We have grown single crystals of YbFe6Ge6 and LuFe6Ge6 and characterized their anisotropic behaviour through low field magnetic susceptibility, field-dependent magnetization, resistivity and heat capacity measurements. The Yb valency is confirmed by LIII XANES measurements. YbFe6Ge6 crystals exhibit a field-dependent, sudden reorientation of the Fe spins at about 63 K, a unique effect in the RF...

outside our solar system. But in November of last year two astronomers saw the next best thing: its shadow. David Charbonneau, a graduate student at Harvard University, was analyzing the brightness of the sunlike star HD 209458 using data taken earlier, when he had been working with one of us (Brown). At nearly the same time, Tennessee State University astronomer Greg Henry was independently ob...

Ab intio molecular dynamics simulations show that the electrical conductivity of liquid SiO2 is semimetallic at the conditions of the deep molten mantle of early Earth and super-Earths, raising the possibility of silicate dynamos in these bodies. Whereas the electrical conductivity increases uniformly with increasing temperature, it depends nonmonotonically on compression. At very high pressure...

Stephen’s work deals with the impact of human activity upon landscape and habitat, referencing diverse and sometimes obscure subject matter touching on industrial and scientific histories. It can take a number of forms, from drawing and painting through to handmade books and installation. He is currently acting as associate artist to ROBUST a research project investigating the cleaning of conta...

In the first volume of his Physical and chemical essays (1779), Torbern Bergman, professor of chemistry and pharmacy at Uppsala in Sweden, discussed the chemical analysis of natural waters, including mineral waters. He remarked that when a weighed quantity of a mineral water was evaporated to dryness the weight of the residues usually amounted to no more than a minute fraction of the original w...

The extraction and separation of five different rare-earth elements, La, Nd, Eu, Dy Yb, from an aqueous chloride solution non-aqueous solutions using the solvating extractant Cyanex 923 was investigated. As previous studies had demonstrated potential solvent (NASX) to refine rare earths ethylene glycol, structural analogues glycol (1,2-propanediol 1,3-propanediol) other polar organic solvents (...

The aim of this study is to investigate the oxalic acid activation bentonites containing different types smectites, analyse their surface modification as a function concentration and create good quality bleaching earths. In particular, two bentonite samples (one aluminum one ferruginous smectite), after being characterized through XRD, XRF FT-IR analysis, are treated with at 0.5, 0.7 1 M. Their...

We report on the stability of hypothetical super-Earths in the habitable zone of known multiplanetary systems. Most of them have not yet been studied in detail concerning the existence of additional low-mass planets. The new N-body code GENGA developed at the University of Zürich allows us to perform numerous N-body simulations in parallel on graphics processing units. With this numerical tool,...

In this research, the application of walnut shell ash, as an adsorbent for soybean oil bleaching, has been investigated. Therefore, neutralized soybean oil was bleached with 1 and 2% of walnut shell ash as well as commercial bleaching earth. Then, a series of chemical tests such as amounts of carotenoids, chlorophylls, peroxide value, and free fatty acid content of bleached oils and oil retenti...