen are known as “Goldilocks zone”.

A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal have found such zones around supermassive black holes as well. This is quite surprising, since the surroundings of a black hole, consisting on swirling disks of gas and dust called Active Galactic Nuclei -AGN-, emit...

^{By Dr. Inés Urdaneta / Physicist at Resonance Science Foundation}

Photo: Hubble image depicting galaxy ESO 495-21 at the center. From NASA/ESA

Evolution of our understanding of Black Holes (BH) has gone from the mathematical outcome with no physical counterpart, up to their detection at the center of various galaxies and visualization of their shadow through the reconstructed image presented for the first time just a few months ago by the EHT global initiative (https://resonancefdn.oldrsf.com/the-first-image-of-a-black-hole-is-finally-here/). Now it is thought that every galaxy hosts a BH in its core. When the first BHs were inferred from cosmological observations, we believed they were an extravagant exceptional behavior in the universe. Since, they have proven not so exceptional as they are detected with increased frequency, but they remain an extravagancy, and not for the same reasons.

ESO 495-21 is a galaxy just 3.000 light years across in diameter, very small compared to...

Quantum field theory has made some incredibly accurate predictions about the universe, but it has also made some of the worst. One of the less-than-perfect predictions is known as the vacuum catastrophe.

This refers to the massive disagreement between the theoretical and measured values of the vacuum energy of the universe. This is no small difference, either — the measured value is 120 orders of magnitude less than the amount predicted by quantum field theory. Read more.

   
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by Dr. Amira Val Baker, Resonance Science Foundation Astrophysicist

The evolution from the first molecule to the complex chemistry that exists in our universe today is now one step closer to being understood.

When we think of complex chemistry, we usually think of all the matter that exists on our planet which in our atmosphere is a massive 10 trillion trillion molecules per cubic meter. As we move away from our planet this drops exponentially. However, surprising as it may be, space space – like the interstellar and intergalactic regions – are host to a myriad of molecules. Albeit not at quite the same high densities.

How these molecules formed and became the complex chemistry that we see today remains to be fully understood. It is currently agreed that the early universe consisted of only a few kinds of atoms and it wasn’t until the age of 100,000 years that hydrogen and helium combined to form the first molecule – helium hydride. However, although...

^{By Dr. Inés Urdaneta / Physicist at Resonance Science Foundation}

We are familiarized with the four states of matter acknowledged so far: solid, liquid, gas and plasma. Who would have imagined a fifth state of matter, containing simultaneously two states? Within the diversity of crystallization forms or phases of water, from liquid to solid ice (more than seventeen crystalline and several amorphous ice structure),  new one has appeared: ionic oxygen crystal with, ionic hydrogen (mainly protons) moving inside, like a fluid. It has been named ice XVIII, and it is both a new phase of water (because it depends on applied temperature and pressure) and a new state of matter (because it gathers both a solid and a fluid).

Crystals are formed by ionized atoms, such that the electrostatic forces between cations and ions keep the lattice solid. The common salt crystal having anions of Chlorine (Cl-) and cations of Sodium (Na+), is in solid state at room temperature, but the...

by Dr. Amira Val Baker, Resonance Science Foundation Astrophysicist

Everyone knows what an electron is – right? Surprisingly the answer to that is no – no one really knows what it is.

If you ask any high school student what an electron is, they will most probably tell you that it is a subatomic particle with negative charge and acts as the primary carrier of electricity. This answer is indeed correct – however it does not reveal the true nature of its reality.

This fundamental question has been the driving force for much of modern physics – and eventually led to the development of quantum field theory – yet we are not any closer to finding an answer.

To answer this question, you would think the first step would be to observe it. However, that is easier said than done. Electrons are simply too small for us to observe – the smallest thing we can observe is an atom and even that is not with a traditional microscope. In fact, we use electrons to...

By William Brown, Biophysicist with the Resonance Science Foundation

US Navy Researcher Obtains Patents for Inertial Mass Reduction Device, Gravity Wave Generator, and Room-Temperature Superconductor.

In previous posts we have reported on the development of a novel propulsion device that does not require the emission of propellant or the combustion of chemical compounds. Instead, the device uses electromagnetic resonance to create thrust by emitting microwaves into a resonant cavity, giving it the moniker the EMdrive—EM for electromagnetic, as well as a play on the word “impossible drive” because due to the uniqueness of this form of thrust-generation, and the lack of understanding of exactly how thrust would be produced from this technology, it is thought by many scientist to be impossible.

Despite the strong skepticism and controversy regarding the theoretical foundations of the technology, actual empirical testing done at both Northwestern Polytechnical...