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The Sun: Five years in three minutes

The Sun. Credit: NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory.
This amazing video of the sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows five years of sun time in three minutes. The SDO scientists took a picture of the sun [...]

Sea slug: plant or animal?

The rich green colour of the photosynthesizing sea slug, Elysia chlorotica, helps to camouflage it on the ocean floor. Credit: Patrick Krug.
Researchers have discovered that the sea slug Elysia chlorotica uses genes from algae to gather energy from sunlight. Genes are instructions for how to build and maintain a [...]

Nappies and microscopes?

Swollen brain cells: scientists modified the superabsorbant nappy compound, polyacrylate, to magnify brain tissue. Credit: Courtesy of Boyden lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Scientists have worked out a way to take better pictures of tiny parts of our bodies called cells, using disposable nappies. Professor Boyden and his colleagues found that [...]

Morning Glory

A photograph of the Morning Glory Pool from 23 August, 2012, showing bright colours of red, orange, yellow and green. Credit: Joseph Shaw, Montana State University.
Researchers at Montana State University (USA) and Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany) have come up with an explanation for the beautiful colours of hot [...]

Sunspots

A mid-level solar flare erupted on the sun on 18 December 2014. It can be seen in this image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) as the bright spot near the center of the sun. SDO observes light in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths that can highlight the intense heat present in a solar flare. Credit: NASA/SDO
Bursts of magnetic activity on the sun make sunspots, which can be seen with special [...]

Towards an invisibility cloak

University of Rochester PhD student Joseph Choi demonstrates his `cloaking' device using just four lenses. Credit: Adam Fenster / University of Rochester
Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak was magic, but scientists have recently developed several ways to make objects invisible. Most of those methods use expensive [...]

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