Tag Archive for 'Chirality'

This composite image of the Milky Way’s central region shows the location of the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027. Image credit: Ashley Barnes / Izaskun Jiménez-Serra / Juan García de la Concepción.

Astronomers Detect Sugar in Interstellar Space for First Time

Jul 13, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Using the Yebes 40-m and IRAM 30-m radio telescopes, astronomers have discovered erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar commonly found in raspberries and sunless...

Planck’s law ignores but does not prohibit black-body radiation (BBR) from being circularly polarized. BBR from nanostructured filaments with twisted geometry from nanocarbon or metal has strong ellipticity from 500 to 3000 nanometers. The submicrometer-scale chirality of these filaments satisfies the dimensionality requirements imposed by fluctuation-dissipation theorem and requires symmetry breaking in absorptivity and emissivity according to Kirchhoff’s law. The resulting BBR shows emission anisotropy and brightness exceeding those of conventional chiral photon emitters by factors of 10 to 100. Image credit: Lu et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adq4068.

Nanostructured Filaments Produce Bright Light Waves that Twirl as They Travel

Dec 24, 2024 by News Staff

Bright, twisted light can be produced thanks to nanostructured filaments with twisted geometry, according to scientists at the University of Michigan. Planck’s...

A designer view of a single-wall carbon nanotube intramolecular junction with metallic portions on left and right ends and a semiconductor ultrashort 3 nm channel in between. Image credit: Tang et al., doi: 10.1126/science.abi8884.

Scientists Turn Carbon Nanotubes into Tiny Transistors

Dec 24, 2021 by News Staff

Using a transmission electron microscope, a team of materials scientists led by the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics in Japan and...

Cosmic rays. Image credit: Pierre Auger Observatory.

Cosmic Rays May Have Played Key Role in Origin of Life’s Handedness

May 21, 2020 by News Staff

Living organisms comprise a system of molecules organized with specific handedness. Handedness — or chirality — is the geometric property of...

Metasurface laser produces super-chiral light with orbital angular momentum up to 100. Image credit: University of the Witwatersrand.

Newly-Developed Metasurface-Enhanced Laser Emits Super-Chiral Light

Apr 28, 2020 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand, Harvard University and the National University of Singapore has come up with a new metasurface-enhanced...