Aestus Ajith

Double Penning trap used to measure the magnetic moment of the proton. The double Penning trap is made of gold-plated cylindrical trap electrodes; the individual trap electrodes are isolated from one another using sapphire rings. During measurements the trap is in an ultra-high vacuum. To the right of the image is the outer housing of a detection instrument which allows for the observation of single protons. The entire structure is about 20 centimeters long. Credit: Andreas Moser Physicists succeeded in the first direct high-precision measurement of a fundamental property of the proton / Results will contribute to a better understanding of the matter/antimatter asymmetry. One of the biggest riddles in physics is the apparent imbalance between matter and antimatter in our universe. To date, there is no explanation as to why matter and antimatter failed to completely annihilate one another immediately after the big bang and how the surplus matter was created that went on to form th...

This is a computational model of a successfully designed two-component protein nanocage with tetrahedral symmetry. Credit: Dr. Vikram Mulligan A route for constructing protein nanomachines engineered for specific applications may be closer to reality. Biological systems produce an incredible array of self-assembling, functional protein tools. Some examples of these nanoscale protein materials are scaffolds to anchor cellular activities, molecular motors to drive physiological events, and capsules for delivering viruses into host cells. Scientists inspired by these sophisticated molecular machines want to build their own, with forms and functions customized to tackle modern-day challenges. The ability to design new protein nanostructures could have useful implications in targeted delivery of drugs, in vaccine development and in plasmonics—manipulating electromagnetic signals to guide light diffraction for information technologies, energy production or other uses. A recently ...

Domain patterns can be understood in terms of color theorems. (a) Image of the domains in a crystal material and (b) the domains colored in accordance with the four-color theorem. (c) Image of the domains in a second crystal material and (d) the domains colored in accordance with a two-step version of the color theorem: domains are either dark or light, as well as one of three colors. These domain patterns, along with their associated coloring schemes, are closely related to the materials’ magnetic properties. Credit: Horibe, et al. ©2014 American Chemical Society Sometimes mathematical theories have implications that extend far beyond their original purpose. This situation holds true for the four-color theorem, which was originally used by cartographers hundreds of years ago to draw maps. According to the theorem, four colors are sufficient to color different countries on a 2D map so that no two adjacent countries have the same color (excluding intersecting corners). However, toda...

Diagram illustrates the process of charging or discharging the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) electrode. As lithium ions are removed during the charging process, it forms a lithium-depleted iron phosphate (FP) zone, but in between there is a solid solution zone (SSZ, shown in dark blue-green) containing some randomly distributed lithium atoms, unlike the orderly array of lithium atoms in the original crystalline material (light blue). This work provides the first direct observations of this SSZ phenomenon. Credit: MIT New observations by researchers at MIT have revealed the inner workings of a type of electrode widely used in lithium-ion batteries. The new findings explain the unexpectedly high power and long cycle life of such batteries, the researchers say. The findings appear in a paper in the journal  Nano Letters  co-authored by MIT postdoc Jun Jie Niu, research scientist Akihiro Kushima, professors Yet-Ming Chiang and Ju Li, and three others. The electrode materi...

An atomic force microscopy image shows a four-part complex of the protein RepA (bright mounds) bound together and "handcuffing" two thread-like strands of DNA plasmid. Credit: University of Nebraska Medical Center Nanoimaging Core Facility Staph infections that become resistant to multiple antibiotics don't happen because the bacteria themselves adapt to the drugs, but because of a kind of genetic parasite they carry called a plasmid that helps its host survive the antibiotics. Plasmids are rings of bare DNA containing a handful of genes that are essentially freeloaders, borrowing most of what they need to live from their bacterial host. The plasmids copy themselves and go along for the ride when the bacteria divide to copy themselves. A team from Duke and the University of Sydney in Australia has solved the structure of a key protein that drives DNA copying in the plasmids that make  staphylococcus bacteria  antibiotic-resistant. Knowing how this protein works ma...

Upon solvent annealing, supramolecules made from gold nanoparticles and block copolymers will self-assemble into highly ordered thin films in one minute. Credit: Ting Xu, Berkeley Lab/UC Berkeley The days of self-assembling nanoparticles taking hours to form a film over a microscopic-sized wafer are over. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have devised a technique whereby self-assembling nanoparticle arrays can form a highly ordered thin film over macroscopic distances in one minute. Ting Xu, a polymer scientist with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division, led a study in which supramolecules based on  block copolymers  were combined with gold nanoparticles to create nanocomposites that under solvent annealing quickly self-assembled into hierarchically-structured  thin films  spanning an area of several square centimeters. The technique is compatible with current nanomanufacturing processes and has ...

Enlarge Map of superconducting copper oxide structure. Credit: Nicolle R Fuller A breakthrough has been made in identifying the origin of superconductivity in high-temperature superconductors, which has puzzled researchers for the past three decades. Harnessing the enormous technological potential of  high-temperature superconductors  – which could be used in lossless electrical grids, next-generation supercomputers and levitating trains – could be much more straightforward in future, as the origin of  superconductivity  in these materials has finally been identified. Superconductors, materials which can carry electric current with zero resistance, could be used in a huge range of applications, but a lack of understanding about where their properties originate from has meant that the process of identifying new materials has been rather haphazard. Researchers from the University of Cambridge have found that ripples of electrons, known as  charge density w...