Nanocrystalline silicon could be ideal for making photovoltaic devices because it is an excellent conductor of electricity and can withstand harsh sunlight without suffering any damage. However, there is a problem: silicon does not absorb light very efficiently. Layers of the material have to be built up to increase the amount of light absorbed – a process that is both time-consuming and expensive.

Now, Yi Cui and colleagues at Stanford University have shown that nanoshells made of silicon could offer a quicker and cheaper route to solar-cell fabrication.

"We however, feel it is only right to present science fiction with a different face, one that is not filled with the normal negative representation of ethnic characters. We think that it is essential for characters of all colors and creeds to be represented positively and fairly."

I'm grateful for the images in my young mind of Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Uhura), and for my own sons, LeVar Burton (Lieutenant Commander Geordi la Forge), Michael Dorn (Lieutenant Commander Worf) and Avery Brooks (Captain Benjamin Sisko).

Now a professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Dr. Bililignis one of nine individuals whom President Obama this week named recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. The honorees will receive their awards at a White House ceremony later this year. The award recognizes the role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science and engineering. According to the White House, candidates are nominated by colleagues, administrators, and students at their home institutions.

“Through their commitment to education and innovation, these individuals are playing a crucial role in the development of our 21st century workforce,” President Obama said. “Our nation owes them a debt of gratitude for helping ensure that America remains the global leader in science and engineering for years to come.”

Dr. Bililign said that success in science, engineering or math is not as glamorous as success in performing arts or sports in the U.S., but the economic competitiveness of the nation, depends on a solid foundation in the sciences. “Young people need to be encouraged, pushed, persuaded to do it,” he said. “Not for the money or fame but for the love of discovery and innovation. I believe every one has a gift, and a mentor’s role is to identify the gift and nurture it.”

TADIAS: Obama Honors Physicist Solomon Bililign With Presidential Award for Excellence

He earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at The Johns Hopkins University. He is recognized as the first African American to earn a doctorate in electrical engineering (http://blacksuccessfoundation.org/first_science_phd's.htm).

Physics arXiv - Seismic Metamaterials

One of the more interesting is the possibility of protecting buildings from seismic waves. The idea here is to surround a building, or at least its foundations, with a metamaterial that steers seismic waves around the structure. Various groups have explored ways of doing this.

Today, however, Sang-Hoon Kim at the Mokpo National Maritime University in South Korea and Mukunda Das at The Australian National Universityin Canberra, suggest another idea. They point out that while seismic cloaks can protect buildings, they steer waves towards other buildings. "The cloaked seismic waves are still destructive to the buildings behind the cloaked region," they say.

Instead, they suggest that metamaterials could instead dissipate the energy in seismic waves by converting them into evanescent waves, which die down exponentially as they travel.

But the worry is that such a scheme may not target the drugs well enough if the caps degrade too quickly or too slowly.

So Vitaly Chaban and Oleg Prezhdo at the University of Rochester in New York state have a suggestion. Their idea is to fill the tubes with a mixture of drugs and water molecules and seal them with a secure cap.

Inside the body, the tubes enter various types of cell. But a treatment would involve illuminating only the cells of interest with an infrared laser which heats the tubes and boils the water they contain. The resulting increase in pressure bursts the cap and forces the water and drug molecules into the cell, like a grenade bursting.

The image of Benjamin Franklin, for whom Pitts' Institute is named, peering out into the universe through a telescope from Philadelphia may have been the prevailing icon of American astronomy since the 18th century, but today it's a black man named Derrick. He's been at the Institute since 1978 and through the years has become a top scientific consultant for entities like Lockheed Martin and NASA.